Learning Visions

Independent Instructional Designer’s Toolbox

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:30:00 +0000

I’m not a free lance instructional designer, although I have played one on TV. No, not really, but I have been a freelance ID in the past.

Back then, the only tools I really used were Word, PPT, Visio, Project…not a single authoring tool in sight.

How does that landscape look like today? If you’re a freelance ID, what authoring tools do you claim you know? (I say that in the most loving of ways, but you know what I mean…)

And by authoring tool, I mean a tool that allows you to create self-paced eLearning courses.

What’s in your toolbox?

Independent-contractor, freelance instructional designers – please answer the poll! Your colleagues want to know:

eLearning Guild Authoring & Development Tools Research Report (2008)

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:16:00 +0000

After my session at ISPI earlier this week, someone commented that what would have really been useful is a list of the top 10 authoring tools in the market.

During my presentation, I flashed up on the screen a list of the 122+ tools listed in the Brandon Hall database. It was meant to be a bit tongue and cheek (breaking all rules for text font sizes!), just to show how big and overwhelming the marketplace really is.

Then I went on to show about 12 tools in more detail – some of which would probably make it onto a top ten list (Flash, Captivate, Articulate, and Lectora) – the remaining tools trying to hit at some of the other options out there (Smart Builder, eXe, Udutu, Thinking Worlds, Raptivity, Flypaper, Mohive, and Atlantic Link).

I’ve been digging around to see if I can find an actual top ten list. I suppose there are many ways to slice and dice that question. Which market? Large corporates have different needs than small companies or academic institutions. And of course, the tool needs to fit the purpose, so one tool won’t fit all.

I did dig up the eLearning Guild Authoring Tools Research Report (January 2008). It’s a bit out of date (almost 2 years old) and I suspect the numbers have changed a bit. My guess is that Articulate represents a larger market share than two years ago.

You can purchase the report or listen in on the January 2008 webinar (which is what I have done). The first 12 minutes or so of the webinar are speaker introductions. If your time is limited, I’d jump ahead.

Some highlights from the webinar follow:

The results in this report were gathered from surveys of eLearning Guild members and ongoing tool surveys on the Guild’s website.

# of tools used:

39% use four or more tools! (that includes PPT and Word – whether or not you consider these as rapid elearning tools, Guild members do).

Most important features to Guild members:

71% – tool allows for easy content updates
46% – tool has low learning curve
43% – tool outputs to Flash (this is even more important in smaller companies)

Most important industry support factors:

66% – tool is in widespread use
52% – tools has free online forums for support
48% – tool has free tech support
41% -- tool is updated frequently

Most important integration and collaboration factors:

71% – tool needs to be SCORM compliant
64% – tool needs to integrate with leading LMS
53% – tool allows for easy sharing of content

What’s in your toolbox? Probably Captivate.

Captivate – 67%
PPT – 57%
Word – 47%
Adobe Connect (Pro/Breeze) – 25%
Articulate Presenter 23%
Lectora 16%
Articulate Engage 13%
Articulate Rapid ELearning Studio Pro 13%
Articulate Rapid E-Learning Studio 9.4%
WebEx 7%

Also on this list

ToolBook Instructor
Rapid Intake – Flashform
Camtasia
ToolBook Assistant
Raptivity
Firefly
Skillsoft
Lectora (Open Office)
Keynote
Brainshark Presentations

Captivate’s at the top of the list of what’s IN someone’s toolbox, but it’s not the one that’s necessarily used the most.

Course output:

Flash as output = 66% of respondents want course output in Flash. (The Flash player is on virtually every desktop, so people just have the confidence to know it’s there)
Web browser only = 49%

Different results and patterns are evident in different industries, company sizes, etc.

Around 41-42 minutes in, Betsy Bruce starts talking about “Killer Tool Combinations” – using multiple tool combinations. 66% of respondents use best of breed tools in combination.

Different author groups (the tool needs to fit the skill level of the author – too technical? too light?:

SMES
IDs
Junior author/devs
Senior author/devs

Frank Nguyen (around 51 minutes in) – talks about the different kinds of carpenters who build eLearning:

General Contractor (PM, onsite, in the field, may do a little bit of everything.
Furniture Maker (at the opposite end of the spectrum)

The generalist uses broad tools – hammer, saw, drill, but not very specialized.

The furniture maker uses very specific tools – saw, specialized saws. Their toolbox looks really different from the general contractors – not as broad, but very deep.

e-Learning Developers are similar: generalists and specialists.

