Instructional Design

An Instructional Designer

Our surroundings are embedded with design; everything we see and experience is somewhere connected to the world of design. Design is not just prevalent in architecture, animation, and fashion, it is also crucial in the educational domain, web world and the business dynamics. Within design, Instructional design has gained a lot of hype. It is the design based on the concept of knowledge acquisition and skill application. Instructional designers work upon program construction, curriculums and much more. The role of an instructional designer has come into the spotlight across the decades. People have developed aspirations to become an instructional designer, especially in the organizational sector. Instructional designers in the business domain tend to focus on training and development and also research and learning.

To become an instructional designer, one has to focus upon four major components –

• Analysis – It is crucial to analyze the kind of design required through assessments and surveys. Anyone who wishes to take up the course of instructional design, has to identify and analyze the features of the target audience, the pre-requisites of design and the environmental characteristics.
• Design – The end-product is the design, but it begins with a rough framework in the mind or on paper. One has to pay attention to all the aspects of an instructional design along with keeping in mind the diversity and demographics of the recipient audience.
• Development – The key to developing instruction manuals and training programs is to get certified in instructional design. This component focuses on the literal development of the design on the lines of the respected blueprint.
• Evaluation – It is integral for accuracy that all the designs are evaluated frequently, and the suggestions are accommodated accordingly.

Any individual who wants to become an instructional designer should be aware of the ADDIE model. This model is inclusive of the above-mentioned components with an additional component of Implementation (to logistically and practically execute the purpose of the design). More such common and helpful models for individuals who aim to become an instructional designer are Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping, Dick and Carey Model, SAM and Rapid Prototyping.

There are no exquisite skills required to become an instructional designer other than a deep passion for creating valuable designs for courses, programs, manuals and management systems. This profession is observing a rise as more and more individuals are becoming aware of the importance of such designs and the need for such articulate design skills in the market.

The Future of learning

Human beings have evolved greatly over the course of time. A major appreciation behind the evolution is accredited to learning. Learning is the process of acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, or values, along with the evolution of the biological and technological world, the concept of learning has also evolved.

The classical ways of learning and training have shifted from generic and classical mediums of learning to more digital and user-focused learning. One type of learning that has emerged from the developments around the world is learning experience; learning experience is basically learning from the experiences that one faces. Experiences have always influenced and modified the values and behaviors of human beings. Learning occurred through experiences is known to be more permanent than others.

The rise of technology and exclusivity has introduced Learning Experience Design. Learning Experience Design is a cross-section of Instructional Design (ID) and User Experience (UX). Learning Experience Designers aim at providing more user-focused experiences and designs in order to achieve the learning and task goals more efficiently and effectively.

Learning Experience Designers have two major orientations – Human-centered and goal-oriented. The entire experience is designed based on the users and the goals they are trying to achieve. This way the Learning Experience Design is more specific than generic learning through digital portals.

Learning Experience Designers pay a lot of attention to making the learning experience more human-centered. The designs made are not randomly selected or used on a trial-and-error basis for a group. The designs are well conceptualized by the Learning Experience Designers.

They select their target audience and study the individuals to a great depth. The values important to the individuals are merged with the learning experience to connect with the user on a personal level. Designs are also goal centric. Learning Experience Designers coordinate with other teams and individuals to narrow down the desired goals; goals are the result of the experience. It is through the goals that the medium of technology, the strategy of learning and the intensity of the experience is determined.

They are fueled by innovation and creativity and thus the designs made are vibrant and influential. Nonetheless, there is a rough framework that the designers follow. They begin with a Learning Experience Design Plan which includes the design interfaces and user interaction strategies, and then they move onto understanding their learners and the factors that motivate and influence them. A plan always includes the budget, time available, technical architecture and other such details. After this, the Learning Experience Designers then form design and conduct a series of testing-editing-retesting.

These designers are the trainers and educators of tomorrow. Such learning experiences are not just aimed at improving corporate training but also to enhance the standards of individual task-based competencies. Learning Experience Designers are thus the individuals who hold the learning experiences of the future in their creative, artistic and innovative hands.

Program Framework

The process for developing online training courses varies with every organization. Some organizations follow a straightforward process, while others prefer a repetitive one. Some organizations like to work on the whole training at once, while others prefer to work on small portions within the training and develop them concurrently through collaboration. There are many factors that impact an organization’s decision to follow a certain procedure—training requirements, client needs, tools, development time, flexibility, budget, etc. The organization may follow any approach but there are a few steps that remain compulsory in every Instructional Design process. Understanding the purpose of each step will help you successfully achieve the desired output at every stage, irrespective of your approach.

Instructional Design plays an important role in an organization. It helps simplify and systematically arrange the organizational socialization for new hires. It can help communicate large-scale aspirations to ensure everyone is agreeable and also encourages and helps in the growth of innovation. Instructional Design is the practice of systematically designing, developing and delivering instructional outputs and adventures, both digital and physical, in a steady and believable manner toward a competent, effective, amiable, engaging and inspiring gain of knowledge. The process consists mainly of regulating the requirements of the learner, defining the final objective of instruction, and creating some interference to help in the transition. The result of this instruction may be directly perceptible and scientifically measured or completely assumed and concealed.

In the literal sense, Instructional Design is a branch that lays stress on designing effective instructions. It is not like content development, which is just a part of it. According to Instructional Designers and psychologists, it is a complete process from recognizing and going through human performance problems and designing effective and efficient interventions to solve those problems. Therefore, it is not limited to only creating content. It is way beyond that. The instructional designer must decide whether the performance problem requires training or not and evaluate its effectiveness. The intervention can be both Instruction-led or eLearning.

Instructional Design has now made progress because of the emphasis on User Experience Design. Learners now need to be given an experiential learning atmosphere where they can create meaning and relevance out of the context. This is not possible with a conventional mindset of creating instructions. Various layers need to be added to make the result enriching and giving a high return on investment. Instructional Design helps to understand those layers and gives reliable instructions that increase the learner’s experience and overall development.

The Process of Implementing Instructional Design

Instructional design is the practice of creating worthwhile and extraordinary learning experiences for a targeted audience. Instructional Designers (or IDs) work with subject-matter experts in their respective fields to recognize and face knowledge and performance gaps within a target group. Based on their research and the requirements of the organization, the instructional designers create educational experiences that are based on established learning theories and proof -based practice.

 Stages in Instructional Design

Instructional Design consists of five stages together known as the Addie model- Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. The Addie model is the most commonly used model for Instructional Design to help organize and streamline the production of your course content as it’s simple and effective.

• Analysis –

Analysis is an important step in the process of Instructional Design. When analyzing, never limit your efforts to considering just the training and business needs. Extend your analysis to include four other areas as well: Audience, Content, Technology, and Expectations. Before developing any training strategies, you should analyze the present situation in terms of training. Start with a series of questions to understand the goal of the training itself. This influences a huge number of decisions later in the process. Analyze the need for training, why are we doing it? Will it actually help? Once this is done, you can generate a training plan that focuses on who, when, what, where, why and how.

• Design – Before you start developing any content or training strategies, you should analyze the current situation in terms of training, knowledge gaps etc. Start with a series of questions to understand the current situation and to also understand what is the goal of the training itself. This influences a huge number of decisions later in the process. Before you start developing any content or training strategies, you should analyze the current situation in terms of training, knowledge gaps etc. Start with a series of questions to understand the current situation and to also understand what is the goal of the training itself. This influences a huge number of decisions later in the process.
• Development –

At this stage, each element of the course should be developed to match the design phase. The core of the content has already been decided. All you need to add is a level of detail and finish to the courses. This is done by choosing colors, deciding on fonts and adding Once you have fully tested your courses and you are fully satisfied, it’s time to share them with the learner. The resolutions made in the design phase will affect how this is actually carried out. In most cases, the courses are uploaded to an LMS to handle the delivery, tracking, and reporting. The instructional designer should monitor the situation for any issues.

• Evaluation –

The final step is to evaluate the influence of training. It is equally important as design and implementation. Usually, the evaluation can be done at two levels – at learner’s level to see if the learners found the graphics. To some, this may seem insignificant, but it has a huge bearing on how interesting the course content is. The careful selection of these elements allows you to present the course in a manner that will appeal to the audience.  Once you have created a course you should test it to look at the mechanics of the course and ensure there are no basic errors.

• Implementation –

The training needs to be engaging and useful at the organizational level if it has to positively impact the business and help achieve the business needs. Always document the results of the evaluation step. Analyze what was effective and what wasn’t for the training, and carry forward this learning to future projects. This step helps to know whether the objectives were met. Instructional Design helps to plan objective evaluation techniques.

Every project is different and so are its stakeholders and their expectations. Feel free to personalize these steps and create your own step list for the Instructional Design process. The main goal of Addie is to provide a structured method of creating training programs and improving the way in which future repetitions are created. Getting feedback on every aspect of the courses is very important so that you can improve and revise the content and what to focus on.

8 Stages in Instructional Design Process

Many ingredients go into making a great E-Learning course. The end product must meet the needs of a learner for it to be called as learning material. Different organization follows different approaches for developing online training courses. Some prefer to prepare the entire training material all at once and some prefer to work in small segments and develop the material along the way as the need directs.  Apart from the training requirements, there are many other factors such as development time, budget, client’s supposition, complexity that affects the selection of learning material process in an organization. This process of preparing learning material is called the Instructional Design Process. And certain stages in Instructional design process always remains constant no matter which approach is selected by the organization.

1. Understand The Needs:

Analyzing the requirements of the training is one of the most important stages in Instructional Design process. Whenever a demand for training arises, the organization should do a deep analysis not just on the business and training needs but also on learner’s need. It helps them to understand their audience better so that the learning material can be created based on their current level of knowledge. Also, those instructional designers should be chosen who are well versed with the training topic. Technology and Branding are the other two fields that need to be taken into consideration.

2. Recognize The Objectives Of The Learning Material:

Based on all the analysis done in the above stage, the objectives of the learning material should be recognized in this next stage. Before creating content, it is important to understand the basic difference between things your learner should know and must know. With a clear goal in mind, the learning material can be precise and objectively oriented to meet the client’s and business’ needs.

3. Create Design:

Designing is the third stage of 8 stages in Instructional Design. To create engaging and attention-seeking learning material, first, its design should be created in the alignment of the scope.

The instructional designers can’t directly create learning content as it may result in disaster. To attract the audience on an online platform is relatively easier than to attract the same audience for learning online. The content should have enough character to grab attention. Firstly, the content should be collected in small groups and then it should be organized logically. As the outline is prepared, designers can select an approach such as story-based, video-based, game-based, problem based, etc which will best deliver the knowledge.

