Unengaged e-learners do not learn; the course content skims lightly across their neural surfaces without leaving re-traceable neuron paths. Zzzz.

So what’s an instructional designer to do? Sweeten the course with flashy graphics, captivating video, and interesting sound effects? Nah. A sugar-coated sleeping pill goes down smoother, but still makes you doze off.

Stories Keep Learners Awake and Engaged

Remember two things:

• The shortest path between a course objective and a human learner is a story (with apologies to Anthony de Mello)
• When you make the learner’s self-interest the focus of every stop along that story path, everybody involved will be happy with the destination.

A learner-focused, job-relevant story presents course content in a way that requires learners to think through the process (not simply read a list) and practice activities (not regurgitate facts).

How to Build Learner-Focused Stories

Training stories transform paragraphs of dry abstractions into learning that is interactive and directly applicable to job functions. What are the essential components of effective learning stories?

• Learner perspective (course design from the learner’s point of view)
• Learner engagement (job-relevant activities that allow the learner to be hands-on)
• Logical sequencing (step-by-step scenarios that enable the learner to think through the process)

Let’s look at the steps involved in crafting learner-focused stories for e-learning courses.

1. Adopt a learner’s perspective.
   This goes without saying, but I’m saying it anyway:  Get to know your audience. If you want to understand what is meaningful to learners:
   • Figure out a way to sit where they’re sitting and find out what they need.
   • Design training activities based on job-relevant objectives.
   • Make sure every objective has a corresponding activity (or set of activities) for practice (exercise) and/or assessment (evaluation).
2. Weave the activities into a story, one step at a time.
   Most tasks are multi-step procedures. At each step in your training story:
   • Allow the learner make meaningful decisions and
   • Provide intelligent feedback that shows the consequences of each choice.

This very simple and basic example of an interactive,  learner-oriented story requires learners to make decisions before they click to proceed.  I used the interactive story creation software Twine to create the branching options.  Check out the tool and let us know what you think.  Or better yet, improve on my effort; create and share your own branching scenario.

Have fun!

Some jobs require special skills

It’s about a girl of humble origins, imprisoned in a tower with a huge pile of straw and a spinning wheel. She’s in that predicament because an unsubstantiated rumor (that she could spin straw into gold) reached the ear of a king who ordered her to do that very thing, under pain of death. Rumpelstiltskin’s extortionate proposal—to trade that huge pile of straw and her first-born child for a huge pile of gold and the expectation of long life—was irresistible.  Scary situation.
Now put yourself in a similar place– locked in a cubicle with a huge PowerPoint slide deck and a rapid e-learning machine (REM), with the expectation that you can use that REM to “automagically” convert  PowerPoint  slide decks into useful web-based training courses).  Scary situation. Even Rumpelstiltskin can’t offer any help.
When you’re in that scary situation, your REM doesn’t work automatically; it needs some assistance. There will be no golden training course unless you take charge in a focused way. Here’s how.

1. Evaluate the quality of the straw you’ve been provided.What kind of slide deck do you have?
   • A presentation slide deck is organized for presentation, not pedagogy and will require re-organization, using an organizational principle that leads the learner in a logical and clearly understood direction.
   • A PowerPoint file used to support a classroom training session has to be re-purposed. The instructor who provided the file may tell you, “Just re-format this for use as an e-learning course. You won’t have to change anything.  I used these slides for classroom training  and they worked beautifully. “ Not so. Slides that work well when an instructor explains them probably do not provide enough information for a stand-along WBT.
   • A data dump of some essential, some tangential, and some totally irrelevant information stitched together by a reluctant SME is the worst grade of straw imaginable. The deck typically presents no true course objectives, no learning example, no training scenarios.
2. Make sure you have all the relevant information that is available, in print or online. That means foraging for additional straw (manuals, reference texts, related WBT courses, design notes, etc.)
3. Consult with the SME about target audience and course objectives. (If you’ve been tasked with turning straw into gold, ADDIE ran from the tower in tears long ago.)
4. Outline the major topics to be covered. For each topic, try to pull examples and scenarios from your SME, based on his experience. If you’re dealing with a reluctant or unavailable SME, get creative: based on what you already know, develop your own examples and scenarios and ask the   to review them .  Those who can’t or won’t create examples for you to use find it laughably simple to review yours and pick them apart, thereby making them more accurate and realistic.
5. Develop a storyboard, incorporating these techniques (click the links to find out how):
   • Make the course objectives performance-based. How?
   • Make the course objectives motivational. How?
   • Make the material concrete by using stories, or training scenarios.  How?

Adopt a pro-active mindset.

