What no ‘elearning’?

This tweet from David Hopkins

‘Click next’ eLearning resources … haven’t we got beyond that yet?

— David Hopkins (@hopkinsdavid) August 7, 2013

generated some reflection in relation to my last role…

Despite me having the title of Learning Technologies Manager and the organisation generally defining ‘elearning’ as ‘click next, self-paced’ modules I was able to utilise a range of methods and media to meet needs that had  previously been meet via traditional eLearning and physical classroom activity.

In 10 months I:

Produced a handful of taking head videos and placed them on our internal collaborative platform , Jive.Produced 15-20 screencasts and placed them onto Jive.Produced a handful of audio interviews.Created a single ‘go to‘ L&D group on Jive. This served as both a space to start, encourage and participate in conversations as well as a ‘marketing’ space for our activities.Designed a game involving a range of posters each including a different QR code which would link to various multimedia assets.Hosted the multimedia elements mentioned above on a Vimeo Pro account which provided immediate access coupled with an element of security.Used SurveyMonkey to revolutionise our assessment process and move it toward the Brinkerhoff Success Case method.Used Jive to create an activity that mirrored a real life customer interaction which created strong intrinsic motivators to utilise the provided performance support tool to resolve the ‘situation’.Introduced the concept and practical application of  ’spaced repetition of learning’ using Retenda, in order to support the activity mentioned above.Used Adobe XI Pro to create a range of FAQs documents and checklists.Used tools such as Powtoon and Sparkol to create a range of animations to support various activities.Facilitated various online sessions using Adobe Connect.Used a Pro Scoop.it! account to curate content on a range of subjects.

In short, I was able to operate up to, and indeed beyond, the expectations of the role, without ever having to go near an LMS or an authoring tool.

Was it easy? – No

Did everybody ‘roll over’ without a fight? – No

Did I experience some challenges? – Yes

Did some of the activities take longer than they really needed to due to the ‘engagement’ that needed to be done? – Yes

Did I win a lot of fans along the way as a result of sitting down with them and talking through their problem, my proposal and their fears? – Yes

Would I take this approach again? – Absolutely

Regular readers will know that I’m not one of the ‘Burn the LMS/authoring tool‘ fraternity as I truly believe they do have a place, depending on what you are trying to achieve, so I wouldn’t have been averse or afraid of using them should the solution to the problem have dictated it – but here’s the interesting thing….. it never did.

Not in all the time I was there or the many pieces of work I was involved was a ‘piece of elearning in an LMS’ or an ‘exodus to the classroom‘ ever the right answer.

Makes you wonder how many times as an Industry we’ve gone down the wrong route for fear of challenging, for worry of what people will think of our ‘off the wall‘ ideas???

So over to you…

Where have you come up with an alternative to the ‘old favourites’ approach?

Were you allowed to progress it?

What was the impact on your relationship with the original requester, when (and if) you produced an alternative to their request.

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Designing #mLearning Book Review – Chapter 1

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘

;

Chapter 1 – Overview

OK, so I’m off to something of a false start here as I’ve just realised that there are no questions asked of ‘The Reader’ at the end of this short introductory chapter, but we are provided with a list of very realistic and pragmatic situations in which a range of ‘everyday’ roles and occupations can/could/do harness the benefits of a mobile device to increase their performance and value.

And guess what?

Only one of the examples is to undertake a compliance ‘course’! This (thankfully) fleeting mention of a ‘course’ provides me with a warm, fuzzy feeling that the rest of the book won’t be trying to convince me of the benefits of shrinking down desktop learning onto a smaller screen.

He also provides us with a definition for mlearning that he admits the eLearning Guild mobile learning research team struggled to come up with:

“Any activity that allows individuals to be more productive when consuming, interacting with, or creating information, mediated through a compact digital portable device that the individual carries on a regular basis, has reliable connectivity, and fits into a pocket or purse”

(eLearning Guild 360 Mobile Learning Research Report, 2007)

He finally reminds us that the pace of change in this area is so fast that any suggested, specific solutions would be unlikely to stand the test of the publishing process time, so instead explains what the book is really about; preparing the reader to take advantage of the mobile revolution.

I’m hooked.

I’m reading on…..

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My #COLF L4 Assignment

As mentioned in a previous post, myself and the L&D team in which I work are undertaking the COLF programme.

Upon completion of many of the lessons/workshops there is an assignment to undertake as well as some additional reading.

Here’s my 4th assignment:

Assignment A

Start preparing the slides to support your final assessment, using what you have learned today. Be prepared to share at least 7 of these slides and an ‘interaction’ in the session advised by your course facilitator.

Image source

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Designing #mlearning Book Review – Chapter 3

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘

Chapter 3 – A brief history of learning and cognition

Confession time!

I’ve struggled somewhat with this chapter, having had to read it 3 or 4 times in order to be able to internally process its content for this review. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing at all, but it did feel a little awkward for me having breezed through the first 2 chapters and seeing them as confirmation of my current thinking.

In chapter 3 Clark starts off by reminding us (I’m liking the fact that he is drumming this into the reader) that mLearning is, by and large, not about learning, but about augmentation. About letting us as human beings get on with what our brains do well and providing support for what our brains struggle with (rote learning), rather than trying to ‘drill’ the information into our/others heads! Let the mobile device remember the facts and allow yourself to make decisions or detect nuances in the many variables we base our decisions every day.

In case we haven’t got the point yet, he reminds us that mLearning is not about putting courses on a phone (I’m hoping he raises this point again, as it seems to be something of a common misconception in my opinion)

Clarke then takes us on a whistle-stop tour of media psychology, that I’ve got to be honest, wasn’t any clearer on the 4th reading as it was on the 1st – perhaps I’m not of the target academic demographic for this book, perhaps I’m reading it at the wrong time of day; I don’t know.  What I’m hoping is that this lack of comprehension doesn’t impact upon my understanding of the rest of the book….. we’ll see….

We finish off the chapter with these questions being posed (along with my responses):

Are you considering more than just courses and including performance support?As a member of the vendor community, I have seen a fairly respectable number of mobile solutions being provided to clients and I have to say that the vast majority fall into the ‘course on a phone/tablet’ category. We could go into the whole “who’s to blame for this?” debate, that we’ve all no doubt contributed to in some way, shape or form in the past, but on this occasion I’m not going to, maybe you’d like to in the comments section? What I will say is that I’ve seen a few good examples of performance support apps for the NHS (detailing drug dose calculations) and for some areas of retail (providing ‘just-in-time’ support for a new season range of products), as yet I’ve still to see any solutions that make use of the phones native functionality.Is your pedagogy advanced beyond the basic “event” and content presentation learning approach?I think the answer above goes somewhere towards answering this question. Some organisations are obviously only seeing mobile as a portable desktop solution, whilst others are grasping the potential for it to ‘augment’ their people. I’d say that it’s probably (based upon a Sophisticated Wild Arsed Guess) less than 3% who have spotted this.Do you include social learning as part of your learning solution?I’ve seen a growing number of clients who are currently/planning to include social learning as part of their solution. My fear is the assumption that people will flock to it, just because organisations have built it. I also see a number of organisation building internal platforms as opposed to using existing ‘public’ platforms for these conversations to take place. I know from experience in a previous role that the ‘doomers and gloomers’ will cite commercial sensitivity or security for reasons not to engage in ‘public’ conversations and there are a growing number of collaborative platforms to circumvent this, but I can’t help but feel that this approach is only papering over the cracks of a bigger problem.So folks, why not take a look at the questions above and provide your own responses in the comments below?

