Juries as Innovation in an Instructional Design and Technology Program: A Saga of Continuous Improvement Efforts

Abstract

Academic juries have a long tradition as a method of educating students and assessing their work. This tradition has been limited to a relatively narrow range of disciplines, such as architecture and various fine and performing arts. This article describes the case of an online graduate-level Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) program adopting and adapting a jury structure to support the development and assessment of students’ electronic portfolios. A key component of the adoption and adaptation is the continuous efforts to improve the impact of juries across their 10-year implementation (2005-2015) in the IDT program. Therefore, this paper explicates the history of jury establishment and development within the IDT program, reports two evaluations that provide students’ perspectives about juries, and details the IDT faculty members’ response to those evaluations in an effort to further improve juries as a program-wide innovation.