{"id":4284,"date":"2017-03-27T11:41:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T11:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/?p=4284"},"modified":"2025-09-22T14:01:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:01:50","slug":"key-skills-of-an-instructional-designer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/key-skills-of-an-instructional-designer\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are The Key Skills Of An Instructional Designer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Looking into a career in the fast-growing instructional design industry, and wanting to learn the key skills of teaching with technology?<\/p>\n<p>Watch this one\u00a0minute video where\u00a0Carien Aalbers, Head Tutor of the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course<\/a><\/strong>, expands on the role.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jrYqH9mvQLo\" width=\"1100\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>An instructional designer, also known as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/instructional-design-skill-set-benefit-career\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">learning designer<\/a>, is responsible for\u00a0identifying 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">teaching with technology<\/a> available to them and their purpose.<\/p>\n<p>[bctt tweet=&#8221;The highest paid eLearning professionals earn, on average, $87,790 per year. &#8221; username=&#8221;getsmarter&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p>An instructional design expert needs to be able to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/what-is-instructional-design\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leverage instructional technology <\/a>and the advantages of an online environment by identifying the best\u00a0technology in education for their purpose<\/li>\n<li>Express a\u00a0learning need and identify the required exit level outcomes<\/li>\n<li>Construct a\u00a0curriculum and delivery model based on that need and those outcomes<\/li>\n<li>Develop digital learning content, assessments, and platforms<\/li>\n<li>Interpret learning analytics data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These roles require a multitude of\u00a0skills, including writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, planning and a strong teaching or learning background.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">Do you think you have what it takes to pursue a career in instructional design?<\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Formalise your competence and develop your confidence, with\u00a0University\u00a0of the Witwatersrand\u00a0Instructional Design online short course.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a class=\"button large postcta\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TELL ME MORE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<blockquote><p>Transcription:<br \/>\nSome 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&#8217;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 &#8211; both aesthetically and functionally.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Find out what makes a great Instructional Designer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":42539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[126],"article-format":[],"class_list":["post-4284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-advice","tag-art-design"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v26.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Are The Key Skills Of An Instructional Designer?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Looking into a career in the fast-growing instructional design industry, and wanting to learn the key skills of an instructional designer? Watch this video.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/key-skills-of-an-instructional-designer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Are The Key Skills Of An Instructional Designer?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Looking into a career in the fast-growing instructional design industry, and wanting to learn the key skills of an instructional designer? 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