r/instructionaldesign

Is it just me or do managers actually know what gamification actually is?

I've recently come across more than one manager who literally seems to think gamification is taking the content and turning it into a game.

From these managers, you hear stuff like "turning this content into a game sounds like the way to go".

And some elearning / SaaS based learning vendors seems to have picked up on this because now they're sprinkling the word "Gamified" into their websites.

Anyone else pick up on this?

I’m tired of the "Mac Tax" in ID. I love my MacBook for everything - design, video editing, management but the second I need to open Storyline or Suite Max, I’m back in 2015.

I tried Parallels but the lag killed my flow and drained my Mac's battery. Now I’m stuck keeping a dedicated Windows PC on my desk just for course authoring. It feels ridiculous to have a two-computer setup just because the industry standard course authoring tools refuse to go native on macOS.

To my fellow Mac-based IDs: How are you actually navigating this?

Are you just sucking it up with a second machine? Did you find a cloud-based VM that actually works without the lag? Or have you finally ditched the Windows-only tools for web-native ones even if it means losing some complex functionality?

I can’t be the only one frustrated by this. What’s your setup? I honestly want to know if there is a better way or if we’re all just collectively stuck in 2015. Recommendations desperately needed.

Hi everyone! I’m a freelancer, and I frequently send out screen recordings to explain software interfaces and workflows. I usually record a voiceover while moving the cursor to highlight specific areas, but I still find that users often have follow-up questions.

I’ve been thinking about a workflow where I can easily create freeze-frames and add arrows, text, or callouts directly onto the paused video. I’m actually considering building a small tool to make this faster, as doing it in traditional editors is quite tedious.

I wanted to ask the professionals:

• Do you use freeze-frames with annotations in your instructional videos?
• Is it considered an effective pedagogical technique, or do you find it's too disruptive for the learner?

I'm (27f) in a bit of a strange situation. I have about 6 months left of living overseas for my spouse's military service. I just graduated online with a bachelor's of English/ technical writing. Honestly, I've had a pretty hard time figuring out what I want to do with my life and basically had zero stability in life until this past year. I've been talking with a career counselor on base and she said that instructional design may be a good fit for me, based on what I have done well at in the past and the kind of environments I tend to do well in (definitely not anything high pressure or super personal like sales lol)

The counselor has encouraged me to pursue a a masters of instructional design from WGU (I know it has a longer name, I just forgot what it is right now). Over the next 6 months, I likely will not be able to work at all due to how competitive it is on bases to find jobs. I figure I might as well work towards waifu. But I've honestly never had much of a direction that felt aligned and possible for me.

TBH, none of this is super important to my question. But how did you know that instructional design was right for you? What strengths did you bring into it or learn from it? What advice would you give for somebody without an education background?

Hi everyone!

I have a final round interview for a Learning, Development, & Onboarding Specialist position with a large corporate company. For the interview, they’ve asked me to create a 10 minute presentation on one the following topics:

-Creating Engaging Learning Materials: Best practices for designing content that doesn't just deliver information, but truly "sticks" for a modern audience.

OR

-AI in L&D: Increasing Productivity: How can Artificial Intelligence specifically enhance the efficiency of Learning & Development teams today?

My questions are:

1. Which topic do you think I should go with?

2. What can I do to create an amazing presentation to impress the panel? And how should I structure the presentation? I have complete creative freedom in my approach.

3. I’d like to include something interactive, if possible; are there any tools I could incorporate? For context, I’m a former teacher so I’m thinking tools like PearDeck or Kahoot but something more geared towards adults/corporate audience.

Any and all advice/suggestions are welcome! TIA :)

I know that Storyline has some capability to create a mock sort of driver dashboard, etc. But is there something out there that can actually give a learner the true experience of being behind the wheel of an actual large delivery truck as it does its rounds? It could be something that an ID could customize and/or build or even something already available.

background: I was originally an instructor for a company, an old client reached out and said they want to work with me specifically and advised me to make my own company

so far i have:

made my LLC

am waiting to get my EIN

am looking for liability insurance

have had 1 meeting with (if i remember correctly) the person in charge of the program who wanted to meet again with an outline for a 6-8 week curriculum and to discuss the possibility of a 1 year curriculum

we met again, they liked what i had, and want to meet again this Wednesday with a draft of a contract and to discuss pricing, and apparently the CAO of the school will be there

I want to be as professional and prepared as possible and have materials/documents ready in case they want to know more. What kind of questions or discussions can I expect from this? I really want to make this work- teaching people (especially what subject I will be teaching) is my purpose, and so is being self owned. any information or advice or things to avoid during the meeting would be greatly appreciated. Thank you :)

So my SME's send me some excel sheets etc and I need to create a course or quiz from those. Since I will be doing this constantly, I am thinking I should just automate this.

Is the Adapt Framework the only quick solution? Obviously I can create the course from scratch with code but if I can leverage some existing tools or frameworks that would be better.