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What Learners Want – Part 1 – The ‘why’

Towards the back end of 2012, my organisation formally entered into a working relationship with Towards Maturity to help us better understand our Benchmark results and help us work towards creating an L&D strategy.

During one of those initial meetings Laura Overton made an almost throw away remark about a ‘Learner Audit’ (I’m not overly keen on the name, so we’ve labelled it as a Learner Survey) that she had undertaken some time in the past and that she was considering resurrecting as an offering.

Unlike the Towards Maturity Benchmark survey, which tends to rely on answers by those in an L&D role/perspective, the Learner Survey allows every single employee in the organisation the opportunity to comment on

how they access content that supports themfrom what devicesfrom what locationswhat methods and media they find most effectivewhether they are members of social networking siteswhether they are/would be willing to share their knowledge and practices with others etc

My eyes lit up at this point as I am about to assist in the development of our L&D strategy, so of course being able to hear from about our learners about their preferences, expectations, etc would be hugely beneficial.

Needless to say we took Laura up on her offer which as this press release explains made us the first organisation to do so.

If you’d like to hear more about the rationale behind the survey, here’s a short video of Laura explaining further.

In my next blog post in this series I’ll go into a little detail about the construction of the survey and how we worked together to provide a bespoke survey that would still allow multiple surveys to feed accurately into a wider-benchmark.

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Bringing in the Backchannel

If you’ve not already read my previous blog posts ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (visuals only)’ and ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (with audio) then I’d strongly suggest having a read of them before you read any more of this post.

Why?

Well for 2 reasons really:

1. The earlier posts will provide you with the context behind this post.

2. The purpose of this specific post is to expand upon the subject of the backchannel that is only briefly mentioned in the earlier posts.

The reason that it is only briefly mentioned is due to the fact that I used Prezi to facilitate that particular element of my session. I guess I could have used PowerPoint just as effectively, but I wanted to demonstrate an alternative to traditional slide-ware software.

So grab your sickbags…. here’s the Prezi…….

Don’t forget, this is Part 3 in a series of posts surrounding my LSG11UK session.

Part 1 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points with visuals only

Part 2 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points with visual and audio.

Part 3 – Bringing in the backchannel

Part 4 – The Learners Voice

Part 5 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points live recorded podcast

Part 6 – Tools and resources

——————————————————————————————-

Here’s Dan Roddy’s thoughtful blog post on the use of Twitter as a backchannel tool.

Did you get anything from this Prezi?

Do you promote/participate in backchannel debate or do you think it dilutes the experience for you?

Why not let us know in the comments section?

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Checkavendor?

When it comes to DIY I know my limits.

Painting, wallpapering, light fittings, skirting boards, simple tiling etc are all on my list of ‘achievable’ activities.

Rewiring, gas work, central heating, glazing, carpeting etc I am very happy to leave to somebody else.

Of course the reliability of the ‘somebody else‘ is always an area of risk, which is why over the past year or two I have been using www.checkatrade.com to check up on any potential tradesmen. Here’s the principle behind the site…

More recently I’ve been thinking about how this could work from a vendors perspective.

Let’s be honest I’m sure many of us have had experiences with vendors that were perhaps less than positive – I know I have. The thing is, that even if you provide that feedback to them, the chances of it ever appearing on their websites testimonial page are, well…. slim!

This is where I think a ‘checkavendor’ site could be useful.

Of course, there are a range of factors to consider.

Anonymity of feedback Vs transparencyWould vendors post on behalf of themselves?Would vendors post negative feedback on other vendors?How does a client authenticate they are genuine etc

As well as a stack of them I probably haven’t considered…

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Corporate Vs Creativity (why the Vs?)

A little while ago, I engaged in a passing conversation in which the subjects of ‘corporate’ and ‘creativity’ were described as being some distance apart, this explanation was backed up by a physical demonstration of that point and that it was extremely difficult for the 2 to exist in the same place.

At the time I dumbly nodded, but later that day during my bike ride home (this is my new ‘time for my best ideas’ time) it dawned on me that I was wrong to have ‘dumbly nodded’ as I certainly don’t believe that corporate and creativity have to exist in separate places and that it needs an ‘Act Of ‘ for the 2 to co-exist.

Perhaps instead of dumbly nodding I should have mentioned

Google
Facebook
Apple
Lego

because let’s be honest, they’re corporates, they’re creative and let’s be honest, they’re not doing too badly for themselves!!!!

Can you think of any other corporates who have been able to balance things?

Do you have any heartwarming/horror stories of your own, where the balance has been made/not made?

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Research well worth looking at…

Regular readers will know that I ‘moonlight’ as the Social Media correspondent for an industry-wide communications channel called Nuclear TV. (although I have now started calling myself Social Media and Technologies correspondent because……. well, because I can)

I recently had the Pullizter-worthy idea to conduct a number of TV reports on the use of Learning Technologies and Social Media within other industries, businesses and corporates.

In order to generate interest in the project I put out a tweet asking for willing interviewees and was contacted by Laura Overton from Towards Maturity.

Here’s the chinwag that we had….

If ‘you’ feel that ‘you’ have a story that you would like to share with others relating as to how your organisation is using learning technologies to add value to the business, (particularly where you have used them in a regulated, compliance driven market) then why not drop me a line.

The interviews will be hosted on the NLTV channel as well as this blog, if the interview is less than 15mins then I will place it on YouTube and you will also be provided with the edited footage and separate mp3 file for your own use.

Go on….. you know you want to….

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Gearing up for Learning Solutions March 17-21 #LSCon

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Making Interactivity Count (Session slides from #ASTDTK14)

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Kineo Konnect: on the road in NY December 5

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Gartner Hype Cycle for Education, 2013

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Design models and patterns for better elearning #DevLearn [My session slides]

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Join me at Learning Solutions for a Pre-Con Workshop! #LSCON

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Talent Programme Manager

Talent Programme Manager London

Our client a leading global insurance company based in the city is looking for a Talent Programmes Manager to oversee the design, implementation and effective operation of all Market Talent Development programmes, in particular: the Generalist Graduate and Claims Graduate programmes, Apprentice Programme, Claims Practitioner Programme and Mentoring Programme.

