The Instructional Design Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide to Designing Performance-Based Learning

Everything They Didn't Teach You About Instructional Design...Minus the BS Instructional design can feel overwhelming when you're just getting started. Between the frameworks, the theories, the stakeholders, and the endless acronyms, it's easy to wonder where to even begin, or whether you accidentally signed up for a career that requires a degree in rocket science to understand. The Instructional Design Handbook cuts through the noise and gives you a practical, plain-language guide to the entire instructional design process, from figuring out whether training is even the right solution in the first place, to measuring whether it actually worked when it was all said and done. Along the way, you'll explore the adult learning theories and principles that experienced instructional designers actually rely on, and more importantly, how to apply them to design performance-based training solutions, including eLearning, instructor-led training, and more, that change real behavior on the job. Whether you studied instructional design in school, stumbled into learning and development from a completely different career, or have been winging it longer than you'd like to admit, this book will give you the tools, the confidence, and the roadmap to stop guessing and start designing training that actually changes performance. If you're wondering how to become an instructional designer, how to level up your curriculum design skills, or how to grow your career in training and development, this is the book you've been looking for. Author and instructional designer Tim Slade has spent nearly two decades designing training solutions, helping organizations solve real performance problems, and teaching other instructional designers how to do the same. The insights in this book aren't pulled from a textbook. They're hard-earned, real-world lessons from someone who has lived every stage of the instructional design process, including more than a few projects he'd love to go back and redo. Inside every chapter, you'll find: Pro Tips: Real-world advice from an experienced instructional designer to help you work smarter on every project Common Questions: Honest answers to the questions every new instructional designer has but is afraid to ask AI Assists: Practical ways to use artificial intelligence tools to speed up your instructional design workflow, without sacrificing quality Examples in Action: Concrete, real-world examples that show you how every concept applies on an actual project Reality Checks: Straight talk about the messy, complicated realities of working as an instructional designer in the real world Case Studies: A running instructional design case study that follows a project from needs analysis all the way through evaluation, so you can see the full process in action The Instructional Design Handbook is for new instructional designers, career-changers entering learning and development, training coordinators and learning experience designers ready to level up, and anyone who wants to go beyond order-taking and design training that actually works. Whether you're preparing for an instructional design certification, building your first corporate training program, or trying to design employee training that goes beyond compliance checkboxes, The Instructional Design Handbook gives you the practical foundation to do it right. Pick it up, dig in, and start designing training that actually makes a difference.