Have you thought of a way to increase product adoption, keeping training and support costs low? Well, it’s not simple,  I know. However it’s not impossible either….

Solution:

Invest more in the usability of the  product.

Focus on user effectiveness.

• increase success rate and reduce users errors
• improve ease of use and ease of learning
• increase user productivity and user satisfaction
• increase user trust in the system

I know this sounds very theoretical. Will try to share some case studies in the coming days. Meanwhile I would like to hear from you.

Please share your views or case studies if any.

A  short discussion with my fellow Instructional Designers on the state of Instructional Design/Instructional Designers in India prompted me to write this post.

What is the actual state of Instructional Design and Instructional Designers in India today – This is something I guess all of us in India want to know!!

Note: When I say Instructional Designers, I do not mean learning/performance consultants. I mean people who develop training material.

Based on my discussions with people in the e-learning industry and what I have seen in the recent past, here is what I assume/think is happening:

• Rapid e-learning is very much in.
• Flash based e-learning exists but is getting stagnant.
• Software/Application training material dominates the e-learning market.
• K12/Soft Skills/Other non technical training materials are getting developed but not in abundance.
• MNCs still go for Instructor led  training programs.

How does this affect the area of Instructional Design?

• Instructional Design can no longer be associated with creativity, innovation, thinking out of the box because templates, standards, rules and guidelines are very much in.
• Technical Writing becomes a part of Instructional Design because most Instructional Designers today work on SAP training modules or any other technology related training material.

How does this affect Instructional Designers?

Apart from  regular skills/knowledge, Instructional Designers today :

• MUST/NEED to be tech savvy
• Domain expertise (software/technology/aviation/finance/more) is a must
• Must learn to work with templates, rules, standards and guidelines
• Must know technical writing standards
• Must know how to use rapid e-learning tools like Articulate, Captivate, Camtasia.
• Must know HTML, CSS

Well, whatever I have listed here is based on assumptions. I really don’t have facts or findings.

Can you help?

If you are in the e-learning industry or into the e-learning business, please take sometime to correct whatever I have shared in this post or share facts/findings, if you have any. This will help a lot of people in India.

The e-learning course interface design was  extravagant. It was an expert graphic designer’s work. While the design was out of the world, the content was too drab and boring. To be frank , I got nothing out of the course. All that I did was just click Next to proceed further while I checked out the rich, bright e-learning interface.Though I gained no value out of the course, I did think the interface did lure me to explore the entire course.

There was a time when I used to give a thumps up to fancy designs and interfaces and a thumps down to anything that was plain and simple. To me at that point of time, form was just as important as function. I could never think of compromising on form.

Today my perception has changed. I completely believe form must follow function. However, the decision whether or not to compromise on form is completely context specific, depends on the end user requirements.

For example:

If you are trying to sell a product, say chocolates, it is not enough you produce high quality stuff. You also need to make sure that the wrapper is attractive enough to lure people to buy the chocolates.

If you want to train pilots, a flight simulator is very much needed and will alone serve the purpose. High definition and rich content is part of aviation training.

If you want to create e-learning for kids, you need to present  content using rich images/animations, sound/music and make it as attractive as possible for the kids.No colors,  no images, no sound, will not work well with kids even if the content is very useful.

In all the scenarios above, form is equally or sometimes more important than function.

On the other hand, if you are building a software application to solve a business/enterprise problem, the following questions are of utmost importance:

• Is the software easy to use?
• Is the software easy to learn?
• Does the software solve the business problem?

If all the above requirements are met, even if the software user interface is simple, it will work well with the customers/users.

So what do you think? Should form follow function or vice versa? Please share scenarios, if you can.

I could see only one option that was possible in Camtasia Studio – Add the audio track to the timeline multiple times. For example, I have added the audio clip twice in the Timeline as shown below.

But then, after googling for sometime, I found a better option. The option was to create the audio loop in Audacity and then add it in Camtasia Studio.

Here is the video that I referred to and it really helped me a great deal:

Hope you find this video useful and do let me know if you have any good tips to loop audio files.

You really need to figure out how to work well with tools like Camtasia to make your life easy. Otherwise you will spend hours editing unwanted portions in your video.

Before we proceed further, here is a video that I recently created using Camtasia.

A few things about this video:

• This video showcases a software meant to be used by people working in organizations which conduct Clinical Trials.
• The software essentially will help people manage their day to day activities using the software.
• The software will allow people minimize paper work,  automate their processes and reduce errors.
• This video  is a quick tutorial on how to model a trial using the software.
• The objective is to educate existing customers on how to use the software to execute their tasks. The objective is not to project the benefits of the software.

I created this video in less than 1 hour and editing was not so difficult because I planned in such a way that editing should not be time consuming.

So here are some quick  tips to reduce editing time in Camtasia which I think work really well:

#1 Remember editing might get painful when you have to split frames in the video.

As far as possible, you must avoid splitting frames.For example, a frame is highlighted below in the Timeline:

You may have to split the frame in to two or three,  if you want to extend the time of a portion of this frame. Throughout the video, if you have to keep splitting frames, editing will get really tiring.

