The software industry is loaded with help manuals and tutorials. It doesn’t matter how complex or easy the product is, a help manual or a tutorial is a must have. Why would someone need a help manual or a tutorial if the product is self-explanatory, obvious, easy to use? In fact why not build applications/products that have usable user interfaces and require no training, no context sensitive help or cheat sheets. Yes, I am talking about  intuitive applications that guide the user to complete their tasks on their own without referring to any support material or external resource. Reasons. MORE >>

If you are an aspiring Instructional Designer, start thinking about Instructional Designing right now. Times are changing. Just like how a 2 year old kid is expected to know alphabets, some words and quite a few rhymes before he or she joins school, an aspiring Instructional Designer must have some basic idea about Instructional Designing before getting into the role. If you are a fresher and want to start your career in Instructional Designing, I recommend the 5 ways Tom Kulhmann suggests in his post – 5 Ways Web 2.0 Can Make You a Better E-Learning Designer. Start a professional blog. MORE >>

have started reading this interesting book called Directing the Story by Francis Glebas. I am sure you have seen or heard of the movies Lion King and P ocahontas. Francis Glebas has worked on these really popular movies. am enjoying this book - Directing the Story in which Francis Glebas gives some practical tips on film making. While I was reading this book, it struck me that whatever Glebas is talking about applies to e-learning too. have always compared instructional designing to film making. have also likened the role of an Instructional Designer to a movie maker. Thought 1. Thought 2. MORE >>

I created this tutorial video in 2007 when i was exploring Photoshop myself. had real difficulty understanding the concept of layers. That’s when I thought I must create this video which might be of help to many other beginners like me. Some people found this video useful and have left their comments.  A few found the quality of video quite poor. see a better quality video now. Thanks to YouTube for enhancements. This video also has about 10k hits, which excites me, though this was achieved over 2 years. So here I repost my video again for all those who have not seen this before.  . MORE >>

I recently came across this website called Amplify that works just like Twitter and other social networking sites. However Amplify seems to be a much more effective tool for collaborative learning than any other freely available learning tools today. say this taking into account some of the unique features in Amplify. There are top 6 Features in Amplify that makes it an effective tool for collaborative learning. Here is the list: Amplify Add-in : You can integrate Amplify into your web browser and it acts just like a Go button. Add you take option: This is the best option in Amplify. MORE >>