As an instructional designer, you’ll wear many hats. And technical skills alone (learning technologies, instructional models, video editing…) won’t be enough for you to thrive.
You’ll also need to build an arsenal of soft skills.
From project management to storytelling to inclusivity, there’s a whole world of content outside of instructional design courses for you to learn.
We’ve rounded up the best corporate training courses for instructional design pros to hone their skills.
Editor’s Top Choices
Short on time?
Here are our top three picks for courses that can elevate your eLearning career as an instructional designer:
- Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
- Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling
- Copywriting Masterclass by the Institute of Data and Marketing
Interested in a career in eLearning? Learn more about the essential skills and qualifications in our What Is an Instructional Designer? guide.
Table of contents:
- Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
- Creativity at work – LinkedIn Learning
- Effective Problem Solving & Decision Making – University of California via Coursera
- Critical Reasoning for Beginners – University of Oxford
- Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling
- Teamwork and Collaboration by Rochester Institute of Technology via EdX
- Copywriting Masterclass by the Institute of Data and Marketing
- Communicating With Empathy – Elizabeth Pierce via Udemy
Best corporate courses to build soft skills for instructional designers
While instructional design training courses are a must for any L&D pro, they aren’t the only way to deepen your skills. These online corporate training courses hone key skills and competencies that instructional design pros must have:
1. Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
The PMP is a globally recognized qualification that highlights your skills in managing people, processes, and professional projects. It’s the most prestigious certification you can get in the area and therefore requires candidates to meet certain requirements.
To be eligible to apply, you must have:
- A four-year college/university degree
- 36 months of experience leading projects within the past eight years
- 35 hours of project management training or CAPM® certification
Candidates must pass a 180-question exam to gain the qualification.
If you don’t fit the criteria or you’re looking for less intensive training, the PMI offers other credentials and project management training courses.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
Project management skills are essential for instructional designers. Not only do you need to coordinate eLearning projects and collaborate with stakeholders, but you also need to demonstrate their impact.
Completing a project management course will equip you with the skills to motivate people throughout your eLearning project, implement agile approaches to increase efficiency, and accurately measure training success.
Moreover, PMP holders earn a median salary of 16% higher than those without a certificate.
Pricing:
The PMP Certification exam fee is $405 for PMI members and $555 for non-members.
2. Creativity at work – LinkedIn Learning
Available on LinkedIn Learning, this concise course is led by Seth Godin, author of numerous best-selling books.
In less than 40 minutes, you’ll develop your skills in creative ideation, learning how to let go of fears that hinder your creativity.
Not only does Seth offer practical advice on overcoming the fear of failure, but he also encourages you to challenge your own limiting beliefs around creativity. Hint: creativity isn’t just for a select few.
The format is clear and easy to follow, with short, bite-sized videos for each topic. Seth expertly navigates complex ideas, such as imposter syndrome, writer’s block, and cultivating empathy in a user-friendly way.
You’ll also discover techniques and hacks to boost your creative problem-solving skills.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
Developing engaging learning experiences calls for more than a sprinkle of creativity. Indeed, thinking outside the box can be the difference between rolling out a dry, click-through course and compelling content.
From better storyboarding to inventive branching scenarios.
Needless to say, the latter garners higher learner engagement rates, enhanced knowledge retention, and better business results.
So, channeling your creativity with a short course like this one can give you a competitive advantage in the eLearning world.
Upon completion, you’ll receive a certificate to share on your LinkedIn profile to show off your newfound creativity.
Pricing:
An individual subscription to LinkedIn Learning starts at €39.99/month. You can also choose to buy individual courses for your team (pricing available upon request).
3. Effective Problem Solving & Decision Making – University of California via Coursera
Diane Spiegel of the University of California, Irvine, leads this eight-hour course. Throughout those eight hours, you’ll complete four modules.
Each module covers a critical step in the problem-solving and decision-making process, leaving you with actionable advice on how to develop your skills in this area.
The modules contain videos, readings, and quizzes for a rich and engaging learning experience.
You’ll begin by examining how to identify the root cause of a problem. Then, Diane encourages you to reflect on how your mindset and personal bias impact your problem-solving skills.
From problem-solving styles and creativity enhancement approaches to coming up with viable solutions, you’ll deepen your abilities to address important issues in your eLearning projects.
You’ll also dive into how organizational decisions (or non-decisions) influence personal development, performance, and team dynamics.
The course rounds off by giving techniques for defining performance metrics and KPIs for your solution. This is a valuable skill for instructional designers who need to measure training ROI and the impact learning has on organizational behaviors.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
In almost any career path, effective decision-making and problem-solving are essential skills, especially in today’s fast-paced environment. Instructional design is no different.
Developing learning experiences requires you to juggle many tasks at once. And, as demand for training increases, L&D professionals need to make quick decisions and find efficient solutions to issues in real time.
Corporate training courses that boost your skills in these areas will give you the confidence to assess problems, decide on the best course of action, and measure the success of your solution.
In turn, this will allow you to manage your eLearning projects more efficiently and garner better learning outcomes.
Pricing:
An individual Coursera Plus subscription starts at €368/year.
