The Future of Instructional Design – New Questions for an ID to Answer

Recently I read a blog post by Tony Bates on an instructional design workshop (Just ID) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). It’s a fascinating read on how Instructional Designers in BC view the challenges facing their profession and its future directions.
Check out the post here:
Tony Bates Blog Post
For me, the most interesting point that Tony Bates made in the post regarded what he called the “elephant in the room” – namely the “the design of campus-based learning experiences when much can be done online.” I would argue that this elephant is also applicable to corporate training/adult education. As more learning technologies (e-learning, screencasting, mlearning, virtual classroom etc … ) become part of the training culture, Instructional Designers will have to develop the tools/models to make decisions about the most appropriate mode or modes of training.
At the moment, these types of decisions are seemingly made with just the budget in mind. But what happens when we begin to think about putting the interests of learners first?

Organizing before using LiveMeeting as a virtual classroom

A virtual classroom has numerous advantages over a classroom – for example, no scheduling or travelling issues.

However, a trainer needs to prepare before using LiveMeeting as a virtual classroom. Here is my do list:

• Test audio/video – confirm with learners that they have headsets etc …
• Upload material in the Handouts section – inform learners where the handouts are and whether they need to print/read the material before class
• Carry out a dry-run – have your material ready and run through whether your videos etc … work ok in the LiveMeeting environment.

The preparation before class will payoff during class.

Here are some more tips on getting organized before a virtual lesson:

http://24tips.elearningnetwork.org/2010/12/preparing-virtual-session/

Forms on Demand – is LiveMeeting a training solution?

Forms on Demand is a piece of software that allows users to print forms related to specific patients. Training staff on this software was classroom based and approximately 1 hour long. However, feedback from staff indicated that there were problems with both the fact the training was classroom based (scheduling people to be in one location at one time was problematic) and the length of the course (the simplicity of the software for some users meant the course felt too long).

To overcome these challenges it was suggested that other training solutions could be offered.

After some discussion, it was suggested that the length of the course could be overcome through self-learning. This self-leanring would take the form of videos and a quick reference guide.

To overcome the problem of being classroom based, it was suggested that a virtual classroom environment could be used. As LiveMeeting had been recently rolled out, it seemingly offered a solution – the virtual meeting room could be turned into a virtual classroom!

Whether this solution will work is still to be tested. However, a virtual classroom does cut out the need to travel for training which surely is a benefit.

The benefits of training using a virtual classroom are discussed in this short video: