Transferable Learning
There are some habits that can make your life easier as an instructional designer, like clearly organizing your source files and explicitly telling SMEs what you need from them.
A habit I have picked up on to meet the needs of the business is making learning transferable.
On-demand learning solutions that we can plug-and-play make us more flexible. Here are some of the ways that I keep this in mind when developing training content.
Write wrapping language that is open-ended. This refers not to the content, but all the intros, transitions, and endings. For example, don’t say ‘in the next lesson you will’, because if the business needs to build a unique learning journey, the next lesson might vary depending on the audience.
Keep job titles broad. Your course might be used for full time employees one day, and contingent staff the next day. So instead of saying ‘You and your fellow client service representatives’ try something like ‘you and your peers.’ This way, no matter who picks up the course, it will apply to them.
Document curriculum clearly. Each activity and task should be directly connected to a skill. This means we know exactly what content is needed based on business demands. If they ask for training on a certain work type, we can look at the course lesson lists and pull out exactly what we need based on how things are labelled.
These are just a few of the ways that I make sure my training solutions are applicable for a broad audience. Sometimes, we need very specific content for a specialty group and this won’t apply, but it can help with content management overall.
