Communicating for Business

E-Learning - Snagged on the Saw Tooth

2011-11-20T10:49:00.002-05:00

At this week’s meeting of the Atlanta chapter of ISPI, students from the University of Georgia demonstrated various tools relevant to e-learning. While introducing the session, Gregory Clinton (one of their professors in the Department of Educational. Psychology & Instructional Technology) showed a sawtooth diagram that elegantly summarized the history of e-learning authoring tools:

Clinton reviewed the early days of e-learning, when Authorware emerged as the tool of choice. It got more and more capable and powerful, then suddenly: disruption. The Internet bloomed and abruptly e-learning had to go online. Delivering applications within web browsers over slow connections radically changed the authoring tool landscape and limited the capabilities of what authors could build.

Over the next 15 years of course the situation gradually improved: wider bandwidth, more capable browsers, plenty of interactivity. The new king of e-learning was Flash. The SWF format enjoyed almost universal support and was the output type for all the leading tools.

But now we are in the midst of another dip, and e-learning creators are again snagged on the tooth of the saw. Flash for all its enormous virtues was never efficient on mobile devices, and two weeks ago, Adobe gave up trying to make it work.

On hearing the news, I visited the Flash and Captivate sites and looked into the patchwork solutions Adobe has been working on to export from these authoring tools to HTML5. Judging by the community reactions, the results have been underwhelming, to say the least. Meantime, Articulate seemed to be in denial; their site having no mention whatsoever of plans for exporting to anything but SWF.

Of course, we are early in the process. Eventually, the tool makers will catch up and robust interactive e-learning will get easier and easier to produce on IOS and the other mobile platforms. Things will be great again...For a while...Until we hit the next tooth of the saw.

What do you think? What tools and methods will emerge to deliver robust e-learning on mobile devices?

Top 3 things I learned at ASTD ICE 2011

2011-05-28T10:11:00.002-04:00

This week I attended the ASTD International Conference & Expo in Orlando. My first ICE, and I experienced many great sessions and product demos. Here’s what’s stuck at top of my mind:

1. Daniel Bilton and Cary Harr from Booz Allen Hamilton compared and contrasted research on the effectiveness of e-learning techniques to a survey of opinions by practitioners. The research—on topics such as voice-over narration vs. text display, and visual vs. non-visual presentation of concepts—often contradicted the survey results. My main takeaways are that the research findings are often contradictory, and diving deeper into the studies suggests that the effectiveness of techniques may vary greatly by audience and the type of subject matter being taught. In other words, beware of blanket statements.

The opinion survey is still open and you can complete it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/effective-elearning

2. The Herrmann Brain-Dominance Instrument® presented by Ann Herrmann-Nehdi. While Ruth Clark’s latest book debunks the concept of visual vs. auditory learning styles, Herrmann International has built a holistic system of learning styles based on neurological research. I don’t know enough to judge the validity of all the research, but I did find the system comprehensive and compelling. More importantly, it is designed to be useful to practitioners.

The system postulates four learning "brain types," and shows mixtures of the types aligned to different occupations. It also provides learning strategies that work and don’t work well for each quadrant. Excellent material and a great presentation.

3, ZebraZapps from Allen Interactions. I heard about this tool after last year’s ICE conference, but had not yet seen it in action. It is a cloud-based, point-and-click application for designing and developing interactive Flash modules. Flash developers know that you can do just about anything in Flash, IF you can write ActionScript. The point of ZebraZapps is to make ActionScript interactivity functions available in a WYSIWIG interface. Extremely powerful and fun. And maybe a game changer for advanced e-learning authoring. I can’t wait to get my hands on the tool start playing.

A Poem for Evidenced-Based Training

2011-03-21T10:52:00.001-04:00

I am thoroughly enjoying Ruth Clark’s Evidence Based Training Methods: A Guide for Training Professionals. Not only does it provide practical advice for instructional design that is actually based on research, but Clark’s writing is quick and easy to read and her recommendations clear and memorable.

This is partly because Clark adeptly practices what she preaches. The book itself is a superior “learning environment,” using key techniques recommended by the research: informational graphics, stories and examples, “organizing” questions to spark engagement.

One of my favorite insights comes early in the book: the knowledge that short-term memory consists of both visual and audio centers leads to the concept of “dual channels” for learning delivery:

When you read a concrete word such as flower, you are more likely to process it in two ways, as phonetic data and also as the image that your mind forms when reading the word. In contrast, a word such as moral is not as easy to visualize, and in many cases you encode it only in a phonetic format. Concrete words that can be encoded in two ways have a greater probability of being stored in memory. (page 31, paperback edition).

Every poet and copywriter knows that concrete words are stronger and “stickier” than abstract words, but now at last we have the brain science to explain why!

So here’s a little poem I wrote in praise of Clark’s insight. It might help you remember the idea of dual channels:

Abstract’s Less Durable than Concrete
Elephants are bigger than enormous,
A pear more memorable than appear.
Names of things are sounds and pictures:
Pointed’s less pointed than a spear.

A comforter is warmer than comfort,
Compared to being, a bee has more sting;
Any one star is clearer than brightness:
Ideas vanish faster than things.

Even pain is less painful than a punch in the nose,
And the rarest beauty holds no candle to a rose.

