Identifying Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration in Instructional Technology

Interdisciplinarity is defined as communication and collaboration across academic disciplines. The instructional technology (IT) field has claimed to have an interdisciplinary nature influenced by neighboring fields such as psychology, communication, and management. However, it has been difficult to find outstanding evidence of the field’s interdisciplinary research efforts, except with psychology. IT and neighboring fields including human performance technology, instructional design, learning sciences, human resource development, and human resource management share common goals of learning and performance in diverse contexts. These fields are converging in terms of underscoring the importance of people in improving organizational performance through learning, development, and innovations. In this context, the purpose of this study was to identify interdisciplinary research collaboration efforts in the field through a review of literature on the topic. Based on the review of the literature, I provided implications for research and practice.