Does Client Size Matter?

I've been selected as the Lead ISD on a project with the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) and I must say, I am a little nervous about working with this client because of the size of the corporate university and the size of the contract. This paper, titled "Size matters—but not
in the way you think" that I stumbled across, explains how Instructional Designers should use the size of their client to their advantage. The author says that for all of us who plan to become Instructional Designers and create courseware for large organizations, there is nothing to worry about. I consider this to be good information for recent graduates in the field of Instructional Technology.

Online Design

While reading chapter 10 in the William Horton book, I chuckled a few times. The section on unnecessary scrolling made me think immediately about those 2-column articles as PDF’s that are sometimes required reading. Not that I am lazy, but I find it difficult to determine where to scroll to and so I just print out the articles. If the document is a book’s length, I try my best but do not usually get a full understanding of what the piece may have said. Times like these make me reflect on the assignments I give my students and whether some don’t do their homework because it is more of a hassle than it’s worth.
One other thing I considered when reading this chapter was to redefine my terms of legibility. I make it clear to students that if it is not legible, it may very-well be marked wrong. (Unless this is a learning disability, in which case we find another way to communicate). This term “legible” implies the ability to read the text or neat handwriting. There is always that one person who wants to write yellow on white paper and argues that they wrote very neatly! Some of these online design ideas really do apply to pen and paper settings as well. A contrasting color scheme is necessary not only for the visually impaired or colorblind, this is one design element that is crucial for everyone.

Instructional Design in Second Life

Hijack Alert!

My post today contains a link to another blog called "knowledgework." While I am posting to a specific post in that blog (here), the blog itself is also a valuable resource--for the same reason ours is! The postings there are often very similar to ours in content and type. There is a lot on elearning there.

This specific link is to a post about instructional design in virtual worlds. I found this while looking for some last-minute wiki info. Basically, the blogger found the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) location in Second Life to have some effective instructional design techniques built into their SL space. Anyone with a SL account may want to search the ASTD space and give it a look.

Working with SME's

Since most of us will someday have to work in collaboration with a Subject Matter Expert (SME) I found this blog to be very useful. I wanted to share it with the class. The Rapid eLearning Blog, one of our class blog links, is fantastic. I subscribe to it and I'm never disappointed when I read the new posts. They're always brilliant and incredibly useful. Enjoy!

Courses on-line

on-line course design is the future of education. There is so much information on how to effectively structure an on-line class. I found a site that lists a variety of different on-line course design structures, from syllabus creation to student evaluation.

Enjoy.
http://www.ibritt.com/resources/dc_instructionaldesign.htm

Great Online Course Management Site

I would like to preface this by saying this is my first blog ever.
Now, after spending (surfing) time on the Web, I came across a website that I don't believe has been mentioned before. If it has, I apologize, but I think its a valuable resource for teachers and administrators to use if they want to set up an online course. Edu2.0 is a site for anyone - even those with minimal technical skills - to set up an online course for any subject for FREE. It is a great online course management system. Take the 3-minute tour http://www.edu20.org/tour and you will be impressed with how many resources are available.

The term edu2.0 stands for "next generation education" and also mentions that its a great tool for parents who want to home school their children. They also allow you to upload information and host if it for free. If you start at http://www.edu20.org/company/about , check out different tabs. Its an eye-appealling website that offers numerous options for the online teacher. Great site!

E-Learning and IDT in the Real World

One of the better podcast I listened to this summer was one by Michael Dowdy, an e-Learning Manager at Regions financial in Memphis, Tennessee. He is an alumnus of the IDT program at the University of Memphis.

I found this particular podcast very informative because Dowdy speaks very candidly about the corporate world and how E-learning fits in.; It was interesting to discover what Many in the banking and financial industry know about e-learning (not much, according to Dowdy, but that is changing) but also the hiring practices of those in the private sector approach a burgeoning need for e-learning professionals.

He also gives a lot of tips on how to get hired and what you need to do in order to make yourself an attractive candidate in the e-learning field, as well as what skills are necessary to make yourself stand out to potential employers.

Some of his talk deals with directly with the Memphis region, but most of it can be applied to any market or region, or any industry for that matter.

"IDT in the Real World" series- Michael Dowdy

audience, topic, medium

The review of the 10 obstacles to e-learning, brought up a thought around building to the learners competence (both from a technology as well as a subject matter perspective). E-Learning has to consider the 3 critical learning criteria to include the right audience, the right topic, and the right medium. Although e-learning may not always be the right medium to transfer the knowledge to every learner, learners need to become more adapt at learning from on line sources. Just as the onset of cable TV did not eliminate movie rentals, e-learning should complement other methods of learning. Just some thoughts generated from the class tonight and look forward to more!