The Decline of Design: Rediscovering the
Lost Value of Instructional Design
Has the value of Instructional Design (ID) been diluted in
the apparent urgency to get content on the web; or is it that
Instructional Design is considered an indulgence rather than
a necessity, or is it perhaps the spoils of working in today’s
multi media rich environment that have disguised any requirement
for increasingly innovative and advanced approaches to Instructional
Design.
With the e-learning revolution, “conversion”
became the name of the game – moving existing instructor
led content to e-learning to attain quick returns. It was
inevitable, but now as a consequence, ID’s rarely have
the opportunity to exercise higher value instructional design
and organizations and their employees are being deprived of
this commensurate value.
Because of the burgeoning market requirement for conversion,
many ID’s are entering the field with a knowledge unsupported
by the depth of experience that ID’s of a decade ago
had. Proportionately fewer ID’s today can re-address
curriculum design needs and bring the enhanced value that
many organizations struggle to appreciate the need for…..the
reasons for this I can detail perhaps another time.
From business alignment, to specifically structured outcomes
to concisely presented content (stripped of superfluous content),
to well considered and engaging interactivity – few
ID’s have the opportunity to bring this complete value,
their value relegated to converting existing content to an
e-learning environment. The cost of this lost value is being
borne often unknowingly by organizations and already significantly
time-constrained professionals are being burdened with more
content than is either relevant or meaningful……and
they know it.
The time is approaching when organizations will need to rediscover
or in some cases, discover, the value of Instructional Design;
a time when the most important and powerful commodity globally
is knowledge and the appropriate application of that knowledge.
Instructional Designers, with their training in both practical
and theoretical constructivist, cognitive and/or behaviourist
application, coupled with a consultative ability to match
learning to achieving business results are among the “lost
world” of talent. It’s time to recognize the value
and make the investment in skills, time and cost to reap the
longer term rewards while still returning those all-important
quick and measurable benefits.
Julie Pearce,
Senior Instructional Designer
IBM Global Services
