PBL Cheatsheet featured in eLearn Mag

The "Best Of" the information from my series of posts about Project Based Learning in a business environment was published on eLearn Mag today. With the help of Jill Duffy from eLearn Mag, I boiled down the key steps and tips for developing project based learning into one article covering it from head to toe. If you liked the PBL posts on my blog you will like how this article brings it all together. Check it out and leave a suggestion, tip, question or just a comment with your thoughts on project based learning.

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A Corporate Example of Project Based Learning

Enough talking about how to design project based learning, let's get down to the brass tacks and look at an example of a PBL lesson. If you would like more information on project based learning before looking at an example please review my series of project based learning blog posts. This example is titled "Selling Sleep Disorder Relief" and was designed to help sleep products sales people improve their sales with customers suffering from sleep disorders. Most of the process is designed to be completed over the course of 6 days by groups of sales professionals within their store location during free time in between customers.

The process begins by the facilitator communicating the guidelines through email and will conclude with the participants meeting to perform the presentations. The email sent to participants at the beginning of the project will outline the guidelines of the project and provide access to the project web site which serves as a resource to participants throughout the project. The details of each step of the process are described in the table below.

Day	Milestone	Description
1	Project Begins	Project facilitator groups participants according to their store location and assigns each group a sleep disorder. This step of the process is initiated through an email from the facilitator describing the guidelines of the project and providing access to the project web site. Once groups are formed and assigned a sleep disorder, they can begin working on the project and contact the facilitator for assistance when needed. Because the project is able to be facilitated online there are less expenses associated with travel and time in a classroom.
2	Research	Groups begin researching symptoms of their assigned sleep disorder using multiple internet resources. Potential links are available in the Resources section of the project web site to help get participants started. However, they are encouraged to extend their research beyond the sites listed on the Resources page of the project site. Learners will develop a greater understanding for the information by conducting research on their own rather than being spoon fed the information.
2	Develop Outline	Groups develop an outline highlighting the key findings of their research and possible solutions for the customers sleep disorder. The outline will be submitted to facilitator for feedback. This allows the facilitator to provide formative feedback to the group before they potentially go too far down the wrong path.
3	Develop Handout	Groups will begin developing the handout after receiving feedback on their outline from the facilitator. The handout will be designed to summarize the key points and distributed during the presentation. This will serve as a job aid to other participants of the class who will be learning about the sleep disorders presented by the groups.
4	Develop Presentation	Groups develop their presentation including the role play sales presentation simulation. There will be an opportunity to receive feedback and practice the presentation in front of the facilitator. The opportunity to practice the presentation in front of the facilitator provides another opportunity for formative feedback to ensure they are headed down the right path and are grasping the instructional objectives of the lesson.
6	Perform Presentation	The groups will perform their presentations for the other groups and the facilitator. The handouts will also be distributed at this time. Performing the presentation in front of other class participants provides the opportunity for participants to demonstrate the performance described in the instructional objectives and for other participants to learn about the specific sleep disorder.
6	Debrief and Discuss	The facilitator will debrief and discuss the key points of each groups presentation using the handouts provided by each group of learners. These handouts will then be assembled by the learners to be used as a reference/job aid helping them take advantage of what they learned from other groups presentations. This and the final project grade are where summative feedback is given based off of the culminating project.

This is just one example of Project Based Learning in a corporate environment. Hopefully this example will give others ideas of how to get started and my series of project based learning posts will fill in the details of each step along the way. Do you have any examples of using project based learning in a corporate environment or suggestions of how to improve upon this example? If so please leave a comment with an example, suggestion, or have anything to say about project based learning.

Related Posts:
The posts listed below provide many more details regarding designing project based learning in a corporate environment.

• Project Based Learning - Are you doing it?
• What is Project Based Learning?
• 3 Steps to a Driving Question for Project Based Learning
• Designing Assessments for Project Based Learning
• Project Based Learning in 3 Steps
  

Project Based Learning in 3 Steps

An Instructional Designers "Cheat Sheet" for Designing Project Based Learning
Four blog posts ago I set out on a long strange trip to dissect project based learning in a corporate environment. Along the way I have received some great comments on this blog and through Twitter with insight and examples of how to take advantage of project based learning. For the last post of the Project Based Learning series I'm going to boil down the key points of the four posts and the comments I received into a "cheat sheet" for instructional designers getting started with project based learning. This "Cheat Sheet" is designed to be used as a job aid summarizing the project based learning design process and does not include all of the details you may be looking for. For more information please click on the links throughout the post or in the "More Information" section.

