21st-Century Instructional Designers: Bridging the Perceptual Gaps between Identity, Practice, Impact and Professional Development

• Published in: International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 2015-07, Vol.12 (3), p.72-85
• Main Authors: Sharif, Afsaneh, Cho, Sunah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer Appl. in Social and Behavioral Sciences; Computer Science; Computers and Education; Educational Technology; Higher Education; Humanities; Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet); Law; Statistics for Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1698-580X; 2365-9440; 1698-580X
• DOI: 10.7238/rusc.v12i3.2176

The purpose of this paper is to discuss instructional designers’ current status through a brief discussion of the history of instructional design, comparison of instructional design models, and a presentation of a perspective on how instructional designers cope with their current identity and profession while seeking professional development. In this paper, we identified various reasons for addressing why professional development effort is less than ideal for instructional designers. These include a lack of priority given to professional development at an organization level, budget and funding, individual workload, and departmental visions and priorities. In order to address and overcome these factors, we recommend an instructional designer community of practice within institutions. As the landscape of education is constantly transforming, the designers’ field cannot stay static. To respond to all the changes, instructional designers not only need to strive for continuous learning but also to adopt a more collaborative practice, where they can share and exchange ideas and best practices.