I recently had the occasion to study some material related to Human Centered Design.  The general idea that I was able to gain from reading through this material is that Human Centered Design (HCD) is focused on the concept of understanding the people and environment that you are designing for.  The idea is that once you understand what the people and environment are understood, you can better design a program that fits their needs.
The more I learn about Instructional Design (ID) and the more I learn about the different programs and processes that can be used in ID, the more I understand that there is no 'one way' to do ID.  In a presentation that was a part of the material the presenter said "Design involves putting yourself in the shoes of the user, whether it is a customer or a learner. "- Connie Malamed.  While this quote is valid and center to what ID is, I feel that focusing attention on HCD is simply just trying to develop one more 'process' in a pool of theories that will eventually become overwhelming.
ID in it's more basic form requires the designer to establish a goal or objective of the thing they are designing and to understand the needs of the audience they are designing for.  Isn't that HCD?  Furthermore, an effective designer understands that to develop a good product, they need to collaborate both with a team of experts and with the end user to understand if their design meets the needs. A good designer should understand that there are many different aspects of design and how they are incorporated into the process rather than focusing attention and effort on one specific type of theory that may or may not translate from one job to the next.
As exciting as it is for a new theory to try and re-imagine the design process, returning to the basics of ADDIE with the understanding that it is a fluid, ever changing process.  In my experience someone who is flexible, adaptable and able to incorporate many different types of systems to meet the needs of the customer is the person best suited to thrive in the ID marketplace.

A part of Instructional Design that few people think about but effects everyone in some way shape or form is Knowledge Management.  How do we share ideas, how do we ensure that our knowledge, skills, expertise are being shared throughout an organization?  My own personal exploration into knowledge management highlighted an aspect of my life that I hadn't even thought about until the question was posed, how does someone with Attention Deficit Disorder manage knowledge?
This question generated a personal needs analysis to find out what kind of knowledge management system is used and if it was adequate to meet the needs of a person with ADD.  In the process of my analysis, I came to the conclusion that I really didn't have an established personal knowledge management (PKM) system that was useful or effective.  I simply did what I've always done, cobbled together whatever notes I was able to remember or copy down in a hope that I captured everything.  While this has been moderately successful on some level throughout my life, my analysis told me that I could do better.
That drove me to find a better system, a way that a mind that runs a million miles a minute in ten different directions can reasonably capture and organize information when it appears rather than trying to remember later what I was thinking about.
Thankfully in today's age of interconnected technologies, I was able to develop and implement a system that I feel is better suited to take advantage of technology and augment the way my ADD mind works to maximize the amount of data and knowledge that I can capture and organize.
Chaotic Designs Podcast - ADD and PKM

​Keyotic was born out of a desire to bring value to others and share my experience in life and career to help others grow and prosper. Initially conceived through introduction to the John Maxwell Team of Coaches and Trainers, I understood the excitement I found conveying knowledge to others and helping them grow as a teacher and trainer.
Twenty years in the military seeing all level of mentorship, leadership and coaching both receiving and providing helped me to understand how unprepared future leaders are. Most people are simply “tossed” into roles they are never prepared, or ready for and expected to learn. I want to remove that “sink or swim” mindset and prepare others to be great leaders.
 
Fear of the unknown can be a limiting factor in any person’s development and for so many people, who they are and what they are capable of is an unknown so many avoid it out of fear and never reach their full potential or remove the barriers to success. Many struggle with the dichotomy of order and chaos in their lives, hoping to embrace the order and avoid the chaos. But there is beauty in the chaos, and there is an inherent order to it if you remove the fear.
 
The quote above is so appropriate for this idea. How much can you achieve in life if you can only see past the fear? Keyotic....”cha·ot·ic” is something in turmoil. If a person is comfortable and safe they are not going to grow or change. When someone faces fear, accepts turmoil, turns their world upside down to accept change, the chaotic nature of the world forges a new person.
 
www.keyotic.com

​Cognitive Dissonance is the conflict of ideas, beliefs or expectations.  One of the issues with adult learning is how educators or Instructional Designers create a learning environment that is positive and effective in an adult learning environment.  We know that there are a number of ways in which individuals learn.
​Kinesthetic, auditory, visual learning have always been the industry accepted ways in which individuals process new information.  And while the education industry has attempted to better define those learning styles, we are still stuck with one question, how do you teach adults who bring with them their own forms of ideas, beliefs and expectations?  


http://www.powtoon.com/embed/bosfBJVJnzy/
The experiential learning model considers the individual adult learning styles and gives adult learners the tools they need to learn in a number of different styles, eventually exploiting their strengths or even finding out their learning style.  Experiential learning style takes Knowles principles of adult learning:

1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.
2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities.
3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life.
4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented. (Kearsley, 2010)

Takes Knowles principles of learning and turns them into a learning style that forces the adult learner to work their way through the cognitive dissonance that they have for a certain subject, and open themselves to new ideas, beliefs and expectations.  Experiential works to make the adult learner directly involved in their won learning, therefore creating a transformation in the learners mind where they create 'buy in' and take a personal stake in the material, applying it to situations and beliefs that they hold as part of their life experience.