What is PBL and why should I care?
Based off the name "Project Based Learning", it's not so tough to figure out that it's all about learning through the development of a project. Although it is simple to understand the premise of Project Based Learning I believe there is a lack of resources available because many instructional designers are designing it but don't realize there is a name and method to it. So, what is PBL anyway? The textbook definition provided by the Buck Institute for Education in the "Project Based Learning Handbook" described PBL with the quote below:

A systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

In my opinion it's a flexible term that boils down to scaffolding a lesson so that learners construct their own solutions through the development of projects rather than being told what the solution is through formal instruction. Project based learning's focus on the learner constructing their own solutions using available resources is what makes it ideal for the corporate world. In the workplace, employees don't have their training facilitator there to give a lecture any time they come across a problem they don't know how to solve so it is important that employees learn to use available resources to solve the problem on their own. Project based learning achieves what a lecture cannot by providing the opportunity for the learner to practice using the necessary resources so that when they do come across a problem they are prepared to solve it on their own.

Step 1: Dream up the Big Idea
Before you can begin constructing the driving question you need to develop the "Big Idea" that the project will be based on. This is where you need to be creative and dream up an idea or theme for the project that is intriguing, complex, problematic, and most importantly requires the learner to demonstrate the outcomes of the instructional objectives being taught in the lesson. When it comes to project based lessons in corporate environments it's best to come up with a big idea or theme based off of problems that the learners face in the workplace. A big idea that matches what people do in their daily work makes it easy to design a project based lesson that will improve the learners performance on the job. A great way to stay focused on authentic concerns is to enroll the help of learners in the brainstorming process. Engaging the learners in the process of developing the big idea not only makes it easier to develop a "real world" concern, but it also ensures the learners "buy in" on the lesson.

Step 2: Develop the Driving Question
Once you have the big idea or theme for your project based lesson you are ready to develop the driving question. In this step you will be taking the big idea you dreamed up in step 1 and forming that into a realistic scenario requiring the learner to demonstrate the performance described in the instructional objectives. A great way to capture the "big idea" into the form of a problem is to present it as a realistic scenario that learners come across in the workplace. Think about what is going to happen on the job that will trigger the performance being taught and capture that in the form of a question or multiple questions. The driving question does not have to be told in a storyline but a good story is a great way to engage the learner while communicating the driving question(s) and guidelines of the project. Once you have an idea of what your driving question is going to be, ask yourself the questions below before committing to your final draft of the driving question(s):

• Is it open ended?
• Is it challenging?
• Is it realistic?
• Is it complex?
• Does it require a performance or project?
• Is it consistent with instructional objectives?

If you can answer yes to the questions above then your driving question may be ready to put into action. Once you have polished your driving question you are well on your way to a quality project based lesson.

Step 3: Design the Assessment
The project based learning design process concludes by developing a plan to assess whether learners are able to demonstrate the instructional objectives you set out for to begin with by completing one or more projects. You could say that this step puts the "Project" in "Project Based Learning." I consider this to be the most important part of the design process because it is where you evaluate whether the lesson was successful or not. The best practices described below will help you ensure a successful project based learning assessment.

• Demonstrates Objectives - A great way of ensuring that the assessments demonstrate the objectives is to design an assessment where learners complete the actual task or project that they will be required to complete on the job.
• Scaffolded Assesments - Scaffolding the project so that it builds up to a final assessment that represents a blend of all the content covered in the project ensures that the learners have improved over time and achieved the instructional objectives.
• Able to Score - Some of the greatest assessments for project based learning can also be the most difficult to assess. A great way of overcoming this obstacle is to create a rubric to use as a scoring guide. A well written rubric not only helps the facilitator score the assessment but it also helps the learner understand what is expected of them and serves as a guide for their project.

More Information:
As mentioned earlier, this post is only a summary of the design process. The links below will take you to more information regarding each step of the PBL design process.

• Project Based Learning - Are you doing it?
• What is Project Based Learning?
• 3 Steps to a Driving Question for Project Based Learning
• Designing Assessments for Project Based Learning
• A Corporate Example of Project Based Learning
  

References:

• Buck Institute for Education. (2003) Project Based Learning: A guide to standards focused project based learning. Novato, CA: Buck Institute for Education.

