ThoughtLab: From Topics to Transfer — Using Big Ideas and Essential Questions in Training Design
Training design often suffers from topic chaos and scope creep. Without clear focus, every stakeholder adds their own must-have content, and the training ends up trying to cover everything without much of it sticking. This workshop introduces two tools from Stage 1 of Backward Design/Understanding by Design (UbD) that help L&D practitioners cut through the noise: Big Ideas and Essential Questions. Participants work through their own training challenge using both tools, and leave with a Big Idea and a set of Essential Questions ready to apply.
🎁 KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Understand the difference between a Big Idea and a learning objective and why it changes what you design.
Craft a Big Idea grounded in UbD principles: transferable, deep, and meaningful.
Translate a Big Idea into Essential Questions that drive design decisions — from content selection to activity and assessment design.
Before the session, spend five minutes on these. You'll use your answers directly in the workshop.Pick one training you're currently designing, revising, or dreading. What's it officially about, in one sentence?
What's currently on the "must include" list for that training — and who put it there?
If people forgot everything else about this training a month later, what's the one thing you'd want them to still walk away with?
🗣 HOST BIO
Teresa Moreno is a Learning Experience Designer based in Germany. Her expertise combines learning experience design, storytelling, and design thinking to translate complex content into learning formats that actually work.