Efficient Instructional Development

The time allowed to design and develop instruction is all too often extremely limited. In seeking to meet resource demands, instructional designers look for ways to streamline the process without losing any of the quality.

There are places to make better use of resources throughout the process. One real time saver is to develop a template, to use for all instructional development, in a medium that is widely used and is easily customized. This also keeps the look and feel of the instruction consistent. Keeping the template fairly generic allows each organizational culture to customize it while remaining similar to other instruction developed for the organization.

During the discovery phase, the researcher can substitute parts of the interviews with employees for an interview with Human Resources to get demographics and a high-level analysis of the perspective students. This can significantly cut the time used for interviewing student groups. The researcher is better prepared for the interviews and does not have to spend time collecting information already provided.

Teams
Many designers use a team approach to design and develop instruction. Both horizontal and vertical teams are used to facilitate the process. A vertical team structure takes advantage of individual expertise and allows each member to focus on their specialty. The inherent efficiency of the vertical structure provides maximum time efficiency. As a piece of the instruction is ready on one end it is then passed to the next appropriate person on the team to complete the piece assigned. Unfortunately, communication is often disparate due to the separation of the members.

A horizontal structure divides the instruction into stand alone pieces that are worked on concurrently. This approach can cover the entire process from analysis to release and allows for better communication than the vertical approach. Since the team is responsible for each phase, information is readily shared and not lost. However, it is a good practice for the teams to communicate with each other. This helps maintain consistency of the design between the teams and permits fresh eyes and objectivity for evaluation purposes.

A thorough look at your design process will reveal areas that allow you to make it more efficient and deadline appropriate.