Why You Need An Instructional Design Portfolio
As an Instructional Designer, there is simply no excuse for not having an Instructional Design portfolio, especially in this day and age, where online portfolios, or portfolio websites, are becoming more and more popular. An Instructional Design portfolio sums up your work, output, skills, and expertise. It demonstrates your whole creative process; how you work, how you generate ideas, and how you create highly quality eLearning courses. If you are still not convinced why you absolutely need to have an Instructional Design portfolio, sit comfortably and read the following 7 important reasons:
1. It Offers You The Opportunity To Stand Out
Your Instructional Design portfolio will allow you to demonstrate your personal style and all of your talent’s potentiality without the usual compromises you usually need to make for your clients’ sake. To stand out from the crowd, make sure that its web design is clean and absolutely beautiful. It is actually a great way to show off without being annoying or wasting anybody’s time in a job interview. Make sure that you put your best work first; don’t even include your not so good eLearning projects. Select your words describing yourself carefully and help your viewers navigate easily through your work using a simple yet interesting navigation system. Pay attention to details and provide your visitors to your website an experience which they will not soon forget.
2. Your Clients And Potential Employers Can See Your Work Anywhere And Anytime
Anyone with an internet connection and a computer, a smartphone, or a tablet will be able to see your work; isn’t that great? An online Instructional Design portfolio is an excellent way for you to demonstrate not only what you are capable of doing, but also your project management skills, your soft skills, and experience. To make sure that you make it easy for anyone interested to access your Instructional Design portfolio, design a responsive website, so that it shows everything correctly on smartphones and tablets, and optimize its SEO, so that it will be easy for the search engines to find it. Moreover, follow a simple and clean graphic design approach and ensure that the short text accompanying your visuals is powerful.
3. Your Chances Of Getting Hired Are Highly Increased
Employers often look up online before they decide whom to call for a job interview and clients want to know beforehand information such as prices and conditions of Instructional Design services. An online Instructional Design portfolio will allow you to share such information along with the best samples of your work, which automatically facilitates the recruitment process and makes a great impression. Because you will be asked to provide samples of your work anyhow when you meet with a potential employer of client, having a powerful, attention-grabbing, and professional-looking Instructional Design portfolio online might get you hired more quickly than you thought.
4. It Shows All The Experience You Have
An online Instructional Design portfolio suggests that you care enough to present your work, and you don’t just sit there waiting for things to happen. Your clients or potential employers will be able to go through a detailed documentation of your work and pay attention to your progress throughout your years of experience. Make sure that the content of your Instructional Design portfolio is versatile and shows a little bit of everything you are able to do. Also, even if you don’t have many projects to show, start with the project you are most proud of, in order to grab your viewers’ attention, and finish with an equally strong piece which will leave your visitors wanting more.
5. It Saves Both You And Your Clients Time
As an Instructional Designer you know that in the eLearning industry everyone’s time is valuable, professionals’ and learners’ alike. This is why your potential employers and clients will deeply appreciate a chance to see what you are able of doing on their own, instead of hearing you talking about it during an endless interview. In other words, an online Instructional Design portfolio will allow your viewers to see for themselves what you can do, because it will speak louder than words, in no time, going straight to the point.
6. It Can Be Very Personal And Engaging
Your Instructional Design portfolio shares a part of yourself. Potential employers are interested in your personality, so you can take advantage of your Instructional Design portfolio and share a little bit of you. Never forget that this is a professional website; but a very short entertaining story about a project can make the difference. Was there a big challenge you faced during a specific assignment? Was there any funny moment while a deadline approached? Are you particularly proud of a project? What is the most important thing you have learnt so far? Writing in a personal manner, adding some testimonials to provide credibility, and maybe sharing a few pictures, will not only engage the viewers of your portfolio, but also, and this is crucial, reassure them that you are real and you haven’t found your samples at Google. Yes, it happens and, yes, it is as ugly as it sounds.
7. It Allows You To Make Improvements As Often As You Want
Finally, the best part of having an online Instructional Design portfolio is that you can add projects to it as soon as you finish them. Or improve its web design from time to time. Or correct information that may be distracting. Your Instructional Design portfolio can grow and improve along with your work, skills, and experience, as it is a breathing record of your career. You can do everything you want with it and make sure that you are absolutely ready when the right opportunity comes along.
Now that you know why you need an Instructional Design portfolio, you may want to learn how to build a killer one. Read the article 5 Tips To Build An Instructional Design Portfolio and discover 5 key tips that will help you build an online Instructional Design portfolio that effectively showcases your expertise and talents.
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