Course Kitchen

06/08/2021

Looking to share your passion and expertise with the world? Overwhelmed with the work needed to make that happen? We help turn your rough ideas into an on-brand, engaging, and effective learning experience for your target market. Let us take this off your plate.

Founded by Dr. Bonnie Budd in 2016, we have had the opportunity to serve learners and leaders at big companies, small startups, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. We would love to work with you next!

Looking to share your passion and expertise with the world? Overwhelmed with the work needed to make that happen? Let us take this off your plate.

09/28/2017

Learning Lingo: Objectives

Objectives are clear, measurable, action-oriented statements of the intended learning or performance outcomes of your course. The value of well-written objectives lies in designing a learning experience that effectively aligns assessment and instructional strategies. Well-written objectives inform the design of the entire experience and assessments, tell learners what to expect, and provide a benchmark against which they can self-assess.

A common tool used in the crafting of learning objectives is Bloom’s Taxonomy. A particularly helpful version of the taxonomy is this 3D model from Iowa State University's Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, which maps the taxonomy with cognitive and knowledge domains.

Learn more in Course Kitchen's Guide to Learning Lingo at the link below.

Learning Lingo: The terms that were new to me as I began or that have confused me as I moved along in this buzzword-filled field of instructional design

09/21/2017

Learning Lingo: Design Thinking

While design thinking has been prevalent in the fields of business and software development, the approach is getting a foothold in education. Design thinking prioritizes the experience and insights of the end-user in a process that moves iteratively through five actions: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. An expert designer of learner-centered experiences essentially exercises design thinking in their work all the time, even if following a more traditional model such as ADDIE.

Whether it is referred to as analysis or discovery, the work always starts with attempting to understand and empathize with the needs of the learner and organization.

Interpretation of, ideation around, and experimentation with the results of the analysis is the heart of the design and development process. This cycle involves iterative rounds of prototyping, reviews and user testing, and modifications.

Evolution is ultimately the result of testing and evaluation; the purpose of measuring the efficacy of a learning experience is to make continuous improvements..

Learn more in Course Kitchen's Guide to Learning Lingo at the link below.

Learning Lingo: The terms that were new to me as I began or that have confused me as I moved along in this buzzword-filled field of instructional design

09/14/2017

Learning Lingo: Chunking

This is the process of dividing content into manageable sections aligned with particular objectives. For example, if a designer is working on a project to teach people how to drive, they might divide, or chunk, the material to be learned into categories such as Readiness, Operation, Traffic, and Laws. Since each category is still quite broad, they may be further chunked such that Readiness includes “Checking Mirrors”, “Seat Adjustment”, “Safety Measures”, and “Assessing the Area”. Each of these chunks might be taught and tested individually before moving on to the next. In this way, complex or dense subject matter (“content”) can be systematically taught and assessed in an accessible manner.

There are several strategies for chunking according to cognitive domain or other classifications. An expert designer will choose the approach that best aligns with the content and objectives.

Learn more in Course Kitchen's Guide to Learning Lingo at the link below.

Learning Lingo: The terms that were new to me as I began or that have confused me as I moved along in this buzzword-filled field of instructional design

09/07/2017

Learning Lingo: Andragogy/Pedagogy

You may read or hear that pedagogy means the science of teaching children while andragogy is the science of teaching adults. While that is technically true, the word "pedagogy" is often used in a more generic sense to mean the art and science of teaching, period. "Andragogy" as a term was popularized by
Malcolm Knowles and is associated with his principles of adult learning, which emphasizes that adults learn best when:

-they are involved in planning the learning
-can learn through experiences
-are learning topics that they can immediately apply to their lives or work, and
-are provided problems to solve rather than just content to learn.

Learn more in Course Kitchen's Guide to Learning Lingo at the link below.

Learning Lingo: The terms that were new to me as I began or that have confused me as I moved along in this buzzword-filled field of instructional design

09/06/2017

Discover how we can help you and your organization meet your learning and development challenges!

