Category: Designing Training
Three Ways to Mess Up a Client Relationship
Bea Smart, an instructional designer, started working recently with Joe King, a compliance director, about potential training needs. She’s excited about the opportunity to partner with the Compliance Department and wants to impress her new internal client. Bea starts off with a training needs analysis by completing several employee interviews, an activity that had never [...]Drink Up the Learning, Bar by Bar
Looking for a fun night out? You could head off to your favorite neighborhood dive – or, er, brew pub – and grab a burger and a couple of beers. You’d see the same regulars and the familiar, weathered interior of the pub. And you’d enjoy the comforting routine...though in the back of your mind, [...]SME Syndrome: Symptoms and Prevention Tips
Are you – or is someone you work closely with – a SME (subject matter expert)? Instructional designers often require a SME’s knowledge and input to develop training. And it can be a challenge to obtain the key content (and only the key content). First, let’s introduce a typical SME, Simone. Simone is the director [...]The Blue Lagoon: Using Multiple Senses to Improve Learning
In our last blog post we saw how immersive, sensory events can help us remember experiences, using the example of my trip to the Blue Lagoon spa. We don’t need to visit a spa to help learners remember, though...we can create immersive experiences to enhance our instructional design. Here are two examples of physically immersive [...]Soaking in an Icelandic Spa: How Senses and Memory Intersect
This summer, my husband and I traveled to Iceland. Among other wonders of nature, we visited the Blue Lagoon, a spa formed 40 years ago during the creation of a geothermal power plant. Today, people come from all over to bathe in the warm, soothing water. There are a surprising number of things to do [...]Performing a Symphony — of Learning & Development
I happen to be a big music lover, and enjoy both listening and performing as a flutist in the Sharon Concert Band. At last week’s band rehearsal our conductor, Steve, was doing his usual great job of keeping us on tempo, signaling when each section needs to come in, and gesturing to show we should [...]Polishing Your Gems – And Showing the Value of Your Training Efforts
Have you ever gone on a treasure hunt, or maybe seen one in the movies? The seeker searches for a treasure chest—usually attending to challenges along the way. Imagine large rolling rocks and a few poison darts, all difficult to control! Eventually the seeker locates the elusive treasure chest, but not all its contents are [...]Helping Learners to Digest – even Savor – Your eLearning
When you eat at a restaurant, the food arrives in a specific order. First, there’s the bread (for those who still eat carbs!). Next, you may get a first course, a salad or soup. Then the waiter brings the main course, the heart of the meal. This takes longer to eat than the bread or [...]Short Can be More Than Just Sweet!
What do stained glass windows, intricate marble carvings, and richly symbolic murals have in common? Give up? They are all easily seen from just one spot in the Library of Congress. Why do I mention this? I recently visited Washington, DC and toured the Library of Congress. If you haven’t been to the Library, I [...]How Many “Two by Fours” Does Your Curriculum Use?
By Kathy Harvey-Ellis For my day job, I work in marketing, for EnVision and another company. After this winter, however, I also feel like I work in home improvement – of our own home. I am my own general contractor. From the repair of a supporting beam in our garage, to minor water damage in [...]The Pick of the Crop
Have you ever gone berry picking? Usually, you fill a container and pay by its size. Those juicy berries look so appealing you want to fit as many as possible into the container, right? Would you squish them in to get more? Or would you select the ripest berries to ensure excellent quality and highest [...]When Learning Becomes Too Much: Seven Ways to Reduce Cognitive Overload
Have you ever been in a class where everyone’s eyes are glazed over? By the end of the first half-day, participants stop, well, participating? Perhaps the course just isn’t engaging them. Or, perhaps (cue music: dut, dut, dut) they are experiencing cognitive overload. So, what is cognitive overload? Cognitive overload is an inundation of short-term […]
Blended Learning: Look Before You Leap
Blended learning tools provide an instructional designer with many options, but more choices can also be confusing. How do you determine if the blended solution meets your learning objectives? How do you know which modalities to pick? And finally, how do you know that your mix will work within the culture of your organization? To […]
Can the Myers-Briggs Help You Achieve a Happy Medium?
Colleen and Stella both work at a medical device company and develop a catalog to market the products. Though they often complement each other well, recently they have reached a stalemate on this year’s catalog drop. Colleen, a product manager, wants to make sure the catalog hits the printer well in advance of her conservative […]
Create Learner Value with the Virtual Classroom
Independent elearning offers convenience for the learner and ease of delivery for the client. Yet, sometimes there is no substitute for discussion with one’s peers, feedback from the instructor, and hands-on activities to cement learning. Can the advantages of elearning and interaction of classroom learning both be addressed in a different modality? Meet the virtual […]
Creating Your Own Sweet Adventure
“When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.” – Regina Brett Like many people, I have a weakness for chocolate. For a while, I had wanted to take a chocolate walking tour in Boston, enjoying the city while sampling delicacies from various specialty shops. This would be a tasty way to be a tourist in […]
Ingenious Ways to Improve Learner Retention
As instructional designers, we focus on improving employee performance through knowledge and an increased skill set. We strive for learners to retain what they learn and implement it in their jobs. Yet, with so many competing demands at work and home, retaining what we learn can be easier said than done. For the instructional designer, […]
Forging a Path in the Snow
While many New Englanders bemoan this harsh winter, I find I embrace most of it; well, maybe not the snow removal part. Since one of my favorite pastimes is snowshoeing, winter – especially snowy winters like this one—enables me to indulge in it. What keeps me attaching these cumbersome apparatuses to my feet, and trudging […]
Get to the Head of the Class in Writing Learning Assessments
A college midterm for Introduction to Psychology. The Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam. The MCAS (the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System – if you’re a parent to a school-aged child, you know it!) What do these three items have in common? Yes, we commonly refer to them as “tests” or “exams,” but like the MCAS acronym […]
Making New Discoveries Next Door
Recently, I was privileged to enjoy a stroll with Free Tours by Foot (www.freetoursbyfoot.com/boston-tours). I really love walking tours, and decided to visit Harvard Square, a place I had been many times before. I soon gained a new perspective of this historic area favored by out-of-towners. I got a good view of the Widener Library, […]