that the discussion that follows the activity becomes a summation of the key point. For example, in presentations about applying music to learning, I direct attendees to pair up and list the places they hear music in their lives. The activity falls at a logical place in the instruction, demonstrates the point I will soon make and seems more like a fact-finding mission than an activity.

To Surface Discussion

Puzzles, or any other activity that forces people to work together are ideal discussion starters when the puzzle is aligned with the content. Orientation programs are one example where you can divide the participants into two teams, present each team with an envelope containing a cut up the organization’s mission statement and challenge each group to put their puzzles together. As an extra measure, you could, p

I was attending my first meeting with a new client. The meeting started well enough with pleasantries but then, unexpectedly, things got rough. One of the SMEs looked directly at me and, in a condescending manner, with his best haughty look, challengingly asked, “You aren’t going to make us play with Play Dough huh, are you?”

The comment caught me off guard. Play Dough? I have never used it in an instructional design. But here I found myself being accused of Play Dough irrelevancies. I quickly recovered as I realized what the SME was really saying, “You aren’t going to make us do any stupid, irrelevant, pointless activities huh, are you?”

As I learned about the organization’s history, I discovered that the staff was dissatisfied with the last instructional design firm they had hired. The organization’s topic area was complicated. The designers had not taken time to fully absorb the topic. They instead placed the organization’s talking points into a script and inserted periodic plug-and-play activities. The result was a weak design product and trainer resentment. They had delivered laziness, not learning.

As I was contemplated the situation afterwards, I thought about the tendency of trainers, educators and presenters to purchase and then use activity books. I have no objection to these works. I am in fact a contributor to many of them. It’s not the activity books that go wrong, it’s the lazy designer who takes the easy path: pulling an activity out of the binder and inserting it in wherever the energy level will likely flag.

When we instructional leaders do this we cheapen our trade. We validate the often frequently unstated trainer opinion that anyone can be an instructional designer. We also deliver an inferior, artless, paint-by-numbers product. And most importantly, we insult or learners. If a student sees where the lecture ends and the activity begins, and if the activity is not tightly related to the content and flow of the presentation, and if as a result the activity builds resentment, we provide a disservice. Instead of learning, we are foster irrelevancies.

Out goal should be to design seamless programs that appear to be - and are - tightly focused on one goal: the learning needs required of this program. The tendency to insert Play Dough is an easy way to deliver a product on schedule. It is also a surefire was to undercut the reputation of the instructional design profession, especially when it is easy to mold activities to learning needs. Some situations where activities are helpful and some examples of how to mold an activity follow.

When Melting the Ice

To begin your training, select an activity that sets up the learning to follow. The old standard get-to-know-you bingo activity (trainees must find others with specific hobbies, backgrounds, etc.) can be tweaked so that it teaches or hints at some key principles to follow. To integrate new employees into an existing team, for example, you could use variation where the trainees have to find different attendees who have attributes valuable to the training team. In this way you can impress the more experienced team members that the new employees have useful skills while you help the new employees feel more competent within the group.

To Illustrate Key Points

Customize your activities so that the discussion that follows the activity becomes a summation of the key point. For example, in presentations about applying music to learning, I direct attendees to pair up and list the places they hear music in their lives. The activity falls at a logical place in the instruction, demonstrates the point I will soon make and seems more like a fact-finding mission than an activity.

To Surface Discussion

Puzzles, or any other activity that forces people to work together are ideal discussion starters when the puzzle is aligned with the content. Orientation programs are one example where you can divide the participants into two teams, present each team with an envelope containing a cut up the organization’s mission statement and challenge each group to put their puzzles together. As an extra measure, you could, p

plicated. The designers had not taken time to fully absorb the topic. They instead placed the organization’s talking points into a script and inserted periodic plug-and-play activities. The result was a weak design product and trainer resentment. They had delivered laziness, not learning.

As I was contemplated the situation afterwards, I thought about the tendency of trainers, educators and presenters to purchase and then use activity books. I have no objection to these works. I am in fact a contributor to many of them. It’s not the activity books that go wrong, it’s the lazy designer who takes the easy path: pulling an activity out of the binder and inserting it in wherever the energy level will likely flag.

When we instructional leaders do this we cheapen our trade. We validate the often frequently unstated trainer opinion that anyone can be an instructional designer. We also deliver an inferior, artless, paint-by-numbers product. And most importantly, we insult or learners. If a student sees where the lecture ends and the activity begins, and if the activity is not tightly related to the content and flow of the presentation, and if as a result the activity builds resentment, we provide a disservice. Instead of learning, we are foster irrelevancies.

Out goal should be to design seamless programs that appear to be - and are - tightly focused on one goal: the learning needs required of this program. The tendency to insert Play Dough is an easy way to deliver a product on schedule. It is also a surefire was to undercut the reputation of the instructional design profession, especially when it is easy to mold activities to learning needs. Some situations where activities are helpful and some examples of how to mold an activity follow.

When Melting the Ice

To begin your training, select an activity that sets up the learning to follow. The old standard get-to-know-you bingo activity (trainees must find others with specific hobbies, backgrounds, etc.) can be tweaked so that it teaches or hints at some key principles to follow. To integrate new employees into an existing team, for example, you could use variation where the trainees have to find different attendees who have attributes valuable to the training team. In this way you can impress the more experienced team members that the new employees have useful skills while you help the new employees feel more competent within the group.

