Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

1-1-2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ed.D.

Department

Instructional Technology

First Advisor

Ingrid J. Guerra-Lopez

Abstract

Web-based instruction has been increasingly accepted in education, business and industry, military and government, healthcare and other sectors as a dominant means to deliver instruction beyond time and geographical constraints. However, the overall quality of WBI courses or programs remains a concern. The reasons for the ineffectiveness can be many, of which is the lack of sufficient competencies and skills in existing professionals. This study attempts to identify the domains, competencies, performance statement for instructional designers in WBI at the expert level. IBSTPI competency model has been used as the conceptual framework, utilizing mixed methods.

As a result, 91 performance statements, 20 competencies and four domains were identified. The communication skill has been rated as the most important competency for expert instructional designers in WBI. It was revealed that professional foundation domain has the highest level of support, while the planning and analysis has the least.

The study indicates that the work environment has certain impact on the performance statements and competencies. In particular, the size of company and project team are two possible factors determining the unique presentation or absence of some competencies and performance statements, as well as the patterns of the most demonstrated competencies and performance statements. Overall, the bigger a company or instructional project team gets, the more project management skills have been demonstrated by the WBI experts. It is increasingly demanding of WBI expert instructional designers to take many different responsibilities as the project team gets smaller.

The opinions on future direction for WBI suggest social media for instruction, mobile learning, cloud learning and collaboration, virtual or online classrooms, and more on-demand and engaging WBI, as the five prevailing trends. To prepare for the future, expert instructional designers in WBI must keep getting involved, networking professionally and be open minded for emerging tools and techniques.

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