Learning Visions

Kineo Product Knowledge E-Learning Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:33:00 +0000

Kineo will be holding a free webinar on creating effective product knowledge e-learning on July 16th, 2009.

Product knowledge training creates major challenge for organizations, including:

Keeping content up to date: products change rapidly. For example there have been over 60 new versions of the Blackberry since its launch in 2002, that’s one every 5 weeks.
Keeping it short and focused: sales people who need product knowledge information work in challenging, fast paced and often noisy retail environments. The learning has got to get to the point, quickly.
Making it engaging: Delivering ‘just the facts’ about the product isn’t enough to increase sales. Learners need to know the benefits, how to recognize customer needs for a product, and how to close the sale.
Keeping costs down: Given the pace of change, product knowledge e-learning has got to be cost effective, otherwise the maintenance costs will be prohibitive.

The free Kineo webinar will use real case studies to demonstrate:

Effective designs for product knowledge e-learning
How to use sales scenarios as part of the learning
Prototyping effectively
How to use xml files to update product e-learning in a matter of minutes
How to use games and challenges to motivate learners
How to design and deliver a product portal

The one hour webinar will be held at 3pm UK time/10am Eastern on July 16th, 2009.

If you would like to reserve a place please contact Kineo at info@kineo.

[Seats are filling up fast so be sure to sign up!]

Designing for Articulate: A Newbie’s View

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:09:00 +0000

I’m new to Articulate. Although I’ve been reading Tom Kuhlman’s Rapid E-Learning Blog now for a couple of years, I’ve never actually designed (or for that matter, built) an Articulate course.

My canvas for the past four years has been custom Flash. I’d have an idea and then someone much smarter than me would go figure out how to make it work.

At Kineo, we often work with our clients’ tools of choice. That is, if a client uses Articulate in-house, they may ask us to build a few courses for them in Articulate. (We also do a lot of custom Flash, Mohive, etc.)

For the past few weeks I’ve been designing and scripting my first Articulate courses. I’m such a n00b.

I started off feeling a bit pegged in: “I have to design and write for a set of templates? How constricting!”

But now I’m starting to loosen up a bit, with help from my Kineo colleagues. (Thanks especially to Matt!). It’s a fun challenge.

Some beginning tips:

Keep variety. Don’t use an Engage Tab screen for every other page. Mix it up.

Intersperse questions throughout the content. Formative questions break the content up with momentary pauses for reflection and to reinforce the learning process.

Use Engage Labeled graphics as question pages. “Which of these widgets would you use to paint a monkey?” There’s no penalty for a wrong answer. Let the learner explore.

Spice it up with scenarios. This is true for any tool. Keep it interesting with a story. Compel the learner to want to find out what comes next.

Use interesting images. I’m lucky to have some graphic artists on my team who know how to turn a page into something quite lovely! That doesn’t hurt.

I uploaded a final script last night for the UK team (five hours ahead of me) to start working on. This morning, when I logged on to email, I saw a message that the course had been built! Holy cow. That’s rapid.

The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:02:00 +0000

Richard Nantel of Brandon Hall recently posted about average LMS prices. A ‘low-cost’ LMS starts at an average of $58K. That’s the low price. Which is still a whole LOT of money.

And “in times like these…”

Why pay for a pricey LMS when you can Moodle or Drupal or Sakai?

Why do companies continue to pay huge dollars for products that are now being offered for free? Web conferencing services like DimDim now offer the equivalent of WebEx. For free.

(I’m a recent convert, perhaps on the path to open source evangelism.)

So what are some of the hurdles to overcome in the corporate market? Here are just a few:

It’s free. Because it’s open source, there are no licensing costs. This, apparently, freaks people out. Free must mean sub par, right? Wrong. Moodle and other open source products have huge communities behind them. Talented individuals who can program like hell and believe in the open source philosophy.

Support. There’s no vendor who creates Moodle per say. That means there’s no 800 number or help desk you can call. That means your IT department has to know how to do all the code. Sure they can. Or you can contract with a company like Kineo that can host and support your Moodle for you (at the risk of sounding like a company shill!)

