Enilda Romero-Hall, my friend from graduate school, recently posted on Facebook that she is now an IBSTPI Scholar with the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (IBSTPI). In addition to being excited to see Enilda join this organization, I’m reminded that I should have referenced IBSTPI in my recent post about the Learning Engineer kerfuffle.
Top scholars in the field of educational technology/instructional design have spent decades working to document the key competencies required for those in the roles of:
If you want a better understanding of why those of us in the field get a tad exasperated when new entrants to this domain (either knowingly or not) ignore those who came before them, check out the downloads and publications listed on the IBSTPI website. We get it. No one knows what the heck an “instructional designer” is when we introduce ourselves at a cocktail party. And, we appreciate the relatively low barrier to entry to a job in our field (e.g., as evidenced by the number of self-described “accidental” instructional designers) can have the effect of diluting the perception of the role.
That said, those are marketing and training issues for the field to work through, but are NOT an indication of a lack of existing professionalism. Maybe a silver lining to this discussion will be more attention focused on our historical and existing institutions. Let’s hope.