Technology Skills for Instructional Designers
June 4, 2007This is part 4 in a series about how to become an instructional designer. Links to the rest of the series can be found at the end of this post.
If you’re hoping to move from a career in teaching or training (or something else) to instructional design, chances are you need to learn some of the common technology. Most of the instructional design jobs are at least partially, if not completely, for online education. Fortunately, a number of the programs allow free trials.
The list of technology skills below was originally something I put together for a teacher who is considering moving into instructional design in a few years. She specifically wanted some ideas to work on during her summers off to improve her skills. You don’t have to have skills in all these areas, of course, but hopefully this will help identify possible areas of improvement.
- Basic html knowledge is generally expected; you can use the free tutorials at W3 Schools to get started.
- Captivate is a great program, especially for software application training (which is about half of all the e-learning out there).
- Lectora is used in some situations and would provide experience with that kind of course development software.
- Experience with any Learning Management System such as Blackboard (not free) or Moodle (free) is helpful, although not required. You really can learn this on the job.
- For my current job, I use Dreamweaver and Photoshop almost every day, but those are expensive and not easy to learn quickly. If you’re hoping to move into instructional design, you’ll probably need to be familiar with them eventually. It isn’t where I would recommend starting unless you already have the access or experience.
- Many jobs require Flash programming, which I don’t personally have but know I’ll have to learn in the next year or two. Jobs which include Flash programming also tend to pay better.
- I’ve seen growing interest in Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, etc., so any experience in these areas is helpful.
- Games and simulations are also popular, so those are other areas to explore.
- Some experience with audio and video editing could be beneficial as well.
Note: The above list assumes that you are already familiar with Microsoft Office programs, including PowerPoint. If not, start with that training. Instructional design for face-to-face learning often means developing PowerPoint presentations and Word handouts.
If you see something I have left out in this list, please add a comment to let me know!
More than any specific set of applications, though, is the desire and motivation to learn new technology, especially to learn it independently. A lot of my technology skills have been gained since I started in the field, and I continue to learn on my own. I see that as a great benefit of working in instructional design. If you hate learning new technology or really struggle to learn it on your own, instructional design may not be a career that really makes you happy. Later in this series I’ll talk more about figuring out if instructional design is a good career choice or not.
Other Posts in this Series
- What Does an Instructional Designer Do?
- Getting Into Instructional Design
- Instructional Design Skills
- Technology Skills (current post)
- Professional Organizations and Career Options
- Is instructional design the right career?
Update: this post sparked some discussion, plus I had some more thoughts after writing the above list. Check out my two related posts about technology skills below:
Update 2: Read all my posts about Instructional Design Careers here.
Technorati Tags: instructionaldesign, e-learning, technology, tools, LMS, captivate, lectora, moodle, html
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Let’s not forget that many of us instructional designers don’t have any technical skills whatsoever — nor do we need them! I’ve got no HTML skills, can’t use Dreamweaver, don’t do Flash, can hardly crop an image in Photoshop. Nevertheless, I’ve been an instructional designer for years. That stuff I leave to the programmers and graphic designers. It’s important to speak the language, but I don’t know the tools.
That said, I’ve been on job interviews/seen plenty of job postings where the hope is that the instructional designer also has the technical skills to build the program.
My current employer said they interviewed plenty of people for my job who claimed they had both the instructional design skills and the technical piece. But when viewing these individuals’ work samples, it didn’t seem like they could did either well.
I’m sure there are plenty of great instructional designers who also have great technical skills. But some of us do better just doing the one side of the coin.
So — for those of you looking into the field of instructional design and e-Learning — don’t think that you have to use all the hard core tools. I get by with PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Snagit (or other screen capture tools), and Visio.
I just had a related debate with my sister today. I have several classes in grad school that require us to use Dreamweaver to create static web pages. At first blush, I thought “Why do I need this?” a: it creates output that is so web1.0 (give me a blog, a wiki or a Drupal install any day of the week) and b: this limited exposure to the design software (Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks) is not sufficient to ever be able to do web design for a living. However, my sister noted that speaking the language and gaining an appreciation for what is possible and feasible makes it worthwhile. Time will tell …
[...] June 5th, 2007 Cammy Bean wrote an interesting comment on my earlier post, Technology Skills for Instructional Designers. She said: Let’s not forget that many of us instructional designers don’t have any technical [...]
Hi Cammy,
I appreciate your comments and hearing a different perspective. I’ve written a fairly lengthy response to you as a full post; it was a little long for just a comment. Do Instructional Designers Really Need Technology Skills?
