Author Archives: theirishduck

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”

As you all may know, I have a bit of experience in 3D modelling and animation in the past. A few of my readers may also know that I was once in a club as a child called the Ansett Starship Crew.  Being born in Northern Ireland and coming to Australia on a big plane,Continue reading “Flight Simulations”

I have been working on a few mini apps and SCORM packages at work lately and the discussion of splash screens and their relevance and importance came up. For those that don’t understand, splash screens are those still images that fill the screen of a mobile device when you open up the app. On aContinue reading “Splash Screen Debate”

Responsive (or Adaptive) design means that your design adapts to the screen it is viewed on. Simply put, smaller screens have less space. You can’t fit as much on the screen, and the layout adjusts accordingly. People expect to be able to take training wherever they are, with whatever device they happen to have inContinue reading “Responsive eLearning thoughts”

Scratch is a name anyone interested in the game based learning field will most likely have heard about. It is one of the longer running research projects and has a large online community. The project has been running since 2003 and since its public launch in May 2007 it has been attracting more and moreContinue reading “Scratch”