Designing Assessments for Project Based Learning

You have developed your big idea and polished the driving question, now for the most important aspect of Project Based Learning - planning the assessments. The project based learning design process concludes by developing a plan to assess whether learners are able to demonstrate the instructional objectives you set out for to begin with by completing one or more projects. I consider this to be the most important part of the design process because it is where you evaluate whether the lesson was successful or not. In this post I highlight some best practices that will help you ensure a successful project based learning assessment.

1. Demonstrates Objectives
It seems obvious that your project based learning assessment must require learners to demonstrate the performance described in the instructional objectives but it can be easy to become carried away with a creative project and lose sight of your goals. A great way of ensuring that the assessments demonstrate the objectives is to design an assessment where learners complete the actual task or project that they will be required to complete on the job. Yeah, it may seem boring to just have learners simulate what they have to do on the job but this is a great way to ensure that they have learned something that will truly improve their performance. If the learner comes back to work from the lesson with a task completed then you already have a return on investment to point to.

2. Scaffolded
It is often more effective to scaffold project based lessons to include multiple assessments or projects. I recently designed a project based lesson that gradually built on the learners skills by including an assessment at the beginning, middle, and end of the project. The assessments at the beginning and middle of the project provided the opportunity for a formative assessment where the learners can be given feedback as the project progresses, while the assessment at the end provided the opportunity for a summative assessment where the learners can be given a culminating appraisal of their performance. Scaffolding the project so that it builds up to a final assessment that represents a blend of all the content covered in the project ensures that the learners have improved over time and achieved the instructional objectives.

3. Able to Assess
Some of the greatest assessments for project based learning can also be the most difficult to assess. It's easy to give a test where each question is worth a certain amount of points but when it comes to assessments where learners are completing a project it can be difficult to measure exactly how well the learner performed. A great way of overcoming this obstacle is to create a rubric to use as a scoring guide. A well written rubric not only helps the facilitator score the assessment but it also helps the learner understand what is expected of them and serves as a guide for their project. Rubrics are a great tool that I think may be underutilized in the corporate world. There is a lot of information available that will help you create rubrics so I am not going to dive into the details here. The links below will take you to a couple of sites that will help you get started creating rubrics and to an example of a rubric I created for a project based lesson.

• Creating Rubrics - This link takes you to teachervision.com which has a variety of resources for creating rubrics.
• My Example - This link will take you to an example rubric that I created for a project based lesson.
• MS Office Template - This link will take you to a template for a rubric on the MS Office site.
  

These are just a few of the best practices that I have developed in the short amount of time I have been developing project based learning in a corporate environment and should by no means be considered an all inclusive list of best practices. I would love to improve upon the tips I have in this post with your suggestions. My next post will conclude the project based learning series by summarizing the posts into a "quick guide" for developing project based learning. If you have any ideas or tips that will help others maximize the effectiveness of project based learning please leave a comment so that others can benefit.

References:

• Buck Institute for Education. (2003) Project Based Learning: A guide to standards focused project based learning. Novato, CA: Buck Institute for Education.

Related Posts:

• Project Based Learning - Are you doing it?
• What is Project Based Learning?
• 3 Steps to a Driving Question for Project Based Learning
• Project Based Learning in 3 Steps
• A Corporate Example of Project Based Learning

3 Steps to a Driving Question for Project Based Learning

In the last post of the Project Based Learning series, I introduced what project based learning is and the benefits of using Project Based Learning in corporate environments. Now that we know what PBL is and have seen an example of it's use in a corporate environment, let's dive into developing Project Based Lessons for corporate training. Project Based Lessons begin with what I believe to be the most critical aspect of the instructional design process, the Driving Question. Houghton Mifflin's "Project Based Learning Space" defines driving questions as;

"A driving question or problem that serves to organize and drive activities, which taken as a whole amount to a meaningful project."

The driving question is both the foundation and the blueprint that gets learners started and guides them throughout the project. A well designed project is based on a driving question that sets off an inquiry based learning process where the project activities, and objectives are all determined by the driving question. It's obvious that the driving question is make or break to the project based lesson, so how do you create a quality driving question that achieves all of this. This post breaks down the process of developing a driving question that organizes and drives activities in a project based lesson.

