Does this voice of doubt sound familiar? If you find yourself excited about learning new things, but limited by a full-time work schedule and other life commitments, you’re not alone.

Meet Ruben de Villiers, a Marketing Developer at GetSmarter’s Observatory campus, and a student on the University of Cape Town User Experience Design online short course.

“I help develop and maintain websites and landing pages to meet the strategic needs of our marketing department,” says Ruben of his full-time role. It’s a varied and demanding job, and his work in the dynamic GetSmarter team requires him to be adaptable and ready to respond to new challenges and strategies.

What made Ruben decide to add an online learning experience to his already jam-packed, work-life balance?

“I enjoy learning something new, and I wanted to understand how the different people I work with think, and what their reasoning is behind the strategies they propose. I thought it was valuable to have insight to the importance of user experience design, especially with us moving to a world where technology changes constantly; if you don’t develop new skills, you’ll become obsolete.”

The Key to Online Study Success

Ruben credits time management as a key factor in getting the most out of his online short course.

“I try to get in two hours of study time a day, depending on what’s happening in my workday. It can be difficult to manage, but you always have support from your Student Success manager to help you manage your time better.” Ruben spent time reading about time management strategies before starting his course, and he says thinking of time management like budget management has helped him succeed in his studies.

Ruben suggests using Google Calendar to plan your week in advance since time is a resource. He also advocates keeping focused on the end goal – the benefits of the certification – even if that means studying instead of socialising with friends until your course is complete.

Content that Counts

When comparing his university studies with an online learning experience, Ruben highlights the importance of on-demand access to information. “Sitting at the airport or waiting for a bus, I can open up my course content and go through it while I wait. On-demand access to information has been useful.”

He also finds the Online Campus more organised than his university studies, making it easier for him to fit his studies into his schedule when he has a free hour, or over his lunch break. With new modules released weekly, and a systematic assignment schedule, it’s easy to plan ahead around the weekly demands of the course.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to meet deadlines if you don’t make time for it and prioritise getting assignments done on time, so I try to intersperse my studies with my work day where possible.”

Investing in Your Career

Ruben enjoys learning and reading about new things, and he allocates his time carefully to properly study the course content. “I already had a broad understanding, now deepening that and realising ‘oh that’s how that works!’ is very rewarding.”

He is quick to point out, however, that just because you study, doesn’t mean it will automatically help you. It’s important to start your online learning journey with some introspection and strategy. “I always think what, why, and how, I will manage the course when I sign up for it. How will it benefit me in the future?”

Maintaining a good work-life balance can be a challenge when you add an online short course to a busy work week. To Ruben, however, “it’s a case of what is more important – I approach it as an investment in my career.”

University of Cape Town (UCT)
User Experience Design online short course

The post Balancing Your Work Week and Studies: The Inside Perspective From a GetSmarter Student appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

User Experience (UX) Design allows users to interact with products or service offerings in a meaningful way through innovative design. The flux of this career path means it’s ever-adapting to the needs of users and the advances in technology.

In 2012, CNN Money listed UX Design on its list of the Best jobs in America, with an estimated 10-year job growth of 22%.¹ Even now, the growth rate of this industry doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Jamie Kleyweg, UX Designer at GetSmarter, provides insight into this phenomenon, “as technology increasingly serves us in many aspects of our lives, the ease with which a user can achieve their objectives through technology becomes increasingly relevant.”

The science of communication has evolved

As users become accustomed to better design experiences, the business sense for making UX Design a functional component of a communication strategy has become more imperative. The future of UX Design is going to be more specialised, instead of the jack-of-all trades position that it currently occupies.²

A user’s experience is based on a feeling, this is hard to translate into a concrete concept.³ UX Design is the glue behind making the product or service a memorable experience for the user. It has evolved from being the beautiful wrapping on a gift to being part and parcel of the gift-receiving experience.

Business intuitive

The business strategy for UX Design becomes apparent when we understand feedback from users on products and services. This focus is on the emotional experience of the user on the platform. Emotional quotient (EQ) has been used in business strategies for a long time as emotions allow users to create meaningful relationships to products or services.

UX Design leverages on the EQ dynamics of trust and communication, and this relies heavily on a collaborative approach to data streams.⁴ UX Designers need to marry creativity and business intuition to provide a solution that is feasible for all.

