Leadership in a Team-Based Approach

A Needs Assessment For The Leadership Role Of An Instructional Designer In A Team-Based Approach To Online Course Development

This study is currently in progress. Therefore, sections of the research provided are still being drafted.

Introduction

Instruction design is a systematic approach, partly science and partly art, to designing, developing, and facilitating efficient and effective learning and teaching experiences (2011). Instructional design services are offered in a variety of settings, with the two most common settings being in the business and education fields.

+ Instructional Design Settings

In the business field, instructional design is predominantly used to produce training that aims to improve employee performance with the hopes of generating revenue or reducing operation costs (Morrison et. al 2013). These trainings often attempt to either correct risk-oriented behaviors or introduce new equipment or protocol to employees. A business may decide to consult an independent instructional design company for a one-time service or they may have a dedicated instructional design department in-house.

In the education field, instructional design focuses on the design and production of online courses, either synchronous or asynchronous, to facilitate student-centered, academic learning. Similar to the business field, some universities have dedicated instructional designers (IDs) within each academic department. Other institutions have centralized facilities with IDs who participate in university-wide distance learning and teach initiatives in addition to online course production. These instructional design centers provide services available for all faculty and staff who place a request with them.

+ Roles in Course Design & Development

In both the business and education fields, there is always the basic relationship of at least one Subject Matter Expert (SME) and at least one instructional designer. In every case, the SME is accountable for bringing their expertise about the learning content to the table and the ID brings their expertise of designing efficient and effective learning and teaching experiences (Morrison 2013). Though the roles and expectations may vary from one organization to another, collaboration is key in all of these partnerships.

In regards to course production and evaluation, these departments may be decentralized or centralized within the institution (Morrison et. al 2013). The course production groups may consist of project managers, media specialists, and instructional technologists. Evaluation groups may consist of quality assurance assessors, assessment specialists, and editors who review copy. Team sizes may vary and thus, so can the team-based approaches. In all cases, Morrisont et. al explain that these groups should have close ties with the IDs to ease the coordination and reduce duplication of effort (2013).

+ Multiple Instructional Design Roles in Education

In many universities, especially those which put research and innovation at the forefront, instructional designers (IDs) are heavily involved with distance learning and teaching initiatives and are positioned to represent higher education institutions on micro, macro, and mega levels. On the micro level, they provide services to faculty members directly aligned with online course development. On the macro level, instructional designers design, develop, and facilitate workshops sharing pedagogical and evidence-based learning and teaching practices. On a mega level, IDs participate in world-wide discussions of how online learning is evolving, especially with the ever scaling development of instructional technology. This presents multiple roles for IDs to juggle as a designer, project leader or manager, research, and educator (2019).

Statement of the Problem

This qualitative study investigated what factors affect an instructional designer’s role and ability, as a practitioner within a higher education centralized instructional design center, to effectively lead a team-based approach to fulfilling distance learning and teaching initiatives. The instructional design center in this study has declared a mission to “support, promote, and enhance teaching, learning, and research and to foster innovation.” The services provided by the center to fulfill distance education initiatives are instructional design and technology, course design and development, individual course management, one-on-one consultation, course website development, workshops, proctored testing, graphic design of posters and instructional aids, and demonstration and evaluation of tools and technologies. 

With multiple roles to juggle among these services, Drysdale reveals that IDs often get burnt out and are worn too thin by their workloads (2019). Bolman and Deal depict the myth of managers being “rational people who plan, organize, coordinates, and control the activities of subordinates… a pristine image of modern managers: unruffled and well organized, with clean desks, power suits, and sophisticated information systems” (2013). They go on to explain how “ led to believe that they should be rational and on top of things, managers may instead become bewildered and demoralized.”  In ___ study, only two out of six organizations positioned IDs to act as both the Instructional Designer and the Project Manager (). Morrison et al. notes that in scenarios where the ID also has to act as a project manager, “the burden of administrative responsibilities can reduce the time a designer can spend on the design role”  (2013). With instructional design being one of the fundamental processes of these distance education initiatives, this presents a potential threat to the quality of the products and services. () the results of their study “suggest that time commitment is one of the greatest challenges” and that instructional designers or project managers need to give careful examination to the planned timelines and strategically modify where needed to “accommodate both controlled and uncontrolled factors” ().  Their study indicated that IDs need to improve communications perhaps with “clearer communications on processes and timelines.” The problem investigated in this study is to identify what leadership approach is most effective for instructional designers, positioned as both instructional designers and project managers, in implementing an optimal team-based approach to fulfill distance education initiatives.

