Starting Blocks to Storyboards

Authors: Myles Thies & Jani Prinsloo

If you experienced any of the recent Paris 2024 Olympics in person (lucky you!) or, like me, in snippets online between work and weekend chores, you would undoubtedly have been impressed by the often times incredible individual and team performances.

Olympic athletes sacrifice immeasurable amounts of time and effort to make it to this most prestigious of events in the sporting world. The Olympics embodies the purest spirit of competition and commitment, rewarding each sporting victor with the singular and unassailable recognition of the ‘best in the world’.

Arguably, of all the Olympic competitors, the pentathletes and heptathletes come closest to embodying the traits and probable ownership of the ultimate athlete title. Competing in multiple disciplines over multiple days, they must be fit, resilient and skilled all-rounders with sustained stamina and focus.

So, you might wonder why we are waxing lyrical about the Olympics in an article about Instructional Designers…

If digital education is likened to the Olympics, who other than the humble instructional designer (ID) could come close to the mantle of the most all-around competitor fit for a medal?

Since the inception of the very first learning platforms and the mainstream application of the internet in learning, it is easy to argue that instructional designers have been grappling with the relentless torrent of change and disruption in that time at a pace far higher than any other stakeholder in the learning space. IDs can be compared to gymnasts channeling Simone Biles like agility as they navigate the different responsibilities and challenges, they deal with daily.

Justified?

Let’s consider the instructional designer’s space in the digital continuum. As proffered by Bond, Lockee and Blevins (2023), IDs are prodigious institutional change agents due to their unique position in higher education institutions and their relationships with various stakeholders. Their positionality in course design gives them the opportunity to oversee a variety of influential variables in the design process and use that to the advantage of the learner.

Situated between the needs of the subject matter expert (SME) (who may lack the classical background on teaching concepts) and balancing increasingly digital pedagogical theory while simultaneously hurdling through the requirements for a module or programme of learning, the humble ID has been almost continuously outstripping productivity scores of the proverbial academic pack.

In addition, the requirement to innovate constantly changes the environment. Thinking back just a few short years, the tools deployed by organisations and institutions have evolved markedly and at a regular pace. IDs are required to help adapt, refine, and improve digital outcomes regularly.

It is often the case that instructional designers also have to be the first ones to evaluate, learn, master and train others on new ed-tech and advocate the need for change among, somewhat understandably, less than enthusiastic faculty, knowledge experts and teachers who only just recently adapted to the last set of updates (if at all).

Additionally, IDs often manage multiple programmes, modules, or digital initiatives with little time to adapt to SME, client, or course changes, which invariably move the goalposts. In her book “Next-Level Instructional Design”, Susan Nelson Spencer (2023) states that teaching, writing, creating and analysing as the four competencies that an ID should be fully versed in. These are competencies that they have to not only master, but constantly re-master, adapt or tweak as they meet a new group of SMEs and their unique contexts.

Still not challenging enough, you say?

Let’s strap on an occasional LMS migration for some added weight just to raise the stakes. And let’s not even start on the often-contentious course quality review fencing.

Digital Instructional designers often do their sprints unseen and without medal ceremony-level recognition. They serve their clients and stakeholders with the utmost respect, empathy, and support, with often little time left over for them to refill their own cups.

A further dynamic to the evolving skill set of the instructional designer is the growing need for budget management and more detailed financial responsibility especially as institutional, school and faculty budgets shrink while expectations grow. As education becomes ever more commodified, IDs are required to contribute to the economic impact of their work either directly through how courses are offered, or indirectly as a cost centre within a larger organisation or team.

If you’re feeling out of breath, spare a thought for your out-performing instructional designer colleagues or team members. Being a modern ID is like competing in the 3000m track event, and the finish line keeps moving.

The positive outlook on all this challenging activity for IDs and those who use their skills is that most of them really thrive in the hotspot. Being at the intersection of the not-insignificant change happening in education as it is increasingly digitised is like running at the front of the pack. Just as training is hard at times and the expectations are high, remaining fit and plugged into the stream of digital opportunities and changes as they occur is enriching and, most certainly, never dull.

A quick Google search on ‘Why instructional designers love their jobs’ will render many articles and blogs where IDs worldwide share how they love their work and thrive on designing good-quality courses. Dr Luke Hobson, an author in the field of instructional design, writes that when he realised that he could be an ID and design meaningful learning experiences for learners as a full-time job, he immediately decided that that’s what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

In Spencer Johnson’s seminal 1998 book “Who Moved My Cheese?”, the characters are constantly bombarded with change and given important lessons about it, its consistent pace and regularity. Some learn from the need for change and apply it positively, while others need greater encouragement (and later near starvation) to adapt to the shifting circumstances. In many cases, if you ask an ID: “How did you become an ID?” they won’t start with, “I decided to be an ID when I was still in school”. No, just like Dr Hobson, most IDs ‘fell’ into the work of instructional design by coincidence and never wanted to leave, despite the constant need for evolution.

The modern instructional designer embodies the appetite and practised acceptance of change and provides a guideline to anyone aspiring to this pursuit. Change, rapid shifts in expectations, unplanned adjustments from unknown vectors, and learning from mistakes and missteps are just part of the coordinated pole vault that is modern instructional design.

Now more than ever, with AI and its growing influence on the playing field, the instructional designer's critical influence will become ever more important. Yes, AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT enable educators and administrators to shorten the learning development process to a degree. However, it still takes experience, technical finesse, and critical appreciation of the learner's context to craft valuable learning experiences. They bring the human-thought factor into play, which is lacking in AI application (at least for now).

It should also not be underestimated the influence instructional design has to play on the continued participation of students in online learning (an admittedly complex issue with many contributing factors – see here Nick Hillmans 2024 report) at a time when dropout or lack of continuation remains high (and which may accelerate as learners worry about the need for future study). Practices such as setting expectations for new online learners, setting common threads of agency and association across courses through digital course standards and incorporating familiar activities that enable high-impact practices (HIPs) are indirect responsibilities of IDs. They often implement interventions to address it. Although, admittedly, some of the practices are new and untested in many cases.

So, would it be a stretch to say that digital programmes need uncompromising, adept instructional design worthy of an Olympic performance now more than ever?

We think so.

In the immortal words of Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympic movement and as a nod to instructional designers everywhere who imbue the Olympian spirit, even if only in the smallest of degrees, remember these words when you next call on your ID compatriots. Many are performing at their peak:

?“Olympism... exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, mind and will."

~ Pierre de Coubertin