Being in the field, you know that the world of instructional design and learning technology is constantly evolving. Do your experiences match our research team’s findings? Join us to find out!
With learning experiences growing and changing across education sectors, the instructional design and learning technology (IDLT) field is considered to be in a state of evolution (Beirne & Romanoski, 2018). This necessitates the need to consistently review and conduct research regarding what IDLT roles look like across education sectors, what IDLT employers expect from their employees, and what challenges and trends IDLT professionals are experiencing in their work in the field.
Our research team, made up of three graduate students and one faculty member from an Instructional Design and Learning Technology Master’s Degree Program, came together to explore this evolution to inform the program’s curriculum and support the profession in better understanding expectations and trends. To do this, our team focused on understanding employer expectations and emerging trends across sectors (K12, Higher Education, Corporate) with these research questions to drive our study:
-
What is the frequency and variation of: 1) responsibilities and duties, 2) knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs); and 3) qualifications represented in IDLT position descriptions across the K12, higher education, and corporate sectors?
-
How do IDLT hiring managers across K12, higher education, and corporate sectors describe their expectations of IDLT professionals in regards to responsibilities, duties, knowledge, skills, abilities, and qualifications?
-
How can our quantitative and qualitative data collection work together to create a more comprehensive understanding of employer expectations of IDLT positions across sectors and emerging trends for IDLT professionals?
To best answer our research questions, the team leveraged an explanatory mixed methods design. This type of design empowered us to begin with a quantitative investigation to understand breadth of the evolution phenomenon, enabling us to use the quantitative findings to further understanding with qualitative exploration, and ultimately use both data sets to answer the study’s research questions.
As a first step, the research team searched for and analyzed position descriptions from popular IDLT job search websites that included jobs from the focus sectors (i.e., K12, Higher Education, Corporate) to better understand employer expectations in regards to responsibilities and duties, KSAs, and qualifications. Informed by the findings from this first step, the research team conducted interviews with employers across the focus sectors to gather their lived experiences regarding the evolving role of IDLT and expectations of the positions they oversee.
This presentation will engage the audience in exploring the findings from the study, as well as empower reflection to dig deeper as a collective group in regards to how our work as IDLT professionals is evolving and what we can do to prepare for this evolution using interactive polling.
Upon completion of the session, participates will have:
-
Identified key responsibilities and duties, KSAs, and qualifications related to IDLT roles across sectors;
-
Explored emerging trends and challenges for IDLT professionals across sectors; and
-
Reflected on ways their organizations and IDLT-related roles can prepare for the continued evolution of the field.