Top Instructional Design Tips

At a recent workshop I was asked to put together a post with some of my top instructional design tips. So here it is. Of course, over the past 8 years most of the posts are littered with various tips related to instructional design.

If there’s a single best tip it’s that the course content needs to be relevant to the learner’s needs. If not, why is the person taking the course?

Instructional Design Tips

Here’s a list of blog posts related to instructional design.

• E-Learning & Instructional Design 101. What do you really need to know to be a successful instructional designer?
• Instructional Design Basics for E-Learning Development. The start of a very good series on elearning 101.
• Instructional Techniques. Tell, show, do, practice, and review.
• What New Instructional Designers Should Know. An overview on the value of instructional design and how it impacts training.
• Instructional Design Challenges for Today’s Course Designer. With all of this new technology the role of the instructional designer has changed. Or has it?
• Do You Really Need An Instructional Design Degree? Our industry’s hot right now. If you can spell e-learning elearning eLearning then odds are you can get a job. But do you need an instructional design degree to get it?
• 3 Graphic Design Principles for Instructional Design Success. What role does graphic design play in instructional design?
• What Everybody Ought to Know About Instructional Design. What is the essence of instructional design?
• What We Can Learn About Instructional Design from Post-it™ Notes. What can we learn from the cheat sheets that people create to train themselves?

Instructional Design Tips from the Community

I’m a big advocate of the weekly elearning challenges because they offer a reason to step away from the daily grind of building the same types of courses and doing the same thing over again and again. We get to try out some new ideas, practice production techniques, show off our skills, and see how others approach the same challenge.

Here is a list of challenges that offer an extra bonus because they each share some tips and tricks that will help you build better courses.

• Instructional Design Tips That Really Pop. Motivation-style posters that share great instructional design tips.
• Instructional Design Learning Activities. This is a two-for: you get ideas for interactions and those interactions are all built around an instructional design concept.
• Instructional Design Quizzes. These quizzes demonstrate and test your instructional design acumen.
• 10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to Instructional Designers. Here is a list of common complaints and things instructional designers don’t like to hear.
• Using E-Learning Storyboards. Your peers share how they use storyboards to design their courses.
• E-Learning Audio and Recording Tips. Need to record your own audio narration? These tips will help.
• What’s In Your Course Design Toolkit? Course designers share the tools they use to produce their elearning courses. Links to lots of free tools.
• What Do E-Learning Designers Really Do? What do your friends think you do? What about your mother?

Do you have any instructional design tips to share?

Events

Free E-Learning Resources

Want to learn more? Check out these articles and free resources in the community.	Here’s a great job board for e-learning, instructional design, and training jobs	Participate in the weekly e-learning challenges to sharpen your skills
Get your free PowerPoint templates and free graphics & stock images.	Lots of cool e-learning examples to check out and find inspiration.	Getting Started? This e-learning 101 series and the free e-books will help.