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Free Download from Simple Instructional Design!
Chapter 2 (Learning Objectives) of my upcoming book, Simple Instructional Design, is now available as a free download!
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
Athena Rayne Anderson 