+ Purpose of the Study

In an effort to solve this problem, this qualitative study will examine the existing expectations and assumptions of the role of the IDs. The services provided by the instructional design center aim to enhance the learning experience of students in higher education and the IDs are positioned to spearhead these initiatives. Improving the leadership approach of the instructional designers may potentially increase the quality of the services provided and thus impact the student learning experience. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study is to identify the measurable gaps between the current and desired leadership approach of instructional designers in a centralized higher education instructional design center.

A needs assessment will be conducted on one centralized higher education instructional design center comprised of in-house instructional design and production teams. The data will uncover the opinions of IDs, who are positioned in the leadership role, the opinions of the non-instructional designers, the constituents who receive delegation from and the guidance of the IDs, and the performance evaluation instrument, which documents the expectations of the ID role. Though the administrative staff and production teams may have obligations outside of online course production, they are all accountable for fulfilling the distance education initiatives set forth by the institution at-large.

+ Research Questions

Qualitative studies provide rich and meaningful insight for research problems in specific contexts (2019). This study was best suited for a qualitative approach in order to gain the perspectives of both the service providers and recipients. The thorough investigation of multiple perspectives will provide clarification of the interconnectedness, or lack thereof, among the service teams. The main research question is supported by sub questions grounded in the multi-frame theoretical framework for reframing leadership roles within organizations. The question and sub questions this study aims to address are:

Q1. What factors, rooted in a multi-frame leadership approach, support an instructional designer’s role, both as an instructional designer and project manager, in effectively leading an optimal team-based approach to fulfill distance learning and teaching initiatives in higher education?

Q1a. What factors, centralized in a structural frame, enhance an instructional designer’s ability to lead and manage a team-based approach effectively?

Q1b. What factors, centralized in a human resource frame, enhance an instructional designer’s ability to lead and manage a team-based approach effectively?

Q1c. What factors, centralized in a political frame, enhance an instructional designer’s ability to lead and manage a team-based approach effectively?

Q1d. What factors, centralized in a symbolic frame, enhance an instructional designer’s ability to lead and manage a team-based approach effectively?

Literature Review

Multi-framed Leadership Approach

This action research study is grounded in the four-frame theoretical framework of reframing leadership in organizations. The structural frame, the human resource frame, the political frame, and the symbolic frame each act as a lens for which to evaluate the conditions of leadership roles through. The literature begins by differentiating leadership and management, both of which Bolman and Deal believe require an amount of artistry (2013). They explain that although an individual may have the authority to manage a project, that does not ensure that they have the proper skills in place to lead and inspire real change (2013). They further explain how the challenges of today’s organizations require a combination of the “objective perspective of managers and the creativity of wise leadership” (2013). They conclude that managers bring order and leaders bring artistic analysis to reframe experiences and that both should “appreciate management as a moral and ethical undertaking” (2013).  

The structural frame examines how social architecture affects how an organization functions in regards to its goals, tasks, and context. The human resource frame is used to understand the relationships between people and organizations, specifically in comparison to how human nature works. The political frame investigates how scarcity and diversity stir up conflict. Lastly, the symbolic frame identifies the components within an organizational culture and other significant elements affect performance.

+ Structural Leadership

Structural leaders are grounded in the ___ of social architecture. They examine multiple perspectives of a structure strategy and environment (2013). They focus on implementation and experiment with different solutions. They are resilient and creative.

