5 Questions your Instructional Designer Should Be Asking
Great instructional designers open doors to world-class learning by asking the right questions early on.
It’s no secret that I’m a massive fan of Agile workflows when it comes to learning design and development. The process is made so much smoother because we ask the right questions up front before we design a single storyboard or wire-frame.
Your instructional designer is the conduit between your expertise and your learners. Their role is to translate your ideas into an experience that communicates your objectives clearly and engages minds.
The list below is by no means exhaustive, but it’s the minimum that an instructional designer should ask at the start of any new project.
Who are your learners?
Too many great project miss the mark because nobody bothered to check who the audience was first.
Granted, training is often intended for the entire organisation. But, organisations are made up of a diverse range of demographics, roles, and sometimes cultures.
Spend the time defining your learner groups so that you can do a quick gap analysis to determine who needs to know what. This helps you tailor your content according to different audience types, and usually leads to much punchier and concise training.
Why do they need this training?
This should be the first question you’re asked at the start of any project. If you can’t answer it, chances are your learners won’t be able to either. Learners love relevance. If they don’t feel like training is relevant to their role or level of experience, they’ll disregard it almost immediately.
I can highly recommend Simon Sinek’s technique of Starting with Why to get to the core of your message if you’re stuck.
How are they going to access the training?
A lot of our clients at Croomo have operations and sites all over Australia, and sometimes even globally. One of the biggest challenges we face is creating engaging learning content that can be accessed through a variety of web browsers, devices, and connection speeds.
We sometimes find that eLearning is actually not even appropriate for a specific audience because they are physically too remote for online learning. That’s when we design a toolbox talk, a face-to-face session, or even include pamphlets in their work packs to make sure everyone gets access to training.
What do they already know?
If this isn’t your first instructional design rodeo, you’ll probably have encountered the expertise reversal effect before. Essentially, as learners gain experience in a particular area they tend to struggle with training that’s too formally structured. In fact, they can sometimes regress in areas they’ve previously mastered.
Don’t fall into the trap of one-size-fits all learning! That’s why it’s so important to define your learner groups early on. Creating a module with multiple pathways for different roles or experience levels has never been easier. Not making allowance for your different learner groups is simply lazy instructional design.
Can you describe your learning objectives in three sentences or less?
I call this the ‘elevator pitch’ approach to learning. In my world, if an SME can’t articulate their learning objectives (sometimes with a bit of coaching) in three sentences or less, they’re not quite ready to engage with an instructional designer.
Work with your instructional designer to define concise and actively-worded learning objectives. Start small; it’s easier to add more content later on than to reconcile an entire course if you need to delete extraneous content.
Our Know.How model is a great way to refine your learning objectives clearly.
Your relationship with your instructional designer needs to be based on open communication. Make sure they’re asking the right questions so that you can translate your vision into really memorable learning.
