I read the blogs of quite a few instructional design gurus. Actually I tend to binge-read them, then go off the whole idea for a while until my interest revives. But that’s another story. One of my favourites is Clark Quinn, for the sharpness of his analytic mind but openness to new ideas. I recently came … Read more
The other week I wrote about performance support and how it’s not helpful to refer to it as just-in-time learning. If people learn from it it’s a bonus but it’s not what it is designed for. It’s a tool. In The role of self-reflection in continuous performance support on Saffron Interactive’s site, James Tyas explores … Read more
At LT2016 I picked up a quote attributed to Clive Shepherd that I can’t verify the quote but I’d been thinking during the day about performance support. I see performance support as a tool, not necessarily a form of learning. You use it because you need to know, or be reminded, how to do something … Read more
If you’ve been reading this blog at all, you’ll know I like scenarios. I think they can be an engaging and, more important, an effective form of elearning. That doesn’t mean I advocate them for everything, all the time. Years ago, a Tom Kuhlmann post, lost now, stuck in my mind. It pictured a learner … Read more
I’ve written about all the steps in the Designing Predicaments job aid in detail now, with a video talk about each. I just want to remind you of how I recommend using Designing Predicaments. It works best, I think, in a small group or pair – maybe a designer and an SME – who’ve already made the … Read more
Today in our series about elearning scenarios, we look at the reason why the right choice is the right choice. You need to define that in Step 1, and be aware of it throughout. It’s important that it’s not just applicable in this situation but in a range of situations – in other words, it’s … Read more
Here’s another videoscribe on Step 5. If you prefer text, it’s below the video. This is part of a series expanding on the free job aid Designing Predicaments. Want to catch up on the previous steps? Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4
In my previous two posts I talked about the venerable instructional design tool of content types, and how used them in my own computer based training designs in the 90s but found that they weren’t so accessible to others in design classes I taught. Today I’ll bring it up to date and suggest where this … Read more
One of the things I’ve noticed over the years at my former employer, which seems to be typical, is that tests are often thrown together at the end of a learning project, and sometimes not even by the instructional designers but by the sponsors or SMEs, due to time pressure or sometimes an attitude of … Read more