100 e-Learning Books Every Instructional Designer Should Read
A large collection of books on instructional design, elearning, teaching, training, blended learning, scenario-based learning, etc.
Blog posts
What Do You Know: About Brain Science and Adult Learning
When people claim they are designing learning based on "neuroscience" or "brain science," be skeptical. Sometimes it's real cognitive psychology research mislabeled as neuroscience. Sometimes it's fake research.
Cognitive science has to do with the mind and mental processes, such as thinking, learning, and problem solving at the human (or other organism) level.<em> </em>Neuroscience has to do with the biology of the nervous system, including how the brain works, at the anatomical level such as neurons.
Bottom line: When you hear claims about <em>neuro</em> or <em>brain</em> related to training, you should ask: Is it cognitive science or is it made up?
Scenario-Based Training for Workforce L&D
How scenario-based training reduces the time required to develop expertise, plus links to other articles and resources (including my blog posts)
Great Storytelling and Compliance Training an Obvious Match | Learning Solutions Magazine
Weaving stories into compliance training helps keeps learners engaged. Includes quotes and descriptions of examples used by several companies on how they implemented it. These aren't straightforward traditional elearning; one is a podcast, another uses episodic training with characters who return over time to build their story.
Learning Technology Mystery Series Presents “The Case of the Disengaged Learner” with Cara North - The Training, Learning, and Development Community
Cara North's recorded presentation on engagement in learning. Engagement can be cognitive, behavioral, or emotional. Additional resources at go.osu.edu/disengaged
Scenario examples for training – Learn instructional design for the workplace from Cathy Moore
A collection of example scenarios from multiple sources, built in multiple tools. Cathy describes each scenario and asks questions to help you reflect about the design.
The Ultimate L&D Podcast Guide - Training Industry
Extensive list of podcasts related to learning, training, instructional design, and technology
Celestory - Create your customized training
Tool for creating branching scenario training or interactive games. I haven't tried this yet, but there's a free version that would be enough to test it out. The tool collects data on user behavior. The website says it's using AI to analyze behavior, but it's not quite clear exactly what that AI is doing.
How Long Does It Take to Develop Training? New Question, New Answers.
Updated ATD research on the time to develop training
Does anyone design for an hour of training? Not really. The chart below shows how the 264 respondents identified which types of training products they develop and the minimum, maximum, and average times it took to create each.
Learning Development Pricing Calculator - LXD Central
I appreciate the detailed breakdowns of time estimates per task in this article. This would be a very helpful way to create a project plan, even if you've never created an ILT or elearning course before.
However, note the caveat about the hourly rate at the bottom. The calculator uses $60 or $65/hour for pricing, but that's what a vendor would pay its own employees. If you're buying from a vendor, the cost is likely much higher. (Although apparently I'm not taking nearly enough profit for myself if vendors are typically pricing at 2.5 times their cost.)
<span style="font-size: 1rem;">How much should you pay for a learning solution? Why does one vendor quote $5,000 and another $20,000? At its core, the price of a learning solution is a very simple equation – </span><strong style="font-size: 1rem;">Rate x Effort = Price.</strong>
For those organizations that buy learning from third-party vendors these prices may seem quite low, and they are. The $65 rate is commensurate with what one of those companies would pay an employee but does not include all of the overheads, cost of sale, and profit that company would typically account for in the price. As a rule of thumb, a custom learning company will price at about 60% gross margin, which in short-hand means you multiple direct costs by 2.5.
2024 L&D Predictions: Insights from Industry Pros
IDLance asked me and several other L&D professionals what the biggest trend will be in 2024. Unsurprisingly, AI was the most popular answer, but it wasn't the only one. Read my response and how Will Thalheimer, Stella Lee, Craig McMichael, and John Findling answered the question of the biggest L&D trend for 2024.