#IDIODC Instructional Designers In Offices Drinking Coffee

Artificial Intelligence is the hot topic for 2023. Useful applications seem to be popping up daily, and existing platforms, like Canva and Microsoft, are creating new "magic" features within their existing apps. Do these news apps and new feature sets make our jobs easier? Some might argue they will someday make our jobs obsolete. The only thing we know for certain is that AI is here to stay, and...

Before technology we had 1 method of instruction: Classroom based learning with student/teacher guides. But as technology and the internet began to grow the world gained many new options. Sadly, this initially led to thoughts of learning solutions that would replace the classroom and the instructor.   Today, we've all, finally, accepted the fact that learning is a long term process. One training e...

In today's global economy instructional designers are increasingly needing to create learning solutions that meet the needs of many cultures communicating in different languages. For decades the answer was simply mandated within large companies requiring all employees anywhere in the world to understand English. Problem solved? Not so much. Thankfully, modern technology solves the problem of multi...

Who remembers seeing their first CommonCraft video? I remember seeing RSS in Plain English back in the day and thinking, "Wow, this guy if FANTASTIC!" That particular video is now considered a classic, and low budget, compared to today's Explainer Videos. But the cool thing is that it STILL works.  It takes a relatively complex topic and explains it "in plain english".  If you've always felt like...

Do you know if your eLearning is accessible? If no, why not? As an instructional designer it's your responsibility to make sure your eLearning projects are accessible for all possible learners. And hey, you eLearning developers! This is your responsibility as well. Even if it is not mandated within your industry, it's the right thing to do.   Jenny Wincek joins us from Interactive Advantage to tal...

Allison Rossett's web site has a great quote, "She works on Learning and Technology in a way that is creative, concrete, and quirky." But what it should say is The Greatest of All Time! And her credits and accolades prove it. Not to mention being a genuinely wonderful human being. She is a legend in L&D, but specifically making her mark in the realm of Performance Support. She was promoting Perfor...

Sure you can find a lot of different free images on the internet, but there's always a project, or 2, that need that extra special custom graphic element. You could pay a graphic designer to create something, but that also comes with some headaches. Why not just learn to create it yourself? I think you'll be surprised as how easy it really is. And don't tell us that you aren't creative, or don't k...

In the past we've covered 15-20 items in one IDIODC episode. And as much as I feel that I'm connected to all things tech, he always surprises me with something I haven't discovered yet. Everything from media creation apps to microphones lighting kits and fancy desks. We all use technology for the work we do and while you might not think you need new gadgets, you just might discover one that makes...

Most skills will never be learned without actually DOING the skill. Duh. It's basic training 101 that if it's too expensive or too dangerous to simply practice a skill many, many, times, then you the design should include a simulated version of the skill. And all knowledge can only be valuable to a business if it is applied to the work being done. Well, coding skills and knowledge are neither dang...

You may not know Aaron Silvers, but around here we affectionately refer to him as the OG of xAPI.  He has been driving it since its inception as Tin Can and worked tirelessly promoting the benefits for our community of instructional designers and L&D professionals. We'll talk with Aaron about the early days of xAPI and why it was necessary to create in a world dominated by SCORM.  And while SCORM...

Having instructional design skills and knowledge can open up many different career paths. The easiest distinction for many is either being in education/higher ed or going the corporate route. If you decided to go the corporate route, you would typically land in the HR department designing training solutions for internal employees. However, more and more IDs are making the shift to corporate produc...

Learning Engineer may sound like a fancy new title for instructional designers, but it's so much more than that. The current state of our "industry" is spread quite thin across many domains. There is art, science, technology, humanity, politics, business, and so much more all part of the work we do as corporate training professionals of one form or another. Learning Engineering finally brings it a...

So much changed in the spring of 2020. In our L&D world there was a massive shift to online learning to deal with the elimination of in-person events. Two-and-a-half years later online virtual and hybrid sessions are still a highly popular way of delivering training. Our industry has had time to settle in with tools like Teams and Zoom – but how many of us have actually been able to shift to using...

DevLearn is always filled with new solutions, forward thinking conversations, and great people. This episode of IDIODC will be a special DevLearn episode to discuss the most exciting new trends in eLearning. Most of these trends will be on display during the event, so it's a great opportunity to discuss and experience the future of eLearning. You may be wondering why we don't have a guest listed....

There are many frustrations working in Corporate Learning & Development. And there are many opinions as to why Learning & Development, and training departments struggle to be recognized as important parts of the business. Mark Oehlert joins us with what may, or may not, be one of the most controversial reasons why L&D struggles. And could it really be as simple as how the accounting department acc...

Designing and developing instruction is a creative and fun process.  But it can also be filled with boring and frustrating details and "administrivia". In the not so distant past automating simple workflow processes meant learning to code and programming sequenced tasks, or worse, doing them yourself, over and over again, manually. But not any more. Mike Taylor joins us to talk about no-code tools...

Visual design is a big part of building successful learning experiences. Whether you’re an instructional designer producing training or an ID that manages a team that creates your vision, you have to be tuned into the presentation of visual information. How slides are laid out can make, or break, the learning experience. Rachel Allen Dillon returns to IDIODC with more powerful visual designs that...

What happens when experienced Hollywood professionals join the corporate training industry and begin to solve real world safety and training problems? I get very curious. That's what happens. And when I find out they're creating successful training using Hollywood storytelling skills instead of instructional design methods, then I invite them to be on IDIODC to talk about it. Jim Piechocki is part...

Storyboarding is only one part of the instructional design process.  But storyboarding is a craft that's been around for a very long time, and used in the design process of many creative endeavors.  There are many different techniques for storyboarding as well.  Some IDs will start with pen and paper sketching out their concepts.  Others use templates in digital applications.  And many designers w...

Nudge-Learning. Is it micro-learning? Is it slow-drip learning? It is work-flow learning? Whatever it is, it's become another hot new term being used amongst instructional design communities.  It's a new one for me, so of course we needed to learn more about it.  I reached out on LinkedIn, commented on an article about it, and found Amy Parent from Salience Learning. Amy is an experienced and pass...

Communicating clearly is probably the most difficult thing anyone can do in business.  Our job as Instructional Designers is often to make better communication happen under the guise of "we need everyone to be better trained on _______".  It doesn't matter what level you are at within your training team or the overall organization.  Everyone from the new intern to the experienced CLO needs to impr...

The Organization Enablement movement is coming. But what is it? And how does this impact our role in corporate training learning and development? Since corporate culture starts at the top, here's a few questions to ask yourself. How are you facilitating growth in your organization? Do you define growth based on revenue? Or maybe it's based on the number of people in your organization. What if you...

Our Drink'n'Draw host, Kevin Thorn, recently took his family to Disney World and he sketchnoted the entire experience.   Of course he did. If you think this doesn't have any relationship or impact on your work, well, you'd be wrong. Analyzing business processes is a mandatory part of L&D work.  We listen.  We ask questions.  We watch. And then magic happens... poof... instructional objectives are...

The corporate 9 to 5 isn't for everyone, and never has been. In a post-pandemic world nobody is even really sure what "work" looks like any more. Are you going back into the office? Maybe, you're in the office for half the week and working from home the other half. Or maybe not. It's been a frustrating experience for many, and a liberating experience for others. Why liberating? Well, some IDs used...

Did you know the same percentage of employees who quit due to pay also quit for not having career advancement opportunities (63% - Pew Research)? We talk a lot about the technologies and processes used by instructional designers, but have you ever thought about how important your role is in providing career opportunities for others? It's easy to focus on the details of our work, and it's important...