Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development

Learning Solutions 2013 - Virtual Attendance

2013-03-15T10:05:00.001-07:00

Despite a hectic week at work, I was able to participate virtualy in the eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions Conference this week. Their new app is amazing with functions similar to what I'm already used to in other mobile social apps. I think this is the first eLearning Guild event that I've not attended in 6 years. It was a very strange feeling NOT being there. But I got a first hand look at what it's like to be a virtual attendee. It was a good experience, but for those who say the face-to-face conference is dead, I MUST insist you are wrong.

There is nothing like connecting with people in person and technology will NEVER make that go away. Technology can enhance our lives but never take away our need for connecting with others in real life. I don't want to have this argument with anyone, so don't even start. I've had enough experiences in my life now to just know this is true. Inevitably this may be why MOOCs will someday require connecting with local attendees in smaller groups, but I digress...

Hashcaster was a great resource for tracking images, videos, and other event content however, I kept wishing more attendees would post more media using the #LSCon hashtag so that more content was there. I think creating digital content is still not as common an activitiy as we might think...or wish. Yes, many of you are comfortable with it and create/share content readily, but I'm just saying that it's not the widespread practice that we think it is.

Despite wanting more content as a virtual participant, I do know that those on site had WAY MORE content than they ever thought possible. The eLearning Guild has mastered the art of the conference and is always innovating and improving the experience for attendees, speakers, vendors, and virtual attendees.

Recruiting the master of the conference backchannel David Kelly was a brilliant idea. He is a passionate elearning professional with many years of experience in the trenchs of "real world" learning solutions. And if you haven't heard, they also have Reubenn Tozman and Kevin Thorn chairing the 2 main Guild events. Awesome! I'm REALLY looking forward to attending events again very soon. I probably won't make it too mLearnCon but I'm hoping for DevLearn 2013.

I'm still looking forward to reviewing the rest of the content that I missed. I know there is a lot in the form of handouts, twitter stream, etc. Being a virtual attendee was fun but I would prefer to be there. I hope to see y'all soon...in person.

BOOK: The Little Book of Talent

2013-01-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

I really like @danielpink and his books. I wasn't sure about To Sell is Human because I don't like reading about selling. But that's the beauty of his book. I have not finished it yet because I got side-tracked with a recommendation that he made. He gave high marks to @danielcoyles's book, The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills...and that's where this blog post begins...

If you are new to Instructional Design, or eLearning, or EdTech or whatever we call ourselves these days, then maybe this won't seem like much of a find. But I've consumed my share of business, education, instructional design, pop-psychology, and management books, and it's always nice to find a NON-academic book that touches on learning and/or training.

I've seen athletes and other professionals talk about how they "train", and then the natural follow up in our industry is to apply that knowledge to the world of corporate training. I know, because I've done it. It's a fun little exercise and would recommend you try it...and get over it.

The Little Book of Talent is different in it's simplicity and how it effortlessly applies the phylosophies of skill improvement to both hard and soft skills, and in both business and non-business settings. The short bits of information are applicable and practical, but not prescriptive. The author is well aware that not all 52 tips are perfect for every situation.

After only one reading so far, I already have favorites. Tip #33 rings true: "To learn from a book: close the book." The more important nugget in this tip however is expanding on the idea of "deep practice", "...one of deep practice's most fundamental rules: Learning is reaching." Think about that for a while.

2013 Reality - NOT Predictions!

2012-12-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Performance = Our Goal

Learning = Process

Training = Event

This is not a new concept. This is not new to 2013. But this SHOULD be the way you approach everything you do from now on if you already don't.

Let me point out some of the obvious parts of this stack...

1. TRAINING is at the BOTTOM!

2. Impacting the performance of your companies employees is your ONLY goal. Relentlessly focus on measuring this!

3. LEARNING is not something you create. It is not something you do once. True learning takes time...and lots of it.

4. Predictions are bullshit! Go make the future happen!

Autodesk 123D - Simple 3D creation has arrived FINALLY!

2012-11-12T08:16:00.002-07:00

I just downloaded Autodesk 123D. I had high hopes and so far Autodesk has not let me down.
Sketchup was a great start in the area of simple 3D development, but 123D really steps up to the next level.
It's actually 4 little apps: Design, Catch, Sculpt, and Make
Check it out and tell me what you think. http://www.123dapp.com/

It's DEVLEARN Week!!! Embracing Technologies for Training and Development

2012-10-29T09:47:00.000-07:00

It's monday and it's DEVLEARN week! I'm probably looking forward to this DevLearn more than any other. Of course, it's bitter sweet since it will be my last as the program manager for the event.
I'll be posting more on that later.

DevLearn 2012 is about Embracing Technologies for Training & Development. Part of that also includes the fact that Technology is embracing US! The Training & Develpment industry has no choice but to change and adapt with emergence of such wonderful technologies like the iPad (and now the mini iPad), the cloud, better and smaller cameras, and video cameras, and the list goes on.

With such a massive wave of technology hitting us all, it's ALSO important that we do not forget the human elements of training and development. It's very easy to get excited about new technologies and to see the many educational uses they provide. And for a high tech conference like DevLearn you'd think we would fall into that trap as well. But as the pendulum begins to swing too far towards the technology side of learning, I begin to see our responsibility as one of bringing it back to center by talking ALSO remembering the human side of learning.

