Do Instructional Design Training Programs in India Need a Revamp?

This post is written by Rupa Rajagopalan

I have been looking at some of the training programs that are being offered for aspiring Instructional Designers (ID) in India. I looked at these courses from the perspective of:

• An aspiring Instructional Designer who has no clue about Instructional Designing and wants to quickly gain instructional designing skills


• An Instructional Designer who has started with Instructional Designing at work, but has lots of queries and needs lots of inputs to improve his/her instructional designing skills

DO YOU THINK?

• These courses are really giving the kind of training and information aspiring Instructional Designers need to do their tasks well in their workplace


• Aspiring instructional designers will be able to sustain their interest for such a long course duration such as 15 weeks


• The training programs for IDs in India are very academic and focus more on instruction design theories


• Aspiring IDs or fresh IDs actually retain and use the information they gain from these training programs


• There is lot of information overload in these training programs for IDs


• In-house training programs for IDs in companies in India are useful

If any of you have actually found any training program on Instructional Designing useful, please share your experiences.

If any of you have ideas on improving training for Instructional Designing in India, please share them.

Please leave your responses in the comments section.

I would love to hear from you all.

Instructional Design: Two questions

This post is written by Sandipan Ray. Sandipan is an e-learning professional with more than 7 years of industry experience, in almost all disciplines from Graphics, Quality, programming to ID. Presently working in a product development company for their internal training needs.

I am little bothered with two common words:

Simplicity:

Instructional Design, as I understand, is make sure that the learner is listening to what I am saying, and the way to that is to keep the course simple. But I am just wondering, with the ever-increasing complexities involved in creating a course, are we really achieving that target of "simplicity"? Is it time for us to become little "lean"?

Plagiarism:

Ever since I joined this field, I had been hearing about the sin called plagiarism. But till date, I haven't come across a clear definition about it. Wiki says: "Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work." Well- close imitation of the language and thoughts-- isn't that very subjective (how much is close enough)? And in the field of learning, can we be really sure about who the original author is? And if a thing works in a X way, or has X attributes, no matter whatever language and in whatever way we say it, the fact remains the same. So, I wonder, can we really avoid plagiarism?

Waiting for you all to throw some light!

Response to Manish’s blog on Can eLearning Help Change Behavior?

This post is written by Taruna Goel.

This is in response to Manish’s blog on Can eLearning Help Change Behavior?

I realized I had much to share and a comment box would not do justice to it.

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All learning/training is meant to change behavior. That said there are various media available to deliver the required training.

While most content may be a good candidate for either elearning or facilitated instruction, I think a case in point is psychomotor skills. To learn how to ride a bike, you need to ride it! No amount of elearning can prepare you for the ditches, puddles, and the falls!

A few years ago, I would have said, yes, 'sensitive' issues such as harassment are best facilitated. But maybe not today. There are enough opportunities to build collaboration, question and answer, and discussion forums to support people in learning about such areas through elearning too.

There is a bit of research that I did and here is what I found:

1) http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/jan2002/anderson.html - By Terri Anderson

A very good article about what makes a better candidate for elearning and some of the key questions to ask before we decide to use this medium.

In summary:

• …..there are still some instructional content areas that may not be suitable for e-learning.


• Attitudinal skills and psychomotor skills are content areas in which e-learning may support but not entirely replace traditional instructional programs. Attitudinal skills typically require expert modeling and reinforcement that increases the interactivity requirement and the cost of e-learning programs. Psychomotor skills, in particular, require hands-on practice and interactive demonstrations for learners to achieve mastery.


• E-learning programs are especially effective at teaching cognitive skills in well-structured domains where conveying information is a critical part of the instructional process. Examples include teaching employees how to use software programs, having employees discriminate between two set choices, or providing instructions for completing a benefits enrollment form. Each of those skills requires understanding and applying a procedure or information with clear right and wrong choices.


• Poorly structured problems require high-level cognitive skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of unclear or conflicting data. Learners are required to recall, understand, and apply information to unique situations or problems for which there's no clearly defined right or wrong outcome. Examples of ill-structured problems include evaluating the merits of outsourcing work, developing a comprehensive marketing strategy that incorporates diverse data, or evaluating the merits of a strategic business acquisition. Although e-learning may support part of those learning needs, it works best when combined with additional collaborative strategies.


