What Instructional Designers Do-Updated What is instructional design? Instructional design involves the process of identifying the skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap, based on instructional theory and best practices from the field. Ideally, workplace learning improves employee productivity and value and enhances self-directed learning. As social media technologies for learning become increasingly important to organizations and to individuals, instructional designers will need to focus on broad learning events and strategies that incorporate many approaches rather than on individual courses. See A Look into the Future below for more on this. What is the instructional design process? Although the approaches people use to design and develop online instructional events vary widely, the common denominator is that the process is systematic and iterative. What does an instructional designer do? Professional Foundations
10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer Sharebar People employed as instructional designers come from wildly varied educational backgrounds. I’ve met writers, teachers, media specialists, psychologists and programmers who somehow have ended up designing web-based and instructor-led courses. For the past several years, blogger Cammy Bean has had an open survey asking her instructional design readership whether they have a degree in instructional design. Although the survey doesn’t use a scientific sampling method (basically, whoever happens upon the survey can respond), the results cannot be ignored. The survey results are no longer available, but in 2009, these were the results: ~ 60% do not have a degree~ 38% have a graduate degree in Instructional Design~ 1% responded that they have an Instructional Design degree (level is unspecified) Do Instructional Designers Need a Degree? There is an ongoing debate within the US instructional design community as to whether a degree is needed to be most effective in this field. Top 10 List