Top 10 Online Instructional Design Courses in the World

Rains, pregnancies, sabbaticals, spiritual journeys, or rising petrol prices, these are a few reasons  why we may want to stay home—quit our fulltime job—and work part time from our terrace or garden. One of the best work-from-home opportunities is offered by the eLearning industry—the role of an instructional design consultant (IDC). To excel at this role, a person needs to be a strong communicator (verbal and written), have an excellent command over the English language (US and UK-English depending on the client), understand instructional design theories and models and follow rules of multimedia engagement and spacial visualization.

As an entrant or crossover professional into the field of instructional design (ID), you have available to you a smorgasbord of courseware and learning tools—starting with current and personalized blogs to several free and quick online tutorials and resource lists, extending to certifications and degrees. For those who want to study in a formal yet flexible format there are serious online courses that offer an in-depth view of the eLearning industry and the role of an instructional designer. These courses follow a partial massive open online course (MOOC) model, allowing you to sit in your home and interact with participants from all over, similar to the globally distributed and virtual nature of the eLearning industry itself that you want to break into.

To get started, all you need is a computer and a broadband connection. Once you select a course and register, what follows are ambitious yet measurable course goals, richly textured discussions and experience using a plethora of diverse multimedia (you will be introduced to cutting-edge interactive digital platforms). Most importantly, you will get a keen insight into the kind of learning experience you could be designing for as an IDC. You will also get an overview of the variegated roles you can play along the ID value chain: design the course approach or strategy, establish storyboarding and language standards, storyboard using MS Word, MS PowerPoint or automated tools such as Captivate and Articulate and review/evaluate courseware for quality compliance and adherence.

Here is a selection of ten online courses available to you to upgrade all of these skills. The yardstick used to rank them is as follows: university master degrees come first, followed by university certifications, next are courses designed by training companies and we finally end with two free tutorials offered by recognized instruction design stalwarts. Most of these courses are scheduled for the second half of 2012 and all through 2013. Get ready to learn and certify yourself in this intellectually challenging field of work that exercises your creative and logical brains.

Capella University, a leader in the field of education technology, offers a Masters Degree Instructional Design for Online Learning. Priced at $420 per credit (total 48 credits required of which 12 quarter credits may be transferred into this specialization), the course offers a curriculum that balances instructional design, learner psychology and technology integration by using effective methods of online delivery, software tools and project management. Course details are located at: www.capella.edu/schools_programs/education/masters/instructional_design_online_learning.aspx. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

University of Massachusetts’ virtual learning portal UMassOnline offers a Master of Education in Instructional Design. The course teaches the ID process, adult learning theory, multimedia communication and learning needs of organizations. To qualify for this course, the learner must demonstrate some experience with developing learning solutions. The degree consists of 12 courses (2 of these courses are not available online and need to be taken at Boston or Nantucket Island). Priced at $1425, course details are located at: www.umassonline.net/degrees/Online-Degree-Master-Education-Instructional-Design.cfm. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

The University of California, Irvine presents a six course Certificate in E-Learning Instructional Design, available during the summer and fall semesters. The learner is introduced to the ADDIE model to create online lesson prototypes. Tools such as Articulate and Captivate are demonstrated. The course also covers project management and design implementation for story and game-based learning techniques, evaluation and assessment standards and ends with a capstone project. Course details are located at: http://unex.uci.edu/certificates/business_mgmt/elearning. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

The University of Wisconsin Stout offers four x 8-week online courses to complete their Instructional Design Certificate. The courses cover topics such as: trends and issues in ID, instructional strategies and assessment methods, designing computer-based training (CBT) and project management for instructional development. Course details are located at: www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/instructionaldesigncert.cfm. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

The SNDT Women’s University’s Department of Educational Technology has launched its first online instructional design course. Priced at Rs 10,000, the course provides an overview of ID and teaches learners how to storyboard. The course borrows from a successful two-year masters program in Instructional Design (Master in Educational Technology-Computer Applications) that SNDT has been offering for the last 10 years. Course details are located at: http://detsndt.ac.in/4credit.htm. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

StaffKit, an online business and training company offers a series of five well-structured courses priced at $30 (delivering 17 hours of learning). The Instructional Design Training walks the learner through the technical and artistic requirements of creating digital curriculum—ID process, learner needs and content analysis, establishment of business and learning objectives, design strategies, course implementation and summative evaluation. Course details are located at: www.staffkit.com/learn/series/instructional-design-training.htm. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

GOLS Academy, an online community college that hosts the largest library of India-centric off-the-shelf (OTS) courseware, trains technical writers to work in the eLearning domain and other industries where they need to successfully communicate about a product or service. Learn to use software such as Adobe FrameMaker and AuthorWare to create technical manuals, user guides and training materials. Priced at Rs 7,650, the course runs for 2.5 months. Course details are located at: www.golsacademy.com/courses-elearning.jsp?id=1. This is a paid, certified learning experience.

Senior Instructional Design Consultant, Annette Devilee, has designed several online instructional design courses. Foundations of Effective Instructional Design defines the field of instructional design, professional ethics and guidelines, learning theories, learning science, designing technology-based learning resources and introduces instructional design models. Using moodle, wikis and blogs and priced at $375 (Australian), the course details are located at: http://instructionaldesign.com.au/courses/FoundationsCourseInfo_1_7_12.pdf. This is a paid, non-certified learning experience.

Michael & Associates, a certified training company presents five audio-driven, 15-minute courses made in Brainshark that introduce instructional designers to storyboarding formats, design approach challenges and learner care techniques. Their website also offers six tutorials on blended learning, which by logical extension, also falls into the purview of trainers-transiting-to-instructional designers. The tutorials themselves present great examples of rapid prototyping and how basic and effective click-driven courses can incite learner engagement. Courses details are located at: www.docntrain.com/resources.php. This is a free, non-certified learning experience.

Instructional design expert Ann Gordon has created a course with a simple format that presents a detailed tutorial into the business of instructional design. This self-study links to various academic papers and highlights the role of the instructional designer in developing the design approach, liaisoning with subject matter experts (SMEs), studying learner needs, complying with learning management system (LMS), setting measurable learning outcomes and developing writing standards. The course is located at: http://instructionaldesign.gordoncomputer.com. This is a free, non-certified learning experience.