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Helpful ideas. Squeaky value.
Helpful ideas. Squeaky value.
Most e-learning developers avoid gamification because it feels too complex to build quickly. But you can take a template you already have and add just a few interactive elements to change the experience entirely. Here's how a simple meet-the-team template became a decision-making challenge.
Employees kept building their own cheat sheets that did more good than months of formal training. Here's what that says about how much content actually belongs in a course, and a simple test to figure out what to keep.
Not every course needs the same kind of design, and building the wrong type wastes time on both ends. Here's how to tell explainer, step-by-step, and principle-based courses apart, and why asking one question upfront makes the rest of the project easier.
Most compliance courses feel pointless to the learner, even when the content matters. Here are three ways to frame that same content in a context people actually relate to, so it lands instead of getting tuned out.
Some learners need explicit instructions. Others just want to jump in and figure it out. Here's how to decide whether to front-load instructions, deliver them at the point of need, or build them into a practice activity, and how that choice depends on your audience.
Gamification isn't just building a Jeopardy game. It's using game concepts like points, progress, and rewards to change how learners feel about a course, not just review facts at the end. Here's where to start, what you can build with variables, and a few examples to get your gears turning.
Most course authors build linear slides and stop there. Variables let you collect learner input, evaluate decisions, and send learners down different paths. They're not as complicated as they sound, and this post shows you where to begin.
Here's an excerpt:
Learners can feel just as lost starting a new course as you do navigating a foreign train station. Here's how to set clear expectations, provide an orientation, and keep the experience consistent so your learners feel comfortable from the start.
Most compliance training is designed around assumptions about what regulations require, not what the regulations actually say. Here's how to build something better.
Last week I had a kidney infection that almost put me out for good. Stuck in bed with nothing to do but think, I reflected on three things about how people learn. They changed how I approach every course I build.
When a course has nothing to do with what learners face at work, they disengage. Building engagement isn't about adding more interactivity. It's about making the content matter.
A well-designed course isn't enough on its own. Learning requires the person taking the course to actually want to engage. Here are three things you can do to build that motivation into your design.
Most e-learning is built as a one-shot event. The problem is that people learn constantly, not just when they're in a course. Here's how to build a strategy that works with those 2000 learning hours.
Not all images help learners. Some get in the way. Research shows that decorative images can actually make learning harder. Here's how to choose images that pull their weight.
Someone emailed me a question I've been asked a lot: what is the role of the instructional designer, and how do you explain it to clients and SMEs? An awareness test video I stumbled across does a better job answering that question than any explanation I could write.