It’s not for corporate use. Well, it’s true that Moodle was originally created for academic use and it already has a great foothold in the academic world. But Moodle is increasingly being used in the corporate market. According to an eLearning Guild survey conducted in 2007, 18% of respondents in corporate settings reported using Moodle.

Out of the box, Moodle may not have all the features an enterprise needs, but simple add-ons can be created. Kineo has recently worked on creating a classroom management add-on for a corporate client and has a fabulous Moodle reporting tool.

It looks so very bland. Moodle out of the box is like vanilla pudding. Pretty plain. But the beauty of open source is you can customize it. Kineo has done some really fabulous interfaces that look slick, modern and way beyond what you might think possible. We’ve integrated Flash animations into Moodle home pages and replicated clients’ existing web sites. Take some vanilla pudding, add raisins or rainbow sprinkles or a caramel swirl.

I think the time for open source is now. What about you? Do you think we're at a tipping point?

The Scrambled Egg Mind of a Beginner

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:20:00 +0000

Apparently, when Tom Kuhlman links to your blog, crazy things happen. So hi to all of my new readers and thanks for joining.

Thought I'd check-in and give you all a quick status update on what I've been up to:

As you may know, I recently started with Kineo as the VP of Learning Design.

As with any new job, there are a lot of transitions to navigate. I'm in that beginner-mind zone. Although I've been doing this work for 15ish years, the ground beneath me is shaky and I feel like I'm in new waters, navigating new people, new processes, new tools.

Traveling. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind: ASTD, client visits, seminars on Moodle/Articulate in Boston and Chicago. I'm suddenly racking up lots of frequent flyer points. Next week I'll be heading to Kineo World Headquarters in the UK for 5 days. The kids may not take it so well...

Adjusting to life as a virtual office worker. When I'm actually in town, I work from the shed.

There are a lot of great things about this arrangement: lunch breaks with the kids, secret visitors who spy on me through the window, the occasional drum jam.

Has its downsides: the occasional drum jam while I'm trying to talk on the phone, my work is my home is my work is my home, and there's no one but me to bake cookies for the office.

My blogging and tweeting has been a bit sporadic with all of this mania. I'm in scrambled egg mind mode most of the time. Will hope for a few opportunities for reflection as things unfold.

Hope you're all doing well and please take the time to comment on the blog. I enjoy the conversations immensely. I do post a lot of learning tidbits to Twitter that never make it to the blog, so join me there if you're so inclined. I'm @cammybean.

Audio in eLearning: When Rough Around the Edges is Better

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:24:00 +0000

At our seminar today on using Articulate and Moodle and "Doing More for Less", the conversation turned (as it always does) to using audio in eLearning. One of the participants talked about a focus group/research project his organization did.

I don't have the specifics and I'll try to track him down to find out more because the results were fascinating. For now, this is all heresay.

Here's what I recall:

They created a set of powerpoint slides. (Perhaps the subject matter expert had created them?) Let's just say, a set of slide were created by someone.

They had the SME record the audio for the slides. I'm not sure if the SME was reading a script, reading the notes, or just speaking from the heart.

So that's one version.

Next, they had a 'professional' clean up the SME's transcript, cut out the ums and ahs and record it 'professionally'.

So that's the second version.

So you've got one version that's pretty rough around the edges and one version that's smooth and polished. They piloted these two versions and got feedback.

Something like 60-70% of the learners preferred the rough version, created by the expert. They said it "sounded more real" and they trusted it more because they knew this person was talking from experience.

So here's to more guerilla audio recording!

Go out and get your SME to say it like it is into a microphone and share their expertise. Eliminate the middle-(wo)man. Put the content where it can be accessed. And create content that learners will trust.

[We'll be hosting another seminar this week in Chicago on Thursday, June 11! More details on the Articulate/Moodle seminar.]

I Say Instructional Designer, You Say Tomah-toe

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:08:00 +0000

As you may know, I struggle with describing what I do. "Instructional Designer? What's that?"

I can't explain it easily to moms on the playground, nor can my mom explain it to her friends when she's bragging about me. (Which, apparently, she does. She's my mom and that's her job.)

