Instructional Design Tips

Instructional Design Tips, models, theories, trends, pitfalls, infographics and anything you need to know, written from our Instructional Design experts. Share our resources or submit your article!

June 9, 2015

Enhancing Long-Term Memory: 7 Strategies For eLearning Professionals

Memories may serve as fond reminders of the past, but they also allow us to achieve learning goals and expand our educational horizons in the here-and-now. It would be nice if our minds functioned like cameras and we could access our picture-like memories at any time we wanted. Unfortunately, this is not how it works; everything we see and hear is stored in different areas of our brains and we can easily lose information it if we don’t make a conscious effort to retain it. In this article, I’ll explore the basics of long-term memory and I'll share 7 strategies you can use to create memorable eLearning courses, the content of which will be stored in your audience's minds for a long, long time.
by Christopher Pappas
June 2, 2015

Enhancing Short-Term Memory: 5 Strategies For eLearning Professionals

Long-term memory may get all the glory, but knowledge retention and information recall wouldn’t be possible without the aid of its more temporary counterpart. In this article, I’ll discuss the basics of the short-term memory and I’ll highlight 5 strategies that eLearning professionals may follow in order to enhance short-term memory and, thus, to increase the effectiveness of eLearning deliverables.
by Christopher Pappas
May 28, 2015

Behaviorism In Instructional Design For eLearning: When And How To Use It

How to write about the “benefits” of behaviorism when it is the learning approach that has received the most criticism? Behavioristic theories may sound out-of-date as, nowadays, everybody involved in Instructional Design for eLearning seems to favor constructivism. The incorporation of social media into eLearning course design has also opened new e-ways toward social learning, keeping “behaviorism” somewhere at the far end of the corridor, a scapegoat to blame for whatever we, as ”eLearning experts,” find not constructive enough. Then, why universities still bother teaching about behaviorism? Is behaviorism as old-fashioned as we consider it to be and by no means applicable in today’s digitalized world? In this article, I’ll try to give you some tips on how behaviorism can be applied in today’s Instructional Design for eLearning, and to explain for what type of eLearning activities it is more appropriate.
by Marisa Keramida (M.Ed.)
May 21, 2015

4 Ways To Apply Instructional Interactivity In eLearning

How should you design instructional interactivity in order to make your eLearning course highly interactive and engaging? In this article I will share the key components of effective instructional interactivity and I will show you how you can actively stimulate your learners’ minds to successfully experience your eLearning deliverable.
by Christopher Pappas
May 16, 2015

How To Use IFrames And Multimedia To Enhance Your Assessments

Assessments can often underwhelm our learners. We invest a lot of time and energy creating rich, engaging content, only to present a bland final impression of the overall eLearning experience via the final assessment. IFrames, and the use of freely available social media streams, allow us to greatly enhance our assessments and engage the learner in a richer assessment process. In this article, I will show you how to introduce dynamic and interactive media to your assessments and hopefully engage your learners in new and interesting ways to interact with your content.
by James Sheil
May 10, 2015

The Great eLearning Design Mashup - Scrolling In eLearning

As eLearning designers, we should be looking to web design trends to borrow, to begin an eLearning design mashup. This month we’ll be looking into some of the trendiest and best design practices from the web which are or could be helping us create better, richer eLearning, starting today with scrolling.
by Li Whybrow
April 29, 2015

Adopting Agile Approach For eLearning Development In Your Organization

Megan Torrance of Torrance Learning is one of the most well-respected thought leaders in the industry and is on the vanguard of applying Agile to e-learning development. I caught up with her recently for a Q&A about Agile and its applications. If you’re interested in moving to Agile and curious about the potential benefits and drawbacks, read on!  
by Andrew Winner
April 27, 2015

Top 10 Instructional Design Challenges in eLearning

An instructional designer’s job is multidimensional; in order to balance different role requirements, instructional designers may face a variety of challenges. In this article, I will share the top 10 instructional design challenges that eLearning professionals face when dealing with instructional design, and most importantly, how to overcome them.
by Christopher Pappas
April 20, 2015

Create Effective eLearning Interactions Using The CCAF Model

To design eLearning courses that are really interactive is not an easy task. Dr. Allen’s CCAF Model is a very useful tool for all instructional designers as it defines the characteristics a good interaction should have. In this article, I’ll give you an overview of the CCAF Model as well as some tips on how eLearning professionals may apply its principles to create effective interactions for their eLearning courses.
by Marisa Keramida (M.Ed.)
April 19, 2015

The Power Of AGILE Instructional Design Approach

The AGILE instructional design may have its roots outside of the world of eLearning, but it is now being widely used by Instructional Designers in all niches. In this article, I’ll share with you the basics of the AGILE instructional design approach and I’ll show you why it can be so powerful when designing eLearning courses.
by Christopher Pappas