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For decades, researchers in our field have explored what it means to possess instructional design expertise. This systematic review provides a current synthesis of research related to cultivating expertise in instructional design coursework. A search on instructional design pedagogy and the development of expertise yielded 34 peer-reviewed articles that met the inclusion criteria for this study. The findings suggest that more research is needed on instructional strategies to strengthen instructional design students’ procedural, conditional, and conceptual knowledge domains. This study resulted in three recommendations to support the cultivation of expertise in instructional design courses.

Little is known about the role of prompts to help learners solve ill-structured learning problems. Instructors do not devote adequate time to formulate pedagogically useful prompts, and the usefulness of different types of prompt is unclear. This mixed-methods study examined the role of argumentative prompts in the writing of essays based on business case studies. A significant (p

While several studies have been conducted exploring teachers’ pedagogical reasoning practices, few studies have explored the influence of learning audiences’ impact on teacher’s decisions related to technology integration in early childhood classrooms. The purpose of this study was to provide a systematic review of empirical studies that have examined how teachers embrace children’s opinions (and voice) in their pedagogical reasoning process for technology-enhanced teaching. The review used Preferred-Reporting of Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) and successfully identified 33 empirical studies that have discussed teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and/or instructional decisions for technology integration through the negotiations of affordances from both teachers’ and learners’ perspectives in early childhood education context. This review additionally seeks to provide discussion for how teachers/practitioners could align children’s needs and their pedagogical reasoning processes for early childhood technology instructional practices. This review discusses the challenges related to the adaptations of children’s needs in instructional design and the implications it has on teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and decision-making practices.

Digital learning environments are dynamic systems that require learning designers to leverage environmental conditions and the needs of their learners. While many frameworks and studies have explored pedagogical reasoning, little emphasis has been placed on the dynamic decision-making processes of learning designers. To advance the exploration of pedagogical reasoning and dynamic decision-making in digital learning environments, we proffer a conceptual framework that supports these practices through the promotion of reflection-in-action, external representations, and the use of conjecturing strategies to maneuver through the learning design space. Theoretical and practical implications are considered for how pedagogical reasoning and dynamic decision-making can be integrated into learning design curricula and educational policy.

The use of heuristics as an instructional strategy enable instructors to provide students with problem-solving strategies that can be adapted and modified for different contexts and experiences. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of heuristics by students and gain insight into the thought process behind their problem-solving skills. The study used an adaptive narrative as an information delivery medium. An adaptive narrative was chosen because it could be designed to simulate decision-making processes encountered in real-world situations. Students enrolled in an introductory biology major class were chosen for the study because their fields of interest all require complex problem solving and decision-making skills. It was of interest to investigate what decisions were made when heuristics were given and how that may influence their rationale in the decision-making process. The results of this study indicate that: heuristics can enable students to make correct decisions when the heuristics are based on already familiar concepts; although students self-reported low cognitive load challenges in the NASA TLX, most of the explanations were deemed poor when graded by rubrics; students had difficulty transferring information learned in the narrative and synthesizing a complete and complex explanation past three data points. This study provides evidence that greater practice in the transfer of information to novel settings is important in education for students to become proficient in complex decision-making.

College students often need to seek academic help, especially in online environments. Students may choose from variety of options for help, including their instructor, the internet, and friends. Current research efforts fail to fully explain undergraduate students’ source selection process available in a real-world context. A holistic, learner-centered approach to understanding the decision-making process may result in more effective instructional practices to increase student help-seeking behavior. This study explored how college students describe their decision-making process regarding the selection of help-seeking sources. Interviews were conducted with 25 undergraduate students in their third or fourth year of study to explore their decision-making process when selecting academic help sources. Several themes emerged from the data regarding how participants described their decision-making process checkpoints. The examination of decision-making heuristics may provide a new method to explore help-seeking behavior. Implications for further research exploring decision-making processes associated with academic help-seeking are discussed.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how learning design and educational technology degree programs prepare students to evaluate in practice. This study involved the curricular mapping of 16 graduate instructional design programs and 29 semi-structured interviews with program faculty and recent postgraduates. Based on information shared during the interviews, this study produced nine themes according to three metathemes: (a) the role of problem-solving in evaluation, (b) alignment of evaluation activities in instructional design, and (c) relevancy of evaluation in instructional design. The findings revealed that evaluation was not prioritized for most programs, due to lack of time, client resources, employer lack of interest, and limited faculty experience in evaluation. Other recommendations are provided for how to enhance evaluative practices in instructional design coursework.

The majority of instructional design models have directed focus on instructional design activities such as analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Criticisms regarding instructional design models have suggested that the use of these models provides instructional designers with a limited view of the design environment. This systematic review seeks to offer guidance and a conceptual framework for how instructional designers can utilize existing instructional design models without excluding the systemic nature of design practices. This review explores how instructional designers are using models and the systemic relationship between the instructional design components typically outlined in a model.

