If you're feeling overwhelmed about how to practice inclusive design, you're not the only one. Perhaps you've heard multiple definitions for the same terms, you find the specifications confusing or you're not sure which standards apply to your work. You need a common sense approach to inclusive design. I think you'll find that in this conversation with Sarah Mercier, author of Design for All Learners.
Sarah Mercier is CEO and strategic consultant at Build Capable. She  specializes in instructional strategy and learning technology. Sarah is known for translating highly technical concepts and research to real-world practice. Sarah is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and business events on topics such as instructional design and development, accessibility, data strategy, and learning ecosystems. 
WE DISCUSS:

* What inclusive design and design for all learners really mean.
* What surprised you as you put the book together.
* What are some common myths about accessibility and inclusive design.
* For those who want to begin the journey, how can they ease into accessible design.
* The most important ways to accommodate the widest audience of learners when producing eLearning.
* The screen readers you have on your devices.
* How in-person and virtual facilitators can prepare to accommodate all participants.
* Ways to accommodate neurodivergent learners.
* How accessibility advocates persuade leaders to infuse a “design for all” mindset into the organizational culture.

TIME: 35 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: Coming soon

RESOURCES and LINKS MENTIONED:

* Design for All Learners by Sarah Mercier
* Sarah's company: Build Capable
* Build-Capable Accessibility Primer
* Accessibility Videos from W3C: W3C Web Accessibility Perspectives Videos
* Haben Girma Videos: She is the first deaf-blind person to graduate from Harvard Law
* Screen Readers: Narrator (on PCs), Voiceover (on Macs), NVDA, Jaws
* Transcription Tools: Descript (also a video editor), Rev (also Otter.ai)
* Getting Started with Inclusive Design

 

Learning design is a crazy Venn diagram of so many fields. One of these fields that we don’t hear much about is marketing. Marketers use strategies, tactics, and technologies that can transform the work of L&D teams and individuals. Marketing and L&D share objectives, such as gathering data about the audience, capturing and maintaining attention, writing in an engaging style, and shaping behavior.

In this episode, Bianca Baumann and Mike Taylor discuss strategies, tactics, and technologies that you can take from marketing to improve your work. As facilitators and co-authors of  Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro: Strategies to Ignite Learning, they have a wealth of knowledge in this area.

Bianca Baumann is vice president of learning solutions and innovation at Ardent Learning. She has developed innovative L&D approaches, including workforce transformations, onboarding, and reskilling programs. Bianca teaches Learning Experience Design at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Mike Taylor consults on learning design and technology at Nationwide. He’s been designing and delivering learning experiences for over two decades. Mike is a regular and highly rated speaker at industry events and is a faculty member in Franklin University's Graduate Instructional Design and Technology program. Mike holds an MBA and a master's degree in educational technology.

WE DISCUSS:

* Parallels between marketing and L&D
* Inspiration for the book
* Goals of marketing
* Integrating System 1 and System 2 Thinking into our work
* How to improve the usefulness of personas
* Implementing audience segmentation in your analysis
* Common errors when creating personas
* Engaging writing techniques to borrow from marketing
* Common writing mistakes course designers make
* How to implement learner journeys and learning campaigns
* Example of a successful onboarding learning campaign
* How L&D can benefit from marketing technology and tools
* Using AI to analyze data
* Importance of educating and managing stakeholders

TIME: 35 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]

RESOURCES:

* Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro: Strategies to Ignite Learning
* Bianca's Website: https://www.biancabaumann.com/
* Bianca's Blog: https://www.biancabaumann.com/blog/
* Mike's Website: https://mike-taylor.org/
* Mike's Newsletter: Friday Finds
* 10 Types of Writing for eLearning
* Stealing from Product Design

 

There are many paths into an instructional design career. Educational technology may be a lesser known way to enter the field. Matt Campbell explains the roles for instructional designers and related careers in educational technology.

Matt Campbell is an Ed Tech specialist who has spent most of the past 15 years in different leadership roles in education. After starting out as a high school teacher, he spent nine years as a leader at Pearson in the Higher Education division, three years as Chief Product Officer at the Housman Institute.

