How Faculty and Instructional Designers Can Work Together

By Abbie Amadio

Drawing of a red-haired, bespectacled professor in a green turtleneck saying "hello". — Meet Athena, philosophy instructor.

Athena is an associate professor of philosophy, and this summer she’ll be creating an online version of one of her courses.

Her chair/dean has asked her to work with an instructional designer, but Athena hasn’t worked with an “ID” before. She feels a bit nervous about it, so she asks a few of her colleagues for some friendly advice.

Friendly Advice 1:

Drawing of a man in a hooded sweatshirt holding a cup of coffee, looking down, saying "Don’t make eye contact. That’s how they hypnotize you!' — Concerned colleague.

Friendly Advice 2:

A drawing of a male, bespectacled professor saying "I’ve never worked with an ID before. I’m not sure I see the point. First, I have a PhD. Enough said, right? Second, isn’t struggling to understand exactly what I want part of the value for students? It’s what their bosses will expect in the real world!" — A skeptical professor.

Friendly Advice 3:

Drawing of a woman with long black hair, making air quotes with her fingers and saying "They’ll throw a lot of fancy jargon at you like “learning objectives”, “outcomes”, and “competencies”, which all sound exactly the same. Then they’ll try to convince you that they’re different. Don’t listen to them! It’s all a part of their mind games!" — It’s possible she had a bad experience.

Friendly Advice 4:

Drawing of a bespectacled female professor with short gray hair, saying "We should do what the instructional designers tell us with uncritical devotion, and with good eye contact." — Maybe good eye contact is the key?

Friendly Advice 5:

Female, suited, smiling professor with arms crossed, saying "They know things and you know things—respect one another’s expertise. You are an expert in your field and bring years of teaching experience, but IDs have experience in ed tech, design, and pedagogy. It’s a partnership. But don’t look them in the eye. They’ll totally hypnotize you." — Wise advice.

Illustrations by Kristin Barnes

Faculty ask, “What does this instructional designer want from me?”

This comic came about as I imagined faculty advising one another on how to work with an Instructional Designer. I guessed faculty would base advice partly on experiences they’ve had and partly on what they see as the role of an “ID.” For example, if an instructor’s experiences with an ID revolved around getting tech support for a learning management system (LMS), he or she might characterize the ID as an LMS tech support person (by the way, most IDs would call that a mischaracterization). The advice from these cartoon faculty also contains misgivings about instructional designers; that’s partly for comic effect but also because I’ve seen similar apprehension among some of the faculty I’ve worked with.

So why should you, the faculty, care? Because there is an opportunity cost to misunderstanding the role of your ID, and it affects both you and your students. Please ask yourself the following questions: “Would I want to know if there were a way to…

…help my students understand that tricky concept more quickly?”
…spend half as much time grading essays and exams without sacrificing consistency or feedback (or even while improving consistency and feedback)?”
…test out my online courses without the potential risks of getting feedback from faculty colleagues or through administrative channels?”
…facilitate better human interactions in online courses—especially for those who miss their old face-to-face courses?”

Your ID can help you and your students with all of those things, but not if he or she is relegated to the role of LMS tech support person. This brings me to my first bit of practical advice—and it’s the bit I hope you take to heart from this article and actually do.

Practical tip: Ask your instructional designer what he or she sees as his or her role in your shared task or endeavor.

I expect most IDs would welcome this question; it acknowledges that both parties have a role to play and invites a discussion that will hopefully lead to a shared understanding of what each person can contribute.

If you would like to learn more about IDs (without having to talk to one), check out this report released last year from Intentional Futures. I offer it up as worthy of your perusal: https://intentionalfutures.com/insights/portfolio/instructional-design/.