Skill #15: Transitioning into Instructional Design
Instructional design, as described by my guest, instructional designer Katie Price, means you create courses to help people—whether it’s students at a university or end-users for a product—learn a new subject.
Take Lynda, for example: the career development website from LinkedIn. You visit the site to learn a new skill—and you find a course that, through videos, powerpoints, graphics, and good ole’ written content, teaches you that skill.
That’s instructional design and—as you’ll learn in this episode—it’s a wonderful career move for technical writers hoping to transition into a new field.
To help us unpack this skill, I’ve got Katie Price, instructional designer at Azusa university, on the podcast to share with us how technical writers can transition into instructional design, including:
- what types of projects instructional designers work on
- what skills you need to learn to excel in instructional design
- how to use your existing skills to transition into the field
Show Notes:
Creators and Guests
Host
Jacob Moses
Jacob Moses is the founder and original host of The Not-Boring Tech Writer podcast, which he launched in 2016 to celebrate tech writers and push back against the stereotype that technical writing is boring. He studied technical communication at the University of North Texas, and his first gig out of college was as a tech writer at Rainmaker Digital (formerly Copyblogger Media). Since then, he's carried the skills and values he cultivated as a tech writer into community development and real estate. Today, Jacob is owner of Care Block Development, a real estate development company that acquires, rehabs, and manages historic buildings in Denton, Texas. Pairing historic preservation with thoughtful improvements, Care Block honors the culture of the neighborhoods in which it works to create lovable places for the people it serves. He's also the owner of Sardinha, a premium tinned seafood pop-up pushing premium tins in Denton. If you need a tinfish plug in Denton, Jacob is your guy.
