Instructional Design?

HiInteresting thread, could not avoid jumping in.Instructional Design has had so much written that you could fill a library. However you need to be careful of the books you choose and which direction you go.ID falls today into a number of different areas, many have put these together and call them ID. They include:Needs analysisCognitive TheoryInstructional TransferAssessmentCourseware DevelopmentThese are actually all differet subjects in which some have spent a lifetime trying to understand, so to batch them together into ID and publish a paperback can be a little misleading.The main areas you need to concentrate on are:Design ModelCognitive TheoryA model is a plan or picture of the steps required to create a course.A theory is the cognitive style you will use to tranfer the content.The needs analysis and task analysis often have been looked at long before you the e-learning developer were ever brought into the loop.If you are a manager in a training department looking to create a new course in 'something' then take a long look as to the need, is it your need, the departments need or the need of the user? And if it is the last,(I hope so) which means you are aligning with the business requirement before the user actually 'needs' the course, then the task and objectives of the need will be blindingly obvious and not require a step of their own.I would start by reading some of the 'legends' however you must remember to take into acoount they all have written with classroom training in mind not e-learning, so many 'huge' adjustments are required. I would start with Robert Gagne. You will see that most 'models' are based on this basic concept. Steer very wide of Instructional Design Theory to start with.For Assessment areas look long and hard at Blooms Taxonomy, not easy though to transfer to e-learning.Remember two things:Reigeluth, stated with great wisdom, 'anything you do to assist learning is instructional design'And the daddy of them all Dr Zeuss said.The more you read, the more you will knowthe more you learn, the further you will go....Lastly thanks Shel for the plug, come and join my course in Atlanta in June or Boston in August (soon to be listed)and really learn some great Instructional Design. http://www.trainer1.com/trainer1_training_instructional_desi gn_course.htmlNeil