"Instructional designer" is an umbrella term that covers about 1,217,042 different types of people and jobs. (That's not a real statistic, by the way, but my very unscientific guess at how many people actually call themselves instructional designers.)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: there are many shades of instructional design.

But I think Jonathan Atleson says it even better. He even breaks it down into the specific shades and gives them names:

Instructional Designer
Instructional Systems Designer
Instructional (Multimedia) Developer
Instructional Technologist
Instructional Systems Developer
Instructional Systems Analyst
Trainer/Training Specialist

Read his full post here (The Various Roles of Instructional Designers) and be sure to catch the comments.

Photo credit: in rainbow(s) umbrella by atomicjeep

Reminder: Boston & Chicago Articulate/Moodle Seminars This Week

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Just a reminder that our Boston and Chicago free seminars on Articulate and Moodle are this week. The response has been great. (So great, in fact, that we had to move the Boston session to another location to accommodate the crowd.)

Join the Kineo team in
Boston on June 9th
and Chicago on June 11th.

Delivering Quality at Speed - Articulate & Moodle

This seminar will focus on getting the best out of Articulate and Moodle with case studies from Motorola, BP, Apple and McDonald's.

The seminar will cover:

Rapid e-learning design with Articulate
Top tips for getting the best out of Articulate
Rapid development processes
Delivering engaging learning portals with Moodle

To learn more and sign up, visit the Kineo website. Hope to see you there!

Thoughts on ASTD

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:39:00 +0000

This past week, I spent Monday and Tuesday at the ASTD International Conference & Expo in DC. Not attending sessions, mind you, but working the Kineo booth and fine-tuning my schmoozing super powers.

My first impressions of ASTD: ‘wow, what a huge conference’ and ‘wow, these are traditional training people for whom most of this eLearning stuff is kind of exotic and/or quite overwhelming and threatening.’ There were over 350 booths selling their wares: from “are you a squiggle, a circle, or a box?”people to big LMS companies to leadership/management classroom trainers up the wazoo.

From Kineo, Steve Rayson and Mark Harrison from the UK office were there, along with my new US boss, Steve Lowenthal. It’s nice to meet people for the first time and give them hugs. Especially the people you work with.

At the show, we talked to a lot of people about Moodle and Articulate. Could see lots of light bulbs going off in people’s heads as they viewed our demos and heard about pricing options for Moodles. More on that later, but I do see us at a Tipping Point with the Corporate Moodle.

But more important than all that, and what you, my fellow bloggers/twitterers will be most interested in, are all the cool bloggers/tweeple I got to meet face to face!

Wendy Wickham. We went for a walk and had coffee. Jealous? I know you are. We talked about some of the sessions she attended (go read her blog for all the news).

Clark Quinn. He’s with me on the impending Moodle explosion. Clark, I’m sorry I missed you at the beer meetup. I got there too late!

Kevin Thorn. He’s the guy who does really cool cartoons. Also one of the nicest human beings on the planet.

Mark Britz. Turns out to be one of the nicest human beings on the planet.

Dave Ferguson. When I finally made my way to the Monday night Beer & Bloggers session at Fado, Dave was the only one left from the crowd I had hoped to mingle with. Dave was regaling some Germans in the corner with amazing stories and singing the Liechtenstein National Anthem with great gusto. Then we sat down and talked about “Ten Steps to Complex Learning.” What an amazing human being. Too bad I didn’t get a picture.

Marcia Connor. She arrived at the Beer & Bloggers session even later than I did, having just driven 2.5 hours to get to DC! And then she drove me to my hotel, for which I will be forever thankful.

The reason I missed most of the Beer & Bloggers session (after doing my best to get it organized), is that the crew from Articulate took Kineo out to dinner at Clyde’s. I sat next to the very famous Tom Kuhlman and talked about everything from the amazing Articulate community to home schooling and virtual office worker issues to passports. (Tom, my passport just arrived in the mail yesterday!)

The Articulate booth was just around the corner from us and there was always a big crowd listening in to Tom’s sessions. This company really cares about helping people create better eLearning with their products. Thanks to Mark Schwartz, Articulate CEO, for the great meal.