+ Human Resource Leadership

Human resources leaders are guided by compassion and utilize emotional intelligence and social skills to motivate their subordinates (2013). They put people first with communication as their super tool. They are consistently accessible and approachable because they want the ear of their people. They believe in fostering ownership among their teammates and often turn to horizontal hierarchies in an effort to prompt autonomy.

+ Political Leadership

Political leaders use perspective and position to guide their decisions. They constantly assess the alignment of ambitions and power to lead them to success. They network with appropriate stakeholders to gain favor among key parties. They use the powers of persuasion, negotiation, and coercion to navigate murky waters of politics.

+ Symbolic Leadership

Symbolic leaders aim to inspire their subordinates with grand gestures of leading by example. They arm themselves with a strong vision to frame their actions. They utilize story telling to depict visions and guidance.

Needs Assessment

When a needs assessment is being considered, the perceived issue, usually a matter of unsatisfying outcomes, has been made note of. Noting the term “perceived” is key here as a needs assessment is an investigation to discover a true and thorough depiction of a scenario and the accurate causes of the unwanted results. Needs assessments work to identify discrepancies between the states of “what is” and “what should be”(source). Often times, the individuals who initially identify the perceived issue already have ideas in mind of possible solutions they are favoring causing clouded judgement. A Needs Assessor is tasked with differentiating a clients needs from their wants. To do this, they must first define what a need is. Altschuld and Kumar suggest to emphasize that need in this case is utilized as a noun and not a verb (YYYY). They clarify that a need is a measurable gap that requires a solution. At the end of a needs assessment, a Needs Assessor should have the following items outlined:

  • What are the gaps in results?

  • In what order should the needs be addressed?

  • What are the most effective interventions to close this gap?

  • How can the client implement this intervention?

+ More on Needs Assessment

Altshuld and Kumar present a three phases needs assessment model. The first stage is called the Preassessment in which a committee is formed to determine the focus of the study. Existing information to evaluate the depth of the scenario. In some cases, the committee may discover that a needs assessment does not need to take place at all. The second stage is called the Assessment which takes a deeper dive into examining the needs through data collection, understanding the needs on different levels by analyzing the findings and most importantly, gaining a clear picture of where discrepancies exist and their potential causes. Recommendations are given to the client at the end of this phase.

The final phase is called the post assessment in which the Needs Assessor creates an action plan for carrying out the recommended interventions. The action plan should give a thorough overview for how the organization can implement the intervention, in some cases this action plan would exclude the involvement of the original Needs Assessor, and it is essential that the Needs Assessor consider the issue of sustainability. Without doing so, a Needs Assessor could put an organization in even more danger than they began with. In this action plan, the needs are prioritized based on the level of urgency for addressing each need. These levels are identified by evaluating how severe the outcomes would be affected if the need is not addressed within an appropriate timeframe or at all. Lastly a summative evaluation should be conducted of the entire needs assessment for future use.

There are a number of issues that could possibly lead a needs assessment to fail. Should an organization decide a needs assessment is necessary, they most likely have an issue in mind that they would like to treat. At times, needs assessors might not collect sufficient data and fail to recognize the existence of other, potentially more significant, issues which could be the real source of the performance problem. It is important for Needs Assessors to examine multiple data sources in order to gain a holistic perspective on the situation. On the other hand, a needs assessor could collect an abundance of data and instead send the client into “analysis paralysis” because they fail to provide an informative and concise summary of the data to show the client the value of the results (YYYY). One common scenario is that the needs assessor might not receive the full support or resources necessary to conduct a thorough investigation. Without doing so, the needs assessor could overlook necessary factors, address the wrong need, and instead present completely misguided recommendations. Should this be the case, the individuals experiencing the instructional intervention may respond negatively to it, causing more issues to generate, and thus increasing the rate of performance problems for the organization.

