Googley design

Janet, I think there’s actually too much separation between the notion of Instructional Design and other types of User Centred Design.

Sure, the activities, pacing, step size and other elements of ID are different in many ways to, say, building an ecommerce flow for an application, or a search engine.

However, what I see as I trundle through my current MA program with the Moodle implementation we use, or in my own institution’s use of D2L, is that there is not nearly enough ‘experience design principles’ or UCD principles applied to the web approach to distance learning.

While pedagogy and epistemology are important things for an ID professional to understand, that most web designers don’t have to contend with, I think many online and distance learning artifacts and courses/programs would be much, much better, if educational institutions had more basic web design expertise on their teams for things like LMS or course interface design.

I’ll save the rant about LMS versus the point you’ve included above on web democracy for another time. Most LMS’s don’t allow people to define their own experience or make the work they’re doing more open for informal learning and feedback from a broader audience.

I totally agree with you. I felt the same way during my MA program and more so now in my PhD program. There seems to be a “not our job” mentality. Thanks for saving the rant about LMS & democracy…although that’ll be a fun one to talk about.

- Every millisecond counts.
- Simplicity is powerful.

It apply to bloated websites, blogs, and Nings

Absolutely Eduardo

Great points, Janet! This article presents some interesting points about instructional design techniques as well: “10 Instructional Design Tips for e-Learning Development.” It’s located at http://syberworks.com/articles/10-instructional-design-tips.htm. Check it out!

Dinas last blog post..#26 – Interview with Brooke White, Training Manager for LANDesk Software, Incorporated

Thanks for the link Dina.

2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.

Not sure if I agree with this. Acquiring multiple skills along with multi-tasking has become quite important for instructional designers.

Nice post!

Umesh Bishts last blog post..KIPP

I don’t think that statement means we should not acquire multiple skills and I don’t think it has anything to do with multi-tasking. If you read it simply, it just means you should do one thing really, really well. (i.e., Google and what it does for the world’s information).

I was reading it in the context of ID as you’d suggested. Oh okay! we were just discussing Google’s Corporate Philosophy in your “learning” blog! I see it now. Thanks.

Umesh Bishts last blog post..KIPP

Chill : )

Still, if I look at Google’s idea of doing one thing good (managing the world’s information) in the context of ID, I see the ‘one thing’ philosophy (creating effective learning experience)..instead of doing multiple other things that might get in the way of that (things that don’t require an instructional solution).

I am pretty cool here Still conversing.

I agree with what you say here that a learning professional’s “one thing” is “creating effective learning experience.” It’s kind of complex (the creation I mean and involves skills that can be categorized into different “one things” – designing, writing, programming, usability etc) but yes at the end of the day for an ID its all about effective learning. Hey! Who am I teaching

Umesh Bishts last blog post..KIPP

It is complex isn’t it? Trying to keep it simple and focused is, I think, one of the hardest tasks to master. It’s like having that post-it note next to the computer that says, ‘what am I getting paid to do?’.