The way people learn evolves all the time. Oddly enough, just a few educators and organizations retool their instructional design strategies to track the shift. You’ve probably noticed the infamous style: one curriculum, an avalanche of study resources, and a roomful of students trying to stay afloat. Every learner is treated as an identical unit.
The domino effect is high dropout numbers and, eventually, closed programs. Corporate goals and instructional aims likewise rarely line up. Crafting solutions that fit the intended audience solves most of the headaches. Several approaches can get you there.
Drawing on a decade-plus track record in instructional design delivery, the Blue Carrot team will lay out the relevant practices for 2026 and beyond. 🤩
Summary
- What are instructional design strategies?
- Why instructional design strategies matter
- Core instructional design strategies for e-learning
- Popular instructional design models that support strategies
- How to choose the right instructional design strategy
- Best practices for implementing instructional design strategies
- Examples of instructional design strategies in action
What are instructional design strategies?
Instructional design strategies, or ID strategies, refer to conscious and methodical techniques used to plan, create, and deliver educational content or experiences. While this thumbnail definition holds up, it doesn’t factor in much context and the bigger ambitions of ID strategies.
So let’s tune it a bit.
📌 Definition and purpose
An instructional design strategy, at the very least, is a blueprint that shows how students will master a subject or skill. It keeps the learning process efficient, engaging, and locked onto stated outcomes. ID doesn’t translate directly into literal content creation because it goes beyond that.
The discipline kicked off when the U.S. Army and Army Air Forces required recruits to rehearse drills until they became reflexive ahead of World War II. So the military invented brisk, replicable systems that could turn out competent soldiers at scale.
Those initial systems soon assimilated ideas from three science fields:
- Educational psychology: how we learn and how to support it;
- Cognitive science: how the mind processes information;
- Pedagogy: the science of teaching methods.
Present-day instructional designers still use those core principles, but they’ve retrofitted them with lightweight, universal, agile delivery options.
ID strategies now bundle together chosen techniques, tools, activities, and assessments matched to the learner’s actual gaps.
In terms of purposes, strategies serve several. But the main one is to bridge the divide between current knowledge and target expertise. Instruction becomes less improvised and more intentional.
Because information overload risks grow alongside learning, course designers also sort and sequence material, so students consume manageable bites.
📌 How strategies differ from instructional design models
Though instructional design models and strategies are related, they play distinct roles in building learning.
Here’s an image illustrating their differences.
Models act as the broad process chart. They set out the standard chain: analyze needs, design experiences, develop assets, run the course, evaluate results, giving a reusable skeleton for any program.
Strategies are the movable pieces placed on that chart. They handle the how part of teaching—like storytelling, point systems, or collaborative challenges—and can be modified to suit the audience. Since they’re context-bound, strategies are equally considered more flexible than models.
Why instructional design strategies matter
As long as the need for education reforms exists, innovative ID strategies remain indispensable.
Here’s how they support learning:
👉 Enhancing learner engagement
Engagement means learners are active contributors and are curious about the instruction. But full immersion thrives on balance.
Participation peaks when the challenge matches ability. (Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row, 1990). So, training builders can adjust the material accordingly.
Intriguing content sharpens cognition, too.
For example, instructional design strategies e-learning providers place multimedia clips, charts, and audio into their courses because these items stimulate auditory and visual channels at once.
👉 Supporting knowledge retention
Knowledge retention is the extent to which people can retrieve and use information picked up over time. The Forgetting Curve, a concept from psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, shows that we forget about 70 percent of new facts in a day.
That is, unless that piece of fact is reinforced through specific cues.
Effective instructional design drives down forgetfulness by bringing the material back at planned intervals, a technique called spaced repetition. Another way educators do this is through active recall. They could design quizzes, flashcards, rereads, and tests.
👉 Aligning training with organizational goals
Case in point: a company with low sales. The KPI could be the number of deals closed per month, and the class activity might be role-playing tough customer objections.
