Looking Beyond the Physician Educator: the Evolving Roles of Instructional Designers in Medical Education

Purpose: To explore how instructional designers (IDs) view their work and give insight to organizations intending to hire for this role. Method: In 2018, a 28-question survey was utilized to examine the role of instructional designers in medical education and their contributions as educational professionals. The survey was sent to members of the DR-ED listserv, the Instructional Designer listserv through AAMC, relevant EDUCAUSE listservs, and via Twitter in April 2018. Quantitative and qualitative results were analyzed. The target population was determined as those who self-identify as working in instructional design in medical education, understanding that titles of IDs may vary widely in academic medicine. Results: Participants in this study (72) were self-identified as 45 (63%) females and 23 (32%) males. Among the degrees held by participants, 33 (46%) hold a terminal degree, 37 (51%) a master’s degree, and 2 (3%) a bachelor’s degree. Seven (9%) of institutions employ one ID and 27 (36%) employ two to five IDs, and 19 (25%) of the participants did not know how many instructional designers were employed by their organization. Participants reported that 22 (40%) specialize in more than one type of work such as database development, classroom technology, faculty development, and assessment/evaluation. Conclusion: There is a wide variety of work environments for IDs in academic medicine; these range from large academic research institutions to consultant companies. A significant portion of IDs advise faculty on pedagogy and teaching best practices and develop professional development training. Job titles for IDs are also varied, representative of a wide range of influence within academic medicine organizations. ID expertise that was considered most commonly needed in academic medicine includes familiarity with learning management systems, multimedia literacy, and pedagogy.