Harold Jarche has posted a very interesting blog post stating that instructional design needs to get more agile. In other words, that it needs to go through a similar revolution that programming has with its agile software development movement: a move away from a set cascade of steps to a system that is producing quickly and constantly changing, with lots of opportunities for feedback and input that changes the requirements of the project.
This got me thinking about what agile instructional design - and, highly related, agile learning programs - would look like. I can think of a few things this would involve:
- Learning modules are highly adaptable and easily changed.
- Learning materials and programs are not produced once and then "done" - they are produced with the expectation of updates and new versions to be produced.
- Good ol' feedback, feedback, feedback. Useful for ROI, performance measurement, and now also useful for knowing what direction those training programs are going in next. There is never too much input from the learners and the from the organization stakeholders.
Those are the top three things that come to my mind. What do you think that agile instruction design and agile learning programs would look like?
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