

#IDIODC Instructional Designers In Offices Drinking Coffee
Chris Van Wingerden, Paul Schneider
Grab your favorite brew (ours is coffee ☕) and sit down with Paul Schneider and Chris Van Wingerden from dominKnow.
Together they unpack the real-world headaches L&D pros face — managing learning content creation, operations, and proving business value.
Expect lively chats with guest experts and practical tips you can plug straight into your learning strategies or development workflows.
Whether you’re a veteran L&D leader or a brand-new instructional designer, tune in for strategic, technology, and business insights into L&D operational excellence.
Together they unpack the real-world headaches L&D pros face — managing learning content creation, operations, and proving business value.
Expect lively chats with guest experts and practical tips you can plug straight into your learning strategies or development workflows.
Whether you’re a veteran L&D leader or a brand-new instructional designer, tune in for strategic, technology, and business insights into L&D operational excellence.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 3, 2019 • 39min
Game Thinking is a Litmus Test for Good Design: With Special Guest Deborah Thomas
Analyze need, identify objectives, curate content and then what? Design and develop the course? No! Try thinking about the design through the lens of a game designer. A gamified event or a serious game.
This allows you to think about the behaviour changes that you want them (learners, employees, managers, etc) to realize by looking at:
Game goal
Mechanics
Actions and Resources
Failure and winning
Whether you want to nudge behaviour changes by rewarding daily actions, encourage completion of a task, or reward for daily practice just by applying gamification elements, you can discover key components about the topic that you may have missed. Game thinking is the litmus test to whether you have fully considered and included all of the necessary content.
Deborah Thomas is the President, Owner and Senior Consultant at SillyMonkey LLC. She is currently focused on games design and development in training. With over 20 year experience in the L&D field from training manager, instructional designer and game designer, she really has a grasp on what makes great training.
Learn more about Deborah on her LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/sillymonkey2008/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Deborah: @SillyM0nkey https://twitter.com/sillym0nkey
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's User Community Director. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Jun 26, 2019 • 41min
Instructional Design for a Global Audience: With Special Guest Amy Shilliday
Did you ever design a perfect training event and have it fail miserably because none of the participants engaged the way you intended - if at all? Today’s learners are increasingly spread across the globe. Understanding how to shift your design thinking to leverage inevitable cultural differences will make your training events shine!
In this cast, Brent and Chris bring on special guest Amy Shilliday! The gang will touch on some key elements to consider nowadays, share what can possibly go wrong when you don’t, and spark your creativity for designing activities for a global audience.
Amy Shilliday has extensive experience in Training & Development for customer service businesses. These experience include senior trainer roles with mortgage banking and top-three global media companies. Amy has spent some serious time working on creating diverse learning delivery methods and design implementations that will successfully develop organization's service and sales teams. From adult learning theory, to training the trainer, to public speaking, Amy's skills have made her the amazing learning and development professional she is today.
Get to know Amy better on her LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshilliday/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Amy: @LN_Amy https://twitter.com/ln_amy
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's User Community Director. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Jun 19, 2019 • 46min
Playing With Innovation, Creativity & Learning: With Special Guests Karl Kapp, Kevin Thorn & Deborah
The most innovative creators and thinkers in L&D have one thing in common - they love to play. There is plenty of research that proves the value of play within learning, whether that be growing relationships to form stronger teams, improving performance in work, happier employees... the list goes on. But for adults, play sounds too much like the opposite of work and so it isn’t taken seriously as a valuable practice and life skill.
This week Chris and Brent are talking with a few special guests to learn more about how you can improve your learning outcomes by incorporating PLAY into your programs. Join us for a special announcement as well. It’s a week long experience with experts and peers that you will not want to miss.
Chatting with us this week: Karl Kapp, Kevin Thorn and Deborah Thomas.
Karl is a professor at Bloomsburg University for Instructional technology and the Director of the Institute for Interactive Technologies. His goal is to help people understand the convergence of learning, technology, games & game-thinking through fun, laughter and insight (grounded by evidence-based practices).
Kevin is an award-winning eLearning designer & developer, consultant, and owner of NuggetHead Studioz, LLC., a boutique custom design and development studio specializing in online learning experiences.
Deborah Thomas is the President, Owner and Senior Consultant at SillyMonkey LLC. She is currently focused on games design and development in training. With over 20 year experience in the L&D field from training manager, instructional designer and game designer, she really has a grasp on what makes great training.
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Karl: @KKapp https://twitter.com/kkapp
Kevin: @LearnNuggets https://twitter.com/LearnNuggets
Deborah: @SillyM0nkey https://twitter.com/sillym0nkey
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's User Community Director. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Jun 12, 2019 • 45min
Going Micro: 6 Questions for Assessing Your Content With Special Guest Carla Torgerson
It seems everyone is “going micro”, or wants to be. But you want to use microlearning in ways that will have maximum impact. So how do you assess your content to know where going micro will have the greatest value for your learners and your organization? During this episode of IDIODC, we’ll bring on special guest Carla Torgerson to discuss 6 questions you need to ask about your content to identify where using microlearning will work best.
Carla Torgerson has more than 15 years of experience as an instructional designer and instructional strategist. Always interested in the latest learning trends, she has authored numerous blogs and articles on a variety of topics, including eLearning, mobile learning, and microlearning. She also developed MILE, the MIcroLEarning Design Model© and is the author of The Microlearning Guide to Microlearning.
Carla has consulted with numerous Fortune 500 clients including McDonald’s, Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, Adobe, Express, Kellogg’s, University of Phoenix, Fidelity, Cargill, Medtronic, Merck, and Best Western. She has designed solutions ranging from $15,000 to more than $2 million.
Carla is currently Director of Instructional Design at Bull City Learning, a specialized eLearning agency that provides digital learning solutions for companies in a wide range of industries, as well as non-profit organizations. Bull City Learning offers a full suite of solutions including learning needs assessments, curriculum design, content development, and training deployment support.
Carla has a Master of Education (MEd) focused on technology-based education. She also has a Master of Business Administration (MBA), which helps her to see training through a business lens. She loves to travel and explore the country with her awesome husband, Tom, and their very curious six-year-old son, John.
Check out Carla's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Microlearning-Guide-Carla-Torgerson/dp/0692806679/
Visit Bull City Learning's site here: https://bullcitylearning.com/
You can reach Carla at carla@bullcitylearning.com
Check out more about here on her LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlatorgerson/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Carla: @CTorgerson https://twitter.com/ctorgerson
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Jun 5, 2019 • 41min
Designing & Developing Accessible, Inclusive eLearning Content: With Special Guest Brian Dusablon
Discussions and understanding about inclusion and accessibility can vary by organization. These discussions should be about more than just doing the bare minimum for compliance. Instructional designers should be talking about the difference they can make by ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to learn from what they produce. Brian will share with us the many lessons he's learned while working to create inclusive and accessible learning experiences for ALL learners. We'll talk about how to start the conversation with stakeholders, review design standards, and share resources that will help you build better eLearning.
Learn more about Brian on his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandusablon/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Brian: @BrianDusablon https://twitter.com/briandusablon
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

