Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks was wrong; it’s never too late to change your life with a career transition. People transition into new careers in new fields, industries, or roles all the time and for many different reasons. 

Perhaps you’re a teacher who’s feeling major burnout. Or maybe you just want to leave your high-stress job for a flexible job you can do anywhere.

If this sounds like you, you’ve come to the right place. Transitioning to an instructional design career may be as simple as enrolling in IDOL Academy. But before you start, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about switching jobs.

There is a growing demand for instructional design skills. Educational institutions, corporate entities, and even non-profit organizations are searching for employees who can create educational content in various sectors. From higher education to SaaS, there are endless opportunities for former [insert your title here] to transition into a career facilitating instructional design.

Understanding Instructional Design

Instructional design is the process of creating, designing, and developing instructional materials to meet specific learning objectives. It is used to create courses, learning materials, and training resources in educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and corporations worldwide.

Instructional design differs from traditional teaching in that instructional design focuses on creating learning materials, whereas teaching facilitates the learning process. While instructional designers may also teach the course, their primary role is to develop and design the content that assists students in learning the materials.

A college degree isn’t required to succeed in instructional design (you can learn it all online!), but specific skills are. 

• Communication skills — both verbal and written  — to share messages and information in a clear and concise manner
• Analytical skills to evaluate the effectiveness of materials and identify areas of improvement
• Proficiency in multimedia and technology, especially emerging and interactive technologies
• Understanding of learning techniques and theories to strategically create learning materials that achieve goals
• Collaboration skills
• Creativity, adaptability, and the critical thinking skills

Typical instructional designer responsibilities include creating course materials, implementing the course, evaluating student performance, and improving course content. Depending on the student's needs, the average time spent making a course is 116 hours per 20-minute module. A 20-minute course may take a full-time employee at least four weeks to develop.

Preparing for Transition

If you’ve committed to moving beyond teaching and exploring new career alternatives, the next step is to prepare for the career shift. Now is the time to assess your personal and professional skills to determine what your next role should entail.

Create a list of your top strengths and weaknesses, including skills you’ve earned special recognition for and skills you want to improve through continuing education. Research available jobs that use the unique skills you possess. You may even benefit from a career quiz to see if specific careers suit you! Don’t forget to include your skills and interests, as this may guide your job search.

Reflect on your experiences to leverage your existing skills from teaching or other fields. When did you overcome a challenge, and how did you accomplish it? In which tasks did you excel and deliver spectacular results? Which skills helped you achieve your goals? For many, problem-solving and critical thinking skills are the most transferable when switching careers. That’s because most jobs require these transferable skills.

Other transferable skills most notably gained from teaching and used often in instructional design include:

• People skills
• Communication skills
• Active listening skills
• Understanding of learning theories

Educational Pathways

As we mentioned earlier, becoming an instructional designer requires no college degree. You can take online and in-person individual courses or get full instructional design training from IDOL Academy in just 24 weeks. Go at your own pace, with a fully digital curriculum and professionals at every step.

While there is no standard degree program for instructional designers, typical coursework includes learning theory, psychology, analytics, and design. Many courses on emerging technology and software, such as Canva, Articulate Storyline, and Genially, are popular modern courses, while augmented reality (AR) courses are on the rise.

Tools of the Trade

As the need for online training resources and education rises, especially after the early 2020s, the instructional design industry relies on tools and technologies to achieve goals and advance curriculum. It’s also essential for instructional designers to understand the most popular tools and technologies as younger, more technologically advanced students enter the classroom.

Digital design, video editing, and virtual reality are among the most popular tools, technology, and software for instructional designers to learn.

• Canva is one of the most popular graphic design programs in the world. It offers thousands of graphics, videos, presentations, images, and templates. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy for beginners to create documents and photos for courses.
  
  
• Articulate Storyline is an eLearning development tool (a content authoring platform) that helps designers create eLearning projects, design storyboards and wireframes, and publish the final courses.
  
  
• Genially is an interactive communication tool for designing images, infographics, animations, and other interactive elements for engaging eLearning courses. It helps designers avoid bland visuals to improve learning performance.
  
  
• Vyond allows instructional designers to create engaging and professional-looking animations in a user-friendly software environment. Even those without graphic design skills can learn to develop polished animations.
  
  
• Camtasia is a video-editing software that helps designers create professional videos with quality editing and transitions to assist learners in their educational journey. 

To learn these tools, prepare to take courses specializing in each one. You’ll get hands-on experience with each tool and project examples to showcase in your instructional design portfolio.

Before you commit to each course individually, note that IDOL Academy offers training in the most popular tools in its curriculum, saving you money and time!

Implementing New Knowledge

As you learn (or improve upon) the skills required of instructional designers, it’s essential to implement this knowledge in real-world situations. After all, practice makes perfect, and this provides an opportunity to fill your portfolio.

To practice newly acquired skills as you study to become an instructional designer, look for internship opportunities and freelance projects. If you cannot participate in one of these opportunities, create pretend projects! Whether for real or make-believe clients, showcasing your skills in action with real work examples will show potential employers and clients just how talented you are, especially if you also include results gained.

For inspiration, look at these real-world examples of gamification in instructional design. Use these concepts to create your ideas, utilizing the successful aspects to recreate your accomplishments!

Job Market Insights

The increasing demand for digital learning and workplace training drives a massive demand for instructional designers. Similarly, the popularity of remote work is making it easier than ever to find a new career in instructional design from your home office. The salaries are comfortable, too; instructional designers' starting salaries typically start at $50,000 per year and can be more than $110,000+ depending on experience and industry.

The number of potential employers needing instructional designers is almost infinite, and the technology, healthcare, and financial services industries are booming when it comes to hiring instructional designers.

Though the job titles may vary, the roles remain similar. Whether you’re applying for a course developer position or searching for a learning architect role, networking is one of the best ways to find a position in this job market. 

Update your LinkedIn profile and share with connections that you’re looking for a new role in instructional design. Include courses you’re taking, share your portfolio, and engage with others in the field to build your network and expand your opportunities. The Global Learning and Development Community is also a great place to meet like-minded peers in the ID field and learn about new resources.

Transitioning from one career to instructional design is not impossible; in fact, it’s made a lot easier thanks to the endless resources available for learning about instructional design as a new career.

Many people, especially in recent years, have made the simple transition from teaching to instructional design. However, many other jobs require the transferable skills needed to excel in instructional design! 

If you pride yourself on your problem-solving skills and communication techniques and love teaching and/or learning, then instructional design might be the future career path for you! You’ll not only get started in an up-and-coming field while it’s hot, but you’ll also likely gain more work-life balance, a slower-paced day-to-day, and possibly even a higher salary.

What are you waiting for?! You can learn everything you need to know about instructional design as a career right here at IDOL Academy. We think you’ll be so satisfied with our training and certification program that we offer an IDOL Academy Guarantee. Graduate with a portfolio you’re proud of, or get your money back. Download our brochure to learn more about the curriculum and courses now.

If you’re not quite sold on instructional design as a career, let us help you decide. Join our Open House Webinar to learn more about the profession.