Instructional designers are not primarily assemblers, although it might be easy to associate instructional designers with some commonly used tools (such as: Captivate, Storyline, Sharepoint, WordPress, Fabric, etc) and assume that’s all they do. These tools are great for assembling concepts, multimedia, quizzes and more into a tangible package, but that is just one piece of an instructional designer’s job.
Most instructional designers know that there’s more to it; but are the other stakeholders on the same page? I think an instruction designer is more like a movie director than a technician. You might not feel like you’re Stanley Kubrick or Steven Spielberg, but let’s look at the similarities.
eLearning content is a creative medium
Your industry might not be as fun as filming Jaws or E.T., but training content is a creative product. There are an infinite number of ways you can design your content to communicate the message you want to tell. It’s your job to invent something that clicks most with your audience. You’ve got to get creative!
Working with a team
Instructional designers are not lone wolves. You need provide direction for your writers, your filming team, your graphic designers, your coders, your Subject Matter Experts, and your acting talent. Imagine a movie written, directors, filmed, and acted by the same person—sounds like a box office bomb.
Using technology
Directors need to be technical even if they aren’t working directly with the technology; you can’t direct without understanding how the cameras, sound, editing, and special effects work. In the same way, an instructional designer might not be filming instructional videos, programming the LMS, or creating the graphics for a course; but they need to understand and be in control of the process.
Making your vision happen
Ultimately, as an instructional designer, your job is not about any one thing but doing whatever it takes to make your vision happen. Your stakeholders might not care what camera you use, what LMS you are publishing on, or what editors you decide to make your content in. Your job isn’t tied to one thing—your job is to make the whole thing come together in the end like a classic movie.
Summary
In the end, instructional design is not the same thing as directing a movie. However, it’s interesting to look at how the role is implemented and perceived in your organization.
Do you feel like your role as an instructional designer has been too “small” or otherwise misunderstood within your organization? Have you been in a situation where you felt like there was too much to do in your role? Have you found creative approaches to making your vision happen? Send us your story, we love to hear from our community!
Learn more about Cogcentric and our customizable Fabric LMS!
It is becoming more and more common for businesses to dedicate specialized resources to organizational learning.
As such, more workers are getting degrees in fields such as educational technology, educational psychology, instructional design and more to fill this need. A degree, diploma or certificate in an education related field, while very useful, it’s not necessary to work in instructional design. In fact, some of the best educators I have had a chance to work with did not have formal training but were experts in their own field that adapted to an educational role through experience and self-study.
Here are some tips if you are working in an instructional design role without formal training. These are attitudes and approaches that often come as a result of formal training that might not be explicitly stated.
1. Catch up on some best practices
Instructional design is an area with lots of history and lessons learned (and documented) over time. Check out some best practices before you jump into your first project! Instructional designers have found concepts like ADDIE (a framework for creating educational content), Learning Objectives (the practice of specifying specific objectives when creating educational content), Bloom’s taxonomy (a categorization of types of knowledge) and more to be useful in the creation of training programs.
Don’t know what these terms mean? Check your nearest search engine for a rundown of these concepts or sign up to Fabric. However you choose to get this knowledge, it is a great place to start getting into instructional design.
2. Treat every project like an experiment
One of the most important parts of formal training in instructional design or educational technology is a focus on research methods and experimentation. Don’t assume anything to be true without evidence. Determine the results you are aiming for, collect data, measure the outcomes, and iterate – keep improving your content. You might just learn something new about your audience, your content, your strategies and learning in general!
If you think a particular video or activity is going to really help your learners, build it! But don’t forget to analyze the results in the form of assessment results, surveys and business metrics to check that your training has the intended impact. What you learn about your organization will inform how to improve your current content and make your future content even better.
3. Defend your statements and decisions
Instructional designers must have an attitude of always asking “why?” about their own content. Every decision you make about your training program should be justified; and if not, maybe you should investigate if the current solution really is the best way to do things.
There is no magic bullet that will solve all of your training problems on the first try. Even solutions that have worked elsewhere might not be the best fit in your specific situation. When you start working as an instructional designer, your job is not just to do what you’re told, you need to come up with the direction of your training program yourself and be able to defend your work!
4. Check the literature before making design decisions
A formal course might cover hundreds of these useful tidbits but that’s just a starting point. This information is available without formal training too, you just need to look for it. When designing a specific portion of a training program whether it’s the use of multimedia, gamification, or assessment, take some time to read up on the research in that area to make the most informed decision possible.
5. Design holistically
A good training program should work as a whole; it’s not just one really impressive piece. When your learning content, multimedia, activities, assessments, surveys, and data collection all work together, you get great training with the numbers to prove it. Experts who come from fields other than education tend to focus on the areas that they are comfortable (demonstrations, presentations, one-on-one meetings, etc) but to launch a successful training program, every aspect must be functioning properly.
