Instructional Design/Technology in Different Contexts (D/10)

As I think about the different contexts in which we have looked at the role of instructional design/technology, the themes that seem to register with me are 1) the instructional designer as an individual and 2) the instructional designer as part of a team. In all of the areas (business, p-12 and higher education), there are instances where the instructional designer is solely responsible for everything and there are instances where they are part of a team. The role of the designer seems to depend on the purpose and the task for which the designer was hired.

One vivid example that I recall, came from the higher education area. In the example, the ID was an associate professor. He was responsible for not only his professorial duties, but in addition, he was expected to advise undergraduate students, mentor graduate students, sit on committees for his department and publish and do studies in his area of ID. He needed to publish and do studies in his area to do like his colleagues before him and contribute to the field.

Things were different in the business field. Here it seems that publishing and studies were not as much of a concern and that it was preferred to have the ID take care of the designing. Then the business could employ the design in the context that they needed to. For example, once the ID had created the design, the employees could access it for themselves and complete the tasks at times convenient for themselves and the company.

I admit that this material was rather hard for me. There were so many examples and it was so hard to remember which parts of the text were supposed to be about the role of the ID. However, I do believe that my current professional working environment could learn from the other contexts described in these chapters by assessing which ways of instruction seem to be most beneficial for the goal(s) trying to be achieved.