The Science and Business of Learning

This blog has moved!

2011-11-30T18:19:00.001-05:00

Here

Please join me at the new location to have interesting conversations. Also, feel free to let me know what would you like to hear more about and we can cater to your interest in the Learning, OD, Education, and Innovation space. Thanks and see you around.

My Initial Response to Google+

2011-07-21T16:04:00.014-04:00

What will be the fate of Facebook, now that Google+ is here? From my perspective Goggle+ has the advantage of Google universe of Search, Docs, Picasa photo,Chrome, extensions for Chrome, Google Reader, and Google books, all in one! It is essentially the 'to-be' social support system if you will. Perhaps not everyone will echo my sentiments, but from the 1000 users who responded to a question on their impression of Google+, my vote would be for this social support role. In my opinion, Facebook never envisioned itself to occupy that space.

Google+ has the potential to be the top governing layer to all other google services. The Sparks feature uses the same search algorightms, and therefore, one need not necessarily think about another search engine. After you have done your search, add the searched entity to 'Sparks' and you have your alerts, but much more detailed!

Google's education business will definitely leverage Google+ as the social layer to its Google Apps. Integration issues would be sorted quickly for business.

For organizations that do not have a centralized collaboration space, or more importantly a Knowledge Management space Google+ will surely work, especially if there is a vision and a desire to enhance, and promote collaboration and innovation. Facebook was never perceived as that collaboration space.

Challenge from a business perspective would be potential security issues. From a casual perspective, I have had three friends, and two acquaintances tell me they will not join 'one more social network'. That might change soon, or might not, but the number of Google+ users is increasing every day.

However, it is the integration of Google+ to its various web applications that gives it a sense of pervasiveness that the closed 'Facebook' does not have the benefit of.

Finally, the upcoming Google+ API should demonstrate the interoperability and openness of the platform. I look forward to stories of Google+. If you have a good story, add it to comments.

Updates-

7/22/11- 20 million users on Google+ as of today http://mashable.com/2011/07/22/google-plus-apple-hulu

Interesting interview with Vic Gundotra, and Bradley Horowitz of Google or should I say Google+?
http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/21/live-webcast-the-google-team-answers-your-questions-thursday-545pm-pt-tctv/

Innovation all around!

2010-08-15T09:54:00.018-04:00

Imagine this scenario- you just learnt that someone in your organization had an idea which was ground breakingly innovative, and had the potential to turn around the loss making entity. No big deal there, except that the idea went undiscovered for 32 long years!

This actually happened in a yarn manufacturing unit, which was suffering from yarn breakage problems and so losing markets ( Kanter, HBR 10 Essential Reads). A newly hired executive, who believed that innovative ideas can come from everywhere encouraged people to speak up. An immigrant worker suggested an idea, and when asked how long did he have this idea, he answered, "32 years".

Nobody had heard about this idea, because nobody had asked!

Innovation can come from every direction, not only top down, and that was my take away. Serendipity, that same evening my father told a story about his practice when designing and manufacturing a product for his customers. My father has been an engineering expert for the last 40 years and successfully runs his own company. He makes sure that the welder, and the lathe worker are part of the initial product design and estimation, and one day when he and his foreman were ideating on a product, it is this welder who identified that the rod was thick, and not suitable for what they were thinking, and suggested an option to make this work!

A lesson in innovation right in my own home!

Just take away a few things such as-

1. Ask

2. Be open to ideas from anywhere

3. Do not reject anything before having examined it thoroughly

4. Smart people are all around you, ask and ask again, this time for their opinion

5. If you have the power to authorize, and you believe the idea makes sense..prototype.

This does seem over-simplified now, does it not? Well, use all the innovation models you wish while making sure you implement the first four points always.

As a Learning and Talent Management professional, I see big lessons learned here. In this supremely 'interactive' age, are you harnessing the potential and knowledge of all the employees of your company?

Think about an opportunity here to be able to impact Learning and Development of employees, business goals and strategy of the organization as a whole, a cultural shift from 'innovation is top down', and Talent retention and management.
In subsequent posts, I want to dig deeper into Innovation, Learning and Talent Management.

Now back to my coffee at Starbucks in Times Square, NYC.

Questions to ask when recommending a LE/LMS

2010-08-14T10:20:00.005-04:00

For a while now, my colleagues wanted me to give them pointers on questions to ask of their clients when helping them identify a Learning Environment/Learning Management System. These are some of the thoughts I consider critical, and have found repeated success when following through on them..

