Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Adobe Captivate 7 - Now or Later?

2013-06-05T07:00:00.000-04:00

By Jonathan Shoaf

I've always been a software junkie. I'm happy to spend some money on a software product when I know it will save me hours of effort over the course of the next year. So when new software comes out, I'm like a kid at Christmas opening up the gift to see if I got what I wanted.

These days, Adobe is the software vendor I'm using the most. I use the Adobe Master Suite and Adobe Captivate for many of my projects. So when Adobe Captivate 7 was released, I was eager to unwrap the gift. While I still need to use it for a few projects to give it a full review, I'd like to share some of my initial thoughts. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of the new features...just enough to answer the question:

Do I upgrade now or later?

The new release is the same Adobe Captivate you already know. If you are familiar with Captivate 5 and 6, it will be an easy transition to Captivate 7. There are new features and improved functionality, but don't expect an overhaul on the user interface.

Adobe is continuing to strongly support Microsoft PowerPoint. Many of the instructional designers I work with love this feature. It allows them to use a tool they are familiar with to lay out content and simply import it into Captivate. Once in Captivate, they can provide the additional functionality they need or pass it to a developer for advanced interactivity.

I'm careful about adding pre-built interactions to my projects. That said, Adobe has added some new interactions to its library. While the YouTube video streaming is not really an option for me (and my company), the new learning notes, and in-course web browsing could be useful. There is also some new features for creating drag and drop interactions.

New with version 7 is support for Tin Can. While I'm excited about this, I imagine it will be a long while before I have an LMS that will support this. If I did, this would be a good reason to upgrade.

The Adobe Captivate app packager is another reason I would consider upgrading...except that I mostly support Windows 7 computers using IE8 or IE9. (blah, I know!) That said, many folks will appreciate this if they need to support a variety of mobile platforms.

There is a new shared advanced actions feature that I'm looking forward to fully evaluating. I use advanced actions a lot. In fact, I keep wishing Adobe would update the user interface to advanced actions. In this release they've added the ability to reuse advanced actions more easily through templates.

There are some other new features that may be useful such as additional question types for HTML5, support of GIFT format for question banks, enhanced accessibility features, improved audio recording and editing, an equation editor, and a Twitter widget.

I've peeked under the wrapping paper...and, I'm glad to see something I know and love improved. So...do I upgrade now or later?

I don't have the urge to upgrade to it this very moment. There are no major time savers for me in this release. However, this may not be true for you. For example, there are certainly time saving features for supporting mobile platforms and HTML5 users.

Are you an Adobe Captivate user? Will you upgrade to Captivate 7 now or later?

How to Let Learners Make Mistakes in eLearning

2013-05-15T10:36:00.000-04:00

By Shelley A. Gable

A few years ago, I was a co-researcher on a study that investigated the factors that influence informal workplace learning. The literature on the subject frequently references learning from mistakes as a typical form of informal learning.

So how can we leverage this natural way of learning in eLearning lessons?

Nudge learners to assess their responses. I recently saw this in an eLearning lesson a colleague created. The lesson prompted learners to answer a scenario-based question. After submitting the answer, an initial round of feedback suggested a couple of factors learners should have considered when responding and asked them to assess whether their responses were on the right track. Learners then had an opportunity to modify their responses or continue. This seemed like a clever way to prompt learners to reflect on their learning and potentially recognize mistakes themselves.

Show the consequences of decisions. Suppose an eLearning lesson teaches sales skills, and a scenario-based question challenges learners to present a product’s benefits to a customer. Instead of simply telling learners whether they presented the benefits correctly or incorrectly, follow their response with how the customer replies (perhaps with a customer who expresses interest, or a reluctant no, or a stern no, for example). Then, you might ask learners to assess why the customer reacted the way he did, and/or challenge learners to use a better response to attempt to recover the situation (which is similar to what someone might think through in this type of situation in real life).

Activate incorrect paths in system simulations. I’ve encountered two main types of system simulations. One type is immersive, allowing learners to click around and explore in a simulated re-creation of a software application (or a portion of it). Another type consists of a linear path through a specific series of steps.

When creating the latter, consider easing up on the linear aspect of it. Instead, you might activate a limited number of incorrect paths that branch from the intended path. To control the cost and time required to create a branching simulation, you can opt to only allow learners to stray a few steps away from the correct path. If a learner doesn’t self-correct before reaching the end of what you opt to allow, you might display feedback that helps learners recognize what they’ve done incorrectly and/or identify the misunderstanding that may have led them astray.

With an approach like this, learners benefit from learning from their mistakes through branching, and you can still control the cost and time required to build the simulation by limiting the extent of the branching allowed.

Do you give learners opportunities to make mistakes?

If so, how did you identify what types of mistakes to allow? And how did you design those opportunities into the training? Please share!

Engage Learners Emotionally in eLearning Experiences

2013-04-14T22:28:00.000-04:00

By Shelley A. Gable

What was the last book you couldn’t put down? The last movie you couldn’t stop talking about? The last song you found yourself playing repeatedly?

While you may feel drawn to each of these for different reasons, chances are, you have emotional connections to them all. Perhaps you found one of them profoundly relatable. Maybe one was uplifting. Maybe another surged your adrenaline. Regardless of the nature of that connection, you likely felt engaged and the experience with it was memorable.

How can we create these emotionally engaging experiences in eLearning?

Inspiring engagement doesn’t require an investment in high-end video production. Rather, a simple yet compelling story can help emotionally engage learners with the content, creating a motivational and memorable learning experience. These stories can also create a challenge that permeates an entire course or lesson. Consider some of the suggestions below.

Create a story with good guys and bad guys.

I recently reviewed training a colleague created on a security-related topic. The training opened with a short story about a thief. It conveyed what the thief intended to steal, how, and the likely consequences for the victims. The learner was then challenged to use the skills learned in training to protect the victims by preventing the theft from occurring.

The rest of the training built on the opening story by applauding learners when their correct choices improved security and protected the would-be victims. Similarly, feedback for incorrect choices illustrated how the suboptimal action helped the thief by making the potential victims vulnerable.

This good guy versus bad guy type of story could apply to a variety of skill and knowledge topics. And, the “bad guy” doesn’t always have to be another person. The “bad guy” could be more conceptual, such as difficult environmental conditions, confusing processes, or day-to-day inconveniences.

Teach exemplar behaviors through employee recognition.

Imagine starting a lesson with an actual story of a customer service representative – let’s call her Janie – who received a rave review from a customer who provided feedback on a particular interaction. The lesson might start with the customer’s kind words and how Janie felt about receiving the recognition. The lesson could then challenge learners to earn the high praise Janie received by following her stellar example. The rest of the lesson might provide performance guidance and feedback in Janie’s voice, offering insight into how experienced, high-performing peers approach – and even think about – the tasks taught in the lesson.

Provide testimonials that boost the content’s credibility.

A few years ago, I briefly contributed to a project that involved redesigning instructor-led training on coaching skills for self-paced, eLearning delivery. Coaching, like many soft skills, is one of those topics that have a lot of models and “how to” books in the marketplace. Many of the approaches out there seem like common sense. Thus, I can understand why experienced supervisors may not feel eager to embrace the behaviors taught in training, especially if the organization hasn’t communicated a compelling reason for them to do so.

In this project, we created a series of eLearning lessons, with a short lesson (i.e., 30 minutes or less) dedicated to each major coaching skill in the coaching model. At the beginning of each lesson, we included a short video testimonial of someone describing their success with that lesson’s skill. We asked the storytellers to describe a specific situation where they used the new skill successfully and to predict how the situation may have ended differently if they hadn’t applied the new skill. The intent was to ensure that the testimonials felt realistic and actionable, in hopes of building credibility and interest for the content that followed.

How do you engage learners emotionally in eLearning experiences?

The examples above are just a few approaches I’ve encountered for engaging learners emotionally in eLearning experiences. What approaches have you designed?

Do you know your E-learning Buckets?

2013-04-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

By Jonathan Shoaf

I've discovered recently I don't like the term e-learning. This is because I recently had to go through the process of understanding what salary you pay someone who is an e-learning developer. It turns out that it varies dramatically depending on who you ask. This is because everyone has a different idea of what e-learning is and what it takes to develop it.

So if you tell me you are an e-learning expert, it means nothing to me. You could be a beginning Captivate user creating a self-paced page turner, you could be a Flash developer melding ActionScript and Javascript to communicate with an LMS, or you could be an instructor maxing out whiteboards and breakout rooms in Adobe Connect to synchronously engage learners. The term e-learning covers a wide swath of teaching and learning using digital media.

E-learning needs to be categorized in different buckets depending on what the needs of the learner are. When I evaluate learning needs in my organization, here are some of the e-learning buckets I think about.

Self-Paced Learning
Self-paced learning content is typically consumed by learners at their own pace and time. It is a great way to get learning out to a large audience and can save time and money over traditional face-to-face learning. It is often the bane of the learning community because everyone has experienced a bad disengaging page turner that puts them to sleep. But when done right it can be a very good option for the learner.

Online Classroom
An online classroom offers many of the same benefits as face-to-face learning but it can be done remotely for a geographically dispersed group. In my experience this is one of the cheapest and quickest e-learning options.

