So, you want to become an instructional designer?

I think that’s great! I love what it is I do. Sure, it’s a job, and there are pros and cons just like with any other job, but at the end of the day, it’s a rewarding career. The instructional design field has changed though and this has made the path to becoming an instructional designer confusing. If you talk to current instructional designers, you’ll often hear that they fell into their roles by “accident.” They volunteered to lead trainings and workshops at their organization or perhaps they created resources and video tutorials and before they knew it, they had a new title of instructional designer. While that worked back in the day, In my opinion, the accidental path isn’t going to be an option for moving forwards. 

So many people have become aware of instructional designers and how they are beneficial to their organizations. The pandemic essentially created the “instructional design boom” and put our field on the map. What was once seen as a bizarre and niche role has now become a standard for most organizations. Apple, Google, Tesla, Twitter, Spotify, Amazon, the Army, the Air Force, Harvard, MIT, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the New York Jets all have instructional designers now. That is unthinkable from only a few years ago! 

With this in mind, there is a cosmic shift to “purposefully” become an instructional designer. You can see this with the countless posts on LinkedIn or Facebook with people asking the question, “How do I become an instructional designer?” I feel for those who write these posts because I asked this very same question 10 years ago. In 2013, I worked at a university as an academic advisor. I was having coffee with a friend one day and I asked him what his job title was. He proudly said, “I’m an instructional designer.” I stared at him blankly and in total confusion. Sensing I didn’t have a clue what these words meant, he took a deep sigh and then said, “You know how your students take online courses? Well, someone has to design those learning experiences. That’s what I do.” After hearing that I could get paid for a living to do this, my mind was set. I was going to become an instructional designer. 

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have anyone guiding me down this path. I flopped and failed my way through two years of abysmal interviews that left me feeling more frustrated and confused than ever. I just didn’t get it. During this time frame, there weren’t many accessible resources about instructional design. Yes, there were books (our field does date back to the 1970’s after all), but YouTube videos, podcasts, online courses, trainings, or anything else on how to become an ID never came up. Luckily for you, this has changed! However, now you have the opposite problem. There are too many resources available and it’s extremely confusing to figure out what to do. 

Most of the resources I’ve seen have done a fantastic job with highlighting major topics like theories and frameworks that instructional designers should know. That’s all well and good, but let’s be honest, just learning about a theory or a framework isn’t going to get you a job. I know that you know this, but it does need to be said. Instructional design is an entire profession and it takes quite a bit of work to really nail down this role. 

The most significant problem I’ve seen for aspiring instructional designers is that they don’t have a solid plan in place with how to make acquiring a new job a reality. What does this involve? A monumental portion of instructional design is knowing about how learning works. Yes, there are other components about instructional design like technology, project management, relationship management, research, but at the end of the day, you need to know how people learn to design meaningful learning experiences. So, think of your instructional design journey as a learning experience. How would you reverse engineer this process to help you obtain your goal? Let’s start by asking a few questions: 

• Do you know how learning works? 

• Do you know how to identify your strengths?

• Do you know how to follow through with goals?

• Do you know how to monitor and evaluate your own progress? 

• Do you know how to network? 

• Do you have a strong support system? 

• Do you know how to motivate yourself? 

• Do you have a proper learning environment? 

• Do you know how to form new habits? 

Most adults don’t revise their studying techniques and habit forming ways from high school and college. They stick with what they know and rely on hope to get results. Hope is not a strategy. Well, I guess technically it’s a strategy, but it’s a poorly thought out strategy. I don’t want you relying on hope. I want you to feel like you have some sense of control in your instructional design journey. That’s why I wrote this humongous blog post that will someday probably become a book. 
What you are going to be reading is your new guide for becoming an instructional designer. I’m going to share every technique, tip, and resource I can think of to help you. Use this as a kind of “choose your own adventure” book. Not every topic will apply to everyone. Not every resource makes sense for everyone and that’s okay. You need to do what’s best for you and I want you to have as much information as possible about making these decisions. By the end of this blog, you’ll know all that you need for your next steps and hopefully, I’ll give you this push in the right direction. 

This blog is divided into 8 different sections:

1. Methods and Strategies

2. Resources and Services

3. How We Learn

4. Learning Theories and Frameworks 

5. Instructional Design Models, Processes, and Frameworks

6. Instructional Design Essentials 

7. Evaluation and Research Methods

8. Technology

Alright, are you ready to learn something? Let’s dive into designing goals, saving time, creating a support system, opening up new opportunities, setting realistic expectations.

Update: You can now buy the Ebook version of this blog post.

---

Methods and Strategies

Setting Goals

First thing is first, what is your goal? “To become an instructional designer!” Well, sure, but let’s break this down into smaller, more manageable, measurable goals. You say you want to become an instructional designer, but what steps can help to get you there? Let’s reverse engineer this for a second. Here are a few bite sized and specific goals:

• Have a coffee chat with 3 instructional designers to build out my network 

• Create a revised cover letter by tomorrow

• Revise your resume in 1 week

• Apply to 2 jobs within 30 days

• Read 5 chapters in an instructional design book by 3 weeks

Do you notice any particular patterns about the mentioned goals? For one, each goal has a clear deadline. Putting a deadline on a goal will hold you more accountable to get the job done. The second item is that these goals are realistic! I want you to build momentum and to gain small wins. With each win, you’ll feel better about your goals and you can see your progress overtime. The third is that they also have a specific number attached to them. I’ve found that this is a crucial step for hitting goals. You probably already do this right now by making time to complete 20-minute walks or exercising for an hour a day. The beautiful thing about having a quantifiable target is that even if you don’t hit your number, you still made progress. Maybe you didn’t hit your goal of reading 5 chapters in 3 weeks, but reading 3 chapters is substantially better than reading none at all. 

Next, write down these goals and place them where you can’t avoid them. For some people, this might be placing sticky notes on a bathroom mirror or putting them in a doorway. For me, it’s setting daily reminders on my phone and creating multiple alarms around them. This way, you’ll always be reminded of your goals. The best tip I learned from reading Atomic Habits by James Clear was to make a reminder so powerful that you were forced to act upon it. To give you an example, when I was writing my first book, I had a notebook filled with jotted down chapter ideas and topics. At the end of each night, I would place that notebook on top of my laptop. That way, when I woke up the next morning, I had to physically move that notebook in order to use my laptop. It forced me to make a decision of am I going to write this morning or am I going to put this aside? This was so ridiculously effective and if you can replicate this with your instructional design goals, you’ll be in an amazing place to start.

P.S. That above link is an affiliate link. I am going to be listing several different resources you can purchase on Amazon and if you use my affiliate link, I thank you for supporting this independent blog!

Identifying Strengths

I have a hypothetical question for you, why should someone hire you? Don’t think here about just becoming an ID. What are your strengths? Do this: fire up a Google Doc, Word, or notepad app and write these things down:

• Your strengths

• Your skills

• Your accomplishments

• Your trainings 

• Your education

• Your passions 

Why are you taking these steps? It is entirely, and realistically possible, that your actual job title will not be “instructional designer.” If all that you are doing is searching for jobs with the title of instructional designer, you are neglecting other roles within education, training, and development that you might be more suited for. To give you an example, here are a bunch of job titles that could match your abilities:

• Learning Designer

• Learning Experience Designer 

• Instructional Technologist 

• E-Learning Developer 

• Learning Manager 

• Program Manager 

• Curriculum Manager

• Instructional Design Specialist

The massive problem our industry is currently facing is that the organization decides upon the title of the job and then can choose what responsibilities this person will have. You will see in some way, shape, or form, various titles that focus on learning, research, project management, relationship management, and technology. This could be a whole blog post, but to be very clear with you, if you identify your strengths and your skills match those of a title that is not specifically instructional design, you should be applying for that position. This video below describes the things I wish I knew before applying to instructional design jobs:

I’d also recommend to listen in on an interview I did with Sarah Cannistra, Founder of the Overnight Trainer, about how to search beyond job titles:

Join Communities 

We thrive in communities. We want to be surrounded by others who think like us and can support us. Luckily for you, the instructional design community is filled with wonderful and amazing people. It’s almost a bit unbelievable how kind people are in our field. How do you find these people though? Well, there are a few strong communities that exist that are free to be a part of. 

The first is simply on LinkedIn. You don’t even need to join an official group page. If you just follow the instructional design tags, you’ll see the same names popping up again and again. By commenting and liking instructional design posts, more will appear in your feed and it won’t be long until the algorithm is working for you to turn your LinkedIn into an instructional design sharing machine. This is how I stay up to date with current trends, topics, research, etc. Just by making a LinkedIn account and following along with others in the field, you’ll instantly have a community. 

If you would like to go above and beyond this, there are official groups to join that do have many supportive and active members. 

Start a Mastermind

Do you ever hear a term and it just glosses over you? You know what it means and you hear people say it all the time, but you convince yourself it’s not for you and move on with your day. Everytime I heard the word “mastermind,” I was like oh, there’s that word again, and moved on to the next thing. After listening to story after story of successful folks, there were a few themes that came up during every interview: exercise, wake up early, be agile, cut out stress, and then sure enough, join a mastermind. 

Okay, but what exactly is a mastermind and how do I join one…? 

The idea is relatively simple: surround yourself with smart people to help support you and your ideas. Obvious statement is obvious, right? I’ve always had a great support system with friends, family, and peers, but the thing is, they weren’t the appropriate people to share my new endeavors with. Don’t get me wrong, they were always excited for me, but I’m not going to ask a friend  about how to write a book if they’ve never written a book before or were interested in this at all. Much like how as instructional designers, we need to think about the target audience for our learning experiences, I needed to think about who I was connecting with and for what purpose. 

For me, it was that I found myself accidentally stumbling into the business world with entrepreneurship, consulting, and free-lance, yet I had zero clue what I was doing. For you, it could be landing an instructional design position, getting a promotion, or finally launching your side hustle after years of contemplation. 

So, who should be in your new inner circle with this mastermind? Here’s what I wish I knew beforehand: it doesn’t need to be folks directly in your field and this could be a huge benefit to you. I was able to find the right people to help me outside of the instructional design space. Whether I was focused on writing my book, creating content with the podcast or YouTube channel, hosting workshops for universities, and launching Instructional Design Institute, I didn’t always reach out to fellow instructional designers for advice. Yes, I did indeed talk to many instructional design friends, but it wasn’t on a weekly cadence and it was more superficial details. Instead, I found my mastermind in a bit of an odd way and this might be the way for you to find your people too.

After downloading podcast after podcast about entrepreneurship, I realized that I didn’t like 90% of them out there. I couldn’t resonate with most of these people as I had no plans on trying to quit my 9-5. I also had an incredibly specific niche of trying to serve aspiring and current instructional designers. I luckily stumbled upon one podcast about entrepreneurship, but it wasn’t the host I connected with, it was actually the guest being interviewed. She was a nursing professor who realized that nursing students were not being supported enough in their degree programs. They wanted more help outside of the classroom and multiple students were coming to her for advice. This deeply resonated with me as many people I talk to are students in instructional design degree programs who felt that their degree didn’t prepare them enough for the real-world. 

I found her email in the show notes and wrote to her about how inspiring her story was and about how I’ve found myself in the same kind of circumstances. I asked if we could have a virtual coffee chat sometime because I was so curious how she established her own business around this coaching concept. I was actually planning on asking her if she wanted to create a mastermind, but she did me one better and invited me to join her mastermind group. Within this group were two former nursing professors, a weather scientist, and a realtor. What did we have in common? We were all trying to serve our audiences. They didn’t know a thing about instructional design and I obviously had no idea about their fields, but they have been my support system for the last 3 years. 

What separates masterminds from normal groups is that while it’s friendly, it’s also treated like a business meeting. We take turns going around the Zoom room to share what we’ve worked on for the week, ask for feedback, and then set a new goal before we meet again. This takes accountability to a whole new level. When you have an amazing win, you can celebrate with your team. When you are feeling down and out, your folks can pick you back up. Something I’ve always found amazing about this group is that they genuinely want to be there. Even though we meet later in the evenings, we always do our best to show up, be present, and provide support. I really do believe that because of these folks, I’ve been able to go above and beyond my own expectations. 

So, how do you find your mastermind? 

