Dr. Jane Bozarth is the Elearning Coordinator for the North Carolina, USA, Office of State Personnel. She is the author of ELearning Solutions on a Shoestring; Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging Elearning with PowerPoint; From Analysis to Evaluation: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Trainers; and Social Media for Trainers, coming out in August 2010. She is a popular conference speaker and is frequently found at both live and online international events. She also serves as one of the moderators of the popular weekly Twitter event #lrnchat, Thursdays at 8:30 PM ET. She describes herself on Twitter profile as a rabid, feral, and tribal learner, World's Oldest Millenial, Positive Deviant, and Constructive Heretic. Jane Bozarth and her husband live in Durham, NC, USA.

 

Articles by Jane Bozarth

Nuts and Bolts: Getting Management Support for Training

(7/6/10)
“When developing and launching a new training initiative – traditional classroom, virtual classroom, asynchronous, or a mix – or suggesting a training solution for an individual worker or group, it’s vital to gain management commitment. As with so many issues in training and development, this is another of those “easier said than done” challenges.

Nuts and Bolts: Find Your 20%

(6/8/10)
Good practice in instructional design means being aware of cognitive overload and avoiding it – in other words, not giving learners more than they can handle, and certainly not more than they will use. This month, Jane gives you a strategy (and a visualization!) for dealing with the desire to include everything and the kitchen sink in your e-Learning design.

Book Review: The Complete Guide to Simulations & Serious Games by Clark Aldrich

(6/2/10)
“I wish that the ‘e-Learning’ business had started with this book … before online training as an industry managed to replicate the very worst elements of the traditional classroom experience. I wish this book as a starter gift: a new person starting with this would not accept flying lines of text supported by word-for-word narration as anything resembling a learning experience.”

Nuts and Bolts: Principles of Multimedia Learning

(5/4/10)
Some of the most frequently asked questions among instructional designers are the ones dealing with text, images, and narration and how best to use them together. There are many examples of combinations that do not work, but not so many explanations of the principles behind making the right choices. Here is a simple explanation of three of the most important principles.

Putting People First: Human Issues in Instructional Technology, by Anastasia Marie Trekles

(4/16/10)
“ … a readable, solid, extensive, exhaustive, approachable work tightly focused on the position and needs of the learner in the learning experience. Much content focuses on accessibility as it relates to assorted permanent or temporary impairments … but a good deal more of the book is germane to the user-first perspective of any learner.”

Nuts and Bolts: When Training Works

(4/6/10)
One of the most-discussed sessions at Learning Solutions 2010 was “The Great ADDIE Debate,” a conversation about the 21st-century relevance of the ADDIE process model (Analyze-Design-Develop-Implement-Evaluate), so often employed in instructional design. Rather than declare ADDIE dead, wouldn’t it make more sense to be sure that we are using it properly? Here’s a simple method to do just that.

Working Smarter: Informal Learning in the Cloud by Jay Cross and Friends

(3/30/10)
Jay Cross and his friends have updated Jay’s unbook on informal learning, to reflect the movement of learning into the Internet Cloud. There are checklists, tools, images, charts, and provocative questions that bring the issue down to ground level.

Book Review: Training for Multiple Cultures by Andrea Edmundson

(3/12/10)
This new addition to ASTD’s Infoline series is intended for American instructional designers who create instruction for delivery in another part of the world.