He most recently was Senior Director of Instructional Design at McGraw Hill, where his team of over 100 was responsible for the digital development of all K12 products. Matt also runs EdTech Expertz Inc., a consulting company that helps PreK-12, Higher Ed, and Learning & Development companies successfully navigate Ed Tech markets. He provides product strategy, executes on digital course management and creation, and delivers training.
WE DISCUSS:

* How to define educational technology
* Where ed tech people work (Spoiler Alert: There are a lot of places!)
* The roles ed tech professionals play
* How to become an educational technology consultant or contractor
* The difference in roles between ed tech in corporate and in universities
* How saturated the ed tech market is with career changers
* How can a person making a career move to ed tech stand out
* The specific skills one needs for a career in educational technology
* How to pick up skills in areas where you may not have access, such as LMS admins.
* Current and future ed tech trends
* What to learn first—instructional science, ID process, or tools
* How to demonstrate ed tech skills to potential employers

TIME: 25 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]
RESOURCES:

* EdTech Expertz: Matt's company
* Connect with Matt on LinkedIn
* Starting an Instructional Design Career in Higher Education
* How to Build an Instructional Design Portfolio

There's a lot of talk about how Google NotebookLM can generate an AI podcast or an audio overview of a topic in conversational form using two AI voices. You provide or link to the source material. If you are unfamiliar with NotebookLM, it's an artificial intelligence research assistant that you can use to assist with learning. It will synthesize multiple sources of information and generate it in different formats like study guides, FAQs and audio overviews. You can read more about it at Five Easy Ways Instructional Designers Can Use NotebookLM.

In this episode, I thought you might like to hear and react to two short audio overviews generated by NotebookLM. A few cautionary notes. If you plan to use NotebookLM, there may be inaccuracies. I don't know what happens to the content you upload. And Google advises to avoid uploading documents you don't have the applicable rights to. Certainly, check with your workplace, clients and subject matter experts before uploading anything. The first audio overview concerns designing abstract graphics like diagrams and graphs, so that they can be more easily understood. I uploaded a chapter from my book, Visual Language for Designers.

THE CONTENTS:

* What GoogleLM is and how it works
* How to generate an AI podcast (audio overview)
* You'll hear two different audio overviews
* My reaction to the audio overviews: were they accurate? What are the pros and cons?
* Type of content that might work best at this stage of AI
* Add your reactions in the Comments below

TIME: 20 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: Download the [Download not found]

RESOURCES:

* Google NotebookLM
* Five Easy Ways Instructional Designers Can Use NotebookLM
* Introducing NotebookLM

When you think about leadership and the traits of leaders, do you typically think about people with responsibility and authority at the top of an organization? In this episode, I speak with David Kelly, Chairman of the Learning Guild. He explains why developing leadership skills in Learning and Development, is a solid career strategy for people at every level of an organization and in any role. We discuss his eBook, Nine Core behavioral Traits Learning Leaders Should Cultivate. And we discuss how to go about doing this.

As Chairman of the Learning Guild, David Kelly thinks a lot about learning leadership. In his job, he explores the convergence of learning and technology and has a profound commitment to transforming workplaces and enriching lives through innovative learning strategies. With over two decades of experience in learning and performance leadership, and consulting, he brings his passion to life in his work, building events and resources with the Guild and as a dynamic speaker and writer, inspiring others to view their work through a fresh, technology-enhanced lens.

WE DISCUSS:

* The inspiration for writing an eBook about learning leadership
* A better way to define leadership
* The difference between leadership as a set of behaviors versus innate characteristics
* Observations about leadership in Learning and Development
* Building leadership skills as a career growth strategy
* The importance of having a yearly Learning Leaders conference.
* The top nine behavioral traits of successful leaders from David's perspective
* Most important leadership behaviors for L&D
* Leadership skills that may be the hardest to achieve
* How to improve your skills at being a visionary
* How to improve your decision-making skills

TIME: 30 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: Download [Download not found]

