Professional Certificate in Instructional Design

Gain the hands-on analytical skills to design and develop impactful learning experiences

The Emeritus Advantage

At Emeritus, instructional design is our forte. Leveraging the knowledge of our instructional design professionals, the Emeritus Instructional Design Institute, and our unique model that blends state-of-the-art technology, curriculum innovation, and hands-on instruction, our programs help individuals learn new skills and make a lasting impact on the greater global community. We are committed to teaching the skills of the future by making high-quality education accessible and affordable.

Positive Career Impact

94 percent of our learners report a positive impact on their career and professional development.

Our Global Learner Base

Emeritus's learner base spread across 153 countries, is a testament to the wide-reaching impact of our future-focused programs.

Renowned Partner Institutions

We collaborate with more than 50 top-tier universities across the United States, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India, and China to make world-class education globally accessible.

Learn From The World’s Best

Emeritus collaborates with more than 80 top-tier universities to make high-quality education accessible and affordable worldwide.

Who Is This Program For?

Whether you develop instructional materials for an education system or a corporation, this program is designed to help you build a foundation in instructional analytics and design. At the end of this program, you will come away with hands-on skills to create impactful learning solutions that set learners up for success.

This program is ideal for:

K-12 teachers and educators who want to transition to instructional design to better identify knowledge or skill deficits and create impactful instructional solutions that help people learn
Recent graduates and early-career instructional design professionals looking to expand their knowledge of instructional design and launch or accelerate their career in this field
HR/learning development teams who have instructional design needs to develop skill or knowledge-based training programs and high-quality learning materials for employees
Professionals working in customer/sales enablement who want to learn and apply instructional design to identify performance gaps and help their teams improve their performance

This program will help you prepare for the following roles:

Course Developer
Instructional Designer
Learning Team Manager or Director
Learning Experience Designer (LXD)
Chief Learning Officer (CLO)

*There are no prerequisites for this program.

Key Takeaways

Cultivate the analytical skills necessary to identify performance problems, learning needs, and learning objectives.
Learn the fundamentals of instructional design, including scope of practice, key learning theories and design models, and your role in ensuring accessibility.
Design and create instructional materials such as guided practice, assessments, instructional inputs including video and audio lectures, readings, and other non-video assets, and identify the best format for delivery.
Develop and assemble instructional materials to create coherent instructional modules and module sequences for high-quality learner experiences, agnostic of the tool or platform.

Program Highlights

Develop the core analytical skills necessary to develop high-impact learning solutions.

Gain real-world insights from Emeritus' own industry experts, who bring first-hand knowledge and organizational best practices to the program.

Create a professional portfolio highlighting a sample of your design work, along with supporting documentation, to share with potential employers.

Learn with a global cohort of instructional design peers who you can source for ideas and networking.

Program Topics

The program curriculum focuses on the principles of instructional design, equipping participants with the knowledge and analytical skills needed to develop engaging, goal-oriented learning materials for a constantly evolving business environment.

Part 1: Introduction to Instructional Design

Part 2: Developing Objectives

Part 3: Developing Instruction

Part 4: Course Implementation and Iteration

Part 5: Course Production

Part 6: Capstone

Get a complimentary 1-year subscription worth $299 to the Emeritus Insights app when you enroll in this program

What does Emeritus Insights offer?

Access to a state-of-the-art library of over 5,000 condensed lessons and short lectures
Exploration of complex disciplines such as Data Science, Marketing, Leadership, Strategy, Business Communication, and more

Career Preparation and Guidance

Success in instructional design requires both hard and soft skills. This program offers you guidance for navigating your career path, from crafting your elevator pitch to perfecting your interview skills. The program support team includes program leaders who help you reach your learning goals. The primary goal is to give you the skills necessary to be prepared for a job in this field; however, job placement is not guaranteed.

Career preparation you will receive in this program includes:

Over 250 hours of technical training
Nineteen hours of career development activities
Eight hours of optional career support activities
One-on-one sessions with experienced industry practitioners to understand the field, career paths, and the day-to-day on the job
Six career-guidance assignments to prepare you with employer expectations

And more!

*Participant experience levels prior to taking our programs may vary.

Faculty Director

DR. KAREN MAHON

Director, Global Design and Learning Excellence, Emeritus Institute of Management

Dr. Karen Mahon specializes in synthesizing instructional/learning experience design, technology, strategy, and leadership into practical learning solutions. At Emeritus, she ...

Contributing Instructors

Members of our instructional design team bring additional expertise and key insights to the program, including:

SUSAN BASTIAN, MED, EDS

Senior Associate Director of Design, Emeritus

Driven by a passion for creating order out of chaos, Susan has helped shape many processes related to Instructional Design at Emeritus. Her experience includes two decades of ...

TRACI ROTH, MED, BA

Senior Associate Director of Design, Emeritus

At Emeritus, Traci Roth has developed a variety of online executive education courses, oversees teams of instructional designers, and interacts with partner schools. Traci sta...

BROOK CORWIN, MA, BA

Senior Associate Director of Design, Emeritus

Brook Corwin has worked directly with university faculty to design, deliver, and support fully online, asynchronous courses since 2010, with a focus on integrating instruction...