Step 1: Develop the Big Idea
Before you can begin constructing the driving question you need to develop the "Big Idea" that the project will be based on. This is where you need to be creative and come up with an idea or theme for the project that is intriguing, complex, problematic, and most importantly requires the learner to demonstrate the outcomes of the instructional objectives being taught in the lesson. While it's important to create a driving question that is intriguing, the main focus is to design a question that elicits the performance required of the learner upon completion of the lesson. When it comes to project based lessons in corporate environments it's best to come up with a big idea or theme based off of problems that the learners face in the workplace. A big idea that matches what people do in their daily work makes it easy to design a project based lesson that will improve the learners performance back at the workplace.

It can be all too easy to get carried away with an elaborate driving question that ends up having nothing to do with the performance described in the instructional objectives. The"Project Based Learning Handbook" suggests staying focused on the performance by asking yourself;

"Where is the content I am trying to teach used in the real world?"

A great way to stay focused on authentic concerns is to enroll the help of learners in the brainstorming process. Engaging the learners in the process of developing the big idea not only makes it easier to develop a "real world" concern, but it also ensures the learners "buy in" on the lesson. This is particularly helpful with adults in a corporate environment where the training facilitator may not necessarily be an expert on the subject at hand and the learners can add perspective that makes the lesson more effective.

It's helpful to see examples of driving questions to get you started but there is really not many examples available. The Selling Sleep Disorder Relief project based lesson is a corporate example that may help you get started especially if you are developing a project based lesson for sales professionals. Please leave a comment if you have any other examples that you can contribute.

Step 2: Rough out the Driving Question
Once you have the big idea or theme for your project based lesson you are ready to rough out your driving question. In this step you will be taking the big idea developed in step 1 and forming that into a realistic scenario requiring the learner to demonstrate the performance described in the instructional objectives. The "Project Based Learning Handbook" describes the goal of developing the driving question with the following quote:

"Once you have a project theme or a "big idea" for a project, capture the theme in the form of a problem or a question that cannot be easily solved or answered."

A great way to capture the "big idea" into the form of a problem is to present it as a realistic scenario that learners come across in the workplace. Think about what is going to happen on the job that will trigger the performance being taught and capture that in the form of a question or multiple questions. The driving question does not have to be told in a storyline but a good story is a great way to engage the learner while communicating the driving question(s) and guidelines of the project. In the Selling Sleep Disorder Relief project based lesson, I communicated the driving question through a story that caught the learners attention and was actually fun for me to write. The "Project Based Learning Handbook" has some great tips for developing driving questions with the guidelines below:

• Driving Questions are Provocative
• Driving Questions are Open Ended
• Driving Questions go to the heart of a discipline or topic
• Driving Questions are challenging
• Driving Questions can arise from real world dilemmas that students find interesting
• Driving Questions are consistent with standards (Objectives)
  

Once you have roughed out a driving question you are ready to put it through the final inspection to make sure it meets the goals you set out for in the instructional objectives. In the final step of the driving question design process you will improve upon what you started with by refining the driving question into a complex, engaging issue that requires the learners to demonstrate the performance described in the objectives.

Step 3: Polishing the Driving Question
Before considering your driving question complete there are some important factors to take into consideration that will help you polish the driving question you roughed out in step 1. The list below describes some questions to ask yourself before finalizing your driving question.

• Is it open ended? If your driving question can be answered with a "Yes" or "No" then you will need to go back to the drawing board and ensure that it does not lead to an easy answer. Driving questions require learners to demonstrate higher level thinking.
  
• Is it challenging? If the driving question does not challenge learners they will not learn as much from the experience. Give them a challenge that will allow them to confront difficult issues.
  
• Is it realistic? A driving question depicting a realistic scenario that learners come across in the workplace will keep them engaged and help to ensure they retain skills that will actually be used on the job.
  
• Is it complex? A broad driving question requiring multiple activities and open to many possible solutions will keep students engaged and allow them to demonstrate the higher level thinking required to achieve the instructional objectives. Ensure that your driving question is broad enough to require learners to make a number of different decisions.
  
• Does it require a performance or artifact? This is the "Project" in "Project Based Learning." What will the learners be doing as a group or individually to demonstrate that they have achieved the instructional objectives. Do your best to make the performance or project that learners are completing as realistic to what they will experience in the workplace. Whether it be creating a business proposal or simulating a sales presentation the project should mimic what will be required on the job. This provides a fail safe opportunity to practice what they will be doing at work.
  
