In the past week I’ve read Facebook posts from two separate friends talking about mistaken identity. Said friends were going about their daily business when out of the blue a complete stranger starts talking to them, stating they look like a particular famous person. Actually, one was described as Paul McCartney (of Beatles fame – did I just have to describe who Paul is?) while the other was Norman Bates (Tony Perkins’ character in the 60s Hitchcock thriller Psycho). Sometimes when people are mistaken for others, we can look at them and say, “Oh yeah, you do kinda look like so-and-so.” But, in this case, neither of these gentlemen look like their famous counterparts. Back to this topic in a bit. [Read more…] about Take the You out of Usability
Instructional Design
ID Reflection: Revisiting an Articulate Module
I recently posted a question in the Articulate Community forum in which I asked for others’ suggestions on Building a Course without Audio. I was specifically looking for ideas to make a course more engaging when audio isn’t an option. In a previous job at a hospital system, our main learning audience was nurses. The majority of these nurses had to complete any/all learning on-the-job, which often meant at the nurses’ station between seeing patients. Not the most conducive learning environment. One major constraint this put on development was not being able to use audio in the courses. [Read more…] about ID Reflection: Revisiting an Articulate Module
On being an ID: A cautionary tale
I am an instructional designer. I am a multimedia developer. I have my Master’s degree in Instructional Design & Technology and have been working in the field for five years. I’ve seen plenty of learning examples, from paper to CBT to rapid e-learning and everything in between. I think I have a pretty good sense of what works stylistically and from a UX point of view. I have a fairly good grasp of the technology and the theory behind instructional design. With that being said, it’s hard sometimes not to be a little smug and sit on top of my Vygotskian throne dispensing wisdom to the inept SMEs who cross my path. “You want to do THAT? Oh, well, {insert choice learning theory here} states you should do THIS…”, or “we tried that approach 4 years ago and they didn’t get it” (as if it is the exact same approach with the exact same learners, tools, time frame, etc.). [Read more…] about On being an ID: A cautionary tale