This is the blog of Dr. Curt Bonk, Professor at Indiana University and President of CourseShare (there are NO Guest Blogs and NO advertisements permitted).

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Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. It's an Instructional designer dream world.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
There is a lot of attention paid late to instructional design position. Why? Well, simply put, there are jobs. Many jobs? Don't believe it...well, see my educational technology and instructional technology jobs portal or the one for my department in Instructional Systems Technology (IST jobs portal). (Sidenote: I had a blog post back in April 2008 on job searching in the field of educational technology. It was likely my most accessed blog post ever.

Instructional Designer Jobs Hot: The Gates Foundation has a new 16 page report (April, 2016) on Instructional Design in Higher Education (full report or appendix). Tthere are also many upcoming free webinars on instructional design. Interesting data. Seems that the field of educational technology is getting much attention. According to this report, there are 13,000 instructional designers in the USA alone. Of these 13,000, most of them (i.e., 87 percent) at least have a master’s degree and 32 percent have a Ph.D. More interestingly, perhaps, most are females (67 percent). The sample size is solid with 780 respondents. The average age is 45.  See the Intentional Futures website. A figure from the Gates report is below.
 
 
 
More recap data from this report from Gates was published a day or two ago in Campus Technology. Survey: Instructional Designers 'Pivotal' in Tech Adoption, Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology., May 9, 2016 Here is a quote from it:
 
                "Respondents said they wear "many hats," doing design, training, support and management activities during a workday. For example, 54 percent reported that they manage projects multiple times a day, and another 19 percent do so at least once a day. Sixty percent said they perform technology training at least once a day, and 49 percent said they performed pedagogical training just as often."

The Gates Report is one of many reports lately signaling the high demand for instructional designers as well as those in the field of educational or instructional technology in general. There are jobs!
 
For instance, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently published a trends report. Back on February 29, 2016, they had a series of articles on ten key trends. One of those trends related to instructional design. Instructional Design: Demand grows for a new breed of academic, The Chronicle of Higher Education by Dan Berrett.
 
 
 
In it, there is a chart showing that the percent college students taking at least one online course grew from 9.6 percent in 2002 to 28 percent in 2014. And membership in the flagship organization for the field of instructional design--AECT--grew from 1,646 members in 2006 to 2,490 in 2016. That is quite a jump! My friend, Dr. Phil Harris, Executive Director of AECT, was quite pleased with these trends when I talked to him about the data below.



Again, jobs...there are jobs! In fact, of the ten trends mentioned in the report from the Chronicle of HE, this is the only one related to jobs (see The Trends Report: Ten Key Shifts in Higher Education). The others relate to things like faculty productivity, digital transcripts, leadership, marketing of the university, outsourcing aspects of college, the scrutiny of research today, university governance, restrictions on speech, and so on. So the highlighting of instructional design as one of these mega-trends is particularly salient.
 
Jobs. Yes, there are jobs today in instructional design and educational technology. When I visit a college campus it is not unusual for someone to tell me that they have gone from 2 or 3 instructional designers back in the 1990s to 15 or 20 or more today. Jobs. Yes, there are tons of jobs! Now do we have the flexibility in the training programs out there to find ways to ramp up the number of professionals graduating in this field in the coming decade to meet the demand?

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This week in health (shaking a leg...pain?)
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Some Health Issues: As some of you may know, I have been dealing with calf, knee, and foot pain for nearly two years now. I have overcome planta fasciitis a little over a year ago (right foot). But last August, I developed severe knee tightness and leg pain. After much physical therapy, I finally had a cortisone shot and then an MRI. I had torn the meniscus in my left leg. I had surgery on my left knee Monday morning for a torn meniscus.  My guess is that much of this had to do with a sedentary lifestyle from sitting editing the MOOCs book and special issue project. These two big projects took their toll on my body. Smile.

My surgery went well two days ago. After I was knocked out by the anesthesiologist, my doctor (Dr. Fox) placed a mini-camera into my leg to have a look. It revealed that, other than the meniscus tear, my knee is generally in good shape with little wear and tear. I am now at home recovering and grading papers. I will be doing regular walking in a week. Exercise bike (and hot tub) in 2 weeks and running in 5 or 6 weeks. I go to Tyler, Texas May 22-23 and Korea May 26 to June 8th. I should be fine to travel by then.

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Two Tidbits of TOOCs, I mean MOOCs...
2 MOOCs article tidbit recaps are below:

1.      Inside Higher Ed, April 27, 2016, Georgia Tech’s Next Steps, by Carl Straumsheim (Article key Points: most people signing up are from USA and males (unlike FTF program); they are going to expand their number of MOOC related master’s degrees; they are profitable but not growing as fast as expected; they recently had their 10,000th applicant; and the average cost of developing each computer science MOOC is $350,000. Yes, $350,000 for each course. Wow! I now that we did not spend that on the MOOC that I did for Blackboard four years ago on how to teach.