Who are the designers and developers in your organization? Do they need broad tools – or very specialized tools?

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If anyone out there has insight or data on Authoring Tools market share, please include some info in the comments!

e-Learning Authoring Tools Crash Course -- Follow Up

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:05:00 +0000

I had the great pleasure of speaking last night at the Massachusetts chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI).

It was a lively conversation and a wonderful opportunity for me to meet some of my online colleagues from the twitter sphere (thanks for coming, y'all!) as well as connect with some new folks in the Boston e-learning community.

Special thanks to Jean Marrapodi for inviting me to present.

___________

My topic: e-Learning Authoring Tools Crash Course: Deciding What Authoring Tools to Use and When

In preparation for the session, I had to take a crash course in authoring tools myself.

(If you know me, you know I've never been much of a tool user, although I have been called a tool.)

Here are some of the resources I promised to post.

My Sources

Since I'm not a tool user, I needed to mine the collective brain of the e-learning community to find out what's what. Here's what I turned to:

Kineo Authoring Tools Reviews OK. I know I'm biased because I work for Kineo, but I do think our review section is great. Paul Johns, Theo Cardiff, Steve Rayson among others have taken a bunch of tools for test drives and tell us what they think. They've included rating scales and subjective tales of their experiences, sometimes along with links to examples. We're adding new reviews all the time, so let me know if there's a tool you'd like us to check out.

eLearning Authoring Tools Mind Map A month or two ago I asked for your input to create a collaborative comparison of different products on the market. I asked "What do you use it for?, what do you like about? and what don't you like about it. Still a work in progress as I see it's being updated all the time. Note: you can generally tell if info was provided by a real user or by an authoring tool company ;)

Bryan Chapman, Brandon Hall Research Report, Authoring Tool KnowledgeBase 2009 (A Buyer's Guide to 120+ of the Best E-learning Content Development Applications). The list does include older tools like Authorware, which are no longer being supported and definitely missing a tool or two. But this could be a great place for an organization to start sorting through the mess of tools out there.

Michael Hanley provides a great resource to the eLearning community with his ongoing review of open source tools. Michael Hanley's E-Learning Curve Blog.

Janet Clarey of Brandon Hall Research recently wrote up a nice review of My Udutu.

Tom Kuhlman of Articulate is always knocking it out of the park over on his Rapid E-Learning Blog. A great place to seek inspiration and tips, and not just for Articulate users.

e-Learning Authoring Tools

The Brandon-Hall Authoring Tools database currently includes over 120 tools. That's a whole heck of a lot of tools. And that doesn't include half of 'em, I'm sure.

Our group was able to identify about 15 products off the tops of our heads. Gives you a sense of the marketplace, doesn't it? I looked at that list of 120 and many of the tools I'd never heard of either.

We flashed through the list and then took a closer look at these tools, along with a few examples along the way:

Flash www.adobe.com/products

Captivate www.adobe.com/products/captivate

Articulate www.articulate.com

Lectora www.lectora.com

Udutu www.udutu.com

Raptivity www.raptivity.com

Atlantic Link www.atlantic-link.co.uk

Mohive www.mohive.com

eXe http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/exe/wiki

Flypaper www.flypaper.com/

Suddenly Smart www.suddenlysmart.com

Thinking Worlds www.thinkingworlds.com

We obviously couldn't cover every tool in the pool, and I'm sure some feelings will be hurt. But I think I did get a good smattering -- something new for everyone.

Thanks to all for coming!

Kineo e-Learning Development Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:32:00 +0000

We have already gotten over 100 responses to our survey. Take a few minutes to answer a few questions about e-learning development at your organization and you'll get a free Articulate skin!

We'll be analyzing your responses over the coming weeks and let you know what trends and patterns we find.

Finding Good Photos for Your eLearning Scenarios

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Do you struggle with finding good stock photos to use in your eLearning scenarios? You might find the right guy to play the role of the client in your story, but there’s only three shots of him and he looks like a goofball in one of them.

So then do you go do a custom photo shoot? Maybe you have the time or the budget.

But usually not.

eLearning Art to the rescue!

eLearning Art provides royalty free stock photos, images, and other assets to help you create some cool stuff in your own authoring tools.

Character packs include models in up to 75 poses, giving you lots of choices. They are normal looking people, dressed in business casual, shot from multiple angles. Images are removed from the background (transparent), and can be superimposed onto any background to interact with any other character.

