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Open Author helps you build and publish Open Educational Resources for you and for the benefit of educators and learners everywhere.

Learn more about creating OER

Groups provides a flexible environment to organize, create, share, and discuss resources with others in your network. Collaborate with group members, tag and add resources to shared folders, create your own collections, all within a public or private group.

Groups

Search through collections curated by our digital librarians

Collections

Common Core resources organized for your needs

Common Core

Hubs

A Custom Resource Center

Projects, districts, states, and initiatives make use of Hubs to bring groups of educators together to create, organize, and share OER collections that meet their common goals. Explore Hubs

Microsites

Custom Digital Libraries

Microsites are custom, flexible sites that include all the features available on OER Commons. Microsites allow your users to search resource collections using a custom taxonomy at a unique URL. Contact Us

Our award-winning OER Professional Learning programs support instructors and curriculum specialists to gain the necessary skills required to find, adapt, and evaluate high quality open materials.

In-person and virtual OER workshops help focus instructors to develop a "commons" mindset, to experience the benefits of open processes using the platform's tools, collaborative features, and workflows. This can include using Open Author for creating, remixing, and publishing shared curriculum.

Learn More

How to Search OER Commons

View all How-to videos

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OER Commons is a dynamic digital library and network. Explore open education resources and join our network of educators dedicated to curriculum improvement.

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Open educational resources are somewhat different from open learning, in that they are primarily content, while open learning includes both content and educational services, such as specially designed online materials, in-built learner support and assessment.

Open educational resources cover a wide range of online formats, including online textbooks, video recorded lectures, YouTube clips, web-based textual materials designed for independent study, animations and simulations, digital diagrams and graphics, some MOOCs, or even assessment materials such as tests with automated answers. OER can also include Powerpoint slides or pdf files of lecture notes. In order to be open educational resources, though, they must be freely available for at least educational use.

10.2.1 Principles of OER

David Wiley is one of the pioneers of OER. He and colleagues have suggested (Hilton et al., 2010) that there are five core principles of open publishing:

re-use: The most basic level of openness. People are allowed to use all or part of the work for their own purposes (for example, download an educational video to watch at a later time);

re-distribute: People can share the work with others (for example, send a digital article by-email to a colleague);

revise: People can adapt, modify, translate, or change the work (for example, take a book written in English and turn it into a Spanish audio book);

re-mix: People can take two or more existing resources and combine them to create a new resource (for example, take audio lectures from one course and combine them with slides from another course to create a new derivative work);

retain: No digital rights management restrictions (DRM); the content is yours to keep, whether you're the author, an instructor using the material, or a student.

This open textbook you are reading meets all five criteria (it has a CC BY-NC license - see Section 10.2.2 below). Users of OER though need to check with the actual license for re-use, because sometimes there are limitations, as with this book, which cannot be reproduced without permission for commercial reasons. For example, it cannot be turned into a book for profit by a commercial publisher, at least without written permission from the author. To protect your rights as an author of OER usually means publishing under a Creative Commons or other open license.

10.2.2 Creative Commons licenses

This seemingly simple idea, of an 'author' creating a license enabling people to freely access and adapt copyright material, without charge or special permission, is one of the great ideas of the 21st century. This does not take away someone's copyright, but enables that copyright holder to give permission automatically for different kinds of use of their material without charge or any bureaucracy.

The are now several possible Creative Commons licenses:

CC BY Attribution: lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials;

CC BY-SA: lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This is particularly important if your work also includes other people's materials licensed through the Creative Commons;

CC BY-ND: allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you;

CC BY-NC: lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don't have to license their derivative works on the same terms;

CC BY-NC-SA: lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms;

CC BY-NC-ND: the most restrictive of the six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can't change them in any way or use them commercially.

If you wish to offer your own materials as open educational resources, it is a relatively simple process to choose a licence and apply it to any piece of work (see Creative Commons Choose a License). If in doubt, check with a librarian.

10.2.3 Sources of OER

There are many 'repositories' of open educational resources (see for instance, for post-secondary education, MERLOT, OER Commons, and for k-12, Edutopia).The Open Professionals Education Network has an excellent guide to finding and using OER.

However, when searching for possible open educational resources on the web, check to see whether or not the resource has a Creative Commons license or a statement giving permission for re-use. It may be common practice to use free (no cost) resources without worrying unduly about copyright, but there are risks without a clear license or permission for re-use. For instance, many sites, such as OpenLearn, allow only individual, personal use for non-commercial purposes, which means providing a link to the site for students rather than integrating the materials directly into your own teaching. If in any doubt about the right to re-use, check with your library or intellectual property department.

10.2.4 Limitations of OER

The take-up of OER by instructors is still minimal, other than by those who created the original version. The main criticism is of the poor quality of many of the OER available at the moment - reams of text with no interaction, often available in PDFs that cannot easily be changed or adapted, crude simulation, poorly produced graphics, and designs that fail to make clear what academic concepts they are meant to illustrate.

Falconer (2013), in a survey of potential users' attitudes to OER in Europe, came to the following conclusion:

The ability of the masses to participate in production of OER - and a cultural mistrust of getting something for nothing - give rise to user concerns about quality. Commercial providers/publishers who generate trust through advertising, market coverage and glossy production, may exploit this mistrust of the free. Belief in quality is a significant driver for OER initiatives, but the issue of scale-able ways of assuring quality in a context where all (in principle) can contribute has not been resolved, and the question of whether quality transfers unambiguously from one context to another is seldom [addressed]. A seal of approval system is not infinitely scale-able, while the robustness of user reviews, or other contextualised measures, has not yet been sufficiently explored.

If OER are to be taken up by others than the creators of the OER, they will need to be well designed. It is perhaps not surprising then that the most used OER on iTunes University were the Open University's, until the OU set up its own OER portal, OpenLearn, which offers as OER mainly textual materials from its courses designed specifically for online, independent study. Once again, design is a critical factor in ensuring the quality of an OER.

Hampson (2013) has suggested another reason for the slow adoption of OER, mainly to do with the professional self-image of many faculty. Hampson argues that faculty don't see themselves as 'just' teachers, but creators and disseminators of new or original knowledge. Therefore their teaching needs to have their own stamp on it, which makes them reluctant to openly incorporate or 'copy' other people's work. OER can easily be associated with 'packaged', reproductive knowledge, and not original work, changing faculty from 'artists' to 'artisans'. It can be argued that this reason is absurd - we all stand on the shoulders of giants - but it is the self-perception that's important, and for research professors, there is a grain of truth in the argument. It makes sense for them to focus their teaching on their own research. But then how many Richard Feynmans are there out there?

