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I have recently gone through a ton of interviews for various ID positions and I will share my experience with you.

Some companies are going to be focused on your process for developing courses and curriculum from beginning to end. Being familiar with adult learning theories, ADDIE, Kirkpatrick Model, ect. will help you get into an entry level role if you can competently demonstrate your grasp of those subjects. You will also be asked to speak to your experience working with SMEs, project planning, how you see yourself functioning within a team, and how you pursue individual projects.

Other places are going to be more concerned with the technology itself. How many authoring tools can you use? Do you know HTML/CSS/Javascript? Are you good with Photoshop? Illustrator? After Effects? What experience do you having working with Learning Management Systems? What is your approach to data and analytics? Do you have experience using SCORM or XAPI? Can you show examples of work you've created across multiple modalities? You may even be asked to complete a short design assignment where you are given some branding material and asked to storyboard or outright create an entire course.

My opinion is that since you already have a degree in Psychology and professional experience as an event manager, you could easily parlay that knowledge and skill set into the theory and conceptual aspects of ID. There are plenty of great books you can read to supplement your degree like this and this. If you feel like you are lacking in the technology department then definitely go get experience using all the tools you can get your hands on. Employers wants to see real examples of real work, so the faster you can start building things the better. Not just courses but all the other things associated with ID like storyboards, job aids, and lesson plans.

Again just my opinion, but I believe ID is a field open to many types of professionals. It's just a matter of filling in the gaps where you may need it. I have a degree in English/Professional Writing and started off my career doing tech support. There have been positions where I've had the title of "Instructional Designer" and barely had a single course up in the LMS that was mine because I was focused on script writing, video production, and managing assessments. Just to give you a personal example of the different paths you can take.

If you have any more questions I'd be more than happy to help out in any way I can. Good luck!!!

I'd like to make some book recommendations for you:

• Learn how the brain learns. Pick up one book by Ruth Clark. There's some duplication across her books. Perhaps start with Efficiency in Learning -- this book has a CD in the back, so make note of that if you are getting a Kindle or used version. If that one doesn't suit you, try Building Expertise.
  
  
• Pick up some quick tricks based on good theory. I adore Sharon Bowman -- see if you don't agree! My first book of hers was Training From the Back of the Room -- highly recommend!
  
  
• Learn a little about training in the business world, and the controversies around it. Training on Trial is great for this.
  
  
• I guess every instructional designer has a stack of go-to learning activities. Start your own collection of favorites. 101 Ways to Make Training Active is a good start!
  
  
• Ok, but how do you get a good grip on the managing-work side of things? Check out The Trainer's Support Handbook. Free downloadable forms. I really can't say enough good things about this book.
  
  All of that looks great, but your budget means free is better? Dive into Don Clark's Big Dog and Little Dog website!

Hey, /u/alouisious!
Before I get into my own opinions, here are a few reddit posts that you might want to check out if you haven't already:

• Entering Instructional Design as a Career
  
• Great ID Masters/PhD Programs? (posed by a former high school teacher, FYI)
  
• Going to school for e-learning?
  
• Former classroom teacher just starting out in ID - Advice???
  
  There are probably others, but I hang out mostly in /r/elearning and /r/instructionaldesign.
  
  So, your questions: good ones! Here's my take:
  
  >Resources that could show me (or with which I could work) to give me some experience so I could understand ID a bit better.
  
  Well, there are a ton of resources for instructional designers out there: more every day, really. Since I don't know in which corner of ID you'll end up (maybe you don't either!), here's a short list to get you more familiar with the basics:
  
  
• The Instructional Design Knowledge Base. Written by Dr. Nada Dabbagh, one of my two mentors when I was getting my own masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from George Mason University. Explore - i definitely recommend the Just Exploring Resources portion, for your purposes.
  
• Essential Reading of Instructional Design. A reading list compiled by my colleague and exemplary instructional designer, Cammy Bean. (Actually, I should really add her book, The Accidental Instructional Designer, to this list.)
  
