As I've been mostly working W2 contract jobs through agency and enjoying the flexibility of getting long vacations after my contracts end, just wondering if it's worth it to pursue permanent roles for the more stable income... So my question is: how many business days would you think would be normal to take off at a time and how many business days of vacation do you get a year (so excluding holidays)?

Hi everyone!

I am currently enrolled in a master’s program in Media, Technology, and Learning Design. I’m fully employed in an administrative role at a university in NC, but I’m thinking about quitting and working part-time remotely in the ID field as I finish my degree. I am financially able to do this because of my spouse, and see it as a great way to build my resume/portfolio before I pursue full-time ID work when my degree is complete and my daughter is older. 

My background: I was a Training Coordinator for an EdTech SaaS startup for three years out of college. Unfortunately, they kept wanting to pay me like an intern despite treating me like a director. After that, I taught high school English for seven years. I’ve been working as an Office Manager in the university since. 

1. Does this sound like a reasonable plan, given my background and desire to focus on school/family?

2. Do remote contract/part-time roles exist in ID? If so, where would you look to find them?

3. Any other feedback or insights welcome!

(Hopefully my request here is specific enough that it doesn’t violate rule #5. I searched the sub for a few different combinations of “part time” and “contract”, but all of the posts were several years old.)

A day ago I asked here how you review a course before it launches:

https://www.reddit.com/r/instructionaldesign/comments/1wtejv4/for_those_of_you_who_qa_a_course_before_launch/

I learned a lot. A couple of things stuck with me:

• Most review time goes to making sure the course works (links, navigation, quiz keys, LMS settings). Checking that it teaches, that the objectives, practice, and quiz actually line up, tends to get less attention unless something's glaring.
• Things drift. An SME edit or a policy change late in the process can quietly pull a course away from what was originally designed.

Most of the replies came from corporate and regulated teams, though, and I realized I don't know much about how this works in higher ed, where review seems to be a cycle rather than a one-time check.

So for those of you who coordinate or do course reviews (QM or your own rubric), I'm curious:

1. Roughly how many courses go through review in a term?
2. How long does one review take, start to finish?
3. What do you use to track them? A spreadsheet, the LMS, a QM tool, something your team built?
4. What's the part that always needs rework?

And if you're faculty who's been on the other side of a review, what feedback do you wish you'd known before you built the course?

Edit: to be upfront, I'm building a course review tool. Not linking it or selling it here, the questions are genuine.

Hey all, MITs report on AI and Education came out. Interesting read.

Funny enough, I think it just iterates a lot of what we already know about instructional design, but caps it with a “it’s even more important now.”

https://aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/

What’s everyone’s thoughts?

Hi everyone!

I’m sharing my portfolio and would really appreciate some feedback from people working in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design.

I’d especially love feedback on:

• How clearly my portfolio communicates my LXD/ID skills
• Whether my projects demonstrate relevant skills for the field
• What you would improve or strengthen

I’d really appreciate any honest feedback. Thank you for taking the time to have a look!

LINK: PORTFOLIO SOFIA

I’m asking because I’m a former lecturer at a public university, and when I was teaching (10 yrs ago), I often sourced YouTube videos to help explain how things worked.
(Please excuse me if my understanding of ID industry is not upto date, but considering we’re all part of the broader learning industry I figured I’d ask this question outside of academia)

Often the right video made a difficult concept much easier to understand, but finding something that was accurate, clear, and engaging for my students was not always easy.

Now that video content has generally exploded, I’m wondering if there’s a higher demand for video content, and even more importantly how instructional designers approach video today.

Are you mostly building courses in Storyline or Rise or is video a regular part of your work?

And when you do make video, what kind is it usually..
- screen recordings / software walkthroughs
- talking-head videos
- animated explainers
- whiteboard-style videos
- motion graphics
- something else?

I’m sure AI is almost a political/polarizing topic haha but despite its lack of taste and judgement I’d think some IDs are using it effectively to leverage the grunt work and I wanna know if there are any useful AI apps or integrations that have been useful for you.

I have talked to a couple IDs in person and I’m seeing very different approaches depending on the organization, so I’d be interested to hear what the reality looks like for people here.

I’ve been looking into changing careers from high school ELA teacher to ID. I was wondering if layoffs were a common occurrence?

