Lead
Whether you need a single webinar, a weeklong in-person training, or a multi-month program overhaul—from goal setting through strategy, change management, implementation, and assessment—So Much This can help lead the way.
A small atelier for large learning questions
So Much This is…me,
Jay Bachhuber.
I’m an educator who has been designing, researching, and leading educational programs since 2008.
My work is informed by diverse personal and professional experiences, cross-pollinating solutions from disparate fields. From adults to children, K–12 to corporate, trade schools to graduate schools, whether your audience needs to learn content, concepts, or skills, I can help.
More →OPERATING PRINCIPLE / 01
Whole Mind
Learning
Thinking does not happen in the brain alone.
It emerges from the interactions of bodies, feelings, images, tools, spaces, language, and other people. No two learners perceive, interpret, and respond to the world identically.
Whole Mind Learning is my synthesis of work across embodied and extended cognition, neuroscience, psychology, multiple intelligences, creativity, and human communication. While my understanding of how these theories do and don’t integrate is continually evolving, I know from experience that effective learning interventions engage the whole person with the wider system.
02 / SERVICES
Six big buckets
THE WORK I CAN DO FOR YOU
Research
Focus groups, U/X interviewing, usability studies, survey design, and outcome assessment for children through adults. Whether quick formative work or a deep investigation, findings will be jargon-free and easy to act on.
Design
There is no such thing as one size fits all in learning design. I start with the Who? and the Why? From there, the solution might be digital, analog, live, asynchronous, or any combination. Co-creation is the key word.
Develop
From rapidly iterated research prototypes to complete online courses, LMS setup, and print materials, So Much This can make it. Solutions are delivered with long-term use in mind. Everything should be built to iterate.
Deliver
Without thoughtful execution, attention to learners in the moment, and the ability to adapt on the fly, the best designs and most innovative tools do not work. Expertise includes facilitation, lecture, and train-the-trainer delivery.
Evaluate
Each project has a different need and ability to invest in evaluation, but there is always a way to tell if we are on the right track. The right-size solution can always be found, with a clear idea of where to head next.
OPERATING PRINCIPLE / 02
High Quality
Chaos
Chaos in moderation is the friend of learning, not its enemy.
Education design is often a process of drawing helpful lines. We connect and divide subject matter, place activities in specific sequences, and align desired outcomes with rational processes. We want predictable learner behaviors and predictable, measurable learning results.
From designing educational games, I learned that lively, engaging systems have the minimum number of constraints needed to produce constructive emergence. That emergence is somewhat chaotic, but if the system is well-designed, High Quality Chaos is what differentiates a formulaic, forgettable mandatory training from a learning experience that changes people for the better.
Create the conditions for happy accidents.Make the most of them when they arrive.
03 / PORTFOLIO
Work, broadly defined.
Paid work, passion projects, volunteer efforts, art, and adventures.
Hover, focus, or tap to see the story behind the picture.
01
The Cost of Alignment
Story · Systems · Economics
02
Loud Unheard Voices
In Person · Print
03
Document Cameras
Web
04
Quarterly Updates
Print · Web
05
New Resident Orientation
In Person · Orientations
06
Provider Personas
In Person · Print
07
This Is NOT Epic
Art Shows · In Person
08
Climbing
Field Notes · Recently Added
09
Motorcycles
Field Notes · Recently Added
OPERATING PRINCIPLE / 03
Hard work should be joyful.
Microlearning and edutainment have their places. Games can help groups cohere and individuals be more vulnerable. Shared discomfort, marathon efforts, and brain-cramping intellectual effort, however, can create an emotional charge that powerfully affects learning and personal development.
Challenging oneself is key to a good life, and in all my learning design, there’s a strand designed to help others taste that particular satisfaction.
04 / IDEAS
IDEAS / NOTES / WORK IN PROCESS
Everything is
in process.
I believe that process is everything, and everything is in process. In that spirit, I’ll be posting thoughts here that are still a bit raw. These will primarily be on nature, education, technology, the future, and the nature of educational technology in the future. I expect to be wrong consistently—at times, embarrassingly so.
Explore Ideas