More specifically, the role will include:

Ensure design and content of all programmes meet the needs of the stakeholders, commissioning and implementing modifications where required
Provide ongoing evaluations to ensure requirements continue to be met
Manage relationships with third party suppliers for all of the programmes to ensure consistently high level of delivery
Monitor and manage the development of individuals within each programme demonstrating clear value add
Devise and work with market stakeholders to ensure an efficient placement process, including appraisal and feedback methodologies
Provide pastoral and practical support to graduates and apprentices throughout the programme
Ensure effective permanent placement for all participants within Market firms
Manage assessment and feedback process for Claims Practitioners
Design and manage the mentoring programme, including promotion, training, matching and ongoing support
Identify links and maintain effective networks and relationships to ensure talent placements are effectively managed
Produce monthly updates of MI for HR team and for Steering Group
Manage the budget for area, including initial budgeting, forecast and reforecast and accrual processes
Interpret budget and spend to provide accurate cost per head details for each programme
Design and manage Alumni activities for ex-graduates
Maintain up to date information and records regarding graduates, apprentices, managing agents, brokers and key stakeholders
Manage and supervise the day to day work of the Market Talent Programmes administrator
Maintain an awareness of best practice in junior talent management

The successful candidate should have the following:

Track record as a Talent Programme Manager (ideally within the Insurance space)
End to end Programme design & delivery (preferred)
Strong communication & stakeholder management skills
Manage a Assistant
Degree and / or CIPD (preferred)

Our client is a leading global insurance company based in the city.

Apply below or to find out more about the Talent Programme Manager job contact Charlotte Matthew on HRJobs@robertwalters.com or call +44207509 8856 quoting the reference 1994790.

LocationLondonSalary£35000 - £53000 per annumReferenceFFT - 1994790-2-BBContact NameCharlotte Matthew

Our client a leading global insurance company based in the city is looking for a Talent Programmes Manager to oversee the design, implementation and effective operation of all Market Talent Development programmes, in particular: the Generalist Graduate and Claims Graduate programmes, Apprentice Programme, Claims Practitioner Programme and Mentoring Programme.

More specifically, the role will include:

Ensure design and content of all programmes meet the needs of the stakeholders, commissioning and implementing modifications where required
Provide ongoing evaluations to ensure requirements continue to be met
Manage relationships with third party suppliers for all of the programmes to ensure consistently high level of delivery
Monitor and manage the development of individuals within each programme demonstrating clear value add
Devise and work with market stakeholders to ensure an efficient placement process, including appraisal and feedback methodologies
Provide pastoral and practical support to graduates and apprentices throughout the programme
Ensure effective permanent placement for all participants within Market firms
Manage assessment and feedback process for Claims Practitioners
Design and manage the mentoring programme, including promotion, training, matching and ongoing support
Identify links and maintain effective networks and relationships to ensure talent placements are effectively managed
Produce monthly updates of MI for HR team and for Steering Group
Manage the budget for area, including initial budgeting, forecast and reforecast and accrual processes
Interpret budget and spend to provide accurate cost per head details for each programme
Design and manage Alumni activities for ex-graduates
Maintain up to date information and records regarding graduates, apprentices, managing agents, brokers and key stakeholders
Manage and supervise the day to day work of the Market Talent Programmes administrator
Maintain an awareness of best practice in junior talent management

The successful candidate should have the following:

Track record as a Talent Programme Manager (ideally within the Insurance space)
End to end Programme design & delivery (preferred)
Strong communication & stakeholder management skills
Manage a Assistant
Degree and / or CIPD (preferred)

Our client is a leading global insurance company based in the city.

Apply below or to find out more about the Talent Programme Manager job contact Charlotte Matthew on HRJobs@robertwalters.com or call +44207509 8856 quoting the reference 1994790.

Apply now

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Let the horror continue! Ten ways to turn your learners into zombies!

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Springtime in New York? Join us for Kineo Konnect on April 9th!

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10 Ways to Turn Your Learners into Zombies @kineo webinar Oct 30/31

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12 cool ways to use scenarios

Decision-making scenarios aren’t just for elearning. Here are 12 ideas for other ways you can use branched scenarios to help people practice solving problems.

First, some vocabulary. Each “decision point” in a branching scenario contains the following:

The result of the previous decision, such as, “The forklift continues to speed toward the plate glass window.”The stem and options for a new decision, such as, “What should you do?” followed by three or four actions.

Face-to-face training

One of the great benefits of a challenging branched scenario is that it provokes discussion. No more glassy-eyed stares! Some ideas:

Go through an online scenario together: Project the scenario on a screen and as a group decide what option to take at each point.Act it out: Assign roles in the story and have participants read and act their lines once the group has decided what they should do.Go through the scenario in small groups: Divide participants into groups of four or so. Have them work through the scenario as a group, then report back to the larger group why they think they got the result they did.Require someone to defend each option: To bring the discussion to a deeper level, assign each option to a participant: “Bob, you’ll argue for option B every time, whether you agree with it or not. Give it your best shot!” You can do this in large or small groups. If you have four options at each decision point, you might create groups of four and, before they start the scenario, have each person choose an option to always defend.Ask the group to improve the scenario. Ideally, you tested an earlier version of the scenario on a sample of your audience and improved it based on their suggestions. Now do it again, but as a learning exercise. You could ask what options participants wanted to have but didn’t, how the plot could be made more realistic, and how failure and success should be measured.Have groups design their own scenarios. After going through and discussing a scenario you wrote, form small groups and have them each design a branching scenario for their colleagues. You might offer a list of story ideas for them to choose from, each offering the opportunity to closely examine the complex decisions that happen on the job. The design project should probably take place over a couple of weeks rather than in one intensive session, and each group’s deliverable could be a simple, text-only PowerPoint or Twine scenario that’s run at another gathering of the full group. You’ll need to win the participation of managers and subject matter experts, but considering how deeply we have to examine every decision to write a good scenario, this exercise could be really powerful. A branching scenario can be as simple as a printout, with one decision point on each page.
This low-tech scenario inspired intense discussion in a class at West Point.

Email and mobile

Keep your audience engaged by feeding them one scene a day. It’s an email soap opera!

Send an email episode each day to participants showing the results of their last decision and presenting them with another decision in the story. Have them click an HTML link in the email to register their choice — and make them wait until the next day to see how it turns out. You could set this up with an email auto-responder, which your marketing staff should be familiar with, although the branching could be more complex than they’re used to. The email could be plain text or use HTML and images.Use text messages to deliver one decision point a day to a mobile audience. Participants can make their choice by sending the appropriate code from their phone. Entire novels have been delivered through text message!Encourage discussion throughout the run of the soap opera. For example, you could set up a discussion forum, assign some people to add posts to keep it lively, and include links to it in the emails or text messages.Have the scenario play out in real time: If you want people to practice making decisions in a process that plays out over weeks, and the lapse of time is important, you could insert realistic delays between the decision points. You could send emails from scenario characters or other messages that provide the same kind of information that people would receive if this were a real situation, or remind them to perform the same monitoring that they would need to do in real life so they can make a good decision at the next point.

