This is a compilation and update of my book list and book review posts. These are some of my favorites, plus recommendations from readers of my blog.

Instructional Design

Design For How People Learn by Julie Dirksen is one of my favorite books in the field. I’ve recommended it many times. It’s easy to read and understand. It makes research about learning accessible in ways you can apply immediately. The illustrations are charming and reinforce the concepts well. Read my review for more details.

The Accidental Instructional Designer by Cammy Bean is especially good for career changers and those who landed in instructional design from other fields. It provides a model for the range of skills that fall under the umbrella of “instructional design.” The book includes practical tips on working with SMEs and avoiding interactivity and multimedia for the sake of being flashy. The design models in chapter 4 are probably familiar to many with experience in the field, but very helpful to beginners who want to do more than just the same type of course and interaction for every situation.

Training Design Basics by Saul Carliner is a perfect book for people just getting started in the field. It’s my recommendation for current students or are switching to instructional design or training from another career. Read my full review about this practical book.

First Principles of Instruction: Identifying and Designing Effective, Efficient and Engaging Instruction is David Merrill’s effort to distill the common principles from multiple instructional design theories. A shorter, earlier explanation of these principles is available as a free PDF.

ISD From the Ground Up: A No-Nonsense Approach to Instructional Design by Chuck Hodell was suggested by Phrodeo, who is using it as a textbook in a course she’s taking.

Marina Arshavskiy’s Instructional Design for ELearning was recommended by another student, Alisa, who says “I will definitely keep using it after I graduate.”

Design Alchemy: Author Roderick Sims suggested that I include “texts/resources that address Learning Design and not just Instructional Design” such as his own book.

Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide to Instructional Design: Miriam Larson suggested her book, co-authored with Barbara Lockee.

eLearning

e-Learning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer is one of the first books on e-learning I bought, and I still refer to it when I need evidence to justify decisions to clients. Have you ever wondered if formal or conversational style is better for learning (conversational)? Have stakeholders asked if your on-screen text should replicate what’s on the screen (no, it shouldn’t)? This book explains it with the research to back it up. It’s not perfect; the authors sometimes make their principles seem more absolute than they probably are in real life. However, it’s a solid reference.

Designing Successful e-Learning by Michael Allen tells you to “Forget What You Know About Instructional Design and Do Something Interesting.” All of Allen’s books are focused on helping people design e-learning that is interactive, engaging, and useful.

Leaving ADDIE for SAM is a favorite in the field. Several people recommended this book. (Including some who said they wished their organizations would pay more attention to it and move to a more agile approach).

The E-Learning Uncovered series has been my go-to authoring tool reference books for years. E-Learning Uncovered: Articulate Storyline 360 is the most recent edition of the Storyline books. They also have an updated book for Adobe Captivate 2019.

Learning Science

Patti Shank’s Write and Organize for Deeper Learning is about how to write to better support learning. The recommendations are backed by research, but the book is heavy on practical tips you can immediately apply without getting bogged down in citations. Read my review of Write and Organize for Deeper Learning.

Patti Shank’s Practice and Feedback for Deeper Learning is a summary of tactics you can use to create memorable, relevant practice opportunities and provide constructive, beneficial feedback for learners. Everything in the book is backed by research and written to be immediately usable by instructional designers and trainers. Read my review of Practice and Feedback for Deeper Learning.

Manage Memory for Deeper Learning is Patti’s third installment in her series sharing research-based tactics for designing learning experiences.

Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions: Debunking Learning Myths and Superstitions by Clark Quinn addresses some of the big myths in the learning field. (No, our attention spans really haven’t shrunk to shorter than a goldfish, and generational stereotypes don’t lead to better learning results.) It’s a quick read, with a brief summary of each myth or superstition. This is a good reference to have handy when stakeholders ask you to design based on these misconceptions.

Performance-Focused Smile Sheets by Will Thalheimer explains why most of our training evaluations don’t provide useful data and explains how to fix it. Read my  review of Performance-Focused Smile Sheets.

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning is geared more towards teachers, professors, and those interested in the psychology of how we learn rather than at instructional designers. The authors have done an amazing job of reviewing, summarizing, and organizing dozens of studies about how we learn. As instructional designers, we often work hard to make learning easier, but “desirable difficulties” can actually increase learning. I do wish the book had some visuals to help explain the concepts. As an instructional designer, especially one who develops self-paced elearning, you’ll need to reflect on your own about how to apply these ideas to your work. Most of the examples are from classrooms, either academic or corporate.

Richard Mayer’s Applying the Science of Learning was recommended by Clare Dygert, who says, “If you want to create e-learning that works the way a human brain wants it to work, read this book!”