May 29, 2019 • 45min
Why CLOs are Reorienting L&D for the Digital Age: With Special Guest Brandon Carson
Learn how and why the corporate learning organization needs to reorient itself to the digital age. The digital age has created a massive increase in the speed and complexity of business, fundamentally disrupting the workplace. As new technology is integrated, workers at all levels are needing to re-skill much faster and navigate more complex systems and processes. The corporate learning function is in a unique position to lead the transformation required in workplace learning, but first it must transform how it operates.
Brandon will discuss how and why the corporate learning organization needs to reorient itself to the digital age and take a more proactive leadership role in driving the business transformation from a performance perspective.
Brandon is the author of "Learning in the Age of Immediacy: 5 Factors for How We Connect, Communicate, and Get Work Done" from ATD Press. Award winning, innovative and highly focused leader with a progressive track record of learning strategy and execution.
Brandon Carson holds an M.Ed. in eLearning Technology and Design and a B.A. in Business Communications as well as advanced ISPI certification in Analysis.
Brandon's specialties include: learning strategy, learning technology, instructional design, digital transformation, leadership, sales and technical training, corporate learning implementation, adult education application and theory, learning standards, game based learning.
Learn more about Brandon on his LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandoncarson/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Brandon: @BrandonWCarson https://twitter.com/brandonwcarson
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

May 22, 2019 • 32min
Meet the Authors at ATD: Live from the IDIODC Meetup & Hangout
Brent and Chris host the first ever live and in-person IDIODC Meetup and Hangout at the 2019 ATD International Conference and Expo!
But what are they talking about this week?
This IDIODC episode is recorded at the end of the meetup. Brent and Chris go live and talk with some folks joining us who have been recognized for their help in our community: Carla Torgerson, Megan Torrance, Karl Kapp, Emily Wood, Duncan Welder and Amy Shilliday (...and the xAPI Gnome too). The gang goes over the best parts of the show so far.
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Become friends with some of the guests who joined us live for this episode:
Carla Torgerson: @CTorgerson https://twitter.com/ctorgerson
Karl Kapp: @KKapp https://twitter.com/kkapp
Amy Shilliday: @LNAmy https://twitter.com/LN_Amy
Duncan Welder: @DuncanWIV https://twitter.com/DuncanWIV
Megan Torrance: @MMTorrance https://twitter.com/MMTorrance
Emily Wood: @IDEmily https://twitter.com/IDEmily
xAPI Gnome: @xAPIGnome https://twitter.com/xapignome?lang=en
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

May 15, 2019 • 42min
How to Create a Winning eLearning Portfolio: With Special Guest Ashley Chiasson
Today we're talking with 2-time Demofest winner Ashley Chiasson to talk about how she creates winning projects for her professional portfolio. Her last winning project won for Best Video Solution and so we'll talk a little about that as well. But if you know you need to up your game, or freshen up your portfolio, then you'll want to listen to what Ashley has to say. There is a reason why her projects WIN! And she's willing to share those secrets with us on IDIODC. Join us and start building your winning portfolio.
In this session, you will learn:
About the importance of an eLearning portfolio
About common challenges in building an eLearning portfolio and how to overcome them
Ways of building out and promoting your portfolio
Ashley Chiasson is an award-winning eLearning developer with over a decade of experience as an instructional designer. eLearning developer, and consultant. She is the Senior eLearning Developer at Traliant, and holds a Masters of Education (Post-Secondary Studies) and a Bachelor of Arts (Linguistics and Psychology).
Learn more about Ashley on her LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-chiasson-02b95a59/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Ashley: @AMDChaisson https://twitter.com/amdchiasson
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