Performance Support Systems
Electronic performance support systems provide just-in-time knowledge to learners who either don't have the time for other learning options. Also known as an EPSS, this type of system is great to house knowledge that is only used in rare cases.

Simulations
Simulations are a great way to introduce learners to a real work environment where they can learn and experiment without fear of adverse consequences. Simulations can also be used as an EPSS when a learner needs to know something about the system but doesn't have access to a real system to test.

Knowledge Management Systems
Knowledge management is a collection of information for employees to learn from. In the past I've used systems like wikis, Lotus Notes, and SharePoint to serve as knowledge management systems. These systems contain documents or other multimedia that learners can access any time as needed.

Social and Collaborative Learning
Social learning environments are great ways for employees or experts to collaborate with each other and share experiences. Social environments I used a lot include Linked In and Twitter. I have found that organizations have been very slow to adopt these environment internally. I think this is an opportunity for the future.

Multimedia
Multimedia is a critical area for e-learning. It spans over every other bucket. Videos, animations, graphics, and audio can convey knowledge in ways that learners can grasp. In fact, videos can almost stand on their own as an e-learning option for a lot of projects.

What would you add to the e-learning bucket list?

QR Codes – Short-Lived Fad or Long Term Solution?

2013-03-25T20:37:00.000-04:00

By Dean Hawkinson

It seems like only yesterday that we began to see websites being posted for the first time on advertisements as the internet became more and more popular among advertisers and consumers. It got to the point that you were hard pressed to find advertising without a website associated with it.

Jump several years into the future to today where we now carry the mobile internet in our pockets with our smartphones and tablets, and are never without the internet at our fingertips. Now, I sit down to enjoy my large coke at my favorite fast food establishment and low and behold, there is this strange looking image on my cup that allows me to pull out my smartphone, use the AT&T Code Scanner app (or other scanner app) to “grab” that code and go directly to a website where I can enter a code to win a free order of fries or simply browse their web page. This technology is known as a QR (Quick Response) code.

Go ahead and try it out for yourself! Below is a QR code that you can scan to jump directly to the Integrated Learnings website. You will need to download an app that can read QR codes – there are several free apps available for all the major cell phone operating systems (iOS, Android and Windows). The AT&T Code Scanner is available free of charge for all three.

QR Codes and Learning

So, what do these QR codes have to do with learning? There are numerous ways that Instructional Designers and Trainers can take advantage of QR codes to enhance learning. It is as simple as creating the QR code (more on that in a bit) and downloading it as an image to be added to documents.

Let’s take a look at a few ways QR codes can enhance learning:

Instructor-led Training – Picture a classroom without paper – not too much of a stretch in today’s learning environment – where your participants are using tablets for their interactive participant guides. QR codes can be imbedded into your PowerPoint presentation for instructor-led training and projected via the overhead projector. Using the tablet’s camera and downloadable scanner app, participants can obtain those participant guides and any other resources/job aids stored on a shared site or to be directed to a particular website to support the concepts being learned.
Virtual Training – Same principles as Instructor Led training, but you will present the QR code via your Microsoft Live Meeting, Adobe Connect or other virtual classroom. It truly adds an element of interactivity to your virtual training.
eLearning – In a web-based course, QR codes can be presented on your pages for easy scanning to access websites via a smartphone or tablet, or to obtain documents stored on a server. You can obviously link directly to websites with a link for the computer, but the QR code would be available for purposes when the document or site needs to be accessed via a mobile device.
mLearning – QR codes would not be as widely used in an mLearning course as your learner would already be using a mobile device to access the training, so it would just be a matter of placing links in your material to go directly to the website or document. However, you would be able to use a QR code on the computer or printed material for that mobile device to scan and access the mLearning course itself.

Creating a QR Code

There are many different websites that allow you to build QR codes, and most of them are free. One such site is Kaywa.com. This site will allow you to create QR codes by simply entering the website address into a field and then downloading the code as an image file. You will need to establish a free account to use the site. However, performing an internet search for QR code generator will find many different websites that allow you to do the same thing.

Once you download the image, it is simply a matter of adding the image to your documents for scanning.

QR Codes are Here to Stay (at least for now)

It seems to me that with the simplicity of creating and using QR code technology in learning that this technology is here to stay for the long-term. As we begin to move more into the area of paperless training and using technologies such as tablets and smartphones for use in partnership with training, QR codes will be a very beneficial solution to use.

Have you had experiences with using QR codes in your training design & development? Feel free to share your experiences.

Are You Really Serious About Effective E-learning?

2013-03-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Jonathan Shoaf

I recently came across an infographic about determining the costs of a custom e-learning course. From my years of experience doing e-learning, I think the graphic is dead on. To summarize, it lists three important factors that determine the cost of an e-learning course:

Graphics and multimedia
Level of interactivity
Instructional design time

I'm not going to go into the details now. Just know that the more complex each of these are, the more costly the project will be.

Out of curiosity, I took a poll at my organization to determine the level of complexity of each area used in our projects. The consensus I found is that instructional design is often the most complex. My area of the organization deals with a lot of technical information so this is not surprising. However, I would venture to say that most e-learning projects are instructional design heavy when it comes to cost.

So why would I say this? Instructional designers are the foot soldiers when it comes to creating learning. They are often asked to wear many hats but their expertise is instructional design and that is where most of their time goes.

Wearing many hats is so common that organizations often don't hire the expertise they need for the other two areas that effect the cost of e-learning: graphics and multimedia and level of interactivity. That is why most e-learning is weak in that area. It's not because instructional designers don't think about these things that they get omitted, it's because they often don't have the time or required expertise to achieve them.

Graphics and multimedia often requires a graphic designer or expert in video production. Creating interactivity often requires the use of Flash or other skills that a web developer would have. Organizations often don't hire the required skill sets to excel in these areas. They either don't budget for it or don't know how to find the skills needed. I personally think the skill set required is an emerging field in the workplace.

This gap leaves well designed e-learning without the support of informative graphics and other multimedia. Instead, stock graphics or poorly produced video ends up being used. Sometimes multimedia is "repurposed" for the e-learning but it ends up not being the ideal presentation to the learner.

Interactivity that engages the learner is left out. Learning through discovery is not provided. The e-learning often becomes a page turner with lots of reading or voice overs that drown the learner in words and voice. "When can I click the next button again?" they ask.

So I have to ask:

Are you really serious about effective e-learning?
Why put all the instructional design resources into a project but then leave it lackluster and disengaging?

I know, I know...it's cost. It's all about costs. Well not always. It's also because of a lack of in-house skill sets.

I think those are valid reasons e-learning often comes up short. However, I think there is something else. Most organizations have not fully committed to e-learning. They understand the cost savings aspects of it. But they have found it difficult to make it even close to as engaging as face-to-face training because of a lack of initiative.

Most learning and development organizations know how to win at face-to-face. But e-learning? Are we really doing what it takes to win?

Draft a Branching Scenario in 6 Steps

2013-02-27T21:34:00.001-05:00

By Shelley A. Gable

How often have you encountered eLearning packed with information, yet lacks an outlet to apply that new knowledge in a meaningful way?

Designing eLearning around problems that learners encounter on the job can help avoid this pitfall. Scenario-based training prompts learners to solve problems they will encounter on the job, helping to ensure we prepare them to perform their jobs successfully.

Branching scenarios can simulate many workplace problems especially well. In a branching scenario, an eLearning slide might only provide the start of a situation. Perhaps the first segment of a conversation or an initial glimpse into a problem. Based on the information available, learners choose their next step from a few options provided. And instead of giving them feedback like “correct” or “incorrect,” their choice takes them to a slide that describes the next segment of the scenario...a segment that’s a direct consequence of the option they chose. The scenario continues like this, over a series of a few slides, until learners reach an outcome.

Here’s how I approach drafting a branching scenario…

--1-- Identify a scenario.

This step likely seems obvious; however, depending on the scope of your training, it warrants some thought. Of the array of situations your training needs to prepare learners for, do a few seem especially worthy of developing into branching scenarios? Perhaps it makes sense to focus on situations that learners will encounter most frequently. Or, situations that tend to challenge newbies the most.

Additionally, I’m most likely to use branching scenarios for situations that require a series of judgment-based decisions and where the consequences of a decision are immediately evident.

--2-- Identify outcomes.

On the job, what range of outcomes is typical for the situation?

For instance, a sales scenario might have three typical outcomes: the customer accepts the sale (successful outcome), the customer decides to “think about it” (partially successful), or the customer declines the offer (unsuccessful).

Alternatively, depending on the business result you are targeting, a sales scenario might have typical outcomes more like this: the customer buys the deluxe package (successful outcome), the customer buys the basic package (partially successful), or the customer declines the offer (unsuccessful).

--3-- Flowchart the steps and decisions that lead to the most successful outcome, based on observed behavior of exemplary performers.

To identify the decisions that lead to the successful outcome, I like to ask clients to walk me through the steps and decisions they’ve observed in their best employees. This usually results in a linear set of steps from the scenario’s starting point to the successful outcome.

--4-- Flowchart the decision points and decisions that most directly lead to an unsuccessful outcome, based on common mistakes of novices.

Next, I ask clients to walk me through the steps and less optimal decisions they’ve observed in less experienced employees. This usually results in a separate set of steps from the scenario’s starting point to the unsuccessful outcome.

