IDL SIG/COP 2022 Communication and Media Survey high-level results

By  Jamye Sagan, IDL SIG Treasurer

In April 2022, we distributed the IDL SIG/COP 2022 Communication & Media Survey to our SIG members to learn how they use:

We received 28 responses. This article provides a high-level overview of the survey. In the coming weeks, we will publish a detailed results document that dives deeper into each question. Continue reading “IDL SIG/COP 2022 Communication and Media Survey high-level results”

2020 IDL SIG/CoP Demographic Survey Results

By Jamye Sagan

In December 2020, the IDL SIG/CoP conducted its biennial membership demographic survey. Approximately 8.2% of our membership base completed the survey – 35 out of 425 members. See 2020 Membership Survey for complete results. To view results for individual questions, click the link in the question heading.

Years of experience in instructional design
More than half of our survey respondents have been in the instructional design field for 10 or fewer years. About 25% have 6-10 years’ experience.

Level of education

Over 80% of our survey respondents have bachelor’s or master’s degrees, while about 14% have earned doctorates.

Employment status

According to the survey, over half of our members are permanent, full-time employees while about 20% are either consultants/contractors or self-employed.

Career Journey

About 57% of our survey respondents started out in different fields before discovering instructional design. A very small percentage of respondents — almost 3% — began their careers in instructional design. These results show that most members became involved in this field over time.

Job responsibilities

Over 85% of respondents perform technical writing as part of their job responsibilities, while over 60% perform technical editing. Almost half of respondents are actually involved with instructional design, training facilitation, and course development.

Company/client sectors served

Our members work in a wide variety of industries. Almost half of the respondents work in the computer software industry, followed by professional, scientific, and technical services and educational teaching.

ID deliverables produced

Our members produce a wide variety of deliverables, the most popular being online help, instructor-led training, virtual instructor-led training, and eLearning.

DEADLINE EXTENDED – Bi-Annual IDL Demographic Survey

To give you all more time to complete our bi-annual demographic survey, we have extended the deadline to Friday, December 11 at 11:59 pm Central time!

We had sent a link to all of our current members via our discussion list, but if you had not received it, see below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2020IDLSurvey.

This survey should take about 10-15 minutes to complete. As a token of our appreciation, IDL members who complete our survey can opt to enter a drawing for one of four $25 Amazon gift cards!

IDL SIG 2018 Membership Survey: Responses

By: Jamye Sagen

In December 2018, the IDL SIG conducted our biennial membership demographic survey. Approximately 10.75% of our membership base completed the IDL SIG 2018 membership demographic survey – 60 out of 558 members. See Membership Survey for complete results.

About the members

Years of experience in instructional design

More than half of our survey respondents have been in the instructional design field for 10 or fewer years. In fact, 20% have zero years’ experience, but are currently learning about the field.

Level of education

Over 78% of our survey respondents have bachelor’s or master’s degrees, while over 16% have earned doctorates.

Employment status

According to the survey, over half of our members are permanent, full-time employees.

Job responsibilities

More than half of our survey respondents indicated instructional design as their job responsibility, while over 90% indicated technical writing. Our surveyed members assume a variety of job responsibilities, from project management to course development.

Other jobs listed were:

  • Librarian
  • Editing, desktop publishing, file management
  • Online Development and I work closely with Instructional Designers and Trainers
  • Clerk
  • Editing, user support
  • Scrum Master, Finance Coordinator
  • Management
  • Still in school
  • Capacity Development
  • Quality assurance

Company/client sectors served

As shown, our members work in a wide variety of industries.

Other sectors listed were:

  • Machinery
  • Aerospace science and engineering
  • Parking management software and hardware
  • My employer is a manufacturing company, but I’m in the IT department and we write about IT systems.
  • Oil and gas exploration and production
  • Pharmaceuticals

ID deliverables produced

Our members produce the following types of deliverables.

Other deliverables listed were:

  • Manuals used for training
  • One-on-one coaching; training of other coaches; template design
  • Documentation

Tools used

Almost 95% of those surveyed know and use PowerPoint in their work. Other popular tools include Camtasia, Captivate, Prezi, Articulate Storyline, Microsoft Word, and Madcap Flare.

Other tools listed were:

  • Author-it
  • OneNote, SharePoint
  • Confluence
  • Madcap Flare
  • Flare
  • Madcap Flare, Bluestream CCMS and KB
    Word
  • Adobe RoboHelp
  • Madcap Flare
  • Adobe InDesign and FrameMaker
  • Madcap Flare
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Moodle, MS Word, Photoshop
  • oXygen
  • InDesign
  • SnagIt, Word, FSPro
  • SharePoint, Office 362

Influence of specific theories in instructional design

We asked respondents to rank how certain theories influence their work in developing ID curriculum and deliverables. Three out of 60 respondents did not answer. Results are shown for those who did.

STC membership level

Almost half of our surveyed members are regular or Gold members. In fact, 20% of those surveyed are Gold members, who enjoy membership in all SIGs as part of their benefits.

STC membership designation

Over 65% of our surveyed members are Members or Senior Members of STC, while 20% are Associate Fellows or Fellows. The other members surveyed were unsure of their membership designation.

About the IDL SIG and other organizations

Reasons for joining the IDL SIG

Although our surveyed members have a variety of reasons for joining the IDL SIG, the most popular reasons include learning about ID methodology and best practices, and about the profession in general. Given that many of our members are at the beginning of their ID careers, these results make perfect sense.

