Good instructional designers learn to put themselves in their learners’ shoes. Try them on. Walk a ways. See what happens. This helps us to figure out what they need so they’ll be able to learn something well. When we do an audience analysis we may conduct interviews and focus groups, use pretests, talk with coworkers,… Continue Reading
Part of a Series: Here’s Why I Love Content Types: And You Should, Too Procedures. A series of steps we take to complete a task. Something we do “step-by-step. Make coffee. Assemble a widget. File a report. For this post we’ll look at well-defined procedures: those where the steps are well known. For more ambiguous… Continue Reading
In some circles, the term instructional design elicits this kind of statement: “Oh, well, instructional design assumes that training is always the right answer. And of course we know that’s not true.” Not a Problem That Training Will Solve I ran into a version of this statement just the other day. So I started to… Continue Reading
Let’s say that you want your team members to learn and remember something important. Let’s say they have a lot of… New rules and regulations to remember. For compliance, say. Or you want to enhance and reinforce safety practices. Or there’s a whole new product line for sales folks to learn. Or the customer service… Continue Reading
Part of a Series: Here’s Why I Love Content Types: And You Should, Too Concepts. Sets of objects, ideas, or events that have characteristics in common and share a common name. They can be concrete (discernable by our senses—car, truck, motorcycle) or abstract (defined by somebody—holiday, conference, leadership). Clear Example of a Kitten Why Concepts Are… Continue Reading
March 13 and something cool happened. What? Michael Allen, Julie Dirksen, Clark Quinn, and Will Thalheimer launched their eLearning Manifesto, with its 22 principles for designing better elearning. Lighting Up the eLearning World Why? Sadly, much of today’s elearning offerings are, well, terrible. How? They talked about it via a Google hangout, which was broadcast… Continue Reading
Sometimes there’s a great book, article, or website that just begs to be read. Maybe your learners, your team, or your professional organization can benefit from reading it together. Reflecting Pool in Campbell Here are three ways to get more from what you and your team or organization are reading. Training Program. Let’s say you’re… Continue Reading
Declarative Knowledge is about knowing what: facts, lists, names, or organized information (for example, the History of X). For fans of Bloom, this is similar to recognize or recall information. We also call it “verbal information.” It’s stuff you can memorize and repeat (or “declare”). If you can talk about it or write it down, you’ve learned… Continue Reading
Let’s say that you’ve been asked (for some good reason) to design or deliver training…. What if you had an instant way to turn that request from a Big Scary Cauldron of Swirling Content into a step-by-step plan for helping people to learn? Glass Beach, Ft. Bragg, CA Want to make this easier? Learn your… Continue Reading
Good question. Some say it takes 40 hours of development time, from assignment to delivery, for 1 hour of instructor-led training. More for web-based or other mediated delivery. Here’s the thing, though: It Depends Winter Magnolia Even if you track your hours carefully, the level of effort and the time involved for this or that… Continue Reading