I wished I’d had more time as I missed some key people I would have loved to have connected with:

Robert Kennedy (Robert stopped by the Kineo booth on Tuesday while I was at a client meeting.)

Craig Wiggins (he came to crash the Beer & Bloggers party. So bummed we didn’t meet!)

I returned to Massachusetts late Tuesday night after having a great dinner with my brother, visiting my Dad’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery and seeing my cousin’s two-week old baby.

What a two days! And that was just the beginning of the week. I’m still bleary, but invigorated.

Join Me at ASTD ICE June 1&2

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:54:00 +0000

Are you going to ASTD this coming week?

I'll be hanging out at the Expo with the Kineo crew on Monday and Tuesday. We're booth #1926. Stop by and say hi!

And if you can't make it to the Expo, join us for Beer & Bloggers/Tweeters/eLearning folks: Monday, June 1st 7/8:00ish and on at the Dubliner.

iPhone and the End of All Boundaries

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:22:00 +0000

I just got my very own iPhone on Friday. Well, my company's, to be more precise. But it's in my hot little hands and I get to caress its shiny sleekness.

I had an iPod Touch, which I loved and was hopelessly addicted to. But this just has me over the top and I can't keep my hands off it.

Which isn't necessarily a good thing. Trust me.

For one thing, I can now check email and Twitter wherever I am:

In the car (it was safe -- my husband was driving!
At Friendly's with the kids, while celebrating my son's 6th birthday (and, yes, I was drinking a giant fribble)
In the middle of the night after being woken up by some child

It's been the last thing I look at at night, the first thing I check in the morning. I now respond to work emails BEFORE I've even had coffee. Dangerous ground.

It opens things up in some very cool ways, providing flexibility and accessibility, which is great. I now work with a whole group of people across the pond in bonnie ole england-- a five hour time difference -- and it's really easy to be connected. (Hi, guys!) I can even use Skype on the iPhone when there's wifi around, making calls to the UK free and clear.

I love it. But I might need help. Fellow iPhone users, how do you keep yourself from going overboard?

Some of this may also be the ramblings of a new virtual office worker who has a lot to learn. My office is my home, my home is my office.

So here I am at 11:30 at night, in bed with my laptop, catching up on email, managing twitter, blogging. On a Saturday night. Maybe the iPhone isn't the problem?

eLearning on Alltop

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:02:00 +0000

Alltop, a venture of Guy Kawasaki, is an "online magazine rack" that aggregates RSS feeds about popular topics.

They've now got an eLearning page, which includes this blog along with a whole bunch of other great eLearning blogs. Check it out and let me know your thoughts. Might be a good place to point someone new to blogs who hasn't yet built up their own feedreader -- and a good place for the veteran to discover someone new.

(http://elearning.alltop.com).

eLearning Brand Name Recognition?

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:15:00 +0000

The eLearning industry is a weird beast. It's not really one beast at all. Maybe it's a whole bunch of beasts. Or maybe it's a fruit bowl instead. Whatever your analogy...

A few weeks ago I did a very informal query on Twitter, asking people what were their favorite eLearning brands. Or maybe the question was, what brand names come to mind when you think about eLearning?

Responses varied, but this is what came back:

Captivate
Articulate
Camtasia
SnagIt
Ning
Fireworks
Adobe
Lectora
Google
And the eLearning Guild got a few mentions

Granted, this was a moment in time on Twitter, so we're probably talking about a particular sector of the universe that replied to my question...but...nonetheless...what stands out about this list?

I see a listing of products and tools. No service companies. No eLearning development houses. Clearly says something about the state of the fragmented eLearning market -- mostly small shops providing services or companies doing it in-house using all of the aforementioned tools.

What does this mean? What brand names come to your mind when you think eLearning?

eLearning Tip #23: Karmic Learning with Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:53:00 +0000

You probably already know that Twitter is the 140-character microblogging platform. It's where people talk about what they had for lunch. So what? But I have to tell you that sometimes it really is interesting to hear what Jay Cross is having for lunch in Palermo or Rome.

