Favorite Blogs

As I embark on my career as an Instructional Designer, I have found many blogs that inspire me to design creative, innovative, and successful learning experiences.  

Here are three blog sites I have added to my favorites list: 

ACTION@WORK - Cathy Moore

Ms. Moore blog has tips and tricks for instructional designers to create “lively” training. Her blog offer topics, links to other resources, and eBooks.

For instance:

·         Learning Objectives: Our frenemy

From past experiences, I have learned the importance of defining the learning objectives. Ms. Moore provides three questions that will help me define learning objectives in the future. Do people actually need to “learn” something? Are we writing useful objectives for the formal training bits? Who needs to see the objectives? Ms. Moore gives details and points for each question. I plan to use these questions in my future projects as an Instructional Designer.

·         5 ways to become an L&D hero

Ms. Moore states, “I vow to become a hero to my learners and clients. I’ll save them from boring information dumps and wasted money. I’ll help them enjoy their jobs and see real-world improvement. I’ll save the world from boring training!” This is a commitment I plan to keep as an Instructional Designer. I think it is a great motto for a company.

·         Action mapping book now available

Ms. Moore give readers an opportunity to read a large portion of her new book, Map It. Viewers are able to read the book for free on Amazon.

Ms. Moore has many more posts on her blog that I find interesting, inspiring, and motivating. Because of her witty and light-hearted posts, I will refer to this blog as I pursue my career as an Instructional Designer.

The eLearning Coach- Connie Malamed

Connie Malamed posts tricks, tips, podcasts, and links to other experts in the field of instructional design. I was intrigued by the conversations she posts on her blog with guests like Hadiya Nuriddin (Certified Professional in Learning and Performance) and Myra Roldan (senior technical program manager at Amazon Web Services). Both women share great technical, business, and adult learning tips and tricks in their conversation with Ms. Malamed. The give real-world scenarios providing expert resolutions.

Connie’s blog provides resources and tools that encourages instructional designers to be as creative and innovative as possible. Connie writes in her blog labeled Creativity In Instructional Design: A Creative Instructional Design Model, “The digital transformation of the workplace means we need new approaches to learning, training and education. Information changes rapidly. People have rapid access to the information they need. Teamwork and collaboration are high priority skills. This is the perfect time to turn on the creative juice to meet the needs of the 21at century workforce.”

SH!FT

SH!FT states that their blog site “provides the best practices, tips, and inspiration for corporate training, instructional design, eLearning and mLearning.” SH!FT has blog posts submitted by various authors that are meaningful, and I can use to leverage my value as an instructional designer. One of my favorite posts is labeled, How Do I Get My Company to Take Instructional Design Seriously? In the post, the writer gives 5 valuable reasons why an employer should take instructional design seriously. My goal is to make sure each employer that I meet understands and appreciates the value of an instructional designer.

Another post I find informative and enlightening is titled, 6 Things No One Tells You About Becoming an eLearning Designer. I love reading posts and articles that provide an insight into the working field, beyond the skills needed to become an instructional designer. What happens when I have a creativity block or if I am unable to please a client? This blog is a great resource to answers those questions.