I don’t know many people who, growing up, had a burning desire to become an instructional designer – I didn’t! More than likely, many IDs started out as something else and ended up doing work that directly or indirectly required instructional design (e.g. training, faculty development, teaching). So, how do you become an ID – or better yet, what skills can help you in an ID role? The video below contains a short discussion we had about how we ended up as IDs and what skillsets were relevant to that role.

The TLTC has “IDs” who do “ID” … but what is ID and who are IDs?

First, there are many definitions and descriptions of Instructional Design (ID). Common across most definitions are:

1. the analysis of learner/learning/teaching needs
2. the analysis of teaching and delivery methods
3. implementation of pedagogically sound assessment and evaluation
4. carefully considered integration of technology

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This is a great post from eLearn Magazie about Rapid eLearning. The article defines it as “the conversion of existing learning content such as slides from an existing classroom course into a Web-deliverable format, although content can also be developed from scratch using commonly used tools such as PowerPoint or Word.”

Rapid eLearning: Building a House Without an Architect

While there are several different places on the web where you can find valuable information about Instructional Design and eLearning, none are so immediately useful as the Rapid eLearning Blog, sponsored by the fine folks who create Articulate:

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Here you will find several very handy and timely articles on everything from a great free template find to free fonts and graphics for use in your courses. They discuss many topics regarding content creation and organization, as well as ways to effectively target your audience and keep their interest. Go check it out!