Instructional Design Summit - Part 2: Promoting Positive Instructional Designer and Faculty Relations

Concurrent Session 5

Brief Abstract

The relationships between Instructional Designers (ID) and faculty can be productive and/or tenuous. In this session, we will be engaging in discussion around a recently completed case study that surveyed and interviewed IDs and faculty members to determine where the gap in perceptions and operationalization of the relationship exists so that IDs can better promote positive relationships with faculty. 

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Heidi Watson-Held, Pennsylvania State University - Main Campus

Heidi Held, D.Ed., is an Instructional Designer here in eLDIG in the Smeal College of Business s at The Pennsylvania State University. She completed her D.Ed. in Administration and Leadership - Higher Education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2012. She received her M.Ed. in Adult Education from Pennsylvania State University in 2004. Heidi also teaches part-time for Purdue University. Heidi enjoys designing courses, creating video shorts, and working on assessments. Heidi's research interests include (1) benchmarking needs of adult students obtaining a Bachelor's degree; (2) student civic engagement; and, (3) understanding the use and effect of prior learning assessment. Heidi has worked for the Pennsylvania State University for over 14 years in program design, development, and delivery in a variety of capacities. When Heidi is not working at Smeal, she is painting, taking care of her family, or writing both fiction and non-fiction.

Co-presenter: Jennifer Gray, The Pennsylvania State University College of HHD

Higher Ed Instructional Designer. Former K-12 Teacher & Tech Coordinator and Community Support Mgr.

Additional Authors

Extended Abstract

As instructional or learning designers working for a large institution, we find ourselves both passionate about our work and frustrated by its challenges. Often, perceptions about what an instructional designer does are unclear in the eyes of our colleagues and team members. Even the matter of our professional title is often uncertain. This workshop idea and its corresponding case study (being published in the Journal of Education Online in January 2024) came about through our professional practice and our curiosity about how to do our jobs better when serving faculty.

We must establish rapport while at the same time gain buy-in from faculty who are unclear about their own role in the course design process. Confusion can arise about how the faculty role integrates with the learning designer and the other members of the information technology team. This case study is especially relevant as the emphasis on the role of the ID in guiding faculty has come front and center with growth in the field due to the pandemic. With this in mind, we sought to bring clarity to our roles and to clarify our understanding of all of the roles in designing student-centered and effective learning.

In this session, we will converse about the literature we examine that defined the roles of the instructional designer (ID) and of the higher education faculty during the course design process. We will poll attendees on their experiences working with faculty. 

 

We will work with participants to do an activity to create a Venn Diagram to determine how they see their role in the completion of common tasks vs what they believe their counterpart would complete. After this diagram is complete we will share our theoretical model and how the tasks fit into that model. In a collaborative manner, we will work with participants to take our results and compare their perception of relationship work, positively or negatively, focusing on how faculty and ID work together during the process of creating courses, and how to improve that process in their own practice.

Then, we will share the results of our study during which we surveyed and interviewed IDs and faculty at our large institution with the goal to determine gaps in perceptions and operationalization of the relationship. We will share the results in a comparative diagram formulated in the theoretical model. We will engage in small groups to discuss how attendees’ experiences relate to the study findings, with debrief. 

To finish the session we will review our recommendations that IDs can use to better promote positive relationships with faculty.  We will discuss how the results of the survey and interview data revealed a disparity between faculty and ID’s perceptions of duties for each role when designing a course and how there is a need for the ID to set the stage in early meetings to clarify perceptions for effective course design working relationships. We will go into depth to discuss a process for leading the faculty into the process and discuss with participants their perspectives on our recommendations. We will  then work through a round table style discussion where participants can share their experiences with setting the stage in early faculty/ID meetings.