Learning to Design: Course Design Made Easy with Sarah Wilson
Are you interested in instructional design? Instructional designers have never been in such great demand. Whether you've been asked to create some training at work, or to whip up a presentation, or even to create some kind of elearning, you're in the right place. Have you ever felt like creating great learning content is a bit tricky or maybe just out of reach? Do you ever wonder about how you can make your learning designs more interesting and effective? Do you know how to really connect with learners? In this podcast, Sarah is going to break things down and show you that it's not as complicated as it might seem. Sarah has been a professional instructional designer in the public and private sectors for people of all ages for more than 20 years and she's also got the formal education to back it up! She is here to guide you every step of the way on your learning to design journey. With each episode, she'll provide some handy notes and tools to assist you. Instructional design is a fantastic way to impact everyone in school, the workplace, or just about anywhere people need to get things done.
Got a question or topic you're curious about? Email Sarah at sarahw@learningtodesign.com.
Learning to Design: Course Design Made Easy with Sarah Wilson
Jumping to Training? 10 Micro-Assessment Ideas to Try: Tales of Mismatched Socks and IT Challenges
Ever found yourself struggling with a problem, only to realize you've been tackling it from the wrong angle? Let Sarah guide you on an insightful journey through the maze of problem-solving with the help of two engaging characters - Sam, the sock enthusiast, and Max, the IT guru. Stay tuned as Sam embarks on a quest to unravel the mystery of mismatched socks, and Max battles against productivity issues in his company. Both their stories unfold to reveal the crux of their issues and the importance of a thorough needs analysis before seeking solutions.
You can still access the free learning analysis tool. You will hear about 10 micro-assessment/practical methods such as surveys, polls, interviews, and feedback cards to help you determine whether training is the answer.
Please share, like, and comment on our podcast, which helps us reach new horizons. You can check out my online portfolio in the show notes. I appreciate and thank you all for being a part of my expanding podcast family. Until next time, happy problem solving!
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Hi, it's Sarah. With Learning to Design, today we're going to talk a little bit more about understanding what training needs to be done before working on that training. Last episode, I provided a link for you to receive a free tool that will help you with this initial planning process. It is still available. If you look in the podcast notes, you can find it there, and I encourage you to download it and use it. It's totally free and I made it just for you. Okay, so I'm going to tell you a story Settle in everyone. It's the mismatched sock solution.
Speaker 0:In a small town named Cozyville lived Sam, who had a very particular problem. Sam had a drawer full of mismatched socks and it was absolutely frustrating. They were determined to solve this sock conundrum once and for all. Sam assumed that the problem was with their sock folding technique. They invested hours and hours watching YouTube tutorials on the perfect sock folding method. They diligently followed the steps, even practicing late into the night, until they were an absolute expert at folding socks. They were very excited to see the results of this when they emptied the next load out of the dryer.
Speaker 0:Despite their efforts, the mismatched socks continued to haunt Sam. Frustrated and sleep deprived, they decided to seek advice from a friend named Alex. Alex chuckled and simply said well, did you ever consider checking the washing machine? Sam was puzzled by this and followed Alex's advice and inspected the washing machine and, lo and behold, it was swallowing one sock from each pair during every wash cycle All along. The washing machine was the culprit, not the folding skills. Just like Sam's sock conundrum, the real problem can be entirely different from what we initially assumed. Just like Sam focused on sock folding instead of the washing machine, it's essential that we conduct a thorough needs analysis before developing the training. Otherwise, we might end up fixing something that isn't even broken, like perfecting our already good enough sock folding techniques while the washing machine eats our socks. That's a silly example about mismatched socks, but we can apply that to the workforce as well, pretty easily.
Speaker 0:Let's go over to IT Town. There's this person, an IT guru called Max. Max is well known for his exceptional problem solving skills and his ability to fix any computer related issues that come his way. One day, he receives a call from a very large company called Global Tech. The company was facing a severe productivity problem amongst its employees. Global Tech's management believed that the employees lacked technical skills needed to use the company's complex software tools efficiently. You can see where this is going right. They thought that providing advanced technical training would be the solution to their productivity problems. Max, being very eager to help, and an expert at IT, began developing an elaborate training program that would enhance the employees' technical skills. He created modules on software troubleshooting, advanced programming, data analysis and more. He was super confident that this training would solve all of these productivity issues that Global Tech was facing.
