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Rethinking eLearning: What Works. What Doesn't. What's Missing.
Learn how to elevate your learning experiences and take your learners to new heights from the godfather of elearning, Michael Allen, as he revisits, challenges, and updates instructional design principles from the past 50 years. Is today’s elearning everything it should be? Of course not. But a renewed focus on the principles we know work and a commitment to reimagining those that no longer serve us will take us closer to realizing its full potential—and to designing learning experiences based not only on the goals of the designer but also on the quality of the learner experience. Whether you’re a designer or buyer of training programs, Rethinking eLearning is an invaluable guidebook for delivering learning programs that Relevant Motivational Individualized Empathetic Memorable Supportive Drawing on his fifty-five-plus years of professional, academic, and corporate experience in teaching, developing, and marketing interactive learning and performance support systems, Michael Allen explores what works, what doesn’t, and what’s missing when it comes to elearning. Packed with digestible and immediately actionable chapters, Rethinking eLearning is a resource you’ll turn to again and again—a companion along your journey as you accompany learners on theirs.
- GenresAudiobook
272 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 3, 2026
Practical insights for modern learning design
Thank you to NetGalley, Michael W. Allen, and Brilliance Publishing for this advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Michael W. Allen's Rethinking eLearning: What Works. What Doesn't. What's Missing. looks at instructional design principles from the past 50 years and updates them for today. Allen is described as the grandfather of eLearning. He has over 55 years of experience in teaching, developing, and marketing interactive learning systems. The book explores what works, what doesn't, and what's missing in eLearning design.
I've worked in both training and development for a Fortune 500 company and within the K-12 education system. This book was very interesting to me given that background.
David de Vries narrates the audiobook. He does it with a good tone. Sounds great. Easy to listen to. I sped it up because it ran a little slow for me, but that's personal preference. The narration itself is solid.
I was given a supplemental PDF to go along with the audiobook. That was helpful. It expanded the learning and engagement for me while working through this material.
At the start, the book does a lot of explaining about what different types of eLearning are. It covers more traditional approaches and works its way through gamifying learning and using AI to assist in the process. AI is such a hot button issue right now. I feel like that's one of the biggest reasons this book was written at this time. The timing makes sense.
The book pushes us to create meaningful engagement for those we design learning for. Boosting motivation is how we improve how people engage with eLearning. Allen says that since a motivated learner will find a way to learn with or without our help, amplifying motivation should often be our number one task. That resonated with me.
There is a lot of information in this book. I think it would have been easier to interact with it in a more meaningful way if I had both a print copy and the audio. Having just the audio meant I couldn't reference back to things as easily or take notes the way I would have liked.
Allen talks about using eLearning to address different learning needs. eLearning can be differentiated for each learner. This is something I've seen when I've used eLearning in K-12 education. I've spent most of my time there working in special education and language learning. This is something that has really improved student outcomes in my experience. It's nice to see this addressed in the book.
Allen challenges some conventional wisdom about feedback. He points out that immediate judgmental feedback isn't always the best practice. It takes away the valuable cognitive exercise of learners reflecting on and evaluating their own work. It identifies errors before learners can recognize for themselves how an early mistake causes problems down the line. And it can teach learners to take shortcuts that hurt their learning. Instead of thinking carefully before acting or making a decision, they learn they can give random responses just to get immediate guidance.
Allen also questions what the real goal of training should be. He notes that our work is all about getting learners to a point of competency. At least that's how we see it. But maybe that's not really the end point. Perhaps just as important as getting learners to competency is getting them to performer confidence and even feeling joy at performing their skill well.
The book introduces the 3 Ms: Meaningful, Memorable, and Motivational. Allen is clear that boring instruction is never effective instruction. He also points out that posttests aren't accurate assessments of learning, only of short term memory. Assessments where on the job observations are made are much more meaningful.
One point Allen makes that I found valuable is about increased effort leading to decreased objectivity for those who create eLearning. That's something to watch out for when you're deep in developing content.
