Instructional Designer & eLearning Designer–
The Tag-Team Duo You Never Knew You Needed

Have you ever taken a web-based training course that was text-heavy, hard to focus on, and in the end, you felt you learned nothing from the experience (other than the most comfortable position to lay your head on your desk)? No one wants to feel like their time has been wasted by an elearning course. eLearning courses that have been carefully developed by a tag-team duo of an instructional designer and an elearning designer can increase learner engagement, provide a clearer understanding of a difficult topic, and improve learner retention, among other things.  

So, what is the difference between instructional design and elearning design? Think about it in terms of UX and UI. Instructional designers work toward enhancing user experience (UX) in web-based training courses. They are concerned with making sure the course architecture, flow, navigation and content work together to accomplish the defined learner objectives. eLearning designers, on the other hand, focus on bringing the course to life with visual elements that support the instructional design of the course. eLearning designers use graphic elements to enhance course content, make it more digestible for the learner and increase retention. Instructional design and elearning design are also like UX and UI in the sense that while they may have different functions, the two go hand-in-hand.

Now that you know the difference between an instructional designer and elearning designer, let’s look at five reasons this tag-team duo should create your next web-based training:

1. First impressions are important.
   It only takes 1/10^th of a second to form a first impression. Your web-based training may be internal, but how your employees feel while taking your courses can impact their effectiveness. Allowing instructional design and elearning design to work together to create custom elearning will not only increase retention and improve learner satisfaction, but will also increase motivation—as courses that garner high satisfaction and retention are proven to do. 
2. Increase learner engagement.
   Instructional design and elearning design can increase learner engagement in a number of ways. For example, instructional designers can implement gamification or real-life scenarios to help the learner stay focused and apply what they’ve learned, and elearning designers can use screen layout, animation, fonts, colors and images to create an inviting course that reinforces course objectives and is easy to focus on.
3. Improve informational recall.
   Did you know that people are only likely to recall 10% of content they hear? However, when a corresponding image accompanies that same information, people are 65% more likely to recall the information. The power of relevant information and custom graphics can quite literally make or break your course.
4. Provide a clearer understanding of difficult topics.
   It’s estimated that our brains process visual information 60,000 times faster than text-based information. 60,000x. When presented with a difficult topic, instructional designers and elearning designers work together to organize and create content and graphics to present information in a digestible manner.
5. UX and UI are better together.
   UX is how things work, while UI is how things look, and the most effective web-based training incorporates both. Effective elearning design utilizes the skills of both an instructional designer and an elearning designer to deliver a course that is engaging for learners and achieves the defined learner objectives.

When all is said and done, your learners are busy and have progressively shorter attention spans (thanks a lot, smartphones), so providing learners with information in a way that is both efficient—AKA “a good use of their time”—as well as effective, is paramount to achieving success.

Kinetic’s number one objective when creating custom training is to align training outcomes with your business goals and objectives. Our design team is well-versed in creating engaging, effective training that is custom fit to your needs. Want to learn more about how Kinetic can help you with your training needs? Visit our Custom Training Solutions page or contact us to learn more. Our tag-team duo is ready to help you with your custom training needs.