Obsidian Blog
News and updates from our team of learning and technology professionals. Topics range from elearning tools and resources, to instructional design and the science of learning.
Measuring the Impact of Video Learning on Your Corporate Training ROI
Posted Mar 31, 2020 by Amanda Costa
Return on investment, applied to learning, can be a tricky concept. Theoretically, we know how to do it, but all too often, we just…don’t. Which is really too bad, because how can you know if the learning deliverables you’re creating are effective, if there’s no system in place for measurement?
Essential Criteria for Choosing the Right Video-Based Learning Model
Posted Mar 24, 2020 by Monica Savage
Video-based learning is a powerful learning tool. The medium is endowed with unique features that make it an effective learning method, able to enhance traditional instructor-led learning approaches and change the way we learn and the way we teach.
7 Dos and Don’ts to Design and Deliver Successful Video-Based Learning
Posted Mar 17, 2020 by Tom Stell
In Steven Presfield’s classic on writing Do the Work he recommends you put a post-it note on your computer that reads “What’s the theme?”. As we look to create compelling training videos, what would you put on your trusty laptop to keep you on track and heading for success?
Schools Face Rapid Transition to Virtual Learning, But There is Help Experts Say. A Press Release.
Posted Mar 15, 2020 by Monica Savage
More than 150 K-12 schools in the Houston Metro area are shuttered because of worries about spreading the coronavirus, affecting at least a million students, most of whom will be asked to shift to online learning.
6 Tips for Helping Learners Stay Engaged Remotely
Posted Mar 14, 2020 by Shannon Hart
Whether you are an educator in a school, an office worker, or a keynote speaker at next month’s conference, you are likely currently feeling the pressure of shifting to working remotely. How will you have the same impact teaching/learning/working from a distance?
5 Vital Steps to Create Appealing Corporate Training Videos
Posted Mar 10, 2020 by Timothy Spencer
When creating corporate training videos, sparking real interest instead of the usual jaw-breaking yawns is a challenge. In this chapter we’re going to provide you with some general tips for drawing your learners in and getting them not only to pay attention to your corporate training videos…but to want to pay attention.
5 Integral Elements of Emotionally and Socially Engaging Learning Videos
Posted Mar 3, 2020 by Timothy Spencer
Video can be an extremely efficient and impactful tool to convey important messages and learn new skills. Not all videos are created equally, however. If you’re looking for videos that engage employees both emotionally and socially, you need to put in place the right strategies to provoke the specific reaction, behavior change, or skill acquisition/enhancement.
4 Applications of Corporate Training Videos That Can Transform Your Workforce
Posted Feb 25, 2020 by Lubos Janoska
At Obsidian Learning we’ve created hundreds of animations, instructional videos, infomercials, explainer videos, and eClips. Based on our experience, here are four specific examples of applications of corporate training videos that led to workforce transformation.
3 Key Benefits of Video-Based Learning You Should Not Ignore
Posted Feb 18, 2020 by Shannon Hart
Video-based learning is an important tool in the learning arsenal. Whether as part of an instructor-led offering, embedded in an online course, or as a stand-alone learning asset, videos can be leveraged in many ways and with great impact.
How Video-Based Learning Impacts the Future of Corporate Training
Posted Feb 13, 2020 by Shelly Immel
Outside the firewall, the future of video-based learning is already here. How will the future arrive in your company? Here’s what you need to know to chart a successful path forward with video-based learning.
4 Secrets No One Will Tell You When Choosing Your Microlearning Platform
Posted Dec 31, 2019 by Shelly Immel
When trying to determine what’s most important and where to start, you might look first at your microlearning platform. These four secrets can shed light on your best path forward.
4 Essential Employee Satisfaction KPIs To Evaluate Your Microlearning Strategy
Posted Dec 24, 2019 by Monica Savage
Using KPIs to measure the success of learning programs means continually evaluating job goals, employee performance, and the organization overall.
5 Ways Microlearning Can Boost Your Corporate Training ROI
Posted Dec 17, 2019 by Amanda Costa
In lean times, corporate training is often the first area where budgets are trimmed. Organizations cut down on travel, lodging, and per diem costs, and often put the brakes on developing new training.
8 Benefits of Creating Microlearning Videos Based on Social Learning Elements
Posted Dec 10, 2019 by Shannon Hart
Social learning is powerful. We learn by watching others. Short learning videos, known as microlearning videos, can be a great addition to your blended learning solutions, especially when they have social learning elements.
How to Adapt Your Microcontent to Your Employees’ Social Needs
Posted Dec 3, 2019 by Shannon Hart
We intentionally address social needs in the hopes of fostering employee loyalty, increasing productivity, reducing turnover, and even increasing innovation.
5 Vital Elements of Engaging Microcontent
Posted Nov 26, 2019 by Shelly Immel
Microcontent has been lauded as a quick cure-all, and its potential is indeed vast. But like any other training, there’s good microcontent and then there’s the rest.
5 Ways Microlearning Increases Employee Satisfaction And Knowledge Retention
Posted Nov 19, 2019 by Lubos Janoska
At Obsidian Learning, we completely reject this model. The learning experiences we strive to create for our clients include couple of simple, non-negotiable criteria.
