I then realized that I had the attention of everyone in the room. The two men who had started the conversation looked at me like I suppose Jack would have looked at the man who was trying to buy his cow for a handful of magic beans. I wasn't trying to be a wise guy. While this formula is still far from automatic, I honestly believe that this is the best way to create engaging, interactive, content-rich training applications. In analyzing why people want a magic formula, one might conclude that it's not the process itself that causes anxiety and frustration, rather people seem more concerned with the time it takes to employ systematic design.
Instructional design takes time, and since time equals money, time is the enemy.
In addressing this problem, it is useful to understand how we spend our time during instructional development. The chart in Figure 2.0 shows percentages of time spent in instructional development for a large project consisting of 21 courses developed for the United States Air Force. The lack of instructional design tools One of the biggest weaknesses in the instructional development industry has been the lack of support tools for designing courses prior to production. When several instructional designers were asked what tools were available for instructional development, they most often listed software applications such as authoring systems and graphics packages, or other tools that focus exclusively on production. It makes sense that software vendors focus on production since developers spend a great deal of time in this area.