RESOURCES

* Nine Core Behavioral Traits Learning Leaders Should Cultivate by David Kelly
* David Kelly's Curated Content: Every week David offers you the best of the learning web
* The Learning Guild
* Learning Leaders Conference
* How to Develop Your Creativity: Somewhat related podcast episode




Improve your ID skills with articles, tips and resources delivered to your Inbox once a month.</br>

Do you have a process to ensure your learning products are consistently high-quality? Do you wish you did? Then, you’ll want to hear what Hadiya Nuriddin has to say about building a quality management initiative that’s flexible and customized for your organization’s needs. She explains how to make quality management a first thought, not an afterthought.
Hadiya has more than 20 years of experience in learning and development. She’s the author of a new book, Quality Management in Learning and Development, and you may know her previous book, Story Training. She is the Owner of Duets Learning, specializing in instructional design and development for corporate and academic environments.


WE DISCUSS:

* A good definition for quality management
* Hadiya's journey exploring quality management
* How to have a broader perspective of quality management
* Why your QM system needs flexibility
* How QM benefits Learning and Development and the organization
* Why quality management is low on the importance scale of so many L&D teams
* How to sustain a QM system
* The advantage of developing flexible QM guidelines
* Considerations for setting up a QM system for a team and for one person
* Why quality management is the story of Learning and Development

TIME: 30 MINUTES

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]

RESOURCES:

* Quality Management in Learning and Development by Hadiya Nuriddin
* Duets Learning, Hadiya's company
* Story Training by Hadiya Nuriddin

Do you feel lost or confused about what you need to learn when it comes to AI? In this episode, we explore an AI Literacy framework developed by Stella Lee, Ph.D. We discuss the areas most suitable for learning designers to explore and some of the competencies in this model.

Sometimes, you may not have an appropriate tool or strategy to solve a learning design problem. If that's ever happened to you, you might benefit from the behavior change model discussed in this episode. Julie Dirksen, author of Talk to the Elephant, describes what may be a missing aspect of the instructional design process: a way to implement a systems thinking approach for changing behaviors. We discuss a behavior change model, COM-B, and walk through a scenario to demonstrate its use.

Julie is also the author of Design for How People Learn. She is a learning strategist, consultant, and instructional designer at Usable Learning, creating highly interactive learning experiences for a wide range of clients.

WE DISCUSS:

* The elephant and rider metaphor
* Why we need to address both the elephant and the rider in learning experiences
* Why instructional designers need to consider the broader system in which people are operating (systems thinking)
* Applying the COM-B model to instructional design practice (COM-B stands for Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behavior)
* A walk-through of a performance problem through the lens of COM-B

TIME: 32 Minutes

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]

RESOURCES:

* Talk to the Elephant by Julie Dirksen
* Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen
* Usable Learning: Julie's website
* Sticky Learning: Julie's online course
* Are you getting any better? Previous podcast with Julie about improving the feedback loop for learning design

Do you hear a lot about learning data and analytics for instructional design, but aren’t sure how to gather data, interpret it, and use it? I think this conversation with Megan Torrance will clarify things for you. In this episode, I give Megan a scenario and she walks through possible ways to collect data and use it to understand the impact of learning on an organization. Megan will show you how to make data come alive!
Megan is the author of important books in our field, including Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers and Agile for Instructional Designers. She is the Chief Energy Officer and founder of Torrance Learning, which helps organizations connect learning strategy to design, development, data, and ultimately performance.

WE DISCUSS:

* How to define data and analytics in general
* Importance of data and analytics data and analytics for instructional design
* Why departments may withhold data from learning design teams
* Interesting examples of how learning data is being used
* A scenario where Megan explains how to think about and frame a performance problem using a data measurement mindset
* Types of dirty data
* Finding the best timeline for measuring data
* Pros and cons of self-reporting data
* Collecting data on marketing campaigns for learning
* Benefits of building and collaborating with your operational network
* How to  build skills in learning data and analytics

TIME: 33 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]

RESOURCES:

* Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers by Megan Torrance.
* Torrance Learning
* xAPI Cohort
* Measurement Demystified by David Vance and Peggy Parskey
* How to Get Started with Data-Driven Learning Design: Podcast with Lori Niles-Hofmann

 

 



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. If you're new to instructional design or if you have skill gaps you'd like to close, check out Mastering Instructional Design, with courses, speakers and community.

