Designing with Love

Odcinki

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  Myth: Good Teaching Equals Good Instructional Design 29.07.2026 10min

  Good teaching is powerful, but it can also hide a trap: when a class goes well, we assume the design must be strong. Jackie unpacks a common myth in instructional design and education that shows up everywhere from K-12 to corporate training and higher ed: good teaching equals good instructional design. They’re connected, but they’re not the same job, and confusing them can leave gaps in practice, assessment, accessibility, and real-world performance. We talk through why this belief has laste...
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  Alumni Engagement That Works With Jennifer Cunningham 26.07.2026 38min

  Most schools and nonprofits don’t have an “engagement problem” they have a follow-up problem. If you’ve ever gone to a campus event, felt a quick burst of nostalgia, and then never heard anything meaningful again, you’ve seen the gap firsthand. I sit down with alumni engagement and nonprofit consultant Jennifer Cunningham to unpack what actually turns a one-time attendee into a connected community member who mentors, hires, volunteers, advocates, and eventually gives back. Jennifer sha...
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  Myth: Technology Automatically Improves Learning 22.07.2026 10min

  A shiny new tool can feel like instant progress, but what if it quietly makes your course harder to learn? Jackie is tackling one of the most stubborn myths in instructional design and education: the idea that technology automatically improves learning. Whether you’re rolling out a new LMS, testing an AI content creation tool, or adding interactive features to eLearning, the real question isn’t “Is it modern?” It’s “Does it help learners do something meaningful?” Jackie breaks down why this ...
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  Human Connection in Teaching With Lou Hirsch 19.07.2026 59min

  Most of us can remember a teacher who noticed us, but we struggle to remember the worksheet, the lecture slide, or the exact content on the exam. That’s where this conversation with Dr. Lou Hirsch lands: the real unit of change in higher education isn’t another tool or another “coverage” strategy, it’s the small, intentional moments of human connection that create trust and make learning stick. We talk about why modern systems built on speed, scale, and deadlines often squeeze out crea...
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  Myth: Accessibility Is Optional If Your Learners Don't Request It 15.07.2026 10min

  The fastest way to lock learners out of your course is to wait for them to ask for access. We’re tackling a stubborn myth in instructional design and education: “Accessibility is optional if learners don’t request it.” It sounds reasonable on paper because many organizations have formal accommodation processes, but it breaks down in real life when learners don’t feel safe disclosing, don’t have documentation, or don’t even know what to ask for until they’re already struggling. We unpack why ...
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  Inside Pictory: Simple AI Workflows for Educators and Teams With Vikram Chalana 12.07.2026 35min

  What if making great learning videos felt like finishing a slide deck—familiar, fast, and oddly satisfying? Jackie sat down with Pictory co‑founder Vikram Chalana to unpack a clear path from messy tools to simple, repeatable workflows that help educators and L&D teams publish short, accessible videos at scale. No timeline acrobatics. No blank‑screen dread. Just practical steps that turn content you already trust into engaging microlearning. Vikram shares the three design choices that sha...
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  Myth: Online Learning Is Less Effective Than In-Person 08.07.2026 11min

  The fastest way to kill a good learning goal is to blame the format instead of fixing the design. We’re kicking off a new series on myths in instructional design and education by taking on one of the biggest, most stubborn claims out there: online learning is less effective than in-person learning. We get why this belief sticks. A lot of digital learning has felt disconnected, confusing, passive, or overwhelming, especially when people experienced emergency remote teaching that was rushed an...
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  Accessibility as a Habit, Not a Hurdle With Maxwell Ivey 05.07.2026 37min

  Accessibility doesn’t have to feel like a mountain you climb alone. Jackie sat down with accessibility advocate Maxwell Ivey to turn big ideas into small, repeatable steps that make your website and content welcoming to every user. Instead of chasing every rule at once, we focus on process over panic: define the user problem, choose the smallest next fix, and build momentum. We start with the highest‑impact moves. Headings become navigational landmarks for screen readers, so a clean H1 follo...
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  Your 90-Day AI-Ready Plan: Skills, Systems, and Proof 01.07.2026 13min

  AI tools are getting faster, louder, and harder to ignore, but that doesn’t mean your growth has to feel chaotic. We wrap the AI-Ready Designer Series with a clear 90-day plan that turns experimentation into a repeatable practice you can actually defend, document, and share. If you’ve been learning a little here and there but still feel scattered, this roadmap is built to help you move with intention. We start with the mindset shift: AI readiness isn’t about attending one webinar, collecting...
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  Magnetic Talks That Move People With Dr. Danny Brassell 28.06.2026 52min

  What if your best presentation didn’t just earn applause—it moved people to act? Jackie sat down with Dr. Danny Brassell to map a clearer path from inspiration to conversion, blending hard-won classroom lessons with decades on the stage to show exactly how to make talks that stick, spread, and sell without feeling salesy. We start with the only scoreboard that matters: how many listeners take the next step with you. From there, Danny breaks down his Five Cs—clarity, connect, content, call to...
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  Measuring AI's Impact on the L&D Team 24.06.2026 14min