My hope for DevLearn 2012 is that we can begin to bring the communities of instructor-led learning and the communities of tech-based learning together and bridge the gap. There is no one right answer. We are all in this business for the same reasons. Let's enjoy this week and celebrate the unique human elements we all bring to Training & Development.

Saying Good-bye to The eLearning Guild (but not leaving the Guild family)

2012-08-17T12:09:00.001-07:00

On August 27th I begin the next chapter of my eLearning career. I am leaving the Training and Development industry's most important professional association, The eLearning Guild, to be part of a startup in the data center industry. I will be the Director of Product Training for IO Data Centers. The opportunity was far too exciting to pass up. Okay, stop laughing. Data centers are not quite as boring as you might think. But before I go into more about the new gig I want to use this blog post as opportunity to reflect on my time with The eLearning Guild, and why DevLearn 2012 is going to be AWESOME!

Some History

I still have the program for the first event I ever spoke at for David and Heidi. My session was titled Creative Web-Based Virtual Reality Training (on a Budget). It was based on my work for Intel Corp. creating warehouse process simulations. That event was in 2000 and I was very VERY new to speaking. But I can very easily look at that year as a turning point in my career.

In the following years I discovered that, if I was a speaker, Intel didn't mind letting me go to events. So I submitted for everything that was out there at the time. And in 2006 I was speaking at another eLearning Guild event, between sessions, when I took the call that finalized my leaving Intel. I remember talking with Heidi in the hotel deli right after that call. But it wasn't until 2007 that I was brought on the Guild staff to work in the newly formed Research department and shortly there after asked if I would be interested in working with Heidi on programming events.

The 5 years that followed were without question the best years of my career. I feel extremely blessed to have worked with EVERYONE there. It's been an amazing learning experience. The best part of being the Program Director for DevLearn has been meeting all of you. I've met many of the greatest people in my life because of this job. AND the greatest part about leaving the job is knowing that I WILL NOT be leaving the Guild family. The community they have built is filled with the brightest minds in this industry and while my job may be changing I will always be part of the Guild community. In all honesty, I will need y'all now more than ever :)

DevLearn 2012

I currently plan on hosting DevLearn one last time. I'm not certain of the details, but I need to be there. I am EXTREMELY proud of this year's program. With each passing event I learned, and adapted, and tried to make the next event bigger and better for the community of professions that trusted me to do so.

Early on when I was unsure if I could even DO the job, Heidi just said, "Brent, build the event that you would be excited to attend." That statement guided me in everything I did from that point on. And knowing they trusted me enough to do so, was a blessing. I can honestly say that I've been excited about every DevLearn I've built. And making them better and better each year has been harder and harder. DevLearn 2012 has been the hardest to build yet, but only because it's EPIC! And I don't say that because of what I've done, but because the eLearning industry is at a very unique place in it's history.

Technology is changing everything, and it has been for a long time now but this year feels like a tipping point for the impact on the eLearning industry. Think about mobile, social, the improvements in authoring tools, new standards like TinCanAPI, and so on. But that's the easy stuff you can see and touch and easily understand. What I've always tried to do with DevLearn is to help attendees FEEL the cultural, and emotional, changes that impact our work as well. It may sound counterintuitive, but our work is much less about the technology and more about people...and more so about how the technology impacts people.

And by people, I mean everybody! I mean classroom teachers at all levels: Elementary school teachers, higher ed teachers, corporate trainers, trade school trainers, language instructors, EVERYBODY. eLearning is no longer reserved for the geeky types. The e in eLearning is for EVERYBODY! We all at some point TEACH! And everyone is being influenced by the technology in their lives. Developing eLearning is NOT just for the official eLearning developer or whomever has the job title and responsibility to do it. Anyone who teaches has an opportunity to be BETTER at what they do using the awesome power of today's technologies.

This year's tag line, Embracing Technologies for Training and Development, is all about everyone being better at what they do using the strengths of technology. I know there are trainers who do not consider themselves eLearning professionals and therefore skip events like DevLearn. If you are one of those people then I would urge you to consider DevLearn this year. Here's a little secret I'll tell you about that tag line. It's not all about YOU embracing technology, it's also about the technology embracing you. You can't make the technology go away. It's not a fad. So what are you going to do? Do you run away? Tell students to leave their device at the door? NO!

I'm inviting you...the veterans of the eLearning industry are inviting you...PLEASE join us!

And if you've been scratching your head wondering what the heck I was thinking when I booked the keynote speakers, well that's your answer! No, they aren't Instructional Designers. No, they aren't career eLearning developers, elearning gurus, or eLearning thought leaders. And THAT'S the point! Each of them has an amazing story to tell. Each of them embraces technology in one way or another. They are all EXTREMELY different people with EXTREMELY unique backgrounds with one thing in common. THEY. ALL. TEACH. But you will need to see them for yourself to truly understand why they are important to DevLearn at this time more so than any other.

Anyways, this is it! DevLearn 2012 is my last as the Program Director. I hope to see you all there for one last hand shake, hug, distant wave, or maybe even a beer or two...but no karaoke.

If you have any interest at all in playing a role in the next generation of DevLearn, you should contact David Holcombe and/or Heidi Fisk. Check http://elearningguild.com for contact details.

