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Paul NovakSenior Instructional Designer

University College at the University of Denver

Paul Novak is the Senior Instructional Designer for University College at the University of Denver. He also serveDU's Courseware Faculty Advisory Board where he guides faculty and staff on the use of the university's learmanagement software. His diverse background and experience with both instructional design and technology traiinform his current role at DU. I spoke with Paul over the phone.

How would you describe your role at DU? What does your job involve?I do faculty support, mostly. I also teach, and I help with training faculty and staff on technology

and courseware. I am on the Courseware Faculty Advisory Board where I give suggestions for

appropriate technology to use given the content of the lesson. I also do curriculum

consultation.

Is there anything that you would like to tell me about online learning at DU?University College is the college of professional and continuing studies, and that's where most

of the online teaching takes place. Other units are incorporating online teaching little by little,

but 95% of the teaching outside of University College is still done on campus.

How did you get into instructional design?Well, luck is part of it. I majored in history and journalism. In my first job out of college I worked

with technology and I did video production. After a few years I ended up training new co-

workers. I found the educational technology aspect of my work very interesting, and I decided

to further my education. I got a masters degree in Ed. Tech at Northern Colorado, and

instructional design was part of that.

How do you keep up with and incorporate emerging trends in instructional design? Much of the time I just do a Google search. And there are plenty of magazines. TheJournal of

Distance Educationis a good one. Theres also Campus Technology, which is related to ed tech.

When I come across information about different techniques and developments, Ill do more

research into them.

What are some of the major trends as you see them?

There's going to be more evaluation, more analysis of outcomes and reformulation of

objectives, especially now with government programs such as No Child Left Behind. This is

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where instructional design is important. You cant get good data to evaluate the outcomes

without instructional design. That is the single biggest trend I see in both the public and private

sectors.

Where do you see the field going in the next five to ten years?One thing thats growing and becoming more important is the blending of instructional design

with ed tech. More and more learning is not taking place in the classroom, so theres a need to

develop new and different ways to deliver instruction.

What would you like to see that isn't happening?I would like to see a change in the perception of instructional design. It would be helpful if

people recognized that were not just trainers or educational technologists. We do

development, we analyze outcomes and develop instruction around that. We useprocess in

developing education. ADDIE is essential to what we do.

What is happening in instructional design that you don't care for?There are a lot of people who call themselves instructional designers these days, but really they

design curriculum. That differs from the way I define instructional design. Instructional design is

not just about designing courses and modules. Theres a bigger picture you have to take into

consideration what resources do you need, who needs to be involved, and so on.

We use ADDIE a lot in this field. Youve probably encountered it pretty often in your technology

classes, havent you?

Actually, Ive just started the program. I dont have much experience at all.

Then youre going to use ADDIE a lot. It is something that is used across every discipline that

builds something. First, youll analyze the information that you have, and with that information

youll design what you need. Then you develop it. You implement the thing. And then you

evaluate the outcomes. Everybody who develops something follows this process. You are just

going to use it for education.

Do you have any advice for people who are just getting into instructional design?It depends. How did you become interested in instructional design?

I used to have a small business doing freelance copy and technical writing. Through that Ibecame interested in instructional design.

Well, one thing Ive noticed is that most instructional designers come from a non-technical

background. Many of them have a liberal arts education, for example. So what I would

recommend is that you brush up on technology. You need those soft skills, but you really need

to be conversant in technology, as well. I was in journalism, but the technical training that I did

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26 September 2009

enabled me to work closely with engineers and others with strong technical backgrounds. You

need to be able to talk about a wide range ofstuff. Instructional design is one of those fields

where everything youve ever learned means something.

Another thing to remember is that development and delivery require different skills. You can

have a technical writer who can communicate very eloquently on paper and get their message

across that way, but their interpersonal communication is not that great. As an instructional

designer, you will need to be able to communicate well through both development and

delivery. And you should brush up on your web skills, because very little is done on paper

anymore.

Theres one more thing that I want to tell you. I dont know you very well, but I know a lot of

technical writers and they tend to be kind of take-charge people. In instructional design you

really need to be a people person. You need to make sure that your stakeholders feel that they

have some piece in itin what youre producing, so theres got to be a lot of interaction. You

also have to think about the people who will receive the end result. When you develop a bit of

corporate training, theres going to be someone who is going to take that and interact with a

customer. At the end of the day, what you create has got to stick.

Paul Novaks diverse experience and educational background is of interest to me, as my own educational backgroudiverse. I certainly relate to his encouragement to brush up on my awareness of technology, as I have spent time inlast year networking with developers and investors of new technology in the Denver area, and I have found that not is it important to be conversant in the language of technology, but also to recognize developers need to communwith the end user who may not be adept with technology. In our conversation, Paul strongly emphasized the importof being able to communicate well with people at varying levels of expertise, and not only regarding technology. WI somewhat intuitively recognize that aspect of instructional design in my own perception, Paul really seemeconsider it to be a high priority.

The synthesis of instructional design and educational technology is also an interesting aspect of the field. It seemmany ways inevitable, and its one of the factors that led me to instructional design. As Paul perceived, I dont hastrong background in technology, and my aim at first is to approach the field from a design perspective. However, intrigued by the creative possibilities when two young fields such as instructional design and educational technocombine. I was a bit surprised that his method for keeping up with emerging trends seemed relatively simple, buprior knowledge of educational technology and its uses is obviously much stronger than mine. I was also interested icomment that it isnt possible to analyze outcomes without instructional design. That role for instructional designone that I hadnt considered.

In all, although many of the key elements of instructional design that he mentioned felt familiar to me in a sense, itcertainly valuable to hear a professional instructional designer specify what he considered to be most important to h

What I take away as the most important message of this interview is that an instructional designer needs to be adaptand able to diversify, and most of all be able to communicate across the spectrum. As a novice, it is instructive to hthat pieces of knowledge that I am beginning to synthesize are on the right track, and to have a sense of what areaimportant to work on as I progress in the field.