The eLearning Coach Podcast Connie Malamed: Learning Experience Consultant, International Speaker

 







What do instructional designers need to know and understand right now. How have things improved and changed or stayed the same? This episode with Cammy Bean answers many of these questions. Cammy updated one of the most well-known books in our field and there is now a second edition, The Accidental Instructional Designer, Second Edition.



She provides a big picture view of where and how learning and development fits into an organization. We discuss industry changes over the past decade and what never seems to change.



Cammy is a senior solutions consultant at Kineo, leading sales and account management for Kineo's US portfolio of custom learning clients. She’s been in the industry for more than 25 years.



WE DISCUSS:



* The need for a new edition of The Accidental Instructional Designer

* What is an "accidental instructional designer?"

* The big picture business perspective instructional designers may not see

* Whether L&D has become more important to organizations

* Changes in the industry in the past decade

* What instructional designers need to understand about analytics

* What hangs people up about xAPI

* What has NOT changed in the past decade

* Client sophistication and a learning maturity model

* Everything you always wanted to know about clicky clicky bling bling (but were afraid to ask)



TIME: 33 Minutes



TRANSCRIPT: Getting transcribed right now. Check back tomorrow.



RESOURCES MENTIONED



* The Accidental Instructional Designer 2nd Edition by Cammy Bean

* Podcast: Learning is the New Business Strategy, conversation with Brandon Carson, author of the L&D Playbook

* Microlearning Short and Sweet by Karl Kapp and Robyn Defelice

* Podcast: How to Plan and Design Microlearning, conversation with Karl Kapp and Robyn Defelice

* Podcast: How to Get Started with Data-Driven Learning Design, conversation with Laura Niles Hofmann

* Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers by Megan Torrance

* Measurement Demystified by David Vance and Peggy Parskey









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This is the second part of a conversation with researchers Andrea Gregg, Ph.D and Ronda Reid, PMP from Penn State.  You can find the first part in Episode 77. We discuss how they used the think-aloud method to watch and understand how users perceived and interacted with a new learning management system. Their study validates the benefits of using the think-aloud method in learning  experience design. It also demonstrates the notion that designers are not the same as the users. In this episode, I speak with them both about the value of usability testing in general and the think-aloud method specifically, to improve learning design.



Andrea Gregg, PhD, is the Director of Online Pedagogy and an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering at Penn State University. Ronda Reid is an IT project manager with Penn State IT's Project Management Office (PMO).



WE DISCUSS:



* Low budget think-aloud testing

* Analyzing the data from think-aloud research

* In-person testing versus remote

* Tips for doing an effective think-aloud usability test

* User experience design in the context of learning experience design

* Tasks to test when checking the usability of typical eLearning courses



TIME: 23 minutes



TRANSCRIPT: Download the [Download not found]



RESOURCES:



* Think-Aloud Observations to Improve Online Course Design: A Case Example and “How-to” Guide (Research discussed in this podcast)

* Don’t Make Me Think Revisited by Steve Krug

* Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug

* Learner and User Experience Research by Dr. Matthew Schmidt, Dr. Andrew Tawfik, Dr. Yvonne Earnshaw and Dr. Isa Jahnke

* Using the Think-Aloud Method to Test Usability of Learning Designs









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Andrea Gregg, Ph.D., and Ronda Reid, PMP., examined the usability of a new learning management system at Penn State. They used the think-aloud method to watch and understand how users perceived and interacted with the system. Their study validates the benefits of using the think-aloud method in learning  experience design. It also demonstrates the notion that designers are not the same as the users. In this episode, I speak with them both about the value of usability testing in general and the think-aloud method specifically, to improve learning design.



Andrea Gregg, PhD, is the Director of Online Pedagogy and an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering at Penn State University. Ronda Reid is an IT project manager with Penn State IT's Project Management Office (PMO).



WE DISCUSS:



*  Defining usability

* Usability issues in learning products

* Why there is more emphasis on usability for website design than learning design

* How a poor user experience affects learning

* How the think-aloud method works

* Benefits of using think-aloud to watch learners use the products you design

* Downside of the think-aloud method

* Guidance and guidelines for conducting think-aloud tests



TIME: 27 minutes



TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]



RESOURCES:



* Think-Aloud Observations to Improve Online Course Design: A Case Example and “How-to” Guide (Research discussed in this podcast)

* Don't Make Me Think Revisited by Steve Krug

* Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug

* Learner and User Experience Research by Dr. Matthew Schmidt, Dr. Andrew Tawfik, Dr. Yvonne Earnshaw and Dr. Isa Jahnke

* Using the Think-Aloud Method to Test Usability of Learning Designs









Get the latest articles, resources and freebies once a month plus my free eBook, Writing for Instructional Design.



