Integrating Instructional Design and Student Support

It can be challenging to design and implement effective online courses and programs in higher ed. Doing so often involves learning new technologies and new skills as well as navigating new teaching contexts, new types of students, and new regulatory environments. But because of all that newness, sometimes an online program can catalyze new thinking about how we go about the work of post-secondary education. On the podcast this week, I have a great example of this.

Pratima Enfield is the associate dean of instructional design at the United States Naval Community College. Prior to her current position, Pratima was the executive director of online learning at the School of Advanced Intentional Studies at Johns Hopkins University. It was her work at Johns Hopkins she presented at a conference last summer organized by UPCEA, the online and professional education association. Pratima presented a session titled “Bridging the Gap: Integrating Online Experience and Curriculum Design for Engaged Learning” with her Johns Hopkins colleague Sandra Chadwell.

Pratima and her colleagues bridged the gap between the instructional design and student support functions that are more typically siloed in online programs. Instructional designers work with faculty and student support staff work with students, so it’s not a given that these two teams will collaborate. But that’s exactly what happened at Johns Hopkins. In our conversation, Pratima talks about the particular challenges of the online program she supported at Johns Hopkins, specific ways she worked to integrate instructional design and student support in that program, and the benefits of this kind of integration.

I'm often struck by how support for students and instructors differs between online and on-site programs. Why aren't there instructional designers for residential courses and programs, for instance? Pratima's experience at Johns Hopkins paints a picture of what more integrated support could look like, both in online programs and in more traditional residential ones.

​You can listen to my conversation with Pratima Enfield here, or search "Intentional Teaching" in your favorite podcast app.

From Silos to Symphonies

Back in February, I attended a session at the Top Hat annual conference focused on navigating change in higher ed. During that conversation, I compared the working of a university to that of an orchestra. (Caveat to what follows: I've never actually been in an orchestra, so this metaphor is based largely on what I've seen in the movies.) In an orchestra, you have lots of musicians very skilled in their instruments who work together to perform a complicated piece of music. They know the score (literally) and they know how their performances contribute to the overall piece. In higher ed, you have lots of talented faculty and staff who are very good at what they do, but sometimes those faculty and staff don’t have a sense of how their work contributes to larger mission. They don’t know the score and how their roles fit into it.

The good folks at Top Hat invited me on their podcast, Higher Listenings, to explore this metaphor with a couple of colleagues who are also involved in change initiatives in higher ed, Gina Londino-Smolar from Indiana University Indianaoplis and Sue-Mun Huang, director of product at Top Hat. The three of us along with podcast hosts Eric Gardiner and Brad Cohen had a lively conversation about how productive pedagogical change happens in higher ed, and how that kind of change can be fostered and sustained. You can listen to our conversation in the latest episode of the podcast, "From Silos to Symphonies: Orchestrating Student Success." The Top Hat team edited out all my bad ideas, so it's well worth your time to listen!

Thanks for reading!

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