But Twitter is way more than that. Twitter is a powerful platform for resource sharing, community building and connection. It's a gift-giving economy: you give, you receive. Karmic learning.

In my first eLearning Tip for Kineo , I've created a short piece on getting started with Twitter. It's tip #23.

While you're there, be sure to check out the previous 22 tips -- all great articles written by Stephen Walsh, one of Kineo's founding partners.

Audio in eLearning: Cultural Differences?

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:24:00 +0000

What's your take on using audio in eLearning? For or against? Do you use audio on every slide because the client says people will think it's broken if you don't? (This has happened to me!)

We've taken this up before and many of us IDs know the strategies for using audio most effectively by now. We know to avoid narrating text word for word, for instance. (You do know that, right?)

As I'm ramping up in my new job, I'm talking with my new Kineo colleagues about everything under the sun. Really. It's quite fascinating, the conversations we've been having and it's only Tuesday!

I was talking with Mark Harrison, a Kineo partner with over 25 years experience in learning design, about some of the differences between eLearning in the UK and in the US.

In the UK, Mark tells me that audio is used sparingly. In the US, Mark sees (or rather, hears) a heavy use of audio.

So why this difference, if it's indeed true? Is there something cultural going on? Do Americans just like to talk way too much? Is there some historical background here that I'm missing, like computers in the UK didn't have speakers until 2002 so they never bothered?

What about eLearning in the US has led to such an excessive use of audio? What about eLearning in the UK has led to such an excessive lack of audio in their courses? What about in other countries?

For instance, you Canadians? What's up with audio up there?

Do I hear India?

Photo credit: Walls have Ears by laverrue

Free Articulate & Moodle Seminars in Boston and Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:18:00 +0000

Are you in Boston or Chicago? Want to learn more about Articulate and Moodle? Want to meet me?

Join the Kineo team in
Boston on June 9th
and Chicago on June 11th.

Delivering Quality at Speed - Articulate & Moodle

This seminar will focus on getting the best out of Articulate and Moodle with case studies from Motorola, BP, Apple and McDonald's.

The seminar will cover:

Rapid e-learning design with Articulate
Top tips for getting the best out of Articulate
Rapid development processes
Delivering engaging learning portals with Moodle

To learn more and sign up, visit the Kineo website. Hope to see you there!

Corporate Crush, Realized

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:00:00 +0000

Have you ever had a corporate crush? A company or organization that you've admired from afar?

Maybe you think Apple is awesome, or fantasize about giving up your day job to work at Chipotle because you think they're forward thinking and kind of cool.

It's not a romantic thing. It's admiration for a company's style and approach. A sense that maybe you'd fit in with them.

For the past three years I've had a crush on Kineo.

When I first started blogging, I stumbled on the Kineo site and their great free eLearning resources: instructional design tips, audio interviews, book reviews. Their stuff is smart, funny and useful.

My eighth blog post ever was about Kineo. (June 14, 2006)

In the past three years, Kineo has grown from a seed in a few guys' heads to an award-winning company with over 45 employees. In 2008, Kineo was named the e-learning company of the year in the UK by E-learning Age and has won awards for their work in the US, including an Articulate Guru Award.

I met Steve Rayson and Matthew Fox at the eLearning Guild Annual Gathering in Boston in 2007. We've stayed in touch. And, well, one thing has led to another...

Corporate crush, realized.

You got it. I've got a new gig. With Kineo.

Call me a blushing bride. Call me a happy honeymooner. Call me the new VP of Learning Design for Kineo US. Read the press release here.

We've got lots of exciting stuff planned. Stay tuned!

Photo Credit: Sparking a Crush by designbyfront

Describing What You Do: Instructional Design

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:40:00 +0000

You're at a playground and you start talking to the mom sitting on the bench next to you. Eventually, she asks you what you do for work. What do you say? Are you met with comprehension or blank stares?

This was me yesterday:

Playground Mom: So, what do you do?

Me: I'm an instructional designer. I create eLearning.

Playground Mom: [blank stare]

Me: ...corporate training...