They’ve also got cartoon assets and some animated flash characters.

Check out the little scenario I worked up in about five minutes. (Yes, it’s so easy, even I can do it!)

Zombie Office

View more presentations from cammybean.

(I’ve been learning about zombies in preparation for the upcoming DevLearn!)

Images and assets aren’t free, but well-priced and worth the investment.

Check out the eLearning Art website and view this one minute youtube video to see an example.

(I was not paid or offered any favors to write this review, I just think it’s a cool service. And Bryan Jones, the guy behind it, is a nice guy. And it’s nice to be nice to the nice.)

Let me know what you think. Is this the kind of service you’ve been looking for? Or will you stick with free online stock photos?

Kineo Audio Interview with Ellen Wagner "The Evolution of the LMS"

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:51:00 +0000

I love my job. I get to talk to really interesting people in the eLearning community and then share it with all of you. Is it work if it's fun?

Last week I got the chance to chat with Ellen Wagner about the eLearning Guild's LMS 2009 Report: The Evolution of the LMS: From Management to Learning.

The big story? The growing impact of Moodle and open source on the maturing LMS market.

Listen to my audio interview with Ellen Wagner over at the Kineo website.

You may already know Ellen from her blog: eLearning Roadtrip. If not, I suggest you join her on her journey.

On Guerilla Design and Video

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:26:00 +0000

There's always the debate about whether you need to go pro for your audio and visual, or get right to the source in a down and dirty kind of way.

With easy-to-use tools at your fingertips, it's getting cheaper and faster to go guerilla style and get the subject matter expert speaking directly to your audience in a matter of moments. Skype, phone lines, iPhones/iPods, video cameras, etc. User generated content gets easier to generate by the minute.

"Even the most popular YouTube videos may totally fail the standard Hollywood definition of production quality, in that videos are low-resolution and badly lit, their sound quality awful and their plots nonexistent. But none of that matters, because the most important thing is relevance. We'll always choose a "low-quality" video of something we actually want over a "high-quality" video of something we don't."

Chris Anderson, Free, p. 194.

I've blogged before about going guerilla with audio. Audio in eLearning: When Rough Around the Edges is Better.

This morning, Dick Carlson's posted a link to this session being offered tonight in South Carolina: Gonzo Video - Why Less is More, Worse is Better, And Shaky is Believable. Drive on down if you're close by and learn a thing or two!

Kineo Top Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Although my blogging volume may be down, my writing volume certainly is not. Amidst client projects and presentations I think I'm actually writing more than ever.

Some of my efforts lately have been focused on the Kineo website, particularly around our Top Tip series:

Browse our complete Top Tips library and let me know if there's something you'd like to see more of!

Mass Chapter ISPI November Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:21:00 +0000

I'm speaking at the next Mass Chapter ISPI Meeting, thanks to the always energetic Jean Marrapodi. (@jmarrapodi)

If you're in the area, come along and help me out!

************

e-Learning Tools Crash Course: Deciding What Authoring Tools to Use and When

So you've heard about PowerPoint, Articulate, Captivate and Flash. How about Lectora, Camtasia, Raptivity, Atlantic Link or Mohive? There are lots of eLearning authoring tools out on the market these days. How do you decide which tool to use?

In this crash course, we'll introduce you to a wide catalog of e-learning tools. We'll review examples of courses built in a variety of tools, look at pricing options, discuss appropriate uses, and review benefits and downsides.

To learn more, go to Mass ISPI

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

6:15-7:00 PM - Registration
7:00 - 7:15 PM - Chapter Business

7:15 - 8:45 PM - Program

Babson College

use this interactive campus map for the location

http://www3.babson.edu/Visiting/CampusMap.cfm

Instructional Design Questionnaire

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Dr. John Curry's looking for input from instructional designers.

Dr. Curry is an Assistant Professor in Educational Technology at Oklahoma State University. You may remember him from such posts as:

Essential Reading for Instructional Design?
and
How to Get an Instructional Design Education Without Paying Tuition

He's interested in the disconnect between academia and corporate design. He's got a short questionnaire on his blog and he's asked me to ask you to help out. Yeah, you!

Take the survey. It doesn't hurt at all: http://effectivedesign.org/blog/2009/10/13/instructional-designer-questionnaire/

Interview with Brent Schlenker

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:13:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I had a very Brent Schlenker kind of week. Have you ever had one of those?