UX Design by its very nature, is design for humans;⁵ the integration of EQ in electronics has reached almost science fiction levels. Amazon created Echo in 2014, which was then named Alexa, an artificial intelligence (AI) device that can assist the user in their household by providing access to information through voice activation.⁶

Customising UX

UX is already present in almost every interaction we have in the modern world. Technology allows people to connect and integrate with each other on an unprecedented level, where even low income users mostly use and have mobiles to stay connected. Statistically, Google released an infographic titled, The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-platform Consumer Behavior, where 38% of our daily interactions are on smartphones.⁷

Clearly, mobile responsiveness can make or break a user’s desire to connect with a company. Statistica, an agency that collates statistics from over 22,500 sources, states that the number of smartphone users worldwide by 2017 was estimated to be approximately 2.32 billion.⁸

At GetSmarter, understanding the need for this user segment is evident in the work that Jamie Kleyweg is working on. His project is an educational discussion forum, the task is to make it easier for students to interact and participate, and the most important outcome, is for this to be accessible by mobile users.

The demand for UX Designers

Users need more from their environments and the technology that they use. This demand is the reason why UX Design has transformed the digital skills path and businesses.

There are always pitfalls to the UX Design process, but to ensure that it stays on track there are three rules Jamie Kleyweg follows:

1. Ensure that you understand the people and technology that you are designing for.
2. Work closely with a web developer, they can provide valuable information on technology constraints while you design.
3. Keep in mind the overall outcome you need to achieve. UX is data driven and designs need testing, use this feedback to improve your platform.

UX Design can be unbundled into one simple principle – communication is based on trust. A holistic perspective is necessary for designing and developing a successful, interpersonal interface for communication and business.

Do you want to learn new skills?

Improve your UX Design knowledge with a short course.

University of Cape Town (UCT)
User Experience Design online short course

The post The Relevance of UX Design appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

A diverse range of skills are demanded in the web design field. Web Designers are the multi-talented professionals in charge of building fully responsive and interactive websites through:

• Programming
• Coding
• Creative direction
• Working in platform back-ends
• Building websites from the ground up
• Ensuring overall cohesion between elements

If you’re looking to include web design in your career path, you’ll need to embrace the well-rounded expertise the industry demands by being both creative and logical in your way of thinking and doing.

The Difference between Web Designers and UX Designers

A common misconception is that Web Designers are the same as UX Designers. The table below stipulates the differences between these two career paths:

What are the key responsibilities of a Web Designer?

The daily duties of a Web Designer can differ depending on:

• Your level of experience
• Your work environment
• What your client expects from you

Keep these responsibilities and skills top of mind when traversing the web design career path.

You should keep upskilling in these three key areas:

A website will be the necessary communication platform a business will need to invest time and expertise into if they have a product or service they want to amplify to a wide audience.

What is the career path of a Web Designer?

The career path of a Web Designer is open-ended. The way you begin in this industry will differ from person to person. One exciting outcome of learning web design is you’ll be equipped to work across a wide range of industries. You’re in the unique situation of being able to combine a creative passion with in-demand skills closely tied to the successful performance of a business.

As a Web Designer, you can begin your career trajectory in a start-up, a corporate setting or an advertising agency. You can also start with freelancing and move into a more permanent role, or vice-versa.

What is the possible career trajectory of a Web Designer?

It’s possible to explore the following trending applications in a web design context, especially considering the rate at which machine learning and AI is growing throughout multiple industries.

• Chatbots

• Voice-based search²

• Improved user-experience

Related Content: Why Learn Web Design?

What is the potential salary for a Web Designer?

In order to develop a lucrative career path as a Web Designer, it’s important to hone in on specific areas of expertise.  These are the key skills you’ll need to increase your earning potential.

• Advanced HTML5 and CSS3 knowledge
• Experience with responsive and mobile design
• Expert abilities in the Adobe Creative Suite
• The ability to juggle multiple projects on the go

Click on a country to see what you can expect to get paid as a Web Designer in either South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States of America:³

What are the education and training requirements for a Web Designer?

Some professionals in the creative field experience the climb up the corporate ladder to be slower, but it’s possible if you keep in mind career advancements will be best made with your dedication to consistently upgrade your skill-set.

If you’re already a Web Designer or looking to move into a role with more Web Design responsibilities,  you’ll want to keep up with best practices, trends, and skills to ensure you’re able to extend your knowledge further than the job description currently occupying real estate on your LinkedIn profile.