• Is it consistent with the instructional objectives? Are you asking a question that requires learners to demonstrate the performance described in the instructional objectives. Don't get caught up over complicating your driving question and forget about what you are trying to achieve in the first place. Achieving the instructional objectives is your focus at the start of the project and needs to remain the focus through the end.
  

If you can answer yes to these questions then your driving question may be ready to put into action. Once you have polished your driving question you are well on your way to a quality project based lesson and are ready to finalize the details for the project or artifact that learners will be developing as a result of the lesson. In the next post I will cover the details of the project or artifact but before getting into that, what are your thoughts on developing driving questions for project base lessons? Do you have anything to add or modify that contributes to a successful driving question? If so, please leave a comment with your thoughts on driving questions for project based learning.

References:

• Buck Institute for Education. (2003) Project Based Learning: A guide to standards focused project based learning. Novato, CA: Buck Institute for Education.
• Houghton Mifflins Project Based Learning Space

Related Posts:

• Project Based Learning - Are you doing it?
• What is Project Based Learning?
• Designing Assessments for Project Based Learning?
• Project Based Learning in 3 Steps
• A Corporate Example of Project Based Learning

What is Project Based Learning?

In my last post I set out on a quest to dissect Project Based Learning in the corporate world by starting some conversations and writing some blog posts. I believe that project based learning is ideally suited for adults in corporate training but sadly there is not much information available. I am hoping to shed light on some best practices that will improve the effectiveness of my project based lessons and hopefully help other instructional designers out there looking to get started with project based learning in a corporate organization. Part of the reason why there is not much information available may be that many instructional designers are creating project based lessons but they haven't put any label on it. I know I was already doing it but until I took a recent instructional design class, I did not realize there was an actual name for it. For this reason I'll start out my series of posts by covering what project based learning is and why there should be more of a focus placed on it in the corporate world.

So, what is project based learning? The textbook definition provided by the Buck Institute for Education in the "Project Based Learning Handbook" described standards focused project based learning with the quote below:

A systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed products and tasks.

In my opinion it's a flexible term that boils down to scaffolding a lesson so that learners construct their own solutions rather than being told what the solution is through formal instruction. In project based learning students use a variety of resources such as the internet and books or even better, resources used to perform their jobs such as company intranets, software, job aids, manuals, and wikis to construct their own solutions to the problem they are being asked to solve. Project based learning helps learners to gain a deeper understanding of the instructional objectives by engaging them in an interactive lesson requiring them to perform the objectives in a safe environment.

Project based learning's focus on the learner constructing their own solutions using available resources is what makes it so ideal for the corporate world. In the workplace, employees don't have their training facilitator there to give a lecture any time they come across a problem they don't know how to solve so it is important that employees are trained to use available resources to solve the problem on their own. Project based learning achieves what a lecture cannot by providing the opportunity for the learner to practice using the necessary resources so that when they do come across a problem they are prepared to solve it on their own.

By now, I am sure you are well aware of what project based learning is so let's take a look at an example. Hopefully sharing my example will inspire readers to describe or post a link to their examples as a comment to this post. For my recent instructional design class I designed a project based lesson called "Selling Sleep Disorder Relief" which required participants to research a sleep disorder then create a presentation of how to make a sales presentation to a customer with the sleep disorder. By designing a project based lesson for this topic participants were not only better able to retain the information but they were also required to practice applying this information in a realistic "fail safe" situation. Hopefully this example will help others understand what project based learning is and hopefully spur some ideas or best practices for using it in the corporate world. Do you have any examples or insight you are willing to share? I am by no means an expert and would love to hear what others have to say about project based learning in the corporate world. Please continue the conversation by posting a comment with examples or just your thoughts on project based learning.

References:

• Buck Institute for Education. (2003) Project Based Learning: A guide to standards focused project based learning. Novato, CA: Buck Institute for Education.

Related Posts:

• Project Based Learning - Are you doing it?
• 3 Steps to a Driving Question for Project Based Learning
• Designing Assessments for Project Based Learning
• Project Based Learning in 3 Steps
• A Corporate Example of Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning - Are you doing it?

