Week 4 

The Instructional Designers (IDs) are wearing many hats in their roles and tasks.  Power (2023) said their roles include consultant/advisor, creator, champion, project manager, and quality assurance.  IBSTPI (2012) mentioned that instructional designers play many roles including researcher, instructor, writer, project manager, media and web developer, evaluator, asset manager, strategic and learning consultant, performance analyst, and project manager.  These roles show that Instructional Designers must possess a wide array of competencies and skills in order to be able to successfully plan curricula and design an accessible learning environment that meets the needs of diverse learners and engages learners with meaningful content, and clear, and purposeful activities. 

The IBSTPI competencies reflect the core stages of instructional design (ID) and development activities of ID models. I think IDs also engage in other responsibilities outside the ID models.  

Am I right? 

Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and abilities professionals need in their roles, while standards speak to a pre-defined level of quality or attainment of those competencies (Martin & Ritzhaupt, 2021).  Meanwhile, the term ethics is defined as the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation, and also in the case of professional ethics as the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group (Thompson, 2017). 

The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI) has developed 22 competencies across five domains of skill as follows:

• Professional Foundations

• Planning and Analysis

• Design and Development

• Evaluation and Implementation

• Management

Each of these competencies has detailed performance statements (around 105 performance) and a level of expertise (essential, managerial and advanced) identified for each of them. The steps in the model include preliminary analysis of job roles, identification of foundational research, competency drafting by directors and experts, validation study design, translation of research instruments in multiple languages and implementation worldwide with working professionals, data analysis and competency validation, publishing final competencies and performance statements and disseminating the competencies to practitioners, researchers and organizations (Martin & Ritzhaupt, 2021).

The IBSTPI competencies have prepared a strong foundation for instructional designers to achieve effective instructional design and development outcomes.  Each competency will ensure that the IDs have theoretical and ethical requirements in conducting each of their roles. All competencies and standards will ensure the ethical codes of conduct as an ID specifically to ensure IDs conduct and view their work in relation to those who will use their instructional products (Osguthorpe et al., 2018).   

The IBTSPI competencies do not go beyond instructional design.  As I mentioned at the top, instructional designers carry comprehensive roles and tasks that require a wide array of competencies.  Additionally, IDs must have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively manage the challenges and utilize the affordances of educational technology in today’s complex social settings (Sims & Koszalka, 2017).

I am not an Instructional Designer even though I have experience in developing my own online courses.  At this point, I am still learning to be an instructional designer by focusing my master’s program in the Instructional Design field and hoping that by the end of the program, I will be ready to be an instructional designer. 

I rated my competency in each IBSTPI competency based on my current knowledge, skills, and experience as follows: 

Professional Foundations

1. Communicate effectively in visual, oral, and written form. (Advanced)

2. Apply research and theory to the discipline of instructional design. (Intermediate)

3. Update and improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes pertaining to the instructional design process and related fields. (Advanced)

4. Apply data collection and analysis skills in instructional design projects. (Advanced)

5. Identify and respond to ethical, legal, and political implications of design in the workplace. (Beginner)

Planning and Analysis

6. Conduct a needs assessment in order to recommend appropriate design solutions and strategies. (Advanced)

7. Identify and describe the target population and environmental characteristics. (Advanced)

8. Select and use analysis techniques for determining instructional content. (Advanced)

9. Analyze the characteristics of existing and emerging technologies and their potential use. (Advanced)

Design and Development

10. Use an instructional design and development process appropriate for a given project. (Intermediate)

11. Organize instructional programs and/or products to be designed, developed, and evaluated. (Intermediate)

12. Design instructional interventions. (Intermediate)

13. Plan non-instructional interventions. (Beginner)

14. Select or modify existing instructional materials. (Intermediate)

15. Develop instructional materials. (Intermediate)

16. Design learning assessment. (Intermediate)

Evaluation and Implementation

17. Evaluate instructional and non-instructional interventions. (Advance)

18. Revise instructional and non-instructional solutions based on data. (Advanced)

19. Implement, disseminate, and diffuse instructional and non-instructional interventions. (Advanced)

Management

20. Apply business skills to managing the instructional design function. (Beginner)

21. Manage partnerships and collaborative relationships. (Advanced)

22. Plan and manage instructional design projects. (Intermediate)

I would say that professional foundations, planning and analysis, and evaluation and implementation competencies are ones that I can relate to and rate myself very quickly. Design and development competencies are a bit unfamiliar.  Meanwhile, management competencies are a bit familiar, however, I have less experience. 

I need to focus on developing my skills in all the competencies that I rated as beginner and intermediate.  I rated as an intermediate for all competencies that I know I have the skills and knowledge; however, I need more experience to practice those competencies specifically for all competencies under Design and Development.  The learning theories are something that I need to learn more details about each learning theory. 

Though, I think I did over-rate myself in a few competencies.   

Overall, I found the IBTSPI competencies to be very useful for my career in the instructional design field in the future. I can use it as a guideline to assess my skills in instructional design and plan my personal career growth for the future. 

However, I am wondering if an instructional designer must have all those competencies and standards to be successful in their roles.