Instructional Design Resources
What is an instructional designer and what skills are required to enter the profession?
An instructional designer designs and develops learning materials using instructional theories, strategies, resources and technologies to expedite the learning process.
The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (ibstpi®) has provided the following list of competencies, categorized as essential, advanced and managerial.
An instructional designer, per ibstpi, should be able to:
- Design and develop instructional interventions and materials (essential)
- Identify and describe the target population (essential)
- Effectively communicate their thoughts (essential)
- Provide data driven solutions (advanced)
Access the complete list of instructional designer competencies.
Learning and Instructional Theories
- Educational Learning Theories (Well-written book on learning theories; PDF provided by the University of Georgia System)
- Learning Theories (Good collection of adult learning theories)
- Overview of Learning Theories (UC Berkeley)
- Adult Learning Theories (Association of Talent Development)
- Adult learning theories and principles (Western Governors University)
- Instructional Design Models and Theories (20 minute video from Arizona State University)
Project Management Resources for Instructional Designers
- Project Management for Instructional Designers (Free e-book under Creative Commons)
- Instructional Designer as Project Manager (Online Learning Consortium)
- Addressing the Gap Between Instructional Design And Project Management (E-learning Industry)
- Instructional Designer as Project Manager (Quality Matters)
Instructional resources
- Open Educational Resources
- Open-Up Resources
- Big List of Open Educational Resources (University of Pittsburgh)
- Universal Design for Learning (What is UDL?)
- UDL Guidelines (CAST)
Best Practices
- Instructional Design Best Practices (E-learning Industry)
- Effective Teaching Online (Inside Higher Ed)
- Best Practices: Online Pedagogy (Harvard University)
- 12 Best Practices in Online Teaching and Learning (Psychology Today)
Emerging Topics
- The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Learning
- Influence of Artificial Intelligence On eLearning
- The Future of Instructional Design: Experience Design
Professional Development Opportunities
- AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology)
- ATD (Association for Talent Development)
- ISPI (International Society for Performance Improvement)
- IEEE LTTF (IEEE Computer Society Learning Technology Task Force)
- ISTE (The International Society for Technology in Education)
- The eLearning Guild
- Online Learning Consortium
- Training Magazine
Books on Instructional Design
- Ten Steps to Complex Learning: A Systematic Approach to Four-Component Instructional Design (3rd Edition) by Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer, Paul A. Kirschner
- Principles of Instructional Design (5th Edition) by Robert M. Gagne, Walter W. Wager, Katharine Golas, John M. Keller
- Instructional Design (3rd Edition) by Patricia L. Smith, Tillman J. Ragan
- Designing Effective Instruction (7th Edition) by Gary R. Morrison, Steven M. Ross, Howard K. Kalman, Jerrold E. Kemp
- Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (4th Edition) by Robert A. Reiser, John V. Dempsey
- Learning to Solve Problems: An Instructional Design Guide by David H. Jonassen
- Web-Based Learning: Design, Implementation and Evaluation 2nd Edition by Gayle V. Davidson-Shivers, Karen L. Rasmussen, Patrick R. Lowenthal
