The second Instructional Designers meetup organized by the Instructional Designers Community of India happened on May 23, 2009 in Adobe office. Here is a brief sum up of the meetup.
Participants
Rupa, SAP, Bangalore
Ram, Cisco, Bangalore
Shameer, Adobe, Bangalore
Abhinava, Astutix, Bangalore
David, ValueMomentum, Hyderabad
Shaji, META-i Technologies Pvt., Bangalore
Nikhil Joseph, InVidya, Bangalore
Mayank, Siemens, Bangalore
Raymond, Invidya, Bangalore
Akshay, Adobe, Bangalore
Dr. Pooja, J P Morgan, Bangaglore
Malini, Educomp, Bangalore
Sahana, Zensar Technologies, Pune
Indu, Symphony Services, Bangalore
Hareesh, Convergys, Hyderabad
Reaching the venue
All of us reached the venue by 10:00 am. The adobe office was really good. I forgot to click some snaps of the office premises. I promise to do it next time 
It was great to connect with learning professionals who had taken some time to come on a saturday morning. We had people travelling all the way from Pune and Hyderabad to attend the session. Kudos to their enthusiasm.
All of us chit chatted over a coffee and the session kicked off at 10: 30 am.
Welcome and Ice Breaker Activity
I did a brief welcoming and moderated the ice breaker activity. Each of us introduced ourselves, spoke about the kind of work we do and about our interests and hobby.
The ice breaker activity was fun. Each of us took turns to pick up three chits from a bowl of chits and we had to answer the questions written in the chits. Thanks to Indu for framing nice questions and we really had witty and smart answers from the participants.
When asked what would he grab and dash out if his house was on fire, one participant said ” His wife and then added that “only because he is newly wed” and the others interpreted lots of meaning to it 
When asked to tell a lie, one other participant, he very spontaneously said” I am a man” and you can imagine what happened after that.
The ice breaker activity was fun and got all of us comfortable with each other.
Introduction to the Instructional Designers Community of India
After the introductory round was over, Ram took over and introduced us to the community and its objectives. He briefed us on the registration process and suggestions to grow the community. He did a really good job in keeping the presentation brief and telling us only what was really important for us to know.
His powerpoint presentation is very well created. Please access the presentation here : IDCI
Session on Shift from Traditional E-learning to Rapid E-learning
After brief break of 5 mins, Shameer (Product Manager, Adobe Captivate) took over and started off with his talk about rapid e-learning. Shameer’s session was awesome. He spoke about the typical scenarios where rapid e-learning is applicable, a comparison of traditional e-learning and rapid e-learning, and a glimpse into some of the rapid e-learning tools.
He began by defining traditional e-learning and rapid e-learning. This led to a very useful discussion about concept of rapid e-learning vs use of rapid e-learning tools.
Participants agreed that rapid e-learning could be information in pdf format or even a blog post. Rapid e-learning as a concept could be good information in any format and not necessarily with the instructional design principles applied.
Shameer continued to give a lot of information about the changing trends in the e-learning market and how people in the US have shifted to rapid e-learning tools during these recession times, with lot of cuts in the training budget.
He also said that most companies these days want information out to the employees, without paying much attention to the presentation of the content or format of the content.
Somewhere between the session we also had a brief discussion on the Push and Pull approaches and we all agreed that the pull approach is more relevant.
Shameer did an excellent job and gave away lot of useful information. He also gave a demo of interactive e-learning content created using Captivate. Please access Shameer’s presentation here : Trends in E-learning
Closing and Feedback
Indu did the closing bit and Shameer gave away evaluation version of the Adobe E-learning Suite to the participants.
Then the participants took time to write their feedback on the session.
The participants conveyed that they found the meetup really useful and asked for longer sessions. This is a big boost for the community to conduct many more such sessions.
Updates
Shameer was kind enough to offer Adobe office as the location for forthcoming meetups. The Instructional Designers Community of India is thankful to Shameer.
For June meetup, we will try to get the other members of the community to join the meeting online. The next meetup is happening on June 27, 2009 in Adobe office. Watch out for more news on this!
Looking forward to your active participation
Wonderful!
Couldn’t be there on the day!
Kudos to all who made it a successful day
Dear all,
I enjoyed participating in the ID meetup on Saturday, May 23, 2009. The warmth and generosity of the volunteers was overwhelming.
Coming as I am from a higher education background, ID was all about learning theories, learning design and learning experiences. The meetup highlighted for me the significance of tools in the ID process; that a strong grounding in the several ID tools is essential for an Instructional Designer. The recent discussion on the same theme on Rupa’s blog has also helped. All this helps me identify my gaps and definitely gives me a direction to pursue my interest in ID.
The presentation by Shameer and brief, but insightful interventions from Abhinava, Sahana and others added to my learning.
I look forward to being an active participant in this ‘community of practice.’
International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB) is organizing an International Workshop on Technology for Education (T4E ’09) between August 4-6, 2009.
WEBSITE:
http://www.iiitb.ac.in/t4e/
Rupa, You summarized it very well. Thanks to everyone that contributed for this event and we look forward to your continued support. Our sincere thanks to Shameer and Adobe for providing the launching pad to kickoff this forum and also extending support by offering their office premises to conduct the future sessions. Kudos to Rupa, Vijeesh, and Indu for their active involvement in organizing and making this a successful event.
Rupa, Thanks for the sum up and pics and presentations and all your hard work
Just can’t wait for the next ID meet… Any chances of the event being preponed
Rupa, this is great! Congratulations to all of you who made this possible. You are already rocking by the 2nd meet up…
Way to go!
Sreya
This is great! and Thanks for sharing the info.
First, a big thanks to all of you–Rupa, Indu, Ram and everyone else–who made this event a possibility. The warmth, the positive vibes and the sheer enthusiasm was awesome.
A very special thanks to Indu who decided to put up a complete stranger from Pune and made my stay a truly memorable one.
And to Rupa, whose willingness to share knowledge is remarkable.
The meet exceeded my expectation and the amount of learning we packed into those three hours was wonderful. As Ram had said, let’s connect, collaborate and learn.
I am looking forward to many many more such meets…
Congrats Rupa!
Sorry couldn’t make it. Shall definitely next time.
That was a wonderful summary of the event. Without being there, I could enjoy some of the wise and humorous nuggets.
Great to hear, Rupa. Kudos to all those who initiated these sessions and events. All the best for all forthcoming sessions.
Thank you all