At Thought Industries, we maintain our consumer-learning-centric blog, typically focusing on the benefits of consumer learning or the keys to designing your online school. It’s important, however, for instructional designers to consult a variety of resources to stay informed about developments in e-learning and how to make their online courses as effective as possible. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of some of our favorite sites that offer the most pertinent advice for any budding course designer.
The eLearning Coach
This easy-to-navigate website, run by Connie Malamed, provides “actionable strategies, practical content, product reviews and resources to help you design, develop and understand online learning.” Connie also hosts The eLearning Coach podcast which features discussions with industry experts and maintains a spectacular twitter account (@elearningcoach) which is a must follow for keeping up to date on all the latest information about online learning and instructional design.
→Visit www.theelearningcoach.com
Shift eLearning
The Shift eLearning blog puts a strong emphasis on psychology and the way in which the human brains functions. This sort of insight makes for incredibly helpful elearning design advice, as it focuses on the way people interpret information and how to capitalize on those thought processes to create the most effective course.
→Visit info.shiftelearning.com
Cathy Moore: Let’s Save the World from Boring Training
While Cathy Moore’s site is tailored towards online corporate training, that doesn’t mean her tips and content aren’t useful for instructional design. In fact, because her courses are designed for older learners, her advice is often the most relevant for those of us in the field of consumer learning. Her simple, easy-to-follow writing style creates blog posts that are easily digestible and full of useful valuable content. Cathy also provides information for prospective instructional designers and answers for graduate students studying instructional design.
Your eLearning World
Your eLearning World’s blog is chock full of valuable lessons on eLearning design. The site often focuses on the non-design aspect of eLearning (How to Translate a Course from One Language to Another, Estimating eLearning Development Time and Course Length, Developing Section 508 Compliant Courses), forcing instructional designers to think about other aspects of the eLearning world outside of just eLearning design.
→Visit www.yourelearningworld.com