To Script or Not to Script: Should You Write Instructor Guides?

2011-03-06T15:02:00.001-05:00

When you create instructor-led training (ILT), what kind of script or notes or other information do you provide for the instructor?

In the dim, dim past
Many, many years ago, when I first developed training for technology products, the practice at the company where I worked was to create a "student guide" and an "instructor guide."

The student guide contained the course content (concepts, procedures, exercises) and was meant to be used in class and taken home as a reference.
The instructor guide included all of the above, plus an almost verbatim script for teaching the class.

In recent times
Over the past couple of decades, I’ve not come across any cases where instructional designers created full-blown instructor guides with scripts. I assumed this was because these scripts take a LOT of time and were always of dubious value. When I audited my classes back in the old, old days, the instructors generally ignored the script and taught the way they wanted to teach.

Also, since PowerPoint became the master tool for ILT delivery, the prevalent practice I’ve seen is for the designer to produce a PowerPoint, with any notes or facilitator cues in the Speaker Notes.

Much to my surprise
So I was caught off-guard recently when a new client told me they really, really believed they needed an instructor guide with a step by step script for delivering the course. I told them I would research the problem. The results were not what I expected.

I posted the question to mailing list of the Society for Technical Communication Instructional Design SIG, and to the Instructional Design and E-Learning Professionals group on LinkedIn.

Much to my surprise, roughly half of the 15 respondents are producing some form of facilitator or instructor guide--though only a couple mentioned doing verbatim scripts. Still, a robust instructor guide, as opposed to simple notes and cues in PowerPoint, appears to be much more prevalent than I had imagined.

Some Findings

Instructor aids, when not a full script, included tips and tricks, answers to common questions, preparation and materials needed (and, of course, answers to assessment questions)
Detailed instructor guides are more prevalent in larger organizations and in situations with many different instructors, with lots of variance in their subject knowledge and facilitation skills.
They are also common and useful for train-the-trainer programs
Instructor guides are helpful in classes where the instructor leaves the PowerPoint to show software steps. Notes in the PowerPoint are less handy in these situations.

A useful design
Having reviewed this information, I was able recommend a 3-column format for an abbreviated instructor guide that I think will answer the client’s needs.

Column 1, Media, has a screen images of the PowerPoint, or of the software application being demonstrated.
Column 2, Speaking Points, contains talking points for the slides, or step-by-step instructions for the software demonstration. Not a verbatim script, but a summary of what to say and do.
Column 3, Notes, has additional recommendations and tips, including how to handle conditional situations and answers to questions that might come up.

My thanks to everyone who took the time to share their comments on the STC list-serv and Linked in. In particular, I am indebted to Kim Kahat of Better Business Writing, Inc, for sharing her facilitator guide design, which I adapted for my client.

Social Learning : Sacred Cow or Golden Calf?

2011-02-01T20:04:00.000-05:00

I saw a question on LinkedIn recently asking people to list sacred cows in the Learning Industry. They rounded up the usual suspects: ADDIE, Instructor Led Training, the LMS.

What leapt to my mind may shock you. At least it seems contrarian: Top sacred cow in the learning industry? How about social learning?

Now I admit social media has great mojo for marketing a business. And there are case studies galore to prove that that works.

But social learning?

Maybe I’m just a luddite.

Oh, I’ve seen the slideshows and YouTube videos. "Social media is transforming the world!" "More people on FaceBook than in all of South America." "More tweets in an hour than there are stars in the galaxy!" Whatever.

Seriously, I know there is untapped potential for using social-media type tools for sharing information. And, yes, there may be some organizations out there using them effectively and measurably for learning.

But not many. From what I’ve seen, for every effective learning portal, there are ten abandoned wikis. For every proven success, dozens of non-starters.

And when 80% of the presentation topics I see listed these days seem to be about social learning, I sense a bit of a lemming mentality. “If we don’t use these platforms NOW to transform our learning organizations, we’ll soon be left behind!”

Color me dubious.

Certainly, none of my customers are clamoring for social learning. They want the same old sacred cows, instructor-led classes, WebEx sessions, e-learning. In other words, they want directed learning with structured content. They’re not expecting their people to train each other on technical skills or compliance standards by tweeting.

Maybe my clients’ are all luddites too?

I was amused the other day to read a consultant’s blog post touting Social Learning for Business. The man makes what seems a very compelling case in ten bullet points. Then I checked the services page of his web site. What is he selling? Instructor-led workshops.

If social learning isn’t a sacred cow, maybe it’s a golden calf. Look how shiny! Everyone is worshipping with irrational fervor. I think with a little discrimation we might see that 1) We've made this idol ourselves and 2) We’re honestly not really sure of it’s value.

Maybe I’m wrong and all those other consultants are right. What do you think?

Learning and Unlearning

2011-01-28T08:32:00.001-05:00

Learning is fun, unlearning not so much.

I learned to build web sites starting in 1995 using HTML coded by hand. I learned to lay out pages using tables, with columns and rows laboriously defined by tags.

table tr td /td td /td etc. etc.

Today I have Dreamweaver CS5 on my computer, with a wealth of tools and whistles I haven’t yet learned to use. To learn to build a site with today’s Dreamweaver, I have to first unlearn my old ways of doing things.

