In last month's newsletter, I referenced an old belief I held about how being an instructional designer and business owner should mean I could pick up marketing quickly. But after I ran the math, I realized I have only spent about 320 hours doing it during the past year (the most I've done in my entire career), and probably about 700 hours overall. This misaligned perception reminded me a lot about the popular notion of expertise. The late Dr. Anders Ericsson, of Florida State University's Psychology Department, was a renowned scholar on expertise whose research, analysis and writing helped establish the popular notion that you must engage in deliberate practice on a skill set for a minimum of 10,000 hours to gain mastery. You may have heard about that idea before, somewhere in school, work or continuing education.

Chocolate! Greek yogurt! I love sweet things, and dairy. But both increase my cholesterol, which isn't a good move after the past year fighting Cancer. I think: shouldn't I just be able eat this stuff, like everyone else? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Because for whatever reason, my body doesn't do well with certain foods like these, and I really have no ability to change that. I've tried. I've struggled. But it is what it is, despite what I think it should be, or what I'd like it to be.

Evaluation is an analytical accountability process that critically examines a program, its materials, its implementation, and its results. The two goals of evaluation in the instructional design realm are (1) ensuring the program under scrutiny is effective, and (2) holding those responsible for the program to account, based on the promised goals or scope. This simplified list of evaluations discusses the top 5 most important and essential types of instructional design evaluations for helping ensure high quality standards for curricula, trainings, and other learning resources your association, business, or non-profit organization produces.