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Mark Lewin wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> Instructional design training. This seems to be a vast subject, but how
> much do I need to know? Does anyone have any recommendations for books,
> courses, etc on ID basics?
An instructional designer is a trained professional who would probably
begin this task by understanding what the client needs. Since you're
working on an internal training, maybe you could spend a day with the
target trainees, getting to know what they do, what their skill and
knowledge levels are, ... If your client will arrange that visit for
you, get a good explanation first of exactly what learning objectives
you're expected to train them on, and then go see for yourself how they
work, what they know, etc. Oy, look at me telling the tech writer how to
research an audience.
Here's a web page for your question. It has a hyperlinked list of
teaching strategies, and teaching strategies are what abstract
instructional design is all about. You pointed out that ID is a big
field. Yes. Focus on teaching strategies for a while, figure out how to
use them with this audience. Try to match teaching strategies to the
learning objectives you get from the client (are they learning to solve
a particular problem, for example).
Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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