+ Role Ambiguity and Role Conflict

Yousefi and Abdullah identify role ambiguity as a lack of clarity of one’s role in an organization or the knowledge of how to perform their role (2019). They define role conflict as a confrontation of expectations from two different roles and when required to perform them simultaneously, one will often prevent efficient performance of the other. In a study focusing on organizational stressors on job performance of academic staff, Yousefi and Abdullah concluded that both role ambiguity and role conflict contribute to a decrease in job performance.

+ Design Leadership

In terms of leading a design team, Sherwin encourages an approach that promotes the growth of new leaders rather than a team following the direction of one leader. He explained that a team should work for the idea and that the leader’s purpose is to identify and foster the team’s connection with the vision for the idea in order to create a meaningful and holistic product. He identifies six skills and behaviors that allow design leaders to promote growth within their team members (2010). First, they should conjure meaningful (compelling) unique and original products. Second, they should communicate across all planes with rational and emotional intelligence in order to promote effective communication. Third, they should provide an environment that promotes creativity, unaffected by politics either originating from within the organization or from the clients. Fourth, they align the direction of the project with a solid vision. Fifth, they encourage their team members to take ownership over making informed design decisions with guidance from the provided vision. Lastly, they foster high morale with endless “enthusiasm and engagement” (2012).

+ Working Section

The cover page of this chapter includes an image that illustrates the comparison of the models of “Following the leader” and “Creating more leaders.” Sherwin builds on the idea that good leaders should aim to create more leaders. “Design leaders make awesome shit happen.” The following traits are identified for successful design leaders

  • Having a vision to proved overall strategic direction for the firm and clients
  • Connecting the vision with ideas from the team “No one works for a creative director. Everyone works for the idea. The idea hires us and we go to work.”
  • Builds effective relationships with clients and design team
  • Acts a a Behavioral Psychologist and appropriately interprets and adjusts to different personalities and behaviors
  • Understands the creative disposition of their teammates (left or right brain)
  • Anticipates needs and preferences of clients and how it will inform their design decisions
  • Exerts creativity in developing “sound business strategies”
  • Communicates with transparency in every direction
  • Fosters project ownership among peers and clients
  • Facilitates efficiency and effective workflow
  • Bravely takes risks to inspire innovation Hixon identifies that project leaders to have sufficient time to dedicate to the project.

Methodology

Action research aims to solve real-world problems of practitioners. 

+ Research Design and Method

This needs assessment has utilized qualitative data collection methods to reveal the gaps in results between the existing and the desired position description of instructional designers. The data collected from this investigation will be used to present recommendations for the revision of the current instructional designer position description and has revealed additional opportunities for further research. Online questionnaires were distributed to survey two groups of stakeholders and an analysis was conducted on the performance evaluation form to identify where potential discrepancies existed.

Each group of stakeholders received questionnaires unique to their groups in order to gain an accurate portrayal of the perceived gaps and potential needs. Each group was emailed a cover letter describing the purpose of this needs assessment, the procedures of the investigation, and instructions for completing the online questionnaires. The items on the questionnaire encouraged the participants to reflect on their past experiences with the instructional designer role within the organization. These reflections were compared against the performance evaluation form goals and objectives.

The performance evaluation form was analyzed using a document analysis matrix. The form identified that the goals and objectives were constructed with the themes of leadership, support, and production in mind.The matrix evaluates the alignment of these themes within the list of goals and objectives while also making note of those that don’t fall into a category. The comparison of the data collected identified where the gaps in alignment exist with the current and desired goals and objectives of the instructional design role.

To prescribe practical interventions upon data analysis, multiple perspectives were assessed.