4. Make A Storyboard:

Next comes, a visual document called a storyboard that contains the learning material with visual stimulations in an organized manner. Create a storyboard with the content which includes all the facts, classifications, processes, etc with the use of relevant pictures, videos, icons, text, characters, etc. This is created for the understanding of the client.

5. Create A Sample:

Design a prototype of 4 to 5 unique and different pages based on the client’s approved design. It will help the client understand how the storyboard will be transformed into the actual learning material.

6. Develop Training Material:

After receiving the approval on storyboard and prototype from the clients, the development of training material can be initiated. This stage includes the process of developing visuals, examples, interactivities, knowledge checks, and post-training assessments along with recording voice-over of a professional artist. After everything is integrated, the visually appealing eLearning template should be selected which matches well with the content.

7. Deliver Learning Material:

LMS (Learning Management System) is an online platform that an organization uses to host their eLearning courses. The entire learner’s progress and course completion reports along with pre and post-training resources can be tracked on this LMS.

8. Evaluation:

The final step of these 8 stages in Instructional Design is to evaluate how the training turns out. This evaluation can be done at Learner’s level and the Organization’s level. It is important that the main motive of the training is achieved and that’s what the evaluation process tells us. It evaluates whether or not the content was engaging and knowledgeable and if the business is positively impacted or not.

Instructional design: An overview

An instructional design model is an instrument, an environment to create educative materials. It helps them in envisioning the practice requirements and simplifying the procedure of creating training content into stages.

Except for saving time and getting a well-regulated process, there are various other rationales to use an instructional design model for preparing an e-educative course of study. Right from the first step, one might be able to find out if they require updating the training methods. If yes, then how much matter is to be added and is it easily accessible? The effect-full execution of this step can conserve a huge amount of capital for the industry as it hinders anyone from preparing for problems that do not require practice. It also supports finding probable voids within the content so one can fill them before beginning with the design.

After an overview of instructional design models, various types have emerged over time – SAM, ADDIE, ASSURE, Instructional Design System (ISD), Dick and Carey, Kemp design model to cite a few. Amongst these, ADDIE is the most frequently used model for years. A little while ago, a new nimble model SAM, and a recurrent model entered the studies.

• ADDIE: It spreads out as Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. It gives out a proper procedural overview of instructional design to create the best in line educational matter and recheck its effects by taking feedback.
• Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction: This was published in the year 1965, which mentioned the requirement of the presence of a certain level of mental condition for the intake and retention of knowledge to occur. He gave out 9 events instruction; based on internal and external factors imperative for learning.
• ASSURE Model: This was developed by Heinrich and Molenda in 1999. The model’s name expands as analysis, statement of the objectives, selection of media, utilize media, technology, and materials, require learner’s performance and finally evaluation.

Merrill’s principles: founded by David Merrill in the year 2002, this model brings out five principles for learning to be-

1. Task-centered principle
2. Activation principle
3. Demonstration principle
4. Application principle
5. Integration principle

The main factors relate learning to real-world issues and promote retention by opting for creative methods like reflecting or presenting on learned topics.

• Kemp’s instructional design model: Also famous as Morris, Ross and Kemp’s model this overview of instruction design model brings out nine inner stages of development of a proper training program-

1. Recognize instructional issues and create specific goals for the instructional program.
2. Examine learner attributes that must be given attention during planning.
3. Identify subject matter and analyze assignment components connected to stated goals.
4. State educative aims for the learner.
5. Rearrange content within each unit for logical retention.
6. Create instructional schemes so that each learner can perfect their intentions.
7. Plot the educational message and supply.
8. Develop assessment tools to measure objectives.
9. Select means to support learning and educative activities.

These models might give out different methods to create and promote tele-education material, but the main goal of each of these prior research and overview of the instructional design is to routinely develop educational courses that address the learning intentions with success.

ADDIE Model

A generic process that is traditionally used by instructional designer and training process is typically the description of the ADDIE model. The expansion of ADDIE model is Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation which reflects a dynamic and flexible guideline for developing effective training and performance support tools.

Theories such as behaviourism, constructivism, social leaning and cognitivism help in shaping and defining of instructional materials which are also known as instructional theories.

Each step of the ADDIE model has an outcome that feeds into the subsequent step.

Analysis Phase

The first step of the ADDIE model is the analysis phase in which the instructional problem is clarified, the instructional goals and objectives are established. Simultaneously, the learning environment as well as the learner’s existing knowledge and skills are recognized. Some of the common questions that are to be identified and answered are

• Who constitute the audience and what are their characteristics?
• What maybe the behavioural outcome?
• What do the types of learning constrain that may exist?
• What are the considerations of the online pedagogy?
• What are the delivery options?
• The timeline required for project completion.

Once the common questions are addressed, the training plan is to be generated those addresses:

What, when, where, why and how.

The core of the training plan will include as to how one can improve the current situation and achieve the business goals through training. This is seen as the foundation of the process.

Requirement of the phase: an analysis of training needs and a training plan

Design Phase

This phase of design entails learning objectives, assessment instruments, exercises, content, subject matter analysis, lesson planning and media selection. This phase of the ADDIE model should be specific and systematic. The term specific means each component of the instructional design plan needs to be performed with scrutiny to the details. Systematic refers to a logical, orderly system of recognizing, developing and accessing a set of planned strategies that is targeted for the attainment of the projects goals and objectives.

These are steps used for the design phase:

• The project’s instructional, visual and technical design strategy should be documented.
• The instructional strategies are applied to the intended behavioural outcomes by the particular domain (cognitive, affective, psychomotor).
• Create storyboards
• Design the user interface and user experience
• Prototype creation
• Apply visual design (graphic design)

Requirement of the phase: an overview of the course design and storyboards/prototypes

Development Phase

In this phase of the ADDIE model, the developers create and assemble the contents that were developed in the previous phase. The development and/or the integration of technologies is executed by the programmers and the debugging procedures are performed by the testers. According to the feedback received, the project is reviewed and received.

Requirement of the phase: Course Content

Implementation Phase

A method for training facilitators and learners will be created during the implementation stage. The preparation of facilitators should cover the curriculum, results of teaching, method of delivery, and processes for testing. The learners ‘ preparation includes training them on fresh instruments (software or hardware), registration of students.

In this phase, the project manager also ensures that the books, the hands-on equipment, the tools, CD-ROMs and software are in place. They also must supervise the learning application or website is functional.

Requirement of the phase: our courses are live in the LMS and learners can start to take and complete courses

Evaluation Phase

This phase of the ADDIE model constitutes two parts. Each stage of the ADDIE process consists of formative evaluation. Summative tests consist of assessments designed for domain specific criterion-related referenced items and dispense opportunities for feedback from the users.

Requirement of the phase: An evaluation report and actionable changes for the current or future courses

Instructional Design Training

Instructional designing has picked up a fast pace in this era of digitalization. These times of digitalization have introduced systems and structured programs that every functional domain of society seems to follow. Instructional design is conclusive of such systems and programs. It is the combination of a structure with the activities of acquisition of knowledge and application of skills. Therefore, instructional design has become quite crucial in many domains. The hike in the value of instructional design has also raised the value of instructional design training.

This involves the rollout of training that equips an individual with the abilities to create effective designs in the form of management systems, e-learning platforms, training curriculums and instruction manuals for organizations and other institutions. Instructional design training generally focuses on a set of skills. Some of the skills that are integral to the role of instructional designer are mentioned below –

• Problem Solving Skills

One needs to impart insights on strategic problem solving, as a lot of problems are faced while structuring any framework or a curriculum. Designers must handle the issues in a delicate and organized manner with minimum consumption of resources.

• Project Management Skills

One needs to pay attention to managerial skills as instructional designers must lead and manage different projects, sometimes at a single point in time. The project management skills help in the smooth functioning of the team of designers and allow the team to enjoy an independent status.

• Writing Abilities

Writing is an essential part of instructional design training as most of the designs are either in written format or have a written counterpart. Therefore, basic writing abilities need to be developed to be a competent designer.

• Development Skills

There are a lot of skills that come under development skills. Through instructional design training, one can either learn the basics of computer science languages, design models and computer functions or specialize in any of them. The requirement of development skills differs from organization to organization.

• Research Skills

The training includes tips and guidelines for better research. Every designer needs to conduct research to better understand the product, design and audience. Research also helps in reflecting on the selected design and the purpose behind the design.

The typical programs such as degree programs are not as high in demand as well as not high in availability. Instructional Design Training is learned from online programs and diplomas and through in-house training. As many individuals are aiming at design as a career prospect and the job market of Instructional Design is expanding, corporates are not left behind in focusing on the training for same. Many organizations invest in instructional design training workshops and online programs to equip their employees with such skills so that the cost of recruiting a new individual for the role is saved. Some organizations connect with different training companies/platforms to educate their working staff and some hire such designers on a contractual or temporary basis. These initiatives by the organizations further increase the value of design training and widen its horizon. Therefore, design training and investment have become an upcoming significant component for the organizations.

Training Materials for Instructional Designers

Instructional Designing can be defined in many ways – as a process, discipline or science. As a process and application, Instructional Design is associated with analysing “human performance problems” systematically. It includes identifying the root cause of these problems and finding solutions to these problems as well as implementing these solutions.” (Rothwell, Benscoter, King and King, 1992)

Any training material on instructional design should focus on covering various building blocks and recent and future trends to make the learning more comprehensive. At the same time the course content should also be progressive in terms of difficulty or complexity of topics. Since Instructional Design is a subject that requires practice and skill development, the focus of the training material should be to provide application areas and scope for practice and feedback.

There are a few crucial aspects about instructional design that needs to be kept in mind while creating a course content as well as imparting training to the instructional designers. This must be covered in the training material.

• As a process, instructional designing can be planned and improved repeatedly.
• There is no single or correct way to instruct. There are different ways instructional methods can be used and presented. Depending on the need and desired results these methods can be formulated
• It is extremely important to understand and design the content keeping in mind what the learners need to learn or take away
• Formulating learning objectives and course goals is also an important aspect of the entire content development process. As this provides a focus to the instructional designer and states to the learner what is to be expected.
• Learning preferences and mode of learning is not static. It is to keep in mind these aspects while developing course content. Based on the medium of learning the content delivery, learning methodology, engagement shall differ
• In the course design, there should be a direct connection amongst the objectives, learning activities and assessments. The objective must always be the driving force behind decisions on designing activities and assessments.