Well, you could do literally what I did step-by-step. Contact folks who share the same passions as you, ask if you can have a virtual chat sometime, and see if it makes sense to try and form a group. What I would look for specifically would be for people who are on the same wavelength as you. What I mean by this is that I wouldn’t be reaching out to Bill Gates to form a mastermind. He probably has one, but I’ll assume it’s with other billionaires. You want to find people who share the same headspace as you because their advice can help and it’s relatable. 

My second suggestion would be to simply use LinkedIn. Yes, you can join online communities on LinkedIn and find connections that way. However, you don’t even need to join an official group page. Let’s say you are an aspiring instructional designer and you want to form a mastermind for all of you to land instructional design positions.  If you follow the instructional design tags, you’ll see the same names popping up again and again. By commenting and liking instructional design posts, more will appear in your feed and it won’t be long until the algorithm is working for you to turn your LinkedIn into an instructional design sharing machine. You can use this to stay up to date with current trends, topics, research, etc. More importantly though, you’ll find others with similar interests as you. I’m also confident in saying that many, many people are on LinkedIn to make connections, but they would rather wait for someone to connect with them first. Taking that initiative can lead to a world of conversations you would never have otherwise. Of course, be smart about who you choose to contact. If you sense a red flag, follow that instinct. 

Lastly, you could have people come to you. Nothing is stopping you from creating your own post about the mastermind you want to form and invite others to join you. Once again, many people want to connect and thrive with others, but they are waiting for that invitation. If you provide that warm welcoming, people will openly respond. 

So, what’s the main takeaways here? Connecting with others who share similar passions and interests is a no brainer, but you need to find folks who are committed to the goals. Once you do find your mastermind, your creativity and innovation will soar. All you need is that push and guidance in the right direction and you’ll be off and running before you know it.

Networking

When I say networking, some of you will cringe and others will embrace it. Here is what I’ve learned over the years: Networking is an essential aspect of professional growth for instructional designers, and it goes beyond simply having a supportive circle of friends and family. As instructional designers, we need to connect with like-minded professionals who share our passion for creating effective learning experiences. While our existing support system may provide encouragement, they may not possess the specific expertise or insights that we need to excel in our field. Networking allows us to tap into a broader community of instructional designers, educators, and professionals from diverse backgrounds who can offer fresh perspectives, industry insights, and valuable advice. For instance, by participating in industry events, joining professional associations, or engaging in online communities, we can connect with fellow instructional designers who may have expertise in different areas. From hearing different perspectives, you’ll absolutely grow as a professional. 

So, how do you connect with folks online? You can go about this in a few ways, and some of the topics I already shared go into this space. I kind of boil things down to a simple formula. I’ll follow someone on LinkedIn, FB, or YouTube, comment back and forth on posts, reach out asking for a few minutes to do a virtual coffee chat, and then see where things go. Sometimes I’ll hear crickets, other times, I’ll make a new connection. I’ve met many of the podcast guests in this way and you’ll be surprised by how many of them I finally get to talk to via Zoom right before the podcast recording. Try my steps and see where it leads you. Don’t feel discouraged if someone doesn’t respond back to you or doesn’t have time. It happens and that’s okay!

Here is a webinar I did about networking and many other instructional design topics:

Try Designing

Practice makes perfect. How many times have you heard that in your life? I’m sure more than you can count. The thing with this saying though that doesn’t get as much attention is that by acknowledging you are going to practice a skill, you are taking the first step in trying! Paralysis by analysis is another saying where you can’t stop overthinking, therefore, you never take that first step. I hear this from many aspiring designers is that they are so overwhelmed, they are afraid of even trying. My people, you need to try, fail, evaluate, try again, and keep on going. That’s literally learning. 

When my parents gave me a guitar for a birthday present, the first thing I did was awkwardly hold it, pick up a guitar pick, and then attempted to strum to make some kind of sound. I was awful and my poor parents suffered through months of my terrible playing until things slowly started to click. Designing learning experiences is the same way. My friend, Dr. Robin Sargent, calls this the Do It Messy Approach, and I’m fully onboard with this mantra. I just want you to try to design something and see how it feels. 

Imagine this: You are designing a new leadership course on critical thinking and decision making. One of the goals is for students to think critically and strategically to solve complex problems. How would students prove to you that they are making progress within these topics? Maybe they would be working towards a presentation about critical thinking or they would go through a scenario facing a difficult decision within a company or they would analyze a case study about a massive leadership miscalculation or they would play through a simulation showing the cause and effects of their actions as a leader. Based around these assessments, what would your learning experience look like? You would probably accompany these assessments with activities to help them practice, make mistakes, and build confidence as well as including content like readings, videos, podcasts, and workshops. Now think, how would this all come together? 

Map it out and show the journey the students would take. Is instructional design more sophisticated and detailed than this? Of course, but for now, I just want you to think like a designer and try something. You should also be cognizant and see how this feels to you. Do you actually enjoy doing this? Is having a complex puzzle and trying to solve it a rewarding experience? There is far more that goes into design, but at the end of the day, we are problem solvers. So, if you do enjoy the fundamentals, you are in a good place.

Practice Interviewing

Oh look, practicing. It’s like I want you to practice or something. What I’ve heard from folks is that during interviews, imposter syndrome hits like a brick wall. All of this time has been spent on learning instructional design and now is when it matters. Everything that you have completed and gone through with your studying habits needs to be brought out. A tremendous part of being an instructional designer is to sell and showcase the value of instructional design to SMEs and stakeholders. So, when you are selling yourself and your own abilities during an interview, they better be spot on. While it’s impossible to know every question the interviewers will ask you, there are a few standard questions you can prepare for. 

What are some common interview questions? First, be prepared to answer the cliche ones from the start: Tell us about yourself. Why are you interested in this position? What drew you to apply to XYZ company? Why are you suitable for this role? These are fairly standard and are likely to be in any kind of interview from the phone screening to the panel interview. Instructional design positions are known to have panel interviews by the way. In every interview I have ever been a part of as the interviewee or the interviewer, there were at least 3 people conducting the interview. 
Okay, so now let’s talk about the more detailed questions:

1. Describe for us your design process.

1. Walk me through an example of this. Can you share more details on how you created the training, course, project, etc.?

2. Describe for us your philosophies on learning.

3. Let’s say that you are working with a challenging SME and they have been missing deadlines. How would you handle the situation? 

4. What project are you most proud of and why? 

5. Tell me about a time you incorporated feedback into your design. 

6. How do you make your learning experiences relevant and meaningful? 

7. How do you stay up to date on current trends? 

8. What steps do you follow when you are facing a problem and you don’t know what to do? 

9. Tell me about a time when a project didn’t go according to plan and you missed your deadlines or goals. What did you learn from this situation? What would you have done differently?

You can expect some kind of questions around design, learning, collaboration, managing projects, and tech. Your answers should highlight your design chops, knowledge on theories and processes, empathy, flexibility, and teamwork. These characteristics are necessary as you are the face of the institution to your SMEs. You will be upholding the brand and their values. If you can answer the above questions with confidence and honesty, you’ll impress your interviewers. 

If you would like to see how to answer some of these questions, you can read 11 Common Instructional Designer Interview Questions And How to Answer Them by David Kofoed Wind, CEO of Eduflow. After gaining a better sense of the answers, take your own experiences and add them into the mix. Practice answering these questions out loud. I want you to practice answering these questions to the point where the answers are embedded into your memory and all of the words will automatically flow out of you. 

For your interviews, I would highly recommend creating a portfolio or having artifacts you can share during your interview to highlight your points. The benefit of a portfolio or artifacts is to backup your words with examples. When the interview is going well, it won’t feel like rapid fire questions and instead, the attention will shift more to your designs and the interviewers will want to know more. 

For instance, let’s take question number 4 from above, “What project are you most proud of and why?” Your answer can be: great question. Do you mind if I share my screen and show you? Any interviewer should welcome that opportunity. It lets you dive in further to your passions and tells more about you as a designer. When this happens during my interviews, I’m paying close attention to how the designer speaks and I’ll usually ask follow up questions about the project. Once again, sharing your projects can really help for the interviewers to learn more about you as a designer.

If you want to hear more, Dr. Indi Williams and I did a video about preparing for interviews from a higher education perspective:

Build a Portfolio

Might as well get into portfolios now. You know about their value from the words above. Now, let’s talk more about how to create them. First, let’s discuss the purpose of the portfolio. The purpose is to highlight you and your experiences. Instructional design is a blend of art and science. Your portfolio should highlight these points. For instance, if you love using scenario-based learning in your designs, then you better include an SBL artifact. 

The major mistake I see with portfolios is with not telling enough of the story behind the projects. If you just include screenshots of Rise, that’s not going to tell your interviewers anything besides the fact that you know how to take screenshots. Your portfolio should be walking through an entire project from start to finish. Imagine writing an essay. You would include an introduction, body, and conclusion. When you only include a screenshot, you are basically giving the conclusion with zero context. 

So, what should be in the portfolio? Here are a few points: 

• Summary

• The problem / goal

• Objectives

• Stakeholders

• Your role

• Target audience

• Design

• Tools

• Deliverables 

• Reflection / lessons learned

Depending upon the project, you might have more or less, but these points will get you started. You can also include anything else with the design such as your own documentation. I love when someone shows how they mapped out the learning journey with sticky notes, white boards, Excel files, Trello, or something to show how the design came to be. Then, you can show the actual product. This will provide for the interviewers a real perspective of everything. 

One last thing, portfolios can come in all shapes and sizes. If you have your own website (Google sites, Squarespace, etc.), that’s great. If you put everything in a Google drive folder and share it with your interviewers, that’s great too. My last recommendation here is that you can do a recorded walkthrough of your past projects and send it to the interviewers. This way, they get to listen to you speak about your projects and you can highlight not only your designs, but your communication skills as well.

Incorporating Breaks

We live in a world where everyone seems to be crushing it at all times with sharing their accomplishments, promotions, and certificates. Don’t get me wrong, you should absolutely be proud of what you’ve achieved. You need to remember though that you need to take care of yourself and take breaks. You can’t give it your all 100% of the time. That’s a one way ticket to burn out land. If you are already feeling like you are heading for disaster, here’s your sign to slow things down, regroup, and try again later on. Your time will come, but only if you take care of yourself.

Acknowledging Mistakes

Does it seem like everyone has everything all figured out? It seems like everyone online is a rock star and you’re wondering why no one talks about their blunders and pitfalls. Well don’t you worry my friend because I have royally messed up everything on my way to becoming an instructional designer and then some. I made a whole lot of screw ups when I first became an ID and I almost quit because I couldn’t get the hang of it. Overtime, I learned to embrace my mistakes and to think about them as teachable moments. In the below video, I share my top 5 blunders so you won’t feel bad about your own mistakes:

By the way, if you ever feel like throwing in the towel and giving up on the job hunt, this video is for you:

Flipping the Switch

I took this headline from what my wife. She always mention how jealous she is that I can “flip the switch” inside of my head to go from relaxing to instant work mode. I picked up this habit when writing my dissertation. I knew that I had to take advantage of every opportunity to write this behemoth and that meant writing at any point of time. Even if I was out of my comfort zone, traveling, up early, staying up late, or whatever the circumstances were, I had to write and keep on going. In order for me to get into the zone, I needed some kind of trigger to tell me brain that I needed to focus. This somehow became “study with me” videos on YouTube. Hearing lo-fi and relaxing jazz music while working alongside someone on YouTube has helped me write my dissertation, book, and now this massive blog post. There is something about relaxing music and knowing someone else is putting in the hours alongside you that just works. My favorites are Sean Study and StudyMD.

I made a few study with me videos too using the Pomodoro technique:

---

Resources and Services

Now, let’s talk about a variety of kinds of resources and services relating to instructional design. Before I go into these, I’d like to be clear that there are different paths to take to be an instructional designer and what I mean by this is that there is a free path, a middle-tier path, and a premium path. I’ve seen quite a few posts from folks on LinkedIn talking about how you can do everything for free online to become an instructional designer. And that is 100% true. If you are a self-directed learner who is in the right headspace, motivated, dedicated, and has the time and the support system, you can become an ID all on your own. 

I’m confident in this advice since I am living proof of this. I became an ID by creating a game plan and following through on each step. I went above and beyond to try and make this happen, and once again, it did take me 2 years to finally land some kind of ID position. Through hours upon hours of research, reading, networking, attending events, practicing, etc., I was successful. Would I do this all over again? Probably not if I’m being honest with you. My path was filled with ups and downs (mainly downs), and it was a struggle. The great thing for you is that you aren’t starting this journey in 2013. You are starting it now! There are so many more options for you to pursue and it’s like a “pick your own adventure way” to learn. So, let’s cover all of these items.