There is also considerable confusion between 'free' (no financial cost) and 'open', which is compounded by lack of clear licensing information on many OER. For instance, Coursera MOOCs are free, but not 'open': it is a breach of copyright to re-use the material in most Coursera MOOCs within your own teaching without permission. The edX MOOC platform is open source, which means other institutions can adopt or adapt the portal software, but institutions even on edX tend to retain copyright. However, there are exceptions on both platforms: a few MOOCs do have an open licence.

There is also the issue of the context-free nature of OER. Research into learning shows that content is best learned within context (situated learning), when the learner is active, and that above all, when the learner can actively construct knowledge by developing meaning and 'layered' understanding. Content is not static, nor a commodity like coal. In other words, content is not effectively learned if it is thought of as shovelling coal into a truck. Learning is a dynamic process that requires questioning, adjustment of prior learning to incorporate new ideas, testing of understanding, and feedback. These 'transactional' processes require a combination of personal reflection, feedback from an expert (the teacher or instructor) and even more importantly, feedback from and interaction with friends, family and fellow learners.

The weakness with open content is that by its nature, at its purest it is stripped of these developmental, contextual and 'environmental' components that are essential for effective learning. In other words, OER are just like coal, sitting there waiting to be loaded. Coal of course is still a very valuable product. But it has to be mined, stored, shipped and processed. More attention needs to be paid to those contextual elements that turn OER from raw 'content' into a useful learning experience. This means instructors need to build learning experiences or environments into which the OER will fit.

For a useful overview of the research on OER, see the Review Project from the Open Education Group. Another important research project is ROER4D, which aims to provide evidence-based research on OER adoption across a number of countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

10.2.5 How to use OER

Despite these limitations, teachers and instructors are increasingly creating open educational resources, or making resources freely available for others to use under a Creative Commons license. There are increasing numbers of repositories or portals where faculty can access open educational resources. As the quantity of OER expands, it is more likely that teachers and instructors will increasingly be able to find the resources that best suit their particular teaching context.

There are therefore several choices:

take OER selectively from elsewhere, and incorporate or adapt them into your own courses;

create your own digital resources for your own teaching, and make them available to others (see for instance Creating OER and Combining Licenses from Florida State University);

build a course around OER, where students have to find content to solve problems, write reports or do research on a topic (see the scenario at the beginning of this chapter);

take a whole course from OERu, then build student activities and assessment and provide learner support for the course.

Learners can use OER to support any type of learning. For instance, MIT's OpenCourseWare (OCW) could be used just for interest, or students who struggle with the topics in a classroom lecture for a credit course may well go to OCW to get an alternative approach to the same topic (see Scenario B).

10.2.6 Still worth the effort

Despite some of the current limitations or weaknesses of OER, their use is likely to grow, simply because it makes no sense to create everything from scratch when good quality materials are freely and easily available. We have seen in Chapter 8 on selecting media that there is now an increasing amount of excellent open material available to teachers and instructors. This will only grow over time. We shall see in Section 11.10 that this is bound to change the way courses are designed and offered. Indeed, OER will prove to be one of the essential features of teaching in a digital age.

Activity 10.2 Deciding on OER

1. Have you used OER in your own course(s)? Was this a positive or negative experience?

2. If you have not used OER, what is/are the main reason(s)? Have you explored to see what is available? What is the quality like? How could they be improved?

3. Under what circumstances would you be prepared to create or convert your own material as OER?

References

Falconer, I. et al. (2013) Overview and Analysis of Practices with Open Educational Resources in Adult Education in Europe Seville, Spain: European Commission Institute for Prospective Technological Studies

Hampson, K. (2013) The next chapter for digital instructional media: content as a competitive difference Vancouver BC: COHERE 2013 conference

Hilton, J., Wiley, D., Stein, J., & Johnson, A. (2010). The four R's of openness and ALMS Analysis: Frameworks for open educational resources. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 25(1), 37-44

See also:

Li, Y, MacNeill, S., and Kraan, W. (undated) Open Educational Resources - Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education Bolton UK: JISC_CETIS

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Open educational resources are somewhat different from open learning, in that they are primarily content, while open learning includes both content and educational services, such as specially designed online materials, in-built learner support and assessment.

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The term open educational resources (OER) was coined at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on Open Courseware and defines OER as:

"teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Open licensing is built within the existing framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international conventions and respects the authorship of the work." (UNESCO/COL Paris OER Declaration, 2012)

Education systems around the world are facing pressure to increase access to education and training, while also ensuring it is affordable and meets high quality standards. While governments have signed on to international agreements in support of education as a fundamental human right and as a sustainable development goal (SDG), many are finding that cost and quality factors are making it difficult for them to meet their obligations.

Access to relevant learning resources is an important aspect of lifelong learning and the ability to provide that access at the necessary scale is proving a challenge. Addressing this challenge is essential to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all, as outlined in SDG4, as well as supporting citizens in gaining sustainable livelihoods.

COL has identified the development of OER as a potential answer to these challenges. OER provide governments, institutions, organizations and individuals with access to some of the best materials available globally, allow them to adapt the materials to fit the local context and reduce the costs associated with materials and course development.

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The term open educational resources (OER) was coined at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on Open Courseware and defines OER as: "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.

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Our Main Focus:

OER Africa is undertaking collaborative work to develop the professional competences and skills of stakeholders within African higher education institutions so that they can implement OER practices to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

We are:

Developing and testing effective models of continuous professional development for supporting OER practices,

Sharing knowledge gained through a range of mechanisms, and

Developing an evidence-based CPD framework comprising a set of inter-related learning pathways on effective OER practices.

Our website showcases resources and information to help with understanding OER; information on what is happening in OER in higher education in Africa; and OER courseware that has been developed in Africa and research, and policies around OER in Africa. More detail on our current and past work is available in About Us

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OER Africa is undertaking collaborative work to develop the professional competences and skills of stakeholders within African higher education institutions so that they can implement OER practices to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

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75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom

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We’ve compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools that can help teachers use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

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2. - Creaza has two tools teachers can use: Cartoonist and Mindomo. Cartoonist creates cartoons or personal digital stories, consisting of professional backgrounds, characters, props, images, and text. Mindomo is about creating mind maps and easily turning mind maps into stunning presentations. Both are perfect tools to turn your lessons into stories.

- This app allows children to create their own cartoon characters and comics and present the lessons they have learned with the class through cartoons. If you're looking for a fun and unique class project that students will love, give Pixton a try.

7. MySimpleShow - One of the truly most simple video tools, MySimpleShow allows you to create a fully animated video in minutes. All you need to do is upload a script, and voila, your animated video is created. Perfect for teachers just getting started with animated video creation. Oh, and it's free for educators!

Reading Tools

13. - Raz-Kids delivers over 400+ interactive, eBooks spanning 29 levels with new books added every month. Also corresponding eQuizzes test comprehension, providing teachers with skill reports for data-driven instruction. Online running records let teachers digitally assess each student, saving valuable classroom time.

