Klarich Designs

11/25/2021

This has been a week full of introspection, pushing limits, learning new things, doing new things, meeting new people, stepping out of my comfort zone, and overall professional growth. What an exciting time to be an eLearning Designer! Thank you to all my colleagues - past, present, and future - you keep me on my toes and have helped shape me into the designer I am today. Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

11/24/2021

I didn't have the opportunity to attend Educause this year, but reading that empathy was a central theme really made my heart smile. Empathy is something so desperately needed right now - especially in a world where everyone has a platform to shout from with social media. It is all too easy to get wrapped up in our own problems and struggles. We are all human beings, and we ALL have problems and struggles - some people much bigger than our own. Take a little time to put yourself in someone else's shoes and think about how your actions make them feel. I think with a little empathy, we could make the world a much better place.

As an eLearning designer, what can I do to build empathy into something static like self-paced eLearning? Here are some of the things I can think of offhand...
- Design the content and the media with the student in mind
- Provide content that meets the goals, but does not overload
- Keep training short and sweet or break longer training into logical chunks
- Simplify navigation
- Design with accessibility in mind (alt tags, closed captions, avoid poor color combinations for colorblind people)
- Deliver courses on a system that provides options for offline learning

I know this isn't everything - what else am I missing? What features would help YOU as a student completing an eLearning course?

PHILADELPHIA — College tech leaders gathered here this week for the first in-person Educause conference since the start of the pandemic. Attending ...

11/23/2021

I have been thinking about passion and creativity quite a bit lately in terms of motivation. Passion and creativity are at the center of what is driving me, but what does that really mean? When you look at passion as "what moves you to persevere at something despite fear, unhappiness or pain" and creativity being a "feeling of euphoria when engaging in something that is truly meaningful to you", it makes so much sense why they are so important towards motivation. It's loving what you do and finding meaning in your work - without that, you start to question why you are doing what you do... Having been at a point where I felt like my passion and creativity had been snuffed out, I am so that I have the opportunity to recenter and focus my career on what is truly important to me.

The most successful people in life recognize that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their o

11/22/2021

My awesome mother-in-law surprised me with a copy of Map It by Cathy Moore! I've only gotten a chapter in, and I can already tell it's going to be a great read. Here's to spending the holiday curled up with a good book! 😍

11/13/2021

Check out this example microlearning course I threw together this week. It was a fun one to play with - in Rise and Storyline. :) Enjoy!

Microlearning is a quick means of developing training for your students. They tend to be interactive and focused on one narrow topic. Here is an example of a microlearning course that I created on how to crack an egg. Software used: Articulate Rise and Storyline, Adobe Audition and PhotoshopDevelopm...

11/11/2021

With these tips and solid instructional design tactics, it is easy to quickly develop a microlearning library in a fraction of the time.

https://buff.ly/3uZMFfp

11/10/2021

The neuroscience behind microlearning is fascinating! Let's kick bloated eLearning to the curb and give students something more effective!

https://buff.ly/3BHyzBN

11/09/2021

This week, I'll be highlighting microlearning as a fast and effective approach to eLearning design. If you are new, this article gives an awesome overview on the ins and out of microlearning.

https://buff.ly/2rqv7Jk

11/07/2021

It looks like after so much time online, 2022 will bring students back to hands-on learning for some action! However, I think we will see a push for virtual micro training libraries to support classroom training so that students can maximize their training time. Let's flip those classrooms!

https://buff.ly/3bOmqzE

11/04/2021

I know I find myself flustered anytime a camera is in the room. These tips are great reminders for anyone preparing to be recorded - #13 especially!

Many people dislike being on camera, which is an obstacle to creating videos. These 13 tips will help you feel more confident about being on video.

11/02/2021

This article specifically calls out cybersecurity training, but I think these 5 key elements could apply to most compliance type eLearning - make it mobile, frequent, timely, relevant, and entertaining. This will go a long way toward generating more motivation and engagement in your training.

Companies have quickly adapted to new circumstances but have unknowingly increased their risk of successful data breaches and cyberattacks.

10/29/2021

“I couldn’t have made this change without the input, resources and support of the instructional designer ... I don’t think people realize how much they’re doing behind the scenes.”

Especially during these last 18 months, instructional designers have been scrambling behind the scenes to help keep classes and training afloat. While creating and delivering a well-designed class is certainly a team effort, the work an ID does tends to be less visible. If you haven’t done it lately, maybe give your ID a socially distant high five and thank them for their work. It has been a very busy year and a half!

https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/how-instructional-designers-enabled-the-great-shift-to-digital-learning-amid-covid-19/

Particularly in the initial phase of the public health emergency, these unsung university staff did most of the heavy lifting to rework face-to-face courses.