Audio and video

Are podcasts popular in your organization? Are you allowed to use YouTube? Go for it! You might also set up a discussion forum as described above or otherwise encourage people to talk about the scenario as it unfolds.

Record an audio file of each decision point and its options. When participants click a link to choose an option, they receive the file for the next decision point, either immediately or after a realistic lapse of time. You might use participants’ colleagues as actors in the scenario to increase its appeal.Create a branched video story: Create a separate video for each decision point, and then use YouTube’s annotations feature to link to each option at the end of the video. Here’s an example. If you can’t use YouTube, this tool designed for marketers might work for you.

Make it controversial, and don’t forget the debrief!

One of the strengths of scenarios is that they inspire discussion. Encourage that discussion by intentionally making your scenario not only challenging but also a little controversial, such as by failing to include a popular option or by making a common mistake so appealing that a lot of people fall for it.

Finally, I don’t recommend using scenarios alone, no matter what setting you put them in. Learners need a debrief, some structured way to discuss, draw conclusions, build a model, and identify how they’re going to change what they do.

What did I miss? What’s another way to use scenarios to get people thinking and talking? Let us know in the comments!

Scenario design workshop open for registration

Become a scenario design master! Starting Oct. 15, I’m offering Scenario design: In-depth and hands-on, a four-session online course. We’ll meet for 90 minutes starting at 1 PM US Eastern time on Oct. 15, 17, 22, and 24. Please see this page for details and registration.

Australia workshops open for registration

Nov. 13, Sydney: Training design master class for training managers at the Learning@Work conferenceNov. 26, Melbourne: Elearning Design for Business Results one-day workshop for ElNetNov. 29, Sydney: Elearning Design for Business Results one-day workshop for ElNet

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Missed the Kineo Valentine's Day Webinar?

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Blended Threads: Global Learning at Coats (A Case Study) #LSCon

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28999673.comments2014-03-27T15:06:00.458-05:00Cammy Beanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14164253880427035485noreply@blogger.comBlogger0125

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Learning & Development Consultant

Hudson HR are looking for an experienced Learning and Development Consultant to work within a fast paced financial services environment based in Birmingham. A fixed term period to support the business through a period of change.

An essential requirement for this role is access to a car and you must have Level 4 Diploma in Financial Planning (QCF)

Your main duties will be to design and deliver innovative and inspirational sales development activity to the sales force, in accordance with corporate and market methodologies and processes, in order to increase sales effectiveness and productivity.

Key Responsibilities:

To provide a sales development consultancy to sales managers, to identify sales development needs, establish appropriate development plans, and implement relevant development interventions to address

To act as conduit for cascade of development and project initiatives to the sales force

To be subject matter experts on all aspects of sales process and selling skills relevant to our niche approach, identifying, documenting and advocating agreed best practice in all activities

To support the induction of new recruits through effective mentoring, presentations, and development activity as required

To supervise new recruits to competent sign off as required

To design and deliver/facilitate sales development workshops, both centrally and nationally as required, to meet identified sales development needs

To develop / mentor other members of the L&D Department as required

Experience, Qualifications, & Skills

Demonstrated Sales Training/Development experience, ideally in a consultancy role, with evidenced ability to conduct full spectrum of training cycle and relevant development interventions

Extensive and successful, sales experience, ideally in Financial Services

Level 4 Diploma in Financial Planning (QCF)

Excellent product, regulatory, and legislative knowledge

Proven ability to engage with, and influence, first line sales management

Motivational and Inspiring approach, with personal credibility with first line sales management and sales force, and excellent presentation skills

Relevant Coaching / Training qualification

Educated to degree standard or equivalent

Please note you will receive an automated response advising you that we have received your CV.

Hudson is a leading provider of permanent recruitment, contract professionals and talent management solutions worldwide.

Apply now

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How to create a training goal in 2 quick steps

A measurable business goal is a great way to focus your training and show how your work helps your organization — that’s why it’s the first step in action mapping.

Unfortunately, most clients don’t have a clear goal, so here’s a quick formula that can help you connect what they want with what’s good for the organization.

1. Choose your numbers

Identify a measure that the organization is already using that your project could help improve. Once you have that, decide how much you’ll improve it and by when.

Some examples:

“We need sales training” — Sales will increase 5% by Q3“We need diversity training” — Employee retention will increase 8% by 2015“We need training on conflict management” — Grievances will decrease by 10% in two years

Obviously, the best measure will depend on the organization and its current strategies.

2. Identify in general terms what people will do

Your goal from step 1 could be enough, but it can help to add a second layer and mention in general terms what your audience will do differently.

Some examples:

“We need sales training” — Sales will increase 5% by Q3 as all sales people use the 5-step Customer Courtship Model“We need diversity training” — Employee retention will increase 8% by 2015 as all employees better manage diversity“We need training on conflict management” — Grievances will decrease by 10% in two years as team leaders better manage conflict on their teams

By making goals like this, we’re not promising that our project alone will be responsible for the change in numbers. However, we’re making clear that our project is directly tied to an important measure that affects the performance of the organization and we’re serious about designing a solution that works.

When you involve the client and subject matter expert in setting this goal, you also start to turn their attention away from knowledge and toward changes in behavior. This can help loosen their obsession with information and save your audience from another ineffective information dump. It also makes it easier to suggest more agile solutions than training.

Claim your place in an Australian workshop — time is running out

Learn how to set these kinds of goals and design lean, powerful elearning in a full-day workshop. Seats are strictly limited to 30 so we can get deep into applying what you’re learning to one of your projects. These will be hands-on workshops. Thanks to the E-learning Network of Australasia for organizing the events!

Melbourne, Nov. 26: Act quickly to sign up for Tuesday’s full-day workshop on elearning design. Sign up here!

Sydney, Nov. 29: There are still some places available in Friday’s session. Claim your spot!

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Staff Development Advisor

Staff Development Advisor Bath

The University of Bath is a thriving institution, consistently in the top 10 of UK league tables, topping the student satisfaction ratings in 2013 and awarded Sunday Times University of the Year in 2011/12. You will be joining a small staff development team who provide strategic and policy advice to the University, work with departments and teams on key issues, and provide programmes of individual development across all staff groups.

We are looking for a learning and development specialist with classroom and e-learning experience to enhance and expand our successful range of development programmes. With a sound understanding of modern methods, your track record of successfully designing and delivering learning and development will allow you to hit the ground running. You will develop new online “essentials” courses to extend our existing face-to-face programmes, and enhance our existing web-based resources. Away from the electronic media, you will be equally comfortable facilitating professional development sessions and other group events.

In this demanding and competitive era for Higher Education, our new People Strategy commits us to developing our staff to the highest standards. You will be responsible for some of the tools and skills that will enable people to realise their potential, and so be part of the future success of the University.

This post is based upon a 18.25 hour (0.5 FTE), 6 month fixed-term contract.

Closing date: Wednesday 09 April 2014.

Interview date: Tuesday 29 April 2014.

