If you are a one person instructional design team, this post is for you. 2012 is almost over and now is the perfect time to gear up for next year’s eLearning projects. You probably already have some great ideas for next year’s learning initiatives, but it can be pretty hard to execute on all those ideas alone. And if you are just getting started with eLearning, you’re in for even more of a challenge.
We feel your pain. Our company actually started as a one woman shop in 1995… and we have always kept things small. This comes with many advantages, but what do you do when a project is just a little beyond your limitations? There’s no doubt the quality and variety of learning solutions we offer has improved as our company has grown (there’s 19 of us now.) It would be difficult for us to meet the diverse needs of our clients without the awesome team of writers, designers, and programmers we have now.
The biggest limiters you probably face are time and budget. If a task is outside of your skill set, you do not have time to put the hours in and learn because you are already too busy finishing other work that needs to be done. If you see a cool tool or product that might work well at your organization, chances are it’s well beyond your budget. This means that despite your best intentions, you may be stuck delivering instructor-led training and Powerpoint presentations that are well past their expiration date. If you are lucky enough to have access to a rapid authoring tool like Articulate or Lectora, you may be forced to produce courses as a one size fits all solution, even if you don’t want to.
While we mostly focus on custom eLearning, mobile learning, game based learning, and curriculum design, we are excited to introduce a new solution specifically for instructional designers with limited time and resources. We call them Project Kickstarts.
We’ll provide the design and development support you need to get started on a new project… or take an existing project up a notch. Whether it’s a curriculum design you can implement, graphic design work, custom widgets to plug in to your courses, a third party analysis, or some extra instructional design expertise, we’ve got you covered.
Have a look at the Kickstarts we offer:
Design It
We’ll steer you in the right direction without getting in the way. We provide you with an analysis worksheet, lead a design meeting, and give you a course design template to build the final product.
Picture It
It can be hard to keep courses from looking generic without the help of a skilled designer to pump up the visuals. We have a top notch team of graphic designers that are ready and willing to take your courses to the next level.
Build It
Speaking of generic, are you getting tired of the stock interactions in Articulate and Lectora? Almost all of the courses we produce for clients have custom skins, widgets, and features that make them different. We’ll help you build out your courses without breaking the bank… one widget at a time.
Analyze It
The ultimate goal is for YOU to have the skills you need to solve performance problems. We’ll provide the support and coaching you need to make a plan, develop analysis tools, and make sense of the data.
Enhance It
Learning design is both an art and a science. It can be hard to include all the necessary content in a course and still have it help people learn. If something about a particularly difficult project just doesn’t feel right, we’re happy to help.
Of course, one of the biggest ways we try to give back to the learning design community is through this blog. If you really, really don’t have the budget for any outside help, Twitter and the blogosphere are the two best places you can go for support.
Good luck!