Leadership in Higher Education: Instructional Designers in Faculty Development Programs.

Instructional designers are well equipped to handle the leadership of faculty development in higher education. Faculty development is part of the process of lifelong learning for the college or university instructor and a key component of the transformational changes taking place in higher education. The need for faculty to appropriately integrate technology into their curriculum and utilize innovative instructional methodologies is driven by five factors: students, faculty, administration, society, and technology. The roles of instructional designers and instructional systems design methodologies are critical to the success of faculty development programs and can successfully facilitate the dynamic change process currently underway in colleges and universities. A skilled instructional designer is a professional well-trained in assisting faculty members and serving faculty development programs to better utilize innovative instructional methodologies, strategies, and techniques. The anticipated outcome of the current transformation in higher education is improvement in teaching facilitated by faculty development initiatives under the guidance of the instructional designer. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/AEF)