The Instructional Designers’ Field Guide is the result of a graduate capstone project exploring how new and transitioning instructional designers can be better supported through practical, research-informed tools. This website is a working prototype that brings the book’s key concepts to life through multimedia and interaction. If you are an institution or educator looking to integrate this guide into your curriculum or training program, please visit the Institutional Use page for resources and permissions.
Welcome to the Instructional Designers’ Field Guide—a digital companion to the book created for early-career and transitioning instructional designers, learning technologists, and educators stepping into the world of design for learning. This site is designed to extend the book’s mission: making instructional design practical, accessible, and visually intuitive. Here, you’ll find interactive demos, visual walkthroughs, multimedia examples, and behind-the-scenes updates from the making of the Field Guide. What started as a thesis became a toolkit. What became a toolkit is now growing into a learning ecosystem. If you're new to the field, this guide is here to say: You don’t need to know everything, but you deserve tools that work.
Hi, I’m Sara Rose, and welcome to The Instructional Designers’ Field Guide project. This site is part of my graduate research at CSU Monterey Bay, exploring how to better support new and transitioning instructional designers. What you’ll find here are early prototypes, multimedia experiments, and updates as the Field Guide takes shape. Think of this as the behind‑the‑scenes lab where theory meets practice.
Many new instructional designers enter the field with strong academic backgrounds but little exposure to real-world design workflows. This project emerged from a desire to bridge that gap—translating theory into hands-on, usable tools. By combining research insights with practical templates and interactive media, the Field Guide aims to meet designers where they are: navigating uncertainty, juggling constraints, and learning by doing.
This Field Guide began as a response to a common challenge I kept hearing—new instructional designers often feel overwhelmed by theory and under-equipped for real-world tasks. My goal is to create something that’s both practical and encouraging. As the project evolves, I’ll be adding new examples, templates, and even voices from the field. This is just the beginning.
All images on this site were created using ChatGPT’s image generation tools, tailored to align with the visual identity of The Instructional Designers' Field Guide unless otherwise noted. No external stock imagery was used. Videos, demos, and interactive visuals were produced or adapted by the author. Where applicable, embedded content from platforms like YouTube is clearly cited on the page itself.
This website was built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with assets and media hosted locally for performance and accessibility. Development tools and platforms used include:
All instructional content is based on academic research, instructional design models (ADDIE, SAM, UDL), and practitioner-tested methods. For a complete list of citations, visit the References section of the print or digital Field Guide upon publication.