Resume template · Updated October 2026
Instructional designer resume template
Short answer
Daniel suits an instructional designer: summary, a three-column skills grid, then jobs and a projects section for portfolio pieces, under rounded grey heading pills that look designed without getting in the way. The fictional sample builds online university courses with faculty in Madison after six years teaching high school English. It also works as a learning designer resume, the title many universities and countries use.
Download the instructional designer sample
Hannah is a fictional instructional designer. Replace every detail with your own before you send it.
The files are made in your browser by Resumity's own exporters, from this sample. The builder opens it as your own resume: click any line to replace it. Free plan, no watermark.
Why Daniel suits an instructional designer resume
Daniel prints summary, skills, work experience and then projects, so design methods and authoring tools are read first and a portfolio piece gets its own entry. Its rounded grey heading pills give a slightly designed feel suited to a design role, and the three-column grid fits short items like backward design, Storyline and WCAG.
Second choice: Meridian. Meridian keeps the same order with labelled skill rows and no shading; better for strict corporate or government applications.
What goes in each section, in Daniel's order
Daniel prints its sections in a fixed order, the same in the PDF and the Word file. Here is that order for this sample, and what to put in each section.
- Professional Summary. Setting (higher education, corporate, healthcare, government), years, the delivery modes you design for and the standards you design to. Add your previous career in one phrase if it explains your strengths, as teaching often does.
- Skills. The grid shows no labels, so open with design methods (course mapping, outcomes, assessment alignment, accessibility), then authoring and LMS tools, then how you work with subject matter experts.
- Work Experience. Courses or modules built, the faculty or experts you partnered with, and what changed: reviews passed, completion or satisfaction up, lectures replaced by practice. Include workshops you run for instructors.
- Projects. One or two portfolio pieces with a one-line brief and two highlights each, linked from your header. Pick pieces that match the posting's audience.
- Education. An instructional design, learning sciences or educational technology degree or certificate first, then your earlier degree.
- Certifications. Quality Matters workshops and reviewer status, accessibility training and tool certificates, each with a year.
The sample resume as text
The same content as the files above, so you can copy a line or compare it with your own.
Hannah Okonkwo
Instructional Designer, Online Higher Education
Madison, WI | hannah.okonkwo@example.com | (608) 555-0152 | portfolio.example.com/sample-hannah-okonkwo
Instructional designer with five years building online and hybrid university courses, after six years teaching high school English. Partners with faculty from course map to launch, writes measurable outcomes and aligned assessments, builds in Canvas and Articulate, and checks each course against the Quality Matters rubric and WCAG 2.2 AA.
Experience
Instructional Designer, Lakeland State University, Center for Online Learning, Madison, WI (06/2021 to Present)
- Designed or redesigned 34 online and hybrid courses with faculty in nursing, business and education, from course maps to launch.
- Rewrote outcomes and assessments for a 12-course online MBA so every assignment maps to a measurable outcome; nine courses have since earned Quality Matters certification.
- Built branching case studies in Articulate Storyline and H5P that replaced recorded lectures in three nursing courses.
- Audit courses against WCAG 2.2 AA (captions, alt text, headings, colour contrast) and fixed about 1,200 issues across the catalog.
- Run a six-week online teaching workshop for about 25 new faculty each term.
English Teacher, Rock River High School, Janesville, WI (08/2015 to 05/2021)
- Taught English 10 and AP Language to about 140 students a year.
- Moved the department's writing units into the LMS during remote teaching and trained 11 colleagues to use it.
- Wrote the common writing rubrics used across the department.
Projects
Medication safety branching scenario: Storyline scenario for second-year nursing students on medication errors, built with a nursing faculty member.
- Three decision branches with feedback tied to course outcomes
- Captioned, keyboard-accessible and tested with a screen reader
Education
MS, Instructional Design and Technology, Northwoods University (12/2020)
BA, English Education, Badger Valley College (05/2015)
Certifications
- Applying the QM Rubric (APPQMR), Quality Matters (2022)
- QM Peer Reviewer, Quality Matters (2023)
Skills
Course mapping and backward design, Measurable learning outcomes, Assessment alignment, Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA), Storyboarding, Faculty consultation, Canvas LMS, Articulate Storyline and Rise, H5P, Camtasia, Figma, Working with subject matter experts, Facilitating faculty workshops
How to make the sample yours
Link a portfolio in the header
Hiring managers for design roles want to see work. Two or three pieces, each with the problem, audience and your role, are enough.
