ABOUT
I design solutions. I am really good at it. My secret powers are:
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I am an instructional design and training solutions professional in San Diego, California. If I am not doing something as well as I want to, it simply means there is something I do not know yet. When I see that gap, I want the knowledge I need to fill it at my fingertips – whenever, wherever and however. As a result, I am passionate about designing new and better ways for people to learn what they need to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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Learn more about my professional and educational background on my LinkedIn page.
Less is more.
Start with the essential content a learner needs to get started. You can build more on to it later. Learners need to start using what they learn before they "forget" it.
Focus on their needs.
I believe it is fairly simple. Learners have needs. If you don't meet them, they don't learn. It is true for me. Is it true for you? Find out what they need to be successful and provide it.
Analysis saves time and money.
Flinging yourself into a solution without establishing whether or not learning is the core issue is not a great use of time or money. Analysis does not have to be a full court press to be effective. Why create more how-tos when people already know how to do it, but lack motivation or are rewarded for doing the opposite?
Rapid prototyping saves time, money and headaches.
It is easy to quickly make interactive prototypes these days. When you give stakeholders a rough simulation of the final experience early on and often, you can make adjustments earlier in the process. That leads to less expense, less time and happier stakeholders. Win, win, win!
Use active learning.
When I design a learning experience, I imagine myself as the learner. That fires me up to build active, engaging learning. What would it be like to flip through a 100+ deck PowerPoint? That is not a position I want to be in as a learner.
One size does not fit all.
Learners are unique. The information they take in is affected by what they bring to the table and how they learn best. Cookie cutter solutions do not take these factors into account. There are ways to create standard learning environments while still adjusting for personal learning preferences. All it takes is some up front strategy planning.
If you embrace innovation, you must welcome change.
In order to innovate you must accept that change is good and necessary. In this digital climate, change happens at lightning speed. If you want to remain on the side of innovation, it is really valuable to embrace flexibility.
Give what is needed when it is needed.
You may hear this called just-in-time training. To me, it is more than that. It means you do not overwhelm your learner lots of theory that is irrelevant to what they need to do right now. Give them what they need, make it easy to get to and provide ways to dig into more details if they need it. Use small bites of content and help them make connections.
Do it faster, cheaper AND better.
It seems difficult to get all three. Using proven instructional design techniques combined with some innovative thinking, working faster can actually keep me on track. I don't have time to follow all of those tangential paths, only time for the essential concepts. Key ingredients? Rapid prototyping, ongoing evaluation and continuously checking progress against objectives. If you plan ahead and focus on the outcome at all times, you can have all three.
Use an agile process.
Many instructional designers subscribe to the ADDIE model, and many to the newer SAM. I see value in all of the models, but overall it needs to be a truly flexible and iterative process. In every step, evaluate and get feedback from major stakeholders in back-and-forth communication before moving forward. Everyone needs to be on the same page to make it the quickest, most effective and most pleasant process.