Student Guidelines

07 April 2025: Added information about terms and conditions 

28 March 2025

Information about the competition is shared here: https://aect.connectedcommunity.org/aectnatoactdesigndevelopmentcompetition/aect-dd-competition/home.

The AECT Design and Development competition provides a platform for graduate students to connect their academic knowledge and skills to real-world practice. Since 2019, NATO ACT (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Allied Command Transformation) has been serving as the sponsor. Graduate students in Instructional Design and Technology and related programs across the world are eligible to participate in this competition. 

Competition overview

Social media use

To protect team anonymity at Phases 1-2, do not share information about your participation or the submission (e.g., team name, submission approach, topic of submission, submission excerpts) via social media unless your team’s participation ends at either Phase 1 or Phase 2. 

If your team is one of the three finalist teams selected for Phase 3, you may announce that you are presenting at the AECT Annual Convention, but do not share any information about your team’s approach or presentation via social media until the competition concludes at the convention.

Terms and conditions

Teams are asked to agree to terms and conditions at submission. You may review these terms and conditions before your submission.

Phase 1

Eligibility

Graduate students in instructional design and technology and related programs across the world are eligible to participate in the AECT Design and Development Competition, sponsored by NATO ACT between 2018 and 2025. Students need to be enrolled as a graduate student as of January of the competition year. Competition Teams are limited to two graduate students who may come from the same or two different graduate programs or two different universities.  

Important: Choose a team name that does not reveal your names, university names, or university mascots or colors. 

Information and questions

Information about the competition, including the problem statement and timeline, is shared here: https://aect.connectedcommunity.org/aectnatoactdesigndevelopmentcompetition/aect-dd-competition/home.

When Phase 1 starts, the Coordinating Committee provides a mechanism for asking questions on the competition website and a deadline for questions.

Description of the Phase 1 deliverable

• Prepare a Preliminary Design Abstract of no more than 1,500 words. The reference list does not count towards the word limit.

• Refer to the problem statement and follow the year’s specific guidelines.

• Use:

  • APA 7th edition style.

  • A business-appropriate font.

  • Double-spaced, 1-inch page margin.

Submitting the deliverable

The Coordinating Committee will provide a mechanism for submitting the abstract on the competition website. 

Important: Remove any identifying information from your team name and the submission’s contents, title, file name (e.g., your names, your university’s name, your university’s mascot or colors), and file properties. Failure to remove identifying information could result in disqualification. 

Review process

Upon Phase 1 submission, selected members of the Competition Coordinating Committee review the anonymized submissions and identify up to eight promising abstracts to advance to Phase 2 of the competition. The Phase 1 review focuses on creativity, theoretical soundness, practicality, and adherence to the problem statement’s guidelines. 

Feedback 

The Coordinating Committee provides all teams brief written comments about their abstracts.

Phase 2

Eligibility

Up to eight teams selected from Phase 1 are eligible to proceed to Phase 2 and be matched with a mentor.

Information and questions

When Phase 2 starts, the Coordinating Committee provides a mechanism for asking questions on the competition website and a deadline for questions.

Working with a mentor

The assigned mentors will have industry and/or academic backgrounds with expert knowledge in instructional design, educational technology or related areas. The Coordinating Committee will provide the mentors’ contact information to the student teams. Student teams are responsible for initiating contact with their assigned mentors. If your team does not hear back from your team’s mentor within a reasonable period of time, please contact the Competition Coordinating Committee chair.

The mentor will provide advice to your team but will not write the submission. Your team is responsible for asking any competition-related questions using the mechanisms provided by the Coordinating Committee. The mentor is not responsible for answering nor channeling your competition-related questions.

Description of the Phase 2 deliverable

Phase 2 is a proposal that explains how the team will execute the solution described in the initial abstract. It should include a proposed budget. 

