WORKSHOPS

DESIGNING MATERIALS WORKSHOP

While the learning world has seemingly moved on to digital modalities for learning delivery, the reality is that most instructional designers are still charged with designing workbooks, facilitator guides, and job aids for in-person or virtual classroom use. There’s little guidance for creating these materials and no standards to follow. Instructional designers are left to their own devices or random guidelines handed down to them that were created by long-gone colleagues. The truth is there is guidance for creating these materials, but we must pull from what little has already been written and combine those with insights culled from other industries.

In this session, we’ll look specifically at designing and developing workbooks, facilitator guides, and job aids. The scope includes planning, writing, and developing them using the software you already have like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, along with a few new ones to add to your toolbox. We’ll begin with a case study and determine what types of materials would best support learners before, during, and after a learning experience. Then we’ll create a plan for creating our materials, which will include a strategy, a methodology, and a suggested timeline for each type.

​Next, we’ll take a user-centered approach to lay out content on the page so that learners can easily navigate the documents. We’ll apply a framework to designing facilitator guides and workbooks based on best practices for designing materials for in-class use. We’ll also explore writing techniques for our materials, considering qualities such as voice, style, and perspective. You’ll get the opportunity to apply these strategies to a sample workbook and facilitator guide. We’ll also discuss strategies for converting these materials for use in other modalities like the virtual classroom, asynchronous eLearning, or blended learning approaches. Finally, we’ll explore quality assurance and control strategies to ensure that the documentation you produce is error-free. You’ll walk away with strategies, templates, and examples that you can reference and use back on the job.

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