Being an Effective Instructional Designer - Essay Example

?Being an Effective Instructional Designer: Instructional design is the logical flow of steps that translate general learning and instruction principles into a blue print for materials and learning. Instructional designers are professionals who make use of their training and knowledge and convert this into information coursework which is useful and applicable to the student. Strong passion for learning and sharing knowledge, technical proficiency and good PR skills are considered as the skills important to become effective instructional designers. Being an effective instructional designer takes a lot of proficiency and requires undertaking of a lot of skills. Competency in the field of instructional design depends on the ability to provide effective implementation of instructional products and programs. It is considered as an important competency. According to Richey Fields, Instructional designer need to use evaluation data as a guide for revision of products and programs. It is important for them to ensure that their products are programs are updated as and when needed. They also should ensure that the instructional products and programs are revised and changed according to changing policies and the need of the time. (10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer) There are various things that an effective instructional designer needs to consider. According to Covey, an instructional designer needs to be pro-active. Pro-activity is considered as the ability to adapt to changing situations through one’s own choices. It’s about solving solutions instead of waiting for others to solve the problems. Instructional designers should be proactive especially when in the business field. They need to be pro-active and observe business trends and build health relations. They need to be proactive and make sure that instead of waiting for clients to come down with requests, they should keep up with their business well enough to anticipate their needs. The next most important part of an instructional designer’s job is emphasis on performance analysis. It is considered as the single most important competency for success in this field. Thus conducting first rate performance analysis is a very important aspect of this field. In a lot of cases, managers will be pressurized to take a shortcut to direct action. However this strategy should be discouraged and an action should follow an analysis. Thus the lesson here is to ensure that the customers are given what they need instead of what the instructional designer perceives that they need. Instructional designers need to ensure that they have the end mapped in their mind before they begin. Thus it is important for instructional designers to pursue clear cut rules and understand the business goals that need to be accomplished. They should know what exactly do the clients expect in the end? Where does the organization stand today and how far have they reached? The objectives and development work should follow the mission set before them. As mentioned in the aforementioned paragraphs, it is important to do performance analysis by instructional designers. It is even more important to do this performance analysis creatively for them. It is often observed that the model for performance analysis used by writers tends to be very simple and does not highlight the complexity associated with human performance problems.The point of emphasis here is that one should think out of out box. One should think in terms of the the competencies that the client needs to possess for the instructional design to be used successfully? Should the routine performance appraisals and job descriptions be followed or should other means of feedback be pursued? One should be willing to pursue why? (William J. Rothwell, 2008) The next point of emphasis for instructional design field is the need to educate managers about performance analysis. Instructional designers should not pursue performance analysis as a solitary pursuit; as a sacrosanct but should instead take steps to educate and train operating managers about this design and inculcate client competencies into it. There are various ways to do this. These could be via training on performance analysis, circulation of organizational white papers and writing articles for company publication. The above mentioned efforts can be very fruitful. Fast and frivolous instructions will disappear as managers become more and more sophisticated. The next most important aspect of instructional design is the need to pay attention to the future and the consequences of solutions associated with them. The importance of scanning the future to see if there will be things that could change the conditions creating human performance problems. Instructional designers also need to foresee the future consequences of steps taking in present to address problems; to scan future and to see if anything from there will impact the assumptions made today of a problems solutions and keep following up continuously to ensure that the solution works and produces results as expected. Flexibility is also an important part of instructional systems design model.. The approach should be creative and not mechanical. One must be willing to adapt the instructional design model according to the culture of the organizations in which it is used. This may mean taking spur of the moment quick witted actions. Another important of instructional design is to incorporate changing environmental conditions in the overall instructional design process and the competencies needed for instructional designers. Instructional design is easily influenced by trends in the government, technology and demographics of the region. Instructional designers are also expected to have strong people skills. This is because instructional designers are expected to work closely with various stakeholders such as knowledge experts, students, and company and organization leaders. Instructional designer should be able to communicate effectively verbally and in writing, build rapport with people, and influence people as they go on to make sound instructional systems. Bibliography: 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2011, from The eLearning Coach: http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/10-qualities-of-the-ideal-instructional-designer/ William J. Rothwell, H. C. (2008). Mastering the Instructional Design Process:A systematic Approach. John Wiley and Sons. Read More