The Learning Polemic [Guest Post]

2012-07-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

[Guest Post by Jeff Katzman, Founder and CLO, Xyleme] The views of this post are that of the guest and not my own. However, you can feel free to comment here to engage with the author.

We're seeing a polemic emerge pitting proprietary systems and exclusive content against open systems and open content. Recent developments in standards have the potential to up-end the status quo, and re-draw the competitive landscape of learning technology providers, and learning content providers. It will be interesting to see how the stakeholders in the proprietary camp will react to the changes brought with the adoption of the new standards.

We know what proprietary systems look like. It's what we have now in the current breed of Learning Management Systems. Typically, they are closed systems that offer a limited choice of tools to draw from in designing your learning experiences. If you wanted to include a discussion, or take a quiz, or have students write a blog for an assignment, you had to use the system’s native capabilities. And once you did this, the content became proprietary and could only run on the system on which it was created. While there have been attempts to develop standards, they have largely fallen short. For example, if you create a course in Blackboard that uses native tools, then export that course to Common Cartridge (the standard package format), and re-import it, the course is unrecognizable. The idea behind Common Cartridge was to provide an interchange format where you can run the same course on different systems and have it work the same. Unfortunately, the set of features that is common from LMS to LMS is small, which means the standard can only address the lowest common denominator.

Coming changes in standards will also impose new challenges on the traditional educational publishers. Historically, K12 curriculum choices were made by a committee that decided which one-size-fits-all textbook the teachers should use. Curriculum providers have enjoyed lock-in exclusive deals. This has tied the hands of teachers and stifled innovation in the classroom.

K12 is in the midst of radical change driven by race-to-the-top initiatives where the focus is on individualized learning. By aligning education to standards, students take assessments that measure the student’s proficiency toward the standard. The teacher then can use this information to create customized assignments that match the student’s needs and learning style. For this to work in practice, learning content needs to be re-imagined. It needs to be granular, and aligned to the standards. To date, the publishers have had a difficult time disaggregating their content and have continued the “swallow it whole” business model of exclusive lock-in deals.

Cloud services, enabled by adoption of new standards, have the potential to disrupt this dysfunctional system of proprietary technology and content.

The IMS Global Consortium is defining the next generation of standards that make this market transformation possible. The emerging model will have open content, open ePortfolio, and open tools.

Open Content - Content exists in the cloud where vendors stand should-to-shoulder and compete on a level playing field. Users make choices best suited for their needs and are informed by quality and price.

Open Portfolio - A cloud service that is the single place to store your learning records for your entire life. It’s your portfolio, untethered from your school LMS, or the corporate LMS, allowing you to maintain lifelong learning records that follow you from institution to institution and job to job.

Open Tools - Like content, learning designers seek the ability to not be bound to the capabilities of the LMS they are using. IMS has released an update to Learning Tools Interoperability that allows learning designers to connect to remote services, authenticate the user, and return a result.

The cloud is pushing the market toward openness and this is threatening to powerful interests. It will be interesting to see how the benefactors of proprietary systems will react.

What is an API? [infographic]

2012-07-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is a fabulous infographic explaining a little about APIs. You can also check out the info at wikipedia on APIs.

APIs may not seem important to you know, but they are what makes much of the internet magic you experience happen. And that same magic is coming to eLearning. If you've heard anything about project TinCanAPI then you are already ahead of the curve. In order to understand the importance of something like TinCan you must first get a clear understanding of APIs.

Rackspace® — API Adoption And The Open Cloud: What Is An API? [Infographic]

Students Are Smarter Than Your Old eLearning Design

2012-07-05T12:52:00.001-07:00

Want to know what regular people think of eLearning? A simple, and regular, search of the term "eLearning" on Twitter reveals an overwhelming portion of NEGATIVE tweets about eLearning experiences. And even worse, they expose the uselessness of the methods being used to assess the learning that is assumed to have occurred during these digital experiences. Quite frankly, it's embarrassing. Check out how "MintToppings" passed her "eLearning" quiz.

We could look at this with a positive spin and applaud miss MintToppings for her higher order thinking skills and technical ability to game the system in the manner she that she did. Or we could open our eyes to the fact that we still have a lot of work to do. WE, as an industry, need to step up our game.

If you have a next button with slide after slide of content followed by a multiple choice quiz at the end, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG! Find out how to do it right from those who are paving the way towards the future of learning experiences. Some of these folks are your peers, but others come from very different industries and they don't have degrees in instructional design. They come with experience in film, gaming, engineering, theater, psychology, anthropology (HT @moehlert), design, and just about every other creative industry you can think of. The technologies of today and tomorrow, combined with their desire to teach their craft trumps your ID degree.

Anyone with a desire to learn deserves better than a next button and a multiple choice quiz. I'm certain miss MintToppings would agree.

DevLearn 2012 Conference and Expo - ARIA Resort, Las Vegas, NV - Oct.31st-Nov.2nd

Mobile Learning's First Thing

2012-06-24T22:09:00.001-07:00

There are many many great blog posts reviewing mLearnCon last week. Several mind maps, videos, and other media as well. So I don't feel the need to do a high level recap. Instead, I'd like to take another look at one of the questions asked of the closing panel.

(BTW, I'm tapping this out on my iphone using the blogger app because I'm trying to take advantage of mobile content creation capabilities.)

