Cognitive Science for Instructional Designers

Instructional designers, or anyone else in the business of educating and training others, should understand the science and psychology behind learning and memory. Trudy Kowallis Christensen said, “When I design instruction, I usually don’t start with a particular theory. My main focus is the problem and the problem situation.” (Christensen, 1). As Instructional Designers, we […]

[ Read More ]
How Questions Impact Learning Experiences

When I was a college undergrad in design school, one of my professors had a policy of deducting points from students who “ask too many questions.” She says this teaches students independence and prepares them for the real world, where “life’s not fair.” Ironically, I don’t remember this professor’s name. I don’t remember which class […]

[ Read More ]
Adaptive Learning: Not Just Another Brick in the Wall Adaptive Learning: Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

I support adaptive learning, especially the applications of AR/VR, AI, gamification, and micro-learning for a more personalized experience that helps overcome the Forgetting Curve. I typically incorporate technology, micro-learning, social media, texting, and gamification into my trainings. (See the below videos for a few examples.) For adaptive learning to truly be effective, digital technologies should […]

[ Read More ]
Developing Learning Objective Scenarios Developing Learning Objective Scenarios

Nearly every instructional design project involves developing learning objectives for various learning scenarios. Typically, instructional designers collaborate with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), asking open-ended questions to analyze and clarify what the learners will be doing. The answers we receive from our SMEs will help shape our learning objectives. When it comes to developing learning objectives, […]

[ Read More ]
From ADDIE to AGILE (Part II of II) From ADDIE to AGILE (Part II of II)

In Part One of this two-part blog series, we looked at the traditional ADDIE model of Instructional Design and compared it to the quicker, more modern AGILE model. AGILE and Rapid eLearning design models take a quicker Instructional Design approach by eliminating extra or unnecessary steps from the ADDIE model. Of course, when implementing these […]

[ Read More ]