Tag Archives: ILT

My Transition from Training to Elearning Design

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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Image of a tree turning orange for fallRecently, a friend asked me how I transitioned from training to instructional design. In the interest of possibly helping others, I thought I’d share my path here.

1) Starting as both a test prep trainer and a software trainer, I volunteered for ILT curriculum design projects, which led to blended and elearning. Often trainers are tasked with design projects or asked to work with staff IDs.

2) I got a new job managing ILT and elearning projects and grew more interest in doing elearning design and development.

3) I got some formal training and made new connections. ASTD’s E-Learning Instructional Design class was an outstanding place to start. I also looked to the blogosphere for opinion and examples. (Aggregators like eLearning Learning and Alltop can help you find the blogs you like best.)

4) I changed jobs again to do actual ID.

I also highly recommend you find mentors; luckily, the instructional design community is full of people who love to help other people! Diane Elkins and Desiree Ward (who founded the company I now work for) have been mine since I first realized I wanted to become a designer, and I’ve been lucky to make many other connections — mainly through social media — since starting this blog.

I’m sure others have taken other routes and have more suggestions. Any one else care to share their paths and/or tips?

Learning Objectives and Salsa Dancing

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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salsa

Photo: iStockPhoto

On Tuesday night, my husband and I started Salsa dance lessons.

Starting class, the instructors didn’t state learner-focused performance objectives or list the conditions under which we were expected to perform. Instead, they demonstrated what we would (hypothetically) be able to do once we learned the steps. It was enough beyond what we would cover that day to be motivating, but not so advanced as to be demoralizing.

The guidelines IDs use to create objectives help us communicate clearly, but don’t help us motivate our learners. I’m with Michael Allen that we could do better… why not communicate objectives and simultaneously help our learners visualize what they will be able to accomplish, even what they will become, once they finish our training?

IMO, subject matter and delivery method are largely irrelevant; I’ve seen this same technique used in data entry training.

Your thoughts?

ILT vs. E-Learning… How Much Do Instructional Design Skills Translate?

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I have a friend who is looking for an instructional design job. Up to this point in her career, she has only designed instructor-led training, but she feels that her skills and experience will translate directly to elearning.

I don’t entirely agree, but since more of my experience is in designing elearning, I don’t feel like I’m the biggest expert on the differences in what we do.

So I’m asking for your help… what do you think?

I understand that this question is full of gray areas, but please pick a side that you agree with more… and if you’re inclined, I’d love for you to leave a comment to explain why! For the purposes of this poll, assume that no elearning development skills are being considered; just design skills.

[polldaddy poll=1842756]