However, pull content is the opposite. It is content that employees or users in organization take at their leisure. Users can go and pull down whatever they want, whenever the want. It places the emphasis on the learner to decide for himself or herself what they need to learn, thus often being asynchronistic. This does not negate the importance of instructional design. Instead instruction design takes on a different notion, developing and presenting content in a different format. This is being driven by the power of social media, and pull content is often found in smaller, more agile companies.

Push v. Pull Differences

For most learning and development groups, transitioning to a pull organization is a paradigm-shift from the traditional subject matter expert content creation versus the user-generated content creation. Pull content pushes the paradigm from telling and forced learning to a conversation, informal even social learning. This challenges the roles of the trainer and the learning and development model. It exalts the importance of performance support team. Instructional designers become more like consultants recommending and vetting content presentation and packaging. Just as news reporting has changed from experts telling consumers what’s happening to both telling and vetting news, journalistic consultants as such.

Companies should require vendors to develop elearning courses with SCORM Driver.

First, let me provide you a little bit of background information. Working at a large company, we use a wide variety of vendors who also have a variety of development methods for creating custom content courses in Adobe Flash. Previously, if we had a course that needed a minor update, we would need to contact the vendor and have them update it simply because it was cheaper for them to update their course than to take the time and hidden costs for one of us to update the course. In one instance, a vendor irritated us so much that we went to another vendor for them to update the course around SCORM and Java Run-time Environment due to compatibility errors with our Enterprise LMS.

Becoming irritated with this process, I began wondering if there was a way to bring some governance around this to expedite training, reduce the learning curve, enable minor edits on our part, and enable SCORM updating (from SCORM 1.2 to SCORM 2004 eventually to Tin Can API) without being charged here and there for these updates.

So I immediately went back to Scorm.com, which I basically live. Then I determined to dig into SCORM Driver a bit more. This enabled me to create a justification and argument that would require all of our vendors to use SCORM Driver.

What is SCORM Driver?

Scorm.com notes:

Our SCORM Driver dresses your content up to meet the high standards of both SCORM and AICC. As a developer or content author, you can still create learning materials with the subject matter you need, using the technologies you prefer. The Driver quickly outfits that content in the latest SCORM 2004 fashions or any past fashion such as SCORM 1.1, SCORM 1.2, or AICC. It can even be extended to support proprietary standards.

Simply, SCORM Driver provides a mechanism that separates a course and its files from SCORM compliance files.

So what benefits are there to using SCORM Driver?

1. Single set of JavaScript function calls that support multiple standards. This is incredibly intelligent, and for us developers out there, this is awesome! No more trying to understand someone else’s uncommented code. SCORM Driver makes the proper method of communication based on the standard for you using meaningful function names like SetBookmark() or GetStudentName(). More examples here.
2. Collaborative Codebase. If you find something that needs to be updated, the developer is responsive and will update the codebase. So far though…nothing has needed to be added to date.
3. Debugging Tools/Logs. For complex courses using bluetooth technologies and cross-domain, etc., debugging is essential. Scorm.com makes this easy with SCORM Driver.
4. License. SCORM Driver license enables companies to use it (if they are not selling their online courses) for free for non-commercial use defined as “Commercial use is defined as the distribution of shareable content objects (SCOs) that use the SCORM Driver in exchange for compensation.”
5. Compatible. AICC, SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 2nd-4th Editions, Tin Can API
6. Vendors. Using a standard like SCORM Driver leaves you open to use multiple vendors and even switching vendors without having to worry about this again. This will enable companies to focus more on content development rather than the “darker side of things,” and forces Vendors to produce better instructionally, sound learning objects. For vendors, using this standard allows you to have a solid codebase to work from improving inefficiencies, providing you with documentation to give to clients, and shortening the learning curve to bring on future developers. Simply, it’s a win-win for both the vendor and the company.

Note: Click links for more information on the SCORM Driver Integration Process, SCORM Driver QuickStart Guide, and the SCORM Driver Documentation (previously known as Extended Content API, RSECA).

During it she gave the Worst One-liners, and I thought they were quite amusing:

• SharePoint is great. It’s the users that need help.
• We work with SharePoint. The kind of user adoption you’re talking about is an urban myth.
• Just throw SharePoint out there. They’ll jump on board.
• We have 6TB of data stored in SharePoint. Now that’s adoption!
• Just cram everything onto the landing page…
• SharePoint is self-evident. We don’t need any training.
• I don’t mind if we put this stuff in SharePoint, but it can’t look like SharePoint.
• Let’s drag all of the files from the shared drives into SharePoint. Then people can use full text search to find everything!
• We’ll just train people on SharePoint features. That’ll solve the adoption problem.
• SharePoint doesn’t suck. Your file share sucks!

Now I found this very humorous; however, I found myself agreeing with a few points (one being modified by me).

