Instructional Design for Mortals

Creating Better Adult Learning

By: Don Jones

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

I've been teaching technical topics to adults for more than two decades, and I've been writing and designing instructional materials for almost that long. Throughout the time, I always tried to learn more about how people learn, and how I could be a better and more effective teacher. It wasn't always easy, because apart from a great deal of trial-and-error, there weren't a lot of resources that I could comprehend or make use of. Too many books are either written by academics for academics, or by academics - in the most condescending tones possible - for mere mortals. Well, this is the book I wish I'd had all those years ago, written by an actual mortal for other actual mortals. It's a plain-language, common-sense approach to instructional design and delivery that's backed by actual science, research, student feedback, and all that trial-and-error. This concise volume takes everything I've learned and distilled about cognitive science, and applies it to the very real-world task of designing instructional materials for delivery to modern, intelligent adult learners. You'll learn how to combine your instructional materials with an effective, casual instructional approach that takes teachers off the pedestal and makes them facilitators and partners in the learning process. Best of all, you'll learn how to make learning less of an academic pursuit, and more of an everyday thing that anyone - and I do mean anyone - can excel at, no matter their level of expertise. If you've read my book, Be the Master, and you want to dive deeper into designing and delivering knowledge and skills to colleagues, peers, and other adult learners, then this is the perfect book for you.

Practical, informative, very actionable

I really enjoyed this concise overview of instructional design. The author practiced much of what he preached by providing only as much explanation as was actually needed so that I could apply the information. At the same time, the information was shared in a way that was engaging and relatable to the adult learners I work with. Some texts I’ve read on this subject are more like textbooks and provide a kind of curated overview of common strategies. This one was very different, because it was clearly based on extensive real-world practical knowledge. The author has strong respect for adult learners and effectively shared his knowledge about how to teach them. I was surprised and impressed by the quality of the AI voice and found it better than many human narrators. I will definitely seek out more books and resources by this author.