Participants

Purposive maximal variation sampling was used to survey two groups of stakeholders from the same organization. One group was made up of instructional designers, are responsible for leading the organization in fulfilling distance learning and teaching initiatives, and the second group included non-instructional designers, who are delegated tasks with guidance directly from the instructional designers to complete these missions. This included the production staff which is made up of the graphic design, instructional technology, web developer, and multimedia departments. Surveying these different groups provided multiple perspectives on the instructional design role. Instructional Designers reflected on their first-hand experiences of fulfilling their documented goals and objectives. The non-instructional design staff were questioned about their interactions with the instructional designers in a highly demanding and collaborative environment. All of the participants have worked with the organization for a minimum of 12 months to ensure that they have had the opportunity to develop a thorough experience of working with the instructional design role as well as gain a grasp of the organization’s culture. Collecting data from both of these sources supported the triangulation of data from both the provider and recipient of the project management and instructional service.

+ Instructional Designers

The eight prospective instructional designers hold multiple roles within the organization as instructional designers, instructors and facilitator, and project managers. They educate university faculty members on principles of learning and teaching, provide instructional design services to faculty developers, and they delegate tasks directly to the non-instructional design staff to develop high quality online courses. In doing so, they inherently act as a liaison between the faculty developers, administrative staff, and production teams. Their practice is fundamentally informed by instructional design theory and evidence-based research. The instructional designers varied in experience levels in designing and developing online courses with some participants having less than five years of experience and others having over ten years of experience. A former instructional designer, who left the organization one month prior to this study, was also included in this sample group. Some instructional designers were involved in designing and developing the current production processes and procedures of the organization while others were still learning the protocol for themselves. Typically, an instructional designer works with a minimum of three faculty developers at a time, but some may end up working with as many as six or eight at a time if courses are not completed within their initial development cycle. Of the eight instructional designers (insert amount) responded to the online questionnaire.

+ Non-Instructional Designers

The non-instructional design staff are the primary recipients of the project management services being assessed. The instructors ranged from a variety of experience levels. Some of these staff members have little experience working in the higher education environment while others have vast experience and have held multiple roles within the organization. Until recently, many or the staff members worked on small segments of different courses at one time causing the departments to operate as silos rather than cohesively. The organization is beginning to move towards a more commonly accepted collaboration model in which one staff member from each department is designated as a team lead for each course. (insert amount) of the twenty prospective participants responded to the questionnaire.

Instrumentation

Analyzed with consideration to the four-frame model for reframing leadership. 

The NAC, composed of the assistant director, the lead instructional designer, and an additional experienced instructional designer, reviewed the instruments as a measure to improve content validity. Their feedback was implemented into the revised version of both questionnaires. The online instructional designer questionnaire included items about design experience within the organization, the instructional designer goals and objectives, and their experience collaborating with the remaining stakeholders.

+ Instructional Designer Questionnaire

The items inquiring about their design experience gathered demographic information about the participants, specifically regarding the timeframe in which they have worked for the organization. Items regarding their roles and responsibilities included the following topics:

  • Satisfaction with the goals and objectives for the instructional designer role
  • Satisfaction with the selection and alignment of the goal themes
  • Satisfaction with their organizational structure
  • Satisfaction with their processes and procedures
  • Job performance in instructional design
  • Job performance in instructing and facilitating
  • Job performance in project management

+ Non-Instructional Designer Questionnaire

The non-instructional design questionnaire also began with items identifying their work experience with the organization. The remainder of the questionnaire included the following topics: Perceptions of the role and responsibilities of the instructional designers

Satisfaction with collaboration with the instructional designers Satisfaction with communication with the instructional designers Overall satisfaction with the project management performance of the instructional designers

+ Question Structure

The items were provided in a variety of styles including likert scale questions, yes or no questions, and open-ended questions. The most significant items were presented as open-ended questions to allow the participants to provide rich and thorough answers without bias from the needs assessor. The questions were designed to explore areas of the instructional designers’ job performance where issues might exist. Both questionnaires are featured in the appendix section in this paper. The document analysis form reviewed the alignment of the goals and objectives of the instructional design role and additional evaluation items. Items on this questionnaire include the following topics:

  • The purpose of the material
  • The tools, resources, or competencies required for fulfilling the goals and objectives
  • Coding of the goals and objectives with the following labels
    • Instructional design role
    • Instructor and facilitator role
    • Project manager role
  • Identification of additional assessment items

The topics listed above were evaluated against the themes of leadership, support, and production to identify how each theme was distributed throughout the aspects of their role. This data was collected to validate the significance of the goals and objectives and identify whether revisions were needed. The document analysis form can also be found in the appendix section of this paper.

