ORIGINAL PAPER An Industry Liaison for Graduate Learning in Instructional Design Craig D. Howard 1 & Rose Benedicks 2 # Association for Educational Communications & Technology 2019 Abstract The authors present insights from the creation of an Industry Liaison (IL) role in a graduate program in Instructional Technology. An analysis of learner questions posed to practicing designers showed masters candidates’ concerns fell into four areas: rejections and acceptance in the workplace, career logistics, technological skills, and application materials. Using these questions, the IL solicited practicing designers’, design managers’, and instructional design consultants’ answers. Findings expose areas where instructional design learning can be improved, and areas where academic preparation can be better connected to the practice of instructional design. Keywords Design learning . Design programs . Graduate learning . Industry liaison . Instructional designers . Theory to practice Background Learning objectives sometimes fall out of the grasp of typical coursework or internships. In graduate curricula, oftentimes practica are developed for these learning objectives, but practica are specific, tied closely to a singular working con- text, and do not typically provide access to a large number of practicing professionals. Academic education in instructional design has been called out for not providing experiential ac- cess to practicing designers, thwarting the success such pro- grams hope to cultivate (Fortney 2017). Larson (2005) per- haps worded the issue most elegantly, “Differences between the decontextualized learning environment and the final work environment have been identified by situated learning theo- rists as obstacles to the transfer of learning and the ability of graduates to solve complex, real-world problems once employed” (p. 22). In architecture, it is common to bring in practicing architects to serve on design juries, (Anthony 1987, 1991). Connecting learners with practitioners is not new. In instructional design, we have tried different ways to bridge academic learning and hands-on practice. Studio ap- proaches have garnered entire edited volumes (Boling et al. 2016). Cennamo and Holmes (2001) document an interven- tion where learners apprentice with a practicing designer for 14 weeks. Even further back there were calls for a bridge; cognitive apprenticeship strategies immersed learners in the rationale of the practitioner (Collins et al. 1991). As a designer of a graduate program in instructional technology (Yamagata- Lynch and Paulus 2015), the first author, who is faculty in an Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) program, saw ac- cess to practicing designers, especially broad access to con- sensus views from many practicing designers, as a persistent shortcoming of his program’ s IDT training, but he was more interested in learners hearing practitioners’ viewpoints and perspectives than in the two working side by side, or students being judged or critiqued by a professional. The first author endeavored to create an intervention that could incorporate fresh perspectives on professional issues. In the instructional technology online masters’ program, the first author had recognized that our soon-to-graduate instructional designers (IDs), while gaining real world learning experience from the practica and theoretical foundations from coursework, still had much to gain from access to practicing IDs. IDs could provide candid insight on professional issues and access to the culture of IDT as Larson (2005) describes. The first author’ s reasoning for the intervention was based on a specific concern. Practicing IDs focus on pragmatic learning Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00465-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Craig D. Howard cdh@utk.edu Rose Benedicks rose.benedicks@leolearning.com 1 The University of Tennessee Knoxville, 517 Bailey Education Complex, 1122 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville, TN 37996, USA 2 Leo Learning, 52 Old Steine Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1NH, UK TechTrends https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00465-4