What is Microlearning and How Does it Drive Employee Engagement?
Posted Nov 11, 2019 by Lubos Janoska
Though most contemporary microlearnings are in digital form, there is more than enough evidence from our experience that microlearnings come in all different shapes and small sizes.
7 Best Practices for Effective Custom eLearning Content Development
Posted Dec 27, 2018 by Shannon Hart
In this post we’ll let you in on what we’ve discovered to be some best practices in navigating your way through custom eLearning content development.
4 Key Benefits of Custom eLearning Solutions
Posted Dec 18, 2018 by Lubos Janoska
If you want your employees to achieve specific behavioral change or transfer knowledge unique to your organization, you need a solution which will take time to design and develop. If your learning need doesn’t have any specific organizational implications, off-the-shelf might be a good choice.
How To Write Effective Learning Objectives to Support Your Blended Learning Strategy
Posted Nov 27, 2018 by Shannon Hart
Writing strong learning objectives is key to the success of your blended learning program. They serve as the basis for evaluating the success of your learning offering. Here is a simple 4-step guide to writing effective objectives to best support your blended learning strategy.
Copyright and Intellectual Property in Instructional Design
Posted Jul 17, 2018 by Amanda Costa
You loved that picture of a grumpy cat. But are you allowed to use it? Make sure your company/clients are protected from liability by carefully respecting copyright and intellectual property laws.
5 Stages of Instructional Video Development Process and Case Study
Posted Apr 10, 2018 by Stephen Victor
In this article, we’ll take a look at Obsidian Learning’s process for creating instructional videos as well as a case study that covers this process to move from a concept to a finished, cohesive video.
Software Tools for Instructional Video Design and Development
Posted Apr 9, 2018 by Stephen Victor
Choice of instructional video design and development methods should be guided by the needs of the learners as well as the complexity of the content. Here are some great software tools to use during video production.
6 Top Tips to Design Effective Instructional Videos
Posted Apr 6, 2018 by Stephen Victor
What principles should Instructional Designers use to develop effective instructional videos? In this article, we’ll discuss best practices for creating effective videos for training.
Transforming Learning: Applications of Instructional Videos
Posted Apr 5, 2018 by Stephen Victor
Because videos are easy to create, they are frequently used for instruction, for example as tutorials on YouTube or lectures on Khan Academy. But is video always the right choice for instruction? What does it take to develop effective instructional videos?
3 Cognitive Theories for Transforming Learning
Posted Apr 4, 2018 by Stephen Victor
In this article, we will take a look at some cognitive theories for transforming learning experiences.
From Game of Thrones to Adult Learning
Posted Mar 27, 2018 by Tom Stell
We tell stories – that’s what we do. Studies have shown that toddlers understand the demands of storytelling and that 5-year-olds can craft elaborate narratives rife with characters and conflict. Test subjects watching a simple animation of geometric shapes moving on a screen will imbue those shapes with character and motivation. From a campfire in some forest primeval to binging on Netflix we process and understand our world and ourselves through the narratives we tell and consume. All of which are elements that explain how we naturally gravitated toward storytelling as a vital tool in learning.
What is the Cone of Experience?
Posted Jul 19, 2017 by Lubos Janoska
Gather 'round kiddos, Uncle Lubos wants to tell another crazy but true story. This one is about an innocent kid, an abused model—and if you stick around till the end—a wholesome apple.
Back to Basics: Instructional Analysis
Posted May 22, 2017 by Stephen Victor
In this post, we will focus on the first stage of ADDIE and describe the methods used by Obsidian Learning for instructional analysis. After a discussion of the activities and outputs of analysis, we'll present an example of a curriculum targeted at two different learner populations.
Instructional Design Resource: ADDIE Infographic
Posted Feb 21, 2017 by Fred Lu
Obsidian has been in the learning industry for quite some time. We feel lucky to have assembled a team of talented, creative, experienced professionals whose common aim is to create superior and effective learning experiences. We keep abreast of learning trends but realize that refreshing basic learning principles can help ground a project, whether a slick CBT or a simple ILT, and ensure that its learning objectives are met.
Designing Learning in 2017: Part 3
Posted Jan 25, 2017 by Amanda Costa
If I had to narrow down 2016 to one lesson learned, I think it would have to be the importance of failure in learning.
Designing Learning in 2017: Part 2
Posted Jan 23, 2017 by Amanda Costa
Tools that I've personally found useful, thought-provoking, and that I hope to be more conscious of when designing learning in 2017.
Designing Learning in 2017: Part 1
Posted Jan 16, 2017 by Amanda Costa
Happy New Year! It was a busy, productive 2016 at Obsidian Learning, and before we dive into new learning adventures in 2017, I’m taking stock of what I learned in 2016, who I learned it from, and how I hope to apply it in my work over the coming year. The learning personalities listed below have blogged, presented, and/or written about things that I have personally found useful, thought-provoking, and that I hope to be more conscious of when designing learning in 2017.
Problem-Based Learning: Is This a Problem?