The examples in the book skew toward corporate learning and higher education. As someone working in K-12, I could still find things to adapt, but it required some extra thinking on my part to translate concepts to my context.
This works for training and development professionals in corporate settings, instructional designers working in higher education, K-12 educators willing to do some translation work, anyone designing eLearning programs, and people interested in how AI is changing learning design. If you need content that's specifically tailored to K-12 from the start or you prefer books that don't require a supplemental PDF to get the full experience, this might not be the best fit.
Thorough look at modern eLearning design from someone with decades of experience in the field.
"The most expensive training is training that doesn't work."
Thank you to NetGalley, Michael W. Allen, and Brilliance Publishing for this advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Michael W. Allen's Rethinking eLearning: What Works. What Doesn't. What's Missing. looks at instructional design principles from the past 50 years and updates them for today. Allen is described as the grandfather of eLearning. He has over 55 years of experience in teaching, developing, and marketing interactive learning systems. The book explores what works, what doesn't, and what's missing in eLearning design.
I've worked in both training and development for a Fortune 500 company and within the K-12 education system. This book was very interesting to me given that background.
David de Vries narrates the audiobook. He does it with a good tone. Sounds great. Easy to listen to. I sped it up because it ran a little slow for me, but that's personal preference. The narration itself is solid.
I was given a supplemental PDF to go along with the audiobook. That was helpful. It expanded the learning and engagement for me while working through this material.
At the start, the book does a lot of explaining about what different types of eLearning are. It covers more traditional approaches and works its way through gamifying learning and using AI to assist in the process. AI is such a hot button issue right now. I feel like that's one of the biggest reasons this book was written at this time. The timing makes sense.
The book pushes us to create meaningful engagement for those we design learning for. Boosting motivation is how we improve how people engage with eLearning. Allen says that since a motivated learner will find a way to learn with or without our help, amplifying motivation should often be our number one task. That resonated with me.
There is a lot of information in this book. I think it would have been easier to interact with it in a more meaningful way if I had both a print copy and the audio. Having just the audio meant I couldn't reference back to things as easily or take notes the way I would have liked.
Allen talks about using eLearning to address different learning needs. eLearning can be differentiated for each learner. This is something I've seen when I've used eLearning in K-12 education. I've spent most of my time there working in special education and language learning. This is something that has really improved student outcomes in my experience. It's nice to see this addressed in the book.
Allen challenges some conventional wisdom about feedback. He points out that immediate judgmental feedback isn't always the best practice. It takes away the valuable cognitive exercise of learners reflecting on and evaluating their own work. It identifies errors before learners can recognize for themselves how an early mistake causes problems down the line. And it can teach learners to take shortcuts that hurt their learning. Instead of thinking carefully before acting or making a decision, they learn they can give random responses just to get immediate guidance.
Allen also questions what the real goal of training should be. He notes that our work is all about getting learners to a point of competency. At least that's how we see it. But maybe that's not really the end point. Perhaps just as important as getting learners to competency is getting them to performer confidence and even feeling joy at performing their skill well.
The book introduces the 3 Ms: Meaningful, Memorable, and Motivational. Allen is clear that boring instruction is never effective instruction. He also points out that posttests aren't accurate assessments of learning, only of short term memory. Assessments where on the job observations are made are much more meaningful.
One point Allen makes that I found valuable is about increased effort leading to decreased objectivity for those who create eLearning. That's something to watch out for when you're deep in developing content.
The examples in the book skew toward corporate learning and higher education. As someone working in K-12, I could still find things to adapt, but it required some extra thinking on my part to translate concepts to my context.
This works for training and development professionals in corporate settings, instructional designers working in higher education, K-12 educators willing to do some translation work, anyone designing eLearning programs, and people interested in how AI is changing learning design. If you need content that's specifically tailored to K-12 from the start or you prefer books that don't require a supplemental PDF to get the full experience, this might not be the best fit.
Thorough look at modern eLearning design from someone with decades of experience in the field.
Displaying 1 of 1 review