An important tip here is to specifically prompt clients to recall the less optimal decisions they’ve actually observed. In other words, I’m not asking them to think of possible incorrect decisions someone might make…I’m asking for the incorrect decisions people actually have made. This helps keep the scenarios realistic. And hopefully, learners who slip into common mistakes during training will remember the consequences presented in the scenario, helping them to remember how to avoid those mistakes on the job.

--5-- Review the flowchart and identify realistic opportunities where a learner may be able to recover from a bad decision to get back on the “successful” path (or move from an “unsuccessful” path to the “partially successful” path).

In most situations in life, an initial bad decision doesn’t doom you to be unsuccessful in an endeavor. In real life, when the consequence of a decision shows you that you’ve made the wrong choice, you may be able to correct the situation with better decisions and still succeed. This is what I try to tackle next when outlining a branching scenario – where these crossovers can occur between the various paths.

--6-- If a middle outcome exists (e.g., “partially successful” or something similar), flowchart the path to that.

Often, I find that creating the “partially successful” path doesn’t require adding decision points to a scenario. Sometimes, it simply results from a different path among the steps charted previously.

What’s your approach?

If you’ve designed branching scenarios for eLearning, how did you figure out the branching paths?

Simple Anatomy of SCORM-based E-Learning

2013-02-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Jonathan Shoaf

I remember the first time I heard the term SCORM. I was a software developer working on a quizzing product that needed to export data to a variety of e-learning systems. It was suggested we should support SCORM. So I researched but quickly got lost in the minutia of details and acronyms -- AICC, CMI, SCO, XML, ECMAScript, manifest, packaging, and API. On top of that, I found out about the ADL initiative and the Department of Defense involvement in the specification. Woah! Wait a minute. What are we talking about here? I just want to get my content to my customer in a form that they can use it!

It turns out I had to know most of that stuff for my job. But most people producing e-learning content can rest assured that they don't need to know these details. You just need to know that e-learning content sometimes needs to be exported to SCORM so that it can be used in an LMS. Here's everything you need to know about the anatomy of a SCORM module. The version of SCORM doesn't matter for this simple explanation.

A SCORM module consists of three basic pieces:

1. Learning Content
2. SCORM Run-Time
3. SCORM Package

And here's the best news...with today's e-learning development tools, you only need to be concerned about one of these pieces!

Learning Content

If you are an instructional designer or developer of e-learning content, chances are, you'll only need to worry about the Learning Content piece. This is what the learner sees. It is based on an instructional design or storyboard. This piece contains all the images, audio, video, and text that learners will need to consume. Many times the learning content contains a quiz as well. Ideally, this is where you will spend all of your time developing the course.

SCORM Run-Time

The next piece is the SCORM Run-Time code. E-Learning development tools like Adobe Captivate, Lectora, or Articulate do all of this for you. So don't sweat it.

But for those curious, this is the "language" the e-learning module uses to communicate with the LMS. The run-time code is used to send messages to the LMS like "the course was started", "the learner scored 80% on the quiz", and "the learner has mastered this material". And vice-versa, the LMS can use the run-time language to tell the e-learning module information like the learner's name or a bookmark that tells the e-learning module where the learner stopped previously.

SCORM Package

The last piece of the simple anatomy is the SCORM Package. As before, if you use an e-learning development tool, this is often taken care of for you. There are a couple of things worth mentioning about the package. The package is simply a compressed (aka zipped) folder of files. There is a magical file included called the imsmanifest.xml file that instructs the LMS on how to use the files in the package. There are rare times where you may need to tinker with this package. For example, to add a referenced file like a PDF or video.

How does your understanding of the SCORM anatomy differ from this? What about SCORM has been a challenge for you?

Using iPads to Support Training Delivery

2013-01-24T17:27:00.000-05:00

By Dean Hawkinson

Recently, I had the opportunity to design my first paperless classroom course, which used iPads to support its delivery. The purpose of using the iPads was to replace paper-based workbooks and job aids, and provide learners with easy access to training resources. As a designer, it stretched me into areas of project management that I had never experienced before. In addition, some of the feedback that we received from instructors was that it stretched the instructor in many new directions as well.

In this post, I will make some suggestions based on the successes and challenges that go along with this method of delivering classroom-based training. Let’s start with what I have experienced as important requirements.

Important Requirements

From the experience that I had, there are several things we needed to include when developing instructor-led training for iPad delivery.

An interactive workbook for taking notes – We wrote a storyboard for what should be in the participant workbook, including places for participant note-taking. You can use tools such as Adobe InDesign and Adobe Acrobat to create direct links to online sites and places to take notes. Participants can then use Adobe Reader on the iPad to view the workbook which provides several options for viewing and sharing the document.
Create a way to save the document with notes – Adobe Acrobat allowed participants to save their document with the notes they entered. They either e-mailed it to their own e-mail addresses or moved it over to an app such as Evernote to e-mail, if their own e-mail is not available on the iPad.
Use new technologies to obtain documents – We placed documents such as the workbook and other job aids on an online server and used a free QR code generator to create a QR code. Placing the QR code on the PowerPoint in the classroom allows participants to use the iPad camera and code scanner app to scan the QR code and obtain the documents.

Successes

Below are some of the successes we observed that can go along with using iPads for training delivery.

Saving on printing costs and logistics – Using the iPads for delivery cut printing costs and the logistics of printing.
Taking advantage of linking directly to the internet for research – Using the iPads for delivery allowed us to write some great activities that involved researching on the internet and directly linking to websites right from the iPad workbook.
Using the technology for hands on activities – If you are training job-related skills that use the iPad, you can take advantage of some great hands-on activities to learn these skills. Instructors can even invest around $25 in a VGA cable to project the iPad in front of the class to demonstrate these skills.
Reducing the need to have PCs in the classrooms – Since trainers can travel with iPads, you can purchase a set of iPads for each instructor for which they will be responsible. There is therefore no need for PCs in the classroom.

Challenges

Here are some of the challenges you may run into with using iPads for training.

Cost – A budget needs to be allocated to purchase the iPads for the classroom. Of course, if you are doing a lot of training, this cost will be offset by the savings in print material costs.
Logistics of ordering, provisioning and preparing iPads for class – Depending on what you are teaching, there is a lot of preparation that goes along with iPad delivery. The instructors need to take care of loading required apps and setting them up for use in the classroom. If the iPads are Wi-Fi only, they need to ensure that their classroom has Wi-Fi available and that there are no issues. If they are 3G or 4G, ensuring that the sim cards work can get a signal is important. Most of this functionality only has to be done once, however, in preparation for using them.
Traveling with the iPads – Traveling with the iPads can be a challenge, presenting issues with airport security and taking responsibility for them during travel. There are special cases available for purchase to travel with the iPads, which can help with this.

Feedback from Participants in Pilot Courses

Feedback from participants and instructors on this delivery approach, from my experience with a pilot course , was postive. Participants like being able to use Adobe Reader to take notes directly in an electronic workbook and e-mail it to their personal e-mail accounts. Instructors like not having to deal with paper workbooks. In both cases, the apps allow note-taking and highlighting just as they do in a paper workbook.

For instructors, they have to really pay attention to where the participants are in their workbook as they facilitate, even more than in a normal paper-based class. Designers can help with this by ensuring workbook page numbers are in the instructor guide and also on the PowerPoint slides.

Have you had experience with using iPads in instructor-led training? Feel free to share your experiences.

Lectora Resource Roundup

2013-01-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

By Joseph Suarez

We use Lectora a good bit for eLearning development. As with any tool, it’s always helpful to see tips and tricks from others that you can add to your own projects. If you're working with Lectora and need some assistance, here’s a list of helpful resources available online.

Official Resources from Trivantis

Lectora University: Trivantis’s own collection of helpful resources including recordings of all past “Inspiration Wednesdays” webinars and downloadable course examples.
Lectora Community Forum: A great place to ask questions and find answers to Lectora related questions.
Official Lectora LinkedIn User Group: Another good place for Lectora questions and also networking with other Lectora users.

Resources from E-Learning Uncovered

50 Time-Saving Tips for Lectora Development
Lectora Hotkeys list: Quick reference for keyboard shortcuts
Full list of E-Learning Uncovered Lectora resources

Integrated Learning Services Blog Posts - Our own collection of Lectora related blog posts

A Few Lectora Tips
Using Lectora to Sync Audio
Slide in Text with Lectora
Creating a Smart Next Button in Lectora
Yes, your Captivate Sim can drive your Lectora Course
A Deep Dive into the Lectora Project File
Using Variables to Restrict the Next Button
Unlocking the Power of Lectora Variables
Incorporating the Learner’s Name into your Lectora Course
Saving Time with Lectora Text Styles
Extending Lectora with an iFrame
Using Custom Progress Bars in Lectora
Custom Lectora Video Controls
Lectora Best Practices Part 1: Optimizing Preferences
Lectora Best Practices Part 2: Working with actions and variables
Lectora Best Practices Part 3: Working with Text
Overview of ReviewLink: Product review of the features of Lectora’s built in review tool

Have you found other Lectora how-to sites that were useful?

