Faculty: Jason McDonald
Title
Teaching Professor
Department:
IPT
Contact Information
Office: 150-E MCKB
Phone: 801-422-3674
Email: nope@jason@byu.edumsn.com
Website: jkmcdonald.com
I am a native of Provo, UT. Currently I live with my wife and youngest son in Spanish Fork, UT. Professionally, before coming to teach at BYU I worked in the instructional media industry, most recently as the director of digital products for the Deseret Book Company and a media portfolio director for the LDS Church.
I have taught both graduate and undergraduate university students. I have also taught in industry settings, both corporate and non-profit. Topics I have taught include:
• Instructional design processes
• Integrating technology in the classroom
• Product management
• Project management
• The history of instructional design
• Instructional simulations
• Human-computer interactions, user interface design, and usability practices
• Using stories and film for culture change
• Theories of learning
But what I really love teaching is design itself. This includes the philosophy of design, case studies of notable designs, the history of design, design culture, the lived experience of designers, and practical design techniques. My experience as a practicing instructional designer helps me effectively mentor students in all of these areas. I also love teaching how to blend instructional design with other creative practices.
Technology-mediated education and online learning still tend to be flat, thin, and dull, despite researchers' attempts to develop strategies and techniques to make them richer, more engaging, and more effective. But what if the problem isn't the strategies we use? Or the processes we follow when designing learning environments?
What if we considered being an instructional designer to be a way of life, and not just a job that applies a set of processes/methodologies? What if what mattered were designers' character and dispositions, and the perceptual capacities and affective responses associated with designers' styles of practice? Is it possible these are as important, or perhaps more important, than the specific skills they employ? If so, is what constitutes this style of life sufficient to empower designers to successfully cope with, and improve, the educational situations in which they work? And does this view provide us a more robust foundation from which to investigate what can be done to reorient designers so they see, feel, and act differently, if necessary?
This is what I study. Some of the specific topics this includes are:
• The place of instructional designers' practical, embodied know-how, and the risks of designers over-relying on detached, instrumental knowledge.
• The field's tendency to reduce and flatten all issues to technological problems/solutions, and what's left behind in the translation.
• How instructional designers can resist the field's hyper-rationalization and technologization, and come into their own as designers committed to sensitively responding to the demands of unique situations.
• Understanding instructional design practice as it is lived and experienced, along with how designers become the kinds of people they are.
• How instructional designers cope with tensions that arise between the realities of work situations and the pursuit of high ideals.
• What do various moral issues look like in the context of instructional design (e.g., drawing distinctions of worth, conscience of craft, taking stands and making wholehearted commitments).
Nancy Peery Marriott Excellence in Mentoring
David O. McKay School of Education, Brigham Young University
2022
Research and Theory Division, Theory Spotlight Competition (2nd place)
Association for Educational Communications and Technology
2021
Design and Technology SIG Design & Technology Outstanding Design Case Award
American Educational Research Association
2020
Best Zone Paper
American Society for Engineering Education
2008
The everydayness of instructional design and the pursuit of quality in online courses
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Online Learning
- Volume: 27
- Issue: 2
- URL: https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3470
The Future of the Field is Not Design
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Textbook
- Publication Journal: Foundations of learning and instructional design technology: Historical roots & current trends (2nd ed.)
- Publisher: EdTech Books
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/foundations_of_learn/the_future_of_the_field_is_not_design
“Are These People Real?”: Designing and Playtesting an Alternative Reality, Educational Simulation
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Balzotti, Jonathan Mark; Franklin, Melissa; Haws, Jessica; Rowan, Jamin Creed
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: International Journal of Designs for Learning
- Volume: 14
- Issue: 1
- URL: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ijdl/article/view/34682
- Abstract: click to view
The Future of the Field is Not Design
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Textbook
- Publication Journal: Foundations of learning and instructional design technology: Historical roots & current trends (2nd ed.)
