This dissertation in practice utilized a sequential mixed methods research design to investigate the performance or exclusion of instructional design activities commonly prescribed by instructional design models during a typical instructional design project. The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of instructional design activities by practicing instructional designers with the performance of an experienced instructional designer to determine if instructional design models are being used to guide the practice of instructional design. In this study, quantitative data was collected from a sample of 224 instructional designers to determine the activities routinely performed and excluded from typical projects. Qualitative data was collected from a single case study of an instructional design project to assess whether or not the performance or exclusion of the same instructional design activities were identified in the work of an experienced instructional designer. Analysis of the data revealed the activities that are not routinely performed by instructional designers, reasons for the exclusion of activities, and possible factors for the decisions to exclude activities. The findings of this study indicate instructional designers may be sacrificing the quality and effectiveness of instruction in an attempt to increase the pace and reduce the cost of the instructional design process. The study concluded that instructional designers are not following the prescriptions of instructional design models during the practice of instructional design by routinely eliminating the fundamental activities involving the development of learner assessments, the performance of formative evaluations during the instructional design process, and summative evaluations after the implementation of the instruction.

This study examined how the personal characteristics of instructional designers influenced their current instructional-design practice (ID). I first looked at the instructional designers’ perceptions of the relationship between their personal characteristics and their ID practice. I then looked at how these variables were used by the designers to influence their ID practice. The study was guided by the following questions: What specific personal characteristics instructional designers perceive as being an important influence on their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to influence their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to diversify their ID practice? Specific personal characteristics included personal attributes such as age, and experiences, including prior work experiences. Personal characteristics were informed by the literature, the pilot study, and personal experiences. This qualitative research study used interviews as the primary source for data collection. The theoretical framework was symbolic interactionism. A pilot study was used to test and fine-tune the research data-collection methods and analysis. A snowball sampling technique yielded 15 instructional designers working in a higher education setting in the United States. I included instructional designers who did not receive formal training in ID but who obtained the necessary skills to perform the job through experience. The data analysis followed the guidelines proposed by Miles and Huberman, Kvale and Brinkmann, Roulston, and Rubin and Rubin. Findings showed that instructional designers perceived that specific personal characteristics such as (a) gender, (b) age, (c) key people, (d) spirituality, (e) philosophy, (f) formative years, and experiences such as (a) education—student experiences in the classroom, and program preparation, and (b) work experiences—prior work experiences, and ID professional work experiences influenced their ID practice. These personal characteristics influenced the designers ID practice by adding a secondary perspective through their cultural and biological influences, and by directly informing their approach to process through educational and work experiences. Study results showed that specific personal characteristics and experience allow instructional designers to alter their current ID practice, thereby transforming a once-homogeneous process to a heterogeneous one.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the experiences of instructional designers and professors during the online course development process and to determine if their experiences had an effect on the process itself. To gain an understanding of their experiences, open-ended interviews were conducted, seeking descriptions of participants’ interactions with project partners and their perspectives on technical aspects and current best practice guidelines. Five instructional designers and five professors from Utah State University (USU) who met selection criteria were purposefully selected and were recommended by an administrator from USU. Instructional designers included one female and four males, ranged from 2 to 6 years of development experience at USU. Professors, all male, had relatively little development experience, ranging from one to five courses, and had at the most, three years of online teaching experience. Data analysis revealed five emergent themes: communication, commitment to quality online courses, commitment to building robust working relationships, mutual respect for one another's time and talents, and satisfaction in working with online course development. Communication was the most prevalent factor identified as having a positive effect on the development process. Lack of time was most prevalent as an impediment to the process. In conclusion, a workplace culture that fostered good experiences and the opportunity to interact in a supportive environment was beneficial to the online course development process. Managers and others involved in the process should be mindful of the workplace culture and consider dedicating effort and resources to preserve its integrity.

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Contextual issues have considerable role on learning outcomes of instructional design process. In this dissertation study, an instructional multimedia design and development course was explored to understand how contextual issues influence the experience and processes of Novice Instructional Designers&rsquo / (NIDs) activities in an instructional design project. The main participants of the study were 47 junior Computer Education and Instructional Technology students who were enrolled in the course. Besides, 26 students who took the course in previous years also participated in the study to verify the results. In the course, the students followed an instructional design process, including analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation (ADDIE framework) phases while developing instructional multimedia products. The researcher, as one of the facilitators of the course, aimed to guide the project teams iteratively to make them effectively collaborate with the community consisting of target group students, teachers, group members, graduate students and subject matter experts. Moreover, the researcher and other facilitators provided methodological and technical tools that novice instructional designers needed for their projects. Thus, the researcher was a part of the natural context. A qualitative approach was used to collect the data and Activity Theory (Engestr&ouml / m, 1999) was utilized to analyze contextual issues, find out interrelationship between contextual issues and present the results. Results showed that especially expectation and motivations of NIDs, team working skills, role of facilitator and role of target group was important to understand the instructional design experience and quality of processes which was conducted in instructional design. The results will be useful in improvement of instructional design course settings to strength practical skills of novice instructional designers.

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