r/instructionaldesign

I'm a faculty development coordinator at a regional university and we're in crisis mode. Our online course quality is all over the place - some professors are amazing, others are basically uploading PowerPoints and calling it "distance learning". Administration finally approved budget for instructional design consulting but I have no idea how to evaluate potential partners. We've never worked with external instructional design consulting before and I'm honestly overwhelmed by all the options out there. What should I be looking for in instructional design consulting firms? Red flags to avoid? We need someone who can work with faculty (some are... resistant to change) and help us create actual engaging online experiences. Any success stories with instructional design consulting in higher ed?

Hi all, I'm in what may or may not be a unique position with my job and was hoping to find some advice.

I am currently in an L&D role in manufacturing, largely focused on the "professional" (office) employees. My manager recently asked if I'd be interested in being added to succession planning for an ID role. I've expressed interest in strengthening my design skills in the past as creating training programs is part of this job.

My manager is confident that we can get a course/certification approved from a budget standpoint, but I'm in a little bit of an off situation with that.

I got into L&D by working up from entry-level picking at another company into their learning department. This was the experience that landed me the current position, however the job I interviewed for was far removed from what I actually do now. My highest level of formal education is a high school diploma and a few semesters here and there of trying to get a degree as an adult but not following through to the end. (Didn't really have a direction and was just doing it because my old job paid fully)

I've been trying to look into options to expand my capabilities so I might actually be considered seriously if/when this position opens, but everything I've found is graduate-level, other than an ATD course.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a course, or know if the ATD program is a good starting point? Hell, I'd even be fine hearing that a course isn't especially helpful so I can change my approach. This is all long-term, but I'd like to make the most of the opportunity.

Thanks!!

I worked with a non‑verbal pupil who used BSL to communicate. Over months his confidence grew, and eventually he spoke a few words. That moment made me rethink how important structured communication pathways are in learning design.

It encouraged me to create a full beginner BSL curriculum that organisations can adapt. Building it taught me a lot about sequencing, scaffolding and accessibility.

Curious how others here incorporate alternative communication or accessibility into their instructional design.

Building a course in Captivate 13, delivered through Docebo, with a bunch of embedded MP4s (1.5-5 min each, 1080p) plus quizzes and other interactivity in the same package. Not streaming through Vimeo or Wistia, actually embedded in the package itself.

From asking around, it sounds like it's not really about how many videos, it's about individual file size and total package size. Most people I talked to keep videos around 80-150MB each and the whole package well under Docebo's 1GB cap. But nobody I've found has actually tested this at real scale, like 30+ videos, across different connections and machines. Just one-off tests.

Has anyone actually built something like this and had it work consistently for a real, varied group of learners? Or had it fall apart even though it looked fine in your own testing? Trying to get past "it worked for me" and figure out what actually holds up once real people with real connections start using it.

We’re hiring for an internal role. Both of these candidates are SMEs and trainers, but neither have a background in instructional design. Spoiler alert - neither do I, but here we are.

We’ll need to teach both of them the science of effective learning as well as design basics.

I’m torn on which person would be a better fit. Candidate A has a creative eye and puts a lot of thought and effort into making training fun. But it was also a bit of style over substance and she’d need to learn how to make training effective, not just fun.

Candidate B is less creative and said that it would be a bit of a challenge, but she could learn. Her approach was a lot more basic and she basically copied an activity we’ve already done. But she said that she cares more about solving the training problem over the creative piece.

Who would you hire in this situation?

Looking for methods, frameworks, or resources for interpreting learner surveys, identifying themes, and reporting LMS results, and presenting findings and supporting solutions to stakeholders?

Hi! I’m new to Instructional Design. I was lucky enough to land an ID role just last month after transitioning from being a Corporate Trainer.

The company I’m with now relies heavily on AI specifically Claude. As a new ID, I want to build a strong foundation and not become too dependent on AI, especially when it comes to designing courses. Here, almost everything is created with the help of AI.
My concern is that if I rely on AI too much, I might struggle in the future if I move to another company that doesn’t use the same tools. I don’t want to always look for AI instead of knowing how to build a course from scratch.
How do you deal with this, fellow IDs?

Good morning! I work for a small family owned business that employs technicians for environmental testing and natural gas mitigation. They're pretty disorganized and I'd love to help them start to streamline some processes. They've definitely been flying on the premise of "we'll tackle it as it comes" and I can't function like that lol what's the best way to create a job manual? I'd prefer if it was free or low cost and something I can integrate a table of contents for as well. I'm familiar with Word, LibreOffice and Google Docs but wasn't sure if there was a better way to go about it before I got too far into it or any templates anyone suggests. This would be more for the office side than the technicians. I appreciate the help!

I’ve spent most of my career working in fast-paced environments.
I genuinely love them.

But… they’ve also been exhausting.

I’m neurodivergent, and over the years I’ve realized my brain simply isn’t wired the same way.

What I’ve struggled with most hasn’t been the work itself.

It’s been the systems around the work.

The documentation.
The training.

The constant assumption that everyone processes information the same way.

I often find myself thinking, “Things don’t have to be this hard.”

Sometimes, I simply feel like things aren’t… well… clear.

Am I alone in feeling that way?

If you’ve had a similar experience, I’d genuinely love to connect and exchange perspectives.

I have a feeling I’m not the only one navigating this, and I’m curious to hear what has actually helped, especially when organizations adapted the way they designed their operations, documentation, or training.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring the idea of building a short-form video library for audiences who are not comfortable with English. The content would be broken into small learning nuggets, and each video could be dubbed in a selected set of languages so viewers can choose the version that works best for them.