To Illustrate Key Points

Customize your activities so that the discussion that follows the activity becomes a summation of the key point. For example, in presentations about applying music to learning, I direct attendees to pair up and list the places they hear music in their lives. The activity falls at a logical place in the instruction, demonstrates the point I will soon make and seems more like a fact-finding mission than an activity.

To Surface Discussion

Puzzles, or any other activity that forces people to work together are ideal discussion starters when the puzzle is aligned with the content. Orientation programs are one example where you can divide the participants into two teams, present each team with an envelope containing a cut up the organization’s mission statement and challenge each group to put their puzzles together. As an extra measure, you could, p

nion that anyone can be an instructional designer. We also deliver an inferior, artless, paint-by-numbers product. And most importantly, we insult or learners. If a student sees where the lecture ends and the activity begins, and if the activity is not tightly related to the content and flow of the presentation, and if as a result the activity builds resentment, we provide a disservice. Instead of learning, we are foster irrelevancies.

Out goal should be to design seamless programs that appear to be - and are - tightly focused on one goal: the learning needs required of this program. The tendency to insert Play Dough is an easy way to deliver a product on schedule. It is also a surefire was to undercut the reputation of the instructional design profession, especially when it is easy to mold activities to learning needs. Some situations where activities are helpful and some examples of how to mold an activity follow.

When Melting the Ice

To begin your training, select an activity that sets up the learning to follow. The old standard get-to-know-you bingo activity (trainees must find others with specific hobbies, backgrounds, etc.) can be tweaked so that it teaches or hints at some key principles to follow. To integrate new employees into an existing team, for example, you could use variation where the trainees have to find different attendees who have attributes valuable to the training team. In this way you can impress the more experienced team members that the new employees have useful skills while you help the new employees feel more competent within the group.

To Illustrate Key Points

Customize your activities so that the discussion that follows the activity becomes a summation of the key point. For example, in presentations about applying music to learning, I direct attendees to pair up and list the places they hear music in their lives. The activity falls at a logical place in the instruction, demonstrates the point I will soon make and seems more like a fact-finding mission than an activity.

To Surface Discussion

Puzzles, or any other activity that forces people to work together are ideal discussion starters when the puzzle is aligned with the content. Orientation programs are one example where you can divide the participants into two teams, present each team with an envelope containing a cut up the organization’s mission statement and challenge each group to put their puzzles together. As an extra measure, you could, p

ituations where activities are helpful and some examples of how to mold an activity follow.

When Melting the Ice

To begin your training, select an activity that sets up the learning to follow. The old standard get-to-know-you bingo activity (trainees must find others with specific hobbies, backgrounds, etc.) can be tweaked so that it teaches or hints at some key principles to follow. To integrate new employees into an existing team, for example, you could use variation where the trainees have to find different attendees who have attributes valuable to the training team. In this way you can impress the more experienced team members that the new employees have useful skills while you help the new employees feel more competent within the group.

To Illustrate Key Points

Customize your activities so that the discussion that follows the activity becomes a summation of the key point. For example, in presentations about applying music to learning, I direct attendees to pair up and list the places they hear music in their lives. The activity falls at a logical place in the instruction, demonstrates the point I will soon make and seems more like a fact-finding mission than an activity.

To Surface Discussion

Puzzles, or any other activity that forces people to work together are ideal discussion starters when the puzzle is aligned with the content. Orientation programs are one example where you can divide the participants into two teams, present each team with an envelope containing a cut up the organization’s mission statement and challenge each group to put their puzzles together. As an extra measure, you could, p

that the discussion that follows the activity becomes a summation of the key point. For example, in presentations about applying music to learning, I direct attendees to pair up and list the places they hear music in their lives. The activity falls at a logical place in the instruction, demonstrates the point I will soon make and seems more like a fact-finding mission than an activity.

To Surface Discussion

Puzzles, or any other activity that forces people to work together are ideal discussion starters when the puzzle is aligned with the content. Orientation programs are one example where you can divide the participants into two teams, present each team with an envelope containing a cut up the organization’s mission statement and challenge each group to put their puzzles together. As an extra measure, you could, prior to the event, place two puzzle pieces form each teams puzzle in the other team’s envelope.

Once a few minutes have gone by and it becomes apparent that the teams cannot put their puzzles together, call a halt. During the discussion that follows, lead the participants to the point that it is easier to get a task done when you know what the finished task looks like. Once that point has been made, confess the puzzle piece swap and lead the group to the conclusion that only by working together can an organization achieve success.

To Energize the Room

Sometimes trainees simply need to move about. Announcing an activity to get adrenaline flowing makes this necessary activity seem pointless. Instead, insert an activity that seems like a break from the instruction but really furthers it. These are the ideal points for movement-based activities. Rather than simply having trainees stand up and stretch, build field trips in at these points.

To Conclude the Learning

I conclude most of my presentations with a song tied directly to the content just presented. In this way, trainees may exit the event singing the key learning points.

Molding the Dough

The point is to not be pointless. Plug-and-play activities insult learners. The class attendees know that, because of trainer/designer laziness, they are stuck walking around with a blindfold on, finding three other people who have a dog or playing with Play Dough. Make your activity fit or give it the slip.

Thinking back to the Play Dough experience, the formerly skittish organization did try out the redesigned integrated activities. They were so satisfied with the results that Play Dough now jokingly appears on the materials list and in the trainer’s guide. The trainers even gift each other containers of Play Dough. For this organization, the delivery of a solid design answered their Play Dough plea.