Instructional Design Blog Review

In this post, I will review a few instructional design blogs as part of an assignment for my Learning Theories and Instruction class. This is my first journey into the world of blogs and all I can say is WOW. I had no idea there was so much information available. What a valuable collection of resources. I don't know how I ever lived without them.

The three blogs I am reviewing this week are:
elearningpost, The Rapid eLearning Blog, and Instructional Design and Development Blog.

The goal of elearningpost is to "explore news, views and stories around Corporate Learning, Community Building, Instructional Design, Knowledge Management and more". The site provides links to numerous articles, interviews, and videos about eLearning and instructional design, and also about learning and education in general. Some interesting posts I've read so far have focused on the transition from traditional classroom to online learning and the use of social media in learning. There are tags available for searching specific topics and the articles are archived by month. There is no area to enter comments directly on the blog that I could see, however, in many instances comments can be posted on the sites where the articles are found. This blog provides links to a wide variety of recent content which will be helpful for staying on top of the latest instructional design news.

The Rapid eLearning Blog "shares practical tips and tricks to help you become a rapid eLearning pro". I have to say, I absolutely love this blog. eLearning development is what I am most interested in and is a big part of my current job. This blog provides many useful tips. For example, there is a post about how to manage eLearning course files. That may seem simple, but, when you are creating many modules with different versions, files can get pretty messy. This blog is very practical and is designed in a way that is visually appealing and entertaining. You may enter comments and "tweets" for each post. The resource section allows you to jump to specific topics and includes a section dedicated to instructional design. The host also provides free templates and tutorials on using them. Who doesn't love getting things free? I'm very excited to follow this blog because I think it will provide great information that I can use on a daily basis.

Last, but not least is the Instructional Design and Development Blog. This a blog maintained by the Instructional Design and Development department at DePaul University. "The site’s primary goal is to provide information on enhancing instruction through the use of technology." Being that this is a university-based blog, it is certainly the most "academic" of three I'm reviewing. The content is extensive, with articles archived monthly dating back to August 2007. One thing I really like about this blog is that they they provide an estimated reading time for each article. This is a nice touch. I often open articles, realize I don't have time to fully read them, and then have to come back to them later. The articles themselves are pretty diverse. Some of the posts I have read so far focus on learning management systems, creativity, use of wikis, and organization. There is a category list for specific topics including pedagogy, audio and video, and web tools. I think because this blog comes from an academic community, it will provide very useful in instructional design studies.

Thanks,
Brandey