Abstract
- The AECT Design and Development Award Competition provides graduate students in our field with an opportunity to generate solutions to a real-world instructional design problem (Bishop et al. 2004). Organized into three sequential phases, the competition calls teams of two students to respond to a hypothetical problem statement, first with a high-level solution (Phase I), then a robust design proposal created in collaboration with an assigned mentor (Phase II), and lastly a presentation of the solution plan to the client (Phase III)(Schuch 2008).As teams advance through each phase of the competition, they apply models and theories to practice; engage in academic-and business-minded decision-making; interact with a team for an extended period of time; draft a realistic proposal, including a timeline and budget; and communicate professionally with a client (Bishop et al. 2004; Marshburn