Allison Rossett posted a fabulous fake commencement address 2 days ago.  I loved it.  She nails a point I'd like to emphasize here.  The work we do at one level is extremely focused on the micro solutions we call courses, but more than ever we need to be thinking about, and designing, systems.  And I'm not talking about Learning Management Systems.  Just reading her post made me realize that so much of our industry is focused on the ID, Instructional Design. And back when I first started in this business it was mostly referred to as ISD, Instructional SYSTEMS Design.

I'm not sure what happened to the focus on systems but it seems to have faded. According to Wikipedia the terms are synonymous.  From a purely academic perspective I might agree.  But from many years of observing our industry as a whole I'm not so sure. I see two very different practices emerging within our industry: 1) The Instructional Design of Courses, and 2) The Instructional Systems Design of Enterprise Solutions.

The Instructional Design of Courses
For the most part, this is the work of creating the final product. The instructional design required here helps developers work with SMEs, understand the content, create the media, and design the flow in which the content is presented, as well as creating some form of assessment.  Much of this work is seen as requiring one technology for the solution.  You might choose to design a classroom experience, or you may design a fully interactive immersive simulation.  But no matter what tool you choose, for a certain period of time your sole focus is on creating that solution and implementing it successfully. You may also need to make sure it conform with a larger system design that is part of your enterprise and that is where ISD comes in.

The Instructional Systems Design of Enterprise Solutions
Mostly defined as the strategy and management issues of training and development, there is a certain level of Instructional Design that seems to have been lost at this level.  My feeling is that those with the power and authority, and responsibility, to implement enterprise systems solutions do not take instructional systems design into consideration.  After all, "I have instructional designers that do that".  I believe it's a rare manager today that thinks about instructional systems design during the many times that decisions need to be made.  It's far easier for me to see a manager interested in buying an LMS because legal, IT, or HR asked them if training was being tracked or "managed" in some way. Legal needs the information to fend of legal action. IT needs to know because their enterprise vendor has one that could be thrown into the deal. HR needs to know because of compliance, new hire training, and employee development.

So, is there a difference between Instructional Design and Instructional Systems Design? Should they be two different roles within the training team? What does this mean in the corporate world vs. higher ed?

I don't know the answer, but I know what I see and hear from so many colleagues managing training departments, and creating eLearning course solutions.  I hear the terms of the industry being tossed around in various communities with different meanings attached.  I participate in frustrating conversations because many use the same words, but mean different things.  Maybe parsing ID and ISD will help.

I love it when the veterans of our industry talk about our field at a very high level as Allison did in her post. I wish more would do so.  Perhaps Allison's fake commencement address will kick off a trend.

If you had to give a commencement address to a class of graduating learning professionals, what would you say? If you post it, let me know.

UPDATE: I got a couple twitter responses to this post and I wanted to share some interesting content.  Donald Clark retweeted my post and when I checked out his stream found this gem on design models. Reuben Tozman also reached out and reminded me of his post on systems titled 7 Metaphors for Experience Design.

Dr. Karl Kapp has written a new book titled The Gamification of Learning and Instruction.  And it's a great pleasure to be asked by Karl to review the book for his blog book tour.  I don't consider myself a good book reviewer but I enjoy being part of the tour and appreciate him trusting in my ability.

Let me start by saying that I sort of rolled my eyes when I heard there was a book being written on gamification.  It just felt too early.  The term is barely understandable by those who use it regularly, and even less so by those who aren't "into it".

After reading the book I can honestly say that now is the perfect time for this book.  It's a perfect time for the book because the book is good...really good.  Kapp's understanding of instructional design and interest in gaming is well balanced.  He is thorough enough in the research to make his point, but not to the point of boring the reader.  This balanced approach makes the concept of gamified learning understandable to anyone first approaching the topic.  Game designers will learn the learning component of their craft and instructional designers will see game design through their own lens of learning and instruction.

Karl also goes into the practical application of gamification in the workplace and balances the realities of the workplace with the excitement of new bells and whistles.  I think Cammy Bean's stop on the book tour pointed these parts out nicely.

I think we all need to ask ourselves a few questions:
1) Is an interactive Jeopardy game part of this new gamification craze?
2) Are "serious games" the same as gamification?
3) Do I want my LMS to offer badges?
4) Is my learner's job already gamified?
5) Is the business problem I'm trying to solve really a training problem?

I tossed in #5  just because I think we all to often forget to ask that question :)

Read the book.  Learn more about game design.  You will become a better trainer, teacher, designer, and learner.

Personal Note:
My personal thoughts on gaming and instruction vary.  As with all shiny new options in the growing world of tech-based training...IT DEPENDS.  My biggest concern is that games or gamification will be taken ONE thing, one solution.  We have a tendency to put different tech solutions in compartments that are separated from the other options we have.  Building a game is one thing, but utilizing gamification to enhance your training solutions is a completely different thing entirely.

The most important point is that thinking like a game designer might be the only thing we need to do. The final outcome doesn't need to LOOK like a game.  But if we begin to understand the theory behind what makes a game fun and engaging we may be able to look at our course design differently enough to begin making choices that delight our learners.

Mobile Learning: The Time is Now was just released by The eLearning Guild.  With the mobile market being the fastest growing industry you'd be wise to pay attention to how mobile devices impact your learning audience and in turn how you develop and deliver your learning solutions.

Guild members have shared the impact of mobile learning on their organizations and their strategies.  The questions they've answered have given us a solid picture of the mobile learning space.

"The number of Guild members who say they intend to use mLearning continues to increase. In 2010, 45.6% of Guild members said they intend to do more mLearning. In 2012, that figure has increased to 65.7%."

