eLearning & Instructional Design for Beginners

Instructional design is a critical aspect of e-learning that helps create an engaging and effective learning experience for learners.

The field has seen a significant increase in demand, with job postings for instructional designers, learning designers, and instructional technologists on the rise.

Good instructional design is essential for learners to retain knowledge, achieve learning goals, and stay engaged throughout the learning process.

One of the most important considerations in instructional design is the user experience (UX) design, which directly impacts the learners' level of engagement.

A better UX design is crucial in e-learning as learners tend to lose focus if the course is not engaging. Thus, a good UX design is vital to creating an effective e-learning experience that helps learners retain knowledge and achieve learning goals.

When it comes to eLearning, instructional design is one of the most critical factors. Content would be nothing more than a bunch of words on a screen without instructional design.

In order to succeed in the field of eLearning, instructional designers are integral and essential to the process.

An effective training process involves identifying the learners and their needs, delivering effective and engaging training to meet their needs, and assisting them in the process.

There is a lot of importance to instructional design in eLearning, and in this episode, I will show you why it is one of the best fields to consider a career in.

Effective planning for your instructional design career and business is essential for continuous growth.

But simply setting goals for your plans isn't enough…

You must follow through with and achieve your goals, which is an entirely different challenge.

And that's usually where the problem lies.

To ensure you get where you want to go with your instructional design career and business, you need to have a solid process that ensures the goals you're setting are realistic and achievable.

If you set unrealistic goals without a clear plan of action, you're pretty much guaranteed to fail.

And if this sounds familiar to you, don't worry because I've got you covered!

In this episode, I'll share with you a practical goal-setting method I've used to grow my instructional design career and business.

"90-day planning is much more manageable because your plan will have to be more realistic about what you can actually accomplish in a 90-day period."

"The process of achieving your goals is a journey, so before you start plotting your stops along the way, you should know your starting point."

"Ensuring your goals are 'SMART' makes it easier for you to foresee how close or far away you are from achieving them."
 

I really appreciate you listening to me and supporting the podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

I would also be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show on Apple Podcasts. They're extremely helpful in reaching my audience, and I read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts to make sure that you never miss an episode.

The number one reason instructional designers fail is that they go into it without changing their mindset first.

Removing the mental limitations that are holding you back from success will help you to overcome all sorts of challenges in your career instructional design business.

In this week's podcast episode, learn eight tips for adopting a success-driven mindset that will inspire and prompt you to start seeing many more opportunities come your way.

"How you perceive and interpret events and process information, your emotions, and the toxic people you bring into your life are all factors that influence your success."

"Presenting yourself as an employee looking for work makes you feel the need to approach every business or company as an opportunity that you should be grateful for instead of looking at it as a way of finding mutually beneficial gains from the relationship."

Software Toolkit for Instructional Designers (https://www.eteachonline.com/toolkit)

eLearning & Instructional Design for Beginners Community & Academy (https://www.eteachonline.com/join)

Instructional Designers Mastermind FB Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/eteachonline)

eLearning & Instructional Design for Beginners Mastermind LinkedIn Group (https://www.linkedin.com/company/idforbeginners/)

I really appreciate you listening to me and supporting the podcast.

If you enjoyed today's show, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

I would also be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show on Apple Podcasts.

They're extremely helpful in reaching my audience, and I read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts to make sure that you never miss an episode.

Whether you're an instructional designer or have any type of eLearning design small business, a great website is essential for your company’s success. 

If you are looking to build a new website or make your current site more effective, in today's episode, you'll learn 10 key steps to getting started and helping your instructional design business website compete effectively in the online marketplace.

"Building an instructional design website that stands out amongst your competitors can be a trickier and lengthier process than many think."

"If you instantly communicate your main products or services in your navigation bar, what you do will be apparent at a glance, so potential clients know they’re in the right place."

"The key to attracting high-paying clients is to remember that their needs come first, and your website must provide a solution to all their needs."

Important Links and Mentions:

I really appreciate you listening to me and supporting the podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

I would also be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show on Apple Podcasts. They're extremely helpful in reaching my audience, and I read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts to make sure that you never miss an episode.

One of the perks of being an instructional designer is that the work can transcend across all industries, creating a plethora of opportunities available for instructional designers to succeed.

While at the same time, this renders a wide array of important skill sets.When choosing to become a profitable instructional designer, there are a few skills that every person should know. 

In this podcast episode, you'll learn about seven essential skills you'll need to have if you want to become a profitable and effective instructional designer.

"A good instructional designer should be able to stand in front of or preempt questions and apprehensions from learners based on predicted reactions."

"Educating your client and sticking to the facts shows that you can proactively communicate timelines and costs and avoid scope creep."

I really appreciate you listening to me and supporting the podcast. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

I would also be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show on Apple Podcasts. They're extremely helpful in reaching my audience, and I read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts to make sure that you never miss an episode.

Do you want to learn how to use visual elements to create polished, professional learning materials?

Visual design expert, Connie Malamed, shares the answer to that question in this educational episode. She is not just an expert in visual design, she’s also a consultant, author, and speaker in the fields of online learning and visual communication.

Connie is the author of Visual Design Solutions and Visual Language for Designers. She also publishes The eLearning Coach website and podcast. She was honored with the Guild Master award in 2018 for contributions to the learning technologies industry. 

Creating an instructional designer portfolio and figuring out what components should be included is one of the biggest problems I faced when I started instructional design. And it's also one of the biggest problems I see many other new and aspiring instructional designers face.

In this week's podcast episode, you'll learn why transitioning from teacher to instructional designer is a great fit for teachers, and a list of 12 transferrable skills they commonly possess.

Essential Learning Points:

Numerous real-life experiences and instructional design skills are hardwired into a teacher’s brain from the time they start their teaching programs

In general, teachers are more likely to get creative with their ideas, incorporate problem-solving and real-life scenarios, and generally bring more variety to the standard knowledge check

Key Quotes:

"Teachers understand Instructional Design. They may not be familiar with instructional design or instructional design language, but they will quickly discover they have been using it all along."

"Instructional designers are CONSTANTLY learning. Teachers are lifelong learners, so they're usually up for this sort of challenge."

Important Links and Mentions:

Thank You For Listening

I really appreciate you listening to me and supporting the podcast.

If you enjoyed today's show, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

I would also be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show on Apple Podcasts.

They're extremely helpful in reaching my audience, and I read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts to make sure that you never miss an episode.

Want to know the most important things you should consider when beginning a career in instructional design?

Dr. Ray Pastore, a professor at an instructional design & technology program, shares the answer to that question in this informative episode. He's not just an expert in instructional design, he's also an active YouTuber with over 3.2 million views, recently published his first book, and has 28 peer-reviewed journal publications.

With a background in management consulting, game design, game-based learning, and instructional design he has worked on projects for fortune 100 companies, the military, as well as a myriad of schools and universities.

Dr. Ray now teaches new and aspiring instructional designers all the skills and knowledge he's learned along his way to success in the multi-faceted field of instructional design and online learning.

In this episode, we hear about Dr. Ray's inspiring instructional design journey - the highs, lows, and everything in between.