When you spend a lot of time huddled in your cubicle with piles and piles of PowerPoint straw, you may sometimes think, in the deepest recesses of your mind, that the essential definition of SME is NOT Subject Matter Expert (what they tell us), but So Many Excuses (what they give us). If that sounds familiar, let me offer you a decidedly non-Rumpelstiltskinian deal:

Trade that totally justified, but nonproductive mindset for what Seth Godin calls the linchpin mentality.Stop settling for what the SMEs give you; create real learning activities and interactions that you can be proud of; then present your creativity to the SMEs.

This is part of an ongoing series about adding a little spice and a lot of job relevance to WBT courses produced from PowerPoint slide decks via rapid e-learning procedures. Share your ideas for coping with the alphabet soup of SMEs and REMs.

Bassist Charlie Mingus once said “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

What Mingus said is what I call his Law of Creative Simplicity. Look at a few examples.

• Stuffing a sentence’s worth of thought  with a paragraph’s worth of abstract, redundant gobbledygook is commonplace. Translating a convoluted paragraph of jargon-dense engineer-speak into a simple sentence of clear English is creativity.
• Kicking Humpty Dumpty off the wall to become a complex pile of rubble—that’s child’s play. Restoring complex Humpty Dumpty rubble to simple Humpty Dumpty wholeness is a task too creative for all the king’s horses and men.

Creative Simplicity in Learning Design

In his keynote speech for the 2011 Lectora User Conference in Cincinnati, Elliott Masie illustrated creative simplicity like this [bracketed comments are mine]:

We are doing too much re-teaching when people already know the skills. Let’s not re-teach. Make sure that you are not packaging something old as new and overly inventing language that is brand-new to teach it. [That’s commonplace-JH].

Let’s figure out what learners need to know, how to map learner instincts and experience with new knowledge and …create the ability for learners to watch and listen to stories. We can take complex things and present them in very unique sequences via stories. [That’s creativity-JH]

Masie also outlined several emerging trends that define the fluid 21st-century learning workplace environment:

• Consistently high performers tend to seek out learning opportunities on their own, when they need them.
• Learner understanding and retention improve when learning occurs through peer collaboration.
• Inexpensive video is ubiquitous and a game-changer; it lets us tell a story live.
• Learners have become accustomed to outsourcing memorization requirements to “second-screen” devices (like smartphones and tablets)  that are always present and always on.

The 21st-Century Learning Environment

How do expanded learner demands and wide availability of technical options for connectivity and collaboration  affect the way we design learning? They push us toward synthesis and simplicity: the core principles of the Mingus Law.  21st-century learners expect their on-the-job learning opportunities to:

1. Be accessible: targeted for their job needs, easy to find, and available when they need them (and not before).
2. Help them collaborate by providing access to a forum, a wiki, or social media site where they can share experiences, generate ideas, and discuss best practices with colleagues.
3. Help them remember by providing well-designed checklists they can use to improve performance.
4. Not be confined by a corporate firewall. Even though “second-screen” devices can’t be controlled, their use can be leveraged to broaden learner capabilities.

How do you meet these expectations?

Stay tuned for articles about affordable technology, tools, and techniques you can use to bring each of these four expectations to reality in your course and curriculum design.

The thing about math is that it’s right or wrong, on or off, yes or no. Seven is a prime number, there’s no improving it.
The thing about life/business/culture and the things we make and do is that they are not math.
Seth Godin

Of course Seth is right, but…the thing about black and white is that the space between them is always gray. Life/business/culture and the things we make are not math…except when they are. They are not math except when the difference between 1and 2 millionths of a meter can be the difference between an unblocked artery and a heart attack.

The big thing about life/business/culture and the things we make and do is that we need to think clearly about the things that are math, the things that are not, and recognize the difference. Just my $0.02. (Of course, that’s not math.)

CAUTION:  Skipping these steps guarantees that your time at the mike will not live up to your expectations.

1. NAIL:  Keep your New Audience In the Limelight.

If you haven’t previously made this presentation to this type of audience, make sure that you know what they are interested in and they know what to expect.

• Tailor your topic specifically to this audience.
• Start with a clear and unambiguous description of your presentation in any promotional materials. If, for good and valid reasons, you’re talking about engineering design to schoolteachers, make sure they don’t expect to hear advice about developing lesson plans.
• Let them know at the outset exactly how they will benefit from what you have to say. Make it clear to the schoolteachers how the principles of engineering design apply to their classrooms and make them better teachers.

2. PROP:  PRovide your Own Props.

While you can usually rely on the presence of a projector (if it has been promised),  everything else you may need is up for grabs.

• Bring your own pointer/clicker. If it uses batteries, bring a spare.
• Bring your own flip chart. (You can buy table-top portable easels for less than $25 from Amazon.)
• Bring your own markers (at least two of each color you want to use).
• Have at least 20% more handouts than you expect to use. And place them on the table or in the seats  before you begin.

3. PUTT:  Practice Using The Technology.

If you depend on any unfamiliar technology or techniques, (new computer, new operating system, borrowed clicker/pointer, sound system, etc.), check it out ahead of time.

