Quick Summary
- Confirm the portfolio explains project context, learners, and the problem the course solved.
- Check that every assessment and activity actually matches the stated learning objectives.
- Score each portfolio on the same weighted criteria, such as alignment, process, accessibility, and impact.
- Verify accessibility with evidence like captions, alt text, and keyboard access, not just a claim.
- Use a sample module task with finalists to see how they work, not only how they present past work.
Table of Contents
- What an Instructional Design Portfolio Should Show You
- Start With the Reviewer Questions That Matter
- Reviewing Instructional Design Portfolio Examples Consistently
- Building a Practical Instructional Design Project Evaluation Rubric
- Applying Online Course Design Evaluation Criteria
- Checking Accessibility, Evidence of Impact, and Role Fit
- Running a Repeatable Review and Deciding Next Steps
- Frequently Asked Questions
What an Instructional Design Portfolio Should Show You
Reviewing an instructional design portfolio is different from reading a resume. You're looking for evidence that a designer can plan, build, and improve learning that works for real students.
A strong portfolio usually shows how the designer worked with subject matter experts, how learning objectives shaped the course, and how assessments connect to those objectives across their instructional design portfolios.
Look for these signals as you review:
- Project context: Who the learners were and what problem the course solved
- Learning objectives: Clear outcomes that the design was built to support
- Design process: Evidence of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation
- Assessments: Quizzes, projects, or rubrics that match the stated outcomes
- Results: Learner feedback, completion data, or revision notes
Process matters as much as the final course. That mindset is what you should look for in any designer you hire.
Start With the Reviewer Questions That Matter
Before you open a single portfolio, decide what you need the designer to do. A community college scaling online courses has different needs than a four-year university refreshing an LMS-integrated course.
Write down three to five questions you will ask every portfolio. Good questions include:
- Did this designer understand the learners' needs before building anything?
- Can they explain why each assessment matches a learning outcome?
- Did they work well with subject matter experts, or does the course feel disconnected from its content?
- Does the work hold up in the LMS you use, such as Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace D2L, or Moodle?
- Would this course still work for a student with a disability?
Writing these down first keeps you from being pulled in by visual style alone. A beautiful portfolio that fails your questions is not the right fit.
Reviewing Instructional Design Portfolio Examples Consistently
Reviewing several instructional design portfolios side by side is the fastest way to spot real differences. Without a shared method, the most polished portfolio often wins by default.
Use the same steps for every candidate:
- Read the project context before looking at the design.
- Check the stated learning objectives against the course activities.
- Review one full module, not just the landing page.
- Note what evidence the designer offers for the results they claim.
- Score each portfolio on the same criteria, in the same order.
Keep notes on each portfolio in a simple table. Columns for objectives, assessments, accessibility, and evidence make comparisons quick. You will often find that the designer with the most impressive visuals has the weakest assessment design, which is exactly the kind of gap a consistent review exposes.
Building a Practical Instructional Design Project Evaluation Rubric
A rubric turns your gut feeling into a repeatable score. Keep it short enough to use on every portfolio, and detailed enough that two reviewers would reach similar results.
Use a four-point scale for each criterion:
- 4 - Strong: Clear evidence, specific decisions explained, and the designer shows what changed after feedback.
- 3 - Adequate: Evidence present but thin or partly unexplained. You can see the work but not the reasoning.
- 2 - Weak: Claims made without supporting evidence. The portfolio says the course was accessible or effective but shows nothing.
- 1 - Missing: Nothing to review on this criterion.
Score these criteria, and weight them so the total reflects what your role needs:
- Learning objectives (15%): Are they specific and measurable? Look for verbs you can observe, such as compare, draft, or troubleshoot, rather than understand or appreciate.
- Alignment (20%): Do assessments and activities match the objectives? A quiz on definitions cannot measure an objective that asks learners to apply a concept.
- Process evidence (20%): Does the portfolio show how the work was built? Look for analysis notes, storyboards, SME feedback, and revision history.
- Accessibility (15%): Are materials usable with screen readers, captions, and clear navigation? Ask for evidence, not a claim.
- Impact (20%): Is there evidence the course helped learners? Look for completion trends, pass rates, learner feedback, or revision notes tied to a result.
- Role fit (10%): Does the portfolio show the level of work the role requires, whether that is hands-on production or program-level planning?
Adjust the weights before you review anyone. A team hiring a production-focused designer might raise process evidence and alignment and lower role fit. A team hiring a senior leader might raise role fit and impact.
A total score gives you a fair basis for shortlisting. It also gives you language to explain your decision to a provost or grant committee.
Scoring Examples and Calibration
Scores only mean something when reviewers agree on what each number looks like. Before you score real candidates, have two or three reviewers score the same portfolio independently, then compare results.
Here is a quick example.
Run the same test on impact. A portfolio that says "the course improved completion rates" with no number, no timeframe, and no comparison is a 2.
Discuss every score where reviewers differ by more than one point. Those conversations sharpen your rubric and your judgment.
A weighted rubric also protects you from the most common review failure: letting the strongest visual sample set the score for the whole portfolio. When each criterion is scored on its own evidence, a designer with beautiful graphics and weak assessment design lands where they should.
