Whether it is your first time creating learning content or not, your organization may need help with instructional design. This is an important—and sometimes overlooked—piece of the support pie. Seek an online learning technology provider that offers instructional design consulting services to help with your project from start-to-finish.
Instructional Design Services Help You Launch Faster
Choosing a learning technology provider that offers instructional design services or consulting can help your organization launch faster. Here’s how:
- Technology knowledge: When you invest in a new online learning technology, it will take some time to get your team ramped up. An instructional designer can help your course designers understand your technology’s built-in course creation tools, content creation tools, and different content types. Then, they can advise your organization on what learning content best suits different content types.
- Curriculum design: If your organization is new to learning content creation, you might need some curriculum design help. Source instructional designers to help craft your online learning curriculum from course introductions to lessons, and then assessments in between.
- Understanding adults learners: Expert instructional designers understand the mindset of adult learners and what adults need a course or overall curriculum. One Thought Industries client working with the instructional design support team said, “Our instructional designer gave us a reality check. Our vision was for our training program to be very rigorous because of the value of certification we were providing, but adult learners need frequent breaks to satisfy low attention spans.”
- Listen, then react: Deciding how learning content should be presented to learners is tricky, and your organization’s knowledge experts might not be the best people to determine this. Instructional design consultants are great at listening to what your organization is trying to teach, then reacting from a “new learner” perspective to suggest how the content should be presented to learners. “Working with seasoned curriculum designers from outside our company during our development and execution phases added tremendous value. The Thought Industries team provided fresh perspective and insight along the way. Their guidance was important in helping us create the best possible outcome,” explained the director of programs and curriculum at a leadership development company based in Pennsylvania.
The same Thought Industries’ client suggests that, “Any organization that relies on one person’s or department’s thought leadership or content would benefit greatly from an instructional design consultancy.” They add, “There is risk in too much of an organization’s content and program delivery relying on one key employee or central team. We were able to essentially replicate a key thought leader’s training program using the many interactive elements of the platform – videos, audios, short stories, interactive graphics, workbooks, discussion boards, PDF handouts, and more, all in one course.”
