#IDIODC Instructional Designers In Offices Drinking Coffee

What happens to L&D when the training models we relied on for decades start falling apart? Donald H Taylor joins IDIODC to share what 3,797 practitioners from 105 countries told him in the 2026 Global Sentiment Survey. The answers are more honest, more urgent, and more revealing than any single year before.

We'll dig into what the data reveals about where the profession is heading. What are practitioners actually doing differently? Where is AI adding value, and where is it creating noise? And what does the path forward look like when there is no map?

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Donald H Taylor has worked in learning and technology since the mid-1980s, from training delivery to board chair. He has chaired the Learning Technologies Conference in London since 2000, now Europe's largest event of its kind. His annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey draws thousands of responses from practitioners across 100+ countries.

He is the author of Learning Technologies in the Workplace and chairs the Workforce Development board at Emerge Education. A graduate of Oxford University, he received an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University in 2016. He has spoken in over 30 countries worldwide.

Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Understanding the freelance instructional design market is crucial for both independent professionals and the enterprises that hire them. In this episode, Parker Grant and Andrea Dottling of IDLance pull back the curtain on the freelance L&D industry. They explore the daily challenges, unique opportunities, and business mechanics of working as an independent eLearning designer.

For L&D leaders, they provide practical advice on integrating freelance talent into corporate workflows. The conversation highlights how large organizations can build better vendor relationships, streamline project management, and achieve strong business outcomes when working with external instructional designers.

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Parker Grant spent over 21 years at a Fortune 50 company as an engineer, trainer, and training manager before going freelance. He holds a Ph.D. in Adult Learning from the University of Connecticut and co-founded IDLance with Andrea in 2020. He is also an eLearning developer, cartoonist, and someone who has genuinely thought through the business side of L&D freelancing.

Andrea Dottling holds a Master's in Education and has designed learning across corporate, higher ed, K-12, and non-profit settings. She co-founded IDLance in 2020 and helped grow its freelancer community to over 1,700 members worldwide. In 2025, she keynoted the Alabama Instructional Design Network's UnConference.

Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Many L&D programs build skills but fail to shift performance. Matthew Richter joins IDIODC to explore why that gap exists and what to do about it.

He breaks performance down into five factors and shows exactly where L&D can and cannot influence each one. That distinction matters. It changes how you diagnose problems, how you scope solutions, and how you talk to business leaders about what learning can realistically deliver. You will leave with a sharper lens for targeting your budget, a cleaner argument for stakeholders, and a practical framework for choosing interventions that move real business outcomes.

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Matthew Richter is President of The Thiagi Group and co-founder of The Learning Development Accelerator (LDA). He has spent two decades consulting and delivering training for organizations including Microsoft, EA, Grant Thornton, and Sony. His work sits at the intersection of performance, motivation, and learning design.

Matt is also a game designer, facilitator, and public speaker. He has presented at The Gates Foundation, ISPI, Training Magazine, and ASTD, among others. He co-authored LOLA: Live Online Learning Activities with Sivasailam Thiagarajan and teaches leadership at EMLyon Business School in France

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In the age of AI when content is a commodity, how do Learning and Development organizations actually make an impact? How can they build a learning function that is both efficient and effective, especially when scaling across an enterprise? Many L&D teams are caught between the demand for speed and the need for quality, often sacrificing one for the other. The secret isn't doing more, but designing smarter from the start.

Dr. Karl Kapp, a leading voice in learning and technology, joins IDIODC to share a new operational mindset where "smooth is fast". We'll discuss how to embed quality and thoughtful design into your processes from the start, ensuring that your L&D initiatives are not only scalable but also accessible, performance-driven, and action-focused. Discover how strategic AI integration and an action-oriented approach can transform your team from a content factory into a critical driver of business success.

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Dr. Karl Kapp is a pioneering voice in learning innovation. His book Action-First Learning is reshaping how organizations design training for real-world impact. As co-founder of Enterprise Game Stack and founder of the L&D Mentor Academy, he bridges academic rigor with practical business results. His work on gamification, engagement, and instructional design has influenced thousands of L&D professionals worldwide.

Karl is a professor of instructional technology at Commonwealth University. He brings over two decades of research-backed expertise to enterprise learning challenges. From scaling operations to integrating AI, he helps organizations turn training into a strategic driver of business success. His books, courses, and thought leadership tackle the pressing challenges facing today's L&D leaders.

Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.

Your team is probably using AI to write learning content. But does it actually make it better? AI hallucinations and weird text patterns can be spotted by anyone paying attention. Connie Malamed joins IDIODC to share what she's learned from experimenting with AI writing tools.

We discuss the fingerprints AI leaves in your content. Overused sentence structures. Paragraphs that sound impressive but say nothing. You'll learn about specialized AI research tools that beat ChatGPT for finding credible sources, and using NotebookLM to prepare for SMEs interviews. Connie shares when to use AI and when to fight through your own messy first draft. Because sometimes the struggle is what keeps your writing sharp and your content authentic.

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Connie Malamed is a learning experience design consultant, author, and the creator of The eLearning Coach. She helps learning teams design evidence-informed, visually clear learning experiences that people actually understand and remember.

She has written two influential books on visual design for learning and runs Mastering Instructional Design, a community for learning professionals who want to deepen their craft and stay current in a changing L&D landscape.

Brought to you by the dominKnow | ONE Platform - develop, manage, and distribute impactful L&D content – efficiently, at scale.