First, I sat in on a Brent webinar: Marketers and Game Developers Know More About Learning Than We Do! hosted by Training Magazine Network. I posted my notes on Brent's session, in case you missed it.

Later in the week, Brent and I chatted it up a bit. A nice follow-on to the webinar, we talked a bit more about learning campaigns, emerging technologies and, of course, the upcoming DevLearn '09.

I think it's a nice addition to the ongoing Kineo podcast series and my first contribution.

You can listen to clips from our conversation or download the entire thing over at the Kineo website (we waxed eLearning for over 30 minutes!).

Kineo Webinar on Webinars!

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:06:00 +0000

It's a Meta-Webinar!

Join Kineo's Mark Harrison for a free webinar on webinars: Building effective content for your online sessions.

When:
Thursday, October 15
3 pm UK / 10 am EST / 9 am CST

To register:
Send email to info@kineo.com

What’s Your Max Learning Strategy?

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:04:00 +0000

I’m reading Chris Anderson’s latest book Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

He talks about the what Google’s CEO Schmidt calls Google’s “max strategy.”

Take whatever it is you are doing and do it at the max in terms of distribution. The other way of saying this is that since marginal cost of distribution is free, you might as well put things everywhere.

According to Anderson, Schmidt then jumps into a description of HBO’s launch of The Sopranos:

Create a great show
Create a blog about the show
Do some PR
Make some ‘online buzz-generators’ like a Facebook page or viral video
Send plot updates via text message and Twitter
Web site tells even more about charcaters and show
Post extra footage to YouTube
Create a contest to drive even more attention

That’s the max strategy. Maybe only the actual HBO deal generates any money, but all of the other contribute to its overall success.

So how can we translate that approach to learning and training?

(And remember, the goal of a max learning strategy isn’t simply about marketing the e-learning event. That’s a marketing strategy.)

Think about a max learning strategy as a way to get your content out there in more ways than one. It’s beyond a single learning event. And it’s not just about formal solutions as tracked in the LMS.

It’s perhaps a bit of a scatter shot approach. Providing more opportunities for learners to “accidentally” discover your content and get the information they need to do what they need to do. It’s about combining formal learning events with social learning, informal learning, accidental learning, and whatever else it might take.

In Brent Schlenker’s recent webinar, he started exploring the concept of a “learning campaign.” (Brent acknowledges that this isn’t necessarily a ‘new’ idea).

In the comments on my post on Brent’s talk, Steve Flowers suggests how he has been doing this in his workplace. He calls it a ‘layered strategy’. He says,

We stopped thinking 'this product' and started thinking 'bigger'. We built in things like message posters, and constructed brief PSA's that echoed some well shaped messages that could be reused throughout the organization for consistency. This was a concerted effort to carry the message. It's a campaign.

Julie Dirksen also provided some great ideas on how to create a campaign, including before, during and after activities.

So is it a learning campaign or a max strategy? Either way are you doing it at your organization? How?

Photo credit: Risk! by junkmonkey

Interview with Tony Karrer on Informal and Social Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:13:00 +0000

Be sure to listen to the latest Kineo podcast with Dr. Tony Karrer. Steve Lowenthal interviews Dr. Tony Karrer to get his thoughts on informal and social learning in the enterprise.

And while you’re there, check out Kineo’s complete audio series, including interviews with such e-learning notables as Jay Cross, Laura Overton and Clive Shepherd.

What’s the Difference: Learning Designer vs. Instructional Designer?

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:13:00 +0000

Someone got to my blog the other day by searching on “what’s the difference between learning designers and instructional designers?”

Good question.

In my last job, I was the Manager of Instructional Design. Now I’m the VP of Learning Design.

Did I make the leap because I work for the UK mothership – and that’s what they call it across the pond?

Are we – as in the collective we of the eLearning ‘industry’ – making a conscious shift away from Instructional Designer since no one on the outside knows what that means?

Is Learning Designer more descriptive? Is it more all encompassing? Am I now thinking about learning solutions – all the myriad ways to help someone actually learn – not just how to feed someone up with a little instructional tidbit?

Is this a general trend or just me?

What do you think??

Brent Schlenker: Marketers and Game Developers Know More About Learning Than We Do!

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:18:00 +0000

Live session with Brent Schlenker: Marketers and Game Developers Know More About Learning Than We Do! hosted by Training Magazine Network.

***********

Disclaimers: “I am not a marketer or a game developer.” (Although he plays a LOT of games).

When he listens to game developers talk, feels like they’re in the learning prof.