+ Procedures

The needs assessment was conducted over a six-week period during the summer semester. Once the research proposal and instruments were drafted, a copy of each item was emailed to the NAC members for review. Both verbal and written feedback was provided and implemented into multiple revisions of the research instruments.

Due to the shortened time constraint provided for this needs assessment, online questionnaires were utilized for the convenience of the participants and to increase the turnaround time of the data. The prospective participants were selected based on the access that the needs assessor had to the target population of instructional designers and non-instructional design staff within the organization. The questionnaires were distributed by individually sending the participants two e-mail messages. The first email included a cover letter that presented information about the needs assessment, instructions for completing the instructional designer questionnaire, and a hyperlink to access the instrument. The second email presented the same information as a reminder of the remaining time left to complete the questionnaire. All participants were notified that their participation was on a volunteer basis and that they would be allowed to quit participating at any time with no consequence. All incomplete questionnaires were excluded from the results of this pilot needs assessment.

The questionnaires were created using the Qualtrics survey software and were distributed to each participant’s organization email. All participants were provided with a hyperlink to direct them to the Qualtrics website to access the questionnaires. Participants were not restricted to using their organization computers and as a result may have ended up using their personal computers to access the survey material. However, no personal information about the participants was obtained through the Qualtrics system. The survey questionnaire was made available to the participants for a total of fifteen days. Any participants who missed this presented deadline, but wished to participate were notified that they would be allowed to access the results of this needs assessment and would be eligible to participate in future extensions of the study.

The instructional designer performance evaluation was examined in two phases. In the first phase the material was reviewed straight through in its entirety. The document analysis form was filled out during the second phase of review.

Data Collection

The questionnaires were collected using the Qualtrics survey software. The data was downloaded onto the need assessors personal computer in two formats and saved onto a private Google Drive folder. Individual questionnaires were downloaded as PDF files once the needs assessor received email notifications of their completion and a summary of the group results was downloaded in CSV format. A hard copy of the instructional design format was printed and digital copies were emailed to the needs assessors personal email address. The needs assessor created a google drive spreadsheet to create a document itemizing and categorizing all of the completed items as they were received.

Data Analysis

The following process was conducted for each questionnaire received. First, a preliminary exploratory analysis was performed on the online PDF version of the questionnaire to gain a general sense of the response. The questionnaire was then printed and coded. Significant text segments were outlined with a rectangle shape. Potential labels were noted in the left-hand margin and potential themes were noted in the right-hand margin. The labels were then organized into an excel sheet with their corresponding themes. The codes were reviewed and reduced to a total of 10 labels and 5 themes by collapsing any redundant concepts. Exact or similar word matches to the 10 selected labels were highlighted in yellow on each questionnaire. The occurrences were totaled and noted on a second tab of the excel document. An additional review was taken to narrow down the codes an themes resulting in:

A comparison table was created to identify interconnecting themes and display the relationships of the labels and themes.

The NA used the comparison table to identify (insert number) needs. The needs were itemized in a PDF each with a list, as preliminary perceived by the NA, of risks for not addressing each need. A summary of the data and the identified needs were emailed to the NAC prior their review meeting. The NA facilitated the discussion to prioritize the needs.

Evaluating the notes from the need prioritization meeting, the NA presented a final recommendation to the NAC.

Findings

Results

Design Implications


Conclusion and Recommendations

Discussion

Design Implications

Limitations of Study and Recommendations

Future Research

Further research would clarify the importance and impact of these competencies in other settings