Tuesday, February 28, 2012

EdTech Dojo Podcast: 5 Most Fundamental Strategies for Helping Students Learn

I was recently interviewed by my brother on the EdTech Dojo, a site that he and I have been developing. He interviewed me on the Merrill's First Principles of Instruction. (In a previous post, I called these the 5 Most Fundamental Strategies for Helping Students Learn).

Click here to listen to the podcast.

Friday, February 24, 2012

E-Learning or Live Training? Tips On How To Decide

An important part of designing instruction in a corporate setting is determining what format to use- web-based e-learning, or live face-to-face training. I recently asked the Instructional Design and E-Learning Professionals Group on LinkedIn in a discussion forum for best practices and got some great responses. Below is a summary of factors that have been suggest so far, along with my interpretation of how they should be considered:
  • Stability of the material
    • If the materials will likely not change a lot over time, then it might be worth building e-learning because you won't have to constantly change the e-learning.
  • Type of learning (soft skill, technology, etc.) and the objectives of the learning
    • If a person is learning a "soft skill" (like communication skills or something) or a physical skill (like welding) it might be better to have the training be in-person. But if it is a technology skill, it might work to put it as a piece of e-learning. The third option of using a blended approach (using web-based and live components) might also be powerful- using video or multimedia to demonstrate skills or knowledge and then having the participants practice in a live setting. (I have used blended approach for a lot of what I do and it can be very powerful).
  • Available resources
    • If there are few resources available to develop the unit of e-learning, then go with a live training. (This could work the other way, too).
  • Our timeline
    • If there is no time to create a quality unit of e-learning, have it done live.
  • Number of people to be trained
    • If you are training only a few people, it is probably not worth investing resources into developing a unit of e-learning. But if you are training several thousand, it is more likely to be worth the resources.
  • Location of the people
    • If everyone is in the same building, it might be easier to just train them live. If they are spread out throughout the world, creating e-learning is likely more useful.
One of my students also pointed out this very comprehensive breakdown of how to select the appropriate medium for training, prepared by SkillSoft.

I hope these are useful. What else might you add?


Friday, February 17, 2012

4 Fundamental Ways to Engage Students in an Online Course

In my experience as over the last several years, an important part of providing a quality learning experience is engaging students- having them actively interact in meaningful learning experiences. This is particularly important in online courses where students may tend to feel isolated or removed from others. In this post I describe what I call the the 4 fundamental ways to engage students in an online course

Four ways to engage online students, 4 fundamental forms of online interaction
Four Fundamental Ways to Engage Online Students.

There are 4 basic ways to engage students in an online course:
  1. Have students engage in doing real world tasks and solving real-world problems. This provides concrete, meaningful experience for the students and is much more intrinsically motivating to the students than learning content that doesn't seem relevant to them. It means having students do relevant things that they will likely do in their careers or in their lives.
  2. Engage students with the content in meaningful ways. this means having students use course content to solve problems or perform real-world tasks. It means providing students with well-designed multimedia. It means providing students with enough content that they can learn it and use it, but not so much content that they are overwhelmed.
  3. Engage students with their peers. Students should interact with peers in the context of solving real-world problems. Students should present ideas, critique, give feedback, and collaborate together. This interaction builds a sense of community and there is a great deal of peer-to-peer teaching that can take place.
  4. Engage students with the instructor. Students need guidance, support and feedback in the learning process. As one of my students wrote, instructors should "lead us through the fog." The teacher should make themselves available and provide feedback and guidance quickly so that students can progress in their learning.

As I have taught online courses at several universities, I have found that students continually ask for and appreciate these kinds of interaction. And when I design my course to include these kinds of interaction, students seem more satisfied with and excited about the online experience. Students seem to thrive and enjoy with successful, effective, satisfying learning experiences.

What do you think? Are these really the 4 fundamental ways to engage students in an online course? What else would you add? What are your experiences with engagement as a teacher or a student in online courses?

Why I Teach and Practice Instructional Design

Originally posted on the EdTech Dojo on Jan 24, 2012

I LOVE INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN. I love thinking, reading, writing about, and doing it. I love talking about it with my designer friends and I have chosen to spend my career as an instructional designer and as a teacher of instructional design. But why is instructional design so important to me? Why am I so excited about it? Here are several reasons:

I believe in human potential.

 I believe that people have the power to learn, grow and become better. I believe that every human has the capacity to learn and to contribute to society in meaningful ways. Education gives people the power to contribute to society. We all have within us the “seeds of greatness.” We have the capacity to grow, expand, develop and become something incredible.
I believe in education. 
My experience is that education can absolutely revolutionize an person’s life. Through gaining a high quality education over the last decade of my life, I have come to view the world in totally new ways and I have a sense of personal empowerment that I would likely never have known without that education. Education breaks the bonds of ignorance, stupidity, and narrow-mindedness. It opens opportunities that were never available before.

I believe in self-improvement.
I have spent many hours listening to self-help audio programs by success speakers such as Stephen Covey, Anthony Robbins, and Zig Ziglar. This form of education has helped me build a positive attitude and to set and reach difficult goals. This experience has shown that I have the ability to do difficult and rewarding things, and it fuels my belief that education and learning can change lives.

I love to see people succeed.
I have known some personal success, and it has been rewarding. But I receive as much or more gratification when I assist others in their success. I have worked with individuals and classes over the years and find deep satisfaction when I see my students succeed.

Knowledge empowers.
Underlying all of these is the certainty that knowledge gives people power. Knowledge lifts us, ennobles us, and makes us better. Providing an individual with knowledge through effective instruction is a noble, just, good act, and is something that is worthy of my time and energy.

So, this is why I love instructional design. As an instructional designer and an educator, I am participating in work that empowers people, that gives learners the capacity to grow, to succeed, to take control of their lives more fully. I am giving people tools that can totally change their lives. This is why I have devoted my professional life to teaching and doing instructional design.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

New Site: The EdTech Dojo

I thought I would share a project that my brother J. Clark and I have been working on: EdTEch Dojo, "a place where students, educators, and trainers learn about and discuss the application of educational technology and instructional design."
The EdTech Dojo
The EdTEch Dojo
We wanted to create a forum in which we could share our ideas on instructional design and educational technology, and we also wanted to get the expert opinions of some of the leaders and researchers in the field. Right now, the Dojo has three main kinds of content: 
  1. Podcasts - In our podcast series, my brother J. Clark and I discuss practical applications of educational technology and describe common pitfalls to technology use. We also interview experts in the field of educational technology, including this interview with Dr. Kristy Bloxham, an expert in continuous improvement of online courses.
  2. Blog Posts - On our blog, we write about topics that are relevant to instructional designers and educational technologists. For example, J. Clark has written about why he studies and uses educational technology and I have written about why I study and practice instructional design.
  3. Videos - We also provide relevant, useful videos on processes and practices of instructional design. For example, J. Clark created several videos describing the ADDIE Process of Instructional Design.
So, I just thought I would share our new project, in case you might find it useful. It has been a lot of fun working on the project and we welcome comments and discussion with the larger instructional design and educational technology community. All of the content on the EdTech Dojo site is licensed under a Creative Commons License, which means you can access and use the content freely- just attribute your use to our site.