The Instructional Designer and Self-Regulated Learning: An Action Research Approach to Increasing Instructional Designer Professional Readiness to Support Self-Regulated Learning in Online Higher Education

The aim of this dissertation is to determine the professional readiness of instructional designers as they develop and implement online course elements that support student self-regulated learning development. The increasing popularity of online education amongst college students has created a rift between faculty and students. Faculty at this institution report students are exhibiting low motivation and are performing at lower levels than seen in previous semesters. This action research approached these concerns by providing instructional designers with an opportunity to collaborate with faculty to develop implementations and scaffolds to support SRL in online higher education courses. This research looked to answer the following questions: 1) How can instructional designers improve their professional readiness to implement self-regulated learning practices (SRL) in the online learning; 2) How can instructional designers use learning management system tools and navigation to support self-regulated learning more effectively in online learning; 3) What can instructional designers do to integrate self-regulated learning into the online course environment seamlessly; and 4) What actions can be taken in regards to current practice to support SRL implementations in future semesters? Findings from this study suggest that instructional designers’ professional readiness increases when designers are provided with hands-on opportunities to support SRL online implementations. The study also indicates that important relationships exist between implementation success and instructional designer/faculty relationships. Participants agreed that SRL should be more intentionally supported in online courses at this university, and proposed actions to modify current practices to better support SRL.