Instructional Design - India's New Money Spinner

chillibreeze writer — Malarvizhi Baskaran

The New Age Paradigm

You hear it here, you hear it there now, and it suddenly seems ubiquitous. Neither transcription nor an incarnation of journalism, nor the science of dull self help materials or tutorials either, yet it is a little like all these put together.

What is this new occupation? We are talking about what is in vogue, the most happening Instructional Design.

This new field is in the limelight nowadays. Or is it new? There is something so familiar about it. Somewhere in a remote village, a 70 year old Montessori teacher can identify with it in a strange way…Is it old wine in a new bottle? Not really.

Will this sudden surge sweep down and nose dive like another dot com maya? Skepticism burgeons.

But more and more bigwigs in business are identifying themselves with the new cult, - the custom built training solutions that fit snugly into their pocket space. “Can it be recycled?”, someone asks. “Oh yes, why not?” pat comes the prompt reply.

E-learning is fast becoming the compact brain power of a company. Knowledge is packed well into this neat mode of content delivery. Little wonder then, the global projection for the Instructional Design industry points to nearly 30 billion dollars by 2008.

Where is Instructional Design deployed?

From ramping up capacity building to upgrading employee skills, from teaching complex concepts to decoding the mechanism of building engineered components, from captivating children’s attention with awe-inspiring animation to dispensing information on the latest mobile, every where the nifty Instructional designer is the key resource.

A lot of escalation in expertise in practically every sector is taking place so elegantly, yet at break-neck speed. Pause to catch your breath, and you almost experience cartoon physics, you fall with delayed gravity! The answer to the need for excellence is e-learning.

Why India?

So what is it with India? One almost hears the cynical American voice. Why does India lap up the lion’s share in this meat too?

It is finally dawning that India has connotations of academic excellence and elitism. It is being proved by the competent writers, artists and technical experts that India is silently producing and sowing all over the world.

What makes it viable?

Even the most patriotic Indian would agree that they owe their command over the international language to the British and their quality educational foundations that are rather solid. Add to this the exposure many young global Indians have acquired in the last decade. The result is competent visualization.

The power and reach of the internet which plays the lifeline for instructional design cannot be ignored. Researching the net and stocking up relevant wisdom is important. India is witnessing a never-seen-before growth in bandwidth capabilities. Computer Based Training (CBT) is now being supplemented with, if not replaced by Web Based Training (WBT).

The humble Indian educationists assisted by the adept fingers of their modest graphic designers are collectively taking a whole new avatar! While the front end magic of the instructional designer’s core conceptualization, structuring and flow is woven by the deft hands of their graphic designers, the logic of efficient programmers constitutes the back end magic that integrates the components.

The result of this skilled communication methodology is a charming delivery of content, all this at a price tag way more competitive than their global counterparts.

Checkpoints and coping with the skyrocketing experience

Time as always is a crucial factor. Developmental span of the instructional material is critical and this is one area where India is still grappling to compete with places like Philippines, Romania, Argentina and a few Asian countries.

Despite India being nascent in this arena till a couple of years back, ID is now booming here. Yet, the path doesn’t seem like a bed of roses. The life span, reusability, modularity and maintainability of these knowledge packages are key areas where scrutiny and fine-tuning are needed to sustain the boom and keep it growing from this healthy rudimentary stage. This is especially significant since the global demand for Instructional Design is all poised to only accelerate phenomenally and a delectable demand inundation is forecast.

80% of companies in India and in fact even the government sectors are in need of implementing e-learning facilities within their organizations. Interestingly a lateral growth is also seen in BPOs and ITES industries which require e-learning luxuries and a whole team of Indian dreams are seen taxiing off the runway.

This phase marks the onset of phenomenal changes for the pedagogic community in India. Shrewdness in being sensitive to the cultural and social factors of the global requirements and adapting to them are essential traits that need to be honed, in order to remain a Federer in Tennis. A variety of media also needs to be researched for suitability of platform.

An exponential growth in the market for instructional design is predicted for future, and surely India can reign supreme if it can do the timely tweaking and is equipped to meet the needs of the industry.

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