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Mike Dickinson
Freelance Instructional Designer,
Mike Dickinson is a freelance instructional designer and author. Mike is a former instructor pilot in three Air Force jet aircraft, and he has been an instructional designer and training manager for over 20 years. Mike has developed classroom and online courses in a variety of topics, including compliance, job-specific technical training, and writing. Mike, who has contributed several articles to Learning Solutions magazine, gets his biggest charge from enabling learners to discover those enlightening “ah-ha” moments. He holds an MA in instructional technology and an MBA in finance.
Latest from Mike Dickinson
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Change Conversations with Training Clients: Do—Know—Access
Managers, executives, and other clients often come to the training department with the solution to a perceived problem already in mind. They often have a laundry list that they believe the course should or must address. How can you direct the conversation to performance and not knowledge? Here’s a simple tool to turn things around: the Do—Know—Access triangle.
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A Quality Scorecard for Multiple-choice Tests
A quality scorecard for multiple-choice items, both at the individual and the training organization levels, can help a manager improve effectiveness of multiple-choice tests. The manager could use the scorecard to assess specific tests or to assess a cross section of multiple-choice items collected from each instructor or designer’s portfolio. Here is such a scorecard!
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The Thing about Multiple-Choice Tests …
How do you determine whether learners “got it” in an eLearning program? The most common method is to give them a multiple-choice test. However, developing a test that gives a valid measure of the learner’s knowledge requires considerable care. Here is a guide that will save you a lot of effort as you design tests!
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Writing Multiple-Choice Questions for Higher-level Thinking
Multiple-choice questions don’t get a lot of respect from some instructional designers when it comes to evaluating higher-level thinking. However, these questions can be effective if the designer knows how to write them. Here is your guide to creating meaningful multiple-choice items.
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“There I Was”: Lessons Learned Converting Instructor-based Pilot Training to Blended Learning
Converting a single course from instructor-led to a blend of classroom and eLearning can be a challenge. Converting an entire program is far more complex. When getting it right can be a matter of life, death, and national security, the task is mind-boggling. Here is a story that contains a lot of wisdom for designers!
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Almost Human (But Not Quite): Evaluating Text-to-Speech for eLearning Narration
Text-to-speech (TTS) software has been available for many years, as a substitute for human narrators. Until recently, however, instructional designers and learners alike tended to reject TTS because of the “mechanical” quality of the resulting narration. Has anything changed? Here’s a look at one small department’s study of today’s TTS.
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How Much Narration in eLearning? Our Lessons Learned
Whether to narrate eLearning content, how much to narrate, and choosing the person or “voice” to narrate are among questions that come up constantly for eLearning designers. Unfortunately, the research and the guidance from experts is not necessarily consistent or easy to apply. Here is what one team learned from their own study of the questions, and the guidelines they adopted.
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The Roles and Design of Tests in Online Instruction
Testing is, or should be, a matter of major concern to the instructional designer. Doing testing well is a challenge, however, and here is a great guide to meeting that challenge.