Some related skills pertinent to web design that you should start thinking about gaining are:

• User Experience Design
• Brand Management
• Graphic Design
• SEO
• IT Management
• Digital Marketing

With web design you’ll also need to actively improve your technical and project management skills by pursuing the following upskilling options:

• A Bachelor of Arts in Web Design or Multimedia Studies is the tertiary-level education you would need if you want to go that route.
• Gain the relevant work experience while continuing to expand your knowledge and web design prowess.
• Take online short courses to stay at the peak of your commitment to learning and improving yourself.

Which skills do you need next?

Download a course prospectus to find out how one of these online short courses can help you become a Web Designer.

The post How To Become A Web Designer appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

From stone tools to robotic arms, humans have been designing with the user in mind to better serve our changing needs since year one; this practice just didn’t have a name to it yet.

User experience (UX) design has evolved into a necessary discipline over the past few years, the only difference today is the focus has moved from manual to digital.

UX design can be defined as the deliberate process of creating or enhancing systems and products to achieve a specific objective, namely, to optimise a user’s experience of said systems and products.

Good UX design involves enhancing user satisfaction with a product by improving the experience behind the interaction with the product. Simply put, if an object is not easy to use, and doesn’t make achieving its purpose simple and intuitive, users will struggle or fail entirely, to perform even the most basic tasks.

What is a UX Designer?

Demand for UX Designers will grow by 13% between 2016-2026.¹ A UX Designer considers the why, what, and how of product use. Companies whose operations are conducted largely through the web, and that require complex applications, need an expert in UX Design.

As Dylan Brits, Marketing UX Lead at GetSmarter says, “UX Design is about finding the most effective ways to minimise barriers to optimise outcome. Simply put, UX Designers create and update systems that ultimately improve a business’ bottom line.”

What are the key responsibilities of a UX Designer?

UX Designers have to be agile in order to perform multiple tasks.

What is the career path of a UX Designer?

There is no direct path a UX Designer has to go down before or after taking on this position. A UX Designer attains their position often after gaining a lot of experience and varied skills in IT and digital marketing. Some will have started out in the following careers:

• Web Design
• Graphic Design
• IT Management
• Data Analyst
• Digital Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

Difference between UX Designer and Web Designer

UX Designers are often confused with Web Designers. The table below stipulates the differences between these two career paths:

What is the potential salary for a UX Designer?

Click on a country to see what you can expect to get paid as a UX Designer in either South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States of America:

What are the education and training requirements for a UX Designer?

UX design is a technical field, requiring you to be well-equipped with the skills necessary to execute key responsibilities such as conducting research, developing user personas,  and making design changes to a user interface.

Not all UX Designers will follow the same path in education, however there are three ways in which you can develop the necessary knowledge and expertise to enter this industry:

1. Acquire relevant skills and qualification: While many UX Designers may not have a formal qualification in UX design, many have qualifications in related fields such as web design.
2. Get relevant work experience: Most UX Designers start their career in adjacent fields like graphic design and web design and then move into UX design by mastering software programs such as Balsamiq and learning industry-grade frameworks, vocabulary, tools, and best practices.
3. Take online short courses: The digital space is incredibly dynamic. A UX Designer is dependent on understanding changing trends and technologies in this space. The most effective UX Designer is one who continues to stay ahead of the curve. One surefire way of ensuring you stay relevant in UX design is to commit yourself to lifelong learning.

What skills do you need to advance your career in user experience design?

Download a course prospectus to find out how one of these online short courses can help you enter this lucrative industry.

The post How To Become A UX Designer appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

The rise of the digital age means people are bombarded with thousands of brand graphics on a daily basis.

Being the busiest, most impatient and easily-distracted society that has ever existed, effective design needs to be something special in order to make a lasting impact.

Companies are now making more of an effort to utilise professional Graphic Designers to stand out from the crowd. Thanks to ongoing technological advancements, as a Graphic Designer, you have the opportunity to update your skills on a continual basis through graphic design courses.

What is graphic design?

A graphic design career involves the creation and communication of ideas or products through visual concepts either through a digital platform or by hand.

