Book Review: Rapid Instructional Design

Rapid Instructional Design by George M. Piskurich

One of the key takeaways from the book is that in order to have good instructional design you need to do extensive analysis before you begin. What are the people like for whom you are designing the training? Why are they taking your training? What are their needs? Discussing this pre-design information gathering was the subject of about ¼ of the book. Interviews, questionnaires and other resources can be helpful in gathering this information. He states, “The last question I always ask [in interviews] is ‘Is there anything that you are surprised that I did not ask about?’” I use this question or a variation of it no matter what the purpose of the interview is” (55). Seems like good advice.

An impatient designer (like me) doesn’t want to do the pre-work he describes. Nor do I want to do the beta tests that he recommends to find out if the training is really hitting the mark. I was convinced after reading his book that if I’m serious about producing training that will often be reused and bring quality results (and not all training is going to be used multiple times, thereby needing extra rigor) that beta tests and pre-design research are critical.

In addition, you should evaluate the course if you plan to reuse the training. Simple evaluations could be to ask four simple questions:

1. Rate this class on a scale of 1 to 5
2. State the one thing you liked best about the class
3. State the one thing you would most like to change about the class
4. What do you think was the most important thing you learned from the class?

On pages 198-201 he had a nice list of teaching activities. Some that I liked were:

• Getting anonymous questions from participants
• Have trainees critique a demonstration
• Panels
• Role reversal role play—in which the players assume the roles of others with whom they normally interact on the job.

Page 259 had a handy list of tips for facilitators like,

Overprepare
Observe others as they facilitate and take notes on what they do that works.
Use name tags and name tents
Memorize your instructional content
Start and stop on time
Use nonbreak breaks, like throwing a ball, stretching, or mind relaxers
Everybody likes prizes
Candy breaks, particularly in the afternoon, are real energizers.

Overall I liked this book. I felt that if I didn’t have access to the Internet to help solve specific problems that it would be a resource I would want to continually look at. One weakness of the book was that the e-learning sections felt that they were eight years old (although the copyright shows 2006).