In the following lines, you will read some mistakes that I made at the beginning of my career.

They use games without a legitimate goal

Using fun activities on an online course will boost participant activity, that’s true. However, if there are only games on the course that do not have an objective and measurable goal (acquisition and provision of knowledge by the participants), they are there only to decorate the course, then they have no didactic basis.

Using technology just like that, and not as a support to the learning process, is a completely wrong way. In this way, we will have a bunch of modern material that will not serve anything for the end user.

Poor communication with SMEs

The SME and the instructional designer must function as one. Due to the bad relationship, poor communication between the designer and the SME course will be of poor quality. Before starting work, you need to get well acquainted with your SME, but also with the topic of the course. even if the topic of the course is not an area that is personally attractive to you, it is necessary to do a detailed research and at least superficially learn more about the topic you are working on. This approach to work will enable you to have a better relationship with SMEs. The second tip is – ask questions. It is always better to have an excess of questions for SMEs than an excess of unknowns.

Grammatical errors and typos

Okay, you’ve got the content you need to develop. But that does not mean that you should strictly adhere to the given content and not evaluate it critically. If you notice mistakes, feel free to point them out to your SME.

Lack of instruction

Just because you know something doesn’t mean everyone knows. It is necessary to put yourself in the role of SME, but also in the role of participants and to give precise and clear instructions for work for each activity that is expected from the participants. Do not be afraid of long explanations and instructions. It is better to have a surplus of information that will make the student’s work easier, than not to have it at all or to have it superficially explained.

Bad structure

Bad flow of content, inconsistency in which the content does not move from easier to harder, will confuse the participant. That’s why it’s important to think carefully about how to organize your content. It may not always match the theories of learning you know, but sometimes it is justified to break a few rules.

Not paying attention to storyboarding

Many designers I know neglect this aspect. The reason is that they think it is enough to explain to other people in a few sentences how they plan to implement the content / course. Not enough. If you try to describe to people the development of a course in a few sentences, it will not be clear enough to them and they will think that the job is easy and fast. And we all know how long it takes to develop an online course. Another reason in favor of using storyboarding is that you may initially spend a lot of time, but in the later stages of work, it will be your perfect guide that will make your work easier.

Ignorance of correct terminology

In order for an instructional designer to do his job well, it is necessary to know the difference between webinars, online courses (self-paced and guided by moderators), micro-learning (micro-courses), workshops, live training. If the instructional designer knows the difference between these types, he will also know exactly which activity, technology, tools and learning theory should be implemented.

Use of inappropriate graphics

My personal position is that it is necessary to harmonize the graphics with the topic of the online course, but also to take into account the target audience. Accordingly, you will choose images or vectors, stronger colors or corporate images.

Lack of target audience analysis

Although often instructional designers do only the necessary, I still think that detailed research of the target audience is a very important factor for content development. If you have information that the participants are not technologically literate enough, you will adapt the design and content to them.

What mistakes do you make? Which ones did you notice in your colleagues? Feel free to share them in the comments.