We often hear about the challenges of continuous workplace learning, but sometimes the toughest part is the unlearning.

Learning is not so tough; unlearning, that’s a different story.

Maybe unlearning can be accomplished using the same techniques that work so effectively to encourage learning:

Motivation. Engage myself by thinking about the benefits. I can create pages must faster and easier once I learn Dreamweaver. My pages will be coded to modern standards, not dinosaur pages from the 90s.
Clear Objectives. State a goal that is easily measured. I will build one new page by the end of the month.
Chunking. Start with a Dreamweaver template. Deconstruct it a little as a time.
Practice. I’ll work on a real project with real deadlines and benefits. Nothing spurs learning like urgency.

Learning is fun. Unlearning just another form of learning.

"Serious Creativity" for Business

2010-08-14T11:24:00.001-04:00

One of the benefits of cleaning out my office is coming across business books that I've not looked at in a while, and reconsidering ones I've not read or fully used. I first purchased Serious Creativity by Edward De Bono around the time it came out in 1993. I gave it a perusal, but soon put it on the shelf. Interesting, but deep, and not easily applied. No quick solutions there.

Seventeen years later, I picked it up again and decided to read it through. Initial impression confirmed: This is not a book you can get a few ideas from and apply them in your business life.

The ideas are compelling though. They to amount to a comprehensive strategy for finding and applying creative solutions to business problems.

Lateral Thinking

De Bono is obviously a brilliant man, an international leader in applying creative thinking to business. In the U.S, he is perhaps best known the Six Thinking Hats concept, but this is just one of the techniques he explains in Serious Creativity.

His premise is that creativity is a form of thinking—he calls it "lateral thinking"—and is a definite skill that can be learned. Using insights from computer science and neural science, he explains lateral thinking as a simple biological process.

In normal thinking, the brain literally follows established pathways, the neural connections that it has made in a lifetime of learning to deal with its environment. Normal thinking is perfect for solving problems in an established way.

But if we need creative solutions, we need a different kind of thinking, a departure from the conventional patterns. Lateral thinking jumps off the main track, to the end-point of some side-track. From this point we see our way back to the starting place. This results in a new path for thinking, a creative solution.

Adapted from Edward De Bono, Serious Creativity, ©1992 by The McQuaig Group, Inc.

This is also why inventions and other creative ideas often seem obvious in retrospect. Once the new track is established, it's plain to see how it's connected to the original problem or state.

Punchlines

De Bono cites humor as one familiar example of lateral thinking. In a typical joke, the narrative leads the mind along a linear track. Then the punchline makes the leap to the alternate end-point. The joke only makes sense because we immediately grasp the logical connection of this end-point to the starting place.

"I'm not saying that the customer service in my bank is bad, but when I went in the other day and asked the teller to check my balance, she leaned over and pushed me."

Working the techniques

After explaining the concepts of lateral thinking, De Bono provides a whole collection of techniques to encourage creative jumps and then to evaluate the ideas that result, all from a business perspective.

To benefit from these techniques, you have to learn and practice them. Since reading the book, I've worked intermittently on just a few of the techniques and have only scratched the surface of getting results. As I said: No quick fixes here.

Provocation

One of the most powerful and interesting techniques is the one De Bono calls provocation. Using the code word "po" as a neural trigger, you state something completely contrary to the current state of affairs or the usual way of doing things. This causes the lateral jump, and you then examine the possible ramifications.

Po, cars have square wheels.

This example led to a moment-to-moment visualizing of the effect of a car with square wheels, which in turn led to the concept of a new kind of suspension system to handle rough terrain.

Po, restaurants do not have menus

Imagine a restaurant where the customers select from a list of fresh ingredients and are then surprised by what the chef prepares. Might be a winning concept.

What's in it for you?

Most of us are looking for creative solutions these days, as the world unmakes and remakes itself. I recommend you look up De Bono's work and see if you find it helpful in generating new ideas for your job or business.

If you are in the workplace learning field, for example, here are a couple of pos that you might be faced with any day now:

Po, your next training class will last only 10 minutes

Po, people can view your e-learning courses only on their smart phones

How I Know What They Know and Don't Know

2010-04-23T10:29:00.004-04:00

On the value of a Liberal Arts Education in Business

A recent NY Times article describes what might be the "Next Big Thing" in literary studies. Basically, it is the intersection of literature and cognitive science: how our brains work when reading complex texts and what we gain from the process.

To illustrate this approach, one professor quotes a story line from an episode of the TV comedy Friends.

Phoebe and Rachel plot to play a joke on Monica and Chandler after they learn the two are secretly dating. The couple discover the prank and try to turn the tables, but Phoebe realizes this turnabout and once again tries to outwit them. As Phoebe tells Rachel, “They don’t know that we know they know we know.”

The article goes on to describe this "layered process of figuring out what someone else is thinking" as one topic of study in this new conjunction between brain science and the Humanities.

All of this reminded me of something I've often thought about my own academic background (a BA in Humanities and a Masters in English/Creative Writing). While it might not seem obvious, I've come to believe these studies prepared me brilliantly for a career in business.

Whether I am writing user instructions, designing a web site, or creating an e-learning course, I constantly need to be aware of my audience's level of knowledge and point of view:

How much does a reader know before they start reading?