Everything IS about learning.

Brent’s background:

What I am: 15+ yr learning professional, lifelong learner, player, consumer.

news – using media to tell stories.
Masters degree in Instructional Systems Design Process
10 years at Intel working in tools.

How do we use new and emerging technologies in the learning space?

We don’t typically create the new tools in eLearning – that innovation is happening in other places – e.g., marketing.

What’s coming down the pike so we can prepare our learners for them?

Point of today’s conversation: talking training, design and development if a marketing person were doing it. Or a game developer. What cool things are other areas doing that we can leverage to make us better designers and developers?

Comment (Julie S): “My first boss said that training is very much selling.”

Marketers are REALLY good at understanding who their target audience is.

People, Context, Content

Corporate ISD:

When working with a Subject Matter Expert (SME), they have a tendency to put everything into the training.
In corp learning space, we have a tendency to give in to that. We bow to the will of the SME…
Little room for creativity

New technology gives us new tools.

Marketing Depts:

Marketing dept always has the money. That’s where most creative talent in organizations go. This is where business finds the value, which is why marketing is where the dollars go.
They also get the resources to analyze the data.
What are they doing that’s different?
How do they measure success? Are the expectations on marketing depts greater than on training?
Marketing brings in the money.
A big part of marketing IS education -- what is the product? how does it add value? why should you buy it? This is the greatest connection between what we do…

Learners need to change behavior…which is what marketing does.

Event-based learning vs. Learning Campaigns

Marketing talks about a CAMPAIGN. Learning talks about a curriculum.

A campaign is a series of events/operations/continuing storyline – not just a “set of courses”.

A campaign that’s a continuous storyline involving a set of adventures and characters (learners) to achieve a set goal…

Design and develop learning campaigns that involve storylines, adventure, social media, people – every campaign has a structure to it – there is a formal development/design process. But there’s room to move. Different media involved in an ad campaign. Let people engage with others in the learning process.

New tools make this easier to implement from cost perspective, but still a big time cost to developing/designing learning campaigns.

A learning campaign is different than a marketing campaign. It’s not about t-shirts and email blasts – it’s about providing more ways for learners to engage with and access content.

World of Warcraft: getting people into a shared space to figure out together how to get the boss (the bad guy). Someone in comments wrote “sounds like a business strategy meeting!”

Get the Learner’s Attention

We use a lot of “fake” ways to get people’s attention…fun flash movie and then slide into the boring content…but I got their attention! (Yes, we need to sustain that attention.)

Each person’s individual desire to learn something is what makes for engagement. We’re not talking about “dressing up” content to fake that it’s engaging.

Book Recommendations:

Made to Stick (idea of attention – marketers do something shocking and unexpected, “unexpectedness”.)

A Theory of Fun (“games are puzzles to solve, just like everything else we encounter in life”) The most serious issues we have to approach are puzzles.

Don’t just read learning design and pedagogy books. Extend what you can do – think outside of your field.

Common Craft Videos

Great at explaining. Now companies are coming to them to do marketing – to explain their products.

ShamWow

Why are these so memorable? What can we learn from these infomericals? What are they doing – how do they display information and what' they’re teaching us about their product? Seems like an ID at work in there.

YouTube – videos – short hits to educate. 30-90 seconds. A whole lot of info, but the right info when you need it.

Production costs have dropped – we can start adding a lot more media/engagement to our programs.

Quickly produce short tips.

Attention – ways marketers and game developers get our attention. They do this well.

Analysis – really know their audience.

Objectives --

Measurement --

What you can do?

Keep it quick
Make it short
Be really creative
Make something that actually affects behavior (marketers want people to change their behavior – drink pepsi not coke, drink coke not pepsi)
Make it truly memorable

Don’t just need IDs on your staff – get some creatives in there who look at things a bit differently.

Understand gaming theory and gaming design.

Put the customer/consumer/learner first. We say we do…but we don’t often do it.

The best stuff is not trickery – it’s an engaging game; it’s a great product or service. That’s all. (Jeopardy is really kind of lame…)

eLearning Authoring Tools Review -- Help!

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:48:00 +0000

I am working on a presentation in a few weeks about eLearning authoring tools. A high level overview for learning and development types who don't actually use the tools, but want to know what's out there, when you might use it, and some of the pros and cons.

Now, I'm not much of a tool user myself. I've got some understanding of tools. But I would love the input of some actual tool users -- or perhaps recipients of eLearning created with those tools. Experience counts. Any experience.