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There are many paths that help us build learning experiences that are in tune with the audience and the organization. One aspect that too many of us ignore is the rich data set that likely exists about the audience. We may do a post-event evaluation, but what if we used that data at the start, to inform our design? That’s what I’ll be discussing in this episode with Lori Niles-Hofmann.



Lori is a senior learning strategist with over 20 years’ of L&D experience. She specializes in large-scale digital learning transformation at her company NilesNolen. Her eBook, Data-Driven Learning Design (see link below) explains the data-based methodology she developed for understanding an audience’s digital body language.



WE DISCUSS:



* How data-driven design differs from traditional data analytics

* Understanding the cues of digital body language (DBL) in learning design

* Compliance training data that is informative for design

* Why our industry is slow to adopt data-driven design

* Types of data gleaned from an LMS data and data external to the LMS

* Being aware of data protection and privacy

* Three phases of Lori's data-driven learning design process

* Examples of surprising data during the Data-Driven Learning Design process

* What to do to get started in data-driven learning design

* Common mistakes to avoid

* What we can learn from how marketers analyze digital data

* Learning campaigns



TIME: 26 minutes



TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]



RESOURCES MENTIONED:



* Data Driven Learning Design: How to Decode Learner Digital Body Language (eBook)

* xAPI Learning Cohort

* Mike Taylor: Steal from Marketing

* Bianca Baumann: Creating Learning Experiences Using a Marketing Mix

* Ashley Sinclair: How to Apply Marketing to Your L&D

* HubSpot Free Marketing Courses









Get the latest articles, resources and freebies once a month plus my free eBook, Writing for Instructional Design.



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The diversity of career paths in instructional design is greater than you may think. This solo episode is for people who are trying to break into instructional design and those who are new to the field.



I work with a lot of people who want to break into the field and many people don’t know that there are numerous instructional design career paths that you can follow. In this episode, I review different paths and opportunities in this eclectic field. Hopefully, this can help you figure out the best fit for your talents, skills, and interests.



TOPICS:





* Talent stacking

* Working for organizations that have different missions

* Designing for different audience types

* Technical tracks

* Media specialists

* The LMS administrator

* Future career paths

* And more ...



TIME: 16 minutes



TRANSCRIPT:  [Download not found]



RESOURCES:



* Breaking into Instructional Design: Free 12-lesson email course about getting started in the career

* Mastering Instructional Design: A learning community for building ID skills

* Talent Stacking for An Instructional Design Career (with examples)











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When you create surveys for instructional design, such as for an audience analysis or evaluation, what process do you use? Are you confident that you'll get accurate results? There’s a large body of knowledge surrounding survey creation that can help you achieve cleaner data and more accurate results.



In this episode, I explore the best practices for creating surveys with Caroline Jarrett. Caroline is a forms specialist and the author of Surveys That Work and co-author of Forms that Work, and of User Interface Design and Evaluation. She has an MA in Mathematics and an MBA and Diploma in Statistics. And in our entire conversation, we never did any calculations.



WE DISCUSS:



* Difference between questionnaire and survey

* Different types of surveys: descriptive, comparative or tracking

* Recommendations for designing, planning and writing a survey

* Getting feedback on Twitter in two hours!

* Why you shouldn't send surveys to a very large audience

* What you need to know about sample size

* Why the process typically requires iteration

* Who should read your questionnaire before it goes out

* Four steps (or actually five) for writing questions that get accurate answers

* Common mistakes people make in creating surveys

* Interdependent aspects of a survey (the survey octopus)

* When and how to use open-ended question

* How to organize and code answers to qualitative questions



TIME: 36 minutes



TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]



RESOURCES:



* Surveys That Work: A Practical Guide for Designing and Running Better Surveys by Caroline Jarrett. Buy from Rosenfeld Media.

* Effortmark: Caroline's website

* Questionnaire Design by A.N. Oppenheimer

* Designing Effective Web Surveys by Mick Couper

* The Psychology of Survey Response by Tourangeau, R., L. J. Rips and K. A. Rasinski. This is the model Caroline prefers for writing survey questions.

* The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers by Johnny Saldania

* Types of Analysis for eLearning









Get the latest articles, resources and freebies once a month plus my free eBook, Writing for Instructional Design.



SEND EBOOK NOW