Paper or Pixels? Choose Your Instructional Design Tools Wisely
If you are of a certain vintage – like yours truly – you remember when supermarkets were making the switch from paper bags to plastic sacks. Cashiers were sensitive to preferences during the transition, and most supermarket checkout transactions started with the question, “Paper or plastic?” For project managers, instructional designers and just about anyone […]
Analyze Is the First Step in Great Learning Design
Whether you are a strict adherent to the ADDIE training model or you have a barely passing familiarity with the Grand Old Dame of instructional design, there is a reason that all great training starts with the “A” or “analysis”. Without a needs analysis, you don’t know where you are going. A training needs analysis […]
Not So Fast Learning Designers! The Rumors of ADDIE’s Death Are Premature
Instructional designers have been hearing for years that “ADDIE is dead.” Do “this” or “that” instead. I would be the first to admit that maybe a shortcut here or there is called for under certain circumstances. I have taken many of those shortcuts myself. But if you are serious about creating learning that gets results, […]
Great Learning Design Leads to Great Performance on the Job
Last week, I attended an intriguing conference at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania sponsored by the Instructional Technology department. Before the event, I surveyed the attendees to find out their most pressing problems in training. Vying for the top spot was that training does not result in the desired job performance. Ouch. Programs like the one […]
5 Signs You Should Invest in Instructional Design
Ask anyone who develops or delivers training and they will tell you that training does not solve all your performance problems. Sometimes a performance issue is related to something else like your incentive program, the corporate culture, personal motivation, and corporate leadership style. If you’ve eliminated all these other performance hurdles and have decided that, […]
Rapid Prototyping for Instructional Design in the Age of Agile Software Development
Continuous quality improvement has been a watchword in business excellence for nearly a half century. CQI evolved as more industries and practitioners adapted it for their own purposes. Following the introduction of the software industry, CQI evolved as an agile approach to product development. The term “agile” has become synonymous with innovation and competitiveness, and […]
A Tale of 36 Instructional Designers
Here’s a tale of 36 instructional designers, one instructional design position and what separated the winner from the also-rans. One training design company had a competition for a single instructional design position. It had 36 applicants, all of whom said they had a background in designing corporate training. They had resumes to prove it. The […]
The Role of the Subject Matter Expert in the Learning Design Process
When you need to include a subject matter expert to help you with your training course, you have raised the stakes for the project. Why? Because the inclusion of a SME means that your course is carrying precious cargo, which is often the highly valued or irreplaceable knowledge of a subject matter expert. If your […]
Why Writing Learning Objectives Are Critical to Instructional Design
We all need objectives for our projects. Learning objectives are basically the essence of your course’s goal, as they describe what you want your learners to achieve after completing it. Therefore, when the learning objectives for learning projects are unclear — or worse, generic — so is the purpose of your online course. Your learners will […]
Why You Need to Use Rapid Prototyping in Instructional Design
Though instructional designers follow tried-and-true models and processes to build courses, the complexities of today’s work environment often wreak havoc on the most disciplined approaches. As such, to ensure that all stakeholders get a good idea of how the learning course will turn out right at the outset, instructional designers should consider rapid prototyping. Rapid […]
