Free Instructional Design Tools and Resources

Free interactive tools for each stage of your move into instructional design, built from 20+ years in the field.

Exploring, and not sure ID is for you.

Get a real picture of the job and an honest read on whether it fits you.

How much of an instructional designer are you already?

How much of an instructional designer are you already? Three minutes to see which ID skills you already use and which you'd build.

Take the quiz →

try it on

ID Role Explorer

Live a day in the life of three ID paths: corporate, higher ed, and ed tech. Diary-style and honest about the trade-offs of each.

Explore the roles →

proof it's possible

Stories Like Yours

Pick your background and see real grads who started where you are, and where they work now.

Find your story →

You want in, and you don't know where to start.

These keep you from building the wrong things in the wrong order.

free and live

Become an AI-Ready Instructional Designer

Four free live nights, Nov 9 to 12. What hiring managers look for, the portfolio that gets you hired and where AI fits into all of it.

Save your seat →

Coming from the classroom? Your resume is step one.

The Educator to ID Skills Translator turns classroom language like “differentiated instruction” into the words a recruiter searches for. Free, no signup, instant.

That gets you part of the way. Step two is your portfolio, where a hiring manager sees the ID skills you build: the eLearning authoring tools, corporate samples and working with AI.

1Use the Skills Translator to put your classroom work in corporate words.
2Come to the free workshop, Become an AI-Ready Instructional Designer (Nov 9 to 12), to see the portfolio that shows the rest.
+Read the Teacher Guide for which skills you bring and which you build.

Doing it yourself: building or applying.

Building samples on your own, or applying and not hearing back. The market's feedback is silence. These give you specifics while there's still time to fix things.

the verdict

Portfolio Scorecard

Grade your portfolio the way a hiring manager would in the first ten seconds. Weighted scoring pulled from the same rubric Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA) uses.

Score your portfolio →

compare

AIDA Portfolios

Put your work next to portfolios that got AIDA grads hired, and see how each sample is set up for a business audience.

Browse portfolios →

real openings

The ID Job Board

Instructional design openings, updated daily, plus the Weekly Jobs Digest delivered to your inbox so the good ones don't slip past you.

Browse the board →

Keep learning, for free.

read

The Ultimate Guide

How to become an instructional designer, start to hired. The whole roadmap in one honest read.

Read the guide →

listen

The Podcast

Jumpstart Your Instructional Design Career. New episodes weekly, real transition stories and honest how-to.

Start listening →

Jill Davidian is the founder of Learning Strategy & Design and creator of the Applied ID Portfolio Method. 20+ years in instructional design, including time as a hiring manager. 1,200+ AIDA graduates. More about Jill
Last updated: November 2026

How much of an instructional designer are you already?

Three minutes to see which ID skills you already use and which you'd still build.

Take the Quiz

Jumpstart Your Instructional Design Career

A weekly podcast and a Substack on moving into instructional design, from me.

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