Many Graphic Designers work in marketing fields to create advertisements, brochures and brand imagery, but your skills can be transferred to multiple industries as every business wants to market their product or service. Developing a big idea with creative communication solutions is key to finding success within this industry.¹

“Design is communication. It is the marriage of form and function with the purpose of starting conversations, building bridges, inspiring action and ultimately building relationships.” – Kerri-Jane Mitchell, Graphic Designer at GetSmarter

Industries where Graphic Designers thrive:

What are the key responsibilities of a Graphic Designer?

A brand image reflects a company’s identity.

It’s often the first thing consumers see; placing a large amount of responsibility on a Graphic Designer to effectively portray the identity the business embraces.

However, a large part of your job is deciphering what exactly the client needs. Many clients arrive with an idea in their head, but no idea what it will look like on paper (or screen).

The key responsibilities of a Graphic Designer include making an impact in the following three key areas: 

What is the career path of a Graphic Designer?

A lot of learning happens on the job for those working in creative industries.

It’s essential for Graphic Designers to keep up to date with the latest software and computer technologies to remain competitive and relevant in the field. Graphic design technologies are changing and improving at a rapid rate. As a Graphic Designer, you do not want your industry to adapt faster than your skill set.

Related Content: Is the Graphic Design industry changing faster than you are?

In terms of moving up in the company, a junior Graphic Designer’s greatest weapon is your portfolio. Employers will want to see evidence of upskilling, whether that is through further studies or learning how to use new graphic design programmes.

Below are various positions Graphic Designers can strive towards:

• • Art Director
  • Creative Director
  • Drafter (Architecture and Engineering)
  • Film and Video Editor
  • Industrial/Product Designer
  • Digital Marketing Manager
  • Multimedia Artist/Animator
  • Technical Writer
  • Web Designer
  • User interface designer

What is the potential salary for a Graphic Designer?

A Graphic Designer’s income will rely heavily on experience. However, you may move up to other design roles after some time in this career.

Click on a country to see what you can expect to get paid as a Graphic Designer in either South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States of America:

What are the education and training requirements for a Graphic Designer?

When hiring a Graphic Designer, some companies will require you to have a relevant qualification in Graphic Design.

However, due to the heavy focus on work experience for this role, it’s not specified whether companies prefer applicants with a degree, certificate, diploma or a great focus on practical skills. This is because proficiency for this role relies on both the ability to demonstrate competence in a number of programmes as well as an excellent portfolio of work.

That being said, a qualification of some sort in Graphic Design will only take you to greater professional levels.

Here are your options:

1. Bachelor’s Degree: There are many public and private universities and colleges providing Bachelor’s degrees in Graphic Design. Depending on the institution, this might be a three or four year degree, but all degrees will focus on subjects including:

• Drawing
• Photography
• Design Techniques
• Art theory
• Visual communication theory
• Illustration
• Digital Design

2. Online Certificate:  There are various institutions offering online graphic design courses where you will come out with a diploma or certificate verifying your graphic design competencies. The UCT Graphic Design online short course focuses on these subjects:

• Adobe Illustrator
• Digital imagery
• Visual communication
• Layout and composition
• Idea generation and research
• Typography
• Print design
• Web design

Keeping a portfolio of work:

Graphic Designers are expected to continually update a portfolio of work. This is your greatest tool when applying for a job.

Your portfolio of work should demonstrate your wide range of experience in various areas of design, as well as competence in programmes like Adobe illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. You’ll remain relevant by continually updating your skills through graphic design training.

Many people dream of a career in the creative industries, but far less take up the challenge in realising that dream. Receiving a recognised qualification in your passion is the first step in becoming a working professional.

Which skills do you need to start or advance your career as a Graphic Design professional?

CollegeGrad¹

The post How To Become a Graphic Designer appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

The truth is, most Learning Designers – also known as Instructional Designers – never planned on moving into this industry.

You may have a background in training and development, IT, copywriting or teaching but it’s unlikely you ever thought you could, or would, combine all of these fields and the skills that come with them.

But with instructional technology in education revolutionising corporate training (more than 41% of Fortune 500 companies use some form of teaching with technology to train their employees¹), the rise of teaching with technology online courses, and a movement to the integration of technology in education, instructional design is an in-demand career for both the corporate, online education and higher education industries.

What are the key responsibilities of an Instructional Designer?

Whether you’ve got the tech skills or the teaching skills, with an estimated 5.8 million students enrolled in online courses², and worldwide spending on corporate training amounting to $130 billion³, if you’re willing to fill up the gaps in your knowledge, investing in instructional design training could be a profitable next step in your career. You have the opportunity to marry your teaching skills with IT for education by focusing on ways to using technology in the classroom – whatever form it might take.

