The Multidisciplinary Instructional Designer: Enhancing the Designers Skills Set

Concurrent Session 6

Brief Abstract

Instructional design is often viewed as an insular profession with a specific set of skills, yet many designers transition to this field after years of working in another profession. This prior knowledge deeply enriches the designers 'toolbox’ and yields higher quality work. Come explore the multidisciplinary nature of design.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Megan Kohler, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus

Megan Kohler is a Learning Designer with the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute at Penn State. She has presented at international conferences, such as Open Ed 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, the International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Online Learning Consortium in Orlando, Florida. Megan relies on her training and experience as a professional actor to create a fun and engaging experience within her presentations and design work. Among her professional accomplishments, she is recognized for her work as the lead instructional designer and project manager on Penn State’s highly-rated Epidemics MOOC. She conceptualized the MOOCs by Design Webinar series and served as the pedagogical lead for the Penn State Digital Badges Initiative. She continues to explore interesting opportunities focused on improving the online learning experience for higher education.

Extended Abstract

Instructional design is often viewed as an insular profession with a specific set of skills cultivated solely for the purpose of developing learning experiences. While instructional design/learning design has a rich history filled with research, strategies, models and methodologies for creating quality learning, it’s still a relatively young profession. Especially when compared to long-standing fields such as mathematics, philosophy, architecture and others. Yet the reality is that instructional design itself draws on many related fields in support of its own existence. The reliance on areas such as neuroscience, psychology, project management, computer science, and graphic design have enriched our ability to create engaging and high quality experiences. Thus it stands to reason that instructional design can draw on the influences of an even broader base of professions to enrich the designers ‘toolkit’. 

Instructional design is considered a ‘discovered’ profession as many designers enter the field after serving in other professions for a number of years. These experiences have the ability to enhance the skills of the learning design profession as they bring about new perspectives or lenses by which we can critically examine our work. For example, a former nurse may have an exceptional degree of empathy when caring for patients. This skill becomes valuable as they transition to design and can demonstrate that same degree of empathy for faculty juggling multiple responsibilities pertaining to teaching, research, and family. In another context, a former actor may have unique skills related to creativity and therefore has the ability to identify innovative solutions to challenging design scenarios. These brief examples demonstrate how design can benefit from broadening our horizons to encompass a myriad of professions that extend beyond the most closely related to ID work. Unfortunately, this broader skills base has largely been excluded from the conversations regarding the skills that can support a designer’s success. Instead each designer has crafted their own unique approach or ‘signature style’ to the way they design based on their experiences and acquired knowledge. 

Key Takeaways:

Attendees of this session will be able to:

  • Identify unique skills from previous lived experiences which can enhance the designer’s toolbox 

  • Support the growth and development of their peers through exchanging ideas and skills from other professions

Plan for interactivity:

Attendees will participate in a series of guided activities to discover a deeper relevance between other professions and the field of instructional design.This interactive session is an exploration of the lived experiences and skills shared among the attendees. Through a set of guided exercises, attendees will participate in a fun and engaging session to learn how their former professions can be leveraged to build their own skill set. In addition they will have the opportunity to share those skills and ‘coach’ other attendees on how to go about developing those same skills.