Instructional Design: The Career

Things I learned from making this video:

Some competencies of an Instructional Designer:
(from correspondence, video, and experience)

• Project Management
• Organization
• Research
• Optimism
• Problem-solving
• Familiarity with Instructional Design principles
• Ability to communicate with faculty and other staff/students
• Willingness to learn new things constantly
• Proficiency with standard office software
• Familiarity with process of designing and creating graphics, flash animations, and video
  
  

Salary range of an Instructional Designer: $45-65,000/year
(from US Dept of Labor)


Professional Development:
(from correspondence, interviews, and experience)

• Materials from other areas What Doctors Do- help see design in new ways, give creativity, and increase your understanding of different subject areas
• AECT journal TechTrends
• Online journals about secondary education
• NACOL, FIPSE, SLOAN-C, and WC3
• One yearly development conference required, second conference presenting an article/paper is highly encouraged
• Designers have access to further schooling and are always encouraged to pursue advanced degrees
  
  

Career Advancement:
(from correspondence)

• You can advance through levels of Instructional Technologist positions, and there are other administrative opportunities in the four Associate Director positions.
  
  

How the Gospel Assists Instructional Designers:
(from interviews)

• Helps you know how to work with people
• Brings the Spirit into learning and good designs
• Keeps you interested in a lot of different subjects
  
  

How the reality of Instructional Design is different from what I thought:
(from personal insights from interviews)

• More administrative-type work
• More time spent interacting with people than working on the project
• Usually there is a production team so Instructional Designers don't always do the production work
• Time and budget constraints are real concerns and create boundaries for a project