Rapid Instructional Design (RID) is more of an approach for developing courses in less time than an instructional learning model. It is best used for course content that changes quickly, such as compliance, laws, and software development. The goal of RID is to deliver targeted learning materials that close skills gaps quickly. There are five key stages of RID outlined below that occur simultaneously, contributing to the time-efficient nature of the approach.
The RID approach relies on front-loaded collaboration for success. The approach benefits from stakeholder and SME input early in course development to identify the most critical knowledge and skills learners need to acquire. Instructional designers can then focus on identifying learning activities that close the skills gaps. Another implication of RID is reliance on existing tools and learning resources. Instructional designers must identify the right eLearning platform that features tools to create meaningful learning experiences or is flexible to include external learning resources in learning experiences. Curating and repurposing existing content aligned to the learning goals to close the skill gaps is a key stage in the approach. Course prototypes allow stakeholders, SMEs, and learners to input on the course as it’s being developed for improvement before deployment. During deployment and evaluation, feedback is collected to make ongoing revisions.
My minicourse is categorized as corporate training because it intends to close skills gaps for solopreneurs who want to leverage social media marketing to meet their business goals. The RID’s responsiveness to change is a strength due to the fast pace at which social media evolves, as a function of new features, emergence of new platforms, and/or user behavior. It required me to weigh what I define as enduring understanding—knowledge of an individual platform for marketing or the skills to market successfully on any platform. I chose skills to market successfully on any platform. Another strength is stakeholder collaboration. Being clear about the enduring understanding informs the expertise needed among SME collaborators—digital marketers, UX/UI designers, and LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook experts. With the input of SMEs early in course development, the course has an increased likelihood of delivering a learning experience that teaches the skills learners were promised to gain.
One of the limitations of RID is the potential to sacrifice conceptual depth and breadth to meet time constraints for course development. My goal for this course is an enduring understanding that can be replicated in any social media environment. My course type is informational, so I have to allot time to give the information, allow learners to practice it, and assess their understanding of the concepts through authentic assessments. This requires depth and breadth that the RID doesn’t afford. If the course type was step-by-step, onboarding, or how-to, RID may be a better approach because those course types are steeped in procedural knowledge instead of conceptual knowledge. Shallow assessments may be appropriate for assessing procedural knowledge. Lastly, limited interactivity would reflect overlooking learning needs for my course learners, solopreneurs. They need an MKO to grow skills and aid their journey across Vygotsky’s ZPD. They thrive on having real-time access to an expert to learn quickly.