Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development

1,300 iPads for Level 3 Sales Team - Perfect Mobile Learning Tool

2012-01-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

So, if you are one of the people mad about the EULA for iBooks2. And you are convinced that companies will not use Author for training materials? THINK AGAIN!!!

MacTrast posted "Level 3 Looks to iPad to Reinvent their Sales Team". They are relaying the story from Information Week's article "iPad's for All: One Sales Team's Story".
While neither article specifically mentions iBooks as part of the intended use, I can bet that it's coming. I mean, why not? Right? 1,300 Sales people outfitted with iPads means the delivery channel is ready and the sales team will expect it.

The last paragraph of the article states:

What's next for Level 3's iPad app? Taylor doesn't pretend to know. "Enterprise IT is dead," he likes to say--meaning IT needs to take the consumer tools people like to use, watch and learn how people work best, and then provide systems that fit. He's convinced there's something important and different in how efficiently people interact with the tablets' interface, and that "we've only scratched the surface of using that."

If you work for Level 3 in the training department will you please contact me :)

Media for Learning: Top Tools - New Research Report from The eLearning Guild

2012-01-25T12:43:00.001-07:00

The eLearning Guild released it's highly anticipated TOP TOOLS report today.

Get the download here.

Of course this report was completed prior to the Apple announcement. But next year's report, I suspect, will have a new tool on the list: iBook Author. It's definitely a game changer.

What I've discovered over the last few years with regards to iOS is that many people start out wanting to create an iPhone app because they have some information to share. What they really want to create is an interactive experience...more like a digital book. Author makes the development of interactive digital content easy, and the app is free. So, why not? Right? But I digress...

Here are just a few of the data points revealed in the report:

46% want ability to support mobile delivery of their #eLearning media
Adobe Captivate has largest media tool market share with 40.4%
Top-rated #eLearning Media Tool by Cost = Audacity
85.6% rate Adobe Photoshop Excellent for #eLearning graphics creation and/or content editing
67.1% say Lectora is essential for their overall #eLearning Media toolkit
70% report being able to use SnagIt and Audacity effectively within 1 week of use

Find out more from the author of the report at Learning Solutions conference in Florida, March 21-23.

What Great Bosses Know - 10 Training Tips - iTunes U Revolution?

2012-01-25T10:10:00.001-07:00

Ever since the Apple education announcement I've been blown away by what this means for our industry. In the process of scanning the new and improved iTunesU I found this interesting podcast. It's called "What Great Bosses Know". Here is the description from iTunesU...

"Jill Geisler heads the Poynter Institute's leadership and management programs. In these Poynter podcasts, she shares practical leadership for managers who want to be great bosses."

Episodes 13 titled 10 Training Tips caught my eye. It's only 4 minutes so I listened. Here are her tips.

Adults learn differently than young people
Make learning practical
Interactivity is better than passive learning
Do not use Powerpoint as a teleprompter
Each person learns a little differently
Always tap into the wisdom of the room
Don't embarrass people
Have fun
Always end with next steps in mind - What will the students DO after the class
Always include evaluations in your teaching

I like these tips. Sure, many of you will say, "yeah, duh". And I know some of you are making a list in your head of all the things she missed or forgot. But that's not the point I'd like to make. I don't know what Jill's background is, but she obviously has the ear of many Sr. Management types who NEED to hear this information. Maybe these managers will be delivering a training session and just one of these tips could resonate with them. That's helpful.

I often hear of the struggles to "get a seat at the table". We want what we know about instructional design, and corporate training design, to be important and cared about. Maybe iTunesU can help?

Now that Apple has introduced the hardware, delivery system, AND authoring tool for designing, delivering, and consuming instructional content, it's only a matter of time before the market is flooded and ONLY the BEST instructional designs will float to the top. And, at some point every training manager, or CLO, in the Fortune 500 will hear from their C-level peers, "Why can't our LMS be easy like iTunes U? And why aren't our training manuals as cool as the textbooks on my kid's iPad?"

Adobe Preview of Tracking Tool for Captivate eLearning Courses

2012-01-23T14:33:00.004-07:00

The Adobe Captivate blog's new post is titled Course Companion for Adobe Captivate. According to the blog post a preview has been launched at the Adobe Labs.

Get the free download here from Adobe Labs.

The blog post says...