4. Critical Reasoning for Beginners – University of Oxford
Marianne Talbot hosts this six-part video series on critical reasoning. Although you most likely apply many critical thinking principles in your daily work as an instructional designer, you may not realize the science behind them.
Critical thinking means analyzing information and forming a judgement while remaining aware of your own biases and assumptions. As such, developing these skills enables you to make more informed decisions and apply more creative problem-solving.
Each video lasts between 50 minutes and an hour and a half, giving you plenty of time to deep dive into different topics related to the subject.
Over the course of six lessons, Marianne deftly explains the fundamentals of critical thinking in a way that even complete beginners can understand.
By the end of the six-part series, you’ll learn how to effectively recognize and evaluate different types of arguments.
For those who prefer to read or listen, you can download audio and transcripts of each lesson.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
Critical thinking skills can benefit you tremendously as an instructional designer. By developing your ability to think critically, you can better evaluate information.
This makes you better equipped to create more effective training materials and achieve better learning outcomes.
Pricing:
Free
5. Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling – University of Houston via Coursera
In just 13 hours, you can get a crash course on how to use digital stories to enhance learning experiences. The program consists of five modules, each containing videos, readings, and quizzes, for a dynamic learning experience.
Over the five modules, you’ll build a solid foundation in digital storytelling and even have opportunities to gain some hands-on experience creating your own.
With plenty of examples, tutorials, and extra resources on hand, you’ll be able to convert instructional information into an engaging story that captures learners’ attention.
Although the course is meant for K-12 teachers, it’s a great corporate training course for instructional designers looking to amp up their storytelling skills.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
The ability to tell a story when creating a learning experience is like gold dust. It’s been scientifically proven on countless occasions that learners assimilate and recall information better when they learn through stories.
As a result, developing your storytelling abilities could help you enhance learner engagement, knowledge retention, and learning outcomes.
Pricing:
You can opt to take the free option (gaining access to all course materials except graded items) or purchase the course for €45.
6. Teamwork and Collaboration by Rochester Institute of Technology via EdX
This three-week course delves into the best practices and key components of collaborating as a team.
It’s a self-paced course led by David Neumann, who is a professor at the RITx School of Communication.
Throughout the training course, you’ll build the essential skills to lead and motivate teams in a corporate setting.
What’s more, David Neumann uses his expertise to dissect the complexities of group dynamics, how to improve morale, and how to assess team effectiveness.
In the process, you’ll develop leadership, conflict management, and problem-solving skills.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
Building training programs is a team effort. As such, you’ll need to have the ability to collaborate effectively with SMEs, eLearning developers, and other stakeholders.
Building your collaboration and teamwork skills empowers you to work closely with others on eLearning projects and achieve the best results possible.
From strategizing to designing to iterating your training, collaborative skills are a must in this field.
Pricing:
Free (with an option to upgrade to the verified track for €183).
7. Copywriting Masterclass by the Institute of Data and Marketing
Based in the UK, IDM offers a range of corporate training and qualifications. In this one-day masterclass, you can hone your copywriting skills by learning techniques to captivate and persuade your audience.
During the masterclass, you’ll discover actionable tips and tricks for connecting with learners and motivating them to act.
What’s more, you’ll participate in hands-on activities to improve your writing, streamline planning, and boost your creativity.
Perhaps the biggest feature of this masterclass is that you get real-time feedback from an industry pro.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
Any instructional designer worth their salt needs strong communication skills, especially in writing.
Being able to convert complex concepts into simple sentences is both an art and a science and it will transform the lives of your learners.
As such, sharpening your writing skills and embracing the “less is more” writing approach of copywriters can elevate your work.
Just like copywriters, instructional designers must know their audience and create content that helps them reach their goals.
Pricing:
£450.00 (or £400.00 for IDM members)
8. Communicating With Empathy – Elizabeth Pierce via Udemy
This course gives you the skills to communicate empathetically with learners, colleagues, and clients. In less than an hour, you can learn what empathy is, the science behind active listening, and how to develop self-awareness.
No matter your job role, empathy gives you the ability to connect with others. Without it, you can’t truly put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Throughout the course, you’ll learn how to integrate core empathy elements and complete exercises to apply your knowledge.
While empathy takes time and practice to build, the instructor, Elizabeth Pierce, gives you a solid foundation to build off of.
Why it’s beneficial for instructional designers:
If you want to create learner-centric training courses that resonate with trainees, then developing your empathy skills is a must.
Empathy allows you to better understand who your learner is, what challenges they face, their goals, and how to motivate them. That means you can create more personalized experiences that help learners reach their goals.
In doing so, you create better working environments for yourself and enhanced learning environments for your audience.
Besides, developing your empathy will make you a better colleague and improve your communication and collaboration skills.
Pricing:
€44.99
Conclusion
We hope this roundup of the best corporate training courses for instructional designers gives you inspiration for your next learning project.
From building your writing skills to learning project management fundamentals, each of these courses can make you a more well-rounded instructional designer.
Want more L&D content? Check out the blog for the latest instructional design insights.
By Nicola Wylie
Nicola Wylie is a learning industry expert who loves sharing in-depth insights into the latest trends, challenges, and technologies.