---

Eduflow Academy

I think it’s safe to say that we tend to gravitate towards courses to learn something new. There are quite a few courses out there about instructional design though, so, which ones should you take. For starters, Eduflow Academy has 20 free courses about instructional design and design learning experiences. These courses range from scenario-based learning to microlearning to AI to gamification and more. Best of all, they are taught by some amazing folks in our space like Dr. Moe Ash, Peter Shea, Rance Greene, Dr. Tabatha Dragonberry, and more.

Books

If you are a life-long learner, and I’m assuming you are since you are reading this blog, then you are looking for my list of recommended books. Now to be clear, books need the same attention like any other resource with making sure that you can dedicate enough time to read, practice, and reflect. Once you have the right mindset around how to enjoy and learn from books, then it makes sense to provide for you a number of recommendations, and I’ll definitely do that. 

One item to note, throughout this blog, you’ll find books, articles, or video recommendations on exploring these ID topics more in-depth. This is completely up to you for how much or how little you want to spend on learning more about these topics. 

With all of that said, there are a few top books I’d recommend:

• Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen - This is pretty much the instructional design Bible for a majority of designers out there. It’s usually the book everyone recommends to pick up first if you are thinking about instructional design. With over 800 positive reviews on Amazon, you can’t go wrong

• How Learning Works by Ambrose et. al - Do you know how adults learn? Well, you should! This book covers several key areas in the learning science field. It’s also written in a way that it’s enjoyable while also being technical. 

• What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer - It feels really odd mentioning my own book in this article, however, it was written for aspiring instructional designers. In this book, I share with you everything I wish I knew before entering the field and how to make your career a meaningful journey. There is an Audible version, physical version, and e-book version so whatever method you enjoy, I have you covered.

• Map It: The Hands-on Guide to Strategic Training Design by Cathy Moore - When you search on Amazon for instructional design books, Moore’s Map It constantly pops up in the first or second spot. Ant Pugh told me about how this book changed his entire career and with 350 positive reviews, I think it’s safe to say it’s worth a read.

Once again, there are many, many great books that exist, and I’ll be discussing more about them when the time is right.

Blogs

When you Google “instructional design,” you’ll find some incredibly helpful blogs to help you along your journey. This was the first thing I did after hearing about ID and I stumbled upon Christy Tucker’s blog, Experiencing eLearning. She founded this blog in 2006 and still adds to the wealth of information on there. Just about any topic can be found there. Another extremely impressive blog is Connie Malamed’s, the eLearning Coach. Once again, there are way too many to list here, but Feedspot put together 33 other blog posts for you to check out. And of course, you can check out mine as well since that’s what started this whole instructional design content creation journey for me. 
Also, if you haven’t already, I would bookmark Holly Owen’s doc called Resources for Transitioning Educators. It has many, many resources worth looking into.

Newsletters 

Learning Science Weekly - When Dr. Julia Huprich told me that she and Intellum were going to start a newsletter about Learning Science, I couldn’t sign up fast enough. It’s so normal for us as consumers to sign up for newsletters, but one that speaks to my heart as a learning nerd is obviously one that I needed in my life. Learning Science Weekly delivers the right amount of information, nerdiness, and humor to make you want to read each edition. 

Useful Stuff - Dr. Heidi Kirby and Matt Smith eloquently named their newsletter “Useful Stuff” because indeed it is filled with useful pieces of information. If you are looking to further develop your L&D career, Useful Stuff is for you. 

Ant Pugh’s Daily Email - First and foremost, I have to give a huge shoutout to Ant Pugh. He has gone in a different direction compared to his early content creation days, but Ant’s former YouTube videos really helped me to see the pros and cons of instructional design early on in my career. He was the first person to share stories about how L&D isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and I truly appreciated his down to earth style of explaining the real-world. Ant continues to inspire the masses by writing a daily email about L&D, his projects, and other relevant fields. His wall of love on his site will explain all of the reasons for why people enjoy his daily email.  

Podcasts

Obviously, I need to talk about podcasts considering that’s probably what I’m known for the most. Saying I love them is an understatement. The great part about podcasts is that you get to hear unique perspectives and there is a podcast out there for literally everything. Podcasts provide a ton of value, not just in the sense that you can listen on the go, but more importantly, it lets you listen in to people “talking shop.” If two IDs are in a room and chatting about a project, we certainly speak in our own way. Oftentimes, acronyms will be thrown around everywhere (SME, UDL, ADDIE, etc.). You aren’t expected to know all of this terminology yet, but hear all of these insider convos enough and you’ll pick it up quickly.

Here are a few to check out right away:

• Dear Instructional Designer by Kristin Anthony

• The Overnight Trainer Podcast by Sarah Cannistra

• The BLOC Podcast by Dr. Heidi Kirby

• The iDeas Podcast by Tom McDowall

• The L&D Hot Seat by Russell Sweep

• Jumpstart your Instructional Design Career by Jill Davidian

• EdUp EdTech by Holly Owens

• I’m New Here by Nyla Spooner

• Demystifying Instructional Design by Dr. Rebecca Hogue

• Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee by Brent Schlenker and Chris Van Wingerden

• Become an IDOL by Dr. Robin Sargent

• The eLearning Coach by Connie Malamed

Those are a few recommendations off the top of my head, and good news, you can find plenty more! Here is a list of the 20 Best Instructional Design Podcasts by Feedspot.

YouTube

The largest learning platform out there is YouTube. It’s become second nature to watch a video tutorial to learn literally anything. Naturally, instructional design is no different. You can find an instructional design video for just about anything. What I love about YouTube is that content creators tend to really double down on their niche. If you want to find a YouTube channel about corporate instructional design, free-lance instructional design, portfolios, elearning, etc., you can find one. There has also been a tremendous rise in uploaded recorded workshops and webinars from professionals in the field. 

Some popular YouTube channels are:

• Devlin Peck

• Dr. Ray Pastore

• Vanessa Anchored

• Your Instructional Designer

• Instructional Design Tips

• IDOL Courses

• Kimberly Goh

• Your Learning Career

• Elearner Engaged

• The eLearning Designer's Academy

What I would keep in mind, and I probably should’ve said this before somewhere in this blog, is that people have different perspectives about instructional design. It doesn’t mean that one is right or wrong, but just different. For instance, if you were to watch videos only about the ADDIE process, I’m positive that you’ll find that conflicting information. 

Interviewing IDs

When I wanted to become an ID, this was my first step. At the time, I worked at a university and knew of some instructional designers. I didn’t know them personally, but asked friends and friends of friends to see if they could make a connection for me. This had about a 50/50 chance of working, but when it did, I was able to sit down with IDs and ask them a million questions. I wanted to know about their path. How did they get to where they are today? What are they currently researching and working on? What’s their number one resource they would recommend to a newbie? What advice would you give to a friend trying to become an ID? 

You can replicate all of these same steps right now and actually have access to more instructional designers than ever on LinkedIn. I know it can be a bit odd to message someone you haven’t met before on LinkedIn, but there is no harm in messaging someone and asking if they have 10 minutes to chat about instructional design. The worst case scenario is that they say no or don’t get back to you. The best case scenario, you get a ton of amazing information to go on. 

You could approach this in three different ways. There is always the cold pitch of requesting time to talk and that very well could work. One method that is more likely to work though would be to try to form a connection with someone before making the request. I heard about this tip from a podcaster who was trying to book guests that were not in his network. He would comment on their posts, reshare their material, and overtime, they recognized his name when he reached out for a favor. People are more likely to respond to those they know. Lastly, you could always do what I did and ask friends of friends to make connections on your behalf!

Below is a workshop that dives more into these concepts:

Mentors

Mentors are wonderful. They serve as mentors because they find it rewarding to help others and not charge a dime. I’ve had some fantastic mentors to help me to get to where I am today and I still have others who I lean on when I’m facing an incredibly difficult decision. Most of my mentors came from past universities where I was placed on their team and I expressed wanting to learn all I could from them. Once again, in this social media world, you can find mentors to help you on your instructional design journey. Most likely though, they are not advertising their mentorship as they would quickly get bombarded with thousands of messages from folks. 

What’s more likely to happen is that from the interviews you conduct with those IDs, you might be able to find a mentor through this process. It’s not always a guarantee, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. The one thing I will say as a bit of caution is to not take advantage of someone’s kindness. And be sure to pay it forward by mentoring others when/if you can.

Coaches

Career coaches get a bad rep nowadays. Maybe because you are like me in that when I think of the word “coach,” I think of MLM pyramid schemes. Or I think of a life coach trying to give you motivational speeches for $999 a month. That’s not really the best perception. So, why are coaches on this list? Despite the fact that there are plenty of swindlers, there do exist coaches who are indeed qualified to help you in a specific area. My perception of coaches changed after hearing friends of mine tell me that they hired coaches to help them build their businesses to the next level. I remember at first being really confused by this because to me, they accomplished the American dream. They both managed to quit their full-time jobs because of how well their own businesses were taking off. Eventually though, they wanted to expand and increase their sales so they turned to coaches who could help them. 

I’ll say the same to you that if you feel like you have already accomplished a ton on your own and want more personalized guidance to get to the next stage, you could hire a coach. Two people who I trust and know that they can help with your transition are Holly Owens and Sarah Cannistra. They’ve also both been on the podcast and you can hear more from there. 

I was also completely floored to learn that my organization has a budget set aside for career coaching. I’m still stunned that this is a real thing, but your current organization may allow career coaching to come out of your professional development budget.

Courses and Certificates

This seems to be the natural transition for folks to learn is that they want to take a course or go for a certificate program on instructional design. You can certainly do this. Once again, enroll in the Eduflow academy course first. Another reason for why I want you to enroll in their courses is because you can also see what a learning experience should look like. Those courses can become your examples or templates.

What I want you to think about with courses and certificates in particular is return on investment (ROI). Think about how much these costs and if they will pay off in the future. If you get a return on your financial investment, it can be worth it. I also want you to think about time though. If your goal is to become an ID in 6 months and you found a certificate that will take you 2 years to complete, does that make sense for you? That’s for you to decide with  how your goals align with learning products such as courses, certificates, degrees, bootcamps, etc. Maybe it does because your ambitions already have you thinking about becoming a senior ID and working your way through leadership positions. It’s also completely possible that you could find a role before you complete your coursework. That happened to me when I landed a job while pursuing my Ed.D. I didn’t finish yet, but my supervisor was impressed that I was in an Ed.D. program period. So hey, it could happen, but let’s think back to ROI for a second. Let me give you a real example about this. 

Back in 2016, I worked at a university and I wanted to take a course about undertaking personal change that could contribute to important transformations in a university setting. I found this exact course at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. The course was 12 weeks long and cost $2,500. I used all of my professional development funding to pay for it and the first thing my director asked me was, “Is this going to be worth it?” To me and for my growth, it was.

Once again, this is your decision here. Do your research here.

So, with that said, there are a few offerings you can pursue. From a higher education institution, you can check out Bloomsburg University, Northeastern University, or Georgetown University, and Penn State. These are only a few recommendations as there are many, many certificates now in instructional design, learning design, etc. Read reviews from past students and connect with alumni. That will give you a real perspective on if their certificate is right for you. Courses and certificates do not need to just come from higher education institutions. You can also explore courses on Coursera, Digital Learning Institute, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, EdX, and ATD.

Degrees

If you are truly thinking about making instructional design your career and you have a passion for academia, a degree could be right for you. As you can imagine, since degrees cost exponentially more than standard courses, you should absolutely be doing far more research to ensure the degree you are thinking of is right for you. Connect with current students, alumni, and faculty. Now is the time to ask a million questions. You should also watch my video about 3 tips to help you with this decision:

With that said, here are a few options to look into:

• Bachelor’s degree: Quinnipiac University

• Master’s Degree: University of San Diego or Bloomsburg University 

• Doctoral Degree: University of Miami 

The only thing I wanted to mention is that I am fully biased about the University of Miami’s Ed.D. Program in Applied Learning Sciences because I’m a lecturer for this program. The other recommendations come from hearing great reviews from students and alumni. I also know the teaching team at Quinnipiac, USD, and Bloomsburg. You’ll be in good hands with any of those institutions. Of course, there are other great degree offerings out there. 

