As the wave of digital transformation continues to change and shape higher education, the demand for highly-skilled talent who understands instructional design is growing too. Especially over the last couple of years when online learning skyrocketed, institutions had to quicken their pace in offering remote classes, while also creating new online courses, programs, and degrees as we entered a modern era of learning. Instructional designers or learning designers have become essential members of an organization, but not only are they difficult to find, many with these credentials do not pursue roles in higher education. And for those who do work at colleges and universities, the increasing pressure to be experts in a multi-faceted profession where institutions are investing in technology at an astounding rate is causing many instructional designers to experience workplace burnout.
Many instructional designers find themselves responsible for designing courses, building learning materials, coding, project management, and ensuring the effective delivery of instructional materials and experiences. With such a high bar, it can be challenging for these individuals to keep up. “Many institutions look at their instructional designers as workhorses,” says Joshua Gaul, Associate Vice President & Chief Digital Learning Officer, Edge. “Oftentimes, faculty members bring the content to the instructional designer and they then organize the content and build the course from a technical standpoint.”
“The biggest benefit of instructional design is not just knowing how to use the learning management system (LMS) or how to repurpose your content and put a discussion board together,” continues Gaul. “These experts work with faculty and leadership to bounce off ideas and integrate learning theory and pedagogy. Instead of shouldering faculty members with learning design on top of teaching and working to elevate the curriculum, instructional designers can help lighten this load and bring an expert perspective that can be hugely valuable to an institution.”
“The biggest benefit of instructional design is not just knowing how to use the learning management system (LMS) or how to repurpose your content and put a discussion board together. These experts work with faculty and leadership to bounce off ideas and integrate learning theory and pedagogy. Instead of shouldering faculty members with learning design on top of teaching and working to elevate the curriculum, instructional designers can help lighten this load and bring an expert perspective that can be hugely valuable to an institution.”
— Josh Gaul
Associate Vice President & Chief Digital Learning Officer
Edge
Quality Assurance in Online Learning
The approach to instructional design and how the field is regarded varies across the higher education community, and even between departments within an organization. “Institutions view instructional designers differently and it’s often tied to their current digital learning path,” shares Gaul. “The schools that were already forward thinking during the pandemic, didn’t have as large a shift in their business processes. The organizations seeing the most change in these processes are the ones who embraced the change but had to adjust on the fly. For the schools that do have instructional designers on staff, there is not always a unified approach to instructional design. The school of biology has different looking courses than the school of journalism, for example, but there need to be instructional design standards to ensure quality and compliance and can offer a clear model for all courses to follow.”
“Rubrics like QSCQR and Quality Matters (QM) establish an instructional design support framework,” continues Gaul. “Some organizations fear a centralized online learning approach will make courses too uniform, when in actuality, standardization gives faculty more academic freedom to customize their courses without worrying about accessibility. For instance, think about a textbook. Each has a table of contents, an index, and is broken into chapters. While the subject matter may be vastly different, it still follows this basic format and when a student opens the book, they know how to use it to get the information that they need.”
Aligning Business Goals with Instructional Design
Instructional design not only encompasses online learning, but extends to in-person instruction and hybrid learning as well. Many in this profession report long hours, lack of support, tight deadlines, and unrealistic expectations, all of which can lead to frustration and fatigue. “Some smaller institutions have a centralized instructional design office, but it’s often poorly staffed and leans more toward instructional technology training,” says Gaul. “This team will train faculty on how to use the LMS or the educational technology tools.”
Gaul continues, “Not every organization is going to have the budget to employ an instructional designer, especially someone who has an advanced education and necessary skill set. This is where Edge can be of value and offer instructional design support. With a team of over twenty seasoned instructional designers, we have consultants across the country, all with at least a master’s degree and several years of experience. Our instructional designers will work with an organization’s subject matter experts to analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate instructional materials and programs for an institution.”
As a longtime partner of Edge, Rowan University has a full team of instructional designers, but wanted to free them up to focus on faculty support and taking learning to the next level. “Rowan was able to move the course development and term to term updates to Edge and give their instructional design team the ability to work more closely with faculty members to elevate their courses and create more engaging, student centric content that meets quality standards. However, we understand many schools do not have the budget for a large instructional design team and that is why EdgeLearn can be a valuable solution for institutions. Edge can provide the expert support, strategy, and tools needed to enhance teaching, learning, and student engagement, without breaking the bank.”
One of the most important factors in successfully implementing digital learning programs and systems is ensuring business processes and goals align with instructional design initiatives. “Technology doesn’t drive the mission, but the technology can be informed by and follow the academic mission of the institution,” says Gaul. “As long as you have the right tools in place and the people who understand those tools and processes, you can accomplish amazing things with a small group of instructional designers. Edge can supplement an institution’s existing team or provide expert assistance in developing student-focused curriculum.”
“Edge can come in and hit the ground running because our team knows every tool,” continues Gaul. “We understand how to use data to glean important insights about an organization’s instructional design or ways artificial intelligence (AI) can open doors to new opportunities for digital learning. No matter what LMS an institution is using, or what rubric they follow, we can offer the specialized support needed to help fill any gaps and create superior teaching and learning experiences—anytime, anywhere.”
Ready to discover how Edge’s Digital Learning, Strategy, and Instructional Excellence experts can help your organization?
Visit njedge.net/solutions-overview/digital-learning/.
