The purpose of this research is to explore the competencies of project managers in the field of educational technology in the higher education context. A conceptual framework is presented based on the current definition of the field of educational technology; knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) statements; and the sixth edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Using this conceptual framework, an interview protocol with 11 open-ended questions was developed by the research team to gather relevant information from experienced educational technology project managers. We then interviewed N=13 educational technology project managers from institutions of higher education across the United States and analyzed these data using the Constant Comparative Method. Three dominant themes emerged during data analysis: “knowledge,” “skills,” and “abilities.” These themes are described in detail along with the properties and categories from our data, and a discussion of our findings is provided. Recommendations are made for both researchers and professionals.

Employees in instructional design fields are expected to have three critical areas of knowledge and skills: knowledge of instructional design, project experience, and technical writing skills, especially the ability to report on their design projects. However, students in instructional design courses come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and many have not been exposed to these areas. This paper describes a unique scaffolded curriculum cycle for instructional design courses for novice undergraduate students that integrates knowledge construction, design skills, and writing skills.

This paper delineates the specific design strategy used in the creation of physics video hooks over the course of an eight-week project. A hook is an instructional technique which stimulates student attention (Hunter, 1994; Lemov, 2010), interest (Jewett Jr., 2013) and engagement (McCrory, 2011; Riendeau, 2013). The hook videos are aimed at post primary/middle school students (11–15 years old) with relevant topics being selected from the Irish science curriculum. The project employed a modified Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) design framework that allowed videos to be developed in an efficient and practical manner. Pertaining to design considerations, the videos are aligned with the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Furthermore, specific design elements are embedded into the videos, which include relevance, questioning, discrepancy, and novelty. Finally, the key findings and challenges encountered during the hook design process are examined.

Research indicates there is a gap between employers' expectations of instructional designers' roles and responsibilities, and what designers actually do. The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique nuances inherent in instructional design practices from a variety of work settings. Our paper is grounded in a practitioner’s perspective utilizing long-standing careers in the instructional design sectors and informal discussions with many practitioners. The goal of the paper is to highlight constraints and contextual considerations that instructional designers must address while working on projects. We also discuss how instructional design educators can support instructional design students to better prepare them for real-world instructional design contexts.

This single case study involves the authors’ participation and observation of a massive open online course. To help instructional designers (IDs) develop open education resources for adults attempting to pass a United States high school equivalency exam, we constructed six personas that helped IDs put themselves in the users’ shoes. We begin by providing an overview of the scholarship that connects empathy, empathic design, persona construction, and meaning-making. After presenting our case study methodology and how we constructed six authentic personas, we present eight themes that demonstrate how IDs used the personas to build empathy for users and to develop instructional design skills and experience.

This article investigates the depth of knowledge and sense of efficacy of graduate students in a capstone course. Grounded in literature on successful learning, high impact practices, and signature assessments, this article contributes to the literature on students' perceived success in conducting graduate-level research and the writing of that research. The aim of this study is to determine if students enrolled in a capstone course increased their depth of knowledge in research processes and if they increased efficacy in conducting research over the same time period. The findings indicate a decrease in many areas of efficacy and the need for an additional course supporting their research knowledge prior to the capstone. This work indicates that graduate students in service field programs--especially anywhere internationally--require support without the resources to ask for the proper support. The instructional strategies and design are reliant upon these results; this is a program evaluation research project.