The end of the year is a natural time to review my stats to see what you all found most useful. My posts on AI images, especially getting consistent characters and styles, were very popular this year—more popular than any of my content about scenarios. The views on my website reflect a fair amount of search engine traffic though, so sometimes what’s most viewed on my site isn’t the same as what’s most popular with my subscribers or on LinkedIn. Beyond AI images, the posts that attracted the most views are the ones with immediate practical use: time estimates and portfolios.
Top 10 most viewed posts of 2025
Listed with newest posts first. AI Images with Consistent Style in Midjourney was my most popular post, viewed over 10,000 times in 2025. Time Estimates for Elearning Development was the next most viewed with over 7500 views. While it’s not technically a post, the page with my full collection of Storytelling and Scenarios for Learning posts was viewed over 3,500 times.
Instructional Design Portfolio Resources
A collection of resources and tools for creating your instructional design or elearning portfolio: what to include, tools, hosting, and more.
50+ Instructional Design and Elearning Books: 2025 Update
50+ book recommendations on instructional design, eLearning, learning and psychology research, gamification, visual design, and more
Time Tracking Template for Instructional Design
Use this time tracking template to record how long you spend on instructional design tasks to improve future estimates.
Time Estimates for Elearning Development
“How long will it take to create this elearning?” It’s important to estimate the effort and time required for different tasks.
Generating Consistent Characters in the Midjourney Web Interface
Follow this process for generating consistent characters in the Midjourney web interface. Get tips for better results.
7 Useful Prompts for Instructional Designers
These 7 useful prompts will make your work easier. Alt text, captions, image style, image ideas, explain code, brainstorm, rewrite.
AI Image to Video Experiments with Hedra
Hedra uses AI to generate videos of people talking from static images. This has possibilities for scenarios and training.
AI Images with Consistent Style in Midjourney
Learn how to generate images with a consistent style in Midjourney using the –sref attribute and a style reference.
Create Consistent Character Images in Midjourney
You can create consistent character images in different poses using Midjourney. Learn the process and how to prompt for these images.
30+ Ideas for eLearning Portfolio Samples
Need more samples in your portfolio? Use this list of 30+ elearning portfolio sample ideas for inspiration.
I reached 20,000 followers on LinkedIn this year, which was one of my goals for 2025. I got an AI-generated summary of my LinkedIn activity.
LinkedIn stats
- 430,608 impressions (up from 411k in 2024)
- 14,296 engagements (up from 9k in 2024)
- 7,560 reactions
- 1,518 comments
- 102 reposts
- 2,559 saves
- 147 sends on LinkedIn
The posts that generated the most engagement and views on LinkedIn loosely correlates with the ones most viewed on my blog. However, there are some notable exceptions.
The post quoted in my LinkedIn Rewind above, “Changing just a few words in your prompt can generate significant variety in your AI image styles,” got over 26k impressions, 520 reactions, and 47 comments on LinkedIn in just 3 months. However, the actual blog post Get More Variety in AI Image Styles was viewed less than 400 times. People obviously loved the image on LinkedIn, but I guess the blog post title didn’t hook people. I also put the link to that blog post in the comments. I wonder if people didn’t see the link? I’ll do more testing on LinkedIn in 2026.
I also post things on LinkedIn that I don’t share on my blog, some of which also generate a lot of impressions and engagement. Lots of people enjoyed my post complaining about this Likert scale on a survey (90 reactions and 47 comments).
Real or AI images
I got good engagement on LinkedIn from having people guess which image is real or AI. These were fun, and it’s a good challenge for me to generate very realistic AI images. People aren’t nearly as good at detecting AI images as they think they are! If you missed these, try it yourself and see if you can determine which image is AI. I plan to create more of these in 2026.
View the discussion and answers for image comparison 1.
View the discussion and answers for image comparison 2.
Looking ahead to 2026
My goals for my blog and social media are fairly similar to my goals for 2025.
- Post on my blog every week on Tuesday
- Update 10-15 old posts that need refreshing
- Share my blog posts on LinkedIn (usually Tuesday or Wednesday)
- Post at least one other post each week on LinkedIn (promo an upcoming event, share a useful resource or tool, AI or real images, etc.)
- Participate in the instructional design reddit (but I need to watch my time on reddit; that can be a time suck)
I’m going to give several webinars with Training Mag Network; I already have 2 scheduled. I have a few podcasts booked, but I want to find a few more of those as well. I’ll probably speak at a few other online events for TLDC or other organizations too.
I’m going to be attending the Training 2026 conference in Orlando. I’m planning to submit for DevLearn again too. I once again didn’t get accepted for the TICE conference, which is disappointing since it’s local and would be easy to attend. But two conferences a year is a reasonable amount of travel for me at this stage of my life.
What would you like to see in 2026?
What would you like to see me write about in 2026? Do you want more on AI images, scenarios, general instructional design topics, or something else? I get lots of great ideas from readers like you, so share your questions and suggestions in the comments.
Upcoming events
Instructional Design Uncovered: A Community Conversation with Instructional Designers. September 10. ATD Research Triangle Area
Creating High-Quality AI Media: Prompting, Scripts, and Consistency. October 8. Register for the ATD AI Intensive.
Creative Solutions with Twine: Design, Streamline, and Refine Branching Scenarios. October 14. ATD Dallas Learning Technology SIG
DevLearn
Register for DevLearn by October 2 for the Advanced Rate. Save an extra $100 with code CHRISTY.
Branch Smarter, Not Harder: Naming Conventions, Variables, and Bottlenecks in Storyline
- November 3, 2026 at 9:20 AM
- CE01: Storyline & Rise Pro Lab
Cohesive by Design: Generate Consistent AI Icons, Illustrations & Characters
- November 4, 2026 at 10:00 AM
- BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
Buzz Discussion: Video & Media
- November 4, 2026 at 3:45 PM