Jennifer,
How many jobs will you be able to find as an instructional designer where the only technology you need is web 2.0 technology like Drupal? Down the road, maybe you will. But right now? Find me one listed on Monster or Careerbuilder and I’ll be shocked. Even companies and schools who are using web 2.0 tools aren’t using them exclusively. I think those courses will give you other options for jobs. I also agree with your sister that even this minimal exposure will help you see what is possible and help you speak intelligently with people who know the software better than you ever will.
You’re right that you’ll never be able to do web design for a living. But you couldn’t work with my team without that Dreamweaver experience because everything we do is built on web pages and plugged into Blackboard.
I’m curious, especially since I’ve looked at Indiana’s IST program and seriously considered enrolling. What tools do they use for teaching? I know you keep a journal on your Drupal site. Are they using primarily web 2.0 tools rather than Blackboard or more static content? Is that why your expectations are for fully dynamic web 2.0 courses?
[...] Two Big Technology Skills June 10th, 2007 My previous post about Technology Skills for Instructional Designers has prompted some good discussion. Check out Do Instructional Designers Really Need Technology [...]
[...] fourth part of Christy Tucker’s series about becoming an instructional designer is up. There’s some [...]
[...] What skills are needed? As far as my research is showing, this seems to be changing as the web changes. One should have a very solid grasp of all things Microsoft office, particularly Word and PowerPoint. Job postings seem to be looking for individuals with Captivate knowledge (which proves troublesome, as it is not made for the Mac… we use Snaps Pro or the like). A beginning knowledge of html, learning management systems as well as Photoshop and Illustrator are very important as well. [...]
hi i would like to ask u
really i would like to work as an instructional design and i have to send my own papers for many companies but can u help me to write these skills ?
Hi Suha,
I’m not quite sure I understand your question. Writing skills are definitely a requirement for instructional designers. Much of what I do is editing content from SMEs rather than writing original work myself. However, I’d never be able to do my job without a solid background in writing.
If you’re hoping to do instructional design work for US or UK companies, perhaps you can find some courses where you can improve your writing skills in English. That would be a good foundation to start with.
thanx for the info!!!! really good
Dear Christy,
Thanks a lot for all the sincere work you have put into writing these greatly informative posts. They have helped me realize, a career in ID is just the kind of thing I guess I have been looking for all this time. I have a few questions, and I hope that you will be able to help me out. I have an M.A in English language and literature from Chittagong University, Bangladesh. I have taken the GRE and scored 580 in English, if that’s useful. Could you tell me whether I can directly enroll in masters in Instructional Design, or do I need to complete some other prerequisite course?
Also I would like to know how long it would take to complete it and which schools are the best for ID.
Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Faiza.
Hi Faiza,
Welcome to my blog, and thank you for commenting!
Whether or not you can enroll directly in the masters programs really depends on the individual university. As for schools, I’ve heard good reviews of Indiana University in Bloomington, San Diego State University, and Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. There’s a good post on Tony Karrer’s blog with a number of suggestions for online programs in the comments. I’m more familiar with the US programs, but several of the replies to Tony were for schools in the UK or Canada that might work for you.
Most masters programs in the US are probably 2-3 years, although you might find some more accelerated programs as well. AIU’s program is only 10 months, but although I helped write the curriculum, I don’t feel comfortable recommending their program.
I hope this helps.
Christy
Hey its a very informative piece of work, I am very impressed with your blog. You have covered all the points very well. Waiting for your next post to come.
Mark
There is just one more software I think you should add in the list is usage of Adobe
@Prabha, I do have Adobe Captivate, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash listed. Which Adobe software do you mean–Acrobat, perhaps? I do use Acrobat Pro to create forms and online “worksheets” for courses. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any job listings that required Acrobat though. Besides, most people can learn how to create PDFs on the job.
Or did you mean a different Adobe program?
Hi
Do you know of a nice book to read about Instructional design theories and practices. Are there any good books on Instructional Designing that you would recommend?
David Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction isn’t a bad place to start, and it’s available for free online.
John Curry did two posts on reading lists for instructional designers a while back. The first list is more comprehensive; the second list is what he considers essential reading.
How to get an Instructional Design education without paying tuition
An immediately accessible instructional design education
I admit, I’m not a big fan of Gagne, but many people do find his work helpful.
Cammy Bean’s Essential Reading for Instructional Designers is a good list too. It’s more focused on e-learning than just instructional design, so it depends what you’re looking for.