Count courses and modules
Courses designed, hours of e-learning built, faculty or experts supported each term. Volume tells a manager how much you can carry.
Show alignment, not only tools
Outcomes written, assessments mapped, rubrics built. Anyone can list Storyline; fewer can show courses whose every activity ties back to an outcome.
State the accessibility level
Name the standard and level you design to and how you check it (captions, alt text, headings, contrast, screen reader tests).
Rewrite for corporate roles
Swap faculty for stakeholders and courses for programs; add business measures such as time to competency, error rates or completion, and SCORM or LMS reporting.
Keywords to keep where they are true
Terms this kind of resume is usually searched for. Use the posting's exact wording, and only for work you have done.
- instructional designer
- learning designer
- instructional design
- backward design
- learning outcomes
- assessment alignment
- online course design
- Canvas
- Articulate Storyline
- Articulate Rise
- H5P
- accessibility
- WCAG
- Quality Matters
- subject matter experts
Mistakes to avoid
- A tool list with no courses, learners or results.
- No portfolio link for a design role.
- Sharing a client or employer's confidential course content in your portfolio; rebuild a sample instead.
- Teacher-centred wording ("taught lessons") when the job is designing for others to teach.
How the sample PDF reads in text extractors
We exported this sample with Resumity's PDF exporter in Chrome on 2026-10-29 and read the file back with three open-source text extractors. This shows whether software that turns a PDF into text can recover it; it is not a test of any commercial applicant tracking system. How we test templates.
| Extractor | Name, email, phone | Headings | Bullets intact |
|---|---|---|---|
| pdf.js 4.10.38 | All found | 6 of 6 | 10 of 10 |
| pdftotext (Xpdf) 4.00 | All found | 6 of 6 | 10 of 10 |
| pypdf 6.13.0 | All found | 6 of 6 | 10 of 10 |
Frequently asked questions
Is a learning designer resume different from an instructional designer resume?
No. Learning designer is the more common title at many universities and in several countries; the work and evidence are the same. Use whichever title the posting uses in your headline.
Should I list Quality Matters training?
Yes, if you design online courses for colleges. Quality Matters describes its Applying the QM Rubric workshop as teaching how to use its higher education rubric to review an online course, and as the prerequisite for its Peer Reviewer Course. Add the year and how many reviews you have done.
How do I show accessibility skills?
Name the standard and level, then the checks you run. The W3C explains that WCAG 2.2 has 13 guidelines under four principles, each with testable success criteria at levels A, AA and AAA, so say which level you design to and how you test it.
How can a teacher move into instructional design?
Reframe the teaching work you already do in design terms (backward design, assessments, rubrics, LMS courses), build one or two portfolio pieces for adult learners, and put a course or degree in instructional design on the page.
How is a corporate instructional designer resume different?
Corporate postings look for business results (time to competency, error rates, sales or service measures), SCORM packages and LMS reporting, and work with managers rather than faculty. Keep the same structure and change the evidence.
Will applicant tracking systems read this Daniel PDF?
The sample PDF read back with its contact details, all 6 section headings and all 10 bullets intact in three open-source text extractors (pdf.js, pdftotext and pypdf). Commercial systems such as Workday, Greenhouse or Taleo were not tested, and each employer configures its own.
Guides and templates for this resume
Sources, checked 29 October 2026
We opened every page below on that date. Pay, rules and requirements change, so check the source before you rely on a detail.
- Quality Matters: Professional Development Workshops (Applying the QM Rubric (APPQMR) teaches the QM Higher Ed Rubric and the process of using it to review an online course; it is a prerequisite for the Peer Reviewer Course)
- Quality Matters: Quality Matters (non-profit quality assurance organization for online learning; course design reviews by certified peer reviewers; QM-certified courses and programs)
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: WCAG 2 Overview (WCAG 2.2 has 13 guidelines organized under four principles; testable success criteria at three levels: A, AA and AAA)
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