Clicking, laughing, and “having fun” can look like engagement, but it can also be a mirage. In this episode, Jackie unpacks a stubborn instructional design myth that shows up in classrooms, eLearning, and workplace training: engagement means entertainment. If you’ve ever felt pressure to add games, humor, flashy visuals, music, competition, or constant interaction to keep attention, this conversation will help you slow down and design with more intention.

Jackie breaks down why the myth sticks around, especially when we’ve all sat through boring, passive, content-heavy learning. Entertainment is easy to see and easy to count: smiles, comments, clicks, completion rates, and attendance. But visible activity isn’t the same as learning. Real learner engagement goes deeper into attention, relevance, effort, reflection, practice, connection, feedback, and application. Sometimes engagement looks loud, but just as often it looks like concentration, problem solving, and learners wrestling with an idea long enough to make it useful.

You’ll leave with a practical shift toward purpose-based engagement: stop asking “How do I make this more fun?” and start asking “Why should learners care?” Finally, Jackie shares concrete strategies such as decision-making scenarios, low-stakes practice with feedback, reflection prompts, discussions to process ideas, and realistic challenges that support performance and transfer.

Subscribe, share this with a fellow educator or instructional designer, and leave a review if it helps. Then, grab the companion myth reset case file and try the weekly challenge.

🔗 Episode Links

Please check out the resource mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

Myth Reset Case File: Engagement Beyond Entertainment

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A suffix can look like a tiny detail on paper, but it can carry an entire family story. Jackie sits down with Dr. Tamara Nall to talk about Junia, a formal naming tradition designed to give daughters the kind of visible legacy marker that “Junior” has long given sons. The conversation starts with naming, then opens into something bigger: identity, representation, and what changes in a culture when we finally give language to what has been missing.

Dr. Nall shares the personal roots behind the movement, including grief, fertility challenges, and the moment she realized there was no widely accepted, formal way for a mother to pass her full name to her daughter with the same status society grants fathers and sons. We unpack what a name can hold beyond identification: pride, courage, lineage, and a sense of purpose that grows when you understand the story you carry. We also dig into why Junia includes ceremony and documentation, such as declarations, naming certificates, and a global registry, and how those formal pieces can help families normalize maternal legacy without shame or fear of being judged.

From there, we connect the theme to education and instructional design, where belonging and representation shape how people learn. We talk about the “invisible backpack” every learner brings, why inclusive learning experiences are legacy work, and how curiosity about ancestry can deepen self-understanding even when family history is complicated. If you care about women’s history, cultural change, naming traditions, identity, or maternal legacy, this one stays with you. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or your most meaningful family name story.

🔗 Website and Social Links:

Please visit Dr. Tamara Nall’s website and social media links below.

Dr. Tamara Nall’s Website

Dr. Tamara’s Facebook Page

Dr. Tamara’s TikTok Page

📢 Call-to-Action: To learn more about Dr. Tamara Nall and the Junia movement, visit the Junia Legacy website, where you can explore the naming tradition, ceremony resources, certificates, and ways to support the movement.

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A quiz can be quick, clean, and easy to score, but does it actually prove learning? We take on a stubborn myth in instructional design and education: that assessments must be tests to be valid. In this episode, Jackie explains why tests are so often treated as the gold standard, from the comfort of “objectivity” to the pressure for efficiency in schools, certification programs, and workplace training.

Then we make the real shift: valid assessment is about the quality of evidence, not the format. Using backward design, we start with the learning outcomes and ask what learners should be able to do and what would demonstrate it. If the goal is recall, a short quiz might be right. If the goal is application, analysis, decision making, communication, or performance, we may need case studies, branching scenarios, simulations, demonstrations, observations, checklists, portfolios, journals, or a clear rubric to capture authentic performance.

You’ll leave with a simple “myth reset” challenge: review one assessment you use and ask whether it collects the evidence you truly need or whether it’s there because it’s familiar. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more educators and learning designers can build assessments that measure what matters.

🔗 Episode Links

Please check out the resource mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

Myth Reset Case File: Assessment Beyond Tests

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You can feel the moment when a career finally makes sense: you read a course list, something clicks, and you realize there’s a name for the work you’ve wanted to do all along. That’s the energy behind Jackie's conversation with Naomi Allen, who recently completed her master’s in instructional design at Grand Canyon University after starting down a very different path in clinical mental health counseling.

We dig into what pulled her toward instructional design and learning and development, especially the mix of psychology, brain-based learning, and the practical craft of building training that changes performance. Naomi shares how she’s used microlearning to break complex content into manageable pieces, and how scenario-based learning and role play can turn “nice to know” information into skills people can actually use at work. We also talk about why scenarios have to be truly job-relevant, or they won’t stick, particularly with adult learners who need immediate value and clear transfer to the workplace.

Then we get real about process. ADDIE is essential, but projects rarely move in clean stages once stakeholders, SMEs, approvals, and shifting timelines show up. Naomi explains how backward design often drives real-world development, and why mixing models like ADDIE and SAM can be a practical choice, not a theoretical one. If you’re considering an instructional design master’s program, you’ll also hear concrete advice on doing your research, building a routine, staying grounded in your why, and graduating with a portfolio you’re proud of.

Subscribe for more instructional design career stories, share this episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more designers and educators can find the show.

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More slides do not equal more learning, and if you have ever felt pressured to “add just one more resource,” you already know how quickly a course can turn into a content dump. We take on a stubborn instructional design myth: the idea that piling on readings, videos, examples, and links automatically improves understanding. It sounds responsible, but it often creates confusion, weak retention, and low transfer because learners cannot see what matters most.