Sometimes certain parts must be simplified or cut in order to make sure other parts are working. Many managers who are used to in-person training may find that time spent doing in-person training can be better put towards producing reusable videos on the subject. Designing holistically means considering your training program as a whole and not sticking to just the things you are most comfortable with.
Conclusion
Formal training in instructional design is not contained in a single book or practice; it is a foundation for how you think about your job. But this foundation is not exclusively provided by colleges and universities – it is an ongoing attitude and practice that can be applied by anyone working in instructional design. But don’t just take my word for it, explore it for yourself!
If you are an instructional designer (with or without a formal educational background) interested in learning more about instructional design tools and practices, get in touch with us!
One of the things I enjoy about working as both an instructional designer and as a programmer is using technical knowledge to come up with new instructional design solutions and showing them to other instructional designers.
While technical knowledge is not a must-have in an instructional design role, it definitely helps when planning an organization-wide training program or trying to use the right terms at an I.T. meeting.
In this post we’ll cover the idea of web servers and clients, one of the key concepts of the world wide web, and how it impacts the development of Elearning.
Elearning is very dependent on the internet. Although there are still non-connected elearning programs out there, they are now few and far between (remember when MS Encarta encyclopedias came on CDs?). Web developers use the concept of server side versus client side when designing and maintaining their applications and sites. This concept separates the many different technologies used on the world wide web into 2 categories that are made for very different purposes.
The server–side technologies are used to publish content on the internet; they are like libraries making their books available to everyone. Client-side technologies are those used to access data on the servers; they are like members borrowing books from the library. Although we would call all the pieces involved either “programs” or “computers”, they each have different specializations to consider.
In general, server-side technologies are best for dealing with data that is universal to everyone. Client-side technologies are great at creating an experience for the user. This difference can be helpful for any internet application and eLearning.
Web Servers
Web servers are not a single technology but a whole bunch of technologies working together in an interconnected way. The machines behind our web servers today are faster and hold more data than ever but the main idea remains the same: putting your content and communications online so other users can access them. Each web server is a computer with specialized software to store lots of data, run scripts, and make content available to an audience over the internet. These specialized software include operating systems, web server software, databases, scripting languages, and file systems.
Every web server on the internet has an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a set of numbers and letters that act as an address. Domains are user friendly names that point to a specific IP address so users can type in names instead of what feels like random characters to get to their destination (like “Cogcentric.com”). Universal Resource Locators (URLs) are text that points to a specific resource “https://cogcentric.wordpress.com/” including the domain name, the protocol (e.g. “https” hypertext transfer protocol secure), and potential more information to specify a certain page or file to open. The URL is what you would type in the address bar of your browser.
How are web servers useful in instructional design?
As an instructional designer, you will constantly find yourself needing to make your content available on the internet whether it is an interactive SCORM file or a PDF file you want your learners to download. On the internet, these files are stored on a web server so your users are just one click away from accessing their training through the use of URLs, domains, and IP addresses.
Commonly a Learning Management System software is installed on the web server to add even more capabilities for your training program such as content publishing and record keeping. Software that provide services for everyone that accesses the system is usually stored on the server side.
Devices and Browsers
In the old days, a connected device meant a big desktop computer that plugs into the internet. Now, there are many more devices that can connect to the internet through a wired or wireless connection. Desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones are everywhere now and each one can be used to effectively deliver eLearning content. Regardless what kind of device it is, its purpose is to connect to the web servers and bring information to the end user. These devices that connect to web servers are often classified as client side and they use specialized software to retrieve data, interpret data, and display data in human-friendly ways.
One of the most important software on a client side device is an internet browser. Browsers such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and more are responsible for accessing web content form a server and either downloading them or converting them into media like displaying text, images, videos, and more. Other client side software might include email clients (that send and receive emails) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) clients (get download and upload files).
How is knowledge of devices and browsers useful in instructional design?
How your content displays to the learner entirely depends on client-side technology and whether you are publishing your content as HTML, video, or even Flash (a technology that dominated elearning and web games for a decade). Considering client-side technology means identifying the tools your learners will use to access your elearning and building accordingly.
It can be hard to keep up with all the ways learners might be accessing eLearning content but it is important! Make sure to track the statistics on what devices your learners are using to access your online resources. Are your learners using large screens or small screens? Do they have touchscreens or mice? Do they have a camera and microphone enabled? These are client-side technologies that can shape the elearning approaches you might plan and implement.
Conclusion: know the difference between client and server side
Understanding the difference between client and server technologies makes a big difference in how you plan and troubleshoot your eLearning technology.
