IDs on IDs (aka Instructional Designers on Instructional Designers)

I love movies, theater, broadway, musicals, art galleries, books. High culture, pop culture. Recently, I began seriously listening to Variety entertainment magazine’s Actors on Actors interviews. Actors talking to each other about their craft. The interviews were fascinating and generally last 30 to 45 minutes; in some cases, there was a lot of mutual admiration (ahem).

EdSurge has been supporting meetups among instructional designers (or even higher ed innovators) via their EdSurge Loop program. I’ve signed up for four Loops (2 didn’t go through due to technical problems and a miscommunication of time). We chat about 30 minutes with no specific agenda, but are guided generally by our profiles and the questions we listed there. However, we are not constrained by these questions, and we do ramble on.

Listening to the Actors on Actors interviews, it struck me that the Loop meetups are truly great spaces for discussing our approach to work (like the Actors were doing). To become reflective practitioners, we need to take time off to contemplate and connect with ourselves and others. Thus far, my conversations with my colleagues have enriched me and the following topics were covered:

• Career advancement of instructional designers (IDs): There are designers who just enjoy the creative aspects of the job and don’t wish to be administrators. Beyond becoming just senior designers, what other opportunities might be available to them?
• Professional development of IDs: In a related note, we also discussed what conferences and PD opportunities are available to IDs. Should IDs pursue a PhD? I have my thoughts on this but will refrain from commenting in this post now.
• Enjoyable and less enjoyable aspects of the work of instructional design: Do designers enjoy project management? I do, and I relish getting things organized. It seems some don’t. If so, how can we make project management more manageable for some IDs? How do different IDs approach project management?
• Trends in ed tech: As designers, we cannot stop learning, especially in the field of educational technology. In my latest conversation, I obtained some resources from my Loop colleague on virtual reality (VR) and also discussed how we used collaboration tools.
• Change management: This is a highly relevant topic because the discussion is not confined to the impact of institutional changes on us, but changes we IDs face when we are promoted, change jobs or transition to other positions. IDs carry their skillsets with them wherever they go, but the impact of transitioning from a bigger to a smaller unit, or vice versa, can be a challenging one. It was good to be able to discuss these issues with a colleague who can empathize with the changes we may think we face alone.

This is not a publicity stunt for EdSurge Loop, but just me beginning to appreciate more and more the value of having colleagues connect and talk about their work with each other. I haven’t been able to do it weekly but will try to take time off to do so in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you, EdSurge!