Confessions of an Instructional Designer

I failed Will Thalheimer's Learning Research Quiz. I was mortified. I've been doing this for over ten years and I did terrible. How can I even call myself an instructional designer?

It turns out that I'm not alone. Will just published the results of the Learning Research Quiz (2002-2007).

The 32% average score---and the stubborn lack of improvement regardless of
experience, education, and age---suggests that most people in the
learning-and-performance field are unprepared for roles as designers of
learning, at least as far as their ability to apply knowledge of learning
research.

It was a hard quiz. I took my time and thought carefully about the answers. And I probably only got about 32% (although I didn't track my score).

What I have done -- and what I would recommend everyone do -- is all of the suggested follow-up. I took the quiz then immediately reviewed the feedback and results. I scheduled a follow-up review for myself a few days later in Outlook (repetition, spacing). And then another follow-up a few weeks after that.

What I've found is that some of the information has actually stuck. Meaning, I think I done learned me something.

What exactly? Repetition, spacing, prequestions/pretesting, learning objectives/performance objectives, relevance, delayed feedback, etc. The obvious stuff...Instructional Design 101.

Now -- if I can just get back to actually doing instructional design from all the project managing I've been doing....