My Learning Blog

-Introduce yourself. -Ask open ended questions that covering the following aspects: Behavioral - Conflict, challenges, prioritization, pride project Technical - Process work flow, instructional design, instructional theories and their application -While the interviewee grapples with the questions take additional notes on: Communication skills Individual dynamic and the impact it might have on your team Skillset that the candidate adds to the team - If you are a panel of interviewers, divide the questions. Allow some overlap. -Provide an overview of the company's operation and function. -Address the any questions that the interviewee might have. Which area do the questions fall in? -Fill out a predefined evaluation format that covers the parameters that are important for your team. -Debrief

Look into your company's reference location, you might find a wealth of information there. If there is no such location, create one. Talk to members of other teams - educate yourself on the work they do and find out how your job fits into the overall picture. Have technical discussions with your own team members, if they have time or match their lunch/tea times with yours. :) Visit technical sites and e-zines to keep yourself posted on the latest trends. Maintain your blog.

http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/onlinelearninglinks.html#assessment http://www.globaled.com/articles.html http://www.webscenarios.webcentral.com.au/id3756h/ http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/InstructionalDesign.htm http://www.elearningguild.com/ http://www.clomedia.com http://captology.stanford.edu/ http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/ http://www.rmcdenver.com/useguide/lessons/lindex.htm

A content collection guide (CCG) is a tool that allows the subject matter experts (SMEs) to provide content for the course. A CCG eases communication and smoothens the content collection process. Here is how to create one- Write out the lesson objectives. Against each learning objective, describe the content required. Exemplify the content. Insist that the SMEs provide only the core content and not spend time on cleaning the language. Invite the SMEs to provide urls and other referenece materials. Add a note on how to use the document in the beginning and finally- Provide a thank you note at the end of the document.

Identify the primary, secondary and tertiary users of the template. For example - external clients might be the primary users, instructional designers (ID) secondary and the production team tertiary users. Collect the requirement and expectation that each set of users has with the template. Work out how your design would address these needs. For example, it might be important for the external clients to be able to visualize the solution. Hence they might need some props like images of the interactivity. For one of my solutions, I devised, "Interactivity at a glance" which was a series of key interaction frames to address this requirement of the clients. Evaluate the interactions that have been approved for the project. You might need to get in touch with your production team or the Creative Director to get this information. Group the interactivities in their families. This will help you decide if you need to create a different template for each interaction variation or if the...

While reviewing scripts, I ask myself- Is the course/lesson/module titled properly? Are the lessons structured in accordance to the instructional strategy? Is the numbering for the lesson/interactivity/page correct (so that when the course goes into production there are minimal clarifications from that team)? Do the content blocks belong to the lesson that they are placed in or are they more suitable elsewhere in the course? If so, which location? Does the script follow the style conventions adopted for the project? Are the sentences grammatically correct? Is there a sentence that is long and difficult to understand? If so, how can it be modified to make it easier to understand of the learner? Are the instructional texts for interactivities/lessons/pages provided? Are the course/lesson objectives mentioned in the beginning of the course/lesson and revised again at the end? Do the assessment questions appropriately address all the core components of the lesson? For a series of courses w...

If your project courses are primarily technical, google to find the training centers for those software, languages, packages or OS. Locate the Corporate office for the training institute. Talk to the hiring in-charge. Express your requirement for a technical talent who can write. Suggest that they post the requirement to all their centers, shortlist candidates based on your requirement and send them to you. You may also suggest the number of applications that you are willing to entertain at one time. Mail the hiring in-charge the company profile, job requirement, number of vacancies open and if you prefer to disclose - salary range candidates can expect. Hope to get resumes that match your project need!