I don't remember the exact question but basically someone wanted to know about the "first thing" you should do to get started with mobile learning. I think it's a great question and I think it deserves more than a couple 30 second responses. I think it's important because "where do I start" is a question asked of any new model, modality, technique, or technology. And while I liked the answers that were given by the panel, I think they require more analysis. Or more to the point, i think the answers only raised more questions...at least for me.

"You must first understand if mobile learning is even an appropriate solution before you decide what the first step will be."

I agree with the statement, but would then argue that seeking understanding IS the first step. But nobody really knows how to make that decision, and gain that understanding.

Similarly, how can an organization define what mobile learning is, or will be, in their environment without first trying out some mobile learning?

My question to all authors, thought leaders, and gurus, in mobile learning is this...

"What does an organization actually look like that is ready for mobile learning?"

I ask this question because if we are to start with discovering if our organizations are ready for it, then I want to know what that state looks like.

If this state of an organization is even definable, then I'd like to compare that to the companies that have implemented mobile learning to validate if they were, in fact, "ready" to take that first step and do that "first thing"...whatever that first thing may be.

So, I ask you to comment here and let's extend this conversation. Hopefully we can nail this down and then share it back into the community.
Ready? Go!!!

(UPDATE 6/25: I made some edits to the spacing, and moved the image to the top. The iPhone blogger app did not allow for this type of editing.)

Meeker Report Can Help Your Mobile Learning Strategy

2012-05-31T08:36:00.002-07:00

If you are still fighting with...sorry...encouraging your peers or your company's senior executives to embrace mobile learning, then more ammunition just arrived. The Annual Meeker Report is here and it is filled with all the technology trends you need to support just about any eLearning strategy you can imagine. And that's all I'll say about it so you can just jump right in and see for yourself. Tell me what you think! See you at mLearnCon.KPCB Internet Trends 2012

Cell Phone is 5th Most Ubiquitous Possession

2012-05-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

I was trolling through G+ (I know, I know, who actually hangs out there, right?) and saw this post from noted Futurist and Senior Maverick at WIRED Magazine, Kevin Kelly. In the first paragraph he writes this...

The most ubiquitous technological possession on earth is the steel blade. Second is the cotton T-shirt. Nearly every forest person will have at least these two. Next is an aluminum pot and then a plastic bottle. After that it is a cell phone. Even the most remote farmer or lowliest street sweeper will pay for a cheap phone. These are not the most profound technologies - they would be television and antibiotics -- but the most common among humans.

I was a little stunned that the cell phone beat out pants, but maybe having pants puts me into another minority group.

I do trust Kevin Kelly's data and I assume this data is probably explained more deeply in his latest book, What Technology Wants!

But even if the cell phone only hit the top ten, or top twenty even, that would still be a remarkable thing. And something we as training and development professionals should not take lightly. Yes, we are annoyed by walking and texting pedestrians, and scared by driving and texting teenagers, and struggling to adjust the social norms around these devices. But one thing is certain, and that is your learners have cell phones, period! Embrace this knowledge and use them to your advantage. Resistance is futile!

Make the best of this situation and commit to learning about how cell phones will work in your school, or corporate enterprise. And learn how people are using them. Use-cases matter...maybe even more than the technology.

Get all the information you need about mobile devices and learning at mLearnCon. It's your future! Don't be left behind.

Putting the Dance in Your mLearnCon Attendance

2012-05-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

The mLearnCon event is 3 weeks away. If you are designing learning experiences in any way, you've got to take mobile devices seriously. This is not a fad that will just go away if you keep demanding that your students check their devices at the door. mLearning is something of a buzzword these days, but no matter what you call it mobile devices are everywhere and in everyone's hands...most with more than one mobile device. Mobile is how we live our lives, it's how we access a global world of knowledge, and it's how business gets done.

Ignoring mobile devices in training and education is as bad as being an entrepreneur and ignoring money.

mLearnCon is in it's third year and continues to grow. The most influential mobile training development experts will be there to answer all of your questions. Since this is a niche conference you won't feel lost in the crowd. It's hyper focused on one thing...MOBILE!

If You're New to mLearning

If you are just getting started with mobile learning then mLearnCon is the place for you. You could spend days, even weeks, searching the internet, reading reports (Mobile Report), and consuming other content in effort to get your mind around mobile. But in the end you'd still have questions and you'd still lack the confidence to move forward. Do your homework and then register for mLearnCon. You'll want to sign up for a pre-conference workshop as well. It's well worth the extra expense.

Once you've registered you should start creating your strategy for attendance. What? You don't create a conference strategy when you go to conferences? Well, If you are one those boondogglers, that's cool too. There's plenty of golfing near San Jose. If you're serious about your conference attendance, then you really should be planning your attendance. And this doesn't need to take long. And it's NOT all about choosing which session to attend.

Step One

Step back and take a look at your current environment. Define the context of your current job. If you are a manager then you'll be thinking about your long term strategies and which projects are currently in progress or in the pipeline headed your way. You should also understand your enterprise environment and your IT departments strategy. You do not want to run off to a conference and find a beautiful hammer only to come home and discover there are no nails.

If you are a designer or developer, these issues are important to you as well but you'll also want make a quick list of what tools you use, how you use them, and what you think you might be missing. You've no doubt already encountered projects where you thought a mobile solution could be useful as part of the overall solution. If your company has settled on a certain development tool then whether you like it or not, you should find a pre-conference workshop on that tool and a few sessions to help you hone those skills. Remember, learning more about your tools is valuable. REALLY valuable in today's marketplace. If you get the opportunity to learn more about your craft, do not squander it.