Classroom Management & Organization Tools

Parent - Teacher Communication Tools

23. - ClassTag enables parents to sign up via the app to volunteer or help with classroom activities. ClassTag also allows teachers to create newsletters and schedule parent-teacher conferences . While many teachers struggle to build relationships with parents for whom English is not the primary language, ClassTag offers the ability to send messages to parents in their preferred language and have their responses translated back into English.

24. Join Our Class - This is a personalized parent-teacher communication portal that offers a simple dashboard for viewing news, announcements, blog posts, birthdays, and photos all in one place.

25. Show My Homework - An app that allows teachers to set homework for their students which is also monitored by their parents. Complete with prompts, schedules, and attachments to help students to keep on track with their homework assignments.

Assessment & Quizzes Tools

26. - There are hundreds of fun digital assessment tools out there and they can all plug into ZzishHub. This includes their own assessment tool Quizalize. These tools allow you to get instant insights from your classroom. ZzishHub shows you which students need help and what they need help with, so you can easily personalize your teaching. It even tells you which apps, websites, videos, and worksheets have helped similar students improve the most.

32. Kahoot! - The classic interactive quizzing game! Fully customizable, Kahoot! makes it easy to create and share fun learning games in your classroom. Used all around the world, for students of all ages, Kahoot! is a must for any modern-day teacher.

Teaching Props & Worksheets

33. - If you're a teacher and having checked out Pinterest, it's time to get on board! This site is packed with so many ideas for creating props and games for your interactive classroom. From making crafts to looking for new games to teach your students - Pinterest has it all! A one-stop shop for teaching ideas. You can create boards to save your 'pins' so you can get inspired and remember your favorite ideas.

38. TeachersPayTeachers : T eachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original educational materials. An awesome way to get unique lesson plans and supporting other teachers. All educational materials are 100% created by other teachers around the world.

Learning Through Music Tools

39. That's us! Jam Campus is a premium K-12 educational song library that your students are guaranteed to love. Including many popular school topics, Jam Campus uses catchy hip-hop and pop beats to create the internet's Jam Campus Education : best science songs, math songs, and history songs. A brilliant tool for teachers to introduce topics to their classroom. Start your free trial today!

41. : If you're looking for free educational songs and parodies, YouTube is an excellent resource. The biggest library of songs and music you can use in your classroom. Some of our favorite channels are Jam Campus, Mr Parr, Science Music Videos, Mr. Betts Class, and Science With Tom.

42. A music timing game that introduces the basic concepts of rhythm. Children tap their fingers to the beat to create their favorite songs.

Online Learning Games

Mindfulness in the Classroom Tools

50. - Studying and teaching can be incredibly stressful. To help manage your stress, Headspace is a digital service that provides guided meditation sessions and mindfulness training. And it's available in app form, so you can meditate anywhere you go. For just 10-minutes a day, meditating with Headspace will help you and your students unwind and be present.

51. - The mindfulness app that thousands of people all over the world use everyday is being offered to teachers for free. Teachers will have unlimited access to Calm's growing library of guided meditations and mindfulness exercises. This includes Calm Kids , specific programs tailored for age groups from pre-K through high school.

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54 Online Teaching Tools To Make Your Life Easier - Jam Campus Education

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2. - Creaza has two tools teachers can use: Cartoonist and Mindomo. Cartoonist creates cartoons or personal digital stories, consisting of professional backgrounds, characters, props, images, and text. Mindomo is about creating mind maps and easily turning mind maps into stunning presentations. Both are perfect tools to turn your lessons into stories.

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The Most Popular Digital Education Tools For Teachers And Learners

Hundreds of digital education tools have been created with the purpose of giving autonomy to the student, improving the administration of academic processes, encouraging collaboration, and facilitating communication between teachers and learners. Here we present 11 of the most popular.

1. Edmodo

Edmodo is an educational tool that connects teachers and students, and is assimilated into a social network. In this one, teachers can create online collaborative groups, administer and provide educational materials, measure student performance, and communicate with parents, among other functions. Edmodo has more than 34 million users who connect to create a learning process that is more enriching, personalized, and aligned with the opportunities brought by technology and the digital environment.

2. Socrative

Designed by a group of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about education, Socrative is a system that allows teachers to create exercises or educational games which students can solve using mobile devices, whether smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Teachers can see the results of the activities and, depending on these, modify the subsequent lessons in order to make them more personalized.

3. Projeqt

Projeqt is a tool that allows you to create multimedia presentations, with dynamic slides in which you can embed interactive maps, links, online quizzes, Twitter timelines, and videos, among other options. During a class session, teachers can share with students academic presentations which are visually adapted to different devices.

4. Thinglink

Thinglink allows educators to create interactive images with music, sounds, texts, and photographs. These can be shared on other websites or on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. Thinglink offers the possibility for teachers to create learning methodologies that awaken the curiosity of students through interactive content that can expand their knowledge.

5. TED-Ed

TED-Ed is an educational platform that allows creating educational lessons with the collaboration of teachers, students, animators-generally people who want to expand knowledge and good ideas. This website allows democratizing access to information, both for teachers and students. Here, people can have an active participation in the learning process of others.

6. cK-12

cK-12 is a website that seeks to reduce the cost of academic books for the K12 market in the United States and the world. To achieve its objective, this platform has an open source interface that allows creating and distributing educational material through the internet, which can be modified and contain videos, audios, and interactive exercises. It can also be printed and comply with the necessary editorial standards in each region. The books that are created in cK-12 can be adapted to the needs of any teacher or student.

7. ClassDojo

ClassDojo is a tool to improve student behavior: teachers provide their students with instant feedback so that good disposition in class is 'rewarded' with points and students have a more receptive attitude towards the learning process. ClassDojo provides real-time notifications to students, like 'Well Done David!' and '+1', for working collaboratively. The information that is collected about student behavior can be shared later with parents and administrators through the web.

8. eduClipper

This platform allows teachers and students to share and explore references and educational material. In eduClipper, you can collect information found on the internet and then share it with the members of previously created groups, which offers the possibility to manage more effectively the academic content found online, improve research techniques, and have a digital record of what students achieved during the course. Likewise, it provides the opportunity for teachers to organize a virtual class with their students and create a portfolio where all the work carried out is stored.

9. Storybird

Storybird aims to promote writing and reading skills in students through storytelling. In this tool, teachers can create interactive and artistic books online through a simple and easy to use interface. The stories created can be embedded in blogs, sent by email, and printed, among other options. In Storybird, teachers can also create projects with students, give constant feedback, and organize classes and grades.

10. Animoto

Animoto is a digital tool that allows you to create high-quality videos in a short time and from any mobile device, inspiring students and helping improve academic lessons. The Animoto interface is friendly and practical, allowing teachers to create audiovisual content that adapts to educational needs.