Playground Mom: [weak smile]

Me: I create training for companies that's delivered on the computer....

Playground Me: weak nod..."Oh, I see."

I see that she really doesn't see and I just don't have the energy to go further. I'm sort of distracted by the naked boy who just ran by (not mine). We move on.

Is it me? Is it the rest of the world?

Ellen Wagner says, "IDs help transform intangible information assets into things of great business or epistemological value."

That's a great description, but it still doesn't help me tell the woman on the playground what it is that I do.

How do you explain yourself? How do you tell someone who's not in the field what you do?

Name That Tool

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:54:00 +0000

I just got a FaceBook query from someone and I thought you all could help:

I'm looking for a tool you might have come across, but I don't even know what product/programming group it belongs to. I want to be able to ask people a series of questions and correlate their answers with topic areas to indicate what courses they should take.

So if you say, yes I have signoff authority for travel vouchers, I could tell this tool to mark four courses. I'd want to be able to do a couple things with the data before giving the user feedback. I'm sure I could do a better job describing this, so let me know if I've been clear.

To me, this sounds like competence management as handled by an LMS. But that's not really my expertise.

What tool do you think he's looking for? Can you name any names?

Games for the Six and Under Crowd (iPod Touch/iPhone)

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:08:00 +0000

My kids have discovered my iPod Touch. They're as hooked as I am. Last night my daughter hid it from me after I told her it was time to go to bed. (I didn't miss it until she was asleep and found it in the nightstand after a bit of searching).

What's all the fuss?

I've founds some great games that they love. These are the recent faves:

iWriteWords This is a fun little spelling game. You trace out letters to spell words. When you finish the word, a cute drawing appears and then you shake the letters into a little hole to move on.

Sort of a Montessori style approach, like the sandpaper letters that my daughter does at school. When she's trying to write a letter she doesn't know, I have to "dot it out" on paper for her so she can trace it herself. This game matches that experience really well.

$.99 on iTunes

AniMatch A classic memory game with fun animal cards and sounds. I played it a few times myself before going to bed last night.

$.99 on iTunes

Pacifier1 Marketed for the 1-3 set, although my older kids are mesmerized by it. Little dots and shapes float around on the screen. As you touch them, a number is spoken out loud from 1-10. When you get to 10 it starts all over again. Soothing background music, smooth movement and lots of colors to pacify and interest your young child. And get her hooked to electronic games early.

However, if your child is still in an oral phase, probably not the best thing. My 10 month old thinks the smooth, shininess of the iPod is a perfect thing to chew on. I think I'll wait until she's a bit older...

$.99 on iTunes

Other Resources

This looks useful: iPhone and Kids. I especially liked the section on extending battery life.

Any special games that are hits in your family?

My Top Ten Tools for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:57:00 +0000

Cammy's Top 10 Tools of 2009

These are my favorite tools in support of my own learning adventures.

Google Reader It's how I stay informed on the latest blog posts and news. Used to be my first stop in the morning after email, although that's recently changed. Now I stop first at Twitter.

Tweetdeck I'm officially hooked to Twitter and use Tweetdeck to organize and group those I follow. My best column: eLearning, of course! Not only is Twitter great for the occasional laugh, but also a great source of information and links. Have a question? Ask your Twitter network! Warning: Tweetdeck does bog my old, creaky laptop down a bit.

Firefox My browser of choice. I usually have between five and ten tabs open -- my rather imperfect way of maintaining my reading list.

Blogger Blogger is what I started with, and I've stayed loyal. My blog is part of my external brain. A place where I process thoughts and ideas, record notes of online sessions, and seek advice.

Evernote I heart Evernote. It's my new notetaking application. So easy to clip from articles online, jot down to do lists, and tag and organize it all. The desktop version synchs to the web which synchs to my iPod Touch. I can take and access my notes anywhere. Very cool!

Delicious Tag articles as you go. Share your lists with your friends and clients. It's delicious. Really.

Google Calendar This is the first year I haven't had a paper-based engagement calendar, which is weird. But Gcal helps me keep myself organized, and now that I've discovered CalenGoo for the iPod I'm all synched up.

