Abstract
Purpose
To explore how instructional designers (IDs) view their work and give insight to organizations intending to hire for this role.
Method
In 2018, a 28-question survey was utilized to examine the role of instructional designers in medical education and their contributions as educational professionals. The survey was sent to members of the DR-ED listserv, the Instructional Designer listserv through AAMC, relevant EDUCAUSE listservs, and via Twitter in April 2018. Quantitative and qualitative results were analyzed. The target population was determined as those who self-identify as working in instructional design in medical education, understanding that titles of IDs may vary widely in academic medicine.
Results
Participants in this study (72) were self-identified as 45 (63%) females and 23 (32%) males. Among the degrees held by participants, 33 (46%) hold a terminal degree, 37 (51%) a master’s degree, and 2 (3%) a bachelor’s degree. Seven (9%) of institutions employ one ID and 27 (36%) employ two to five IDs, and 19 (25%) of the participants did not know how many instructional designers were employed by their organization. Participants reported that 22 (40%) specialize in more than one type of work such as database development, classroom technology, faculty development, and assessment/evaluation.
Conclusion
There is a wide variety of work environments for IDs in academic medicine; these range from large academic research institutions to consultant companies. A significant portion of IDs advise faculty on pedagogy and teaching best practices and develop professional development training. Job titles for IDs are also varied, representative of a wide range of influence within academic medicine organizations. ID expertise that was considered most commonly needed in academic medicine includes familiarity with learning management systems, multimedia literacy, and pedagogy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asher A, Kondziolka D, Selden NR. Addressing deficiencies in American healthcare education: a call for informed instructional design. Neurosurg. 2009;65(2):223–30.
Beck AH. The Flexner report and the standardization of American medical education. JAMA. 2017;291(17):2139–40.
Tate E. Quashing tension, boosting cooperation. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/05/10/roundup-instructional-designers-and-faculty-ideas-working. Published May 10, 2017. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Tracey MW, Hutchinson A, Grzebyk TQ. Instructional designers as reflective practitioners: developing professional identity through reflection. Educ Technol Res Dev. 2014;62:315–34.
Intentional Futures. Instructional design in higher education. https://intentionalfutures.com/insights/portfolio/instructional-design/. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Sugar WA, Luterbach KJ. Using critical incidents of instructional design and multimedia production activities to investigate instructional designers’ current practice and roles. Educ Technol Res Dev. 2016;64:285–312.
Beirne E, Romanoski, MP. Instructional design in higher education: defining an evolving field. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/read/instructional-design-in-higher-education-defining-an-evolving-field/. Published July 2018. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Reiser RA. A history of instructional design and technology: part II: a history of instructional design. Educ Technol Res Dev. 2001;49(2):57–67.
O’Malley S. What do instructional designers do? https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/02/what-do-instructional-designers-do. Published August 2, 2017. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Gustafson KL, Branch RM. What is instructional design? In: Reiser RA, Dempsey JV, editors. Trends and issues in instructional design and technology. Boston: Pearson; 2002.
Milosch T. Building a collaborative instructor-instructional designer relationship. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/01/17/building-collaborative-instructor-instructional-designer. Published January 17, 2018. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Lowell VL, Ashby IV. Supporting the development of collaboration and feedback skills in instructional designers. J Comput High Educ. 2018;30(1):72–92.
Sims RC, Koszalka T. Competencies for the new-age instructional designer. In: Spector JM, Merrill MD, van Merrienboer J, Driscoll MP, editors. Handbook of research on educational communications and technology. 3rd ed. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2008.
Fowler FJ. Survey research methods. 5th ed. Los Angeles: Sage; 2013.
DR-ED: an electronic discussion group for medical educators. The office of medical education research and development, college of human medicine, Michigan State University. http://omerad.msu.edu/. Accessed September 27, 2018.
AAMC GIR medical education instructional design community. https://www.aamc.org/members/gir/about/. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Educause. http://listerv.educause.edu. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Bogdan RC, Biklen SK. Qualitative research for education: an introduction to theories and methods. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson; 2006.
Fortney KS, Yamagata-Lynch LC. How instructional designers solve workplace problems. Perform Improv Q. 2013;25(4):91–109.
Persichitte KA. Implications for academic programs. In: Januszewski A, Molenda M, editors. Educational technology. New York: Routledge; 2008.
Gibbons AS. Eight views of instructional design and what they should mean to instructional designers. In: Hokanson B, Gibbons A, editors. Design in Educational Technology. New York: Springer; 2014. p. 15–36.
Berrett D. Instructional design: demand grows for a new breed of academic. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Instructional-Design/235425. Published February 29, 2016. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Reigeluth CM, Beatty BJ, Myers RD. Instructional-design theories and models: the learner-centered paradigm of education (Vol 4). New York: Routledge; 2016.
Riter P. The quest for great instructional designers. https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2016/06/07/troublesome-shortage-instructional-designers-essay. Published June 7, 2016. Accessed September 27, 2018.
Love LM, Anderson MC, Haggar FL. Strategically integrating instructional designers in medical education. Acad Med. 2019;94:146.
Li X, Chebn Q, Fang F, Zhang J. Is online education more like the global public goods? Futures. 2016;81:176–90.
Feenberg A. The online education controversy and the future of the university. Found Sci. 2017;22(2):363–71.
Robinson L. Embracing online education: exploring options for success. J Mark High Educ. 2017;27(1):99–111.
Rothwell WJ, Kazanas HC, Benscoter B, King M, King SB. Mastering the instructional design process: a systematic approach. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.cc.uic.edu. Updated May 2015. Accessed September 27, 2018, 2015.
Ruiz JG, Mintzer MJ, Leipzig RM. The impact of e-learning in medical education. Acad Med. 2006;81(3):07–212.
Linder K, Dello Stritto ME. Research preparation and engagement of instructional din U.S. higher education. Corvallis: Oregon State University Ecampus Research Unit; 2017.
Slagter van Tryon PJ, McDonald J, Hirumi A. Preparing the next generation of instructional designers: a cross-institution faculty collaboration. J Comput High Educ. 2018;30:125–53.
West RE, Thomas RA, Bodily R, Wright C, Borup J. An analysis of instructional design and technology departments. In: Branch RM, editor. Educational media and technology yearbook. Cham: Springer; 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Ethical Approval
IRB No. 2018-0224 from the University of Illinois at Chicago
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anderson, M.C., Love, L.M. & Haggar, F.L. Looking Beyond the Physician Educator: the Evolving Roles of Instructional Designers in Medical Education. Med.Sci.Educ. 29, 507–513 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00720-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00720-6