Jason K McDonald

June 1, 2023June 17, 2023

At the journal website

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2023). The everydayness of instructional design and the pursuit of quality in online courses. Online Learning, 27(2), 137-169. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v27i2.3470

The future of the field is not design

I’ve studied and practiced some form of design for nearly 25 years. While I’ve championed it in various settings, I’ve also become increasingly disillusioned with it. At first I thought I was just getting fed up with shallow and superficial design methods (like the reductive design thinking process). But I’m becoming more convinced over time that there are some fundamental flaws in design when we apply to education. This chapter starts to explain why. Be prepared for more research on this topic. It’s going to occupy me for some time.

Abstract:

We currently face a problem in the field of learning and instructional design and technology (LIDT). We have an important contribution to offer towards what Beckwith (1988) called “the transformation of learners and . . . learning” (p. 18). However, in pursuit of this mission, we have become too fixated on being designers and applying the methods of design thinking. As valuable as design has been for our field, it’s ultimately too narrow an approach to help us have the impact we desire because it overemphasizes the importance of the products and services we create. To be more influential, we need approaches that focus our efforts on nurturing people’s “intrinsic talents and capacities” that are ultimately outside of our ability to manage and control (Thomson, 2005, p. 158; see also Biesta, 2013). Tying ourselves to design will not accomplish this, so we need to cultivate an identity of our own—an identity centered on what Dunne (1997) called the character and dispositions of “practical judgment” (p. 160).

In this chapter I hope to make these issues clear. I start by describing how design’s focus on creating and making misleads our understanding and application of important dimensions of our field. Doing this limits our impact. I then describe how we can cultivate an LIDT identity that is better suited for the aims we are pursuing. An LIDT-specific identity may include some methods from design thinking, but it will also encompass additional ways of improving the human condition, all centered in the character of practical judgment. I end by calling on readers to consider what this important evolution for our field means for their personal practice.

May 31, 2023June 17, 2023

Link to book chapter

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2023). The future of the field is not design. In R. E. West, & H. Leary (Eds.), Foundations of learning and instructional design technology: Historical roots & current trends (2^nd ed.). EdTech Books. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/foundations_of_learn/the_future_of_the_field_is_not_design

Informal Practices of Localizing Open Educational Resources in Ghana

This paper is an outgrowth of a student thesis completed last year on OER use: how it’s picked up, adapted (or not adapted), and used by facilitators in educational settings. Short story: people don’t segment OER out as a separate class of educational “thing” they treat different than any other. It just fits into their lives as educators as does other things. Beyond this, I think the abstract speaks for itself. So the only other commentary I want to offer is how ambitious this student’s project was, and how successful she was at pulling it off. I won’t share the mean details, but wow did a lot get in the way of this student’s work (more than she knows, actually; I kept some of it to myself). But she pushed through and pulled off a stellar piece of research.

Abstract:

Research on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) often notes the potential benefits for users to revise, reuse, and remix OER to localize it for specific learners. However, a gap in the literature exists in terms of research that explores how this localization occurs in practice. This is a significant gap given the current flow of OER from higher-income countries in the Global North to lower-income countries in the Global South (King et al., 2018). This study explores how OER from one area of the world is localized when it is used in a different cultural context.

Findings indicated complex encounters with decontextualized content and a variety of localization practices. Participants experienced challenges with technology due to low bandwidth and hardware problems, as well as language problems given Ghana’s history of colonial rule. Native speakers of Twi are less proficient reading Twi than their national language, English. As facilitators worked to overcome these challenges, they were most likely to informally localize content in intuitive ways during the class based on students’ needs. Informal, in-the-moment practices included translating content into Twi, persisting through technological challenges, using local stories and pictures, localizing through discussion, and teaching responsively. These findings have implications for designers to design collaboratively with technological and linguistic flexibility for localization. More research on the practice of OER localization would refine our understanding of how OER is localized and what barriers and affordances exist to this practice.

March 14, 2023December 8, 2023

At the journal website

Reference:

Bradshaw, E. D., & McDonald, J. K. (2023). Informal practices of localizing open educational resources in Ghana. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 24(2), 18-36. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v24i2.7102

“Are These People Real?”: Designing and Playtesting an Alternative Reality, Educational Simulation

This is a report on another playable case study (PCS) project (at this point, the PCS research collaboration has been by far my most fruitful source of publications). The process of developing and testing this simulation was much, much more interesting than the results themselves. So we decided to write it as a design case, giving us a chance to share details of our process, both good and bad, that led to the simulation being what it was. I really like writing design cases. I wish we had more design knowledge like this in the field.

