Instructional Designers with Degrees: Jan 2010 Updated Survey Results

It's January 14, 2010 and in the two plus years since I've posted this survey, 385 people have responded.

The question was "Instructional Designers: do you have an advanced degree in ID?"

I make no claims for the scientific validity of my research, but I think there are some interesting results...

• 61.8% of respondents do not have an advanced degree
• 58% of respondents work in corporate ID

(Any correlation there?)

I think this one tells an interesting story ("How long have you been working as an Instructional Designer?":

Where do all the IDs go over time? Are they just not sticking with the field and moving elsewhere? Or is this showing an increase in the need for IDs?

I love scrolling the list of people's degrees -- it's heavily weighted to the liberal arts, with a little bit of everything from ethnography to criminal justice. We're a diverse bunch.

You can view the full Instructional Designer survey results.

If you haven't yet taken the survey, please do: Instructional Designer Survey.

(I apologize for the tiny graphics. I'll try to fix that!)

*****

I've redirected my blog's URL, so you might need to update your RSS feeds. If you're new to Learning Visions, you can subscribe too!

Subscribe to Learning Visions

(To subscribe by email, check out the form on the blog sidebar.)

Instructional Designers Survey

My friend Robin is working on his Master's Degree in Instructional Design at the University of Massachusetts. For his thesis, he's thinking about tools and processes to better support the ID process.

He's come up with a couple of surveys to help him gather more grist for his mill. Can you help him out?

There are two surveys:

Tools Survey for IDs (closed questions)

About You -- the Instructional Designer (open-ended questions, essay format)

Thanks!

Instructional Design: What's in a name?

I stumbled across this on a writer's blog today: "Officially, I’m now an Instructional Designer. A fancy term for writing training material." [Blog link not provided to protect the innocent].

Koreen Olbrish asks "Is Instructional Design Dead?" If all we do is write training material, then perhaps yes.

The debate has raged here and elsewhere as to whether instructional designer's need to have advanced degrees in ID. The ID survey on this blog now has over 200 responses: 62% do not have advanced degrees.

We have questioned the value of Instructional Designers.

Perhaps the term Instructional Designer is simply overused. Some folks are "writers of training material." Some folks are curriculum designers. I say there are shades of instructional design.

I am an "Instructional Designer". I write and design self-paced eLearning for the corporate market. Plus a bunch of other stuff, which you can read about in my job description. What shade of instructional designer are you? What's your scope?

Listen to John Curry's interviews for some different day-in-the-life scenarios of four different instructional designers (myself included).

And then, let the debate rage on.

Instructional Designers with ID Degrees? Survey Results...

The great thing about blogs is that you don't even have to be around, and people still come visiting. I haven't posted in ages (hoping this will start to change as my work-life settles back in), but responses are still coming in to my survey.

As of today, 166 instructional designers have responded to the survey: Do You Have a Degree in ID?

About 34% of instructional designers have an advanced degree in ID. And 66% of us don't.

As reported earlier, there continues to be a wide range of backgrounds for IDers, mostly in the liberal arts.

Take the survey now.

View the latest survey results here.

Instructional Designers Poll: Market Sector and Advanced Degrees

My original survey on Instructional Designers and Advanced Degrees had some holes in it. For awhile now I've been wondering about Market Sector differences in ID. I want to know if there's a difference in the ratio of working instructional designers with advanced degrees in the corporate and academic sectors.

Please take the latest poll!

Instructional Designers with Formal Training: Survey Update

As of today, over 119 responses to the ongoing survey Instructional Designers: Do You Have An Advanced Degree?

37% of IDs say "Yes, I do have a formal/advanced ID degree."
63% of working IDS say "Nope. I'm flying on intuition and experience and informal learning."

Only 13% of those without a degree say they have ever been denied work as a result.

38% of respondents have been in the field for just 3-5 years. Is that a spike in the amount of ID work going on? Or is this a high burnout field that people don't stick around in for too long?

I'm still curious about the breakdown in degrees between the corporate and academic sectors. What's the ratio of IDs working in corporate with advanced degrees vs. academic?

The survey remains open indefinitely. Chime in, if you haven't.

Instructional Designers with Degrees: Latest Survey Results

Since I last reported the results of the survey asking practicing instructional designers if they have an advanced degree in ID, the picture has shifted slightly.

As of today, 86 instructional designers have responded to the survey: Do You Have a Degree in ID?

About 35% of instructional designers have an advanced degree in ID. And 65% of us don't.

As reported earlier, there continues to be a wide range of backgrounds for IDers, mostly in the liberal arts.

View the latest survey results here.

Poll Results: Learning Visions' Readers

The poll results are in. Thanks to the 34 of you who responded.

You are:

Male 38% (13)
Female 52% (18)



Under 20 5% (2)
21-30 23% (8)
31-40 26% (9)
41-50 26% (9)
51 + 17% (6)




None of this surprises me very much. Except for the two readers who reported they are under 20.

Otherwise, the results are fairly evenly split among age group, with 79% of readers falling in the 21-50 range.

Does this better explain the results of my gaming or second life polls? Maybe. Maybe not.

My fabulous graphic chart above was created from the Create a Graph page at the Kids' Zone: Learning with NCES (National Center for Education Statistics).

New Survey -- What's Your Demographic?

Because people are wondering. How old are all of you? Some of you call yourselves gamers. Some of you have been in Second Life. So where do you fit into the demographic, dear readers?

You'll have to come visit the blog to respond to the new survey. It's on the blog's side bar at the top.

(All survey responses are completely and utterly confidential!)

Thanks ~