What is Instructional Designing all about?

Instructional Design

[avanchar]

Hi all,

Can u throw some light on what is instructional design all about. How to design courses for soft skills?

[rogerd]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, avanchar. I'm not familiar with instructional design, but here are some definitions [umich.edu].

I checked a major bookseller, and found a potload of titles about instructional design. You might try Google et al to located some web-based resources, perhaps qualifying the term "instructional design" with another word, like "methods", "techniques", "resources", etc. Good luck!

[JayCee]

You might want to also include searches on:
"WBT" (Web-Based Training)
"Learning Theory"

[suzstephens]

Ten or fifteen years ago, I used to do some graphic design work for an instructional development firm, Handshaw & Assoc. in Charlotte, NC and Handshaw was also a personal friend. So I got a pretty good sense of what the business is about. Handshaw had worked in training and development at First Union National Bank before leaving to start his own firm. At the time, I believe most of the people who worked for him had undergraduate degrees in instructional development and some graduate degrees as well.

Before leaving First Union, Handshaw did some interactive video training programs. From where we stand now, they wouldn't look like much. But back then (mid-80s), the interactivity he designed was absolutely mind-blowing. He had created a program on videotape that bank tellers could use on a freestanding personal computer to learn to use the bank's mainframe system without risk to the big system. The teller would watch the program on the TV monitor, then answer questions or do steps on the PC. If she or he got the answer wrong, the video would advance to a clip of the announcer telling him he got it wrong, then explaining further. If he answered right, then the video would proceed to the next step. Sounds simple, right? Well, keep in mind that in the mid-80s, few people even had personal computers, Director and Authorware didn't exist, nor did CDroms.

Ironically, Handshaw's web site would probably leave you clueless, but here's a link to an article that talks about one of Handshaw's projects and about the profession in general:

[n-email.net...]

Hope that helps. Suz