Website for the STC Instructional Design & Learning Special Interest Group, a Community of Practice
Congratulations to all the new STC Fellows & Associate Fellows, especially our IDL SIG members, Fellow Timothy Esposito and Associate Fellows Mary Jo David and Viqui Dill. Read the complete story in STC’s Notebook here.
Compiled by Viqui Dill, programs manager for the STC IDL SIG
Going to the Summit? Wondering what to see and do? Let us help you out!
Here is a list of sessions that may be of interest, chosen because the session is about instructional design and learning, presented by a SIG member, or of general interest to technical communicators. See the complete list of sessions on the Summit website.
First of all, we’re having our annual business meeting, with lunch and networking again.
Register on Eventbrite before May 5.
By: Marcia Shannon
In April, 2018, we shared a request from the Research Triangle Institute. They were seeking experts to help them update the occupation description for Instructional Designers and Technologists in the US Department of Labor’s O*NET Data Collection Program.
If chosen to participate, you would have been contacted by a Research Triangle Institute Business Liaison beginning the week of February 21, 2019. You may or may not have been contacted due to random sampling.
Your participation will contribute to a key resource that provides our nation’s citizens with continuously updated occupational information.
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.
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.
Over 78% of our survey respondents have bachelor’s or master’s degrees, while over 16% have earned doctorates.
According to the survey, over half of our members are permanent, full-time employees.
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:
As shown, our members work in a wide variety of industries.
Other sectors listed were:
Our members produce the following types of deliverables.
Other deliverables listed were:
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
This question gives us ideas on future services we can provide to our SIG members. Suggestions include:
In addition to these suggestions, a few respondents indicated they were unaware of some of the services we provide.
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.
We received several thought-provoking suggestions for webinar topics, such as:
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.
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.
Of those surveyed, only 19 (or 35.19%) attended the 2018 STC Summit in Orlando, FL.
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.
According to the survey, the three most effective communication channels for SIG Summit functions are:
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.
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 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.
By: Marcia Shannon
Stepping into a new role is scary and exciting. Being co-manager for the IDL SIG may be the biggest task I have taken on in quite some time. Being an active member of the SIG, first as secretary, then assistant co-manager was interesting and satisfying. Now, as co-manager, I have Lori and Viqui supporting me through the transition. That’s one strength of volunteering in this SIG, someone is always there to help you succeed.
Being a SIG volunteer sharpens my skills, widens my view, and provides professional fellowship. Volunteer duties can average as little as an hour a week, depending on the role. The “co” in the co-manager title means I need someone else in that same role because two heads are better than one and sharing a job makes it easier for both managers. If that job seems intimidating, go for the assistant co-manager role instead. Co-manager is part of the succession plan, where future leaders learn the co-manager role.
The first time I heard, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person,” I laughed. Now I know that it is true. We need more busy people to donate a little time to keeping our SIG strong. I challenge every SIG member to look over the open roles, find one that fits your interests, and join the leadership team. The IDL SIG is a platinum community because talented members are active participants. You are one of those talented members, and we need you. The monthly meeting is open to all members. Come to the next one to find out more about volunteering.
Marcia Shannon was assistant co-manager for in 2018, and transitioned to co-manager in 2019.