Instructional Designer!!¿¿??­

"An instructional designer.”
“A what?”

That’s what I get from 99 out of 100 people when I tell them what I do. I have to react quickly (not anymore actually, because I am now expecting that reaction) and say something funny like, “That’s just a glorified term for a corporate trainer.” My relief in conquering the awkward moment is often short-lived for I then hear, “I see. So what do you train on?”

That might seem an innocuous, and even legitimate, question for all those non-instructional designers reading this. But, if you are an instructional designer, you will know there’s no easy way to get out of that. So let me take this opportunity to explain what the hell an instructional designer does, so the next time an ignoramus mistakes me for an industrial designer, I will direct him to this blog.

Who is an instructional designer?
Put simply, an instructional designer creates effective trainings. By effective, I simply mean the training will achieve its goal. For example, if you want to train your employees on a quality process, the instructional designer’s job is to create an effective training program so your employees don’t walk out of the training looking dazed and drugged, but are actually ready to use the process.

What does an instructional designer train on?
Anything. Yes, the content, or “subject matter” as we call it, doesn’t matter. Instructional designers can be, and usually are, completely unfamiliar with the subject matter, but still create effective trainings. Of course, knowledge of the subject matter helps, but it is not a requirement to be a good instructional designer. How do we do it? Read on…

How can instructional designers create effective trainings without knowing anything about the subject matter?
Instructional designers collaborate with subject matter experts, or SMEs, to understand of the content. SMEs are content gurus. They know the content inside out; they eat, breathe and live it. They have seen everything there is to that content.

Why can’t the SMEs create the training themselves?
Sure they can. However, to develop effective training, you need to answer these questions: Why do you need this training? What are you training on? Who are you training? How are you training? How much should you train? Will the audience learn? Will the audience use what they learned back on the job? And so on. If you entrust the entire training responsibility to an SME, the only question that is usually answered is the “what” because that’s the SME’s forte. And content gurus that they are, SMEs often mistake content scope for effectiveness. That is to say, they succumb to the notion of “the more content we teach, the more effective the training”, which is not only untrue but also harmful.

In addition, there are other factors to consider. For example, the audience. If you a creating a training class on software programming, you need to understand how much your audience knows when they walk into the class. Similarly, the audience should know right at the beginning what they will learn in the class. This helps set their expectations and focus their thoughts. Considerations such as these and others are usually overlooked with the unfortunate result training branded as “ineffective”.

So, do instructional designers learn the content and then create the training?
No, instructional designers are primarily engaged in figuring out answers to the questions I listed above. They then rely on the SMEs to provide all the content. However, another important responsibility of an instructional designer is to review the content to make sure it is at a level that can be understood by the audience. A common trait of SMEs is to use jargons and acronyms, which may be every day terms for an expert but totally unfamiliar to the novice. And being an “outsider” to the content, a designer is ideally suited for this purpose. Then, there are learning strategies to consider such as: Should we include demonstrations? Should there be interactive exercises? And so on.

Why cannot the SME play be the instructional designer?
They most certainly can. In fact, many SMEs unknowingly address the questions I raised above, and often create trainings that are not only liked and appreciated by the training audience, but also prove effective from a performance and business standpoint. But remember, SMEs are content experts, and their interest lies in mastering the content area and exploring new aspects of it. Consequently, there is some resistance and reluctance when SMEs are asked to take up the training responsibility.

Should I hire an instructional designer every time I need to create training?
Not necessarily. On the contrary, for short trainings, it works best if the SME plays the role of the instructional designer. This expedites the training development, reduces development cost (because you only have one resource working), and eliminates any communication constraints. This approach is called rapid development where the SME uses off-the-shelf training development tools such as Adobe Captivate to quickly design a training program.