L&D Book Reviews: The eLearning Design Handbook (Repost from LinkedIn)

I’m partial to book learning so I’m going to try and post about some of my favorite instructional design focused and adjacent books I’ve read while upskilling.

People (especially transitioning teacher) often ask me what my favorite programs or courses are for my career pivot but aside from learning new software tools, I think I learned most new information more effectively from books. I’d already had a lot of cognitive science, UX, design principles, and pedagogy books on my bookshelf that I might work in, but I’ll start with one I got very intentionally to work towards a new career: The eLearning Designer’s Handbook by Tim Slade

What I learned:
*Practical examples of eLearning design process.
*The role #eLearning might play in L&D — I’d designed digital education in K12 and delivered corporate training in a role before teaching, but this tied a lot of ideas together and made eLearning feel more concrete as a subset of instructional design, which fueled my passion for development.
*What UX and basic content organizational principles to prioritize in design.
*A functional process to begin working with others on eLearning development.
*A sense for what eLearning does well or poorly—I never got the sense the book wanted me to solve every problem with training or ever training problem with eLearning.

What I like about it:
*It’s literally a Handbook and basically asks to be written in. I love writing in books and annotating as I learn.
*It’s conversational and easy to read.
*It’s chunked to be read in steps that give action steps.

Who I would recommend it to: This is an easy entry level read so anyone can benefit, but it’s probably not the best option or at least starting point for someone who’s focused on Higher Ed (has a corporate focus) or uninterested in development, though it could be a good primer if they’re looking to diversify. It does focus on the whole process, not just eLearning. I’ll also mention the visual examples are Storyline heavy, but so is the industry, and plenty can be cross applied to other applications or used application “agnostic”.

P.S. Yes, I have the physical book. I generally do. Every once and awhile I make do with an eBook and I often start with a library book (often eBooks) but I usually buy books I find really useful and write all over them. I’m a page folder and annotator through and through.

This content is from my LinkedIn post, originally written in August 2022. Those reviews will be originating here from now on.