The role of an Instructional Designer can be defined by the following responsibilities:

• Write effective copy, instructional text, audio scripts and video scripts
• Navigate and utilise a learning management system and other instructional technologies
• Conceptualise and plan an innovative course design and delivery
• Have an understanding of related fields such as user experience design
• Understand how to work with augmented reality apps and tools, digital textbooks, gamification
• Identify ways to integrate technology in education
• Interpret and communicate a variety of topics ranging from law to graphic design
• Collaborate with subject matter experts as well as video and graphic teams

Related Content: How an instructional design skill set could benefit your career

What is the career path of an Instructional Designer?

Because this profession may emerge from a variety of backgrounds, there are opportunities for skilled Instructional Designers in a number of industries.

• Tailoring online courses for a specific audience

Take your tech or teaching skills into edtech organisations and use instructional and educational technology for teaching to build personalised, interactive and collaborative short courses that give working professionals access to flexible education.

• Building corporate training programmes

Corporations continue to adopt elearning programs, currently at a rate of 13% per year⁴, which means many will look for in-house Instructional Designers who can turn their face-to-face training into engaging learning design programmes that make the most of technology in education.

• Creating digital curriculums in higher education

The traditional teacher can no longer contain their knowledge within the confines of Powerpoint presentations. Instructional Designers are able to fill this gap by bringing an expertise of technology in education in the form of superior quality media, technical software competencies and content writing skills, to be able to develop effective and engaging curriculums for students by using technology in the classroom.

What is the potential salary for an Instructional Designer?

Although Instructional Designers in the private sector can earn a great living, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the highest paid elearning professionals are those who are in federal government settings, with average earnings of $87,790 per year⁵.

Experience has a moderate effect on an Instructional Designer salary and you’re most likely to increase your earning potential by becoming competent in elearning software, have a good grasp of technology in education, as well as training and development management.

Click on a country to see what you can expect to get paid as an Instructional Designer in either South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States of America:

What are the education and training requirements for an Instructional Designer?

According to the 2015 Global eLearning Salary & Compensation Report released by the eLearning Guild, which featured the responses of 5,127 of their members, individuals who hold an instructional design doctorate degree have a salary that is almost 24% higher than the United States average.⁶

However, this is not the only option you have to learn the skills required for a career in instructional design.

Co-founder and CEO of LearnDash, Justin Ferriman believes today’s Instructional Designer looks very different than they did in the past when proficiency in a couple of core skills sufficed.⁷ Nowadays, Instructional Designers need to be skilled in:

• Facilitation
• Research
• Writing and editing
• Problem solving
• Innovation and ideation
• Project management
• Multimedia
• UX design
• New technologies

Related Content: What are the key skills of an instructional designer?

These instructional design skills could be gained through a Bachelor’s Degree specialising in education, information technology, teaching with technology, web development, UX design, or writing; work experience, either at a higher education institution, an online education company, or a corporate organisation; or through continued learning – take an education technology course to learn how to build online short courses.

What skills do you need to advance in your career as an instructional design professional?

^{1 eLearning Industry
2 OLC
3 Forbes
4 eLearning Learning
5 eLearning Industry
6 The eLearning Guild
7 LearnDash}

The post How to Become an Instructional Designer appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Understanding what UX design is, and how it makes use of a host of tools and trends, is the first step in becoming a UX designer.

Answer the following questions about UX concepts and user interface to assess where you should be focusing your attention on upskilling.

Your answers will identify which module of the UCT User Experience Design online short course is most pertinent to skyrocketing your UX career. Whether it’s understanding the path a consumer takes, or identifying how aesthetics plays a role in your user’s journey to conversion, this online UX design course from UCT will help you expand your knowledge of the customer you’re organisation is aiming to convert, while you seek creative solutions for a human-centric platform.

Take the quiz to find out where the gaps are in your UX design knowledge and start working towards setting yourself apart as a UX designer.

If you’re interested in expanding your knowledge in UX design or want to break into the industry as a UX designer, find out more about the UCT online UX design online short course. In this UX design course you’ll cover everything from building a Product Use Context, developing wireframes, investigating the role of research and stakeholders, and reporting on the outcomes of the user’s experience.

