Approach to Instructional Design

Challenge-Driven Learning

We employ a unique approach to instructional design that both maximizes learning effectiveness and accelerates the development process. Challenge-driven design flips topic-driven learning approaches to a focus on tasks and business challenges first. Instead of starting with topics, we identify the business challenges that learners face in their work environments and create real-world scenarios that mirror them. To help learners work through these scenarios, we develop learning support that includes explanations, demonstrations, examples, feedback, knowledge-based activities, tools, war stories, and reference materials. Finally, we recommend a learning environment in which we render and sequence the scenarios and support materials and identify the optimal blend of delivery modalities based on the nature of the learning tasks and the size and geographical distribution of the audience. This instructional design approach increases the probability of performance improvement, because it provides practice in conditions that resemble those the learner will face in the real world.