Welcome to the completion of week seven as we progress through our 12-week service course, Instructional Design Service Course: Gain Experience For Good. The focus this week was on drafting a design proposal, also referred to as a design plan. For the purposes of this course and for this stage of our design project, the […]
Flow theory impacts eLearning in a big way. The name hints at why. The theory, created by Mihaly Csikzentmihaly (say that five times fast), focuses on the mental state of learners during education and the state in which intrinsic motivation occurs. Flow happens when the learner is actively engaged and learning is happening in a […]
While psychology does play a major part in effective eLearning design, there are a few myths we’ve seen floating around that we think should be debunked. And since psychology is such a major part of learning any subject, it’s important to know fact vs. fiction. In this post, we’ll take a hard look at some […]
A learner-centric approach to developing eLearning is known to be an effective way to craft training. Think about it: When the learner has control over decision-making in scenarios, can self-pace, and is able to share feedback about the eLearning course, they not only feel more engaged, but they see that they have a real say […]
Maybe you saw the new movie Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Maybe you didn’t. Early reviews weren’t great—so it’s anyone’s guess. Just look at this video, and you’ll see how one of the main actors is feeling about early feedback. However, when a comic book franchise releases a movie, the massive media blitz of […]
As we here at ThinkingKap continue on with the Designing for The Greater Good project-course we’re trying out, this week’s module focused on designing the instructional experience. This week, we focused on Dr. David Merrill and his philosophy, the First Principles of Instruction. The main objective for us was to create eLearning courses that follow […]
If you’re just getting started with learning Instructional Design, your goal is probably to soak up as much information as you can. Knowledge is power—and in this instance, there’s a lot to learn. While it can be intimidating to approach such a large volume of educational resources, over time, you can begin to refine your […]
A while back, we talked about how to partially restrict navigation when using a custom menu. Partial restriction for that example simply means requiring the user to, at minimum, click through each slide included in a menu topic before being able to move on to the next menu topic. Today, we’re going to talk about […]
Welcome to week four of 12 on our journey through the Design for the Greater Good Instructional Design online course. Over the past two weeks, we have been focusing on the ‘Synthesize’ phase of the design process, where we have made our initial design decisions. It was at this point where we chose our subject, […]
Think the narrator of your eLearning course isn’t all that important? Think again. The voice that accompanies your content can make a major impact on not only how successful the course is at teaching, but how it is perceived overall. Amateur audio/narration is easy to spot. Do you want to send up a red flag […]
It is widely accepted that technology advances in recent years are shaping the future of retail. Retailers no longer have one brick and mortar connection point with customers. Rather retailers (large and small) are using both physical and multiple digital channels to stay engaged with customers. The Medium is the Message in Retail Training […]
On-the-job training is not restricted to use on the retail floor. The principles described in this article are applicable to any industry or work environment to ensure consistent results from the use of on-the-job training. The Right Approach I sometimes refer to on-the-job training approaches as “Sit with Sam,” “Follow Fred,” or “Watch Wanda.” The […]
I heard a conference speaker once say that their biggest training challenge was getting their theme park employees to tuck in their shirts and pull up their sagging pants. The host of the quirky Been My Pleasure YouTube channel (for food service professionals) recently shared with me his frustration in getting some servers to understand […]
Welcome to week two of 12 on our journey through the Design for the Greater Good Instructional Design online course. This week, we focused on the ‘Analyze’ phase of the design process, learning more about both the learners and the instructional opportunity there. Empathy and eLearning Design The main approach this course uses is called […]
I vividly remember an old television game show called Name that Tune in which contestants would guess how many notes it would take them to recognize a song when played. The goal was to bid on the lowest number of notes that would lead to success in naming the tune and winning the game. A […]
I was recently having lunch with a former client contact and reminiscing about the project we had worked on together. In the course of the conversation, I asked how training is viewed at the retailer for whom he currently works who happens to have a rather large training department. You might imagine my surprise when […]
I caught the pilot episode of NBC’s newest sitcom Superstore, which is about employees who work at the fictional Cloud 9 megastore. While I would describe the sitcom as a satirical look at the world of retail, professional TV show reviewers use the word dysfunctional to refer to the dynamic among the Cloud 9 employees. […]
Oscar winners and great training have more common ground than you might initially think. See what qualities these two share and how you can get on the path to creating training that lines up with an Academy Award-winning film. They Stir Up Emotion Oscar winning movies and actors are highly acclaimed for their ability to […]
Whenever we work with a new client to develop eLearning courses, one of our topics of discussion includes what level of freedom they want their learners to have navigating the course. Is the learner able to skip around and visit any part of the course in any order? Or should the navigation require them to […]
Did you see Lady Gaga sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday? We did, and we were pretty impressed. But this also got us thinking about context. Isn’t it interesting that this performer, known for her crazy outfits (like a dress made out of raw meat), wild, sky-high hair, and bold statements […]
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