Training:  Instructional Design Standards for E-Learning

The Ghost of ILT

Today, it's easy to find courses that deliver well in a traditional classroom format. It's no wonder, especially when you consider that ILT-Training has been around for hundreds of years. If you can't find your ILT content in an off the shelf solution, you can always build the class from scratch. In the past, all your instructors had to do was ask themselves one simple question: "How am I going to organize this content into a class?"

The [R] Evolution of Learning

Well, times have changed. Live Online Learning, as we're seeing it today, has been around for less than 5 years. Only the most recent innovations are able to stream massive amounts of data quickly enough to deliver live online training with a level of quality that most learners would find enjoyable. These new technology developments have created a course void. The problem boils down to the fact that the technology is in place, but few adequate learning materials exist to effectively utilize it.

The Do-It-Yourself Solution

Thanks to a variety of authoring tools, many training departments are beginning to design their own online courses, internally. But the age-old question of "how do I organize this content into a class" has gotten much more complex. Training departments are finding themselves faced with a myriad of planning, design, implementation and support tools to choose from and integrate. In the old days, the word "class" simply meant a typical Instructor-Led course. Today, the word class can mean:   online or offline; web-based, CBT, or classroom; live or recorded; with or without evaluation & follow-up; local or global; SCORM or AICC compliant; LMS/LCMS-enabled or stand-alone, and so on. Organizations are quickly realizing that doing it all yourself doesn't make things any easier.

A Common Understanding

Whether purchasing pre-packaged courses, working with an outside vendor, or building your training internally, your instructors need to understand how to distribute course content into a blend of modalities. At the same time, your instructors must be able to recognize how all the various design and delivery components complement and support one another. You'll need your instructors to envision how all the elements combine to form a total e-learning solution.

KDG's Instructional Design Standards for E-Learning

Our course will teach your instructors how to effectively organize and design content for today's e-learning environments. Instructors will learn how blending delivery modes addresses a broad range of business needs:

•    reducing travel expenses
•    providing shorter learning segments
•    extending the instructor's reach to more learners

It doesn't matter if instructors are transferring or creating new content. They must maintain a focus on instructional design standards in order to ensure that effective learning takes place. This course will reveal how learning professionals can use a blend of e-learning modalities to supplement their traditional classroom offerings, while maintaining rock-solid instructional design standards.

Course Summary

First, we review instructional design principles and learning theories. Then we discuss the various options for modes of instructional delivery. We carefully explore instructional design standards that can be applied to various delivery options. We discuss competencies and relationships among the roles involved in instructional design. Finally, we examine what each organization will need to do to move forward from their current instructional design policies and practices. This examiniation includes an look at how to create policies for working with vendors, organizational instructional design standards models, and procedures for sharing these standards between the enterprise and its outsourcers.