Each learner brings a unique mix of personality traits, preferences, and talents to the educational setting. These factors can influence the extent to which learners are able to effectively deploy skills and strategies to achieve their academic goals. Gaining a deeper awareness of how specific personality traits play a role in the choice and deployment of SRL strategies provides opportunities to anticipate which learners might be effective or ineffective self-regulators. Doing so would enable instructional designers, educators, or higher education administrators to better plan and deliver effective educational experiences for a wide range of learners. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the use of SRL strategies was impacted by learner differences in Big Five personality traits. This mixed methods study examined the potential of utilizing the Big Five Inventory classification as a predictor of self-regulated strategy use. Specifically, the study investigated the relationship between the existence of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism traits as possible predictors of learner use of SRL strategies. Results indicated that learners high in openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness were shown to be more skilled self-regulators than those high in neuroticism. Those high in neuroticism were less skilled self-regulators and tended to use help-seeking strategies more frequently than those in other personality trait categories. The qualitative findings highlighted the need for effective time management as an important self-regulation strategy, a preference for face to face versus an on-line delivery format, and a lack of motivation. However, responses did not seem to systematically vary by personality trait.

In recent years, professional learning networks (PLNs) and online learning communities of practices (CoPs) enabled by social media have emerged as a conduit and communal space for faculty members to engage in professional learning. This systematic review provides a current synthesis of research surrounding social media and professional development in higher education. Articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2009 and 2019 were reviewed and 23 articles that met our selection criteria were included for further analysis and synthesis in this review. Findings suggest that research and practice on social media-supported professional learning is still in its infancy stage. Despite that social media-supported PLNs and CoPs show potential for contributing to faculty professional learning, challenges exist in sustaining faculty participation and engagement, as well as effectively navigating the social media space, especially for novice social media users. Practical implications and future research recommendations are discussed.

This design case shares how personas were utilized to create an online career resource center intended to help instructional design students in making informed career decisions. The outcome of this project has helped identify instructional opportunities to improve services currently provided to instructional design students and graduate student members of the Association for Education Communications and Technology (AECT ). By evaluating the mechanisms and supports already in place and contrasting those with the needs of the students who are seeking career guidance, the intent of the project was to bridge the gap between graduate student members’ career needs and the resources available to them within a professional association. We discuss how we gathered information through a needs assessment for the creation of a Career Resource Center to further educate and inform instructional design students of resources for career decision-making.

Despite the fact that e-service-learning has been regarded as a means to providing students with valuable real-world experiences, the pace of implementing e-service-learning into online courses has not kept up with the overall growth of online learning. Further examination into instructional strategies and supports to facilitate e-service-learning are needed. To address this need, a systematic review of research was conducted to examine instructional supports used to facilitate e-service-learning experiences in an online environment. Many authors recommended the importance of providing the tools necessary to promote collaboration in the online environment. This study proffers a conceptual framework to support the design of learning experiences that promote service-learning, real-world experiences, while contending with contextual factors that impact transfer of learning in authentic contexts. It also examines how instructional scaffolds are being used in digital settings to mitigate design challenges and promote authentic experiences through e-service-learning activities.

This study identifies factors that influence undergraduate students’ selection of a source of help. Learners engage in intentional decisions to seek help from human and non-human sources to resolve gaps in knowledge. Previous research in academic help-seeking assumed learners sought only human sources of assistance, resulting in a narrow understanding of how learners resolve knowledge gaps. Methodological trends in help-seeking research consistently favor quantitative, survey-based tools with pre-defined options. As a result, the factors that influence the selection of a source in a real-world setting with both human and online sources remain unexplored. The findings support including online sources in help-seeking models. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the importance of relationships and underscore the need for an integrated framework of help-seeking. A new theory of source selection emerged which integrates academic help-seeking and information-searching behavior.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore how PK-12 teachers can use rapid needs assessment strategies to support their students during emergency remote teaching. Using the contextual lens of the emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, this chapter provides a review of challenges faced by teachers and students. In response to similar future emergency remote teaching situations, we recommend the use of rapid needs assessment to mitigate similar challenges. This chapter provides an overview of needs assessment and outlines applicable rapid needs assessment strategies that can be used by PK-12 teachers if they are faced with emergency remote teaching in the future.

Designing within a system is ubiquitous to instructional design. In order to understand the systemic impact of design decisions within an organization, one must understand the interrelatedness of the objects within the system. Developing an understanding of context as it relates to the utility of instructional design solutions will position instructional designers to systemically influence the organization in a positive manner. This paper acknowledges the systemic challenges encountered by instructional designers in the workplace and discusses how design thinking can be leveraged with HPT strategies to assist the instructional designer with designing solutions that have a systemic impact on the organization. This paper also introduces a conceptual framework, grounded in general systems theory, that combines design thinking principles with instructional design practices to improve performance.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are becoming a significant, mission-driven trend within educational literature. To help address rising costs, instructors and designers are looking to OER to effect...

The factors that influence and impact graduate students in the context of their career decision-making within an instructional design graduate program remain unexplored. This mixed methods study captured actual career-related difficulties of graduate instructional design students through a conceptual framework based on Bandura (1986) and Lent et al. (Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79–122, 1994) social cognitive career theory, emphasizing the importance of interactions with key factors such as career readiness, access to career information and consistent and reliable career information. Participants recorded their levels of career decision-making difficulty through an online survey, the Career Decision Making Questionnaire (CDDQ) (Gati et al. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43(4), 510–526, 1996). The CDDQ was used to measure: 1) lack of readiness, 2) lack of information and 3) inconsistent information. This study indicates that the current level of support for graduate students in instructional design may not be robust enough to support their needs. The results demonstrate that graduate students have specific career needs and experience career decision-making difficulty regardless of country of origin, primarily in the pre-decision making phase and in working through internal and external sources of conflict.

This study explored the interaction of multimedia production competencies of expert and novice instructional designers on the design decisions made during the instructional design process/workflow. This multiple measures study used qualitative survey instruments to access and measure the production competencies of participants, then a design aloud protocol to capture and measure the instructional design decision-making process for those same participants. A follow-on interview after the initial design aloud session was conducted in order to triangulate and confirm any trends or findings uncovered during the earlier design aloud session. Ultimately, the objective of this study was to provide some evidence that suggests whether certain production skills are influencing instructional design decision-making. Employer influence on the instructional designer’s decision-making was also explored. Results indicated that a substantial number of instructional designers (n = 30) who participated in this study were selecting media as a preliminary step in their workflow process, and were often then using analysis as a measure to confirm the early media selection. Expert instructional designers appeared to be less susceptible to the early media selection behavior, though not immune. Results indicate that one reason the expert instructional designers were less likely to adopt media as a preliminary instructional design step was that the experts conducted a more diverse set of analysis activities. Additionally, results indicated that instructional designers were often experiencing pressure to adopt media based on employer demands, and project constraints such as budget and time.

This study examined how practicing instructional designers manage cognitive load in a standardized scenario as they select and implement instructional strategies, message design, content sequencing, delivery medium, and technology within various domains with learners at different levels of expertise. The study employed a quasi-experimental, mixed methods design to gain insight into how practicing instructional designers perceive their awareness of strategies to manage cognitive load and implement those strategies within a standardized design scenario. The results of the study indicated that both novice and expert practitioners frequently used several strategies to manage extraneous load (worked examples, completion tasks, and dual modality) as prescribed by theory, as well as the simple-to-complex presentation strategy to manage intrinsic load. While participants frequently acknowledged differences in the levels of learner expertise within the instructional scenario, few employed strategies prescribed to address the expertise reversal effect as outlined by theory. Based on the results of this study, we present a framework to assist designers with managing for cognitive load in their everyday design practices.

Despite the call for instructional designers to employ design thinking as a means to foster creativity in problem-solving, many students struggle with enacting creative risk. While several studies have been conducted studying how instructional designers engage in problem-solving to contend with project constraints, few have addressed whether this is due to their confidence and abilities to engage in creative risk. This paper discusses how instructional designers can promote creative risk in instructional design pedagogy through three constructs: ideation, dynamic decision-making, and failure-based learning. Implications and future research are also discussed.

A number of studies have been conducted exploring competencies expected of instructional designers in the field. The results of these studies that have explored competencies and the alignment and discrepancies between instructional designers and their clients’ and employers’ expectations demonstrate the need for instructional designers to be prepared to serve in a number of expanded roles as instructional designers. In order to prepare instructional designers for what will be expected of them upon entering the instructional design workforce, graduate programs need to look at which competencies are being emphasized through their respective curricula. The purpose of this chapter is to explore instructional design course offerings among programs across the United States as they relate to design pedagogy and praxis. We also offer discussion on the types of instructional exposure needed to prepare aspiring instructional designers for the field.

This paper is in response to Nacu et al.'s (Educ Technol Res Dev 66(4):1029-1049, 2018) guidelines to enable educators to fulfill learner support roles in online education from a contextual perspective and how their heuristic method can be utilized in today's current pandemic. It also explores how learner support roles can be leveraged to balance affordances offered by the learning environment and the learners themselves. Additionally, this paper discusses the implications for addressing social inequities in digital environments and education policy reform.

Authentic learning is a pedagogical approach that situates students in real-world settings. Authentic learning experiences in online environments allow learners to solve real-world problems when they immerse in real-world settings. It thereby requires instructional designers to make contextualized design decisions to enhance students’ online authentic learning experiences. The purpose of this paper is to provide instructional designers with a conceptual framework to help guide their instructional design decisions for authentic learning experiences in online environments. We purport that these design decisions should be guided by three constructs: authentic learning, decision-making, and contextual analysis. We also provide recommendations for future research on decision-making practices and processes in instructional design contexts.

Research indicates there is a gap between employers' expectations of instructional designers' roles and responsibilities, and what designers actually do. The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique nuances inherent in instructional design practices from a variety of work settings. Our paper is grounded in a practitioner’s perspective utilizing long-standing careers in the instructional design sectors and informal discussions with many practitioners. The goal of the paper is to highlight constraints and contextual considerations that instructional designers must address while working on projects. We also discuss how instructional design educators can support instructional design students to better prepare them for real-world instructional design contexts.