Conquer These Evil E-Learning Temptations

2013-01-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

by Jonathan Shoaf

There are common temptations that instructional designers and e-learning developers succumb to. Resist these and your learners will thank you. Let's look at a few of the more common temptations lurking out there to torment those who partake in e-learning courses.

Temptation #1: Using a PowerPoint Mindset

The first temptation that leads to bad e-learning is using a PowerPoint presentation mindset and applying it to the e-learning world. Its tempting because the mindset is familiar, requires little thought, and takes less time. And unfortunately all those reasons are things that your manager may support. However, it stinks for your learners and results in less knowledge transfer when all is said and done.

Which do you enjoy more in a face-to-face classroom setting?

Watching a lecture with cute PowerPoint

slides while sitting in your seat.

Performing activities that lead to discovery

of knowledge through practice.

Consider that e-learning is usually taken by the same people that would be in a face-to-face classroom. Take a moment to empathize with these folks by asking the same question for an e-learning course.

When you convert PowerPoint slides directly into e-learning slides, you are simply keeping your learners bored and disengaged.

Temptation #2: Ignoring the Visuals

This temptation is difficult because words are easy but multimedia is hard. After all, we have keyboards for words. All the letters are nicely laid out and we know how to find them. Graphics, on the other hand, are hard. Many require hours of hard work or require being on site with a camera. But resist the temptation to avoid them. Remember the old adage "a picture speaks a thousand words."

Photos and graphics are very important to learners. They can set the mood for the course. They can create memories and associations for learners. Besides, learners get barraged with enough words already through corporate email, HR and IT notices, job aids, and memos.

Find and use multimedia. Here are a few things you can do to get in the habit of using more graphics:

Buy graphics! Stop being cheap and subscribe to a multimedia library like ShutterStock.com. You learners will thank you!
Use PowerPoint or other simple tools to create simple graphics and visuals.
Don't be afraid of the camera. Start snapping. Make a library of photos you can use in all projects. Make a special trip to take photos for individual projects.

Temptation #3: Getting Approval from the Wrong "Right" Person

You are dependent on the subject matter expert. But the SME you are assigned to work with may not understand how learning works, the importance of the project, or the fact that you know nothing about their area of expertise. Frankly, the person may not even care about the final outcome of the project. The temptation may be to get approval from this person because they are assigned to your project. However, your learners will thank you if you find someone who really has their best interest in mind.

Trust your intuition and experience to tell you whether or not you are getting the feedback you need. Try the following techniques to make sure you get the appropriate person to look at your project:

The SME tends to agree with everything - then engage them further to see if they really have looked at it. Trust but verify that they are doing their part. You don't want any surprises at the end of the project.
The SME seems disinterested - you will have to be extra persistent. If they simply aren't giving you the time you need ask them who would be good to delegate the task to.
Talk to some of the managers of your target learners - What do they think is important to cover? Do they agree with the SME? If not, arrange a quick group meeting to get everyone on the same page.

Temptation #4: Assuming the e-Learning will work Perfectly

Most e-learning development tools you'll use will have several ways to "play" the content. Let's take Adobe Captivate as an example. You can play a page right in the editing tool, you can test several pages at a time, or you can test the whole project. Plus, you can publish the project to test. Over time you'll find that the project may not work the same in all of those scenarios. Ultimately, you want to test a fully published project independent of the development tool. Even better, test the project directly in the LMS to verify the scoring, completion, and any advanced tinkering you've done works.

Resist the temptation to assume if it works for you, it works for everyone else. Here are some things in particular you should test for each project:

The Learner's Navigation - If the learner takes a course but can't complete it, you've got a major problem. Test the navigation to make sure the learner can get to where they need to go. This includes any next and previous buttons, home buttons, and access to the quiz or survey.
Quizzing - The learner needs to get the score they earn and it needs to be reported correctly to the LMS. In particular, test to make sure the course completion is set correctly depending on the quiz results.
Animations and Audio Syncing - The animations should match the audio. Avoid the temptation to skip through the audio. Listen to it and verify the animations take place. Make sure animations are not inadvertently paused by other elements on the page like buttons waiting for a click event (Captivate users know what I'm talking about).
Links and Attached Files - Don't disappoint the learner with a broken link. Links may not work like you expect them once a project is published or put on the LMS. Who among us hasn't accidentally linked to a file on your computer? Make sure the URLs are accurate and open up in a NEW window if required. Make sure attached files are included in the imsmanifest and SCORM package being uploaded to the LMS.

What bad habits tempt you?

Resolve to Try Something New in eLearning in 2013

2013-01-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

By Shelley A. Gable

In perusing the blogosphere, Twitter, and Facebook at the turn of the new year, I noticed several expressions of relief that the world has not ended and resolutions to make 2013 the best year yet. For many, this includes trying new things.

The posts from this blog in 2012 offered advice for trying out new eLearning authoring tools and other technologies as well as advice for trying out various instructional approaches. If you're interested in trying something new with your eLearning projects this year, take a look at how the past year of posts from this blog might help...

Want to explore Tin Can API?

Training practitioners have been abuzz about the possibilities Tin Can API might hold. Check out Building the Next Generation of SCORM for an introduction to Tin Can, or review Realizing the Potential of the Tin Can API to participate in a discussion about its potential pros and cons.

Want to develop your technical skills?

Lectora has been one of the most frequently recurring topics on the blog this year. To sharpen your Lectora skills, take a peek at the posts linked below.

Of course, Lectora isn’t the only tool out there. Those looking to further their Captivate skills can benefit from these posts:

Tips for Importing from PowerPoint to Captivate

Using Variable Flags to Provide Feedback in Adobe Captivate

Developer's Perspective of Adobe Captivate 6

Or maybe you’d like to acquaint yourself with some different tools...

3 Defining Features of Articulate Storyline

Discovering Adobe InDesign for eLearning

3 Ways to Use Adobe Connect

Anticipate dabbling in audio and video? Perhaps the posts below can help you get started.

Lights, Camera, Action...Learn

Using Lectora to Sync Audio

Using Video in eLearning

Want to take steps to make eLearning easier to use?

While a fluency in authoring tools can go a long way, making eLearning user-friendly is just as important. Help ensure that your eLearning doesn’t distract from learning with the help of the posts below.

Designing eLearning for Cognitive Ease

Is Your eLearning Effective for Dummies?

Keeping eLearning Readable – Visual Readability

Using White Space for Clutter-Free eLearning

Keep Learners Fit by Controlling Calorie Intake

Call to Action Items in eLearning

Designing eLearning for Cognitive Ease

Want to renew your focus on instructional design?

Instructional design is at the heart of learning. While an attractive visual design and eye-catching interactions can help create a positive first impression of a lesson, its ability to teach learners to perform is what matters most.

The following posts can help you brush up on principles of learning psychology:

Designing eLearning for Schema Theory

Teach Learners to Use Job Aids

Accomplish Spaced Learning with eLearning

Practice Early and Coach the Details Later

Personify eLearning

If you’re thinking about tinkering in a gaming approach to instruction, the posts below might help.

Gaming with the Nine Events of eLearning

What does the 80's movie WarGames tell us about learning games?

To help you assess learning through eLearning interactivity and/or knowledge assessments, take a peek at these posts:

Writing Distractors for Multiple Choice Questions

Give Tests a Test Run

What are your professional development goals for 2013?

If there’s something you intend to focus on that isn’t mentioned here, please tell us about it! (If you do, we just might write about it.) For more resources, you could also take a peek at the year in review posts for 2011 and 2010.

Happy new year!

Realizing the Potential of the Tin Can API

2012-12-19T14:30:00.001-05:00

By Joseph Suarez

Each time a major eLearning authoring tool or LMS vendor announces they are (or will be) supporting the Tin Can API, the eLearning community can be heard giving a simultaneous cheer and moan. Why would the “next generation of SCORM” cause such a mixed reaction? Here's my interpretation.

Cheers:
In the short term, Tin Can support is perceived as a good thing because it means organizations will theoretically have the capability to migrate from SCORM to what's being promoted as a highly improved standard for recording and tracking learning experiences. With vendors adding Tin Can support to their products, it signals a quick and wide adoption of the new standard. This is a cause for celebration to some.

Moans:
However, unless the promised improvements of Tin Can are also eventually realized, the future won't likely be any brighter. For years, thought leaders in the industry have been calling for radical change that moves us beyond the simple LMS completion checkmarks SCORM has become notorious for. They would argue that to adopt Tin Can only as far as to replicate SCORM’s limited functionality completely misses the point.

Without getting into the history of SCORM, it’s fair to say that how it is widely used today was only part of what was originally imagined. Julie Dirksen described the missed opportunities of SCORM with this analogy over on the official Tin Can API blog:

“Basically, it’s like someone having a $50K budget for a new car, and spending a thousand dollars on the actual car and the other forty-nine thousand on making sure we always have a parking space.”

Chicken & Egg
Remember when fuel-efficient hydrogen cars were supposed to be the next wave of the future? A major problem keeping the idea from taking off is a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. No one wants a hydrogen car if there are no refueling stations around, and no refueling stations are going to exist without a customer base of hydrogen car owners.

I see Tin Can as having a similar dilemma. If we don't eventually see and experience examples of Tin Can utilized to its full potential, how are we going to create enough market demand to pressure vendors to fully empower their tools with that ability? Yet how can the full potential of the Tin Can API become mainstream if that capability isn't within arm’s reach of developers?

