New to the field?
The Free Instructional Design Career Roadmap takes you from the fundamentals through building a portfolio and landing interviews, step by step.
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN EDUCATOR
Everything I know about instructional design, free
I'm Devlin Peck. Since 2018, I've helped thousands of people build instructional design careers. The way I did it is all here: 100+ free articles, 300+ YouTube videos, original industry research, and the guide that started it all.
FREE RESOURCES
What's free for you here
Already working in ID?
The AI Upskilling Track is my take on where AI actually helps instructional designers right now, and how to make the case for it at work.
Leading an L&D team?
The L&D Leader's AI Briefing is the orientation I would give you in a meeting: what AI-powered practice is, where it actually helps, and how to make the budget case.
FEATURED GUIDES
The guides people start with
Become an ID
How to Become an Instructional Designer in 2026 (Step-by-Step)
Learn how to become an instructional designer in 2026: the skills, portfolio projects, qualifications, and salary data hiring managers actually care about.
Updated
ID Theory & Models
AI in Instructional Design: The Complete 2026 Guide
How instructional designers actually use AI in 2026: current adoption data, a workflow integration playbook, practice simulations, the skills that pay, and the honest risks.
Updated
ID Theory & Models
Scenario-Based Learning: The Complete Guide
What scenario-based learning is, when it beats other formats, and how to design challenge, choice, and consequence scenarios step by step, with real examples and tools.
Updated
ID Theory & Models
Will AI Replace Instructional Designers? My Honest Answer
No. AI is replacing instructional design tasks, not designers. See the hiring manager data, PwC and BLS numbers, and which ID skills matter most now.
Updated
AI & Simulations
AI Training Simulations: The L&D Leader's Guide
What AI training simulations are, how they compare to live role-play, VR, and branching scenarios, what they cost in 2026, and how L&D leaders keep them accurate and safe.
Updated
ID Theory & Models
The Kirkpatrick Model: Four Levels of Training Evaluation (With Examples, Free Template, & FAQ)
The Kirkpatrick Model's four levels of training evaluation, with examples, sample questions per level, a planning template, and modern New World updates.
Updated
NEW AND UPDATED
The most recent guides
I rewrite older guides as often as I publish new ones, so anything I have just brought up to date shows up here too.
- Articulate Storyline
How to Develop a Chatbot in Articulate Storyline: 3 Ways
Three ways to build a chatbot in Articulate Storyline: simulate one with triggers and layers, connect ChatGPT with JavaScript, or embed a no-code AI simulation.
Updated
- eLearning Development
8 Best eLearning Examples (Scenario-Based and AI-Powered)
Study 8 of the best eLearning examples: five scenario-based classics plus three AI-powered simulations you can play right in this article, with a breakdown of why each one works.
Updated
- eLearning Development
How to Use an LMS: A Practical Guide for Instructional Designers
Learn the five core LMS tasks every instructional designer needs: creating courses, adding users, enrolling learners, uploading SCORM packages, and tracking completions.
Updated
- eLearning Development
Visual Design Principles for eLearning (With Examples)
Learn the seven visual design principles that make eLearning look polished and professional, plus the most common mistakes and the workflow to apply them.
Updated
FROM MY SURVEYS
Instructional design, by the numbers
HELP BUILD THE NEXT EDITION
The 2026 survey is open
The field has changed fast since 2024, so I'm running a new edition of my survey to figure out where it stands now. Whether you're a working instructional designer, someone breaking into the field, or a manager who hires them, I'd love to hear from you. The first question routes you to the track that's the best fit, and it should only take about five minutes to complete.
Every report from the survey will be free for everyone. I will never put the results behind an email form.
These numbers come from the Instructional Design Survey, my independent research program with 1,700+ responses to date.
- 94%are satisfied with their work-life balance
- 91%are satisfied with their current role
- $85kaverage corporate salary in the USA
And this library has been compounding for a while:
- Since 2018publishing free instructional design content
- 78kYouTube subscribers
- 5M+YouTube video views
- 28knewsletter subscribers
- 1,700+responses to the Instructional Design Survey to date
From freelancer to educator to builder
I broke into instructional design the same way I now teach others to: I built a portfolio. I landed my first freelance client during the first semester of my master's program, turned down the safe corporate path, and bet on my own work instead. Freelancing grew into a full eLearning business, and I got to build projects for household brands.
I've also been sharing what I learn along the way. In 2019, I published an article called How to Become an Instructional Designer. It changed my career. Hundreds of thousands of people found it, and helping them into the field became my day job: free articles, YouTube videos, and Peck Academy, a licensed career school.
And I never stopped building. These days, most of my time goes into software: writing code and shipping AI tools that give instructional designers new ways to build realistic practice. You can see my latest projects on my portfolio.
WHAT I BELIEVE
The ideas behind everything here
- You learn instructional design by building real things and getting feedback on them.
- A strong portfolio says more than any resume or degree.
- AI will not replace instructional designers. It makes the good ones dramatically more capable.
- There will always be demand for skilled instructional designers.
- Free means free. I do not gate my best content behind email forms or publish teaser versions of it.
WHAT I'M BUILDING NOW
The free content led me to build two companies
All of the content on this site is free and will stay free. But the same mission: helping instructional designers do their best work, pushed me to build two things that the free content could never be. Full disclosure: both are mine.
MY MAIN FOCUS
devlin.ai puts AI practice conversations inside the courses you already build
Most of my time now goes into devlin.ai, an AI simulation builder for instructional designers. You describe a character and scenario in plain English, and learners get realistic practice conversations inside your Storyline 360 or Rise 360 course. You don't need to use JavaScript, API keys, or advanced development skills. Voice mode gives the characters real emotion, and Coach Mode supports learners during the simulation and debriefs them afterward.
I started building devlin.ai in March 2026. Over 1,700 people are already creating simulations with it, we have Fortune 500 pilots in the works, and our clean SOC 2 Type 1 report is in hand with Type 2 in progress.
FOR CAREER CHANGERS
Peck Academy is a state-licensed career school for becoming an instructional designer
In 2020, I started a portfolio bootcamp on a simple idea: great portfolios help people land better ID jobs. Five years later, my team and I grew it into Peck Academy, a state-licensed career school where students become certified instructional designers with direct feedback from experienced ID mentors. Graduates have built for clients like Google, McDonald's, and the U.S. Navy. You can see student portfolios in the showcase.