May 8, 2019 • 37min
Powerful Brain Based Learning Strategies: With Special Guest Margie Meacham
This week on IDIODC, Brent and Chris bring on Margie "The Brain Lady" Meacham! She shares brain-based learning design principles backed up by research. If you're interested in truly improving the ways you design, develop and deliver training, then you need to pay attention to newest research in neuroscience. Margie will talk with us about what works and what doesn't. We'll also talk about the myths surrounding the work we do and how current research better informs our design decisions.
During this episode Margie gives away a copy of her book, Brain Matters: How to help anyone learn anything using neuroscience
During this episode we will also be giving away an #IDIODC mug for the month of April! Join the IDIODC #MugShot gang!
Margie Meacham, aka “The Brain Lady” is one of the foremost experts in educational neuroscience and artificial intelligence. She helps organizations filter through the noise to find to enhance learning and performance through science. Margie is available for keynotes and custom workshops. She is a founding member of the global consultancy, “The Brain Ladies.” Watch for her new workshop “Build Your First Chatbot” with “eLearning Joe” Joe Ganci.
Margie teaches people how to design and deliver training that is compelling, memorable and immediately useful by applying the latest discoveries from the converging fields of learning science. The author of “Brain Matters: How to help anyone learn anything using neuroscience” believes that if you understand how the brain works you can become a better teacher, trainer, leader, spouse or parent and have more fun doing it. Margie is the Chief Freedom Officer of Learningtogo and hosts a Top Ten podcast on the science of learning. She is a recipient of the 100 Most Innovative in Learning award and a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences. Check out Margie’s talk: “We are the Disruption”. She teaches the ATD online course, Essentials of Brain-Based Learning. You can learn more about Margie on her website at www.learningtogo.info
Learn more about Brain Matters: How to help anyone learn anything using neuroscience: https://learningtogo.info/brain-matters-book/
Purchase Margie's book here: https://www.amazon.ca/Brain-Matters-anyone-anything-neuroscience/dp/1508722137
Learningtogo: https://learningtogo.info/
Top 10 Podcasts: https://learningtogo.info/2017/07/12/the-learningtogo-podcast-is-8-for-learning-and-development-professionals-in-2017/
100 Most Innovative in Learning award: https://learningtogo.info/2017/10/05/margie-meacham-is-one-of-the-100-most-talented-global-training-development-leaders-for-2018/
Margie’s talk: “We are the Disruption”: https://disrupthr.co/vimeo-video/survive-thrive-5-disruptions-changing-hr-by-changing-what-it-means-to-be-human-margie-meacham-disrupthr-talks/
ATD online course, Essentials of Brain-Based Learning: https://learningtogo.info/2017/11/27/upcoming-event-essentials-of-brain-based-learning/
Learn more about Margie on her LinkedIn profile.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margiemeacham/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Margie: @MargieMeacham https://twitter.com/margiemeacham
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

May 1, 2019 • 49min
How to Build & Manage a Team of Instructional Designers: With Special Guest Lisa Goldstein
As an Instructional Designer, you may someday become the manager of a team of IDs. Making the transition can be challenging.
This week Brent and Chris talk with Lisa Goldstein to go over valuable notes of what it means to be a successful training manager on a team of IDs. And if you've been tasked with building a team of instructional designers, this conversation will help you understand what to look for in a new hire so that you get the right skillset and attitude on your team. Managing can be a difficult job, and as an instructional designer there are things you can be doing as well to help support your manager and turn your team into the high performing team you want it to be. Join us to learn more!
Lisa is a multi-award winning learning technologist and innovative leader. An enthusiastic go-getter who thrives when interacting with others and passionately believes that corporate learning should meet the needs of modern learners while focusing on desired business outcomes. Brainstormer, dot connector, visionary leader, achievement driver.
Learn more about Lisa on her LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-a-goldstein/
Become virtual friends with the IDIODC gang on twitter (and remember you can always stay in the loop with the #IDIODC hashtag):
Lisa: @LisaAGoldstein https://twitter.com/lisaagoldstein?lang=en
Brent: @BSchlenker https://twitter.com/bschlenker
Chris: @Chris_V_W https://twitter.com/Chris_V_W
Brent Schlenker is dominKnow's Community Manager. Chris Van Wingerden is dominKnow's Sr. VP Learning Solutions.
Want to join us live? Follow us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/dominknow
Interested in learning more about dominKnow? Sign up for our next live platform demo to learn why we do powerful eLearning-authoring best. (And get a free 14-day trial after you watch the demo!) https://www.dominknow.com/demonstration.html
Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.


