Take Online Instructional Design to the Next Level

A Brief Introduction:

In this age of digitization, it might be difficult to come across someone who hasn’t heard the term, “Instructional Design.” However, what do you understand by Instructional Design or ID? ID refers to a systemic way of developing educational materials and experiences, both physical and digital, in a structured and efficient manner.

In many ways, it has become the bedrock of contemporary education and industry, as it has transformed their respective landscapes. You see, ID is not simply about setting up a curriculum and creating modules accordingly. It is a comprehensive, step-by-step process that begins with analyzing learners’ needs and goals, developing instructional materials to meet those goals, and finally, evaluating the effectiveness of the instructional materials and other processes involved.

Now that you have a gist of what ID entails, we’ll move on to online instructional design.

So, what is Online Instructional Design?

With the evolution of technology, even education has moved online in many ways, or at least incorporates a lot of online platforms. ID is nothing different. Online instructional design involves creating education and training programs meant for online delivery. For this purpose, online ID utilizes different multimedia elements and ensures that learning materials are functional and effective within the online setting.

What’s the place of Online Instructional Design in Education or Learning and Development, you ask?

There are several reasons why online instructional design fits right into the ever-evolving systems of education and learning and development..

Increasing accessibility and flexibility – The world has moved towards inclusivity, which is a good thing in more ways than one. Why must education or learning and development be left behind, then? This is where online ID comes in, as it utilizes design principles and leverages technology to ensure that learners with diverse needs can access educational/instructional content easily and thereby foster an inclusive learning environment. Just to give you a small example, consider learning with the traditional method of teaching. It involves a teacher or a trainer giving a lecture and the learners simply being passive listeners. Now, a learner who is hard of hearing or deaf will not benefit by this mode, do you agree? However, in online ID, educational videos are captioned and transcripts are also provided, which means that learners who might suffer from hearing disabilities can easily engage the same learning experience as the rest of the learners.

Higher engagement and adherence – Didn’t Disney tell us that in every job that must be done, there needs to be an element of fun? Well, online ID brings in that bit of fun into education. Remember we told you how online ID utilizes multimedia elements? These multimedia elements make education all that more colorful and engaging. For instance, interactive components like videos, quizzes, and simulations are used to enhance learner engagement. These little elements of fun facilitate greater retention of information, which, in turn, leads to an overall better learning outcome.

The Essential Elements of Online Instructional Design

While we have more or less understood what online instructional design is, we’ll also need to understand what goes into it. That’s how we come to essential elements underlying online ID:

Learner analysis – As part of learner analysis, the first step is to consider the target learner. This entails establishing what their interests are, what their needs are, and how the content produced can specifically be catered to these interests and needs.

Content development – Any kind of content created must be clear, brief, and captivating. This means that the content created must utilize texts, images, videos, and other kinds of interactive materials for effective and engaging delivery.

Assessment and evaluation – The beauty of online ID is that it simply does not believe in regurgitating the same learning material over and over again, especially when it does not work. So, one of the most important elements of online ID is that it establishes a kind of feedback loop wherein it consistently assesses and evaluates the learning material to ensure that it is in line with the learner’s needs and goals.

Still interested? Here are Courses and Placements in Online Instructional Design

When looking out for online instructional design courses, opting for the one that suits you is the most important thing. What is also important when you’re starting off in your career is to choose those instructional design courses that comprise quality engagement with industry experts, hands-on projects, internships, and so on and so forth, as they offer greater opportunities for networking and placement in the field of ID.

So, at this point, you might be wondering where in the world will you find such a course and how effortful it might be to pursue it. Well, don’t worry, there are many such instructional design courses online that you can access within minutes. However, one that’s got you completely covered right here, right now is:

Certified Learning Experience Designer (CLXD) Bootcamp - CLXD Bootcamp is one-of-a-kind bootcamp that is both intensive and fun, and an opportunity for you to learn all about ID. Moreover, CLXD Bootcamp will be followed by the Capstone project, which is a unique platform where you get to implement your learnings. What’s more, upon successful completion of this course, you’ll get your own job-ready portfolio, a shiny certificate that you can show off on LinkedIn, and free membership at LXD Guild.

These are a few of the topmost institutes offering instructional design courses in India. Moreover, along with courses, they also offer instructional design certifications like Certified Learning Experience Designer (CLXD) credential, which will strengthen your candidacy, making it appealing to potential employers. So, it becomes a bit mandatory for you to invest in a sound professional development program, as these programs cover central theories and equip you with information regarding the “how-to” side of things when it comes to ID while also keeping you up-to-date with recent trends and technologies.

• Top Institutes Offering Instructional Design Courses in India

• LXD Guild Academy

• ID Mentors

• Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning (SCDL)

• Amity University Online

Final Reflections

From this blog post, what we were able to glean is that online instructional design is here to stay. It is ever-evolving and is going to develop to such an extent that it has a potential of becoming the cornerstone of education and learning and development. And why not? It has many more benefits than traditional methods of teaching/training, as it offers accessibility, flexibility, and greater engagement levels. Moreover, the opportunities for obtaining certificates and pursuing it professionally are endless. It is the hottest thing in education and industry right now, and something that you might not want to miss out on if learning and development is your area of interest.