Example 1 |client vs server online assessments: When planning how to deploy an online assessment, you might consider options that mark the user’s answers on the client side or server side. If marking is done on the client side (such as an Articulate Storyline output), all the marking information will need to be sent to the client’s device. Tech-savvy users might take advantage of this to look through the codes sent and find ways to cheat. Marking handled on the server side might be a bit more secure. The answer are never sent to the client, only the client’s result are sent to the client.
Example 2 | client vs server side troubleshooting: If you troubleshoot an issue for a user, it’s always crucial to find out what device and browser they are using. A client-side problem can occur if a particular piece of functionality doesn’t work with a particular browser or device. Internet Explorer was the bane of many web developers because they interpreted web content so differently from the other browsers resulting in client specific problems. Server-side problems usually affect everyone equally. This can help you narrow down the problem to something happening in your content or an issue with your LMS.
I hope this post helps you join in the discussion on what client-side vs server-side with regards to eLearning technology. If the web developers have designed around this paradigm for decades, why shouldn’t instructional designers? What technologies do you implement in your training programs? Does it separate server and client functionality in a way that works best for you?
Instructional designers, like everyone else, have tendencies and habits and I can’t help but notice commonalities between them. Ultimately the goal of eLearning is to teach something but there are just so many ways to do it and everyone brings their own background and experiences with them.
In this regard, I often see these three attitudes of instructional designers out in the field and thought it would be interesting to compare notes with the community!
Feelers
I think many instructional designers start a new project with feelings; they focus primarily on how they would like their product to make others feel. Not just happy, sad, or angry, but the impression the product leaves with the learner. Do learners feel at ease or nervous when completing the content? Do they feel confident in the information and ready to apply their knowledge? Are learners curious to find out more or are they bored? Feelers often describe their goals for the project in these terms.
The feel of the content is incredibly important and feelers have the right idea; most humans make emotional judgments about the content they consume. It is important to set the right tone and use emotions to best communicate your message. That’s why dramatic movies can be so memorable or video games can be so addicting. The feel of the system also provides other benefits such as establishing the culture of an organization.
Feelers might run into problems creating content that achieves the feeling they want to impart to the learner. They might set their sights a little too high and have a hard time reaching their goals. Or they missed out on the details along the way. Often times, feelers have a hard time describing the steps needed to achieve their goals, they just know where they want their big picture to end up. This might lead to messy development processes and a convoluted end result.
Technicians
Another attitude is focusing on ensuring your project meets all the requirements. I call this attitude the “Technician” for their emphasis on practical steps to solve a problem. Creating a plan and following the necessary steps with as little deviation as possible is the route to success. Goals are measured quantitatively or in yes/no answers. The most important factors of a project are time and cost estimates versus actual results. Technicians think about instructional design like software engineering.
Technicians are most concerned with whether the learning materials they create checks all the right boxes. Did they cover all of the key points and concepts? Do the assessments test the correct knowledge? Are the examples accurate? This is a great way to verify that your materials followed the stated objectives. Approaching a project in this way helps to keep the project focused, on budget, and on schedule.
A technical approach might run into problems when human learners don’t behave as expected or the knowledge needs a little massage to be more human-friendly. Teaching requires a little bit of creativity. If users are not getting something, repeating the same information over and over like a robot might not be the best way forward! It’s also possible that overly technical content might miss opportunities to make learning more efficient with levity, humour, fun, or more. Lastly, a technical approach assumes that all the requirements and how to achieve them can be set out perfectly from the start, but we know from experience that there are often improvements and optimizations we find along the way and designers need to be a bit flexible.
Visionaries
Sometimes I run into instructional designers, training professionals, or content creators that just seem to have the whole process of creating their project in their heads from beginning to end. They even have the potential problems mapped out and are always ready with a backup route. Ultimately, they have a vision for what they want to produce and that vision is thorough enough that you can ask them how and why and they would have an answer for almost every little detail.
Visionaries tend to overlap with Feelers and Technicians because they think about how they want their audience to feel but they also predict the steps to get there. This attitude towards instructional design tends to create the most thorough, effective, and creative systems that fit their environments.
This does not mean that visionaries are perfect, no one can be. Their vision, even perfectly executed, might still miss the mark. Or execution might turn out to be more difficult than expected. In some situations, a visionary attitude is simply not needed and the status quo works (why fix what isn’t broken?).
Conclusion: understand yourself and take inspiration from others
Are you more of a feeler, a technician, a visionary, or none of the above? There is no right answer and a diverse set of perspectives is important to every project! Knowing our own tendencies helps each of us identify our strengths and weaknesses. If you care most about the feel of your project, can you thoroughly describe your steps to get there? If you find yourself most worried about preplanned requirements, have you considered alternatives that arose during planning or from learner feedback? Seeing these tendencies in our teammates might allow us to provide new input into a project.
This is an opinion and not a rigorously researched hypothesis. I’m curious: what patterns do other instructional designers see in the field when it comes to attitudes about training, instruction and eLearning?
