Tips for Rapid Instructional Design

Here are some tips, tricks, and techniques for rapid instructional design.

We will be updating this section periodically, so be sure to check back for more tips!

Can Training Games Really Teach? How to combine content and activities.
Changing Roles. Don't treat learners as learners.
Content Is Abundant. Design activities that incorporate existing content.
Create Your Own Templates. Transform favorite presentations and activities into templates.
Facilitative Training. Can you call yourself a facilitator?
Games That Incorporate Participant Questions. Five games that use participant-generated question cards.
How To Design a Course in Seven Days. This is how we did it.
How To Evaluate Training Activities. Four sets of critical variables in training evaluation.
How To Improve A Training Activity. A step-by-step approach to evaluating and improving training.
How To Produce a Videotape in a Single Day. This is how we did it.
It's the Activity, Stupid! Don't fall into the content trap
Learning by Design. Less instructional design may result in more learning.
Line 'em Up. Aligning objectives, activities, content, and test items
More On Templates. Here's a list of activity-based templates.
Open Questions. Do you think open questions are effective?
Participants Generate Content. Let Time magazine's Person of the Year create your training content.
Participants Generate Questions. Asking questions is a great way to learn.
Practice and Review Games. Providing practice is more important than providing extra content.
Reflect the Real World. Let your training reflect the job activities as close as possible.
So Much to Cover. You must focus on uncovering rather than covering.
10 Characteristics of Authentic Activities. Does your training reflect the real world?
The Second Sentence. Rapid and inexpensive approaches to design.
The Third Sentence. Faster and cheaper is also more effective.
Three Statements. If you can teach it, you can play it.
Training Design Faster, Cheaper, Better. You can have all three.
Untraining the Trainer. A different approach to training.