These are only my notes and impressions. Non-tangential ramblings are my own. Contents may settle in shipping:
Creativity in Instructional Design
Shannon Riggs, Director of Ecampus Course Development and Training at Oregon State University
Instructional designers wear many hats in online education. In this interactive keynote, we’ll discuss the complex and multi-faceted role of the instructional designer, the role of creativity in the course development process, and the question of whether creativity is a “nice-to-have” or a “must have” in online education. We’ll also discuss some strategies for finding opportunities for instructional design collaborations, even in institutions where there may not be formal instructional design positions.
She was reticent to get involved in online education but found that ALL of the online students had to be engaged because the courses were designed that way. If the students did not engage, they couldn’t pass.
The eCampus as 50 online programs, 3k students have earned a degree since 2002, 19k students from 50 states and 19 countries. 1k+ online courses.
They are growing at 15% a year and they are proud that they have not let the quality slip – it has improved.
“ECampus Essentials”: http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/faculty/courses/Ecampus_Essentials.pdf
This requires the collaboration of an instructional designer.
The question for the tables was “what role do instructional designers play on campus?”
Quality assurance, assist in course development, OER, education technologist, professional developers, trainer, etc. The first training that teachers get on how to teach often first comes from IDs. They are LMS wranglers, institutional navigators, life-long learners, law and policy guides (e.g. FERPA, Fair Use, etc), accessibility experts, project managers, campus resource gurus, faculty champions, and ADDIE.
She is a proponent of the ADDIE method. http://www.instructionaldesign.org/models/addie.html
Another question for the tables: “When you are thinking about creativity, what are its characteristics?”
Thinking outside the box, working with or against the constraints, combining seemingly disparate things to create something new, we are first observers and then we combine things.
She discussed the constraints of Haiku and explored how that creativity relates to instructional design. A creative generative force working against constraints. She gave examples from photography and painting (e.g. Pointillism). In literature, there are patterns and restraints with basic story telling processes and the further restraints of genres like tragedy or romance comedy. Good art is a tension between constraint and generative energy.
Instructional designers are artists. The result of good instructional design is that the course comes to life just as an artist brings a work of art to life.
Questions that instructional designers can ask: “what would you do if you couldn’t lecture, or there were no tests?”
Faculty members might ask “how can I make an online asynchronous discussion as good as face-to-face discussion?” or “Can we even do online labs?” – instructional designers have ways to solve these problems.
Constraints: deadlines, the LMS, FERPA, etc.
Is creativity a nice-to-have or a must-have in instructional design? It is for creating motivation, engagement, satisfaction, retention, high impact practices (IDs can tell you how to do this online).
