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Processes

A Guide for Working with Subject Matter Experts

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

– Albert Einstein

Introduction

This article is a guide on establishing and maintaining a productive working relationship with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

One of the joys of being a learning designer is the opportunity to learn new things, including things that we’ve known little or none about. A big part of this awesome learning comes from our experiences working with SMEs. Working with SMEs is an important task of our job as learning designers. But is this process always smooth, fun, and exciting?

January 31, 2021

Design Strategies, Processes

Introduction of a New Series: Instructional Design Patterns

“Christopher Alexander, an Austrian-born architect, had a simple, elegant idea. His idea was that people should name and describe solutions to common problems in architecture. He called this a ‘design pattern’.” – From Design Patterns – Coming Full Circles

Introduction

There are patterns all around us. In the technical world, there are design patterns in architecture, in software engineering, in user experience design, or in anything that we can create a solution(s) to common problems. In Instructional Design, at the course level, as an example, we find design patterns in instructional design theories and models.

June 5, 2017

landscape - cascade waterfalls flowing down a mountain river

Processes

ADDIE is agile

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: What is soft is strong. – Lao Tzu

In recent years, there has been a trend that shows preference for agility in the process of creating learning products and therefore the need to rethink ADDIE. In this article, I share why the agile approach is powerful for creating high quality learning experiences and how ADDIE can be used to facilitate agility.

January 27, 2017

Processes

ADDIE is flexible

Introduction

Most instructional designers and learning professionals are familiar with the classic ADDIE model. ADDIE is short for Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. Despite having been used as a process to create instructional products for many years, ADDIE has been criticised by many as a rigid, linear model. However, this is not the case.

Have you ever listened to the same musical piece played by different artists and felt differently? Just like there are many ways to perform a musical piece, there are many ways the ADDIE model can be used. Just like when a soulless expression of a song may not touch people’s hearts, rigid use of the ADDIE model will unlikely bring good results.

When used correctly, ADDIE can be a very flexible model. In this article I share how ADDIE is flexible and some tips for using ADDIE flexibly to meet your needs.

November 17, 2016