11. Kahoot!

Kahoot! is an educational platform that is based on games and questions. Through this tool, teachers can create questionnaires, discussions, or surveys that complement academic lessons. The material is projected in the classroom and questions are answered by students while playing and learning at the same time. Kahoot! promotes game-based learning, which increases student engagement and creates a dynamic, social, and fun educational environment.

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11 Digital Education Tools For Teachers And Students

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Interested in tools that give autonomy to students and encourage online collaboration? Check 11 Digital Education Tools for teachers and students.

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Education: from school closure to recovery

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After the historic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, most schools are back open worldwide but education is still in recovery assessing the damage done and lessons learned. The pandemic affected more than 1.5 billion students and youth with the most vulnerable learners were hit hardest.

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Since launching on March 6, 2007, our goal at TeacherTube has been to provide an online community for sharing instructional and education videos for college students, high school students, middle school students and elementary school students. We seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, students, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. It is also a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

On September 1, 2017, TeacherTube.com was acquired by Salem Web Network. Salem's goal is to continue the growth of TeacherTube and support innovative ideas for education.

Most importantly, TeacherTube community members are a major part of the evolution of the site. Members are encouraged to not only upload educationally relevant videos but also to make constructive comments and use the rating system to show appreciation for videos of value to one as an educator or learner. Users also have the ability to preserve the integrity of the site by flagging inappropriate videos. TeacherTube staff review flagged sites and will remove any inappropriate posts. With more collegial commentary and discussion through messaging and responses, the quality of this resource will only increase.

The service is free for everyone. We always encourage our users to Contact Us with thoughts, suggestions, or other feedback. We do have a vision for TeacherTube to truly be a better alternative to other video storage sites. With the community's help, it can become more interactive and engaging for all teachers and learners.

Science videos are one of the key subjects that students are taught in school. Science is present from the early years of grade school up to the highest levels of academic achievement. As students move up the ranks, their study of science tends to get more specialized into one specific field only, like chemistry, biology, or physics. We have educational videos for all of these courses.

TeacherTube.com's section on science educational videos has content of interest to all learning levels. We have topics as varied as educational songs for elementary school students, up to chemical engineering for college students.

Mathematics is one of the fundamental 3Rs of early education. Known as "arithmetic" in those levels, it involves counting and the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. As kids advance through the grade levels, they progressively deal with more complex mathematical problems. Also, more new concepts get introduced as they progress.

Math is crucial for almost any business career. Accounting, budgeting, and projecting sales all require some level of competence in math. Many resources for these topics can be found here on TeacherTube.

Even everyday situations benefit a lot from math skills. Managing one's finances, for instance, obviously requires math, as with anything involving money. Cooking also involves math: proportions of ingredients, for example, as well as measurements.

TeacherTube.com's section on math education videos covers everything from fractions and measurements to money management. We also cover more complicated subjects such as trigonometry, and well as probability and statistics.

History is a very valuable subject, but not just because it is useful for preventing future wars. The lessons from history can also teach people to build a better future. What people have done right in the past should be continued and improved upon in the present.

The subject of history covers a wide range of timelines and locations. There's ancient history and modern history. There is also Asian history, US history, Latin American history, and European history. Each one is unique, reflecting the cultures of the people involved.

If there's one thing common to all history classes, it's usually names, dates, and places. This is also the part that many kids hate the most. They do not see the point of memorizing so many random facts that appear purposeless. Well, that is the wrong way to teach history.

TeacherTube's history education videos section makes the past come alive with a sterling array of videos and tutorials that cover subjects as varied as our prehistory, ancient history, the civil war, and the study of world civilizations.

The purpose of social studies, based on the US National Council for the Social Studies, is to promote "civic competence" among students. In other words, the subject equips students to become better citizens of a country. This is done by exploring history, geography, current events, and governments, among others. Middle school social studies usually deal with one of each of these fields per grade level.

With this knowledge, students gain the ability to become more socially aware and to be actively involved citizens of their country. Through analyzing current events, students will also learn how to predict the consequences of the things happening around them. With that, they can be good influences on their communities.

It is with this goal in mind that TeacherTube offers a wide variety of learning video materials for both students and enthusiasts.

We have videos on everything from strengthening your knowledge of economics terminology to the nuances of various world cultures.

Language arts, as the name suggests, equips students with a wide range of ways to use language. It comprises both speaking and writing skills. In addition to the basics, the subject also deals with the artistic side of language, infusing creativity in the ways students communicate.

There are four basic aspects to understanding a language: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Language arts classes aim to enhance those skills at each year level. At first, it covers basic topics like grammar, sentence construction, and paragraphs. Exercises in language arts become progressively more complex as students move up the ranks, and usually, in higher grades, more emphasis is put on creativity and persuasiveness.

With the noble goal of harnessing the power of words to effect change in the world in mind, TeacherTube is proud to offer videos on everything from general communications to speaking and even videos on strengthening your studying skills.

Not all kids want to go through lectures. Some of them may not have the attention span or the patience to endure long hours just sitting down and listening to someone talk in front. No, that doesn't mean these kids are lazy. It just means they learn differently.

Some kids are auditory learners. In other words, they learn best when they listen to sounds and music. For this type of student, educational songs will certainly be a big helping hand. Even the most complex of concepts, when taught through songs, will be very easy for them to understand and remember. Even kids who are not so much inclined to auditory learning may like this method.

Educational song vidoes are available in a wide variety of subjects. English, math, social studies, science, and everything in between, there's bound to be a song for every subject. For example, on the website Teachertube.com, there are science topic songs, reading songs, skip counting songs, reading phonics songs, and even quadratic formula songs.

The advantage of using educational song videos is that it accomplishes two things at once. First, these songs are entertaining, and second, they also teach a concept. They facilitate learning a lot better than plain lectures simply because of the entertainment part. When a lesson is made fun of, kids will want to learn them. In fact, it could even be the kids themselves, on their own, who will play the songs repeatedly.

TeacherTube offers education songs on topics as varied as the circulatory system to math songs about polynomials and even videos on St. Patrick's Day.

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TeacherTube Educational Videos for the School Classroom and Home - Including Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos and Math Videos

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A free community for sharing instructional videos, Educational Songs, History Videos, Student Videos, Math Videos, and other content for teachers and students. We are an education focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home schoolers to access educational for the classroom and home learning.

