“Just what exactly does an Instructional Designer do?” I get asked that quite a bit and my response varies a little depending on my current project, but what doesn’t change is this – An Instructional Designer’s job is to think creatively about how to help learners absorb and apply knowledge by designing and developing engaging learning “experiences”. As an Instructional Designer, I understand how people learn, and what they need to stay motivated to learn.
An Instructional Designer (ID) plays many different roles:
Instructional Designer as Architect
At the beginning of a training project, the role of an Instructional Designer is to assist with analyzing and assessing training needs. This might include: reviewing existing training materials (if any), and interviewing key employees and team members in the project. Doing so will help to gain an in-depth understanding of the content (or task) and ultimately identify the training “gap” or training need. Based on that, the Instructional Designer’s primary task is to create a training plan and design the associated training materials as a solution to fill that gap. When designing elearning, Instructional Designers develop a script or “storyboard” to show the sequence of the elearning and detail the interactivity used to guide the learner’s training experience.
Instructional Designer as Collaborator
While collaborating with subject-matter experts (SMEs), the Instructional Designer works to extract the information necessary for the learning experience. When designing elearning projects, the Instructional Designer also collaborates with the multimedia designers and elearning programmers to create an elearning experience that effectively engages the learner and provides a meaningful learning experience. Some Instructional Designers also wear the hat of graphics artist, web developer, technical writer, and project manager.
Instructional Designer as Student
Just last week someone asked me, “How do Instructional Designers write about phishing scams one week and a course on brain development the next?”
As we design, we first become the student. Typically, we begin the project with minimal background knowledge of the subject – this means no assumptions, no content expertise, but lots of questions for the SMEs. At first, this might seem like a huge disadvantage, but it is actually an advantage. As the student, you are the learner – in the driver’s seat of the elearning. From this perspective, you look at the content and ask, “What do I specifically need to know?” “What is the most effective way to practice applying this new knowledge to accomplish the course objectives?” The answers to these questions also help you remove content that is extraneous to the objectives (even when SMEs and other management have deemed it critical to the learning!) These efforts help the learner to focus on key material while creating opportunities to discover and enjoy newfound knowledge.
In this technological age of instantaneous answers to literally any question, Instructional Designers strive to keep all learning experiences real and relevant and above all – hold on to their own personal passion to learn and their strong desire to help others do the same!
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