Design team
From The Learning Engineer's Knowledgebase
The design team is the group of people that works on the planning, analysis, design, and development of an educational product or experience.
Definition
A design team collaboratively works to plan, design, and develop an educational product or experience. Instructional design teams often bring varied expertise and stakeholder representation to projects so that they are well planned and executed.
In cases of small-scale products (such as a lesson plan or instructional units), design teams may consist of just one person who handles all of the tasks of instructional design.
Additional Information
Design teams are typically composed of people that represent two areas: skill and representation.
First, a team needs to be well skilled in that all of the required expertise is needed on projects so that the full range of the design process is able to be completed. There are multiple tasks with varied skills that are needed for designing an educational product, from small scale projects like individual classroom lessons to full products like entire courses and software to teach skills. In the case of large-scale projects that have financial backing, it is often a condition of funding that a team that represents the breadth of skills required be specified for work to commence.
Second, a design team needs to have representation in the various perspectives and backgrounds that the product will draw from. Projects find value in embracing diversity in the team membership in perspectives from and the backgrounds of potential audiences for whom the product may serve. If a product is designed to serve a particular audience, the team should have an understanding of that audience and representation from its membership. For instance, if a corporation wants to develop a training for its employees on new technical skills, it would benefit from considering perspectives from employees, the domain of skill expertise, and from the business itself. Similarly, if a product was focused on improving learning gains for rural students despite the vast distances traveled between students' homes and the school, a team would benefit from having a rural educator present on the team who understands the issues of rural education. Diversity of perspectives also includes representation from multiple racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and religious groups.
Typical areas of expertise on a design team
Most design teams represent specific areas of expertise, multiple of which may be held by a single person. The following skill areas are typically present on an instructional design team:
- Project management. A member of the team should be skilled in keeping projects moving and work organized among team members. This often also involves project leadership, as most design teams have clear leadership, such as the Principal Investigator of a grant funded research and design project.
- Subject matter expertise. All instructional design projects aim to help learners to achieve learning objectives. It is important to have a subject matter expert in the content area that will be studied in the experience or product.
- Audience perspective. At least one member of the design team should have expertise with the community that the product or experience will serve. This is particularly true with the providing representation of people and ideas from traditionally underserved and marginalized groups. Design teams without such representation risk making serious and sometimes irreversible mistakes if incorrect assumptions are made about the audience of a product.
- Instructional design. An instructional design expert who is well versed in educational theory, the primary tasks and constraints of design, and the best practices of educational design will ensure that the project considers all of the educative elements and design principles that should be followed in building products that achieve learning objectives.
- Technology. A technologist is a useful member of a design team toward the writing of specifications for the form and function of the technologies and media that will be used and knowing whether something will work after it is developed. Teams also will need developers if any custom programming is needed or new software is made.
- Art and graphics. An artist is useful for designing the look and feel of interfaces and the learning environment.
Tips and Tricks
- Many designers will start off as a design team of 1 - this is normal! Everyone has to start their journey somewhere. Consider the various roles that are often played on larger teams and think about what aspects of these roles that you enjoy or don't enjoy. This identifies areas where you can bring on collaborators for your next project.
- Consider the skills that you may need for your project that you don't have. How might you gain those skills personally, or where might you acquire the skills you need?
- Ask what kinds of consultation you could request or people you could ask with different skills to review, critique, and help to improve your designs. Some people may be willing to help if you approach them.
Related Concepts
Examples
None yet - check back soon!
External Resources
None yet - check back soon!