6 Tips to Improve Your Instructional Design Skills

Instructional design is an ever-evolving learning process; e-Learning developers are always discovering new techniques and strategies for creating extraordinary online training courses. And they’re always eager to share their knowledge and resources with other developers—you just need to know where to look.Today, we’ve made it easy for you to learn something new. Check out these 6 tips to improve your instructional design skills:

  1. Read e-Learning publicationsTake advantage of free e-Learning resources like online magazines and blogs. Many post daily knowledge with industry trends and e-Learning development tips and tricks. The Lectora e-Learning Blog, eLearning Industry, The eLearning Guild and eLearn Magazine are a few great online publications to start building your knowledge!
  2. Try storyboardingStoryboarding is a strategy that can save a lot of time and money later in the development stage. It’s a great way to organize your ideas visually, along with making sure your focus is clear and consistent. Storyboarding also allows you to map out your content with your team and get everyone involved in the process. Check out these two free storyboarding resources to get started.
  3. Get feedback from user testingFind out how you’re doing by asking people who will be using your course to be beta testers. This way, you’ll find out how easily your users are able to perform tasks in your course and if you need to tweak any functions or questions to improve their experience. User testing will also remind you to consider your audience while you’re developing the initial course. For more tips on user testing, check out our blog, Test and Review Course Content with Lectora e-Learning Software.
  4. Attend a conferenceConferences are your opportunity to join hundreds of other e-Learning professionals and industry experts. You can network and exchange ideas and advice with developers from all over the world! Plus, after attending all the how-to sessions and inspiring presentations, you’ll go home with plenty of new e-Learning knowledge to apply to your own courses. The 2014 Lectora User Conference will feature fantastic sessions on instructional design and other e-Learning topics.
  5. Take training classesLearn from the experts at Lectora Training Classes. The instructor will walk you through the steps for using different e-Learning tools, so you can learn the most efficient way to create incredible courses. You’ll also learn how to use all of Lectora’s authoring features to your advantage.
  6. Just keep practicing As you learn from all these sources, put that advice to use! Keep practicing these tips and techniques in the e-Learning courses you’re creating, and soon you’ll be the one sharing advice with others!

For more ways to improve your instructional design skills, check out our Recorded Webinars and subscribe to the Lectora e-Learning Blog!