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Transitioning from education to instructional design
Transitioning from education to instructional design
Melanie Knight has been doing some great posts sharing her notes and reflections as she learns about instructional design and transitions her career. This article is a reflection on her journey so far and the ways she has been learning and sharing. She also includes a list of resources that she has learned from.
·linkedin.com·
Transitioning from education to instructional design
The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information - Forte Labs
The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information - Forte Labs
This is outside my usual learning-related resource, but I think it's relevant to IDs and elearning developers because we tend to generate loads of digital files. We also frequently have multiple projects happening simultaneously (and if you do freelance or consulting work, those projects are on different systems). This article is about a method for both clearly identifying your projects and tasks as well as organizing the resources to support them.
·fortelabs.com·
The PARA Method: A Universal System for Organizing Digital Information - Forte Labs
The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books | The New Yorker
The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books | The New Yorker
The history of the Choose Your Own Adventure series and how it evolved over time. Branching scenario training even gets a brief mention (as "Branching Path Simulations" for training nurses). If you're looking for practical tips for creating branching narratives, this isn't that article. However, if you loved the original books and are curious about the history, it is interesting.
You didn’t necessarily identify with the unnamed “you” who starred in each book. It was more that each protagonist offered you an alternative to yourself, or forty alternatives to yourself. The second person was less like a mirror and more like a costume.
The fact of multiple endings offers a sense of freedom and safety at once, reconciling two conflicting desires of childhood: autonomy and protection.
Randomness was never part of his compositional strategy. “My philosophy was that it should be like life,” he tells you. Smart decisions were more likely to result in a better outcome but wouldn’t always guarantee it. Virtuous choices didn’t always pay off.
Anson always writes one “Golden Ticket” ending where you get exactly what you want, and a few “Golden Ticket minus one” paths where you get almost everything, but not quite.
·newyorker.com·
The Enduring Allure of Choose Your Own Adventure Books | The New Yorker
Standard Operating Procedures: The Foundation of a Freelancing or Consulting Business • Kai Davis
Standard Operating Procedures: The Foundation of a Freelancing or Consulting Business • Kai Davis
Free Google Doc template for creating SOPs for freelancers. For a one-person business, this documentation doesn't have to be very fancy--but it does help to document processes to improve your efficiency. You don't have to keep making the same decisions over and over about what comes next if you write down some processes, even for yourself.
·kaidavis.com·
Standard Operating Procedures: The Foundation of a Freelancing or Consulting Business • Kai Davis
Does Text Alignment Matter for Accessibility and Usability?
Does Text Alignment Matter for Accessibility and Usability?
Centering text makes it harder to read, especially for longer paragraphs. This hurts accessibility and usability.
The reason why center text alignment is horrible for user experience is that with each new line the user reads, there is a brief moment where the user has to find where the next line begins – decreasing the users reading speed.
In my opinion centered paragraphs are only acceptable up to a point, 3 lines of text to be specific. Anymore, it becomes too displeasing to read each line after.
Primary page titles should be okay centered as they tend to not have as many words and therefore lines of text. Most page titles aren’t long enough that text alignment becomes an issue with usability. However, with secondary titles (h2’s) and anything under should always be left-aligned to match its paragraph text.
Left text alignment should be used in 95% of cases to help your readers read at an optimal, undiminished reading speed.
You can use center alignment in small doses like main page headings without detracting from the user’s experience.
Only use justified text for mediums where its commonplace like material books or e-books.
The only commonplace acceptable use of right alignment is navigations on websites.
·thewebsitearchitect.com·
Does Text Alignment Matter for Accessibility and Usability?
Why You Should Never Center Align Paragraph Text
Why You Should Never Center Align Paragraph Text
Longer text should be left aligned, not centered, to improve readability
Left aligned text is easier to read than centered text for paragraphs. This is because when you center your text, the starting place of each line changes. This forces your users to work harder to find where each line begins to continue reading. Without a straight left edge, there is no consistent place where users can move their eyes to when they complete each line.
·uxmovement.com·
Why You Should Never Center Align Paragraph Text
Viral Post Generator
Viral Post Generator
An AI took for writing a viral LinkedIn post--the kind with one sentence per paragraph and some vaguely inspirational advice that the LinkedIn algorithm loves. Use the slider to control the "cringe level" of the text. While this is good just for a funny break in your day, I could see using this as an Easter Egg in a scenario or a mockup in an elearning course.
·viralpostgenerator.com·
Viral Post Generator
Strategies for Humanizing Training
Strategies for Humanizing Training
Rance Green summarizes the structure for instructional story design.