• 10 Qualities Of The Ideal Instructional Designer and 35 More Qualities Of The Ideal Instructional Designer. Good advice from (and crowdsourced by) Connie Malamed, aka the Elearning Coach. (While I'm looking at her site, What Instructional Designers Do: Is this a career for you? is also a good one for you to check out.)
  
• A History of Instructional System Design (ISD). An oldie-but-goodie.
  
  gotta go walk my dogs - i'll continue this later, i promise!

From my experience, it can actually make Instructional Design harder when you highly knowledgeable with the content. A big, vague suggestion: return to the objectives and try to cut any content that doesn't directly pertain to training those objectives.

It may also be useful to think about scenarios or examples, and using them more frequently. This can often make the content more easy to follow, and provide learners with more of a frame of reference. Even with the same amount of learning content, the right structure for the learning can make it an easier learning experience.

As an example, I'm working on healthcare training courses right now that started off as 20-page documents about processes, rules, etcetera. I've whittled that content down into narratives that can be covered in 5- to 8-minute lessons focused on an example employee's experiences. About every minute, learners answer one or two questions that directly tie back to the learning objectives. (Wish I could share the actual content, but I can't.)

If you are still new to the field, I would recommend reading Design for How People Learn, which covers some helpful strategies to get started, and is also an entertaining and quick read. This also makes it a good example of a great educational resource, and may give you some new ideas based on the approach used in the book!

I hope these ideas help a bit as you figure out how to get started!

Hi Mike,

I took the E-learning Instructional Design certificate course at University of California Irvine, finished in September this year. Although some classes were better than others, overall I found it a really valuable experience. Even if you don't do the whole program, the very first course in the series will teach you so much that you'll need several months to mull it over and apply it all to your work. Each class costs $550-ish. so it's a $3000 program, but that's only if you choose to do all 6 classes and get the certificate.

I'm ready the Accidental Instructional Designer at the moment, by Cammy Bean. Best ID or e-learning book I've read, ever. Full of simple, smart, quality tips. Funny to read, too. Buy it! :)

First off… WOW! these people are taking advantage of you.

No, seriously… That’s abuse. Anyway, I’m currently in Graduate School for IDT. Though, I’m not working in Higher Ed, it’s my goal. My specialization is Distance Education. A couple suggestions off the top of my head. One you’re right about the additional staff. The thing about faculty, I was at a workshop today and we were talking about faculty resentment. Our consensus was that admin seems to like to shove IDT down the throats of faculty that are already being treated poorly.

This Book… should help a lot. An Administrator's Guide to Online Education, by Kaye Shelton and‎ George Saltsman Great book and very well written, though it’s a little old (2005,) the information is still relevant.

The short version of the books suggestion to your administration? They need a strategic plan. Attempting DE without a good framework will have consequences, poor retention. It sounds like they don’t care if anyone is learning, or if faculty is adjusting to teaching online.

I’m sorry. If I were in your shoes I’d attempt to help them. If they don’t want to listen. I’d get my resume updated and take my skills to someone that cares.

Read up on the following:

• Bloom's taxonomy
  
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs
  
• ADDIE
  
• User Interface design (UI)
  
• User eXperience design (UX)
  
• Educational psychology
  
• Instructional Systems Design
  
• SCORM/xAPI
  
• Agile PM
  
• Waterfall
  
  Get to grips with the following:
  
• Authoring tools: Storyline, Captivate etc.
  
• HTML5 (not necessary but helps)
  
• MS Word (if you think you know enough teach yourself more!)
  
  A great book to read which outlines much of what you need to know is [Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen](design for how people learn (voices that matter) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0134211286/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ZzV9BbKZ740GT). I give a copy of this book to all new IDs that I take on as it provides clear guides and excellent examples to illustrate the concepts.

What about field interest you? Elearning? Corporate training? High Tech? Higher Ed?

Look for job listings and ask yourself what it would take to meet the requirements (Check out the FAQ if you haven't already)

I would start by adapting my existing content into an online portfolio, learning some authoring tools (Storyline and Captivate are the big ones) and beginning to teach myself an ID-related skill I don't already possess.

To echo u/counttess, adult education is where the jobs are-- so you need to demonstrate your value to an organization that sees training solely in terms of ROI.

