-
Simple Instructional Design: Behind the Book
It was early 2022 and we were all enjoying the slow march back to normalcy as COVID-19 lockdown was relaxed. I was leading a small, virtual train-the-trainer session on instructional design basics for a large university. We were halfway through an hour-long session and I was thinking, “This is a waste of everyone’s time. They’re…
-
Learning Pyramid is Not Based on Evidence
Have you heard that the “Learning Pyramid,” published by “National Training Laboratories” in Bethel, Maine, (shown below) is not based on empirical evidence? I recently discovered that this oft-cited infographic comes from an unreliable source. Check out this article for details: “Excavating the Origins of the Learning Pyramid Myths” from the peer-reviewed journal, Cogent Education.…
-
Simple Instructional Design: Why You Need This Book
If you’re an educator of any kind, you need my book! All of you amazing and dedicated K-12 teachers, college faculty and lecturers, corporate trainers, presenters, freelancers… you need my book. If you educate people of any age, in any setting, you need my book. Here’s why: The way you were taught to teach is…
-
A Case Study in Using Social Media as an Outreach Tool
I created a pollinator-focused blog as part of my doctoral work (in 2011-2012) and explored the numbers, diversity, and engagement of visitors from all over the world. The overwhelming conclusion was that social media can be a cost-efficient and effective method of spreading environmental awareness. This research is no longer suitable for publication in peer-reviewed…
-
A Publishing Adventure #2
It’s been a while since I lasted posted about my publishing journey for my book, Simple Instructional Design. None of the agents I contacted were interested, life happened, and it got moved to the back burner. You know how it goes. I’m newly committed to working on my writing projects at least once a week…
-
A Publishing Adventure #1
I’m totally NOT hovering over my email, waiting for news from the publishers to which I’ve submitted my book proposal. It drives me crazy when people do that… it’s a waste of energy. “Don’t you have a life!?” I wonder to myself. It’s just like giving your number to a hot somebody and hovering by…
-
Phyllis Stiles: Inspiring Impact
(Phyllis Stiles photo by Joye Ardyn Durham) Phyllis created Bee City – USA in Asheville, NC in 2012 out of a desire to make a difference for pollinators. This year, we celebrate Bee City’s 10 year anniversary and 400 Bee Cities and Bee Campuses across the country. What a legacy! Phyllis’ work has motivated me…
-
Instructional Design: Go Backwards for the Best Training
What’s the simplest thing you can do to improve your learning units? Go backwards! You’re confused. It’s normal. Let me explain… Backwards Design is a strategy for creating learning units that begins where most educators end: with the Learning Objectives. Learning units are whatever you’re teaching or training from which you want people to learn…
-
TNR Means Lifelong Care
This is Bingo, watching me trying to creep up and take a decent photo of him. He’s one of three “vet project” cats in a colony I help manage near my apartment. He and his friends, Moustachia and Freddy, need/ed a veterinarian’s care. A colony caregiver is responsible for their cats’ health, food, and water…
-
I’m New Here
I moved to New Jersey in spring of 2020, and have encountered many strange things in America’s most densely-populated state. No Left Turns I learned how to drive about two decades ago in North Carolina, where you turn left when you want to go somewhere on your left, and right when you want to go…
Athena Rayne Anderson 