Have you been thinking of becoming an Instructional Designer? Well, this is then time! Last week I sat down with one of my senior colleagues, Ian Charman to discuss different aspects of Instructional Design. Ian is a Senior Instructional Designer Specialist at Halliburton, with more than 12 years of experience in facilitation and instructional design. Ian is very passionate about his work and he is a great mentor for the junior members of the team. Read on to know more about Ian’s philosophy on design and his insights about the profession. How did you start your journey as an instructional designer? It was a long process. I have been always interested in teaching people. When I first started working, there were hardly any positions for a formal trainer. In UK, only the big companies had learning teams. When I first came to USA, in 2004 I came with a company called Mercer who are part of a benefit outsourcing company. As a benefit outsourcing team lead, my role was an amalgamation of Instructional Designer and Facilitator. I developed and taught a number of curricula for call center analysts. After working in the team for about 5 years I realized that being a full time facilitator can sometimes take a toll on health. I had heard that the oil and gas industry is a good place to start as an Instructional Designer. I started at Baker Hughes around 2011 and since then I have moved to couple of companies. As you move across different organizations, you realize that learning and development is a relatively small community. I have been fortunate to work in some of the most amazing teams. The camaraderie which we built, still continues to run even though I am not a physical part of the team. I still enjoy facilitating classes. A few days back, I facilitated a class for Talent Management, called Team/Crew Leadership and this is for the first time front line managers. What kind of change have you seen in the field of instructional design over the last few years and what additional changes do you anticipate for the future? The biggest change has been in technology! But from theoretical perspective ADDIE was a game changer, so was Kirkpatrick. ADDIE and Kirkpatrick have become the norm now, and so is Agile and SAM. But there has not been much change in how you design a course, because adults have not changed, we have not evolved to something else. Adult Learning is what it is (laughs) but technology has been incredible! When I first started, we used to have participant guide and user guide. Everything was written down, scripted. Now there is a push towards facilitation rather than teaching. One of my co-facilitators recently reminded me that you have to remember when to put the facilitator hat on vs the instructor hat on. As Instructional Designers we have to remember that as well. We learn a lot on the SMEs, but we have to remember that we don’t just lecture the people. Include some storytelling to make it interesting. If you had told me 10 years ago about virtual reality, I would have laughed, because those things happen in Star Trek. But the other day we printed 3D equipment in plastic, so people could have a sense how a flow control module works. Technology will continue to transform the learning landscape. What are the main secrets of designing an effective e-learning course? Any tips on how to invoke higher order thinking skills for learners? I like to keep things simple when designing e-learning. My main principle is to incorporate intuitive interactions, but also to include different interactions. I also try to choose an interaction which resonates with the content. One of the biggest reminders for me is to consider that not everybody learns the same way and this can be easily practiced in an instructor led class (like incorporating options of different reading exercises, kinesthetic activities etc.) but this is not so easy in an e-learning class. However, simple elements like having a human voiceover (rather than automated electronic voice), an option to turn on/off the voice, or having an option to read the speaker notes can enrich the learning experience of the audience. The other principle I like to follow is to keep a minimalist approach. There is a tendency in the oil and gas industry to put lot of text on the slides. I try to keep a balance between the amount of text present on slide and the messages they convey. Another critical thing in an e-learning module is to include scenarios. They are difficult and time consuming, specially the branching scenarios. We are not experts in the field so we cannot easily create those, but I have couple of SMEs who have worked extensively on this and it was well received by the audience. Whenever I am trying to design to an e-learning project, I try to help recognize people that they are part of a bigger team, like they are the cogs of a bigger machine. So everyone needs to be on the top of their game and working together to achieve the goals. And if one didn’t do what they are supposed to do, it can break down the whole thing. I was able to generate this feeling through a branching scenario. I kicked off the training with the word “interconnectivity”, although “interdependence” could have been a better fit. So each individual in the process is the part of a big whole, not to be confused with the drilling hole though, pun intended (laughs!!) What challenges does instructional designers face and how to overcome them? The biggest influencer in any e-learning project is time and budget, especially time, because you are often asked to create something quickly and solve a problem. So when that happens, you really don’t have room for innovation, or nice things. Ideally, I would like to say, let me take 3 months of time. I need time with SME to understand the content and translate it to a different format. I need time with SME to build scenarios. I cannot build scenarios on my own, however, I can come up with template. In situations when there is a pressure on time frame, sometimes I have found that it is better to keep things rolling rather than to wait for the opportunity. I think I had the biggest success when the SMEs were engaging and who are really interested in making things work. I had the worst time when the SMEs either don’t have time for me or don’t believe in what I am doing in the first place but were just told how to do it. You really have to excite an SME and show them the potential of what you are trying to do. Additionally, you