Instructional Design

Podcasts are my kryptonite. I always need some form of background noise when I’m working, and podcasts are my preferred medium. I listen to a fair amount of comedy podcasts, but I also keep up on Learning and Development podcasts. Here are some of my favourites:

Dear Instructional Designer

Kristen Anthony has created a huge following with her podcast Dear Instructional Designer. So much so, that 3 different people have come up to me at conferences to discuss the podcast! There are many interviews with fellow Learning and Development folk (including myself – on episode 13), and she’s currently entering Season 3! A wide range of topics are discussed, and Kristen’s casual style makes this podcast very easy to listen to.

Trends and Issues

Trends and Issues Podcast is hosted by Abbie Brown and Timothy Green, authors of Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice. As alluded to in the title of the podcast, the hosts discuss emerging trends and issues in e-learning and instructional design. While not my all time favourite podcast (it’s a bit heavily weighted in VR/AR lately, which isn’t my thing), it’s still a very informative podcast to listen to if you’re in the L&D field.

The eLearning Guys

I’m familiar with hosts David Charney and Nejc Zorga Dulmin from e-learning communities and social media, so when I saw they were getting together to create a podcast, The eLearning Guys, I was really excited to listen. Both hosts are e-learning developers, so it’s always nice to have context from roles relevant to mine. The podcast is still in it’s start-up phase, only 6 episodes in, but they’re a good 6 episodes, so I’m definitely going to continue to listen!

The eLearning Coach

I’m always fan-girling over Connie Malamed. She’s super down to earth, and her podcast episodes for The eLearning Coach are relevant and easy to digest. She’s had some heavy-hitters in the L&D industry on her podcast, and I’m able to learn something new from most all episodes. She and her guests have a wealth of knowledge, and it’s important to learn what you can from your colleagues and peers, so this podcast keeps me engaged with the industry and eager to hear more.

Today’s post is a bit of a cop out because I’ve been spending time with my family and just enjoying Christmas festivities/all of the food.

I’ll be writing a wrap-up post for 2016 and a 2017 goals post in the coming days, but for now I just wanted to reflect a bit on some things I’ve been working hard at this past year that have impacted my productivity. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?

In summer 2015, I had a baseball accident that gave me a concussion and a lot of medical appointments. In 2016, one of my main personal goals was to work on getting my jaw back to working order, and one surgery and a lot of physiotherapy later, it’s just about there. Not quite, but almost.

The biggest challenge from this injury was dealing with post-concussion syndrome and coming to terms with my new brain. I still struggle quite a bit with my crumbier memory and how my brain processes things, but in 2017 I’m hoping to master a new way of thinking and organizing my thoughts and workflow.

I’ve invested in a really nice notebook and a premium todoist account, so I’m going to see if that helps me ring in the new year on a positive/less forgetful note.

I still play baseball; I haven’t let the injury stand between me and one of my favourite activities, but I have been limited in how active I am as different activities cause me small setbacks in my rehabilitation. It’s been a frustrating injury, but after focusing on the mechanics of my jaw in 2016, I’m ready to focus on getting my brain and body back in proper working order.

Has life given you some lemons this year? How are you making lemonade out of them?

The holidays have me feeling a bit mushy and reflective, I have to admit. So, I thought it only fitting that I take some time to reflect on what it is I do, and why I love doing it.

What DO you do?

A lot of people ask me what I do for a living, and when I tell them, I’m often met with blank stares. Fewer than I did when I first started, but there are definitely still some. I’m an Instructional Designer and E-Learning Developer – most days I also consult, so I’d throw Consultant in for good measure.

Within these capacities, I have a few obligations: one to the university I work at, where I am their lone Instructional Developer, and another to the clients I work with on the (independent) e-learning development side. Often times these paths cross, but they’re usually operating in silos from one another.

I am a(n):

• Instructional Designer
• E-Learning Developer
• Consultant
• Small Business Owner
• Published Author
• Presenter
• Professor (WHAT?)

It’s interesting, because at the beginning of my Instructional Design journey, I worked for a small(ish) company where I felt like all Instructional Designers wore all of the hats. This has not changed, but the hats that I wear have. My parents still probably think I’m a rocket scientist, and sometimes I feel like one.