Lastly, if you are considering if a Ph.D. or Ed.D. is worth it, here’s a video about that:

Bootcamps and Academies

You either love or hate bootcamps and academics. There seems to be zero middle ground with these two. What’s interesting to think about is how bootcamps and academies aren’t new within other domains, but they’ve only recently came up in the instructional design space. If I’m looking into my imaginary crystal ball, bootcamps and academies are only going to grow. The reason is because they go directly to the source and bring you expertise from someone actually in the field. Consider this, if your goal is to learn more about videography, would you rather enroll in a four-year degree program or take courses from Mr. Beast, Dude Perfect, and Marques Brownlee? Many consumers said the latter and that response has led to Masterclass and Skillshare. With enough interest, companies will just do this themselves. Facebook, Amazon, and IBM have their own courses online. Recently, Google launched 9 courses on generative AI and my guess is that this trend will keep on growing.

Let’s take this back to instructional design land though. Some experienced folks in our field, myself included, founded bootcamps and academies to offer courses to our learners. Now once again, I’m super biased on this subject, but designing and teaching a 7-week bootcamp about instructional design from a higher education perspective was the best way to serve my audience and you might find that this kind of cohort model is right for you.

Where I would advise you to be extremely cautious is that not all bootcamps and academies deliver the same quality and value. Look past the glamor and the buzzwords of the sales page and think realistically, what are you actually getting out of this learning experience? If you aren’t getting live sessions, feedback, guidance, and quality learning materials, you should look elsewhere. This should also be said about the price tag. If the product is extremely expensive, well… why? What makes that high dollar amount worth it? All of my guidance about trying to decide on the right degree program can apply to bootcamps. Do your research and make the decision if one of these is the right fit for you.

Vocational School

To the best of my knowledge, there is only one vocational school in the instructional design and online learning space and that’s IDOL Courses Academy. I’ve known Dr. Sargent for years and what she has been able to do with IDOL is truly incredible. It’s a school with a professional faculty of mentors and coaches. A membership in IDOL includes access to volunteer and paid experience opportunities through IDOL Talent and IDOL courses. Folks who I have sent to IDOL have accomplished some amazing feats with many of the testimonies on the website being their stories.

Full disclosure, I am an affiliate of IDOL and if you use my code LUKE you can save $88 off of your annual enrollment. 

Workshops, Webinars, Associations, and Conferences

I’m going to lump all of these together since the pandemic and remote working has changed how easy it is to attend virtual and live events. As I mentioned with the above bullet points, connecting with others is key for your journey and if you find the right event that connects you with fabulous people, you’ll be golden. In no particular order, here are a few you should consider joining:

• The Training Learning and Development Community (TLDC)

• Association for Talent Development (ATD)

• Learning Guild

• Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)

• Online Learning Consortium (OLC)

• Quality Matters (QM)

---

How We Learn

Okay, now let’s explore the topics that most designers know. Let me start off by saying that we are going to be painting with broad, broad brushstrokes here. Each one of these topics I’m about to mention has had entire books written about them and there is no way I can cover each of these without turning this entire blog post into a lengthy book. So, I’ll cover the fundamentals with you to get you on the right track and then, you can explore more and dive into the literature. 

---

Andragogy

Andragogy is a theory of adult learning that was first developed by Dr. Malcolm Knowles in the 1960s. Knowles believed that adults learn differently than children, and that adult learning should be based on the following assumptions:

• Adults are self-directed learners. They want to be involved in the planning and decision-making process of their learning.

• Adults have a wealth of life experience that can be used as a resource for learning.

• Adults are motivated to learn by real-world problems and issues.

To give you a real-world example behind these bullet points, I can discuss how I’ve designed courses for adults. First, I love using surveys at the beginning of the course to hear more about the students’ wants, needs, goals, motivations, etc. I will use their feedback to guide how I teach and design the courses. This allows me to understand where they are coming from and how to apply their prior levels of knowledge. For my students, I provide for them flexibility on their assignments too. For instance, with my instructional design students, their final project involves designing a learning experience and I ask them to pick their own topic. Instead of forcing them into a topic of my choosing, they can rely on their past experiences or pick an area they’ve always wanted to learn more about. Their feedback also helps me with selecting topics for my workshops. If all of my students wanted to learn about what it’s like to be a designer within higher education, but I planned on only talking about corporate instructional design scenarios, then I obviously need to provide more options. My most significant finding over the years is that my students teach me just as much as I teach them. We all learn together and andragogy is at the center of all of this.

Based on Knowles’ assumptions, he developed a set of principles for adult learning, including:

• Need to know - Adults need to know why they need to learn something. They are not interested in learning for the sake of learning, but rather they want to learn something that will help them in their personal or professional life.

• Experience - Adults have a wealth of life experience that can be used as a resource for learning. This experience can be used to help adults understand new concepts and to make connections between their new learning and their previous experiences.

• Self-direction - Adults want to be involved in the planning and decision-making process of their learning. They want to be able to choose what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, and when they want to learn it.

• Readiness to learn - Adults are ready to learn when they see a need for learning. This need may be triggered by a change in their job, their personal life, or their community.

• Problem-centered learning - Adults approach learning as problem-solving. They want to learn how to solve the problems that they are facing in their lives.

• Internal motivation - Adults are motivated to learn by internal factors, such as a desire to improve themselves or to contribute to their community. They are less motivated by external factors, such as grades or rewards.

Andragogy has been widely adopted by adult educators and trainers. One thing that I find surprising is that for most ID jobs out there, they specifically call out pedagogy, but their learners are all adults. Instead, think about andragogy and applying this framework into your designs.

To learn more about Andragogy, any book written by Dr. Knowles would greatly assist you. My recommendation though would be The Adult Learner that was written in 2020. You can also read my blog post about what I’ve learned from designing and teaching online courses for adults.

Learning Science

Attempting to summarize the fundamentals of learning science in a page or two is not going to do this field any justice. So, I’ll start this section a bit differently. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should read the book Make It Stick by Brown et al. Learning how you learn is essential to everything you do. I talk with so many adults who still practice ineffective studying techniques that they developed back in high school and college. We need to break these habits and learn more effective approaches for learning, hence, learning science. 

I recently came across an article by Dr. Yana Weinstein, Dr. Megan Sumeracki, and Oliver Caviglioli that does a phenomenal job with explaining the fundamentals. They are outlined below as:

• Retrieval practice - involves actively recalling information from memory, which strengthens memory retention and retrieval. It is a powerful learning strategy that helps consolidate knowledge and promotes long-term retention. 

• Spaced repetition - involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time. It takes advantage of the spacing effect, which suggests that information is better retained when it is reviewed multiple times with increasing time intervals. 

• Dual coding - involves representing information using both visual and verbal formats simultaneously. It is based on the idea that combining visual and verbal elements can enhance comprehension, memory, and learning outcomes.   

• Interleaving - involves mixing different topics or skills within a study or practice session, instead of focusing on one topic at a time. It is in contrast to blocking, where a learner practices or studies a single topic exclusively before moving on to the next.

• Elaboration - involves actively and consciously expanding upon and explaining new information in a way that connects it to existing knowledge. Elaboration involves adding relevant details, making connections, providing examples, and generating explanations to enhance comprehension and memory.

• Concrete examples - involves providing specific instances or cases that illustrate abstract concepts or principles. They provide tangible and relatable representations of abstract ideas, making them easier to understand and remember. 

I would actually recommend for you to incorporate these principles above into how you study to become an instructional designer. I promise they’ll help! To learn more, I can’t recommend enough The Learning Scientists website. I’ve also really enjoyed following along with Lauren Waldman posts on LinkedIn. My father, the original Dr. Hobson, shares quite a bit on LinkedIn too about learning and neuroscience.

Learning Styles

Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman… why am I bringing up these fictional characters from your childhood? Well, they’re a lot like learning styles in that they aren’t real. What’s funny though was that you were raised to believe that these characters existed. As you grew up, maybe you were like me who argued with older kids in the belief of Santa Claus. I mean, how could he not be real? Adults, TV, and movies constantly talked and depicted the jolly old man in a red suit. And then one day, the inevitable happens and you find out that it was all pretend. That’s essentially learning styles. We all know about them and at some point in time, we’ve probably identified with one style over another (what up my fake visual learners!), but they’ve been widely and massively debunked for years. If this is new to you, Google “Learning styles debunked” and well, there you go. 

If you want to make an ID cringe, bring up learning styles.

Learning Theories

As instructional designers, we focus on how learning works, so it should come as no surprise that we refer to learning theories to guide our designs. Learning theories are the backbone of instructional design. These theories provide a framework for understanding how people learn and how to design learning experiences that are effective. The tricky part about talking about learning theories is that there are so many! Here are some of the more common ones though:

• Behaviorism - a theory of learning that focuses on observable behavior. Behaviorists believe that learning is a process of conditioning, in which learners are rewarded for desired behaviors and punished for undesired behaviors.

• Cognitivism - a theory of learning that focuses on the mental processes involved in learning. Cognitivists believe that learning is a process of acquiring knowledge, understanding, and skills.

• Constructivism - a theory of learning that focuses on the learner's active role in constructing their own knowledge. Constructivists believe that learners learn by actively engaging with the material and making meaning of it for themselves.

• Connectivism - a theory that emphasizes the importance of networking and collaboration in the learning process. It was developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes in 2005. Connectivism is based on the idea that knowledge is constantly changing and evolving, and that learners need to be able to connect with others in order to access and share information.

If you want to dive deeper into any of these, I would highly encourage you to read the learning theories chapter in the book, Design for Learning: Principles, Processes, and Praxis. This was written by Dr. Beth Oyarzun and Dr. Sheri Conklin. Speaking of which, edtechbooks.org is a goldmine of useful information. You’ll find so many articles on here that can help you. 

One book that I read in my Ed.D. program that was incredibly interesting was a book called Visible Learning by Dr. John Hattie. It’s a meta-analysis of thousands of studies put together for you in one book on effective learning theories and methods. It is centered around pedagogy, to be clear, but it provides some more insights into what’s effective and what’s surprisingly not effective according to the data. 

Learning Frameworks

Now that we’ve talked about learning theories, let’s talk more about learning frameworks. You might be wondering, what the heck is the difference between the two? A learning theory is a broad explanation of how people learn. With learning theories, we can identify how people acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These are also heavily based on different psychological perspectives.

A learning framework, however, is a more specific approach to designing learning experiences. Frameworks are sets of steps or activities that can be followed to construct and design your experiences. Learning frameworks can be based on learning theories, but they can also be based on other factors, such as the needs of the learners, the subject matter, and the learning environment.

The main difference between a learning theory and a learning framework is that a learning theory is a more general explanation of how people learn, while a learning framework is a more specific approach to designing learning experiences. Learning theories can be used to inform the development of learning frameworks, but they are not the same thing.

Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction 

Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction is a systematic approach to designing instruction that is based on a number of learning theories, including behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. Also, Gagné is pronounced as gahn-yay. Please don’t be like me and say his name as gag-knee only to find out later that you are horribly wrong and incredibly embarrassed! Anyway, the nine events are: 

1. Gain attention - the first event is to gain the learner's attention. This can be done by using a variety of techniques, such as asking a question, telling a story, or showing a video. The goal is to get the learner interested in the material and ready to learn.

2. Inform learners of the objective - the second event is to inform the learners of the objective. This tells the learners what they are expected to learn. The objective should be clear, concise, and measurable.

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning - the third event is to stimulate recall of prior learning. This helps the learners to connect the new material to what they already know. This can be done by asking questions, reviewing previous material, or providing a brief overview of the topic.

4. Present the stimulus - the fourth event is to present the stimulus. This is where the new material is presented to the learners. The stimulus can be presented in a variety of ways, such as through lectures, demonstrations, or hands-on activities.

5. Provide learner guidance - the fifth event is to provide learner guidance. This helps the learners to understand the new material and to make sense of it. The guidance can be provided in a variety of ways, such as through questions, feedback, or hints.

6. Elicit performance - the sixth event is to elicit performance. This is where the learners are asked to demonstrate what they have learned. The performance can be assessed through a variety of methods, such as through quizzes, tests, or projects.

7. Provide feedback - the seventh event is to provide feedback. This helps the learners to understand their strengths and weaknesses. The feedback can be provided in a variety of ways, such as through written comments, oral feedback, or self-assessment.