There are multiple courses and certifications available in the market on instructional design. This is a buzz word for quite some time. This kind of momentum is due to the entire prominence on User Experience (UX) Design which has made instructional design so vivid. These courses vary from foundation to advanced courses. A lot of training material for instructional designers specifically target digital learning and eLearning course development, Rapid Authoring Tools etc.

At Strengthscape, we offer an intense Instructional Design Certification course. As the expectations from the learners have shifted towards gaining an experiential learning experience which is more applicative and addresses the specific requirement as well. For creating instructions, there definitely needs to be a shift from the traditional mindset around learning and content development. Different building blocks need to be carefully put together to ensure the material is focused on enriching the knowledge and reassures return on investment. Instructional Design helps to understand those layers and gives principles to construct effective instructions that further enhances learner experience and overall learning and development.

Instructional Design Strategies

High return on investment is always expected from an eLearning program but achieving it is a big concern. Be it an app, game or a course, you need a plan or a strategy in place to achieve the expected outcome. Same goes with the ELearning design for training. An eLearning program designed with a robust instructional design strategy has the potential to fulfil the needs of learner and to attain his or her goals.

What is Instructional design strategy? It is a well outlined plan of how to teach a particular subject. It begins with setting goals and determining actions that must take place to meet those goals, utilizing various resources, techniques and devices. One must analyze the learners profile and the outcome desired to finalize the instructional strategy which is centered towards the learner. Instructional design strategy is important as it facilitates learning with innovative approaches. An ideal solution for designing a strategy will be through exploration and discovery of various learning elements.

There are few instructional design strategies that have proven to enhance the training experiences of various organizations. Keeping the learner engaged throughout the course is a challenge for instructional designers. Hence they should create interactive content that breaks the monotony. One of the best strategies used to captivate the learners attention is through storytelling, which is often considered a powerful approach for a perceptual learning experience. An interesting plot, characters, strong narrative and a message will contextualize the learning experience.

Getting the learner involved will not only improve the learners engagement but also challenges them to take decisions. Scenario based learning puts the learner in a real life situation and brings out a behavioral response. Learners use their critical thinking and problem solving skills to venture out of the scenario.

To avoid subjective overload of content, an emerging Instructional design strategy delivers content in a bite size with a key take away. In the present day scenario, learners are distracted and find information boring. Providing them with such micro learning content would help retain the learner attention span and would bring out excellent results.

Today one of the hottest trends in eLearning is gamification. It’s basically using game design techniques in non-game context. This strategy takes the learning experience to the next level with enhanced knowledge retention and performance. Gamification helps one create immersive learning environment. Gamification can be used in different training programs such as on- boarding training, product training and safety training, etc.

Apart for the above mentioned instructional design strategies, there are many more such strategies such as case studies, inquiry based learning, reflective learning, etc.  Creating an impactful eLearning course depends on selecting the right instructional design strategy. There are various aspects that needs to be taken into consideration while selecting the instructional design strategy, such as the users, subject matter, and the learning environment.  The developers should mainly focus on the budget and the resources allocated and come up with the best instructional design strategy for effective learning.

All you need to know about learning/instructional design/developer certificate

Learning/instructional design/developer certificate increased in number due to the increased demand of instructional designer in both, professional as well as educational environments. This is because more organizations are depending on utilizing eLearning software to deliver employee training and consequently individual learners are pivoting towards eLearning courses to develop and acquire new skills. Instructional designers are useful to create almost everything from webinars to printed materials, to self-paced eLearning products. They can concentrate on improving the existing curriculum or build and develop a new engaging curriculum with the latest instructional technologies.

Learning/instructional design/developer certificates are more likely to be similar in terms of the course being completely at the student’s pace while allowing you to complete it at the student’s discretion. The time taken to obtain the final certification depends on the student’s commitment and availability. Even if the information provided by one institution to another varied drastically, certain concepts and ideas remain uniform to all institutions as mandatory to be educated in the field of instructional design. Some of the common concepts and ideas are how to effectively develop eLearning courses, how to utilize instructional technology to develop course and curriculum that ensures engagement of the learners along with application of instructional theories and models.

Learner/instructional designer/developer’s certificate primarily concentrate on instructional strategies, project management, assessment methods and development of computer-based training programs while some courses focus particularly on adult learning theory. Quite a few online courses utilize course management systems such as Blackboard which ensures that the students have access to course materials, submit assignments and communicate with the instructor and the fellow students.

The biggest challenge faced by students while opting for learner/instructional designer/developer certificate is that of choosing the right online course that checks the appropriate boxes and the following tips would deem helpful.

The delivery of information as well as the topics covered under the syllabus should be analysed and researched to ensure that it fits the major requirements of the students.

The student’s ultimate goals and their needs should resonate with the learner/instructional design/developer certificate. For this the student should determine their personal and professional objectives along with what do you want to reap form the course ultimately.

The student should consider specifically which type of design theory the school utilizes. While different courses would concentrate on different theories to educate the students about instructional design, it becomes vital for the student to study in advance which would be the most suitable for the student. This enables students to design and instruct efficiently.

Ensure that the course offers real world experience, that is, the student knows how to apply the knowledge and education of instructional design into their work to execute the job efficiently.

While learner/instructional designer/developer certificates are in increasing demand, the students need to research the qualifications and experience of the teachers and faculty. The faculty’s work experience also plays a role in giving an idea on how well aware they are of their subject. If there any publications or paper by the faculty readily available, try to reach out and read.

The student should be aware of all the costs and inquire if there would be any additional costs so that the student may benefit from cost efficiency. They need to be aware of the learning materials that are utilized.

Content Development using Instructional Design

The design, development, and delivery of any type of content using instructional design is known as content development. It designs the experiences so that learners can either gain new knowledge or improve their existing skills. There are several models and theories about how people learn and the cognitive processes that underpin our learning experiences. These models ensure that instruction is as effective as possible in imparting knowledge or teaching learners’ skills.

Many of the changes in the workplace today are being driven by the ability to access information when needed through browser-based resources. Technology is allowing large amounts of information to become available in a variety of text, audio, and video formats, providing greater flexibility to the learning experience. A number of educational experts have studied the efficacy of content development programs as interest in e-learning has grown.

Many of today’s workplace changes are being driven by the ability to access information when needed via browser-based resources. Large amounts of information are becoming available in a variety of text, audio, and video formats, allowing for greater flexibility in the learning experience. As interest in e-learning has grown, a number of educational experts have investigated the efficacy of content development programs.

• Micro-learning is any learning experience in which the learner consumes the content in a short period of time. Employees can fit training around their jobs by providing learning in bite-sized micro-learning activities. It also enables employees to learn what they require when they require it.
• Mobile Learning- In keeping with the trend of meeting learners where they are, mobile learning enables users to access activities from wherever they are. It is yet another example of how instructional design content has been adapted to meet the demands of the modern work calendar.
• Impatience and a distracted workforce are major challenges in the field of content development instructional design. Game design is applied to traditionally non-game activities such as learning in this process.
• Blended Learning- This learning style is common in both the education and corporate sectors, but the term blended learning is most commonly used in the corporate learning environment.

Individual skills and characteristics structure and guide independent learning. The blended approach begins with more in-person training and progresses to more independent training. Good instructional designers understand that the best curriculum incorporates elements of various types to meet the needs of the organization.

Learning through simulation is one trend that is receiving a lot of attention right now. This method of instruction makes use of various concepts and techniques popularized by the gaming industry. These resources virtually enhance the user experience by utilizing high-definition video and audio, as well as branching strategies. The shift from one-size-fits-all to personalized training and learning experiences is perhaps the most far-reaching content development using instructional design trend. Individuals can take responsibility for their role in the process, work efficiently with the tools provided, self-assess, and even choose avenues of opportunities and exploration through personalized learning activities.

Technology is a key feature of personalized learning because it allows for instant access to information. Nonetheless, despite the emphasis on the individual’s ability, instructional design is critical. The designer gives the individuals the initial guidelines as well as the appropriate guiding tools. Web-based learning can be a flexible and cost-effective alternative to traditional learning, but it can also be a waste of time and money if it is not implemented correctly.

Best Online Instructional Design Courses

Some of the best Instructional design online courses understand that successful implementation of a well-structured program model enables the learner to align appropriate instructional activities and assessments, teach learners how to design effective instruction for any delivery method, provide students the skills for managing the complete instructional design process and facilitate teaching computer-based training and matching technology tools to instructional problems.

For the professional instructional designer, career options range from government to academic to profit and non-profit sectors and include positions such as Instructional Designer, Corporate Trainer, Learning System Designer, Director of Instructional Design Technologies, Learning and Development Director, Curriculum Designer etc. Provide online learning and web solutions for businesses, education, charities corporate organizations, government agencies and the public sector, offering customizable web-design and e-portfolios services. They offer LMSs (Learning Management Systems) for educational and corporate use as well as multimedia content, training and games for learning. With an aim to deliver end-to-end learning solutions to international clients, companies offering some of the best online instructional design courses offer corporate online training for businesses to educate their staff and have started developing online libraries of blended learning content. Most video eLearnings courses include Communication, Presentation skills, Selling Skills, Business Improvement Techniques, Leadership and Management, Negotiation skills and Productivity. Most companies offering the selective best Instructional design online courses are moving towards providing a number of end-to-end eLearning solutions offering some gamification for learning and adaptive learning products as well as a virtual workspace. This is also true for most leading players around the globe; one such company which is making meaningful strides in this direction and worth a mention is Strengthscape.

Strengthscape’s virtual classes & e-learning programs are designed to suit all learning styles. By partnering with the world leaders in assessment solutions, Strengthscape brings well researched and highly reliable tools and assessments for hiring and developing talent; Strengthscape, a leading business psychology firm headquartered in Bangalore boasts of the International DiSC Trainer Certification – India. This is a train the trainer program delivered by globally renowned facilitators who have rich and diverse experience in the fields of psychology and business. Strengthscape’s Instructional Design Certification course encompasses a new way of learning content designing principles and strategies. Strengthscape understands that learning is a process; their course has a structured approach and at the same time gives flexibility to learners to start with which ever module they would like to first go with. The course starts with the basics and goes into applying knowledge to practical situations. Their facilitators come with decades of industry experience in varied roles and this gives them an edge in understanding business issues better. Leveraging technology, the company delivers the best training and assessment solutions in the comfort of your office/home.

