Month: July 2024

I’m really happy with the way this article turned out. I’ve never been a huge fan of this field’s reductive tendencies. But over the past couple of years I’ve become more convinced that the common ways we practice educational technology, both through the technologies we use and the processes we use to develop or implement them, are highly problematic. Their problems run deep, and so I’ve also had to study some pretty difficult philosophical issues to try and get to the root of them. This paper is the first time I think I’ve articulated in a philosophically defensible way both my critique and empirical evidence for it. The themes I raise here are becoming more important to my work, and it’s unlikely I’ll go back to some of the other, softer critiques I’ve made in the past.

Abstract:

This article reports research into calculative and optionalized forms of online/blended course design in higher education. This was investigated through a critical case study, centered on two faculty members and one instructional designer at a university in the United States, and using an interpretive framework that highlighted the effects of calculation and optionalization in education. The course design practices at the designer’s disposal tended to distort the teaching ideals towards which the faculty members aimed, along with many of the teaching approaches they relied on to achieve their goals. The faculty often felt restricted in their ability to form rela- tionships with their students, while also observing that students tended to resist their attempts to engage in what they referred to as formational activities. Through these and other experiential tensions, the faculty left the project with a pervasive sense of ambiguity about course design and its contribution towards their experience as educators. The article concludes by exploring what implications these findings have for the study and practice of online/blended course design in higher education.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Read online link

Reference:

McDonald, J. K., & Costa, I. M. (2025). A critique of calculation and optionalization applied to online/blended course design. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 37(3), 865-897. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-024-09409-1

This was another student led project by Stephanie West, based on her Masters work at BYU. She led a team of researchers and others to design a training course for Utah teachers on how to better teach the histories and culture of indigenous tribes. As with other student projects, I largely rode her coattails on this one, but I’m pleased to have been part of it even a little.

Abstract:

In 2018, the BYU ARTS Partnership Native American Curriculum Initiative (NACI) was developed in response to teacher questions regarding the teaching of Native topics. Despite increased movements towards reconciliation,
Native groups continue to be marginalized in Westernized educational settings. Additionally, teachers lack clear guidelines regarding the respectful teaching of Native topics. Describing the challenges we, the NACI team members, faced in our six-year journey partnering with Native groups in Utah, we outline key instructional design decisions we made and identify the culturally responsive principles that guided those decisions. We also advocate for the application of culturally responsive principles and practices in education including the amplification of Native voices in the classroom.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Reference:

West, S., Francis, H., Flox, C., Beyal, B., Soderborg, E., & McDonald, J. K. (2024). The NACI way: Connecting native groups and teachers through culturally responsive instructional design. International Journal of Designs for Learning. 15(2), 26-40. https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v15i2.36081

This was a unique, and fun, paper to work on. My colleague Eamon Costello from Dublin City University (who I’ve been doing a lot of ethnographic work with this year) wrote up a sort of manifesto of various practicescapes (or speculative views of the landscapes in which practice happens) associated with learning design. He then asked various people, including myself, to respond to the issues he raised in an equally poetic and speculative spirit. My contribution was short, but allowed me to articulate some issues that had been weighing on me for some time.

Abstract:

This article addresses a serious issue that besets learning design: its over-reliance on frameworks that promise particular outcomes for individual learners that accord with pre-defined metrics. This is partly a function of the nature of learning design and devel- opment itself which is commonly seen as outcome-oriented activity that should ben- efit individual learners in specific ways. An alternative approach is adopted here which calls attention to other happenings at the heart of education, including positive emo- tions we experience that are made known through less measurable and more fleeting points of reference. Hence, we draw on sources such as poems and personal reflections in order not just to design learning but to dream it. The concept of a practicescape is invoked which serves not just to situate learning but to remind the learner that their learning experience only happens within the context of their finite lifetime. Seven prac- ticescapes are presented and reflected on by the authors as a conversation framework for interrogating ideas of learning that owe more to dreams, poems, and possibilities than aims, objectives, or outcomes. Drawing on early Buddhist philosophy, the prac- ticescapes attempt to honour particular affective states and conjure a heart-centred framework on which to hang speculative questions and provocations for learning design that are focused on cultivating and sustaining the most positive forms of human experi- ence. These practicescapes are offered as a speculative learning design climbing frame that could take us from dreams of possibility to enlivened and embodied presents.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Reference:

Costello, E., McDonald, J. K., Macgilchrist, F., Jandrić, P., Carbonel, H., Crighton, S., Buch, A., & Peters, M. A. (2025). Speculative practicescapes of learning design and dreaming. Postdigital Science and Education, 7(2), 560-588. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00465-5

This was a fun chapter led by a former student, Amy Rogers. It’s a case study of instructional design practice for a textbook of ID cases. Amy did a great job scoping the case, creating artifacts, writing it up, and so on. I largely rode her coattails.

Introduction:

Cassie Standage is a recent graduate starting her first remote job as an instructional designer. She is asked to assist with a high-stakes, time-sensitive project developing a workplace violence prevention training program for 9,000 firefighters. The case begins with her receiving the workplace violence prevention assignment and concludes after she completes her informal learner analysis. Critical to this case is the fact that Cassie’s team needs to identify strategies that will help them be successful with this unique group of learners. While some of the resources/strategies that existed for the ID team are discussed in the case, students will be able to brainstorm other possible avenues for understanding an audience and building the trust and buy-in of their learners and SMEs.

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

At BYU Scholar’s Archive

Reference:

Rogers, A., & McDonald, J. K. (2024). Cassie Standage: Developing a workplace violence prevention training. In P. A. Ertmer, K. D. Glazewski, A. A. Koehler, & J. E. Stefaniak (Eds.), The ID casebook: Case studies in instructional design(6^th ed., pp. 307-318). Routledge.