I am here with Heather from Artisan Talent. We are talking about instructional design.
I must admit I'm completely ignorant. Start me off what is instructional design?
Well, instructional design would be say you are taking an online course through a university.
Those courses have to be developed by somebody and put together so that's where instructional
design comes in. Okay cool and what is it to be an instructional
design freelancer? I would say there is a law in this phase that
our freelancers, if you want to get into more of a full-time role, most of this is long
term contract. You know 40 hours a week; a lot of it can be done on site or off-site
which is nice because we work with a lot of instructional designers across the country
for clients in Chicago and New York and elsewhere.
As long as you can connect you know via web may be its Skype, may be its you know some
sort of other web program and connect with that client and have regular meetings there
you go. So it's developing courses, legitimate courses that students are enrolling in online
to learn content. Okay, cool and what would an instructional
design career look like? I mean, you had some people through half a year in years. (Yes)
what is that career look like? Some people have been on long term contracts
and still remain on those. You know they are kind of considered permanence. So, you know,
what's that now? Permanence, I have never heard of that.
So, they work 40 hours a week on going contract. You know, and we would get a heads up obviously
if we knew things were kind of coming to an end but we would talk about that but right
now it's permanence and it just keep extending that person as long as everybody is still
doing work, it's great. Sometimes that it is a short term contract and we know that.
May be its more about a 2-6 months contract for a course that is being developed and and
that's usually the case but there's a lot of work out there where you can roll into
different types of clients whether be education or corporate. That training piece that's digital
right now is very important to companies and to institutions.
Okay and what kind of software would you need to be familiar with? Whether that software
like I don't know Photoshop or something or you know coding platforms. What's the big
stuff right now? We usually see I would say Blackboard and
Articulate are kind of big ones in that instructional designs phase. I do
come across others that you know have moved into that coding space. They are more on the
instructional development side whereas the designers just really need to understand Articular
and Blackboard and may be a little bit of that Photoshop piece. So just kind of depends
on the client for those are kind of the big names in the market place.
Okay cool and let's talk about the specifics here. What kind of work could you get? What
kind of money can you earn if you choose to get into instructional design?
Whoa we have let's see here. It's definitely competitors based as there is a lot of work
out there. It depends on the client. You know, something is more over an institution or something.
It might be at 35-60 range. It's a corporation might be a little bit up from that. I will
tell talent that I'm going to kind of share with you and have you make that decision.
If it's something that you know you are interested in because they are being asked for a lot
of different projects. They have to weigh things out. We are comparative though and
we have variably happy talent. Okay, cool and lets obviously you work with
Artisan Talent who is an agency that specializes in this kind of work. What if I was looking
for instructional design kind of work what's the best way to reach out to you guys?
You know a lot of people do go directly through our website or through LinkedIn. Other people
apply directly to a job which is completely fine. Sometimes they come across one of
us on LinkedIn and reach out directly that way too. So and we will definitely respond
once we hear from you. Okay cool and then last question what's the
advantage of working with an agency on instructional design versus just I don't know going on your
own. That's a really good question because I do
teach a lot instructional design talent. They have their own client base which is great
but we come across clients that only work through an agency such as Artisan Talent to
find instructional designers. So we are a good place to get to know to add share rapid
fire. So there is a lot of opportunities that come
through an agency that really don't happen directly. Yes they don't have the resources
may be internally to find these people so they ask us for that expertise and finding
those right people. Alright sounds good. Well if I am an instructional designer I am going
to click on the website. I don't want to have to find the work. I don't want to have to
figure out the insurance and all that crazy stuff. I would prefer you to do work for me.
Exactly! Alright cool thanks for your help on that. Thank you.