If the exercises don’t connect to what the company is actually graded on, they can’t impact the bottom line. Courses that do align with enterprise goals increase profitability and prevent operational overruns.
Core instructional design strategies for e-learning
The 10 ID strategies at the forefront in 2026 are covered below.
1. Scenario-based learning
In scenario-based learning (SBL), participants immerse themselves in lifelike, interactive episodes. Their decisions lead to realistic outcomes, replicating the kinds of issues they will confront in their careers.
Because knowledge is demonstrated in context, critical-thinking skills are strengthened, and on-the-job ones become transferable in later pursuits. Medical schools often leverage the SBL method to teach students how to reach a diagnosis.
2. Storytelling
People are naturally pulled in by stories, so instructors weave characters, plots, and conflicts to make fictional ideas vivid and believable. The storytelling culture pops up a lot in narrative psychology. Going by what this concept implies, a good tale incites emotional responses that let students relive the moments.
At the same time, care is taken to avoid stereotypes. A practical illustration is leadership development that centers on authentic accounts from CEOs.
3. Gamification
Duolingo gives anyone a quick introduction to gamified learning. Gamification takes standard game elements—scores, avatars, achievements, public leaderboards—and places them into educational tasks to spur motivation. Games help memory as well.
Game-based learning boosts retention by up to 40 percent. (Somnath Gupta. The Science Of Engagement: Why Game-Based Learning Strategies Actually Work. eLearning Industry, 2025)
Besides the familiar green owl app, many firms now build upskilling courses, so employees learn while they play through challenges.
4. Microlearning
Microlearning defines one clear learning objective at a time in three- to five-minute bursts. The idea comes from information-processing theory, and the same modules can be snapped together with gamification or other methods to create blended programs.
Because the chunks are spaced out, they fit easily into a busy schedule. A familiar instance is a daily pop-up tip that teaches you a new shortcut, like what Apple does with its Tips App on iPhones.
5. Personalization and adaptive learning
According to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), growth happens in the gap between what a learner can finish alone and what they can finish with a More Knowledgeable Partner (MKP).
This is usually the tutor who can provide hints, examples, or encouragement.
Adaptive and personalized platforms follow a similar cadence. Their algorithms scan how a student performs and then reshuffle content, timing, and support. The next task is neither too easy nor too hard.
6. Case studies and real-world examples
Case studies display comprehensive sides of a scenario, with made-up or changed real names, while real-world examples are snapshots of documented events. Pairing the two creates a range from almost real to completely real encounters.
Say a B2B EdTech company wants to show off its services. It can package past e-learning work into brief scroll-throughs, giving prospects a glimpse of what it does. The prospects then learn whether they make a good fit.
7. Simulations and immersive learning
Simulations let learners experience computerized copies of real tasks and break-out rooms. Simulated scenes are conveyed through virtual reality (VR) goggles, augmented reality (AR) lenses, or specialized software.
The AR/VR education market will reach $75 billion by 2030. (Statista. AR & VR – Worldwide, 2025).
Notably, education providers are adding AR/VR settings to their suite.
An example of this is Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, where their dental hygiene trainees use an AR headset to project digital teeth onto mannequins. They can enter a fully simulated clinic to practice procedures like scaling and oral exams.
8. Social or peer learning
When a class puts chatting, group work, and peer feedback at the center of study, it’s called social learning. The term is used interchangeably with peer, collaborative, or cooperative, because they share the same fundamentals. The point is to let learners build skills together and support one another.
Coding bootcamps are a contemporary example of how social learning works. Students are placed in batches and go through the program jointly, while mentors guide them.
9. Blended learning
Between 2023 and 2025, among students taking both offline and online classes, 94 percent had engaged in one to six of them. (John Hulen. Designing for HyFlex/Hybrid Spaces: A Strategic Priority, EDUCAUSE, 2025).
Blended learning is the term coined to describe the combination of in-person and online teaching.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid and blended formats were comparatively niche. They flourished after that period, leaving room for fast finishers, slower students, and everyone in between to learn at their convenience.
