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Instructional Design Consulting: Teaching the How and Not Just What
Scene: Dental Clinic Not one to enjoy dental trips, my anxiety grew as I waited to be worked on. The dental assistant had me x-rayed (again, to ensure the insurance company would pay for it) and inserted a tent-like contraption into my mouth. The dentist arrived, injected the gums near my ailing tooth with novocaine, and proceeded to drill and probe while her assistant poked different pieces of equipment into my mouth. Gosh, how could one’s mouth hold up to so much prodding and stretching? Overwhelmed, I raised my left hand to signal to them…
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DesignFix for the Week of 9-11 to 9-17-17
This weekend, I took time off to do the important — sharpen the saw (Covey’s 7th habit of highly effective people). Here’s what I found on the internet on productivity, designers and design ideas. Why Deep Work Helps You Get More Done in Less Time As a fan of Sherry Turkle’s Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital World, I’ve come to appreciate more and more the need to disconnect periodically. Srinivas Rao, author of Unmistakable: Why Only Is Better Than Best, discusses the importance of intense focus. Try…
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How I Manage Multiple ID Work Projects
Today, I’ll answer a question I’m often asked as an instructional design (ID) professional: “How do you manage multiple course projects under your charge?” If you are looking for a panacea, there is none. I believe everyone figures out a way that works best for him/her. When I have limited time, I simply tell the person asking that I have to be very organized. With a bit more time, I’ll elaborate on my response to this question. Here’s what I do to become very organized in order to juggle multiple projects of high…
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Crafting a Learning-Centered Syllabus
Every course design is philosophy and belief in action. –Manifesto for Teaching Online, written by teachers and researchers in online education, University of Edinburgh 2011 [This was first posted in Engaged Learning blog, another blog I maintain for work. This is a companion blog post to the eLearning Bulletin Board Poster on the 4th Floor of Wohlers Hall, College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The poster is an abridged version of what a motivational syllabus looks like. It is intended to serve as a discussion stimulus only.] As instructors,…
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Quick Tips to Writing Effective MCQ Items
Writing MCQs or Multiple Choice Question assessment items is a regular part of my professional life as an educator and learning designer. In working with many TAs (teaching assistants), instructors have asked me questions about writing MCQs, guidelines that could help these budding teachers write better MCQ items. I knew that there was a need for me to document some tips on writing effective MCQs. In February, a POD Network listserv subscriber asked for resources on writing effective MCQs. Several subscribers generously shared some very helpful resources. It’s the end of June, almost, I’ve finally found the…
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“Beautifying” Slides
I have some resistance to that phrase, hence the inspiration for my reflection today. It carries some connotation that the work is meaningless (this may not be the intent of the speakers) and that is not what I’m doing or my intent. Part of my job as an online ID involves reviewing slides that instructors use in their videos. My review entails looking at all dimensions of slide design, not so much the content, but I try to check if the phrasing is understandable to me, the outsider. At times, I create icons and graphs that don’t…
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Online Teaching Tune-Up
My unit is starting a series of faculty professional development brown bags on online teaching. Rolling out this Wednesday is a session by Dr. Gary Hecht. He will share strategies and examples he used for facilitating live (real-time) sessions based on his experience teaching in the iMBA program. I have created a digital invitation for this purpose. I will write more after the session, where I will be live tweeting. University of Illinois faculty and staff can enroll on the registration page so that we have an idea of how…
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Competency-Based Education 101: An Animated Tale
Related to the previous post, these videos were created as part of the CBE module using GoAnimate. Want to learn more about the “new” educational approach? Check out my videos. A new focus on Competency-Based Education (CBE) [1:17 min] A quick survey of CBE [2:25 min] Some questions about the CBE approach [1:25 min]
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Design Challenge: 30 Minutes of Learning
I have been working on a design assignment recently. Here’s the Design Brief: Learners would be academic department chairs, faculty and course developers and only have 30 minutes to commit to learning this module Topic: Competency-Based Learning in Higher Education I had about two weeks to complete this assignment. Some of you may know that I’ve been out of the country for a while and most of my belongings are still out of the country. I operate now in a minimalist mode with only 5% of my belongings. In order to create this module,…
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Learning Bytes: OopsEd, Books and Buzzwords
A Byte of 2016 OLC Accelerate The 2016 OLC Accelerate came to me today via Virtually Connecting. A major takeaway was the reference to what is called accidental learning by Roz Hussin and her students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln – learning from the “Oops” moments of our lives. The following video captured our interaction of ideas with onsite and virtual buddies: Born a Crime This is an enticing book title. It sounds grammatically or syntactically incorrect, but is not, because author Trevor Noah is simply telling us what it meant…
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My Super Power as an Instructional Designer
Someone asked me: What is your super power as an instructional designer (ID)? A terrific question! In these days of rapid technological development and free web tools, I’ll stick my neck out to say that any ID can learn to use multiple tools and acquire a range of credentials and certification in several areas, from project management to accessibility and several other skill areas. These then don’t make me extraordinary. What makes me extraordinary? My mind. Our uniquely powerful minds, and not forgetting our distinctive temperaments with their mental, physical and emotional…
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3 Recent Questions about Assessment
I don’t have to walk far from home to see “education centres” flourishing at almost every turn and corner in my neighborhood. The tuition industry in Singapore is a billion-dollar industry. I’ve been told that a certain tutor has become a millionaire without having to step out from his home, his tuition center. Why don’t I reap some of this rich harvest too, friends and family ask? No, not a snob, I’m just still thinking about how to reconcile this with my professional goals and educational philosophy. Are Singaporeans obsessed with standardized…
