From William Horton -- a world renowned expert with more than thirty-five years of hands-on experience creating networked-based educational systems -- comes the next-step resource for e-learning training professionals. Like his best-selling book Designing Web-Based Training , this book is a comprehensive resource that provides practical guidance for making the thousand and one decisions needed to design effective e-learning. e-Learning by Design includes a systematic, flexible, and rapid design process covering every phase of designing e-learning. Free of academic jargon and confusing theory, this down-to-earth, hands-on book is filled with hundreds of real-world examples and case studies from dozens of fields. "Like the book's predecessor ( Designing Web-based Training ), it deserves four stars and is a must read for anyone not selling an expensive solution. -- From Training Media Review, by Jon Aleckson, www.tmreview.com, 2007
This book guides the reader systematically though the decisions necessary to design effective e-learning. This book offers a course design process that builds up from small pieces to create full course. Assignment examples are included. Chapter 5 on testing examines types of questions and their design and application.
This book by William Horton indeed a great startup if you are a novice in instructional design. This book primarily touches on the design aspect that designers could opt-in and suggested best practices to implement. A book that deserves your attention if you really wanna focus on the design aspect (practical) rather theoretical.
Read as a textbook for Instructional Design II at Mississippi State University. It was a good read, learned a lot about instructional systems design and the different processes involved at the elementary to intermediate level. Good for someone new to the education field like myself who may be coming from other fields.
This book was used for my college class, Design for Online Education. It was one of the better books out there on the subject. I will keep it as a reference.
Has good ideas and information; I like the breakdown of learning activities. I do think that it is somewhat outdated and explains the obvious too much.
This is not the type of book to read all the way through- though I do recommend reading through the first chapter and referencing the rest of the chapters when you need them. One of the best idea books I've come across- it is a great resource for instructional designers that develop and train others to develop (however, it can also be useful to teachers that develop their own courses). Great illustrations.
There are a variety of examples in the book for the use of these activities- they can be used for developing informative sites, courses, consulting training exercises, etc. I like how the author breaks down the different types of activities- absorbing, connecting, and doing activities- flexible enough for a learning management system, Web site, or other training program.
My one comment is that the book seems a bit out of order- possibly the activities should go after the lessons chapter, which is why I came to the conclusion that it is best to use this as a reference.
Read for a class on strategies and assessments, this book describes non-E-learning pedagogy as well.
I liked how the author broke down activities into three categories: 1. Absorb, 2. Do, and 3. Connect. A familiar structure helped you learn about each activity type, when to use it, best practices, combinations with other activities, and social/mobile learning opportunities.
This book helped me with some practical advice to design better presentations, as well as new ideas for practice, like students completing case studies. It also gave the right amount of light into connect activities, which usually get short shrift (at least in my teaching so far).
My coursework and review only cover the first 300 pages. I wish I had more time to review the games/simulations section and the full chapter on social learning.