Would the real Instructional Design please stand up?

Many of us have become instructional designers by trade, degree or simple business inertia. Since its inception over 40 years ago, Instructional Design (ID) has been morphed, dumbed down, semantically embellished or modified at will. So, what is instructional design and what does it involve? Is it the same for academia as it is in workplace learning? Ask these questions to two IDs in the same team and you'll get different answers. The reality is, the answer depends on whom you ask and the context in which they believe to be practicing ID. This post discusses my observed variants of ID practice based on conversations with other professionals, folks in academia and industry changes over the span of my career. 

Defining Instructional Design

Many factors affect what the definition of ID is for those practicing it. It seems the environment in which is practiced seems to be the biggest determinant of the depth in which its practiced. IDs can work for the military, a large enterprise or a small business. Instructional Design in each of these environments gets morphed to meet their needs and business constraints. 

Instructional Systems Design for Academia and the Military

Instructional Systems Design (ISD) is the purest form of ID with a specific set of models based on academic research and derived from the systemic approach of creating US military instructional programs. I live just a few miles away from an area full of military contractors who practice full blown ISD because they have to meet all formal requirements of ISD. This includes extensive analysis and documentation of each stage of ADDIE. However, only a few elite private organizations perform ID at this level of expectations. Full blown ISD is highly effective in closing knowledge and performance gaps but, it takes more than one or even a couple of IDs to do it right. ISD requires a team and the number of people involved depends on their level of expertise in each of the supporting disciplines needed to deliver a project. ISD is NOT and should NOT be a one-person show. The problem with ISD is that it has not fully adapted to technological changes and it can only be truly performed by those working for or with academia or the military.

Employer-defined Instructional Design

When I began working in this field fresh out of serving in the US Navy as a Field Corpsman (8404) attached to Marine Corps units, there were no “Instructional Designer” job titles. This was about 14 years ago and the closest titles in relation to ID tasks were “Technical Writer”, “Curriculum Developer” or simply “Training Specialist” which meant a trainer developing his or her own content. Here again, the definition of ID depends on the employer expectations. If you conduct a job search now for ID, you would probably find that what most employers need is a multimedia, web or graphic designer with UX/UI expertise. Multimedia designers still have to devise a project plan and have conversations with clients or “SMEs” to bring projects to fruition. However, the current ID job titles today hint that employers are out of touch with what ID really means and perhaps they are trying to fill five positions under salary.

Instructional Design by Business Inertia

What I call, ID by business inertia is pretty similar to what Cammy Bean refers to as the “Accidental Instructional Designer” or what Emily Wood refers to being an “E-learning Department of One”. This is often someone that used to be part of a team, demonstrated great aptitude in visual design and making the complex look easy to others. Business inertia refers to how the business need generates new roles or demands changes not previously thought of. This phenomenon has created awesome L&D people who have then self-developed their ID prowess combined with expertise in several multimedia tools to create highly engaging learning experiences. To be honest, this is how most of us become IDs.

Instructional Design by Degree

12 years ago, I completed my MAED in Training and Development and a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Technology. None of these educational experiences prepared me to do ID work but, they did teach me how to do research and think critically about what we do. Today, many recent graduates of Instructional Design programs reach out to me for advice and I help them. There’s a big problem though. These programs seem to be great at teaching people solid ISD theories and principles but, although that’s beneficial to business learning solutions; it’s not helpful in getting a job. Most ID work today requires proficiency in visual design and tools in the digital space. Many of these graduates have to independently develop these skills during or sometimes after they graduate. An average of $40k in tuition costs and no tech/digital skills to make something? Yikes! Yes, that happens.

Wrap Up

So, what’s Instructional Design then? It depends whom you ask and what they are actually doing in whatever environment they work in. For the rest, other disciplines concerned with the user experience, problem solving by design and interaction design seem to be more relevant in the current business climate. What do you think? Is there one answer? Share your thoughts!