Instructional Design is a mature yet evolving discipline of scientific analysis and academic research. The research of such notable investigators of the science of learning as B. F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov has paved the way for greater understanding of how people can modify their behavior and acquire new information. In academic circles, Instructional Design is associated with advanced-degree programs such as Instructional Technology and Educational Technology. Related academic fields include Educational Psychology and Communication Theory.
Corporations and other institutions devote many billions of dollars of resources each year to addressing training needs of their employees, partners, and customers. In the corporate world, training design and delivery is frequently conducted "on the fly," often by staff with little background in learning theory. There is a reason for this; it simply is not practical to treat day-to-day training decisions with the kind of scientific rigor inherent in Instructional Design models.
The purpose of this website is to help establish a "middle ground" for corporate training programs -- where common sense, practical considerations, and scientific research are suitably balanced. In particular, we will attempt to identify areas where research and experience have provided insights that are not intuitively obvious, and which may run counter to popular notions.