The proposal is not an academic paper. The goal of the proposal is to convince the reader to choose your team’s solution. Your proposed solution needs to be grounded in solid instructional design knowledge , and it needs to describe in practical terms what will be done, how it will be done, who will do it, and how well it will solve the problem. The proposal should reflect your team’s understanding of the client’s needs and emphasize how your solution will meet those needs. 

• Use no more than 5,000 words, including any appendices. 

• The reference list does not count towards the word limit.

• Do not include more than ten tables and figures.

• Refer to the problem statement and follow the year’s specific guidelines. 

• Follow the problem statement’s directions for presenting a proposed budget.

• Depending on the problem statement, teams may develop up to three artifacts (e.g., a sample job aid or a prototype) related to the problem statement. These artifacts must be accessible online and in a way that does not reveal the identity of the team. Keep in mind that reviewers are volunteers and have limited time to review extra materials.

• Use:

• APA 7th edition style.

• A business-appropriate font. 

• Double-spaced, 1-inch page margins.

Submitting the deliverable

The Coordinating Committee will provide a mechanism for submitting the proposal on the competition website. Teams are asked to agree to terms and conditions at submission. You may review these terms and conditions before your submission.

Important: Remove any identifying information from your team name and the submission’s contents, title, file name, and file properties (e.g., your names, your university’s name, your university’s mascot or colors). Failure to remove identifying information could result in disqualification.

Review process

The Competition Coordinating Committee selects reviewers to review the submissions and identify up to three proposals to advance to Phase 3 of the competition based on their creativity, theoretical soundness, practicality, and adherence to the problem statement’s guidelines. 

Feedback

Reviewers will provide all Phase 2 teams with brief written comments about their proposals.

Phase 3

Eligibility

In Phase 3, up to three teams are selected as finalists and invited to present their solutions at the AECT Annual Convention. Finalist teams must be members of AECT to attend the convention and make their presentations.

Costs

The sponsor of the 2025 competition, NATO-ACT, pays the AECT convention registration fee for each finalist team. 

Finalist teams are responsible for paying for the required AECT membership (a student rate is available) and any travel costs. 

Information and questions

When Phase 3 starts, the Coordinating Committee provides a mechanism for asking questions on the competition website and a deadline for questions.

Description of the Phase 3 deliverable

• Prepare a presentation that summarizes your proposal and persuades the judges to choose your proposed solution.

• There is no limit to the number of slides and format of presentation, but you must be able to deliver the presentation in no more than 20 minutes.

• Refer to the problem statement and follow the year’s specific guidelines.

• Use a business-appropriate font and visual style.

• Supporting handouts: You may provide no more than one supporting handout.

Note: The judges will assess the presentations as delivered to choose the contract-winning presentation. The “contract-winning presentation” is the one that would have been awarded the contract with the mock client if the competition occurred in the real world. Note: No actual contract is awarded as a result of this competition. You should assume that the judges have not read your abstract or proposal when you decide what to include in your presentation. 

Submitting the deliverable

There is nothing to submit in Phase 3 before the conference. Your team will bring your design solution presentation to the conference and present it.

Presentation process

The presentation phase is meant to mimic the experience of pitching a design solution to a client. Each team has 20 minutes to present their solution. The judges are then given 10 minutes to ask questions of your team.

The judging panel typically consists of three to five members. The panel will include at least one person who is not from instructional design areas. This inclusion is intended to provide graduate student teams an opportunity to explain their solutions to someone outside the field. 

The judges will choose the contract-winning presentation based on the winning team’s ability to persuade the judges that their solution is viable, has a realistic budget, and best meets the needs of the client as described in the problem statement. Each team’s clarity, teamwork, and professionalism will help them make the case to be selected as the contract-winning presentation among the three finalist winning design solutions.

The contract-winning presentation team will receive special recognition at the AECT Awards Ceremony at the AECT Annual Convention.

Feedback 

The judges provide informal, verbal comments to each finalist team after the conclusion of the competition. This feedback is intended to support students as they progress through their careers and encounter similar problems.