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aLearning (Alpha Learning) - To begin to understand, but not fully comprehend (has not groked or gLearned)

bLearning - (Blended Learning) - A mixture of media, such as cLearning and eLearning (brick and click)

cLearning - (Classroom Learning) - Learning in a classroom or formal setting

dLearning - (distance Learning) - Learning from an electronic device, such as eLearning, mLearning, or pLearning. May also include other media that is sent to the learner, such as mail

eLearning - (Electronic Learning) - Learning from the Internet (part of dLearning)

fLearning - (Formal Learning) - The learning goals are determined by instructional designers (learners may provide input)

gLearning - (Grok Learning) - To understand profoundly and intuitively (also see aLearning)

hLearning - (Horizontal Learning) - Learning something based on a horizontal continuum (there is no one right answer). It can best be learned in an collaborative learning environment (also see zLearning)

iLearning - (Informal Learning) - The learning goals are determined by the learner (organization may provide input)

jLearning - (Just in Time Learning) - Learning something at the moment of need and it sticks (not easily forgotten, also see qLearning)

kLearning - (Kindergarten Learning) -The basic skills Learned in Kindergarten that carry you throughout life

lLearning - (Laptop Learning) - Learning from a laptop computer

mLearning - (Mobile Learning) - Learning while away from home or office with a smart phone (may include pLearning or lLearning)

nLearning - (nonformal Learning) - The learning goals are determined by the business unit, such as manager or supervisor, normally used with oLearning (OJT)

oLearning - (OJT Learning) - Learning on the job through the direction of others (also see vLearning)

pLearning - (Pad Learning) - Learning from an electronic pad, such as an iPad or Galaxy

qLearning - (Quick Learning) - Learning something at the moment of need and it does not stick or is never used again (also see jLearning)

rLearning - (Redundant Learning) - Learning until one has thoroughly mastered a skill (trying to learn more will be useless). Sometimes call over-learning. Security and medical teams often use this method so it becomes second-nature

sLearning - (Social Learning) - Learning with or through other people (see uLearning for opposite)

tLearning - (Team Learning) - Used when two or more members of a team must learn different tasks that must be coordinated so that it increases the effectiveness of the team

uLearning - (Unilateral Learning) - Learning without the help of others (see sLearning for opposite)

vLearning - (Various Learning) - Learning various perspectives by gaining experience (normally on the job). Differs from oLearning in that vLearning is directed by the learner rather than a manager

wLearning - (Walking Around Learning) - Learning while walking around, normally through observation (adapted from Tom Peters' managing by walking around)

xLearning - (Xenodochial Learning) - Learning from others, especially in a diverse group of people who know little about each other, and they expect nothing in return

yLearning - (Yeoperson Learning) - Learning something that will promote the good of the common people or people in need

zLearning - (Zebra Learning) - Learning that is monochrome in nature (has only one correct answer or shade). May be easily learned through a cooperative learning environment (see hLearning for opposite)

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aLearning (Alpha Learning) - To begin to understand, but not fully comprehend (has not groked or gLearned) bLearning - (Blended Learning) - A mixture of media, such as cLearning and eLearning (brick and click) cLearning - (Classroom Learning) - Learning in a classroom or formal setting dLearning - (distance Learning) - Learning from an electronic device, such as eLearning, mLearning, or pLearning.

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Though it has existed longer than many realize, the field of instructional design remains an emerging profession within higher education. As a result, many instructional designers tell "Inside Digital Learning" that they came to the field following a major career change. Some find the move daunting. Having a helping hand or a guiding voice can make all the difference.

It can be difficult to know where to turn for advice -- until now. "Inside Digital Learning" asked more than a dozen instructional designers to weigh in with advice and resources to help early-career designers get acquainted with job expectations and attitudes within the field. Bookmark this link for those moments when you're wondering how to proceed, or when you want to impress someone new to the field with your expertise and resourcefulness.
What skills should instructional designers expect to showcase when looking for jobs? Heather Garcia, instructional designer, Foothill College
Look into getting a graduate-level degree or certificate. There are a lot of programs available online now, and many colleges offer both certificate and master's-level programs. Going through a formal program will allow you to gain a foundation in instructional design, build a portfolio and network with others entering or already in the field.

Think about the environment you would like to work in. Do you want to work in an educational or corporate setting? Do you want a full-time job at one organization or would you prefer to work on a contract basis? While the degree paths are similar, having a vision for where you want to work can allow you to tailor your projects and classes to fit the environment in which you aspire to work.

Improve your diplomacy and customer service skills. A huge part of instructional design is working with other people and getting buy-in from multiple stakeholders. Often, an instructional designer is working in the role of project manager and coordinating the work of faculty, subject matter experts, media experts and many others. Knowing how to manage relationships is critical to the success of any project.
Betsy Gilbertson, instructional designer, Auburn University Journalism and Media Resources

Continue to do research in the areas of instructional strategies, assessments, learning styles, technologies and project planning

Connect with other instructional designers across various universities and companies to build a support system and a network of experts to ask questions and share struggles with

Have good communication lines with upper administration so they understand the struggles and successes of the program as you continue to design and develop projects

Do not say no to the clients. Say "Let's see what we can do" and come up with the best alternative if you can't meet their exact request.

Realize there is no way to know everything all the time, and you do not have to be an expert in everything. You just have to be willing to find out ... so you will sometimes feel out of your depth, and that is OK. It's an opportunity to ask questions and grow.

Be patient: with yourself, with the process and with others.

Every mistake is an opportunity to learn. Do not let it discourage you.

Build an inspirational wall or electronic portfolio that houses the information that you will not remember but will need. This should also include the information that inspires you to be an instructional designer.

Go to conferences and participate in webinars. Every session can give you new insights. Take a course from your university, online or through a workshop to continue learning and remind yourself what learning feels like. The best designers are always students.

Being able to see the big picture, but still be detail oriented as necessary.

Camille Funk, director of DesignPlus, University of California, Irvine, Division of Continuing Education

See if you can find a specialization or certificate in instructional design to give you a pedagogical foundation and an introduction to the tools you will need.

Join an educational association (specific to instructional design) and start networking. When you make friends in the business, you can learn from what others do.

Ask your supervisor if you can partner or shadow on projects with a senior instructional designer.

Ask to be an instructional design assistant. I've had several people in other jobs in departments that want to learn more, and I always accept the help and allow them to work on low-hanging fruit to help my very busy instructional design team. It's a good introduction to the process.

Take internships and contract jobs where you have the ability to partner with other instructional designers.

The easiest way to get in the door is by networking, and you usually do that by working on projects with others in the field. If you can find ways to open doors to projects and experience, that's the best way to build your portfolio and connections.

Taylor Kendal, senior instructional designer, Metropolitan State University of Denver

Build a personal portfolio and write regularly about how your ID work intersects with other interests and disciplines. Look to collide ideas as often as possible and carve out a unique space for yourself -- discovering your identity as an ID is often the most challenging aspect of the profession because IDs are often seen as jacks-of-all-trades.

