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.
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.
Using Blogs and Social Networks to Engage K-12 Learners
Here is a nice video that shows good use of blogs and social networks in K-12 education.
Need a Storyboard? Here’s a Place to Get Them
The eLearning Coach now has the “Storyboard Depot,” where you can download free storyboard templates. If you have a storyboard template of your own that you would like to share on the depot, you can do that too.
The eLearning Coach is also full of other great resources. Take a look around at http://theelearningcoach.com.
LearnTrends 2009 Archive Videos Now Available
If you were not able to attend this past week’s LearnTrends Conference, they have recorded the sessions and made them available at the link below.
http://learntrends.ning.com/page/learntrends-2009-november
The sessions were wonderful. Thank you to everyone who put it together. I learned quite a bit during these 3 days and plan to visit the recordings of the few sessions I was unable to attend.
Interested in Creating an Alternative Reality Games (ARG) for learning?
The elearning Guild’s Learning Solutions e-magazine recently published an article by Brandon Carson, Dolly Joseph, and Enzo Silva tilted “ARGs Leverage Intelligence: Improving Performance through Collaborative Play.”
It is a worthwhile read. It includes some great examples of ARGs and a case study of an ARG implemented by Sun Learning Services (Sun Microsystems). Plus, there is practical advice regarding designing ARGs for learning, who should be on an ARG design team and their roles, and design risks.
FYI: You will need to log-in to the e-Learning Guild to access the e-magazine. If you are not a member, you can join as an Associate Member for free.
Here are few more resources on ARGs and learning:
Alternate Reality at the Smithsonian
Innovative Learning (including examples and design principles)
ARGology.org - ARGs in Education & Training (contains resources for getting started and examples)
Series of video interviews regarding games and learning from Frontline (PBS)
Hey You Rapid e-Learning Peeps, Slooow Down and Take a Little Drive on the ISD Side of Town
When I read e-Learning Magazine’s article by Bob Little, Rapid e-Learning Polarizes Opinion, I was very irked by it. Especially when I read the following excerpt.
“While purists sneer that e-learning produced via rapid tools may lack quality in terms of adhering to instructional design principles and may just be brain dumps by subject matters experts, if such e-learning materials improve workers’ performance, who can criticize their place in the learning and development armoury?”
I will say this, if they are not adhering to instructional design principles, then they are far less likely to improve workers’ performance. I have never been a fan of the term rapid e-learning. I believe there are some great rapid development tools, but these still require sound instructional design, which takes time and effort, starting with a needs analysis.
As stated, I am not fond of the term rapid e-Learning, but I do not wish to be negative or come across as bashing efforts made under only good intentions. Here is the reality, not all organizations have the luxary of employing an instructional designer or perhaps enough instructional designers. However, they do wish to offer their staff online training. So, the subject matter experts gets a hold of the new fangled software that says “create e-learning in only a matter of hours” or some such thing. They then do their very best, but because they did not identify the learner’s needs and create an effective course design it falls short and does not result in learning or impact behavior.
So, here is what I suggest.
First off, be willing to dedicate more time to the analysis and design phases of your project. Learn as much as you can about instructional design, more specifically e-learning design. Here are a few ways to get started:
- Follow e-learning blogs (the eLearningLearning blog community and eLearningPulse are chock full of great blogs)
- Attend conferences (there are plenty of great e-learning conferences out there)
- Join e-learning and instructional design societies and groups (the eLearning Guild and ASTD both have plenty of books, articles, research, webinars, conferences and more)
- Network with e-learning designers and ask for advice and reviews of your work (LinkedIn has plenty of e-learning and ID groups and Twitter is perfect for connecting with people in the e-learning world)
The more time you invest in instructional design, the more effective your courses will be and your audience will appreciate it too. And remember, sloooow doooown and spend some time in instructional design!
LearnTrends Conference November 17-19 (free, online conference)
- George Siemens
- Tony Karrer
- Jay Cross
- Tony O’Driscoll
Attention Span of e-Learning Participants - It Depends
What is the attention span of participants taking a self paced e-learning course? A lot of different numbers have been thrown around out there. In my opinion, the attention span for an e-learning participant depends on many different factors, which I will list here:
Audience
- Is the working environment conducive for learning online? Time given away from daily responsibilities to take the course, a location without distractions , etc.
- Do they have a preference for learning online?
- Are they encouraged by supervisors to complete courses? An optimum situation is not only where supervisors encourage participation, but where they also discuss the course with staff (what was learned, how they will apply the new skills or knowledge, etc.).
Content
- Is the content relevant to the learner and their job?
- Is the content engaging and have an appropriate level of interactivity?
- Is the content succinct?
Navigation and orientation
- Does the course allow user control? Adults like to direct their own learning.
- Is there an ease of navigation? Difficult or confusing navigation is discouraging and certainly does not increase attention span.
- Does the learner know where they are in the course at all times (orientation)?
When all elements are in place, I believe course participants’ attention span is 30 minutes maximum. It has been my experience that longer courses, even with all of the above elements, do not maintain participants’ attention. Courses I have developed that fall below this 30 minute threshold have higher completion rates and time spent in the courses are more reflective of the estimated course completion times. I cannot say the same for my hour long courses.
Here are links to what others have said about this topic:
Please feel free to share your opinion on the attention span of e-learning participants and what factors may affect it.
Learning Executives Discuss Social Learning
Tonight I was lucky enough to attend a Tony Bingham (ASTD’s CEO) presentation at University of MD, Baltimore County (UMBC). A very engaging presentation about maximizing learning in the workplace and informal learning. He also shared several videos including the one below that I would like to share here.
The executives in the video are Mike McDermott (T Rowe Price), Karie Willyerd (Sun Microsystems), and Walt McFarland (Booz Allen Hamilton).