• Determining whether content is suitable for e-learning requires close inspection of the learning objectives. For example, cognitive skills appropriate for stand alone e-learning programs ask learners to state, understand, identify, and select between two clearly defined alternatives; read information and answer questions about a specific topic; or complete an assignment with clearly defined parameters. However, e-learning programs will need support from additional learning activities if employees are required to analyze, design, predict, evaluate, synthesize, construct, formulate, or develop a procedure or plan.


• Key questions to consider when evaluating e-learning programs for a specific content area include:
  
  
  
  • What are the learning objectives that the company is trying to achieve?
  
  
  • What are the skills the company is trying to teach?
  
  
  • Are the skills cognitive, attitudinal, or motor skills?
  
  
  • Is the problem well-defined?
  
  
  • What instructional methods are required to deliver the content?
  
  
  • What type of follow-up, practice, or support is required to achieve mastery?
  
  
  • What degree of learning interactivity or collaboration is required?
  
  
  • What resources are available or required to achieve the instructional goals?
  
  
  • What is the best or most cost-effective venue the company has to deliver this content to the learner?
  
  
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating e-learning strategies?
  
  
  
  

2) http://faculty.mercer.edu/codone_s/elearningprimer.PDF - By Susan Codone

A well-organized article about the benefits and limitations of elearning. The key highlight is a table listing the criteria that should be used to identify whether a particular content is suitable for elearning. The table is based on criterion provided by Brandon Hall and the federal Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative. Another point highlights that instructional outcomes highlight the choice of instructional strategy (and therefore medium). David Merrill states that the following instructional strategies are suitable for multimedia development:

• instruction that provides information about a system or object


• instruction that provides information on the parts of a system or object


• instruction that provides conceptual or categorical information


• procedural knowledge


• process, principle, or information on how a system works

On another note, this article also has some dope on development timelines for elearning.

Guess, these are enough points to ponder for instructional designers like us!

Top Learning Tools and Techniques

In April 2008, I started the eCube Ponder series. Each month, we will ponder over a topic. You can simply respond by leaving your comments on the topic. If you post a response in your blog, leave a link to you blog in the comments. Here’s the August eCube Ponder:

We all learn differently and have our favorite tools and techniques for learning. My top 10 learning methods range from tools like search engines to techniques like in-sighting and de-layering. What are your methods for learning? What are your favorite tools that you use for learning?

What's Your Reason?

From: Biocultural Science & Management

Role of Project Managers in Content Projects

In April, we started the eCube Ponder series. Each month, we will ponder over a topic. Please respond by leaving your comments for this post. If you post a response in your blog outside this blog, leave a link to your response in the comments.

Here’s the June eCube Ponder:

What is the role of Project Manager in content projects? Do we even need project managers, especially for smaller projects? What skills should project managers possess for being effective in the role? What contribution should project managers be making to the project and what should they stay out of?

It will be good to get project managers also respond to this ponder.

My Recipe: Instructional Designer

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoon of ingenuity
  
• 1 cup of analytical skills
  
• 4-5 distinct slices of writing skills
  
• 1 small packet of language skills puree
  
• 1/2 teaspoon of communication design
  
• 1/2 teaspoon of LMS/ content technology
  
• 1 cup of management paste(mix together half cup of vendor and 1/4 cup of client and ¼ cup self management paste for this)
  
• Content knowledge according to taste (requirements)

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of ingenuity in a pan.
   
2. Now add 1 cup of analytical skills and wait until it turns brown.
   
3. Add 4-5 distinct slices of writing skills mixed together with the puree of language skills.
   
4. Now add 1/2 teaspoon of communication design and then 1/2 teaspoon of LMS/ content technology. Keep stirring back and forth.
   
5. Pour over 1 cup of management paste and check if the dish has become thick enough, if not, add some more paste.
   
6. Finally, add a dash of content knowledge according to your taste and heat the dish until you smell end user and customer satisfaction.
   

