Subject matter experts come in many different varieties. You will encounter many different personalities in your career as a Training professional. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can master one process for engaging and interacting with them. The instructional design industry will tell you that the needs of the learner... more
Have you ever been “in the zone”? As an instructional designer have you ever considered your job to be getting people OUT of their comfort zone? This is, as they say, where the magic happens…in the Learning Zone! The Learning Zone rests between the Comfort Zone and the Chaos Zone... more
This week seems to be full of reflective learning for me. After Tuesday’s reflections of Apple, The Cloud, and Litmos, I find myself looking back 25 years. In 1990 I was preparing to graduate from the University of Arizona with a degree in Media Arts. I loved the creativity of... more
In a recent blog post I introduced the idea of training course patterns to kickstart your LMS. The needs of every department will vary, but that’s the beauty of patterns. Patterns are broad enough to give you ultimate flexibility in your final design. As I look back on my career of... more
Online Instructor-led training continues to grow in popularity for delivering corporate training. I don’t think that surprises anybody. This is not breaking news. It’s the natural progression of an education system that defined the product of learning as a classroom consisting of an instructor who knows stuff and listeners/viewers who need... more
If content is king, then context is queen. Long live the queen! Understanding the context of work performance is critical to all aspects of a learning solution. So keep it simple. It’s easy to know who your audience is, or to learn who they are. And equally as easy to figure... more
After solving one corporate training problem, it’s only natural that you will learn from that experience. When a similar problem is presented, you will apply the knowledge from your prior experience and most likely develop a similar solution: Keeping all the good parts, and throwing out the bad. Your final... more
I’ve been fascinated with YouTube lately. And not for the reasons you might think. At times it looks like an overnight success, but it’s been around since 2005. And while that’s quite interesting, it’s not what has me fascinated. Young kids are making millions of dollars with their YouTube channels and... more
YouTube hit the mainstream pretty hard in 2014. Or maybe I should rephrase that to YouTubers hit the mainstream in 2014. Of course the kids have been watching their favorite YouTubers long before 2014, but it just feels like the rest of the world is finally gaining interest. Youtube’s popularity... more
You’re staring at your computer screen and your heart sinks. Weeks have gone by with no input from your manager on your latest (most likely brilliant) eLearning project. What you’re staring at is an email asking for confirmation that you’ve taken into account the different learning styles of the employees... more
