Project Management for Instructional Designers in Higher Education: Best Practices, Strategies, and Tools

This panel session intends to explore how instructional designers (IDs) working in and for higher education institutions manage projects in practice with a special emphasis on time tracking and management. 

By the end of this panel session, the participants will be able to:

1. Compare different ways of managing projects and tracking time

2. Explore best practices and strategies for using project management software

3. Discuss the implications of strengthening project management knowledge and skills for instructional designers in higher education

This panel session will include 4-5 IDs with various professional backgrounds and experience in higher education:

1. Panelist A: An entry-level ID in a community college who has 2-3 years of experience designing online courses and managing projects.

2. Panelist B & C: Two experienced IDs in a research institution who has 5-6 years of experience using 1-2 project management software.

3. Panelist D: A director or assistant director of instructional design who has 7+ years of experience sharing the benefits of using project management software and reporting data and analytics. 

4. Panelist E: An instructional designer working for a corporate online program management company with mainly higher education clients. 

Prior studies have identified the gap between the PM skills required in the workplace and the limited preparation in the formal education of IDs (Allen, 2020; William van Rooij, 2010). Scholars have been focusing on identifying essential PM competencies for instructional designers (William van Rooij, 2011; 2013). Very limited studies have examined how IDs manage their projects in practice, for example, how they use a PM software/tool, streamline their workflow, and establish their own processes in the workplace. 

The difficulty of higher education instructional design projects is an often discussed topic amongst instructional designers. Higher education clients for IDs are typically made up of faculty, who typically have many competing responsibilities that limit their time and availability for course design work. Additionally, many traditional faculty either do not have access to or the time to complete training on how to more effectively develop online courses. Identifying the strategies that higher education instructional designers use to collaborate with faculty, tailor processes to fit faculty availability, and bring projects to completion is a valuable exercise for both new and experienced instructional designers.

This panel session could be viewed as a starting point for exploring IDs’ efforts on project management with a particular focus on time management in the higher education contexts. Through exploring different perspectives from IDs with various backgrounds, the participants will be able to recognize the benefits of using project management software, intentionally reflecting on project management processes, and customizing the workflow based on their specific professional contexts.

To improve the participant-speaker interaction, we plan to adopt an interactive presentation tool (e.g., NearPod, Mentimeter, Slido) which will allow us to integrate polls and activities throughout the session. We plan to use quick polls at the beginning of the presentation to help us get to know the audience and also incorporate other activities to help reinforce the key takeaways. Additional handouts and infographics will also be provided to facilitate the Q&A section and allow the audience to delve deeper into the topic of this session. 

Allen, S. A. (2020). Project Management in Instructional Design (Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University).

Williams van Rooij, S. W. (2010). Project management in instructional design: ADDIE is not enough. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(5), 852-864.

Williams van Rooij, S. (2011). Instructional design and project management: complementary or divergent?. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(1), 139-158.

Williams van Rooij, S. (2013). The career path to instructional design project management: An expert perspective from the US professional services sector. International Journal of Training and Development, 17(1), 33-53.