Could you help me out and go play around with this mind map here? Feel free to add tools (Once you're into editing mode, just click on the central hub of the diagram and click Enter. Mindmeister seems to be a pretty easy tool to use. Go on. Try it!)

Our output will be the property of everyone -- so feel free to add to, share and reuse.

Thanks!

As eLearning Ripens on The Vine

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:21:00 +0000

As eLearning matures (let’s just agree that this is the case), are you finding any differences in the complexity of the types of eLearning you are creating?

In my early days, I wrote a lot of software training courses. Instruct, Demo, Practice, Test, Rinse, Repeat. Something like that. CBT did the job.

Is it just me and my particular career trajectory and things seem to be getting deeper now? Or has this complexity been there all along and I was just skating along in a parallel universe?

Are the expectations for eLearning actually getting more demanding? Are we seeing a real shift from just information and declarative knowledge to real expertise development?

I guess the obvious answer is yes. We must be. We have to be. Businesses are looking for eLearning to fill more of the training need. Universities and institutions are transitioning to online curriculum.

So as designers, we – (and by this, I mean I) – need to be better prepared to create more complex training programs.

(This is when I start thinking about going back to grad school. Yes, me. I think about it. I really do…)

Photo credit: white grapes on the vine by roblisameehan

Lance Dublin: Formalizing Informal Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:09:00 +0000

[My notes from a webinar. Missed the first 20 minutes…sorry!]

Lance Dublin: Formalizing Informal Learning ….&#%!? Why? How? Presented by Training Magazine Network

Diagram of the learning process:

Input: you can get input in lots of ways
Organize
Apply
Evaluate

(in a wheel – each of these is a subprocess)

Looking first at learning.

In a disconnected learning system:

Need. Learning. Performance

The Learning process is often disconnected from the need and the performance.

The Search Engine = “great big white box of hope.” (Lance’s trademark term!)

A High Performance Learning System has Need/Learning/Performance all cycling together.

How can we add more to Learning to get to high performance?

Need to think about New Learning Principles:

Rapid
Mobile
Collaborative
Immersive (we don’t want to be lectured at)

Formal vs. Informal – a spectrum

Examples of a formal learning activity:

webinar, classroom, lecture, etc.

What made it formal?

Structure. Planned with objectives…intention.

Examples of informal:

Water cooler, SoMe

Informal learning is never intentional. Formal learning is intentional. [I disagree with this! I use my blog/twitter with intention.

Lance asks: What happens if you add intentionality to an informal activity?

It moves it on the contiuum. It’s not black and white. It’s not informal vs. informal.

Marcia Connor’s four-square chart from 2004 (pre web 2.0):

Formal (classes, elearning, meetings)/Informal (community, teaming, playing)

Intentional (reading, coaching, mentoring)/Unexpected (self-study, exploring, internet surfing)

The choice is not informal vs. formal.

Intentionally Informal: reading a blog, twitter, etc.

Take Marcia’s view to 2009:

Formal/Informal vs. Intentional/Unintentional

Formal intentional: classes, meetings, elearning, virtual experiences

Informal unintentional: social media, search, conversations, play, life.

Intentional Informal: reading and searching, coaching and mentoring, blogs, wikis, some, etc. This is the sweet spot. Taking tools and using them in a new way – add intentionality to them.

These are all tools – it’s how you use them.

Intention gives you metrics and measurement.

Non-formal learning can have objectives.

The opportunity is not formalizing informal learning, but rather working with non-formal learning.

You will lose the battle if try to come up with metrics around totally informal learning.

“Technology gives us more options.” (Kevin Kelly) We used to have two options: formal and informal. Now we’ve got all this middle ground.

If there’s no design, it’s informal.

HOW

Stage 1: Get Organized (Leadership)

What is the problem you’re trying to solve?
What are the metrics? – think about them upfront, not at the end. (Amount of time to move info through a salesforce – maybe the metric is time).
Stakeholders?
Learner profile?
Approach? Given our problem, the metrics, the stakeholders – how are we gonna do it?

Stage 2: Get Oriented

What’s the scope?
Organizational factors?
What are the weaknesses?
What are milestones along the way?

[Note: still haven’t selected the technology or tool!]

Stage 3: Get Smarter

Architect the solution (hmm…maybe twitter, maybe a blog…)
Develop the design
Integrate into larger system
Test, learn, iterate (rapid prototyping and quick cycles) – “fast and ok is better than slow and good.” Today’s world is ready, fire, aim, ready, fire, reaim!

