Category | Insights

Author Jonah Lehrer explains in his presentation, "The Origins of Creative Insight & Why You Need Grit" that "The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it." The "grit" that Lehrer is discussing is the difference maker between those who are phenomenally creative and successful at solving major problems, and those who aren't. Grit is a "single-minded persistence that helps [successful people] keep their eye  on the prize and pushing ever-forward when the 'aha!' moments aren't around". Lehrer discusses that the way to solve looming, difficult problems is not always to just keep...

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A few months ago our team found ourselves in a pickle trying to develop high-fidelity courses in Lectora with a tight budget and a quick turnaround – a story I’m sure many of you can relate to. Perhaps this story will help your team develop better high quality courses with more efficiency. How do you create a skill-based course efficiently and effectively?  Our team was working on a series of courses that were skill-based and required a lot of steps, sub-steps, and images – a storyboarding and development nightmare! Not only was the learning problem difficult, but this was a low-budget,...

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At TiER1, we make it a priority to promote the regions in which we do business by supporting and staying active in local civic and community organizations.  Most recently, TiER1 Pittsburgh was the presenting sponsor of the Quarterly Regional Investors Council luncheon of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development – a leading nonprofit economic development and civic leadership organization that works with private and public sector partners to improve the economy and quality of life in southwestern PA. With Pittsburgh having recently been named among the 20 must-see places to visit...

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Last week we heard from Jillian Darwish of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation as she discussed the possibilities of technology and innovation and how things will change in the next ten years. During our meeting she encouraged the team to review these trends over time and see how they can apply to our field of learning. Well, there is an online conference Online EDUCA Berlin that is looking at how technology and innovation is changing the learning culture of what we assume today.  Online EDUCA Berlin starts Nov. 30th and will go through December 2nd. It is the 17th International Conference on Technology...

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There is a growing chorus of critics who cite that there is a dearth of empirical evidence to support the overall instructional design model.  Practitioners, particularly agile enthusiasts like myself, are increasingly wary of heavyweight process and design models that proscribe methods tools and deliverables.   Academic research on the effectiveness of instructional design is scant at best. The fact is that the experimental research in the field has consistently produced inconsistent and conflicting results.  There is a relative dearth of empirical evidence that supports the use of instructional...

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