There's been a lot of discussion around cognitive theory and "how the brain learns." But even with all of that discussion there's a question of whether people are really making changes to the design of their online learning. So the July Question is: Does the discussion of "how the brain learns" impact your eLearning design? June 4, 2009 Rob Barton: Reducing Extraneous Cognitive Load by Accounting for Individual Differences , January 12, 2009 Push Your Brain! David Grebow suggested this month's Big Question (thanks David). MORE >>

Perhaps it hits you when you’re writing a storyboard to teach a poorly designed and uninspiring software program. But what about motivating instructional designers? When I was studying Instructional Design, a college professor once told the class that we were the learner’s advocates. Instructional Design is a selfless job in many ways, because it’s not about you, it’s about them—the learners. Get fascinated by the brain. You might get motivated by reading about the workings of the brain and about how people learn. MORE >>

Short of performing a science fiction mind-meld, how can you efficiently transfer content from the brain of a subject matter expert (SME) into a form you can use? In case you’re new at this, instructional designers often interview subject matter experts to access their stream of knowledge. SMEs will often provide content resources and review design documents, scripts and media assets for accuracy. Leveraging the knowledge of SMEs is one reason that instructional designers are content neutral. The Expert Brain. Phase 1: The Prep Work. MORE >>

This is an interesting topic for eLearning designers because we are typically trying to “cram&# tons of information into someone’s head in less than 30 mins. Tags: Featured Instructional Design eLearning eLearning best practices I ran across the great article on Work Memory. There are great tips in the article that could help us build better training. The ones that jumped out to me were: Working memory is characterized by a small capacity. It can hold around four elements of new information at one time. Check out Smaller Chunks are Easier to Digest ). Digg this! MORE >>

If you know me, you’ll know my topic was right up my alley: “Instructional Design: You Do What for a Living?” asked people to introduce themselves and tell their stories – how they each got into instructional design. We all agreed that no one set out in their early days with the grand vision of becoming an instructional designer. He mentioned the LeFevers at CommonCraft who create amazing instructional videos without an ID degree! Know how brains tick. Know story and design and how it translates to people. Make it relevant. MORE >>