What do they understand at any given point in a process?

What percent of the audience already knows some piece of information and what percent needs to be told?

If you are a marketer, a technical writer, an information architect, or a learning designer, understanding your audience is critical. This critical understanding is gained through various techniques: background reading, interviews, focus groups, observations in the workplace, group discussion of observed data. At a university, students are drilled in these techniques in Humanities and Social Science classes. In other words, in Liberal Arts studies.

In my case, I have no doubt that all the hours I spent in seminars discussing 20th Century novels gave me rigorous training in adopting, understanding and appreciating multiple points of view.

In business, whether you are a marketer, an analyst, a writer, or designer, you serve as a communicator between one set of minds and another. To be effective, you have to grasp what those multiple minds understand, think, and believe.

In other words, you have to know what others know and don't know.

Host Behavior

2009-11-12T09:43:00.001-05:00

Being a strongly introverted personality, I have a hard time with networking events, no matter how much I practice them. And I've been practicing for over twenty years.

Now since I'm not only a consultant, but my specialty is communication, you might think this is a drawback. And it is. So I do my best to minimize the deficiency by pouring mental energy into networking events and by using "technique" to make up what I lack in natural ability.

One of the best techniques for me is one I learned from the classic book on this subject, How to Work a Room by Susan Roane. If you're alone in a room and not sure who to talk to or how to approach them, look for the people who are standing on the edge and alone. Roane calls them the "white knuckle drinkers." As she points out, these people are usually not "losers", but they may be shy. In any case, they are usually very approachable and extremely grateful when you take the initiative to break the ice.

I call this technique host behavior. Instead of acting like a lost guest at the party where I don't know anyone, I assume the role of host, whose job it is to everyone else comfortable. It's amazing how taking the focus off myself makes it easier to connect with people.

Recently I was at a large event and, after the first few conversations with people I knew, I had that sinking feeling of being alone and not sure what to do next. I fought down the impulse to go hide in the men's room and instead spotted an outlier on the edge of the crowd. I walked up to him, smiled and said hello. I asked him what he thought of the event and what he was looking to accomplish there.

Not only was this guy emphatically not a loser, he turned out to be the learning director for a mid-size company--for me a valuable contact and even a potential future client. At the end of the conversation, I didn't even have to ask for his card. He just reached into his pocket and handed it to me. You just can't network much better than that.

Host behavior: a perfect tool for the networking introvert!

Delivering a presentation over the Web? Don't show me your dog.

2009-09-13T10:54:00.002-04:00

It seems to have become a trend among business presenters to "personalize" their content.

Perhaps you've noticed it: before delving into the details of a product demo or company overview, a speaker will introduce himself to a new audience with a mini bio. We learn about his history with the company and where he went to school. We're informed which sports teams he follows and that he enjoys golf. We're shown pictures of his family and pets.

I first noticed this technique a couple of years back at a one-day e-learning conference. We learned that a college professor grew up in India and still commuted there regularly to see her family. The CEO of a small e-learning firm had always loved the Beatles. These personal touches had their intended effect: the audience got to know the speakers as people. Rapport was established, and we were perhaps a bit more open to the message.

But recently I saw this technique backfire big time.

I sat in a large conference room while the professional services rep of a database vendor presented the details of the company's latest upgrade. It was a virtual presentation: his slides were shown on the screen while he spoke to us remotely. While introducing himself, he showed pictures of his wife and kids, then his dog. Around the table people shifted uncomfortably; you could almost hear the groans.

So why did the personalized presentation work well in one meeting and fizzle badly in the other? Part of it may have been the venue. At the e-learning conference we were being given free knowledge (and free breakfast). We were there of our own volition and eager to learn. At the database presentation, the audience was existing customers who already had issues with the vendor's offering. They were predisposed to be guarded.

But I think the bigger reason was the virtual nature of the second presentation.

At the conference, we could see and hear the college professor and CEO, notice their facial expressions and body language. Their physical presence made it easy to relate to them as people. In the vendor meeting on the other hand, we never met the speaker. He was a disembodied voice broadcast by the phone. So his attempts to ingratiate himself with personal pictures came across as false and off-putting.

The lesson for virtual presenters is simple: don't try for the personal touch when you're not in the room. Keep the focus on the audience and their concerns. When you need to invoke emotion (and yes, you still do) show pictures and tell stories that relate to the audience and their emotional needs.

Personalize by showing me what your message will mean to me as a person. Don't show me a picture of your dog.

Flash without Flash

2009-08-23T12:30:00.004-04:00

Last week I attended a webinar on Simplified E-Learning presented by Ray Jimenez. The title was Using Basic and Advance Reusable Flash Engines to Author Content. The key concept revolved around spicing up e-learning with interactive Flash pieces that are adaptable and reusable. A delightful idea.

I should say first that Ray Jimenez is a very smart man with plenty of good ideas. He teaches ways to design clear, simple e-learning and build it rapidly. He's also a great presenter and remarkably generous in sharing his ideas and his work. I recommend his books and webinars to anyone who needs to create effective e-learning within real-world business constraints.