I’d love your thoughts on a few things:

- What is the best AI for this, paid versions are fine as well.

- What makes a multilingual video library easy to use?

- How should language selection be presented so it feels simple and intuitive?

- What are the best practices for dubbing short educational videos?

- Are there any formats, features, or user experience ideas that work especially well for non-English speaking audiences?

- What mistakes should I avoid when designing this kind of content?

Any practical suggestions, examples, or lessons from your own experience would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

I'm looking for a computer (laptop or desktop) that I can start teaching myself Activate with the free trial.

I do have a work Lenovo ThinkPad but I'm not allowed to download anything with admin permission

This laptop was used for gaming and was bought new 5 years ago. It can only be powered by plug.

Asking or is $400 Canadian.

System

About

Processor

Intel(R) Core(TM) 17-7700HQ CPU @

2.80GHz

2.81 GHz

DESKTOP-NN09075 OMEN by HP Laptop 15-ce0xx

Device info

Installed RAM

Graphics card

Storage

16.0 GB

4 GB

477 GB

Speed: 2400 MHz

Multiple GPUs installed

62 GB of 477 GB used

Device name

Processor

Installed RAM

Graphics card

Storage

Device ID

Product ID

System type

Pen and touch

DESKTOP-NN09075

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz (2.81 GHz

16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4 GB) Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (128 MB)

62 GB of 477 GB used

F0D06208-3D9F-4D24-85CF-81234D292FC3

00330-53851-71265-AAOEM

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

No pen or touch input is available for this display

Thanks in advance

Hiya! (I'm new here, so if this has been answered already, please point me in the right direction)

So, my company (as many others) loves Articulate Rise 360, but I (who actually use it) am not as happy

I have been trying to find arguments in favor of other tools like Easygenerator, Captivate, or any other, to propose them for our next learning design cycle

Do you have experience with these or other tools? What would you recommend or not recommend about them?

Hi everyone!

I'm currently completing my master's degree in Instructional Design and am looking for an experienced instructional designer who would be willing to review my graduate capstone project and provide constructive feedback.

My project focuses on cybersecurity awareness in higher education and includes an e-learning module designed using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and inclusive design principles. I'm looking for feedback on areas such as:

• Instructional design and learning experience
• Organization and flow
• Visual design and usability
• Accessibility and inclusivity
• Overall effectiveness and any suggestions for improvement

The review would involve looking through my project and sharing your honest feedback. I'm happy to answer any questions and can provide the materials through Google Drive or another platform that's convenient.

I understand everyone's time is valuable, so I truly appreciate anyone who is willing to help. If you're interested, please leave a comment or send me a direct message.

Thank you so much!

I'm planning to work on my portfolio by Q3 of this year, hopefully after I sort out matters with my initial job to help me free up my schedule. As someone who wants to transition into instructional design for corporate, what portfolio catches your eye? Are you looking for a variety of options in a portfolio or do you focus more on the quality of each? Thank you for your insight!

A colleague and I were talking about cognitive load theory and how to explain it to SMEs. He described CLT as the best use of a limited mental budget.

I about fell off my stool. It's so simple and so fitting.

Please keep 'em coming. We need more wit and wisdom in these conversations! 😁

Ok so all LMS vendors will tell you this, We're constantly updating features and we're curious where users here actually land.

Where does AI genuinely save you time vs make you fix something a junior could have written cleaner from scratch? trying to separate signal from hype!

Hello, so I recently started a position as an instructional designer and honestly I feel very out of my depth when it comes to creating storyboards on dense material. Storyline and Rise are my jam and definitely have a lot of fun and interest in using the software, and I have a graphic design background so creating assets is not a problem for me.

But storyboarding has become this insurmountable task and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on creating learning material from documents that it’s very difficult to make heads or tails of. The thing about working with SMEs is I don’t even know where to start the conversation with them.

”What do we want the learner to know by the end of the course?” is a start but then it comes to a halt and I get stuck. I‘ve had a very “fake it til you make it” attitude and the lessons I create people like, but those storyboards were created for me. Making storyboards from scratch is very difficult for me. Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

We brought in someone from the outside to optimize our video workflows.

I'm stunned at what an expert has been able to accomplish. We plowed through subtitling 310 video clips totaling more than 10 hours of content in less than two hours using scripts that this woman built for us, including the translations! They all tested out with a flaw.

It's amazing to see how fast files can be processed when they are freed from a GUI. We were told that Apple silicon has some superpower that make this possible. That was news to me, but the results were awesome.

It's got me looking for other workflow improvements. What have you done to accelerate your processes?

Hello! I am an American who recently moved back to Valencia, Spain to join my husband. I now have a residency permit here, and I speak both English and Spanish. I have been teaching in the United States and abroad since 2018, including teaching English in Spain for three years. With my recent move back to Spain, I'm trying to figure out what my next career move will be.

I have a bachelor's in Education and a master's in Instructional Design. Additionally, I've developed a strong interest in digital marketing, so I'm currently taking the Google Digital Marketing certification course. While I do love teaching, I'm ready to expand my professional experience outside the classroom and transition into other roles, such as higher education, or potentially marketing. When I first moved to Spain in 2020, I moved here on my own, and I loved every moment of that experience. Because of that, I've also been considering a career in study abroad advising.

I appreciate any responses!