Why Instructional Designers Are Natural Project Managers

By Steven Shisley

Imagine a spotlight on a stage, illuminating a lone figure. This is not just any performer entertaining a crowd. Rather it is an instructional designer in the digital learning arena. The instructional designer has many roles and tasks in a company, like a professional juggler who must keep balls in seamless motion in the air: content, assessments, technology, learner needs, tasks, and deadlines. They strive to not only design engaging learning experiences but also ensure the entire project does not come crashing down.
This article explores how this multifaceted skill set within companies uniquely qualifies instructional designers to manage eLearning projects, offering strategies to master the common challenges of evolving content, subject matter expert collaboration, project complexity, and shifting deadlines.

Project crossroads

Instructional designers stand at the crossroads of andragogy, technology, and communication within organizations. As is to be expected, this unique position makes them ideal candidates for project management, particularly where resources are limited or roles overlap. Instructional designers understand both learning goals and production realities, enabling them to create realistic project plans. It has also become increasingly common for instructional designers to work with multiple groups in companies such as technical teams, multimedia creators, subject matter experts (SMEs), and clients. Therefore, beneath the surface of a finished project lies a complex web of interconnected tasks and collaborative efforts that instructional designers manage.

The management of all the moving pieces in projects typically involves popular project management models, such as a sequential approach to completing tasks or the waterfall model, an agile approach that focuses on flexibility and adaptation, a hybrid approach that combines the waterfall and agile models, or systematic approaches that emphasize planning and organization to ensure project objectives are met.

Although each project management model has a few elements in common such as breaking down projects into manageable stages, continuous engagement with colleagues and clients, goal orientation, adaptability, or documentation and planning, the unique circumstances of each project dictate the choice of methodology to ensure that resources, timelines, and stakeholder expectations are effectively managed and achieve successful outcomes.

Evolving content

Instructional designers should view the evolving nature of eLearning development as an opportunity to enhance the quality of the learning experience. As content evolves and priorities shift, new insights and goals emerge. Importantly, successful teams embrace these changes, which occur throughout a project’s lifecycle—rather than resist them. External factors such as new textbook editions, updated policies, or emerging protocols and laws drive content evolution.

The inevitability of change, therefore, presents a unique opportunity for instructional designers to ensure educational experiences remain comprehensive and current. By adapting to these changes instead of minimizing their impact, instructional designers can create learning experiences that are not only relevant and grounded in real-world contexts but also require fewer revisions and less maintenance over time.

Managing the SME dilemma

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are vital to eLearning projects because they provide accurate, authoritative content and contextualize information with real-world scenarios. However, sometimes instructional design teams and SMEs engage in a power struggle over who is in charge of specific elements in the educational experience for the learners.

To effectively collaborate with SMEs, it is important to treat them as partners by respecting their expertise and acknowledging their time constraints. Strategies for better SME collaboration include:

• Setting clear expectations and roles from the start
• Using structured templates
• Reframing or adapting their input to suit the learner’s perspective
• Keeping meetings brief and action oriented.

These strategies optimize SME contributions, ensuring high-quality and improving relationships. Never should SMEs simply be ignored because they are not considered educational experts. Rather when respect is given to SMEs by instructional design teams, the result is an effective educational experience for learners.

Project complexity

Managing complexity in eLearning projects requires balancing instructional design practices and strategies with multimedia, interactive learning assets, accessibility, platform constraints, learning tools, and a diversity of content and assessments. To manage this complexity, instructional designers must continuously strive to keep organized.

Indeed, many instructional designers tend to create some type of project management system to track their progress and achieve goals. Recently, project management software such as Click Up or Trello have increased in popularity. However, the recognition that project management software may actually hinder progress rather than simply track it usually occurs when the software’s complexity outweighs its benefits. Complex project management tools can demand considerable time and resources for teams to master and frequently update, potentially slowing project momentum and even leading to frustration, especially if the team members have to spend more time managing the project than actually working on the project itself!

This is particularly relevant in eLearning projects that involve SMEs and various groups in an organization across different locations and time zones. To mitigate this challenge, instructional designers should select software that aligns with specific eLearning objectives and offers an intuitive and simple interface to minimize training time and make tracking updates less time-consuming. The best piece of advice is to keep task and project tracking simple. Maintaining simplicity often leads to a better finished product while complexity dilutes clarity and causes confusion among teams.

Shifting deadlines

Risk management is a vital component of project management, often requiring the adjustment of deadlines to address unforeseen challenges. While “risk management” might evoke thoughts of catastrophic failures, experienced instructional design teams recognize that adjusting timelines is crucial for setting realistic expectations, enhancing project outcomes, reducing stress, and allowing flexibility in response to unexpected changes. Fixed deadlines that ignore project dynamics can lead to failures or costly errors.

Instructional designers should align timelines with project complexity to improve productivity and quality, resulting in fewer revisions in the future. Additionally, AI tools can offer data-driven insights to support deadline adjustments, enabling more informed decision-making and improved project outcomes.

Conclusion

Instructional designers are pivotal in navigating the complexities of eLearning projects. Their ability to juggle content, technology, and learner needs uniquely positions them to manage eLearning projects in companies. By embracing change, collaborating effectively with SMEs, and keeping projects organized, instructional designers ensure educational experiences remain relevant and impactful. The pedagogical insight and technological experience that instructional designers bring to companies not only enhances learning experiences but also leads to innovation. As instructional designers continue to adapt and lead, their role will remain essential in shaping the future of eLearning.

Image credit: ribkhan