Step Two

Now that you have a solid picture of your own personal current environment, you should craft a few questions. The questions you craft now will be what you use to refresh yourself when you've gone off track...and you will go off track. The excitement of seeing colleagues, friends, keynote presentations, expo hall booths, etc., will no doubt begin to overwhelm you. A short list of questions crafted BEFORE the event will act as your compas to get you back on track. You don't need to define specifics on how these questions will get answered just yet...trust that the event and a little serendipity will offer the moments of enlightenment. But if you don't have those questions on your mind you could very well miss the opportunities to gain the knowledge you need.

Step Three

NOW you're fully prepared to handle the detail work of reviewing the specifics about the event and how you will allocate your time. This is when you'll engage with the conference mobile app. If you don't have it then just use the web site. Review all of the sessions the first time by quickly scanning for the ones you think might answer your questions. Don't think about it too much, just do a quick pass and see if anything jumps out at you. Then do it again but look a little more closely, this time eliminating the ones that you are CERTAIN you will not need to attend. Then do ANOTHER scan, this time dig a little deeper into the ones that are still remaining.

Make sure you have at least 2 or 3 selected in each time block. Once you get to the event things happen fast and you don't have a lot of time for decision making. You may find that one of your questions has been answered on day 1, and so that means a day 2 session is no longer necessary. Having multiple sessions selected makes it easy to know exactly which one will fill in the gap. It's no fun making decisions 5mins before sessions start, because you'll be frustrated going into what ever session you chose and every little thing will begin to annoy you. I've experienced this many times and have heard the same from others. Some times in those situations you get lucky and you wander into an amazing session...that's the serendipity that often occurs. But the opposite can also occur and your state of mind going into a session that isn't working for you, is critical. You don't want to be "that guy/gal" that starts nitpicking a well intentioned speaker because you were rolling the dice on their session.

Step Four

The greatest of plans often change in an instant. This is where you need to put the DANCE in your attendance. Going with the flow works well if you are prepared to make adjustments without much thinking. The pre-planning takes most of the work out of decision making and allows you to feel more relaxed about the decisions you make. When when need to adjust, it shouldn't be a big ordeal. Just consult your session list first for alternatives. If things have completely shifted and your session selections are no longer useful then refer to your questions and the quick environmental scan you did in in Step 1 and 2. Because if things change THAT much on site, you will most definitely be flustered, so having your original image of the big picture will help you adjust and focus more quickly. Remember, don't panic! Breathe. Dance.

The pre-planning may seem extreme, but I'm hoping you'll do something to prepare yourself for mLearnCon. You cannot prepare for the changes in training and development without understanding mobile. It's complicated. It's different. It requires a new mindset around what training is and what it WILL be. Moving your Powerpoint slides to mobile delivery services is NOT the solution. Commit to being better than that. Your learners deserve it and so do you.

Pinterest is Popular! Do We Need Learnist?

2012-05-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post. If you haven't heard, there is a very cool new website called Pinterest.com that is all the rage with the ladies. The power of Pinterest is in its user interface design and the idea that images are the media content of choice. If you are just now hearing about it I would encourage you to check it out before reading on.

So today, I'm relaxing during my son's basketball practice, and catching up on my stories in my ZITE iPad app. After the first few stories I see this story titled Learnist is like Pinterest for Learning. Seriously?

I don't even need to look at Learnist to make my point and ask you this question. Why can we not use Pinterest as a learning tool? Why do we need to copy what's popular and then spin it as "...for learning"?

This probably wouldn't bother me so much if this was the first time this has happened. Sadly, this is amazingly common in the Internet world. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe what we really need is Loogle? Ya know, it's like google for learning!

Instructional Design and Storytelling, or Instructional Design IN Storytelling

2012-05-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am a big fan of storytelling. I'm also a big fan of movies. I'm also a big fan of video. Okay, so I'm not going to list all the different media types. I do love them all. Put into the hands of experts media can impact human beings in profound ways.

As we craft "instructionally sound" learning experiences aren't we really just acting as authors, and puppet masters, in the telling of a good story? Even if we do sort of ruin the story with a multiple choice test at the end?

Before embarking on my own journey as an educational technologist I was a television news and commercial producer. I often reflect on news production as a fabulous model for creating a training delivery channel. The only problem is that as an instructional designer I would spend 6 weeks to 6 months crafting the story and in broadcast news we would tell many compelling stories every day crafting them a few hours before they were broadcast, or "delivered". I see very little difference between what "we" do and what other related creative industries do. Well, let me clarify. I see many differences, but I struggle to understand why we are so different.

Watch this short 5min video of Ken Burns talking about his craft. Think about it and reflect on the work you do.

So, what did you hear? In 5 mins, what did you learn and what will you remember?

For me, it's that storytelling is manipulation. This stuck with me because of my prior knowledge. My experience in TV/Video journalism makes this one statement ring true above all the others he made. Pictures, words, music, interviews, animations, etc., can all be used to make the viewer feel, how YOU want them too.

The storyteller is the puppet master. He manipulates what you see, and what you don't see. He is defining your experience. He decides ahead of time how you will feel, and what you will believe after experiencing the story.

