A career in instructional design?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by skyamese, Oct 11, 2004.

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  1. skyamese

    skyamese New Member

    Hi,

    I have worked as a web site manager in higher education for
    the past seven years. I'm considering a career shift into
    educational technology/instructional design. While my own
    teaching experience is very limited, I know a lot about web
    technology and how to utilize it in an academic
    environment. Over the years I have worked very closely with
    online distance learning programs: adminstering learning
    management systems, developing training materials and
    providing technical support for faculty and students. I'm already
    familiar to many of the concepts and issues relevant to
    online education.

    In my dream career, I would be helping faculty in an
    academic or corporate training environment to translate
    their curriculum into online or computer-based courses.

    What I really need now is a reality check from people
    already familiar with this field.

    1. How viable is Instructional Design as a career path?

    2. Will an M.Ed. take me where I want to go? I've also seen some M.A. and M.S. programs in Instructional Design -- what's the difference?

    3. Which programs are best suited to non-teachers such as
    myself? Several of the programs I've reviewed expect their
    degree candidates to be experienced educators who want to
    become technologists. In my case, it's the other way
    around!

    4. Can you recommend any resources that will help me to
    make informed decisions?

    Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I'd
    appreciate any feedback you have to give.

    Best Wishes,

    Julie C.
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Britain's University of Exeter has a Master of Education in Information and Communications Technologies. Perhaps it would be a match for this profession? It's delightfully inexpensive and available by distance.

    -=Steve=-
     
  3. skyamese

    skyamese New Member

    Thanks very much for the tip, Steve. I'll definately take a closer look.

    It does, however, prompt me to ask another question: what are the pros/cons of earning a non-U.S. degree online?

    - JC
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Hogwarts U.

    I take it you're American? As long as foreign credential evaluators agree it's the equivalent of regionally accredited, it's fine. Exeter is J.K. Rowling's alma mater, so I think it's probably in good shape. :)

    -=Steve=-
     
  5. Tel

    Tel New Member

    I'm an instructional designer and I hold an M.Ed in ISD from Penn State U. As you know there a variety of graduate programs in ID that are available at a distance and on-site.

    One of the better programs although very expensive is offered at a distance through NYU. I would look closely at this program because it has a strong curriculum and the school is very prestigous and is guaranteed to open alot of doors for you, especially in industry. (http://www.scps.nyu.edu/)

    ID as a career is pretty much like other careers. Opportunities and pay are driven primarily by where you're located. What you earn depends greatly on your experience and where you're located. Being somewhat technical may give you an advantage alot places are implementing e-learning systems.

    There really isn't much difference between the M.Ed, MS or MA they all require a thesis although MS may require some statistical analysis.

    IMO, If you would want to make money go the industry route. I work in technology implementation (ERP) as an independent consultant and I get paid very well. There are however quite a few jobs in school districts for IDs so you could easily get something there as well (obviously it depends on where live) .

    Two organizations I suggest you check out are www.astd.org and www.ispi.org These are the two well known training organizations

    For more info on grad DL programs look at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/elearning/directory/gradonline.htm

    Good luck
     
  6. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    I have been in the career of instructional design/technology for over 17 years, in both academic and industry settings.

    Can you get a job with a masters in instructional technology (educational technology, instructional design, instructional systems, different names for the same field)? Absolutely! In fact most of the people working as instrucitonal designers do so with masters level, rather than doctoral level, degrees.

    If you are interested in working in higher education, you can check the free online classifieds at the Chronicle for Higher Education (www.chronicle.com). You will see that many colleges and universities are looking for instructional designers to assist in the infusion of technology into the curriculum.

    Regarding the degree title (M.Ed. vs. M.A. vs. M.S.): Some years ago, I did a research project where I studied the requirements of M.A., M.S. and M.Ed. programs in instructional design and technology. The title of the degree had no bearing as to whether one was required to do a thesis, project, exam or coursework only. There were M.Ed. thesis programs and M.A. and M.S. coursework-only programs. It all depends upon the school.

    There are many fine masters programs throughout the U.S., some of which tend to focus more toward academia while others emphasize instructional design for industry. Some of the leading programs at at Indiana U., Penn State, Arizona State, Utah State, Florida State, Brigham Young, Syracuse, U. of Georgia, and San Diego State (there are several other good ones as well).