We dig into why this belief sticks around, from the very human fear of leaving something out to the way subject matter experts naturally want to share everything they know. Then we bring in cognitive load theory to explain what is happening in the learner’s working memory when we overload a module with too many competing details, choices, and side paths. The takeaway is simple: content matters, but content alone does not create learning. Clear goals, intentional structure, practice, feedback, and reflection do.

You will leave with practical design moves you can use right away, including a sorting method that separates need-to-know content from need-to-practice activities, nice-to-know enrichment, and job aids that support performance later. I also share a weekly “myth reset” challenge to help you clean up one lesson, slide deck, handout, or training experience without losing rigor.

If you want the companion myth reset case file and the earlier episode on cognitive load, check the show notes, then subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more designers can find it.

🔗 Episode Links

Please check out the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

Related Episode: What is Cognitive Load Theory and Why is it Important?

Myth Reset Case File: Content Overload

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👍🏼 Please make sure to like and share this episode with others. Here's to great learning!

AI can hand you a polished outline, a full course draft, and a dozen “best practice” scenarios in seconds. The hard part is deciding whether any of it is worth a learner’s time. Jackie sat down with James Gildrist, founder of Lighthouse L&D Consulting, to talk about the real work behind AI in learning and development: protecting meaning, judgment, and instructional quality when speed is the loudest promise in the room.

James brings a simple, memorable framework from his iSpring Days 2026 session: DDQ, Discernment, Direction, and Quality. We unpack how discernment helps us separate what’s truly needed from content bloat, how direction clarifies what AI should do versus what must remain human-led, and how quality standards keep eLearning and training experiences grounded in learner context, practice, feedback, and trust. Along the way, we connect the dots to a problem many instructional designers and educators are seeing right now: AI makes it easy to generate “everything,” while learners are scanning faster and burning out sooner.

We also get real about the emotional side of adoption. A thoughtful audience question opens up the guilt and pressure people feel when AI is pushed top-down without time, resources, or support. We talk systems, collaboration, and why learning AI through a fun personal project can be the fastest way to build confidence that actually transfers back to work.

If you care about human-centered learning design, AI guardrails, and keeping critical thinking alive in corporate training and education, you’ll get practical language and next steps here. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review so more L&D pros can find the conversation.

📢 Call-to-Action: I’d love to continue this conversation with you. You can connect with me directly on my personal LinkedIn profile here: James’ LinkedIn Page, where I share ideas on leadership, learning, and authenticity in the workplace. You can also follow my Lighthouse L&D Consulting LinkedIn page for updates, resources, and insights from my consulting work.

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If you’ve ever heard someone say “I’m a visual learner,” you’ve seen how quickly learning style labels can shape training decisions. In this episode, Jackie unpacks a persistent instructional design myth: that learning styles should drive how we build courses, lessons, and eLearning. Learner preferences are real, but treating them like fixed categories can pull us away from what actually improves performance and understanding.

Jackie explores why the myth sticks around, from how personal it feels to how neatly it simplifies something messy. Then I make the key design shift: stop asking what style a learner “is” and start asking what the learner needs to do. When the goal is understanding a process, visuals like diagrams may be the best support. When the goal is sound recognition, audio examples become essential. When the goal is decision-making, scenarios plus feedback often beat more content every time. The format serves the outcome.

We also separate accessibility from learning styles. Captions, transcripts, alt text, clear headings, readable documents, and keyboard-friendly navigation are not extras for a certain “type” of learner. They’re inclusive, responsible design choices that remove barriers for more people. To wrap up, Jackie closes the episode with a practical myth reset challenge you can use to audit one learning experience this week and make one improvement that better aligns with goals, practice, feedback, and evidence-based strategies.

If this helped you rethink how you design, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more educators and instructional designers can find the series.

🔗 Episode Links

Please check out the resources mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!

Myth Reset Case File: Learning Styles and Design Decisions

Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence by Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork

Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer

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The fastest way to become a trusted leader isn’t getting promoted. It’s becoming the person people run to when something hurts, and you can help fix it.

Jackie sat down with Darrell Williams, a master certified life coach and longtime military and federal leader, to translate high-pressure leadership into everyday skills for educators and instructional designers. We dig into why rank never guarantees someone’s best work, how culture and connection matter even more on remote teams, and what it looks like to lead through influence when you don’t have formal authority. Darrell shares practical language you can use right away, like asking colleagues what their biggest “headache” is and shifting from “boss energy” to a consultant approach that makes you a strategic partner.

We also go deeper than tactics. If you feel stuck, stretched thin, or unsure about your next step, Darrell offers his “three R’s” framework to reconnect with purpose: re-look at your passion, reconnect with a mentor, and review options for a coach. Then we bring it back to performance under pressure with a story from presidential support missions, showing how calm leadership helps teams think, improvise, and own solutions. Plus, a memorable reframe for nerves: the butterflies may not leave, so learn to walk with them in formation.

If you found value here, subscribe to Designing with Love, share this with a colleague, and leave a heartfelt review so more instructional designers and educators can find these leadership tools.

🔗 Website and Social Links:

Please visit Darrell Williams’ website and social media links below.

Darrell’s Website

Darrell’s Facebook Page

Darrell’s LinkedIn Page

📢 Call-to-Action: Collaborating toward success can help unlock the excellence from within. Alliance Seminars Coaching performs C.P.R. on lives by providing clarity, understanding, purpose, and building resilience. Most of life’s challenges can be solved with effective leadership and efficient mentorship.

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👍🏼 Please make sure to like and share this episode with others. Here's to great learning!