Speaker 0:However, as the training sessions progressed, max noticed that the employees didn't seem to enjoy the training at all. In fact, they were becoming increasingly frustrated and disengaged and generally unhappy. They struggled with the complex technical concepts and their productivity declined as they received more training not the result we're looking for. Max decided to take a step back and watch the employees. He went and observed the employees in their natural work environment and he was surprised to discover that, while the company's software tools were indeed complex, the root cause of the productivity problem was nothing to do with the employees' technical skills at all. It was actually the software. The software was outdated, slow and riddled with bugs. Max approached Global Tech's management with his findings and explained the employees weren't the problem at all. Actually it was the software. He recommended that, instead of this advanced technical training, the company invest in upgrading their software tools to improve efficiency and user friendliness. Global Tech followed Max's advice and, after a successful software upgrade, the employees' productivity soared and they no longer struggled with the outdated system and their work became much more efficient and enjoyable. This is another metaphorical story that describes the importance of understanding the problem before developing the training or solutions. Just like in Max's case, assuming that skills are the problem, which happens so often, led to the development of an ineffective training program that only exacerbated the problem and, might I add, would have added a ton of cost to the company also, would have wasted a lot of Max's time.
Speaker 0:This tool that I made that you can get for free, will walk you through some questions that would have led you to determine that it's actually not the employee's skills that were the problem, that it was a resource that was failing them, like the outdated software. You could determine that by using the tool. So how do you determine the root cause of a problem if you've never actually done this before? Well, okay, I'm going to stop talking about the tool now, I promise. But use the tool, but also there are some other things you can do that are very quick and effective. Here are some really quick ways to gather some valuable insights.
Speaker 0:Now, this is just to scratch the surface, but it's a good place to start. You can do surveys, so short, targeted surveys with just a few key questions to gauge the learner's prior knowledge, expectations or preferences. You can do this with Google Forms or Survey Monkey to make the process more efficient. You can do polls, like using Mentimeter or Poll Everywhere to ask quick multiple choice or open-ended questions during a live session or presentation to gather instant feedback. That's really fun. People can use their cell phones to do these instant polls. You can have brief one-on-one interviews, very informally but very focused, with a few representative learners. Even just a five to ten minute conversation can yield so many valuable insights.
Speaker 0:A discussion forum set up something online where learners can share their thoughts and questions related to the issue at hand. Monitoring these discussions can provide insights into their needs and concerns. You can use physical or digital feedback cards so learners can quickly fill them out at the end of the session. The cards might include questions like what did you find most challenging today or what topics would you like to explore further? Do not just ask about the coffee in the room. We can talk a lot about learning evaluation and we will in a future episode but even just getting this information simply on a feedback card can be really helpful.
Speaker 0:Pre-assessment we can ask learners to review and provide feedback on each other's work and contribution. This actually helps reveal their perceptions of what's important and what needs improvement. Pre-assessment quizzes have a short quiz at the beginning of an already developed course or module to gain their existing knowledge. It helps you identify knowledge gaps and tailor the content accordingly. Use social media to make a poll. Use platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn or Teams to run quick polls or ask questions related to the course topic. This can actually engage a broader audience and provide insights into general sentiments and interests.
Speaker 0:Digital analytics let's say you're working with e-learning platforms or websites. Analyze the user data what are people accessing the most? Where are people spending the most time? What are they looking for? This information is so helpful in indicating what they're interested in and what they need.
Speaker 0:Quick needs assessment meetings Digital, short, focused meetings with stakeholders, subject matter experts and learners to discuss their immediate needs and expectations. So here's the thing. This is just micro assessment. Keep it focused, relevant, easy for learners to participate in, and these quick methods can provide you with valuable insights without consuming too much time or resources, because this could be an expensive project, but it doesn't have to be. I'll just name the 10 things again Quick surveys, general polls, one-on-one interviews, information forums, feedback cards, peer assessment, peer assessment quizzes, social media polling, digital analytics and quick needs assessment meetings. There you go 10 quick micro assessment strategies for you to use right now.
Speaker 0:I'll provide links in the episode notes to everything I mentioned, such as LinkedIn or SurveyMonkey, etc. So you can access those there. You can also access my website and I will be sure to leave that link for that free learning needs assessment tool, just for you. It's really cool. I hope you check it out. I'm really pleased with it and I had a lot of fun preparing it. Just for you.
Speaker 0:If this podcast is resonating with you at all or it helped you rethink an approach you might have had to training, please tell other people about it, please share it, please tell me about it, help spread the word and let's make sure more organizations are benefiting from making more informed instructional design choices. Don't forget also that sharing, liking or commenting on this podcast is a free way for you to support it and for me to continue to be able to support you and your instructional design journey by providing you with tools, tips, resources and tricks that I've learned along the way to help you in your instructional design journey. Thank you so much for listening today. It really means a lot to me. Check out my online portfolio in the show notes if you'd like to see a sample of my work and come back Listen again. I'm Sarah and I've really enjoyed sharing this with you today. Until next time.
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