The Brave New World Of Instructional Design
Wikipedia defines Instructional Design, or ID for short, as "the practice of systematically designing, developing, and delivering instructional products and experiences, both digital and physical, in a consistent and reliable fashion toward an efficient, effective, appealing, engaging, and inspiring acquisition of knowledge." Rather, I prefer to think of it as weaponsmithing; in our day and age, knowledge is the ultimate weapon, be it for personal or professional reasons. People who keep training themselves go further and organizations that invest in L&D have an advantage. In fact, all this is only possible thanks to Instructional Design. Then again, Instructional Designers seldom receive credit for their hard work as they are too often behind the scenes. In this eBook, you will have the chance to read the advice of the pros and discover the methods that make rapid eLearning design possible.
Rapid eLearning design is not sloppy design. Actually, it is usually more well-thought-of than other cases because it is the result of planning and expertise. Since the industry became digital, many new options became available to the ID professional. However, not all of them were beneficial. To clarify, it is not the options themselves that were wasteful but the fact that it wasn't clear what problems they solved. This eBook clearly explains 5 of the industry's best practices in a way that is clear and understandable. Moreover, you can apply this advice immediately in your own projects and see results in a matter of days.
About The eBook "Rapid eLearning Design For Quick Rollout"
The eBook does an excellent job of introducing you to the world of Instructional Design. From the very first page, you get the sense that this material is written by professionals for professionals. Afterward, a bigger picture is painted, in which it becomes clear how and through what channels training helps an organization achieve its goals. Next, there is a very thorough analysis of how to work with Subject Matter Experts. I found this bit in particular extremely useful because new ID professionals often don't get that communicating with SMEs will take a huge portion of their time. Following that, there is a collection of methods on how to engage learners and a guide that will help you find the proper authoring tool. Finally, there is an overview of the different options you have concerning standardizing and scaling up.
Business Context For Instructional Designers
One of the things I enjoyed most in this eBook is how it admits that training managers sometimes tend to be not exactly on the same page as the business. However, they should always strive to align themselves and understand how training fits in the bigger picture. In other words, what are its reasons for existing and how it helps the business. Thankfully, every single business in existence shares these 3 goals: sell more, improve efficiencies, stay compliant. Naturally, without training, these goals are nigh impossible to achieve. However, not every training effort that is designed to help with these goals can achieve that. This is the primary reason why training doesn't always yield tangible results, making executives very skeptical about investing in L&D. By understanding the bigger picture and focusing on tangible outcomes, this situation can change, and it's about time it did.
Dealing With Subject Matter Experts
Learning to work efficiently with Subject Matter Experts is art on its own. Although it presents various challenges, learning how to do it properly is going to significantly reduce the time that is required to develop an eLearning program. You must keep in mind that Subject Matter Experts are highly skilled professionals who may have valuable insight and access to very important information, but their primary role does not belong in education. They usually have roles like these:
- Senior director, quality assurance
- Clinical operations manager
- Marketing and sales manager
- Operations specialist
- Senior engineer
Obviously, it is a rare occasion to see an SME with a background in Learning and Development. However, since they are involved so much in the eLearning process, a smart approach that helps toward rapid eLearning design is to minimize the time they will need to invest and the touchpoints between them and your team. This eBook analyzes the procedure that CommLab follows, and this became one of my favorite parts. It is important to offer advice but to explain the methods you yourself use is pure gold.
Conclusion
CommLab India is a global leader that focuses on speed and efficiency. They have won many awards over the years and they are well-known for the quality of their content. This guide is special because it describes the methods they use, so it's written from personal experience and has withstood the test of time. Every professional will surely find value in it. Download the eBook Rapid eLearning Design For Quick Rollout and learn how one of the best companies in the world deals with their day-to-day issues.
