Do you know the difference between an e-learning specialist, curriculum designer, and educational consultant? These are all different types of instructional designers who can make a huge impact in any organization.

In this post, we will go over 8 types of instructional designers that recruiters should consider understanding before hiring.

What Is An Instructional Designer?

An instructional designer is a specialized educator who designs effective learning experiences for students. This can include creating courses, writing course lessons and activities, developing materials and assessments, designing an interactive learning environment, providing feedback to teachers and guidance to learners, and other related tasks.

8 Types Of Instructional Designers That Recruiters Should Know

1. Videographers

Videographers are the perfect partners for creating videos that are geared toward education. That’s because they can craft stories in an impactful and compact format and pair it with emotionally engaging visuals to make sure learners understand and remember the content better.

The skillset that goes into scriptwriting, editing, audio & music, as well as composition, also makes them well-suited to producing high-quality learning videos, video tutorials, and YouTube or TED talks.

2. Marketers Or Communications Professionals

Learning consultants with expertise in communication bring a great deal to the table. With experience in tone, voice, narration, and scripting, they know how to make large amounts of content consistent and true to the brand.

Often acting as copy editors, these professionals also have a background in digital marketing, which allows them to create website content as well as monitor learning analytics.

3. Learner Experience Designer

Learner experience designers play an essential role in developing strategies and approaches for designing learning experiences that are effective, interactive, and enjoyable.

They often act as the key liaison between instructional designers and learners, leveraging knowledge fields like cognitive psychology and user experience design to create visuals, content, games, and activities to optimize learner engagement.

4. Content Developer

Content developers are a critical part of any educational organization. As content developers, they are responsible for creating and revising existing instructional materials to meet the needs of learners in a variety of fields.

Furthermore, they have excellent research abilities since they need to create numerous case studies or do other deep dives into subject matters to come up with relevant teaching materials.

5. Educators

Educators have the ability to engage learners in ways that allow them to comprehend complicated concepts and information properly. Generally, they have studied education-specific techniques prior to working in public school systems, and have a Bachelor of Education degree as a minimum qualification.

6.Technical Writers

Instructional designers, along with a technical writing background, have a rare ability: to take complex and often technical operations, such as those found in technology-based processes, and transform them into something more intuitive and user-friendly.

Additionally, these designers possess the savvy required to visualize complex information in a comprehensible way.

7. Business Analysts

Business analysts can help you make sense of the data associated with your Learning Management System (LMS). They have experience and expertise in conducting audits, evaluating effectiveness, measuring training impact, and providing project management for large initiatives or programs.

Marketers and business analysts alike have the skill set to analyze qualitative and quantitative data that can be used to make smart business decisions; they know where to invest in order to maximize returns.

8. Project Manager

Project managers have knowledge about industry best practices and can create training plans that include defined timelines, project goals, and resource allocation. They understand how to manage the tasks associated with production and have the capacity to identify potential areas of risk.

Conclusion

If you are in the market to hire instructional designers, it is important to understand the types and what they each bring to the table.

At the end of the day, instructional design is a field that requires both hard skills (such as training development) and soft skills (like being able to adapt on the fly). We wish you luck in your search for excellent candidates!