My Favorite Productivity Tools
A look at the everyday tools I actually use as an instructional designer — starting with FastStone Capture, my go-to for screenshots and screen recording.
25 Years Later: Remembering September 11th
Twenty-five years since September 11th. A personal remembrance — where I was that day, and the people I still carry with me, then and since.
What Instructional Designers Actually Need from SMEs
Most SME review friction traces back to the same cause: nobody told the SME what actually helps. Here’s the real scenario, the real mistakes, and the five questions worth answering before a single slide gets built.
The Goldilocks Atlas: Mapping the Worlds Next Door
There’s a moment, on any clear night, when the yard work is done and the house has gone quiet, that I find myself just standing there — head back, porch light off — looking up. It never gets old. Ever
AI Didn’t Just Build a Soulless Course. It Broke My Storyline File.
A viral LinkedIn post says AI-built courses feel cold. True, but it’s not the risk I’d lead with — letting an AI agent drive your authoring tool directly can wreck your project file, and that’s exactly what happened to mine.
How to Write a Branching Scenario That Doesn’t Feel Fake
Most branching scenarios feel fake because they were never planned before they were built. Here’s how to story-map a scenario like a mind map before you touch Storyline, and why that shape matters.
Storyline vs. Captivate in 2026: Which Should You Actually Use
Storyline and Captivate used to be a genuinely close call. After Captivate’s engine rebuild, I don’t think it is anymore — here’s an honest, opinionated buyer’s guide from 22 years of using both.
Outsourcing the Thinking: The Real Risk of Letting AI Design Your Training
AI can draft a course in minutes, but the judgment that makes training actually work — knowing your learners, picking the scenario that will land, spotting where a wrong answer needs to feel wrong — is not a speed problem. It is a design skill that atrophies the moment you stop exercising it.
Death by Next Button: Why Nobody Remembers Your Compliance Training
Think about the last mandatory training course you took. Harassment prevention, cybersecurity awareness, safety procedures — doesn’t matter which. Now try to remember three specific things it taught y
How AI Voice Is Changing eLearning Production: My Experience with ElevenLabs
For over 22 years, I’ve built training content for federal agencies and enterprise clients, and one of the most time-consuming parts of any eLearning course has always been the voiceover. Recording, r