My Instructional Design Keys for Success

In my opinion, the most important aspect of instructional design/technology is not one's credentials, creativity, or even technical ability. While each of these are crucial to the role, the most critical skill for success in this field is the ability to form positive relationships and collaborations with others. Professional relationships that are built upon dependability, trust, and honesty will naturally give way to a higher quality of work. Our best work resides directly in the middle of healthy collaboration and our own ID skills. Our creativity and technical ability begin to take flight alongside knowledge and feedback from others.

This field is so much more than sitting behind a computer all day.

It's trial and error. Seeing what works and what doesn't. Not being afraid to try out of the box approaches. And most importantly, learning from mistakes and honing your product without getting caught in a cycle of repetition.

It's knowing your learning audience. How do they learn? What is the overall technical proficiency of our audience? Could this information be presented in a different method?

It's channeling the voice of your SMEs. Subject matter experts are exactly that... experts! They not only know the material backwards and forwards, they also know techniques that can help new learners soak up the information or skills. Our job as instructional designers is acting as a pipeline connecting the flow of information between the two sources.

It's being a juggler. There is one constant in this field: multiple overlapping projects. The juggling act is taking time to ensure each one meets the highest standards while still meeting deadlines.

It's being consistent yet inventive. By using the ADDIE methodology and other proven techniques, we can consistently have a high level of quality with projects. However, as I listed earlier, we must always avoid the pitfall of the routine rut. Without new ideas, our work becomes stagnate and dull. Refining those new ideas with proven methodologies is such a crucial step in our instructional design work.