- Publisher: EdTech Books
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/foundations_of_learn/the_future_of_the_field_is_not_design
The everydayness of instructional design and the pursuit of quality in online courses
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Online Learning
- Volume: 27
- Issue: 2
- URL: https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/3470
“Are These People Real?”: Designing and Playtesting an Alternative Reality, Educational Simulation
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Balzotti, Jonathan Mark; Franklin, Melissa; Haws, Jessica; Rowan, Jamin Creed
- Publication Date: 2023
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: International Journal of Designs for Learning
- Volume: 14
- Issue: 1
- URL: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/ijdl/article/view/34682
- Abstract: click to view
Considering What Faculty Value When Working with Instructional Designers and Instructional Design Teams
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Elsayed-Ali, Salma; Bowman, Kayla; Rogers, Amy
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of Applied Instructional Design
- Publisher: Ed Tech Books
- Volume: 11
- Issue: 3
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/_considering_what_fa
- Abstract: click to view
Expecting the unexpected: A collaborative autoethnography of instructors’ experiences teaching advanced instructional design
- Authors: McDonald, Jason; Stefaniak, Jill; Rich, Peter
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: TechTrends
- Publisher: Springer
- Volume: 66
- Issue: 1
“This Uncertain Space of Teaching”: How Design Studio Instructors Talk About Design Critiques Along with Themselves when Giving Critiques
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Michela, Esther
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- Volume: 22
- Issue: 1
Expecting the unexpected: A collaborative autoethnography of instructors’ experiences teaching advanced instructional design
- Authors: McDonald, Jason; Stefaniak, Jill; Rich, Peter
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: TechTrends
- Publisher: Springer
- Volume: 66
- Issue: 1
Considering What Faculty Value When Working with Instructional Designers and Instructional Design Teams
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Elsayed-Ali, Salma; Bowman, Kayla; Rogers, Amy
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of Applied Instructional Design
- Publisher: Ed Tech Books
- Volume: 11
- Issue: 3
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_11_3/_considering_what_fa
- Abstract: click to view
“This Uncertain Space of Teaching”: How Design Studio Instructors Talk About Design Critiques Along with Themselves when Giving Critiques
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Michela, Esther
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- Volume: 22
- Issue: 1
A Framework for Phronetic LDT Theory
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Theories to influence the future of learning design and technology
- Publisher: Ed Tech Books
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/theory_comp_2021/framework_phronetic_LDT_mcdonald
- Abstract: click to view
A Framework for Phronetic LDT Theory
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K
- Publication Date: 2022
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Theories to influence the future of learning design and technology
- Publisher: Ed Tech Books
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/theory_comp_2021/framework_phronetic_LDT_mcdonald
- Abstract: click to view
Understanding distinctions of worth in the practices of instructional design teams
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Jackson, Brenton; Hunter, McKayla
- Publication Date: 2021
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Educational Technology Research and Development
- Publisher: Springer
- Volume: 69
- Issue: 3
Understanding distinctions of worth in the practices of instructional design teams
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; Jackson, Brenton; Hunter, McKayla
- Publication Date: 2021
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Educational Technology Research and Development
- Publisher: Springer
- Volume: 69
- Issue: 3
“I can do things because I feel valuable”: Authentic project experiences and how they matter to instructional design students
- Authors: McDonald, Jason ; Rogers, Amy
- Publication Date: 2021
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of Applied Instructional Design
- Volume: 10
- Issue: 2
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_10_2/i_can_do_things_beca
“I can do things because I feel valuable”: Authentic project experiences and how they matter to instructional design students
- Authors: McDonald, Jason ; Rogers, Amy
- Publication Date: 2021
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: Journal of Applied Instructional Design
- Volume: 10
- Issue: 2
- URL: https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_10_2/i_can_do_things_beca
Instructional Design for Learner Creativity
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; West, Richard Edward; Rich, Peter J; Hokanson, Brad
- Publication Date: 2020
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Handbook for Research in Educational Communications and Technology
- Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
- Issue: 5th
Instructional Design for Learner Creativity
- Authors: McDonald, Jason K; West, Richard Edward; Rich, Peter J; Hokanson, Brad
- Publication Date: 2020
- Publication Type: Book, Chapter/ Section in Scholarly Book
- Publication Journal: Handbook for Research in Educational Communications and Technology
- Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG
- Issue: 5th
"It's So Wonderful Having Different Majors Working Together": The Development of an Interdisciplinary Design Thinking Minor
- Authors: McDonald, Jason; West, Richard; Rich, Peter; Pfleger, Isaac
- Publication Date: 2019
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: TechTrends
- Publisher: Association for Educational Communications and Technology
- Volume: 63
- Issue: 4
"It's So Wonderful Having Different Majors Working Together": The Development of an Interdisciplinary Design Thinking Minor
- Authors: McDonald, Jason; West, Richard; Rich, Peter; Pfleger, Isaac
- Publication Date: 2019
- Publication Type: Journal Article, Academic Journal
- Publication Journal: TechTrends
- Publisher: Association for Educational Communications and Technology
- Volume: 63
- Issue: 4