You will be able to -

Track usage of content

Track learner behavior

Get feedback on the course by tracking the learner metrics

Track progress of the course as you roll it out

Track effectiveness of the content

VERY interesting! What do you think? Is this something you are excited about seeing?

Obviously the Captivate team feels there is a need for this type of tool. Is this something the Captivate community requested? If you are a Captivate user, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Apple Announces Textbook Revolution

2012-01-19T10:51:00.003-07:00

This morning Apple held a press event to announce their entry into the world of textbooks. Everyone knew this was coming. It's just been a matter of when and what will it look like. And basically, what it looks like is a complete game changer. Not just because the iBook Store will now sell you interactive textbooks via your iTunes account, but because they also announced a new authoring tool...and it's FREE!

I think digital books with integrated media were an inevitability. After all they've sort of already existed in other forms such as websites, and apps, and pdf files, etc. So, the big story is really about how this effects the billion(s) dollar industry of textbook publishing. Apples iBooks will sell for no more than $14.99. So, if the publishers are looking to keep their profits at current levels that most likely means someone is going to get cut out of the deal. It's obvious that someone is the author. But the good news is that with a free authoring tool and the iTunes/iBook marketplace, I think the authors may end up getting the better end of this deal.

I've been it for several years now but I'll say it again, "Teachers will be the next millionaires". With today's technologies, and the new technologies just around the corner, there is no reason why a great teacher couldn't produce content for sale, and mentor students for a fee, and make a very good living.

I've only taken about 20mins to review iBooks Author (direct download link iBooks Author). But the exciting thing is that if you are familiar with Apple apps then it won't take much more than that for you to start writing a fully interactive textbook of your own.

The starting templates are beautiful...very similar to templates in Pages with clean elegant designs. I started with the Contemporary template and just started clicking around. It's so easy to get started that really wish I has some sort of textbook project to be working on.

It's easy to incorporate videos, images, and other media by simply dragging and dropping. But like I said, this is an Apple app and that's just how you do it. No fuss. You can also add shapes, tables, and charts which is also similar to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

The new features are in the form of widgets: Gallery, Interactive Image, Keynote, 3D, HTML, and Review. You'll be happy (or not) to know that the Review widget is simply a multiple choice quizzing tool. From the Apple web site...

"Let readers test their knowledge using a variety of question types: multiple choice, choose the correct image, label the image, or a mix of all three. Authors can include six possible answers to each question."

The accepted 3D format is COLLADA or .dae. It's been a while since I've worked in 3D and so this format is new to me. But according to wikipedia it looks like all the major 3D creation apps support the standard.

I'll let you go off and explore the Apple site and other places to get more details. For the sake of this blog I want to know if you think this is revolutionary, or a game changer, for the work that you do? Would you consider iBooks to be eLearning? Are you concerned about SCORM compliance? Or how about LMS connectivity? Many of you work in Windows only environments so does this make you think a little harder about buying a Mac?

mLearnCon is only about 5 months away. If you are planning on creating iBooks between now and then let me know and we can figure out a way to showcase your work. This is big news for Mobile Learning so we will most definitely be talking about it at mLearnCon. mLearning is only just beginning!

Douglas Engelbart Demonstrates Interactive Computing...IN 1968!

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

This YouTube video shows Interactive Computing being demo'd in 1968! Wow! That's the year after I was born. I had NO idea computing was that far along in the late '60s. It's a long video to watch but just speed ahead every few minutes and you'll see some amazing technologies... considering the historic perspective.

Douglas Engelbart demonstrates interactive computing, at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco: mouse, on-screen windows, hypertext and full-screen word processing.
9 December 1968.

Training vs Learning - Which do You Create?

2012-01-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

[UPDATE - Just wanted to give credit to the Social Learning Community on Yammer for inspiring this blog post. I think this topic is important to the eLearning community as a whole and so I'm happy to extend the conversation to the readers of this blog.]

As a member of the eLearning/learning/training/education community it feels like the alphabet soup of terms has become muddled again. I suppose all industries go through this to some degree, and while it's mildly frustrating, going through the exercise can reveal some insights and help us focus our work. So let's take a look at what happened.

The short version is that training departments, for many years, got very little respect. We, as a community of professionals were convinced that a rebranding needed to occur and we wanted to become LEARNING professionals and not TRAINING professionals. After all, training seemed to cheapen our work as adult learning practitioners and instructional design architects...and all the other fancy names we like to call ourselves.

