Elearning Resources & News

Posted 4:26 PM by Steve
From Steve's Head

Turkey Thoughts...

Hi Everyone!

I survived last week's adventure of preparing a turkey dinner - it was a tasty success. When I look back at previous Thanksgiving Day dinners, I can recall several that had some less-than-welcome components. It's not that I didn't enjoy them, it's just that they included some ingredients that were far from family favourites. I guess that's why we develop a pretty standard repertoire of dishes for those special family dinners. I've found, through experience, that anything other than a bread-based stuffing in the turkey will not be tolerated. Even the ingredients of the bread stuffing are placed under a fair amount of scrutiny...I've avoided adding pecans or other nuts based on the results of one year's experimentation. I'm still a little disappointed that the oven baked beets in orange sauce were not a hit. Strangely, sweet potato pie (that friends rave about) has not been enthusiastically embraced either.

I find that my reactions to these culinary snubs by family members can often be intense as well. Those of you that have never had to experience the joys of preparing such a feast, may think that I over-react a bit (those of you in the know, I hope will understand...). After spending a significant portion of several days planning, shopping, and preparing the food, I tend to get a little "possessive" of the fruits of my labours...how could these people not appreciate every morsel on the table? :-) When questioned about why I added something unfamiliar to the selection, I vigorously defend the decision. I question how some family members could possibly have such unrefined tastes. Then I realize that it is only human nature to defend one's position when you have invested so much time and effort in your work. Had I only mentioned "beets on the menu this year" and seen an orchestra of noses upturned, I could have decided to change the menu or proceed to make the dish for my enjoyment and not felt a need to defend my decision.

Interestingly enough, similar criticisms were levelled against ADDIE at this year's Online Learning Conference. Those of you familiar with instructional design will recognize ADDIE as a design acronym that stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. It is one of the most well-known and heavily used instructional design model. It has been used to design traditional classroom-based training for decades and has been adapted to the design of online education and training. The concern that was raised was one similar to my turkey dinner menu dilemmas: by the time you get to evaluating the training that has been designed, you have already put in so much time and effort that you become attached to your work much more than you should. You have invested so much work that, despite the value of suggested changes, you will more than likely defend what is there as more than acceptable. In fact, if you lose this arguement, you will have to go back and painstakingly undo hours of work in order to incorporate changes. What kind of incentive does this situation provide to ensure that only the best work sees the light of day???

Because instructional design is such an important part of creating effective online learning experiences, it is beneficial to continually examine new and different models for development. I'm not necessarily advocating that you change your preferred model on a whim; just that you remain open to adapting your development model to make sure that you are using the best tools in your toolbox of development skills when working on different projects. Online learning is still a new area, and we are still discovering new and better ways of ensuring that everyone involved has a rewarding experience. It is important for those developing training and courses to research these new ideas and try them out, as appropriate. Otherwise we are doomed to serve the same dinner to different people, regardless of their individual tastes. Orange-sauced beets, anyone?

Steve

Designing on Both Sides of Your Brain

Quote: "Someone once asked me if, as a thinker, I was rational or creative. Left brained or right-brained. I considered it, and asked in reply, do I have to choose? Is it possible to be both? I didn't think I could afford to discriminate. I wanted to be good at designing things, and I needed all the brainpower I had available.

Comment: Even though this article does not refer directly to instructional design, there is a lot of information that I think is very transferable. At worst, it presents ideas that you can implement in any instance where you are trying to generate ideas or solve a problem. This is an easy, quick, good read.

Rapid Task Analysis - The Key to Developing Competency-based E-learning

Quote: "Most organizations invest in e-learning assuming it will deliver increased skills to their people and that these newly acquired or enhanced competencies will provide strategic benefit. Even though e-learning often promises to do this, this promise can't be realized unless e-learning focuses on those job-critical skills. However, e-learning can't focus on job critical skills if those skills aren't identified and the e-Learning system designed around them."

Comment: Sorry to do this to all of you, but if you want to actually read this article, you have to sign up for a membership to the E-learning Guild. As far as I know, membership is free, and this gives you access to the weekly E-Learning Developers' Journal as well as a host of other resources. If you work in an environment that focuses on competency-based learning or if you are concerned with return on investment (ROI), you will probably find this to be a valuable read.

Rapid Instructional Design

Quote: "When you discuss these just-in-time strategies with your professional colleagues, you will be accused of compromising basic principles, returning to the prehistoric period, and reducing instructional integrity. If you listen to others long enough, you will begin to feel guilty and doubt your motivation. But remember that the final criterion for evaluating instruction is how well the trainees learned...When you do not have time to make a big production out of instructional design, you are forced to focus on the basics. You and your team are not tempted into bells, whistles, and other embellishments. The resulting instructional package is lean and powerful."

Comment: Even though the quote sounds like a "less is more" philosophy, don't worry about this article actually mirroring that claim. I once had the pleasure of attending one of Thiagi's workshops. Thiagi proceeded to shower those present with ideas about using games in e-learning...then gave more ideas...and more...and more still. I finally left because I literally could not absorb any more thoughts - this is the closest I have ever come to feeling like my brain was going to explode. Thiagi continues his generous ways in this article by identifying close to a dozen different strategies and double the number of guidelines. You may want to read this article a little at a time. Remember: exploding brains - bad!

Empathic Instructional Design

Quote: "Critics of e-learning are quick to point out that many course offerings are nothing but digital page-turners. Some refer to the act of taking an e-learning course as 'e-reading.' Many reasons are attributed to this prevalent condition - from time and budget constraints to limitations of traditional instructional design. We feel another important reason is the lack of exposure to alternative practices. In this article, we take cues from Interaction Design, Usability Engineering and Product Design on a process known as empathic design, a user-centered approach to design that can lead to innovative e-learning."

Comment: Ah, the first non-traditional ID for e-learning article that I remember coming across - and it's still one of my favourites. So what exactly is empathic instructional design? Start out by observing the people for whom you are designing doing their work, gather data, reflect and analyze the information you've gathered, brainstorm solutions, and develop small prototypes that are tested on your learners. The Circuit City story mentioned near the end seems to have already become the stuff of legend in the e-learning industry.