The most common response that I get when I tell people that I’m an instructional designer is: “Oh right. Interesting. What is that?”. It’s a fair question to ask as the title is a little misleading (I don’t write instructions!) and my actual role can change based on the project requirements.

In the most basic terms, being an instructional designer (ID) / learning designer (LD) means that I mix curriculum planning, eLearning design and project management to create online courses that help people learn in the most interesting and efficient way possible.

You don’t need a particular background to be an ID, but there are some aspects to the role that I think are really useful. Take a look and see if you agree.

A background in education

I began my career as a secondary English teacher and I loved it. Being a teacher is an absolutely incredible experience. Being able to work with young people, learn from them and know you’re making a difference is an unbeatable feeling. I learned more about engaging with an audience, creating differentiated activities (that actually work) and project managing in those years than I am sure a lifetime in any other job would have given me. They say teaching is like putting on a show every hour and they’re right! As Head of Department it was my job to write all of the curriculum plans for our team – one of my favourite parts of the job that I never felt I had enough time for. It was that desire for more writing and planning time that led to me training and becoming an ID. I know that having this background in teaching has allowed me greater insight when planning and desisnging learning. I inhernetly know whether the learning I am creating will really ‘work’ in the classroom. I also believe that having this background in education gives me real understanding when working with SMEs. I know what it is like to teach and manage. I understand the pressures on staff and their time.

The ability to work with and manage people

Even if you’re the only ID on the project, you’ll be working with stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), administration teams and, if you’re lucky, the learners themselves. It’s essential that you’re not only capable of working with all of these people and able to manage their expectations, but that you enjoy it! You’ll spend a considerable amount of time designing for and with these people. The success of your project relies upon open communication.

Being able to ask the stupid questions

The main part of my job is to take content from SMEs and transform it into online learning. In order to do that I need to study the raw content and somehow re-write it for a new medium (usually online interactive learning activities) and often for a new audience. The only way to do that is to put yourselves in the shoes of the audience and ask yourself – would I know what that means? Often that means challenging yourself to ask the ‘stupid’ questions. For example:

  • Would the learner know where to click on this screen?
  • Would the learner know what that acronym means?
  • How does the learner know that they’ve got the answer right?
  • Would the learner be able to understand that diagram or should we explain it in more detail?

Experience in designing for online platforms/tools

When planning an online course it’s essential to know what is possible in the online platform/tool that you are writing in. Whether that’s directly into a structured LMS like Blackboard, Moodle or Canvas, or into a Rapid tool like Articulate or Gomo, knowing what your parameters are is essential. Although there are online courses that you can do to learn this (the Open University do a pretty comprehensive one), I think nothing beats on the job experience. I worked for several years at an eLearning agency in Brighton and learnt a huge amount about how the online platforms/tools work, so I have a pretty good idea of what can/can’t be done. This influences everything I design and write – it’s the main reason that clients hire me rather than an editor/copy-editor.

To save time and confusion, when people ask me what I do, I answer them as follows: I help clients transform their face-to-face training/courses into online ones, or help them make their existing online/face-to-face courses better. I streamline their learning, ensure that objectives, content and assessment are all aligned and ensure that the learning is engaging and interactive. A bit simplistic probably, but it is the easiest way to convey what it is I do every day. And no, I don’t write flat-pack furniture instructions.