But now it appears that we've come full circle. With the growing discussions around informal vs. formal "learning", we've come to realize that, in fact, we DO NOT create learning. And yikes! Learning actually happens without our interventions. So, to say that we "create learning solutions" or something like that is actually quite silly. Our bodies, mostly our brains, handles the learning side of things. The human body is a learning machine. I hope this isn't shocking to anyone.

In our current corporate culture our job is to make sure that certain bodies (employees) are exposed too, and learning, certain specific things. These bodies will do the LEARNING on their own IF the correct CONTEXT is provided for them.

Let's stop the conversation right here because at this point we could go off in many different directions. All I want to do at this point is to get you thinking about Training vs Learning.

I think it's safe to say that our job is to manipulate a person's environment in such a way that we are simply directing, or manipulating WHAT that person's body is being exposed to with the hope that their body's learning response is activated. I know this sounds very rudimentary but if you think about it this way then TRAINING really does start to sound like a better catch-all term for the work that we do.

Here's wikipedia's take on Training:

"The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. It forms the core of apprenticeships and provides the backbone of content at institutes of technology (also known as technical colleges or polytechnics). In addition to the basic training required for a trade, occupation or profession, observers of the labor-market^[who?] recognize as of 2008 the need to continue training beyond initial qualifications: to maintain, upgrade and update skills throughout working life. People within many professions and occupations may refer to this sort of training as professional development."

I understand WHY we so desperately want to be learning professionals and NOT Training Specialists. But the reality is that what we create is best suited to the term training and NOT learning. If for no other reason then the fact that nobody can actually create learning. But we can understand how the human brain learns and optimize the environment of a person needing to learn something specific. And so it's that understanding of how the human body learns that makes us better at what we create.

So, can a Learning Professional be a creator of Training...um...things? Yep! But are we confusing the market by mixing the terms? Maybe. Does it matter? I don't know.

And now this starts another conversation, "Should it be eTraining instead of eLearning". Oh boy...<sigh>

Learning About The Dream

2012-01-16T10:09:00.000-07:00

The kids are home from school today and it's easy to just think about it as another day off for them. So I thought we'd quickly Google "I have a dream speech". As you might imagine there are a lot of resources popping up...

Wikipedia entry
Full text and audio on American Rhetoric
MLK Online

...and of course on YouTube...

While I listen to the speech...again...and again...and read the text I feel moved yet sadly disconnected. I was born 4 years after this speech was given and have no memories of the '60s and only fleeting youthful memories of the '70s.

I've listened to Nancy Duarte speak at The Learning Solutions conference about how she studied the speech and I've read her book on the pattern of a powerful speech. And it is a powerful speech. The speech is truly moving on so many levels and gives us an emotional look at the struggles of America at that time.

That brings me to thoughts on context. The speech was the right speech given at the right time. And today, I wonder if we'll ever truly hear something this moving ever again. Today's context is a digital cacophony of the connected world's voices. It's a flood of speeches, rants, and raving, from everyone with a grievance and then some. And while this is empowering, and can be viewed as a great equalizer and opportunity for many, we struggle to find nuggets of trusted wisdom that so many crave.

My hope on this Martin Luther King day is that we can all use the wonderful power of the internet to not only learn from one man, but for every person to feel empowered to share their voice with the world. Because while I don't think there will ever again be ONE powerful voice, or speech, I do believe the connected collection of the world's voices will some day be a chorus we can all appreciate and participate in.

iTextbooks? - Apple Gets in on the Digital Textbook Revolution

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

As long as I'm posting about digital textbooks, I might as well mention Apple. Rumors are swirling around the Apple invite that has gone out to press saying,

“Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple.”

According to the Mashable article Apple is partnering with textbook publishers. It all makes sense to me. After all, why not utilize the now mainstream distribution channel of iTunes and iBooks, and start selling iTextbooks.

I think the bigger question for instructional designers and developers is how can WE publish into this system? We also want to know if there will be interactive components to the textbooks. At the very least I hope we're able to embed hyperlinks to YouTube videos, blog posts, etc. I think some bonus functionality would be something like selecting some text within a textbook and posting it to social networks like twitter, or facebook, or google+. This increases the factor of engagement significantly which is what students really need. It's one thing to just sit and read a book. But it's a significantly better experience if what is read can be shared and discussed with others.

