Becoming an Instructional Designer in 2024: Everything You Need to Know

Overview

In this guide, we unpack the world of content strategy, and what the role of a content strategist entails. We’ll look at:

1. The complexities of instructional design
2. Instructional designer responsibilities
3. Salary and career progression
4. Challenges
5. Key skills

Instructional design in action

6. Analyzing job descriptions
7. Breaking into instructional design: advice from professionals
8. A day in the life of instructional designer

Resources

9. Courses educational programs
10. Instructional designer’s toolkit

faculty / staff SME

resenting a compelling business case to stakeholders

educate internal stakeholders on LXD processes and best practices to strengthen a learning discipline across the organization

Program management

national trends of the use of instructional technologies.

– Informs faculty and students about the national trends of the use of technology for learning.

Make sure the content and the expertise go hand in hand

Well, in some workplaces, the ID just focuses on ensuring the flow of the learning content and the development of the storyboard; while in other workplaces, the ID has to be involved in the media and graphic designing tasks. Despite these tasks, the ID is considered as the soul of creating effective learning materials.

ID Skillsets

Key Responsibilities

– Work under tight deadlines with minimal supervision in a fast-paced, dynamic environment

– Apply learning design and produce solutions to problematic issues using insights from the Quality Team, Policy Team, Subject-Matter-Experts, and Operations Leadership

– Work with key stakeholders to design and develop instructional content

– Design courses and adapt the content to address the identified training needs and align with the desired performance outcome

– Develop knowledge reinforcing learning concepts, through audio, video and simulations

– Create quizzes and skills assessments to measure the learning outcomes

– Work with the trainers to develop the train-the-trainer strategy and training delivery plans

– Ensure training programs are aligned with the goals and objectives of the business

– Regularly update the training materials to ensure that the content is consistent and up-to-date 

Qualifications

Job Requirements:

– Bachelor’s degree in Instructional Design, Education or a related field

– 5+ years of experience in curriculum design, instructional design and training development

– Understanding the ADDIE model, familiarity with SCORM, proven skills of online learning, learning technology, instructional and graphic design

– Proficiency in MS PowerPoint required, experience with Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate preferred

– Experience with Learning Management Systems (LMS)

– Excellent planning and organization skills, ability to independently manage multiple small to medium scale projects from initiation through delivery

– Project and program management experience is preferred

– Ability to adapt to business needs and work in a fast-paced environment

– Experience working with international partners across different time zones and cultures

– Ability to travel (10%) between our Mountain View and Los Angeles offices, while also visiting our global vendor partners occasionally

Variations in job titles

Ultimately, instructional design will depend a lot on what you’re trying to accomplish in an organization. And what comes with this is a variation in job titles. As if life wasn’t complicated enough!

Because the role of the instructional designer is a high-level job, it often includes parts of other roles, or can be a mix of a few. Or it might be focused on a specific area of instructional design.

Or sometimes, companies just like to name the role slightly differently. Here are a few job titles we’ve seen:

• Training specialist
• L&D specialist
• E-Learning designer / developer
• Learning technologist
• Instructional design consultant
• Instructional design specialist

1. Instructional designer responsibilities

Instructional design is something of an art and a science, and instructional designer responsibilities can vary between organizations. This is not difficult to understand as different organizations have  You could be the solo instructional designer in your company, or you might be part of an instructional design team.

But to start, here are some key tasks and responsibilities you would expect to take on if you are an instructional designer:

This is not an exhaustive list, but as you can see there is a lot to think about! Being an instructional designer can be an exciting and varied role.

1. Salary and career progression

Instructional designers are in high demand, and salaries can be impressive, with lots of room for career progression.

But a lot of this is dependent on the company, and the location (we also have articles by location for a more in-depth look at salaries in different cities and states).

As an overall average though, the starting salary for an instructional designer is around $. Higher ed institutions pay 25% – 60% less than corporate counterparts. One of the biggest advantages of working in higher ed is that you could take courses tuition-free. in the US. And, with big companies like:

•       Facebook paying an experienced instructional designer $149,761（2022）
•       Google paying up to $169,000 for a Senior Instructional designer （2022);
•       Twitter paying up to $173,000

…it’s definitely a lucrative career path!

Here’s a breakdown of some general salary information based on experience in the US and the UK:

Instructional designer salary (US)

CLO

Change management

Coach

Learning Design Manager

1. Challenges

Becoming a instructional designer is a great career path, but not always an easy one. Instructional designers face challenges on a daily basis, such as:

•       Getting buy-in for content. 
•       Getting a team together. 
•       Being involved early in projects. 
•       Wrangling stakeholders. The instructional designer is in the unique position of making sure everyone in the organisation working on content is also working towards common goals. It can be hard to get everyone on the same page, particularly if your organisation isn’t using the best tools and software for collaboration.
•       Change management. There will be plenty of time where you’ll need to challenge the status quo and manage change, for things like new processes and technology. As Hilary Marsh says in her article:“Change management is often a significant effort, and takes lots of time and patience. People at different levels inside the organization need communications, mentorship, training, and reinforcement.”
— Hilary Marsh


1. Instructional design in action

In this section we’ll look at instructional design in action. We also interviewed experts for their advice on breaking into the field and overcoming challenges, and pulled together insights into the daily life of a instructional designer.

Analyzing job descriptions