3 Great Instructional Design Books on Amazon

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  1. Map It: The hands-on guide to strategic training design by Cathy Moore
    No more information dumps!

    Map It helps you turn training requests into projects that make a real difference. You'll learn how to:

    • Help the client identify what's really causing the performance problem.

    • Determine the role (if any!) of training.

    • Create realistic activities that help people practice what they need to do, not just show what they know.

    • Choose the best format for each activity -- online, projected to a group, on paper, as a small-group activity, over email...

    • Provide each activity at the best time -- in the workflow, available on demand, spaced over time...

    • Let people pull the information they need to complete the activity -- no more information dumps!

    • Enjoy creating challenging activities that people want to complete.

    • Show how your project has improved the performance of the organization.

    Using humor and lots of examples, Map It walks you through action mapping, a visual approach to needs analysis and training design. Organizations around the world use action mapping to improve performance with targeted, efficient training.

2. What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer by Luke Hobson

Are you thinking about becoming an instructional designer? The field of instructional design is exciting, but it’s also a bit confusing. What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer is your guidebook to help you avoid mistakes, focus your efforts and achieve your desired level of success with fewer headaches, wrong turns and mis-steps.

Everyone has questions about the instructional design field. This book provides the answers to questions such as:

  • What does an instructional designer do?

  • What are the pros and cons of instructional design?

  • What kind of instructional designer do I want to be when I grow up?

  • How do I build a portfolio?

  • How do I make connections in the field?

  • How do I teach myself a new skill?

  • How do I work with SMEs?

  • Is an instructional design degree right for me?

  • What do students actually do in a course?

At the end of each chapter, you’ll participate in activities to help you practice and reflect upon what you learned. Taking action is important to the learning process and you’ll know exactly what step to take with each point in your progress.

Whether you are brand new to instructional design or have a few years experience, this book will guide you throughout your career.

3. Design for How People Learn (Voices That Matter) 2nd Edition by Julie Dirksen

In Design For How People Learn, Second Edition, you'll discover how to use the key principles behind learning, memory, and attention to create materials that enable your audience to both gain and retain the knowledge and skills you're sharing. Updated to cover new insights and research into how we learn and remember, this new edition includes new techniques for using social media for learning as well as two brand new chapters on designing for habit and best practices for evaluating learning, such as how and when to use tests. Using accessible visual metaphors and concrete methods and examples, Design For How People Learn, Second Edition will teach you how to leverage the fundamental concepts of instructional design both to improve your own learning and to engage your audience.

Kathryn Thing

Innovative instructional designer crafting engaging and impactful learning experiences. Expertise in diverse sectors. Passionate about education, technology, and collaboration. Let's reimagine learning together!

https://kathrynmarlaine.com
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