Abstract:

In this design case, we report our design and playtest of a form of alternative reality, educational simulation that we call a playable case study (PCS). One of the features that make our simulations unique is how they are designed to implement a principle called This Is Not a Game, or TINAG, meaning that the affordances we design into the simulation suggest to students that the experience they are having is real, in contrast to the way the artificial nature of the expe- rience is highlighted in many computer games. In this case, we describe some challenges we encountered in designing a PCS to align with TINAG, along with how the situation in which we play tested the simulation highlighted other ways in which the principle of TINAG was challenging to achieve.

December 10, 2022February 7, 2023

At the journal website

Reference:

McDonald, J. K., Balzotti, J., Franklin, M., Haws, J., & Rowan, J. (2023). “Are these people real?” Designing and playtesting an alternative reality, educational simulation. International Journal of Designs for Learning, 14(1), 34-42. https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v14i1.34682

Microcore: Using Online Playable Cases to Increase Student Engagement in Online Writing Environments

Microcore was the first playable case study developed by the research team I work with. I hadn’t actually joined the team when it was finished, but it is still being used and has been experienced by more students than possibly all our other simulations put together. This particular study grew out of a student project, and I joined the writing to help get things cleaned up and out the door.

Abstract:
This case study explores a type of educational simulation, an alternative reality game we call a playable case study (PCS), and how its use influenced student engagement in an online writing classroom. The goal of the simulation was to help students create professional communication artifacts and experience real-world professional communication situations. This article reports the effectiveness of the playable case study as a tool specifically for online writing instruction (OWI). The context of our research was a PCS called Microcore. Acting as interns for a company, students are asked to investigate a serious problem that occurs and present a solution to ensure similar problems do not occur again. Forty-seven students in two sections of an online professional writing classroom responded to pre- and post-survey questions and prompts that gathered their perceptions about writing, understanding of workplace communication, and levels of engagement. Responses were coded and analyzed for thematic trends. Results suggest that playable case studies like the one reported here may be effective in countering primary OWI difficulties, including disengagement; lack of social presence; faltering self-efficacy; and unclear, unproductive perceptions about writing assignments. Students responded positively to the simulation and appeared to develop more realistic views about workplace communication.

December 10, 2022December 22, 2022

Reference:

Balzotti, J., Haws, K., Rogers, A. A., McDonald, J. K., & Baker, M. J. (2022). Microcore: Using online playable case studies to increase student engagement in online writing environments. Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 11(3). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/_microcore_using_onl

Considering What Faculty Value When Working with Instructional Designers and Instructional Design Teams

This paper originally started as a two-page, mini case study on how design can’t be understood in process oriented terms. It was combined with the data that ended up in the paper Objectivation in Design Team Conversation (also originally meant to be a two-page case). It quickly became clear each case deserved to be its own paper, since while they could be used in service of the broad point I was trying to make they were also interesting contributions in their own right that deserved to be built out completely. I’m glad I took the road I did, both for the other paper and for this one. They make much better contributions on their own.

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study what university faculty valued when working with instructional designers and instructional design teams to develop educational simulations. We did this through a case study of three faculty, where we analyzed what they discussed among themselves or communicated to other team members about what mattered to them about their team relationships or the design processes they employed. We structured our case report around three thematic issues that expressed how our participants depicted good relationships and processes. Our report concludes with a discussion of how instructional designers could use our findings in their practice.

December 10, 2022December 22, 2022

Reference:

McDonald, J. K., Elsayed-Ali, S., Bowman, K., & Rogers, A. A. (2022). Considering what faculty value when working with instructional designers and instructional design teams. Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 11(3). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/_considering_what_fa

Introducing Undergraduates to Instructional Design in a Graduate Studio: An Experiential, Model-Centered Approach

The other faculty author on the paper, Scott Howell, does a great job recruiting students into research projects. The first two authors are students from one of his instructional design classes, reporting on an experiential learning trip his class (along with one of mine) participated in. Both students were undergraduates when they started the paper. Now they’re both Master’s students in our program at BYU. My contribution to the paper was to organize the trip under discussion. Other than that, all credit for this paper goes to the other authors.

Abstract:

This case study describes a combined graduate and undergraduate instructional design studio that introduced undergraduate students to instructional design in a multifaceted, holistic, and applied way. Reviewing the experience of the undergraduates in the course, this design case describes four learning interventions used to create this applied experience: (1) instructional design team projects—one non-profit and the other in higher education, (2) weekly seminars and biweekly training sessions from field experts, (3) an experiential out-of-state trip, and (4) weekly reflection journals. These studio-based learning interventions are presented within the context of the Experiential Learning Theory and Model-Centered Instruction. Overall, the course introduced the undergraduate students to the field of instructional design in an applied and experiential format.

