Instructional design can be defined as the creation of instructional materials, modules or lessons. The instructional design process consists of determining the needs of the learners, defining the end goals and objectives of instruction, designing and planning assessment tasks, and designing teaching and learning activities to ensure the quality of instruction.

The instructional design theory is the theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help learn and develop. The kind of learning and development may include cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual. There are two major aspects of any instructional situation the conditions under which the instruction will take place and the desired outcomes of the instruction. Instructional design is a technology which incorporates known and verified learning strategies into instructional experiences which make the acquisition of knowledge and skill more efficient, effective, and appealing.

Instructional design can start at any point in the design process. Often a glimmer of an idea is developed to give the core of an instruction situation, By the time the entire process is done the designer looks back and she or he checks to see that all parts of the "science" have been taken into account. Then the entire process is written up as if it occurred in a systematic fashion.