Books Not Recommended by Members of #lrnchat
Last Thursday, #lrnchat’s topic was “book talk” and question five was great fun. The question posed was “What are book titles you hope never to see?” Here is a list of just some of the responses. They are not just very amusing, they are also a great reflection on so much of what we should avoid, or at least rethink, in our industry.
Dave_Ferguson: “I Can Haz Smarts: Lolcats Guyd to Learnin Stylz”
JaneBozarth: “More Levels for Evaluation by Autopsy”
sillym0nkey: Rapid Oganizational Change
kelly_smith01: I’m OK, You’re my SME?
trchandler: “Mandated Learning Made Easy”
billcush: ADDIE for Dummies
Quinnovator: “Adapting Learning: Learning Styles, Generational Differences, and Brain-Based Learning”
susannahrl: How to outsource all eLearning design and development in 3 easy steps
Quinnovator: “Content and a Quiz: your guide to meaningful change”
moehlert: @lrnchat Compliance Training for Fun and Profit
sillym0nkey: how to bring back ppt lectures to the classroom
trchandler: “How to Squeeze More Bullet Points into your Presentations”
Quinnovator: “The LMS: your complete learning solution”
mpetersell: “101 versions of jeopardy for learning”
odguru: How to keep them guessing: Butchering the socratic method to make people feel dumb
Dave_Ferguson: Management Secrets of Donald Rumsfeld (a new musical)
kasey428: The Audio Book of Advanced Calculus
minutebio: “Incorporating Informal Learning into Your LMS”
jsuzcampos: Speak When Spoken To: Your Guide to Lively Classroom Discussion
mbr1online: Death by PowerPoint: A Manual
Dave_Ferguson Are you not a fan of lateral thinking or is it interpretive dance that annoys you?
Quinnovator: “Investing in Organizational Learning: The Cost Center Approach”
Dave_Ferguson: Take It to the River: How Hammurabi the CEO Dealt with Naysayers and Nitpickers.
TriciaRansom: The Complete Guide to Standard Clip Art
Dave_Ferguson: “How to Rail against Social Media while Maintaining Eight Twitter IDs, or, Easy Self-RTs”
kasey428: Improve the Classroom Experience: Adding Motion to Your PowerPoints!
Quinnovator: “Social Schmocial: Why Formal Is the only Real Learning”
NYChase: The Client is Always Right.
sillym0nkey: How to use smile sheets effectively
TriciaRansom: More Time in Training = More Learning
mbr1online: Idiot’s Guide to Organizing Your Files and Catching Up on Email while Watching Webinars.
trchandler: “Class Evaluation Questions that Guarantee a Raise”
minutebio: ”Google Wave and How it Will Change Learning”
Want to see the books that ARE recommended? See the book list from the early #lrnchat and the full transcripts can be found on the #lrnchat page.
An important note: If you have not participated in #lrnchat (online chat via Twitter), you are really missing a great experience. It is great fun and a chance to interact, learn and share with many great instructional designers. They have both an early and a late version every Thursday. The schedule and helpful information on participating is available on the #lrnchat blog. See you next Thursday!
My e-Learning Don’ts
Here is a list I compiled of things I think should NOT be done when designing e-learning courses. I believe the following are counter to adult learning theory, sound e-learning design and they just down-right irk me. They are not in any particular order.
Don’t:
- Turn off navigation until a screen’s audio is done. Not only do most people read quicker than narration and may choose to move on, it is just plain wrong to deny learners user control.
- Have audio without close caption or at least equivalent content on screen. This is not just a 508 compliance (accessibility) issue, it is also possible that some computers won’t have audio capabilities. For example, this was the case at a bank I worked for where tellers did not have sound on their PCs.
- Force navigation. You know those courses that you can only go in a linear direction using the dreaded next button and they don’t even give you access to a menu, ugh! Didn’t I mention user control earlier?
- Neglect to include orientation. Let me know if I am on page 1 of 10 or 1 of 100. However, if you have page 1 of 100 written anywhere in your course you have even bigger issues to resolve.
- Call a course interactive when all it has is a bunch of pop-ups. There is more to creating an interactive course than adding pop-ups and rollovers. Here is a good resource if you are looking for ideas on how to make your course more interactive - Schone’s “Engaging Interactions for eLearning.”
