Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Instructional Designers = Liberal Artists

I recently posted a survey, asking instructional designers to tell us about their educational background and ID training.

Only three out of 21 (14.29%) people working as an instructional designer have an advanced degree in instructional design. There's a few with MEds and teaching backgrounds, which gets you somewhat close to ID. But the bulk of practicing instructional designers come from liberal arts backgrounds:
  • English
  • English
  • Environmental Studies
  • English linguistics
  • Music Education
  • adult education
  • theatre
  • English Literature
  • English and Philosophy (joint)
  • Educational Technology
  • Educational Technology
  • undergrad=communications, grad=instructional design and technology
  • Accounting
  • Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication - & - Management
  • BA English, MEd
  • Industrial Relations
  • Elementary Education (BS & M.Ed.)
  • Literature and Communication Arts
  • History (Instructional Tech in grad)
  • History
I don't have time to do a full survey analysis, but you can view the survey results here.

Thanks to everyone who participated. And if you didn't respond and would like to, the survey is open indefinitely. There were some interesting comments in that post, including some information on instructional design certificate programs.

2 comments:

Jody Baty said...

Thanks for the survey results. They are very interesting. Any sense on the gender participation in instructional design?


Jody Baty
myCATs Curriculum Management Tools

Cammy Bean said...

Jody...that's a great question! My guess is that it's about 50-50...that's just from having a general sense of who reads my blog.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if it were more like 75% women, 25% men. I'll have to ask that in another survey!