Apple is not very good at the social thing yet. Ping is lame and iCloud is still clunky and frustrating for many users. However, they do understand the desire to publish content to other social systems and they have embraced that capability. So, I'm hopeful they will continue along that path until they can get their own social network functioning...if they ever intend too.

Flatworld Knowledge Succeeds in the Textbook Market as Free and Open

2012-01-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

The digital textbook industry is definitely in it's infancy and there are many players to consider. But since I'm on the subject, I might as well turn you on to Flatworldknowledge.com and their "free and open textbook" system.

There seem to be so many publishing solutions available these days that I'm not sure how college students or professors know how to make the right decision. In many cases I'm certain the decision is made FOR them by some administrator or sales person. But I like to think I'm not that jaded :)

Flatworld Knowledge has a great chart explaining their solution. Well, actually it describes the problem and the solution...as you can see for yourself.

The books are free to the students. Professors choose the book. Students choose the format and price for printed versions, audio versions, and soft-cover versions. Sounds like a pretty decent solution to me.

The very cool option that I like is allowing the professors to edit and customize the book. The books also come with slides, instructor manuals, and test-banks. I'm not sure if those are editable though.

It may not actually be a purely "free" and "open" solution. But it sounds like they are making a significant dent in an industry that really needs a kick in the pants.

Kno Knows eTextBooks

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

I saw the KNO eTextBook solution on TechCrunch TV from CES.
The eTextbook is so much more than just flipping digital pages on an eReader. The features of the Kno eTextbook solution are incredible. Check out the full list of features here.

There are several features that caught my attention, but I was very intrigued by the presenter's comment about images:

"...any image with labels is automatically converted into a quiz."

When I went to the web site I was impressed to see a course manager. The interface is clean and appealing. It's got a real Mac-feel to it. I think the syncing will be critical. Having your textbooks available on both your laptop and your mobile device is the future.

While the textbook industry takes it's time converting to digital, I'm left wondering what publishers are embracing Kno. Or are the big publishers going to create their own standards, their own apps, their own formats, their own stores, etc. I hope the content creators can figure out how to create their content and go directly to the new textbook market...in much the same way that iTunes changed the music buying process. But that remains to be seen.

Flip Boom Doodle - Animation App is FREE for Limited Time

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of animation but have very little patience for the old process of creating animated characters. So, I've always been excited about new tools that make the animation process easier for beginners and hobbyists. The team that created Toonboom.com have created an animation app called Doodle that is free for a limited time.

I spend about 15mins with it and created this little ditty below. Of course it's lame, but it was SO easy to do. And it's the ease of use that will bring me back when I want have time to kill.

Big Data Infographic from EdCetra Training

2012-01-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

The team at EdCetra Training have created this great infographic of Big Data.
With all of the new media creation tools being announced at CES you can imagine how much content will be published in the near future.

Get a handle on your data and start thinking about the importance of big data in your eLearning career.

From One Laptop Per Child to One TABLET Per Child

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last year I started thinking about how tablets and other mobile electronics are becoming cheaper and better than laptops. So it would seem that the laptop would in fact NOT be the best new device for poor kids around the world. A tablet would be cheaper and probably more intuitive to use.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw the new 8-inch XO 3.0 tablet being demoed at CES. Of course it makes perfect sense. But it's actually a lot cooler than just moving from a laptop to a tablet.
This tablet can be powered with a handcrank and/or via solar technology. And that's actually a lot more complicated than it sounds. Not complicated to use but complicated technology design to make it happen. There is a lot of innovation packed into this $100 wonder tablet.

You can check out a great demo video from Gizmodo here.

TWiT also covered it LIVE on the Daily GizWiz show (seen on the left).

This might actually be the only education specific gadget at CES, but I hope I'm wrong. If you are at CES or following the coverage, let me know if there is anything cool you'd like me to see.

When Mobile First Applies to eLearning you need to attend mLearnCon - June 19-21st - San Jose, CA

The Internet of Learning Things

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Internet of Things (wikipedia page) has been a concept in existence for over a decade. You may be hearing about it for the first time here, or you recently read about it somewhere else. And the reason why is because it's finally becoming much more real. Many of the gadgets being created using wifi, bluetooth, and bluetooth smart, are still only being embraced by the alpha geeks, but that is about to change.

