Recently I was fortunate enough to participate in Royal Roads’ Virtual Symposium where students, faculty, and guest speakers discussed the impact of ed tech and instructional design in today’s education industry. There were a ton of great talks and the sharing of some fascinating research projects. It was a thrill to learn with and from these brilliant people.
I was particularly struck by the ingenuity of my classmate, Patrick Guichon, as he navigated the ethical challenges presented by his thesis project (Childs, 2022). Patrick has recently completed data gathering in a research project where his own students are the participants. This presents a significant ethical dilemma in what the Tri-Council Policy Statement refers to as a dual role (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, & Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2018), meaning, in Patrick’s case that he is acting as both the research and the instructor for these participants. This dual role presents a conflict of interest that has the potential to “create conflicts, undue influences, power imbalances or coercion” (Canadian Institutes of Health Research et al., 2018, p. 96). With this in mind, Patrick was careful to create an environment in which he was in no way privy to the identities of his participants and was not physically present when the data collection occurred. This would have required significant planning in advance and coordination with collaborators in his organization to make the research possible. Patrick’s efforts are commendable and I look forward to seeing the results of his analysis.
Another presentation that I enjoyed was that of Christina Jones (2022), as they described their process in the execution of their applied research project. The was a particular aspect of the research that I hadn’t considered before and found surprising. Christina’s research is focused on the use of simulation to improve learning, particularly in a military context. When I’ve thought about the benefits of simulation in the past, I’ve mostly considered safety as the paramount, but Christina shared additional benefits. Particularly in a navy application and the training of the navigation of large warships, one of the main challenges is the replication of a particular set of conditions. Warships are exceptionally complex. The navigator has to consider the unique crew and weather patterns which are near impossible to replicate. In a simulation, however, all these conditions are easily repeatable, allowing trainers to put their learners into very specific conditions to test their learning. This was eye opening for me and presented a benefit of the application of simulation training I hadn’t previously considered.
Finally, a presentation I found particularly engaging was a panel discussion on the nature of instructional design in a post-COVID-19 environment (Royal Roads University, 2021). Panel members Elizabeth Childs, Irwin DeVries, Melanie Meyers, and George Veletsianos discussed how the recent global pandemic has influenced how educators value instructional design in an online environment and how this will impact its role in the future. I completely agree with DeVries position that instructional designer should have a more influential position in education moving forward. Now that most educators in Canada have been exposed to the nature of online learning, I hope that there’s a newfound respect for the uniqueness of online pedagogy, the challenges it presents, and the need for specialized training to make the most of the platform. I hope for greater collaboration between educators and instructional designers going forward and that this partnership becomes routine, with a hope of developing more effective learning spaces for our students.
References
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, December 2018. https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/documents/tcps2-2018-en-interactive-final.pdf
Childs, E. (2022). MALAT thesis student presentation – Patrick Guichon [Webinar]. Royal Roads University. https://royalroads.zoom.us/rec/play/xMhaSoSCoxemU7DvXGSQniBxhPTek5a16-ygJ1EhWioYCBupmBJ6D1T0f9oCj5PsPHWxB0d-hkEREntf.mbkF2QQvwEWVKq_m?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=3f9S3VkdSkyNGqpCRq0bKw.1650306388359.ee05f9c0e39e4b1cb1b6eadb587bc76b&_x_zm_rhtaid=800
Jones, C. [Christinaaces]. (2022, April 11). Designing simulators to maximize user experience and learning – MALAT symposium 2022. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNs07ZwNELQ
Royal Roads University. (2021, December 1). Instructional Design In & After COVID-19 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJKfV4QphYc
Hi Christopher,
Congratulations for making the time to attend a range of presentations, and for acquiring new information, insights, and ways of considering teaching and learning.
Because I may include simulation or some form of virtual reality in my end project, I found your takeaway from the Christina Jones presentation interesting. In particular the complexity and logistics of naval warship scenarios. In your words:
Warships are exceptionally complex. The navigator has to
consider the unique crew and weather patterns which are
near impossible to replicate. In a simulation, however, all
these conditions are easily repeatable, allowing trainers to put
their learners into very specific conditions to test their
learning.
When reading that, I was reminded of playing the analog game Battleship as a child and early teenager. I loved the combination of tactile and visuals the game provided, along with the ability to reconfigure the placement of the boats at the beginning of a new game.
Thanks Bart, for taking the time read my post and provide your feedback. Virtual reality is certainly a hot topic in ed tech at the moment. It has so much potential and on the cusp of having real impact. I do think there’s still a ton of work to be done in the development of high quality educational software, but the hardware has certainly been developed to the point where it’s ready for mass adoption. I look forward to hearing more about your upcoming project as you continue to develop your approach!
Hey Christopher,
I also liked the presentation on ID in a post-pandemic landscape. I thought Irwin did well explaining the necessity of ID as we move forward with digital learning. As a result of this presentation, I contemplated the many differences between higher education institutions across North America and what might influence the roles of IDs, or lack thereof, within these organizations.
What’s your take on the current ID situation. Aren’t you now technically an ID for your college? And if so, what’s the scope of your work?
I still see a mix between schools designating ID positions and others forcing course instructors to wear multiple hats.
Cheers,
Jonathan
A super thought provoking question, Jonathan… thank you!
First of all, technically, no… I’m not an instructional designer, though I aspire to be. I’m an educational support technologist and work with an instructional designer on projects occasionally.
I think instructional design is on the cusp of an explosion in popularity. My experience so far is that it’s been an undervalued resource. The college at which I work, which has approximately 25,000 full and part-time students, employs only three. However, I think this is one of the areas upon which the pandemic really shone a light, as was discussed at the symposium. The immediate adoption of online learning really brought attention to how poorly designed many courses were for that environment, and how woefully prepared many faculty were to adjust their pedagogy to suit the new model.
I think (and hope) that this new attention will see growth in the number of instructional designers employed and also shift their role into more of a partnership of equals with faculty. Time will tell, I suppose.
What’s your take on it?