There are numerous alternatives for those interested in working for an online university but not necessarily wanting to teach in the online classroom. One of these alternatives is becoming an Instructional Designer. Typically an instructional designer has a degree in curriculum and instruction or has significant experience teaching and creating curriculum.
An instructional designer’s main goal is to help students learn the material and to increase student engagement with the material and overall student learning. Instructional designers focus on the results of the classroom – how many students learning needs were met and if the results are low, focus on increasing those numbers.
Instructional designers must possess a variety of skills including being able to write well, design web pages, work with graphics, collaborate effective, plan extensively, and have a good understanding of how people learn. The instructional designers main goal is make sure that students have opportunities to actively practice what they are learning. This can be a challenging feat for those working for online colleges and universities.
Typically, instructional designers work with subject matter experts to ensure that the content that is present will be utilized effectively by the student. They do not want students to simply be passive receivers of information but to be able to actively engage with the information and utilize it in ways where they can learn the material.
So what does an instructional designer do each day? Typically, they work with a variety of subject matter experts to determine what students need to learn for specific subjects or courses. They also work to develop specific objectives and then focus the content of the course to meet those objectives.
There are a variety of process that an instructional designer will go through as they are creating a course – they will revise and rewrite content to meet student learning needs, they will work on the structure of the content and activities to ensure it is appropriate for the student’s learning needs, etc.
One major task that instructional designers have when working in the online classroom is creating media that will engage students and help them meet the learning objectives. These can be visual aids that focus on specific questions a student might have, videos that focus on content in a unique manner, etc. Adapting materials that have been utilized in a traditional classroom to an online classroom is a very challenging aspect of instructional design and requires creative thinking!
Instructional designers will also help to develop a variety of different assessments and rubrics for use within the classroom.
There is no doubt that instructional designers are very important components of online education. While many faculty members are masters in their subject area, many do not have the background in student learning that instructional designers have. Utilizing instructional designers when courses are being created or revised can help to ensure that student’s are actively engaged in the classroom and learning the skills they need from the course.
Have you worked with an Instructional Designer? Were they beneficial in helping to increase student learning?
About the Author
Jamie Weitl is a WAHM teaching for several online universities and raising three precocious little ones. In her spare time she enjoys writing, baking, and running. For more info, see my Google Plus Profile.