Be guided by industry experts as you unpack the most relevant user experience design content and tools for your career as a UX designer. This UX design course is also approved by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of South Africa, ensuring your experience has a quality stamp of approval.

¹Adobe

The post What are the gaps in your UX design knowledge? appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Watch this 1-minute video where Carien Aalbers, Head Tutor of the University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course, explains the multiple facets of the discipline further.

[bctt tweet=”Instructional design is fast becoming a sought-after industry. But do you have what it takes? ” username=”getsmarter”]

An instructional designer uses a multitude of skills, including writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, using technology in education and planning. The diverse discipline involves:

• Leveraging teaching with technology and the advantages of an online environment, and taking into account how people interact and learn online by using technology in the classroom
• Expressing the learning need and identifying the required exit level outcomes, and then constructing a curriculum and delivery model based on that need
• Developing digital learning content, assessments and platforms, and interpreting learning analytics data

 The implementation of e-learning programmes into various institutions is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Ready to fill the gap as an instructional design expert?

Expand your teaching experience; move into the online education industry; or formalise your skills in instructional design

TELL ME MORE

Transcription:
Instructional design involves designing and developing learning experiences that leverage the technological advantages of an online environment, and take into account how people learn online. It encompasses the design of online learning programs from start to finish. This includes articulating the learning need and identifying the required exit level outcomes, and then designing the optimal curriculum and delivery model based on that need. Instructional design also involves developing digital learning content, assessments and platforms, and the interpretation of learning analytics data. So as you can see, it’s an exceptionally multifaceted discipline and instructional designers may be involved in some or all of these aspects.

The post What Is Instructional Design? appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Watch this short video where Carien Aalbers, Head Tutor of the University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course, explains further how instructional design enhances the effectiveness of corporate training.

What is instructional design? 

Instructional design is the process of identifying the skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap.

How? Instructional designers, also known as learning designers, leverage the advantages of technology and instructional design courses, constructing a digital curriculum to deliver on the identified learning need.

[bctt tweet=”Whether you’re in tech or teaching, instructional design could be your next profitable career move.” username=”getsmarter”]

How can it be applied to impact corporate training?

Corporate training is a means of ensuring that employees improve skills and enhance performance by focusing on professional development. But every corporate environment and training challenge is different.

Through its adaptability and effective use of instructional technology, instructional design allows for the construction of a learning solution that can address a business’s specific training challenges directly.

Want to advance your approach to corporate training or take on a greater role in your teaching career?

Become an instructional design expert in a fast growing industry and earn an instructional design certificate from a top-tier university

TELL ME MORE

Transcription

In a corporate environment, every training challenge is unique – from the learners, to the environment and the company culture and processes. So effective instructional design skills equip you to design a learning solution that can effectively address a company’s specific learning needs and ultimately solve their training problem.

The post How Does Instructional Design Improve Corporate Training? appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.

Watch this one minute video where Carien Aalbers, Head Tutor of the University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course, expands on the role.

An instructional designer, also known as a learning designer, is responsible for identifying the skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap. They also need to be able to make use of technology in education by optimally teaching with technology available to them and their purpose.

[bctt tweet=”The highest paid eLearning professionals earn, on average, $87,790 per year. ” username=”getsmarter”]

An instructional design expert needs to be able to:

• Leverage instructional technology and the advantages of an online environment by identifying the best technology in education for their purpose
• Express a learning need and identify the required exit level outcomes
• Construct a curriculum and delivery model based on that need and those outcomes
• Develop digital learning content, assessments, and platforms
• Interpret learning analytics data

These roles require a multitude of skills, including writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, planning and a strong teaching or learning background.

Do you think you have what it takes to pursue a career in instructional design?

Formalise your competence and develop your confidence, with University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course.

TELL ME MORE

Transcription:
Some of the key skills in instructional design include interpersonal skills. You need to engage with organisations to really understand their training requirements. The ability to elicit the right information in order to establish the need for training is key to be able to design a program that meets this need. A user centred mindset and approach is also vital. To design great learning experiences, you need to be able to put yourself in the learner’s shoes. You also need to develop your written and visual communications skills. To create engaging course content, you need to be able to word and visualise the course in a way that makes it easy to understand and learn, and a delight to interact with – both aesthetically and functionally.

The post What Are The Key Skills Of An Instructional Designer? appeared first on GetSmarter Blog.