Principles of Instructional Design

I have decided to design a course on principles of instructional design for my instructional theories course. I don't feel very settled on this as it seems like a pretty broad topic and I am not sure still what the purpose of the course is. So the course may change between now and Monday.

The most productive process I have come to recognize is the the "needs analysis" in the pre-design phase of instructional design. I am finding that we can make every problem to be solved an ID problem if we want to, but the fact is, most of the problems are people problems more than design problems. Understanding this can help focus the scope of a course design or eliminate the need for the course altogether in some cases.

The other caveat to the needs analysis is that people often can't discern what their own needs are. It is a lot easier for them to have others tell them what their needs are and then agree or disagree with the 3rd party analysis. It is a rather frustrating process. There has to be a better way... perhaps critical thinking and metacognitive skills could help. That is worth researching...