Career Path: Instructional Design

As part of an L&D team developing eLearning resources, Instructional Designers are a fundamental role and a growing career path in the industry.

Instructional Designers focus on designing the instructional experience of a learning resource. They are usually found:

• scoping projects by analysing learner needs and creating associated learning objectives

• working with subject matter experts to select and refine the correct content

• identifying knowledge check activities

• creating voiceover scripts

• drawing up screen plans

• placing the content into storyboards

The key templates an instructional designer relies on are scoping plans, screen plans and storyboards.

It is a frequent misconception that the Instructional Designer is directly involved throughout the development phase of the process. However, this task actually belongs to the Developer. The ID is responsible for identifying learner needs, setting learning objectives and mapping out an engaging, interactive learning experience. The Developer then brings this all to life using an e-learning authoring tool, such as Articulate Storyline. Whilst individuals may be tasked with instructional design and development responsibilities, it is important to remember that these are two distinct roles.

Digital Learning Institute instructional designer Stefan Pereira: “Instructional design is so often overlooked in the process of creating eLearning experiences. People often go straight from having the content directly to developing the eLearning resource. If you don’t streamline the content and map it out into a well-structured journey for the learner, you’ll end up with an eLearning experience that just isn’t very interesting or fun to explore!”

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for an Instructional Designer in Dublin, Ireland is €47,517 (ranging between €33k and €70k).

To get started in ID, you will need to know the instructional design principles and models, an understanding of the learning theories underpinning e-learning, and a knowledge of the e-learning tools and trends.