By Erik Sabol, Lead Instructional Designer
The 21st century workforce is littered with job titles like “analyst” and “producer,” but there might not be a more nebulous role than “instructional designer.”
Ask 10 instructional designers (IDs) what they work on day-to-day, and you’re going to get a spectrum of answers ranging from, “I write process documents,” to “I manage a team of subject matter experts,” to “I do all the backend programming for virtual reality simulations.” An award-winning designer at one organization might not meet the minimum job requirements at another organization. Why? Because nobody has any real idea what the role looks like. Analysis? Writing? Project management? Programming? UI/UX? All the above?
That said, what exactly does instructional design mean? And why am I qualified to define it for you?
Because, in the field of online education, Bisk helped create the term. We’ve been a leader in Instructional Design longer than almost anyone. Our design process is the foundation of everything we do, and we pride ourselves on designing instruction that is meaningful, purposeful, and useful for our learners — and we’ve used it to change the lives and behavior of more than a million people all over the world.
You can learn more about Bisk’s ID services by visiting our website, but that’s another topic for another article…
So, let’s start by defining what instructional design is not. It’s not PowerPoint presentations. It’s not lectures. It’s not even about information.
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Let’s say you’ve been tasked with training a group of salespeople. Would you simply give them a product brochure that outlines the features and benefits of your organization’s products? Isn’t that literally the information they need to know? Yes — but it’s not likely to improve their sales performance because information is not inherently instructional.
Design is also not methodology. There are entire master’s programs devoted to the nuances of models like ADDIE, SAM, Kemp, and others — but these protocols, alone, aren’t fundamentally educational. No matter how effectively you utilize the Successive Approximation Model, if it outputs meaningless content, it’s not going to be helpful for anyone.
So, if ID work isn’t PowerPoints, lectures, information, or models — what is it?
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We’re about to get conceptual, so brace yourself.
There is one universal definition of instructional design: it’s the creation of any experience intended to alter someone’s consciousness. (Meanwhile, superior design occurs when that experience successfully alters consciousness in the way the ID initially intended.)
It’s a mouthful, right? But it’s an important concept to understand. It isn’t a PowerPoint presentation. It’s the cognitive outcome you’re trying to create when someone views a PowerPoint presentation. It isn’t a lecture. It’s the shift in thinking you’re trying to elicit when someone attends a lecture.
It’s experiential. You’re creating an experience that changes the way someone thinks (and, therefore, the way someone behaves). Processes like ADDIE, SAM, Kemp, and the others are just guardrails to guide the construction of the experience.
And really, this isn’t limited to the model you use. All aspects of ID work should serve that experience.
Needs analyses. Gap assessments. Learning objectives. Content gathering. Storyboarding. Writing. Development. QA testing. They’re all in service to the experience — and the shift in consciousness — you’re trying to create.
We’ve already established how hazy and unclear the job can be. Day-to-day tasks vary from company to company. But the crafting of experiences is the one thing every ID has in common; no matter where you work or who you’re designing learning for, your goal is to create a situation that gets people to think and behave differently.
So, no matter what you’re asked to produce — anything from one-page process documents to $10 million video games — make sure it engages people cognitively. Make sure it creates change in the learner’s mind and actions.
In short, make sure it’s designed instructionally.
Learn more about how Bisk transforms online learning and partners with institutions to deliver online education.