To find out more and apply, please visit our website via the 'Apply now' link below

LocationBathSalaryStarting from £12,144, rising to £14,918 (£24,289 to £29,837 pro-rata)DurationPart Time, FTCReferenceRJ2284Contact NameRecruitment

The University of Bath is a thriving institution, consistently in the top 10 of UK league tables, topping the student satisfaction ratings in 2013 and awarded Sunday Times University of the Year in 2011/12. You will be joining a small staff development team who provide strategic and policy advice to the University, work with departments and teams on key issues, and provide programmes of individual development across all staff groups.

We are looking for a learning and development specialist with classroom and e-learning experience to enhance and expand our successful range of development programmes. With a sound understanding of modern methods, your track record of successfully designing and delivering learning and development will allow you to hit the ground running. You will develop new online “essentials” courses to extend our existing face-to-face programmes, and enhance our existing web-based resources. Away from the electronic media, you will be equally comfortable facilitating professional development sessions and other group events.

In this demanding and competitive era for Higher Education, our new People Strategy commits us to developing our staff to the highest standards. You will be responsible for some of the tools and skills that will enable people to realise their potential, and so be part of the future success of the University.

This post is based upon a 18.25 hour (0.5 FTE), 6 month fixed-term contract.

Closing date: Wednesday 09 April 2014.

Interview date: Tuesday 29 April 2014.

To find out more and apply, please visit our website via the 'Apply now' link below

Apply now

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Training Manager - Operations

Training Manager - Operations London

A Training Manager is required for a rapidly expanding investment management company in the west end. Well known in their chosen market, this company have enjoyed a sustained period of growth in the last few years. It is due to this success that they are looking for a Training Manager to look after the Back Office operations training programs.

The ideal candidate will have worked in a similar role creating, implementing and developing compentency based training programs in a fast paced financial services environment. It is expected that the ideal candidate will have a stable career history with a strong academic record, excellent Excel skills are also required.

The preferred candidate will be able to take on multiple tasks, provide support for the Head of Operations and line managers and deliver results in a fast paced and demanding environment.

SR Group is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

LocationLondonSalary£50000 - £60000 per annum + excellent bensReferenceCHR/1007300Contact NameCharlotte Howell-Richardson

A Training Manager is required for a rapidly expanding investment management company in the west end. Well known in their chosen market, this company have enjoyed a sustained period of growth in the last few years. It is due to this success that they are looking for a Training Manager to look after the Back Office operations training programs.

The ideal candidate will have worked in a similar role creating, implementing and developing compentency based training programs in a fast paced financial services environment. It is expected that the ideal candidate will have a stable career history with a strong academic record, excellent Excel skills are also required.

The preferred candidate will be able to take on multiple tasks, provide support for the Head of Operations and line managers and deliver results in a fast paced and demanding environment.

SR Group is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Apply now

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How humor helps + Powtoon review

I recently created a funny (I hope!) cartoon to motivate people to learn more, and it motivated me to learn more about how humor can improve learning.

If you don’t see the cartoon below, you can watch it here.

(If you’re a blog subscriber and are reading this in your email or RSS reader, you should see a link to the ebook at the bottom of this post.)

The cartoon is a trailer more than a “teaching” tool, since it just touches on the main points. Its design comes straight from marketing: Remind them of the pain they’re feeling, tell them they can get the cure, and ask them to act. The same pattern would probably work in any training trailer to boost enrollments.

In a recent LinkedIn discussion about the cartoon, Megan Torrance reported that in one of her projects, elearning modules with a funny cartoon trailer had twice as many signups as modules without the trailer.

The same type of cartoon could be used when a client wants “awareness” but can’t identify any behaviors that actually require that awareness. When a “course” must be created regardless of its usefulness, a cartoon would at least be more fun than an information dump.

What research says about humor

I poked around Google Scholar and found studies that seem to agree that (relevant!) humor in teaching can increase retention, motivation, and comprehension.

The use of positive humor can also increase the likeability of the instructor. This could be especially helpful in corporate elearning, where the “presenter” is often faceless and personality-free.

The article “How Laughing Leads to Learning” offers a readable summary of some research and makes several points that are relevant to corporate training. Thanks, Matthias Herrmann, for pointing it out. My main takeaways from the article:

Humor appears to reduce anxiety by decreasing the effects of stress hormones.It appears to improve motivation and recall.It should be appropriate to the audience and sprinkled here and there rather than applied with a firehose.

I’d add that humor is surprising, and surprises are memorable. As Julie Dirksen explains in her (funny!) book Design for How People Learn, “If something is exactly the way we thought it would be, there’s really no reason to allocate mental resources to reinforcing that thought or idea.”

Finally, humor often uses analogy, exaggeration, emotion, vivid imagery, and unique sounds, all of which probably make the content more memorable.

Design decisions for the cartoon

Narration: I could have uploaded narration to the tool I used, but I thought, why? What would it add? So I didn’t add it. Plus, I’m not a fan of narration, as I’ve probably made clear in this blog (like in this post).

Pacing: The quick pacing is more marketing style than training style. Even when it’s just offering the high points, training tends to be a lot slower because … why? I actually wish that elearning developers would speed up, which is another reason for my burning hatred dislike of narration. It’s ironic that we easily digest quick messages from marketing but then design elearning that plods.

Powtoon review

I made the cartoon with Powtoon, a web app. You edit and save your work online and export the files as MP4s. Although you can upload audio and visuals, all the content of my cartoon is provided by Powtoon.

Pros:

It’s intuitive — the timeline is simple; it’s easy to change entrances and exits.The stock characters and animations inspire you to use humor.There’s a decent supply of images within each “style” of images.It’s easy to preview and export your cartoon.Non-artists like me can easily create cartoons.

Cons:

You can’t change music files in the middle of a cartoon or fade the audio. I had to make two cartoons and join them in iMovie, where I also edited the audio.The shortest interval on the timeline is one second.The range of character styles is limited but will likely grow.Other users report that it’s hard to sync narration. If I wanted to add narration to the cartoon (when pigs fly), I’d record it separately while watching the cartoon and then connect the cartoon and audio in a video editor.I noticed some visual artifacts when editing, and when I exported a cartoon, it often had a random audio glitch that re-exporting usually fixed.

More thoughts on humor

I think we have a bajillion opportunities to make things lighter and more memorable without offending someone somewhere, but all I hear when I mention humor is fear. I’ve got some tips for incorporating humor in this early blog post (along with the dramatic front page of the tabloid Elearning Informer).

What do you think? Is this kind of cartoon too risky? Why don’t we use humor more often?

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Join me for Kineo Konnect: Learning Insights Breakfast Thursday in NYC!