The Internet of Things is all about connectivity, mobility, and the sharing of data. WiFi and Bluetooth technology provide the connectivity. Many of the "things" themselves are small enough to be moved around a home, office, or business while remaining "connected". And our mobile smart phones provide the interface by which we communicate with the things, view the data they collect, and share it with other people or professionals that can better interpret the data and make decisions.

One company that seems to be leading in the marketing of connected things is WiThings. The company defines itself this way...

"Withings is a leading force in the personal healthcare revolution. It designs, develops, and industrializes health and wellness connected devices that help families across the world take better charge of their health...

Withings is a major player in the Internet of Things. The company’s increases the capabilities of an object by the addition of network resources that allows access to infinite calculation and storage capacities without increasing costs. The object’s interfaces are also ported to devices such as mobile phones or computers, to benefit from their resources and capabilities."

In my mind, what's not far off is The Internet of Learning Things. I would actually consider these medical devices to be Learning Things as they provide us with the data we need to learn more about ourselves. As more and more "things" become connected we can begin to make connections between the different data points collected. Imagine combing the data from your Wifi Body Scale, Heart Rate monitor, and Nike+ all into one app. You can see how powerful this is going to be. After all, your bodyweight alone is only one measurement, or data point, in the bigger picture of one's health and wellness.

So, how can the Internet of Things begin to monitor and help us manage our learning? I have some ideas but I'd love to hear yours.

CES: VIZIO Announces new line of PCs - Impacts eLearning?

2012-01-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hey! It's CES week! Why is a Corporate eLearning Strategies blog covering consumer electronics? Well, I wouldn't exactly say that I'm "covering" the show. However, I am getting a lot of info about new product launches. I'm actually quite shocked at the number emails I am receiving as an industry analyst. But it's also quite fun to see it all.

This came from VIZIO inviting me to check out their new PCs. It's interesting to me because I always think of VIZIO as a TV maker. And the products in this image look REALLY nice.

So, what does this tell me and why should eLearning people care. Okay, I know this is going to be a stretch but its also kind of fun :)

1) The TV is increasingly more interesting as a content delivery device...not less.
2) Convergence (an often overused word in computing) is becoming more mainstream.
3) Mainstream adoption of new consumer electronics capabilities means eLearning can get on board.

So that's a long way towards an impact on eLearning, right? Yes, but seeing the reality of what the future holds can help us prepare.

Think about how powerful it is to participate in a Google+ Hangout while watching a YouTube video. That experience, as good as it is, is still not quite ready for prime time. But it will be...soon. When TV makers get into the PC business and PC makers start getting into the TV business it's easy to see that we are well on our way to a shared video viewing experience.

This is the convergence that has been talked about for many years. 2012 is when this begins to actually work for many people. Computing on your "TV", and watching television shows on your laptop, iPad, or other mobile device. Yes, it's available now and many enjoy the experience, but I would still call it new and in it's infancy. The true convergence and ease of use begins this year.

And since eLearning lags behind consumer technology it's easy to see how this new technology will be useful as a technology delivered learning channel. Don't worry. You don't need to start converting all of your training materials just yet. But aware of what's coming and start thinking about the next 5 years in your org. Plan now.

Get more CES info and video at their official YouTube channel.

Consumer Electronics Show - Critical to eLearning?

2012-01-06T06:36:00.001-07:00

I'd say yes if you're interested in seeing what your employees might be bringing into the office next year.
Of course you could just let your IT department handle that and have them report back. But the truth is that CES is huge and difficult to see it all. So there is no guarantee that you will get the info you need.

The show is next week in Las Vegas. While I am not attending in person this year I know people who are and I'll be monitoring the online front channel as well as the always active back channel.

If you will be there, please let me know and will monitor your blog or twitter stream.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to The eLearning Guild!!!

2012-01-05T15:40:00.001-07:00

The eLearning Guild turned 10 years old today. Help me wish everyone at The eLearning Guild a Happy Anniversary!!! You can tweet to @elearningguild or blog about your experiences. 2012 is sure to be a banner year, so renew your membership and stay connected with your colleagues in eLearning from around the world.

Cheers!

The Changing Context of Video in eLearning

2012-01-05T09:29:00.001-07:00

If you haven't been following my previous posts you may want to review quickly before diving into this one. At the very least be sure to have watched the videos from the first link.

