Right off the top: I am a planner. But I’m also a recovering perfectionist. My planning, to do list, and goal-setting can easily turn into perfectionist tendencies if I’m not super aware and vigilant.
I love a good to do list. I love to cross stuff off that list. It’s so satisfying, right?
Perfectionism has come up several times these past few weeks. (Or is it months? If I’m going to publish this, it should be accurate so which is it? I could sit here for a few minutes and try to remember more accurately, but if I stop writing another idea could pop in my head. Or I could fall down a rabbit hole of Instagram posts while trying to track my conversations on perfectionism and this piece would take months to write, or maybe not get written at all. Forget it. It’s not that important, so what was I saying again? Oh yeah, perfectionism.)
We are now at the half way point of the year, and for lots of people that means mid-year performance review. Or a mid-year check-in. Or just a big ol’ headache. Or a lot of woulda coulda shoulda.
I’ve been meaning to do a book review for The Desire Map for quite some time now. This is my kind of book review since it focuses on what I learned from the book. In my opinion, the best books have big life lessons. And this book delivers BIG lessons.
I read The Desire Map, a book written by Danielle LaPorte, in 2015 shortly after being laid-off. I found it (it found me), right around the same time that I was trying to find myself (again. Or was I trying to re-define myself?)
I love September. It’s a great new beginning.
Kids are off to school to start a new grade with a new teacher and in a new classroom. They have new pencils and new notebooks. They are going to make new friends and learn new things.
This is the second post in my ADDIE series; you can read the first post here and read this post about ADDIE. In this post I will share my lessons learned and best practices related to the Design phase; specially how to write a proposed solution in an Assessment document. There’s a lot to be done in the Design phase, so there will be a few posts for this phase of ADDIE.
It is the second phase in the ADDIE model. The goal of this phase is to create a solution that addresses the performance gap that was identified and agreed to in the Assessment phase.
In this post, I am focusing on writing effective micro copy for e.learning. In my experience, micro copy is not something most e.learning designers actively think about which is surprising (guilty!). Sometimes once the Development phase begins it’s a topic that gets revisited. But even then, it’s pretty quick and minimal.
Micro copy is short bits of sentences or phrases that help instruct, guide, or correct the user. The most frequent uses are related to website design.
Maybe you’re reading this because you’re going through a lay off. If so, your life is about to change dramatically and that can be pretty exciting (and scary). You have been presented with an experience. What are you going to do with it? I vote for rockin’ it.
And if you haven’t been laid off, would you like to feel lit up and fulfilled? Keep reading because these tips and lessons are for you too.
I intend to write a separate post for each of the phases of ADDIE. In each post, I will share some of my best practices as well as my lessons learned. I hope you find this series helpful.
I’m beginning the series with Assessment.
This is the first phase in the ADDIE model. The purpose of this phase is to understand the problem that the Business is seeing and how best to address it.
The Business is asking you to solve a performance related problem and they believe that training is the solution. Cool, thanks! There can be other solutions (e.g., compensation, operational, etc.) so please think beyond training; you are more likely to see tangible results if you do.
I like ADDIE (generally speaking) and think that it provides a solid framework for most learning projects. I have used ADDIE throughout my career; as a designer, a manager or in adult education courses I have taught. I’d like to share with you a few ADDIE pitfalls and some of my lessons learned.