Instructional Design Standards Guide

Overview

The Challenge

As part of a team initiative to establish instructional design standards, I was responsible for documenting eLearning standards. As I began the work, it became clear that the team lacked a centralized resource defining how courses should be designed, developed, published, and maintained.

When I joined the team, instructional designers were provided only basic branding assets, such as fonts and color codes. Development expectations for instructional design, interaction design, publishing, and quality assurance varied by designer, resulting in inconsistencies across projects.

This resulted in:

Inconsistent course structure and formatting

Variability in branding application
Missing or misaligned learning objectives
Inconsistent interaction design across courses
SCORM publishing inconsistencies that impacted LMS reporting
Longer onboarding times for new contractors due to unclear expectations

Without standardized development practices, course quality varied, troubleshooting became more time-consuming, and new designers had to rely heavily on tribal knowledge rather than a shared development framework. What began as my assigned contribution to a team standards initiative evolved into a comprehensive guide supporting the entire eLearning development lifecycle.

Creating a Scalable Instructional Design Standards Guide

Developed a comprehensive Instructional Design Standards Guide that established consistent development practices, improved contractor onboarding, and became the team's living reference for eLearning development standards.

The Solution

Rather than documenting only my assigned portion of the standards initiative, I expanded the project into a comprehensive Instructional Design Standards Guide that established consistent expectations across the eLearning development lifecycle. The guide became a practical resource for designers and contractors, supporting everything from course design and development to publishing, quality assurance, and ongoing maintenance.

Results & Impact

Reduced contractor onboarding time by approximately 30% by providing clear development expectations and a working course example.
Improved consistency across eLearning created by internal designers and contractors.
Reduced SCORM packaging and publishing issues after LMS-related guidance was added to the guide.
Established a shared reference that remained useful through staffing and leadership changes.
Continued maintaining the guide as a living resource, adding guidance when new development or publishing issues emerged.

Technologies Used

Articulate Storyline
Rise
Workday Learning
Branding resource repositories
Microsoft Word & SharePoint

Skills Demonstrated

Learning Strategy

Instructional Design Standards
Learning Governance
Documentation & Knowledge Management

Operational Excellence

Process Improvement
Quality Assurance

Collaboration

Cross-Functional Collaboration
Contractor Onboarding

Technical Expertise

LMS Publishing Standards
SCORM Best Practices

Niki Anderson

Creating a Scalable Instructional Design Standards Guide

Developed a comprehensive Instructional Design Standards Guide that established consistent development practices, improved contractor onboarding, and became the team's living reference for eLearning development standards.