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Training Manager

Training Manager London We are currently recruiting for a Training Manager from the hospitality sector to join our client in Piccadilly. This brand new role will report to the HRD and manage 1-2 trainers. As Training Manager you will guide and manage the delivery of effective training at all levels within the business, in line with the business plan. You will be responsible for all aspects of training from induction through to senior management leadership development. Forming part of the HR team, you will lead the company training strategy and provide solutions that will support and drive an employee oriented, high performance culture that delivers against goals and targets. A passion for Training is essential. You will be an experienced people manager, who is able to design, develop and deliver training, with a flexible attitude. You will have superb communication skills honed in previous training roles in hospitality, coupled with excellent planning & organisation skills If you are interested in this HR role please apply by clicking on the link below or contact Ashley Kate HR for further details. Ashley Kate HR specialise exclusively in HR recruitment, nationwide for temporary, contract and permanent HR roles. We give equal priority to our candidate and client relationships and ensure we deliver a highly professional HR consultancy service at all times. To find out more about us please visit our website at www.ashleykatehr.com Join the Ashley Kate HR LinkedIn group at http://linkd.in/HRProfessionalsNetworkUK And follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AshleyKateHR Ashley Kate HR operates as a Recruitment Agency for the provision of permanent candidates and as a Recruitment Business for the provision of temporary candidates. LocationLondonSalary£45,000DurationPermanentReference12087AU/CBContact NameRecruitersWe are currently recruiting for a Training Manager from the hospitality sector to join our client in Piccadilly. This brand new role will report to the HRD and manage 1-2 trainers. As Training Manager you will guide and manage the delivery of effective training at all levels within the business, in line with the business plan. You will be responsible for all aspects of training from induction through to senior management leadership development. Forming part of the HR team, you will lead the company training strategy and provide solutions that will support and drive an employee oriented, high performance culture that delivers against goals and targets. A passion for Training is essential. You will be an experienced people manager, who is able to design, develop and deliver training, with a flexible attitude. You will have superb communication skills honed in previous training roles in hospitality, coupled with excellent planning & organisation skills If you are interested in this HR role please apply by clicking on the link below or contact Ashley Kate HR for further details. Ashley Kate HR specialise exclusively in HR recruitment, nationwide for temporary, contract and permanent HR roles. We give equal priority to our candidate and client relationships and ensure we deliver a highly professional HR consultancy service at all times. To find out more about us please visit our website at www.ashleykatehr.com Join the Ashley Kate HR LinkedIn group at http://linkd.in/HRProfessionalsNetworkUK And follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AshleyKateHR Ashley Kate HR operates as a Recruitment Agency for the provision of permanent candidates and as a Recruitment Business for the provision of temporary candidates.

Apply now

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To ID Degree or Not ID Degree. Updated Survey Results!

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4 ideas you should steal from interactive fiction

Here are a few fun stories from the wild world of interactive fiction. Try them out to see cool techniques you can steal for your training scenarios.

The most realistic scenarios are rich in detail, but lots of detail can mean lots of text on the screen. One way to lighten the load is to put the backstory in optional links.

In Remembered, by Chris Klimas, you explore links to learn more about the history of the characters. The more backstory you read, the richer your experience.

This technique could be used to add depth to the typical management scenario. For example, here’s a scene from a (fake) scenario.

Earlier today, Noah emailed you to ask for a 10-minute meeting. Now he’s arrived for the meeting and looks flustered.

“It’s Brian,” he says. “He’s always been a procrastinator, but now it’s affecting my ability to meet my deadlines. He was supposed to give me Phase 1 three days ago and and when I ask about it, he only says, ‘I just need another day.’”

What do you do?

When you click “Noah,” you see this:

Noah transferred to your department 3 months ago, citing personality differences in his previous department. He’s reliable and does solid work.

He can look impatient in meetings, glancing often at his watch, and when someone offers a new idea, he’s likely to point out problems with it. He seems committed to meeting the unit’s goals and has proposed changes that improved efficiency. He’s the team lead for the project.

The link about Brian, a quiet man, points out that he recently asked to be moved away from a noisy coworker and has been looking tired.

This isn’t Dostoevsky, but the bits of backstory add more dimension to what could have been a generic management scenario with shallow, thought-free options. You get realistic details that make the decision more nuanced, but without feeling like you’re slogging through a novel.

Putting the backstory in links lightens the load, but it can make the story feel fragmented. Another approach is to build the entire narrative on one screen.

In The Play by Deirdra Kiai, you need to manage the egos and poor preparation of actors in a play. The result of each decision is added to the narrative on the screen rather than bringing you to another “slide.”

Bonus: As you play, keep an eye on the list of cast members on the right. It doubles as a record of their emotional states and your ability to manage them.

Having the final story appear all on one screen makes it far easier for the player to review it. This approach could be useful for longer scenarios about negotiation, difficult conversations, leadership, and other complex issues.

See the attribution box on the left of the story for a link to the tool used to create it.

Did you suffer from the lack of images in the above two stories? Probably not.

Many scenarios that we create in training-land don’t really require visuals. Instead of spending an hour searching for non-awful stock photos of people talking on the phone, we could spend that hour making the story stronger.

The fake-translated-Russian story Small Child in Woods has an important lesson for us all.

A note about tools
“Remembered” and “Small Child in Woods” were created with Twine, a free tool that I explored in this post. You might also want to check out BranchTrack, a slick tool that makes it easy to build branching scenarios and doesn’t suffer the technical glitches that can plague Twine on corporate PCs.

Scenario design online course open for registration

Become a scenario design master with “Scenario design: In-depth and hands-on,” my new online course. Registration is open for sessions that start in January.

Australia workshops!

Nov. 13, Sydney: Training design master class for training managers at the Learning@Work conferenceNov. 22, Melbourne: Breakfast session on training ROI at ConVergeNov. 26, Melbourne: Elearning Design for Business Results one-day workshop for ElNetNov. 29, Sydney: Elearning Design for Business Results one-day workshop for ElNet

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Creating a Virtual Leadership Academy: A Case Study #ASTDTK14

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Douglas Merrill, Big Data Demystified for Learning: What’s Important, What’s Not, and What’s Next #LSCon

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Happy Valentine's Day from us lovers of e-learning at Kineo!

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A Tale of Two Cases: Mobile Solutions with Phillip Neal #ASTDTK14

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Kineo Turns 100! 100 months of learning and loving

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Amy Jo Martin, Thursday Keynote at #ASTDTK14

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I'm in the mood for love...learning love, that is! Kineo Valentine's Day Webinar

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Learning Record Stores with Tim Martin #ASTDTK14

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Why you want to put the activity first

Let’s say we’re designing a course that will help widget sales people overcome buyers’ objections. The objection we’re focusing on right now is this one: “I’ve read that your widget creates a lot of heat.” We have a specific way we’d like our sales people to respond to that objection.

Some people in our audience are familiar with the concerns about heat, while new people might not know as much.

How do you think most training designers would approach this? I think they’d do it like this.

The designers would think, “First, we’ll tell them the common concerns about heat, to make sure everyone knows them. Then we’ll tell them what our own research shows about the heat and why it’s not a big deal. Then we’ll tell them how to respond to heat objections, and finally we’ll let them practice with a scenario.”