Applying Online Course Design Evaluation Criteria
Course design criteria focus on whether the learning experience works, not whether it looks finished. Look at how the course guides a learner from start to finish.
Check these areas:
- Structure: Is the course organized into clear modules with a logical sequence?
- Engagement: Do activities ask learners to do something, not just watch or read?
- Feedback: Do learners get timely feedback on practice work?
- Consistency: Do navigation, labels, and formatting stay steady across modules?
- Multimedia: Does video or interactive content support the lesson, or distract from it?
Storytelling can also be a strong signal. Some designers use narrative structures, such as a case study that follows a character through a problem.
Remember that a good course is also one that real faculty can maintain. Ask whether the design would still work when a different instructor teaches it next term. Courses need upkeep to stay effective after launch, which is why Online Course Refresh Services exist.
Checking Accessibility, Evidence of Impact, and Role Fit
Accessibility is not an optional finishing touch. It should appear in the portfolio's evidence, not just in a sentence claiming the course is accessible. A reviewer needs checks they can run in a few minutes per portfolio.
Run these accessibility checks on any sample the designer shares:
- Captions: Are videos captioned, and are the captions accurate rather than auto-generated and uncorrected?
- Alt text: Do images have alt text that describes the content, not just the file name?
- Keyboard access: Can you reach every interactive element with the keyboard alone, including quizzes and navigation?
- Contrast: Do text and background colors meet readable contrast, and does the design avoid relying on color alone to carry meaning?
- Screen reader order: Does the reading order make sense when the page is read aloud, or does it jump between sections?
- Inclusive examples: Do scenarios, names, and images reflect a range of learners without leaning on stereotypes?
Ask the designer how they tested the course with assistive tools.
Evidence of impact is harder to find, and that is a useful signal in itself. Look for learner feedback, completion trends, pass rates, or revision notes that show what changed after launch. Then judge the quality of the evidence, not just its presence:
- Specific beats general. "Completion rose from 61% to 78% after we added weekly practice quizzes" is stronger than "the course was well received."
- Attribution matters. Ask whether the designer can explain which of their decisions likely drove the result, and whether other factors changed at the same time.
- Assessment validity counts. A course where every learner passes may be well designed or may have an assessment that is too easy. Look for evidence that assessments were checked against the objectives.
- Revision notes are evidence. A designer who documents what they changed after a pilot is showing you how they will improve your course.
Role fit matters too, and expectations should shift with seniority. An entry-level designer should show clean production work, organized files, and a clear grasp of alignment.
When your course needs subject expertise that the designer does not bring, look at how they source it. Institutions often fill that gap with outside subject matter experts, and reviewers should ask any candidate how they would do the same. Subject Matter Experts for Online Course Development is one option.
When you combine these checks with the rubric, you get a review that is fair to candidates and defensible to your institution. You are not guessing whether a portfolio is good. You are showing which evidence is strong, which is thin, and which is missing.
Running a Repeatable Review and Deciding Next Steps
Finish each review with a short decision memo. Note the total rubric score, the strongest evidence, and the biggest gap. Then decide whether to shortlist, ask for a sample module, or move on.
A practical next step is a paid or unpaid sample task. Give two finalists the same short module brief and compare their outputs against your rubric.
If you are weighing options for your institution, our team at Babb Education can walk you through how we approach course design, faculty support, and flexible project scopes. Institutions also ask about Faculty Professional Development alongside design work.
Last Updated: November 1, 2026
Once you have scored each portfolio, a few quick comparisons make the final call clearer.
| Review step | What to do | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Decision memo | Note total score, strongest evidence, and biggest gap | After every review |
| Shortlist | Move candidates whose totals and evidence hold up | When scores are close |
| Sample module | Give finalists the same short brief and compare outputs | Before the final hire |
| Calibration check | Have reviewers score the same portfolio independently | Before scoring real candidates |
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an instructional design portfolio include?
A strong instructional design portfolio shows the work and the thinking behind it. Look for project context, the learning objectives and the learner audience, examples of storyboards and assessments, and the design process from analysis through evaluation. Finished screens alone rarely show whether the designer can make sound decisions. Ask for a short description of each project's role and outcomes so you can separate the designer's contribution from the team's work.
How many projects should an instructional design portfolio include?
Most reviewers find that a few well-documented projects tell you more than a long list of thin ones. Look for samples that cover different course types or modalities, so you can see range. A portfolio with two or three detailed case studies, each showing process and results, is usually more useful than many screenshots with no context. Quality of documentation matters more than quantity.
How do you evaluate an instructional designer's portfolio?
Use a consistent rubric and score each sample against the same criteria, such as alignment of objectives to assessments, clarity of learner guidance, accessibility, and evidence of results. Read the project context first, then review the artifacts, and finally check whether the stated outcomes are supported by the evidence provided. Scoring every portfolio the same way keeps personal preference from driving the decision.
What questions should you ask when reviewing an instructional design portfolio?
Ask what problem the course solved, who the learners were, how the objectives were set, and how the designer knew the course worked. Ask which parts of the project the candidate led and which were shared with others. Follow up on how the designer handled feedback from subject matter experts and whether any materials were revised after testing. These questions reveal judgment that finished products often hide.