It’s not an insurmountable problem by any means. It just requires some pioneering developers to enlighten the rest of us to what's possible. Fortunately, that may have already has begun through a Tin Can API prototypes page. It’s worth bookmarking and checking up on in the hopes of doing more cheering down the road.

What are your thoughts on Tin Can's potential?

Designing eLearning for Cognitive Ease

2012-12-12T21:56:00.001-05:00

By Shelley A. Gable

I recently started reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and the chapter on cognitive ease offered all sorts of implications for eLearning design.

Promote a good mood.

The Finding: Kahnemann describes a study in which participants needed to rely on intuition to complete a task. The study found that participants in a good mood doubled their accuracy, while those in a bad mood performed poorly. This, combined with additional discussion in the book, suggests that a bad mood creates cognitive strain, and a good mood promotes cognitive ease.

Implications for eLearning: Although we may not have control over a learner’s day or personal life, perhaps there are things we can do to make learners smile from time to time. Consider a dash of appropriately placed humor, a relatable and/or inspirational story, and graphics that create a warm, positive tone.

The amount of time spent on eLearning may influence mood, too. Long lessons may leave learners wondering if they’ll ever end, while a series of short lessons can help create a sense of progress. Shorter lessons can also help prompt learners take a brief break and re-energize if they’re feeling mentally fatigued.

Ensure repeated exposure to critical content.

The Finding: I took a social psychology class several years ago and clearly remember this mantra: “familiarity breeds liking.” Kahnemann’s book explores this concept, describing studies in which participants were exposed to messages repeatedly over time. Repeated exposure seemed to increase participants’ liking and trust in the message.

This reminds me of the concept of spaced learning that Hermann Ebbinghaus – one of the earliest researchers of learning and memory – introduced in the 1800s. Spaced learning suggests that we retain newly learned knowledge longer when taught repeatedly over a period of time.

Implications for eLearning: Two simple ideas come to mind. First, we can take advantage of the flexibility eLearning offers to spread out training. Instead of conducting four hours of training within a single day, consider dividing it into one-hour sessions over four weeks, for example. Although the content will likely advance from one session to the next, this spaced approach would allow for reinforcing core components over time.

Another consideration is to ensure that core messages are repeated at every practical opportunity (this doesn’t have to mean repeating it verbatim every time). For instance, I recently worked on some customer service training where anticipating customer needs was a core principle. Although the training teaches a variety of tasks and behaviors, nearly every scenario prompts learners to pause to anticipate needs and then reinforces the impact of doing so.

Create clean visuals.

The Finding: The book describes a study in which participants were asked to solve a case study problem. For one group, the problem included a company name that was difficult to pronounce, while the other group’s version had an easy-to-pronounce company name. Everything else about the problem was identical. Interestingly, the problem-solving success rate of participants with the easier company name was significantly higher than that of the other group.

The book also describes similar studies where research participants working with low quality images or difficult-to-read fonts were also more prone to errors in completing tasks.

Implications for eLearning: The study about the difficult company name immediately prompted me to think about the names I assign to characters in the stories and scenarios I write. This reinforces the importance of keeping those names simple.

It also reinforces the need to include crystal clear images in training. Occasionally, I encounter an eLearning lesson that has an image (often of a system screen) that is either too small to read easily or a bit unclear. While most of us can probably intuitively agree that this type of thing is annoying, the evidence in Kahneman’s book suggests that it directly impairs learning. In fact, one of the studies described would even suggest that problematic images continue to negatively affect learning, even after learners have moved past the image and it is no longer the focal point.

Did you notice other implications?

If you’ve also read Thinking, Fast and Slow, do you recall any “ah ha” moments you encountered while reading the book? And did any of those learnings affect your eLearning design? If so, please share!

Learning Lessons from Black Ops 2

2012-12-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

by Jonathan Shoaf

As a boy growing up in a neighborhood full of kids, I understood the importance of a challenge. A challenge is where you put all your skills to use to beat an opponent. The challenge pushes you beyond your current skill level. It is something to prepare for and something to learn from. In my days the challenges involved things like throwing rocks, wrestling, and bicycle racing. Today, multiplayer video games are a more likely place to find millions engaged in a challenge against their fellow man.

“to boost my performance and become more valuable to my team”

Recently while playing one of these multiplayer video games it occurred to me that I learn the game for the same reasons I learn at work--to boost my performance and become more valuable to my team. I started to think about how I learn in the game. I quickly realized that there are many similarities between learning to excel at a multiplayer video game and learning to excel on the job. There are lessons here.

For a point of comparison, I've chosen the game Black Ops 2. This is a first person military battle game that is the latest iteration of the acclaimed Call of Duty franchise. The Call of Duty games have been the top selling video games for the past few years. For those unfamiliar with the multiplayer game, it's basically a game where you try get a higher score than the opposing team. You do this by gaining points every time you defeat an enemy player. Player ability and teamwork both come in play in order to win the game.

Here are some of the lessons that can be taken from Black Ops 2.

People don't have time for learning

In Black Ops 2 you are given a weapon and a countdown and suddenly you are in the midst of a fight. Stop to figure things out and you'll quickly be defeated. When the match is over, you have about one minute to lick your wounds and consider how you would do it differently next time. But the next match brings a different challenge and a different competitor. You don't have time to practice what you just learned.

The same is true on the job. Most people get thrown into a job and are asked to start performing. Even if an employee goes through some amount of formal training, they are still not completely prepared when they get started. An instructional designer may prescribe job aids or electronic performance support systems to those with limited time for formal learning.

Leverage mistakes as teachable moments

With so little time, how do you learn in Black Ops 2? The answer is real world teachable moments. The Call of Duty franchise has provided a simple moment of learning that every player is exposed to. It's called the Kill Cam. Each time you are defeated you get to see a replay of how the enemy defeated you. You learn their technique and can use it against other opponents. Skip the Kill Cam and you miss a potentially valuable lesson.

Well, most of us don't have the equivalent of a Kill Cam on the job. The closest learning tool to that may be to use coaching. A supervisor can bring in an employee after making a mistake and coach them on what do differently next time. Learning from our mistakes is what all of us animal-types do. Do you have a plan to leverage mistakes as teachable moments?

Talking to people makes a difference

On most gaming systems Black Ops 2 players have the ability to communicate with each other through voice chat. You can learn a lot from more experienced players. For example, you can share strategy for a particular situation against an enemy. Players can teach each other the best places to defend and score points against an enemy. You can also ask questions to other players who are often very forthcoming with their knowledge. Why won't my Dragon Fly deploy? The other player may know the answer.

Talking to people makes a difference on the job too. Just like in a game, some people are afraid to speak up and ask questions. As learning professionals, we should help setup environments for sharing. Examples of this may include apprentice/master relationships or social media and other knowledge sharing opportunities. Coach supervisors to set expectations that their employees should communicate and learn from each other.

There are some things that only experience can teach

You can understand all the weapons, all the support packages, and the rules of the game; but, when you step on the battlefield its not always apparent what to do next. Playing Black Ops 2 means you have to learn to adjust to unpredictable playing styles and situations that only experience will teach you how to handle. It's one thing to walk through a jungle with teammates with no signs of opponents. It's a completely different experience to walk through when you've heard a sniper up in the trees and you see another opponent coming down the path in front of you and you realize no teammates are there to support you. Another thing experience will teach you is to not stay in the same spot too long. Remember that Kill Cam? Opponents learn too.

Learning from experience is true on the job as well. An employee may know all the facts, but until they've handled a variety of situations over time, they'll still be lagging in performance to more experienced employees. Having newer employees partner with more experienced employees is one way to share some of the experience. However, there's not an easy substitute for true individual experience.

Call to Action Items in eLearning

2012-11-28T13:01:00.000-05:00

By Joseph Suarez

Add that item to your cart? Download a 30-day trial demo? Sign up for our monthly newsletter? Anytime we are called to act on the web, we are being asked to make a decision whether or not to fulfill the intended goal of the site owner. Web designers refer to such an attempt as a “call to action,” a sales and marketing term referring to any prompt or trigger leading toward a sale. But don’t let the salesmen approach deceive you, as they could also easily benefit eLearning professionals as well.

When designed correctly, the call to action stands out from the rest of the page to help draw the user in. Dropbox.com is a great example of a well-designed call to action landing page. The main call to action is to download Dropbox, which is backed up by the call to watch a video.

However, if a page is designed without intention, the call can be lost in page clutter. Calls to action often come in the form of a button or link, as the user is typically asked to take action on a separate page such as checking out on an e-commerce site or filling out a form to sign up for a newsletter. Sometimes however, as is often the case in eLearning, the call is to interact with a single page with no other goal than to absorb information. As an example of this, take a look at the site shown below.

Source: http://jetcooper.com

A subtle call to action statement invites us to “meet the team.” When we click on any portrait, we are shown an overlay with that person’s bio plus the option to cycle to other team members. This creates a beautifully simple yet effective call to action statement, leading to an interactive experience. Note how it was only implied to click or tap each portrait, and not redundantly stated.