- Make courses that look like it’s PowerPoint. I know PowerPoint is sometimes used as an authorig tool, but at least use it to create engaging, interactive courses that do not resemble PowerPoint slide decks that you just uploaded to Captivate or Articulate. Need tips on bringing PowerPoint to life? Try the Rapid eLearning blog.
- Leave out feedback for review and assessment questions. Providing feedback is a chance to correct misconceptions, reinforce learning, etc.
- List objectives like they are written in your course design plan. Of course it is good to include objectives, but write them in a way that is more conversational and spark interest.
- Use graphics that have absolutely nothing to do with the learning at hand. See the eLearning Coach for some tips on using graphics.
- Make a course mandatory if it absolutely does not have to be mandatory. Let the learners learn for learning sake.
If you have additional e-learning don’ts, please share them in the comments section.
A Few Practical Tips on Storyboarding
When I peruse my blog stats it always amazes me that my storyboarding posts are some of the most visited and my storyboard template has been downloaded far more than expected. I guess the practical things are the most valuable. Since there is such interest in storyboarding I thought I would follow-up and offer a few more practical tips on creating and using storyboards.
- Determine who you are making storyboards for. Are they for:
- your client and/or Subject Matter Expert (SME),
- developers you are handing the project off to,
- your own use, or
- a combination of the aforementioned.
This will determine how detailed they should be, the technical information you need to include, and how “rough” they can be. For example, storyboards that are for my sole use are sketched out in pencil and the notes are to a level of detail that suits my own needs. If for a developer, obviously I would add far more technical detail and content, for a SME it would focus more on the content and I may leave out technical specifications, etc. - Put storyboards up on a wall. This is the best way to get the feel for the course’s flow and how well it is, or is not, designed. Keeping them on the wall is also a constant reminder of the project, keeping you looking at it, and will call out to your coworkers to take a look and provide feedback.
- Play with the storyboards. I write mine in pencil just for that reason. Once you read them over there will be many improvements that jump out at you. Make the changes and see how they work on the storyboards.
- Don’t feel you have to stick to the storyboards. Sometimes what works on paper just does not translate well on the Internet. Also, at times the technology, resources, or time just does not allow exactly what is written on the storyboards to happen. We often discover this during the development phase. Note: Whatever sacrifices you make do not make them at the cost of learning.
- Include good notes on navigation and orientation. Even properly arranged on the wall, a non-linear course’s storyboards can become confusing without good notes on which link/button goes to which screen or event.
- Storyboards never do the final product justice. They are only representations and cannot fully capture the rich interactivity of the course. Be patient with them and remind anyone involved with the storyboards that they are an initial design and they will get an even better feel for the final product when it comes to life in the coming online drafts.
If you have additional storyboarding tips, please share them in the comments section. Thanks!
Here are past storyboard posts:
Storyboard Templates and Resources
It Came From Hollywood - Storyboarding
Need a Storyboard? Heres a Place to Get Them
To Storyboard or Not to Storyboard
May’s Big Question
Learning Circuits’ Big Question for May is “So what can, should, or will, we offer the digital generation by 2015?”
Five years is not very far into future, but in terms of technology things can change immensely in that amount of time. Just think of how learning technology has changed in the past five years. Off the top of my head here are a few things I think we will be offering in 2015.
- We are already seeing the impact of social media and informal learning, but we will see it blend immensely with both classroom and e-learning. Asynchronous e-learning will incorporate social media into courses allowing for more collaborative learning and formative evaluation by the course designer. As for the classroom, we already see a “back channel,” but it will be more prevalent and more accepted, even encouraged, by facilitators. More access and advances in smart phones, tablets and smart boards will help blend e-learning, social media and classroom training.
- The cloud has also grown, but I see in five years much more robust development tools on the cloud. There are already great cloud tools out there, but I think we will see more e-learning development tools at the level of Flash, Captivate, Articulate, OutStart Trainer, etc. on the cloud. Much of which will be courtesy of open source projects. Among the many benefits, it will increase mobility on the developer’s end. We designers/developers won’t be limited to working only on the computer in which we loaded our Flash CS10.
