Tonight I watched the Quality Matters conference session titled “Mentoring Instructional Designers in Higher Education: A Needs Assessment.” Barbara Frey, Assistant Professor at the School of Education of Point Park University and Rae Mancilla, Executive Director of Online Learning at the University of Pittsburgh shared findings from a survey they conducted. The defined professional mentoring for instructional designers and noted that there is a 9% projected career growth of instructional designers from 2020-2030. Interestingly, Frey noted that a lot of faculty have transitioned to instructional designer positions. Knowledge and training gaps can be addressed through onboarding, cognitive apprenticeship, and mentoring beyond onboarding. Frey explained that there is a lack of information on mentoring of instructional designers. Mentoring has multiple benefits that Frey described. The team developed two research goals and questions: what are the perceived mentoring needs of instructional design professionals and what factors impact the mentoring needs of design professionals? The theoretical framework the research team used was social constructivist learning theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978). The methodology was described as a descriptive, quantitative design with a needs assessment survey with thirty questions. Twenty-five items addressed mentoring needs. Ten people provided pilot feedback for the survey. One hundred and three surveys were initiated and sixty-five were completed after sending the request to Educause and QM listservers. The majority of respondents were experienced. Communication and constructive feedback were the top mentoring needs listed. The team noted that research was ranked low in mentoring needs. The next question the study addressed was research question 2: what factors impact the mentoring needs of instructional design professionals? Analysis revealed the impact of team type on technology problems, for example. Interestingly there was some evidence that team size (medium vs. large teams) had different needs. Take-aways for mentees included actively engaging in mentoring and recognizing multiple mentors may be needed. For administrators, the researchers noted that this study emphasizes the need to establish programs to train mentors and fostering mentoring. The researchers are analyzing team size, program structure, and communication. Mancilla explained that instructional designers are in need as learning sciences become more attractive career paths.