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: [Download not found]

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

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

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

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

How can you find a career path in instructional design that's just right for you? The diversity of options may be greater than you think. This solo episode is for people who want to break into instructional design and those who are new to the field.

In my Mastering Instructional Design Community, I work with a lot of people who want to transition to a career in instructional design. I find that many people don’t know there are numerous instructional design career paths that they 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 to find your unique career path in instructional design
* Working for organizations that have different missions
* Designing for different audience types
* The diversity of 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)

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

As a group, learning designers have been trying to break out of the order-taker role for a long time. Adopting the Jobs To Be Done framework may be one way you can help clients change their perspective. In this episode, I speak with Ger Driesen about applying the Jobs to Be Done framework to the instructional design process. In particular, this approach can help you address the functional, emotional and social aspects of learning.

Ger is the Learning Innovation Leader at aNewSpring, the provider of an online blended learning platform. In this role, he focusses on sharing the latest insights with L&D professionals to inspire them to design, develop and deliver effective learning solutions. Ger is known as 'the Dutch L&D trendcatcher' based on his presentations, articles, blogs and tweets on the latest Learning and Development trends. Ger finds value in connecting people, ideas and inspiration in the global L&D community.

WE DISCUSS:

* Meaning of the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework
* How Jobs to Be Done applies to learning design
* Categories of jobs to be done: functional, affective and social
* A study explaining why women did not receive effective resuscitation as often as men
* How to do research for the Jobs to Be Done approach
* Why it's important to understand and address the emotional and social job to be done
* Real world examples applying Jobs to Be Done to learning design
* How clients respond to the Jobs to Be Done approach
* Beginner mistakes to avoid
* Recommendations for interviews

TIME: 30 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]

RESOURCES:

* The Jobs to Be Done Approach: Empathy that matters in learning experience design by Ger Driesen
* Understanding the Job with Clay Christesen (Only 5 minutes and will make you want a milkshake)
* Jobs to Be Done Theory by Anthony Ulwick
* What is the Jobs To Be Done Framework?
* Five User Experience Techniques to Use for Learning Design

In this episode, we’re exploring the wonderful world of no code tools. These are powerful apps that you can use to automate work and life tasks and to build apps and websites without programming skills. So, if you like to design, if you’re a techie, if you’re exploding with ideas or if you just like nerdy fun, this episode is for you.

I’m speaking with Mathias Vermeulen and Mike Taylor who have been presenting and spreading the word to learning professionals about no code tools. Mathias is the founder and manager of Winston Wolfe, an L&D company based in Belgium, which started in 2013. He is also the organizer of Learning Tech Day in Ghent.

Mike has been in the workplace learning field for over 20 years, designing and delivering learning experiences. Mike is a regular and highly rated speaker at industry events and works at Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio. He also teaches in the Instructional Design & Learning Technology graduate program at Franklin University.

WE DISCUSS:

* Difference between no code and low code tools
* One recent task where they used a no code tool
* Pricing of tools
* Criteria to consider in tool selection
* Creating workflow automations using integrators like Zapier, IFTTT, etc.
* How these tools can help learning professionals
* Decomposing a problem in order to identify the best tool for building a solution
* Building apps for learners with no code tools
* All kinds of examples
* Tools for getting started

TIME: 41 minutes

TRANSCRIPT: [Download not found]

NO CODE TOOLS MENTIONED

* Spreadsheets:

* AirTable
* Google Sheets


* App/Website Builders:

* Glide
* Notion
* SpreadSimple
* Wordpress
* Carrd


* Integrators:

* Zapier
* IFTTT
* Integromat (Now called Make)
* Parabola


* Documents:

* Craft My PDF
* Notion
* Coda


* Forms:

* Tally
* Typeform


* Communication

* Twilio



RESOURCES AND THINGS BUILT WITH NOCODE TOOLS:

* Mathias' Website
* Mike's Website
* NoCode.Tech: A No-code Library of Tools
* Show more...