8. Assess performance - the eighth event is to assess performance. This is where the learners' mastery of the material is assessed. The assessment can be formal or informal.

9. Enhance retention and transfer - the ninth event is to enhance retention and transfer. This helps the learners to remember the new material and to apply it to new situations. This can be done by providing practice opportunities, reviewing the material, or providing opportunities for the learners to apply the material in real-world situations.

If you’d like to learn more about Gagné’s work, you can read the Conditions of Learning and Theory of Instruction. You can also read about Gagne’s legacy on Google Scholar.   Northern Illinois University’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning has a great summary as well as the University of Florida’s Center for Instructional Technology and Training. Devlin Peck also has a great article that speaks more to applying these events in the real-world.

Merrill's Principles of Instruction

Merrill's principles of instruction are a set of five principles that can be used to design effective learning experiences. The principles are:

1. Problem-centered learning - learning is promoted when instruction is problem-centered and learners are engaged in solving real-world problems.

2. Activation of prior knowledge - learning is promoted when instruction activates existing knowledge and experiences.

3. Demonstration - learning is promoted when instruction includes demonstrations of new knowledge and skills.

4. Application - learning is promoted when instruction provides opportunities for learners to apply new knowledge and skills.

5. Integration - learning is promoted when instruction supports integration of new knowledge and skills into the learner's world.

Merrill's principles are based on the idea that learning is most effective when it is relevant to the learner's needs and interests, a core belief of andragogy.  When learners are engaged in solving real-world problems, they are more likely to be motivated to learn and to retain what they learn. By activating existing knowledge and experiences, learners can build on what they already know and make new learning more meaningful. Demonstrations can help learners to visualize new concepts and skills, and application opportunities can help them to practice what they have learned. Finally, integration helps learners to transfer what they have learned to new situations.

One thing that I want to note from these principles is a word of caution around the second principle. While I am always in favor of activating prior knowledge, what doesn’t get mentioned enough is how this doesn’t always mean we are activating a positive event. We could be asking our learners to recall a past subject matter that terrified them (looking at you math). Or, we could be asking our employees to recall a past training that went terribly wrong and now need to correct this behavior. It’s a note to keep in mind. 

I actually love watching Dr. Merrill’s videos from keynote speeches to simple instructional videos. One video to watch is from 2008 called, Merrill on Instructional Design. Despite being 15 years later, it still holds up and it’s fascinating to think about where we are now in 2023. To learn more about Merrill’s research, you can find so many of them for free through Google Scholar. Of course, if you really want to take a deep dive, I’d recommend the book the First Principles of Instruction.

Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning

If I’m making a list about instructional design, Dr. Richard Mayer’s work must be featured here. With over 500 publications and 30 books to his name, it’s a bit impossible to summarize his work, but when you think of his last name, you probably think of his principles of multimedia learning. These principles are based on cognitive theory and research, and they have been shown to improve learning in a variety of contexts.

The 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning are:

1. Coherence -  people learn better when extraneous words, pictures and sounds are excluded rather than included.

2. Signaling -  learners learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.

3. Redundancy - learners learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration and on-screen text.

4. Spatial Contiguity - learners learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.

5. Temporal Contiguity - learners learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.

6. Segmenting - learners learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.

7. Pre-training - learners learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.

8. Modality - learners learn better from graphics and narrations than from animation and on-screen text.

9. Multimedia - learners learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.

10. Personalization - learners learn better when the words are conversational, rather than formal. 

11. Voice - people learn better when it’s coming from a human, not a robot.

12.  Image -  learners do not necessarily learn better from having the speaker on the screen

By following these principles, instructional designers can create more effective multimedia learning materials that will help learners to learn more efficiently and effectively. From looking at the list above, I bet you do some of these things right now, and you didn’t realize it. Many of those above points are simply logical, but having it outlined in this manner does help to put things in perspective. 

So, let me give you a few, eh maybe more like 12, examples of how these principles can be applied in practice:

1. Coherence - Have you ever been a part of a training session before where someone does a braindump and talks at you for 2 hours? It’s not the most effective way to learn and when creating a multimedia presentation, for example,, it is important to remove any extraneous information that is not essential. This could include irrelevant images, text, or audio.

2. Signaling - To help learners identify the main points of a multimedia presentation, you’ll want to call out cues with headings, subheadings, and bullets.

3. Redundancy - When using graphics and narration, it is important to avoid including the same information in both formats. It can not only be overwhelming, but will also cause the learner to get distracted.  This can be done by using the narration to explain the graphics or by using the graphics to illustrate the narration.

4. Spatial Contiguity - When using graphics and text, it is important to place them close together so that learners can easily see the relationship between them.

5. Temporal Contiguity - Presenting text and graphics simultaneously is more effective for connecting the information rather than displaying one after another.

6. Segmenting - Have you ever been told to watch an hour long video and then were quizzed on it afterwards? It’s not the best way of going about design. When creating a multimedia presentation, it is important to break it up into short segments so that learners can take breaks and process the information.

7. Pre-training - If learners are unfamiliar with the concepts that will be covered in a multimedia presentation, it is helpful to provide them with some pre-training. This doesn’t need to be extensive, but having some prompts, guides, readings, or anything to prepare them will help.

8. Modality - Choosing the right format for the information is crucial. For example, if the information is complex, it may be helpful to use a combination of graphics, narration, and text.

9. Multimedia - When creating a multimedia presentation, it is important to use printed or spoken words and pictures. This combination can help with processing information. 

10. Personalization - I often find that this is because people over-think and need to have a full blown script and try to read line by line. It doesn’t sound natural. What will connect more is if the speaker can talk in a conversational tone.

11. Voice - Have you watched one of those cringey videos where a synthetic robot voice is trying to teach you something? They’re not great to say the least. Having a human in a conversational tone will deliver the message more efficiently.

12. Image - The floating or talking head videos are quite popular on YouTube and in online courses, but that doesn’t need to always be the case with multimedia learning. 

By following these principles, instructional designers can create more effective multimedia learning materials that will help learners to learn more efficiently and effectively.

Mayer published a book in 2020 that I’ve only been hearing great things about, but the book added 3 principles to now bring us a total of 15 principles. To be clear, I have not read this yet, but from my colleagues who have, they say it’s worth it and knowing Dr. Mayer, I believe it. I’d also highly recommend watching this video of Dr. Mayer’s recorded lecture at the University of Kentuck College of Arts and Sciences.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

If you have an educational background, I’ll assume you have heard of Bloom’s taxonomy before. Bloom's taxonomy is a framework for classifying educational goals that was created back in 1956. The taxonomy consists of:

• Knowledge - This category refers to the recall of facts and information.

• Comprehension - This category refers to the understanding of facts and information.

• Application - This category refers to the ability to use facts and information in new and different situations.

• Analysis - This category refers to the ability to break down information into its component parts and to understand how the parts relate to each other.

• Synthesis - This category refers to the ability to create new ideas or products from existing information.

• Evaluation - This category refers to the ability to make judgments about the value of information or products.

In 2001, Anderson et al. revised the taxonomy and divides educational goals into four categories:

• Remember - This category refers to the recall of facts and information.

• Understand - This category refers to the understanding of facts and information.

• Apply - This category refers to the ability to use facts and information in new and different situations.

• Create - This category refers to the ability to create new ideas or products from existing information.

The revised Bloom's taxonomy is similar to the original Bloom's taxonomy, but it has some important differences. First, the revised taxonomy uses verbs instead of nouns to describe the different levels of cognitive thinking. Second, the revised taxonomy emphasizes the importance of higher-order thinking skills, such as creating and evaluating.

There are a few misunderstandings and misconceptions about Bloom’s taxonomy that I want to clear up because I am positive that some confusion is going to pop up when learning this taxonomy. 

First, you are going to see this image as a pyramid. Why is it a pyramid? Well, according to the research, I have no idea. Bloom didn’t intend for it to be a pyramid, but that’s the life form it took on. You can also find many images now talking about Bloom’s as being more like columns or a ladder, and this makes more sense to me. Bloom’s was not meant to be a hierarchical linear path, but that’s what it became.

Second, you can use Bloom’s taxonomy as a bank of verbs to help you with designing learning objectives. Some people get lost in the details and can make this overly complicated. Keep it simple and have there be one verb to one learning objective. Make sure they are clear, concise, transparent, and to the point. You will often be tasked with revising learning objectives from past trainings and courses and this is when Bloom’s will be helpful. For those who do not have experience with crafting learning objectives, they will usually use the terms, “understand, know, and learn.” By the end of this course, students will understand how to XYZ. The problem with that is that we can’t assess or measure someone’s understanding. We can break this down into further details though and that will help us with measuring appropriately. 

Third, there are two other domains with Bloom’s that aren’t talked about as much. The one that everyone knows is the cognitive domain. However, there are the affective (emotional) and psychomotor (physical) domains. If you are creating learning outcomes and objectives and what you are looking for doesn’t align to cognitive, chances are, you can look in the other domains. For instance, I was reviewing a training with a police training officer and the learning objectives puzzled me at first, but then I realized that all of the learning objectives were for physical actions. The officers in training needed to perform physical routines in order to pass the course so therefore, it was based on their physical performances. For those of you that are creating trainings and courses based around human skills, formerly known as soft skills, I’d recommend reviewing the affective domain. 

To dive in deeper with this information, I’d recommend the book, Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, A: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by Anderson et al. Vanderbilt University and Arkansas State University have helpful charts and information for breaking down Bloom’s Taxonomy.

There is also a whole conversation to be had about should you present learning objectives to your learners or not. It’s a timely conversation that I had with my friends, Dr. Heidi Kirby and William Cronje. It’s worth a quick listen:

Instructional Design Models and Processes

Alrighty, now it’s time to dive into another fun part of design: the models and processes! While I am going to explain a few of them, you really should become extremely proficient in one of them. I know that this is a super confusing part for newbies, but there is no point in trying to learn every instructional design model and process. That’s like saying in order for you to become an artist, you need to become the best painter, drawer, sculptor, etc. Just focus on one and you’ll be fine. Depending upon your industry will also determine which ones to focus on. For instance, Backward Design is more aligned with educational positions. SAM, Agile, and Design Thinking are more for corporate positions that pride themselves on innovation (Apple, Tesla, Google, etc.). Look up any ID position for the government (which are called ISDs) and I promise you, ADDIE will be on there. That’s not to say that they are explicit for only one industry, but you’ll notice a few patterns the more you look at job postings.

Let’s start with my favorite one:

Backward Design

In the book Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe introduced us to an instructional design model called, “Backward Design.” In this model, you start with the end in mind and then work your way backwards. Think of reverse engineering a problem, but for designing learning experiences. And yes, if you are saying to yourself that this seems like common sense to start with identifying the goals first and then working backwards, it is. However, in a world of many forward facing designs where a designer or educator is handed a textbook or a guidebook and told to design a course around it, this really changed the focus for many designers.

We can break down Backward Design into three stages: 

1. Identifying the desired results 

2. Determining acceptable levels of evidence

3. Designing the learning experience

In the first stage, you identify the problem and then think of your overarching goal. How can training or education be used to solve the problem? Where are the students currently at and how can you bridge the knowledge gap? From here, you create your overarching goal and then break these down into smaller, more manageable goals. In our world, this means having a goal and then dividing these into learning objectives. 

In the second stage, you are thinking about what students need to demonstrate to prove that they are on track. This is when you are thinking about different kinds of learning assessments and learning strategies. What should be clear to students is how the assessment they are completing will align back to the learning objectives and ultimately, to how the assessments will help them to complete the goals. 

In the final stage, you then focus on all of the supporting material around the assessments that create the learning experience. Think about learning activities (discussions, practice questions, polls, etc.) to allow students to practice and of course, the content (readings, videos, podcasts, etc.). 

When you put everything together, you should have your entire design. Every designer I have ever met puts their own unique spin on Backward Design. For instance, even though this model does not call for immediate feedback, I conduct pilot programs to make sure I’m on track before the final product is ready. You can hear about my take on Backward Design from an interview I did with Tom McDowall. To learn more about Backward Design, you can take my short course on Backward Design, dive into Wiggins and McTighe’s work, or check out Vanderbilt University’s website for templates.

Successive Approximation Model (SAM)

The Successive Approximation Model, or more commonly referred to as SAM, is an instructional design model that is based on the idea of iterative development. In SAM, the instructional designer creates a prototype of the instruction, gets feedback from stakeholders, and then revises the instruction based on the feedback. This process is repeated until the instruction is deemed to be effective.

