Learn to identify which elements of project management are essential for instructional designers, exploring simple templates and tools that can support each step. Instructional design often requires juggling multiple, complex, simultaneous projects—keep them all moving forward without adding more work or bureaucracy to your plate.

Designing and creating learning objects is the fun part of being an instructional designer. But how do you manage all of the moving parts in simultaneous, complex projects, especially when collaborating with subject matter experts and stakeholders? And how do you ensure all of those learning objects and modules you’ve created remain accessible, functional, and relevant over time? Instructional designers—especially those at institutions or organizations with limited budgets—need flexible, light-weight tools to support project management from the beginning of the learning object creation process, through ongoing quality reviews. In this session, attendees will learn which elements of project management are essential for an instructional designer, and which elements can be skipped. Attendees will see how to use simple tools like Google Docs and Sheets to support managing multiple, collaborative instructional design projects from beginning to end. And they will encounter strategies for tracking, delegating, and completing cyclical quality reviews of the learning objects they’ve created. Instructional design is a field of continuous growth and evolution, so in this spirit, session attendees will be invited to share via interactive polls and discussion their own approaches to project management, including strategies, tools, and platforms that have supported their work. In addition, the templates highlighted during this session will be shared with attendees so they can adapt them to their own unique needs.