Hello all! I’m looking to get into E-learning as an Instructional designer after an extended break from work looking after a family. Do I need to learn and understand E-Learning theory before I start to learn Captivate?
It sounds like you want to go down the e-learning developer route (Instructional design is a different animal and a ‘trendy’ way of saying you develop learning.) Look up Gagne’s nine step of instruction that’s good place to start if you want to become and I.D. otherwise just use an authoring tool (responsive is generally easier to author)
Good luck.
Captivate is a tool that allows you to build adaptive and interactive presentations. They do not always have to be teaching lessons. Captivate is PowerPoint in steroids with also a very steep learning curve. If you can do it with PowerPoint, do not use Captivate. You can be an expert Captivate user and have no pedagogy whatsoever.
If you want to work as an instructional designer then you need to learn to be an instructional designer. You can be an excellent instructional designer without an idea of how to use Captivate.
There are lots of theories that can be used along with Captivate, not only pedagogy. One is simple artistic design (which I completely lack). But again, there are great artists that know nothing about artistic theory. I even wonder if Rembrandt knew the rule of thirds.
If you want to be a great instructional designer that can leverage captivate, then I suggest that you learn pedagogy, captivate, and instructional design. Theory is great but generally, it is far more useful if you can combine it with practice.
Thank you for your detailed response. I expect to spend a large number of hours learning andragogy, pedagogy, captivate and instructional design to become a ‘great instructional designer’. I’m hoping I can gain some experience via volunteering to help charities. I have a degree in Business Information Systems and more recently an HND in Graphics Design. Prior to parenting I was a support programmer, but have no prior experience in e-learning, and with the addition of a long break from work I don’t expect the journey to be easy. I’m creative but I like technology so I am keen to play with the e-learning technologies and get creative. I am hoping I can do this in parallel with the theories. Do you think this is a sensible approach?
It doesn’t hurt 🙂 But to directly answer your question, is it necessary to use Captivate itself, I wouldn’t think so. (My opinion) being familiar with adult learning helps me to consider what and how I develop a course and what media assets I implement to meet instructional and learning objectives.
I second Paul’s advice about Langevin! That’s who I took my first instructional design class from some 20 years ago. It was an excellent base.
When you say you want to “get into elearning as an instructional designer”, what is it that you are hoping to do? Do you want to strictly focus on elearning or do you want to do other instructional design type stuff as well? Where do you want to do it? Corporate? Freelance? Do you have any experience?
To answer your question – if you just want to start learning how Captivate works and to play around in it and get familiar with it’s functionality, I don’t think you necessarily have to have any knowledge about elearning theory or instructional design. You could have some fun and just create whatever you want as you get familiar with it.
If you are asking about whether you need to know it (elearning theory/instructional design theory) to get hired as an instructional designer, then I would say yes. Any employer I’ve ever seen or worked for expects that at a minimum. (e.g. Adult Learning Theory)
Much will depend on what area of instructional design and elearning you wish to pursue. If you are thinking about academia, Lieve might be better to comment on that. Having worked in the corporate world, I can tell you that you will want to learn about teaching and training adults (andragogy), which is different from educating children (pedagogy). I was an accidental instructional designer fifteen years ago, meaning that I was hired because I was a subject matter expert rather than a professional instructional designer. Shortly after I was hired, my manager sent me on a series of training courses from Langevin Learning Services. They are the world’s largest train-the-trainer company, and I took the Instructional Design for New Designers workshop and the Instructional Techniques for New Instructors. The Design course was excellent at providing practical knowledge about designing learning for adults in the workplace. I took several other courses the following year and would recommend them to anyone. Again, unlike a university, their goals seem to provide practical knowledge and skill about teaching adults and not so much about theories that may have yet to be proven.
Just FYI I have been training many adults outside of the academic world. Just mention some groups: staff members in building companies, unemployed people with an academic degree looking for new skills (had free upgrade course, typical European I believe), immigrants with academic degree to learn language and skills for project management in building companies.
I have seen many ‘theories’ come and go. Years ago I was laughing literally with the hype of the ‘learning styles’. They are gone now, but occasionally still appear. Hence my reluctance about theoretical approaches.
Thank you for your response. I am interested in the corporate market, adult eduction specifically, perhaps freelancing. The courses by Langevin Learning services look interesting but I feel initially that the investment in both of those courses might well be beyond my means but I am considering one of them.
At one point, between jobs, I took a Teaching and Training Adults course at my local community college. This course was on par with what Langevin taught. Its purpose was to prepare people with expertise in say nursing, or auto mechanics to become teachers at the community college. Most were experts in their field but knew little about teaching others. It was a good course and was much more reasonably priced than Langevin. Something like this might be a good start. See if your local community college has something similar.
Personally I never like theory, but of course you need to have some idea about pedagogy, and typical approaches for eLearning and blended learning (where eLearning assets are used). How you acquire some skills in that domain can be very different. Having a long career as professor, having attended multiple eLearning events online, taking MOOCs did help when I develop eLearning courses, and when I offer training (mostly Captivate) online. Weird, but one of my careers was training for flute (I am also a professional musician) and I learned the most from that career. It is the ideal situation for learning (one to one) and you need to give a lot of control to the trainee.
I’m sure many other people will have taken another learning curve. Just look around here and everywhere, do you see courses which seem engaging and appeal to you? Do you see ‘theory’ behind it? Does it matter?
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