SAM is a powerful tool for creating effective instruction because it allows the instructional designer to get feedback from stakeholders early in the development process and quality feedback is key to any design. This feedback can help the instructional designer to identify and address any potential problems with the instruction, material, direction, etc. Additionally, the iterative nature of SAM allows the instructional designer to make changes to the instruction as needed, which can help to ensure that the instruction is meeting the needs of the learners. Here are the basics:

Step 1: Preparation

• Identify the learning objectives. What do you want students to learn?

• Gather resources. What materials will you need to deliver the instruction?

• Develop a timeline. When will you deliver the instruction?

• Create a budget. How much will it cost to deliver the instruction?

Step 2: Iterative Design

• Develop a prototype of the instruction. This can be a rough draft or a working model.

• Get feedback from stakeholders. This could include students, teachers, administrators, or other experts.

• Revise the instruction based on feedback.

Step 3: Iterative Development

• Develop the final version of the instruction. This should be based on the prototype and feedback from stakeholders.

• Deliver the instruction to students.

• Collect data on student learning.

• Revise the instruction as needed.

As you can imagine, this also takes a special organization to fully adopt this mindset to be able to embrace this model. You need a real innovative organization to use SAM and quite honestly, many organizations claim to be innovative, but they aren’t. This process needs dedication and buy-in to be successful. 

I’d recommend checking out Kennesaw State University’s website to read more about the pros and cons of SAM. You can also take a deeper dive in Leaving ADDIE for SAM by Dr. Michael Allen.

Agile

Agile is a project management methodology that emphasizes flexibility and collaboration, however, it can also be used as an instructional design model. It is based on the idea of breaking down large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. These tasks are then completed in short iterations, with feedback from stakeholders gathered at the end of each iteration. This allows for changes to be made to the project as needed, and ensures that the final product meets the needs of the stakeholders.

There are many benefits to using Agile as an instructional design model. First, it is flexible and adaptable, which makes it well-suited for projects with changing requirements. Second, it promotes collaboration and communication, which can help to improve the quality of the final product. Third, Agile projects tend to be completed more quickly than traditional projects, which can save time and money.

If you are considering using Agile for your next instructional design project, there are a few things you should keep in mind. As you can imagine, Agile projects require a high degree of collaboration and communication. The entire team needs to be bought into this methodology or else, it will go nowhere. These projects can be more complex than traditional projects so having a good understanding before you begin the process is key. For some instructional designers I know who practice Agile, they usually have a project management background or have an actual project manager on the team. 

Here are some of the basics involved in Agile from an instructional design perspective:

1. Planning - The first step is to plan the project. This includes identifying the learning objectives, gathering requirements, and creating a timeline.

2. Development - The next step is to develop the instruction. This includes creating content, activities, and assessments.

3. Testing - Once the instruction is developed, it needs to be tested. This includes testing with learners, instructors, facilitators, and other stakeholders.

4. Deployment - Once the instruction is tested and approved, it can be deployed. This includes making it available to learners and instructors.

5. Evaluation - Finally, the instruction needs to be evaluated. This includes collecting data on student learning and making changes as needed.

There is an entire book written on this process called, Agile for Instructional Designers: Iterative Project Management to Achieve Results by Megan Torrance.  If this is the direction you are thinking, I’d recommend checking out that resource.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to problem-solving. It is a process that involves understanding the needs of the user, brainstorming solutions, and prototyping and testing those solutions. Instructional designers, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, can use Design Thinking to create effective learning experiences with placing the emphasis on the learners.

Design Thinking is a five-step process:

1. Empathize - The first step is to empathize with the user. This means understanding the user's needs, wants, and goals. Instructional designers can do this by conducting interviews, surveys, and observations.

2. Define - The next step is to define the problem. This means identifying the user's needs and goals, and articulating the problem that needs to be solved.

3. Ideate - The third step is to ideate. This means brainstorming solutions to the problem. Instructional designers can do this by conducting brainstorming sessions, creating mind maps, and sketching out ideas.

4. Prototype - The fourth step is to prototype. This means creating a rough model of the solution. Instructional designers can use paper, cardboard, and other materials to create prototypes.

5. Test - The fifth and final step is to test. This means testing the prototype with users to get feedback. Instructional designers can do this by conducting usability testing and collecting user feedback.

What I love about the approach of Design Thinking is that the learner is the priority. While this should be a given no matter the approach, I’ve always appreciated how explicit Design Thinking is with this being the first step with empathizing and understanding their desires. Once again, this model needs buy-in and collaboration from all parties, just like Agile and SAM.  

The most famous article, I think that’s safe to say, about Design Thinking came from Tim Brown’s publication on Harvard Business Review. While you can read countless articles about Design Thinking, there has also been a loud rebellion on social media preaching that this process is dead. MIT Technology Review featured an interesting perspective on this by Rebecca Ackermann that’s worth the read.

Dick and Carey Model

The Dick and Carey Model is a systematic instructional design model that was developed by Walter Dick and Lou Carey in the 1970s. The model is based on the idea that instruction should be designed to promote learning and that learning is a complex process that involves many factors.

The Dick and Carey Model comprises of ten components:

1. Identifying the instructional goal - This is the desired outcome of the instruction.

2. Gathering information - This information can be used to determine the learners' prior knowledge, their learning styles, and their interests.

3. Analyzing the task - This involves identifying the steps involved in the task, the prerequisite skills that the learners need, and the cognitive demands of the task.

4. Writing performance objectives - Performance objectives specify what the learner will be able to do after completing the instruction.

5. Developing instructional strategies - Instructional strategies are the methods that will be used to teach the learners the material.

6. Creating and sequencing instructional materials - Instructional materials can include text, graphics, animations, and videos.

7. Developing and conducting formative evaluations -  Formative evaluations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the instruction during the development process.

8. Revising the instruction - Based on the results of the formative evaluations, revisions need to be completed. 

9. Conducting summative evaluations - Summative evaluations are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the instruction after it has been completed.

10. Disseminating the instruction - This involves making the instruction available to the learners.

Overall, the Dick and Carey Model is a valuable model for instructional designers. It can be used to design effective instruction for a variety of learners. However, it is important to note that the model can be time-consuming and complex to use. It is also important to have a high level of expertise in instructional design in order to use the model effectively. If you’d like to learn more the University of Florida has a well produced article on the model. You can also go right to the source with The Systematic Design of Instruction. 

ADDIE

Ah, good ol’ ADDIE. ADDIE is the original design process that many, many designers and organizations swear by. It’s also created quite the commotion within the instructional design space with some folks having strong feelings questioning the fundamentals of ADDIE such as “Is ADDIE a process or a model?”, “Is it a project management methodology or an ID model?”, “Is it still relevant?” and the list goes on and on. I don’t have all the answers, but here’s what I can tell you about ADDIE:

• It’s commonly used by IDs even if they don’t specifically call out the steps

• It can be combined with ID models (Backward Design + ADDIE)

• It’s listed as a preference on a majority of job postings

• It’s extremely misunderstood

Let me unpack that last bullet point real quick. If you Google “ADDIE” right now, you’ll often find infographics that can be interpreted as you finish one step and then move on to the next step. In the real-world, that does not work. ADDIE was created back in the 1970s and I think it’s safe to say, we have changed from how we worked from back then. Most folks I know will tell you how ADDIE is not meant to be a linear model. Instead, you are constantly evaluating how the project is progressing and then make tweaks and changes as necessary. While the E in ADDIE stands for Evaluation and it appears to be at the end of the phrase, you are constantly evaluating everything. I guess you would call it AEDEDEIEE, which clearly doesn’t look or sound as good. So, what does ADDIE stand for?

Analysis: The first step is to analyze the learning needs of the learners. This includes identifying the learners' goals, their current knowledge and skills, and the challenges they face. Analysis is a crucial step in the ADDIE model, as it lays the foundation for everything else that is to come. During the analysis phase, instructional designers gather and analyze information about the situation, their learners, their needs, and the context in which the instruction will take place. This information is then used to identify the goals, which guide the design and development of the materials. 

Conducting a needs assessment is the first step in the right direction. This is when the ID analyzes the current situation in terms of training, knowledge gaps, etc. This is when you are putting on your researcher hat and asking questions like: 

• What is the point of the course, training, or program?  

• Why are we doing it?  

• What type of behavioral change is desired?  

• Will the product actually help? 

• What’s currently being done or has been done? 

• Who, What, When, Where, Why, How? 

• The core of your training plan will be “How can we improve the situation and achieve business goals through training?” 

Overall, thorough analysis helps ensure that the learning materials and learning experience will be effective in meeting the needs of the learners and achieving the desired learning outcomes.

Design: The next step is to design the overall learning experience. This is when you are creating the blueprint for what the course, training, or program will look like. You can divide this into three main elements: 

• The learning environment - How will the training or course take place? Face-to-face, online, hybrid?

• The learning objectives - what students or learners are expected to achieve as a result of instruction

• The learning strategies - assessments and activities during the course or training that engages students and learners in deep thought about the subject matter. Peer-review, scenarios, project-based learning, etc.

Put all these elements together and you have the design stage.

Development: The third step is to develop the learning experience. From what you created with the blueprint, now you put the plan in place. This is when you transform the ideas and designs into a tangible learning product. In this phase, you create the learning assessments, learning activities and content. All of these elements will be used to facilitate learning. During the development phase, the designer has the opportunity to test and refine their assessments, activities, and content, ensuring that they are effective, engaging, and meet the needs of the learners. Essentially, this is the building phase. 

You can think of the first phases as in terms of building a new home. The analysis phase is when the developers realizes there is a business opportunity and begins scouting pieces of land to purchase. The design phase is when the blueprints and drawings are created for what the home will look like. The development phase is when the construction crew physically builds the house.

The development phase is important because it sets the foundation for the implementation phase and ultimately for the success of the learning program. Without a thorough and well-designed development phase, the learning materials may not meet the needs of the target audience or achieve the desired learning objectives.

Implementation: The fourth step is to launch the learning experience. This stage involves delivering the instructional content to the target audience, ensuring that the learning materials are being used correctly, and ensuring that the learning environment is supportive and conducive to learning. Essentially, this is when your course or training goes live. Depending upon the circumstances, this is usually when training the trainer and preparing the learners takes place. I say it depends because this could be different for the various kinds of projects. From a higher education perspective, think of this as when the adjunct instructor goes through training and the students are going through an onboarding process. The same can be said from a corporate perspective with the trainer needing to have a solid understanding of the learning materials and the participants needing to be aware of what's to be expected of them 

Effective implementation is essential for ensuring that the goals, outcomes, and objectives are met, and for evaluating the effectiveness of the course, training, or program in achieving said desired results. The implementation stage also allows for continuous improvement, as feedback and results from the evaluation stage can be used to refine and improve future implementations. 

Evaluation: The fifth and final step is to evaluate the learning experience. In the evaluation phase, the learning materials that were developed in the previous phases are tested and assessed to determine their effectiveness in achieving the intended learning outcomes. The evaluation phase also provides feedback to improve the learning materials for future use.The evaluation process can involve various methods such as formative evaluations, summative evaluations, and both qualitative and quantitative assessments. Some common evaluation tools include surveys, tests, and observations of student performance.

In the evaluation phase, it is important to consider the following questions:

• Did the learning experience achieve the desired learning objectives?

• Were the instructional materials engaging and effective for the intended audience?

• Did the learning experience meet the needs and expectations of the stakeholders?

• Were there any challenges or limitations in delivering the assessments, activities, or content?

• How can the instructional materials be improved for future use?

By thoroughly evaluating the learning experience, the ADDIE model ensures that the end product is effective and meets the needs of the intended audience. The evaluation phase provides valuable information for continuous improvement and future instructional design efforts.

Once again, this is not a linear process. Every designer seems to have their own take on ADDIE, but the above items are the basics. I’m also attempting to summarize ADDIE when it has such a vast history. You’ll find that many organizations today forget about the A and the D in ADDIE and just leave their projects to “DIE.” Karl Kapp told me that joke on the podcast and it’s so true. Many organizations do not dedicate enough time for the analysis and design steps, and we as instructional designers, need to push back to make sure this gets the attention the project deserves.

You can hear more about ADDIE from an interview I did with William Cronje. If you want to take a deep, deep dive into ADDIE, check out Instructional Design: The ADDIE Approach.