What Have We Learned About Training in Over 70 Years
Creative Training Course Titles
Good Story Telling Takes Time - So Does Good Learning

1930s Film Projector

I think it's important that we begin to discuss the bigger training questions as they relate to these 2 videos. After all, there is a CONTEXT around each that is quite unique. And however obvious these points might be, I think it's helpful to point them out because I'm certain their on your mind and you just don't want to ask or comment. That's cool.

1937 had black and white film on reels of "tape" and it was a physical, analog, medium. This required a long production process, and a long complicated delivery process. The film needed to be duplicated and transported to many different locations. The learners needed to be gathered into a room. The properly skilled technician needed to setup and run the projection equipment. Duh! Right? Yea, I know.

Okay, so what does that mean from an instructional design perspective? Obviously, there HAD to be more to the training than JUST this video. Did they break up into teams and have a lab session with a differential sitting there in front of them? Who was the intended audience? Was the film intended for soon to be military vehicle mechanics or was it for ALL new Chevrolet mechanics? Perhaps it was produced by Chevy but intended to be sent to mechanical engineering schools. We don't know. But if you do know, I'd love to hear about it.

The changes in instructional design have changed very little over the decades, while technology has progressed significantly. The technology restrictions of analog media have long since vanished, and yet I still see the instructional models of old being employed.

Let's just take a look at video. 70 years ago it took a massive amount of effort, by today's standards, to get that film in front of a learner. Today, with YouTube and other video sharing platforms and the simple fact that the internet is the greatest distribution channel ever, it takes VERY little effort to accomplish the same task. But the reality is even bigger and better than that. Because of mobile devices anyone can watch videos where ever they are at any given time. And the best part is that they can watch it as many times as they want.

Google+ Hangout - 3 Viewers watching
the same video

Knowing that your learners can watch your video anytime, anywhere, as often as they want is a significant change in context since 1937. Heck, it's even a big change since 1997. And that's just video. What about the fact that a learner could be watching the video WITH many other learners/classmates from around the globe at the same time. AND they all could be chatting about the video and sharing comments? Is this not a HUGE shift in learning context?

Stop telling me that a video is not training. A video used in today's digital context can absolutely be effective training. Video can now be a shared, interactive, repetitive, experience at very little cost. The idea of viewing a film/video once and then moving on to the next part of the training is old and yet we still make that part of the learning EVENT design. Your videos can be viewed multiple times, on multiple technologies, and in a group or alone with people in dispersed locations across the globe. So, shouldn't we be thinking differently about the instructional design opportunities that video now provides for us?

While the script writing and production values play a roll, it's really the delivery mechanism that changes everything. That 1937 video is more effective, impactful, and valuable today than it ever was in back in the 1930s simply because it can now be a shared experience between a global audience.

How has video played a part in your eLearning? Do your learners take advantage of collaborating while watching videos together? Do you think they'll ever watch your videos on a mobile device?

Good Storytelling Takes Time - So Does Good Learning

2012-01-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

This week we are looking at a system known as the Differential. In my first post I asked that you review 2 training videos. Around the Corner was created in 1937 and How a Differential Works was created in 2011. In my last post I looked at the importance of titles, and today I wonder about management concerns that good storytelling is too time consuming and wasting employees time.

Stories take too long!
Both training videos do a good job of explaining the facts of how a differential works. And to be clear, while I am biased towards liking the 1937 video better, I believe both get the job done. And that is because I also believe there is more to learning than just watching videos. More on that in later post.

Around the Corner is 9 minutes and 31 seconds. How a Differential Works is 4 minutes and 44 seconds. So, if they both get the job done then you might as well just stop reading my stupid blog posts and just pick the shortest good quality videos you can find. You certainly don't want to waste your employees' time, right?

In Around the corner we don't even get narration until almost 2 MINUTES into the video. GASP! Can you imagine wasting so much precious training time? How dare those designers not take our time seriously!!! The NERVE!!!

I can hear today's Sr. managers and/or project stakeholders telling the instructional designers,

"ya know, that's nice and all but let's cut down that intro to about 30 SECONDS."

So, in the 2011 video you get an objective statement and a high level overview of what a differential is in exactly 33 secs.

I don't think anyone will argue that it's much easier to simply state the facts about any process. And doing so will no doubt take significantly less time than telling the story. I also don't think anyone believes that reciting facts alone is the best method of delivering content being learned by people. Human beings respond to their feelings and storytelling impacts feelings.

