So the question for instructional design is whether it will follow the traditional path to becoming a profession, or whether the tools of instructional design are so easily available that it will remain a field without becoming a profession. If predictions about the reach of open learning come true, that is likely to be the case.

Your reasoning is faulty. You argue that If Bob built a bridge that didn’t follow the fundamental principles of effective bridge design it would result in a faulty bridge. Two problems with that. Bob could in ignorance build a bridge which follows the design and engineering principles of effective bridges. This you acknowledge. Thus if the engineers find evidence of those principles they already know, they have validated is that the principles of design hold true. If Bob on the other hand designs a bridge that doesn’t conform to any known engineering or design principles ( it doesn’t instantiate any principles known) and it is successful does this show that all design principles known are now wrong? No, what it does do is requires further investigation into why it succeeded leading to new insights into the design process. You argue that a bridge that doesn’t “follow the rules” would not be successful, but there are anecdotal cases of this from all realms of design where things work that boggle the engineers and designers.

CommonCraft is a good example of the latter. The fact that these folks use a highly effective technique (which I argue follows Instructional Design Principles) without formal training (even if it doesn’t follow design principles) is simply evidence that there are more aspects to effective instructional design than have yet been formalized.

Stephen, your argument seems to be that design is design is design with no reference to what you are designing. I am an Instructional Designer and I taught a course in the principles of design for 16yr old Career and Technical Engineering students. While I agree good design carries from one field to another, there are fundamental guidelines and rules that have shown to help create good instructional design which are peculiar to Instruction and don’t hold true for other disciplines.

I have designed houses, business facilities, community, municipal and provincial buildings. I have used that same skillset in the manufacture of stained glass and jewellery, restoring old motorcycles, creating online university-level course materials and developing IT infrastructure and facilities. The process for each is essentially the same (i.e. ADDIE), though we have added iteration to the model to help manage the current pace of change (added to the model, but not necessarily our practice).

That the folks at commoncraft have no formal credentials in instructional design is pretty much irrelevant. They are creative (a quality lacking in much, so-called design – the artistic or aesthetic aspect of design seems to be missing in most educational efforts) and have put considerable thought into their productions…well scripted, probably on storyboards, consistent look-and-feel and simple. They are designed for a specific purpose and work, well. The simplicity is deceptive. It takes a fair amount of work to create a message that clear and easily understood, which I am sure many academics can appreciate.

A glance at books on instructional design, boat design, landscape design, interior design, clothing design, job design, research design, and so forth would certainly find sets of design principles specific to those disciplines.

The “interactivity principle” in instructional design and the “rhythm principle” in landscape design are just a couple of examples.

Certainly philosophy, technology, economics, etc., have affected each discipline sufficiently to generate discipline-specific principles.

In fact, in, say, boat design wouldn’t we further expect sailboat-design principles, and then sail-design principles, and so forth?

“Our videos are designed for use in training and education. Specifically, they serve as great introductions to topics like Saving Money, Computer Software and Electing a US President. Playing a Common Craft video at the beginning of a training session gets students engaged and onto the same page quickly.”

Instructional design is not just about getting a learner’s attention or introducing a topic, although those are very important events.