Posted Dec 9, 2016 by Shannon Hart
Recently I attended the AACE conference on eLearning in Washington, D.C. It was a great event, if far more academically focused and therefore more reserved than some of the flashier, more commercial conferences we attend. On the first morning, we had a keynote address by Marc Prensky of the Global Future Education Foundation & Institute about Problem-Based Learning (PBL).
Instructor-led Material Development Made Easy
Posted Oct 20, 2016 by Stephen Victor
Our GuideDocs solution lets you quickly generate classroom manuals from your PowerPoint presentations – complete with formatted headings and a linkable table of contents – saving your developers time and your company money.
Evaluating Training – Capturing the Benefits Aspect of ROI
Posted May 10, 2016 by Monica Savage
Training evaluation is necessary and, in many ways, critical to the success of a business. But because short term priorities always seem to take precedence, it is typically something we plan to do better in the next course, or maybe next month, or even next year. After all, we’ve managed pretty well up to now, so surely another year can’t hurt!
6 Best Practices for Applying Spaced Learning in Online Training
Posted Mar 1, 2016 by Christopher Pappas
Are you concerned about cognitive overload undermining the effectiveness of your online training program? In this article, I'll highlight the best practices for applying Spaced Learning in your online training strategy, so that you can improve knowledge retention and recall among your staff members.
Tips for Measuring Course Effectiveness and ROI
Posted Oct 30, 2015 by Stephen Victor
How do you know if a course is working? Are your learners actually learning what they need to learn? To answer these questions, we’ll look at several ways you can measure the quality and effectiveness of the learning activities you develop.
Back to Basics: Instructional Design Terminology
Posted Sep 1, 2015 by Heather Carter
This week, we wanted to cover some common terms that you are bound to hear in almost instructional design setting. This list isn’t meant to be all inclusive, but it’s a great starting point to give you the initial vocabulary you need.
Gamification
Posted Aug 27, 2015 by Heather Carter
The term “gamification” seems to be popping up everywhere lately, and for good reason. What is gamification? In a nutshell, it’s incorporating gaming into learning. It could actually be developing an instructional game for a course, but it’s typically used to describe adding game-like ideas and activities, such as leaderboards and badges learners earn after completing activities.
Back to Basics: What is Instructional Design
Posted Aug 14, 2015 by Heather Carter
With our Instructional Designers, Learning Strategists, and others throughout the company, we are developing a brief blog series to tackle the basic instructional design principles the way we see them.
Serendipitous Learning
Posted Apr 26, 2015 by Monica Savage
I have been fascinated by the concept of serendipitous learning from the moment I first heard it. First of all, I love the word “serendipitous” and its meaning. I am not a very spontaneous person, and I like structure, so the thought of “fortunate happenstance” is beautiful to me.
What’s My Motivation? Building Learner Interest.
Posted Mar 31, 2015 by Stephen Victor
Why do learners choose to learn? What keeps them going in an eLearning course? We all want our courses to be engaging and effective. We want our learners to want to take our courses. In other words, we want them to be motivated to learn.
Making Connections: Trends in Social Learning
Posted Mar 11, 2015 by Stephen Victor
As instructional designers, we're aware of various theories about how and why people learn. And, of course, we've heard about social learning. As mobile technology advances, learning has moved from the classroom and the desktop computer, to the world. And just as technology has advanced, learning theory has advanced. So, where are we going with learning theory in the 21st century? Here are some possibilities.
That’s Not My Style: Learning Preferences and Instructional Design
Posted Mar 5, 2015 by Stephen Victor
Why do we still speak of people (or ourselves) as having a "visual" or "auditory" (or "tactile" and so on) learning style? Let's take a look at what the research literature has to say on "learning styles" and how they apply to instruction.
Informal Learning in the Workplace
Posted Feb 26, 2015 by Stephen Victor
How can you make learning continue to be effective after the learner closes the browser window or leaves the classroom? Here are a few ideas for encouraging informal learning in the workplace.
Adult Learning Theory and Training Design
Posted Feb 20, 2015 by Stephen Victor
In this article, we'll take a look at the assumptions of adult learning theory and explore ways in which to apply it to the design of corporate eLearning.
Project File Management for Instructional Designers
Posted Feb 13, 2015 by Bill Jacobs
By consistently using a template for project files within your organization, you pave the way for smooth transitions when passing projects between designers/developers, or when re-visiting a project for updates after months (or even years).
3 Helpful Meeting Templates Most Project Teams Do Not Use
Posted Feb 13, 2015 by Monica Savage
If your learning development process involves a sales team, project managers, graphic designers, and instructional designers, you may find these templates useful.
What Are You Doing to Support Your Online Learners
Posted Feb 13, 2015 by Stephen Victor
We all know that online learning is on the rise. But what are we doing to support learners in the online environment?
What’s On Your “Not To Do” List?
Posted Feb 3, 2015 by Monica Savage
Being in the business of developing custom learning programs, we at Obsidian work with a lot of clients and face a huge variety of problems. We have learned to tailor our approaches to respond to different audiences and overcome many obstacles. And we have definitely learned what not to do.