The instructional designer is also the puppet master. He manipulates what you see, and what you don't see. He is defining your experience. He decides ahead of time what...um...

...objectives will be tested for in the multiple choice quiz at the end.

I've heard from many thought leaders in the industry that videos are not educational, they are not instructionally sound, etc, etc. I've never argued with them as being wrong, but something in my gut told me there is way more to this story. It used to be that video was expensive, but that's not the case any more. Some would say it's a valid media element but only if the instructional objectives require it as the best media choice. Anyone remember the Hannafin & Peck media selection guide?

I think the real discussion to be had is around the idea of storytelling. The delivery medium we choose to tell that story is a different argument. I don't see what we do as instructional designers as being all that different from what great story tellers do, yet we never talk about telling a great learning story. We never talk about the art and craft of great storytellers as being influential on the work we do.

People laugh at the idea of comic books as an effective learning medium, but I would argue that instead of looking that comic book itself, the artwork, and the physical format, we should instead be studying the craft of telling a story in the comic form and understanding why it's compelling to so many. That doesn't mean we should all go out and start hiring comic artists and creating printed comic books as learning manuals...although the thought is compelling. I am simply saying that the authors, the puppet masters, of those stories have a unique perspective into the art of engaging readers through the craft of storytelling. They have something to teach us.

The same goes for the theater, the opera, the movies, the novel, the song, and the campfire. Why can't the elements of instructional design be embedded into a story? Maybe they are already and we just don't use the same lexicon to describe the structure. They say theme, we say objectives. They say chapters, we say modules. They say character development, we say scaffolding and laddering. Are the goals of storytellers really THAT different from instructional designers? At the very least instructional designers could certainly only get better at what they did if only they studied and applied some of the techniques used by master storytellers.

The organization of content into a compelling engaging story is exactly what we do...except for the compelling engaging story part.

What stories can you tell in your eLearning?

Have We Lost the S...in ISD? What Should Workforce Learning Graduates Hear from You?

2012-05-14T10:32:00.001-07:00

Allison Rossett posted a fabulous fake commencement address 2 days ago. I loved it. She nails a point I'd like to emphasize here. The work we do at one level is extremely focused on the micro solutions we call courses, but more than ever we need to be thinking about, and designing, systems. And I'm not talking about Learning Management Systems. Just reading her post made me realize that so much of our industry is focused on the ID, Instructional Design. And back when I first started in this business it was mostly referred to as ISD, Instructional SYSTEMS Design.

I'm not sure what happened to the focus on systems but it seems to have faded. According to Wikipedia the terms are synonymous. From a purely academic perspective I might agree. But from many years of observing our industry as a whole I'm not so sure. I see two very different practices emerging within our industry: 1) The Instructional Design of Courses, and 2) The Instructional Systems Design of Enterprise Solutions.

The Instructional Design of Courses
For the most part, this is the work of creating the final product. The instructional design required here helps developers work with SMEs, understand the content, create the media, and design the flow in which the content is presented, as well as creating some form of assessment. Much of this work is seen as requiring one technology for the solution. You might choose to design a classroom experience, or you may design a fully interactive immersive simulation. But no matter what tool you choose, for a certain period of time your sole focus is on creating that solution and implementing it successfully. You may also need to make sure it conform with a larger system design that is part of your enterprise and that is where ISD comes in.

The Instructional Systems Design of Enterprise Solutions
Mostly defined as the strategy and management issues of training and development, there is a certain level of Instructional Design that seems to have been lost at this level. My feeling is that those with the power and authority, and responsibility, to implement enterprise systems solutions do not take instructional systems design into consideration. After all, "I have instructional designers that do that". I believe it's a rare manager today that thinks about instructional systems design during the many times that decisions need to be made. It's far easier for me to see a manager interested in buying an LMS because legal, IT, or HR asked them if training was being tracked or "managed" in some way. Legal needs the information to fend of legal action. IT needs to know because their enterprise vendor has one that could be thrown into the deal. HR needs to know because of compliance, new hire training, and employee development.

So, is there a difference between Instructional Design and Instructional Systems Design? Should they be two different roles within the training team? What does this mean in the corporate world vs. higher ed?

I don't know the answer, but I know what I see and hear from so many colleagues managing training departments, and creating eLearning course solutions. I hear the terms of the industry being tossed around in various communities with different meanings attached. I participate in frustrating conversations because many use the same words, but mean different things. Maybe parsing ID and ISD will help.

I love it when the veterans of our industry talk about our field at a very high level as Allison did in her post. I wish more would do so. Perhaps Allison's fake commencement address will kick off a trend.

If you had to give a commencement address to a class of graduating learning professionals, what would you say? If you post it, let me know.

UPDATE: I got a couple twitter responses to this post and I wanted to share some interesting content. Donald Clark retweeted my post and when I checked out his stream found this gem on design models. Reuben Tozman also reached out and reminded me of his post on systems titled 7 Metaphors for Experience Design.

The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: The Book Tour Continues

2012-05-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Dr. Karl Kapp has written a new book titled The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. And it's a great pleasure to be asked by Karl to review the book for his blog book tour. I don't consider myself a good book reviewer but I enjoy being part of the tour and appreciate him trusting in my ability.

Let me start by saying that I sort of rolled my eyes when I heard there was a book being written on gamification. It just felt too early. The term is barely understandable by those who use it regularly, and even less so by those who aren't "into it".