What are the learning/teaching/training goals of the client? This will impact not only course design but choice of LMS-e.g only self-paced, hybrid, totally facilitated (virtually ofcourse when talking about a Learning Environment/LMS).
How many learners/students does the customer expect over the next 2-3 years?
How many different courses and cohorts do you expect over the next year or two?
Ask for the source of all their content, and not just what you are producing or designing for them i.e. produced in-house, or bought from other vendors as well.
Ask what would be the revision cycle for the content. You will want to gauge how easy will it be on the LMS you recommend, and how will your LMS vendors take that change? There will be a minimal cost or sometimes even a significant cost associated with it.
See if the customer would like to bring additional content onto the LMS.
Ask for their go-live date. Critical information in case of customizations.
Ask for need of an auto-generated certificate.
Determine the design of the course or curriculum that needs to go onto the LMS at the outset. That will also determine the choice. If there are more than course/curriculum understand design of all.
Ask if customer needs language support beyond English.
Does the LMS need to be SCORM compliant? If customer is not informed on SCORM, recommend SCORM compliant content, and SCORM 1.2 for now. Only a few LMSs are SCORM 2004 compliant.
What would you like to track? E.g start/finish/in progress, grades ( which activities), time spent in the program, time spent on an activity, peer-peer interaction (assuming the LMS has those features of social learning) and time spent by coach or mentor
How robust should the management reporting capability be? Worry about this a lot when they start talking of integration with People soft, CRM software and the likes.
Check for any other IT systems integration requirements. Sometimes the customer may not realize the need for it until you start asking them questions around enrollment process, grade passing process into a MIS etc.
Check importance of security of content, and user data. Will determine preference for Software as a service (SAAS) or on-site hosting of LMS.
Determine if they have administration and management personnel, or you need to provide that service?

Finally, hear very closely their aspirations to include social learning. Not all LMSs have all the features to facilitate social learning per your client's vision. Again, make all effort to penetrate the invisible layer.

Mobile Learning 101

2010-06-19T13:06:00.014-04:00

Our preferences have changed over time. Remaining connected is a priority, whether it is for social purposes or work. And between these two priorities we want time for personal growth, and development.

Learning through mobile devices though not exactly a panacea, is certainly the most feasible solution in many ways in today's times. To possess a wi-fi enabled mp3 player, a smart phone, or a feature phone is the norm. To have a couple smart phones ( one from work, and a personal one), a netbook, and perhaps an ipad, or tablets as released in the future would be sign of ‘in touch with times’. Advances in technology (3G and 4G) networks, newer apps on a daily basis, and an appetite for mobile devices are now able to meet the business drivers midway, and thus provide a strong platform for growth and adoption of mobile learning (mlearning).

However, the adoption is slow, and that is partly due to misconceptions related to mobile learning.

Misconceptions-

• It is device dependent- again, not necessarily, unless the subject matter, and learning design demand specialized features e.g if your mobile solution requires VOIP, or is a distributed simulation or is a location-based learning exercise, a point and shoot, or a scavenger hunt based learning where there may be a need for an in-built camera. However, if you are looking at standard audio, video, interaction features, or a sms based solution (provided it is enabled as a service in the plan), most devices available in the market will meet the requirements (use/non-use of Flash is certainly to be remembered)! Browser based deployments may eliminate requirement for specialty ‘Apps’ or other capital expenditures.

• There will be capital expenditure- no, not really. Specialists in education, and technology would work with you to understand the business and learning drivers. They invest in infrastructure, and build service capabilities so that you do not have to.

• You may have to work with mobile operators- no, you would not have to. Your educational, and learning partner will invest in learning design research, technology research, and invest in infrastructure after having studied the state of the market, and therefore you would not have to worry about it (they would also think about coverage by a mobile operator when considering solutions)!

How to find success with mobile learning?

• Identify immediate audiences that could benefit from mobile learning- sales force, process technicians, project managers, marketing & advertising professionals, and HR professionals may immediately benefit from ‘Just in time’, ‘Performance Support’ type learning initiatives. Identify the requirements, or use experts to help you do that.

• Partner with experts- Experts in this area understand prevailing standards, and ensure that design, and deployment adheres to those standards. Standards in question are

Content Design ( Instructional and Visual) standards- Flash does not work on iphones. HTML5 though excellent as a learning object development tool, is still developing. However, innovations galore, and with the right instructional design, usability considerations, and appreciation of available content development tools, and technology appropriate content design standards would be considered from the outset.