#2 While shooting the raw video, make sure you record in parts and not in one go.

If you record in parts, you will not have to split the video into multiple frames. Removing unwanted portions and also extending the time of each frame will be easy.

For example, the screenshot below shows many camrec files and one camproj file. The camrec files are the raw/unedited frames of the video.  I shot the video as I performed each task and saved the raw video of each task as a separate camrec file.For tasks with more steps/details, I broke the task in to two camrec files. Example: Check two camrec files for “Visit Schedule”.

Finally I added each of these camrec files one after the other in the timeline. I quickly edited, rather removed unwanted portions of the frame in each camrec file, added callouts and finally saved it as a camproj file.

#3 While shooting the raw video, never hurry up.

Make sure you give enough time for the actions and (say 5 seconds or more) for the callout. This way you will not have to split the video and will be able to easily place the callout in appropriate places in the video.

#4 If you are planning to add transition only in specific portions of the video, plan your camrec files or frames in advance.

For example the video above has transition in 2 places – check 1:56 and 3:48.  Here is a screenshot:

If you notice the transition happens during the course of a task and not after a task is completed.Here the task is “Editing the Visits Schedule” and since there is lot of data to enter in the cells. I filled in a few cells and then applied the transition effect after which the data filled across all cells is shown.

I knew I had to add a transition so while shooting the raw video I separated the task into 2 camrec files – one camrec file that shows entering cells in a couple of cells and the second which has all the data entered across cells. This way I could add the transition effect in between these two frames. Note transitions can be applied only in between frames.

#5 While shooting and editing a video using Camtasia, always remember that  removing unwanted frames is easier than splitting frames.

Hope you found this post useful. If you use Camtasia and have some editing tips to share, please leave a comment.

This blog post is for those venturing into custom e-learning business or people who are getting started with their first e-learning project. Before I get into the crux of this post, I would like to explain why I decided to write on this topic.

When you are trying to do something for the first time, there is always lot to  learn and do before you actually get successful. For example, when you are learning to swim, you have lots of fears and inhibitions to overcome, many guidelines to follow and lot of practical exercises to do, before you actually start swimming.

Likewise, while getting started with your e-learning business or your first e-learning project, you are likely to face challenges, hurdles before you finally execute the project. With some common sense and a systematic approach,  you can easily tackle challenges and execute your project smoothly.

So here are some guidelines for startups, individuals starting with their first e-learning project. These guidelines apply only to those working in very small teams/virtual teams. Please note these guidelines do not follow any specific order. I hope these will help you avoid mistakes and execute your project successfully. So here you go.

When starting with your first e-learning project, make sure you do all of the following.

1. Get a Grip of Instructional Design/E-learning Design – Make sure you completely understand about instructional design or e-learning design and development. It is important you have a clear idea what kind of work goes into e-learning development.
2. Gain hands-on experience – When you are starting a business and when there are very few people in your company, you cannot afford to just supervise or monitor. Make sure you also get down to work. It doesn’t matter you know the tricks of the trade or not. You will learn only by doing.
3. Build a good rapport with the client – Make sure you interact a lot with the client before actually you get down to work. Spend a lot of time confirming the requirements and what you propose to do for them. Remember the client may or may not know about e-learning. Take some time to brief them about it or show samples.
4. Check mode/medium of delivery -Make sure you know how the client plans to deliver the e-learning to the learners.  Research and study about SCORM and other standards. Study the LMS that the client is using. This will help you design and develop content that complies with the client’s system.
5. Get a sign off on A&D -Make sure you get a sign off on the Analysis and Design document before you start storyboarding.
6. Plan your project- Share the project plan with the client and team. Make sure you stick to the plan.
7. Hire a consultant if required – But make sure you do not give him/her complete control, even if he/she is an expert. It can be dangerous for your business.
8. Outsource with care and caution – If you are outsourcing the storyboarding activity, make sure your freelance IDs completely understand the requirement. Introduce the IDs to the client.  It is important that you stay in the loop while the IDs communicate with the client. If you are outsourcing the graphic design bit, make sure you hire graphic designers much in advance and involve them right from the Analysis and Design stage.
9. Keep backup – Always plan for unexpected exit. For example if an ID leaves the project, you should have already planned for his/her work.
10. Develop design standards and checklists -  Based on the Analysis and Design that you did for the project, come up with standards and guidelines to storyboard. These checklists will be very helpful when 2 or more IDs are working on the project and this will also help you determine the quality of work, when you review the storyboard.
11. Review work – Make sure you review the work yourself before it goes out to the SME or client. If the SME has suggested fixes, make sure you check the fixes, once its done by the IDs. Since this is your first project, do not take a chance.
12. Set rules of engagement with the Subject Matter Expert – Articulate clearly how you will interact with the SME. For example, how do you want the SME to send review comments? Should he/she use the Review feature in MS PowerPoint or highlight changes in a different color? Remember if you do not set rules of engagement, interactions with the SME will get too messy.
13. Monitor activities regularly – Always monitor and continuously look into the activities throughout the e-learning development cycle. For example if your graphic designer has started work, frequently check work progress. Check quality of work. If you do not monitor, it will be too late until you discover shabby work or undone work.
14. Set communication channels - If you have a virtual team or an in-house team, make sure you communicate with your team frequently and check work progress. Make sure you use email to communicate with your client, SME and team. You will have a record of all communication that has happened.
15. Organize mails and work-  Make sure you sort all emails you exchange with your client, SME and team. Keep track of all mails and make sure they are easy to locate. Use a tool or have a folder structure in place that will allow you to track versions of storyboards and also reviewed copy of storyboards.
16. Keep your client informed – Make sure you keep the client updated of the work progress.
17. Use an iterative process - Complete small chunks of work and test it with learners. This will help you make lot of fixes beforehand. If your course is structured as Modules and Lessons, make sure you get review comments after  every lesson. Sending an entire module for review is not a good idea.
18. Freeze content – Make sure you freeze content at one point. For example, after lesson 1 review and fixes, get a sign off on lesson 1. If the SME keeps changing his/her mind or if the SME keeps reviewing the same stuff, it will be disastrous for you.
19. Test your e-learning – Map the e-learning course with the storyboard.Make sure your e-learning program goes through ample rounds of review before it is shipped off to the client.
20. Avoid delays – Do everything that will allow you to complete work on time. Track delay in responses, delay in work. When you upload documents for review, get an acknowledgment from the client that they received the document.  If people from the client side are not responding, follow up. Do not wait.

