Tag Archives: learning design

 

Learning Trends: Highlights from the Masie 2011 Conference – Pt. 3

“Is Instructional Design Dead?” There was a great discussion around this question in one of the sessions. I am glad that the conclusion was, “No, it’s very much alive but it needs to change.” Almost everybody agreed that instructional design … Continue reading

 
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011 Comment
 

Learning Trends: Highlights from the Masie 2011 Conference – Pt. 2

Learning Affordances When technology provides additional capabilities for employees to do their work more efficiently, it allows us to think about the emerging technologies from the affordance perspective—rather than just the features or hype. For example, when designing for mobile … Continue reading

 
Monday, November 21st, 2011 Comment
 

When Apples Go Bad – UI Design and Usability

Apple released the latest upgrade of their operating system (iOS5) a couple of weeks ago. This release gave us happy new features—notifications banner! to-do list! iMessage! multiple routes on maps!—as well as the Why-would-you-do-that-to-us features—if I can’t put Newsstand in … Continue reading

 
Friday, November 4th, 2011 1 Comment
 

Getting Out of the Dump

A common practice in the world of training is what we affectionately call the “information dump.” You might know what I’m talking about—the courses that are so text heavy and dense that you lose the learner on page two. These … Continue reading

 
Friday, October 14th, 2011 3 Comments
 

How Did That Course Really Go?

Here at Allen, we have a weekly designer meeting, which is a great opportunity for our design leads to meet and talk about what is going on with our projects. This week we had a designer showcase, and there were … Continue reading

 
Monday, September 26th, 2011 2 Comments
 

Beyond Post-its: Ways To Go Paperless

Not too long ago our Director of Project Managers here at Allen, Michael Hassett, mentioned to me that he’s gone almost completely paperless in his work environment. No more legal pads, just 100% digital note taking and organization with his … Continue reading

 
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 1 Comment
 

Finding a Universal Symbol for Yes

Suppose you were me eight months ago. You were in charge of designing a web-based course on business ethics for a large financial company. This course was scheduled to be translated into ten languages. One of the activities in this … Continue reading

 
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 5 Comments
 

Ridding the World of Bad Scenarios

Using scenarios to help learners apply new knowledge has been a long-standing training best practice. And in more recent years, to the relief of online learners, scenarios have started to take the place of some of those dreaded knowledge checks … Continue reading

 
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 2 Comments
 

Motivating Learners and Coaches—is Delivering Happiness the Secret Sauce?

When you think about motivating learners to take charge of their own development and learning, what questions have you asked yourself that can help achieve results like a wildly successful company like, say, Zappos? For the uninitiated, Zappos is a … Continue reading

 
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 4 Comments
 

Playing the Budget Showdown

Here’s the typical scenario. You’re the client, you’ve got a training project, and you’re looking for the right vendor. The last thing you want to do is tip your hand and show your budget. That’s like telling the car salesperson … Continue reading

 
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011 1 Comment