5 Ways to Tell Stories in eLearning

Article Title: 5 Ways to Tell Stories in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Training professionals promote storytelling as a way to engage learners and relay tacit knowledge. Although storytelling is a skill that many inherently possess, instructional designers often struggle to incorporate stories into eLearning lessons. This article describes five approaches to designing a story into eLearning.

Who doesn’t enjoy a snappy comic strip? Comics offer a relatively quick read, an effective method for displaying dialog, and a visually engaging format. If the rest of an eLearning lesson follows a standard, templated look, using fun images can contribute to the story’s attention-grabbing effect. It also opens the door to a more informal writing style…even a bit of humor.

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What Can eLearning Learn from “7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain?”

Article Title: What Can eLearning Learn from “7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain?”

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Inspired by Tom Chatfield’s TED talk, this article recaps his ideas about how video games engage and motivate players. The piece offers specific ideas for applying these principles to the instructional design of eLearning.

Even if we didn’t design an eLearning course with an instructor-led blend, we can still work in a collaborative element. How about encouraging learners to discuss an eLearning course on an internal discussion board or other form of social media? Getting managers to discuss training with employees before, during, and/or after the event also adds this collaborative element.

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Tips for Traveling with a Guide in Morocco

Article Title: Tips for Traveling with a Guide in Morocco

Publication: Journey Beyond Travel

Summary: Traveling with a guide for part or all of a visit to Morocco offers observations that even the most adept travelers are unlikely to experience through independent exploration. This article lists tips (and advantages) for getting those most out of traveling with a guide.

5. Use the opportunity to practice your Arabic or Berber.
Learning the language can feel satisfying and offer you a way to connect with locals. Even those who speak English appreciate efforts to speak their language, regardless of whether it’s limited to phrases like please and thank you. Practicing one-on-one with a guide can help you perfect your pronunciation and pick up useful expressions.

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Brainstorming for eLearning: Rules of Brainstorming

Article Title: Brainstorming for eLearning: Rules of Brainstorming

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: The ideas that emerge from a group brainstorming session can be startlingly clever. If you’re working to identify the optimal instructional approach for a lesson, gather a few peers together and spend an hour kicking around ideas. This article explains the benefits of brainstorming and lists a few basic rules that help ensure a productive and inspiring brainstorming session.

Brainstorming Rule #3: Get crazy.
In a brainstorming session, no idea is unrealistic. Tell the team that you want – even expect – wild, off-the-wall ideas. To make good on this rule, be sure to record every idea suggested. Even if it seems ridiculous. Even if it was mentioned as a joke. After all, you never know when a far-fetched idea will inspire a feasible yet clever suggestion for someone else.

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Develop Yourself in Addition to Training

Article Title: Develop Yourself in Addition to Training

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Though instructional designers make a living by helping organizations develop their people, many struggle to find opportunities to develop themselves. This article describes five sources of professional development opportunities, including specific examples and resources for getting started.

Online networks offer an outlet for following industry trends and generating discussion around your areas of interest. Get links to recent articles from training professionals and organizations on Twitter. Participate in #lrnchat on Twitter on Thursdays for a lively exchange of ideas with others engaged in the field. Pose questions on relevant LinkedIn discussion groups to get advice for your training projects.

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6 Techniques that Stimulate Recall in eLearning

Article Title: 6 Techniques that Stimulate Recall in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Prompting learners to recall existing knowledge on a topic during training helps them to connect newly learned information to what they already know. This article explains the importance of this step and suggests six methods for accomplishing it.

–4– Prompt learners to start solving a problem, applying existing knowledge. For instance, you might present a basic scenario that a learner can partially resolve with existing knowledge. Then, elaborate on the scenario in a way that the learner can fully resolve with the help of the newly presented content.

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Personal Post: Offline for Three Weeks to Explore Morocco

I’ve spent the past three weeks mostly unplugged and backpacking through Morocco with my husband for our honeymoon over our one-year wedding anniversary.

Our journey included imperial cities, rural valleys, Sahara Desert camping, laid-back coastal port towns, and dining in the homes of local families. And now that I’m back, I’m eager to share my experiences with curious readers.

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Our route is mapped below and included:

A.  Malaga (Spain)
B.  Ceuta (Spain)
C.  Tangier
D.  Fes
E.  Meknes
F.  Marrakech
G.  Ouarzazate
H.  Skoura
I.  Erg Chebbi
J.  Rissani
K.  Erfoud
L.  Dades
M.  Marrakech
N.  Essaouira
O.  Casablanca

More to come…

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7 Habits of Highly Effective Instructional Designers

Article Title: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Instructional Designers

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: This article applies Stephen Covey’s seven habits of highly effective people to the craft of instructional design. It includes reflections on the profession’s best practices such as anticipating business needs, conducting cause analyses, closing performance gaps, and working with subject matter experts.

This habit seems to capture the spirit of teamwork that is critical to instructional design. Instructional design is more than taking a pile of content and figuring out how to teach it. Depending on the role of the designer in an organization, the process is largely consulting-oriented and requires input from people in a variety of roles and at a variety of levels in the organization – often from executive-level project sponsors to the frontline employees impacted by the training. For us, this habit is about being able to work with people across organization levels and functions, and possibly with varying agendas, to produce effective training.

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7 Techniques to Capture Attention in eLearning

Article Title: 7 Techniques to Capture Attention in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Whether you’re a seasoned instructional designer or someone who passed a high school speech class once upon a time, you can probably appreciate the need to gain your audience’s attention before presenting information. Many theorists have written about the importance of gaining and maintaining learners’ attention, and this article describes seven strategies for doing just that.

–6– State expectations: Since training should result in specific on-the-job behaviors, inform learners of what will be expected of them after training (and how they’ll be held accountable). Learners should also be informed of how they’ll be held accountable for learning during training (e.g., assessments, development plan, online discussion, etc.). Of course, this element should be a part of every course.

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Personal Post: Offline and Roadtripping for Two Weeks

Like many online networking addicts, I’m rarely offline for more than a couple of days at a time. If you’re in this club, you can probably imagine how disconnected (yet liberated) I feel after being offline for two weeks!

I’ve just returned from roadtripping with my husband from Idaho to Wisconsin and back…camping, visiting friends and family, and enjoying a variety of sites along the way.

Our trip touched seven states:

1. Idaho
2. Wyoming (including Yellowstone)
3. Montana
4. North Dakota
5. South Dakota (including the Badlands)
6. Minnesota (with extended stays in Duluth and near Park Rapids)
7. Wisconsin (with an extended stay in Eau Claire)

As a budding travel writer, I know I should share more about our recent adventure. As someone with a pile of aggressive deadlines to race against over the next couple of weeks, I’ll have to save the details for later. Hopefully I can describe our adventures in articles over the coming months.

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