Instructional Design on a Shoestring

Design Effective Training Programs Despite Limited Resources

Instructional Design on a Shoestring offers talent development professionals a process for developing effective training programs, even with limited resources. Expert instructional designer Brian Washburn applies the ADDIE model of instructional design and the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to provide guidance, quick tips, and shortcuts for designing a range of training modalities, including in-person, virtual and asynchronous, and self-guided e-learning.

With this book, you will learn to build the structure of the instructional design process, effective formal and informal learning experiences, and an ecosystem that supports the learning initiatives. This crash-course of a book also guides you on working with subject matter experts, supervisors, and early testers and drawing learning design ideas from unfamiliar places. You’ll learn how and when to make decisions for using tools and technologies, hiring external help, and purchasing off-the-shelf training programs to speed up the work.

Even if you don’t have a ton of time or access to a lot of money, you can still produce an effective learning experience based on sound educational theory and adult learning principles.

About the On a Shoestring Series

The Association for Talent Development’s On a Shoestring series helps professionals successfully execute core topics in training and talent development when facing limitations of time, money, staff, and other resources. Using the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to problem solving, this series is designed for practitioners who work as a department of one, for new or “accidental” trainers, instructional designers, and learning managers who need fast, inexpensive access to practical strategies that work, and for those who work for small organizations or in industries that have limited training and development resources.

About the Author

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn is the co-founder and CEO of Endurance Learning, a boutique instructional design company specializing in generating creative and unique instructor-led or e-learning programs for a client base that ranges from small nonprofit organizations to major Fortune 500 companies. He has been dabbling in the world of instructional design and corporate training for more than 20 years. It all began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay where he discovered the joys of standing in front of a group of participants, finding ways to engage them, and using flipchart to generate dynamic visual aids.

Since then, Brian has worked mostly in the nonprofit sector, leading training teams that have been charged with world-changing missions that range from ensuring every foster child has a safe and permanent home to eliminating corneal blindness around the globe. Brian has developed and facilitated training programs in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Years ago he was named a “Top Young Trainer” by Training magazine, and more recently has served as president of the ATD Puget Sound Chapter.

Brian can be found through his weekly blog Train Like A Champion, on Twitter (@flipchartguy), and is always happy to connect on LinkedIn. He lives in Seattle, Washington, with his two children and four fish.