Are you new to the field of instructional designing and wondering what skills you should work on acquiring? In this blog post, we will explore seven skills that top-performing Instructional Designers must exhibit.
Top 7 Skills That Instructional Designers Should Have
As an instructional designer, it is essential to possess the right skills and competencies in order to create effective educational materials. To help you succeed as an instructional designer, we’ve put together a list of the top 7 skills that every instructional designer should have to make it big in the game.
1. Find Out About Learning Models
Instructional designers play a critical role in educational and corporate training by incorporating learning models such as ADDIE, Bloom’s Learning Taxonomy, and Kirkpatrick’s Levels of Training Evaluations into the instruction.
These models provide a framework for framing educational content so that it is engaging, effective and meaningful to learners. So, start by learning more about them.
2. Share Learning Content
The role of an instructional designer is to create engaging and effective learning experiences for students or employees. An educational content designer must have a wide range of skills that facilitate the production, evaluation, delivery and maintenance of educational materials.
Chief among these skills is the ability to share learning content. This includes knowing how to effectively develop learning objectives, choosing appropriate assessment methods, designing instructional activities that lead to desired outcomes and linking performance assessments with those outcomes.
3. Presentation Technology
Instructors in the field of learning are tasked with the challenge of keeping their material fresh and engaging. They must create learning modules, videos, and webinars and even lead live presentations to bring their audience the best possible experience.
To achieve innovation within this field, instructors must have a varied set of skills ranging from script writing to video production. They should also possess the critical ability to whiteboard ideas for all types of learning materials as well as create compelling presentation slides and handouts.
4. Professional Management Skills
As a learning management professional, excellent management skills will be expected of you. In order to best serve the successful completion of projects, it is key to stay mindful of stakeholder objectives throughout the duration of the project.
These objectives will require strong interpersonal skills and farsighted organization capacity to bring together all components needed for a successful end result on a deadline.
5. Assessment Development
Competent course assessment design is a must-have skill for any learning designer. The results of these surveys are used by businesses to determine the efficacy of training programs. Only few training and development professionals have the requisite expertise to integrate evaluations successfully with business goals.
6. Factors of Virtual Reality
Immersive simulations in the form of visual and virtual reality (VR) technologies and applications are becoming a popular method of education. Instructional designers, in order to keep up with the industry’s rapid expansion into VR-based education, need to be familiar with the technology and its potential applications in the classroom.
7. Good Communication
Superior communication skills are essential for any instructional designer. The process of transforming concepts, ideas, and knowledge into learning that can be easily understood is not an easy task.
From the initial needs assessment to the delivery of training materials, effective communication allows Instructional Designers to work closely with subject matter experts and stakeholders to bring about clarity, accuracy, and effectiveness.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a way to take your business’s training to the next level, hire instructional designers. Instructional designers are trained to assess learner needs, develop eLearning content, and measure the success of their designs.
With their experience and expertise, instructional designers can help you create truly impactful learning experiences for your employees or customers.