Technical standards (devices used by your entire audience may vary significantly)- Devices differ, and so what works on one device may not on another (flash based learning modules will not work on iPhone), location aware functionalities may not be available on all devices.

Learning Environment/LMS- Choice of the learning environment and requirement for tracking of learning interaction, and completion are a primary requirement in most cases. Selecting an appropriate learning environment which is either mobile friendly, has native apps, or a platform that ‘pushes’ content to the mobile device are critical to the success of a mlearning initiative.

• A compelling business model- Expertise drawn from in-house resources, and strategic partnerships with content, technology, and related services providers will jumpstart your mlearning initiative. Strategic partnerships also ensure commitment, quality, and can potentially help in building a long term product strategy. Commitment of partners ensures advice, and risk mitigation by experts, thus leading to a successful mlearning initiative.

References-

Ambient Insight, June 22, 2008, Web site: http://www.ambientinsight.com/Default.aspx

Education for Employability

2010-05-20T19:00:00.018-04:00

We, at Pearson Education developed a hybrid skills-based learning program for Vital Voices Global Partnership . Business Management Essentials™ (BME) helps participants master crucial management skills and concepts—and quickly apply them in their own organizations. Designed to help both students and training partners succeed, BME develops highly effective managers through a proven, workplace-oriented, internationally-recognized curriculum.

Today, as workforce development becomes a key requirement to accelerate the economy, relevance of such skills-based programs increases dramatically, when compared with only academic qualifications.

I draw immense pride knowing that at Pearson, caring for the workforce is a part of the ethos, and not just business. In my next post, I shall be talking about the design methodology employed to develop this program, and the universal applicability of this methodology.

Web 2.0 for Learning?

2009-12-13T18:14:00.005-05:00

Really enough has been said about using Web 2.0 technology apps for learning. Enough especially when it is suggested that Flickr, Zing, Posterous, Slideshare and others are all Web 2.0 apps for learning. So, I want to examine what makes a software program, an app for learning.

Let us start by thinking-

1. Is it an app that facilitates learning, or is it the learning design that facilitates learning?
2. Can an app inspire creative, and sound learning design principles in the creator?

This is not to say that the above mentioned apps, and others mentioned in this league cannot foster learning. They sure can, but what they need is a design hand to work on it. Exceptions to this rule are collaboration tools such as googlewave, or Etherpad which have been designed with the express intent of collaboration, either in learning formally, or fostering informal learning at work, or school.

As a learning sciences student for life, I therefore beg to differ with bloggers and presenters who wish to collate names of apps/tools and call them apps for learning. Learning design is the key!

Virtual World as a Learning Environment-Part 1

2009-11-29T12:15:00.011-05:00

Use of Virtual Worlds for learning is supposed to have made significant progress in the last few years. However, per the latest figures from an eLearning Guild research, out of 6500 respondents 53.95% of respondents replied in the negative to the question, “How often does your organization use Virtual Worlds to deliver training and learning?” .

One of the significant reasons for this is the misconception that Virtual Worlds such as Second Life or other custom worlds were meant to be only networking and socializing spaces. While this may have been an initial reason for adoption, use of VW in the world of learning and training has made significant progress since then. Many content domains find Virtual Worlds as a good learning environment including those of business, language learning, science teaching-principles and concepts to name a few.

Virtual worlds are extremely effective for training and teaching, provide a better than 2D experience and mimic a real-life like classroom experience. This is true however when one leverages affordances of the virtual world. Needless to say that this can happen only through powerful learning design and pedagogy. Examples of sound design and pedagogy include

immersion and constructionist learning possibilities
Collaboration between participants/within cohort
self directed learning through embedded learning objects

Seymour Papert’s learning theory of Constructionism propounds that learning occurs when mental models are reconstructed, and students are able to create meaningful products at the end of a learning activity or initiative. These products could be an article they write, a lesson plan, a product they create virtually, a story or being able to suture a patient’s cut, creation and manipulation of engineering systems to name a few.

In Virtual worlds, when constructionist learning opportunities occur in collaboration with peers; social interaction, directed and spontaneous peer to peer teaching and learning, and large group learning opportunities are easily facilitated, simulating real life classroom environment. VW technology facilitates geographically dispersed learners to come together and interact, participate in the learning activities, and even conduct training events and meetings.