- Adobe Flash will be alive and well. HTML5’s full release is two years away. We probably will see it replace Flash for video/audio support, but it will fall short in its quality and level of interactivity and animation. HTML5 development tools will not provide the ease of creating rich Internet applications… at least not after only three years in. We will see Flash be the preferred medium of e-learning developers and a favored output (SWFs) of other e-learning dev tools. Upside Learning Blog has a good post on HTML5 and e-learning development that is a worthwhile read on this subject.
- We will offer even more edu-games. Again Flash will still be preferred as HTML5 just won’t be there yet.
- On the design end, the industry will focus much more on offering truly engaging, instructionally sound courses and our audience will demand it. Hopefully page turners will be extinct by 2015.
Sign-offs for e-Learning Courses
When creating e-learning courses I ask stakeholders to sign-off on the final product. This is only after the review process is complete. Very often the stakeholders are also the subject matter experts for the course. Either way, I find that a sign-off provides confidence for me and my team that the course meets the approval and needs of the stakeholder, the content is accurate, and that we have a commitment from the stakeholders/SMEs for future reviews.
Here is what I include in a typical sign-off form. Granted, this may change depending on the project and any addendum requested by the stakeholder/SME. I keep it as simple and succinct as possible. The following points are included in the agreement.
- That the design and content for the course provides accurate information and complies with the organization’s current policies and procedures.
- To conduct future reviews on a specific scheduled basis to verify its accuracy.
- To inform the course designer(s) of any future content, policy and procedure changes that affect the on-line learning program.
- The course will not be released on the learning management system (LMS) or Intranet without the completion of this form/agreement.
Please keep in mind, I am referring to a sign-off for courses created for internal use. A sign-off for an external client would be approached with greater detail.
Are there additional things you include in a sign-off? Please feel free to share in the comments section.
March Big Question - Open Content in Workplace Learning
This month’s Big Question is “how do we leverage open content in workplace learning?” To learn more about about some of opportunities available in open content, I visited the sites listed on the Big Question post. These were OER Commons and Open Courseware Consortium. For the first time, I perused these sites. A bit embarrassed that I have not visited these sites before, but it is never too late to find new learning opportunities. My first impression was that these are very heavy on the academic end. They certainly have many opportunities for learning and development. In fact, I found a course on e-learning accessibility, an interest of mine.
So, back to the Big Question. I am confident there are corporate trainers creating the same training content as their brethren. Wouldn’t it be great to upload those software sims, leadership or sales courses, etc. somewhere that other companies’ staff can access them. And in return, I don’t need to create those ______ software sims because XYZ, Inc. made their sims available to my staff. Oh, how great would that be?
Sorry to piss on the parade, but here are the challenges that pop into my mind that make sharing corporate training difficult:
- Most corporate training is designed specifically to the company’s audience. For example, the training probably includes policies and procedures as they pertain to internal staff.
- Much of the content is proprietary information not to be shared externally.
- Often quality training is seen as one of the things that “gives us the edge” over the competitor, why just hand it over?
- “Do we have to talk to legal about whether we can do this?” Will they find a potential liability?
Would I like to leverage open content in the workplace? Yes. Something I will do is to keep an eye out not only for open content that will benefit my company, but also what am I producing that can be used as open content. Of course, anything shared as open content has to overcome the fore-mentioned hurdles.
If You are Reviewing It Online, Why Do You Want Me to Print the Course
All too often people reviewing a web-based training (WBT), including subject matter experts (SMEs), request the course printed for them. If it is the absolutely only way they will review it, then I do accommodate them. Keep in mind this is after I have exhausted all other attempts of getting them to do a proper online review.
Here are reasons not to print courses for a review:
- It is important for anyone reviewing a course to not just look at content, but to review the entire learning experience including the delivery medium.
- If they themselves are not willing to participate online how can they expect, or request, our audience to participate.
- Online courses are very often non-linear. Thus, do not fit in a printed, linear format.
- Courses are interactive. They may contain anything from simple rollovers to complex games or simulations. Interactivity does not translate to a printed page.
- Once printed it is occasionally handed around for others to review without the designer’s knowledge. This can result in not being able to identify the origins of edits, if needed. It can also result in draft content mistakenly being distributed to the end user. This can all be prevented by setting appropriate access in an LMS.
- Depending on the authoring tools used, it can be time consuming to print a course. For example, a course that contains many interactive Flash elements will require many screenshots to be taken. Time is better spent on on design and development.