Experiential based on David Kolb Theory, is a process focused on the adult learner gaining knowledge, not reaching an outcome (Kolb).  The need to do, process, watch, learn and reflect creates and environment for the adult learner to fully turn the learning into something all their own, regardless of what others in the same environment may have taken from the provided instruction.
As an adult learner, currently both in an environment where I am a student and an educator, I can see the utility and logic in a program like this.  Although an experiential learning model won't work in all environments, nor with all learners, I think the silent majority of adults who experience this form of teaching will find that they are able to leave their cognitive dissonance at the door to the classroom and open their minds to the possibilities that there might be other forms of learning on the horizon.

• ​http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/kolb.html
• http://www.lbspractitionertraining.com/pd-courses/practitioners/working-with-adult-learners/147-22-principles-of-adult-education-side-trip
• Knowles, M. (1984). Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Kearsley, G. (2010). Andragogy (M.Knowles). The theory Into practice database. Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org

10 Training Design Tips for Instructional Designers
Reblogged from Tuesday, April 19, 2016 - by  Geri Lopker 
As an Instructional Designer we typically need to do a needs assessment before planning any sort of design or development for an instructional project.  The above link is a reblog of a very well thought out discussion providing some good tips to help you design learner-centered training.

SO...you've been asked by a company to create a proposal to develop a one day training program for at risk teens to learn coping skills for anger, stress, bullying and a whole host of other situations that may cause them to respond in a negative way vs a positive way.  What do you do?


You create a workshop right?  That's one way.  A hundred of different ways to broach this subject based on how creative or tech savy you are.  Some people may create a number of videos and animations to engage students, some may create classroom exercises to teach teens practical skills they can use in situations outside of the workshop to cope with these issues.


So we had a three person team of budding instructional designers tasked with this proposal.  This is what we came up with.
As instructional designers we had to look at the problems and decide what theory was best used to meet the needs of our client.  As a matter of IBSTPI competencies under Design and Development: Use an instructional design and development process appropriate for a given project, we had to come up with a design theory that would best allow us to meet the needs of our stakeholder as well as allow the development to progress logically.  Using a form of Backward Design called UBD or understanding by design, we focused on the objectives of the RFP first, which was teach teens how to cope with stress.  In regards to the IBSTPI Competencies this would fall into the Planning and Analysis area of expertise.  We needed to conduct a needs assessment in order to recommend appropriate design solutions and strategies.  Now while the needs analysis was already pretty much done by the company who requested the proposal, a good Instructional Designer looks at the stakeholders requested need and decides if their view of the product really meets their need.   This is why we needed to make sure that we established objectives of the program first.
Another part of the Planning and Analysis Competencies (Identify and describe target population and environmental characteristics and select and use analysis techniques for determining instructional content) that we needed to focus on was who were we trying to reach and through what means would we reach them in our instruction.  How do you do that?  You do lots of research (Thanks Patty)!!


Based on our research we came up with a number of activities and learning theories that would best engage these types of teens in the environment we envisioned for this program.  Our research told us that student centered learning where the students played a key role in the information they shared and absorbed would best keep them engaged.  Using the information available to us brought Professional Foundations of IBSTPI into full focus through Apply data collection and analysis skills in instructional design projects.   


Once we were able to analyze our data and research and decide on a course of action for our workshop, we began to put together a conceptual training plan that would incorporate our learning theories, activities and information on the target audience to best model our program.  This touched on the Design and Development competencies of Organize instructional programs and/or products to be designed, developed, and Evaluated. Develop instructional materials.  
The one key aspect of this plan for our workshop was that it needed to be conceptual and obtainable but also modular enough to fit the needs of the specific target audience.  Part of the UBD design theory that we used to develop this idea included a concept of WHERETO as a design approach that touches on the ability to change the design based on need.  With multiple modules, we change as needed and scaffold the learning based on the parts of the program that are and are not used.  For this project, using UBD and applying these design concepts to an actual program versus the conceptual implementation in a classroom perspective enabled for movement through the Planning and Analysis competency regarding the ability to update and improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes pertaining to the instructional design process and related fields.  I feel there is better understanding of this design model than there was previously simply through application to a real problem.
As mentioned above, we included a number of activities into the workshop to help keep the class participation relevant as well as useful.  The key aspect of the activities was the students ability to learn positive ways of focusing anger and stress instead of acting out or resorting to negative coping mechanisms like drugs, alcohol, as well as harming themselves or others.


We also did a lot in regards to finding and implementing appropriate learning styles and theories to help build and develop our program.  Keeping in mind that our proposal was a conceptual representation, we offered a level of understanding in the realm of learning theories and styles to show that in the process of developing our program we will have a credible understanding of how to develop a program for a trained instructor to best engage the target audience as well as the tools and capabilities to keep them engaged.