To most of us watching the 1937 video, the intro is just a bunch of motocycles doing a synchronized circus act. But to the mostly male trainees of the time these riders were part of the pop culture. We can simply guess that viewers were engaged and drawn into the movie because of these riders and using their skills to illustrate the basic problem being solved by differential gears.

There are many people blogging about storytelling in learning. I have not covered it all by any means, but I did recognize the importance of storytelling after watching these videos. Did you notice anything about storytelling when you viewed them?

Creative Training Course Titles: Around the Corner vs How a Differential Works

2012-01-03T07:43:00.001-07:00

In my last post I asked you to review a couple training videos about the complex gearing system in cars known as the differential.

I purposely did not mention which video I viewed first. The video that Dan Roam shared on Facebook was the video from 1937. I'll be honest and say my reaction to the first 60secs or so was something short of "this is lame! I must have clicked the wrong link. These are motorcycles, not cars." But then of course the story begins to unfold and connections are made. Nothing short of BRILLIANT!

I will spend the next few posts pondering the instructional design of each video as I see it. You may not see it the same as me. And so, I'm hoping you'll join me in a conversation about these 2 videos and the 70+ years of instructional design and corporate eLearning theory between them. As a quick primer I started with the simple yet often overlooked TITLE.

Around the Corner
What is in a name? What I completely missed in the 1937 video, the first viewing, is the catchy little title to the story...oh wait... excuse me... training. They titled it Around the Corner. What? Why around the corner? AH, NOW I GET IT! Holy moly, they actually incorporated the problem being solved into the title...nice! And besides, simply being curious about WHY the "course" is titled in such a way engages the learner. I would think that even on a subconscious level creating interest in the first 5 secs with a mysterious title would be a good thing. Even if the learners simply asked themselves why a training video would begin with such a title.

How a Differential Works
The title of the 2011 video is predictably How a Differential Works. I'd swear the first spoken words are straight out of the designers handbook on how to write an appropriate objective,

"We're going to explore what a differential is...".

I wonder how many instructional design reviews it took for the Ph.D. to finally land on the word "explore" as apposed to learn, or discover, or look into. I'll bet some of you reading this were critiquing every word. Go ahead, it's okay to admit it. You've been "trained" well, and you paid a lot for that masters degree, so you have every right to question each and every word your peer has chosen. While I'm at it I'd like to point my finger at those of you dying to tell me that these are "information" and <eyes rolling> not REALLY training. </eyes rolling>
"For cryin' out loud, man! Where's the practice and feedback?"
Yea, I get it. Now get over it.
But I digress...

I love these videos for so many reasons. Discussing the titles is only the beginning. The next time you begin the design process you might want to ask yourself how you might incorporate a creative title into your design. Your stakeholders may not approve, but if they ask you "Why did you title it this way?"... well... then you've done your job well.

What Have We Learned about Training in over 70 years? [VIDEO]

2012-01-02T12:19:00.000-07:00

My favorite design thinker Dan Roam posted a YouTube video on how a Differential System works on cars. I was blown away by the quality of the video and how confident I felt in understanding the complex system of a differential. After watching the video I noticed other videos in that right hand column of YouTube and so I watched another training video.

The videos I watched are in this post. Do me a favor. Watch them both and tell me your immediate gut reaction. Also, tell me if you had prior knowledge of the topic before viewing these videos.

What do they have in common? Can you see, or simply sense, a particular learning model? Or template? Or format? What about the development technology? Did it one work better than the other? What about the scripting? Put yourself in the shoes of the instructional designers. What methods does it look like they used to design and develop this training? Better yet, is this even training at all?
Ready? Go!

A PTK Christmas Carol

2011-12-26T17:07:00.001-07:00

I'm a big fan of innovative creativity in eLearning. There just isn't enough of it these days. So this year I'd like to simply highlight creativity in whatever form it comes to me. This one comes from PTK Learning. Enjoy!

2012 - The Year of the LMS

2011-12-23T13:52:00.001-07:00

I guess I never thought I'd hear myself say that. But something strange is afoot in the Learning Management Software market. With the shift of the internet from 1.0 to 2.0, and beyond, it was easy to envision a world no longer needing the LMS of old. So the question remains. What does the new incarnation of the LMS look like? Or does it just go away?