We ran a small informal research with a handful of L&D specialists and the honest answer was pretty consistent: most companies don't actually calculate training ROI. They track completion rates, maybe satisfaction scores, and call it a day.

Which is interesting given that the Kirkpatrick Model has been around since the 1950s. Four levels — reaction, learning, behaviour, results. Solid framework. But level 3 and 4 (did behaviour actually change, did it impact business results?) require time, manager involvement, and data infrastructure that most L&D teams just don't have.

So my questions for this thread:

Do the companies you work with actually measure training effectiveness beyond completion and happy-sheet scores?

And if Kirkpatrick feels too heavy for your setup — what does your actual evaluation process look like?

curious whether anyone's found a leaner approach that gets close to the same signal without a six-month follow-up cycle.

Hi everyone! I joined the L&D space about 3 years ago and I work closely with pulling reporting from our LMS cornerstone but it’s such a headache.

We thought getting it connected to a PowerBi dashboard would help but that took months to get our IT team to do and now that we have it, it’s just great to see but not much valuable or concrete for use.

Any suggestions/ tips on this? I’d love to see how other teams do this. Especially for quarter reporting. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm a late-mid-level LD who was recently made redundant. I've worked in this field for 7 years and have a portfolio that I include with each application, even if the JD doesn't ask for one.

I know I'm probably preaching to the converted with this, but I am already SO over the interview processes these days!! it's been just over 2.5 years since I last interviewed and things are different. The industry is more saturated, there are far fewer jobs, the pay is a bit lower in general. I kinda get all of that.

What I really resent (and want to vent about here) is the interview process. A screener and one interview with a portfolio, fair enough. Even a second-tier interview. I get it, I don't think it's necessary but ok. But 3+ rounds of interview and TAKE HOME TASKS when a portfolio is provided.

For the love of God, I have been doing this for 7+ years, I have references, I built a website to show you my work, and I've been screened, and met with several stakeholders and you STILL want more, BEFORE you're paying me?

I am going to be retraining as an OT shortly, and I have actually applied for cleaning jobs and disability support work so that I can get out of this crazy corporate rat race. I'm just so over the stress, uncertainty, and insane hoops we have to jump through to even be considered.

Am I alone in this? I'd love to hear others' genuine takes.

Rant over.

Not looking for hot takes on whether AI will replace us. More interested in the practical reality of people who've actually integrated it into their day-to-day.

Specifically curious about: which part of the ID process it's genuinely useful for (research? stakeholder communication? storyboarding?), which tools you're using beyond Claude, and where you've tried it and quietly gone back to doing it yourself.

Would love to hear from people doing real workplace training work, not just content creation.

I'm running a survey for learning professionals about the skills we need for the future. Essentially no younger people are completing it. After 10 days we have 113 responses, which is a great response rate over that period of time BUT 7 from entry level. Younger people in our field, are you out there???

tl;dr i used to work for a company that provided educational content and instruction remotely to schools k-12. i am now starting my own business doing the same and my client is ready to discuss pricing and wants me to send over a contract. i am trying to learn as much as i can about the business side of things, but am i right in thinking i should be offfering them a service contract? if not then what kind of contract should i be having made for this? i am sure there is lots i am missing, any advice is welcomed and appreciated.

they are considering having me for a 6-8 week program (that they are considering extending to be an entire semester instead), and a 1 year long program.

So, i come from business background and want to instill design lens to how I approach problems..like D.school from stanford. Are there good YouTube channels - any professor who has uploaded their instruction design lectures end to end for a complete beginner to start infusing design and strategy. Have been in roles of trainings and enablement before:) interested in more expansive lens of workshops and brainstorming lens too

Curious whether you’ve found ways to get employees to actually engage with compliance training... not just click Next until it’s over. Would love to hear what’s worked (or hasn’t). 😀

https://preview.redd.it/o3hcf24isevg1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c62236ec88ea619435ecbc5fe58be84c0bcd113

Does this realistically capture the truth. Is Video just that much better? This was a study done by FOSWAY - very reputable.

Building a cybersecurity awareness training, and got into a debate with myself.

Option A: engaging and interactive. In theory, users should resent this type of content less and gain practical skills for dealing with threats. Obviously, this format takes a much bigger portion of participants' time than clicking through the presentation. But builds muscle memory and improves knowledge

Option B: save people's time with a less interactive approach, but accept that the training becomes a wall of text we all click through without reading. Thus, minimal knowledge or skills would be gained

Obviously ideal scenario would be to meet in the middle and provide "somewhat interactive, but time-efficient" training. Which is what I'm trying to do. And if I ask employees at our company, 100% of them would tell me that the faster they complete it, the better

The question is: if you had option A and option B, which are the polar opposites -- which would you choose?

This might be a really silly question but does anyone know of a content library where I can find good quality images for elearning. Like if you’re doing a health and safety course there’s some professional looking assets I could use? Many thanks