We work closely with your chosen subject-matter experts to define the learning objectives, outline the curricula and determine the appropriate delivery methods, and write the program word-for-word.
Check out TURN THE WHEEL’s Online Learning for Businesses program which details everything that goes into instructional design for creating online courses.
Learning objectives
We first work with your organization to understand the learning needs and articulate these as crisp course learning objectives, e.g.,
From there, we break these down into a more detailed course flow with granular learning objectives and the high-level key points that must be made, e.g.,
Curriculum outline
After aligning on the learning objectives and high-level key points, we work closely with subject-matter experts to design a logical curriculum flow. This involves writing sub-points and any data and information necessary to make those points.
Delivery outline
Next, we enter the phase in which we determine the most effective digital components to deliver the content based on the learning platform we’re using. These components might be:
- Videos (acted, animated/illustrated, interview, VR)
- Text (supplemented with images)
- Multiple-choice questions (exercise in which students select one or more response options to a question and receive instant feedback)
- Drag-and-drops (exercise in which students drag items to the appropriate bucket/category and receive instant feedback)
- Polls / surveys (activity in which students share their opinion and see aggregate results from their peers)
- Discussion boards (activity in which students post thoughts to a discussion board and may reply to their peers’ posts)
- Text fields (activity in which students write a free-form response to a prompt and may view their thoughts later in the course and/or compare their thoughts with a sample response)
- Group projects (assignments that other students have uploaded and shared)
- Simulated chats (messages from a fictional character to which students can respond by choosing from a set of pre-determined response options)
- Clickable graphic (activity in which students click hotspots on an image that reveal pop-up boxes with additional content)
These are standard components that most learning platforms allow; however, we can also design custom components such as the ability to put students in groups and collaborate on deliverables, live chat messaging, note-taking functionality, etc.
We first need to determine which learning platform will best suit your organization’s needs; then we can create a delivery outline as such:
Lesson script
After finalizing the delivery outline, we write each lesson word-for word using a script template that maps to your learning platform. In the case of video interviews, we create a detailed video interview guide with all questions that must be answered by each interviewee, and the points they need to hit.
This lesson script also includes all filenames of collateral (videos, images, handouts) that will appear in the course.
Testimonial
“Katie is an exceptional human being who also happens to be a very talented instructional designer. She is observant, patient, creative, quick-thinking, ambitious, and just plain fun to work with. Katie and I first worked together over a year ago, when she was assigned as the instructional designer on a course I partnered with her team to develop. Since then, she willingly stepped in mid-stream to help me complete the design and development of several other courses. I’ve seen her—on more than one occasion—handle negative feedback about a course with grace. She’s made inspired design recommendations that took the courses we worked on from good to great. And, when needed, she’s jumped into to the nitty-gritty of a course she didn’t design – fixing typos, replacing images, and rewriting narratives. I’ve been able to count on Katie to solve problems, sometimes before I even knew they existed. Throughout this last year, she’s made my job easy. She’s my go-to. If you get the opportunity to work with Katie, you should take it. You won’t be disappointed.”– Barbara Matthews, Global Learning & Leadership Development at McKinsey & Company