My iPod Touch I know that this is a piece of hardware, but it makes learning and recording information on the fly a breeze, at least when there's wireless around. I'm ready for the iPhone...

Flash I don't actually develop a thing with Flash myself, but our designers and programmers do some fabulous stuff with it! As an instructional designer, I feel like I can design just about anything and these really smart people can do something with it in Flash.

PowerPoint Yes, there's lots of groaning about PowerPoint. But I like to use it as a simple wireframe tool. I can't program to save my life, but I can create a course flow mockup using PowerPoint that gets my ideas across to those who can make it look really good.

Check out all the other top ten lists from learning professionals at Jane Hart's Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies.

Building Better Learning Games

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:28:00 +0000

Interested in building casual games for your learners?

Read on for notes from a webinar today, April 9, 2009:

Building Better Learning Games: Leveraging Game Design and User Testing for Results

Our hosts today:

Enspire Learning (Ben Katz)

Doorways to Dreams D2D -- financial entertainment. Work with and for consumers how to better manage their money. Focus on casual video games. (Nick Maynard)

Skillpoint Alliance (Kristy Bowden)

Partnership of profit and non-profit organizations.

Games in a variety of shapes and sizes:

Console Games (for the Xbox or Wii)
MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game): World of War Craft, Club Penguins.
Simulations (Flight Simulator, The SIMS)
ARGS (Alternate Reality Games: World Without Oil)

But there's a whole 'nother genre of games: Casual Games.

Poll: Do you play any of these? (Solitaire 92%, Tetris 75%, Bejeweled 47%, Peggle 7%, Diner Dash 13%)

These are all casual games.

Demographics of Casual Games:

In 2007, 61% of online game play was in the genre of casual games.

Gender: 63% of casual gamers are WOMEN
Age: 71% are 25-54, 17% are 55+
Families: 46% have kids
Experience online: 90% have been on Web longer than 3 years

Casual Game Design principles:

Low barriers to entry (few instructions)
Forgiving (no punishment if wrong)
Short play times (10 minute coffee break game)
Highly re-playable
Non-violent themes

Casual Game Development:

make it easy to

build a prototype and iterate quickly
Closely match game mechanics to key learning objectives
Deploy games online in Flash - which can reach wide population (and eventually via web portals like Kongregate)

Diner Dash actually used by restaurants.

Case Study: Celebrity Calamity (Casual Financial Literacy Game)

Casual game about credit cards.

D2D's vision is financial entertainment. Creating a library of casual games to teach simple lessons (credit cards, personal budgeting, saving, loans, etc.)

Looked at existing games and saw issues...

Celebrity Calamity Game has focus on fun, but explicit learning objectives:

Pay more than min on credit card
Min credit card finance charges
Avoid fees on card
Make good APR choices

Check out the game yourself:

Prototype game: www.celebritycalamity.com

YouTube Trailer

Ben Katz (Developer at Enspire) now shows the game:

3 celebrity characters in the game. Player controls that celebrity's job. (Player is managing a celebrity).
Income is collected.
Player goes on a shopping mission (the celeb wants to buy something).
Player runs around on screen to collect cash, but to avoid the things you don't want (falling watches, laptops, etc.)
Player has to pay with credit or debit card (making choices) and sees balances mounting.
Finance rules are explained as you read the CC statement.
The Celebrity has different emotional states (happy, content, anxious, and something else). As you make decisions, the celebrity rebukes you or praises you.
Player goes up a career ladder based on decisions made.
Celebrity is onscreen at all times -- creates emotional engagement.

Lessons Learned

Know your audience
Games are popular form of digital media
Listening to people's needs and preferences is important
Evaluation is Important.

For this project, target audience was mostly women.

72% of Americans are playing vid games; high rates of play under 35, casual games are fastest growing segment.

Did testing sessions -- with focus groups, observational feedback.

Development Milestones:

First Playable (rough prototype)--> User Test --> Alpha --> Test --> Beta --> Test --> Final

At each development milestone:

Fun. How much fun is player having? Do they want to keep playing?
Learning Needs. What do players know about the teaching topics.
Assessment. Are players engaged? increases in self-confidence?

