Should instructional design programs include creating writing courses?

admin — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:36:55 +0000

As an Instructional Designer we are expected to be a good technical writers because we will be designing curriculum for clients and good technical writing makes them happy. However, does technical writing make the employees happy? When was the last time you read a good book? Ask yourself, what was the writing in the book like? Then ask yourself, why isnt my training written this way? Training should be fun and motivating for employees and technical writing is not fun or motivating. Nonetheless, this is what clients usually want and it’s what instructional designers have been trained to do. However, with the push for more interactive-game like interactions in our training, there is a need for more creative writing to capture the readers’ attention. When I read technical writing, I want to go to sleep. Seriously, it just makes me cringe. When I read a great book, I can stay and read through the night and never put it down. Sure there are different purposes for each of these but why can the training not incorporate some elements from each? So we need to combine the creative writing style (with stories etc) from that fun book with our training in order to capture the readers attention. Now some companies are doing this, but for the most part (I think it would be safe to say 99%) its not fun or exciting. Employees should be excited to get training, not bothered by it. So, how do we do this? Well I believe it will start in ISD programs. We need to train our students to start writing this way from day 1. That means incorporating this kind of writing into our classes or even having our students take a creating writing course in the literature dept. I believe learning how to write stories will help training significantly more than purely focusing on technical writing.

creative writing – Dr. Ray Pastore's Instructional Technology Blog

Should instructional design programs include creating writing courses?