Top Resources for Instructional Designers

So where do you send new practitioners for ideas and inspiration? Here’s a list I recently compiled for some new members on my team.

Allen Partridge Adobe Captivate Blog
For those of you who work with Captivate, you can’t miss Allen Partridge’s blog -- practical know-how with a spark.
http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/author/allenp

Articulate’s Online Community
Lots of sharing of templates and ideas in the user community.
http://community.articulate.com/

Cathy Moore
Cathy Moore is a smarty-pants in the elearning community who’s got a bit of Kineo flair to her style with a real focus on “doing.” She has a process she calls “action mapping”.
http://blog.cathy-moore.com/

Clark Quinn
Clark is a man of passion and principle, admonishing us to avoid committing ID Practice and calling out the hogwash in the industry.
http://blog.learnlets.com/

Connie Malamed “The eLearning Coach”
Connie writes a lot of posts that use the word “cognitive”. She helps translate theory to practice and has also just created a great little iphone app of useful ID terms.
http://theelearningcoach.com/

ID Guru iphone App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/instructional-design-guru/id452974687?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Judy Unrein
Judy’s a big geek and I love her for that. She knows about things like HTML5 and 508 Compliance. And she’s big into tools (even has a new podcast with Brian Dusablon in which they drink beer while talking about tools: The Toolbar).
http://onehundredfortywords.com/

Kineo Website
And then there’s our very own website, chock full of case studies, interviews, free guides and loads of elearning top tips.
http://www.kineo.com/us/elearning-tips/
Be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter: http://www.kineo.com/us/kineo-newsletter.html

Screenr
Need design inspiration or how-to-tips for creating that really cool PowerPoint effect? Check out the screenr gallery and my personal favorite: Dave Anderson of Articulate: http://www.screenr.com/user/elearning

Tom Kuhlman’s Rapid eLearning Blog
Tom is the VP of Community at Articulate and quite a rockstar.
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Will Thalheimer
Will helps bridge theory and research to practical application -- keeping us on our toes and inspiring us all to better practice. Although he’s been a bit quiet in the blogging world of late, rumor has it that Will is actively at work on a new book that takes a look at the research and translates it into information you can actually use.
http://www.willatworklearning.com/

Want more?
Explore Jane Hart’s ever-growing list of bloggers and tweeters.
http://c4lpt.co.uk/connexions/wpl.html

ID Guru: A new iPhone App for instructional designers

That Connie Malamed (@elearningcoach) is one smart cookie. 

And now she’s created, through an act of devotion and love to her profession, an iPhone resource for Instructional Designers.

It’s a glossary of ID terms – over 450 terms in all – in an easy to use and very hyperlinked format.

 

Need to sound smart in a client meeting, but missing that important term? Find it here.

Need a refresher on Bloom’s Taxonomy? It’s here.

Not sure exactly what Behaviorism is? It’s here.

I like it for its simplicity and its breadth.  In some cases, examples would make for a useful addition to the tool.

Connie imagined sitting in a dentist’s office and browsing through the app.  I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the dentist since I downloaded it to test out her hypothesis, but I think that’ll be a great use case.

At $4.99 in the iTunes store, you might think this is a pricey App.  Just remember, this will probably have a pretty small niche audience and won’t have the wide appeal of, say Angry Birds, nor did it have the resources of a huge corporation behind it, but rather the long hours and late nights of one woman who wants to give something back to our field.  (Hard to refuse that now, isn’t it?) 

And one more thing: Connie is looking for feedback and input on where she could take this next. So if you have any ideas, be sure to share them with her!

Psst...wanna gossip about elearning?

"Did you see the elearning that that team created? You know the one that was really boring and no one could remember a thing about? Remember how every screen was packed with information and endless text bullets? And how the learners were completely bored but had to sit through it because it was compliance training?"

You did?

Hopefully you weren't the designer on that one!

In this month's top tip on the Kineo website, we explore the juicy subject of gossip and how you can use it to tell better stories.

Photo credit: Gossip by exquisitur

ASTD Salary & Compensation Survey 2011

ASTD has just released their 2011 Salary & Compensation Report for the L&D field.

Let's discuss:

• Median salary for men is $80,000-$90,000; for women it is $70,000-$80,000
• The proportion of men earning $120,000 or more is twice that of women
• Women are not as well represented in higher paying categories of L&D. There is a dearth of women in executive ranks and higher compensated specialties, possessing advanced degrees, or having 20 or more years of experience.

Taking a TechFast

As I’ve reported before, I periodically suffer from SoMeFat (Social Media Fatigue).

It’s perhaps been heightened now with the additional disorder of Multiple Social Network Disorder (Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+ to keep up with!)

So this past week, I left it all behind when my family and I headed to the beach in Maine.  I even left my iPhone at home.  (I know, the unthinkable). 

Here’s the thing, I didn’t miss it at all!

Instead I:

• Enjoyed my delightful children
• Spent time with my husband
• Celebrated yet another year on the planet (yes, a birthday party, complete with decorated shells my daughter made as party favors)
• Boogie boarded and played in the waves endlessly
• Read (OK – it was on my Kindle so I wasn’t completely device free)
• Stared at the ocean
• Rode my bike
• Slept a lot (periodically asleep by 8:30 pm!)
• Took pictures with my camera
• Took pictures with my mind

I feel like – at least for the immediate term – I will change my SoMe consumption habits.  I mean to be a little less on top of it all.  Perhaps a little more structured about when I venture out to check on my Tweets and my FB.  (Although, seriously, with Google+ all bets are off now – we’ve got a shiny new toy to experiment with!)

Are you in need of a TechFast? How do you recharge?

Are you a 1-Stop elearning Shop?

Do you do it all? Are you a one-man/woman show as far as elearning goes in your organization?

Lisa Goldstein (@LisaAGoldstein) is looking for some data!  Please take her survey and share your stats.

Clicky-Clicky Bling-Bling Part 2

Part two of my article: Avoiding the Trap of Clicky-Clicky Bling-Bling is up on eLearn Magazine.

 

And if you missed part one, by all means….click here.

 

 

Photo credit: my bling bling by pheezy