Now that we’ve covered instructional models, processes, and frameworks, let’s dive into instructional design essentials. I’m grouping together a few significant topics that will be on every single job posting you see. So, let’s talk about them!

---

Instructional Design Essentials

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Imagine that you are hosting a dinner party. 12 people are coming over to your house to eat, but what do you serve them? With a group of 12, some people will have dietary restrictions, food allergies, food restrictions, and different lifestyles. How do you serve a meal that will accommodate all of them? The solution is to serve a buffet. Allow your dinner guests to pick and choose what they want to eat. This is essentially Universal Design for Learning. Instead of thinking about a dinner party and guests, think about a learning experience and learners. We can allow our learners to pick and choose how they want to be able to learn. This is UDL. I learned about this story from Tom Thibodeau, one of the authors of UDL in the Cloud and I’ll never forget it. 

Universal Design for Learning, or as you probably know it as UDL, is a framework for creating learning experiences that are accessible to all learners, regardless of their background, abilities, etc. Basically, we are designing meaningful learning experiences for everyone. UDL is based on the idea that all learners have different preferences for learning and by providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression, we can create learning experiences that are more accessible and inclusive. The more we can do this, the more our learners can have a sense of autonomy and flexibility.

There are three main principles of UDL:

• Engagement: Provide multiple ways to engage learners and motivate them to learn. This can be done by providing a variety of learning activities, using different media, and creating a positive and supportive learning environment.

• Representation: Provide multiple ways for learners to access information. This can be done by providing text, images, audio, and video, and by using different formats for presenting information.

• Expression: Provide multiple ways for learners to demonstrate their learning. This can be done by allowing learners to choose how they want to show what they know, and by providing feedback that is tailored to the individual learner.

So, let me give you an example of UDL in action. Let’s say that you write an article for a course. After the article has been written, you add in more details and turn it into a script. You record a video of yourself highlighting the important parts of the script. Once it’s recorded, you remove the video and use the audio as a podcast episode. In theory, you took one idea with an article, and then turned that into a video and a podcast. However your learners prefer to consume content, you’ll have something that will speak to their needs.

Another topic that I love from a UDL perspective is thinking about different approaches for assessments. For my higher education and K-12  people, you are all too familiar with quizzes and essays. There are so many more approaches though that we can use to be creative with our designs. One example that I absolutely loved was reading about how Clemson’s Dr. Carson produced a rap album as his dissertation. He didn’t take the traditional approach, but was it effective? You bet. It went viral because of his creative approach and what I loved the most about this story is that Clemson embraced this. It’s a true story about UDL

This is only one example of many, many ways we can design learning experiences for everyone. If you want to learn more about these principles, I’d highly encourage you to first check out CAST’s website. I’d also recommend reading UDL and Blended Learning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes by Dr. Katie Novak and Dr. Caitlin Tucker. I’ve also had the pleasure of interviewing Tom and Katie about their books and an overview about UDL. P.S. this was my first interview on the Dr. Luke Hobson Podcast and let’s just say that I sound way more comfortable with a microphone in front of my face now:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

As a 35-year-old white male living in New England, I am the last person you should be learning about DEI from if I’m being honest. However, I’m an ally to all and I absolutely wanted DEI in this blog post. If we are talking about designing learning experiences for all, then we need to think about everyone. So first, what does DEI stand for:

• Diversity: Diversity refers to the variety of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that learners bring to the learning environment. This includes things like race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, and abilities.

• Equity: Equity refers to ensuring that all learners have the same opportunities to succeed, regardless of their background. This means providing all learners with the resources and support they need to learn effectively.

• Inclusion: Inclusion refers to creating a learning environment where all learners feel welcome, valued, and respected. This means creating a space where all learners feel comfortable sharing their ideas and participating in discussions.

DEI is a commitment to creating a learning environment where everyone feels welcome, valued, and respected. This means that instructional designers need to be aware of the different backgrounds and experiences of their learners and design learning experiences that are accessible and engaging for everyone.

There are a number of ways that instructional designers can design learning experiences with DEI in mind. Here are a few tips:

• Use inclusive language: Avoid using language that is offensive or discriminatory. For example, instead of saying "mankind," say "humanity."

• Use images that represent a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and abilities: When using images in your teaching, make sure to represent a variety of cultures, backgrounds, and abilities. This will help to show your learners that they are valued and respected.

• Make your learning experiences accessible to all learners: Provide alternative formats for content, such as audio or video, and offer accommodations for learners with disabilities. This will help to ensure that all learners have the opportunity to succeed.

• Create a safe and welcoming learning environment: Encourage your learners to share their ideas and participate in discussions. This will help to create a space where all learners feel comfortable and respected.

As a designer, I’d encourage you to get feedback from a diverse group of people. Ask people from different backgrounds and experiences to review your learning materials. This will help you to identify any potential biases or areas where your materials could be more inclusive. Overall, be open to learning and growing. DEI is an ongoing process. As you learn more about DEI, you can continue to improve your learning experiences.

To learn more about DEI and instructional design, I would highly encourage you to read INCLUSIVE ADDIE: Initial Considerations for DEI Pedagogy by Dr. Chris Gamrat, Dr. Sonia Tiwari and Dr. Saliha Ozkan Bekiroglu. I’d also encourage you to follow Dr. Saeide Mirzaei on LinkedIn or to read any of the publications by Dr. Shihua Brazill to hear more perspectives on DEI.

Accessibility 

Accessibility in online learning is the ability for all learners to access and participate in online learning regardless of their physical, cognitive, or sensory abilities. This means that online learning materials and activities should be designed in a way that is accessible to everyone. Accessibility should also not be an afterthought with your designs. Once again, if you are designing for everyone, then consider everyone with your creations.

There are a number of things that can be done to make online learning more accessible. Here are a few examples:

• Use high-contrast colors and fonts. This makes it easier for people with visual impairments to read the text. For example, you could use a dark font on a light background, or a light font on a dark background.

• Use clear and concise language. This makes it easier for people with cognitive impairments to understand the content. For example, you could avoid using jargon or technical terms, and you could break up long sentences into shorter ones.

• Provide transcripts for audio and video content. This makes it possible for people with hearing impairments to access the content. For example, you could use a service like Rev.com, Otter.ai, or even just YouTube to create transcripts of your audio and video content.

• Allow learners to adjust the speed of audio and video content. This makes it possible for people with different learning speeds to access the content. For example, you could use a tool like YouTube's playback speed setting to allow learners to slow down or speed up the audio and video content.

• Provide alternative formats for content, such as text, audio, and video. This makes it possible for people with different learning preferences to access the content. For example, you could provide a text version of a video lecture, or you could provide an audio version of a written article. Much like what we talked about with UDL.

• Offer accommodations for learners such as extended time on assignments, additional resources, extra office hours, etc. This helps to ensure that all learners have the opportunity to succeed.

As you can tell from the bullet points above, many lessons of UDL best practices go hand-in-hand with thinking about accessibility. What I’ve found is that the more I can make my learning experiences accessible, the more everyone enjoys them. To learn more about accessibility, read the chapter, Designing for Diverse Learners, by Dr. Susie Gronseth, Esther Michela, and Lydia Oluchi Ugwu. 

I also would highly encourage you to follow NASA’s IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility) Practitioner, Bela Gaytán.

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

One skill that every designer needs to work on is collaborating with subject matter experts, or as we call them SMEs. We also pronounce “SMEs” like how you say the word “sneeze.” It sounds super goofy, but that’s just what we do. Anyway, I’ve talked extensively about the power of working with SMEs over the years because I found this is where I struggled the most when becoming a designer. Learning the behind the scenes skills were easy for me. Learning how to work with people was quite the challenge. These folks don’t report to you and you don’t report to them. They are most likely working on several projects at the same time and when yours isn’t a priority, that’s when things get really tricky. 

So, to help, I created a framework for collaborating and working with SMEs. Cassandra Naji interviewed me for this framework so all the credit to her for putting my words together in a coherent way. You can read the full article with this link, but here is the summary:

1. Research Your SME - Who are they? What is their background? Why are they on this project? What have they worked on? Simply Google this person and you’ll be surprised what can come up from articles, books, videos, podcasts, awards, websites, social media profiles, and more. 

2. Explain Your Role - Ask if they have worked with an instructional designer before. If yes, ask them to explain about their past experiences. If no, define why you are on the project and how you two will be working together. Not everyone knows about instructional designers. Establish this collaboration and partnership now at the beginning of the project. 

3. Understand the SME's Preferences - How do they like to work? What is their schedule like? When are they the most creative? What tools have they used before? You need to incorporate their style into your workflow.

4. Provide Examples - What does a course or training look like for your SME? They could have an entirely different picture compared to what you are envisioning. Get on the same page and demo a few of your past examples. Make them excited about the final product and clarify what the intended goal is for the project. This video is an example on how to do this.

5. Remove Barriers - Most SMEs will be working with you on a part-time basis so the time you spend with them is valuable. If you can identify roadblocks early on in the process, you’ll have a much smoother time. If a challenge comes up, ask them what’s happening and how you can help. 

6. Set Deadlines - You are going to want to map out the whole project with creating a timeline for deliverables. Set up weekly or bi-weekly conversations to make sure everything is still on track and that there are no additional questions. 

7. Provide Feedback - Don’t be afraid of providing feedback and I mean with both positive and constructive feedback. If your SMEs are doing everything perfectly, find ways to encourage them to apply these concepts more in your designs. If your SMEs are struggling, provide coaching and support to help them back on track.

8. Think About Their Perspective - Let’s face facts, not everyone is great to work with. There will be challenging times, but instead of taking a defensive position, ask yourself what you would do in their shoes. Is there something else happening behind the scenes that needs to be addressed? Take the stance of empathy first. At the same time, don’t be afraid to push back. This is a partnership and having a give and take system is normal. It cannot be a one way street either from the designer’s perspective or the SME’s perspective. 

Collaborating with SMEs is, in my opinion, the number one underrated skill as a designer. Your designs won’t get far if you don’t have the right people to work with. Your design will also only be as great as your partnership with your SMEs. When there is a sense of trust and unity on the project, it will show in the design. If you would like to take my course on Collaborating and Building Relationships with SMEs to help you, the next cohort starts on October 20th, 2023.

I made a video about how to follow each step in this framework two years ago and you can find it below:

Project Management 

Project management is key for instructional designers. Without it, you're just spinning your wheels. I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you reading this that you aren’t just focused on your designs, but you also need to manage the entire project. As a designer, you’ll constantly be collaborating, monitoring, communicating, planning, organizing, and executing every step of your projects. 

Here are some tips for instructional designers on how to apply project management principles:

• Start by defining the project scope. What are the goals of the project? What are the deliverables? Who are the stakeholders?

• Create a timeline and budget. How long will the project take? How much will it cost?

• Identify and manage risks. What could go wrong? How will you mitigate those risks?

• Communicate effectively with stakeholders. Keep them updated on the project's progress and make sure their needs are being met.

• Be flexible and adaptable. Things don't always go according to plan, so be prepared to make changes as needed.

Here are some specific examples of how instructional designers can apply project management principles:

• When defining the project scope, instructional designers need to consider the needs of the learners, the goals of the organization, and the available resources.

• When creating a timeline and budget, instructional designers need to factor in the time it will take to develop the content, create the assessments, and deliver the training.

• When identifying and managing risks, instructional designers need to consider factors such as the complexity of the project, the availability of resources, and the potential for changes in the project's scope.

• When communicating effectively with SMEs and stakeholders, instructional designers need to keep them updated on the project's progress, answer their questions, and address their concerns.

• When being flexible and adaptable, instructional designers need to be open to changes in the project's scope, timeline, or budget.

Don’t let the term “project management” scare you by the way. This terrified me as a new designer. What helped me to get over this fear was thinking of a project and then breaking everything down into teeny tiny steps. Just like with anything else, only thinking about the massive overarching goal is going to make things seem murky and confusing. When you break it down day by day or week by week, it seems manageable, because it is. Nothing is impossible to figure out. You’ve already managed projects before. This is just going to be a bit larger of a project. 

I personally haven’t gone through a kind of certificate program with project management, but I know of many folks who have and found it to be valuable. You can check out Project Management Institute (PMI) to learn more.

