The Impact of Instructional Design: Questions of Conscience

Abstract

Information and communications technologies that can be used in support of learning, performance, and instruction are changing at a rapid pace. There is now a vast array of learning resources available via the Internet, and there are many powerful and affordable mobile learning devices and applications that can be used in support of education and training. This situation creates serious challenges for instructional designers who are charged with recommending, selecting, sequencing, configuring, assessing, and/or managing educational resources and learning activities that comprise courses and programs of instruction. In addition to the burden of helping to create effective, engaging, and efficient learning environments and instructional systems, instructional designers have to live with a legacy of failing to deliver on previous promises to use technology to dramatically improve learning and instruction. What seems to be happening is that there is a tension between a need to rely on instructional designers to cope with the complexities and challenges of planning and implementing learning environments in the digital age and a general distrust of instructional designers to deliver on promises to transform education using new technologies. Issues pertaining to this tension are the focus of this piece.