Usability testing is missing from the traditional instructional design process. But not having a way to find problems is a problem. We need to make sure that eLearning courses, learning portals, … [Read more...]
Design for Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing
In order to design for the human mind, it's helpful to understand how attention guides a person to perceive and then comprehend information while learning. Outside of research circles, one under … [Read more...]
Six Ways to Use Examples And Nonexamples To Teach Concepts
Your brain likes to generalize. It forms generalizations out of individual examples, similar to fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. This is more or less how we form concepts—by grouping together … [Read more...]
Persuading Clients To Accept Your Course Design
I received an email from an experienced instructional designer who had a problem that is all too common in our field. She was having trouble persuading clients to accept her course design. She … [Read more...]
Talent Stacking For An Instructional Design Career
Sometimes an obvious concept takes on a deeper meaning when you see it from a new perspective. For me, talent stacking was one of those ideas. We all know that being multi-skilled increases your … [Read more...]
Stealing From Product Design
Seven Principles for Innovating
Like all designers these days, learning experience designers are under pressure. We must find the most effective ways to meet the needs of a target audience, improve workplace performance and measure … [Read more...]
Using A Comic Book Style For Learning
The Value of Instructional Comics
I thought it was time to republish this conversation with the author of See What I Mean. Depending on the audience, content and context, low fidelity graphics—like simple line drawings—can be more … [Read more...]
ELC 074: Creating Effective Surveys for Instructional Design
A Conversation with Caroline Jarrett
When you create surveys for instructional design, such as for an audience analysis or evaluation, what process do you use? Are you confident that you'll get accurate results? There’s a large body of … [Read more...]
20 Things To Remember About Forgetting
What Causes Us To Forget
Even though we use it all day and night, we are usually not aware of our memory's processes until they fail. Yet remembering and forgetting are crucial aspects of learning. In learning design, it's … [Read more...]
Are Your Online Tests Valid?
How to Improve Test Validity
You can't make it through a year of designing eLearning without having to write test or assessment questions. If you don't have formal training in this area you may not be familiar with test validity. … [Read more...]
ELC 073: Using The Jobs To Be Done Framework In Learning Design
A Conversation with Ger Driesen
As a group, learning designers have been trying to break out of the order-taker role for a long time. Adopting the Jobs To Be Done framework may be one way you can help clients change their … [Read more...]
How To Write A Visual Style Guide for eLearning
The most efficient way to achieve consistency in the visual design of eLearning and presentation slides is to create a visual style guide. A style guide provides one graphical standard for the people … [Read more...]