<div class="lw-widget-in learnworlds-main-text learnworlds-element learnworlds-main-text-normal" data-element-id="textNormal" data-node-type="text" id="el_1658785768982_396" style="">To sum up this structure, it looks like this:&nbsp;<br></div><h4 class="lw-widget-in learnworlds-heading4 learnworlds-heading4-large learnworlds-element" data-element-id="textNormal" data-node-type="text" id="el_1658786051875_436" style=""><div style="text-align: center;">STORY <span style="color: rgb(255, 132, 0);">&gt; </span>REFELECT <span style="color: rgb(255, 132, 0);">&gt; </span>SOLVE <span style="color: rgb(255, 132, 0);">&gt; </span>FEEDBACK</div></h4><ul class="lw-widget-in lw-cols oneItem-per-row multiple-rows learnworlds-element js-same-content-wrapper" data-node-type="listWrapper" data-element-id="listType1" id="el_1658951004446_1498"> <li class="col no-padding flex-item with-flexible-parts non-flexible js-lw-flexible-wrapper js-same-content-child" data-node-type="listItem" id="el_1658951004451_1508"> <span class="learnworlds-main-text-normal flexible-part learnworlds-icon lw-brand-text fas fa-angle-right" data-node-type="icon" id="el_1658951004453_1509"></span> <div class="flexible-part learnworlds-main-text learnworlds-element learnworlds-main-text-normal" data-node-type="text" id="el_1658951004454_1510">Tell the story first.</div> </li> <li class="col no-padding flex-item with-flexible-parts non-flexible js-lw-flexible-wrapper js-same-content-child" data-node-type="listItem" id="el_1658951004455_1511"> <span class="learnworlds-main-text-normal flexible-part learnworlds-icon lw-brand-text fas fa-angle-right" data-node-type="icon" id="el_1658951004456_1512"></span> <div class="flexible-part learnworlds-main-text learnworlds-element learnworlds-main-text-normal" data-node-type="text" id="el_1658951004457_1513">Ask the learner to reflect on the story.&nbsp;</div> </li> <li class="col no-padding flex-item with-flexible-parts non-flexible js-lw-flexible-wrapper js-same-content-child" data-node-type="listItem" id="el_1658951004458_1514"> <span class="learnworlds-main-text-normal flexible-part learnworlds-icon lw-brand-text fas fa-angle-right" data-node-type="icon" id="el_1658951004458_1515"></span> <div class="flexible-part learnworlds-main-text learnworlds-element learnworlds-main-text-normal" data-node-type="text" id="el_1658951004459_1516">Ask the learner to solve something based on the story.</div> </li> <li class="col no-padding flex-item with-flexible-parts non-flexible js-lw-flexible-wrapper js-same-content-child" data-node-type="listItem" id="el_1658951103925_1569"> <span class="learnworlds-main-text-normal flexible-part learnworlds-icon lw-brand-text fas fa-angle-right" data-node-type="icon" id="el_1658951103924_1567"></span> <div class="flexible-part learnworlds-main-text learnworlds-element learnworlds-main-text-normal" data-node-type="text" id="el_1658951103924_1568">Give the learner feedback on their answers.</div></li></ul>
·schoolofstorydesign.com·
Strategies for Humanizing Training
Success Case Method | Better Evaluation
Success Case Method | Better Evaluation
Overview of Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method for evaluating training programs. In this method, you gather stories from some of the most and least successful participants.
The Success Case Method deliberately looks at the most, and least, successful participants of a program. The purpose is not to examine the average performance - rather, by identifying and examining the extreme cases, it asks: 'When the program works, how well does it work? What is working, and what is not?'.&nbsp;
·betterevaluation.org·
Success Case Method | Better Evaluation
Failure in Branching Scenarios
Failure in Branching Scenarios
Karl Kapp writes on the importance of failure in branching scenarios. The choices and options should reflect common failure points. Karl gives two examples of the types of mistakes that you could include: skipping a step in a process and deviation from the process (doing something incorrectly).
You want learners to fail in an environment where they can receive corrective feedback and learn from their failures rather than make the failure on-the-job in the actual situation such as in front of a customer or violating a safety protocol on a piece of equipment.
·linkedin.com·
Failure in Branching Scenarios
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
You want learners to fail in an environment where they can receive corrective feedback and learn from their failures rather than make the failure on-the-job in the actual situation such as in front of a customer or violating a safety protocol on a piece of equipment.
·linkedin.com·
LinkedIn