• Licensed Full Version of SharePoint is Great. Since my organization uses on the Free version of SharePoint, I found relieved that a product so popular was better than expected or experienced.
• I don’t mind if we put this stuff in SharePoint, but it can’t look like SharePoint. This is definitely true mainly because SharePoint has done a poor job of branding itself or showcasing it’s various deviations by companies.
• SharePoint doesn’t suck. Your file share sucks! Again, I used to think SharePoint sucked; however, I’ve learned that, just like any other tool used inappropriately or not as it should, it’s actually quite good and gets the job done well. Yet, I must agree that file share and other similar methodologies also suck.

Recently, I had a project and due to circumstances beyond my control, we had to push some training to SharePoint. This lead me to request Site Admin access. Having NO IDEA how to use SharePoint, I hit Twitter and a few of my external connections (since I was newer with the company, I really didn’t know who to ask, and I still don’t–”if we only knew what we knew…” [Lew Platt, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard]) helped me create a site and get it ready in about 10 minutes.

Then based on my knowledge of HTML, etc., I created a very basic site that played Captivate courses in SharePoint in a separate window when various image buttons were clicked. Then in Phase 2 of this training program, we expanded the site even further to include technical documentation, communications, etc. Now, that group as well as my group believes that I know SharePoint. Then another group in Learning and Development had a need that they believed the LMS wasn’t going to solve, and they were debating a few solutions. Since this conversation was happening near my cubicle (which isn’t a problem for me since I tune everyone out with social media and my headphones most of the time unless they come to me), I had to walk by the conversation at what point someone asked my opinion. After being brought up to speed, I simply suggested SharePoint. To my surprise, they hadn’t thought about that at all! So I showed them the solution I did for our other internal customer (Compensation), and they immediately decided that it was the solution. So immediate that my now boss’s boss was informed and brought into the conversation with me standing there. Very interesting…

Now since I represent my department on the Social Media Roundtable, in our investigations of social platforms and solutions for my company, we have stumbled on this client and that client. Having thought we found a solution, the solution went up the flag pole only to come rapidly back down. A few in IT have been supporting SharePoint to meet some of the business requirements. Early in these discussions, I met and talked with J. Holston of NewsGator via Twitter only to end the conversation by being a SharePoint naysayer and favorable to another solution, which was on another platform altogether.

And again recently, I was involved in a meeting with Microsoft and another vendor, which that vendor began to talk about their solution and their customization of SharePoint. After the important people asked a few questions, I began inquiring. By the end of the conversation, I found myself being invited by Microsoft to SHARE2012 and being nominated by the group to attend on behalf of my company. I thought, “Great! I have absolutely NO IDEA what I am going to do there!? I don’t even care for SharePoint.” I even tried to get my department to send someone else behind closed doors.

So, you may can tell that I am slightly anti-SharePoint, yet I know SharePoint’s advantage points as it relates to some solutions. Really, here’s how I felt about SharePoint.

So here am I at SHARE2012.

Looking at the agenda, meeting the various power users, mingling with them, talking to the many vendors learning what they do, I’ve learned a ton. However, I am not sure still that I really belong here. I have no decision-making powers. I have no real SharePoint responsibilities within my team. We were on SharePoint 2007 (WSS 3.0 FREE) until the Friday prior (which I had no chance to investigate). I even didn’t come the first day because I didn’t think any of it was relative to me and my job or my responsibilities (though I am writing this in the Blogger’s Lounge, which is awesome!).

However, for the life of me, I cannot understand why any instructional designer would not want to be ROI certified. I still do not understand it. Even when I didn’t know what ROI meant in its fullness, I still wanted to be trained in it. Here’s how I see it. Any training department, learning and development department, or organizational development department that’s worth their weight, should want the level of accountability that ROI measures bring.

ROI Proves the Department’s Impact & Worth

First, and foremost, it is the most valid way to prove one’s worth to the organization. It’s a concrete method of determining one’s impact to the business and to the bottom line. For example, when I didn’t really know how to do a proper ROI study, I did a ROI impact study on the implementation of GoToMeeting at my last company. It was determined that my training initiative saved the company $1,000,000. Now, I don’t know what that would have translated into as a ROI because I didn’t do it right, but that was the net amount the company saved on a conservative basis. However, now that I know ROI, I bet the ROI of a GoToMeeting implementation and a conversion from ILTs to VILTs was in the hundreds, maybe even thousands percentage points.

ROI Establishes Sustainability

Second, what business unit is sustainable, really, without accountability and measures? A training department and its training initiatives that are linked to the business needs and strategic imperatives is poised to become a focal point of the organization. Training departments who exist for the purpose of ensuring that strategic business goals, objectives and imperatives are met become the life blood of the organization. About a year ago, I was at a conference where I heard two CEOs say that if they could have only one other Chief Officer, they would take the Officer of the Learning and Development Department whether that was the CHRO or the CLO, and this is why.