Reusable Flash Components

The Flash projects Ray showed are "reusable engines," designed to separate coding from content. A Flash programmer creates a basic interactive page or game, with the e-learning subject matter read in from a text file. Instructional designers or authors with no Flash coding skills can edit the text file for different courses, hence reusing the engine.

The examples Ray showed are simple animated games. The learner answers quiz questions entered into the text file. If they answer correctly, a cartoon figures shoots a basket or sinks a putt. Ray's company also has a beta web site where you can customize some of the games through a web interface instead of a text file.

Extending the Concept

While I love the idea of reusing Flash components, I had some reservations about taking the free samples Ray showed and just plopping them into one of my courses.

For one thing, the arcade-game imagery bothered me.

I realize this particular aesthetic is in vogue and probably works great for a demographic raised on manga and anime. But if your e-learning course uses stock photos and has a formal, businesslike look and feel, splashing in a cartoon quiz is going to jar. Unfortunately, the imagery of the Flash games is a lot harder to customize than just the text of the quizzes.

My other qualm is with the apparatus of the quizzes themselves. While I like the way they jazz up the presentation, I have to wonder how much real learning value they bring to the equation.

The best uses of Flash in e-learning have some intrinsic relationship between the interactivity or animation and the learning content. But when a learner answers a multiple choice question and a golf ball drops in the cup or misses, the relationship between these two events is artificial. And I suspect it will seem so to my learners.

So I am on the lookout to extend the idea of reusable Flash pieces. I know there are many sources of free and low cost Flash components out there--Flashkit.com comes to mind. I'm going to look for components that allow me to customize the look and feel (with my intermediate Flash skills) and that I can adapt to have a more intrinsic relationship to my learning content.

If I succeed, well, that's an even more delightful idea!

Writing Quizzes That Work

2009-05-11T10:07:00.002-04:00

I'm currently writing compliance training for a company that owns power plants. Given how much I hate it when the power goes off, ensuring the security of the electric grid is a mission I can really get behind.

The training needs to include test questions that will be tracked in an LMS.

My problem with tests

Now, tests or quizzes always seem to me the weakest part of e-learning courses. If we can design engaging presentations of information, seductive games, and brilliant simulations, why cap it all off with bland-as-toast multiple choice and true/false questions. I always feel such activities bore and annoy, even insult adult learners.

But this is compliance training so there must be test questions!

A great solution

The solution I found from a little research is simply to create questions that relate to the learner's real world experience. Scenario questions!

Don't write questions that ask learners to recall and rehash the information you just served up.

Do write questions that ask them to apply that knowledge to real situations they are likely to face on the job.

Where I found the answer

Karl Kapp has an excellent blog post on just this topic. He points out that, in order for compliance training to change job behavior, it needs to present learners with the kinds of problems and decisions they are likely to face on the job. And then guide them how to proceed.

In E-Learning by Design ( a wonderful banquet of a book!) William Horton provides very similar advice. "Phrase your questions so that they resemble the kinds of decisions learners will have to make when applying the knowledge and skills you are teaching. Phrase questions so they re-create what would actually occur on a job." (p. 250).

Horton goes on to give this example of multiple choice questions:

No: What are the three methods of peer mediation identified by Professor Morty Cerebrum?

Yes: John, a co-worker, bursts into your office. He collapses into your guest chair and mutters, "I'm either going to quit or throw my simpering weasel of a boss out the window." How do you respond?

Notice too how much more emotionally involving the second question is. It not only presents a real-world problem, it makes you feel the problem really matters, because it's tied to a person who's very upset and needs immediate help.

That question has the power of a story, in less than 40 words.

Powerful stuff for learning!

Tips on Persuasive Writing

2009-03-15T10:30:00.003-04:00

I love articles that demystify business communication by providing a blueprint. Give me an outline that shows me how to structure an effective presentation or piece of writing, and I'll praise you for it. Present it in a simple, catchy, memorable way, and I might even blog about it.

So I really liked this blog post by Brian Clark at copyblogger.com, which I found on one of my LinkedIn groups. It's called The Four “P” Approach: A Persuasive Writing Structure That Works. Clark's outline for persuasive content includes four segments:

Promise - To grab attention and answer the all-important "What's in it for me?"
Picture - Create a vivid description of the benefits of your proposal, with emotional impact.
Proof - Use facts and data to convince.
Push - Deliver the offer and ask for your desired response.

I think this blueprint can be readily adapted to training. Learning professinals often face situations when we need to motivate learners and convince them of the learning's value to them. In fact, I've got one of those coming up, and I plan to give the Four P's a try.

So I say, "Good job, Brian Clark!"

Is ADDIE Dead?

2009-01-23T15:44:00.002-05:00

ADDIE in Theory

We all know ADDIE: the standard framework for corporate training development. In theory, it's a well-oiled, reliable machine: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. In theory.

ADDIE in Practice

In practice, from what I've observed, the complete ADDIE model is not often implemented. In particular, the Evaluation phase gets minimized or bumped in the rush to tackle the next problem. I tell my clients that ADDIE is an excellent framework, but its use must be weighed against business realities. What do you really have time and resources to do? Which parts of the process do we need to focus on to solve the problem? In his excellent book, Rapid Instructional Design (2000), George M. Piskurich seems to agree with this approach (at least as I read him.)

What About NOW?