Some of the best Instructional design online courses and around the globe now offer a range of products and services, including eLearning courses, custom content, instructional design, LMS solutions and mobile application development, to name a few of the various mediums to effect change in this industry.

Storytelling

Storytelling is an instructional design with which designers convey information progressively instead of the traditional technique where data is conveyed statically. Since memory is the process of making, storing and recovering, the more we make associations with human nature the more the possibility that the message being imparted will be retained. Stories impact attention, decision making and memory.

Evolution of Storytelling

Cavemen and Hieroglyphics. It is assessed that the Chauvet cave in France has drawings that go back 30,000 years. These drawings detail creatures, for example, deer and buffalo, just as topics of survival, as per Nature Index. It has been indicated that people in all societies, going back to stone age men, have a tendency toward visual portrayals. Another basic type of drawing used to convey stories is the utilization of symbolic representations in old Egypt. This type of composing used pictographic characters as images and sounds. The hieroglyphic language goes back around 5,000 years and is perceived as one of the world’s earliest writing frameworks.

Oral tradition. Storytelling through oral tradition goes back to various points in story, depending upon the culture. These customs use chant, song and epic verse to recount stories that had been passed on from age to age and eventually written and published. Myths were also first gone on through word of mouth. For instance, oral myths in the United States are generally normal among Native American societies. The Cherokee clan keeps on describing their creation story, although it is now and then skewed, depending upon the individual telling it. Customary storytelling by word of mouth still happens at whatever point a gathering of individuals get together to mingle, and it has assisted with forming current studies in the field of communications.

Written words. There is evidence of written symbols that date back to about 9,000 years ago. The first written stories were manually transcribed, whether on paper, stone or clay. As described above, writing began as drawings, but over time changed into script. The current alphabet was derived from older forms of writing, such as the Phoenician alphabet. The transition from oral to written culture overlapped, but is predominantly accounted for in ancient Greece, where the earliest inscriptions date from 770 to 750 B.C. Scholars suggests that “The Iliad” by Homer is the oldest surviving work in the Greek language that originated from oral tradition, according to History of Information.

Technology and media. The use of technology has formed the way that we associate with others and how we recount stories. Beginning from around the year 1800, innovation has added to the formation of photography, movies, phones, radio, TV, mobile media, digital media and social life; the current most powerful influence is social media. Media platforms, for example, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have developed in popularity in the 21st century. These stages allow users to communicate their thoughts in an open way with everybody on the Internet or to pick with whom to share their information. Twitter and Facebook permit clients to post statuses, photographs and recordings of memories and individual stories. Instagram, a photographic-based platform, empowers clients to share just photographs or recordings.

Storytelling in ID

Storytelling can be an extremely amazing and powerful tool in learning design. Storytelling is one tool in the instructional plan toolbox. It assists with acting and reacting to specific circumstances. Stories connect with our reasoning, our feelings, and creative mind at the same time. They carry rationality to the chaos of information and experiences we are presented to, arranging and connecting them in a significant way. This facilitates favoring attention, engagement, action and sense making. Stories can make a point more captivating and vital, adding credibility to a thought. As a story resounds with the listeners, they are more agreeable to take in the message and act upon it.

The human mind is more used to recollecting facts told in a narrative format than in a descriptive one since people are wired by stories. As per the author of Influencer: The Power to Change Anything “Just stating the give-away message of an experience often leaves individuals unaffected while recounting to the full story changes minds and hearts.”

As per research, our memory is sorted out in compartments. Receptive memory typically takes in all the educational stimulus, releasing only a bit viewed as pointless. John Medina, creator of Brain Rules says that “we don’t focus on exhausting things. We get past them, however it’s not soaking in.” The short-term memory has constrained space. There is a filtering procedure where the brain will be searching for “associations” to facilitate capacity in the long-term memory and later recovery. Learning happens just in the long-term memory. This is the place information can be recovered and retrieved upon.

Storytelling in Instructional Design

Information presented should be connected around a story. Any sort of introduction—regardless of whether it be live presentation or an online training —will profit by a story development. Arranging information into an arrangement with a start (setting the stage), middle (the challenge) and closure (new reality) can work for many subjects.

People want to know the origin. When we read or watch about a superhero, we always recollect the individual’s origins. We know where they originated from and the conditions that made their superpowers. Individuals are characterized by their origins and individuals are interested in where individuals (or fictional characters) originate from, how they change and how they develop. Include this sort of information in your next story.

Stories make people care. When you know your audience — their frustrations, pains and delights—your stories can mirror their experiences and emotions. As learners see themselves in the story and start to relate to it, they begin to care. Nancy Duarte, author of Resonate, states that a story fills in as a moment of emotional appeal.

Stories are motivating. Stories can inspire a group of people toward a learning objective. They are perfect for attitudinal preparation because when a group of people is inspired, they no longer should be convinced. An empowering story will motivate somebody to make a move.

Certification in India

Details you need to know about Instructional Design Courses Certification in India

When you undergo instructional design courses certification in India successfully, you’re in a right position to develop skills and foundational knowledge to design and implement instructions that are effective. Remember, there is so much a certificate program course in instructional design will teach you. Among many things, it will help define the learning needs of your organization and help determine an instructional format that is most appropriate. These design courses certificate programs will also help you in designing materials and even implement them successfully. What’s more, you’ll employ many things in developing an instructional design that you have gained through the coursework, like utilizing theories, tools, models, experience, technology, and principles.

How instructional design courses certification in India help?

The certificate programs in instructional design courses are of immense help to one and all. For example, the assignments you learn head-on in the certificate programs will enable you to successfully employ in your current professional activities. You’ll also be able to engage with other professionals in having key instructional design proficiencies developed successfully. A certificate course in instructional design will also help you in leading organizations different phases of instructional design projects and this will include proficient planning, application of fundamental principles, ongoing and execution management.

Depending on the certificate program you wish to enroll for instructional design, the credit hours required can vary a lot. Accordingly, the amount of time required to complete the course and acquire a certificate can change. Also, should you wish to pursue a Master’s program in instructional design then you can discuss the same with your course provider and transfer the credit hours into your new program and proceed with it accordingly.

What are the outcomes of an instructional design certificate program?

Students who enroll in an instructional design certificate program and successfully complete it will:

• Develop the ability to lead the design through proficient development, planning, management, and evaluation
• Be able to apply design principles, especially the foundational ones, to designing, developing, and implementing of various activities in the workplace
• Be able to successfully lead any instructional design project across all phases
• Be able to demonstrate vast knowledge of techniques, theories, tools, models, and principles that can be simplified and applied successfully to instructional projects

The career outlook for professionals that have completed instructional design courses certification in India is positive. When you successfully complete a course in instructional design, you become qualified for different roles in organizations that require instructional activities. Typically, these are the activities that have been designed and developed for different learning formats, including classroom as well as online modes.

Some of the career opportunities available for instructional designers upon completing a certification course include:

• Technical writer
• Curriculum developer
• Instructional designer

Potential employment settings include:

• Organizations
• Military
• Associations
• Government agencies
• Private, charter, or public schools
• Higher education institutions
• Corporations

If you wish to join a certification course in instructional design in India then you may need the following:

• Application fee
• Online application
• Transcripts
• Resume
• Letters of recommendation
• Statement of purpose

However, the exact requirements can vary depending on the course and the center you wish to get enrolled in.

User Experience Design and ID

User experience (UX) design is the procedure design teams use to make products that give relevant and significant experience to clients. This includes the plan of the whole procedure of obtaining and integrating the product, including parts of design, branding, function and usability.

The fascinating history of user experience design

4000 BC: Feng Shui and the importance of space

Dating back 6000 years ago, Feng Shui deciphers as “wind” and “water” and refers to the spatial game plan of articles (for example furniture) comparable to the flow of energy (chi). In practice, Feng Shui is tied in with arranging your surroundings in the most optimal, or easy to use way—be it an office, room or whole building.

500 BC: The Ancient Greeks and ergonomics

One of the strongest signs that the Ancient Greeks were very much aware of ergonomic standards is the way that Hippocrates portrayed how a surgeon’s working environment should be set up. He refers to the lighting in the room, the surgeon’s position —”the surgeon may be seated or stand, in a stance comfortable for him”— and the arrangement of the tools; “they should be situated so as to not block the surgeon, and also be within simple reach when required.”

Early 1900s: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the quest for workplace efficiency

In 1911, Frederick Winslow Taylor wrote “The Principles of Scientific Management” where he stated that systematic administration is the answer to inefficiency. However, Taylorism was generally criticized for the way it diminished individuals to mere cogs in a machine, Taylor’s attention on upgrading the relation among people and their tools is suggestive of some key UX standards.

1940s: Toyota and the value of human input

Proceeding on the mission for workplace efficiency, Toyota built up their popular human-focused production system. In contrast to Taylorism, the Toyota Production System depended on respect for individuals, and much consideration was paid to making the ideal workplace. Not just that: human input was viewed as critical and was effectively empowered.

1966: Walt Disney – the first UX designer

For sure, Disney was obsessed with making immersive, magical, near-perfect user experiences, and the way he set about building Disney World was a genuine stroke of UX genius. In his article for UX Magazine, Joseph Dickerson draws out Walt Disney’s core values for his group of engineers —or Imagineers, as he called them: know your crowd, wear your visitor’s shoes, communicate with shape, color, form and texture.

1970 and beyond: Xerox, Apple and the PC era

The 1970s commenced the era of personal computers, with clinicians and engineers cooperating to concentrate on the user experience. Many of the most persuasive advancements came out of Xerox’s PARC research focus, for example, the graphical user interface and the mouse. From multiple points of view, PARC set the pace for personal computing as we are probably aware of it today. Since then, UX design has been constantly evolving.

User experience design and Instructional Design future

UX is an ever-evolving field, and the discipline has advanced impressively during the most recent couple of decades. It very well may be a battle now and again to keep up as our deliverables have changed and developed over time — mobile and desktop, mouse and touch, web and local, and this list goes on.

However, one part of UX stays consistent — users. We must plan in view of functionality, yet equally, a focus on delight should be included.

To construct human-centered user encounters, we must see how people work and that requires a level of focus on brain science. User experience designer presently needs to understand not just the mechanics of how to construct products and services but also why we build these products and services.

Curation and delivery can be made really easy and effective for the modern and adult learner. Various user experience features can be incorporated in instructional design and to engage with learners easily.