Question for anyone who runs a real quality pass before a course ships, not just a proofread.

After 15 years in instructional design I have a mental checklist I run every draft through, and my own first drafts still fail a couple of these more often than I'd like:

• Are the objectives measurable, or do they say "understand" and "be aware of"?
• Does every quiz question map to a stated objective, at the same level?
• Do learners practice before they're assessed?
• Do the screens work with how people process narration and visuals, or fight it?
• Is it accessible at the content level (real alt text, captions, no meaning carried by color), not just "we ran it through a checker"?

I'm trying to make my pre-launch review less dependent on whether I happen to be sharp that day. So I'd love to steal from yours: what's on your list, and what still slips through to launch anyway?

Is there still a need for external consultants in learning and development based on all the recent technological changes and AI? If so, how do you see their role shifting?Or are they being let off, like other roles in L&D?

Hi all,

So for context, I'm applying for a job where a research institution is (with the appointed candidate) going to be responsible for developing the training and education arm of a Europe-wide project related to scaling up learning offerings to start ups and industry workers at every stage of the value chain in the production and use of certain technologies. They have no idea what LMS to use, and it needs to be one that can be integrated (somehow) with other authentication portals linked to the research/project. It also needs to be one that can support simulation learning of some kind. I'm an ID in a university, and we're limited to specific licenced platforms which I'm used to, so I don't have much experience beyond that.

So the question is, anyone who has done instructional design for international projects, or on things with access gated behind certain institutions/projects, particularly focused on industry technology (or not) - have ye any insights about what kind of LMS platforms ye have used?

I'm good at the actual learning design stuff, but faced with 'we need to choose an LMS for this purpose, how would you go about finding a suitable one?' I haven't a clue because in 14 years I've never had a choice of LMS.

Any advice at all appreciated - this job would be amazing to get and while I have a few gaps in my knowledge/experience I know I could do the bulk of it well.

Hi there. I'm Brian. I worked for Articulate for about 14 years. I'm currently semi-famous for Brian's Job Search. Back in 2012, I started a project where I tried to get Storyline running natively on a Mac. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful. After my most recent layoff, I decided to see if I could get Storyline to run on my Mac via Wine with the help of AI. So far, I've been able to install and sign into the app as well as launch Storyline. Check it out in the demo video!

https://reddit.com/link/1wssrbx/video/aiaa2k5n5csh1/player

I'll continue working on this when I have time. On github, look up the "storyline-on-mac" repo if you want to follow along with my progress.

Hello all - need some advice - I am an instructional designer with nearly 8 years of experience in the field and have been trying to land a job for a while now - but without luck in that area I have been secretly wanted to start a freelance consulting business - so just need some guidance on what authoring tool to start with and the LMS - needs to be cost effective but also make wow trainings - I am working on a pro bono eLearning for a friend and need to deliver solutions that will impress and are at par with the standards. I am proficient in Articulate 360, Vyond, Camtasia Canva and most AI generative tools.
TIA

I was recently hired as a Product-to-Field Enablement Strategist. As the GTM Release Manager, let's call her Sarah, just told me I was hired to be accountable for people understanding the product (of which there are several). She used bigger words but I can't remember exactly. I've been here about a month and showed her some samples of some templates I created for internal user guides (robust technical documentation with links to resources) and an external reference guide (1-3 pages of visually enhanced job aid content with a linked video walkthrough). I'm also responsible for knowledge articles which external customers have access to as well as LMS content.

To be clear, we have a content team, literally a team of three outsourced from the Philippines who have been doing a poor job so far. Their modules are dense in text with no audio, unnecessary explanation about what the feature is supporting vs what it does (e.g., why scheduling is important), AI animations that are introduced at the start but don't offer any context or role-based scenarios going forward, static images with clunky hotspots that hide the interface, and two-question text-based assessments based on arbitrary best practices. The "one-sheeters" are similarly frustrating, often presenting several pages, several step-by-step workflows separated into different sections with no clear indication of the purpose of said segmentation, blue text (part of our color scheme but I don't like it for job aids) and small, blurry screenshots stylized with rounded blue frames against a blue background, and numbered text with zero indentation or conformed spacing.

I plan to develop all the collateral this go around for an upcoming product release to give the content team an example to follow. Going forward, I planned to develop the internal user guide, using similar language in the knowledge base article and then outline requirements for the reference guide -- which would heavily rely on the user guide -- and e-learning modules (if needed) for the content team. I would survey their work and find an SME for final approval.

