My Design Philosophy
My Instructional Design Philosophy
"When someone is taught the joy of learning, it becomes a life-long process that never stops, a process that creates a logical individual. That is the challenge and joy of teaching,"
- Marva Collins
The Essentials of Building a Learning Program
As an Instructional Designer, I know how important it is to think through the process of building a learning program. Learners should be the first thought when creating a Learning program; they should feel confident and engaged when learning a new process or concept. Additionally, it is essential to consider what methods and tools to use. Let’s look at the essentials of building a learning program.
Engagement & Motivation
In my designs, I consider engagement and motivation for learners throughout the entire course. This can include using fun animations, colorful graphics, interactive activities, activities that allow learners to practice real-world scenarios, and feedback that encourages them to keep going while providing reinforcement along the way.
Methods
When deciding which methods are best for your learning program, you must consider who will access your course. Are they Millennials? Boomers? Gen Z? Each generation has different ways in which they learn best. For example, Boomers may prefer a more traditional approach with more lecture-style content, whereas Millennials prefer more active engagement with their peers or instructors. Understanding these generational differences can help you create an effective learning program that works for everyone involved in its design and implementation!
Tools
It is also essential to consider the time you have for building out courses and how you want them implemented across various platforms (e.g., desktop/mobile). Not every course you build out will be production ready, so sometimes you may not have time to build out an entire course in Storyline using multiple methods such as animations or videos. You can still make engaging courses by utilizing other eLearning authoring tools such as Articulate Rise or Adobe Captivate, which are easier to use with pre-built components and templates that speed up development time significantly while still producing professional results!
When designing a learning program, it is important to think about the learner first and foremost – how do I engage them? What methods should I use? Which tools should I utilize? Considering these questions upfront before beginning any project, we can ensure that our courses are engaging and effective while helping learners retain information long after the training ends! With this knowledge at hand, we can create successful learning programs no matter what platform it’s hosted on!
Instructional Design Theories/Methods I Use
When crafting a Learning Program, I don’t just stick to one methodology – instead, I’m always searching for the right blend of Instructional Design theories and methods. The goal? Capturing learners’ attention with every step!
As an instructional designer, I turn to the ADDIE Model – Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate – as my starting point when designing learning programs; it’s a well-known framework for creating effective instruction. While other methods may be more appropriate in some cases depending on goals and objectives of learners or program context, this model is often considered the foundation from which we start our work!
Working on an AGILE project? I’ve got the perfect instructional design method to help you get moving in no time! My way of getting aligned with developers and fellow teammates starts by brainstorming ideas, setting objectives with stakeholders, then jumping into sprints. Prototyping is key here – use it for designing my learning materials as well as testing them out along the journey. A-L-I-E: Align, Leverage, Get Set… Implement.. Evaluate!
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a great theory to help me create meaningful learning objectives and assessments. I love using it in unison with other methods for maximum effect! Organizing my thinking into the six cognitive levels of remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create helps ensure that all areas are covered when designing courses or lesson plans. In this way, Bloom’s Taxonomy ensures that no stones have been left unturned – quite convenient!
Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction method is a great way to create captivating learning experiences. It starts out with three vital components: preparation, instruction/practice and assessment/transfer. Preparation helps get learners’ attention while also informing them about the objectives they need to learn and recall prior information they have related knowledge on. After that comes guidance during learning, eliciting their performance level as well as providing feedback along the entire process so they can improve it easily if needed! Finally, we complete the cycle by assessing performance throughout in order engage retention more effectively and make sure transfer-learning holds up afterwards too – making this an all around solid approach for any training program or class!
Motivation and Engagement
Designing an effective curriculum is key to motivating learners and driving results. By recognizing the power of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, you can create eLearning or instructor-led training that inspires a desire for new knowledge by offering rewards like praise, leaderboards, points etc., as well as fostering a sense of purpose through real-world scenarios designed to capture their attention with just the right level of challenge. When done correctly – your students will be so engaged they’ll enter into “the zone” known in psychology circles as flow state!
Focus Practice and Feedback
Mastering any skill takes focus and practice with feedback. I’ve discovered that effective learning materials need to incorporate knowledge checks, scenarios – and more importantly, appropriate levels of challenge within them. Feedback must go beyond “correct” or “incorrect”; it needs to provide a deeper understanding as why something is right or wrong in order for learners to develop the skills they’re after. By making sure our training materials deliver focused practice along with meaningful feedback we can ensure our learners get enriching experiences every step of the way!
Tools I use to Design Training
Being able to create captivating learning experiences requires the right tools. As an instructional designer, I’ve used many different programs and platforms throughout my career in order to develop immersive training materials – here are some of my favorite go-to’s for bringing ideas into reality!