Speaker 1: So, are you wondering what instructional designers actually do on a day-to-day basis, and is your head spinning with everyone having a different take on what should be a really simple question to answer? Well, don't worry. In this video, I'll help you understand what instructional designers actually do in a practical, common-sense way. So stick around. Hey there folks, Tim Slade here from the eLearning Designers Academy. You know, one of the things I've talked about before is that if you ask 10 different instructional designers what instructional design is and what it is that instructional designers actually do, you'll end up with more answers than you'll know what to do with. And this is because in the world of instructional design, eLearning, and, well, learning and development in general, very few things are standardized. Yeah, you know, we mostly agree on learning theories and all that great stuff, although we could have a separate debate and conversation about learning styles, don't get me started on that. But, you know, when it comes to the practical application of instructional design, that's where things start getting a little or, well, a lot ambiguous. You see, what it means to be an instructional designer and what any one instructional designer does on a day-to-day basis depends on the nature of the organization they work for, the scope of the projects they work on, the type of content they're working with, the types of training they're creating, what it is that they need their learners to know or do differently, and whether or not they're actually the ones developing those training experiences. You know, think of it like this. It's like trying to define what it is a medical doctor does. We all, in general, know what a medical doctor is, but what they do depends on what type of medicine they specialize in, what types of patients they work with, and what type of medical setting they practice in. A cardiovascular doctor and a foot doctor are both doctors, right? But they do very different things. But they're still doctors, right? And I think what also makes this conversation that much more confusing, especially if you're new to this industry or you're trying to get into it for the first time, is that you can work as an instructional designer and have a title that doesn't even have the words instructional or designer in it. You know, for example, when I first fell into this industry, my title was training coordinator, but I was really just an instructional designer and I didn't know it. And so yeah, you might have the role of an instructional designer, but you can be titled anything from training coordinator to learning analyst to learning program manager to e-learning designer to learning experience designer or any combination of those words and still be an instructional designer. And in that context, we can start getting into a discussion about whether instructional design is a role in and of itself or a component of your role. Because instructional design can be a job or it can be a function of your job. And that's why we have such a hard time giving a straight answer about this seemingly simple question. But in all of that, let's clear the decks and start with the simplest overview of what it is that instructional designers actually do. You know, being an instructional designer is a combination of applying learning theories and executing processes in the design and development of effective and engaging training experiences and of course, resources. Now, as we look at this, we're not going to spend any time really talking about the theories in this particular video, because I want you to think about those as a constant that underpins everything that we do as instructional designers. And I have separate videos that go into more details about the theories, which I'll put links to down in the description. But what I do want to focus on here in this video are the processes of instructional design. So to start, instructional designers help to identify, analyze, and validate performance issues, skills gaps, and knowledge gaps within their organization. And typically this is done in collaboration with various stakeholders and subject matter experts by conducting a needs analysis. And to put it simply, particularly from a workplace standpoint, the goal here is to understand why people aren't doing the things we want them to do and to understand what needs to be done to fix it, whether that involves training or not. Now, from there, instructional designers work to conceptualize and design learning and training solutions to address those knowledge or skills gaps that exist, which are affecting performance. And it's usually here where we start applying all of those learning theories to make sure we're designing effective and engaging solutions. And to do this, it might mean creating an action map to make sure we're aligning training with measurable business outcomes. It might mean drafting performance-based learning objectives to define how our learners will be transformed by our training experiences. It might mean designing a blended learning solution that is fit for function for the organization, the target learners, the nature of what's being taught, and of course the project itself. And it might mean creating a design document to propose the solution back to our stakeholders and SMEs. Next, instructional designers work to create and develop the training materials and experiences that were designed and proposed previously. Whether it's something as simple as creating a job aid that learners will access online, creating a deck of slides and a facilitator guide for an in-person workshop, or as complex as scripting, recording, and editing a how-to video, or developing an interactive e-learning course, this is where you start to build the training objects or resources that you conceptualized and designed earlier. And to do all of this, this is where an instructional designer starts using one or more tools to create