Nov 27

Nov 27 Instructional Design Projects in the Real World

There is instructional design, and then there is “instructional design.” What do I mean by this? Well, I feel like there are 2 worlds of instructional design: how things should be vs how things actually are. I’ve heard this time and time again from ID graduate students. They learn about learning theories, processes, frameworks, and models, and then are shocked by how the real-world operates. In extreme cases, I’ve spoken with graduates of recent ID, IDT, Ed Tech, LXD, etc. programs and they feel ill equipped for how to be a designer.

It’s been well documented that my mind is still blown by how many instructional design related degrees exist. Truly, I think it’s wonderful. Afterall, I teach in the Ed.D. program at the University of Miami and this program has reignited my passion for teaching students about designing learning experiences. I truly love working with my students and seeing their transformations brings me more joy than anything else on the planet. While my courses cover the fundamentals of designing learning experiences, I also share story after story about the difficulties and challenges of the role. It’s not perfect. It’s still a job. It also doesn’t matter where you work. There will always be challenges, they are just in a different shape or form.

So, on today’s podcast, I want to break down how things should be vs how they actually are. The intent of this episode is not to scare you, but to guide you down the right path. I want you to have a realistic perspective about the job. I know that if I was entering the field today, I would want someone to tell it to me straight.

Your options can be limited

I think all of you know by now my love for backward design. To me, this ID model makes so much sense. Start with the end goals in mind and then work your way backwards. It’s a logical approach to solving problems with training and education. Will you always have this luxury though of following your favorite model? Definitely not.

No two projects are the same. Think about timelines, budgets, scopes, stakeholders, SMEs, and more. Depending upon these factors could change how you approach the design. For instance, let’s say that you are taking a F2F version of a training or a course and now you have to transform this into an online learning experience. The person you are working with for the course is the instructor who has delivered this course a million times. They can practically recite the presentations in their sleep. You have 4 weeks to take the F2F version and to create a new online version. What are you going to do?

My best guess is that you are not going to be following the backward design approach for a few reasons. The first is time. If you only have a month to complete this project, backward design is not going to be your friend. Time is a valuable asset and if you spent this time by explaining about Bloom’s taxonomy and creating the blueprint from scratch, it’s not going to go as you hope. The second is that you have access to the instructor who already has a substantial amount of the material already created. It doesn’t make sense to go back to the drawing board when a good chunk of the work is done. Of course, these materials should be reviewed and evaluated for online use. You can’t just flip a switch for F2F to online.

Another common reason is that you could be locked in to a forward design approach. For all of the educators out there, you may have been in a scenario where the materials were selected first and then, you had to design around them. I remember the first time this had for teaching my first courses. In one instance, the students had to learn a particular software so the course was designed around the software. In another instance, I was handed a textbook and said this is what you are using. In those cases, there is little wiggle room for trying to use your favorite model and you end up performing some kind of hybrid approach to still keep design in mind even though you’ve been dealt a difficult hand.

2. Instructional design is all about people, not tools

This is something that always surprises me when talking with aspiring instructional designers is that they want to talk about tools, theories, models, learning, and all of the fun parts of the job. But, what’s the most important skill you can work on as an instructional designer? Easily, without a doubt, it’s to hone your people skills. Think of communication, leadership, influencing, negotiating, and management. Working with SMEs and project management feels like 80% of the job. If I pull up my calendar right now, you will see constant check-in calls, team meetings, follow ups, project planning, marketing, engineering, customer support, and other similar meetings. As you can tell, these revolve all around working with others.

One thing that every new instructional designer should practice is how to explain the value of instructional design to others. I’ve been a part of projects before where I’m introduced as the ID and I can tell that the SMEs immediately look at me like, so what exactly do you do? Many people now know about instructional design because of the pandemic, but trust me, you’ll have plenty of confusing looks from stakeholders when you explain about your role. When I explain about instructional design, I also change the approach and the wording depending upon who I’m talking to. For instance, if I’m speaking with the stakeholder who is responsible for the budgeting of the project, I am hammering home the value of performance. I want them to see that with my help, I can elevate their employees’ skills, which directly tie into performance, which directly tie into financial goals for the organization. I wouldn’t speak to this stakeholder about the importance of writing clear learning outcomes. They are looking for results so I highlight how the designs will directly impact the employees’ results.

Let’s use another example with speaking to academics. For them, I will be highlighting two key areas: their students and themselves. When I can share with professors how my ideas can blend with their teachings to improve the lives of their students, they are thrilled. At the same time, the spotlight should be on the professors’ teachings so they can envision their material being utilized in the best ways possible. I don’t need to speak to academics about ROI unless I’m creating a professional development kind of course with them. At the end of the day, you need to think about the people you are communicating with and what’s important to them.

3. Scope of the project changes during the design

For this topic, I’ve seen three events happen time and time again:

Discuss amazing ideas on the kick-off call
Fully realize how much work is involved
Brain several alternatives to original concepts

From my experience, there is always this massive amount of enthusiasm at the beginning of the project. Every stakeholder comes in with grandiose ideas and they envision this new product being the thing that will revolutionize their industry. It’s human nature to say that they want to create the world’s best learning product, but there has to be a conversation about the real world.

If your stakeholder wants to create the greatest learning product ever, that’s fantastic. Do they actually have the time, energy, and resources to be able to do this though? Some stakeholders and SMEs will surprise you by saying yes, and fully dedicate themselves to their new ideas. I can attest that this can happen, as I’ve seen it done before. And by far, these were my favorite projects to work on because everyone was on the same page. But, what about the other times?

That’s when those three steps seem to happen. You begin to follow the plan with these amazing new ideas, but as you begin to ask follow up questions, have weekly calls, start to design the learning product, things seem to change. Usually, I’ll do some research and discuss with my SMEs about how long it will take and how much things will cost, and then I get that look. The look of, “Oh… I never thought about that before.” For instance, simulations often get mentioned when bouncing ideas off of one another. Simulations can be a fantastic addition to a learning experience, but great simulations cost quite a bit. Simulations typically charge a fee per user so, let’s say $149 per user. If the simulation alone is going to cost $149 per person, that could be a significant dent to the budget. Most SMEs, instructors, and stakeholders have not had to pay this cost before, so it’s like sticker shock for them. This then leads to the conversation of discussing alternatives.

What I’ve learned over the years is that a project is fluid. Things will change. This could mean schedules changing over time or people coming and going on projects. I’ve had multiple SMEs come and go with projects before, because you know what, that’s the real-world. People aren’t perfect, so therefore, the design process will be imperfect.

I’ll leave you with a great piece of advice though. My boss always tells me to be the river, not the rock. Be like water and move around obstacles, because they are inevitable.

Stay nerdy out there.

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