Skills of Instructional Designer

I found this matching game about skills of instructional designers, thanks to Christy Tucker for her del.icio.us bookmarks.

The game has been designed by Dr. Tony Betrus of Potsdam, The State University of New York (SUNY), and programmed in Flash by Ryan Wassink. The game introduces you not to the technical skills but how an instructional designer is a Problem solver, Artist, Performer, Counselor, and a User. Very interesting perspectives on what an instructional designer should be.

Should IDs Have Skills in Areas Other Than Writing/Design?

To answer this question, let’s first understand what is “Instructional Design” and who is an instructional designer. (too basic, huh? well, I thought of starting at the basic level!)

As stated in Wikipedia, “Instructional Design is the practice of arranging media (communication technology) and content to help learners and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively.”

If we simply keep that definition in mind, what skills do you think an Instructional Designer should have to transfer the knowledge most effectively to their learners? Do you think an ID who knows how to design a product or how to write well, can transfer or deliver knowledge in the most effective manner to its learners?

I really don’t think so.

In my opinion, an Instructional Designer is one who has a “holistic” picture about the product he/she is designing. The IDs knowledge should not be limited to design or writing skills only. Let’s see why.

The involvemnet of an ID begins even before a project is kicked-off. The ID is the one who needs to understand the client requirements, do a detailed analysis of the client’s needs, create an overall solution that will fulfill the client’s requirement, and so on. Not just this, an ID should also understand the “technology” aspects involved in creating a course/product – a basic knowledge of the templates that would be used for constructing the product/ course or a specific engine or tool that is being used to develop the product/course. The ID should also be aware of the kind of medis that is being used for the product/course.

“Designing” or “Writing” cannot happen in isoltaion without the knowledge of most of these things. Ultimately, this would only give the ID, an edge over all others who simply focus on a particular aspect of “Instructional Designing”.

Having said all of it, I would not say that an ID has to be an “expert” in all of these areas; but an ID should definetely have some basic skills in most of these areas for him/her to come up with something worthwhile that is of value for the end user.

From that perspective, I definetely think that IDs should have skills in lot many other areas than just writing and designing.

However, I would like to point out one of the the bigger questions for me here is not whether the IDs should have skills other than writing/designing; rather, the point is whether an average ID (mainly referring to number of authors/designers working in the organization who are designated as “IDs” or rather call themselves "IDs") even understand that he/she is supposed to have skills outside the “writing” that they do. The pity is that for much longer periods of time in their career as “IDs”, they understand only a perspective of what instructional design is and what all constitutes a role of an instructional designer. In my opinion, an instructional designer should be exposed to much more variety of work rather than making them work in a “factory mode” for churning out one project after the other. Well, to think of how this can be done? This could be taken up in another subsequent blog!

Till that time, it would be good to hear what others think of this issue.

Should IDs Have Skills in Areas Other Than Writing/Design?

In April, we started the eCube Ponder series. Each month, we will ponder over a topic. You can simply respond by leaving your comments on the topic. If you post a response in your blog, leave a link to you blog in the comments. Here’s the May eCube Ponder:

Should IDs know about other development practices? Should IDs have skills in areas like programming, graphics etc.? Do these skills help IDs perform better in their roles? Is it better to specialize only in writing or be an all rounder with skills in other areas too?

What do you think?

Do participate in the ongoing poll also on the site.

Do We Need Instructional Designers for Technology Content Projects?

Starting April, I am starting the eCube Ponder series. Each month, we will ponder over a topic. You can simply respond by leaving your comments on the topic. If you post a response in your blog, leave a link to you blog in the comments.

In the last few years of building content for technology subject areas and for technology companies, I have wondered whether instructional design holds any value while building technology content. Subject Matter Expert (SME) is King holds absolutely true for technology content. Instructional Designer is a marginal player in learning projects for technology companies or creating courses on technology subjects. What do you think can the Instructional Designer contribute in tech content projects? Where do you see the Instructional Designer adding value in these projects? Can Instructional Designer role be eliminated for tech content projects? How should the Instructional Designer adapt herself/himself when creating tech content?

What do you think?

PS: If you have a question we should ponder over, send me an email.