We spend a lot of time at InSync considering how to design, develop, and deliver great virtual and blended learning solutions.  But how do we know they are, indeed, GREAT?

Creating content is only half of the learning development story. The other half is developing a plan for evaluating the learning. This requires crafting tools used to gather feedback that informs whether learners actually learned, as well as to determine to what extent learners apply what they learned in the workplace. An evaluation should also include on-the-job feedback as learners use newly acquired skills and knowledge.

Our learners face a chaotic, complex, and overloaded world. They can (and do) access information immediately when they need it, and often dread training because they see it as a distraction from their pressing responsibilities.

So how do we encourage enthusiasm and participation in formal learning programs? Through contextualization and authenticity.

Ultimately, it comes down to strong instructional design.

Should you add “content strategist” to your modern learning repertoire? Learning and Development practitioners hear about emerging trends and “mission-critical” professional development regularly.

New design methodologies, exciting EdTech options, cutting edge learner engagement approaches pop up on a daily basis, all claiming to cure common training challenges.

However the idea of including one more responsibility to an already full roster of responsibility likely won’t wind up on the top of your to-do list.

Another year has come and gone. This time of year encourages reflection, both personal and professional, causing the InSync Team to ask questions such as:

• What did I learn this year?
• How did training evolve?
• Which developments resonated with modern learners?
• Where did learning provide innovative value to our companies?

For us, 2018 marked a widespread shift towards truly blended learning. Organizations, learners, and practitioners alike began to embrace the possibility of building skills outside of formal events. Complex, purposeful, and at times frustrating, the evolution to the new blended reality required us all to consider a handful of key elements: modern learners, engaging facilitation, comprehensive instructional design, and planning for the unexpected.

Virtually There session recap

As training adapts to innovative, ever-changing workplaces, our approaches to designing learning and supporting employees evolve, too. We know blended learning gives us flexibility, but it can overwhelm us, too.

Recently, Russ Powell and Joe Halpin, the founders of Peregrine Performance Group, believe, “One of the most effective ways to build training is to focus on performance, build a job aid, and build the training around it.” Sounds like a great plan. But what counts as a job aid? Why does this blended method work so well?

This blog will cover the basics of job aids, as Russ and Joe shared during their recent Virtually There event How to Recognize and Create Damn Good Job Aids. Click here to watch the entire session for a helpful 7-step process you can use to create your own exemplary job aids.

ATD Webcast Recap

With all of the options available to accommodate individual learning objectives, many practitioners assume, “Oh! I’m only creating microlearning. I don’t need ADDIE or SAM or any complicated framework.”

However, when thinking about flipping your classroom to a more modern program, our team offers one critical reminder: instructional design becomes more important than ever. Standalone courses do not exist anymore, and neither do standalone training resources. Everything connects to everything else, making thoughtful design a critical piece of your blended learning puzzle.

During her recent ATD Webcast Blended Learning: A Five-Dimensional Puzzle, Jennifer Hofmann shared the factors she considers when embarking on a new design project. Whether you design, facilitate, or manage training programs, these three elements provide a foundation for understanding modern blended learning.

Have you ever watched The Magic School Bus? What about Bill Nye the Science Guy or Schoolhouse Rock?

These entertaining childrens television programs have an important common approach to education: they explain complex subject matter in easy-to-understand ways by using likeable characters in fun narratives.

Here's a radical idea: maybe we've been thinking too small when it comes to instructional design.

Relying on proven principles while purposefully expanding the scope of our vision can help us accomplish organizational goals and empower learners to better navigate their modern workplaces. We believe in a more thorough model so much that we practice and preach perpetual learning design.

Our new video explains the concept in under three minutes - click here to view. 

When designing and delivering content, we need to balance five elements of the learner experience: technology, design, people, place, and time.

In order to achieve this balance, we need to focus on the learner experience. We need to define and leverage how learning is structured, including when it is taking place, where it is taking place, and how it is being delivered.

Do you remember the first time you experienced a non-traditional approach to learning? For most of us, we didn’t learn important life-lessons inside a classroom. For Jennifer Hofmann, classic Saturday morning programming introduced her to self-paced learning, and the rest, as they say, was history.

Jennifer recently shared the surprising connection she made between her love of popular Schoolhouse Rock episodes and modern blended learning in this short (but insightful) video: https://youtu.be/Hd-ITHrroXc