An ecology of instructional design : a case study of real-world practices in the workplace

This descriptive case study narrates the dynamics of the instructional design process, from project intake to designed product. It describes an instructional designer in her work environment, more specifically in a learning and development organization within a large multinational corporation. I looked at instructional design from an ecological or complex systems approach, which means that the interactions among the agents of the system and their environment were explored. I observed the elements that might help inform and shape instructional design practices—focusing more specifically on the interrelationships among the instructional designer, the product being designed, the target audience, and their environment. This study used qualitative data collection methods to gather evidence of the relationships among the elements of the instructional design ecology and its environment. The data sources for this study included two semi-structured interviews with the instructional designer, field observations, email communications, and artifacts related to the instructional design process, including documents created by project managers that were shared with the instructional designer participant. The results of this study demonstrated that the instructional design process in the real world differ from what prescriptive models of instructional design recommend we follow. Although instructional design process models and approaches inform the instructional design process at a microlevel, a lot of information about the design process is left undiscovered and unexplored if the instructional designer education is based solely on models and approaches. Models and approaches of instructional design alone do not address the skills necessary for an instructional designer to be successful in a work setting. Neither do they offer the skills necessary for instructional designers to navigate the complexities of instructional design environments and projects. The implications of this study relate to new ways of observing the instructional design practice in situ, considerations for instructional design education programs, and the understanding that the instructional design process is a complex, non-linear, dynamic practice.