In this episode, Gill Chester and Jennifer Compton talk to Susie Walker about creativity. In the introduction, we mention a session that Gill ran at a Charity Learning Consortium members meeting in Edinburgh, where she took members through the process we use to design elearning. A video of the session is available here. During our chat with Susie you will hear about her work as a creativity practitioner and how she uses creative practice to enhance wellbeing.

In this episode, Gill Chester and Jennifer Compton discuss the highs and lows of working with internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). They share their experiences and offer tips and suggestions for internal elearning developers to get the best from their relationships with SMEs. This includes: Understand an SME’s starting point. Make sure you drive the development process (not them) Agree on a goal for the module and use it as your yardstick for decisions! Get them to tell you their stories. Excite them about the possibilities but set clear expectations on the possible. Always try to speak to learners as well.

In (a short) Episode 3, Gill discusses the importance of creating a development process. She covers why it's important to have a clearly defined process, how to set one up, what should be included and what to do when you've been using it for a while. Here are some example models you might wish to research when designing your own process: ADDIE Kemp People-Process-Product Rapid Content Development (RCD) SAM Systematic design of instruction. In the episode, she talks to an elearning module from Little Man Project on their development process. You might also find this post by Laura Shaw on the process they use at Cats Protection helpful.

In this episode, we talk to Gemma Towersey, a Learning Experience Consultant at MindTools For Business. Gemma has been designing elearning for over 10 years and has a wealth of experience as an instructional designer. She shares some of the techniques she uses to design effective learning for clients. This includes the importance of asking open questions and taking the time to listen.

Understanding who your learner is is a vital part of designing effective learning. In this episode, we talk to Mark Gillies from Cats Protection about his experience creating customer personas and how this approach can also help you create learner personas.