Experiencing eLearning

OCTOBER 1, 2024

Over the past few years, I’ve gotten several questions about nonbinary pronouns and gender diversity in scenarios. Sometimes, people ask about using “gender neutral” characters in scenarios like in this question. This is based on a real question I received, but I edited it slightly to protect the sender. “I’m wondering what you think about using gender neutral names in scenarios and keeping pronouns to they/them?

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

Russell Sweep recently interviewed me for the L&D Hot Seat podcast for a conversation on scenario-based learning. I loved the format of this podcast because it’s more than the typical questions and answers. We also did a bit of role playing about how to advocate for using scenarios in training. That means you can hear a bit of some sample conversations for how I would handle objections in my conversations with clients, stakeholders, and SMEs.

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to research, AI tools and reflections, portfolios, and marketing tips for freelancers. If you’re interested in AI images, be sure to try out the “ Real or Fake ” image quiz. The image above was generated in Midjourney, with text added in Affinity Designer.

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Experiencing eLearning

SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

Kryssia Kipp interviewed me as part of the Coffee with Genially series of “meaningful dialogues.” We spoke about instructional design, engagement, scenario-based learning, and authoring tools. I also shared some advice for people just getting started in the instructional design field. Interview questions How did your journey into the instructional design sector begin?

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 27, 2024

Every year, Jane Hart collects and analyzes lists of top 10 tools for learning. Some of these are my personal learning tools; others are what I use to create learning for others. You can vote for your top 10 tools for learning until August 30, 2024. My list of top ten tools below isn’t ranked. Instead, I have grouped them based on whether I use them to create learning for others or as a tool for my own personal development.

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 20, 2024

I use templates for a lot of instructional design and elearning work, including design documents, storyboards, Storyline layouts and interactions. But I don’t use templates for branching scenarios, especially not for writing the scenarios and mapping out the branching structure. In fact, I don’t even create a traditional storyboard in Word or PowerPoint to draft my branching scenarios.

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Experiencing eLearning

AUGUST 6, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to AI image and video generation, analytics, elearning distribution, neurodivergence, accessibility, training development time, stock videos, and web development. I recently switched to Raindrop as my bookmarking tool.

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Experiencing eLearning

JULY 30, 2024

I’ve been continuing my experiments and tests with Midjourney for image generation. For one of my current client projects, I needed a number of images with a unified look and feel. In the past, I have spent a significant amount of time searching stock image sites for a series of images with that consistent style and the right subjects. Sometimes I have found images that were close and then edited them.

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Experiencing eLearning

JULY 16, 2024

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Joanie Musser about AI in learning and development for the Mindset to Learn podcast. In season 2 of her podcast, Joanie is highlighting a series of interviews about AI and how it affects our field. My discussion with Joanie was focused on my experiences as a practitioner. We talked about the tools I actually use like Midjourney and Claude.

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Experiencing eLearning

JULY 9, 2024

This month marks 20 years since I started at my first instructional design job. It feels like a good time to pause and reflect on that first ID role, how my journey started, and how that shaped my experiences now. I’ll also share a few slides from the first branching scenario I wrote. Searching for a job I had been working as a corporate software trainer for about 2 years when I was laid off in July, 2003.

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Experiencing eLearning

JULY 2, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to prompting tips for working with AI, AI tools, freelancing, and neuroscience myths. Prompting tips for working with AI What We Learned from a Year of Building with LLMs (Part I) A detailed article with lessons learned about working with LLMs like ChatGPT.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 25, 2024

Hadiya Nuriddin’s newest book, Quality Management in Learning and Development , approaches quality management at a much deeper and more systematic level than the typical method in our field. Instead of doing a little review right before launching a training program, this approach is a way to focus on quality through your entire process. I was fortunate to receive a review copy of this book prior to its release.