But now, with all the buzz about social media, collaborative learning, and Millennials in the workplace (not to mention the economy), things are changing, more rapidly and profoundly than ever. One wonders how long ADDIE will survive, if it isn't already dead.

This week I attended an ISPI chapter meeting. The presenter was a learning manager for a large, international service organization. He described an impressive spectrum of technologies and delivery methods they use for employee training: WBT, SharePoint, EPSS, synchronous e-learning, podcasting, satellite video.

The VP of Learning for the same corporation was in the audience. During the discussion, he pointed out that for thirty years he'd been using instructional design. His method was to start with the Analysis phase of ADDIE, then come to a decision point: Was training needed, or would a job aid suffice? This methodology, he said, has served us well.

But now (he continued) we are seeing workers who have grown up using Instant Messaging. When they have a problem, their solution is to reach out to their network, ask for help or opinions, and find a solution by collaboration. They expect to do this on-demand, when they need it, and much faster than they could get an answer from a training course or a job aid.

What Comes Next?

So if ADDIE and the whole model of training development are on their way out, what will replace them? To what degree will social media become the norm for learning and problem solving on the job. And how can learning professionals best position themselves to facilitate these processes and continue to add value to their organizations.?

Guess I'll pose this question to my network....

Product Demos: Connecting With Your Audience

2008-12-07T10:29:00.004-05:00

This question was posed on one of my LinkedIn groups: How do you create and deliver effective product demos? Specifically, how do you connect your solutions and benefits to the needs of C-level and V-level buyers.

Good question. Here's what I recommended:

As with any audience, you need to understand where they are coming from on an emotional level. What are their pain points? Why are they so painful? Or, conversely, what are their dearest wishes? And what does your product or service do either to cure the pain or provide the emotional payoff behind the wish?

It can take some hard thinking to connect your offering to this emotional level, but assuming your offering is of real value to the buyer, the connection is there somewhere. You need to put yourself in the audience's head and keep asking the question: "Why should I care?"
Design your demos around one or more stories that concretely show how you cure the pain or provide the emotional payoff. If you have actual customer success stories you can use, so much the better. But cast these as a personal story. Describe the buyer and their problem. Imagine their joy and relief when the problem was solved. Then write the story and build your demo around it.

To make this more scientific, you might want to create several stories and test each one to see what gives the best results--the best connection and response from your audience.
As far as delivering the demo (and this assumes you are delivering it in person, not doing a webinar or building an on-demand demo), there is a good article in the November 2008 Harvard Business Review called "How to Become an Authentic Speaker." Takeaways: rather than practicing speaking tone and gestures, the speaker should practice being open to the audience and feeling passionate about the subject.

What do you think? What makes a demo work?

Best Practices for Synchronous E-Learning

2008-10-29T09:38:00.004-04:00

Here's another topic I've been researching for a client. They use primarily classroom delivery today, but are needing to move to a synchronous model using WebEx. They are a software company and this is primarily for product training for customers.

Here's what I've come up with so far.

Best practices for using tools such as WebEx are still evolving in the training industry. But experts and practitioners agree that (compared to classroom training) “live e-learning” demands different strategies and tactics to effectively engage learners and produce results.

Research shows that effective live e-learning sessions run no longer than 90 minutes maximum, with a one-hour maximum preferred.
Since instructors cannot gauge participant attention by facial expressions or body language, they should request feedback frequently. One guideline recommends requiring some participant interaction every 3 to 5 minutes.
Methods for making the virtual classroom interactive include:

· Use chat and polling functions (available in WebEx)

· Allow participants to take control of the session, for example to drive an application demo

· For practice exercises that are done between sessions, provide a simple web form for entering answers and submitting them to the instructor
The WebEx Training Center platform provides additional specialized tools, such as a whiteboard, breakout sessions and access to remote lab computers.

Now, all of these methods require that the curriculum design be modified for online delivery, and that instructors learn and practice the new delivery tools and techniques. Achieving the best results would be an iterative process.

My current recommendation to the client: The degree to which you need to investigate these best practices depends on the learning goals. If simply presenting the current curriculum via WebEx proves sufficient, that is certainly the easiest route. However, if this proves insufficient for effectively training customers, then these other approaches need to be explored.

Agree? Disagree? Other best practices to share?

The missing span - why user documentation often fails

2008-09-13T13:12:00.002-04:00

This week I attended a Technology Association of Georgia Product Management SIG meeting this week. John Mansour of ZigZag Marketing did a presentation about using documented requirements through all phases of the product development cycle. John is a product management expert, and his company has a comprehensive framework for analyzing market needs and responding with well-considered technology solutions.

One of the requirements phases in the framework is the User Phase, which, John noted, is often given inadequate coverage or even skipped entirely. In this stage you create user stories and extend them into detailed "what if" scenarios. All of these must be documented and validated in order to design usable interactions. The analysis yields detailed and tested Functional Specifications that can be handed off to Development.

The fact that few companies take the time for this level of user analysis explains why so many products either don't solve user problems (poor "usefulness") or fail because they're too hard to learn and use (poor "usability").

It also explains why user documentation often fails. Lacking adequate user scenarios, technical writers typically create their deliverables from specifications and beta interfaces. They document how a product works, but not why. They explain how to perform tasks in an interface, but not when a user might need to do those tasks. They describe user options in abstract or generic terms, but don't help the user decide which option to choose.

