How I View Training
I focus most of my time on problem analysis and training evaluation. More specifically, I like to know answers to questions such as:
Is the project adequately scoped, and are the correct tasks and behaviors being addressed?
Are evaluation metrics built into the design? Will we be able to get ROI numbers easily from the trained population?
Does the training focus on the action? Is it performance-based? Does it have the right components to learn and practice with adequate positive and corrective feedback if it is?
How I View Instructional Design
As a learning designer and project manager, I view instructional design as a cohesive series of projects. I focus on problem analysis, identification, and training evaluation. Knowing the objective of the training and how it will be evaluated, and to what extent it will be evaluated is almost a hobby for me.
I prefer the Dick and Carrey, SAM (Successive Approximation Model), and Kemp approach to training-not ADDIE, which in my mind, produces cookie-cutter training.
I also use the Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model by Thalheimer.
I use the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) philosophy: adults learn best when the training meets a current need, answers an existing problem, or furthers their career.
I love to work with SMEs because I learn so much from them.
Not every piece of training requires a game.
Updates are a fact of life.
How I Approach Instructional Design Projects
Most of the training I’ve designed follows the path below: from analysis and findings to evaluation, including treating each piece of training as a project.