One of the key observations in regards to this proposal was the team work aspect and how that team worked.  As instructional designers, we must understand the ability to work in a team and leverage the use of the strengths in that team to accomplish the goal.  Not every team gets to pick it's members and not all team members get to pick the Project Manager chosen to guide the success of the project.  This was a very opening experience in regards to the Management competencies.  All three aspects of the competency: Apply business skills to managing the instructional design function. Manage partnerships and collaborative relationships. Plan and manage instructional design projects, came into play with this project.  Understanding how to work in a professional setting with other Instructional Designers with varying skills and differing perspectives on the project before you is key in a project such as this.  In regards to understanding and reaching the competencies we met the last aspect Plan and manage instructional design projects and learned a great deal about the reasons why the other two competencies are incorporated into IBSTPI.
All things considered, I think this was a very eye opening proposal to work on.  The subject matter was so far out of our realm of comfort that it caused us to have to reorient our focus to something we would not have normally spent time and energy on.  The other piece of it being how do you truly design a program for the target audience.  There are so many different problems and questions that come up when trying to figure out what will keep at risk teens engaged that it threatens to open up very large can of worms.  The key point I think we all learned from the process is that the design theory is built the way it is for a reason to help remind the Instructional Designer to ask certain questions and ensure that certain pieces are in place before moving onto the next piece.  It was an interesting learning process that will provide valuable insight into future products and programs.

How do Adult Learners overcome Cognitive Dissonance?

​Cognitive Dissonance is the conflict of ideas, beliefs or expectations.  One of the issues with adult learning is how educators or Instructional Designers create a learning environment that is positive and effective in an adult learning environment.  We know that there are a number of ways in which individuals learn.

​Kinesthetic, auditory, visual learning have always been the industry accepted ways in which individuals process new information.  And while the education industry has attempted to better define those learning styles, we are still stuck with one question, how do you teach adults who bring with them their own forms of ideas, beliefs and expectations?  

The experiential learning model considers the individual adult learning styles and gives adult learners the tools they need to learn in a number of different styles, eventually exploiting their strengths or even finding out their learning style.  Experiential learning style takes Knowles principles of adult learning: 

1. Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction.
2. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities.
3. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life.
4. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented. (Kearsley, 2010)

Takes Knowles principles of learning and turns them into a learning style that forces the adult learner to work their way through the cognitive dissonance that they have for a certain subject, and open themselves to new ideas, beliefs and expectations.  Experiential works to make the adult learner directly involved in their won learning, therefore creating a transformation in the learners mind where they create 'buy in' and take a personal stake in the material, applying it to situations and beliefs that they hold as part of their life experience.  

Experiential based on David Kolb Theory, is a process focused on the adult learner gaining knowledge, not reaching an outcome (Kolb).  The need to do, process, watch, learn and reflect creates and environment for the adult learner to fully turn the learning into something all their own, regardless of what others in the same environment may have taken from the provided instruction.  

As an adult learner, currently both in an environment where I am a student and an educator, I can see the utility and logic in a program like this.  Although an experiential learning model won't work in all environments, nor with all learners, I think the silent majority of adults who experience this form of teaching will find that they are able to leave their cognitive dissonance at the door to the classroom and open their minds to the possibilities that there might be other forms of learning on the horizon.  

• ​http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/kolb.html
• http://www.lbspractitionertraining.com/pd-courses/practitioners/working-with-adult-learners/147-22-principles-of-adult-education-side-trip
• Knowles, M. (1984). Andragogy in Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Kearsley, G. (2010). Andragogy (M.Knowles). The theory Into practice database. Retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org

The intention of this ePortfolio was to create an ever evolving medium from which I could archive and showcase my journey of Instructional Design.  I have to admit that when we started this process, I was out of my comfort zone on many levels, even though I've been taught how to develop and execute educational lesson plans.  The concept of Instructional Design is much deeper than anything that I've learned up to this point and I find myself struggling to simply grasp simple concepts that someone in my position would expect to be common knowledge.  I now have a whole new respect for educators who can bring the full potential of ID to bear in the classroom.

​The reason I chose a Showcase portfolio over an accountability or process portfolio stemmed greatly from my desire to better prepare myself for a time when I actually need to be able to articulate the fundamentals of Instructional Design and understand how weak or strong I am in each of the Competencies.

​I attempted to develop a profile that would speak to a number of my personality traits and show off my evolving understanding of ID.  When looking at the Competencies that best represent my strengths in the realm of ID, I believe that I have Professional Foundations down fairly well.  I believe this is the one aspect of my current work environment that is best supported by the competencies.  I also believe I have a fairly strong background in Design and Development, at least from the base level.  I wouldn't say that I'm into the advanced stage, but my hope that once this program is over I will reach that milestone.  The artifact that I chose to include into my portfolio is a good example of some of the strides I've made in Design and Development.  Working with a collaborative team to create a well developed product that uses all aspects of technology to be able to teach a student that doesn't have the benefit of classroom instruction.

My biggest weaknesses fall into Planning and Analysis, Evaluation and Implementation, and Management.  These are aspects of my current situation that I haven't had a lot of exposure with.  I do know that Planning and analysis along with Design and Development are likely two of the most difficult competencies to work based solely on how difficult it is to gauge learning and comprehension in and out of the classroom.  I hope to better understand all of the competencies better as this portfolio progresses.  I hope to be able to implement all of them effectively at some point and be able to provide my students/colleagues a healthy learning environment.