When COVID-19 rattled the entire world, the education industry also bore the brunt of it. Within a short span of time, universities and colleges had to shift to a virtual environment. That meant transforming the curriculum so that students could understand it without the physical presence of a teacher.
Even though the concept of online learning existed before the pandemic, never before were all classes made virtual.
As a result, the demand for instructional design service providers increased. They are online coursework experts who can efficiently create courses that ensure student engagement.
In this blog, you will find the 6 benefits of hiring an instructional design service provider.
1. Instructors can focus on educating students
Instructors have a tremendous responsibility to deliver classes online. Most of them don’t have the expertise or the time to design online coursework.
This is where the role of an instructional design service provider comes into play. They don’t work as a replacement for teachers but as partners to develop virtual learning solutions.
Besides, not every subject is easy to transform into an online program. In this case, the expertise of an instructional designer becomes more crucial. They can transform complex subjects into easily understandable virtual coursework.
2. Takes the burden off of SMEs
Subject matter experts (SMEs) may know the ins and outs of their subject but they are not trained to design or deliver the expected learning experiences. In other words, they don’t have the professional expertise to design virtual coursework.
An instructional designer works with the SME to utilize the latter’s knowledge and convert it into an online course. Therefore, hiring an instructional design service provider avoids unrealistic expectations from SMEs.
3. Increase the scale of the project
Even if you decide not to hire an instructional design service provider, you cannot possibly dedicate a team of your current members to design the virtual curriculum considering their existing responsibilities.
If the scope of the project is complex, that would mean more time and costs. However, outsourcing the instructional design to a third-party means freeing up your resources.
Outsourcing shouldn’t be stigmatized, especially when the end result is an engaging online course. Companies that specialize in instructional design can devote their staff and resources to do just that!
This means you can increase the scale of a virtual learning program by giving it greater attention with the help of experts.
Hurix has an expert team of instructional designers who can create compelling and engaging eLearning solutions for students. You can check out the higher education solutions offered by Hurix here.
4. Brainstorm the aesthetics
While designing an eLearning course, it’s very tempting to use a wide range of tools such as PDF extracts, links to external resources, graphs, videos, and infographics.
If not placed correctly, the learners may find it quite overwhelming and distracting.
Instructional designers collaborate with SMEs, the design team, and the tech team to brainstorm the aesthetics. This includes the content format, frequency of usage of the above-mentioned elements, placement, design, font, and the learning experience.
The aim is to not overwhelm the students so that they can concentrate on the program.
5. Boost learner interaction
According to a survey by Eduventures Research and Quality Matter, online students tend to feel more isolated.
The same survey found that when the virtual course was developed by instructional designers, there was a 30% increase in student-to-student interaction.
Hence, if you want to increase learner interaction, an instructional design service provider can help you achieve that.
6. Course content is more fluid & structured
In order to make the eLearning course more appealing and effective, one needs to focus on both fluidity and structure.
An instructional designer lays great emphasis on the flow of information or the organization of content. It has a major impact on learner engagement.
They design the curriculum in such a way that it never loses context and flows sequentially. Even the most complex subjects are presented in an uncluttered format.
Therefore, hiring an instructional designer makes your virtual coursework engaging, simple, and effective.
Wrapping it up
Universities and colleges need to strengthen their online offerings, and a great way to do that is to hire an instructional design service provider.
The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way the education industry functions. Depending on what the future may hold for everyone, online coursework experts are expected to remain in demand for a long time.
Besides, hiring an instructional designer saves you a considerable amount of time and costs. It reduces the burden of staff, volunteers, and SMEs who may not have the required knowledge and experience to design virtual coursework.
When you deliver a top-notch learning experience to your students, it results in greater returns and word-of-mouth marketing.
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