The call to action in this example is made distinct by its location in the center of the page. Whether just plain-text instructions or links and buttons, calls to action work best when they’re visually distinctive from the rest of the surrounding content through the following contrasting techniques:

Size
Color
Placement
Animation effect (subtle)

For eLearning development, a good practice is to decide up front which contrasting method(s) will be used and then apply consistently. If nothing else, try using a nice contrasting color for call to action text (visually distinct from hyperlink text).

An appropriate call to action better ensures the learner won’t be left wondering what to do next. If there is some interaction to complete before clicking the Next button, that call should be clearly established. Consider also indicating when the Next button is safe to click. The default Articulate course player does this nicely by subtly flashing the next button when each slide is complete.

Technically, any button or link used in eLearning could be considered a call to action. Sometimes they are almost impossible to miss, like a button to submit an answer in a knowledge check. Often however, sections of eLearning content become crowded for space and messages can be missed. In these cases, it may be beneficial to take some cues from web design trends and apply some calls to action that are difficult to miss.

What types of calls to action have you seen or used?

Personify eLearning

2012-11-18T19:59:00.000-05:00

By Shelley A. Gable

As technology continues to command an increasingly prevalent role in our lives, it seems that our brains still respond better to a human touch. We can use this knowledge to help improve recall from eLearning lessons.

The research…

I’m in the midst of reading e-Learning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer (it’s really a must-read for anyone who designs instruction). One chapter describes studies that suggest that including coach-like characters in eLearning and similar on-screen agents benefits learning.

Reading this chapter reminded me of a study I heard about a while back, in which subjects completed an online lesson on a health-related topic. While completing the lesson, subjects were asked questions and prompted to type out responses. Group #1 was told that an actual person received their responses during the course, while Group #2 was told that they were simply interacting with a computer. In reality, both groups were interacting with a computer only. Post-test results showed that Group #2 performed better. The researchers hypothesized that the perception of social interaction benefitted learning. (For the record, I think I heard about this on NPR, though I couldn’t track down the story when I tried finding it for this post.)

So how can we add a human element to eLearning lessons?

Consider these approaches…

Present eLearning from the perspective of a coach. Rather than simply displaying words on a page, introduce a coach type of character who serves as the narrator, being the voice of presented information and activity feedback.

For example, the coach might be a manager who needs the learner to help accomplish a challenge. A few years ago, I designed an eLearning lesson about insurance options. The main character was a manager who needed someone to help her answer customers’ questions about insurance. The eLearning lesson conveyed information as though she was teaching it to the learner. When the learner responded to knowledge check questions, the manager provided feedback and any needed coaching.

Or, you might make the main character an experienced employee who takes the role of mentoring the learner. In some ways, the approach could be similar to the example described with a manager. Additionally, you could create challenges in which the learner competes against the experienced colleague. For instance, if a performance requirement is to complete a task within a specific amount of time, you might prompt the learner to compete with the other character (e.g., Abby can do it in 30 seconds – can you beat her time?).

Provide the learner with a collaborator. The main character within an eLearning lesson could be someone who needs to learn along with the learner. Perhaps a fellow new employee or other acquaintance.

For example, a lesson that introduces learners to the mortgage industry might include a character who is about to buy a house for the first time. The lesson challenges the two of them – the learner and the fictional first-time homebuyer – to learn about the industry together. The “telling” information in the lesson could be knowledge the homebuyer already possesses and is sharing with the learner. Then, the homebuyer poses specific questions to the learner, which the learner answers based on reviewing job aids or other available resources. Feedback to knowledge checks might take the form of the homebuyer agreeing that a response sounds right (for correctly answered knowledge checks) or that something still doesn’t make sense, with a suggestion of something else to consider (for coaching in response to incorrectly answered knowledge checks).

Make interactions feel personable. There are many ways to do this. For instance, write eLearning content in a conversational tone, rather than a formal, textbook-like tone. Even feedback for knowledge checks can feel more relatable when written somewhat informally (consider saying “Are you sure?” or “That doesn’t sound quite right” instead of “Incorrect”). The chapter mentioned earlier in e-Learning and the Science of Instruction also offers advice for making eLearning feel more personable, from using polite language to animating avatars to use natural gestures.

How have you done this?

If you’ve used any of the approaches above, please share your experiences! What was the situation? How did you approach it? What advice can you share? And, if you happen to be familiar with the unidentified study described toward the beginning of this post, I’d appreciate being pointed to the source!

3 Ways to Use Adobe Connect

2012-11-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

by Jonathan Shoaf

Adobe Connect is one of the leading virtual classroom products on the market. It has this reputation because it is user friendly, feature rich, reliable, and provides an identical experience for all users on all systems that support Adobe Flash. Adobe Connect competes in both the web conferencing and education markets.

There are several reasons it competes well when it comes to corporate learning. First, it is easy for learners to participate. All they need is a web-browser that supports Flash. There is no requirement to get IT involved. It also supports collaborative sharing and breakout rooms. It's video streaming and sharing capabilities are a step above the competition allowing presenters to push out video and pause video in the same spot for all partipants. And finally, it has robust polling and audience engagement features.

For all these reasons, Adobe connect can be used to do a variety of sharing and learning tasks online.

Lectures and Webinars

When there is a large number of participants and audience interaction is not a priority, Adobe Connect works well for these lectures and webinars. First, Adobe Connect allows presenters to share PowerPoint presentations. Event hosts can upload these ahead of time and Adobe Connect will convert them to a Flash format.

During a presentation, presenters may want to poll participants to guide the topics covered in the lecture. Adobe Connect has robust polling capabilities. Presenters can create polls ahead of time or on the fly. Presenters also have control over whether or not results are broadcast to the participants.

There are two roles Adobe Connect provides for teaming up on lectures and webinars. Hosts have the ability to create meetings and setup the structure for the participants to see. Presenters, on the other hand, do not need to be experienced with Adobe Connect. They can be invited by a host and simply control slides while the host handles all the other necessary tasks for a meeting.

It is important to also mention Adobe Connect's mobile capabilities here. Learners can participate in webinars from their Android or iPhone device. As a participant they will be able to see slides, hear audio, and participate in chat.

Colloborative Learning

Adobe Connect should not be thought of as a tool only for a large number of participants. In fact, some of the best features work for smaller groups. For example, nearly everything presented in Adobe Connect is a whiteboard. Attendees can use markup tools to annotate slide shows, images, and even streaming video.

Break out rooms are intelligently designed in Adobe Connect. Participants can be grouped into smaller rooms where they each become presenters and can share with each other. Group work done in these break out rooms can be shared with the rest of the class when the breakout sessions have ended.

Because it is Flash based, any Flash file can be imported and used in a meeting. These could be simulations, games, or self-paced e-learning modules. This allows the use of more interactive content to engage participants.

Personal Meeting Rooms

When is a virtual classroom not a classroom? When it's your own personal virtual office. When you create a room in Adobe Connect, it is persistent. It stays there until you tell it to go away. This means you can have a virtual office that is always available for meetings. You can have your meeting room's URL on your business card.

Adobe Connect's desktop sharing can be used to share information with others in these rooms. You can even take control of a participant's desktop (with their permission, of course).

Other benefits to having a meeting room include using a web cam so that attendees can see each other, sharing downloadable files with attendees, and using Adobe Connect's VoIP capabilities to allow meetings without the added cost of telephone conferencing.

These are just a few of the ways you can use Adobe Connect. It is a well thought out product that provides many options for interacting with and engaging remote participants. How do you use Adobe Connect?

Lectora Best Practices Part 3 – Using Text

2012-10-31T12:09:00.000-04:00

By Joseph Suarez

This is the third post in a series dedicated to best practices when using the eLearning authoring tool Lectora. Part 1 detailed how to optimize user preferences, and Part 2 went over using actions and variables. Part 3 will be all about text and formatting text in Lectora.

Using Lectora text styles
As mentioned in a previous post, Lectora text styles define the font, color, and size settings for selections of text or entire text blocks, and they automatically update all affected texts when changed. This is both a time saver, and a good way to stay consistent with text formatting throughout a course.

Paste unformatted text (Ctrl+Shift+V)
It’s common practice to use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to storyboard an eLearning course. Unfortunately, when you copy text from these programs and paste it into Lectora, extra hidden text formatting is carried with it. This can lead to text formatting problems, especially with bullet points. The simplest way around this is to paste text without any formatting. The universal shortcut for this (though oddly not available in Microsoft Office) is Ctrl+Shift+V.

Underline hyperlinks and only hyperlinks
A common web usability rule that should carry over to Lectora is to only underline text when using hyperlinks. This avoids confusion over what is or is not a hyperlink. As an alternative for emphasis, use bold or italicized text.

Use descriptive alt text on buttons and important images
Ever wonder why when you leave your mouse hovered over an image on a webpage, sometimes a little text tooltip pops up? Those are image alt tags attached to the HTML code. For example:

<img src="exampleImage.jpg" alt="An example image used to demonstrate alt tags">

Whatever is in the quotes after “alt=” will display when a mouse hovers over. In addition, the visually impaired rely on alt tag descriptions to describe what an image conveys or a button does. This also fulfills part of Section 508 compliance where “a text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided.”

