Instructional Designers Community of India - FAQs

This post is written by Rupa Rajagopalan

Hello All,

This post has answers to frequently asked questions about the Instructional Designers Community of India. This is relevant to all those who want to be a part of the Instructional Designers Community of India.

Please take time to read through the questions and answers.

Now here are the FAQs:

What is the Instructional Designers Community of India?

The Instructional Designers Community of India is a non-profit community for learning professionals or anyone interested in the field of Instructional Designing.

What is the goal of the community?

The goal of the community is to:

• Actively promote Instructional Design in India


• Create a vibrant platform for collaborative learning on Instructional Designing


• Build a thriving community of learning professionals

Who can be a member?

Anyone who is interested and involved in design, development, and delivery of learning programs is welcome.

Is there a member registration fee?

No. There is no fee currently. However there will be a nominal fee once the community is registered.

How often will the community conduct meetups?

There will be a meetup once in a month only in Bangalore. The community will cover other locations in future.

How do members in other locations participate and learn what is happening in the community?

After every meetup, the minutes of the meeting will be published. If possible, video recordings will also be made available. Webex online meeting is also being considered as a possible solution.

What activities would the community undertake?

The community would primarily focus on sharing information about Instructional Designing.There would be expert talks, workshops, reviews, discussions on blog posts and articles.

How can I contribute to the community?

You can share your knowledge in Instructional Designing by conducting a session or delivering a talk. Everyone and anyone interested can send proposals to the volunteers.

The topic could be anything related to Instructional Designing or any other aspect of learning and development.

Here are some clues:

• You read an interesting blog post and want to talk about it


• You saw an interesting e-learning course and want to discuss it


• You are very good at using an e-learning tool and want to introduce the tool


• You want to conduct a short workshop on a particular topic in Instructional Designing


• You are an expert learning professional and want to share your experiences

Will there be online activities?

Yes. The community is planning to conduct free webinars, online forums and discussions.

Does the community have a website?

This is in progress. Please expect an announcement soon.

Does the community have a mailing list?

The group in Linkedin would be the mailing list for the moment.

Where do I get news and updates about the community?

Watch out the blog: The Writers Gateway.

How do I join the community?

Please join the group in Linkedin.

Who do I contact for any queries?

Please contact any one of the following people:

• Ram - ramarao.simhadri@gmail.com


• Rupa - ruparajgo19@gmail.com


• Vijeesh - vijeesh.shankar@gmail.com

Where will I get announcements about the meetups?

Please check the group in Linkedin and the blog: The Writers Gateway.

In case you have a question that is not in the list, please feel free to leave a comment or mail me.

What color pen are you?

This post is written by Taruna Goel

What color pen are you? This is a question that Dan Roam asks each of us. His book "The Back of the Napkin -Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures " offers a refreshing view about visual thinking skills. If it helps, this book is ranked as the number 5 in the business book of 2008 category by Amazon. To get a teaser of what's in the book, click on the napkin for some engaging nuggets on visual thinking. Learn about how to solve any problem with a picture, the 4 steps of visual thinking, the 5 focusing questions, and the 6 ways we see (and show).

And as Dan puts it, “Solving problems with pictures has nothing to do with artistic training or talent….” “Welcome to the whole new world of looking at business.”
To catch a glimpse of Dan, what's inside his book, and his plans for the next book, check out Dan's blog. This blog contains a link to the video capture of Dan’s session with Microsoft. I saw it and its quite inspiring.

I have been doing visualization skills training for instructional designers for years and have definitely improvised it from where we were…but there’s lots to do. After this video, I want to apply some of the stuff shared by Dan and maybe include the video/elements from his blog/book as self-learning and include some of the concepts and examples/techniques during the classroom session…. As you can note…. I am meandering right now… but I am clearly inspired :)

BTW, what color pen are you – the black pen, the yellow pen, or the red pen?
I keep oscillating between black and yellow...
Watch the video to find out!