10. Spaced repetition
This instructional design strategy reviews material at expanding gaps—one day, then three, then a week, and so on. It triggers a memory reboot just as recall begins to wane.
Although Ebbinghaus published the underlying research in 1885, spaced repetition became a hands-on tool through the Leitner flashcard method in the 1970s.
Currently, digital alternatives such as Anki and Quizlet are preferred.
Popular instructional design models that support strategies
Let’s go over the ID models popularized by prominent figures.
👉 ADDIE Model
Created in 1975 by Florida State University for the U.S. Army, one of the renowned descriptions of ID/development is ADDIE. It’s an acronym for analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate.
Although many ID practitioners use ADDIE as a prescriptive model for developing instruction, it is actually a means of describing the essential components of any ID model (Molenda, 2003).
ADDIE is particularly useful as a framework for comparing and contrasting more formally and completely developed ID/development models.
👉 Bloom’s Taxonomy
(Using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning to Improve Outcomes | Skillcast.Skillcast. 2026)
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, educators assembled under Benjamin S. Bloom, an educational psychologist.
Their work yielded a taxonomy: a hierarchy of cognitive processes, ranked from the simplest to the most complex. To master those higher up, you must first master those lower down. The framework offers academics a mutual language for stating objectives, creating assessments, and codifying instruction. It goes this way:
Level 6. Evaluation
Level 5. Synthesis
Level 4. Analysis
Level 3. Application
Level 2. Comprehension
Level 1. Knowledge
The original outline appeared in Bloom’s 1956 volume Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, Handbook I: Cognitive Domain; a revision followed in 2001.
The pyramid shown in the infographic above reflects that later version.
👉 Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction
In 1965, Robert Gagné identified nine teaching events that support the mental states required for learning. Each event is shown next, with suggestions for classroom use.
The list is paired with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy to build effective lessons. Here’s the version adapted from Gagné, Briggs, and Wager (1992):
- Get attention
- Announce objectives
- Recall prerequisites
- Teach new material
- Coach learners
- Provide practice
- Give feedback
- Check mastery
- Encourage retention and transfer
One seldom cited finding is that Gagné named the chain “probabilistic,” meaning teachers may skip or reorder steps when learners can supply internal conditions themselves.
👉 Merrill’s Principles of Instruction (MPI)
Another view of the ID process in general is described in David Merrill’s “first principles of instruction” (2002, 2013, 2020). Merrill (2002, pp. 44–45) suggests five basic principles hold true for the design of any instruction. The first principles of instruction state that learning is promoted when:
- Learners are engaged in solving real-world problems.
- Existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge.
- New knowledge is demonstrated to the learner.
- New knowledge is applied by the learner.
- New knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world.
Merrill (2002, pp. 50(3), 44) further stresses that all five principles must be present for effective, efficient, and engaging instruction.
👉 SAM Model
(Trina Rimmer. An Introduction to SAM for Instructional Designers. E-Learning Heroes. 2011)
Michael Allen’s Successive Approximation Model (SAM) follows the essential pattern of ID models: evaluate → design → develop. The SAM model, however, places a greater emphasis on the iterative nature of each step in the process (Allen & Sites, 2012).
This is sometimes referred to as an example of agile learning design. The SAM is derived from the agile software development process, which focuses on delivering a working product through iterative, incremental development by collaborative teams of specialists (Allen & Sites, 2012; Wikipedia, 2014).
👉 Backward Design (UbD)
Backward Design is a way to build courses, units, or single lessons that sees teaching as more than marching through content; its purpose is to make sure students actually learn.
The method emphasizes the intended learning outcomes instead of the list of topics (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005).
It feels backward because you do not start with the chapter you must cover, the textbook you must use, or even the exam you must take. You start with the end goals.
The process has three stages:
- Identify desired results.
- Determine acceptable evidence.
- Plan learning activities.
The UbD instructional design model also infers that without careful alignment, activities can become mere hands-on engagement with little minds-on learning.
