eLearning, Freelance ID, Instructional Design / February 4, 2022

Today we’re getting into one of my favorite topics, using Canva in instructional design. Canva is an easy-to-use website that offers a vast library of templates you can use to create presentations, infographics, one-pagers, and so much more! 

Using Canva in Instructional Design

I sat down with graphic designer turned instructional designer Gayle Bower in the latest episode of The Accelerated ID to get the lowdown on using Canva in instructional design projects. 

Don’t worry. I’ll share all her tips and tricks as well as the basics of using Canva right here! But, before we get into the nitty-gritty, I want to explain why graphic design matters in instructional design.

Why is Graphic Design Important in Instructional Design?

One of the most common challenges I see amongst aspiring AND established instructional designers is graphic design. You might be wondering, “Shawntay, I want to design training, not graphics! So why would I need an understanding of graphic design?”

This is a totally valid question. And it’s not just one that brand new instructional designers have. I’ve met plenty of established instructional designers whose role is purely instructional design who haven’t flexed that graphic design muscle. 

Here are six examples of when graphic design skills complement instructional design work:

1. Thoughtful choice and placement of images in eLearning or other course materials
2. eLearning and slide templates that engage (not distract) the learner
3. Font use in digital and printed course materials
4. Appropriate layouts of one-pagers, participant, and facilitator’s guides
5. Infographic design
6. Visual storytelling in slides, eLearning, or video-based instruction

You can see that all of the above are important value-adds to many different training formats. To summarize, understanding graphic design allows the instructional designer to guide and engage the learner more effectively in any visual training materials. 

Which Instructional Designers Need Graphic Design Skills?

I’ve talked before about the different types of instructional designers. While all instructional designers need to understand good visual design, not all instructional designers will have to do the design work themselves. 

For example, the instructional design purist may never have to use a tool like Canva because they have a separate graphic design team that takes over. 

However, graphic design skills are a fantastic way to add value to your training projects and your resume. If any of the following interests you, you might benefit from upping your graphic design skills by using Canva in instructional design.

Do you want to:

• Create eLearning templates in PowerPoint or Articulate Storyline
• Edit custom images for your course materials
• Design infographics to avoid relying on long paragraphs of text
• Use professional-looking templates for your portfolio or job proposals
• Develop your eLearning courses or video-based training

If so, you might benefit from working on your graphic design game!

How Can Instructional Designers Learn Graphic Design?

Often, instructional designers lack confidence in their visual design skills. As a result, I hear a lot of questions about how to improve in this area. There are tons of guides and mini-courses geared towards graphic design best practices in instructional design. Check out this article, Visual Design Can Be Learned, for more on that. 

While I agree that it’s essential for instructional designers to understand the basics of graphic design to produce training materials that are engaging and effective, I’m also a fan of working smarter, not harder.

That’s why I love using Canva in instructional design projects! 

Getting Started Using Canva in Instructional Design

When I worked with Gayle during the Instructional Design Tech and Accelerator Program, I was always blown away by the quality of her deliverables. From her learner persona to the graphics in her Storyline project, each project that I reviewed had such impressive visuals! 

I finally asked her how she accomplished the imagery and animation. I was convinced she must be using Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop. So imagine my surprise when she told me she used Canva alone!

Well, if Canva is good enough for a graphic designer, it’s good enough for me. So let’s get into how you can use Canva in instructional design.

Canva Basics

Let’s talk about some of the basic info you need to get started using Canva. 

You can create an account for free or choose to start a 7-day trial of Canva Pro. One helpful hint Gayle gave us was that Canva’s free version has a lot of capabilities. So we recommend starting there to experiment, learn, and see how much you can do. 

If you want to upgrade eventually, the Canva Pro version is $12.99 a month. You can check out a comparison of Canva’s free and pro versions here. 

When you first sign up for Canva, there’s a helpful tutorial that guides you through your first project. It’s an easy way to get to know the different tools and options available to you. We’ll run through some of them here too!

