Blog posts

App for creating poses for characters. These are just outlines, which you'd have to illustrate yourself in another app. Kevin Thorn demonstrated this as a way to create custom characters for scenarios, which you can pose in exactly the way you need. This is a browser-based app, currently $19.

We all probably know we should use easier to understand language in instructional writing, but this article provides more specifics on how to actually do that. The before and after writing example shows what a significant difference it can make.

What are the things you're good at, but take other people a lot of time and effort? What do people compliment you on, but you downplay it because it feels so easy to you? What can you do well that surprises other people? Chris Lema shares questions to reflect on your skills to identify your special strengths. This isn't about instructional design, but it seems relevant to our field where there's a wide range of skills under the general umbrella. Within that broad scope of L&D, what's your superpower? This is also another way to think about identifying a niche for freelancers and consulting businesses.

An extensive list of project management software options, many of which have a free tier. Note that the list was compiled by nTask, who conveniently put their own tool on the top of the list. The feature comparisons and pricing summaries are still useful though.

Lengthy guide about considerations for pricing online courses from Thinkific. This is aimed at experts who are selling courses, but that also applies to many of us in the L&D field who are branching out into selling course products ourselves.

Stolen from my blog post on branching scenario layouts

While these examples are all websites, the design principles apply to elearning too.

Helen Blunden explains how to use RSS to subscribe to specific feeds, including filtering for specific topics on a blog or subscribing to a YouTube channel. While following folks on social media can be a good way to discover new things and to interact with others, RSS gives you control and customization over what you see. If you feel like there's too much noise on social media and want a way to focus on reading just what you're interested in, RSS helps you do that.

Updated ATD research on the time to develop training

Jeffrey Dalto collected responses from a number of L&D professionals for insights on how COVID-19 has affected L&D and how this affects the future trends for the field.

An interactive comic explaining the Leitner method of spaced repetition to learn and remember information.

Basic overview of ID for those interested in the field. This article highlights a few online programs for learning about instructional design, plus 3 bloggers to read: Connie Malamed, Cathy Moore, and me.

Online tool for creating quick patterns, textures, and icons. The images created with Visiwig are free for personal and commercial use.

This browser-based video editing tool is aimed at marketers for creating quick social media videos. They have a free account level which includes a watermark. This might be helpful to students or others looking for a way to create a quick sample for their portfolio without spending money.

Chris Lema writes about the benefits of blogging and sharing your knowledge generously. While this isn't explicitly about training or learning, it is a form of working out loud or showing your work. And while this is about blogging, the same concepts apply to any other method of sharing: videos, podcasts, etc.

How to create a PDF from Storyline variables using the PDFMake Javascript library

Directions and sample file for creating a PDF certificate

Notes on Javascript date formatting and how to add 365 days to a date (e.g., for an expiration date on a training certificate)

Javascript snippets for pulling names from the LMS so they can be used in a Storyline module

Video tutorial plus transcript and files for creating a printable certificate of completion in Storyline

Free backgrounds from Unsplash for Zoom or other virtual meetings

Podcast interview by voice over artist Dan Hankiewicz with guest ID Anu Gopu. Anu talks about her journey into instructional design and how to condense info from wordy SMEs who want to include everything. Anu also talks about who she learns from in the field (including me).

See how much the GSA has paid in past awarded contracts for the US federal government. You can use the filters to see hourly rate comparisons by education, experience, role, keywords, etc. You can also export the data in CSV for further analysis.

Specific tactics for finding new clients as a freelancer or consultant. This is broken into three phases: an initial phase to get your first 5 clients and learn what you like the best, a second phase of defining your ideal client, and a third phase of scaling by partnering with others and teaching new audiences. eLearning and instructional design freelancers may not even need the third phase (which includes a lot of building a large audience), but I like the targeted alternatives to cold emails here.

Scott Winstead's recommendations for laptops for instructional designers. The Acer Aspire is #3 on his list. That's what my last 2 laptops have been, and both have lasted 5 years. I probably will switch brands for my next laptop, but they have been solid options for me in the past (although I did not have lower end options like Scott reviews).

Devlin Peck walks through the important factors for picking a laptop for instructional design and elearning professionals. His top 3 recommendations are a Dell XPS 15, MacBook Pro, or Surface Pro, but he lists the recommended specs so you can find other brands that meet the requirements.

A non-technical explanation of interleaving, with an overview of the research and theory supporting it and ideas on how to implement it to improve learning.

Create JSON files for interactive video with questions at cue points. These interactions can be reported with xAPI

Video xAPI trackers and wrappers. Free templates from Jeff Batt at Learning Dojo