Principles of Good Instructional Design
Let's start with Scoping your requirement. Any new learning and development project really needs both the initial and the full scope of the requirement to be defined. This will allow the aims and objectives of the project to be identified and will avoid running down any blind alleys and wasting time on extraneous aspects of the task.
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Whether it is development of courseware for classroom style delivery or on-demand eLearning module development, the end-to-end process involves many steps and, as with any substantive process, slippage can knock things off track. We create a Project Plan using a Trello board, so that you can follow progress and get notified on deadlines and assets delivered and ready for review. The Project Plan will include timeframes for: Scope; Storyboarding; Design; Alpha, Beta and Final Version Releases. That way you can track progress, in line with any bigger picture of product or service development that you may be working on.
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In terms of Content, we can either use your own existing content or research content (in conjunction with SME liaison, as appropriate); one key aspect of consolidating the Learning Objectives is to discuss in the project Scope whether you need a form of Competency Assessment of learners accessing the final materials and whether any output results need to feed into your LMS system.
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A key aspect of the accessibility of the information in any learning is the Graphic Design and subject matter Information Flow; you can review and amend this in the discussion on Scope and through Alpha and Beta stage, until you are happy with the end product. Another key question which will be first addressed in the Scope stage is to what degree any Workflow Processes impact on the functionality of the training; this is particularly applicable for software training activities. Content, Information and Workflow Processes all feed into producing a meaningful Storyboard for the project.
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Once the content and storyboarding has been reviewed and signed off, we will then be able to enter the Development Phase.
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In terms of the time frame, bear in mind that for every finished hour of eLearning material completed, it can take up to 10 days to reach a point where the Alpha Review can take place. This is because the number of assets required to complete the material can include: scripting audio to then be recorded; video capture; liaison for clarification with SMEs; image sourcing/rendering; CC generation (if required); generation of supporting visual aides, diagrams, animations etc.
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However, good initial planning generally therefore reduces the amount of time needed to successfully complete a Beta Review and Finished Product.
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