A lot of knowledge goes behind the making of templates. …Trials and errors in a variety of test environments.
Making them can be expensive and time consuming. Using them saves a lot of time and money.
Just the use of rapid development is not a solution to meet any and all learning objectives though.
When rapid development is used in isolation, it may be good for industry and bad for the individual in a short run. Ultimately, it may be bad for industry as well.
And what about the users of the templates (learning designers); do they understand the templates and their design and are they even required to? More times than not, these designers spend their time chunking, rewriting, and creating content then categorizing each screen into a template type.
Learning designers need to be so much more.
Many organisations separate skills, in this case into design and development, for conglomerate objectives. One task that can be performed by one laterally and horizontally skilled developer, is instead performed by a team of ten horizontally skilled individuals. Something is off about such business models (more on that later). A multi skilled training and education program creator could be called an learning developer.
We don’t need to be information junkies to be interacting with media. Media interaction is a way of life in a production and development based society. Revisions and newer versions of tools and products in consumerist economies lead to a high demand for user training. Not just feature descriptions and advantages but behavioural modifications, and skills enhancement as well.
Rapid development tools are usually used for mandatory programs for information recall. But there’s been a problem. They’re boring and increasing number of employees think of such programs as a waste of time. Although game design is pervading learning design and the mundane programs are being revamped to fit game based design, it’s still questionable if . New templates are being used.
So yes, templates seem the wrong way to go if the motive of the instruction is altruistic towards the different learners. If it’s focus instead is on quick launch and easy updates, the rapid way would be the way to go. But don’t fall for the gimmick that it’s cheaper. It is, but a lot of people fall for inflated pricing. Most sales teams use it as a tactic to increase profits, buyer beware! All templates required to create a complete program are openly available.
With blended learning solutions gaining in popularity, template based tools are being used frequently to quickly develop media for most learning objectives. The right mix of media and a systemic approach can deliver any learning objective rewardingly. And that is good for the individuals in industry (society).