have to remember sometimes the SME gets real busy or they are being sent offshore! What do you do then? The process taught me that we can longer rely on one SME, you need to have at least couple of SMEs. However, one word of caution here, if there are multiple SMEs involved in one project there could be “competing interest” from different SMEs, and hence at the end you need a stakeholder who can do the final sign off. How do you evaluate the impact of your project? What tools/statistics do you use? We don’t typically do a good enough job of integrating our work (across the industry) with the business and strategically assessing how our learning solution has impacted the job flow. So this comes down to the Kirkpatrick model where you are not only assessing how the learning happened in class, but also whether it changed behavior, how did that behavior impacted safety, following processes, nonproductive time in field and accuracy with tools. We are trying to be better in evaluating our impact. We definitely want to make sure that we are constantly adapting to businesses need, whether that is instructor led or blended, using AR/ VR but at the same time ensuring that there is a testable outcome, and that could be a literal test. In most cases it is an assessment – it could be a theoretical quiz or practical evaluation. We are trying to look into people’s knowledge prior to coming in to the course, but also after they leave. I try to look at the results of pretest to post test. If people have predominantly failed in one area, that definitely is a reminder for me to take a deep look at the content. I also try to look at the assessment questions objectively – like are they aligned to the course objective and intended outcomes? I have been more involved with repair and maintenance, which mostly happens in the maintenance workshops. So I have to move from Bloom’s cognitive level learning to Kinesthetic- Psychomotor level. I have to ensure that the theory they learn translates with their hands on work. You can often tell if somebody is following the process correctly at their work, but you cannot change behavior. I think we need to work with the supervisors on this. A supervisor would be able to track if the number of incidents has decreased significantly after the successful completion of a training and to get a grip of what is working or not working. What blogs or books do you use for daily inspiration? I have a real passion for fantasy and sci-fi, I am not so much into the leadership books! And it is not that I don’t believe that I can’t learn anything from books, but I prefer to learn from individuals. I read a lot of articles from ATD, educational blogs – e-learning heroes. All of those locations are fantastic if you need to solve a problem. I think it is worth reading the white papers – at Bersin, where they are looking at trends in Adult Learning in industry. Finally, any advice for people who want to pursue this field? It is a challenging field to get into, but very rewarding one. Instructional design is a bit of project management and a bit of creativity. If you are the kind of person who likes to do the same thing same way – then this job is not for you. If it is your first position or even second position and things are not working for you ... don’t let that discourage you. In my experience this is a very passionate industry – people want to help people learn. Don’t get too stressed, you won’t be able to please everyone! You are not a good consultant for learning if you just build and deliver what the businesses say every time. I see that being a good consultant is being able to say – “no, training is not needed here, or, may be clearer competencies, or, maybe there should be change of process. I think we need to be more consultative. We build more trust in that way because your SME will believe you have the best interest in your mind, not your own interest in mind. We have to be confident enough in saying, no it is not going to work. It is not a quick war – but a series of battles – it is about making a series of small steps! ________________________________________________________________________________ Ian, thank you so much for your time, and sharing your insights! Ian can be reached out through LinkedIn
6 Comments
With a background currently in Instructional Design, this interview was very informative about the process and challenges faced in this profession. I found the future growth of instructional design section very interesting. The company that I work for currently is leaning towards VR as well; to know VR is the new transferring learning only leads to more implementations of learning in the near future.
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Ian
11/19/2018 11:30:29 am
Hi Jordan,
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Madiha
11/17/2018 06:44:27 pm
I am currently taking Instructional Design course and this interview really helped me clear some of the doubts that I had about pursuing Instructional Design as a career option. I can now understand the challenges this profession might have and how to overcome that. One of the things that want me to become an instructional designer is that I will always be learning something new. I don't like doing same things each day like its mentioned in this interview.
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Ian
11/19/2018 11:34:41 am
Hi Madiha,
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Alejandra Perales
11/18/2018 10:22:43 am
I am currently a first semester grad student at the University of Houston and enrolled in the Instructional Design course of the HRD program. Naturally, I had some questions in regards to the profession. The instructional design course has provided me with the knowledge of the work it takes in creating an instructional design, but this interview has provided me with a personal touch to this intriguing career path. Through this interview, a clear picture formed of what it means to be an instructional designer and provided a message of inspiration and passion. I was unsure of exactly what I wanted to pursue when gaining my degree but now I have an insight of what the career of an instructional designer could be thanks to this interview! I appreciate the parties who were involved in providing this fascinating interview!
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Ian
11/19/2018 11:36:33 am
Alejandra,
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