Why did I label this “boring and inefficient?”

The learners have to trudge through many screens before they finally get to use their brains.Some people already know the stuff presented on the many screens.The how-to info is presented immediately before the scenario, making the scenario a simple check of short-term memory.

Here’s a more efficient approach that has the added advantage of helping people learn by doing.

We immediately plunge learners into a realistic scenario — followed by another and another. Then we concisely recap what they’ve figured out through the scenarios.

The material feels like a stream of activities, not pages of information followed by one lonely memory check. The recap will be memorable and concise because it refers back to concrete examples, such as, “As you saw with Ravi’s objection, it’s best to …”

But what about the information?

We can include the information about heat issues as optional links in the scenario.

Now our material is more efficient and a heck of a lot more interesting. People who already know all about the heat issues (or, importantly, think they know) will forge ahead without reading the optional documents. Newer or more careful people will check the documents to make sure they know what’s going on. Both groups will figure out if they chose correctly when they see the results of their choices.

In addition, the optional documents are low-tech PDFs or pages on the intranet, the same documents that people use on the job. This makes the information much easier to update and puts the scenario in a more realistic context.

But they might just guess and miss important information!

The usual argument for the boring and inefficient approach is, “We have to make sure everyone is exposed to the information.” But who cares whether they’ve been exposed to it? What we care about is whether they know it and can apply it.

So we’ll design scenarios that make them prove they know it, and we’ll design enough challenging scenarios about the same important information to make sure no one is slipping through the cracks. And if we’re really worried about information being missed, we can include it in the feedback, as shown in this post.

But you didn’t show them how to overcome objections!

We haven’t led them by the nose through the Heat Objection Handling Process because we want them to figure it out through experience. Our feedback will help. For example, if someone chooses option C above, they’ll see the following result:

“I’m not surprised that your studies don’t show any problems,” Ravi says, sounding a little annoyed. “But Widget World does rigorous, independent testing, and they found heat issues. What can you tell me about the heat?”

From this, learners realize that shoving research at the customer backfires. It sounds like option A was the better option, and for their next step, they’ll want to calmly discuss the concerns. (This post goes into more detail on why we’re just showing the result rather than telling the learner what they did right or wrong.)

More design time, less development

This approach usually requires more in-depth discussions with the subject matter experts and more careful script writing. However, it often results in quicker and easier development. We’re building fewer screens and, happily, we feel less compelled to add bling in a desperate attempt to make a boring presentation more interesting.

Scenario design workshops and online seminar

The example used in this post is taken from my new and improved scenario design webinar. It’s a one-hour online workshop you can request for your team or ASTD chapter.

I’m also developing a 4.5-hour scenario design mini-course that anyone can sign up for. We’ll meet online for three 90-minute sessions starting this fall. If you’d like to be notified when the online course is available, please sign up here and you’ll be among the first to hear about it.

Have you had any success designing material that puts the activities first? Let us know in the comments!

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When do you need a branching scenario?

A mini-scenario. Make your decision, see the result, that’s it.

When should you go to the trouble of designing a branching scenario? Let’s look at some examples.

First, you might not need a branching scenario. Most of the time, a one- or two-scene mini-scenario does the job fine.

In a mini-scenario, you make your decision, see the realistic consequence, and figure out if you made a good choice. You might then go to a very different scene representing a different situation.

Mini-scenarios are great for covering a lot of possible problems, but they’re not so great for getting deep into a more complex situation. For that, consider using a branching scenario.

It’s not just a series of scenes

In a branching scenario, decisions made in early scenes affect later scenes. This helps people practice such skills as:

Recognizing and challenging their own assumptionsRecovering from mistakes in a long or complex processNavigating extended, ambiguous situationsDeciding when to stop gathering information and act

A lot of you are familiar with the Haji Kamal scenario, in which you help an inexperienced Army officer make a good impression on an Afghan leader. You have to make many decisions in one conversation, and things you say at one point affect what happens in later points.

This wasn’t a problem for us, but it’s easy to imagine a stakeholder saying, “We shouldn’t spend all our budget on just one story! We should have lots of short scenes so we can cover things like how to deal with children, what to do when you have to search someone, what to do when someone tries to give you a gift…”

I’ve seen cross-cultural training that uses that approach. You’re tossed from one mini-scenario to another so you can practice social niceties. In one scene you accept a business card correctly, and then suddenly you’re eating in a restaurant, and then suddenly you’re deciding what gift to bring to someone’s home. This is surface training. There’s no deep change involved.

For the Army, we used a branching scenario because we wanted deeper change. Our (many!) interviews with soldiers suggested that one challenge they faced was their western perspective of “We’re here to help you, so let’s get down to business.” We wanted them to practice recognizing when that perspective was hurting local relationships and, importantly, practice recovering from mistakes.

More examples

In their “Family of Heroes” scenario (registration required but worth it), Kognito also focuses on just one conversation. Their goal is to help us see from another’s perspective, manage our emotions, and recover from mistakes. Imagine how much weaker the interaction would be if it were instead a series of unrelated one-scene snippets from the couple’s life.

In this fake language learning scenario, the branching isn’t complex. In order to make sense of later scenes, you have to choose correctly in previous ones, and the branches are just little loops to make sure you choose correctly. But because later scenes build on vocabulary learned in previous ones, your learning is repeatedly reinforced, and I hope you also gain confidence.

By Sunil Rao

If you want to cover different situations but also want the advantages of some branching, you might present a series of shorter scenarios. One artist’s intriguing Flash interaction uses that approach. You meet three different young people and try to talk them out of killing themselves.

Finally, at the other end of the production spectrum, the BBC helps you learn Spanish and Spanish customs with an interactive TV mystery series.

All of these use branching to some degree, because their goals include challenging our assumptions and encouraging us to build our own knowledge. While they don’t cover the variety of topics that mini-scenarios could cover, they aim for deeper change.

I’m looking for more publicly available examples of branching scenarios. There are several on my recently updated elearning examples page, but the world needs more! If you know of any, please share the links in the comments.

Upcoming workshops

Sydney, Australia, Nov. 13: Join us for “Training design for business results,” a one-day workshop for learning managers at the Learning@Work conference. There’s currently a super-early-bird discount available through the Learning@Work site. Please see more details in my workshop calendar.

Other workshops in Australia and elsewhere are in the planning stages. I’ll announce them in this blog; to make sure you don’t miss anything, subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already.

Photo credit: Signpost image used to represent this post is by The Nick Page

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Tips for webinars or virtual training

“What works for webinars?” People have asked this a lot lately, so here’s my opinionated answer.

I do a lot of online workshops, such as the scenario design course that starts soon. I’ve ditched many of the conventional webinar techniques. Here’s what’s left on my list.

My main recommendation:

Include many, many thought-provoking questions for people to answer in the chat.

These aren’t polls or multiple-choice questions. They’re more like, “Here’s a problem. How do you think we should solve it?” or “Here’s a draft of a solution. What’s wrong with it?”

