Creating Online Training Courses for the Corporate Environment: What Have Been the Experiences of Instructional Designers?

Online training is a mainstay of the corporate environment in the twenty-first century. However, creating online instruction presents different challenges than those for traditional classroom-based learning. Instructional design for the online environment is considered to be in its formative stage, which suggests that there is no set path, model, or formula for instructional designers to follow when creating online training. The study explores the experiences of instructional designers who have created online training for the corporate training environment, focusing specifically on the instructional designers' experiences regarding any processes or models they may have followed when creating online instruction. By exploring the experiences of these instructional designers who created online courses, future instructional designers may better understand the processes or models available to them as they create their own online instruction. Three questions were addressed for this research: (1) what were the experiences of the instructional designers regarding the processes or models they followed to create online training; (2) what criteria did instructional designers use when determining whether a course's content was suitable for the online training environment; and (3) what process or instructional design model did the instructional designers follow in order to create online courses, and if no specific instructional design model was used, what was the reason for not using one. This study was conducted utilizing a collective case study method. This study was designed to explore, compare, and understand the varied experiences of the study participants within the context of their profession; and attempted to differentiate the details of each participant's experience in order to better understand what an instructional designer considers when creating an online educational or training course. Research participants' responses were categorized into four major themes: (1) Models versus Experience, (2) Choosing a Familiar Instructional Design Model, (3) Instructional Design Occurs in Teams, and (4) Personal Best Practices. All of the study participants agreed that having instructional design models to follow early in their careers is helpful, but strict adherence to those models tends to fall away as experience takes over.Ed.D., Education -- Drexel University, 201