An Investigation of Development Toward Instructional Design Expertise

Abstract

F or decades now, researchers have been investigating the nature of process and product in the practice of instructional design (ID). There are various useful descriptions of good ID and prescriptions for how ID should proceed. Both researchers and practitioners have generated rubrics and heuristics designed to assess ID deliverables as well as the design process. Graduate programs in institutions of higher education designed to cultivate the design skills of students typically include courses in ID with students creating a series of deliverables while under expert supervision. What is not well understood is the set of cognitive and affective processes that unfolds over time as students develop as instructional designers. These meaning making processes that unfold in situ are important to investigate so that we can better understand which practices most effectively speak to the development of expertise in the field of ID.This study investigates the relationships of various factors and their impact on the development of novices toward ID expertise over a developmental period. Because there is not a robust pre-existing research foundation for the study of this developmental perspective on ID expertise, this research is based on a framework of three related bodies of literature, and the theoretical linkages between them. These three bodies of literature are: the general work on the nature of expertise, the general work on the development of expertise, and the nature of the process and practice of ID. In the following section, these three bodies of literature are briefly reviewed and linked to provide an explanatory framework for the present study.this research investigated expertise development among instructional designers by tracking novice designers' unfolding perceptions of instructional design (ID), designrelated self-perceptions, and other individual differences. It examined development toward ID expertise from multiple aspects: processes, product, and cognition, through a case study approach. evidence included qualitative data from interviews, design artifacts, and metacognitive essays, along with quantitative data from questionnaires which assessed goals, need for structure, need for cognition, previous design competence, and design self-efficacy. findings indicated that it was not one single characteristic, but the interaction of various factors, that most profoundly seem to influence the development of ID expertise. relevant characteristics included: perceptions about learning, knowledge and ID; individual needs and learning strategies; and background experiences and orientations. research in this field will help us to better understand the processes that lead to the development of ID expertise, and to develop better approaches to preparing future instructional designers.P e r f o r m a N c e I m P r o V e m e N t Q u a r t e r l y , 1 9 ( 4 ) P P . 6 -9 0

Investigating Instructional Design Skill Development During the Project Based Multimedia Development Process

“…Then they became aware of some processes continuing step by step, however most of them challenged to elaborate the previous step to the next step. This result is exactly similar with the results revealed in Hardre, Ge and Thomas (2006) in which authors explored that novice instructional designers treated the phases of ID like very different parts while after getting experienced they started to look ID phases as holistic process (p. 81). Moreover, they revealed that perception of responsibilities of instructional designers and metacognitive skills influence to expertise ID.…”

“…As a design based learning environment, by means of multimedia design technical skills (Kafai, 1995), collaborative working skills (Gifford & Enyedy, 1999) and knowledge of subject matter (Kafai, 1995;Barron et al 1998) can be obtained. Hardre, Ge and Thomas (2006)'s case study showed that when a novice instructional designer designs a learning material, they might get more selfawareness, self-monitoring skills, clear understanding of IDT practices. Besides, novices might understand the expected competencies and learn how to improve their current knowledge to reach the goals of the field.…”

Dynamics of instructional and perceptual factors in instructional design competence development

“…This may be in part due to the participant group, which unlike many previous studies, were not teachers but professional design students. Building on previous research (e.g., Hardré, Ge & Thomas, 2007), it added more detailed assessments of perceptions, and revealed a cluster of perceptions that apparently position learners for a greater success in learning ID. Beyond confirming previous findings (generally from single-semester studies; e.g., Hardré, Ge & Thomas, 2007), this design extends the timeline of development to two semesters, enabling systematic assessment and analysis over a longer developmental trajectory.…”

“…A few studies have investigated learning and development of ID knowledge and skill among students of ID (Ertmer & Cennamo, 1995;Ge & Hardré, 2010;Hardré, Ge & Thomas, 2007;Quinn, 1994), and of designers in specialised contexts (e.g., Christensen & Ogusthorpe, 2004;Rowland, 1991). Some research has also been done on graduate teaching assistants learning ID as a strategic skill for transfer to their own professional teaching practice (Hardré & Chen, 2005).…”

“…Instrument responses (except the open-ended qualitative knowledge assessment) were on Likert-type 6-point scales (anchored from 1= Not at all to 6=Strongly Agree; or from 1=Not at all true to 6=Very true). All questionnaire instruments and rubrics were previously tested in this population (ID graduate students) and demonstrated satisfactory internal consistencies (as Cronbach's alphas of .70 or greater), as well as consistency with multiple other measures of the same outcomes (demonstrating validity) (Ge & Hardré, 2010;Hardré, Ge & Thomas, 2007). The observation protocols were unique to this study, but like all of the other instruments they were designed by grounding in the relevant theoretical literatures and reviewed by multiple experts before use, providing confidence of their validity for use in this study.…”