You sound busy. Why the heck do you enjoy what you do?!

• As an Instructional Designer and E-Learning Developer, I work with faculty members and clients to craft learning experiences that are drenched in pedagogy, are creative endeavours that will address their needs, and that will create learning experiences. I LOVE this.
• As a consultant, I get to speak with a lot of different people, advising them and providing recommendations based on industry best practices. I get to hone my experience and expertise to help them address their business, organizational, and institutional needs. Operating in this capacity has brought upon some interesting experiences that have been both challenging and complimentary to my current competencies.
• As a small business owner, I have learned so much. SO MUCH. Every year I’m learning more and more, and I’m sure that this year will be no different. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is how important it is to invest in yourself.
• My current roles and expertise have afforded me many exciting opportunities:
  • Each year I get to speak at several Learning and Development Events, sharing my knowledge with the greater commonwealth of Learning and Development professionals. As someone who once took zeroes on any assignment requiring an oral presentation, this has been an incredible opportunity for me to both hone my presentation skills and work on a fear of public speaking. I also get to meet so many fantastic people at these events, individuals I’ve connected with via social media – and putting faces to names, distributing hugs, and providing support to my colleagues feels incredible!
  • When working with clients, you never really know who you’re going to meet. One of my clients put me in touch with Packt Publishing, allowing me to author two books for them, Articulate Storyline Essentials and Mastering Articulate Storyline. These books also serve to facilitate sharing my knowledge to a broad audience…and my parents get to use them as coffee table books.
  • Working at the university allows me to be a part of something bigger. I get to promote our delivery methods to faculty members, facilitate professional development for faculty members, and even be asked to teach students. This year I taught a course for our M.Ed program, Introduction to Instructional Design. It was a fairly small class, but having a once a week commitment to stand up in front of students and deliver information on a topic I feel well-equipped to discuss was a totally new experience. Prior to this, I had been given 30-60 minute speaking slots at conferences and roadshows, but this was a 2.5 hour a week affair, and I truly think I peaked my student’s interest in Instructional Design as a prospective career path. This year, I became a professor…and just typing that feels bananas!

So yeah, I am busy, but 99% of the time I am head over heels in love with what I’ve chosen to do with my life, and I can only hope that each and everyone of you finds your Learning and Development dream job too! Okay…I’ll stop being a mushball now…

I’m on vacation for the next twelve days, and I told Twitter yesterday that I would consider today the beginning of Blogmas, where I blog each day I’m on holiday vacation. For the first day of Blogmas, I’m sharing my e-learning developer wishlist.

Great Books

I have a ton of great Instructional Design and E-Learning books, but these are by far some of my favourites:

• The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice by Abbie Brown and Timothy D. Green – This is a fantastic introduction to Instructional Design; so much so that I used it as the required course text for the Introduction to Instructional Design course I taught this year at the university.
• Design for How People Learn (Voices that Matter) by Julie Dirksen – I will never stop recommending this book, because it’s incredibly practical and Julie really does know her stuff!
• How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens by Benedict Carey – I’ve talked about this book so many times, but for good reason. It’s a fantastic read, and any learning and development professional should read it. Carey is a science reporter, so it’s interesting to read more about the science behind learning…maybe that’s my psychology degree speaking…or I’m just a huge work dork.

Creative Market Gift Card

Creative Market is one of my all time favourite places to seek out e-learning resources – backgrounds, characters, icons, templates. They have it all, and you’re supporting the developers!

Kuzy Keyboard Covers

These keyboard covers have saved my Macbook Pro many a time; mostly on flights or in situations where your computer is susceptible to liquid spills. These covers are silicon, fashionable, and super durable. I usually get several months out of each cover, so for the price, it’s a pretty good deal!

A Microphone Arm/Stand

I’ve been using my microphone a lot more, and with my current pop filter setup, I am constantly annoyed. Having an adjustable microphone arm would ease some of my problems.