IDs require both focused technical skills as well as broad interpersonal skills. I like to say that the best IDs live in the clouds and the dirt -- theoretical and future facing, but also focused on the hands-on skills of technical practitionership.

Conflict resolution and empathic skills help immensely ("Joe/Jane Faculty, put Twitter down -- it's not helping you or your students")

Foundation of learning theory and/or design science ("Joe/Jane Faculty, here's the pedagogical reasoning for my steering you away from Twitter given your specific context")

Think of yourself as a networker, bridge builder, idea connector and culture crafter.

Karen Watte, director of course development and training, Oregon State University Ecampus
One key skill that instructional designers must have is the ability to communicate effectively. They must be able to listen carefully to faculty to understand the challenges and concerns that they have. Good interpersonal skills are critical and really help engender confidence in the eyes of the faculty. Instructional designers must also be creative problem solvers. Being able to provide a range of solutions that address a course-design challenge is much better than only presenting a single solution. Faculty can then choose one of the options that is most comfortable and manageable for them. Skills at navigating the institution's learning management system, media support system and web-conferencing tools are also important.

Instructional designers need to have excellent time-management skills and the ability to juggle multiple projects at one time. They need to have skills at prioritizing work and always be looking for ways to improve their efficiency. New instructional designers should be customer service oriented and able to collaborate effectively -- knowing that not everything they suggest will be accepted. Even though an ID may have put considerable effort into an idea, they need to not take it personally if a faculty member decides it does not work well for them.

Instructional designers may be surprised to learn that they may frequently need to explain what their role is to faculty. Faculty may not be familiar with a collaborative course development approach, and being able to explain how you bring value to the process while ensuring the faculty member's academic freedom is important. The Oregon State University Ecampus instructional design team recently created a poster used at the annual Ecampus Faculty Forum that showcases online teaching, to help faculty learn more about what instructional designers do.
Melissa Williams, senior instructional designer, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Many IDs come to the field as career shifters with no related degree. Hiring managers will consider someone without formal credentials, or even specific experience, in instructional design if the applicant demonstrates the following four qualities of successful instructional designers.

Emotional intelligence and communication skills: a successful ID must have the ability to perceive others' needs and change communication approaches to match the needs of their design partners -- both subject-matter experts and other designers (because the best IDs can design alone or in a team).
Online Communities and Chats
Clark Nelson-Shah recommends, "Reply, retweet, engage, hashtag and make plans that go beyond Twitter. Form squads and digi-microcommunities to write, present, gather and spread ideas, commune. And meet as many in real life as possible."

Taylor Kendal recommends a list of social media practitioners to follow.

Thirst for lifelong learning and tolerance for change: instructional designers must be willing to leave habits and mind-sets behind as new information, technologies, or resources become available. Besides, we need to enjoy learning in order to stay engaged with our work! IDs must enjoy taking a shallow dive into other disciplines and topics as they work with various subject matter experts.

Foundational educational knowledge: although it's helpful just to know from experience what does and doesn't work in the classroom or course room (and former teachers often make great IDs!), the most crucial foundation is educational theory. Know how to apply fundamental theories and principles of learning, like Vygotsky, Gagne, Wiggins and McTighe.

Comfort working with technology: it's less important to be proficient in specific software than to be able to learn a program quickly and effectively. Research categories of tools and try out a few so that you understand how a learning management system works, or what commonalities exist between video capture and editing software. Make some stuff, break some stuff and practice, practice, practice. You'll build a portfolio that you can share, and you'll reduce the natural anxiety that comes with encountering a new tool or skill (a great quality both for interviews and for working with subject matter experts).
Weiwei Zhang, academic technologist, Western Oregon University
An online course is a form of art that delivers the content of the course while demonstrating the instructor's personality through the ways content is communicated, stories are told, activities are designed and goals are met. The job of an instructional designer is to help the instructor create this piece of art, and that means being able to understand not only the intention and educational value of each piece of material included in the course, but also being able to grasp each instructor's unique qualities and find ways to make these qualities stand out. To do this, instructional designers must identify the bits and pieces, the sparks and inspirations, that instructors bring to a course. These might come up in an initial conversation with the instructor, but capturing them is a challenging part of the instructional designer's job, especially ones who are new to the field.

Instructional designers typically have a good, solid knowledge base in education and instructional technology, and it is easy to approach instructors from a "let me fix this course based on this theory" perspective. However, when the theory is explained, it sometimes leaves the instructors feeling forced into practices they are not familiar with and are not attached to. It is important to listen and to let instructors know you are providing advice based on their needs, their students' needs and who they are instead of trying to fit their course into a premade template that is not designed specifically for them and their course.

Knowing how many changes to propose and how much slack to give and take are also very important but challenging. When instructional designers clearly see an element that needs to be modified or improved, the next thing to do is to think about how to approach it appropriately and effectively so that it's more likely the instructor will agree with the idea. Sometimes, breaking down a bigger change into smaller and easier-to-accomplish ones is a good technique. Patience is a required quality for every instructional designer.
What attitudes does a successful instructional designer need to maintain? Taylor Kendal

The most important attitude is optimistic adaptability and openness to change and uncertainty.

Collaborative mind-set with an intentional interest and effort in embracing multiple perspectives.

Michael Goudzwaard, learning designer, Dartmouth College

Empathy (for faculty/content experts and learners)

Technical curiosity/tinkerer

Lifelong learner

Bold experimenter

Servant leader

Highly collaborative

Penny Ralston-Berg, instructional designer, Penn State World Campus
Openness, collaboration and mutual respect come to mind.

Attitude and approach is important. It's crucial to approach design with an open mind -- to learn more about the situation and learners and to collaborate with the subject matter expert to find the best solution. A designer who approaches a new project with a pre-existing solution in mind may miss out on the ideas and potential solutions generated through collaboration.

More about collaboration and the designer/subject matter relationship is discussed in this MindMeld book.
Clark Shah-Nelson, assistant dean of instructional design and technology, University of Maryland School of Social Work

Exploratory, experimental, iterative, agile

Communicative, community-minded, collaborative, relationship-oriented

Ego-free collaboration: collaborate, collaborate, collaborate!

Orientation toward accessibility and inclusion

Champion open and collaborative communication technologies (chat/IM, project management) as opposed to less transparent (email)

Keep an eye on scalability. What if what you are doing could be easily replicated and scaled up by other IDs or institutions?

Addy Tolliver, senior instructional designer, Southern Methodist University
My advice for new instructional designers entering the higher education environment is to be extremely patient. A lot of universities still lack policies and procedures that facilitate and promote the work of IDs. And a lot of universities are still unsure of the role of IDs on their campuses.

