To Know or Not to Know...

This is a question that has plagued the instructional designer since he first set foot in the rain forest called ID. What all should I know, and even if I know what I should know, should I know less or more, wide or deep, basic or advanced…the list goes on and on as the potpourri of content, interactivity, visualization, writing style, and grammar all vie for the most important position in an instructional designer’s life.

Before I begin my monologue on what I think the instructional designer should build on his premium mind estate, I implore you to close your eyes for a moment and reflect upon the three most frustrating events of your ID career. Chances are that these events will in some way or the other; connect with your interactions with the other members of your team.

Let me paint a scenario. You walk into your office at five minutes to nine. You are very much in time, as your office doesn’t expect you in before 9:15 AM. There is spring in your step, and everything around you, including the mangy old dog around the corner, looks breathtakingly beautiful. You reach your cubicle, humming your favorite tune and switch on your computer. Today you would begin work on a new course. Yesterday, bang on the deadline, you had sent the script of the last course off to the graphic designer as well as the programmer!

But then…it happens! There are two ominous looking emails sitting in your mailbox. You are right…your teatime buddies have turned against you. The programmer isn’t too happy with the interactions that you had built over lost sleep and swirling smoke (the non-smokers may please read…drained cups of coffee.) The graphic designer’s email too doesn’t read very amicable. “What do you think we are?” he says, “Disney Animators!”
Your smile is replaced by a contemplative frown; the morning doesn’t seem so bright any more.

The only way to preclude such anticlimaxes from the script of your working life is to know. You need to know enough about standards, programming, graphics, animation, audio, and video; to make sure that your script addresses the audience in the best possible manner, and then goes beyond to address the requirements of the development team.

This in no way implies that you should stifle your creativity; it just means that you should control its flow, so that it makes the best use of different media tools. This will make your script more powerful and the course more integrated. You will also find that some knowledge of these tools will help you communicate your requirements to other members of your team in a more effective and efficient manner.

Let’s list a few items that you should know from each of the related disciplines. These lists are indicative. You can and should add your own ideas to these lists.

• The common graphic and animation formats
• Difference between stylized and realistic graphics
• Difference between “tweened” and frame-by-frame animation
• Difference between transitions and animations
• Difference between 2d graphics, 3d graphics, and photographs
• Available stock pictures and custom libraries available
• Terms such as composition, background, collage, character, object, color, and so on
• Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, 3ds Max and their outputs
• The skill-set of your team’s graphic designer(s)
  

• File formats
• Limitations and advantages of the programming environment
• Difference between animation and programmed effects
• Difference between navigation and other interactive behaviors
• Your team programmer’s skills
• Actions pre-built and available in libraries of the software packages
• Rough idea of what is easy or difficult to program
• The Programming Environment – (Flash, Director, Authorware)
  

• File formats
• Limitations and advantages of using video vis-à-vis using animations
• Time plan for video shoot
• Exposure to video and audio packages such as Adobe Premiere and Sound Forge
• Limitations of the authoring tools in embedding external media
  

• Physical dimensions of media pieces
• Placement of media
• Labeling standards

These lists are not exhaustive but they are a good starting point. Knowing a bit about each of the above areas improves the instructional designer's comfort level with his colleagues, which leads to an exponential growth of peripheral understanding. If time permits, working on a few graphics and animations, programming some small interactions or just the basic navigation, mixing a few sounds, and combining some video clips with a few transitions; is the best way to start your peripheral learning.

This learning will go a long way in making your content more effective and improve your productivity by reducing the “meetings” that you would rather go without!

Author: Shafali R. Anand