This mobile research report is nicely timed in anticipation of the mLearnCon Conference and Expo.  The major mobile learning industry players can be found at this event. You don't want to miss it.

Every DevLearn is an epic adventure for me.  And every year I work hard to make sure it is for you too.  This year, however, is beginning to feel extra special.  Maybe because it's 2012 and with the Mayan calendar ending, perhaps this will be the last DevLearn.  But I'm not the type to take such a pessimistic outlook.  Take a look back at DevLearn11 with this recap video and you'll see why I get so jazzed at this point every year.


The most exciting thing for me is getting to shape an experience that is reflective of the industry that I love. I take great pride in bringing together this community for a week of intense sharing and collaboration.  The eLearning Guild makes it all possible in ways unmatched by any other.

I'm not quite ready to release the list of keynotes just yet, but let's just say they're EPIC, MAGICAL, EXTREME, MATHMATICAL, and ROCKIN'! They have a unique perspective that directly relates to the work we do in our lives.  I'll leave you hangin' with those images a little longer...sorry :)

The session submission process has ended and I'm spending some long days reviewing some of the best proposals I've received.  The hardest part of this job is saying no to those I could not fit into the schedule for one reason or another.  But just the chance to read about all the great work being done by you and your colleagues is so much fun and quite educational for me as well.

Another part of the event this year will include a unique un-conference within the conference.  It's something we've discussed over the years but only now has the timing felt right, and has the support of just the right people.  We are in the early stages of planning it, but this event element is open to everyone attending but can only accomodate a limited number of people at any given time and so there will be a signup process in place to help monitor the flow of activities.  So, if you are one of the few attendees, speakers, or vendors who attend the event more for the hallway conversations, and social activities, I really think you are going to enjoy this space.  More news on this will be out soon.

Registration for DevLearn12 is open now if you are fired up and ready to go! Much of the program is still a work in progress, and I'll send minor updates as I'm able too.  I hope to see you all at DevLearn this year!  

The alphabet soup of the training industry continues to grow and change.  The terms get mixed in marketing materials, and confused during otherwise productive conversations.  In my role within The eLearning Guild for the last few years I've had the pleasure of many conversations.  I've met a lot of people and gotten to know some very well.  The interesting thing is that I continue to hear frustration in the tone of many conversations with many interactions turning into arguments.  It's interesting to listen to these conversations because I know the parties involved are aligned in their thinking but as they converse the words they use cloud the message.

I've been on a rather strange mission over the past several months.  It kind of feels like a Richard Drifuss, mud tower in the living room, Close Encounters, sort of obsession more than a mission.  But then again...mission - obsession, tomato - tomaato...it's the words and how we use them that either help or hinder productive conversations.

I want to draw a picture of our industry.  And yes, I know others have attempted similar feats. But the problem I'm trying to solve, as I've worked through it, turns out to be multi-dimensional and quite complex.  So, I'm breaking it down into pieces and as I am thinking about certain pieces I will blog about them here.

I want and need your help.  I need your input and feedback.  There are some rules that I am trying to follow that I want you to understand.

1) The AS IS. I am attempting to create a "picture" of the current state of our industry.  I am NOT thinking about the future state. Although I am hoping we can make some fairly accurate assumptions about the future state based on the current state, and in fact, help influence that future state.

2) No JUDGING! I don't care if you hate the LMS more than life itself.  Deal with it! They exist.  They serve a purpose. And the term LMS is part of our lexicon.  And therefore it will appear in my "picture" in some form or another.

How do you view our "industry"? Through what lens do you view it? What is it that you find confusing about the terms we use?

For many of you who work in training day in and day out your sky is not clouded.  You see your world quite clearly as do your customers, peers, and colleagues.  You are EXACTLY the person I want to hear from.  I also want to hear from the those who are frustrated with the state of our industry in any way.  Let's work through it together and help others in their journey towards helping others.

Comment here or send me your thoughts. I've already discovered this cannot be done in a vacuum. I need your help.

14% is not good. Shocking? No? Almost 70% went even further and marked company training as somewhat or not important. What's up with that?


As someone who has suffered through horrific corporate training experiences this does not surprise me.

As someone who has spent more than 15 years working to make corporate training better, this annoys me.


From Jane's blog post:

"But I think the biggest take-away from my survey is that we can no longer assume we know how people like to learn in the workplace nor how we think people should learn."

You can read more about Jane Hart's anonymous survey results on her blog Learning in the Social Workplace.

There is a certain reality that everyone in any corporation seems to understand about in-house corporate training: It sucks!  Even those of us working to improve eLearning and Training designs know about this negative perception.  And yet, while everyone hates mandatory courses, and very few employees change their behavior based on training courses, we continue to play the game. Companies continue to pay for it, and other companies are willing to provide it.

In my opinion this is not a training problem.  This is a human problem that involves every aspect of each employee's personal and professional life.  This is where we begin to look at learning as a whole instead of just the training parts.

If learning is the desired outcome then we may want to pay attention to data like this.  I'm hoping to see more comprehensive reports in the near future confirming Jane's results.

I don't think we can really answer that question until we truly understand what Gamification is.  And luckily, we now have a book to help us do just that.  Dr. Karl Kapp has just launched another blog book tour for his latest book Gamification of Learning and Instruction.

The Book Tour starts HERE.
The Facebook page is HERE.
Buy the book HERE.

Follow the blog book tour.  Read the Book.  And join the gamification conversation.

There will be plenty of gamification conversations to be had at this year's DevLearn event for sure.  Start your planning today!