I am now entering my third semester of my Master’s program in Instructional Design and Technology at Georgia State and I think I have been asked to define it each of my courses. Given that I have completed 9 of my 12 required courses and am taking 2 currently – this assignment seems to be rather popular. And I guess it should be as I see it as an emerging field that has not quite cemented itself in the minds of its participants.
The program itself, Instructional Design and Technology has in fact changed divisions within the college of education and its program name (now known as Learning Technologies) since I joined the program in Fall of 2013. A sure sign that things are changing.
So I fully expect my definition to morph and refine itself as I finish up my course work and begin to submerge myself in the field.
Definition
I see Instructional Design and Technology professionals as logical artists who solve user-interface-engagement problems.
Whoa! User-interface-engagement? Am I making up words? – Yes I am!
You see to me, the kernel of all IDT problems is the loosing the attention of participants – aka they are no longer engaged or they never work. So let’s just test a couple of scenarios:
1) non-adoption of an idea due to an improper name – can be solved by interviewing participants for what comes to mind instead
2) chemical lab accident because assistant did not fully understand the machine – can be solved by developing interactive videos and quizzes that guide users
3) lost productivity at work because workers are not clear on roles/duties – can be solved by creating explicit job descriptions including roles and responsibilites
All of which, an IDT professional can assist design and develop.
It might sound interesting to describe something logical as artistic, but I think more times than not that is exactly what Instructional Designer are doing. Instructional Designers take materials that were simply pragmatic and transform them to tools and resources that people connect with and better understand. They take 500 page technical manuals that no one reads and develop interactive simulations that can help professionals troubleshoot problems in no time flat. They transform the all too known “death by PowerPoint” slide decks into online learn-as-you-need modules where users can pick and choose the items they need to learn.
Future
I see myself continuing to work as an eLearning consultant and hopefully working part-time as an instructor at a local Technical College.
Other Resources
I am not a huge blog reader, however, I did find this one to be interesting:
http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/tag/instructional-design/
I also want to include a resource that I have found very helpful:
http://www.elearningguild.com/