Sahana is a practicing ID in India, where ID programs don't really exist yet. Instead people turn to 8 week ID certification programs to get started.
Karl Kapp feels like I'm chewing his chaw a bit and was reminded of his own post from last year: We Need a Degree in Instructional Design (yes, the conversation has been going on for ages -- and I sometimes am always in the middle of it!)
I don't mean it to devolve into the "do you need an ID degree or not?" conversation. I'm ready to move past that. I've made up my mind :) *
But it seems like it's a bit of the ID lifecycle and IDs love to banter this one about. Perhaps it's just that people get entrenched and defensive of their own paths. But I think we can also say that the landscape today has greatly changed, and a formal ID degree may not be necessary...
Questions I have:
At what point does an "accidental instructional designer" become intentional?
What does the typical ID grad student look like? Are they mid-career, having worked in the ID field for x number of years and now looking for that foundation?
As Brent Schlenker said in the comments on Sahana's post -- the web 2.0 world has completely changed how we access expertise and information in this field. It's a different time and place today than it was 10 years ago.
I do agree we're all ready to start talking about what the critical ID competencies are for today's corporate instructional designers.
Connie Malamed (The eLearning Coach) has made a nice start with 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer.
So what do you think are the key competencies for an ID practicing today? Hmmm...
* For the record, I don't think I will get a graduate degree in ID. At least not this year. I've written about this before -- I'm getting it informally. Here. With all of you. And it's customized precisely for me. And it's free. I like free. Plus, I don't have time to go to real school! I've got too many other things to do.