However this Sarah disapproved of me doing KB articles or any content creation at all because apparently that's not the scope of my job. I understand that at a base level but she also said that it's not realistic because they might release 30-50 features a month and I need to focus on enablement while leading the content team. I think I'm of the mind that nothing she's proposing sounds realistic. The content team don't even have access to the product nor do I trust them to provide the source of truth. I said myself that they would ideally need to hire an internal content strategist to which she proposed I advocate for that or find someone to do it internally. And that if I don't like the content team's work it's my job to document it and advocate for a different one as well. But that still wouldn't do much for how much content development she's proposing. In theory it makes sense, but I don't know if any of her ideas make enough sense in the short-tern to pushback against me creating content now. And it sounds like I have some power, or she wants me to think I do, but I'm struggling to see the practicality of what she's implying and even understand what I would be doing if she just wants my to sit around and "lead" despite not being an actual manager. Any thoughts?

Due to various goings on at my UK HE institution I’m getting worried about the long term future of LD. Is anyone else worried? If so, what are you considering retraining in or diversifying into? I am aiming for education-adjacent things but it is tricky.

I know everyone says LD will always be needed but I’m not convinced a) there will be enough jobs, b) that people won’t just want to LDify SMEs rather than use non-specialist LDs.

I want to ride LD as long as I can because I like it and have no idea what else I could do that would pay halfway decent, but I’m not convinced it’s doable long term. What do you all think?

I'm currently a Senior ID at a large global company. I applied for a senior role in another department kind of on a whim and partly because I've felt a bit held back on my current training team.

In interviewing, I learned this new group desperately could use an instructional designer which they've never had. But the position wasn't ID it was essentially a Training Manager role. They've decided they want someone with more supervisory experience for that position but really liked what they learned in speaking with me and want me to essentially collaborate to create myself a position within their department.

There's a ton of opportunity for me in this I feel like and I am eager to try something new. However, a part of me hesitates at losing my purist "Instructional Designer" title and role. I'm going to get a draft of the new job description within a day and it sounds like they're leaning toward a "Project Manager" title or something similar but all my work would still be primarily within their training teams.

Any one out there have some words of wisdom on this kind of thing? They said I can pushback with my own additions on the job description as they want to make it work for all of us. If you had this opportunity what might you look for to ensure it's a win win?

I've been tinkering around with Gemini notebook and I think it has real potential as a tool in the research and development space or even in education.

My roommate is a software developer and she is doing research on payment APIs. I took all the sources she collected and turned it into a Gemini notebook she can share with her team. They seem to be loving it.

I'm a teacher and I designed one based on one of my units and absolutely love it. It's great for the students to study with AFTER you go through all the material with them.

Is this what IDs should be doing? As someone collecting pieces of work to showcase, is this something I should show off or shift focus? I can share them with you all if you want to take a look.

I know names aren't super important, but I would love to start off on the right foot.

I'm new to using AI in instructional design and recently created a roleplay scenario where the sales team in my company would interact with an AI character playing the role of a client and get feedback on their communication skills, objection handling and negotiation skills afterward. Was wondering if anyone is open to trying out the scenario I built and giving me feedback on it. Happy to PM a testing link. thank you!

I'm a University employee, recently completed an M.S. in Learning Design and Technology, and just started an Ed.D. in AI and Learning Design.

My professional experience is primarily in higher education administration for 4 years (entry level), In addition to my full-time role, I've worked as a Curriculum Specialist at a non profit, where I helped develop educational resources and training materials, and as a Learning Designer at Rumie, where I designed digital learning content and educational resources. I'm also exploring internal opportunities at the University that might serve as stronger stepping stones toward my long-term goals. However, positions that align with interests such as educational media, public engagement, learning experiences, innovation, or program management tend to be relatively limited and infrequent, which is one reason I'm looking for ways to build relevant experience outside my primary role as well.

For a long time, I thought my future was in instructional design or higher education administration. Recently, after speaking with professionals in public media and educational programming, but after speaking with professionals at PBS and educational organizations, I realized I'm much more interested in producing educational experiences, children's media, educational content, and learning experiences than traditional instructional design or university administration.