• Run all equipment through a practice run.
• Have a backup plan ready to roll out if the new or borrowed stuff bombs.
• Better still, minimize the use of untried technology in the first place. Go with the tried and true until you’ve tested the new stuff and found it satisfactory.

If the worst happens, and something doesn’t work, always retain PREP: Poise REgardless of Problems. Don’t get rattled and end the presentation prematurely; this cheats the audience. You have good content? Check. You have an engaging delivery? Check. So..regroup, execute your backup plan, and serve your audience a full helping of solid, useful information.

1. ASK: Answer Six Key questions.

2.  TELL: Test Every Line for Logic.

3.  KISS: Keep It Short and Simple

Subject-matter experts transfer knowledge in a flurry of words that sometimes obscure specific, tangible training objectives.

Knowledge in the abstract is great; but e-learning focuses on making the abstract specific, concrete and relevant to the learner and to the organization. The most effective way to do that is by telling a story.

To show you what I mean, let’s look at a simplistic example:  an SME’s description of a step in an invoicing process:

Before you enter an invoice into SAP, make sure that entries on the GR, IR, and PO match exactly.

In an e-learning environment, the novice learner’s eyes glide right over that statement. Too many acronyms, too little emphasis, and an easily forgotten abstract statement.

If this is an important point,why not present it in a job-related story ?

It’s three in the afternoon at Stentorian and Sons. You’ve got plenty of time to process this stack of paperwork, take care of a few emails, and get out in time to beat the traffic. Unbelievable–a day with no crises. A very good day.

“Hey, Bob! You need to check on this invoice. Biggie and Smalls Media, over on Ninth Street. Move the paperwork into SAP and get them paid. Today.  If we miss the early payment deadline, the penalty dollars are coming out of your next check. “

“Sure thing, Mr. Stentorian.”

Great. Tracking down paperwork for suppliers isn’t your favorite part of the job, but here it is. And there goes the very good day. You find the invoice in the stack of papers you were already processing: from Biggie and Smalls, total amount, quantity–all there.  The purchase order from Sue in Purchasing is easy to find, in the system under Biggie and Smalls, matching amount, quantity–all there.

What other steps do you need to take to make sure the invoice can be paid immediately? (Select all that apply.)

INVOICE	PURCHASE ORDER	GOODS RECEIPT

• Choice One:  Nothing other than enter the invoice number, billing date, and purchased quantity into SAP.
  Oops! The invoice will not be paid until the goods receipt is verified and entered into SAP. Mr. Stentorian will NOT be happy.
• Choice Two:  Track down the colleague who received the invoiced material and get the goods receipt for comparison to the invoice. and enter the data into SAP.
  The invoice will be paid within 24 hours.
• Choice Three:  Forward a copy of the invoice number to Accounts Payable.
  Accounts Payable will toss the invoice copy and wonder why in the world you sent it to them. The invoice will not be paid and your next paycheck will be just a little short. If you’re not ready to develop a story, at least replace the SME’s textbook statement with what I call a “bullet-list story.”

Payments require a three-way match in SAP to be complete. The documents required for the three-way match are provided by:

• The buyer raising the purchase order (PO)
• The supplier sending the invoice (IR)
• The employee receiving the goods receipt (GR)

A three-way match occurs when:

• You match the quantity, price, and details. on the IR with the quantity, price, and details on the PO
• You match the quantity, price, and details on the PO with the quantity price, and details on the GR

Even bullet-list stories work better than statements of abstract fact; they present the facts as steps in a plot that moves the invoice into SAP.

What’s important in a job-relevant story? Providing three things:

• Context (setting the scene for the process)
• Details (providing backstory for the process)
• Sequential steps (procedures, or the plot of the process)

A Job-Focused Story Makes Your Content Relevant and Meaningful

The more abstract or general your presentation is, the more unclear and boring it will be in a Click to continue environment. The more specific, job-relevant, and engaging your presentation is, the more clear and vivid it will be, even in the same environment. A  story (even one consisting of bullet points) is a reliable way to transform a paragraph of SME abstractions into learning that is directly applicable to job functions.

How can you use stories to transform SME-speak? Let me know in the comments.

This is part of an ongoing series about adding a little spice and a lot of job relevance to WBT courses produced from PowerPoint slide decks via rapid e-learning procedures. Share your ideas for coping with the alphabet soup of SMEs and REMs (rapid e-learning machines).

What’s the Problem?

If you’re the instructional designer in charge of an amazing REM, you understand the difficulties. Automatically-produced WBTs are typically heavy on web-based clicking and relatively light on learner-focused training.

But there are ways to heat up automatically-generated web-based training courses. The first area to tackle? course objectives.

Make the course objectives JOB performance-centric.

