Suzan,
As an instructional designer who has developed numerous online courses and
educational programs for both traditional and distance learning settings, I
feel that the main contributions an instructional designer makes are:
1)  conducting a needs analysis
2)  developing a hierarchy of learning goals based upon interviews with
subject matter experts and stake holders
3)  conducting task analysis
4)  developing learning strategies and activities that match the learning
goals and are most conducive to promoting learning of the specific type of
knowledge (ex: psychomotor skills, declarative knowledge, procedural
knowledge, etc.)
5)  Incorporating learning theories and motivational strategies into the
design of instruction
6)  developing a plan of evaluation
7)  conducting formative and summative evaluations using both quantitative
and qualitative methods
8)  writing evaluation reports

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).