Finally, design of learning activities and immersive nature of the environment ensure that learners retain interest and keep coming back for more. To reiterate, it is the learning design which will make a learning experience, whether it be in a classroom or a Virtual World. At work, am focused on creating one such opportunity. Will talk about it in the next part of this piece.Meanwhile, as always, am happy to hear from you..

Reference-

Linden, H. (2006). Homeland security comes to secondlife. New World Notes. Retrieved from http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2005/10/homeland_securi.html

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms:Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. New York:Basic Books, Inc.

Roussos, M., Johnson, A., Moher, T., Leigh,J., Vasilakis, C., & Barnes, C. (1999) Learning and Building Together in an Immersive Virtual World

The Invisible Layer

2007-09-06T19:21:00.000-04:00

Penetrating the invisible layer is the key to finding the challenge/opportunity/ need. Invisible layer in consulting is about finding the ailment that plagues the system, or identifying that business need, which will propel the company towards a growth path and sometimes save it from extinction.

Penetrating the invisible layer as a Learning Consultant then is all about identifying what the company needs. Does it need a training initiative, does it need better processes or is it a better marketing or operational approach. Why does the company want a training program? Why is it targeting a particular audience and why should you suggest one approach over another? Finding answers to these questions is always helpful in breaching the invisible layer.

Every learning solutions company worth its salt will penetrate the invisible layer in every opportunity through smart people, processes and solutions. You will know what sort of a learning solutions company you have employed when you start saying- man.. these guys are asking too many questions, or wow! that is a good question. :-)

Impressions on Informal Learning

2007-06-10T23:10:00.005-04:00

I undertook an exploratory study on Informal Learning in organizations. For the purpose of this study, I defined Informal Learning as learning, which occurs outside of structured environments, is most often incidental, and at times not. When learning happens from material obtained from a company blog, or any other resource on the net or the library to name a few, and at the learner's initiative, it becomes conscious self-directed learning, but stil informal. Here the onus of learning is more on the individual, rather than on the organization and neither on the superior who recommends training in a performance appraisal or otherwise. This is conscious informal learning. Unconscious or incidental informal learning is that which occurs during conversations which spring up spontaneously in cafeterias, on break-out sessions, or over those walk-in chats with mentors.

My sample consisted of 15 executives, managers and consultants from the training and development organization of companies and from other functions such as SCM, IT infrastructure and others. I studied their impressions of informal learning, barriers to informal learning, and facilitating factors.

Not surprising that Organization Culture was considered the most significant factor that fostered or hindered informal learning. Support from senior management and supervisor was ranked second. Third most important factor was means to harness informal learning in organizations, which speaks to creation of Communities of Practice (Wenger,1987) as also use of Knowledge Management Software and Web 2.0 tools within the organization, among other things.

Some would comment that the moment we harness informal learning floating around the organization, we make it formal. I would say we just make that informal learning more available to others, just that it is no longer incidental. This still allows learner the opportunity to be self-directed.

To conclude, focus on informal learning is the call of the time, if the organization is to make learning a more meaningful activity- with far higher returns. While formal training cannot be eliminated, as was done by a corporation ( Cross, 2005) it is necessary that the learning and development divisions of organizations start appreciating the power of informal learning and find means of integrating it into formal learning initiatives. Simultaneous acknowledgement of informal learning at the highest levels in organizations will initiate and sustain a redesigned organization culture and design.

If there is an environment which breeds trust, team spirit and is not a totally individualized competitive environment as one of the respondents on my survey mentioned, then there is a possibility that informal learning initiatives can be a success in organizations. While informal learning is mostly incidental, creating opportunities for such incidents to happen more often than not would be the role of the senior management and the learning and development organizations, as has been done by Google, by creating fun environments at work so that teams and individuals get to come closer, and share an enriching working relationship (Cross, 2005).

As this is a relatively young , unexplored and underutilized mode of learning, organizations such as Training and Development and IT within the company need to be cognizant of their responsibilities in fostering this environment and sensitize people to exploit this opportunity e.g. through education of technology used to harness informal learning, so that employees can dip into that pool, as and when required. Over and above everything, while recognizing that organizations can do a lot to promote informal learning, it is also important for individual employees to take initiative for their growth and development, as mentioned earlier.

