E-Learning initiatives

alexxx

You took the words right out of my fingers, Ben! I could not agree with you more....instructional design is the sine qua non of e-learning -- much more important for e-learning than for classroom training even, because you don't have the opportunity to see that your learners aren't getting it and try a different tack. When I evaluated about 35-40 off-the-shelf e-courses from several major vendors for a project we had, I found an appalling number of them, while much prettier and more slick looking than the e-courses I create, had a total lack of sound instructional design behind them. If you haven't had any previous training in instructional design and you can only purchase one item from the list on Ben's site, I'd go with The New Mager Six-Pack. It's not specifically e-learning oriented, but at least you'll get a really good start on learning about good instructional design principles in a very easy-to-read (dare I say even enjoyable?) format.Also, if you have the opportunity to attend a conference, like one of the eLearning Guild's conferences or Training 2009, they sometimes have preconference workshops that teach the fundamentals of e-learning design (as well as lots of other helpful main conference sessions). For example, William and Kit Horton offer a good two-day e-learning "certification" workshop called "E-Learning by Design" workshop at some of these conferences (they can also come to your company and deliver it, but it's not cheap, unless you have a lot of attendees to spread the cost over). After you do some reading (and take one or more courses/workshops, if possible) feel free to also come back here and post any specific questions you might have about ID -- I know that I'm always willing to help folks in that area, in the name of stamping out bad e-learning!Good luck with your new endeavor!Laura