Can someone please tell me what instructional design is?

Maybe you think it sounds like a science fiction character’s job or even a Silicon Valley street name. Or maybe you’re already familiar with the term.

Whatever the case may be, here we’ll explain what instructional design is, what the day-to-day life of an instructional designer looks like, and what the experts are saying about the future of this role. Read on!

What is instructional design?

First things first: what is it? Instructional design is a process in which learning experiences are constructed. This encompasses many phases: from designing the experience to measuring results, selecting educational strategies and content, and creating materials. The job title ‘instructional designer’ (which gives this discipline its name) is widespread in countries such as the United States.

What’s more, it is applicable in various fields: corporate training, school or university classes, etc. Could it be said that the instructional designer is to an educational resource what Gaudí is to Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia? Pretty much! 

Its objective is to transform information into learning materials that capture the audience’s attention, entertain them, and allow them to learn. In a nutshell: to create learning plans and resources that become engraved in people’s brains. 

What does an instructional designer do?

Yes, theory is all well and good, but what would the day-to-day life of an instructional designer look like? I’ll tell you: varied. It’s very dynamic and encompasses many roles, so every day can be a different adventure. An instructional designer: 

• Evaluates and defines what needs to be covered by a training program or session. This work is carried out with subject-matter experts (SME) or in other words, people who know a great deal about a specific topic. 
• Defines the learning objectives: what to teach, in what way, what needs to be achieved, who it’s for, and so on. 
• Creates resources, materials, gamified content, and multimedia content to get and keep people’s attention and make sure they assimilate the information. 
• Analyzes and applies methodologies, knowledge, and trends in all content. Knowing just the right meme to make the audience crack a smile is a skill that should not be underestimated.
• Check learners’ results through exercises, activities, and original evaluation methods to understand how the current learning plan is working. 

The commandments of instructional design

Let me guess, by this point in the post you’ve decided you want to be an instructional designer when you grow up. Great! Here’s a list of skills that an instructional designer should ideally possess. If you don’t have all of them right now, don’t worry, you can develop them. 

1. Have some training in the field of education. Although instructional design is also applied in the corporate environment, it is very useful to have knowledge of learning theories and pedagogy. After all, what an instructional designer builds is a learning plan. 
2. A desire to keep learning. The world of technological resources is evolving by the minute. Staying up to date on the latest tools can be extremely useful when developing a learning plan in order to know how we can best communicate the information we want to convey. 
3. Be familiar with learning frameworks, models, resources, and things like unit and lesson plans. Some frameworks that would be useful to learn about include the ADDIE model, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Mayer’s principles, for example. 

4. Have a critical spirit for evaluating the behavior of learners, and their knowledge gaps, and to know the learning objectives, whether it be in a corporate or educational environment. 
5. Be an all-rounder, as the role involves a wide range of functions and responsibilities.  

Where is instructional design headed?

Instructional design is like a butterfly: it is constantly transforming and evolving. To give you an idea, when this role was conceived, its goal was to create effective learning experiences, plain and simple. Now, the ultimate goal is to motivate the audience and, through that motivation, get them to learn and become more thirsty for knowledge. 

But what is the future of instructional design? Here at Genially, we don’t have a crystal ball (yet). But we’ve read the opinions of some very smart people who know a lot about this industry and think that this is how it’s going to go: 

Divide and conquer

Although this is not applicable in many other areas of life, in the case of instructional design the division of roles can be positive. On the one hand, there would be a role based on instructional skills (research, course planning, and learning theory), and on the other hand, another role that’s more oriented toward technological skills (programming, eLearning authoring tools, and video production).

Immersive experiences for the win

The data doesn’t lie. The key to learning is not to memorize information but to have a lived experience with role-play or conversation simulations. Gamification can be your best ally when it comes to creating this type of immersive experience. With this Genially Academy course, you’ll learn how to create these kinds of adventures in no time. 

If you don’t believe me, just take a look at this adventure. Yep, it was made with Genially! 

Microlearning in the corporate sector

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking ‘but this is just for teachers’. It is true that this technique has historically been focused on the classroom. But rules are made to be broken and it is now occupying more and more space in the corporate environment, in onboarding processes, training, and more. 

Microlearning is a method that involves creating very specific and brief (3 to 6 minutes) learning structures focused on one skill. These bite-size chunks of knowledge capture attention and encourage engagement and motivation, so it would be logical for instructional design to evolve towards this methodology. 

Want to design microlearning experiences? Check out this course to discover what it is and how it’s used to create content and resources with Genially:  

So, how clued in were you about instructional design? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!