Here are some of the ways the instructional design future may look like with respect to user experience:

• Motion design: Motion design is clearly not about just making fancy, bouncy animations. It is about storytelling. Motion guides the learner to the arrangement of activities important to perform a task. Motion drives the client’s experience and recognizes the activities the client has performed by giving input.
• Artificial intelligence: Whether the learner taking up the course in any device of their choice, the response they get from the artificial intelligence tools should be consistent. AI is highly going to influence how you structure and deliver your online course.
• 3D technologies: We realize that constant 3D innovations are becoming common and that they take into consideration the displaying of virtually all sorts of digital reality that we can think of. Also, we realize that the cost of these technologies is dropping significantly. Real-time 3D is the innovation that the new buzzwords are based on, so getting some real-time 3D simulations into the learning blend not just makes the way for screen-based learning-by-doing yet in addition fills in as the correct initial step on the way to offering solutions in virtual, augmented, blended and other digital realities.

If we manage to make the entirety of that happen, we’ll be very much situated as an industry to deliver massive outcomes to the business while creating experiences that our users love. If we neglect to adjust, it’s unlikely that we’ll discover places for ourselves in the future of learning. The web will consistently out-web us, and technologists will always have a superior general use of the most recent trend.

e-Learning Solutions

With solid instructional design practices and learning strategies, coupled with progressive technology, eLearning solutions are developed to overcome training challenges. Constant developments in the training industry calls for solutions that are adaptable. The eLearning solutions ensure that trainings are impactful, no matter what industry you belong to. Online training includes scenarios, videos, simulations, case studies, and engaging instructional strategies that serve as tools to augment learning.

Advantages of eLearning

Taking a deeper look into the advantages of eLearning over instructor led training, there are many things one simply cannot achieve in a traditional classroom model that are now possible through a digital medium. The constant growth of the internet has incorporated swift expansion of online learning programs. eLearning is a very efficient way of delivering courses online. It makes learning simpler, easier, and more effective. The advantages of eLearning are:

• eLearning is cost effective:

With outdated training methods, updating and reproducing learning materials is costly and time consuming. Online training lets users update important lesson plans quickly and easily, and since they remain online, they save printing costs plus cost reduction for learners. Majority of the training time related to accommodation, travel, course materials and much more.

• eLearning reduces learning time:

eLearning reduces learning time as much as 60% when compared to traditional learning. It can save time associated with travel, breaks and meals, starting and wrapping up learning sessions and finally teaching to a group rather than an individual.

• eLearning helps in retention:

With gamification, videos and other interactive content, eLearning can increase greater user retention of the information. Due to the demands and the pace of the modern workplace, eLearning solutions are far better at delivering knowledge than traditional face to face sessions with an external trainer.

• eLearning is accessible:

One of the main benefits of eLearning is that it is available anytime, anywhere for an increasingly global and remote workforce. The users have access to the training when they have the time and capability to do so, no matter where they are.

• eLearning is interactive:

Interactive eLearning is an eLearning course that makes a meaningful interchange occur between the course and learners. Including quizzes and tests that feature video and audio questions, offer learners the opportunity to gauge their progress and summarize the content they have learned. An eLearning course that includes a variety of multimedia elements and is appealing is going to be more interactive than one that relies upon solely text content. Using fonts that are visually pleasing and videos that are more attractive makes an eLearning course more engaging.

• eLearning ensures consistent training:

Not all instructors will focus on the same materials, so eLearning is simply ensuring that all users receive the training they need. Visual consistency helps learners understand how a course works. It lends familiarity to the interface, so learners feel confident using it. Consistency is at the core of great visual design. An eLearning course has to be consistent to help the learners tide through complex learning matter.

eLearning solutions are an innovative approach to learning. Developing a purposeful and well- defined eLearning course, which supports the instructor and learner, means devoting the appropriate time and embedding the applicable course elements into the eLearning environment. In order for learners to be successful in this learning environment the challenges to eLearning must be overcome with support and best practice solutions. Despite the fact that today’s learners are digital natives, the use of technology for eLearning can be overwhelming but highly helpful to users across the world.

What should you know about instructional designer jobs – work from home?

Instructional designer jobs – work from home is an occupation that executes the duties of an instructional designer who works from home. An instructional designer’s job is often confused between designing and professionally possessing the writing skills. To clarify this, we can say that an instructional designer, utilises and implements the learning principles to develop educational systems and course materials. The core of an instructional designer’s job is concerned with the responsibilities that is affiliated with the development of appearance, organizations and the functionality of the learning systems. Instructional designer usually works in the areas of business, government and non-profit organizations which corresponds with the field of online education, distance education, eLearning, training etc.

Instructional designer jobs – work from home varies from one job to another based on what are types of systems focused on. It also might depend on the client or for whom, at what level it is carried out as well how it is executed. Mostly, instructional designer jobs are confined to the eLearning industry, most probably converting the in-person teaching material to the online courses. There may be instructional designer jobs that concentrate on developing training for corporates. However, it is believed that to execute the instructional designer job – work from home as a freelancer, it is vital to gain experience in an eLearning company. The definition of the instructional designer job may be unique to each hiring organization. Some of the common tasks that may require execution as an instructional designer include:

• Penning down the learning objectives and determining as well as evaluating the leverage of educational projects
• Generating the layout of instructional material
• Work in symmetry with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to mould the course content and writing content
• Development of media (audio, visual, interactive) that facilitates learning
• Planning, organizing and developing assessments to verify if the learning objectives were met.

Instructional designers working from home is the often-offered position pertaining to the contract positions. However, a handful of employment position in instructional design may effortlessly transition to telecommuting. This is optional while keeping in mind that the instructional designer jobs – work from home is rarely open for the entry level candidates. There are quite a few companies who are willing to offer flexible timings. However, on an average an instructional designer who opts for work from home may clock in hours depending on the projects they work on. However, tight deadlines are equivalent to putting in 8 or more hours of work per day.

For candidates who want instructional designer jobs – work from home should hunt for companies that require regular content and fix a schedule with them. Based on where you company is place (in your city or elsewhere), regulate your work terms and timelines while also ensuring that you abide by them strictly. Once the companies are assured of your capabilities it will be much easier to negotiate the work from home terms.

The most common misconception that is succeeded with instructional designer jobs – work from home is that by freelancing the work and eliminating the process of outsourcing the work to subject matter experts and graphic designer will lead to an increase in their salary where the work becomes burdened on one person which is suggested against by professionals. The goal should be to finish the tasks efficiently and effectively ensuring client satisfaction.

Peek into the Future of Instructional Design

Instructional design is the practice of creating useful and exceptional learning experiences for a focused audience. Instructional Designers work with subject-matter experts in their respective fields to recognize and face knowledge and performance gaps within a target group. Based on their research and the requirements of the organization, they create educational experiences that are based on established learning theories and proof -based practice. The future of instructional design is going through quick changes as a consequence of research in the fields of technology, education and learner behavior. Competent organizations are tuned into these instructional design trends and already implementing them. This article is an attempt to explore the trends that are impacting and will influence the future of instructional design.

Future Traits of Instructional Design

• Personalization of Learning –

Instructional design will continue to take advantage of the analysis of big data to personalize learning experiences by getting better insights into learner engagement. Learning can be crafted to meet individual needs and requirements. Big data actually allows us to check how learners learn best. Using this information will help designers avoid a multipurpose instructional design strategy or design for the average learner. With big data, we become aware of the ways of delivery preferred by individual employees. This way the instructional designers can reach learners based on their learning styles through the best learning tools available to them. Instructional designers will no longer be compelled to enforce learning in a style learners may not like. The future of instructional design will lean toward creating multiple modalities for the same information and learning strategies will be enhanced for individual fondness to be truly personalized.

• Creating Flexible Resources for Adults –

With personalization, instructional design will move toward offering learners the flexibility to learn what they want rather than developing courses which follow a similar cycle based on traditional styles of learning. Today, learning abides by the adult learning need to be independent. This type of learning is suited to the modern workplace where employees search for knowledge suited to their needs and is circumstantial so that it can be translated into action. The learner will grasp the knowledge required to do his job well. To offer demand-driven learning to an audience that is technically skilled, instructional design will have to utilize the power of technology to design learning that is accessible on all devices. It will quickly change direction toward delivering learning in small pieces so that learners can access what they want, anytime and anywhere. 

• Mobile Learning –

The growing usage of mobile phones has given life to mobile learning. The focus will be on developing small and consistent information designed to be delivered to learners on mobile devices. These small but organized pieces of learning need to be designed and developed rapidly and the instructional design strategy will be based on how learners will interact with the course material while they are active. The size is perfect for the learner who approaches them on his mobile in short intervals during his work hours and when he needs it. The units should be designed to help faster cognitive processing for faster application. Instructional design strategy will be designed to enable learners to retain information; short assessments can be included to evaluate the learner.

• Creativity –

Creativity brings freshness to workplace learning. It leads to meaningful challenges, which, in return, produces engagement. Constant feedback allows learners to adjust and adapt to change. Providing them with a vision to strive for can transfer engagement into motivation and, in the long run, maybe inspiration. You can’t begin this process in the middle and just create an employee engagement program. Instructional designers need to work closely with business. The more you are in your audience, the more compassion you gain, which leads to better and reasonable experiences. The most effective way to do that is through work. Try to do someone else’s work occasionally.

Basics For Elearning Content Development

Content development can be defined as the process of researching, producing, and publishing information to meet a strategic organizational goal. That goal will either be to build a connection with an audience or to boost some kind of marketing or sales outcome. Content development is therefore a critical part of a content marketing strategy. Content creation is the process of identifying a topic to write about, deciding which form you want the content to take, formalizing your strategy (keyword or otherwise), and then actually producing it. In addition, most content creation processes involve thorough rounds of edits and revisions with other stakeholders before content is ready for advertising. Thus, in this article we are going to talk about guidelines for eLearning content development.