After reading the book I can honestly say that now is the perfect time for this book. It's a perfect time for the book because the book is good...really good. Kapp's understanding of instructional design and interest in gaming is well balanced. He is thorough enough in the research to make his point, but not to the point of boring the reader. This balanced approach makes the concept of gamified learning understandable to anyone first approaching the topic. Game designers will learn the learning component of their craft and instructional designers will see game design through their own lens of learning and instruction.

Karl also goes into the practical application of gamification in the workplace and balances the realities of the workplace with the excitement of new bells and whistles. I think Cammy Bean's stop on the book tour pointed these parts out nicely.

I think we all need to ask ourselves a few questions:
1) Is an interactive Jeopardy game part of this new gamification craze?
2) Are "serious games" the same as gamification?
3) Do I want my LMS to offer badges?
4) Is my learner's job already gamified?
5) Is the business problem I'm trying to solve really a training problem?

I tossed in #5 just because I think we all to often forget to ask that question :)

Read the book. Learn more about game design. You will become a better trainer, teacher, designer, and learner.

Personal Note:
My personal thoughts on gaming and instruction vary. As with all shiny new options in the growing world of tech-based training...IT DEPENDS. My biggest concern is that games or gamification will be taken ONE thing, one solution. We have a tendency to put different tech solutions in compartments that are separated from the other options we have. Building a game is one thing, but utilizing gamification to enhance your training solutions is a completely different thing entirely.

The most important point is that thinking like a game designer might be the only thing we need to do. The final outcome doesn't need to LOOK like a game. But if we begin to understand the theory behind what makes a game fun and engaging we may be able to look at our course design differently enough to begin making choices that delight our learners.

Mobile Learning Report Shows Significant Increase in Intent to do MORE mLearning

2012-05-09T13:22:00.001-07:00

Mobile Learning: The Time is Now was just released by The eLearning Guild. With the mobile market being the fastest growing industry you'd be wise to pay attention to how mobile devices impact your learning audience and in turn how you develop and deliver your learning solutions.

Guild members have shared the impact of mobile learning on their organizations and their strategies. The questions they've answered have given us a solid picture of the mobile learning space.

"The number of Guild members who say they intend to use mLearning continues to increase. In 2010, 45.6% of Guild members said they intend to do more mLearning. In 2012, that figure has increased to 65.7%."

This mobile research report is nicely timed in anticipation of the mLearnCon Conference and Expo. The major mobile learning industry players can be found at this event. You don't want to miss it.

Thinking about Clearing the Cloudy Air of our Industry

2012-04-20T09:49:00.002-07:00

The alphabet soup of the training industry continues to grow and change. The terms get mixed in marketing materials, and confused during otherwise productive conversations. In my role within The eLearning Guild for the last few years I've had the pleasure of many conversations. I've met a lot of people and gotten to know some very well. The interesting thing is that I continue to hear frustration in the tone of many conversations with many interactions turning into arguments. It's interesting to listen to these conversations because I know the parties involved are aligned in their thinking but as they converse the words they use cloud the message.

I've been on a rather strange mission over the past several months. It kind of feels like a Richard Drifuss, mud tower in the living room, Close Encounters, sort of obsession more than a mission. But then again...mission - obsession, tomato - tomaato...it's the words and how we use them that either help or hinder productive conversations.

I want to draw a picture of our industry. And yes, I know others have attempted similar feats. But the problem I'm trying to solve, as I've worked through it, turns out to be multi-dimensional and quite complex. So, I'm breaking it down into pieces and as I am thinking about certain pieces I will blog about them here.

I want and need your help. I need your input and feedback. There are some rules that I am trying to follow that I want you to understand.

1) The AS IS. I am attempting to create a "picture" of the current state of our industry. I am NOT thinking about the future state. Although I am hoping we can make some fairly accurate assumptions about the future state based on the current state, and in fact, help influence that future state.

2) No JUDGING! I don't care if you hate the LMS more than life itself. Deal with it! They exist. They serve a purpose. And the term LMS is part of our lexicon. And therefore it will appear in my "picture" in some form or another.

How do you view our "industry"? Through what lens do you view it? What is it that you find confusing about the terms we use?

For many of you who work in training day in and day out your sky is not clouded. You see your world quite clearly as do your customers, peers, and colleagues. You are EXACTLY the person I want to hear from. I also want to hear from the those who are frustrated with the state of our industry in any way. Let's work through it together and help others in their journey towards helping others.

Comment here or send me your thoughts. I've already discovered this cannot be done in a vacuum. I need your help.

14% of Employees Value Corporate Training as Essential to their Learning

2012-04-17T09:15:00.001-07:00

14% is not good. Shocking? No? Almost 70% went even further and marked company training as somewhat or not important. What's up with that?

As someone who has suffered through horrific corporate training experiences this does not surprise me.

As someone who has spent more than 15 years working to make corporate training better, this annoys me.

From Jane's blog post:

"But I think the biggest take-away from my survey is that we can no longer assume we know how people like to learn in the workplace nor how we think people should learn."

You can read more about Jane Hart's anonymous survey results on her blog Learning in the Social Workplace.

There is a certain reality that everyone in any corporation seems to understand about in-house corporate training: It sucks! Even those of us working to improve eLearning and Training designs know about this negative perception. And yet, while everyone hates mandatory courses, and very few employees change their behavior based on training courses, we continue to play the game. Companies continue to pay for it, and other companies are willing to provide it.

