You, I and all other professionals are impacted daily by a flood of information, right? It is difficult to absorb everything we see and know that it can be useful for our careers.
Well, when we talk about knowledge absorption in the corporate context, the instructional design, or instructional design, plays a fundamental role.
Today, good distance education practices in companies imply facilitating technologies. But not only that. The quality of the content offered completely influences the learning process.
It is precisely at this point that the importance of instructional designer: in adapting content focused on developing skills and competencies, through more agile, dynamic and interactive teaching paths.
In this article, you will discover everything about instructional design and why it is so relevant in the context of e-learning, combining information and communication technologies in favor of the objectives and evolution of companies' KPIs. Keep following!
What is instructional design and what is it for?
Instructional design is a methodology that solves learning deficiencies, focusing on the creation, implementation and analysis of content application. It can be useful in both face-to-face and online education, although professionals in the area have gained more strength in recent times in distance learning, due to corporate training and the need for organizations to create their own courses.
Instructional design is linked to pedagogical engineering. This means that it is intrinsic to the techniques, methods and resources applicable to teaching material, especially in a virtual environment, on the part of a student.
Those who work with the activity need to propose complete courses or knowledge pills with a wealth of resources, involving printed material, videos, LMS (Learning Management System) tools, tests, debate forums, among others.
By hiring a professional in this area, your company will be sure that all information relevant to the KPIs will be sent to the right destination, that is, your employees will have a full view of what is relevant to the goals.
Having an instructional designer reduces learning time. Consequently, the company saves time, energy and money, in addition to accelerating objectives with corporative education.
Below are some essential skills of this professional:
- fluid communication with everyone involved in educational projects, from the manager, through the instructor, to the student, at the end;
- constant updating of trends and technologies corporate training;
- combine vast knowledge, from theory to learning practice, to creativity, in order to offer courses that adapt to employees' objectives and gaps;
- know how to manage projects, as well as apply online assessment principles.
Fun fact: many say that the activity emerged during the Second World War, when the North American army needed to prepare millions of soldiers, nurses and officers in general, most on their first journey, for a winning performance.
The instructional design was created from this context, with psychologists recruited to develop quick and efficient training. Over time, the methodology began to be absorbed by large organizations in the United States, which became a reference in developing people.
The didactic creation process
In short, the instructional designer needs to be aware of the needs of the target audience, learning experiences, available resources and time for absorption and application of knowledge.
With this in mind, it needs to be present at three levels of project development.
In primary school, you will be in charge of building materials provided by content units, which involves creating storyboards and tying together tracks for different types of media.
In the intermediate stage, the instructional design professional will work on modeling courses and/or subjects relevant to the courses defined by the company's management.
Finally, in the more macro aspect, you will be responsible for defining the general guidelines of the projects, course methods and teaching systems of the institution.
Overall, your ability to act and promote a collaborative environment promotes different views on events, achievements and information that could go unnoticed in the context of corporate education.
Conclusion
You can see the importance of instructional design, right? Your role is to understand what works and what is not going so well in company training and act on these fronts for the natural evolution of training practices, whether online or in person or in a mixed environment.
With a competent professional, your courses can only evolve, as it is this peripheral view of the organization's gaps and objectives that will promote the creation of increasingly more adherent materials.
From managers to students, the instructional designer must have good ears and listen to all types of feedback, in order to direct the online courses (and the company's investments) and increase results in the short term.