- It is more environmentally friendly to review online. As a fellow e-learning designer said to me recently, “I killed many trees with “WBT to be printed out” for SMEs, higher ups, etc.”
The reality is people reviewing courses are going to push for a printed version and sometimes the only way to get them to review it will be to comply. However, I am not going to comply without at least explaining the importance of an online review. In the end, even if I send them a printed version, or screenshots, I always supply easy access to the online course along with several reminders of how important it is to also review it online.
Want to Learn More About Beta Testing?
Benjamin Martin has published “Beta Testing an Online Course“ in Learning Solutions Magazine. It details his approach to beta testing online courses and provides practical advice for what is a very important stage of e-learning development. If you are creating e-learning, then you are probably involved in beta testing and will find this article helpful. If you are not beta testing your courses, then you should be and this article can help you get started.
You will need to subscribe to Learning Solutions Magazine or have a membership to the e-Learning Guild to read the article in its entirety. However, associate membership is free and in my opinion an absolute must for anyone in the e-learning field.
Informal Learning - 2010
Informal learning (a.k.a. social learning) grew immensely in 2009. I think there is little doubt that it will grow further in 2010, but I also expect it to find more of a foothold in corporate training departments where its adoption been a challenge. Now I know there are corporate training departments that have embraced informal learning, but those are the more innovative companies. There are many that are slower to change and often do not adopt new approaches until they see others, including competitors, reap the benefits of such approaches.
As I am confident we will see informal learning become more prevalent in the corporate environment, companies must also be cautious when jumping into the social media and informal learning stampede. There are many social media tools and approaches. Be strategic when identifying social media tools, how they will be implemented, and how you can facilitate learning within the media. Remember, you cannot truly manage informal learning, but you can facilitate learning along with coaching others to facilitate learning. You can also coach learners on how to effectively use social media to meet the learning objectives they set for themselves.
Here are some great resources on informal learning that help us understand this transition from the formal to informal.
First off, Jay Cross and Clark Quinn on how meta-learning subverts the traditional training hierarchy.
Jane Hart’s “From e-Learning to Social Learning.”
Plus, last November the Learning Circuits blog’s Big Question was “Presenting the Value of Social Media for Learning,” which had many valuable comments and advice for anyone implementing social media in the workplace.
I think this democratization of learning will be a benefit to corporate staff and if engaged by corporate training departments it will be boon to their ability to assist learners in acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for their success.
Reflecting on 2009’s Posts - Big Question
December’s Big Question at the Learning Circuits blog is “What did you learn about learning in 2009,” but they also suggest looking at your top 2009 posts for “aha moments.” So, here are my top ten 2009 posts according my blog’s best of list found through eLearningLearning. I have simply added my thoughts next to each.
- Flash Accessibility (508 Compliance) I was surprised to see 508 Compliance top the list. It is good to see it is an important topic to many readers, as it should be. What I learned is that with effort Flash courses can be accessible.
- Storyboard Templates and Resources Storyboard posts showed up twice (#2 and #4). It is not only a practical tool that many people value, but the post opened up opportunities for me to see how others use storyboards.
- Adobe FlashTutorials In my opinion, Flash is the best tool an e-learning designer can possess, but it does have a steep learning curve. And there is no end to that learning curve. As long as I am using Flash, there will be something new to learn.
- It Came From Hollywood - Storyboarding See #2.
- Where Organizations Go Wrong With e-Learning This was chance for me to gripe about the crazy, frustrating things I have seen.
- Using Gagne’s 9 Events of Learning in e-Learning My favorite post among the list! Gagne works for me and I love sharing ways the events can be applied.
- Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages We should all be cognisant of how non-elearning designers see online learning.
- Interested in Creating an Alternative Reality Games (ARG) for learning? Can’t go wrong with games and learning. They go together all too well.
- Quick Explanation of Google Wave - Video I, like others, was just trying to figure it out. FYI: I did get an invite shortly afterwards.
- Overview of Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Evaluation Everyone wants to evaluate their courses as soon as they have the time.
I cannot speak about what I learned without mentioning that in 2009 my employer (Provident Bank) was acquired another bank. In 2009, I learned that I was extremely lucky to have been part of, and to have learned from, such a cohesive, talented and very effective team of trainers. Although it did not make the top 10, this was the most meaningful post for me - Farewell to a Great Corporate University.
