The instructional design (ID) discipline is in transition. Critical ID scholars acknowledge a social justice gap in ID paradigms, challenging ID practitioners to examine their design processes through an equity and justice lens. ID professionals are negotiating ways to shift their established ID routines informed by critical theories. Through vignettes, four ID professionals use Freire's praxis framework to critically reflect on their ID processes and embrace Costanza-Chock's design justice principles.

Universal design for learning (UDL) is an inclusive design framework. Faculty and instructional designers were surveyed to investigate UDL implementation in higher education. This survey was based on one used by Westine et al. (2019). Results about how faculty and instructional designers learn about UDL, how instructional designers train and support faculty in UDL, and why and how participants choose to employ UDL are shared. The results from this study have provided new findings in relation to faculty and instructional designer UDL implementation efforts in higher education that have implications for training and supporting faculty with UDL application efforts.

Community of inquiry (CoI) has been recognized as a design framework for online learning. As its use has been gradually increasing in online graduate programs for teachers, it is important to know how it affects teachers’ professional knowledge. This study examined course design elements/activities together with the CoI presences. The findings from the teacher interviews and the survey data showed: (1) all presences were evident in the course, and (2) activities aligned with social and cognitive presences (i.e., hands-on assignments, peer feedback, collaborative group work, and discussions) enhanced teachers’ professional knowledge. Practical recommendations for course design are presented. The findings suggest CoI can be a model for online teachers’ professional development.

Promoting pre-service teachers’ professional development is challenging because it requires adopting a new teacher identity and building professional skills. This challenge is further complicated when pre-service teachers learn online. In this article, the authors describe two design cases of adopting OER-enabled pedagogy in language teacher education during the COVID-19 lockdown. We argue that OER-enabled pedagogy can provide effective learning opportunities, engage learners, and help pre-service teachers build professional identity. The design cases offer insights into adopting OER-enabled pedagogy in various contexts, which is especially important given the increasing need for quality distance learning during regular and emergency situations.

Online collaboration tools have become a practical addition to the resources available to navigate the virtual space. Visual collaboration platforms, such as Miro, Mural, and Lucid chart, solve time and space restrictions applicable to traditional in-person group collaboration by providing a mechanism for real-time interaction without geographic limitations. This article provides five best practices for effectively utilizing interactive online whiteboards in real-world, practical applications from the perspective of an instructor-instructional designer, instructor-facilitator, researcher, mentor, and EdD program coordinator. The common themes woven throughout these best practices are collaboration and connectivity, facilitated by the functionality of online whiteboard tools/applications.

Design justice offers designers a framework to rethink design processes to center the voice of the learner and bring equity and inclusion to marginalized learners (Constanza-Chock, 2020). This article positions the instructional designer as a change agent through one designer’s narrative and their efforts to carry out the work of equity and inclusion with a diverse employee population in higher education. The case details how an instructional designer shifts a design team from designing “for” learners to designing “with” them through the framework of design justice to support organizations with diverse learner populations.

What does it mean to center our collective humanity in online learning spaces? This paper outlines an example of efforts to intentionally design a humanizing learning environment for an online, asynchronous university course. Our understanding of ‘humanization’ emerges in dialogue with Paulo Freire’s theoretical framing, which connects humanization with liberatory education. Within this context, we describe instructional and learning design approaches to build community, engage in dialogic and critical study and struggle, and center grace and care. We conclude with insights gained and challenges experienced with this form of teaching and learning and discuss possible avenues for future course designs.

The inclusion of culture in the design of information and communication technologies is a hollow cry for change and the inclusion of others. This paper explores interdisciplinary research across the fields of library and information sciences, open education, and instructional design and technology to examine representations of culture in social justice contexts. A literature review from 2015-2020 begins to situate this study. The findings reveal that to move towards an education in social justice requires both vicarious experiences and live interactions. Further, the article ends with a critique of social justice as a concept that challenges the non-oppressed to give up an unmeasured amount of power and privilege.

The COVID-19 pandemic-driven shift to emergency remote teaching (ERT) tasked instructional designers (IDs) with supporting faculty while simultaneously transitioning to a work-from-home (WFH) environment. In the post-pandemic return of students to physical campuses, IDs continued to WFH, triggering a need for those training IDs for future dynamic learning situations to understand their realities. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, this study explored the lived experiences of six IDs who worked remotely for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six themes were revealed through participant interviews: job responsibilities, work communication, equipment needs, WFH benefits, future work plans, and WFH challenges.