Add Data and Analytics to Your TD Toolkit Instructional design pro Megan Torrance addresses the importance of instructional designers accessing and applying learning and performance data—from how to design learning experiences with data collection in mind to how to use the data to improve and evaluate those experiences. With the advance of new learning technologies and data specifications, instructional designers have access to more and richer data sources than ever before. With that comes the question of what to do with the data. While most data and analytics books focus on their application for measurement and evaluation and assume a prior baseline understanding of what learning data and analytics mean, Data and Analytics for Instructional Designers delves into the foundational concepts that will enable instructional designers and L&D professionals to use data in their roles. Split into two parts, the book first defines key data and analytics terms, data specifications, learning metrics, and statistical concepts. It then lays out a framework for using learning data for planning how to gather data and to building scale and maturity in your data operations. Megan reassures readers that basic math skills with some computer assistance is what you’ll need to get going. So set aside any math anxiety! Through a “If I can see it, I can be it” approach to learning data and analytics, the book blends practical what-is and how-to content with real-world examples and longer case studies from practitioners. Chapters conclude with opportunities for you to put these techniques to work right away, whether you are in a data-rich environment already, or whether you are just getting started and working on hypotheticals.

Discover Agile for Better Instructional Design To serve business needs amid greater volatility and uncertainty in the workplace, learning and development professionals need project management methods that can keep up. Enter Agile. Popular in the software development space as an approach to project management, Agile when applied to instructional design provides a framework for adapting to change as it happens and for delivering the content most needed by learners. Agile for Instructional Designers proposes using Agile methodology to manage training projects and highlights where traditional linear processes have failed the business and the end users. Recognizing that software development and instructional design have different needs and outcomes, author Megan Torrance developed the LLAMA™ methodology. Her approach adapts the common phases of ADDIE to incorporate the incremental, iterative nature of Agile projects. It allows learners to test and evaluate which features or design functions work before they’re finalized. It also offers a way to accommodate inevitable mid-project modifications pushed by stakeholders, subject matter experts, or organizational leaders. With templates for goal alignment, learner personas, scope definition, estimating, planning, and iterative development, Agile for Instructional Designers is the resource you need to embrace change in learning and development.