It goes without saying that one of the greatest mistakes we can make as designers of learning experiences is to treat them all as if they were the same. We may be an expert in molecular biology, photography, accounting, office politics, bringing up children or the tactics of football. instructional designNo two learners are the same. There are seven billion people in the world each with their own unique life experiences, which have in turn shaped their aspirations, their personality, their attitudes, their preferences and their capabilities. These are the extremes. MORE >>

Thursday, August 16, 2007 Confronting Instructional Design Myths (Online Forum eLearning Guild) This was the opening session for this months online forum Advanced e-Learning Instructional Design: New Techniques and Strategies (or WWKBD - what would Kevin Bacon Do a great joke if you were part of the session). Instructional design tends to be passed down from one practitioner to another. Key to design is evidence-based practices: Case studies, evaluation studies, empirical research,and meta analyses. Our presenter was Frank Nguyen, PhD. Oh well. MORE >>

Someone on the newspaper design team had decided that providing a page that was just a third of the original paper size would be a clever way of introducing a large advertisement before readers even saw the front page. No one on the Times design team seems to have thought once about the importance of function with form. This is annoying; and Times, you've got to know how much I hate you for designing a paper with such little intelligence. Then again, a lot of us tend to design beautifully without much emphasis on utility. Simplicity however, doesn't need decoration. MORE >>

Too often instructional designers are stuck trying to make stock photography make sense in multiple situations.  Articulate adobe captivate articulate storyline instructional design training toolsNot too long ago I wrote a post about my initial reaction to Articulate Storyline and its relation to Adobe Captivate.  The post itself attracted a lot of attention, many of the comments passionately defending Storyline.  It It seems one thing is abundantly clear since Storyline has come onto the scene: the comparisons between the two programs is at an all time high. MORE >>

Compared to taking custom photography, cartoons are cheaper to produce. games elearning instructional isd addie Interactivity rapid elearning eLearning authoringSynthesis Cartoons and caricatures are affordable and easy to use graphical elements to enhance eLearning. However, they are only as good as the story you are trying to tell. Without stories, they are as weak as any other medium. Comic-Con just ended this week in San Diego with over 120,000 attendees. Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson attracted much attention with the release of The Adventures of Tintin. MORE >>