Participation in other instructional design/training organizations

Since over 80% of our survey respondents belong only to STC and the IDL SIG, we have a prime opportunity to make sure we offer as many resources as possible.
Of those members who belong to other groups, the most popular responses include ATD (Association for Talent Development) and eLearning Guild.

Other organizations listed included:

  • Music Library Association
  • Music OCLC Users Group
  • Online Audiovisual Catalogers
  • International Association of Music Libraries and Documentation Centres
  • American Library Association
  • Association for Library Collections and Technical Services
  • Association of College and Research Libraries
  • Houston UXPA, Community College
  • Was in ATD for years, dropped membership a few years ago
  • New England Lectora User’s Group
  • Academy of HRD
  • SHRM L&D SIG
  • Project Management Institute

Value: IDL SIG vs. other professional organizations

Of those who belong to another professional training organization such as ASTD, 36.3% of those respondents thought our SIG provides equal value. The same percentage thought we provided less value. Again, we have an opportunity to make sure we provide value to our members.

How other organizations provide value

Responses to this question helps us learn what other organizations do, and what we can do to provide value to our members. Many respondents commented on how other organizations provide networking opportunities – a prime area of opportunity for our group.

As a virtual community, the only time our SIG currently offers official in-person networking events is during the annual STC Summit. With that said, we highly encourage local IDL SIG members to meet up informally – whether passing through during travels or meeting up during an STC chapter meeting.

Value in IDL SIG services and communication channels

Most of our members consider our services to be valuable, especially our webinars, emails, and newsletter.
Although we offer a wealth of valuable services, many of our members are not aware of them, especially our mentoring services, student outreach article competition, and training material evaluation program. Therefore, we can do a better job of using our communication and social media outlets to spread the word.

Desired services

This question gives us ideas on future services we can provide to our SIG members. Suggestions include:

  • Orientation video about our services
  • Instructional template library
  • In-person local events

In addition to these suggestions, a few respondents indicated they were unaware of some of the services we provide.

Ranking of communication channels

By far, email is our most valuable form of communication, with 83.3% of respondents ranking it most effective. Website posts and Linked-In articles are somewhat valuable as well. Facebook and Twitter were ranked the least effective.
Since our members depend heavily on email for our communications, we need to make sure our email systems work.

Suggested future IDL SIG webinar topics

We received several thought-provoking suggestions for webinar topics, such as:

  • Practical application of theories
  • Tool and training demos
  • Staying relevant in the marketplace

We will share these suggestions with our programs team. If you know anyone who would be interested in conducting a webinar, please email programs@stcidlsig.org. Likewise, if you or anyone you know would love to write an article about any of these topics for our newsletter, please email newsletter@stcidlsig.org.

Free IDL SIG webinars and viewing behavior

Since we made all IDL SIG webinars free for all IDL SIG members, 44% of our members register for and view more webinars as a result. Fifty-six percent indicated no change in behavior. Since no members indicated attending fewer webinars, we can conclude that providing free webinars for our members is a sound investment.

2018 STC Summit

Attend Summit?

Of those surveyed, only 19 (or 35.19%) attended the 2018 STC Summit in Orlando, FL.

SIG Summit functions

Of those surveyed, over half attended the Communities Reception, where Summit attendees got to meet with members of participating SIGs. Thirty-six percent of those surveyed attended our annual business meeting; this past year, we decided to host a luncheon to attract more members. Interestingly enough, 31% of surveyed Summit attendees did not know about these Summit events. We should do a more thorough job of spreading the word about these events, to take advantage of the face-to-face time.

How members learned about SIG Summit functions

According to the survey, the three most effective communication channels for SIG Summit functions are:

  • Summit program (printed or electronic)
  • Email (sent by the IDL SIG)
  • Summit app

Although other channels of communication may not have been as effective, people still learned about the events from them.

According to the survey, no one learned of SIG events via the IDL SIG bookmark. Since we generally don’t give out the bookmarks until the Communities Reception, we may want to re-evaluate what information we place on the bookmark.

Enough instructional design/training presentations at Summit?

Of those surveyed, almost half of respondents were not quite sure if there were enough ID and training presentations offered at Summit. Thirty-seven percent did feel we had enough instructional design or training topics.

Again, we appreciate those who took the time to provide feedback for our membership survey. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, please email manager@stcidlsig.org.

 

Jamye SaganJamye Sagan currently serves as  treasurer for the IDL SIG, and is a senior member of STC. She served as a co-manager of the SIG from 2010-12. At work, she uses her tech comm skills to make sense out of the seemingly senseless. At play, she uses sticks and hooks to transform yarn into pretty objects.

2018 IDL SIG Demographic Survey – Taking the Pulse of Membership

By Jamye Sagan

In December 2018 we conducted our biennial demographic survey. Out of 567 IDL SIG members, 60 had completed the survey – about 10.6% of our membership base. These survey results will help our SIG leadership team continue to improve the services we provide to our members. In the next few weeks, we will publish the final survey results, along with in-depth analysis, on the IDL SIG website.

If you took the survey and indicated that you had an interest in volunteering, you will hear from a member of our leadership team in the next few weeks. We appreciate your willingness to consider offering your services to our SIG! Even if you indicated “no” to volunteering right now, you can still do so in the future. Please visit http://www.stcidlsig.org/about-idl-sig/volunteer-opportunities/ for a partial list of opportunities.

Raffle winners!

Congratulations to raffle winners Rachel Konkle and Rick Morris! Rachel and Rick each will receive a $50 Amazon gift card via email. We will send their prizes in the next several days.

Finally, we thank all survey respondents for taking the time to provide feedback to us!