Instructional Designer: Salary & Duties

Remember Ben Stein's character in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" ("Bueller ... Bueller ... Bueller...")? The monotonous high school teacher could have used some outside help to engage his disinterested students.

After all, education encompasses more than what students might learn; it deals with how they might learn. That's where instructional designers come in. As experts on how people learn, instructional designers find ways to help them learn better.

Duties of an instructional designer
Simply put, instructional designers design and develop learning experiences. Working with subject matter experts to identify what students need to learn, instructional designers develop learning objectives and ensure that the content matches those objectives.

Then, instructional designers revise and structure content and activities to shape them for learning needs. They also create media to support learning, develop assessments, and adapt instructional materials.

Where to find instructional design jobs
Many people get into instructional design after working as teachers or software trainers. Not surprisingly, the majority of today's instructional design jobs are in online education, and may be found in corporations, higher education, and e-learning vendors.

Instructional designers often find jobs by networking in professional organizations such as the eLearning Guild or the American Society for Training & Development.

Instructional design programs
A formal instructional design program generally leads to a master's degree in instructional design or educational technology. Instructional design programs include training in curriculum development and instruction, research design, and student and teacher evaluation techniques. Students learn ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate), the most common instructional design model.

It is worth noting, however, that many instructional designers do not have formal degrees in instructional design; rather, they hail from a wide range of educational backgrounds, mostly in the liberal arts.

Demand for instructional designers
Factors driving the increase in instructional design jobs include a need for greater educational quality as well as more accountability for student and teacher performance.

Though technology skills are not required for all instructional design jobs, basic HTML knowledge, learning management system experience, and familiarity with Web 2.0 tools can be a real asset for job seekers. According to Payscale.com, median annual earnings of instructional designers with one to four years experience are $49,060.

Make a difference in the lives of learners by choosing a career in instructional design.

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