I (Richard) felt the anxiety bubble up inside me. It was my first day in a new graduate program—and first day in an entirely new discipline and career—and it was almost my turn to speak. Sitting in my first class, I listened as the teacher directed us to go around the room, introducing ourselves and telling each other “What it is you are interested in doing in this field.”

I listened, amazed, as my peers said amazing things about their future careers:

“I am interested in developing technologies to enable video analysis for teacher self-reflection.”

“I am interested in creating simulations to teach chemistry.”

“I’ve been working as a cinematographer for indie films and am interested in applying these skills to education.”

“I am interested in developing better approaches for designing instruction for multicultural audiences.”

I was happy for my peers—and miserable for myself. I was young and having a quarter-life crisis, still searching for what I could be when I ‘grew up.’ When it was my turn, I simply said, “my name is Rick and . . . I’m interested in learning what I’m interested in!”

Our backgrounds as editors of this book represent the great diversity of people who enter the field to become learning and instructional design professionals. Richard was a literature major and former journalist. Heather was a photographer with a degree in fine art. Neither of us had what many might consider the “ideal” background to be learning and instructional design professionals and, for both of us, it took a little bit of time to find our way, direction, and passion within the field. 

This book, in a sense, is written to our younger selves, but also to all newcomers to the discipline who wonder what their career could be in this discipline and how to best prepare for it. This book may not be a classic textbook assigned in courses, as it does not directly address any specific theories, processes, or problems of practice—although we feel maybe it should be recommended in a student’s first course in a graduate program, as some earlier direction might help a struggling student find their way in the “metafield” that is learning and instructional design. 

A Companion Book to Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology

This book is a companion to the Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology book. In the first edition of the Foundations book (see https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations), there were six sections, with the first four presenting a foundation of understanding in the field (history, theory, media and technology, and design basics). The last two sections of that book provided a foundation to students’ own personal journeys, helping them navigate professional issues, create plans for professional development, and learn about different potential careers. 

The first edition of this text was an important milestone in the field as one of the first widely available open textbooks (see West, 2019 for the story of the process used to create the first edition). However, it was important to keep the content of the book updated, and new technologies (e.g., Edtechbooks) and movements within the field necessitated a revised, second edition. In revising the book, Dr. Heather Leary joins me as a co-editor. We decided the original book was too large, so we removed the last two sections of the book that were related to the personal career growth of the students, and that became Becoming a Professional in Learning and Instructional Design Technology. 

In the current second edition of the Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology book (see https://edtechbooks.org/foundations_of_learn) we used the metaphor of a tree to describe the need of understanding the roots of our discipline (the history and foundations), the trunk of the tree, (current topics), and the branches (the rising new professionals with their skills, interests, and abilities). This book represents a deep dive into the "branches" of our profession—meaning, this is a book for new professional and graduate students. You represent the future of our discipline! You are where our field will grow, and this book is our effort to assist you in that journey. And if the journey is, at times, bumpy—we have been there too! To fight imposter syndrome you might review Failing Forward (https://edtechbooks.org/failing_forward), which is a collection of many classic failures by professionals in our field, and how they recovered from these failures. 

What is New in the Second Edition?

For this edition, we have asked authors to update their previous chapters to keep the information cutting edge. In addition, we solicited new chapter topics, and were pleased with the new content offered by skilled researchers, mentors, and practitioners in the field. We have divided the book into two sections: the first section is related to professional development, personal growth, and the skills/knowledge needed to emerge as a professional in the field; the second section of the book specifically discusses various career options in the field and how one might prepare to enter that specific career. 

We hoped to address the questions that many students and new professionals have about how to succeed, but if there is an important topic missing, please suggest it (as well as potential authors) to one of the editors. To some degree, we consider this a living text, as we believe there are likely many questions that students still have that are unanswered. 

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the critical work of Rebecca Nissen on this book, as she served as copyeditor and instructional designer and enhanced the quality of every chapter in the book. Through this project, she has become a highly knowledgeable and skilled professional in the field in her own right!

Technology Features of This Book

There are many helpful features of this book that we have sought to provide as a book creation team, and there are other features provided by the EdTech Books system. We would like to make you aware of these, as they will enhance your learning of these topics. This book can be read online or downloaded as a PDF. A glossary of difficult or new terms can be found as needed in the book; access the definitions by hovering over the bolded terms while reading online. The chapters include learning checks allowing you to see if you understood the author’s message. We encourage you to use these as you read. At the end of each chapter are surveys for you to rate the chapter. Please do so, as this helps us know which chapters are working well and which may need revision in the future. Because this book is licensed CC-BY, you may reuse, translate, or repurpose this book, as long as you attribute and link to the original.

Suggestions To Improve the Book

We welcome feedback on this book. Please provide a review on Amazon or through this link to have your review published here in EdTech Books. This helps other teachers know about this book so they can adopt it. If you find errors in the book, please email the chapter author or the book editors and we can fix those. If you have a suggestion for an important topic to add to this book in the next edition, please email your suggestion to the editors.

In addition, if you are a teacher or practitioner, and would like to contribute teaching materials to teach any of the topics in the book, please email the editors so we can share your materials with other instructors in the Instructor Materials Repository.

References

 West, R. E. (2019). Developing an open textbook for learning and instructional design technology. TechTrends, 63, 226–235.