Welcome back from Summer break! I am so excited to see that my blogging neighbors have moved in - Bill Hazen, Anamarie Root and Diana Silberman. We work together, and now we blog together. It doesn't get much better than that.
My blog's focus will continue to be planning and designing training - and all of the glorious steps one needs to take in order to create a quality instructional design. You may wonder why this great honor has been bestowed upon me. My passion is writing, I just love words, love manipulating and molding them into my personal style. Imagine getting paid to do something you really enjoy. And enjoy I do. Just the other day, my granddaughter, the brilliant and beautiful Kristen, informed me that she is creating a family newsletter (chip off the old block perhaps?) and wants me to be the editor/advisor. Another great honor, but for that one I work for free.
Enough of a reintroduction. Let's get back on track; the planning track to be exact. What does planning have to do with creating an instructional design? Everything. Without planning, there will be no quality, and quality is the name of the design game. Before you allow your fingers to fly across the keyboard, before you create your first activity, before you think about your very clever opening, your pre-writing checklist should include these questions:
Why are you designing? (needs assessment)
My blog's focus will continue to be planning and designing training - and all of the glorious steps one needs to take in order to create a quality instructional design. You may wonder why this great honor has been bestowed upon me. My passion is writing, I just love words, love manipulating and molding them into my personal style. Imagine getting paid to do something you really enjoy. And enjoy I do. Just the other day, my granddaughter, the brilliant and beautiful Kristen, informed me that she is creating a family newsletter (chip off the old block perhaps?) and wants me to be the editor/advisor. Another great honor, but for that one I work for free.
Enough of a reintroduction. Let's get back on track; the planning track to be exact. What does planning have to do with creating an instructional design? Everything. Without planning, there will be no quality, and quality is the name of the design game. Before you allow your fingers to fly across the keyboard, before you create your first activity, before you think about your very clever opening, your pre-writing checklist should include these questions:
Why are you designing? (needs assessment)
Who are your participants? (audience)
What will be your your participant outcomes? (Start with the end in mind - SMART Objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely)
How will you initiate the transfer of new knowledge or skills to the workplace/classroom? (job-embedded follow-up activity)
How will you know your learners have "gotten it"? (evaluation strategies)
If you can answer the above questions, then indeed your ducks are all in a row and you can begin my favorite part - write away.
I would love to hear from you. If you have read an article or a book about designing, if you have an idea or an experience that might benefit our readers or perhaps a burning question that I can answer, please address it on this blog.
See you again soon.
I'm blogging out of here.
Kyna
