Instructional Design for New Designers

What You Will Learn

Planning

• Key questions to ask when a project is assigned to you.
• Tips for planning a successful design project.
• What short-cuts to take if design time is limited (and which ones not to take).
• How to estimate design time.
• 4 factors to consider in determining design priorities.
• How to stop other people from ruining your course designs.
• Tips for handling organizational politics.
• How to reduce course costs and design on a small budget.
• Guidelines for reducing course length.
• How training designs differ from educational designs.
• The pros and cons of traditional training strategies and e-learning strategies.
• How to best use job aids in training.
• How to compile a complete project for management/client approval.

Analysis

• The most critical things you need to know about learners.
• Where to get this information.
• What to do if learners have very diverse backgrounds.
• How to develop performance-based content.
• How much theory/background material to include in a course.
• 8 errors to avoid in task listing.
• How to conduct a thorough task analysis quickly.
• Multiple task analysis examples for different types of content.
• Tips for making course content meaningful and relevant to learners.
• How to prioritize course content to keep it lean.
• What types of content should not be included in a course.
• How to deal with "soft" skills (e.g. customer service, management, sales, leadership, ethics, etc.).
• How to work effectively with SMEs, clients, and line managers (and your own boss).

Design

• How to create a solid design even if you aren't an expert.
• How to write objectives quickly and easily.
• Short-form objectives.
• When to test.
• The 4 major types of tests and how to design them.
• The best testing pattern for any course.
• What about evening work?  Pre-course work?
• 50 instructional methods you can use.
• How to build a variety of methods into your courses.
• 12 guidelines for selecting the most appropriate methods.
• How much content to cover at one time.
• How much content to cover in a typical day.
• How much practice to build into a lesson.
• A 6-step learning strategy for structuring your courses.
• How to make your courses modular.
• The best method of sequencing course content.

Development

• Proven principles of adult learning.
• How to maximize learner practice.
• 15 tips for increasing learners' attention span.
• How to build group cohesiveness.
• Techniques for encouraging healthy competition.
• 8 guidelines for managing instructional time efficiently.
• The best way to provide feedback to learners.
• 10 tips for meeting learners’ individual needs.
• The top 10 ways for increasing learner motivation.
• How to guarantee everyone participates.
• Types of activities to schedule based on time of day.
• How to make your courses fun and exciting.
• When to schedule breaks and energizers.
• How to prevent boredom.
• The best time to conduct reviews and summaries.
• How to get managers to reinforce your training.
• 14 proven methods for promoting the transfer of new skills to the job.
• How to keep materials at the best reading level.
• The recommended way to set up instructor lesson plans.
• 22 items to put into instructor lesson plans.
• How to design materials for inexperienced instructors.
• How to design handouts.
• The secret to creating “shelf-resistant” course manuals.
• How to create easy-to-update materials.

Evaluation

• The 3 phases of course validation.
• A fail-safe approach for testing a course when you just don’t have enough time.
• A versatile checklist for assessing your courses or vendor materials.
• The 4 types of evaluation.
• Items to include in course evaluations.
• 5 sample evaluation forms.
• How to measure learning.
• How to measure improvements in job performance.
• Why courses fail (13 major design errors and how to avoid them).