Jump in the Driver's Seat and Start Designing!

Before you jump right into designing, it’s essential that you know your learners as best as you can. So, pause for a moment and consider why you're going down this road to begin with. Answer the following questions: • Why does your organization need this training? • What are your learning objectives? • What is the added value or anticipated return on investment (ROI)? •Conduct a formal or informal needs analysis using a survey or evaluation, facilitating a focus group, or engaging in discussions with the stakeholders or client. • Who are your stakeholders? Are they external clients or internal employees? Get to know the learner that you're designing for. Don’t underestimate the importance of this step, even if you think you know your learners or colleagues very well.

After you have determined "why" you need training or a learning experience, you need to determine "how" you will conduct your training. The following questions will help you to determine which method (vehicle) might be best: • How much time do you have to design your training? • Do you have a budget for this project? • Will there be a team supporting you, or are you the only one designing this training? • Will you need to work with subject matter experts (SMEs)? This is often the case when working with technical content. If you only have a short amount of time to design your training you may want to use rapid design. Or, you may want to develop a short and sweet, 30-45 minute, live webinar.

Craft, organize and map out your content. Remember, “less is more”. If you’re a subject matter expert (SME) and you’re very familiar with your topic, consider that others may be new to the topic. Consider whether you need to use technical jargon or not, this depends on your audience. Here are some other questions you might ask yourself: •Will I curate the content or create it from scratch? •Do I need to collaborate with a SME to better understand the content? •What template(s) will I use to organize and map out my content?

Some instructional designers are also instructional developers. Depending on the size of your organization and the structure of your team, you may end up developing or creating your e-Learning module, training manual or another training resource.

These resources have been curated just for you!