Monitor Mounts

I have been lusting over the Bretford MobilePro Desk Mount for my iMac and Macbook Pro; working at my last corporate gig, I had a similar setup for my monitors, and having something like this would definitely clear some of the congestion that my desk is experiencing.

An Amazing Chair

Working from home, you really need to take care of yourself. A lot of people I know use standing desks, but I would prefer to invest in a really great office chair. Generation by Knoll chairs are AMAZING. I had one at a previous workplace, and it was incredible. For all the short folks out there, the lumbar dip really makes a difference. This was definitely the first office chair I ever had where I could put my feet on the floor while my back was still being supported. It’s a bit of a splurge, but definitely worth it if you’re going to be sitting in it everyday!

 

Wow. It has been a hot minute since I’ve blogged. Things have been B-U-S-Y! In any event, I thought it might be appropriate to ease back into blogging with an updated list of the tools I’ve been using for e-learning development. Let’s get to it!

Articulate 360

If you haven’t checked out Articulate 360, you must check it out.  The subscription-based model received a bit of flack at launch, but for what they’re providing you, it’s really a good bang for your buck. Especially if you make your living from Articulate products.

A360 gives you access to all of the authoring tools you might possibly need for your development: Storyline 360, Studio 360, and Replay 360 – updated versions of fan favourites as well as: Articulate Live, Content Library, Peek, Preso, Rise, and Articulate Review. Here’s the quick and dirty:

• Articulate Live provides you with webinars and live training opportunities from the folks at Articulate.
• Content Library provides you with SO MANY assets (including fully functional templates) – seriously, if you’re on the fence about A360, the Content Library could sell it for you!
• Peek is a powerful tool for easily recording screencasts on your Mac or PC.
• Preso allows you to easily capture and annotate recordings from your iPad.
• Rise (is amazing) gives you the ability to author courses quickly and effectively with a modern look and feel.
• Articulate Review makes course reviews fun and efficient – I bet those are two words you don’t use often when referring to course reviews.

Basically, A360 is a one-stop-e-learning-development shop. GET ON IT.

Articulate Storyline 2 

While I love A360, most of my clients are still working from Storyline 2, which is a tool that is near and dear to my heart. I’m resentful of my current workload that I haven’t been able to play around as much in A360 as I would like to, but with a workload heavy in Storyline 2 development, I still get to have fun!

Storyline 2 allows me to take my imagination to the limits by designing high-quality e-learning for my clients. It’s a no-brainer. And with clients a bit hesitant to re-invest in new technology (aka A360), it seems like I’ll be using it for the next little while – I have no complaints!

Tempshare

Articulate Review is amazing, but because most of my clients are still using Storyline 2, I use Articulate Tempshare as my primary means of hosting Storyline output for client reviews. Tempshare hosts your output for 10 days, which is usually enough time for my client reviews, and all you have to do is drop a .zip folder of your output. Once uploaded and published, Tempshare spits out a URL, and you’re good to go!

Camtasia

I’ve been using Camtasia for Mac a lot over the past few months. With Sprout underway, there are a lot of videos that need recording, and Camtasia lets me do that very easily, producing professional outputs with minimal effort. At the university, we also use Camtasia Studio to record faculty videos (lectures, demos, etc.).

Blue Yeti

Blue microphones have great quality; I’ve been using the Blue Yeti for my Camtasia recordings, and I also have and love the Blue Snowflake (super great quality with portability!). If you’re looking into an affordable audio setup, check out the Blue Yeti – for the price, the quality is bar none. As a side note, I will say that I’ve invested in a pop filter (which is basically an embroidery ring with a pantyhose material) to remove any of the noise created by those bilabial fricative sounds (I’m talking about your P sounds and your B sounds).

Vimeo

Finally – on the topic of videos, I host all of my videos with a Vimeo Plus account; this membership has enough capacity per week for my needs, and allows me to customize video settings appropriately.

Parallels

My computer setups include a Macbook Pro and an iMac, so to run my windows-based programs (e.g. Articulate), I prefer to use Parallels. My first kick at the dual-boot can was with Boot Camp, and it really didn’t address my needs. I found that I had to segment my workflow into Mac-based operations and Windows-based operations, and it just wasn’t an efficient workflow for me. Parallels allows me to run both operating systems in coherence, meaning it looks as though I’m working in one OS, and runs seamlessly. I recommend this to any Mac user over Boot Camp.