Oh, and start reading! Design for How People Learn might be a good starting point.

Good luck!

If you want to do some reading on the topic, one of the more useful textbooks that we've been using in my program is "Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology" (Reiser and Dempsey, 2017 https://www.amazon.com/Trends-Issues-Instructional-Technology-Measurements/dp/0134235460). It has chapters dedicated to history, to theory, to major (and alternative) ID models, etc. It would be more than enough for a grounding in models and theories, and would give you something to talk about during interviews.

I'm sure you could find all the information online, as well, but it's nice to have it organized and contextualized in a text :)

Check out the sidebar, there are lots of books and such. I love the book Design for How People Learn and this Trends and Issues textbook is also a great survey; more academic though.

My last favorite book was [Make it Stick] (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013), and I've been seeing it on a lot of my colleagues' bookshelves. It's a pretty decent addition for anybody interested in what learning science has been saying lately.

People have already gave some great suggestions. A couple of books you may like:

• Design for the Way People Learn by Julie Dirkson
  
  
• E-Learning and the Science of Instruction by Clark and Meyer / kind of the "textbook" for e-learning instructional design

Start building a portfolio to share. It will speak louder than experience. I won't kid you, many new ID's today have some sort of instructional tech or design degree. However it's still common for people to get the job without a degree, especially internal promotions.

Here's a good book to help you get the basics. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1562869981?psc=1

Hi Jane,

I have a very similar background, former educator, turned ID. I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Expertise-Cognitive-Performance-Improvement/dp/0787988448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524406717&sr=8-1&keywords=ruth+clark+building

It is by Ruth Clark, full of practical examples, data (to sate the teacher in you) and a ton of best practices. It is a book that you will read, put away, put into action, and then re-read.

I took the ATD Master Trainer class and it was fantastic. Their classes are expensive though!

If you're looking for books on theory basics, I'd recommend Instructional Design Theories and Models (volume 3) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1138012939/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DHDHZHM54NKB0MG7V44F&dpPl=1&dpID=41jbrzBdNnL

It's a heavy read, but has lots of research and basic knowledge and is a solid foundation for your studies!

Active learning books by Mel Silberman are goid

Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0205178669/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_m2nxDb5RH8XTV

Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning is usually brought up as a great resource Link

Are you talking about staff training? I’m a big fan of Bob Mager’s Six Pack and Tom Gilbert’s Human Competence. I come from a more behavioral side of ID, though... which is something I rarely see represented on here.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Mager-Six-Pack-Robert-F/dp/187961815X

https://www.amazon.com/Human-Competence-Engineering-Worthy-Performance/dp/0787996157/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr1_1?keywords=tom+gilbert+human+competence&qid=1562848027&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr1

My absolute favorite. Design for how people learn by Julie Dirksen. Explores motivational aspects of how we pay attention.

https://www.amazon.com/Design-People-Learn-Voices-Matter/dp/0321768434

There are plenty of "accidental IDs" and self-taught IDs on here (myself included). I have since obtained a bunch of ID related certificates and dedicated myself to this field, but I started as a "guy who knew a bunch of computer stuff and graphic software". I would start out picking up the basics: books and videos followed up with doing example projects on my own. Books:

Accidental Instructional Designer https://www.amazon.ca/Accidental-Instructional-Designer-Learning-Digital/dp/1562869140

Design for how people learn: https://www.amazon.ca/Design-How-People-Learn-2nd/dp/0134211286/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/132-9279317-1969362?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0134211286&pd_rd_r=23175abb-8397-425a-a4e0-c2f8782513c2&pd_rd_w=z99C5&pd_rd_wg=dnaNm&pf_rd_p=9926bb69-42b9-46e4-b788-f665992e326d&pf_rd_r=JCRB7DERAEAJTZR152GW&psc=1&refRID=JCRB7DERAEAJTZR152GW

Have you read Presentation Zen? and/or its sequel Presentation Zen: Design? They really helped me focus on what I was putting into my slides, and how I designed my eLearning courses.

> Slide:ology

This one?

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