Best Instructional design document templates you shouldn’t miss

How can you ensure that your next online course will appeal to learners? 

Do you have trouble convincing clients to use your education solutions for their eLearning courses? 

The answer is very simple – An instructional design document. Without great materials, instructional design cannot properly determine the course direction and expected outcomes (engagement and retention). To solve this problem, you will need an adequate instructional design document and, ultimately, proper instructional design document templates.

What is an instructional design document?

It is the scaffold of an eLearning course. It’s essentially a specified outline of decisions to be made about the course, including the purpose, objectives, and intended outcome, as well as an overview of learners, delivery methods used, instructional, media, and assessment strategies. A good instructional design document will get you well-prepared for developing eLearning courses.

Why are instructional design documents important?

Instructional design documents determine the method of designing online courses. Of course, some creative ideas for virtual employee engagement are important too, but you need to get the structure first. Creating design documents means getting all the stakeholders, namely clients, reviewers, and team members, onboard and reaching a unanimous decision. What’s more, instructional design documents will convey your mission to potential decision-makers so they can buy and use your product, as well as ease the process of making storyboards.

Which does a good instructional design document include?

Main topics: 

  • Project context: This should provide a short overview of the course’s purpose and its end objectives. 
  • Project requirements: All the familiar elements: cost, time, LMS platform and standards.
  • Learning description: This gives you an insight into the learners: their profiles and learning environments.
  • Design approach: This specifies the media strategy (audio & visual) and which assessment strategy to deploy in designing the course.
  • Detailed content outline (DCO): The content strategy; a brief list of topics to be covered in the course.

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Optional topics: 

  • Scope and sequence of topics to be covered
  • Plan for testing and quality assurance

Free resources: 4 must-see instructional design templates

You already have your instructional design document in stock, and it is adequate in the content department. Even though it easily conveys information to stakeholders, you still want to make sure it looks stunning and systematic enough. So, to assist you with your creative idea, here are 4 instructional design document templates. We wish you all the best in your endeavors!

Instructional design document template 1

instructional design document template 1

Instructional design document template 2

instructional design document template 2

Instructional design document template 3

instructional design document template 3

Instructional design document template 4

instructional design document template 4

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