What is Instructional Design and Why is it Important?

Instructional design combines education, behavioral psychology, and communication strategies to create the most effective training designs for specific groups of learners. This focus is important because it means that that learners receive instruction in a form that’s most impactful and meaningful to them specifically, allowing them to better understand the topics and concepts being taught.

While instructional design is the foundation for creating training materials, it’s about more than just writing curriculum. Good instructional design considers how students learn and what materials, methods, and technologies will most effectively change behavior. It considers how learning tools should be designed, developed, and delivered to learners, and is effective in crafting learning experiences.

The Benefits of Instructional Design

When developing learning programs, Instructional Designers work to methodically collect, process, and analyze data about employee learning goals, organizational objectives, and previous training initiatives with the goal of ensuring that organizations are training efficiently and generating an impact.

Working with an Instructional Designer drives positive outcomes for organizations by being:

• Cost-Effective: Instructional Designers take a very methodical approach to defining the curriculum plan, taking the time to hone in on the training needs that will create the greatest ROI. This means organizations avoid spending money on training that won’t generate behavior change. The investment in creating these custom solutions built from the ground up with instructional design principles is returned through efficient learning that quickly translates to results.
• Results-Driven: Instructional Designers gather information on business objectives and ensure alignment between learning objectives and those organizational business objectives. It’s a cascade that begins with organizational objectives at the top. Since these designer-built, research-backed solutions are created to engage learners more effectively, these solutions often lead to the best results.

The principles of instructional design are what make custom learning possible. At Ardent, all learning assets are architected with the learner and the business goals in mind. After organizational needs are assessed, an instructional designer works to identify the gap between desired and current performance, and then determines the best blend of course content and activities for the learner.

Instructional design isn’t a “nice to have” when it comes to effective learning solutions – it’s the foundation of learning success. If you’re interested in custom learning solutions for your team, get in touch with us today for a complimentary consultation.