Stage 4: Get Real (Develop-Implement)

Go right to Version 1 – forget the beta. No one’s committed to a beta.
Continue to learn and iterate
listen and communicate

5 Key Principles:

Speed. Rapid.
Action learning – nothing is certain.
Integration – it’s got to fit inside a larger system.
Pragmatism – leverage opportunities. look inside the org and decide where this will make a difference.
Working from right to left – keep the end in mind – first figure out what problem you’re trying to solve. Don’t start with Twitter and then work backward.

Warnings:

No models
No roadmap
Layers of complexity (a classroom is actually pretty simple. But this will have many things you can’t control or plan for).
Mistakes are inevitable
Surprises are given
Strong forces are working against you
Time is of the essence

And then…we ran out of time!

_____________________

“If I annoyed you, I meant to.” [I think he said that. He did.]

Side two of his business card = Creative Abrasionist – hoping to be provocative. 30 years in the learning industry. People in the biz need to be open – it’s not either/or.

www.dublinconsulting.net

DevLearn09 - I'm Speaking!

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Come November, I'll be heading to San Jose for DevLearn '09.

Looking forward to the schmoozing, the DemoFest, the ID Zone, the Social Media Camp, the learning!, and -- oh yes! -- the speaking.

I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to co-present two sessions this year along with some of my esteemed Kineo colleagues:

Wednesday, November 11 1:30 pm
Moodle: How It's Changing the Face of Corporate e-Learning
with Steve Lowenthal, Kineo's US CEO

Friday, November 13 10:00 am
Yawn-proof your e-Learning Without Busting the Bank
with Stephen Walsh, Kineo partner

Check out full descriptions of our sessions as well as all the other cool things that are happening at the DevLearn website.

Hope to see you there! (Did I tell you that I'm looking forward to the schmoozing part?)

Back to School Reading List

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:34:00 +0000

Over on the Kineo website, we frequently post articles and tips on a variety of topics. Usually e-learning related, but you never know.

Last week I put up a Back to School Reading List with an ID/e-learning focus. Be interested to hear what you've got on your reading list right now. What are you hoping to read this fall in order to expand your mind and your professional capabilities?

Also check out Tip 27: Tear Down the Visual Wallpaper. (I did not write this one). Nice piece on graphics for instructional use.

I like this from the article's intro:

Graphic descriptions you may be familiar with:

· ‘Two people shaking hands’

· ‘Business person on the phone in generic office’

· ‘Image of learners, asleep in front of their computers’
Come on -- admit it. You've used those same images, haven't you?

Kineo Webinar: Compliance Training Case Study

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:23:00 +0000

Kineo will be holding a free webinar on developing cost-effective compliance training on Thursday, August 27, 2009.

In an increasingly regulated world organizations need to both train staff in relevant regulations and demonstrate compliance. The pace of change means that traditional custom e-learning development processes are simply too long and with the economy in the doldrums off-the-shelf content can be too expensive. Rapid E-learning provides an alternative to develop compliance training cost-effectively and quickly.

Join Kineo and Mary K. Schottmiller J.D, former EVP Human Resources of First Group America on August 27^th for a case study on the development of a 15-minute course on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. All who attend will receive a FREE copy of the course.

Agenda:

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and What it Means for Companies (5 minutes)
Rapid eLearning: Kineo’s Definition (5 minutes)
Making the case for / against Rapid eLearning (5 minutes)
Rapid eLearning Design Model (10 minutes)
Lilly Ledbetter Course Demo (10 minutes)
Customizing the Course for your Organization (10 minutes)
Q&A (10 minutes)

Session Details:

August 27^th 2009

7:30 AM PDT (Los Angeles)

9:30 AM CST (Chicago)

10:30 AM EST (New York)

3:30 DST (London)

To Register email info@kineo.com

US Dept of Education Report on Online Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:14:00 +0000

The US Department of Education has just released a new report "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies".

Nice brief title.

I'll admit, the full article is on my to do list for when I come back from vacation. But this stood out in the abstract:

"The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction."

"In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education)."

Over at the Kineo site, there's a nice rundown of some of the key points in the US Dept of Education report.

What are your thoughts? Is this indeed cause for celebration and an opportunity to feel some real job security for those of us who dabble in elearning?

