7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching By Susan A. Ambrose, Michael W. Bridges, Michele DiPietro, Marsha C. Lovett, and Marie K. Norman We (that’s the collective “we”) know a lot about two areas that can make teaching and learning so much better: How people learn (the science of learning) How to help people learn (the… Continue Reading
It’s not unusual for someone to ask me about the pros and cons of delivering training via the classroom or through some form of e-learning. Here’s the thing: one isn’t inherently better or worse than the other for learning. We can teach most things either way. It’s not the delivery system (classroom, say, or via… Continue Reading
When I was studying instructional design in graduate school, nobody mentioned this: People Don’t Like to Read …at least, not so much for training. Here’s what I’ve noticed since then: People Like to Read (Endlessly) The Internet Novels Stuff about their hobbies People Want These to Be Quick Prework for training Training materials Manuals January… Continue Reading
Sitting with people who have big brains, talking about wide-ranging problems, sometimes there’s floundering. The conversation goes this way and that, with lots of good points made, but little hope of arriving at a plan for action anytime soon. Here are four questions you can use to move the conversation toward a solution that you’re… Continue Reading
Despite sometimes wishing that we could just put a book under our collective pillows and absorb all the salient bits while we’re sleeping, learning takes two things that we often wish it didn’t: Time and Effort We look for shortcuts. We avoid applying mental effort. We don’t give people enough time to learn their jobs.… Continue Reading
We’re different. We each learn at a different pace. Remember learning spelling words in grade school? Some kids mastered all the words on Monday (the first day). Most of the kids could spell most of them by the test on Friday. A few couldn’t get half of them in a week. You can hardly blame… Continue Reading
I was working out the other day, and I was telling my trainer about the ADDIE model. (Obviously, I am the life of any party.) I’d just written the post about My Good Friend ADDIE. To explain what it is to my trainer (between lifting various weights), I outlined how he uses the ADDIE model… Continue Reading
By Calhoun Wick, Roy Pollock, and Andrew Jefferson With a strong focus on how learning assists an organization, this book gives beginning-to-end support for using learning-training-development initiatives to achieve strong business results. There are no isolated training events here. All six of the disciplines are pointed toward ensuring that what people learn will: Be essential… Continue Reading
Sadly, my good friend ADDIE has been getting a bad rap lately. Here are the kinds of things people say: Bad Rap #1. “ADDIE doesn’t exist.” Bad Rap #2. “ADDIE is too cumbersome and we need a more agile (successive approximation, lean, etc.) process.” Yes, ADDIE Is Alive and Well After an extensive search to… Continue Reading
Many years ago, Allison Rossett wrote this saying on a flipchart: “No Naked Training.” It’s the phrase I remember most from a day she spent with the Training Design & Technology folks in SunU. (Those were some pretty good days.) Obviously, this has nothing to do with wearing clothes. Learners and facilitators may (please) stay… Continue Reading
