Useful Stuff
Learn how to be more useful as a Learning and Development (L&D) professional. Episodes cover the wide range of topics associated with L&D, including: Instructional Design, EdTech, Team Management, Training, eLearning, Stakeholder Relationships, Strategy, Performance Consulting and starting a career in L&D.
Episodes
17 episodes
Creating Performance-Based Learning Objectives
This article explores how to create effective, performance-based learning objectives using Robert Mager's characteristics and Bloom's Taxonomy, addressing common misconceptions while providing practical strategies for aligning objectives with o...
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12:07
Why AI Video Avatars are NOT the Next Big Thing in L&D
AI video avatars are EVERYWHERE, and ed tech vendors will tell you how important they are. This episode will share some reasons why AI video avatars are NOT helpful or effective to the learning process and some alternatives to use.Read ...
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7:51
How to Read an Academic Paper
Research papers can give insightful tips about learning solutions and ideas to try as a practitioner, but reading them can be daunting. This episode will share some tips on how to read research presented in an academic paper. Read the t...
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8:45
Instructional Design Portfolios: How to Showcase Work that Matters
This episode will share some ideas on content you could create to use in your instructional design portfolio that will show potential hiring managers or clients that you have the skills to do the job.Read the transcript and show notes h...
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18:44
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Writing for an ESL Audience
If you're writing and creating learning for an international audience, you may want to consider those whose first language isn't English. Here are some tips on how to write for an English-as-a-second language (ESL) audience. Read the tr...
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5:56
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Finding the Right ID Academy, L&D Bootcamp, or Certification for You
There are a lot of options when it comes to learning Instructional Design and other L&D skills. It feels like there is a new ID academy popping up every other day!In this episode we look at the criteria for comparing and assessing a...
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13:43
Overcoming Writer's Block
What do you do when you need to write something, but can't? We explore 3 ways that have worked for us to overcome writer's block.Read the transcript and show notes here:
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4:53
How to Practice and Improve Your Writing
Good writing helps L&D professionals communicate ideas clearly and keeps your audience engaged – which makes the learning more likely to be effective. You might write scripts, processes, storyboards, assessments, or even communication campa...
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7:42
Common Writing and Grammar Mistakes for L&D Professionals
Twelve writing and grammar mistakes and how to avoid them.Read the full text and notes on the Useful Stuff website at:http://www.getusefulstuff.com/pos...
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14:26
An Introduction to Inclusive Writing
Are you unintentionally excluding or offending people with what you're creating?In this episode we give you an introduction to inclusive writing, including tips on what to avoid and extra resources to learn more on the topic.Rea...
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7:52
Editing and Proofreading in L&D
From writing training material to composing emails to your stakeholders, the written word holds a lot of importance in L&D.In this episode we cover the differences between editing and proofreading, why you need both, as well a...
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14:17
How to Get What You Want
You're always going to need new stuff - software, contractors, new staff, material and equipment - but how do you convince your boss and stakeholders to approve it?In this episode we talk about creating and presenting a business case, a...
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9:31
An Introduction to Copyright for L&D
Have you ever copied and pasted a photo from Google for a piece of work?Did you consider the copyright requirements or attribution?Here we break down down some Copyright and Fair Use basics for L&D professionals.Read...
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7:25
Focusing Your Team on Outcomes
For an L&D team to really add value to an organization, it’s important that everyone is outcome focused. So what can team leaders do to drive this focus on outcomes?Read the full text and notes on the Useful Stuff website at:
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Episode 4
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3:56
Outcomes and Becoming Outcome Focused
You may have heard the terms 'outcome focused' or 'outcomes over outputs' but what exactly is an outcome? What does it mean to be outcome focused and why should we in L&D care?Read the full text and notes on the Useful Stuff w...
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Episode 3
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5:24
Helping Stakeholders Make Useful Requests
At points in your L&D career, you'll get requests that are – to put it nicely – less than helpful. Here is some advice to help you work with stakeholders to refine the request into something more useful for you, your team and your stakehold...
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Episode 2
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3:34
Discovering the Goals of Your Organization
In this episode, learn about long-term, continuous activities you can do as well as shorter term, project-focused activities that will help you gain visibility into the needs of those across the business. Visit the article on the Useful...
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Episode 1
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6:13