Are you implementing Project Based Learning in a corporate environment? If so, I would like to hear about it. In an instructional design class I took over the summer we focused on "Project Based Learning." What I learned in this class inspired me to make it more of a priority in my work as an instructional designer in a corporate environment. I love the principles behind project based learning because they focus on the learner performing the instructional objectives being taught in a realistic situation. All fired up to do more with project based learning I set out on a Google search for examples of it being used in corporate environments. To my surprise there is a severe lack of information available about implementing it specifically in the corporate world. Just about every search result has to do with project based learning in K-12 education. So, I am going to try and help do something about that.

I am going to try and make a small contribution by writing a few posts about implementing "Project Based Learning" in a corporate environment. I'll cover important topics such as developing the "Driving Question" and "Artifact" of the project while citing specific examples of it being used in a corporate environment. After writing a few posts highlighting the key points and receiving your insight I'll put it all together into an article covering the project based learning design process from start to finish.

Before diving into project based learning in more detail I would love to hear about your experiences implementing it in a corporate environment. I was hoping to find insight with a Google search but as mentioned earlier there's really not much information available. I can't be the only one with something to say about it so help contribute by posting a comment with your thoughts or experiences with project based learning. I look forward to hearing your ideas and sharing them in upcoming blog posts.

Related Posts:

• What is Project Based Learning?
• 3 Steps to a Driving Question for Project Based Learning
• Designing Assessments for Project Based Learning
• Project Based Learning in 3 Steps
• A Corporate Example of Project Based Learning

Telecollaboration and Project Based Training

I just finished another course in the Ed Tech program at San Diego State called "Advanced Teaching with Tech." Being that the class is called "Advanced Teaching with Tech," I thought we would dive deeper into using technology but unfortunately we didn't dive much deeper than Google Apps and Questgarden. However, I did pick up some new instructional design skills that I will be able to apply at work right away. This post describes a couple of projects I developed for this class and what I learned from them.

Early in the semester we were assigned to develop a Telecollaboration lesson using Google Sites. This was the first time I had heard of a telecollaboration lesson so I was curious to hear about something with such a fancy name. A telecollaboration or telecollaborative lesson is an educational project where participants learn by sharing information with other groups of people over the internet. This is an ideal project for me because a large part of my responsibilities at work involve developing eLearning courses and I am always looking for new ways to facilitate collaboration with others through eLearning. A common hit on eLearning is that it does not have the benefits gained through face to face interaction and collaboration with others that ILT can provide. However, telecollaboration lessons can help eLearning courses overcome the challenge of facilitating interaction and collaboration online.

The telecollaboration activity I designed for this project is called the "Handling Customer Objections Showdown." I wanted to develop something that I could also use at work where the majority of my learners are retail sales professionals. Participants of the showdown will improve their ability of overcoming customer objections by competing to post the best solutions to customer objections on a discussion board. Not only will this facilitate the sharing of best practices but it will also contribute to a database of solutions to customer objections that can be used as a job aid. I've been trying to come up with way's to take advantage of forums in Moodle and this will be a great lesson to do so with. Check it out and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Another focus of the semester was designing project based lessons where participants learn through working on a project in a group or individually. I love this type of lesson because it focuses on learners demonstrating the performance and generally there is not much lecture involved. To sum it up there is less telling and more doing. Project based lessons are definitely something I can take back to work as they work well as part of a blended training approach including both instructor led and eLearning solutions. In the past I have had success using eLearning to teach the pre requisite information that learners need to know before attending an Instructor Led course where they will apply what they learned in the eLearning with a project based lesson.

The Project Based Lesson I created is called "Selling Sleep Disorder Relief" and is designed to help sleep products salespeople improve their performance with customers who suffer from Sleep Disorders. The lesson is designed so that participants are broken into groups according to the retail store or region they work in and are assigned to research a sleep disorder then deliver a presentation about the disorder to the rest of the class. The presentation must include a "Role Play" simulation of an ideal sales presentation for a person with the sleep disorder. This improves learning due to the fact that they are going out and researching the information then forming a hypothesis on their own of how that information can be used back on the sales floor to improve their performance. This lesson personifies the notion of "more doing, and less telling."

Although the class didn't cover as much technology as I was hoping for I did learn a lot about instructional design. Learning about Instructional Design may not be as fun but we have to take our medicine in order to use technology effectively. I look forward to implementing these lessons at work and please leave a comment if you have suggestions.