Here’s a typical “Course Objectives” page as it was originally output from the REM, based on an input PowerPoint slide. The objectives listed are indeed based on learner outcomes, but not on outcomes related to job performance.

They specify that the learner be able to:

• Describe steps
• Describe responsibilities
• Describe principles
• Print quick Reference Guides

In the first objective, why should the learner be able to describe the steps involved in WBT development? Not because of  job responsibilities that  include step description, but because the assessment for this course required step description.

These objectives are based more on course assessment performance than on job performance, and they don’t lead potential learners toward improving job-related skills.

Make Course Objectives Motivational.

A learner with very little skin in the game tends to have just about that much interest in the learning. So why not  make the stakes a little more meaningful by tying course objectives directly to job responsibilities?

This example (on the left) re-frames the content-based objectives shown earlier.  When you click the image to review the re-presentation, be sure to notice:

• The altered point of view/perspective
• The performance, rather than knowledge, focus
• The learner-directed progression from objectives to course content (jump directly into the content or review more detail about the objectives).

How do you spice up your course objectives?

This is part of an ongoing series about adding a little spice and a lot of job relevance to WBT  courses produced from PowerPoint slide decks via rapid e-learning procedures. Share your ideas for coping with REMs.

Whacha got, Bubby? A stultifying stew that facilitates no learning, generates no interest, provides no memorable information, and makes my teeth hurt.

Enough is enough.

Forget safe and mind-numbing:

• Botox bullet points
• Bland clip art
• Boring regurgitation

Try creative and edgy:

• Storytelling
• Stunning visuals
• Challenging conversation

Fight the fog.

It’s not just meetings.  PowerPoint presentation paralysis and corporate drone are universal:  in web site content, in web-based training courses, in procedures, in user guides, in white papers.

Don’t give up. You can find tips for combatting the drone here.

You can join me in trying out this tool (Fight the Bull has, unfortunately, retired from the field of battle; the link doesn’t work anymore) for spotting and eliminating jargon, technobabble, and empty multisyllables. (Warning: I’ve read mixed reviews about its effectiveness. But in this battle, anything is worth a try.)

Find perspectives on making PowerPoint presentations effective here.

Can I get a witness?

Share your ideas for thinning the corporate communication fog.

Slop and slush and sodden spray;
Slip and slide and scowl.
Gloomy, gritty, grimy day;
Grumble, groan, and growl.
Wan and winter-weary woe;
Blizzards, brash, and blust’ring…

But winter is unavoidable; we’re right in the middle of it here in the Midwest. And grown-up people don’t whine about the inevitable; they deal with it.

So in the interest of supporting maturity and promoting effective infowriting even during hard times,  let’s talk about three writing lessons you (and I) can learn from driving in gloomy, icy, depressing, and dangerous weather.

Keep trying until you get up that icy hill.
Have you ever been stuck in the middle of of writing an important piece? Since it’s the kind of thing you usually crank out as a matter of course , you never met one you couldn’t handle. Until now.

Now you’ve hit a slippery patch. Maybe a beginning that simply has no traction. Or a tricky transition that spins you out in the wrong direction. You may find that you’ve written yourself into an impassable snow bank and you have no logical next paragraph.

Back up. Work through the tricky, muddled part word by word, if necessary. Check the grammar. Evaluate the word choice. Take another look at the logic. Keep working until it feels right. You’ll know when you have traction.

Map a route to a clearly defined destination.
Winter is no time for joyriding. And infowriting is not a task for the aimless. To avoid getting lost in a blinding blizzard of words, be very intentional about every one. Make sure you know what you’re doing before and while you’re doing it.

Every infowriting task, by definition, has a clearly defined, user focused purpose –to help readers get work done. To reach that destination successfully:

• Specifically define what you want your readers to do.
• Craft every word with the end in mind.
• Don’t take side trips.

That leads to the final lessons in this little quick reference post…

The #1 rule? Pay attention.
Especially in low visibility, high -challenge conditions like winter driving and difficult writing assignments. Lack of attention and intention can very easily end disastrously, with writing that wastes  the reader’s time (best case) or steers the reader away from her desired goal (worst case).

Let’s wrap up with rule #30: Avoid skids.
The experts say the best way to avoid skids (and stay out of trouble on the road generally) is to drive smoothly. RTA says this:

True professionals drive so seamlessly that you do not feel anything when they shift, turn, or brake. Plan ahead, watch carefully, and slow down … no matter what the road’s surface condition is, skids are caused by driver error.

A good writer, like a good driver, is a smooth operator.  She starts with panache and power and glides smoothly into high, navigating from one point to another easily. No sharp turns. No hard acceleration, no sudden braking. No skids.

A good writer, like a good driver, gets that way through practice. And winter is a great time to practice both skills, preferably in a safe place, like an empty parking lot…or a writing journal…while we wait for spring.

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” (Pietro Aretino)