I have heard of many teachers who want to transition to into instructional design. Teaching during the pandemic has become more difficult, and this has exacerbated an attrition problem that preceded our current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following advice applies only to teachers who want to make that transition, as I did many years ago. If you come from a different background, much of the advice here might be counterproductive to your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have heard about a lot of \u201ccoaches\u201d who will sell you instructional design classes, usually to master ID software such as Articulate Storyline and Articulate Rise, often for thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is the problem I have with most of those courses: they are teaching you the wrong skills. Those courses can be great for people who come from the industry and know nothing of training of teaching, but those software solutions are easy to learn. Articulate Storyline used to be a PowerPoint add-on, and if you are proficient at PowerPoint (which most teachers should be, I surmise), learning Articulate Storyline using free online tutorials should take you less than a full day of work. Articulate Rise is even easier to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those courses can help you build a portfolio that looks good, but that\u2019s about it. And, honestly, I believe that you can do that on your own if you are willing to spend a little bit of money on a visual website builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having made the transition from teaching to instructional design a long time ago, I can tell you that the skills I needed to learn to make it in my current profession were the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unless you work for some kind of vocational school, as a teacher, your current job is largely to give your students a depth and breadth of knowledge and skills that will help them learn whatever specific job they will end up in, and possibly to make them better, more informed citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This should remain an important part of your profession once you become an instructional designer. However, as an instructional designer, most of the training that will be requested of you will be to improve employee performance on a specific task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I strongly suggest you learn how to do that. You have all the prerequisite skills to do so, but it is a change in perspective that can be a little daunting if you do not prepare for it. To learn this skill, I suggest you take one or both of the following paths:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I will state that Cathy Moore\u2019s stance on never giving theoretical explanations before scenarios is excessive, the techniques she teaches are very useful to someone making the transition you are seeking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might also want to join Tim Slade’s eLearning Academy & Community to help you build your portfolio and skills<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broadly speaking, organizational development is the management skill meant to help you assess the needs of your organization, find the solutions that will improve performance, and evaluate the results. Coming into the ID field from a teaching background, this is likely to be your main weakness. Schools, generally speaking, are managed differently than other organizations. Seeing your principal or rector in action will give you little insight on how companies work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Personally, I fixed this problem by joining the telecommunications industry at the bottom of the ladder, taking management courses, and attending communities of practice on organizational development, and holding interim ID or management positions for years before finally getting my first permanent \u201cTraining specialist\u201d position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might not have the patience, or the financial situation necessary to go through that as I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of instructional designers will argue that their job is only to fulfill whatever training requests are put on their desk, assuming that everything else has been handled perfectly, and that the request fits exactly the organization\u2019s needs. If you want your job to matter, that is the wrong approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My advice is this: before you get your first ID job, read \u201cMap It\u201d, Cathy Moore\u2019s book on Action Mapping. You can buy it here<\/span><\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nOrganizational Development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n