Overview on Instructional Designer Competences

Part: One
Sharing Instructional design
Teachers want their students to learn everything in the course. As my course is addressing history and culture in general, I want my students to demonstrate some knowledge about how historical and cultural elements impacting education. Current educational research encourages teachers to get to know each of their students in order to enhance classroom engagement, performance, motivation, and desire to learn. Most teachers create activities and implement strategies that they hope will engage students in the content and promote a lifelong love of learning. I understand the importance of knowing and caring about each student and his or her learning needs. I understand that all students learn differently, and that my course will address the diverse learning styles in the classroom by integrating different technologies. The strength of my course is the way I prepared and organized the materials to fit online teaching and learning, for example, units are prepared and organized as follows:
Reading for Unit One required textbook
lecture note/video
DISCUSSION
JOURNAL RESPONSE
ASSIGNMENT
Quizzes
Unit Topics
Genesis and Origins
Ancient history
Education & Religion
Conquests
Kingdoms:-
• Fuuta Jalon 1727
• Massina 1818 – 1853
• Sokoto 1809

Assignments
-Reading / writing (required textbook chapters).
-Discussion
- Blog response
-Watch Online lecture
- Multimedia group project
Strategies:
The Course will be conducted online through e-learning. Students will be engaging virtually in online communication, interaction and collaboration through:
• Threaded discussions
• Blog response
• Intensive weekly reading on required & recommended textbook chapters
• Video Lecture
• Week one quizzes
• Week two multimedia presentation project (Group assignment)
• Week three Final Exam
Assessments
- Quizzes
- Final Exam
- Rubrics
I established social presence through online virtual community to engage and tie my students in different activities through virtual asynchronous communication, using discussion board and emails. I think the weak points that are, the display of materials on the black board, capability to embed different technologies while designing an online course, and management of instructional process through the appropriate use of technology and assessment skills. According to the Kirkpatrick’s four levels, the reaction of my students can be measured through asking a question; did they like the course or was the material relevant to the work? Learning happens when learners are able to apply what they have learned and able to apply their knowledge and skills in real life within their communities, this shows their capability to perform the learned skills. I think designing a course of three units to be conducted or taught online encourages me to think to further my knowledge in the field of instructional design in the future and motivates me to follow in the future my study on how to create syllabus for e-learning and distance learning. I fee, I need to learn such competences to better perform on the job.

Part: two:

Competences Needed for Instructional Designers
Most instructional designers focus on variety of areas such as educational technology, human performance improvement, information technology and computer scholarly inquiry and training. They are aimed at a range of audiences from academics and graduate students in higher education to practitioners in business and industry. The decision to join a professional organization is based on its mission, benefits provided to me and goals that match my career and interest. I do like to join an organization that works in business. I will focus on performance improvement and training. My reading is based on quality of the materials and to what extent it matches my interest. Each organization has different publications; some has specific purpose aimed at particular audiences, research or theory. However; publications of interest to the IDT community are focusing on variety of topics, including cognitive and instruction, distance learning, multimedia, performance and improvement and instructional development. For myself; I am looking for the quality of the publications and critically analyze the content, especially e- journals. I really, want to join American society for Training and Development (ASTD) to get better training and learn more skills that could help me develop e-learning curriculum for college level. http://astd.org. I like also association for the advancement of computing in Education (AACE) http://aace.org. Training manager manages the development and delivery of training and all that associated with those activities (Foxon, et, al. 2003). Foxon suggested that training manger must possess skills unique to the human resource development function, including new skills to market globalization, information technology, e-learning, and e-business and knowledge management. Instructor competences were updated in 2000 which include planning, preparation, instructional methods, strategies, assessment and management and more competences are needed for online instructor than those to classroom, due to technology demands. The most comfortable role is planning and preparation of instructional methods and material because of the importance of having the material in hands before taking a step towards teaching online. With the availability of the materials, teachers can tailor such materials to meet the learners’ needs and allow integration of technology. The most important ethics in the organization are responsibilities to provide efficient, effective, workable and cost- effective solutions that advance organizational performance goals. Adhering to these ethics will reflect positively on other ethics and promote collaboration, education, privacy and communication across departments. I would like to pursue my doctoral program in designing e-learning business and I will perceive myself within the next ten years (by the will of God) to be a good instructional designer in the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.




References:
Trends and Issues in Instructional Design & Technology 2nd edition Robert Reiser & John Dempsey
http://manishmo.blogspot.com/2008/01/instructional-designer-competencies.html
http://www.elearninglearning.com/instructional-design/