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Experiencing eLearning

JUNE 11, 2024

I had planned on writing a different blog post today, but I ended up spending a lot of time playing with AI music generation. This is mostly something I’m playing around with; I don’t actually see much immediate use for songs with lyrics as an instructional designer. But, it’s still really fun to experiment with these tools and see what’s possible.

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Experiencing eLearning

MAY 28, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to AI, accessibility, storytelling, troubleshooting Storyline, PowerPoint design tips, freelancing, animation, and translation. AI for character images and tutorials RenderNet: Create AI images with character consistency RenderNet is an AI image generation tool specifically designed for creating consistent character images.

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Experiencing eLearning

MAY 14, 2024

Using Midjourney, you can create consistent character images in different poses. That’s something we often need for scenario-based learning. You often want images of characters in different poses and with different expressions to support the story. Changing character expressions provides intrinsic feedback and shows consequences for different choices in a branching scenario.

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Experiencing eLearning

APRIL 30, 2024

Last week, I attended the Learning and HR Tech Solutions Conference (LHRCon 24). This is the newly rebranded Learning Solutions conference that I have presented at multiple times in the past. I enjoyed seeing so many old friends, meeting people in person for the first time, and making new connections. Kortney Ross and I in front of the LHRCon sign Morning Buzz: Designing and Developing Scenarios I led a Morning Buzz session on the first day about scenarios.

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Experiencing eLearning

APRIL 23, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to AI, DEI and accessibility, Twine, freelancing, storyboarding, visual design, facilitation, and books for IDs. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Midjourney and edited in Affinity Designer.

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Experiencing eLearning

APRIL 16, 2024

It’s easy to get caught up in an endless stream of day-to-day projects and tasks. But what about taking time to invest in yourself and your own learning? Many people, especially women, don’t prioritize their own continuous learning. In my presentation, I shared resources for improving your skills as an L&D professional as well as strategies for making time to invest in yourself.

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Experiencing eLearning

APRIL 9, 2024

When I talk to people about starting a blog, newsletter, LinkedIn posts, or other content marketing, they often confess that they’re worried they don’t have anything to write about. They ask how I come up with ideas, especially when I’ve been blogging so long. I’ve been blogging since December 2006–seventeen years ago! Surprisingly, I feel like I have more to write about now than I did after one year of blogging.

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Experiencing eLearning

APRIL 2, 2024

How do you increase learning impact through scenario-based learning? While no solution is right for every training situation, we know that providing opportunities for practice with feedback is critical for developing skills. Scenario-based learning is one way to provide that practice with feedback to help learners improve their performance. In this interview with Amit Garg on the L&D Go Beyond Podcast, I discuss scenario-based learning and how that can increase skill transfer to real-world e

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Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 26, 2024

Sometimes, branching scenarios need to do more than model possible interactions in a conversation. For some complex skills, we’re training people to make tradeoffs between different factors. For example, if you’re buying a house, you have to weigh the tradeoffs of cost, location, space, and other features. Similarly, if you’re managing a project, you have to weigh the tradeoffs of cost, time, and quality.

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Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 19, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to chatbots, storytelling, AI literacy and prompts, character images, and closed captions. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Playground and edited in Affinity Designer.

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Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 12, 2024

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how sharing my expertise for free ultimately helps me earn more money as a consultant. Being generous with your knowledge builds your reputation and helps prospective clients find and trust you. However, it’s only possible to do that if you have some limits. Setting boundaries on when and how I share freely means I try to strike a balance between helping others and still being able to pay my mortgage.

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Experiencing eLearning

MARCH 5, 2024

Everyone manages their time a little differently, but I’ve been asked several times what a typical week looks like in my work. I’m an independent consultant, so my schedule is different from people who work full time for a single company. I work from home and have a pretty flexible schedule. It’s hard to say what a single day is, but here’s my basic weekly pattern.

