In some projects, the instructional designer plays a small role in getting a project rolling or helping out in a certain segment of the work and then is officially off-project. Other people take on the development work…and the ID only gets a snippet or two of information over time about what has happened.

As an instructional designer, I do care about all projects—but it’s infeasible to query after various ones. Or those queries are not necessarily rewarded with any sort of response.

Optimally, during the work, there are still other needs for the ID, and one can do a little more. It seems that there is a kind of tipping point of work at which the faculty sees the ID as a part of the project and keeps him / her in the loop. While most of my projects involve full-on investment of ID work, the small ones at the margins really still have a curiosity value.

Taking Breathers

One way I conceptualize these projects is that I’m taking a breather from them. There are periods of tough and intense work, but some do continue on in different forms or are courses taught at various institutions of higher education. Or the projects take multiple years to execute. Or the project is a grant that is won…but then the department sort of snatches the grant back and hasn’t set aside ID hours. All of this has happened.

Experiencing the Results

I am reconciled to not hearing what happens on certain projects or only getting a small affirmation for how something turned out “well.”

What is optimal though is to see the work that has finally emerged. There’s a lot that can be understood by seeing the digital objects or courses or degree programs that emerge. It’s also heartening to see people with new skill sets and ideas from the brief shared work.

Ours are service roles, which means that if the support is only needed briefly, so be it. If there is occasion to work in a more in-depth way, that’s optimal. And on projects where we have some degree of decision-making and actual design, those are the best. Those are the ones that can linger for years—and then one sees how the work manifests and evolves over time—to great satisfaction.