    The advice to check out ASTD and ISPI is good. They are the leading organizations for instructional design in business and industry. For academia, the leading instructional design organization is the Association for Educational Communications & Technology www.aect.org

    Tony Pina
    Coordinator of Learning Technologies
    Northeastern Illinois University
     
  7. cogent

    cogent New Member

    Instructional Technology

    A very good and accurate thread on the field. I echo the information on www.astd.org as I am a member and have been a national speaker for their conventions. There are other organizations as well including www.aace.org and SITE and a few others (Google search for that).

    I have an Ed.S. in instructional technology from Valdosta State. An Ed.S., however, requires a masters for admission. But there are plenty of good masters programs out there. Seems Idaho also has an online program of note.
     
  8. rinri

    rinri New Member

    Options, chances, choices and possibilities...and, last but not least, opportunities

    Six years ago I took several Instructional Design courses within the former EMC (Educ. Media & Computers) Master's program at Arizona State University (now rolled into Educ. Tech. M.Ed. program, I believe). I'd had 3 years' experience teaching English and German in Japan but no formal education background. Like you, I'd had some prof. web design experience.

    Then, I moved to Northern California for professional reasons and, since the EMC program offered no distance learning options (which, I think, is ironic for a program that is centered on online teaching/learning), I discontinued the program. I looked into other, primarily DL, programs that would also accept a generous amount of transfer credit and be reasonably priced. One such school was SISLT [ http://sislt.missouri.edu/programs.php ]. I did not enroll there, after all, for personal reasons (timing wasn't right). Other programs included USQ in Australia. A residential program that enjoyed a good reputation when I was in the field (7 years ago) was U. Indiana [ http://education.indiana.edu/ist/ ]. I see that they now also offer a DL program. Indiana U. also runs a regular job list [ http://education.indiana.edu/ist/students/jobs/joblink.html ].

    The professional organizations mentioned above are a great reference.

    Best wishes for an exciting career,

    Russell
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 14, 2004
  9. rinri

    rinri New Member

  10. skyamese

    skyamese New Member

    Wow, thank you very much for your the helpful suggestions.

    I am in the process of investigating all of the programs you have recommended. I've been organizing the programs I've researched into a matrix to make it easier to compare them. The matrix is still pretty rough, but I'll continue to update it and massage it into something that's useable by others. http://www.skyamese.com/gradschools/

    As I delve more into these programs, I'm finding myself leaning towards the M.S. in Instructional Design programs which tend to have some education theory but focus mainly on design technology.

    I also have to take a moment to rant a bit about college web sites. Being a college web designer myself, wearing the prospective student hat has really been an eye-opening experience. I have had a very frustrating time trying to gather the information for my matrix because many of the sites were poorly-organized. The information is scattered all over the place or it's not available at all. Here's is my take on what ought to be included on a degree program site:

    1. Program overview - most of the programs I've reviewed had them, but to my surprise, some of them merely listed the recommended courses and did not describe the format of the program. A couple of programs didn't define which type of Master's degree (M.S., M.A., M.Ed) it offered.

    2. Program of study - this should be easy to find and should link to the course descriptions. And include the total number of credits and the average time for degree completion.

    3. How much does it cost? - now that was really an easter egg hunt on many of the sites I visited. Price is such a big differentiator and it shouldn't be a chore to find out the cost per credit hour. Also, many online programs don't charge out-of-state tuition for their online students but they don't always make that clear on the program site.

    4. Online delivery format - I was surprised at how many programs did not elaborate on which LMS they were using. I suppose for students entirely new to distance learning it wouldn't matter, but if you're marketing to educators, they might actually like to know whether the classes are in Centra or newsgroups or WebCT.

    So far the best-organized sites I've found are Capella University and New York University . I could find out everyting I wanted to know in just a few clicks.

    OK, I'm geting off my soapbox now. :) If you can think of any other programs to consider or if you have personal experiences with any of the schools I have listed, please let me know!

    Thanks again!
     
  11. PhD2B

    PhD2B Dazed and Confused

    ...any other programs to consider...please let me know! [/QUOTE]

    The following universities offer masters degrees in instructional technology and/or instructional design.

    Nova Southeastern University (http://www.schoolofed.nova.edu/itde/pro-master.htm)

    East Carolina University (http://www.soe.ecu.edu/LTDI/maed/ma-it.htm) (ECU offers an MS and an MAEd)

    American InterContinental University (http://masters-in-education.aiuonline.edu/med/programdetails.asp)

    Boise State University (http://ipt.boisestate.edu/)
     
  12. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Thanks Rinri!

    It's funny, I've recommended to others that they consider Fort Hays's Master of Liberal Studies program, but hadn't realized they have an instructional technology concentration and certainly didn't know they have a M.S. in Instructional Technology available online.

    At that price, I'm now leaning toward that M.S. program. It certainly doesn't hurt that they list six of the twelve courses as being under the "TECS" technology studies course code. Do I interpret correctly that this means eighteen postgraduate hours in information technology? Time to contact Fort Hays for some answers!

    -=Steve=-
     
  13. skyamese

    skyamese New Member

    FYI, I just added about 6 more online instructional technology/educational technology programs to my matrix.

    http://www.skyamese.com/gradschools/

    Feel free to let me know if you see any errors or if you have personal experience with any of these programs.

    Can anybody please tell me whether these programs are available 100% online?
    1. East Carolina University
    2. Brigham Young University
    3. Syracuse University
      [/list=1]

      Thanks again for all of the wonderful suggestions.
     
  14. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Skyamese,

    FYI: Fort Hays just told me they dropped the GRE requirement.

    -=Steve=-
     
  15. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member



    1. Hello Skyamese,

      Yours is a very good list. I do not know about East Carolina State, but I do know many of the faculty at Brigham Young and Syracuse. If fact I just saw several of them at the AECT Conference last week. BYU and Syracuse's programs are both very good but neither is yet 100% online.

      Another program that you can add to your list is George Washington University. GWU's MA program in Educational Technology Leadership is an online program.
      http://gsehd.gwu.edu/gsehd/Educational+Technology+Leadership+%28M.A.+in+Ed.+%26+H.D.%29

      Cheers,

      Tony Pina
      Coordinator of Learning Technologies
      Northeastern Illinois University
     
  16. skyamese

    skyamese New Member



    Ironic that I left out GW... it's my undergraduate alma mater! :rolleyes:

    I've added it and Nova Southeastern (which I'd reviewed earlier but could only find a doctoral program before). I've also noted the programs which are not 100% online.

    Thanks!
     
  17. ejars

    ejars New Member

    Instructional Design

    I'm an Instructional Designer working in the software industry, and a Ph.D. is not required for working in the corporate world. A Master's in Instructional Design is considered a terminal or professional degree, just like a MBA, MFA or JD.

    In academia, you need a Ph.D., but you don't really need anything higher the a Master's in Instructional Design for the corporate world.

    I would even recommend that if someone had a Masters in Instructional Design, they pursue a Management graduate degree, if they are only interested in the corporate world.

    Did you look at graduate certificates in E-Learning and Instructional Design?

    I received my MS in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State at http://ipt.boisestate.edu/. It's an excellent program.

    Instructional Design is a good career path, and you can make a fairly decent wage, but there might be a limited amount of jobs where you are living at. You might have to move a bit around the country to keep progressing with your career.

    The newest trend is outsourcing instructional design work to India. My company just hired three Instructional Designer's in India. While the boss says we will not be laid off, I'll bet once the bugs are worked out and the Instructional Designer are up to speed, which will take about a year, we will have some lay off's in the training department. After all, the boss let it slip that for one of us, he can hire three from India.

    Web design/management work doesn't necessarily translate into Instructional Designer work. Do you have a lot of experience with designing online instruction? Are you a good writer? Do you like writing? I don't know if you did a lot of writing for the web, graphic design or web design, but instruction design is heavy on the writing.

    There might be an opportunity to go into the production side of things, that is, taking what an Instructional Designer wrote (i.e. storyboards) and putting the material online or perhaps being a LMS administrator.

    Do a search on monster.com for Instructional Designers and sees what comes up.

    Good Luck.
     
  18. ejars

    ejars New Member

    Fort Hays looks like a good program, but I would say that if someone wanted to work in the Instructional Design field, they should either get a degree that concentrates 100% on instructional design or if you don't want to do that, get a graduate certificate in instructional design. I don't think a liberal arts degree with a concentration in instructional design would be appropriate for industry, unless you are planning to teach liberal arts - but that's only my two cents worth.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 29, 2004
  19. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Fort Hays also has a Master of Science in Instructional Technology program.

    -=Steve=-
     
  20. skyamese

    skyamese New Member

    Here's a resource that some folks may find useful:

    GetEducated.com’s Best Distance Learning Graduate Schools: Education & Library Science 2004, Online Degrees in Teacher Education, Instructional Technology is a free 40+ page downloadable college guidebook to the best accredited education distance learning graduate schools operating in the USA today, including 60+ online degrees in online teacher education, educational technology, and related areas.


    http://www.geteducated.com/bdlgs_ed.htm
     

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