The field of instructional design has been around since the 1940s when people began paying attention to how content can be taught effectively. Through the years, instructional designers have consistently worked on finding the best ways to meet the training needs of businesses and the learning needs of students. Presently, instructional designers have taken a front seat when the pandemic forced almost all learning to go online. So, what does an instructional designer do?

As technology has become more sophisticated over the years, instructional designers have reshaped learning online. Years ago learning online was often bland and the learning experience was over in just a few clicks. Today, instructional designers create learning experiences that meet the needs of the learners as well as the objectives of the course.

Instructional designers create the learning experience. They spend time working with subject matter experts to create learning objectives as well as the content to be included in the online course, facilitator guide, or instructional video. They often create the storyboard and provide a script as well as notes that explain how certain interactions are meant to play out. 

Instructional designers must possess a versatile skill set to create effective learning courses and materials to meet the learning goals. They must understand learning design and be able to evaluate new eLearning materials, research new learning innovations, implement feedback from program reviews, write objectives, and write instructional content.

Although many mistakenly interchange the roles of instructional designer and instructional developer, the instructional designer traditionally does not develop the eLearning end product themselves. They write the content and provide notes about how the end product will be structured, but then they hand things over to an eLearning developer to create the end product.

The eLearning developer’s work typically begins once the instructional designer finishes with the script or storyboard. At this point, the instructional designer gives the eLearning developer all of the content and assets that they need for creating the final product.  The developer then implements all of the necessary programming and animation to make the end product function as the instructional designer intended.

With the high demand for online learning, many organizations combine both roles. This person must analyze the need for a course, design the course, build the course in the development tool, and deploy the course. Although these roles are often confused or combined, it is the instructional designer’s role to create the learning experience.