What does it mean to design instruction?

As a simple definition, I believe it can be defined as the design of instructional material and lessons.

Beyond that, however, I believe it incorporates a passion and love for seeing people excel in a given task. While developing a course, one is able to draw on one’s passion to fuel creative education that is both engaging and fruitful. As I developed more and more learning material, I find myself consumed by the desire to have it be perfect. I’ve learned in my line of work that perfection is hardly attainable, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be great. There’s also nothing wrong with stopping when you’ve hit good enough; this maintains one’s mental health and keeps stress levels under control.

What skills do you think you need to have in order to do it professionally?

There’s a list of skills that I would say, and I’ll list them in the order that I feel is most important. Most important being number one:

Patience
Passion
Perseverance

Patience

Patience is key anytime you’re dealing with customers. A customer is notorious for changing their mind after most, if not all, of the work on a task has been done. Seriously though, keeping an imperturbable demeanor around a flakey customer is difficult.

If you haven’t already purchased a surplus of patience, you may want to go pick some up.

Passion

As I’ve already stated, one’s passion will fuel one’s creativity for developing an engaging and effective lesson. This passion will lead a designer to learn and investigate new technology and methods in order to create a great lesson. It’s the same passion that drives teachers to give their heart and soul to their work.

Perseverance

One’s ability to commit to the task and see it through will come into play here. Additionally, one’s ability to work well under pressure. Since the majority of instructional design is done under a strict timeline, you will need these traits in order to complete the task at hand.

References

Definitions of Instructional Design [Digital image]. Retrieved July 22, 2018, from https://educationaltechnology.net/definitions-instructional-design/