Some Guidelines for eLearning Content Development

The following are some guidelines for eLearning content development –

• Define Your Goals – Great content is created to fulfill a particular purpose, and this purpose needs to be clearly defined. Ask yourself if you are creating content to enhance brand awareness, improve search ranking results, generate leads, attract users or past customers or something else altogether. Once you have clearly defined what your goal is, you need to determine if an effective content development strategy is in fact the best way to achieve them. Don’t assume content is the only thing to be repaired in every situation.
• Research Your Target Audience – Your eLearning content strategy can be effective when you know your audience better. Valuable information can be gleaned by checking what the audience is positively responding to, which content they engage with, and which social media platforms they share their experience on. Your goals for creating this content are to increase average time on the course, decrease bounce rate, and increase site visits.
• Focus on Your Niche – It’s a sad fact that the Internet is full of content that shouldn’t be there. This online content either already exists elsewhere and is simply modified and reposted, providing no real value. To avoid having your eLearning content lost in that pack, create courses that stands out, are unique, have a distinct voice, and, most importantly, offer genuine value to learners. The more specific you are, the greater your chances of establishing yourself as an authority in the field, whether learners are looking for information and learning.
• Measure Your Results – One of the many guidelines for eLearning content development are measuring results. Measuring the results of your content development efforts is one of the most important aspects of developing an effective content development strategy. Putting out content without analyzing learner feedback is as similar to having a phone conversation on mute. You need to know what your audience responded positively to, as well as what they didn’t like, and why.
• Listen to Your Customers – While data analysis can be a very useful tool, it gives only black and white figures on a spectrum. Access the rest of that spectrum by really listening to your users. Your customers need to know they are being heard on the website and social media, so ask them for feedback and suggestions. Also speak to other members of your staff to get a better understanding of the needs of the users. Reaching out to your customers and responding to their feedback enables you to gather valuable user data, and it also shows them that their views matter.
• Amplify Your Content – A sound eLearning content development strategy and targeted content creation make up only the first part of the equation. The final step is amplification of the content. To amplify your content, determine the platforms your audience is frequenting online, and then publish your courses on those channels to reach them. You’ll need to think strategically and logically, in order to identify all the resources available to you and then harness the power of employees, customers, and influencers to really boost your content.

As we can see, creating a great eLearning content development strategy isn’t rocket science, but it can be a little challenging to implement. One should expect to encounter barriers and go through lots of trial and error. Once you have the recipe for success, all you will have to do is repeat the process to see the kind of audience growth you’ve always dreamed of.

Top Essentials for eLearning Content Development

Elearning is a learning system based on formalised teaching but with the help of electronic resources. Elearning can also be termed as a network enabled transfer of skills and knowledge, where the delivery of education is made to a large number of recipients at the same or different times. Typically, eLearning means delivering all or part of a course digitally, whether it’s in a school, part of your mandatory business training or a distance learning course. For any eLearning course to be a success the content must be engaging, as well as effective and helpful for the learner. This requires efforts for creating and implementing certain practices for developing the best eLearning content. Thus, in this article we are going to discuss about the best practices for eLearning content development.

What is eLearning Content Development?

eLearning content development is a serious business. It is a process which ensures that training is correct, impactful and creates a good learning experience for the learners. Developing a good and successful eLearning course requires efforts. Before the content is developed, it is important to determine whether the learning problem on hand is worthy of being researched and developed into a course. Once the key learning goals have been decided, training need has been analysed, and it is known what learners like and what they don’t, content for the eLearning course is developed. The richer the learning experience, the more difficult is its creation. Thus, good content development is based on several strategies and practices. The best practices for eLearning content development are –

• Convenient and Accessible:

eLearning content should always be easy to access anytime, anywhere. It should always be less time consuming since eLearning courses are made available because they are more convenient for the learners. Content should also be easy to understand and comprehend for the learner.

• User Experience:

Analysing the audience and understanding their needs is the most important part of developing any eLearning course. All eLearning content is effective only when it gives the learner an opportunity to explore the topic of interest, understand the content and reassess their knowledge. Thus, content must be interactive, engaging as well as successful in transmitting knowledge to generate a creative learning experience for the user.

• Bite-sized Content:

While developing any eLearning content, it is always important to keep in mind that people mostly access eLearning courses when traditional classroom learning is not possible. Provide content in bite- sized chunks that is only related to the subject matter, is to the point and not much time consuming. For instance, a 1-hour tutorial should be broken into 4 mini tutorials, so learner’s interest is maintained, attention remains focused.

• Customise your Content:

eLearning content should be such that it suits every learner’s needs and requirements. Try to develop content that is easy to understand and sensitive to the needs of all and that can be accessible to learners at any time of convenience. Content must be equally impactful for all learners, including the disabled. For instance, Ginger and Ghotit for those who cannot write and Intel reader for sensory disability should be provided.

• Impressive Content Design:

Effective eLearning content should be easy to grasp and visually appealing. Content should include short text blocks, larger and attractive font size and style as well as greater use of videos and images for better understanding and knowledge. Introduce animations and verbal explanations to create a fully immersive environment. Use striking colours, add stories and use examples to create an overall bold visual design.

• Multiple Learning Channels:

Besides your own eLearning content, provide links to additional content such as websites or other programs that provide similar or related material, to enhance knowledge and provide detailed understanding. Add social media icons so that content can be shared and discussed with a wider audience. Also provide links to studies, researches and videos for a better learning experience.

• Evaluation through Competition:

Competition helps keep the interest alive for learners. Include tests, assignments, projects and interactive games to maintain learner interest and evaluate performance. Give learners the option to review learning content and reassess their performance whenever needed. Competition helps enhance problem solving and cognitive abilities and motivates learners to widen their knowledge and constantly perform better.

There is no one roadmap to eLearning content development. The size of the team, the nature of the course and the specific demands of the users are major deciding factors. The best practices for eLearning content development necessitate a combination of creativity, technical skills, teamwork and good management. Regardless of how challenging content development can be, it is always a fun process and the results are rewarding.

List of eLearning development models

A comprehensive list of eLearning development models is crucial to facilitate good design and planning, for every type of training program, even more so for e-learning projects. A needs analysis before developing an e-learning course, should be conducted to examine training requirements to fill gaps in professional knowledge and to ascertain whether e-learning is the way forward.

If you are a beginner, it pays to understand and follow instructional design best practices followed in the eLearning space. The basic, most widely used among the list of eLearning development models that eLearning developers swear by, are the ADDIE Model, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instructions, Bloom’s Taxonomy and Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, to name a few among the plethora of models.

In ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate), each phase proposes an opportunity for iterations before proceeding to the next one. Since ADDIE was one of the ground-breaking design models, it attracts much debate and discourse on its effectiveness and relevance in terms of meeting the current learner’s needs. Bent on ingraining maximum knowledge from each course, David Merril in 2002 proposed Merrill’s Principles of Instruction (MPI) as the first principles of instruction which holistically integrates five principles of learning – task-centered, activation, demonstration, application and integration principles; one should be able to relate to problems and tasks they can handle where a course must activate existing knowledge base of the learner; Additionally, a course must demonstrate the knowledge so that it leverages different regions of the brain, hence retaining it longer. It must allow them to apply new information on their own and see how the new material works in concrete situations.

The course must encapsulate dimensions for integrating the knowledge into the learner’s world via discussions, self-reflection, and/or presentation of new found knowledge. Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction propounded by Robert Gagne comprised of a series of events based on the behaviorist approach to learning. These events follow a structured instructional design process, creating a model flexible enough for events to adapt and cater to diverse learning situations.

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom created a classification system of measurable verbs, known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, to describe and organize the different levels of cognitive learning – evaluation, synthesis, analysis, application, comprehension and knowledge. In 2001, the six dimensions were revised by Anderson and Krathwohl to be known as the “Revised Taxonomy.” – creating, evaluating, analyzing, applying, understanding and remembering. Taxonomy transcends beyond basic knowledge into profound understanding, reflection and application of knowledge towards a learner’s individual process of solving problems.

Apart from the above list of eLearning development models are the Gagne’s 9 step model – suitable for PROCESS training; Kirkpatrick’s model is used for evaluation of learning outcomes. It makes sense to be familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy, the work of Malcolm Knowles, and other Adult Learning theories and strategies key to high levels of comprehension, retention, and successful outcomes.

The eLearning niche is a mammoth discipline, and you will find a list of eLearning development models and theories that have suited different experts. The choice of which to use will depend on which model works best for you, your company, and your learners. Whether it goes by “eLearning” or “online learning” or for that matter “digital performance enablement”, it is imperative to realize that what is essentially needed is a shift in mindset to update the learning design. Let’s embrace cloud-based authoring of modern, collaborative, tech-enabled learning and look beyond the nomenclatures.

Stages of eLearning development process

Developing eLearning courses without the essential knowledge of the various stages of an eLearning development process, particularly, the starting point, can be rather tricky. There are lots of variables in terms of tools, parameters etc. that can influence the success of your exercise; how does one guarantee an exceptional eLearning experience for their trainees? There is one vital distinguishing point between an effective eLearning course and one that’s not: planning.

Courses that offer the finest possible eLearning experience involve a substantial amount of preparation, organization and most importantly, planning. There is no single roadmap to eLearning content development. The size of the team and project, the nature of the course and the particular client demands constitute the deciding factors affecting the modus operandi in important ways. The stages in eLearning development process necessitate not only a blend of creativity and technical skills but also a great deal of teamwork and efficient time management, something with which ultimately leads to something almost definitely rewarding.

There is a natural, logical, yet often overlapping flow to efficient design and development of an effective eLearning project. A rule of thumb more often than not implemented is to engage the whole project team, incorporate key elements of the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) while also integrating the SAM (Successive Approximation Model) agile approach. The combined methodology starts with the project initiation phase and concludes with the delivery of the project.

• Project Initiation Phase is a collaborative phase that discusses details, strategies, communication, documentation, and materials needed to get started. The Project Manager establishes timelines, milestones, and selects the project management tool.
• This is followed by the instructional Design Phase (sometimes considered as one of the first stages of an eLearning development process). Here, the requirements of the client are comprehended and the inputs provided by him are analyzed. The role of an instructional designer (ID), at this stage, is to analyze the inputs, formulate the instructional strategy and prepare a detailed outline of the content.
• The creative phase (sometimes called the storyboarding phase) may overlap with the end of the Instructional Design phase; multimedia designers establish the user interface and overall style guidelines that determine the look-and-feel of eLearning.
• After this comes the development phase, where the instructional designers with the help of visual designers (VDs) and based on the approved script and user interface design the storyboard and make it better graphically. This incorporates appropriate functionality and converts the Instructional Designer’s vision into an engaging and interactive eLearning program.
• Finally, the delivery stage is when the eLearning is published to the required format and tested to ensure proper functionality.

