Roles of Instrucitonal Designers

 

Roles of Instructional Designers

 University Roles for Designers 

    The role of instructional designers in higher educational settings is mostly to create learning environments that engage students in their learning process. They are responsible for designing ways to organize, stimulate, and enrich the student's learning journey in a meaningful way. Designers complete a multitude of tasks and projects such as the creation of websites where students can find their university’s resources and information. Like online lists of course textbooks and materials.  As well as designing courses for students who need to orient themselves by taking an online program for the first time. Some instructional designers' roles turn from creating for students to creating for staff or colleagues. The expertise of a designer is needed when implementing various online courses in order for them to develop adequate training for staff. As an ID, part of my role is to facilitate the development of learning and teaching strategies and introduce faculty to the distance learning production processes. The role demands a sound knowledge of ID theory and sensitivity to the concerns of academics moving into a new, distance teaching role (Litchfield, Albion, McDonald, & Nimoto, 2007). Instruction design within higher education continues to grow and advance as most colleges and universities integrate online courses and complete programs into their organization. This is a crucial field that plays many vital design roles for all kinds of learners from students to staff.

Instructional Designers and P-12 Technology Integration

        Instructional design plays a grand role within P- 12 organizations. It is the basis of creating meaningful instruction for students by means of designing curriculum, resources, platforms, etc. The role also has the core task of designing meaningful training experiences for educational staff. ID work with school systems characteristically involves any combination of the following responsibilities: managing, designing, developing, and evaluating teacher and/ or administrator professional development and training (Lowther & Ross, 2007). ID work is a big part of for-profit organizations as well, such as corporations and businesses. For these types of organizations, designers have tasks such as integrating learning systems, programs, software, and hardware setups. ID work for non-profit organizations can take on the roles of researchers in the field and evaluators. In general, there are three types of development within the instructional design process which are: system, product, and classroom. System development is a large-scale design of programs or curricula focusing on integrated learning systems. The product development is more so a design of self-paced learning materials focused on computer-based learning. Classroom development concentrates on teacher-led instruction focusing on the integration of technology and modifications.

Performance, Instruction, and Technology in Health Care Education

       The healthcare field is very broad and has various specialties and systems within it. Healthcare does not only involve the delivery of health services, but also research, sciences, and disciplines. It is composed of many substrings that are responsible for medical training and education. These settings can include professional schools, academic medical centers, government agencies, pharmaceuticals, etc. Within these medical educational settings, the use of technology is ever so prevalent. The use of virtual communication such as telemedicine has become part of these systems. As well as multimedia presentations, applications of computing, medical libraries, etc. The use of multimedia medical education programs is creating meaningful learning experiences for those in the medical field as well. These are now forms of instructional design that are vital to these types of professionals and are growing in demand. There is a great need for designers that create problem-based learning experiences and evidence-based solutions. Allowing students to learn basic and clinical science in the context of cases, is supported by research on clinical reasoning indicating that expertise is largely a function of previous problem-solving experience (Locatis, 2007). It is found that students of medical education have sufficient and adequate real-world experiences with various medical cases to correlate their problem-solving skills to previous instructional methods. There is much at stake in health professions education. The subject matter taught, the skills learned and the techniques and technologies employed can have life-threatening consequences (Locatis, 2007).

Instructional Design Opportunities in Military Education and Training Environments
     

        The military branches have many branches and units with a diverse group of men and women. It is the military's responsibility to effectively train and develop these individuals to meet the demanding needs and roles within these institutions. Instructional design plays a vital role in preparing suitable training and educational experiences for these men and women to effectively learn how to successfully complete their tasks and duties. An enhanced appreciation for the individual’s needs has spurred a dynamic change in the military training of today. Those involved in that training must produce training that meets the requirements of the military as well as the needs of the individual (Brantoon- Jefferey & Jefferey, 2007). The unique characteristics that are particular to a multitude of roles and responsibilities within the military are grown and developed by specialized training provided to individuals by military instructional designers. It is crucial to create designs that are most fitting and conducive to the various needs of learners within the military branches and units. Instructional designers play a significant role in the transformation to accommodate the needs of today’s service members and move the military of today to the military of tomorrow (Brantoon- Jefferey & Jefferey, 2007).
        

Instructional Design in Business and Industry 

        One of the primary arenas for the practice of instructional design (ID) has been the private sector- primarily in business, industrial, and military environments that is likely the result of the steady growth of employee training as an integral part of organizations (Tracey & Morrison, 2007). These types of organizations have an immense need for proper training and development of their employees in order to ensure the proper functioning of that particular business or industry. Employees hold many different roles and responsibilities that are crucial to the organization as a whole, so the organization must provide effective pieces of training that make them knowledgeable and efficient in their duties. It is in the best interest of the organization to establish and implement successful instructional designers who have the expertise of creating adequate and comprehensive training and development that will create successful employees across various roles. For this reason, is it of great importance that businesses and industries have compelling instructional designers as part of their organizations. The growth reflects an emphasis not simply on producing a more knowledgeable workforce, but increasingly on improving employee on-the-job performance and on solving organizational problems ( Tracey & Morrison, 2007).

References

Tracey, M. W., & Morrison, G. R. (2007).  Instructional Design in Business and Industry.  In Reiser, R, & Dempsey, J. (2007).  Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd edition).  New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Bratton-Jeffery, M. F., & Jeffery, A. B. (2007).  Instructional Design Opportunities in Military Education and Training Environments.  In Reiser, R, & Dempsey, J. (2007).  Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd edition).  New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Locatis, C. (2007).  Performance, Instruction, and Technology in Health Care Education.  In Reiser, R, & Dempsey, J. (2007).  Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd edition).  New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Lowther, D. L., & Ross, S. M. (2007).  Instructional Designers and P-12 Technology Integration.  In Reiser, R, & Dempsey, J. (2007).  Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd edition).  New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Litchfield, B. C., Dempsey, J. V., Albion, P., McDonald, J., & Nemoto, J. (2007).  Five University Roles for Designers From Three Nations.  In Reiser, R, & Dempsey, J. (2007).  Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (2nd edition).  New Jersey: Prentice Hall.