Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First, let me say that I enjoyed Michael Allen's first eLearning book. It had solid content. My only beef with it was that there weren't enough chapter breaks and that made it tougher to read (some chapters went on for 70 or so pages). That is certainly not the case with this book; many of the chapters are 5-10 pages in length, which to me, feels too short, almost like a bathroom reader. This book is all about white space.
This new book is mostly just a rehash of the first half of Allen's last book. It only contains 180 pages of actual text before you reach the indexes etc. so for $25+ one would assume their would be a lot of content packed into those precious few pages, right? Alas, instead the author uses oversized type, wide line spacing, and 2 inch margins on the outer edges.
The text is in a two column format
and with so little page space
actually being alotted for it,
each line is only about 35 or
so characters long. This makes
the whole book hard to read
because your eyes are always
having to dip down to the next
line after only a few words
(you would think an elearning
designer would take text line
length a little more seriously).
I noticed that the next book in
this series does the same thing.
Back to the content, very little new information is presented that could not be found in Allen's previous book. Yes, this one does give a few extra pages on each topic covered, but that is about it. Most of the additional information if fluff. I liked the examples of elearning given in Allen's previous book. None are included here, just a fictitous story about a fictitous company trying to implement elearning. A story that is neither engaging, nor insightful (fluff).
I gave this book a 2 star rating only because if you haven't read the first book, it does have some useful information and interesting insights into elearning development...but like I said, it is mainly just rehash.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Michael Allen's E-Learning Library: Creating Successful E-Learning : A Rapid System For Getting It Right First Time, Every Time (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals)