Community benefits of the testing process.

Evaluation is Important

Engagement of individuals. Built assessment into the process. Pre-test. Play game for 90 minutes. Then do a post-test. (The evaluation is not part of the game).

Preliminary evidence of Efficacy Testing -- increased self confidence in the 5 core teaching points.

Big increase in knowledge in APR and Finance Charges. (People use financial products -- credit cards -- without really understanding them).

Qualitative Feedback: Enthusiasm, Engagement, Education, Empowerment.

Next Steps

More rigorous evaluation of Celebrity Calamity
Creating additional casual games: Starting to work on a budget game
Testing distribution strategies

Looking for national employers and organizations testing distribution of Celebrity Calamity (contact Nick Maynard at D2D).

Lessons Learned:

Test early, test often
Usability testing first, efficacy testing later on (early prototypes on creating best user experience, focus on knowledge and confidence after usability of game is assured)
Collect as much good data as possible (Likert scaled confidence questions, knowledge questions, in-game data collection, avoid focus groups until end of session -- focus groups people can color each others' opinions).

The game doesn't use quizzes, but used knowledge questions as part of user testing.

Education: Lessons Learned

Discipline in the scope of teaching content (fun can be overwhelmed by rush to include teaching points, if teaching points not relevant player will miss)

Repetition, repetition, repetition (APR talked about in many contexts)

Players can learn from failure (can change strategy and try new things)

QUESTIONS

Where to get data on games?

Independent Game Developers Association -- for data on games (what consoles are people using? what games are people playing?)

Electronic Software Association -- trade org for game developers in the US

Gama Sutra

Game Developer Magazine

Timeline/Team to Develop?

About five months
Had lots of volunteer support for testing and feedback

Made at Enspire with a team of three people!

[Many of Flash games you'll find on Kongregate are made by one person!)

If you're an ID who wants to create games:

play games
read up on game design
Need to be both an ID and a game designer

Content can be easily updated via XML.

Check out the game yourself:

Prototype game: www.celebritycalamity.com

YouTube Trailer

Ellen Wagner: eLearning Roadtrip

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:23:00 +0000

Are you an instructional designer or interested in instructional design? Are you reading Ellen Wagner's blog eLearning Roadtrip yet? Well you should be!

The former Senior Director of Worldwide eLearning at Adobe (plus a whole bunch of other impressive sounding gigs), Ellen recently formed Sage Road Solutions.

If I were in charge (but sadly, I'm not), I'd put her in the Who's Who of eLearning.

Start with Ellen's latest post: Prerequisites for IDs in which she eloquently describes all of the OTHER skills one first needs (like writing, presentation skills) before one can even get to the ID work.

Go ahead. Join Ellen on her roadtrip.

On Reflective Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:15:00 +0000

I clipped this a year ago, with the intention (I suppose) of writing more on the subject in order to become more engaged with the content and thus more capable...

I didn't do it anything with it then and I'm not going to do much with it now, except share it with all of you:

Steve Hargadon Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education

Because it is in the act of our becoming a creator that our relationship with content changes, and we become more engaged and more capable at the same time.

Visuals and Audio in eLearning (Ruth Clark)

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:08:00 +0000

Donald Clark posted a link to a lovely little article by Ruth Clark: Give Your Training a Visual Boost in the April 09 edition of ASTD's T&D.

The article contains such gems as:

"Decorative visuals defeat learning."

and

"The least successful learning resulted from text and audio repetition of that text."

This would be a great article to forward to a client. You know the one. They want audio narrating that long paragraph of text that they think should also appear on the screen in order to appeal to different learning styles...

Instructional Designers Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Cammy Bean) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:40:00 +0000

My friend Robin is working on his Master's Degree in Instructional Design at the University of Massachusetts. For his thesis, he's thinking about tools and processes to better support the ID process.

He's come up with a couple of surveys to help him gather more grist for his mill. Can you help him out?

There are two surveys:

Tools Survey for IDs (closed questions)

About You -- the Instructional Designer (open-ended questions, essay format)

Thanks!