Time to get back in the reading groove.  While I have been reading, I have certainly been off the pace I was hoping to be on. I am still reading books from May and I did not declare any for June. Frankly, life got in the way. However, a lot of exciting titles have just grabbed my eye and I am back in the chair. For July, most of my reading centers around education and leadership.  Come and check out my reading list for July. What have you been reading?

Here is what is on my reading list for July 2020:

Agile for Instructional Designers: Iterative Project Management to Achieve Results by Megan Torrance

I am a fan of agile programming as well as instructional design. I thought this book would be a nice combination of the two. Always looking for ideas to become more productive.

Via Amazon:

To serve business needs amid greater volatility and uncertainty in the workplace, learning and development professionals need project management methods that can keep up. Enter Agile.

Popular in the software development space as an approach to project management, Agile when applied to instructional design provides a framework for adapting to change as it happens and for delivering the content most needed by learners. Agile for Instructional Designers proposes using Agile methodology to manage training projects and highlights where traditional linear processes have failed the business and the end users.

Recognizing that software development and instructional design have different needs and outcomes, author Megan Torrance developed the LLAMA™ methodology. Her approach adapts the common phases of ADDIE to incorporate the incremental, iterative nature of Agile projects. It allows learners to test and evaluate which features or design functions work before they’re finalized. It also offers a way to accommodate inevitable mid-project modifications pushed by stakeholders, subject matter experts, or organizational leaders.

With templates for goal alignment, learner personas, scope definition, estimating, planning, and iterative development, Agile for Instructional Designers is the resource you need to embrace change in learning and development.

Microlearning: Short and Sweet by Karl M. Kapp and Robyn A. Defelice

I had an opportunity to see Karl Kapp speak at an Association for Talent Development conference. He spoke on gamification.  Liked how he approached the topic.  Microlearning is something I strive to do when working with faculty. I am looking for tips to do it better or differently.

Via Amazon:

Microlearning. Is it a text message or a video? Does it need to be shorter than five minutes? Do you just “chunk” a longer course into smaller pieces? Find the answers to these and other questions in this concise, comprehensive, and first-of-its-kind resource that will accommodate the most- and least-informed about microlearning.

Gleaning insights from research, theory, and practice, authors Karl M. Kapp and Robyn A. Defelice debunk the myths around microlearning and present their universal definition. In Microlearning: Short and Sweet, they go beyond the hypothetical and offer tips on putting microlearning into action.

Recognizing what makes microlearning effective is critical to avoiding costly, wasteful investments in the latest learning trend or newest shiny object. Only by understanding the nuances behind it can you decide what format and style suits your needs. Whether you are creating an individual product or a series of learning solutions, you need to follow a well-designed plan.

This book guides readers through how, when, and why to design, develop, implement, and evaluate microlearning. Case studies punctuate what works and what doesn’t.

User-friendly and highly accessible, this book is a must-have for instructional designers and anyone interested in microlearning.

The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business by Michael Hyatt

I am a fan of Michael Hyatt and his approach to leadership. I listened to him speak about vision-driven leadership on his podcast and I knew I had to read this book.

Via Amazon:

Having a clear, compelling vision–and getting buy-in from your team–is essential to effective leadership. If you don’t know where you’re going, how on earth will you get there? But how do you craft that vision? How do you get others on board? And how do you put that vision into practice at every level of your organization?

In The Vision Driven Leader, New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt offers six tools for crafting an irresistible vision for your business, rallying your team around the vision, and distilling it into actionable plans that drive results. Based on Michael’s 40 years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive, backed by insights from organizational science and psychology, and illustrated by case studies and stories from multiple industries, The Vision Driven Leader takes you step-by-step from why to what and then how. Your business will never be the same.

Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty by James M. Lang

At work, there is a lot of discussion about cheating and how to prevent it. I certainly have my thoughts on the topic but I was interested in what James Lang has to say.  I recently read Lang’s book on Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes.

Via Amazon:

Nearly three-quarters of college students cheat during their undergraduate careers, a startling number attributed variously to the laziness of today’s students, their lack of a moral compass, or the demands of a hypercompetitive society. For James Lang, cultural or sociological explanations like these are red herrings. His provocative new research indicates that students often cheat because their learning environments give them ample incentives to try–and that strategies which make cheating less worthwhile also improve student learning. Cheating Lessons is a practical guide to tackling academic dishonesty at its roots.

Drawing on an array of findings from cognitive theory, Lang analyzes the specific, often hidden features of course design and daily classroom practice that create opportunities for cheating. Courses that set the stakes of performance very high, that rely on single assessment mechanisms like multiple-choice tests, that have arbitrary grading criteria: these are the kinds of conditions that breed cheating. Lang seeks to empower teachers to create more effective learning environments that foster intrinsic motivation, promote mastery, and instill the sense of self-efficacy that students need for deep learning.

Although cheating is a persistent problem, the prognosis is not dire. The good news is that strategies which reduce cheating also improve student performance overall. Instructors who learn to curb academic dishonesty will have done more than solve a course management problem–they will have become better educators all around.

How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom by Jonathan Fields

Who doesn’t want to live a good life? What am I missing?

Via Amazon:

Seriously . . . another book that tells you how to live a good life? Don’t we have enough of those?

You’d think so. Yet, more people than ever are walking through life disconnected, disengaged, dissatisfied, mired in regret, declining health, and a near maniacal state of gut-wrenching autopilot busyness.

Whatever is out there isn’t getting through. We don’t know who to trust. We don’t know what’s real and what’s fantasy. We don’t know how and where to begin and we don’t want to wade through another minute of advice that gives us hope, then saps our time and leaves us empty.

How to Live a Good Life is your antidote; a practical and provocative modern-day manual for the pursuit of a life well lived. No need for blind faith or surrender of intelligence; everything you’ll discover is immediately actionable and subject to validation through your own experience.

Drawn from the intersection of science, spirituality, and the author’s years-long quest to learn at the feet of masters from nearly every tradition and walk of life, this book offers a simple yet powerful model, the “Good Life Buckets ” —spend 30 days filling your buckets and reclaiming your life.

Each day will bring a new, practical yet powerful idea, along with a specific exploration designed to rekindle deep, loving, and compassionate relationships; cultivate vitality, radiance, and graceful ease; and leave you feeling lit up by the way you contribute to the world, like you’re doing the work you were put on the planet to do.

How to Live a Good Life is not just a book to be read; it’s a path to possibility, to be walked, then lived.

Teaching Effectively with Zoom: A practical guide to engage your students and help them learn by Dan Levy

It looks like we will be doing a lot of teaching on Zoom in the fall. It is time to add to my toolbox so that I can better support my faculty.

Via Amazon:

In early 2020, because of COVID-19, many colleges and schools around the world closed, and many teachers, instructors, and faculty members had to learn how to teach online in a hurry. This book takes a step back, and focuses on helping educators teach effective live online sessions with Zoom. Dan Levy offers practical pedagogical advice for educators on questions such as:

•Why and how to use breakout rooms?
•Should you use chat, and if so, how?
•How do you build community in a virtual classroom?

The book is based on the author’s experience teaching online, observations of several colleagues teaching online at Harvard University, research-based principles of effective teaching and learning, and, perhaps just as importantly, interviews with dozens of students who recently experienced online learning for the first time and also had to adapt to this way of learning in a hurry.

That’s it for this month — I want to hear what good books YOU’VE read lately! Please share in the comments below.

If you missed previous months in 2020, you can still check them out:

January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

My Reviews for This Reading List

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