Pebble-in-the-Pond Model
A content-first instructional design model that begins with a core problem and expands outward to define the necessary skills and strategies. It serves as an alternative to traditional 'objectives-first' design by focusing on the functional whole-task from the start.
When you need to design a complete learning experience from scratch
You're planning a workshop, training, or learning session and need a proven structure to organize your content and activities.
Best used during the initial design and development phase of a new course or curriculum to ensure alignment between tasks and content.
Problem (The Pebble)
Progression of Problems (The Ripples)
Component Knowledge/Skills (The Waves)
Instructional Strategy (The Flow)
Interface Design (The Surface)
Ensures your session has clear goals, logical flow, and measurable outcomes.
Instructional designers use this to map out a curriculum by first identifying a representative task (the pebble) and then designing a series of increasingly complex versions of that task before ever writing specific learning objectives.
- 1Start by defining what success looks like at the end
- 2Work backwards from outcomes to activities
- 3Build in checkpoints to verify learning
- 4Allow time for practice and application
- Curriculum architecture
- Technical and vocational training
- Enterprise-level learning programs
- Design should be task-centered rather than objective-centered
- Instructional components should be derived from the requirements of the task
- Learners should be exposed to a progression of increasingly complex whole-tasks
- Requires subject matter experts who can identify 'whole tasks' rather than just topics
- Can be a significant shift for organizations accustomed to traditional ADDIE or objective-based models