How to choose the right instructional design strategy
Strategies for designing instructions are only right in the ideal context. However, keep these considerations in mind:
📌 Align strategies with learning objectives
Start with what people must accomplish, not the content design. More explicitly:
- For pure knowledge, quick, repeated information nuggets—microlearning, spaced prompts—are enough.
- For usable skills, load the experience with actions: simulations, real-world cases, role plays, or branching scenarios.
It’s advisable to choose a strategy that aligns with the learner’s mental capacity.
📌 Consider audience needs and learning styles
Learning styles are a huge part of studies. Anchor your design in access, motivation, and job-level relevance. Start by analyzing your audience and ask yourself whether they are:
- Beginners craving basics, or experts wanting finesse?
- Clock-watchers on their cell phones? Night-shift skimmers?
- Workers who need confidence, instead of just facts?
Give them multiple choices—snackable videos, skimmable documents, and cases shot in their own workplace, as these formats reflect their day to day.
📌 Factor in available technology and resources
Go for a strategy that is sustainable over time, along with the requisite resources and technology:
- What can the LMS actually track, score, or personalize?
- How many designers, videographers, and Subject Matter Experts (SME) can you line up—this quarter and next?
- What’s the budget for revisions, version control, and user support two years out?
AI expedites content development as well. An estimated 96 percent of instructional designers use generative AI (Clarity Consultants. ATD Research: AI Tools Are Benefitting Instructional Designers. Association of Talent Development, 2025)
IDs can hand off repetitive tasks to AI, and, ultimately, take on supplementary duties.
Best practices for implementing instructional design strategies
These are the practices helping the over 300 Blue Carrot clients produce consistent results.
👉 Keep content learner centered
Design from the learner’s point of view and ask these questions from the start:
- What am I about to learn?
- Why does that matter to my workday?
- How soon can I try it?
Use plain language, real workplace examples, and friction-free navigation. Cut any fillers.
👉 Combine multiple strategies for impact
Blended strategy beats a one-prong tactic most of the time. You can pair:
- Microlearning for quick knowledge bursts;
- Scenarios for judgment and decision-making;
- Peer discussions for reflection and context;
- Job aids for real-time performance support.
This lets you hit different learning needs without overstuffing a single experience.
👉 Leverage analytics to measure effectiveness
Don’t just track completion. Track end-to-end metrics to determine whether the strategy is working such as:
- Assessment performance trends;
- Drop-off points in modules;
- Time to competency;
- On-the-job error reduction or quality improvements.
When the same method keeps faltering, resist the urge to add more content. Try cleaner reworks and more practice retakes.
👉 Continuously update and optimize training programs
Instructional design isn’t a one-and-done project. Manage it as you would a full-fledged product:
- Refresh examples as tools, policies, and workflows change.
- Collect learner feedback at key points.
- Run small improvements rather than massive overhauls.
Even minor updates—clearer instructions, better scenarios, cleaner pacing—can significantly improve outcomes.
Examples of instructional design strategies in action
Over the last 10 years, since Blue Carrot started, we have tackled more than 500 instructional design projects. Here are two of our most recent jobs.
📌 Corporate training scenarios
Blue Carrot helped Studio SE convert its popular six-day live SysML/MBSE training into a self-paced online foundation course (about 50 hours), while keeping the advanced portion expert led.
Studio SE – Online course
View demoWe designed the learning strategy, mapped dependencies across ~20 subtopics, produced explanatory videos, built interactive Storyline activities, and created a web-based simulator that mirrors the real SysML environment and gives automated feedback.
We also added an AI avatar of the expert to keep instructor presence consistent across the learning path.
📌 Higher education use cases
Blue Carrot created a Gen-Z-focused Job Role Explorer e-learning course for the InnoEnergy Skills Institute to introduce students to careers in the solar energy industry.
E-learning course for Gen-Z students
View demoIt’s built in Articulate Storyline with interactive slides and includes an industry overview, a quiz, and role exploration. The scope was 120 slides and highlights 12 solar job roles through illustrated, interactive day-in-the-life experiences.
