About Guild Articles
Find practical, solution-oriented information—on design, development, management, technology, and executive matters—that you can use to make well-informed business decisions to ensure your organization’s success with learning.
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Nuts and Bolts: Brain Bandwidth – Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design
Designers often overload learners with information, hurting learning and learner motivation, and thereby undercutting the very thing we say we want to accomplish. A designer can avoid this by understanding cognitive load theory and memory; in particular, the concepts of working memory and long term memory. Here’s some applied theory you can put to work immediately!
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Dispatch from the Digital Frontier: Can Games Save Journalism?
Journalism and education have much in common, besides the fact that both are in dire straits. Journalism intends to inform us about the world, and education aims to help us succeed in that same world. Could games be the nexus between these two pursuits that are so vital to democracy?
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The Human Factor: Creating Opportunities to Participate in Social Learning
If you’ve ever tried to move the social learning dynamic to a computer-mediated discussion, you’ve probably noticed that giving learners a forum where discussion can take place is not enough to create a social learning environment. Here’s how to give learners a sense of presence that motivates them to participate in the discussion.
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Using the iPad in Sales Training: Case Study
While many e-Learning producers are struggling to understand how the iPad may be useful in online instruction, one sales training team has already been successful in using Apple’s new device in blended instruction in the classroom. Here’s their story.
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Marc My Words: What Can We Learn from Bartender School?
High-level simulations, an interactive student guide, student-created job aids, simple memory aids, substantial realistic practice, and a competency-based assessment. Where are you… in a military training center? Medical school? Nope. It’s Bartending 101. Pull up a stool.
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Animated Characters in e-Learning: The Benefits and Social Roles
Learner expectations for production values in e-Learning, together with improvements in e-Learning development technology, have made e-Learning mediated by animated characters easier to implement. Before you integrate animated characters into your e-Learning productions, review the evidence pointing to the benefits of animated characters in e-Learning.
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Check It Once … Check It Twice: Your Guide to Choosing the Right LMS
If you are creating online learning, sooner or later you are going to face the Learning Management System (LMS) selection challenge. There is a plethora of LMSs, and it can be hard to determine the right one for your situation. Here are some important questions to ask before you start shopping!
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Nuts and Bolts: Getting Management Support for Training
“When developing and launching a new training initiative – traditional classroom, virtual classroom, asynchronous, or a mix – or suggesting a training solution for an individual worker or group, it’s vital to gain management commitment. As with so many issues in training and development, this is another of those “easier said than done” challenges.
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Dispatch from the Digital Frontier: School’s Out – What Did We Learn? (Part 5)
Anne summarizes her experience in creating an environment and platform for social networking by college-bound 9th-graders. As always, the lessons learned weren’t just for the students, and they apply equally to learners of all ages and circumstances.
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The Human Factor: Can Learners Participate At Their Own Level of Expertise?
Scores can be a surprisingly good way to help learners enter the Learning 2.0 environment at their own level of expertise. Here are some great pointers that will help you use social networking-type incentives (points) to build participation, and to track and reward individual users’ contributions to group understanding.