Identifying Job Categories and Required Competencies for Instructional Technologist: A Text Mining and Content Analysis

This study applied both human-based and computer-based techniques to conduct a job analysis in the field of instructional technology. The primary research focus of the job analysis was to examine the efficacy of text mining by comparing text mining results with content analysis results. This agenda was fulfilled by using job announcement data as an example to determine essential job categories and required competencies. In phase one, a job title analysis was conducted. Different categorizing strategies were explored, and primary job categories were reported. In phase two, the human-based content analysis was conducted, which identified 20 competencies in the knowledge domain, 22 in the ability domain, 23 in the skill domain, and 13 other competencies. In phase three, text mining (topic modeling) was applied to the entire data set, resulting in 50 themes. From these 50 themes, the researcher selected 20 themes that were most relevant to instructional technology competencies. The findings of the two research techniques differ in terms of granularity, comprehensibility, and objectivity. Based on evidence revealed in the current study, the author recommends that future studies explore ways to combine the two techniques to complement one another.