Jane Bozarth Follow Up

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:50:00 +0000

For those of you who missed Jane Bozarth's session yesterday: Better Than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging e-learning with PowerPoint -- a recording of the session and handouts are now available (you'll have to register):

http://www.trainingmagnetwork.com/discussions/show/769

Jane has posted some links following the webinar which you can find here (you'll also have to register):

http://www.trainingmagnetwork.com/groups/show/394

My notes on Jane's session can be found here.

Jane Bozarth: Better than Bullet Points

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Jane Bozarth: Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging eLearning with PowerPoint.

Session hosted by Training Magazine.

Effective design using PPT as a tool.

Not PPT 101. But will talk about how to make instruction more engaging, interactive and interesting.

Why PowerPoint?

We have it. It’s cheap. It’s idiot proof. Pretty universal. Easy to deal with.

Many tools out there that still have to start with ppt

Use it as a storyboarding tool, prototyping.

Can do an awful lot with PPT.

Most of Jane’s examples – from people with lower budgets – not the glitzy example (we need to make learning engaging, not pretty).

Creating asynchronous instruction.

Frustration with eLearning:

Becomes dumping ground for slides, text, content

All the fun stuff kept for the classroom.

Info dumps are not instruction!

How BAD can e-learning be?

73 slides of text. Inexplicable clip art. Not elearning, but ereading.

“etorture” (said by someone in the chatroom!)

Pages and pages of scrolling text. Pretty much just a policy manual.

Even when you make programs like that mandatory, still only have a 5% completion rate.

Better than Bullet Points

Develop a treatment
Apply Richard Mayer’s SOI model
Choose graphics with soul, interactions with meaning, and animations that teach

Taking an existing classroom course – think about TRANSFORMING it, not converting it.

1. Select a Treatment

Don’t just present lots of data.

put it into context (create a story around it – example: A. Platura Art Detective to each about perspective).

Use hyperlinks to answer questions.

It’s very easy to load content on slides – but it takes more creativity to move learner to actual understanding!

Use scenarios – apply what you know to make a decision..Ask the learner to take info that’s not clearcut and apply it using a question (in PPT – picture of a farmer and 3 images of “experts” to ask for advice. Whose advice do you follow?)

SMES get married to the content and often lose sight of the bigger picture.

Present the info – not as a text dump – but rather “what happens in the real world?”

Example:

You decide:

Read the complaint
Review the evidence (this links off to different slides – email evidence, etc.)
Decide who wins the case

When you see something you like, try to do it in PowerPoint.

Idea Kickstarters

Talk to others outside of your area of expertise

Use the Goofus and Galant approach – compare and contrast the good example vs. the bad example

2. Apply Mayer’s SOI Model

Where projects derail. Have a good idea, but want to put too much stuff into it.

Richard Mayer – research on multimedia learning.

“Select, organize and integrate”

Select important information
Organize it into meaningul wholes
Integrate it with real world problems

Select:

Help the learner understand what they’re going to do. Filter info for them.

Use good headings.

Organize:

outlines
headings
graphics
structure text (compare/contrast, cause/effect, classification order/sequence)

Integrate:

illustrations with captions
animation with narration
worked-out examples
elaborative questions

Take all of the info and make better sense of it for the learner.

“Effective design is done when there’s nothing left to take out.” [not that you’ve found a way to put more stuff in.]

Intregrate text with graphics – don’t have a picture on one side and the list of items to look at on another side of page. Might look neater, but too much cognitive load. Put the labels right on the picture.

Taking information and applying it to a real problem

How do we keep from overloading learners?

chunks
keep it short
get rid of extraneous information
don’t assume learners are idiots – they don’t need everything spelled out to them.
make it relevant to the job and not just information

3. Choose Graphics with Soul, animations that teach, interactions with meaning.

Finding graphics: flickr, istockphoto, etc.

Useful feedback in an online quiz

Use feedback to help the learner learn.

Other tips:

Insert photos instead of cutting and pasting them – smaller file sizes!

Bad elearning can be horrible no matter what tool you use. It’s about design, not software!

Less is more.

PPT Blunders when designing eLearning:

too much text
bad graphics
flying text

My review: Jane is a fabulous presenter. Very fluid delivery. Lots of great examples. Time well spent.

Update:

For those of you who missed the session, a recording and handouts are available (you'll have to register):

http://www.trainingmagnetwork.com/discussions/show/769

Jane has posted some links following the webinar which you can find here (you'll have to register):

http://www.trainingmagnetwork.com/groups/show/394