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What its Like...

Instructional design has become the organized approach to product or course development in the corporate setting over the past thirty years. The steady growth of employee training has always been an integral part of most organizations in the private business sector or industrial settings. Training whether it is formal or informal on-the-job is a necessity not only here in the United States but internationally. This growth has occurred because of the emphasis placed on training for the production of a more knowledgeable and competent workforce. Instructional design has provided designers and training managers who can provide processes for analyzing human performance problems and solutions to such problems. Insight to future problems and organizational changes and ways to prepare employees for new situations are important skills, that in today’s market, the Instructional designers have to enhance.

Instructional design keeps the traditional roots of previous design models with an emphasis on analysis, specifically problem analysis of the business environment. However, the complex and competitive corporate setting has shaped the roles of designers and design processes as well. The demand for cycle-time reduction of teaching designs, increased effectiveness and efficiency in ID in the business environment has become the crux for the evolution of new ID and the designers as well.

Instructional technology-based training delivery has provided the key to the cycle-time reduction. It can reduce time and costs. The computer has provided the link needed to promote active, engaging learning. This will continue to help break away from the traditional classroom teaching. More data can be produced to support ID and its impact on performance and organizational improvement for the corporate consumer.

Globalization of training is often a challenge for the designer and teacher in instructional technology. The instructional designers must know how to prepare or adapt the materials for different cultures and must address boundaries such as geopolitical divisions, cultural and language differences. The instructional materials become internationalized, that is removing cultural elements that may offend and then localize the instruction by adapting it to each culture.

Instructional designers must be aware of the laws that govern the training of individuals and governing specific industries. The development of the instructional materials and testing procedures must not discriminate and respect the intellectual property rights of others. Safety should be in the forefront of all designs using qualified trainers and the safe environment for both the trainer and trainee.

In the corporate setting whether stateside or internationally, demands for increased efficiency, lower training budgets, and globalized products are creating a dynamic change in the instructional design field. In the United States alone, the training industry of corporate America spent $62.5 billion dollars in 1999. The Instructional Designer has also been affected by these demands and outsourcing trends have grown, decreasing the number of designers needed. The three broad categories of roles that an instructional designer may take in a corporate setting are a sole designer, designer as a consultant, or a team member /leader designer or designers. Overall, the instructional designer is to create instructional material for teaching and provide organizations with meaningful and valid evidence that the training has made a measurable difference.