Finally, appreciation for informal learning is increasing, and organizations that go leaner and more networked will find it increasingly easy to harness that learning, assuming it is ready and willing to do so.

There are a couple concerns that need thought. ROI and Standardization of informal learning are not addressed in most of the literature that is around, but is definitely a concern for organizations, as mentioned to me by a Senior Learning Personnel from a professional services firm. My intuition is that leveraging technology and ensuring a conducive organization environment can address these questions. While i do not have any empirical data to support my claim, it would not be far-fetched to say that encouraging employees to form communities of practice, using blogs and wikis to read, reflect and respond and coaching those who require some help through apprenticeship will ensure some amount of standardization in content and context.

****Update*****
The Skills Minister of UK emphasizes effectiveness of informal learning and encourages organizations to facilitate more of it..
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/topic/informal-learning-story-publish-26-aug/146054

Think like a Duck!

2007-05-23T22:22:00.002-04:00

The incident narrated here, happened at a coffee shop, with a group of people, all in the business of learning and literature. Here we were, two project managers in an elearning company, this poet from the Menominee tribe of Native Americans and I.

As is the story of every project manager’s life, this friend was talking about work pressure, and fire fighting despite project plans, fishbone analysis and management reviews. Marcus the poet, was listening to us very patiently until then, asking questions, showing interest in the world of project managers, and at that instance when my project manager friend said, “ I am so stressed….”, comes this line and then the anecdote of, “Think like a Duck..”.

Just as a duck keeps swimming irrespective of the rains and other turbulences caused on water, so should a project manager let it all pass, while doing what needs to be done! I could not help but notice the shine in my friend’s eyes. The lesson hit home, it rung a bell, struck a chord. Say what you will, but that is a learning, which I am sure my friend will mull over tonight. This example will stay in his mind, probably form a schema and in the form of an analogy, maybe recalled by my friend when he passes through similar situations.

Today evening’s conversation was just another example of informal learning, happening in company of peers. Maybe, we need to create more opportunities or allow more opportunities for such conversations in organizations. Effectiveness of such learning opportunities remains to be determined, but a seed is definitely sown in such environments.

In my opinion, the implications for instructional design: to build in analogies to activate representations, and thus promote easier learning as also better retention and recall. One definitely would use it, where it is best utilized.

(To read more about Analogy, and the properties of analogy that activate representations, one may want to read Gentner,D. To read up on representations, one may want to look at papers by Rumelhart & Ortony, disessa, Sherin to name a few).

Time is ripe for Conversations and Storytelling

2007-05-11T21:19:00.000-04:00

The Art of Storytelling has been around ever since the times of Panchatantra and before. While there is debate on when did Panchatantra originate, a lay man can settle for 3rd Century B.C. Panchatantra is a collection of fables written by Vishnu Sharma. These fables were used to help stupid princes evolve into smart monarchs. It is supposed to have worked then.

And it still seems to be working- Storytelling!

I guess I have stopped being amazed about the fact that an idea takes shape almost simultaneously in many minds. That I would have a wonderful conversation with my mentor on 29th April, and then think about conversations as a learning tool in organizations and that there would be a Storytelling weekend by Smithsonian Associates in DC around the same time speaks as much about arrival of the Period of Storytelling, as does about the merits of storytelling and conversations as a learning tool. That Pandit Vishnu Sharma and Prof. Schank have talked about it then and now, is a good reason for Instructional Designers and Learning (Training, if you must) managers to think about using storytelling as a learning tool.

Discourse

2007-05-03T22:18:00.000-04:00

Today was an intersting day in terms of learning about Discourse in Classroom, and role of technology / Use of techology to foster discourse, foster learning in as ethnically diverse communities/societies as villagers in Andhra Pradesh and communities in Central Asia. The talk on Scientific Discourse in Classrooms by a senior Learning Sciences, PhD student (Kuhn, L) at NU and the latter, a talk by Prof. Srinivasan (UCLA). The aspect common to both these talks was the emphasis on role of discourse either as sense-making tool or as community building and knowledge enhancing tool. Interestingly, this relates to my interests in understanding discourse in a self-directed or in-formal, if you may setting along with that of my advisor (Prof.Reiser) and a PhD candidate (Umphress, J).

