So, I just finished Reuben Tozman’s Learning On Demand, and it’s great stuff. It’s particular great because I’m working on some of the exact issues he describes right now.
Specifically, we are just starting to create content for a new system, and I’m wrestling with questions like:
- What kind of structure should we use for the content?
- How do we make the content searchable?
- How do we make the content adaptable?
- How do we use the same content in multiple places without having duplicate content?
- How do we make intelligent content that can be recommended to users when they need it?
Reuben addresses all those questions, in a really accessible way – the book is fast and very readable, despite the fact that Reuben is talking about some fairly complex stuff.
I’ve been talking a lot lately about how we aren’t in the content delivery business any more, and if nice content delivery is the only tool in our instructional design toolbox, then that should be a worry. The tools are just starting to appear to support doing something beyond pure content delivery in elearning, and Reuben’s book is a great place to start to understand that perspective.
As an aside, I’m working with these folks for the next several months as their Director of Instructional Design:
It’s been *really* interesting work so far, and it gets me out of Minnesota for the winter. So if anybody is in the Bay Area and wants to get together for nerdy shop talk, just let me know 🙂
If I was in SF we would get together for nerdy shop talk over a sandwich from Specialties. Or maybe just walk and talk until we find something that looks interesting (wouldn’t be walking far).
There’s a Specialties across the street!