I try to ask a question like this every couple of minutes. In my personal notes for the presentation, I highlight in blue every question I plan to make and then scroll through the file to make sure there are blue blobs sprinkled everywhere.

This results in slides that tend to be activities instead of information presentations. For example, I’ll display a slide that has a draft of a scenario question and ask what should be done to make it better. Information that might have spawned a series of bullet-heavy slides called “97 rules of scenario design” goes in the handout, where text belongs.

You could also repurpose a self-paced elearning activity. For example, you could run a scenario in the session. Display the first decision point and ask everyone what they want to do and why. As the debate goes on, one choice will probably surface as the preferred one, so click that and continue the scenario.

Again, I’m suggesting you do this as a discussion, not a poll. It’s harder on you, because you have to read a lot of chat comments, but the learning is far deeper and the issues raised will be surprising.

The chat is where it’s at!

This one change — your commitment to ask a ton of thought-provoking, open-ended questions — means that you’ll design a series of mini-activities instead of an information dump. Your participants will stay with you, thinking and participating, instead of clicking away to plan their Bali trip while you talk to an empty room.

This one change will require a few more changes:

You’ll need a webinar platform with a big, public chat window. For now, I’m using WebEx. I hope to use FuzeBox in the future when I’m sure that it plays well with the extreme firewalls some of my customers have. GotoMeeting is out for me because the chat window can’t be resized on my Mac.You’ll need to stop talking and listen. I periodically say, “Hang on, I need to catch up with the chat.” I’m silent while I read what has happened in the chat, and then I respond to it.If you’re recording the session and the chat won’t be recorded, you’ll want to read chat items aloud so the recording makes sense to someone who wasn’t there. Just as you do when presenting to a big group, repeat the question aloud before you answer it. It’s often impossible to read everything; I just hit the major points.If the chat is super-busy, some participants might hide it so they can focus on you. That’s another reason to pause periodically and read aloud the major points being made.As soon as people realize that you want them to use the chat, they will definitely use the chat. This might happen in ways you might not have intended, such as answering each other’s questions or literally chatting. Don’t try to control them. At least they’re in the room with you instead of pricing hotels in Bali.

Yes, you can handle the chat! It can help to have a second person, but I’ve flown solo with up to 400 people typing furiously away. They realize you can’t read and respond to everything. All you need to do is pause occasionally to catch up with the major points or questions.

Everything else

Some more tips:

Avoid headaches and reduce development time by creating a presentation without animations or transitions — PDF is usually safe.Use a headset with a decent mic, not the computer’s default mic.Limit sessions to 90 minutes at most.If you’re providing a handout, make it useful, not just a copy of the slide deck. You might create a handout that includes the main slides with additional text.Make the handout available at the beginning or shortly before the presentation, so participants can use it to take notes. If it’s in Word or another easily edited format, they can take notes right in the handout.Practice giving your presentation, of course, timing yourself and allowing lots of time for the chat.

Finally, here are some common webinar techniques that I avoid. Maybe you can convince me that they’re great — leave a comment!

Not allowing public chat. This is Mortal Webinar Sin #1 for me. Probably 90% of the sessions that I’ve attended have no chat. You’re only allowed to send questions in secret, and they go only to the presenter. I rarely stick around.Adding “interactivity” by using polls to vote on non-questions, such as “How many people here have seen a boring PowerPoint presentation?”Sending people to breakout rooms. Maybe I just haven’t seen this done well. When I’ve been a participant, breakout rooms have meant five minutes of technological confusion followed by several minutes of “Is anyone else here?” and then “What are we supposed to be doing?” followed by me quietly disappearing to watch the Shiba Inu puppycam.

How about you? What are your favorite techniques for live virtual sessions? What do you recommend avoiding? Let us know in the comments!

Scenario design online course open for January and February

Become a scenario design master with “Scenario design: In-depth and hands-on,” a live online course (with lots of chat!). There’s still room in two of the sessions that start in January and February.

People who have signed up for the course alert list learn about new courses before they’re announced in the blog. Sign up and you’ll be among the first to know when the next sessions are scheduled. The US session sold out quickly after the last mailing — sign up so you don’t miss out next time!

My current very tentative plans are to have an on-demand version of the course available in April and to give another live version in July.

Image credit: iStockPhoto ©petekarici

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Throw them in the deep end! (but keep a life preserver handy)

“You’re setting them up to fail!” You’ve probably heard this if you’ve proposed starting with an activity instead of first providing instruction.

“Everyone knows” that people should be carefully shown how to do something and only then allowed to practice doing it. If you just throw them in the deep end, frustration and cognitive overload and squashed self-esteem will supposedly inhibit their learning.

However, several studies suggest that when we first challenge learners and then give them instruction, we can improve their ability to apply and extend their new knowledge. They could more effectively apply what they’ve learned to their jobs and to new situations.

In Scenario-Based Elearning, Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer point out this study on “productive failure,” which led me to several others.

In these and similar studies, students with some knowledge of a discipline were given a problem without first being told how to solve it. They floundered, usually in groups, and then their solutions were examined and they were taught the correct process.

These “productive failure” groups were slightly weaker at applying the new process than were the “direct instruction” groups who were first taught what to do. But the former flounderers were clearly better at applying what they learned to other situations and at developing additional models that they hadn’t been taught.

It’s not clear how much support is best during the initial challenge. Collaboration with other learners seems to help, so in lonely, asynchronous elearning you’ll want to provide at least some scaffolding, such as hints or questions that guide learners to the correct steps to take. If I were queen, this scaffolding would be optional, it wouldn’t teach the content, and it would be provided in the activity, not as pre-activity instruction.

Like most research in instruction, these studies were done on elementary and university students, not adults in the working world. But in contrast to many studies, the researchers went beyond assessing the correct regurgitation of facts and looked at how well learners applied and extended their knowledge, which is our goal in business training.

This slideshow by one of the researchers, Manu Kapur, summarizes some of the findings that might apply to us. Some papers are available as full text:

When you think about the lessons you’ve learned, which are the most memorable — the ones in which someone first taught you everything you needed to know, or the ones in which you at first floundered and even failed? Have you been able to convince stakeholders to let people learn through a challenge rather than instruction? Let us know in the comments!

Online course in scenario design

I’m developing a 4.5-hour scenario design mini-course that anyone can sign up for. We’ll meet online for three 90-minute sessions starting this fall. If you’d like to be notified when the online course is available, please sign up here and you’ll be among the first to hear about it.

I’ve also overhauled my scenario design webinar. It’s a one-hour online workshop you can request for your team or ASTD chapter.

Australia: upcoming public workshops

Nov. 13, Sydney: Training design master class for training managers at the Learning@Work conferenceNov. 26, Melbourne: Elearning Design for Business Results one-day workshop for ElNetNov. 29, Sydney: Elearning Design for Business Results one-day workshop for ElNet

Photo by anuarsalleh

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