Instructional Design | RU Training @ Roosevelt University in Chicago

Category Archives: Instructional Design

Instructional Design: Project Management’s Polar Identical Twin?

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Kathleen Iverson 22 comments

Learning solutions can be complex, time-consuming, and expensive. Sadly, many align poorly with organizational objectives and fail to deliver expected performance improvements. This is why the ATD Capability Model encourages instructional design professionals to build project management skills to ensure that instructional interventions achieve the desired learning or behavioral outcomes. According to the Project Management Institute project management is the application

Training in the age of Google

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Kathleen Iverson 27 comments

By: Kathleen Iverson, Ph.D. The internet has created a generation of autodidactic learners–those who would rather “Google it” than rely on formal learning. Their favorite teachers are YouTube, Buzzfeed, Facebook, Quora, and Reddit; sites that pop up when you enter the search term, “How do I . . .” followed by almost anything from “find a job,” “deal with a

Why aren’t adult learners actively engaged in training?

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 29 comments

Have you ever trained adult learners and noticed that after several minutes that they are looking at you with a blank stare? It is likely that such disengagement is due to overuse of lecturing. While I am not against the technique of lecturing, if used inappropriately, it can impact your audience’s interest, but to facilitate effective training, you need to

Friendship: An Unexpected Benefit Of Training

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 34 comments

We often think of training as solely a learning endeavor, but educational events can also serve as opportunities to build new relationships. Whether delivered online or in the classroom, learning experiences–when designed with an eye on socialization–bring people together in ways that typical networking or social events cannot. Learners and instructors have a shared frame of reference (the course content)

Training Evaluation Series Part 4: Measurement Tools from Scholarly Publications

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 7 comments

Last week, in the post, “Measuring Intangible Benefits,” you were introduced to strategies to locate tests that allow you to quantify the intangible outcomes of training by using the Mental Measurements Yearbook. As you will find, the “Yearbook” reviews commercially available tests, but there are many other tests in published research studies. The best database available to locate tests is PsychTests,

Training Evaluation Series Part 2: Formative Assessment

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 25 comments

Few words elicit a more immediate and visceral response than the word “test.” That’s because, in most educational settings, we have testing all wrong. Often, tests are s a primary measure of success and in some instances can have lifelong ramifications—like the ACT and SAT—on one’s future. The same holds true for training evaluation. We often focus on summative evaluation

Training Evaluation Series Part 1: Survey Design Basics

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 29 comments

This fall RU Training will offer a series of articles addressing advanced topics in training evaluation. I hope that these posts will benefit our current students and our alumni. This series assumes a basic knowledge of both Kirkpatrick’s Model and Phillip’s ROI Methodology. The first article addresses survey design basics. Surveys are an essential tool throughout the training process. Before

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Infographics in Learning & Development

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 23 comments

Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge that convey ideas in a complete visual snapshot, like the one to the right that describes a survey of instructional designers. Infographics gained popularity in news media and became so enmeshed that a new field of study, data journalism, evolved. There are also many reasons to use infographics in learning environments.

Training Superglue: Design elements that make learning stick

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Kathleen Iverson 68 comments

Are the following statements about learning true or false? The best way to learn from a textbook is to read it over and over. Learning material is retained if it is easy. Practicing a skill over and over leads to successful performance. Creativity is more important than knowledge. Testing is an ineffective learning tool. You might be surprised when you check

ADDIE: Relic or Still Relevant?

Posted on November 21, 2016 by mcheatombasurto 43 comments

Prior to starting the MATD program at Roosevelt, most of my training and organizational experiences came from someone at work saying, “Hey, we need this. Can you do it?”. Therefore, I’m constantly grilling, er, speaking with instructional design professionals about their experiences. One theme that has come up frequently in these discussions is that the ADDIE instructional design methodology is

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