While the work of an ID is extremely valuable, learning technology professionals are usually not tenured faculty or part of an executive team. That means that it is very challenging for an ID to assume positions of leadership that promote institutional change unless there is help from other university champions.
Learning Resources

Volunteer and pursue discounted conference opportunities (OLC, QM, EDUCAUSE, DigPedLab, SXSWEdu, WCET)

Short courses on a topic from a day to several sessions:
NERCOMP offers many one-day sessions

Local ID-focused groups offering meet-ups and community building initiatives (e.g. Pedago.me)

Leadership training such as Learning Technologies Leadership Institute

A career mentor, someone who knows enough about your job and institution, but has enough organizational and career-stage distance to offer a longer view perspective

Peer-mentoring programs: EdSurge LOOP and EDUCAUSE ID2ID

​List of instructional design competencies

LinkedIn Learning -- Instructional Design

Educause constituent groups (Instructional Design, Blended and Online Learning, Openness, Accessibility, etc.)

When working with faculty/subject-matter experts (SMEs), the skills of patience, understanding and flexibility are key. My personal experience with faculty suggests that the digital world is still something unfamiliar to them and that unfamiliarity sparks uncertainty, hesitation and fear. And although SMEs have a lot of expertise in their fields, they are often novices and lack knowledge of best practices for designing courses and teaching in digital environments. Thus, it takes patience and tact to prioritize SMEs' subject-matter knowledge while, at the same time, not compromising in the application of online course design and online teaching best practices.

Although the place of and role of IDs in higher education are still very fluid, the work can be extremely fulfilling. Therefore, resilience and persistence are necessary stills for a new ID. From the faculty development side, and from my personal experience, most faculty see value in working with an ID to design their courses and report that the experience has helped them improve their teaching and their intentionality toward creating better courses. From the analysis of teaching evaluations, student experiences (and often grades) are often improved.
Weiwei Zhang
Like everyone who starts a new job, it takes time to see, understand, merge or change the culture, and it takes time to get to know people and find the "perfect zone" to navigate. Pushbacks are normal -- instructional designers do creative work, and not all creativity or innovation is liked initially. Sometimes it takes time for others to experiment and then decide whether or not a new design is an effective one. I often advise my graduate assistants in our Education: Instructional Design program to discuss their ideas with faculty and approach it as "let's try this technique." We provide reasoning for suggestions, for example, describing the results we saw in other courses or universities that implement a similar approach, or providing students' feedback on certain types of activities. Faculty are generally interested in research-based facts that focus on application, instead of abstract theories.

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Tips and resources for instructional designers entering the field

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Though it has existed longer than many realize, the field of instructional design remains an emerging profession within higher education. As a result, many instructional designers tell "Inside Digital Learning" that they came to the field following a major career change. Some find the move daunting.

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Instructional Design for Online Learning

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Instructional Design for Online Learning

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MastersInEducationOnline--provides helpful information on the challenges students and recent graduates face; challenges such as selecting a teaching specialty, understanding career options and outlooks, and finding a quality online master's program

Online Colleges --Search schools nationwide, find college scholarships and resources

OpenSesame--an e-learning marketplace with over 23,000 learning courses (both free and paid)
Student Guide to Online Learning Success--comprehensive guide that provides simple, effective tips for being successful in the digital classroom.

Assessment Strategies
Assessment in and of Collaborative Learning--Developed and edited by the Washington Center's Evaluation Committee
Instruction & Assessment Portfolios--Portfolio Overview
Online Resources for Assessment--Comprehensive list of assessment activities and strategies by RMC Research Corporation

Color Deficiency--Color perception problems are more wide-spread than people think, and have more causes and variations, © 2001 Diane Wilson.

Online Textbook--Collaborative Teaching: Special Education for Inclusive Classrooms © 2000-2001 Parrot Publishing, L.L.C.
WebAim--The Web Accessibility "How To" site

Designing of Online Activities
Busy Educator's Guide to the World Wide Web

Lloyd's Gallery of Neat Stuff--Interactive simulations and games related to understanding instructional technology
Make Online Puzzles as engaging activities for learning concepts, maps and processes

Evaluating Products and Developing an Overall Strategy for technology-based course development and management

Evaluating Website Content--information teaching kids how to evaluate whether a website is good or not

Software & Courseware Design & Evaluation--ACE publications

Fabulous Freebies
Building Free Online Communities and host free online chat rooms
CommSy is a free WWW-based system supporting communication within communities
Corel Photos--It's their largest Freebies update ever: clipart, photos, brushes and image lists. Over 60 files in all
Daily Updates on Distance Education

Educational Freeware--contains some of the best educational freeware on the web
Find Fabulous Photos--for your website - free downloads

Free Scripting--to make your web page more dynamic and interesting

Facilitation Skills / Teaching Strategies
Strategies for Teachers--One Computer Classroom

International Conferences
Conferences Relevant to Distance Education and Development--especially on communication, culture and distance education in Africa
Information & Research Support Education Conferences--Information on the Web General Information | World Wide Web Conferences Conferences run or sponsored by Charles Strut University

Collection of Academic Publications--describing developments in courseware management systems, techniques for developing computer assisted learning materials Instructional Design and Technology --Tools, Tips & Thoughts
Collaborative Courseware Development--for the Analysis and Design of Software Systems
Educational Courseware--Instructional Design Links to Learning
Higher Education Links--Resources and courseware in Engineering and Technology

Managing the Digital Enterprise--is an "open courseware" project that was begun in 1998
Showcase Site--Courseware Course Development Managing Course Content Solutions Teaching Research Learning Instructional Tech Web Page Design Digital Video
Study Guides--for testing, reading, writing, and participation - available in English, Arabic, Chinese, Luganda, Turkish, Russian, German, French, and Italian

New Paradigms and Research in Instructional Technology
Cyber Guys--This site is for wireless mouse for PowerPoint presentations
Design-Research for the Indiana University Bloomington World Wide--Report on goals, needs analysis, rapid prototyping, usability testing, and revisions of the IU Bloomington web information structure Instructional Systems Technology

Tech Education--This site shows research about technology in education

Telematics Discussion List: subscribe at Publications and Forums
Educational telematics@groupcare.com
Index for Ed Tech Site--Top Ten Lists Must Read New Books for Instructional Design and Technology / Seminal Papers / BookTalk / Cafe / eNews
Free E-Books on Online Education--Online Quizzes / FREE Distant Education Newsletter
ITFORUM--A listserv for the Instructional Technology Community with monthly article discussions
MERLOT - Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching--a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students in higher education

A Beginner's Guide to FREE-mium SEO Friendly Website Design
Blackboard e-learning Platform.
Books--on drafting and Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
Blackboard e-learning Platform.
Books--on drafting and Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
Lexia--Designed with a mature interface, Reading S.O.S. starts with basic first grade reading skills and works up to advanced decoding and comprehension
Macromedia--Dreamweaver, Flash & Fireworks
Programmer's Corner serves those interested in Programming and Writing. We cover many programming languages, including Visual Basic, Power Builder, C/C++, as well as Web Design, Graphic Design, Help Authoring, Kiosks, and Distance Learning
Quest Multimedia Authoring Tool--the Designer's Edge, the Manager's Edge-training delivery and management tool, and custom courseware solutions
Respondus: the leading developer of third-party testing and assessment tools for the WebCT™ and Blackboard® e-Learning platforms

Virtual Mechanics IMS Web Engine--Software Dynamic HTML authoring software for the design of web pages, games, interactive animation, business presentations and educational courseware
Visio--free trial software for drawing geometric shapes
WebCT--Web Course Tools for Educators - also join to share in the teaching community

This page is maintained by Mandi Axmann, Instructional Designer, RAU University, South Africa

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MastersInEducationOnline--provides helpful information on the challenges students and recent graduates face; challenges such as selecting a teaching specialty, understanding career options and outlooks, and finding a quality online master's program Online Colleges --Search schools nationwide, find college scholarships and resources OpenSesame--an e-learning marketplace with over 23,000 learning courses (both free and paid) Student Guide to Online Learning Success--comprehensive guide that provides simple, effective tips for being successful in the digital classroom.

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Looking into a career in the fast-growing instructional design industry, and wanting to learn the key skills of teaching with technology?

Watch this one minute video where Carien Aalbers, Head Tutor of the University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course, expands on the role.

An instructional designer, also known as a learning designer, is responsible for identifying the skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap. They also need to be able to make use of technology in education by optimally teaching with technology available to them and their purpose.

[bctt tweet="The highest paid eLearning professionals earn, on average, $87,790 per year. " username="getsmarter"]

An instructional design expert needs to be able to:

Leverage instructional technology and the advantages of an online environment by identifying the best technology in education for their purpose

Express a learning need and identify the required exit level outcomes

Construct a curriculum and delivery model based on that need and those outcomes

Develop digital learning content, assessments, and platforms

Interpret learning analytics data

These roles require a multitude of skills, including writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, planning and a strong teaching or learning background.

Do you think you have what it takes to pursue a career in instructional design?

Formalise your competence and develop your confidence, with University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course.
TELL ME MORE

Transcription:
Some of the key skills in instructional design include interpersonal skills. You need to engage with organisations to really understand their training requirements. The ability to elicit the right information in order to establish the need for training is key to be able to design a program that meets this need. A user centred mindset and approach is also vital. To design great learning experiences, you need to be able to put yourself in the learner's shoes. You also need to develop your written and visual communications skills. To create engaging course content, you need to be able to word and visualise the course in a way that makes it easy to understand and learn, and a delight to interact with - both aesthetically and functionally.

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What Are The Key Skills Of An Instructional Designer?

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Looking into a career in the fast-growing instructional design industry, and wanting to learn the key skills of teaching with technology? Watch this one minute video where Carien Aalbers, Head Tutor of the University of the Witwatersrand Instructional Design online short course , expands on the role.

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As the talent development field evolves and attracts a global pool of professionals with diverse skills and experiences, new questions arise: Have the competencies of instructional design (ID) changed? Should they change? How has ID evolved over the past few decades? Are instructional designers' competencies keeping up with the pace of change?

Through a collaborative partnership between the Association for Talent Development (ATD), the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), and Rothwell & Associates (R&A), the R&A research team implemented a research study to investigate the proposed questions. The findings were recently released in a new ATD white paper, Skills, Challenges, and Trends in Instructional Design, which summarizes the literature review and results of the qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

The study uncovered three major findings:

The skills required in the ID area of expertise (AOE) developed by ATD remain highly relevant in today's evolving field.

Although technology is constantly changing, the challenges faced by instructional designers are less about technology and more about serving the multitude of varied learners, as well as maintaining momentum and a relationship with the subject matter expert (SME).

ID has evolved over the past couple of decades and there is an ongoing need to promote the value and understanding of the ID professional's role in talent development (TD).

As instructional designers move forward in this evolving industry, data from the study points to several tips instructional designers can xxx to strengthen their skills.
Develop a 30-second elevator speech. Develop a good value-add 30-second "What is an instructional designer?" speech. This is not only great for networking functions (and maybe family reunions), but as a conversation starter when you meet your design team, especially your SME, for the first time at a kickoff meeting.

Design mobile first. Incorporate the design principle of "mobile first" as you begin a new project or redesign existing projects. Users want their learning programs to be more accessible and on demand. The 21st-century workforce is filled with individuals who have grown up with mobile devices, and technological advances range from ease of travel to ease of communicating through various telecommunication networks.

Be a coach. When interviewing a potential instructional designer, be sure to include coaching competency questions such as "How do you work, or imagine you would work, in a context in which you need to get course content from your subject matter experts over whom you have no formal authority?" Consider using role-play in an interview or on the job to strengthen needed soft skills. Not only ask powerful questions, but also demonstrate active listening.

Keep presence. Use face-to-face (or video conferencing) for the kickoff meeting and periodic status meetings to keep project (and relationship) momentum. Be sure you share and follow an agenda to respect time.

Be an active and reflective agent. Most evaluations are summative, and are conducted and analyzed well after courses and training have been delivered. Survey the participants at the beginning (expectations), middle (adjustments), and end of the learning delivery (revisions). Keep a list of design ideas for future possibilities and remember that the SME may become more open to these ideas over time. Asking participants the right questions at the beginning can also reveal learner characteristics, including cultural diversity and user interface design considerations.

Remember the artist. Recognize you can wear many hats: instructional designer, project manager, manufacturer, engineer, architect, artist, coach, and cheerleader. Find time to explore and experiment the artist in you through the emerging technologies of mobile learning, augmented reality, wearables, and MOOCs. Embrace failure and engage in continuous self-criticism as you innovate and change.

Think like a Millennial. Millennials are expected to take over the workforce as the highest number of workers, so incorporate the learning characteristics of Millennials through game-based learning and social learning. Storytelling is a powerful tool that can strengthen the learning experience if it is correctly incorporated into the design. It is imperative to identify realistic stories that will support effective learning for the target user group.

To learn more, download Skills, Challenges, and Trends in Instructional Design.

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Tips to Strengthen Instructional Designer Skills

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As the talent development field evolves and attracts a global pool of professionals with diverse skills and experiences, new questions arise: Have the competencies of instructional design (ID) changed? Should they change? How has ID evolved over the past few decades? Are instructional designers' competencies keeping up with the pace of change?

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I chose the familiar content curator tool to me which refers to Padlet ☺. I definitely have to explore more available tools. I found Padlet to be well organized, and easy to navigate. It is wonderful to be part on a learning community, a community of practice, where we can share resources. My favorite saying is "You are as strong as you resources!"