How long does it take to learn instructional design? It’s one of the first questions people ask when they’re thinking about moving into instructional design or adding eLearning skills to their existing role. The honest answer is that it depends on where you’re starting from and what you want to be able to do. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a useful answer. Here’s a realistic look at the learning curve.
The basics are more accessible than you might think
The core principles of instructional design, understanding your learners, writing clear learning outcomes, structuring content logically and designing assessment, can be learned relatively quickly with the right guidance. You don’t need a degree in education or years of experience to start applying them. A structured course of around 10 to 15 hours will give you a solid grounding in the fundamentals and enough practical knowledge to start working on real projects.
That’s the starting point, not the finish line. But it’s a meaningful starting point, and many people are surprised by how quickly they can begin producing better learning content once they understand the underlying principles.
Your background makes a difference
If you’re coming from a teaching, training or HR background, you’ll likely find that a lot of the theory feels familiar. You already understand how people learn, how to communicate clearly and how to structure content for an audience. What you’ll need to add is the practical application of those skills to digital learning, particularly around writing for a screen, storyboarding and designing interactions.
If instructional design is entirely new to you, expect to spend a little more time getting comfortable with the foundational theory before the practical side clicks into place. That said, people from all kinds of backgrounds make the transition successfully. Strong writing skills, curiosity and a structured way of thinking will take you a long way.
Doing it is how you really learn it
Like most practical skills, instructional design develops fastest when you’re applying it to real work. Reading about storyboarding is useful. Writing an actual storyboard for a real course is where the learning really accelerates. If you can work on a live project while you’re developing your skills, even a small internal training piece, you’ll make progress much faster than working through theory alone.
Getting feedback on your work is equally important. Having an experienced instructional designer review your storyboard and tell you what’s working and what isn’t will teach you more than any number of hours of independent study.
What does the longer journey look like?
Most instructional designers would say it takes around a year of regular practice to feel genuinely confident across the full design process. That includes everything from conducting a learning needs analysis and writing learning outcomes, through to producing polished storyboards, designing effective assessments and working with subject matter experts. Some aspects, like writing clear concise content and structuring a course well, tend to develop quickly. Others, like scenario writing and getting the tone right for different audiences, take more time and experience.
The good news is that you don’t need to wait until you feel fully confident to start contributing. Most people find they’re producing useful, well-structured learning content within a few months of getting started.
Where to start
If you’re ready to build your instructional design skills, our Instructional Design for eLearning online course is a practical, self-paced online course that takes you through the full design process in around 14 hours. It covers everything from learning theory and needs analysis through to storyboarding, interactions and assessment design, and includes templates and resources you can use on real projects right away. If you’re looking to go further, the eXcolo Toolkit gives you everything you need to build and deliver eLearning in-house, including a storyboarding template, over 150 Articulate Storyline slide types and instructional design training for your team.