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Dr. Jiani Wu interviewed me for her new MAGICademy podcast about scenario design. We discussed scenario-based learning, strategies to integrate AI, and the effectiveness of scenarios for teaching complex skills. Key points from the podcast Scenario-based learning and branching scenarios can be effective in teaching complex skills that require critical thinking and decision-making.

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Like many of us in L&D, I spend a fair amount of time adding closed captions to elearning and videos. I’m looking for ways to make that process more efficient, so I posted a question on LinkedIn. I got a ton of responses with suggestions for different closed caption tools. Some of the tools I had heard of and used before, but there were several new tools mentioned.

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links to four AI tools, visual and UI design, predictions and trends for L&D in 2024, scenarios and simulations, and Articulate Rise. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts.

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Experiencing eLearning

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

It seems counterintuitive. How do you make money by sharing expertise for free? Wouldn’t it be better to hoard your knowledge and only give it out when people pay for it? After all, you can’t pay your bills with “exposure.” While that’s true, I’ve also found that sharing generously ends up growing my business. I’m more successful as a consultant because of the reputation I’ve built by sharing my knowledge.

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Experiencing eLearning

JANUARY 23, 2024

When I review branching scenarios, sometimes I see people focus on questions about tasks rather than on practicing the tasks. You should use concrete actions for branching scenario options, not just statements about the situation. Image generated with Playground AI Compare these two scenario question examples. Both examples start with the same introduction, but diverge at the first decision.

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Experiencing eLearning

JANUARY 16, 2024

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes links related to AI tools for video storytelling and summarizing research, character images, competency mapping, and task analysis. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Playground and edited in Affinity Designer.

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Experiencing eLearning

JANUARY 9, 2024

It’s that time of year for reflections and goals, looking back at 2023 and looking ahead to 2024. These are my top blog posts from 2023 plus a review of a few other accomplishments and my goals for 2024. Top new blog posts of 2023 I would never have guessed that a post on learning objectives would be my top post for the year, but this turned out to be a surprisingly controversial topic.

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Experiencing eLearning

JANUARY 2, 2024

When is audio narration helpful? When should you include voice-over in elearning? This is an update of a post originally based on a discussion from several years ago on eLearning Heroes. In that original discussion, Judith Reymond asked about the research on when or whether audio narration is helpful to adult learners. The modality principle In Clark and Mayer’s eLearning and the Science of Instruction , they say that the research generally supports using narration with on-screen visuals.

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 19, 2023

Last month, I gave a webinar on scenario-based learning for Leeds Beckett University. This was an updated version of one of my older presentations, customized for this university audience to focus specifically on scenario-based learning in higher ed. They have graciously granted permission for me to share this anonymized version publicly. What this webinar is about Are you looking for ways to make your teaching more engaging?

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 12, 2023

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links about once a month here on my blog. This post includes research on stories and memory, games for learning, scenario-based learning, a definition of LXD, and a few AI image tools. I’m experimenting with AI image tools to create images for my blog posts. This was created in Playground.

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Experiencing eLearning

DECEMBER 5, 2023

When we provide feedback in branching scenarios, we have several questions to consider. Should we provide consequences (intrinsic feedback) or coaching (instructional feedback)? Should we provide immediate feedback or delayed feedback? What works for novices versus experts? The most effective approach usually involves a combination of feedback strategies, but different audiences may need a different balance of types of feedback.

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Experiencing eLearning

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

Instructional designers and training managers sometimes ask me, “How do I train SMEs to write better branching scenarios?” While I understand the perspective of the folks asking that, I think it’s the wrong question. I believe SMEs shouldn’t write branching scenarios. Instead, I think we as instructional designers and LXDs should interview the SMEs as part of our analysis, and then we should write it.

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Experiencing eLearning

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

At the TLDC online event “From Instructional Design to Dungeons and Dragons: The Chronicles of Educaria,” we connected the game and role-playing aspects of D&D with instructional design and training. The L&D field has a lot of folks who play D&D, or at least are interested in how D&D could inspire our work as instructional designers.

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