2.       eCampus News, May 2, 2016, Developing county MOOC users not like those in the U.S., by Ronald Bethke (Article Key Points: developing world MOOC participants (a survey of 1,400 MOOC users ages 18-25 and 2,250 non users from South Africa, the Philippines, and Columbia); MOOC users have lower levels of education (less than half completed college) than studies in the developed world; and more are getting certificates (49 percent) and 30 percent are completing at least one MOOC course. Around 70 percent of employed respondents are getting certifications. The biggest problems for those in the development world that they surveyed) were not the lack of access (4 percent) or the lack of tech skills (2 percent, but lack of awareness of MOOCs (79 percent) and lack of time (49 percent).

Given that lack of awareness was the key problem, I would hope that my recent book and special journal issue on MOOCs and Open Education Around the World can help in this regard even if in a minor or modest way.

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Been there (New Zealand), Done That (Korea...but going again)...
Some updates are below.

I was in New Zealand April 16-25. I was mainly there for the DEANZ (Distance Education Association of New Zealand) conference. I had a great time at the Hobbiton Movie set for the conference social as well as in Rotorua to see the geysers and sit in the Polynesian hot spas. I also loved my time in Hamilton (the gardens, pubs, the conference, the University of Waikato campus, etc.). Auckland (the city of sails) was also delightful. What a view from the roof of my apartment in Auckland and the Sky Tower (see below).

After a very long plane ride, the trip started in Hamilton (that is where the conference was held--the University of Waikato):




My "Adding Some TEC-VARIETY" co-author, Dr. Elaine Khoo, and her husband Jik.



We got to the Hobbiton Movie set on Tuesday April 19th for the conference social. Cool!








Check out my elf ears!



I got to be "Gandalf the Blue" for the Great Debate--whether online and face-to-face pedagogy were identical or not. My team lost, unfortunately. Stephen Bright was Gandalf the White and the host of the debate.







My long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Grace Lin from the University of Hawaii, came to the conference. Grace helped me with my World is Open book long ago.


Marie Bountrogianni Education Dean from Ryerson University in Ontario, Canada met with me for breakfast during the conference.


Elaine Khoo and her husband Jik took Grace Lin and I to Rotorua after the conference. It was grand.
















Finally, I ended up in Auckland for a few days. A couple of people from the conference joined me there.












Views from the Sky Tower my final night, Sunday April 24th.













Views from my apartment in Auckland Monday morning April 25th, 2016. I was on the 30th floor of the Metropolis. A lovely and huge place which was one the tallest building in all of New Zealand. AirB&B comes in handy.










Upcoming Korea Trip: There may be a book launching of the Korean version of my new MOOCs and Open Ed Around the World book on Saturday May 28th after the KAIEM conference at Kyung Hee U in Seoul. The translators have worked fast for us! I will meet with many of the Korean translators for dinner that night after speaking about the book and perhaps the special issue at the conference. I guess I should send a few copies of the English version over to the conference. I will speak at 8 places over the first week I am there. I have sent over some of my Adding Some TEC-VARIETY books to give away at each stop (even though it is free online as a PDF).

My Korea stops will include in this order:
Saturday May 28th: KAEIM (an ed media conference; 1 pm talk);
Monday May 30th: Ewha Womens University and the Korean National Open U (KNOU). The KNOU talk will include people from a company called Tekville; Techville builds products for K-12 teacher communities;
Tuesday May 31st: Chosun University (in Gwangju in the south). I will see my former student Dr. Jieun Lee;
Wednesday June 1st: Korea University (2 talks); I will see my former student Dr. Minyoung Doo;
Thursday June 2nd: Chungbuk National U (2-3 hours south of South where my long-time colleague and friend from graduate school days, Dr. Okhwa Lee works. Also there is my former student and close friend Dr. Paul Byun)
Friday June 3rd: Starting at the Institute of National Lifelong Education and ending at Seoul National U (organized by my good friend Dr. Ilju Rha).
After those talks, I will take off 4 or so days to travel around with different friends each day. Perhaps I will get a new suit. I need a blue one and perhaps another white one or maybe a green one.

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About Me

Name: Curt Bonk
Home: Bloomington, Indiana, United States
About Me: I am a former accountant and CPA and a former educational psychologist. I am now Professor of IST at Indiana University and also adjunct in the School of Informatics. I founded and later sold SurveyShare. As president of CourseShare, LLC, I run around the world training instructors to teach online and give motivational talks about emerging learning technologies. I also write and edit books related to e-learning and blended learning. See bio and vita.

See my complete profile

Click here for information about my recent book, The World is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education.

Visit the Indiana University Home Page of E-Learning Expert Curtis J. Bonk.

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