Identifying and Evaluating Online Resources

The theories behind learning and how the brain works seem to be never ending and can be quite overwhelming.  There are the traditional beliefs and theories that have been around for years, and there seem to be new ones continuously appearing. 

In the spirit of "all things theory-based", I found a great article on the Instructional Design Central website that appropriately enough is titled Instructional Design Models & Theories.  The thing I found extremely valuable about this article is it basically provides a "one stop shop" for Instructional Design Theories.  The opening paragraph simply states; "There have been multiple instructional design models that have been developed and implemented over the years.  Below are just a few of today's most commonly applied and practiced instructional design models, theories, and methodologies" ("Instructional Design Models & Theories," n..d.).  The article then proceeds to outline a number of the most recognized and widely used ID theories and models:  Merrilss's Principles of Instruction, ADDIE Model, Kemp's ID Model, Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction, Blooms Learning Taxonomy, and Kirkpatrick's 4 Levels of Training Evaluation.  Each of the theories are then outlined in the article and contain videos, graphics, and some really simple and informative visual aids to help describe the different attributes of the theories.  I found the site extremely useful and will continue to refer to it when I need some ideas for development of material and evaluation/assessment items.  

http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm

The other article I found was based more on the idea of learning styles and creating an appropriate environment for learning.  The name of the article is: Understanding Different Learning Styles and I found this article on the NDT Resource Center website.  This article is definitely geared toward those in the field of education, but I still found the information to be valuable for those of us who are creating material for adult learners in a corporate setting.  What I liked about this article was how simply stated the information was, the additional learning styles it outlined (not just the traditional auditory, visual, kinesthetic) and also how clearly it described the most conducive learning environment for each of the learning styles.  It also provided a wealth of links and additional articles you could access for more information on learning styles, learning theory, etc.    http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Learning_Styles.htm



References:

Instructional Design Models & Theories. (2009). Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/

Understanding Different Learning Styles.  (2011).  Retrieved July 8, 2011, from http://www.ndt-ed.org/index_flash.htm

Instructional Design Sites and Blogs

As an Instructional Designer I am continually searching for resources that will provide me with tools and information to help me improve my skills.  I attend a number of free webinars offered from a variety of training organizations, attend training sessions provided by my employer, and often times turn to the internet for the latest ideas and techniques being used in Instructional Design.  While searching for information to complete this blog assignment I referred to a number of sites I already have bookmarked as my favorites, and also found quite a few new sites which provided a great deal of useful information.  The following three sites are the ones I have chosen to share in this post:

1.  The first site is actually a company website for 'CommLab India', which is a company based out of Hyderabad, India but also has locations in US and Australia, and are developers of eLearnrning and online training solutions:  http://blog.commlabindia.com/ .  The website is obviously a marketing tool for CommLab and contains a great deal of information about their products, testimonies from their clients, job opportunities, company description, etc.  But the website also offers a Custom training and eLearning Blog section, which is the area I found a very informative and was able to gain a lot of information.  I found the website via a link that was provided in one of the discussion posts on a LinkedIn blog for Instructional Design which I am a member.  The blog area of the website has a number of different sections that focus on various types of training: Product Training, Process Training, Lean Training, are just a few examples.  When you go into each section you are then introduced to a number of different blog entries, case studies, articles, etc. about that particular type of training.  The site also contains a link to Live Webinars, some of which you can attend for free, and also links to free online training courses.  The blog I participated in was titled "Understanding the Various Content Types Delivered Via eLearning", and it focused on using the appropriate design strategy for the specific content type that is going to be trained.  It provided a number of links to additional information about content types and eLearning development, and presented all of it in a very non-technical language that was easy to read and understand.  The site is definitely loaded with a great deal of sales and marketing information, however if you bypass all of that and go directly to the blog sections, I believe it contains very valuable information.

2. The next site I found very interesting, with a great deal of valuable content, was actually a blogspot by a gentleman by the name of Charles Jennings:  http://charles-jennings.blogspot.com/.   Charles Jennings is the Director of a UK- based Learning & Performance Consultant Company, and his blog has been active since 2008.  The blog contains a host of great blog entries containing information from supporting learning in the workplace, to using social media as a learning source, transforming learning operations to deliver greater value, and a whole host of others.  The particular blog I concentrated on was entitled "Lost in Translation: Why Learning Professionals Need to Learn to Speak their Stakeholders Language".  This has been a "hot button" with my team recently as we have undergone a number of reorganizations and the new senior team we report to is unfamiliar with our line of the business.  This blog entry provided a great deal of information around tactics to use when consulting with your customer and listed a number of "Do's and Dont's" of working with stakeholders.  As with other blogs I viewed, this one also contained a number of links to online learning communities, excellent articles regarding ID work, as well as links to Webinars and online training in the area of Instructional Design.

3.  The third blog site I found is definitely my favorite, and one that I signed up to be a member.  It is called "the eLearning coach" with the byline - "Tips, advice and reviews for online learning" http://www.theelearningcoach.com/.  The great thing about this site is even though it is titled as an eLearning site, the information it contains is relevant to all areas of Instructional Design.  The site contains a variety of sections related to different aspects of Instructional Design.  For example, there is a section for Reviews - where they begin a discussion reviewing some tool, book, system, or ID technique; A section titled: Cognition - which contains articles and blog postings focusing on the cognitive side of learning, how our brains process what we see, information overload, etc.; A section titled "ELearning 2.0" which focuses on a all things ELearning, but also contains a section that contains links to blogs that are written by professors in the Instructional Design field; and finally a Recent Articles section - which posts articles from a number of professional sources with topics pertaining to different aspects of ID work.  I focused on an article under the "Recent Articles" section entitled: "Become a Better Writer".  The article was basically a reflection on a podcast the blogger had attended by Roy Peter Clark, who is the author of Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer.    The article selected what the blogger felt were some of the best of the 50 strategies, and put it into context that is relative to Instructional Design.  Following the article there is a blog where members of the community added comments and also added some of their own writing tips.  The tips were very useful and I actually printed the article so I can post it in my office and also share hard copies with my team.

I am new to the world of blogs, this is actually my first time being exposed to blogs other than the internal blog we use in my Learning & Development team.  The one thing I quickly realized is how overwhelming it can all be as there are so many out there, and I also realized how difficult it is to figure out which ones are valid and trustworthy!  The one drawback of blogs is that anyone can create them, and you have to be extremely careful extracting information from them when you are unable to validate the source.  Other than that; however, I think blogs are a great source of information and a wonderful way to communicate with other professionals in the same field who may be dealing with the same challenges I am facing!  

References:

CommLab India.  (2011).  Retrieved July 3, 2011, from  http://blog.commlabindia.com/

Performance, Learning, Productivity Blog.  (2009).  Retrieved July 3, 2011,  from 
http://charles-jennings.blogspot.com/

The eLearning Coach.  (2010).  Retrieved July 3, 2011 from http://www.theelearningcoach.com/