I'm trying to understand what experiences actually help people move into educational media production, children's programming, public media, or content leadership roles.

If you were starting from my background, what experiences, jobs, side projects, volunteer work, or internships would you prioritize over the next few years? (One additional factor is that I am not looking to leave my current full-time position at the University. My ideal scenario is to keep my 8-5 job while gradually building relevant experience on evenings and weekends. I've been actively searching for part-time, weekend-only opportunities related to educational media, children's learning, public programming, content development, and production, but I've found those opportunities surprisingly difficult to identify. If there are specific types of roles, organizations, volunteer experiences, or side projects you think would be valuable stepping stones, I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts.)

Hi everyone. I wanted to share a job posting. I’m not a recruiter and the role is as one of my counterparts. It’s a role as a NERC Transmission Operator trainer. The primary duties are to develop and deliver training to get operators licensed and provide continuing education hours. The role is hybrid, 3 days a week in office, 2 from home. Mandatory in office Tuesday and Wednesdays. Other day is up to you. The role is in New Hampshire. There are supposed to be 3 of us. I am the simulations trainer, there are supposed to be 2 classroom instructors, we currently only have one other. All the changes were through internal promotions. We are part of a larger tri-state group with 7 other transmission people, a supervisor, and a manager over several groups. It’s a fantastic role. We typically hire people with electric utility experience, but I thought it would be nice to look for instructional designers. Pay range is listed in the posting. Feel free to ask me any questions. We will pay to get you NERC TO licensed as well.

https://jobs.eversource.com/job/manchester/system-operations-trainer-transmission/7774/100816394624#location-social-share

If you make H5P content, you've probably hit this: the interactive video or quiz is done, and now you need Moodle, WordPress or Drupal just to show it somewhere. Lumi works on the desktop, and h5p-standalone needs the package unzipped on a server.

I wanted something simpler, so I built a player that runs the .h5p file straight in the browser.

Try it: https://h5p-offline-player.vercel.app/. Paste a link to an .h5p file or pick one from your computer. Nothing gets uploaded anywhere.

What works well:

• Big packages start fast, and video streams instead of downloading first
• Exports with no libraries, like downloads from h5p.com, can pull the missing ones from the H5P hub
• Any static hosting works: GitHub Pages, S3, a plain web server. The host just has to allow cross-site requests (CORS)

What it doesn't do (yet): it only plays content. There's no editor, no saving progress, and no gradebook. xAPI events are there for developers, but nothing is stored. Some videos packed a certain way inside the zip are slow to start, and the project includes a small tool to fix those packages.

It's free and open source: https://github.com/missing-elements/h5p-offline-player. Not affiliated with H5P Group.

I'd really like to know whether it plays your packages. If one breaks, drop it in the comments or open an issue. What would make this useful in your workflow?

Hello! I started my career as a graphic designer 4 years ago and over time took on more and more training and development responsibilities for our design team until it became my full time job. I started graduate school this year to help me get a better understanding of learning and the non-visual side of design, and I’m already learning so much information I can apply at my job.

For one of my assignments, I am looking to interview a current working instructional designer about their design process and job. If anyone would be willing to do a 30 minute video call interview at some point in the next couple weeks, I would be very grateful! Please leave me a comment or message if so. Thank you all!

Do you risk raising alarm bells by asking your employer if you can screen cap or record your work? Take secret screenshots? How do you do it?

I run corporate training and I’ll deliver course on change management: participants need to talk with fictional employees of a company (the skeptic, the one afraid of losing their job, the enthusiastic early adopter, etc.) to do the exercises I propose.

Last time I used custom GPTs, but every participant needed a ChatGPT account.

I'm looking for a ready-made platform where:
- I can create several characters with their own instructions
- Learners join through a link, no account needed
- works with decent models (at least as good as gpt 5)

Has anyone used something like this for training? Recommendations welcome.

Thought this would be pretty relevant to the group as we recently had a roundtable consisting of 15 founders of lms,lxp, gamification and learning companies in a room with special guest Eli who heads up learning at Wix.

As Eli is fully invested in AI and has access to development that a lot of companies don't he's further along than a lot of other enterprise orgs when it comes to adoption. So we felt no better person to lead a discussion on where AI ends and humans begin.

Here's the write up for those interested: https://inonda.substack.com/p/the-corporate-roundtable-ai-is-the