]> http://www.learncentrix.com/taxonomy/term/6/0 Information regarding the processes and strategies of developing training materials. en http://www.learncentrix.com/node/22 <p>e-Learning is considered by many practitioners in learning and development departments in companies to be a somewhat new arrival in the course of careers that involved a heavy amount of traditional learning in corporate classrooms. e-Learning, the technology darling, introduced in response to an influx of corporate Intranet development, decreased training budgets, and the need to reach more learners with fewer training department resources. From this vantage point, e-Learning is in many ways a solution set for the problems of inefficient or expensive training strategies overdue for modernization at the speed of internal change.</p> instructional design Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:53:15 -0600 http://www.learncentrix.com/learning-equipping-sales-force <p>I must disagree with an article I read today on CLO magazine's site.&nbsp; It says that sales reps don't prepare enough before a sales call.&nbsp; And somehow the make the stretch that the training department should be doing more or better to fix this problem.</p><p>My goodness!&nbsp;It's not the trainer's fault.&nbsp; It's not a factor of instructional design. I've spent a good deal of my career in some form of sales, and I can tell you that sales people wouldn't take the time if you handed them all the info on a silver platter.</p><p>This is just another case of someone thinking that training is the solution to a process or personality problem.</p> best practices instructional design Wed, 14 Dec 2005 15:47:10 -0700 http://www.learncentrix.com/questions-be-the-answer <p>Asking questions is something we all learn to do as children.&nbsp; Why is the sky blue Daddy?&nbsp; How does this work?&nbsp; If you have children, you are familiar with the routine.</p><p>But as we grow older, we tend to ask less frequently.&nbsp; There are probably many very profound reasons this is the case, and I'm not smart enough to understand them, however I'm certain that we don't ask questions as much as we used to.</p><p>In learning, questions are critical.&nbsp; As a trainer, I ask questions of my students to keep them awake.&nbsp; I include questions in my e-Learning to check that students are paying attention to the material.&nbsp; Instructional design colleagues tell me that asking questions between each topic in an online course reinforces the concepts to be learned.&nbsp; Makes sense to me.</p> think tank instructional design Fri, 09 Dec 2005 17:03:38 -0700 http://www.learncentrix.com/online-training-tutorials <p>It has been my experience that most people want to learn in small, quick ways.&nbsp; My theory is that anytime a shortcut can be taken in life, including learning, it is human nature to take the &quot;easy&quot; way.&nbsp; If I can get a lesson in 5 minutes that answers my question and allows me to move on with my task at hand, I'll take the brief lesson and sacrifice a deeper understanding of the broader concepts - even to the point of losing any context in which the lesson exists.</p><p>There is a new website that provides short tutorials on technical subjects (more below).&nbsp; They are mostly nicely done in Flash.&nbsp; But I haven't seen any with audio; nor any with actual simulation interactivity.&nbsp; I looked up about 5 technical terms.&nbsp; All were visually appealing, however there was a lack of depth that left me wanting a bit more explanation.&nbsp; I learned some&nbsp;information and liked the quickness.&nbsp; It didn't make me&nbsp;feel like I&nbsp;learned enough to do anything with the information.</p> case studies instructional design Thu, 08 Dec 2005 10:13:10 -0700 http://www.learncentrix.com/estimating-instructional-design <p>The following is an&nbsp;article written by Dale Munson for the International Society of Performance Improvement.&nbsp; It provides an excellent set of guidelines and tips for providing better estimates - something very difficult to do. From my personal experience, rarely are learning projects estimated well (or any project for that matter).&nbsp; Statistics have shown for decades&nbsp;that project management milestones are usually missed because of poor definition or lack of proper planning.&nbsp; Dale does a good job and deserves a big pat on the back for this.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><hr /><br /> <h2>Estimating Instructional Design and Development Time:</h2> <h2 align="left">Debunking Industry-Standard Development Ratios</h2> <h3 align="left">by Dale Munson</h3> <p>This paper describes a framework for expanding the traditional approach of estimating instructional design and development time. It extends familiar industry standard ratios to include conditions which have a high impact on the hours estimated for course development, such as the high probability of design modifi cations during the early stages of the product lifecycle.</p> instructional design Fri, 02 Dec 2005 15:38:29 -0700