I am sure there is lot more to the list above.  Do you have any tips to add to this list? Please leave it in the Comments section.

1. Why Learning From Videos is Difficult
2. The Difference Between Technical Writing and Instructional Design
3. 6 Reasons To Use Amplify for Collaborative Learning
4. Is it Okay to Punish Your E-Learners for not Paying Attention?
5. Do You Tell Your Learner “You’re Doing it All Wrong!” to Teach the Right Way?
6. Using Case Studies/Scenarios for New Application Training
7. Time to Eliminate Software Product Tutorials?
8. Introduction to the Instructor Led Training ToolKit
9. Instructional Design Review Checklists – Key to Quality E-learning
10. T-Bites

I thank all my readers for inspiring me to write more. Hope you all enjoy visiting my blog and continue to do so.

Wishing you all a rocking 2011!

Cheers,

Rupa

How do you go about finalizing content for your project when there is no source content or the source content you have is largely incorrect?

To add to this problem, suppose the ID is working on a hardware based project, has not clue about the subject and  and the SME is a tough nut to crack. What should the ID do?

My Take

Honestly, I feel every e-learning project must involve a Subject Matter Expert who actively contributes and participates in the development of the training material. It is the responsibility of the project head to ensure that IDs have all the support to their work.

If there is no Subject Matter Expert on the client side or there is a Subject Matter Expert who is not supportive or doing his/her part well, you can either involve an Instructional Designer who has some clue on the subject or get someone within the organization to assist the Instructional Designer.

I find it strange when an Instructional Designer is given no assistance with respect to the Subject Matter especially if the subject is highly technical.  I have worked on e-learning projects where I have had to research on the Subject Matter and come up with the content without any guidance. I used to find it very challenging to decide on the content, because I really didn’t know how to go about finalizing the content without any pointers. While its challenging to handle such a situation, you cannot avoid this at all.

So here are some things you can do to finalize the content for your e-learning project, considering there is no Subject Matter Expert for the project:

• Keep the target audience in mind.
• Keep the course goal/objective in mind.
• Spend some time on Google and  get a grip of the subject matter by reading stuff randomly. This will help you get comfortable with the subject.
• Refer to full length books on the subject matter. If you refer to 4 or 5 books, you will get an idea what to cover.
• Make a list of topics to cover.
• Research on each topic and put the raw content in a Word document.
• Discuss with your colleague or someone who has a clue on the subject and get an opinion.
• Stop at one point and freeze the content. There is no point doing endless research. You are not the subject matter and you know there are limitations.
• Make sure you keep your Project Manager in the loop all the time. Tell your Project Manager what you have been doing, the challenges you are facing and the possible solutions you can think of.
• Remember there is no point fretting and fuming. Do your best.
• In case things are not on working well or your client is not  happy, escalate/get help. Your Project Manager or higher authorities will have to do something about it.

What’s your answer to this question? Please share your thoughts.

Referring to a video as shown above for learning purpose can be really time consuming and painful for the following reasons:

• I will have to go through the entire video and then find out if there is anything relevant. If it is a lengthy video, I will be spending too much time going through the entire video.
• Since there is no table of contents, I cannot skip portions and move on to more relevant portions.

Now look at this video here :

Learning from the video above is much more easier because:

• The contents are clearly listed and segregated.
• The duration is also indicated.

You can either listen to the entire lecture or  jump to portions that interest you. In this case, even if it is a 2 hour video, you do not have to worry much because you can always skip and look at stuff that interest you or is relevant to you.

What do you think about the point I am making here?  Please drop in your thoughts in the Comments section.