In my opinion this is not a training problem. This is a human problem that involves every aspect of each employee's personal and professional life. This is where we begin to look at learning as a whole instead of just the training parts.

If learning is the desired outcome then we may want to pay attention to data like this. I'm hoping to see more comprehensive reports in the near future confirming Jane's results.

Can Corporate Training & Development be Gamified?

2012-04-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

I don't think we can really answer that question until we truly understand what Gamification is. And luckily, we now have a book to help us do just that. Dr. Karl Kapp has just launched another blog book tour for his latest book Gamification of Learning and Instruction.

The Book Tour starts HERE.
The Facebook page is HERE.
Buy the book HERE.

Follow the blog book tour. Read the Book. And join the gamification conversation.

There will be plenty of gamification conversations to be had at this year's DevLearn event for sure. Start your planning today!

Screen Resolution Alert for eLearning Developers!

2012-04-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

Statcounter Global Stats reported last week that 1024x768(XGA) has been overtaken by 1366x768(WXGA) for the first time. If these numbers make no sense to you then think of it in terms of aspect ratios. What the report basically says is that the 16:9 aspect ratio has become more popular than 4:3. Think of it as old TV beginning to die out slowly and the newer HDTV growing.

If you are an eLearning developer this is important news. But if you are an eLearning developer this should not be NEW for you. And, in fact, this may not even impact you.

Let this ALERT serve as a reminder for those who consider themselves eLearning developers but don't know the standard screen resolution supported by your IT department.

I would guess that many of you are not seeing this change within your organizations. The data is based on global internet usage in general and if you track usage stats for your web sites behind your firewall you should be able to see for yourself. Or ask your IT department for the report.

3 Reminders to every Corporate Training Department

1) Be connected to your IT department. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you are developing anything with software being delivered to your organization digitally, then you MUST have a solid partnership with your IT department.

2) TEST, TEST, TEST! Always test your eLearning courses on as many different screen resolutions as possible, and on as many devices as possible.

3) Don't forget about the big screen! With the industry chasing down mobile learning at such a rapid pace it's easy to forget about the desktop. This alert is your wakeup call. Remember that your corporate audience is STILL most comfortable viewing your courses on a desktop with a high resolution monitor. Make sure your content looks beautiful in that space.

And if you really want to dig deeper you can check wikipedia for everything you ever wanted to know about Graphic Display Resolutions.

SCORM-ify YouTube Videos with ScoTube

2012-04-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

SCORM.com issued a press release about ScoTube this week.

Many eLearning professionals are locked into creating SCORM compliant courses for their customers and that has been limiting in regards to new user-generated content on services such as YouTube. It's nice to see tools addressing these concerns moving the industry forward.

From the press release:

"The first of its kind, ScoTube marries the power of SCORM with the wealth of content available through YouTube. Users select the video they want to share with learners from YouTube and ScoTube creates a SCORM course using that resource. "

If you are required to create SCORM compliant solutions, you should definitely check this out!

Bloomfire Secures $10 Million in Series A Funding

2012-04-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

Bloomfire has certainly taken the eLearning industry by storm. Or should I say, set it on fire? <rimshot>

Chris Pacitti, from one of the two investing companies, Austin Ventures had this to say...

“Bloomfire addresses old-school productivity problems with a new-school approach, using social software to create and share valuable information within an enterprise. It essentially allows you to clone your best sales people, reducing costs, improving productivity and accelerating new business opportunities that drive your bottom line.”

I'm so happy for the guys at Bloomfire. Seriously, these are some of the most creative, hardest working guys I've known. Every time I see a Bloomfire logo I can't help but remember seeing an naked Nemo wrapped in a Bloomfire banner running through a reception at Learning Solutions.

That was the year I started seeing that the eLearning industry was changing. The old guard had been asleep at the wheel and frisky new startups were tackling the problems of the corporate training industry.

Of course today there are many new players and old tools have evolved, and embraced social media, collaboration, the cloud, mobile and other new technology shifts. But I've seen a few startups fail for whatever reason, and it's just really nice to see a startup hitting on all cylinders and catching the eye of venture capitalists.

It's a great time to be in the eLearning game. Innovative corporate training solutions are needed now, more than ever. Even if Bloomfire is not the right tool for your current corporate need, you should still take some time and check out what their doing. Someday it could be exactly what you need.

Check out the latest in mobile learning solutions at mLearnCon in June.

Skillsoft Acquires Element K for $110 Million

2012-04-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

The business of eLearning in corporate training continues to shift. You may have already heard this news, so I won't bother you with the details. You can read the full press release here. I'm just pointing it out as a "heads up" that the eLearning industry is alive and well and corporate training departments need to continue to stay up to date on the latest moves within our industry.

"The acquisition adds to SkillSoft's existing offerings in learning content and learning platform technology through the addition of Element K's complementary offerings in e-learning content, virtual labs, ILT print materials and custom development services."

The Learning Solutions Conference and Expo had a 50% growth or vendors in the expo which tells me our business is alive and well. What we do as corporate training professionals will only continue to be needed in the coming years. But it's also important to keep your skills up. Don't rest on your old skills. Yes, you are needed. But the world is changing and you need to step up your game.

Check out the media tools report for more information on the tools of our industry.