[Photo by Tanner Larson on Unsplash]

 

“We are the change agents”

(Cleveland-Innes, 2019)

As the MALAT virtual symposium 2019 has come to an end, I would like to reflect on the professional role of the instructional designers in Higher Education, and the impact of technological changes on education in general.

As Dr. Cleveland-Innes (2019) stated in her presentation, educational reform is “an earthquake happening around us”. As we navigate this rapidly changing environment with different, often changing roles in the academia, where does the instructional design come into play and what is the role of those who have expertise in technology and learning? In defining these roles and critically reflecting on them, I would like to utilize self-reflection as a key piece of this conversation.

Technology implementation is one of the 11 most important element of the educational ecosystem, contributing to the rapid change in the Higher Education, and impacting the quality of instruction, according to Duderstadt (2009). The role of the instructional designer is to help faculty apply these principles in their course development, supporting their use of technology, as well as their understanding of a learner (Cleveland-Innes, 2019).

Within these new dynamics in education, Dr. Cleveland-Innes emphasized and introduced to the participants a concept, which was somewhat new to me, and which had really hit home:  the collaborative learning design. This approach constitutes the future for the educational community and has been already partially adopted in some educational settings, and which I have personally witnessed in academic libraries.

I could definitely relate to the multifaceted roles of the IDs in Higher Education, especially with respect to the quality assurance in the time of “information explosion” (Cleveland-Innes, 2019), since as a librarian, I have personally witnessed the effects of the information overload on students’ research behaviours.

Similar challenges were also addressed by Tony Bates (2019), who busted several important myths with regards to online learning in his presentation. Putting content on the web does not constitute effective online learning, according to him (Bates, 2019). As a mature student, who until this MALAT program has not been learning fully online, I definitely agree with Tony’s statement that “students need help to become independent learners” (Bates, 2019). Online learning constitutes an environment that is very different from the classroom or even blended learning models, which requires much more time management skills, diligent discipline, and frequent interaction with both professors and fellow students. Therefore, in order to help students become “independent learners” (Bates, 2019), it is important to establish a learning “infrastructure”, which would enable collaborative learning environments. 

I see the role of IDs as the collaborative force in this technological shift in the education, whose tasks, among many others is to facilitate “collaborative communication process” as well as keeping in mind the learner’s experience, utilizing human-centered design  (Yunker & Young, 2019). Creating connections is, thus, essential for the IDs, both with the educational partners, as well as the “greater learning community” (Yunker & Young, 2019).   

IDs are called to connect “people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities” in the words of Michelle Jennae (2013, as quoted in Yunker & Young, 2019). I could not be more excited about this role and the possibilities it brings for the future.     

  

References:

Bates, T. (2019, April 16).  Rethinking the Purpose of Online Learning [Recorded Presentation]. Retrieved from http://ow.ly/gJlx50qwmbq

Cleveland-Innes. M. (2019, April 18). The role of ID in Higher Education Reform [Recorded Presentation]. Retrieved from http://ow.ly/s79f50qR2iq

Duderstadt, J. J. (2009). A university for the 21st century. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.