I will say, however, that it runs better on my Macbook Pro, which is setup with Windows 7, than it does with my iMac, which is setup with Windows 10. I don’t blame Parallels for this. I blame this one Windows 10…an evil, evil, operating system that insists on performing system updates at any inopportune time. If you sense resentment in my voice…it’s true. I hate Windows 10.

Dropbox

Dropbox is where I upload all of my files to share with clients, and to backup files. I have a pretty Type A backup protocol, and Dropbox is one of my backup locations. I have a Dropbox Pro account, and it has all of the space that I currently need.

Todoist

A few weeks back, I reached out to Twitter to find out what my fellow e-learning developers were using for project management. I explored all of the options suggested, but settled in on Todoist Premium, an application I’ve been using for years.

The reason I was looking for something better than my trusty notepad was because I’m still experiencing post-concussion syndrome from taking a softball to the face a year and a half ago…my memory (particularly short-term) is not quite what it used to be, and I find myself needing a bit more help to remember tasks and keep on schedule. What I like about todoist is that the interface aligns with my preferences, and it has multiple options for reminder-setting, which is something I really need now. In the past, I would have found these reminders annoying, but now I find them an integral part of my life.

I’ve been working really hard to get Sprout E-Learning up and running; it’s almost there, but I thought what better time than Cyber Monday to put it’s first course, Articulate Storyline 2: Basics, on sale? There’s no time like the present!

If you’re not interested in learning about Articulate Storyline, there will be an Instructional Design Certificate coming in January 2017, so sign up for Sprout’s mailing list to get updates!

If you are interested in this Cyber Monday deal, head over to Sprout’s temporary URL, click the Buy button, and use coupon code: yippie.

Here are the details on Articulate Storyline 2: Basics:

1. Have you or your organization just purchased Storyline 2?
2. As an organization, are you looking to quickly get your employees trained on using Storyline 2?
3. Are you looking to quickly learn the ins and outs of Storyline 2?
4. Do you want to take your e-learning development up a notch?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, this course is for you!

All too often, developers are thrown deep into the trenches of a new authoring tool with zero training. As humans, we’re fairly adaptable, so this is no big deal…except when you have looming deadlines. To maintain efficiency and reduce costs for you or your organization, training needs to be made available – otherwise, you’ll spend more time and resources in the start up development and/or revision stages of your project.

Articulate Storyline 2 is a powerful e-learning authoring tool that allows you to take your creativity to the next level and easily author your own captivating stories. By helping you leverage built-in development functionality, you can quickly create interactive and engaging e-learning experiences.

By adding this course to your training arsenal, my goal is to ensure that you have everything you need to successfully create high-quality e-learning courses using Articulate Storyline 2, while simultaneously maintaining your efficiency. No one needs a steep learning curve when it comes to new authoring tools!

This course is designed to walk you through the entire life cycle of a story, from creating a new story, to publishing and sharing your story. Walkthrough videos will take you on a tour of how to effectively enhance your story by adding images, audio, screen recordings, and interactive media. I’ll also show you how to master the trigger wizard, create high-quality assessment items, and how to customize the player.

Within this course, you will learn how to:

• Build a new story and familiarize yourself with the user-friendly Storyline interface
• Discover how to let your content do they talking with the help of text, images, and characters
• Improve the quality of your story using interactive elements such as buttons, markers, and screen recordings
• Create enhanced interactivity using triggers, states, and hotspots
• Build practical and common interactions, such as Tabs, Timelines, and Custom Menus
• Assess your learners using built-in question types or custom freeform questions
• Preview your story and modify the player settings to create a customized learning experience
• Share your story by exploring the available publishing options

Taught by the author of Articulate Storyline Essentials and Mastering Articulate Storyline, Ashley Chiasson, you are in good hands. Ashley will use screenshots, video demonstrations, and exercise files (that you can interact with) to emphasize all teaching points throughout this course, providing you with ample opportunity to become an Articulate Storyline 2: Basics champion!