Jason K McDonald

I was invited to be part of this paper due to my interest and some professional experience in encouraging instructional designers to be more empathetic towards those they serve. The first two authors were students at the time this research was conducted.

Abstract:

The notion of designer empathy has become a cornerstone of design philosophy in fields such as product design, human-computer interaction, and service design. But the literature on instructional designer empathy and learner analysis suggests that distance learning designers are generally quite removed from the learners with whom they could be empathizing. We describe a qualitative study conducted with practicing distance learning designers across the United States. We selected designers in varying sectors within the workforce, and interviewed our participants via videoconferencing. Our inquiry uncovered important tensions designers live with regarding empathy in practice. Designers struggle to know how much learner analysis is sufficient, which of many stakeholders to empathize with, and navigating constraints. Future work in this area could help designers practice more empathically and, in doing so, improve the learning environments they create for learners.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

Matthews, M. T., Williams, G. S., Yanchar, S. C., & McDonald, J. K. (2017). Empathy in distance learning design practice. TechTrends, 61(5), 486–493. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0212-2

When I came back to academic employment, a colleague encouraged me to start by putting a stake in the ground. The result was this manifesto-like essay.

Abstract:

Instructional designers are increasingly looking beyond the field’s mainstream approaches to achieve desired outcomes. They seek more creative forms of design to help them invent more imaginative experiences that better reflect their vision and ideals. This essay is addressed to designers who are attracted to these expanded visions of their profession. Innovative approaches to design can be considered dangerous, at least to the status quo. The author first discusses why this is so, and then explains how embracing the danger—accepting the risks that accompany originality and innovation—might also be what allows designers to develop experiences consistent with the high-levels of quality they seek. He concludes with some thoughts on the kind of habits and character designers should cultivate to sustain creative, innovative approaches in their practice.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2016). Embracing the danger: Accepting the implications of innovation. Educational Technology, 56(6), 14–17.

I’m fascinated by design-driven innovation. I’ll have to do more with it in the future.

Abstract:

While instructional design’s technological roots have given it many approaches for process and product improvement, in most cases designers still rely on instructional forms that do not allow them to develop instruction of a quality consistent with that expressed by the field’s visionary leaders. As a result, often the teachers and students using instructional products remain confined by equally limiting views of instruction and learning that cannot help them achieve the outcomes the designer originally envisioned. In this paper we discuss how a relatively new design approach, design-driven innovation, can give instructional designers additional tools to shape the meaning they and others have about instruction and learning. With the changes possible in a design-driven approach, instructional designers and other stakeholders can lay a new foundation for the instruction they develop, making more possible the achievement of the outcomes they pursue.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

Hadlock, C. A., & McDonald, J. K. (2014). Design-driven innovation as seen in a woldwide values-based curriculum. Educational Technology, 54(4), 15–22.

Another paper started when I was working in the film/media industry.

Abstract:

In this paper, we present a poetics, or guide manual, for making narrative films that resemble biblical narratives. It is similar to Aristotle’s Poetics, only his was for creating drama (though it is of course often used for film now) and was based on Greek dramas and epics. Our poetics is specifically for making films and is based on an even more ancient body of narratives—the Hebrew Bible. In articulating a biblical poetics for filmmakers, we draw heavily on the work of a few of the many biblical-narrative scholars of the last half-century, who draw in turn from the even more extensive research that has been done on narrative theory in general. Our project is one that Aristotle might have undertaken if he had read the Bible and its commentators and known about film.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

Packard, D., Campbell, P., & McDonald, J. K. (2014). A biblical poetics for filmmakers. Religions, 5, 502–521.

Kind of a different paper, written when I worked for the LDS Church Media Services Department. My boss at the time was interested in seeing if scriptural accounts of visions could offer insight to the process of creating visual media. I think there’s some really interesting analysis in this paper.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

McDonald, J. K., & Nielson, D. C. (2011). Scriptural principles for visual media. Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel, 12(3), 202–219.

A manifesto of sorts, calling instructional designers to grow into the spirit of creativity.

Abstract:

If instructional designers hold limited views about their practice they sometimes adopt formulaic routines that do not help them accomplish the goals they believe are important, or develop instruction of a quality envisioned by the field’s innovative theorists. Fortunately, designers can avoid these unfavorable results in part by understanding and exemplifying the creative spirit of design. In this article the author examines the creative spirit of design, exploring its imaginative, creation-oriented, and inter-disciplinary character. The author also describes how the creative spirit can help instructional designers remain flexible and perceptive in their practice, and by so doing be better able to create effective and innovative instruction of a quality consistent with their ultimate ideals.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2011). The creative spirit of design. TechTrends, 55(5), 53–57.

Keying off an idea from my dissertation research. A short opinion piece.

Abstract:

Instructional designers face tremendous pressure to abandon the essential characteristics of educational approaches, and settle instead for routine practices that do not preserve the level of quality those approaches originally expressed. Because this pressure can be strong enough to affect designers almost as gravity affects objects in the physical world, the metaphor of technological gravity has been proposed to describe why designers choose one type of practice over another. In this essay, I discuss how designers can develop guiding principles to help them resist technological gravity. I describe three types of principles, in the areas of what instruction is, how instruction is made, and what instruction is for. By developing strong principles in these three areas, designers will be better able to resist the influences that pull them away from high levels of instructional quality, and so better create instructional experiences that are meaningful, inspirational, and valuable.

At BYU Scholars Archive

At Academia.edu

At ResearchGate

Reference:

McDonald, J. K. (2010). Resisting technological gravity: Using guiding principles for instructional design. Educational Technology, 50(2), 8–13.