In Lectora, whatever an image or button is named (as displayed in the Title Explorer pane) will be converted to its alt tag when published to HTML. Therefore, images that aren’t there just for decorative purposes should have alt tags enabled and named according to what is visually conveyed. Buttons should also be named according to what they do when clicked. For example a next button should not stay named “arrow47right,” but instead named something descriptive like “Go to next page.”

Convert text blocks with uncommon fonts to images
You know that super awesome font you downloaded and want to use in your Lectora course? Well, it’s not that easy. Unless every single computer viewing your course also has that font installed, all the text that used your special font will default back to an ugly Times New Roman.

The best way to ensure fonts display correctly is to stick to web safe fonts. But if for some reason you must use an uncommon font, you can choose to render the text as an image when published. This converts the image to a transparent gif image, but has some minor drawbacks:
•    The text inside can no longer be highlighted or copied.
•    The image should now have a text equivalent for 508 compliance (see above).
•    Being a transparent gif, there will be unintended pixel artifacts around the letters which will show if placed over any non-white background.

Conclusion
In no way has this series been an official or exhaustive list of Lecotra best practices. They are mostly time savers and development practices I’ve picked up from the helpful community of Lectora users and discovered on my own (usually the hard way). Please comment if you have any additional Lectora best practices of your own.

Using Video in eLearning

2012-10-24T21:24:00.000-04:00

by Dean Hawkinson

One of the growing trends in eLearning and mLearning these days is the use of video. Video, when used properly, can be a very effective tool in supporting the learning process, whether as a part of an eLearning course or as standalone videos delivered via mobile devices. I have been involved in several training projects that included video, and thought I would offer some thoughts around best practices and cautions when using video in an eLearning course.

When using video within an eLearning or mLearning course, it is important to keep it relatively short. In my experience, I have found that a single course should be no more than 30 minutes in order to keep the learner’s attention. As such, video should be short enough to be one of the supporting pieces of the overall course. For mLearning delivery via mobile devices, video is a very effective way to deliver a quick message as a standalone delivery, and I’ve found it works best when kept to 5-10 minutes for each clip.

For this article, I would like to focus on video in an eLearning course. Here are some ways that video can play a role in your courses:

Introduction or closing thoughts from leadership – For a course introducing a new product or program that you need to get your learners excited about, an introductory (or closing) video from your company’s senior leadership is a great way to get them motivated about what they are about to learn.
Demonstrate right and wrong behavior – A great example of this would be for a retail sales organization where you can show video of a customer interacting with a sales associate. Video is effective in showing both correct and incorrect behavior, and the use of humor for the incorrect behaviors can be very effective!
Introduce a behavior then test on reaction – Building on the customer interaction idea, using video to show part of the interaction and stopping to solicit the correct response from the learner is a great way to test knowledge and provide some practice in the process.

Let’s take a look at some reasons that support using video in your eLearning courses.

Breaks up monotony and “page turning” – We have all gone through eLearning courses that put us to sleep with “read…click…read…click…read…click…,” right? Video can enhance the learner’s overall experience by breaking up the monotony and can even introduce some entertainment to the learning.
Great way to show senior leadership support of program – It shows that the program or product you are introducing is supported by senior leadership, adding to its credibility.
Actual demonstration of right and wrong behavior without needing an instructor/facilitator – Video allows eLearning to provide instruction on these behaviors without the need for a live instructor or demonstration.

Alright, so we have talked about some ideas for using video and the benefits. However, using video is not without challenges. Here are a few:

Budget – Shooting a video requires equipment, skills, and resources beyond what is required for a typical eLearning course, resulting in a greater cost to produce the course.
Editing can take a while – Using video in your course does not exactly support rapid design and development. Depending on the complexity of the videos, editing can take quite a lot of time and resources to complete.
Logistics of scheduling the video shoot, resources, actors, etc. – Shooting video includes scheduling a time when all of your resources are available, obtaining a location for the shoot, and securing actors in some cases.
Where to house the video – Software such as Lectora allows you to imbed your videos directly in the course itself. Using the .FLV video format works best with Lectora but you will need to consider your authoring tool and delivery method to determine the best format to use. However, if you are unable to imbed the video and need to link to it, you need an external server to house the video.

These are just a few points about using video in your eLearning course. Do you have other experiences with using video that you would like to share?

E-learning Developer vs. Web Developer

2012-10-10T11:58:00.001-04:00

by Jonathan Shoaf

You know when to hire a plumber. You know when to hire an electrician. But do you know when to hire an e-learning developer? How do you know if you need a web developer?

Let's take a look at those roles. First, let's look at an e-learning developer. An e-learning developer will have the following abilities:

Knowledge of how to use an e-learning development tools such as Adobe Captivate, Lectora, or Articulate. Many developers specialize in one particular tool. However, it is not uncommon to for an e-learning developer to be skilled in several tools at the same time.
Multimedia. An e-learning developer will be able to use a variety of sounds, graphics, and video formats in an e-learning project.
Basic knowledge of e-learning deployment options. This includes developing for web, LMS, and even DVD distribution. An e-learning developer should have a basic knowledge of the versions of SCORM and know which version is appropriate for a project.
Knows the importance of instructional design on a project and respects the pedagogical choices made in a project.

Let's get real. You can't expect everyone who calls themselves an e-learning developer to have these skills. However, those are the skills you should look for when hiring an e-learning developer.

That's a pretty comprehensive list. So you may be asking why would I pay extra for a web developer? To answer that, let's look at some of the abilities you will gain in a web developer:

Knowledge of the underlying technologies of e-learning development tools. E-learning development tools are usually based on HTML or Flash technologies. A web developer has a deeper understanding of these technologies and can extend the abilities of these tools with that knowledge.
Integration. A web developer will know how to integrate an e-learning project with a variety of web-based tools. Got a PHP or ASP based server that need to talk to your e-learning? A web developer is the answer.
Multimedia. A web developer's knowledge of multimedia will often surpass that of an e-learning developer. A web developer will understand bandwidth and browser limitations related to multimedia and develop accordingly.
Ability to fix issues with an LMS. A web developer may have no prior experience with SCORM but they will be able to fix it or enhance it. SCORM is based on Javascript and web developers take pride in their ability to be a Javascript Ninjas.

I've found that web developer's generally have these basic skills. They often come from computer science backgrounds and schooling making them more predictable than e-learning developers. That said, you still need to filter candidates accordingly.

Do you think this will have an impact on your hiring decisions in the future?

Developer's Perspective of Adobe Captivate 6

2012-09-26T07:00:00.000-04:00

by Jonathan Shoaf

Some people get excited about the new fall TV shows in September. Baseball fans get excited for the MLB playoffs in October. Developers, like me, get excited for new releases of software. All the new features and improved workflows...how exciting!

Now that I've taken a look at the new release of Adobe Captivate I find myself only somewhat excited about making the upgrade from the previous version. Overall, Captivate 6 is still the same Captivate you know (and hopefully love). The user experience has not changed dramatically and most of the features are in the same old locations making it an easy upgrade to get up to speed on. Let's get into the meat of it.

PowerPoint Capabilities

Captivate 6 is continuing to improve its PowerPoint capabilities. The integration is better than ever supporting PowerPoint 2007 and 2010. Slides imported from captivate can be edited using an integrated PowerPoint editor making it easy for designers and developers that are more comfortable using PowerPoint.

Quizzing Improvements

I work with several instructional designers and one of their constant frustrations with Captivate in the past has been that you can't have a graded and non-graded quiz. Captivate 6 allows for non-graded quizzes as well as branching and partial scoring.

Introducing Themes

A welcome change for Captivate authors is the ability to apply themes. Adobe provides several themes out of the box. From my perspective as a developer, I like the fact that I can customize my own theme and share with my team of instructional designers.

Screen Capture Improvements

Captivate has always been my favorite tool for software simulations. It has nice screen capturing capabilities and lends itself to creating and modifying simulations. Adobe has improved on this by adding the ability to capture high definition full motion videos. Developers who have been frustrated in the past by missing animations during video capture will appreciate this new feature.

HTML 5 (eh, mobile) Improvements

Captivate 6 now has HTML 5 as an export option. Primarily this is added support for the iPad. I would have liked to see a more responsive design approach that adapts to the various screen sizes of mobile. Still, this is going in the right direction. Further, a single SCORM package can be exported that will adapt to Flash or HTML 5 depending on the learner's system. That's a nice touch.

And More

There are more improvements to Captivate 6 worth mentioning. Captivate 6 comes with character packs making it super easy to add characters to a slide. Also, Captivate 6 comes with a variety of interactions using the previously existing widget framework. These can provide for a more interactive knowledge transfer to learners.

Disappointments

Performance wise, Captivate 6 demands more computing power. I've got a three year old Windows 7 laptop and Captivate 6 runs very slowly. It doesn't look like Adobe put a lot of time into improving performance.

As an experienced developer, I would have liked to see improvements to the workflow surrounding interactivity. For example, the user interface surrounding advanced actions and variables looks virtually unchanged. I've often wished for improvements that would allow me to develop advanced conditional actions more quickly. Also, there appear to be no new action triggers which have led to the popularity of products such as Articulate Storyline and ZebraZapps.

Finally, I would have liked to see the ability to put buttons on the master slide. Pasting a button on each slide is not the ideal workflow. Along those lines, there do not seem to be a lot of improvements to make the usability of Captivate 6 more intuitive. I think Adobe would be well-served by doing a usability study to inform changes to a future release.

