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Continue reading →: What IDs Can Learn From Great Sports Coaches
TL:DR – Instruction is important, but incomplete without practice, repetition, and real-time feedback. Watch a great sports coach and you’ll notice something: they don’t just tell athletes what to do. They watch, correct, and drill—over and over. In learning design, we often stop at the “telling,” or the Reaction level…
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Continue reading →: What IDs Can Learn From Stand-up Comedy
TL:DR – Timing, pacing, and audience engagement are critical in both comedy and learning. Great comedians don’t just tell jokes. They understand timing, audience connection, and how to lead people to a punchline with purpose. Instructional designers? We do the exact same thing. (Or at least we should!) Just like…
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Continue reading →: What IDs Can Learn From Horror Movies
TL:DR – Hook first. Structure always. Emotion throughout. Most horror movies don’t build up to something interesting. They start with something interesting. Think about it. Within the first few minutes, someone is missing, bleeding, possessed, or doing something suspicious in a dark basement they should’ve never entered. Why? Because the…
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Continue reading →: What IDs Can Learn From Improv Comedy (Part 2)
TL:DR – While clarity beats complexity, complexity, when used properly, can cure complacency. (What IDs Can Learn From Improv Comedy Part 1) Clarity beats complexity. And while that is 100% true, complexity does have its place. “Yes, and…”, especially when added to gamification, is a great way to add complexity…
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Continue reading →: The Learner’s Journey
Learning is a journey, not a destination. Crafting training as a learning journey is the transformative process that takes individuals from simply encountering new information to mastering it. Whether you’re a corporate trainer, an educator, or a lifelong learner, understanding the stages of this journey (Awareness, Knowledge, Skill, and Mastery)…
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Continue reading →: What IDs Can Learn From Improv Comedy (Part 1)
TL:DR – Collaboration is king. “Yes, and…” is the catalyst for improv – and for instructional design. Collaboration, quick thinking, audience responsiveness, and building on ideas in real time is at the heart of what IDs do. Instructional Designers might not be performing under stage lights, but we can learn…
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Continue reading →: What IDs can learn from Blaise Pascal
TL:DR – Brevity is not bad. Some of you may appreciate Blaise Pascal for his contributions to math and physics. Some of you may appreciate him for his awesome mustache! While I appreciate those qualities about Pascal as well, what I appreciate most is his insight into Instructional Design. Yes.…
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Continue reading →: What IDs Can Learn From IKEA Instructions
TL:DR – Simplicity wins. IKEA instructions are famously wordless, and yet millions of people build furniture with them. Why? Because they are simple, visual, and step-by-step. As Instructional Designers, we sometimes feel pressure to prove how much we know about our topic and audience. In doing so, we often make…
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Continue reading →: What IDs can learn from The ONE Thing (Part 1)
TL:DR – Learning is a journey, because like success, it is sequential and not simultaneous. Instructional Designers can learn a lot from The ONE Thing – specifically, success (and training) is sequential, not simultaneous. The subtitle of The ONE Thing is “The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results.” If you…
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Continue reading →: What Instructional Designers can learn from the most viewed TED Talk
TL:DR – The review process is for refining, not ridiculing. ⸻ In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson presented a TED Talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” With over 75 million views across all platforms, this TED Talk has become the most-watched TED Talk ever. While the entire video is worth watching…