Navigating Canva

Canva’s home page displays suggested project types to get you started. The menu on the right allows you to browse your designs. The dropdown menus at the top display tons of options for templates, features like stock images and icons, as well as a whole library of courses and tutorials to help you get the most out of Canva.

Browsing Templates

Gayle recommends starting in the templates section. After that, you can browse by category, but she also suggested using the search feature to type a shape or design idea. For example, try searching for ‘diagram.’

Templates are the easiest way to start a project. You can customize the elements by selecting and editing them. You can also bring in elements from a second template you like by adding them to a new page to your design, copying the shape or text you want, then pasting that into your design. 

Gayle demonstrates this at 21:44, be sure to check that out!

Making a Design in Canva

Once you start a design, you’ll have a workspace view like the one pictured above. Your top toolbar (outlined in pink) changes based on what you’ve selected. For an image, it allows you to change the color and position. If you select text, you can also change the font and spacing. This is where you’ll find the option to animate your objects.

The left menu, outlined in yellow, displays options for your whole design. You can see there’s a shortcut to the templates section, followed by elements—more about elements below. You can also use this menu to upload your assets, add text, audio, charts, or logos. 

Elements

Elements in Canva include animated gifs, lines and shapes, graphics, stock images and videos, audio effects, charts, tables, frames, and grids. 

Searching within the elements tab will bring up results for any elements that match your search term. 

Once you’ve chosen an element to add to your design, you can click it to add to your workspace or drag it into a component within your design to replace that element. You can watch Gayle demonstrate this using an image at 12:00.

Effects and Animation

Choose to animate an object within your design by selecting it, then choosing animate. Careful, if you add an animation without first selecting an object, the animation will apply to your whole design!

Hover over the animation to see a preview in your design!

Choose the effects button from the top toolbar when text is selected to add an animated effect. 

Once you select a style or shape for your text effects, you’ll be able to customize things like the direction and color of the effect. Gayle recommends finding a template that already has a font style you like then copying the text (effects and all) into your design.

Gayle’s 10 Tips for Using Canva in Instructional Design

I rounded up 10 of my favorite tips from Gayle to share with you all. Click the links in each tip to skip right to that section in the video.

If you like these video clip tips, be sure to hit subscribe to our YouTube channel so that we can share more tips with you in the future!

1. Browse the templates section before you even have a project in mind. Gayle suggests using the starred designs option to save templates with designs, images, or icons you like. This is also a great way to get inspiration for your projects!
2. Use the stock videos in Canva to add special effects and animation to your video-based training. Grab the video that has the animation you like, swap out the images, and add your text.
3. Group and ungroup objects within templates to further customize your designs.
4. Draw the learner’s focus to text by using a font combination element. 
5. Use guides and rulers to ensure text and images are aligned and consistently spaced. This small detail can elevate your training materials, and anyone can do it!
6. Import data from Google Sheets or manually enter it for an easy but accurate chart or diagram. Great for infographics! 
7. If you have Canva Pro, use the automatic background remover to edit your images. Her graphic design mind was blown when she saw how effective and easy this tool is. 
8. Use Smartmockups to create a masking effect for your images. This is when you make a photo appear as though it’s displayed on a computer or phone screen, for example.
9. Mix things up and add intrigue to your training resources using Canva’s magic effects.
10. Import and work with video edits directly in Canva.

Wrapping it Up

Talking to Gayle about using Canva in instructional design was so inspiring! I already use Canva to create templates and infographics for my learners. I can’t wait to hear how others have used Canva in their own instructional design projects. You’ve got to head over to The Hangout, a community for instructional designers of all levels, and tell me how you use Canva. 

Before you go, you might have noticed Gayle referenced the deliverables she worked on as part of The Instructional Design Tech and Accelerators program. Are you interested in accelerating your instructional design career? Be sure to check it out!

FTC Disclosure: Hey, there!  If you happen upon a link to a product or tool, you should assume that it is an affiliate link. If you click on it and like it and decide to buy it, we may earn a small commission. We only promote tools and products that we believe are helpful and good.