Workshop 4C/ID: Four-Component Instructional Design

Are you designing a course or curriculum for a complex skill? Is your institution transitioning to a competency-based or task-centered approach? Then the Four-Component Instructional Design model (4C/ID) can help you design an effective, efficient, and enjoyable courses and curricula!

In this two-day face-to-face workshop, 4C/ID experts will take you step-by-step through the design of the four components. You work together with fellow participants in fun and challenging exercises that help you understand the relevant considerations when designing instruction for complex learning. A copy of the influential book “Ten Steps to Complex Learning” is included with this course so you can review all the information about 4C/ID after the event.

Objectives

• You learn how to design the backbone of the programme: a series of learning tasks based on real-life tasks.
• You learn how to design supportive and procedural information and connect them to the backbone of learning tasks.
• You learn how to design part-task practice for repeated practice of aspects of the complex skill that must be automated.
• You learn about common pitfalls surrounding the implementation of 4C/ID-based curriculum and potential solutions.

On day one, you will receive an introduction to 4C/ID. You study an example of a 4C/ID blueprint and then practice in groups with applying the design guidelines to learning tasks. You do this under guidance of the 4C/ID experts. Lunch is included and there will be a dinner in Maastricht at the end of the first day.

Day two continues with group work focusing on the design of supportive information, procedural information, and part-task practice. Again, you work on the exercises while being coached by the experts.

Participant profile

Who should attend?
This workshop is aimed at several groups of participants:

• If you are an instructional designer or educationalist and you are currently working on a (re)design of an educational programme or you are planning to engage in such a redesign in the near future, then this workshop is perfectly suited for you. You will learn about 4C/ID’s design principles and how to apply them, and you are prepared to immediately apply them in your own context.
• If you are a programme manager, coordinator, or educational leader, then this workshop can be very useful to understand what it takes to transition your programme to a 4C/ID approach. You learn about the whole-task philosophy and what it requires from your designers, teachers, and the rest of your organization.
• If you are an educational consultant or advisor, then this workshop will provide you with the necessary basics to understand how to approach whole-task instructional design – specifically 4C/ID – and which common issues and pitfalls are encountered by designers and organisations.
• If you are a (commercial) producer of innovative learning materials, then this workshop will allow you to understand which kinds of learning materials are needed in a 4C/ID-based instructional design and the thought process that should go into their design.

If you are a teacher, then this workshop is probably only useful in the following conditions:

• You are teaching one or more complex skills in your course.
• You have autonomy over the design and can make significant changes to your course.
• You have opportunity to create a team of teachers that can work together on designing and delivering interdisciplinary learning tasks.
• You have support from instructional designers or educationalists in your organization that are familiar with task-centred or competency-based instructional design.

We strongly recommend you watch our free video course on 4C/ID before participating in this workshop.

In doubt about whether to participate? Feel free to contact us via she@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Be aware that we also offer in-house workshops by our core team of She Collaborates. In these workshops, we first discuss the needs of your organisation so we can tailor the workshop to your context. We do not offer full professional development programs for large groups of staff, but we can help educationalists set up such a program internally by providing train-the-trainer sessions. 

Staff

The workshop was developed in 2022 by 4C/ID expert Jimmy Frèrejean in collaboration with 4C/ID founder Jeroen van Merriënboer. Jimmy will provide this workshop and will be joined by members of the SHE staff with extensive expertise in health professions education.  

Disclaimer

In case of fewer than 8 registrations, the School of Health Professions Education reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event.

In alignment with the mission and vision of the School of Health Professions Education, this workshop will be mostly aimed at the domain of health professions education. If you are not working in health professions education but in a different domain, you are still welcome to participate, but please be aware that most of the examples provided in the course will originate from the health professions domain.