A client I'm working for now is a good example. The technical writer has done a very good job of explaining the components of the interface, but nothing about how they relate to users' real world business problems. The data is described as a developer might understand it, but not in terms of what users need to do with it. As a result, the user guide is essentially useless in teaching me what I need to know to create user training.

When I asked the subject matter expert about this, she said: "The user doc explains what's there but not why you'd use it. That's what the training has to get across."

When was the last time you learned a new software tool just by reading the user manual or help?

Another illustration: I remember hearing a quote from a manager responsible for a popular income tax software product. In regard to the product's help, she said "My problem is not teaching people how to use the software, it's teaching people how to think like accountants." In other words, the help needed to impart domain knowledge, to assist users in knowing which options they needed to choose.

For many years we've been hearing that user manuals and help are miserable, that they "don't really help people." I think this is the biggest reason why. I see real world examples and domain knowledge as the missing span in most user documentation.

So what's the fix? More on this in a later post.

Achieving Good Flow in Your Writing and Speaking

2008-09-02T11:11:00.001-04:00

To promote my coaching practice, I write occasional articles on general business communication issues. How to write effective emails, how to give good presentations, and so on. I whimsically call these "Thoth's Tips", after the Egyptian god of scribes and wisdom.

I've just posted a new Thoth's Tip on my website. The subject is how to achieve good flow in written and spoken communication. Flow may be a mysterious quality, but Thoth does have a few suggestions on how to make flow your friend.

Notes on Blended Learning - Part 2

2008-08-25T12:10:00.006-04:00

As noted in my previous post, when you design a training course to solve a business problem, you might consider three different delivery methods:

onsite, classroom training
instructor-led web-based training (aka "webinar" or "synchronous e-learning")
self-paced web-based training (aka "tutorial" or "asynchronous e-learning")

Or you might choose a combination of the three; that is, a blended learning approach.

First, here is my take on the pros and cons of the three methods:

Classroom

Pros

simplest and cheapest to develop
allows immediate student feedback and questions
instructor can easily gauge learning
content easily updated

Cons

requires scheduled time away from the job
requires dedicated instructor time
success depends on the instructor's skill
cost of maintaining an in-house classroom or hiring one offsite
travel costs for instructor and/or students

Instructor-Led Web Training

Pros

relatively simple and cheap to develop
some (limited) facility for immediate student feedback/questions
can be recorded and archived for reuse
scales better than Classroom training for large audiences
content easily updated

Cons

requires adequate technical infrastructure (computers, broadband, headphones)
technology can be unreliable
requires scheduled student and instructor time
success depends on the skill of the instructor (more difficult to deliver well than classroom)difficult to judge student engagement and learning
if students work from their desks they may multitask and lose attention
often less interactive and engaging than classroom or well-designed self-paced training

Self-Paced Web Training

Pros

available anywhere/anytime
learners can learn and review at their own pace
always available to review
scales well to unlimited audience size

Cons

most difficult and expensive to develop
cannot immediately answer student questions or measure effectiveness
content difficult and costly to update

Blended Approaches

All of that said, there are certainly opportunities to combine two or three of the approaches for business training. A few examples:

Create a self-paced web tutorial as precursor training for a classroom course. This allows the learners to preview the content and help ensure everyone is up-to-speed when the class begins.
Combine a self-paced web training course with a monitored forum or wiki. Encourage learners to post discussion, questions or feedback and an instructor to monitor and provide answers.
Begin a series of instructor-led web training sessions with a single classroom session. This can built engagement by allowing everyone to meet face to face and help the instructor gauge the knowledge level of participants.

Comments?

What pros and cons do you see in the three delivery methods? What examples of blended approaches have you found to be effective?

Notes on Blended Learning - Part 1

2008-08-19T17:02:00.007-04:00

After you've recognized that training is needed to solve a business problem, how do you decide on the delivery method? How do you choose whether you should deliver instruction by:

onsite, classroom training
self-paced web-based training (aka "tutorial" or "asynchronous e-learning")
instructor-led web-based training (aka "webinar" or "synchronous e-learning"
some combination of the above ("blended learning")

Following up on my previous post on heuristics, I would love to be able to formulate simple guidelines for this, but it is not a simple problem.

Considerations

From the reading I've done on this lately, it's obvious that choosing the best delivery method depends on a lot of factors:

Learner preferences - Are the learners comfortable with online instruction? Can they learn effectively using self-paced training?
Resources - Are qualified instructors available for instructor-led training? Are qualified design and production resources available for self-paced e-learning?
Instructor preferences - Are instructors comfortable and experienced with e-learning?
Scheduling - Is there adequate time to develop self-paced e-learning? Conversely, is there time in learners' schedules for them to attend instructor-led classes?
Technical infrastructure - Is there sufficient equipment and bandwidth for synchronous e-learning. Is the equipment reliable? Are support people available if needed?
Budget - Self-paced e-learning is usually the most costly to develop. But weigh this against the cost of learners' lost job-time for attending instructor-led training.

More to Come

All of that said, I think there are pros and cons that can be stated for each approach. And sometimes, by blending the delivery methods, a skillful designer can make the most of the advantages and minimize the drawbacks.

