Gary Clark

Building a career portfolio could be a better overall career strategy, helping you develop skills for any role rather than a specific one. Achieving this means you aren’t tied to a given industry or career type, opening a world of opportunities

How to Build a Career Portfolio, Not a Career Path

In today’s competitive world, the idea of taking a career break might seem daunting or even counterproductive to your prospects. However, for many individuals, a well-planned and purposeful career break can offer numerous benefits, particularly

The Mental-Health Benefits of a Career Break

Cammy Bean helped spark and work through the February 2008 Big Question with me.Instructional Design - If, When and How Much?In a bit more detail, the critical question seems to be:For a given project, how do you determine if, when and how much an instructional designer and instructional design is needed? To help you get started, I would recommend looking at some of the thoughts in the following posts:Cammy Bean - The Value of Instructional Designers - Don't Miss the CommentsTony Karrer's Big Question Summary - Significant Work Needed to Help Instructional DesignersThe more that Cammy and I have explored this topic, the more questions we feel we have:What value do we really offer beyond a SME with a tool? How do we distinguish the cases where we are needed?(Reuben Tozman) What skills/knowledge do instructional designers bring to the table that is unique to our profession that other trades do not? Is our value in wielding the latest and greatest rapid development tools? Not if our SME's are using them also? Is it our knowledge of psychometrics when we create assessments? Nope. Is it our writing abilities? Is it our knowledge of communications?Do you think instructional designers should be able to use the tools?Do you think instructional designers should go away and leave the rapid tools to the SMEs?If we want SMEs to use rapid eLearning tools to create content, do they need training in ID? What training?If someone without a background in ID is told to "create this course" - are they doing instructional design? Or is it something different? Is there some kind of range of ID capability? How do you explain the spectrum?How can I really tell if there was good ID work? Could I have done as well by producing something far less?If it takes more to create something "better" - do I really need to do that? How about when up-front knowledge of return on investment is not really known?How is this different in academia vs. corporate.Cammy's thesis - and I agree - is that ID is widely varied. But with that variety comes a big question of the value of ID as compared to a SME with a Wiki or rapid eLearning tool.How to Respond:Please post on your blog or put thoughts in a comment and I'll put a link to your post. You will get bonus points for:Including a link to this post and even better include the Big Question logo.In your comment, provide an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste. In other words - please include an HTML anchor tag in your comment. PLEASE.Posts So Far:Manish Mohan - ongoing discussionsJay Cross - My two cents.Learning Circuit's big question for Feb 2008 Instructional Design ...Instructional Design - If, When and How Much? - My ResponseTony Karrer - Common Sense and Intuition Not EnoughBill BrandonClark Quinn - My $0.05.Donald Clark - On DesignCammy Bean - The Big Question: Instructional Design as SpectrumMick Leyden - Here is my takeMichael Hanley - My Reply: ISD - on the precipice of a crossroads?Anil Mammen - Instructional Design - If, When and ButGeetha Krishnan - responseJack Pierce and I (Tony Karrer) had a recent back and forth around a closely related topic:Online Training vs eLearning : eLearning TechnologySee the commentsw/Mindshare: Juggling eLearning vs Online TrainingVinnie - How much ID do we need?Peter Isackson - my contributionJane Bozarth - When is design done (short, but good ... does it prove itself in her post?)John Shaffer - Is ISD Needed?Gary Hegenbart - Why Bother with Instructional Design?Tony Karrer - Safety Training Design : eLearning TechnologyViplav Baxi - My two cents hereManish Gupta -G-Cube: Training - One Fourth Preparation; Three-Fourths TheatreJeffrey Keefer - Silence and VoiceKarl Kapp: We Need a Degree in Instructional DesignKarl has touched off some reaction - see:More on the Digital CuratorFormal or Informal Masters for Instructional Designers?We Need a Degree in Instructional DesignChristy Tucker Patterns in Instructional Design ResponsesA tag cloud of the words used in the discussion - fun way to look at it.

Gary Clark

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