October 29, 2022November 15, 2022

Reference:

Zundell, R. S., Sowards, W., Howell, S. L., & McDonald, J. K. (2022). Introducing undergraduates to instructional design in a graduate studio: An experiential model-centered approach. Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 11(3). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/introducing_undergra

A Framework for Phronetic LDT Theory

The only thing I’m unhappy with in this book chapter is the title (and, correspondingly, the name of the framework). I was trying to be true to the underlying theory, but really it’s just too confusing and gets in the way of people understanding it and picking it up. The basic idea is that there’s a type of theory that attempts to store knowledge in an external, rule-based system, and there’s a type of theory that helps professionals tune their own sensitivities to situational factors, but that ultimately recognizes that people make wise choices, not theory. This chapter (which won 2nd place in the 2021 AECT Theories to Influence the Future of Learning Design competition) categorizes different kinds of these orienting and attuning theories, to guide researchers who seek to inform practice.

From the abstract:

My purpose in this chapter is to offer a reimagined view of theory in the field of learning design and technology (LDT). Instead of viewing theory as an external storehouse of knowledge, or a rule-like system for professionals to apply, in this framework theory is viewed as an orienting aid that supports practitioners as they refine their personal capacities for perception, discrimination, and judgment. Theory plays this orienting role as it offers insights into LDT-relevant practical knowledge, productive heuristics, points professionals towards opportunities to act, or identifies significant patterns and forms of excellence to which they can pay attention as they attempt to improve their craft. The chapter concludes with some implications for this framework for future research and practice in the field.

At Academica.edu

April 26, 2022May 6, 2022

Direct link

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2022). A framework for phronetic LDT theory. In Leary, H., Greenhalgh, S. P., Staudt Willet, K. B., & M.-H. Cho (Eds.), Theories to influence the future of learning design. Ed Tech Books.

Preparing instructional design students for reflective practice

This was a fun little chapter I wrote that synthesized some of the scholarship on reflective practice, and teaching students to become more reflective practitioners. I also came up with a couple of my own pedagogical ideas for planning curricula to integrate reflective practice. What I’m particularly happy with is I was able to describe the two senses of reflective, and how both need to be addressed by design educators: the first in the sense of thinking about your own work, and the second in the sense of reflecting back through your intuitive responses the saliences the world presents you (like the way a good jazz musician reflects the contributions of collaborators during a performance).

From the introduction:

Typically, the formal processes, frameworks, and theories that characterize the field of instructional design and technology provide only a starting point in the work of expert practitioners. Professional designers tend to base decisions on reservoirs of prior experience and practical judgment that are flexible and adaptable, and that allow them to cope with the variability, nuance, and paradoxes that characterize authentic working conditions. In the literature this is known as reflective practice, or being a reflective practitioner. Given the importance of these capacities in instructional design, especially when solving the difficult problems that designers often face, helping students develop into reflective practitioners should be a key outcome of instructional design education. My purpose in this chapter is to provide guidance to instructional design educators in pursuit of this goal. I do this by reviewing the importance of reflective practice within professional contexts, and by describing strategies educators can use to help their students nurture the dispositions associated with reflective practice.

At Academica.edu

March 31, 2022April 1, 2022

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2022). Preparing instructional design students for reflective practice. In Stefaniak, J. E., & Reese, R. M. (Eds.), The instructional design trainer’s guide: Authentic practices and considerations for mentoring for ID and ed tech professionals (pp. 29-37). Routledge.

“This uncertain space of teaching”: How design studio instructors depict design critiques along with themselves when giving critiques

Finally, the last article from my intensive study of design studios and the design critique has been published. In the first article, The Design Critique and the Moral Goods of Studio Pedagogy, we described studio instructors as balancing a host of unique, and sometimes competing, moral goods. This article dives into the idea of them being balancers more completely. We used our interview data to create a sketch of areas in which instructors thought they had to balance, and dispositions they developed to help them balance.

Abstract:

In this study we explored how design studio instructors depicted the design critique, themselves as people offering critiques, and what can be learned from their depictions about improving instructors’ abilities to offer critiques. To investigate these issues, we conducted a case study of studio instructors from design programs at a university in the United States. Our data consisted of three semi-structured interviews and one class observation each with six instructors from different programs, organized into a thematic structure that revealed insights into participants’ self-interpretations. We found that our participants depicted critiques as being a complex challenge, often placing competing demands upon them that they were required to reconcile. They depicted themselves as meeting these challenges through their cultivation of four dispositions that helped them balance tensions they experienced. We report these challenges and dispositions using our participants own words as much as possible. We also discuss implications of these findings for helping studio instructors improve their ability to offer critiques; assistance should take into account the inescapable need instructors will face to balance challenges that arise during critiques and should also help them cultivate affective dispositions that will help them successfully respond to critique situations.