Every instructional design project changes. SMEs go quiet, priorities shift, tools get replaced, and launch dates stay fixed while everything around them moves. This session reframes change not as a failure of planning but as a predictable feature of learning design work, and gives instructional designers practical strategies for anticipating, absorbing, and negotiating change without burning out their teams or their timelines.

In this session, you will:

• Identify the predictable sources of change in instructional design projects and build safeguards into their project plans.
• Apply frameworks to evaluate incoming changes and respond in a way that protects the project timeline, the deliverable quality, and the stakeholder relationship.
• Communicate change confidently, using practical language and status update strategies to set scope boundaries, push back on scope creep gracefully, and re-baseline timelines without damaging trust.

About our Speaker

Guieswende Rouamba is an instructional designer, educator, author, and project management advocate who helps learning professionals deliver successful instructional design projects through effective project management practices. He serves as an Instructional Designer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he leads the design and redesign of online courses, collaborating with faculty, media specialists, and cross-functional teams to create engaging learning experiences.

Guieswende is the author of The Instructional Designer's Guide to Project Management, a practical resource that bridges the gap between instructional design and project management. His work focuses on helping instructional designers manage scope, stakeholders, timelines, and change while maintaining high-quality learning experiences.

In addition to his instructional design work, Guieswende teaches graduate courses in instructional design and educational leadership and regularly presents at professional conferences on project management, online learning, and the evolving role of instructional designers. His mission is to empower learning professionals with practical strategies that enable them to lead projects with confidence, adapt to change, and deliver meaningful results.

Connect with Guieswende Rouamba LinkedIn