Evaluation and Research Methods

We’ve talked about the evaluation process in a few different ways above, but let’s break this down. Why is evaluation important? There is no such thing as a perfect learning product (course, training, program, etc.). There is always more we can do as designers to improve the learning experience. You can hear about the importance of evaluation from this clip:

Long story short, we need to determine if our goals were originally met. Did everything go as planned? Can we make adjustments in the learning materials, assessments, and activities to connect deeper with our learners? There are many questions we should be asking to ensure that the learning experience was effective. 

Personally, I use a mixed methods approach where I conduct both surveys and interviews to collect, analyze, and apply learner feedback. I often find that one method (quantitative or qualitative) is not enough and I end up making assumptions with trying to fill in the missing information. This blog post will explain to you how I revise learning experiences, but this is also my own personal research. For evaluation methods, there are many popular approaches out there that you’ll read about. 

So, first let’s go over the most popular evaluation model.

Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation

Kirkpatrick's evaluation is a four-level framework for evaluating the effectiveness of training programs. The four levels are:

• Reaction: How did learners react to the training? Were they satisfied with the content, delivery, and overall experience?

• Learning: What did learners learn from the training? Were they able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills that were taught?

• Behavior: Did learners change their behavior as a result of the training? Are they applying what they learned in their work or personal lives?

• Results: Did the training have a positive impact on the organization? Did it lead to increased productivity, reduced costs, or improved customer satisfaction?

Each level of evaluation provides different insights into the effectiveness of a training program. Reaction is the most basic level, but it can still provide valuable feedback on how to improve the training. Learning is a more rigorous level of evaluation, but it can be difficult to measure. Behavior is the most difficult level of evaluation, but it is also the most important. Results is the ultimate goal of any training program, and it is the level that provides the most convincing evidence of effectiveness.

Here are some tips for using Kirkpatrick's evaluation:

• Start by defining the goals of the training program. What do you want learners to achieve as a result of the training?

• Select the appropriate evaluation methods for each level. Reaction can be evaluated using surveys or interviews. Learning can be evaluated using pre-tests and post-tests. Behavior can be evaluated using observation or performance reviews. Results can be evaluated using financial data or customer satisfaction surveys.

• Collect data from multiple sources. This will help you to get a more accurate picture of the program's effectiveness.

• Analyze the data and draw conclusions. What can you learn from the data? What changes can you make to the training program to improve its effectiveness?

If you’d like to learn more about this model, you can check out Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation by James Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick. 

While most only know about Kirkpatrick’s model, other evaluation models do exist such as:

Kaufman's Model of Learning Evaluation

Kaufman built upon Kirkpatrick’s model and made a few adjustments to Kirkpatrick’s first level and added a fifth level. With that said, Kaufman's Model of Learning Evaluation is a five-level framework for evaluating the effectiveness of learning experiences. The five levels are:

• Input: This level evaluates the resources that were used to create the learning experience, such as the materials, the delivery method, and the instructor.

• Process: This level evaluates the way that the learning experience was delivered, such as the quality of the instruction, the engagement of the learners, and the overall atmosphere.

• Application: This level evaluates how well learners were able to apply what they learned in the learning experience to their work or personal lives.

• Organizational Payoffs: This level evaluates the impact of the learning experience on the organization, such as increased productivity, reduced costs, or improved customer satisfaction.

• Societal Outcomes: This level evaluates the impact of the learning experience on society as a whole, such as improved health, education, or social justice.

Each level of evaluation provides different insights into the effectiveness of a learning experience. Input is the most basic level, but it can still provide valuable feedback on how to improve the experience. Process is a more rigorous level of evaluation, but it can be difficult to measure. Application is the most difficult level of evaluation, but it is also the most important. Organizational Payoffs and Societal Outcomes are the ultimate goals of any learning experience, and they are the levels that provide the most convincing evidence of effectiveness.

Here are some tips for using Kaufman's Model of Learning Evaluation:

• Start by defining the goals of the learning experience. What do you want learners to achieve as a result of the experience?

• Select the appropriate evaluation methods for each level. Input can be evaluated using surveys or interviews. Process can be evaluated using observation or video recordings. Application can be evaluated using pre-tests and post-tests. Organizational Payoffs and Societal Outcomes can be evaluated using financial data, customer satisfaction surveys, or impact studies.

• Collect data from multiple sources. This will help you to get a more accurate picture of the experience's effectiveness.

• Analyze the data and draw conclusions. What can you learn from the data? What changes can you make to the learning experience to improve its effectiveness?

You can learn more about Kaufman’s model with many different publications on Google Scholar.

The CIPP Evaluation Model

The CIPP Evaluation Model is a comprehensive framework for evaluating the effectiveness of programs, projects, personnel, products, institutions, and systems. The model was developed by Daniel Stufflebeam in the 1960s, and it stands for Context, Input, Process, and Product. 

Context:

• Identify the problems that the program is intended to address.

• Assess the needs of the target population.

• Assess the environment in which the program will be implemented.

Input:

• Assess the resources that are being used to implement the program.

• Ensure that the resources are adequate and appropriate for the needs of the target population and the environment.

Process:

• Assess how the program is being implemented.

• Identify any potential problems with the implementation of the program.

• Make recommendations for improvement.

Product:

• Assess the outcomes of the program.

• Determine whether the program has achieved its intended goals.

• Make recommendations for improvement.

The CIPP Evaluation Model is a cyclical model, which means that it can be used to evaluate programs on an ongoing basis. This allows for continuous improvement of the program and ensures that it is meeting the needs of the target population.

As always, here are some helpful tips for using the CIPP Evaluation Model:

• Start by defining the goals of the program. What do you want to achieve with the program?

• Select the appropriate evaluation methods for each stage. Context can be evaluated using surveys or interviews. Input can be evaluated using document reviews or budget analysis. Process can be evaluated using observation or video recordings. Product can be evaluated using pre-tests and post-tests, or impact studies.

• Collect data from multiple sources. This will help you to get a more accurate picture of the program's effectiveness.

• Analyze the data and draw conclusions. What can you learn from the data? What changes can you make to the program to improve its effectiveness?

To learn more about the CIPP Evaluation Model, check out the book, The CIPP Evaluation Model: How to Evaluate for Improvement and Accountability by Dr. Daniel Stufflebeam and Dr. Guili Zhang.

These are just a few of the evaluation models and there are many more. Just like with pretty much every other topic I’ve written about so far, this section could be an entire book. I would highly, highly encourage you to read the Instructional Design Evaluation chapter from the book, Design for Learning Principles, Processes, and Praxis. This was written by Dr. Cheryl Calhoun, Dr. Shilpa Sahay, and Dr. Matthew Wilson. They did a phenomenal job with this chapter and go into much more helpful detail than I can with this summary. 

---

Technology

Technology is extremely tricky to write about. Depending upon where you end up working will change my recommendations for technology entirely. There is often a discussion about instructional design in higher education vs corporate, and some topics make sense for what sector they align to. However, you can’t give an absolute answer on a certain topic because there are very few absolutes in this world. We also can’t discount other sectors with government agencies, non-profits, and free-lance. I’ll once again attempt to paint in broad brush strokes to help you get a better sense of these items. And one last thing, technology was put at the bottom of this list for a good reason. I’ve talked with many aspiring designers who immediately dive into spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on tools and tech first before learning the fundamentals. To be clear, learn the fundamentals first and then, you can download free trials of the various software. 

---

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Learning management systems, or as everyone calls them, LMS, are software applications that help instructional designers create, deliver, and track learning experiences. If you have ever enrolled in an online course before, it was hosted in an LMS. These platforms offer a variety of features that can help instructional designers to be more efficient and effective in their work, including:

• Content management - create and manage learning content, such as courses, modules, assessments, activities, etc.

• Delivery - deliver learning content to learners in a variety of ways, including online, in-person, or blended.

• Tracking - track learner progress and performance, which can help instructional designers to assess the effectiveness of their learning experiences.

• Communication - discussing with learners via discussion boards and messaging systems

Early on, I mentioned about practicing to design. After you have crafted a blueprint for what your course or training will look like, try building it inside of an LMS. This will give you more experience with not only design, but how to work with many different features. 

There are a million and one LMSs out there and each one has their own pros and cons. You’ll often find that one LMS will focus specifically on a type of tool,  target audience, assessment type, or something similar. You’ll find that some will market cohort-based learning, peer-reviewed assessments, learning analytics, feedback types, communication, mobile apps, and other ways to make you select one over the other. If you are just starting out, I would recommend Canvas because it’s quite versatile and free. There are many other platforms though including:

• Brightspace

• Blackboard

• Moodle

• edX

• Google Classroom

• iSpring

Overall, LMSs are a valuable tool for instructional designers. Our work tends to live inside of these platforms so selecting and finding the right one for you and your organization is significant. For now, learn to develop and build in an LMS and you’ll be on the right track.

One final note about LMSs, if you are an individual contributor creating courses and you need everything with sales pages, analytics, landing pages, email lists, and everything else, I’ve been experimenting with Teachfloor lately. It’s quite a versatile platform.

Authoring Tools and Editing Software

An authoring tool is a software program that allows instructional designers to create interactive e-learning content. These tools provide a variety of features that can be used to create different types of learning materials. The best authoring tool for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. If you are new to instructional design, assuming you are since you are reading this, you may want to choose a tool that is easy to use and has a variety of templates and resources. I’ll get into my recommendations in a bit. No matter which authoring tool you choose though, it’s going to take time to learn how to use it efficiently. Every tool I have learned has been through trial and error. Luckily for you, there are so many YouTube videos now on how to use every single tool.

Once again, let me be crystal clear, a tool is just a tool. A tool does not make a designer. You do not need to purchase a tool in order to become a designer. There is much more involved in designing learning experiences than authoring tools. Lastly, I’m not affiliated with any of these companies. If they are on this list, it’s because either I have used the authoring tool or I have heard from plenty of folks who recommend the product. So, with all that said, let’s talk about a few recommendations:

• H5P - Free and open technology that creates content with interactive videos, branching scenarios, presentations, and more. 

• 7Taps - Create a mini course in seconds is what their website says, and it’s true. You can use the power of microlearning with only a few clicks from 7Taps. To me, it’s a modern take on learning, which is so rare in our instructional design field. 

• Articulate Rise 360 - Clean, quick, and simple to build on. It looks great on either desktop or mobile. 

• iSpring Suite - A versatile tool that can do slide courses, Interactive pages, quizzes, role-playing, instructional pages, and more.

• Genially - An easy to use tool that allows you to create interactive content, such as infographics, presentations, and quizzes.

• Camtasia - Screen recording and video editing software that allows users to create professional-quality videos with ease.

• Adobe Creative Cloud - I’ll admit, this isn’t normal for IDs, but it’s what I use for video editing, animations, pictures and more. Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and the other products are ridiculously powerful.

• Canva - An online graphic design platform that allows users to create professional-looking designs without any prior design experience.

Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools allow instructional designers to work with other stakeholders, such as subject matter experts (SMEs), to develop learning materials. These come in all shapes and sizes with some of them being a bit tricky to learn and others being easy to use right from the start. Where this becomes a slippery slope is that every organization has their own tools. This is like my point about instructional design models. It doesn’t make sense to learn every single instructional design model. You should focus on one and really dive in. Collaboration tools are the same way. 

I’ll list out a few popular ones so you have an idea of what I’m talking about, but once again, you will not be using all of these at once. 

• Google Docs

• Slack

• Zoom

• InSpace

• Trello

• Figma

• Asana

• Wrike

• Confluence

Some of those tools are for communication, documentation, or project management. It all depends on what the organization uses. I’ve been a long time fan of keeping things simple, especially when it comes to working with SMEs. You want to reduce barriers for SMEs and many of them, at least in my experience, have had hurdles with technology. Keep it simple and you’ll be good to go.

---

Wrapping Things Up

Well learning nerds, that’s all I’m going to share with you today. I’d say to bookmark this page because I plan to expand these topics with more details when I’m not completely exhausted. I’ll say though that this has been a fun project to work on and I really, really hope it solves the mystery of how you become an ID. The above words are the fundamentals and building blocks towards your instructional design path. Whatever you do and wherever you go, know that I am proud of you. Becoming an instructional designer is not easy, especially in 2023. I applaud your effort and commitment to trying to become an instructional designer. Study hard, practice, fail, reflect, repeat, repeat, repeat, and you’ll get to where you want to go. 

Stay nerdy out there,

Dr. Luke Hobson

P.S. If you enjoyed this content, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or in our Facebook group.