I'll admit that I've often ignored the LMS market. I've always been very interested in LEARNING, and management systems just never really had much to do with learning. The early systems had everything to do with tracking, recording, reporting, and monitoring. These are all business functions that need to occur at some level and so these systems do serve a purpose. I will readily admit that. But rarely does an LMS have anything to do with instructional design. But maybe that's about to change.

I don't have any links to stories that back me up on this, but I get a strange feeling that 2012 is the year we begin to see major changes in the LMS market. And I'm not talking about the continuing mergers, and acquisitions in this space. I'm thinking about a new breed of Learning Management Systems/Software. Perhaps someone figures out how to convert social engagement into tangible learning points, or other type of corporate currency that proves, or identifies, competency. But, honestly, I'm just not sure what that means, or what it might look like. I know some of you do. Because I know you're out there working on it.

Maybe the LMS finally gets completely sucked into Talent Management software and course completions simply become part of your HR file...as many do already. And maybe the big story will be that there IS no story: Every possible LMS either dies or gets acquired into HR or other management software. And maybe what that means is that instructional designers need to start seeing the bigger picture. If the enterprise is pulling together all these, once separate, software systems into something called Talent Management, then maybe there needs to be a hybrid study of Talent Systems Design.

What do you think?

And Happy Holidays!!!

Creating Passionate Learners 2005 = same in 2011

2011-12-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you that were not into the blogosphere WAY back in...oh... say... 2005 or 2006, the name Kathy Sierra is probably new to you. It's about time we ALL start learning how to "Create Passionate Users", or in our case Create Passionate Learners...and I'd argue they're the same thing, but I digress. Let me start with why I am blogging on this topic.

@moehlert tweeted a reminder of an IT Conversations recording of her keynote from the Tools of Change conference (2/16/2011). So, I took 25mins and listened to her story. I already knew most of the story but its always fun to get a refresher from thought leaders who bring a unique perspective to our industry. And yes, she IS a learning person...turned blogger...turned top-selling, uber-tech author at O'Reilly.

If you are new to Kathy Sierra, after listening to the recording above, you should read the archives of her blog at headrush.typepad.com. That will give you a pretty good idea of where she stands on turning users/learners into PASSIONATE learners/users.

My favorite moment in blogging...

I started blogging in August 2005 and I did not have anyone "following" me at the time. So you can imagine how psyched I was when, after 4 months blogging, Kathy posted a comment on my post 2005 Review of eLearning.

Kathy Sierra said...

The chart that Kathy references
in her comment

What a great post Brent! You've given me about 15 different things to think about here... and I could not agree more. What I didn't mention in my "is it interesting" post (and thanks very much for the nice comments) -- but that you must have picked up on -- is that the ones who were approving my checklist were the ISD'ers and the heads of the LMS team at Sun. They basically said, "If it isn't supported technically by the LMS, it *must not be relevant.* Talk about tail wagging the dog... ; )

I'm especially interested in that diagram of courses vs. collaboration, too.

Thanks for this great blog, Brent. I'm so glad I found it.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2005

As I was writing this post, and reviewing old posts, so many things struck me:

How amazingly powerful blogging and social media was and is,
how easy it is to forget about our learners in the process of ISD,
how much I miss Kathy's blog posts,
how much I wish she'd agree to speak at DevLearn 2012,
and how strange it is that my review of 2005 could easily be my review of 2011.

That last one, number 5, really has me thinking and pondering this question, "If I just changed a few dated words, and re-posted that post with a new 2011 title, would anyone know the difference?"
Because, ya know, it is that time of year where everyone reviews the past year and pontificates about the year to come.

But more importantly, are things STILL so much the same? I've done a lot since 2005 and I'm sure all of you have too, and yet I wonder why so much of our industry still feels the same. We've seen new iPhones, iPads, and iOS, Android, tablets, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, HTML5, apps, apps, and more apps, and on and on and on. So why are still talking about building courses? Why do job reqs still read the same?

My guess is that if we started thinking like Kathy and focused on what can we do to help our users kick ass in THEIR job that we would be looking at eLearning A LOT differently.

So, lets make 2012 the year eLearning actually becames about the learner!

P.S.
Here are some other posts where I reference Kathy Sierra.

@KathySierra Learns Spanish via Twitter
Should We Twitter Face-to-Face?
Cubicles Cause Brain Damage