For anyone who wants to learn nowadays, there are mountains and mountains of content: videos, articles, graphics, tutorials…
This abundant amount of content ends up being a problem, because sometimes we don’t know which source to choose and we don’t even know where to start.
How is all this chaos of information organized and transformed into didactic material ready for us to learn?
This is a mission for the Instructional Designer.
An instructional designer is a professional responsible for the planning, development, and evaluation of instructional materials. An instructional designer applies learning theories, technologies and a systemic approach to create effective and engaging learning experiences.
His role is to transform information into clear and meaningful content, as well as to point learners in the right direction.
He knows in depth how people learn, then he creates ways on how to transmit the content that should be taught in a way that makes it easy for the student to understand and get more out of the classes and teaching materials.
Instructional design involves the process of identifying the performance, skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap, using instructional theory and best practices.
In simple terms, an ID makes learning experiences effective, interesting, and engaging for a learner. It makes sure that the student is actually learning the content that is being taught.
The specific tasks of an instructional designer vary depending on the project, but may include:
- Analyzing learner needs: The instructional designer works with learners, clients, or other stakeholders to understand their needs and learning objectives.
- Developing learning objectives: The instructional designer defines the learning objectives that learners should achieve upon completion of the course or program.
Creating instructional content: The instructional designer creates instructional content, such as text, images, videos, activities, and assessments. - Producing instructional content: The instructional designer works with a production team to ensure that the content is created effectively and engagingly.
- Evaluating instructional content: The instructional designer evaluates instructional content to ensure that it is meeting the needs of learners.
Instructional designers are paramount in the process of learning because they create learning experiences that are effective, engaging, and relevant to the learner.
By understanding the learner’s needs, goals, and learning style, defining clear learning objectives, creating engaging content, and evaluating the learning experience, instructional designers can help learners achieve their goals and make the most of their learning time.
