“Quite simply, if you are designing e-learning, you should be following Michael's earned, respected, and apt advice. In this updated version of his classic, he points out the dearth of and need for, good e-learning, and then tells us succinctly how to get there.”
—Clark Quinn
Executive Director at Quinnovation
“Michael Allen's books have been the fundamental reasons for me to establish an e-learning development firm in Singapore.”
—Shamini Manikam
Founder, TinkTank Talent Associates
“Our industry is littered with rapidly produced content and it's time we look back to one of our pioneers to learn where we went wrong. Dr. Allen speaks to the heart of the issues today with solutions designed to realign training to its business goals. With an unwavering focus on the science behind learning design, Dr. Allen's latest book is essential for anyone passionate about designing training to deliver tangible results.”
—Glenn Bull
Founder & CEO, Skilitics
“Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning is one of the books I consider to be essential reading for any e-learning designer. It's full of useful design frameworks and vivid examples.”
—Julie Dirksen
Author of Design for How People Learn
“Michael's use of stories and missteps to add context elevates the experience of the learners. Learning becomes memorable. In this book Michael elegantly weaves boring fact-based content with realism, emotions and motivation. Read this book and breathe new life into your courses.”
—Ray Jimenez, Ph.D.
Chief Learning Architect,
Vignettes Learning Training Magazine Network
“I still remember the day I picked and started reading the first edition of Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning. It completely changed my perspective and gave me practical ideas on creating engaging, interactive, and fun eLearning courses. Feeling the same joy reading the second edition today.”
—Pooja Jaisingh
Senior eLearning Evangelist, Adobe Systems
“There are experts, and then there are the people the experts talk to when they really want to know the truth. Michael Allen is one of those people. He was there at the start of the eLearning industry and has devoted his entire career to nurturing, shaping, growing and, sometimes, disciplining entire generations of learning professionals who seized on an approach to development that Michael helped to create. Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning is a must read for anyone (ANYONE) who aspires to create meaningful, measurable and impactful e-learning.”
—Larry Israelite
“Being in the industry for many years, seeing the constant flux of change, it is refreshing to see professionals that remain adamant on certain qualities and still recognize the difference communicating ideas and concepts effectively can make in all these forces pulling the industry in every direction. As Michael recognizes, “learning begins by drawing the learner's attention. A meaningful task challenge takes the place of traditional learning objectives”. Indeed, creativity and the ability to write content that is meaningful, motivational, and memorable at the same time, however essential skills, are not to be taken for granted. I am re-assured that we do enter the next age still with a few great professionals to hold as beacons of quality and true essence in this constant changing.”
—Christopher Pappas, MBA, MED
Founder & Owner of the eLearning Industry Network
“Michael Allen, one of the ‘e-learning elite,’ has crafted a second edition that is more relevant and practical than ever. His ‘Seven Magic Keys to Motivational eLearning’ are worth the price of the book alone! This book is sure to be your go-to guide for everything ‘e.’”
—Elaine Biech
Author Training and Development for Dummies and 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom Editor ATD Handbook
“This is an excellent example-filled update for the novice practitioner or the experienced one wanting to catch up – and brush up.”
—Dr. Jane Bozarth
Author of Better than Bullet Points and From Analysis to Evaluation eLearning Coordinator for the state of NC.
“Michael Allen nails it. This rework of classic is itself, an instant classic. He reminds us that creating meaningful, memorable, and motivational learning experiences is hard but critically important work. He presents tangible, accessible and highly impactful guidance for anyone designing instruction and crafts a stunning defense against those who want to create instruction by ‘taking the easy way out.’ His recommendations, examples and stories are based on rich intellectual knowledge of instructional design and vast experience in the field. If you want a book that will make you a better designer of instruction there is no other book.”
—Dr. Karl M. Kapp
Professor of Instructional Technology, Bloomsburg University Author of The Gamification of Learning and Instruction
“Over a decade after the first edition, Michael Allen does it again with his second edition—bringing practical, research-inspired wisdom to e-learning design. I can dive in anywhere in the book and find nugget after nugget of inspired practical insights.”
—Will Thalheimer, PhD
President of Work-Learning Research, Inc
“It would be difficult to find any important topics regarding the e-learning industry that aren't covered in this amazing volume. It is both a primer for those new to the industry and a reminder of what really matters to anyone who is already working in this field.”
—Joe Ganci
President, eLearningJoe, LLC
“If you only read one book on eLearning and instructional design, let this be it. Full of updated and practical examples for today's generation of e-learning designers, you'll walk away inspired and more knowledgeable than before.”
—Cammy Bean
VP of Learning Design at Kineo Author of The Accidental Instructional Designer: Learning Design for the Digital Age
“When Michael Allen talks, I want to listen! While the book covers many of the basics that a new practitioner would need, Dr. Allen also uses humor to challenge even experienced practitioners so that we don't slip into bad habits or adopt hot trends just because they're hot. He helps us stay the course.”
—Diane Elkins
Founder, Artisan E-Learning
“I often close my critique of a student's work with the question “Are you having fun?” I often close my email with the axiom ‘Instructional Design is Fun!’ and Michael Allen provides a way for those assigned to design e-learning to have fun creating learning experiences that will help their learners have fun as they acquire the skills being taught. As he notes e-learning has become pervasive but, as he also correctly observes, way too much of this flood of online instruction is boring, ineffective, inefficient, and expensive because it wastes the student's time and does not accomplish the goals of the organization providing the training. Michael's Guide to e-Learning is a very pragmatic approach that attempts to provide a simple way to design instruction that is meaningful, motivating and motivational while painlessly implementing the best that research has to say about effective, efficient and engaging instruction. This guide is a must read for everyone who is tasked to design e-learning whether trained instructional designers or designers-by-assignment. You'll be glad you did. Keep smiling!”
—David Merrill