At Arizona State University (ASU), we have a community of about 40 staff members who have the words "Instructional Design" or "Instructional Designer" in their titles. Every few months we get together as a group and talk about the latest trends at ASU and throughout higher education.
One session in late 2013 we asked the questions, “What is it that you do as an Instructional Designer?” A few of the things we heard back are, fixer, designer, thinker, communicator, builder, evaluator. Of course, the follow-up question for us was, “What is it that you think faculty or your customer think you do?” The overwhelming response was, “Technology support.”
Clearly we have a branding challenge in our profession, and the infographic below was developed as a tool to help ID’s talk about what makes them amazing. Talented ID’s are more important now than ever before, particularly in education. Look no further than the pace of new technology, emerging models of delivery and the shifting student profile to see how important talented designers are. The ID can be your guide in this new world of teaching and learning. So, go out and hug an Instructional Designer at your institution, and ask them a question about what it is they do.
