Author Archives: theirishduck

Been reading a book called Learning by Doing by Clark Aldrich. Even though many of the examples in the book come from industry and the military, his frameworks allow those examples to be translated into higher education. I liked it because it had guidelines for developing and implementing simulations in real-life. I thought I would share withContinue reading “Learning by Doing Book Review”

As you all may know, there has been a lack of innovation around the e-learning industry lately. From my perspective, this is a result of the unhealthy, cautious relationships established between buyers and suppliers of e-learning products and services.  So, there’s a big question here (a virtual elephant in the room): when businesses talk aboutContinue reading “Innovation”

Okay, guilty, I have been watching a lot of the TV show “The Walking Dead” lately plus with all this COVID stuff going on I am getting a bit alarmed where this all will go. Normally, i’m not a big zombie apocalypse guy, and to be honest, I am kind of sick of the vampireContinue reading “COVID and Zombies”

While working with a recent freelance client, I recently overheard some people talk about this cool thing called Gilberts Behavior Engineering Model, so I thought to myself, I should look into this. So I came across this article, and it was definately worth a read for those in Instructional Design and Change Management circles. Basically, thisContinue reading “Gilberts BEM”

A common problem I have come across recently seems to be that some stakeholders (and some of my family and friends) just don’t understand the role of BA and UX in eLearning. I believe this challenge can be absolutely solvable. Solving this however seems to be an ongoing process, and involves plugging the credibility gap,Continue reading “The importance of BA and UX”

I have been reading a lot on game mechanics lately (in order to integrate some forms of ‘gamification’ into my eLearning projects) and found that to make great games compelling, the player’s experience and expertise needs to change over time and in meaningful ways. Games dole out just the right amount of challenge and learningContinue reading “Rewards and Game Mechanics”

Looking back at my education there are very specific topics that I wish I would have learned when I was a child. These topics were instead taught to me by the wisdom of others, particularly my parents, and the harshness of life lessons. Those that know me, I am well educated academically having done BioChemistry,Continue reading “My education”

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy of Karl Kapp’s book, “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” (Pfeiffer), just in time before the whole COVID19 Australia Post fiasco. What a delight! In an age when there’s so much confusion about this in the field, Kapp offers a timely, common-sense view ofContinue reading “Book Review (of sorts)”

With myself contracting the last 12 odd years, I have noticed that organizations with high workplace diversity often exhibit increased creativity and problem solving. Diverse values, skills, and experiences lead to different ideas. The more ideas there are, the easier it is to find the right solution. Additionally, organizations that embrace diversity are more openContinue reading “Diversity Initiatives”

In my career I have sat through my share of usability tests and they are always a humbling experience. Months of planning, attention to detail and prioritization of usability is invalidated as your test subjects behave completely different from you expected. All of your assumptions made while planning the website turned out to be justContinue reading “Usability Tests”