The above are generic stages of an eLearning development process; though rules do apply for their customized counterparts. It goes without saying that designing an online course is about moving beyond the tangible efforts above. It pays to have a considerable amount of knowledge, passion and the dedication to offer training recipients the ability to update their skillset and improve their productivity.

eLearning Content Development Tools

Great and engaging eLearning courses always start with getting the basics right. To achieve this, it is imperative to invest in the best tools for one’s business. As the first step, a powerful learning management system (LMS) needs to be put in place. Then, if you’re using SCORM or xAPI course content, a first-class authoring tool is a critical requirement for developing creative eLearning content. In this article, we are going to talk about eLearning content development tools.

eLearning Content Development Tools

There are lots of content development tools to pick and choose from. Some elearning content development tools are listed below:

1. Articulate Storyline 360 – A well-known name in the world of authoring and content creation, Storyline is easy, clean and modern, and has plenty of powerful features. For instance, it allows you to storyboard the courses and then dictates the path that the user takes. And although it can take a little bit of time to get a grasp of Storyline, it is compensated for by the quality of the results. The website has a helpful comparison chart that details what comes with the two pricing options that are available.
2. Adobe Captivate – Adobe Captivate is one of the most powerful, feature-rich tools, especially when we take into account its compatibility with other Adobe tools. The application/software allows you to storyboard your courses and utilize advanced transitions and triggers – the result of which is engaging, inspiring content for any scenario or subject. The PowerPoint integration is an amazing, must-use feature for anyone who wants to create content in this format, as it speeds up the course creation process.
3. Elucidat – Elucidat is a cloud-based content development tool that focuses on making it easy to produce great eLearning, super-fast. But this does not compromise it’s amazing features. It’s a user-friendly option that is made for big employers as well as beginners. Authors can start from pre-built blueprints – or build their own courses from scratch. Content created through this software is responsive to all screen sizes, so it’s ideal for mobile learning. Tools to manage variations and updates make keeping pace with change very easy.
4. iSpring – iSpring’s big advantage is that it takes PowerPoint content and converts it to eLearning courses. So, it’s very easy for those new to SCORM to understand and execute the process. As well as slides, one can incorporate interactions, video capture, and assessments to build engaging eLearning content. The data that is generated is then fed into the reporting suite of your LMS.
5. Camtasia – First and foremost a video capture tool, content created by Camtasia can be exported as SCORM packages. This is an excellent option if you want to update PowerPoint presentations as you can effortlessly record narration and even your face simultaneously. It may be a lighter option in terms of the features than the others listed, but it benefits you by being highly accessible and inexpensive. One must be sure to test the reporting output on offer so you know it fulfils the needs and objectives of the organization.

The best eLearning content development tool for an organization will depend on a range of factors, including whether you want simple or more sophisticated learning experiences, one’s technical expertise, translation requirements, how much eLearning content you need to produce and manage, budget, if you are a sole author or work with a wider team, and a whole list of other factors. On the basis of these requirements, the eLearning content development tool can be chosen accordingly.

Developing mobile-friendly e-learning design

Physical presence was no doubt the first preference and any other type of learning was questionable. Then the internet happened, and the rest is history. E-learning is a rapidly growing industry which has completely revolutionized learning all over the world. It is the practice of improving performance by creating, using and managing various technological resources. E-learning is an electronic-enabled delivery of instruction, to transfer skills and knowledge that is made available to recipients all across the globe. With the rapid advancements in technology and learning system, e-learning is now accepted and made use of by the masses with their most favorite gadget, mobile phones. Hence, in this article we are going to discuss some tips for developing mobile-friendly e-learning design.

Developing mobile-friendly e-learning design

Mobile learning or m-learning is a revolution in e-learning. It is an educational system that supports, with the help of mobile devices, continuous access to the learning process. It enables mobility, and teaching and learning to move beyond the spaces of the traditional classroom. But just making sure that learning can be viewed on mobile phones isn’t enough. How do you create truly effective and engaging experiences for the users? Here are 5 tips for developing mobile-friendly e-learning design:

• Cut the clutter:

There is no room for clutter or extraneous material in mobile learning. Mobile users don’t like the hassle of scrolling and sorting through unnecessary information. Such a cluttered design makes it difficult for the user to navigate the course. Hence, a good e-learning design should have relevant information only and good spacing between elements, to avoid cognitive overload and focus attention. Since users already deal with a multitude of external distractions, the course should be such that it relieves them from the chaos and provides only the necessary material.

• Concentrate on a single learning objective:

Mobile learners are usually pressed for time. Online courses should therefore be focused on only a specific task or topic for a single online lesson. Concentrating on a single learning objective allows the user to focus on the topic, absorb information effectively and avoid cognitive overload. It prevents confusion and provides satisfactory results to the user.

• Keep e-learning content bite-sized:

Mobile learning is best when it is bite-sized. You don’t want users to scroll forever and ever, because they will lose interest quickly. When dealing with complex subject matter, it must be broken down into short and separate e-learning modules and activities. For example- a 1-hour online tutorial must be broken into 4 micro tutorials, so it does not become monotonous for the user to absorb information at a stretch. Such an e-learning design enhances comprehension and keeps attention focused.

• Simplicity outshines stunning graphics:

It is important to keep in mind that e-learning on mobile phones deals with limited screen space. There is not as much room for graphics, images and other visual elements as in the case of a PC. For instance, an image that might look good on the desktop, may tend to clutter on the mobile screen. Also, every word and sentence in the course should be relevant and serve a purpose. Graphics can be used for aesthetic appeal, or to elaborate the material but only if they do not compromise the necessary space and message of the data.

• Always test before you deploy:

Mobile-friendly e-learning courses require as much testing as traditional e-learning courses. Even if the course is completely ready and you are happy with every aspect of its design, it is always wise to do a test run on different devices. This is important to get an idea of what the learners’ experience would be like, and feedback on the design. Issues that might have been overlooked can be solved, when seen from the eyes of the learner.

Mobile learning makes online learning increasingly convenient and effective. No matter what part of the world, one can have access to information anytime and anywhere. Regardless of budget, time constraints and learning objectives, the above 5 tips to develop mobile-friendly e-learning design can be used to make every individual experience more engaging and memorable.

Developing Cost-effective e-Learning Courses

While the word e-learning has been used quite a lot, many are still unaware of what it means and how it helps to achieve success in both personal and professional lives. E-learning is learning to utilize electronic devices to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom. Since enabling people to grow, improve and achieve learning skills is the goal of e-learning, the cost of making such courses is also huge. Here we are going to discuss the hidden costs and ways of developing cost-effective e-learning courses.

Hidden costs behind e-learning courses

Such costs include:

• The Costs of Making Mistakes-

The hard truth is that if you’re new to e-learning, or even just starting a new online course, at first it usually involves a series of trial and error. It surely helps in setting clear and realistic training objectives. However, the time it takes to learn from these mistakes, correct them, and deal with their impact may add to the potential costs of e-learning.

• The Costs of Inexperience-

Some of the most significant costs that add to the e-learning process are related to development, training skills and outsourcing. If the e-learning program lacks clarity and effectiveness, it will need skilled training. Training requires resources and time, thus adding to the cost of e-learning.

• The Costs of Technology-

Besides the initial signup and startup, sometimes the best features are paired with additional costs that are hidden in fine print. Costs of upgrades, authoring tools, storage and sometimes expert support are the types that become part of the development budget and add expenses to the e-learning process.

• Costs of Creating Content-

Although content creation is a natural cost of the e-learning process, its cost is often underestimated. Not only does the creation of content require time, but also expert knowledge from outside the business. Thus, sourcing experts from other industries to contribute their knowledge to content creation adds significant costs to the e-learning process.

Developing cost effective e-learning courses

Here are tips on how to develop cost effective e-learning courses:

• Avoid redundant content-

One of the most effective ways of managing e-learning costs is that of creating micro learning content. Creating bite sized learning content makes it very convenient for the learner to have access to only what is needed. Also, it cut down the cost of creating full length learning tutorials. The main emphasis is to focus only on a specific task or topic and the essential information or basics that are required.

• Library of resources-

Producing your own e-learning narrations, tutorials, interactive videos and recordings can significantly cut down the e-learning costs. Instead of paying for a professional production, programs like Adobe Captivate and Camtasia can be used to record and capture whatever is on screen. Such technologies help in reducing the cost of hiring a professional unit that fulfills all these functions.

• Templates and Themes-

Instead of developing an e-learning course from the first crack, use e-learning templates and themes to cut down the developmental costs and time. Adding content, customizing features personally, integrates branding without the assistance of some professional unit. Also, creating a custom template is useful as it is adaptable to a number of e-learning courses, and new templates need not be made for every e-learning course.

• Affordable authoring tools-

High quality e-learning courses can be created in no time and effort with the help of rapid authoring tools. Many of such tools are free or low cost and can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Lectora Online, Adobe Captivate 8 and Elucidat are some authoring tools that help design great e-learning experiences in a budget. Files and documents can be shared, and a record can be kept of important deadlines without any management unit.

As an e-learning professional, it is not apt to sacrifice quality and interaction due to a tight budget. It is possible to be efficient and create quality content, all within a budget. Cost effective e-learning courses are possible with a few simple tips and strategies that go a long way.

Essential Content Creation Tips For eLearning Success

What is training and content development in terms of eLearning

Perhaps you ask yourself that, “is there one ideal waybill accessible for appropriate and amiable eLearning content.” Nonetheless, provided that the parameters of several projects make every session extraordinary, it is tricky to create constituents in a singular design.

What are the righteous tips for training and content development?

Tip 1: – Targeting the Bull’s Eye: Moulding your educational-goals

Objectives are primary instruments that emphasize all designing and tactical operations. A person’s educational goal should be defined and transparent to precisely steer one through the phases of training and content development. It’s reliant on pinpointing the operation or expertise that the apprentice must attain to withstand competition.

Tip 2: – Consulting the Throng: Pinpointing Gaps

This is the most useful tip of training and content development. One can survey their crowd to gather additional data about their backgrounds and expertise. By conducting pre-assessment of apprentices, one may know that most of the online apprentices share a shortage of skills. This information can permit you to deliver additional data to certain areas for advancement.

Pre-assessments assist a person in identifying – what learners previously know, must know, and how you should provide information. After examining the goals, the team should concentrate on investigating and prioritizing the crowd’s requirements. A person can strategize for triumph if he/she groups these insights with their educational goals.

Tip 3: – Planning is Central

If a person has just returned from an SME session and supposes there are vital components that should be incorporated in the subject-matter, they should have second thoughts before tossing it on the apprentice. Your SME is unquestionably noteworthy, but you are the trainer and are aware of the academic results of your curriculum and about the apprentice’s outlook.
To commence, establish a checklist of substantial themes and sub-themes, example – a must know, should know and nice to know the content.
Listing out matters is a vital means to assist your troupe picturize and scope every lecture.

