What is the role of an instructional designer when developing an online course?
1. Reviewing the client's content
When kicking off a learning solution project, we receive the original content from our clients.
This content is usually written by one or more subject matter experts (SMEs). These are the employees who know specific products or processes.
The content can provided to us in the form of Word documents, presentation files, PDF files, videos or any other type of content they have been using for training purposes.
2. Developing a high-level outline (design document)
When you start writing an essay or a book, you would probably start with jotting down some ideas and topics to discuss, then you would develop those into chapter headings, sub-headings and eventually the body.
Creating a high-level outline is of the course content is the foundation.
While reviewing the original content, we create a document that includes a few sections:
Main goal of the course and the learning objectives
Estimated duration of the course and reference the original documents that are used
High-level content: section headings, main topics and sub-topics to be taught
Gaps in content - if something is missing or needs clarification
Rough treatment - what type of slides/interactions/quiz are we planning on using for each topic
We often change the original order of the content, to have topics relate better to one another. This is the art of making sense! If it doesn't make sense to us, how can it make sense to other people who are new to the topic?
This document is the blueprint of the course and once the client approves, we head on to the next phase.
3. Developing a storyboard
A storyboard, in some industries, is a way of planning visuals and angles for each frame.
When developing an online course, our storyboard is a document for planning every screen (slide). This is where we dive in and write everything:
Section title
Screen title
On-screen text - which text should appear and read on the screen
Narration text - which text should narrated
Developer notes - order of appearance, animation, interactions, imagery and more
If there are still gaps in content or questions raised, this is our place to flag them, and the client to fill in the gaps.
Once the stakeholders approve the content, it's time to build the eLearning module. Sometimes, the role of the eLearning developer is separate from that of the instructional designer.
4. Reviewing and refining the beta course
After the module or course has been built, the instructional designer reviews and refines the outcome. It's our role to ensure that the content flows naturally and seamlessly.
There are normally a few review steps and then - launch time!