While the classroom setting is significantly different from the museum setting, and the settings as talked in Dr. Srinivasan's projects, the commonality between all is that discourse is being thought of as an exploratory tool to make sense of things, events, and curriculum. Ever since I have started my journey at NU as a student of LS, I cannot help but compare and contrast the pedagogy as adopted in this program, the research on discourse and the pedagogy adopted by educationists in India at all levels of education (some MBA courses do not fall into this category!). An extremely directive approach, less of an exploratory and research based approach is what has been the hall-mark of education that I have pursued. While that approach has produced tons and tons of brilliant minds and successful professionals and researchers, it could have also failed in allowing students the opportunity to be excited about discovery, about inquiry. And in my understanding, the elements of discovery and inquiry foster engagement in learning.

It is this element, that makes people think about things, instead of getting used to standard approaches and standard solutions. While i am not sure how much is this point a focus of the studies mentioned above, I am sure that it is playing a significant role in their research questions. This definitely has played a very significant role in the field of discourse and the field of inquiry-based learning, of which Prof. Reiser is a renowned figure.

There sure are take aways from all different approaches to learning, and I guess the deal is always about trade-offs. And still, improvisations and new learnings is what keeps things ticking.

Conversations as learning opportunities

2007-04-29T22:57:00.000-04:00

Conversations as learning opportunities (environments?)!

This race talks and talks a lot. There are dinner table conversations, bar stool conversations, coffee and conversations. And then there are discourses in lecture halls, lectures in conference rooms, power-packed corridors, mentoring meetings, museums and zoos. Discourse as a means of teaching is studied widely in education. I am interested in understanding role of discourse and conversations as means of informal education in a corporate setting. Discourse in organization in my understanding, plays a definite role not in learning within the organization, but could also be a means to support Organization Change Management. A couple things are of interest to me here: discourse analysis in corporate settings and inducement of occasions that foster educational conversation. And role of conversations in employee education. ( makes me think of conversations with a mentor!) Am thinking about it. May write more soon.. meanwhile some food for thought:

"Conversations are the way workers discover what they know, share it with their colleagues, and in the process create new knowledge for the organization. In the new economy, conversations are the most important form of work..so much so that conversation is the organization."- Alan Webber

Animations in Learning

2007-04-14T23:38:00.000-04:00

"Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive"- Walt Disney
Well, i would like to modify this quote such- "Well-designed animations can help explain some things better. There is tremendous literature out there which talks about use of multi-media in learning. Industries have come up due to this understanding. The concern though is, that not all mult-media tools, not all animations developed aid learning.
A few tips to keep in mind when using animations:
1.Usage of animations should be directed by the complexity of the concept/content to be taught. Animation can well explain procedures,cycles or workflow, but may not be as effective in explaining discriptive text (Large et al, 1994). Thus effectivness of animations is largely dependent on the attributes of the learning material.
2. Use of animation would also depend on the visuo-spatial ability of the target audience. Typically, every individual has a reasonable amount of spatial ability, but for differently gifted people, that may not be the case. For such audiences, animations may actually increase cognitive activity, thereby hindering basic learning processes.
3. Concepts explained through animation need as much assessment as do concepts explained without animations.

These are just some of the many factors that should influence the use of animation in the learning material.

Reference:
ChanLin, L. Journal of Instructional Psychology.

Social Networks and Diffusion of Best Practices

2007-04-06T00:49:00.001-04:00

Have just begun work on understanding how learning diffuses across social networks in organizations. Literature that i am reading leads me to look at best practices as one of the many different learning materials. Its diffusion across and within organizations as noted in literature is determined by and attributed to various causes, one of which is the design of the organization. A question that i am trying to find an answer to is, what would be the strenght of social networks in determining the adoption of the best practices? Given that determinants could range from presence of external forces that compell an organization to accept a best practice to presence of early adopters, the above question can be indicative of the strenght of various determinants.

Unbounded Learning

2007-04-03T01:25:00.000-04:00

Online Learning has helped transcend geographical boundaries. This refers to development, deployment and availability issues. Concerns arise when one starts thinking in terms of catering to different learner segments. Learner can be segmented by Age, Language and Culture to name a few. Age and language get addressed in needs analysis. What does get missed often is the cultural identification of the target audience. Research demonstrates the need for customzing the learning artifact to incorporate the cultural nuances. this can be done by capturing the prior knowledge brought to the table by the learner. While this does add additional responsibility on the designer, the sponser of such learning initiatives when sensitive to these issues, will help create better learning.

Designers may want to look at issues related to discourse strategy and cultural metaphors and analogies, to name a couple.