People with little knowledge or experience in a domain will have knowledge gaps, difficulty solving problems and become easily overwhelmed. Compared to an expert, a novice will have a limited network … [Read more...]
Designing For Experts
In a previous article, I noted that experts have different internal knowledge structures than novices. Expert knowledge seems to be efficiently organized and easy to search through, like an orderly … [Read more...]
Add Realism To eLearning To Improve Learning Transfer
Adding realism to eLearning should improve learning transfer, which will prepare learners for situations they might really encounter. Realism also adds credibility to a training course, which is quite … [Read more...]
Why Discovery Should Come Before Analysis
Most instructional design models start with analysis. During this time, the learning experience designer gathers and analyzes data and information related to one or more performance problems, such as … [Read more...]
Metalearning, The Four Hour Chef, and Instructional Design
Accelerated Learning and Instructional Design
My ears perked up when I heard the word metalearning in an interview with the author of The Four Hour Chef, a book by Tim Ferriss. I was curious how metalearning—roughly defined as learning how to … [Read more...]
10 Ways to Improve eLearning
eLearning is getting a bad reputation. Learners, instructional designers and developers are frustrated. It's time for us to improve eLearning. It means pushing back, thinking broadly, and innovating. … [Read more...]
A Framework for Developing Online Learning
An Instructional Design Process for eLearning
Developing online learning needs a framework that is based on the technology-based tasks you will need to complete. This framework uses an iterative and prototyping approach to the development … [Read more...]
Does Humor Enhance Learning?
It's hard to tune out when something is funny. You just want to keep watching or listening. If humor grabs and sustains attention and if it evokes pleasant and positive feelings, why don't we use it … [Read more...]
Evaluating Your Online Courses
Evaluating eLearning courses creates the feedback loop that designers need to continually improve learning solutions. How else can we know what that audience needs and whether they improve their … [Read more...]
Chunking Information for Instructional Design
The limited capacity of working memory is a key concept in cognitive psychology and instructional design. Working memory is a temporary memory store that regulates incoming information in order to … [Read more...]
Get Your Audience Pumped: 30 Ways to Motivate Adult Learners
Motivation is the force that drives people to fulfill a need. If you can tap into a learner's intrinsic motivation, you've got it made. Intrinsic motivation occurs when an individual is rewarded by … [Read more...]
Transformative Learning: Another Perspective On Adult Learning
In the 1980's, Malcolm Knowles popularized certain assumptions about adult learning that have been the basis of a model you know as andragogy. The term andragogy, which was first used in Europe and … [Read more...]