IDT in Industry & Europe

The latest ID trends in corporate design and development sound very similar to ID trends in education especially technology based delivery.  Teachers are encouraged to use the latest technology to supplement learning in their k12 classrooms because it appeals to their students, might motivate them to do work they’d otherwise not do, and makes differentiating instruction easier.  In higher education, technology-based training comes in the form of online education and more and more, schools and universities are moving towards online education because it’s cheaper and may increase enrollment.  The verdict is out on whether it is as effective as f2f learning.  However, because in business and industry, the bottom line is all about money and how much a company has and it’s earning potential, and faster results, corporate training “is taking full advantage of the benefits of web-based instruction” (pg. 183).  Online learning encourages self-paced learning as well as collaboration between students.  Training can be synchronous or asynchronous which appeals to busy corporate workers who would probably appreciate the ability to participate in the training modules when their schedules permit. 

In order to find resources for technology-based training for business and industry, I simply googled “recourses for corporate trainers.” An article from The Wall Street Journal entitled, “So Much Training, So Little To Show For It” by Rachel Emma Silverman is a very interesting read.  In it, she implies that training fails because there is no follow-up to training and the assessments created for the training are meaningless and inappropriate.  So much so that, Silverman says, “90% of new skills are lost within a year” (2012). The article goes on to become a Q&A with Eduardo Salas, professor of organizational psychology at the University of Central Florida.  Points he made about corporate training and Instructional Design include:

·      People think that by sending an unskilled employee to training, they will come back completely trained & skilled

·      Organizations don’t take the time to analyze their training needs (perfect opening for an ID)

·      Companies don’t assess learning

·      Think technology will solve all problems. 

These issues are so similar to ID issues in K12 and higher education!  It’s outrageous how many people think that technology is the panacea for lack of knowledge or skills. The article is definitely worth reading, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204425904578072950518558328.

Another resource that I found is Training Magazine (http://www.trainingmag.com/). To be perfectly honest, I think I’m most impressed because it is a free resource online.  It’s been around for 50 years and even though it isn’t completely focused on Instructional Design, I think it would be a good read for most people who are doing ID in business and industry.  Articles in the current issue include: In Pursuit of Life Long Learning and The Role of the Future in Training & Development Today.  Using the websites search function I did a search of “instructional design” and was pleasantly surprised by the results.  A quick scan of the abstracts of articles revealed that most of the articles applied to my search.   

Instructional Design in Europe

I think the single most important thing about what was said in the text, Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology about this topic is, “Europe needs good instructional design” (251). Instructional design is present, but not everyone agrees on its importance.  Some people misbelieve instructional design indicates “rigid and outdated” (250). Online learning is real and present in Europe, but often not well designed and certainly not assessed to effectively reveal the outcomes of learning.  “Onligning,” a term used to describe synchronous online classes is currently a trend in Europe and there is a demand for better online learning environments so strong instructional designers are needed!