How the Wiki Was Won

2008-08-15T13:51:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Atlanta chapter of STC (Society for Technical Communication). The presentation was a case study about using a wiki for knowledge sharing and collaboration at a software company. There was some excellent discussion on tools, processes, pitfalls and workarounds.

You can find my full report here on the Atlanta STC blog.

Heuristics: Do you need to present information or provide training?

2008-08-12T14:36:00.009-04:00

I am always on the lookout for good heuristics, rules of thumb to help me slice up and sort out communication problems.

When a client calls me because they need to provide "instructions" or "documentation," one of the first questions I need to answer is: Do they need to present information or provide training?

As you might expect, presenting information, while not simple, is a whole boatload simpler than providing training.

Presentation requires good information design, structuring of content, and easy-to-use access methods (search, index, browse).
Training usually needs all of this, plus more: learning objectives, lesson plans, engaging content design, simulations, practice, evaluation. Training is more complex and costly to develop.

But how do you choose? A splendid set of heuristics is provided by Michael Allen. I highly recommend his book, Michael Allen's Guide to E-Learning (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) to anyone who needs to do any kind of training in the corporate world.

In discussing when to present information vs. when to deliver interactive training, he provides the following decision table (pgs. 278-279 of the paperback edition).

(By the way, if anyone knows a way to format a table in the blogger interface, help me out!)

Choose Presentation When...
Content is readily understood by targeted learners.
Learner differences are minimal.
Errors are harmless.
Information is readily available for later retrieval and reference.
Desired change to existing skill is minor and can be achieved without practice.
Learners can easily differentiate between good and inadequate performance.
Mentorship is inexpensive and will follow.

Choose Interactivity When...
Content is complex and takes considerable thought to comprehend.
Learners are diverse in their ability to understand the content.
Errors are injurious, costly or difficult to remedy.
Information needs to be internalized.
Behavioral changes will require practice.
Learners need guidance to differentiate between good and poor performance.
Mentorship is costly, limited, or unavailable.

There is plenty of great food for thought here, which I may expound on in future posts.

Does anyone have other frameworks for determining when training is needed? Like I said, I am always on the lookout for good heuristics.

Not Elevator Speeches, Stories!

2008-08-06T17:32:00.004-04:00

My problem with the elevator speech

I've never been comfortable with the idea of the elevator speech. You know, the proverbial dynamic and enticing 30-second description of your business that you give to the hiring CEO you happen to meet on the elevator, and he's ready to hire you by the time you reach the 10th floor.

I've tried to put one together several times and it always comes out sounding canned and worse (because my business is so multi-threaded) confusing.

But...A communication consultant who cannot communicate his value in 50 words or less. Not good!

How I found a solution

So I was delighted and relieved recently when I heard a panel discussion on networking and one of the panelists said she thought the whole elevator speech idea was bogus. "No CEO is going to hire you after hearing a 30-second canned speech," she said. "Doesn't happen."

(I would love to be able to give her name and a link to her site or blog, but I confess I neglected to write it down and now can't find it referenced anywhere. I apologize and promise to do better.)

Instead, she said, use stories. Have one or several brief stories ready to explain how you have helped your clients solve their problems.

Brilliant. I'm a big believer in the power of stories for both marketing communication and training, so I thought this was an excellent lesson.

And the very next day...Proof of Concept!

The next morning, I happened to be at another networking meeting. I shook hands with a tall, gray-haired guy who turned out to be a chief marketing officer for an IT consulting firm. He asked what I did and I gave a version my 10-second intro: "I do writing and training development, mostly for technology companies. I specialize in making complex information clear."

Didn't mean much to him, I could tell. So remembering the lady's advice, I launched into a story.

"For example, on a recent assignment I worked with C-level executives of a marketing services company as they were beginning to design their next generation software product. I sat in on their brainstorming sessions, documented everything they said and helped them think through the gaps and inconsistencies. From there I wrote initial customer-facing marketing documents and also requirements and specifications for the engineering team."

His face lit up. Comprehension!

I had told him a story he could relate to and now he had an idea of how my consulting practice adds value.

Stories, such a handy tool. More on stories in future posts.

A Mercurial Mind at Work

2008-08-05T15:50:00.003-04:00

Setting up this blog was easy; figuring out what to write first was hard.

You see, as a business and technical communication consultant, I work in many disciplines. In the past year alone I've filled the roles of technical writer, documentation architect, business writing coach, instructional designer, e-learning developer, marketing writer and (sorta) product manager.

This is exactly NOT the advice usually given to freelancers and consultants. "Focus your business," the gurus say. "Don't make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people."

I can't help it. I'm a generalist in an age of specialization. I'm just curious and interested in too many things. So every time an intriguing opportunity comes along, I charge after it. A mercurial mind at work.

So I expect this blog will reflect my meandering explorations across many domains: e-learning, instructional design, technical writing, content management, user-experience design, software development, marketing writing. I'll also touch on lessons learned in running a consulting practice and in coaching people to be better communicators. And, I promise to link to interesting writings by thought-leaders in many of these fields (See my blog list at right for starters.)

So stick around, gentle reader, I can promise you this: It will be different every time.