For Instructional Designers by an Instructional Designer

This is a very old (June'08) post that I im ported from my other blog (I did make a few changes to it but still the thoughts are old). Paragliding Experience Last Friday I announced to the world that this weekend I am gonna jump off a cliff. Comments poured in - they ranged from, 'write me in your will' to 'plz don't coz we don't get holiday for self-inflicted injuries'. Much has been changed by that one experience. The peace that was there in the air, the contentment, the solitude, the quite, the magnificence! I simply didn't feel like returning to earth. But return I did, and within seconds everyone around me started asking questions. Somehow I didn't get the time to take it all in. Some things just can't be explained, and when you try to explain them immediately after experiencing them, their value is somehow reduced. The magic loses its potency. Later, I felt that a little 'pause/quite/me time' might have added

So far, my posts have always been written as if I'm an ID - a resource who creates SBs. But as I have been reminded ( a few times ) over the last couple of weeks, I'm a lead and need to understand that role, if not better than at the least, as well as I know my role as an ID. If you are one of those interested in being a reviewer/lead read on... Being a review/lead is no reason to cheer. And once promoted there is no need for song and dance. Coz the euphoria, if you really feel it, hides many pitfalls. These pitfalls are not mentioned anywhere in the job profile/description. We are not told of these when we take on the job. As I have said before, not all reviewers/leads are trained to do their job. They are generally given the additional responsibility of reviewing other people's work/leading the project because they do their own tasks well. The management thinks that as you know your job well, you will be able to raise the level of others performance to your le

In life, daily I make many mistakes. This is how I learn, this is how I grow. I'm sure this is how everyone learns and grows. But here is the difference, I'm lucky. Coz I have people in my life to point me ( sometimes again and again and again and again... ) in the right direction. And while guiding, they tell me not just what I need to pay more attention to but also things I'm good at and why I'm good at those things. This is very rare ( or so I feel ) and I'm grateful to them all for their timely guidance. As an ID, this is even more rare because people generally are busy forwarding their own agenda and are rarely interested in getting people up where they could reach. And I realized that while most of us go to great lengths ensuring that the work we did was to the best of our ability, we never really care or pay attention to what others might think about our leading ability. But today I was shown what it means to be a good supervisor. While the wor

Often while designing course strategy, we expect that with right knowledge in their arsenals the learners can change their behavior. However, as a learning profession we know that this doesn't always happen. Had knowledge really changed behavior, we would all be going through some kind of online course to know how to do our own tasks better and reaped benefits in terms of increments during each appraisal. Had it been that simple, clients, delivery heads, leads and reviewers would not eat our brains every chance they get. And expanding this idea beyond e-learning industry, we would not have heard/read stories about the crazy shrinks, obese doctors/physical trainers/dietitians and divorced marriage counselors! If we really wish to bring about behavioral change through our courses, we need to ask "What, exactly, needs to be done differently?" For this we need to look beyond the obvious failures. We need to look beyond the knowing-doing gap, beyond the persona

Often, we are asked to add a game to the course because its the in-thing . Or because the client had used it successfully in some other course and received great feedback from the learner regarding the games. Unfortunately, there are leads and managers out there who won't fight such demands. They take the path of least resistance and accept whatever the client asks them to do. But seriously aren't games played with a goal in mind? Isn't that the whole point of the game - to reach some goal. So how can games be added to random content just because it worked in some other course? I'm personally not against using games in a course. But I do feel that as an ID, we should add value to the content. Do what the content demands and do it in a way that is best for the learner to use that content for maximum benefit. Say no to path of least resistance.

Show to the GDs and learners – don’t just tell! Today, I came across some content that was difficult to visualize onstage and remembered the article "Show Don’t Tell" by Shirley Jump. Why Show? Well, showing involves the learner; it allows them to participate and ensures that you have them where you want them to be – right beside you. So when you are creating a role play where say a character named Dan is to be shown angry how will you visualize him? Will you tell your GD, show an angry frown and expect that the GD and the leaner will know it’s an angry face or would rather show Dan in his office, at his desk, standing up with the report in his hand, slamming it shut with a frown on his face and throwing it on his desk? Think about it. Option one is easy for IDs, but option 2 is will have flavor to it. If you give rich details in your visual descriptions, those rich characters will give the learner an experience that will be much more memorable. So show and don’