9 Tips for Success as an Instructional Designer
4) Be comfortable with commonly used technology tools.
Keeping abreast of new tools, technology, and resources is integral to the instructional designer's lifelong learning journey. You should be familiar with content authoring tools (such as Articulate Storyline 360 and Adobe Captivate), multimedia development tools (such as Camtasia and Adobe Creative Cloud), and learning management systems (such as Canvas and Blackboard).
Your ability to learn a program and its capabilities quickly and effectively is more important than mastery of specific software. Many skills are transferable, so your learning curve should be manageable if you're familiar with one platform. For example, if you can build a course in Blackboard, you can build one in Canvas. Likewise, if you can develop e-learning in Adobe Captivate, you'll be able to do the same in Articulate Storyline 360.
5) Commit to iterating and simplifying.
Ensure your course is as easy for learners to follow and navigate — the fewer clicks they need to access content, the better. Note that achieving this may require multiple iterations of the course design based on feedback from sample learners and colleagues.
Start with an outline or visual storyboard to map the scope and sequence of your course. From there, you can decide on elements like open vs. guided navigation — where should there be restricted or conditional navigation, and where should learners have more freedom to explore?
Writers have a rather grim yet effective axiom: "Kill your darlings." Don't be afraid to scrap or revise a course element, no matter how fond you are of it. Knowing what to cut and what to emphasize is essential for keeping your courses engaging — and ensuring that you can meet your deliverables by the deadline.
6) Allow time to test and revise your design.
Good time management is an essential skill for any instructional designer. Create a project development plan that includes time to step away from your work and return to review and assess it with a fresh perspective. This is especially important after reaching a project milestone to ensure all stakeholders approve the design before moving on to the next step.
Part of that process should be evaluating the course program from a learner's perspective. Give yourself time to go through the course at the intended pace and take notes on what is and isn't working as intended. This testing phase is even more effective if you enlist the help of others to offer you preliminary feedback.
7) Be mindful about multimedia and accessibility.
Today's instructional designers have unprecedented access to video, audio, and other multimedia and interactive development tools that facilitate engaging learning experiences. However, you need the skills and knowledge to know when and how to implement best practices for multimedia instruction. While video and audio can engage learners, too much is just as likely to overwhelm or bore them. As a general rule of thumb, aim for under 15 minutes per video or presentation.
Another professional habit is to keep accessibility top of mind. Accessible design, when applied correctly, benefits all students. Recorded presentations should have closed captioning, and visual elements should include tags that make it easy for screen readers to convey what the image depicts. Always use clean and clear graphics, appropriate white space, and contrasting colors to keep content readable on as many devices as possible.