  AI can make instructional design feel faster overnight, but speed is the easiest thing to celebrate and the easiest thing to misunderstand. When leaders ask whether AI is truly helping learning and development teams, “We used it a lot” is not an answer. In this episode, Jackie walks through how to prove AI impact with credibility using lightweight workflow metrics that tell the real story, including where AI saves time, where it adds risk, and where it quietly creates extra work. We start by...
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  Writing That Sticks: Using ARCS With Ruth Douthitt 21.06.2026 32min

  Ever watch a promising writing class lose steam by midterm? We’ve been there, and we built this conversation to flip that script using the ARCS model—Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction—as a practical blueprint for motivated, higher-quality writing across live and online courses. With award-winning author and curriculum developer Ruth A. Douthit, we unpack what actually keeps students engaged, why “busy work” backfires, and how to design assignments that feel purposeful from the fi...
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  Working With IT, Security, and Procurement: The New Collaboration Trio 17.06.2026 15min

  AI tools can make learning design faster and more creative, but the moment a tool touches prompts, uploads, learner responses, employee information, or system integrations, approvals can feel like a hard stop. We talk through the real shift many instructional designers are living right now: AI tool selection is no longer only a learning design decision. It’s also a technology decision, a security and data privacy decision, and a procurement decision tied to contracts, licensing, and long-term...
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  Accessibility Is a Competitive Edge With Maxwell Ivey 14.06.2026 40min

  Accessibility isn’t a box to tick at launch; it’s the backbone of products people actually trust. Jackie sat down with Maxwell “The Blind Blogger” Ivey—founder of The Accessibility Advantage and longtime advocate for inclusive digital experiences—to unpack how small, thoughtful changes can eliminate friction, reduce support costs, and open doors to more learners and customers. Max shares four moves you can make this week: highlight the main tasks, simplify design, cut clutter, and build keyb...
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  AI Tutors, Coaches, and Practice Bots: When They Help and When They Don't 10.06.2026 13min

  A bot can sound warm, responsive, and confident, and still teach the wrong thing. That’s the tension we dig into as we explore AI tutors, AI coaches, and practice bots through the lens that matters most to instructional designers: practice design that improves real performance, not just chat transcripts. Jackie walks through why AI can absolutely help us scale practice, create interactions faster, and give learners more chances to rehearse, reflect, and try again. But Jackie also draws a har...
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  Designing Learning That Actually Changes Behavior With Dr. Steven Linley 07.06.2026 41min

  Training that doesn’t change behavior is just content, and content alone won’t move a business metric. Jackie sat down with Dr. Steven Linley, a learning strategist and adult learning expert, to unpack how to turn “we need training” into performance that lasts. From the first stakeholder request to the final coaching touchpoint, Steven shows how to investigate like a detective, separate red herrings from root causes, and design solutions that fit the real constraints of work. If you’re ready...
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  From Content Creator to Learning Architect: The AI-Era Shift 03.06.2026 12min

  AI can generate outlines, scripts, quizzes, scenarios, and slide drafts in minutes. That sounds like freedom, until you realize the real danger is volume: more content, more assets, more “resources” that don’t actually change what learners do. We’re making the case for a different kind of value in the AI era of instructional design and learning experience design: becoming the learning architect who decides what belongs, what gets left out, and what actually supports performance. We bre...
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  Assess What Matters In An AI World With Hamza Sami 31.05.2026 47min

  What if assessment made thinking visible and turned AI into a learning partner instead of a shortcut? Jackie sat down with Hamza Sami to close our series by unpacking practical ways to design for real understanding—where reasoning, judgment, and context take center stage. We start by reframing purpose: assessment is for learning, not just measurement. That lens leads to formative moves that build trust and invite responsible AI use. Hamza breaks down how to set clear AI norms, teach limits a...
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  Your ID Knowledge Vault: How to Stay Consistent When AI Is Fast 27.05.2026 9min

  AI can help you generate course content in minutes, but if you’ve ever looked at the output and thought, “This doesn’t sound like me,” you already know the hidden cost: inconsistency. When tone changes, terminology drifts, and structure varies across modules, your work stops feeling recognizable and trustworthy even if the content is technically correct. We walk through a simple fix that doesn’t require a massive system or 100 documents: an Instructional Design Knowledge Vault. I explain why...
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  Navigating the Journey: Caroline Amberson's Transformation Through Instructional Design 24.05.2026 45min

  Curiosity turns into clarity when a seasoned teacher names the practices that work. Jackie sits down with Caroline Amberson, a K–12 demonstration teacher who completed her M.S. in Instructional Design at Grand Canyon University, to unpack how research transformed instinct into intention. She walks us through the moment Mayer’s multimedia principles gave her a common language, how UDL and cognitive load theory run alongside them, and why the Kirkpatrick model finally made evaluation feel pract...