To sum up, there's nothing uber-exciting from my perspective with the new release. It's a solid release but it feels like patch work more than a creative rethinking of the product. Have you made the upgrade to Captivate 6? What's your experience?

Turn These Slides into eLearning

2012-09-14T00:28:00.000-04:00

By Shelley A. Gable

Ever been handed a PowerPoint slideshow by a client, with the request to convert it into some kind of eLearning thingy?

Oh…and then also told that you only have a week to get it done? (And of course, this is in addition to whatever you already planned to accomplish this week.)

Even if you can’t influence “the powers that be” to allow more time for a proper analysis or to use a different approach, consider taking the actions below to produce a reasonably effective eLearning lesson relatively quickly.

Ask the client what learners must be able to DO after completing the training. Even if the situation doesn’t allow you to conduct a gap and cause analysis to validate the training need, asking this question helps ensure that the training has the potential to influence behavior.

Additionally, creating a quick list of what learners must be able to do can help you:

Write objectives
Create relevant scenarios
Chunk and organize the content around desired behaviors/tasks
Distinguish between critical and nice to know information

Write scenarios immediately. I’ve heard some people say that when deadlines are tight, there just isn’t time to write scenarios. I understand how writing scenarios can feel like an extra task, considering that scenarios are probably not included in the original pile of content. However, scenarios benefit learning in so many ways, it’s hard to justify spending time picking out Clip Art to decorate slides rather than writing even a few simple scenarios.

After all, consider these benefits:

Introducing a task with a scenario (i.e., a problem for learners to solve) offers an immediate reason for learners to pay attention to the content
Presenting scenarios “shows” learners the relevance of the content
Providing scenarios for learners to successfully solve helps learners confirm they understand the content, builds confidence, and creates a sense of satisfaction/accomplishment (i.e., scenarios help create “ah ha!” moments)
Describing a scenario can help learners recognize when to apply new knowledge on the job (i.e., they can potentially recognize “triggers” from a scenario when those same “triggers” occur on the job, prompting them to apply desired behaviors)

Even under the tightest of timelines, really simple scenarios likely offer some benefit compared to presenting information with no scenarios at all. If you attempt to draft scenarios immediately, you can send them to your client and allow a day or two for review, while you charge ahead with reorganizing and revising content.

Or, ask the client if a subject matter expert can write scenarios for you. If a lack of time or familiarity with the content makes you question your ability to draft decent scenarios, perhaps the client knows someone who can do that part for you. Depending on the complexity of the training, a subject matter expert might be able to draft a few scenarios relatively quickly and easily.

Cut the nice to know information whenever possible. Many of the client-produced PowerPoint decks I’ve seen include a lot of extra information that won’t necessarily help learners do a task. In some cases, it is because the deck was originally compiled for a different type of audience and/or purpose. Perhaps the extra information was relevant for that audience, and now it is my responsibility to determine whether it is relevant for my intended audience. In other cases, it may be because the client doesn’t know how to distinguish between critical versus nice to know information. After all, as instructional designers, this distinction tends to be on our minds more than it is for others.

The point I’m trying to make is this: Don’t assume that all the information in the deck you receive must also appear in training. Focus on what learners must do after training, and attempt to narrow content down to the information that directly instructs those behaviors.

How do you handle these requests?

If you have your own set of strategies for turning a stack of PowerPoint slides into an eLearning lesson, please share!

Discovering Adobe InDesign for eLearning

2012-08-30T23:10:00.000-04:00

By Dean Hawkinson

If you have been developing eLearning for any period of time, you have probably used several of Adobe’s applications to create engaging and interactive courses. With Adobe Captivate, you can create some great system simulations. With Adobe Flash, you can create interactive elements that take your courses to the next level of engagement and even create entire courses. You can create and edit images for your eLearning using Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator. Recently, however, I stumbled across another great tool in the Adobe family – Adobe InDesign.

What Is InDesign?

Adobe InDesign is a tool for creating those things that partner with your eLearning courses, such as resource guides or job aids.You can make them interactive for web deployment and include elements such as Flash files, iPad or any other Apple product.

If you are simply creating a PDF document for printing, you would select Adobe PDF (Print) as your option. Your design of the document would be much simpler, so the end user could easily print it for future reference.

Other Export options for InDesign include the following:

EPS
Flash Professional (FLA)
Flash Player (SWF)
InDesign Markup (IDML)
XML

What InDesign Cannot Do

InDesign is not for creating eLearning or SCORM-compliant standalone courses. It will not interact with an LMS for scoring. However, it can easily be incorporated into an eLearning course using one of the several export options mentioned above.

Tips for Using InDesign

In the brief time I have been using Adobe InDesign, I have found it very useful for creating an online resource guide or job aid to partner with other eLearning elements. For example, in two recent projects, we created eLearning courses for deployment via the LMS. However, squeezing too much information into a web-based course can be overwhelming for the learner and impact retention of the information. So, we created resource guides with an interactive web-based feel to be available via an online tool to partner with the eLearning courses. These resource guides are accessible at any time and include more detail and information than the web-based courses.

I like to create a menu of links to each section within the document that appears on each page, so that the learner can click the links to jump to each section. When you use the Interactive PDF option, the learner can select “Full Screen” as an option, which provides the document with a complete web page look and feel. As with PowerPoint’s master slide functionality, you can easily create master pages and apply each one to different pages throughout the document. This makes it easy to include interactive menu items, copyright information that needs to be on each page, or other elements that would be the same throughout a series of pages.

One problem that I did run into with InDesign was using Flash (SWF) files imbedded into the document. For some PCs, the Flash elements worked fine. However, for others, strange things would happen, such as a black background showing up behind text or moving images in the Flash element, making it very hard to read or view. I could never determine a pattern or reason for this, so I ended up not using the Flash elements at all.

Consider the size of your document as well when deciding what elements to use. It might be a better end-user experience if you link out to videos and other items rather than imbedding them if they are large in size. You don’t want learners getting frustrated at long load times with your document.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very excited about learning more about this tool and using it in my eLearning “arsenal” of tools. Have you had any experience using InDesign or any tips you would like to share?

Practice Early and Coach the Details Later

2012-08-23T23:27:00.000-04:00

By Shelley A. Gable

A typical training design is to start by telling learners everything we want them to know about a topic or a task, and then we eventually give them an opportunity to practice.

For a training project I recently started, a team member said something that resonated with me: Let’s make sure learners are practicing this stuff as early as possible. In other words, minimize the presentation and discussion at the start of a lesson, and unleash learners to practice performing new tasks and solving problems as quickly as possible.

That’s not to say we should push learners into practicing a task they’re completely unprepared for. After all, letting learners flounder too much can result in frustration, shaken confidence, and wasted time. Instead, the trick is to tell and/or show learners just enough to help them start trying a new task. Then, let them dive into a scenario, perhaps allowing them to experience some trial and error, and then offer additional information in the form of post-practice coaching.

What are the advantages of this approach?

Reduces cognitive overload early in the lesson.

Research on cognitive load tells us that people can only absorb a limited amount of information in a single sitting. So, if an eLearning lesson begins with several pages of new information, learners will likely forget a portion of that.

Why would we spend time presenting information that will likely be forgotten?

If we limit the amount of information a lesson initially presents, we increase the likelihood that learners will recall it. Prompting them to apply that new information as soon as possible further helps promote long-term recall. And, it helps ensure that we use training time productively.

To offer a very simple example, suppose an eLearning lesson teaches learners how to change an address in a customer database. You might start the lesson by simply showing them how to access the function, and then teach them about nuances later (e.g., which line to indicate an apartment number, proper abbreviations, forbidden characters, etc.).

Maintains attention.

We’ve all been there: Long lectures or pages of reading often leaves our minds to wander.

But if we’re in the midst of solving a challenge, we’re more likely to feel engaged. So, if we spend less time presenting information upfront, we might have fewer drifting minds. And, if training has a continuous pattern of short spurts of information followed by immediate application, learners might feel more accountable for paying attention to that information, knowing they will need to use it right away.

Increases reflection and processing.

Suppose you’ve only provided enough information at the start of a lesson to help learners ease into some initial practice. Chances are, there’s probably more they need to learn (e.g., consider the nuances of changing an address from earlier). By presenting this additional information after learners experience the task, you can now prompt them to think about it in the context of their experience.

For example, suppose the address change scenario that learners practiced right away included an apartment number…

If an initial presentation at the start of the lesson instructed learners to indicate an apartment number in Address Line 2 (for example), this fact may have just seemed like one tidbit in a sea of other facts at the start of the lesson. Therefore, learners may or may not recall it by the time they get to a practice scenario later.

If you wait to address it until after the scenario, you can now present it as a form of coaching and feedback. Learners will likely take interest in the information at that point, because they want to confirm whether they did it correctly during the practice scenario. So, you’ve increased their level of engagement with the fact and prompted them assess their performance. Even if they did it incorrectly during the initial scenario, they will likely feel a sense of accomplishment when they perform it correctly in a later scenario.

How do you do this?

Do you already make it a point to get learners “doing” as early as possible in training? If so, how do you accomplish it? And what benefits or challenges have you observed?