Introduction: Context

The ID Clinic is much more likely to succeed if all stakeholders know how we operate and what procedures are in place to collaborate across teams. Internally, we need to understand the scope of the issues we support as well as how and when to transfer clients to an adjacent team. Our clients, of course, need to understand the support we offer, too, so that they come to us with relevant questions. While marketing tactics like having a good website will go a long way, we anticipate that most of our early referrals will come from other Instructional Designers. It is crucial for the other IDs of eDS to understand how and when to refer to us, too.

We anticipate some overlap between technical support and pedagogical support. Inevitably, the clinic will do some technical support, but we want to spend our time leveraging our expertise as designers. There are two helpful frameworks to help us navigate client conversations:

1. “+1” – Support the client with their small asks, but be mindful of potential ways to discuss bigger picture design strategies. If the client seems open to higher-level discussions and there is an obvious aspect of their course space (probably related to their initial question), then we can ask if they might be open to further conversation on that topic.
2. “Teach them how” – We only have (at most) 45 minutes, so we will not have a heavy hand in building aspects of their courses, nor will we be assigning Clinic questions to Assistant and Associate IDs. To ensure we support the faculty with complicated design questions, we should approach consultations as a space to train faculty on how to build rather than build for them.