ROI & Business Impact Measures Help Focus Learning Objectives

Many trainers and instructional designers are hogs of learning. They love to learn for learning sake. Furthermore, they love to create and redesign and redeliver learning (hence the reason they make a very poor trainee). We also speak learningese, the language of trainers and other learning and development professionals. There are glossaries and textbooks with glossaries of all the learning terms that exist. We have rules and governances over learning objectives. Then some organizations have both learning and performance objectives to satisfy all parties involved (which of course, there’s always someone upset about something). Regardless though, just like a high school student, if something is not going to be on the test, we don’t pay attention if it’s not measured. However, if we know a ROI or Business Impact study is going to be done, then we step up our game and ensure that our learning objectives are on par and ensure the best outcome possible.

A Culture of ROI Improves the Quality of the Training

Even in rapid development, ROI studies can show benefit to the quality of the training. An instructional designer, a developer, and anyone who knows that their outcomes are going to be measured both by the impact to the organization in performance as well as the bottom-line will kick in a little extra to ensure that the quality meets their standards before going to the organization.

Summary

Simply put ROI training, implementation, and a culture of ROI will yield far-fetching benefits to all parties involved: the person being trained (the end user of the training), the trainer, the training manager, the training department, and the organization as a whole.

It can:

• Prove the Department’s Impact & Worth
• Establish Sustainability
• Help Focus & Improve Learning Objectives
• Improve the Quality of the Training

To save a file as a webpage (*.htm;*.html) to the desktop by using the ppSaveAsHTML argument for the *.htm file format, without embedding true type fonts (msoFalse), follow these steps:

1. Open the presentation that you want to export to HTML.
2. Open Visual Basic for Applications (Press ALT+F11).
3. Open View > Immediate Window (Press CTRL+G).
4. In the Immediate window type the following:
   

   ActivePresentation.SaveAs "{Drive}:\users\{user-ADID}\desktop\{filename}.htm", ppSaveAsHTML, msoFalse

   Be sure to EDIT the path to the user.

5. Press ENTER (to execute).

Note To save as a Single File Web Page (*.mht;*.mhtml) file format, replace html at the end of the file name with mht, and replace ppSaveAsHTML with ppSaveAsWebArchive.

ActivePresentation.SaveAs "{Drive}:\users\{user-ADID}\desktop\{filename}.mht", ppSaveAsWebArchive, msoFalse

When doing audio, you basically need only a couple essentials: (1.) Hardware, (2.) Software, and (3.) Good Recording Practices.

Hardware: The Mic Is Everything

Among microphones, most people agree that there are two or three best choices. First, among the headsets, Plantronics is probably the best choice which is highly recommended by Articulate (here <-best and here and here). Second, among the desktops, the Snowball is probably the best choice with high recommendations from all over with the best price and quality mix. Anything “better” just increases exponentially in price though there are some cheaper good solutions, such as Samson, recommended by Articulate. There is also the little cousin of the Snowball called the Snowflake.

But which one should I choose: headset or desktop? Articulate has a great blog on this (here). Simply put, headsets are good for single “authors” while desktops are good for multiple “authors.” We as a company have purchased both the Plantronics, which I’ve seen priced as low as $30, and Snowball, which I’ve seen priced as low as $70.

Software: Quality in the Background

Now that you have the microphone, you need a sound editing software. There are two basic options: (1) Free and (2) Priced. Among the free choices, the best options appear to be WavePad (which has a fully featured version available) and Audacity, which is my preferred free option. Personally, I have struggled with both each creating what I call computer noise after I normalize and noise reduce. So I have begun to look into the fully featured ones from Adobe (Audition and Soundbooth). But apparently, none of these compare toGarageBand for the Mac though they (Soundbooth [no longer available] and Audition [part of the eLearning Suite]) are improving.

Recording Best Practices

First, maintain a consistent environment. If you have a studio, great! If you have multiple, try to record in the same one. If you don’t have any of these, use the same conference room (smaller the better; Rooms with carpeting and things on the walls are better than bare floors and walls).

Second, remove as much of the background noise as possible. You want to get rid of the noise you have control over.

• Unplug office machines. I once had a manager that would print his entire email inbox (which was not fun!) and the printer was on my desk. And inevitably he would accidentally do it as I was recording something.
• Turn off fans and air conditioners.
• Place your microphone away from your computer.  You might not realize it, but your computer makes a lot of fan noise.
• Tell everyone around you to be quiet.  Put signs on the door.

• Standup and walk around if possible. Use gestures if possible.
• Before recording, drink lots of water (my recommendation is to drink 1L by the time you have to record if recording in the morning and 2L if recording in the afternoon). If you need water during recording, do not use ice water, only water at room temperature. Ice water will hinder your vocal cords.
• Right before recording, eat a green apple.
• Do not smack your lips.
• Position the mic so that it is above your mouth and slightly to the side

1. How have you demonstrated a part of the ADDIE process?
2. If you have a difficult SME, how would you approach them?
3. How would you challenge a SME on their talent assumptions?
4. How would you go about analyzing a learning need of a business unit?
5. Describe a situation where you were able to apply something you learned?