these things. Again, depending on the complexity of what's being developed, you might use something as simple as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, or you might use an e-learning authoring tool like Articulate Storyline or Rise, or you might be using a video editing tool like Camtasia, or you might use something as complex as one or more of the Adobe products like InDesign and Illustrator and everything in between. And of course, there are a ton of other tools that you might use beyond the few that I just listed. Now, after you've created and developed the training experience, the next thing instructional designers do is that they work to implement those training experiences. Again, how you might go about implementing any particular training or learning experience is going to vary depending on what was developed, the size and location of your audience, the nature of the training experience, and a bunch of other variables. For example, if what you create is a simple job aid for a small group of learners, it might mean simply distributing it via email. Or if you create an in-person workshop, it might mean collaborating with facilitators to conduct a train-the-trainer and scheduling training sessions for your learners to attend. Or if you created an interactive e-learning course, it might mean publishing and distributing it via a learning management system. And it may or may not be in collaboration with an LMS administrator, which is someone whose sole job is to manage the LMS. Alright, finally, after you've done all of that, an instructional designer also works to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of the training and learning experiences they work to create and implement. And the whole purpose of evaluation is to look back and determine whether or not and to what extent did we accomplish the goals we sought to achieve back when we first conducted a needs analysis and identified the knowledge and skills gaps. To put it simply, evaluation is where we look to see if we moved the needle for our learners and the organization. And this might mean evaluating and measuring how satisfied our learners were with the training experience. It might mean measuring how we increased their knowledge of our learners, whether or not we changed their behaviors, and whether or not we helped meet some sort of business goal for the organization. So that's a high-level overview of what instructional designers do in a general sense. Now, before we wrap this up, you might have noticed that this list of things that I just went through that instructional designers do, analyzing performance issues, designing learning solutions, developing training objects, implementing solutions, and of course, evaluating those solutions, just so happens to be the same five steps of the ADDIE process. Analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. And well, that's what instructional designers do. And we can have a whole separate debate about the ADDIE process versus the SAM process. They both contain the same elements, just in different orders and sequences. But this, in my opinion, best encompasses the answer of what instructional designers actually do on a day-to-day and project-by-project basis. Now, the final thing that I'll say about all of this is that it's important to remember that this is all contextual. And the scope and role of each instructional design job or role will be different. Some instructional designers only focus on analysis and design, and then they hand off development to someone else. And of course, some only focus on development. And within that, some only focus on the development of e-learning, and others focus on the development of instructor-led training. And of course, some focus on all of it. And so, just like I said at the start of this video, it depends. But in all of that ambiguity and variety that exists within the world of instructional design, I also think it's what makes our industry really special. Because being an instructional designer is multidisciplinary. And you don't have to love or even be good at all of these different things to have a successful career as an instructional designer or as a learning professional. You can specialize in any one or more of these things that best align with your talents and skills and still have a successful career. For example, one of the things I learned about myself early in my career is that I am not the best person for conducting a needs analysis. It's just not my thing. I'm horrible with numbers, and I don't like it. And so, what I love doing is designing and developing highly engaging, visually appealing, and interactive e-learning experiences. And so, that's what I focused my career on, and I'm doing just fine. And I know many others who have focused on things like virtual instructor-led training and in-person workshops and everything in between. But, you know, at the end of the day, we're all instructional designers to one extent or another. All right, so that's how I define what it is that instructional designers do. But as always, I want to know what you think. What do you think instructional designers do? How is your experience or definition more or less or different from what I've outlined? Share your thoughts by commenting below. As always, I want to thank you so much for watching. If you want to learn more about instructional design and e-learning development, make sure to check out the links down in the description. And of course, if you haven't done so already, make sure to hit that like, subscribe, and that bell button to get alerted the next time I publish a video just like this one. And of course, make sure to join us inside the e-learning designers community with the link down in the comments to connect and network and learn with other instructional designers and e-learning developers who are looking to grow their skills and their careers. Otherwise, my name is Tim Slade, and until next time, I'll see you around. Bye. Bye. Bye.