Psychology Research

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck is about growth and fixed mindsets and how the way we praise people affects their success. This book would be especially of value to teachers and those working in higher education.

Daniel Pink’s Drive explains three principles of motivation that go deeper than just rewards and punishments: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. More money won’t always motivate behavior change (in fact, sometimes it might be counterproductive). Helping people improve their skills can be even more motivating, and that’s certainly part of what we should be doing as instructional designers.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die is about why some stories and ideas are memorable while others aren’t. Robert Beck says, “Its principles are ones that I often turn to for reminders of how to make learning more compelling and memorable.”

Visual Design and Usability

Connie Malamed’s Visual Design Solutions is the best book for all of those of us who need to communicate visually in our e-learning but lack the formal training on how to do so. Unlike a lot of visual design books out there, this is focused specifically on visual design for learning. Read my full review of Visual Design Solutions.

Connie’s previous book, Visual Language for Designers, was helpful to me in learning about the fundamentals of visual design.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman isn’t a visual design book, but a user experience design book about the psychology of how we interact with objects. This book is a frequent recommendation for IDs interested in improving the usability of their courses.

Performance Consulting

Cathy Moore’s Map It explains her action mapping process in detail from start to finish. This is about how to move away from passive content presentation and into training that provides real challenges and practice. She also discusses when training isn’t the solution and other approaches would be more effective. In that respect, it’s more like performance consulting than just instructional design.

Analyzing Performance Problems: Or, You Really Oughta Wanna–How to Figure out Why People Aren’t Doing What They Should Be, and What to do About It was recommended by Mike Taylor, who also recommended the next selection.

Dana and Jim Robinson’s Performance Consulting was also recommended. Mike says neither of these books is very recent, but they have remained relevant.

Games and Scenario-Based Learning

The Gamification of Learning and Instruction by Karl Kapp explains how to do more with gamification than just badges and points. Karl summarizes research and game theory and explains how substantive elements of games like narrative can be used to improve learning design. I wrote more about this gamification research previously.

In Play to Learn: Everything You Need to Know About Designing Effective Learning Games, Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp provide tips for moving beyond shallow “points, badges, and leaderboards” gamification and into effective games for learning. This is about how to design games that meet learning objectives, rather than generic game design or tool-specific tips.

Scenario-based e-Learning by Ruth Clark is similar to eLearning and the Science of Instruction in that it summarizes research findings. This book is specifically focused on developing scenario-based e-learning, including everything from simple branching scenarios to complex simulations.

Consulting and Freelancing

Joel Gendelman’s Consulting Basics was a critical resource for me when I made the leap from being an employee to being a freelance instructional designer. I regularly recommend this book to people who are just getting started in the freelance world or hoping to make the switch. The tips are very practical and concrete, and my own consulting agreements borrow heavily from the examples provided in this book. This book is focused on freelance training and training design work.

Richard Watson has published three ebooks on the practicalities of freelancing in the elearning field. All three combine Richard’s personal stories about his freelancing journey with practical tips for creating and running a freelance business. I reviewed the complete series of ebooks.

• Volume I: Launching Your E-Learning Freelance Career
• Volume II: Marketing Yourself and Finding Great Clients
• Volume III: Managing a Successful E-Learning Project

Peter Block’s Flawless Consulting was recommended as a resource for treating consulting as a business and building better relationships with my clients.

Learning Communities

Building Online Learning Communities by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt is aimed more at online instructors than instructional designers. However, it’s a solid resource for IDs working in higher education or supporting online and blended learning communities.

Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White, and John Smith is about how technology can enable communities of practice. You can now download the ebook for free.

Other Topics

Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth is full of visuals and explains how to “show your work” by sharing what you’re doing and learning using social tools. The book explains the benefits of creating a culture where people share their processes and discoveries.

The Art of Explanation by Lee LeFever of Common Craft explains how to make information easier to understand. This was suggested by Luis Flores, who says, “As we create leaner and quicker learning experiences, being able to distill content is a skill that is indispensable.”

TED Talks Storytelling: 23 Storytelling Techniques from the Best TED Talks was also recommended by Robert Beck. He says, “If IDs keep in mind the elements of a powerful story and how to deliver a spellbinding presentation to an audience, they’ll likely design an effective training product.”

The Essential Persona Lifecycle by Adlin and Pruitt was recommended by Ieva Swanson. I have seen examples of personas used effectively for different projects, including creating a learning portal. This isn’t an area I personally know much about, but I can see the value in exploring it further.

Your Selections

Did I miss one of your favorite books? Leave a comment with your suggestions.

Image: Colorful Stack of Books in Library from Storyblocks
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Originally published 1/17/17. Last updated 7/9/19.

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