Instructional Designers in Higher Education: Roles, Challenges, and Supports

Instructional designers (IDs) play a crucial role in higher education institutions’ teaching and learning endeavors. This review of literature on IDs in higher education between 2000 and 2020 found that their roles, responsibilities, and challenges are well-described, but little is known about what supports them. As ID roles evolve in response to new challenges while helping faculty and institutions adapt to changes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a rapidly emerging need to focus on additional areas of research, such as faculty perspectives, what it means to be an ID, and how IDs are--or can be--supported.