09/05/2017

Teaching Tuesday: Do you know how to design for motivation?
Do you know what motivates your learners? When was the last time you experienced learning that tapped in to your motivation?

I (Bonnie) just completed the last course in my doctoral program, and am officially ABD ("all but dissertation"). Next up: Complete my planned study of adult learner motivation in an online course. Specifically, a course that I helped to design with the very intent to tap into and increase motivation. I want to know if it worked!

This book is just one of many that dive in to the complex world of what motivates us to learn. It's very readable and deeply informative.

Each Tuesday we share some of our favorite books related to learning design, development, and evaluation. We would love to get your ideas on more books to read!

(Amazon Affiliate link below)

New to this edition is the blending of a neuroscientific understanding of motivation and learning with an instructional approach responsive to linguistically and culturally different adult learners. Based on the most current educational and biological research, Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn...

09/04/2017

Mentor Monday: Who do you count among the best bosses you've ever had? What made them so great?

Dr. Katie Vale was only my boss for a few short months at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health but, in that short time, she embodied the notion of a leader providing "top cover" under which their people can do their best work. Katie interceded in a toxic environment and worked diligently to move her team to a more healthy place. She addressed conflict with grace and troubled times with dignity.

Eventually, Katie and I both left that School for other opportunities, but stayed in touch. In a very sad turn of events, Katie passed away last year. I know I am not the only one whose career was positively impacted by Katie, as evidenced by the stories told at the beautiful service put together by her loving husband, Marshall. She lives on in those she loved, mentored, led, and served in various capacities. A significant, lasting legacy.

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/4/planning-the-it-career-you-want

Each Monday we will introduce some of our teaching and learning design mentors. We would love to hear about yours!

Susan Grajek, IT Salaries in Higher Education, 2012, ECAR Research Bulletin (Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, February 15, 2013).

08/31/2017

Learning Lingo: Analysis

Designers talk about many types of analyses. Here are four common categories:

An audience analysis, or learner analysis, provides insight into the preferences, motivations, contexts, knowledge level, etc.

A needs analysis (aka needs assessment) reveals the learning needs of a particular audience regarding a given subject matter.

A task analysis produces a step-by-step, detailed description of how a task is performed.

A gap analysis identifies discrepancies between how something is (for example, how a task is performed) and how it should be (for example, how the task should be performed for best results).

Learn more in Course Kitchen's Guide to Learning Lingo at the link below.

Course Kitchen's Guide to Learning Lingo

08/30/2017

Paula Galvin has been involved in the creation and delivery of adult learning experiences for more than twenty years, from classrooms to cellblocks. She is a firm believer in identifying and building toward learner motivation with agile and creative instructional strategies.

Paula currently serves as the Online Learning Manager and Instructional Designer for the University of Arizona College of Nursing (UACON), focused on Professional Education initiatives. Before joining UACON, Paula was an Instructional Designer at MCPHS University Boston Campus where she supported faculty use of instructional technology.

Learn more about Paula on Our Team page!

The Course Kitchen team includes learning and development professionals with exceptionally diverse professional and academic backgrounds. This richness allows us to serve clients from varying sectors and with varying needs.

08/29/2017

Teaching Tuesday: When is the last time you had the opportunity to evaluate whether a program you designed was actually effective in meeting it's intended goals? How did you go about that evaluation? What did you do with the findings?

In honor of yesterday's featured Mentor, this week's book recommendation is the ABCs of Evaluation by Dr. John Boulmetis. This book was easily the most readable text in my (Bonnie's) Master's program in Adult Education at the University of Rhode Island. It provides a clear, systematic framework for the evaluation of learning programs and highlights the importance of building open and trusting relationships with stakeholders.

Each Tuesday we share some of our favorite books related to learning design, development, and evaluation. We would love to get your ideas on more books to read!

(Amazon Affiliate link below)

Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition of bestselling The ABCs of Evaluation offers an introduction to program evaluation. This comprehensive textbook covers topics such as stakeholder relationships, program design, data collection and analysis, reporting results, and other important s...