Build, buy, or rent? A systems view of faculty design work in the digital learning era

Abstract

To suggest sound practices in obtaining the faculty design talent needed to rapidly deploy or scale up digital learning, this paper adopts a systems view of the findings and implications of “The Process of Designing for Learning: Understanding University Teachers’ Design Work” by Bennett et al. (Educational Technology Research and Development 65(1), 125–145, 2017). Bennett et al.’s article makes an important contribution to our growing understanding of faculty capacity for and approaches to course design. Their work establishes faculty roles as designers, which is an essential consideration as institutions seek digital design talent. Nevertheless, important limitations of their research are limited detail about faculty design skills and an emphasis on how faculty design resembles others’ design approaches. This paper suggests specific ways that institutions can apply and extend insights from Bennett et al.’s research to cultivate faculty design talents in nimble responses to large-scale or rapid shifts to digital learning through practices of professional development and strategic faculty hiring.