Three Interesting Instructional Design Blogs To Check Out

Posted by: Fernando Alvarez

Blog # 1 name:  Designing Impact Author:  MariAn Klein

MariAn is a professional in the learning industry sector with more than 22 years experience.  She has worked in the following  sectors throughout her career: education, corporate learning and development, government, and custom eLearning.  MariAn has also had extensive experience in designing, developing, and implementing large, complex, learning solutions and systems.  With such an extensive background MariAn’s blog is a very rich source of instructional design (ID) and eLearning ideas for experienced ID professionals in the educational, government, or corporate world.  One of the main purposes of this blog is to share ideas for creating high transfer, practical learning and performance solutions.

Some of the topics presented on Designing Impact are Web 2. 0 tools, design management, social media, design thinking, rapid design, future of eLearning, learning strategy, general instructional design, mobile learning, learning design innovation,  and learning management systems.

Designing Impact is a blog filled with insightful information, ideas, and insights.  However, I feel it is geared more for the experience instructional designer who is looking for more expertise.  For professionals who are just beginning to study the feel of ID, I recommend ID blogs that have more information on the basics of the profession. I don’t believe I will consult this blog very often at this early stage of my ID studies because the material in this blog is more for an ID professional with certain experience and expertise.

Blog # 2  name: Making Change Author: Cathy Moore

Cathy Moore has been in the field of instructional design and consulting for over 25 years.  Her expertise is in training and distance education.  Fortune Global 500 organizations use her services to design their eLearning courses, and she also organizes seminars, webinars, workshops,  and other courses to assist instructional designers, in the profession, further their skills and talents.

One of the wonderful characteristics about  Making Change are the practical ideas and real examples of plenty of instructional design material that bloggers can browse through and experience first hand.  This is wonderful because it is engaging material that gives clear ideas used within the context of different content material.

Making Change, by Cathy Moore, is a blog with an excellent fit for the novice instructional design professional.  Cathy not only offers great insights and lively ID content to share on her blog, but she also offers her services to any individual who needs to improve his/her ID skills or companies that needs to further their positive experience with instructional design solutions.  I see this blog as a very useful and engaging resource for my novice needs as an instructional design student at Walden University.  This blog is very useful friendly in its navigation, its layout is inviting, and the resources take you from the basics into more complex ID strategies.

Blog # 3  name: Experiencing E-Learning Author:   Christy Tucker

Christy Tucker is an instructional designer that develops learning environments through ID and eLearning.  She focuses on developing graduate courses for K-12 teachers.  She enjoys writing about her findings, technology in relation to ID, about best practices, and about her insights.  Besides the above, Christy also spends part of her time working for the private sector in the area of ID.

Experiencing E-Learning is another wonderful blog for the novice instructional design professional.  It offers several posts and ample information on what instructional designers do, on instructional design skills, on technology skills fro ID, on how to get started as an instructional designer, on instructional design careers, etc.

This blog has also a very good fit for the novice instructional designer who needs to specialize in ID for K-12 educators.  Christy shares in her Experiencing E-Learning blog plenty of experience and insights related to ID materials to educate teachers and ID in general.  This blog is worth your investment in time if you are new to the ID field.  I also feel this blog leads the novice instructional designer by the hand form simple to more elaborate ID strategies and tools.