Lesson 1: Overview of Effective Webinar Training

Instructional design is a systematic process used to develop effective instruction. Instructional design principles are grounded by learning theory and offer varying levels of guidance to help choose appropriate strategies to facilitate learning. Using instructional design principles to make decisions when developing your webinar training will increase your instruction's likelihood of success.

There are MANY instructional design models. Some are aimed at specific types of learning tasks, while others are more generic. While there are many different design models, they all typically include the following activities: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. In this course, you will learn about two well-known models - Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction and Dick & Carey's Systems Approach Model. You will learn how to use elements of these models to determine instructional goals and instructional strategies you can use to engage your webinar participants and facilitate learning.

Note that instructional design is not a rigid process where each step must be followed in order. Rather it is adaptable to both the instructor's and learner's needs. Instructional designers typically do not follow one method but pick and choose among methods based on the unique circumstances of the individual design task.

The method described in this course is a simplified approach intended for use by technical subject matter experts who design webinar training. It is not expected that you will become an expert instructional designer. However, you should learn new skills to improve your ability to teach others.