Tip 4: – Always Carry-out a Content Record

The possibilities for reallocating current data, text, images, and videos are endless. Plunge down your record and tick off the articles you have access to in your enterprise and emphasize those that are lacking.

Tip 5: – Functioning Smoothly with SME’s to Interpret their know-how into Engaging Matter

Working with an SME is crucial to acquire proper details. Working collaboratively can help gather the most essential data required to affiliate along with all the objectives.

When one is going to acquiring assistance from SMEs, they should be particular about what they want as this thorough analysis is vital to have prior meeting the SMEs.

Tip 6: -Design Last, Storyboard First

It’s a prerequisite to systematize your data to evade overburdening your spectators with inappropriate data. With the help of a storyboard, one can maintain an outline while creating the course. This level of training and content development ensures you include all main points without investing much time into less important matters.

 Conclusion: –

To design great learning experience with a lasting impression, follow the list of instructions shared above.

Although there are variations among subjects-matters and spectators, these content creation guidelines will do the trick of keeping your crew in check!

The Global Dominance of eLearning

eLearning or “electronic learning” is a term that describes education using electronic devices and digital media. It is simply learning provided through the internet. eLearning is designed to cater to needs of different types of learners, who wouldn’t normally do as well, in a traditional learning environment, as well as complement the classroom with more features to make it an even more enjoyable and creative experience for the learners. eLearning has become a globally recognised concept both in education and organisations, in enabling the provision of information and education beyond national boundaries Thus, in this article we are going to discuss how did eLearning come into being globalized.

eLearning and Globalization

The process by which businesses and organisations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale is called globalisation. Globalisation has grown due to advances in transportation and communication technology and such technologies have found their way into transforming various aspects of education and training. Although there are many terms such as hybrid learning, blended learning, technology enhanced learning and so on, the term eLearning is the one used specially as it can be seen to encompass all aspects of learning using all aspects of electronic technologies and is thus making a considerable impact on education and training.

Remarkable developments in information technology and global networking have globalised the concept of eLearning. It has widened the horizons of traditional learning and created opportunities of education for all learners. eLearning is the cutting edge of lifelong learning and is based on the concept of creating media rich collaborative virtual experience that offers the benefits like the real physical experience in face to face learning and teaching. Many educational institutions are moving in this direction such as Stanford, Colombia, University of Maryland, to name a few. eLearning is thus heading towards globalizing its impact.

The answer to how did eLearning come into being globalized relates to its special characteristics and benefits that have made an impact worldwide. They are:

• Cost Reduction:

With the globalization of eLearning, training has become a sounder investment for learners. The need for unnecessary travelling from one time zone to the next is eliminated. This means one would not have to spend a lot of resources to purchase books and training guides.

• Saves Time:

In traditional learning methods, a lot of time is lost. This isn’t the case when you use eLearning. Technology based learning saves much time as compared to any classroom-based learning, thus cutting travelling and traditional learning time.

• Ensures Personalized Learning:

Traditional learning methods limit the amount of customized learning that each learner has access to. With the globalization of eLearning it is ensured that each learner gets the learning that suits their needs.

• Flexibility:

eLearning has become highly popular because of its flexibility. It gives the ability to provide anytime, anywhere access to online learning materials, and gives learners an opportunity to take full control of their online learning experience. They get to learn whenever it is most convenient instead of having to rearrange their schedules.

• Greater Satisfaction:

eLearning ensures that learners acquire just- in- time online learning. This helps them improve their performance, as online courses are highly productive and innovative and provide creative ways to enhance the learning process.

How did eLearning come to be globalized? With the convergence of computer and communication technologies, globalization of knowledge and information has taken place. Projections show that the eLearning market worldwide is forecast to surpass 243 billion U. S. Dollars by 2022 (Forbes, 2016). In other words, resources and services of one digital library are available to global information seekers via the internet. eLearning has thus become a highly popular and globalized concept throughout the world.

Instructional Design Certification in India

Traditional training methodologies are primarily concerned with one-way flow of information. However, the theories of instructional design focus on a learning approach which is result-oriented and one which offers the users the scope for the achievement of certain specific goals in a conditioned environment. Instructional design courses in India have come a long way in leading the way in this respect.  

It makes sense to note that the process of learning in the 21st century is leaning toward distance and/or open learning. A multitude of Instructional design courses in India offer Post-Graduate Diplomas in Instructional Design (PGDID) which provide elementary practical and theoretical skills required to design, deliver and evaluate the development of courseware. Students are assisted in delving into instructional design theories through mediums such as reading, e-learning modules, and/or practical applications. The goal is to acquire not only professional qualifications in the discipline of Instructional Design, but also to enrich oneself and improve one’s job-related skills.  

With their planned “credit-based courses in Instructional Design,” institutes are committed to responding to dynamic social realities on a continuous basis through the successful development and application of information and knowledge. Stand-alone courses are intended to provide an overview of ID as well as skills in creating an Instructional Design and storyboarding. Diploma in Instructional Design, Advance Diploma in Instructional Design, and Master in Instructional Design are some examples of courses. The courses are intended to strengthen the instructional design skills of professional Instructional Designers while also preparing new entrants into this field.   

To cut a long story short, Instructional design certification course in India, strive to provide a number of end-to-end instructional design courses via eLearning solutions offering some gamification for learning and adaptive learning products as well as a virtual workspace. Strengthscape’s virtual classes & e-learning programs are designed to suit all learning styles. By partnering with the world leaders in assessment solutions, Strengthscape brings well-researched and highly reliable tools and assessments for hiring and developing talent; Strengthscape, a leading business psychology firm headquartered in Bangalore presents the Instructional Design Certification – India.   

This is a train-the-trainer program led by internationally renowned facilitators with extensive experience in the fields of psychology and business. The Instructional Design Certification course from Strengthscape includes a novel approach to learning content design principles and strategies. Strengthscape recognizes that learning is a process; their course follows a structured approach while also allowing learners to begin with whichever module they prefer. The course begins with the fundamentals and progresses to the application of knowledge in real-world situations. Using technology, the company provides the best training and assessment solutions in the convenience of your own office or home.  

People at large today understand the importance of constant self-development to climb up their career ladder. Hence, learning the details of instructional design courses has become very important in today’s world. Instructional Design is the process of creating well-structured instructional materials employing objectives, pertinent teaching techniques, systematic feedback, and evaluation. This methodical approach, which is based on instructional theories and models, is used when creating material, experiences, and other solutions to aid in the learning of new information or skills.  

Now, the big question is if you need a certification to authenticate your instructional design skills. It isn’t mandatory, however, there are several reasons to consider having one. The most important reason being an assistance to quick learning and the absence of any inconvenience to find all the resources necessary to learn the skill. Strengthscape, a global consultancy firm has recognized the need for a structured course worldwide and has come up with an organized and focused instructional design online course which can cater to the needs of aspirants around the world. Quite likely you have a perfect work-life schedule that has been working for you for quite some time now and quitting that to go through a full-time course would be a catch-22. 

Strengthscape’s instructional design courses online are widely popular and at the end of the day, it gets you what you require in the most personalized form. Eight out of ten times, people with a certification in instructional design are chosen as opposed to people with the skill set but without the certification. Our instructional design online course is a lot more than a load of information put into the cloud. We understand that practical knowledge is also an important part of learning and hence, permit you to practice the skills you learn along the course and also compare and gain working knowledge of the rapid authoring tools.  

Using Strengthscape’s online course to receive your certification has more benefits than the obvious convenience of the process. 

• Flexibility – We all have different study patterns where one person can concentrate more during the day and another at night. We allow you to choose your own time and to set your own milestones that help in achieving more effective process’ of learning
• Speed – Everybody learn at different speeds, which is a big problem in a formal setting of education of all kinds. -Strengthscape’s instructional design certification course helps in mobilizing your learning for your convenience. You can take the required time for each topic
• Without Fluff – The course is kept short and precise. Stregthscape’s courses are designed to help you learn precisely the things that you would need. So, instead of learning everything in formal settings, you will be learning the core information and methods of implementation of instructional design

Instructional design courses and certifications are in huge demand today due to the increased job opportunities around the world for professionals with the skill set. All learning styles can be accommodated by the online courses and e-learning programs offered by Strengthscape. We offer well-researched and incredibly dependable tools and assessments for hiring and developing employees through partnerships with global leaders in assessment solutions.

The need for development in the field of business has risen exponentially and therefore, the opportunities for instructional design professionals have increased. Having a proper work-life balance leaves little or no time for a full-time course to develop your instructional design skills. With the world-wide boom of the internet, it is now possible to do things from the comfort of your home. Strengthscape, a global organization development company has recognized the need for quality platforms for education available online and the lack thereof. Convenience, being one of the biggest factors of pursuing Strengthscape’s instructional design online courses, it doesn’t stop at that.  

There are various factors that reflect on the benefits of taking up Strengthscape’s online instructional design courses. These courses give you the freedom to learn at your own pace. This flexibility results in effective and efficient learning. Some people may understand concepts faster while others may need to go through the material time and again to understand it. Some may need to write down certain points whilst others may prefer to say it out loud to understand and remember concepts. Strengthscape’s  instructional design online courses help in resolving this issue by allowing you to go back to the course unlimited times. Attending Strengthscape’s online courses gives you the freedom to learn in your own way and pace thus, creating a powerhouse of skills. 

Our courses are structured and designed by industry experts who know exactly what is required. Most conventional courses come with a lot of fluff, whereas, our online courses are very specific and to the point. You will be learning only the relevant things and your knowledge in the subject would be extremely precise. We understand that the need for practical knowledge far exceeds theoretical knowledge in real time and therefore, Strengthscape’s course structure allows periodical practice sessions where you can implement the knowledge you learn in your coursework in a practical sense to truly develop the skill.  

At the end of Strengthscape’s instructional design online course you will be given a final assessment with ample time to complete it. This will help you understand where you stand with the skill set and what you should work on. On completion of the course, we provide you with a certification of completion which would take the stage on your resume during hiring. 

Now that you are aware of the many benefits of taking up Strengthscape’s instructional design online courses, get prepared! Understand the determination and dedication Strengthscape’s online class demands for a successful outcome. Create a time within your day when you would like to keep aside for your skill development. Talk to people, your seniors or look up job opportunities and the particulars of the skill set that the job demands and make a list out of it. Create milestones and goals for yourself and get going! If at times you feel the need for content expertise, a need to have a grip over ideas, skills and knowledge to create impactful learning content, then Strengthscape’s Instructional Designing Certification will help you to get empowered to do so.