My Weekly Review - eLearning Tools, Iterative Development, Pedagogy, and more

I started the Week in Review posts on July 11th...yea...I've missed a few weeks...Sorry.

Here is my review for this week August 4-8.

eLearning Content Creation tools

Okay, so they aren't specifically tools just for eLearning. They are general content creation tools, but WOW! They are pretty darn cool! I suppose we have HTML5 to thank for giving browsers the ability to do this kind of content editing. Check out my posts at the Litmos blog to get my reaction to Adobe's Voice App for iPad, and 2 browser based tools: Canva.com and Placeit.net.

Iterative eLearning Development

My Litmos blog posts on tools distracted me from my series on iterative elearning development. But I will be getting back to it. Honestly, I was beginning to think that my thoughts on 21st Century Corporate Training Development were perhaps a little too radical...perhaps before its time. But then this morning I saw a post on G+ from my UK eLearning friend, Clive Shepherd. His post is "Why eLearning Should be in Perpetual Beta". He is such a great writer, and has SO much industry experience that perhaps you will better understand the process I'm attempting to define by reading his posts on the topic as well. Here's a small piece...

"I once asked the CEO of a major e-learning company how much of their work was maintenance of existing content, thinking that this would be a substantial revenue earner. I was surprised to find that hardly anyone maintains their content. They just wait four or five years for the content to become obsolete, then they start all over again."

I believe, no matter what we call it, corporate training development and support as an ongoing service is where 21st century learning development is headed. The days of a 1-off product launch are numbered:  Still necessary in some situations, but not the norm.

My Hangups with Pedagogy

I published a post recently titled Mobile Learning - No Pedagogy Required! It sparked quite a conversation which I enjoyed immensely. I like to think out loud...publicly if necessary. Go to the post and catch up on the comments if you would like to engage.  But as a review I wanted to comment on the conversation.  Everyone was kind and rational in stating their views, thoughts, and opinions. Even the disagreements were cordial and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who spent so much time on thoughtful responses.  

Seeking clarity and understanding is not always easy. Asking questions on the internet often leads to putting people on the defensive and the conversations spiral downward out of control. But conversations like this remind me why I love the social nature of the internet.

Random Stuff...

The Litmos team has started weekly webinars focused on different aspects of LitmosLMS. This week's webinar tutorial was a big success! If you're a Litmos user be sure to put it on your calendar...or watch the recordings. Madeline (@mghonig) Does a fantastic job!

#lrnchat was fun this week. I was distracted by...SQUIRREL...#dadchat though. Lots of fun with those folks as well. But the best part was finding this...Thanks daddydazed.com.

And with that I'll leave you to your weekend! Cheers!

Screen Resolution Alert for eLearning Developers!

Statcounter Global Stats reported last week that 1024x768(XGA) has been overtaken by 1366x768(WXGA) for the first time. If these numbers make no sense to you then think of it in terms of aspect ratios.  What the report basically says is that the 16:9 aspect ratio has become more popular than 4:3. Think of it as old TV beginning to die out slowly and the newer HDTV growing.

If you are an eLearning developer this is important news. But if you are an eLearning developer this should not be NEW for you.  And, in fact, this may not even impact you.

Let this ALERT serve as a reminder for those who consider themselves eLearning developers but don't know the standard screen resolution supported by your IT department.


I would guess that many of you are not seeing this change within your organizations.  The data is based on global internet usage in general and if you track usage stats for your web sites behind your firewall you should be able to see for yourself.  Or ask your IT department for the report.

3 Reminders to every Corporate Training Department


1) Be connected to your IT department.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  If you are developing anything with software being delivered to your organization digitally, then you MUST have a solid partnership with your IT department.

2) TEST, TEST, TEST!  Always test your eLearning courses on as many different screen resolutions as possible, and on as many devices as possible.

3) Don't forget about the big screen! With the industry chasing down mobile learning at such a rapid pace it's easy to forget about the desktop.  This alert is your wakeup call.  Remember that your corporate audience is STILL most comfortable viewing your courses on a desktop with a high resolution monitor.  Make sure your content looks beautiful in that space.

And if you really want to dig deeper you can check wikipedia for everything you ever wanted to know about Graphic Display Resolutions.

The Internet of Learning Things

The Internet of Things (wikipedia page) has been a concept in existence for over a decade.  You may be hearing about it for the first time here, or you recently read about it somewhere else.  And the reason why is because it's finally becoming much more real.  Many of the gadgets being created using wifi, bluetooth, and bluetooth smart, are still only being embraced by the alpha geeks, but that is about to change.

The Internet of Things is all about connectivity, mobility, and the sharing of data.  WiFi and Bluetooth technology provide the connectivity.  Many of the "things" themselves are small enough to be moved around a home, office, or business while remaining "connected".  And our mobile smart phones provide the interface by which we communicate with the things, view the data they collect, and share it with other people or professionals that can better interpret the data and make decisions.

One company that seems to be leading in the marketing of connected things is WiThings.  The company defines itself this way...

"Withings is a leading force in the personal healthcare revolution. It designs, develops, and industrializes health and wellness connected devices that help families across the world take better charge of their health...

Withings is a major player in the Internet of Things. The company’s increases the capabilities of an object by the addition of network resources that allows access to infinite calculation and storage capacities without increasing costs. The object’s interfaces are also ported to devices such as mobile phones or computers, to benefit from their resources and capabilities."

In my mind, what's not far off is The Internet of Learning Things. I would actually consider these medical devices to be Learning Things as they provide us with the data we need to learn more about ourselves.  As more and more "things" become connected we can begin to make connections between the different data points collected.  Imagine combing the data from your Wifi Body Scale, Heart Rate monitor, and Nike+ all into one app.  You can see how powerful this is going to be.  After all, your bodyweight alone is only one measurement, or data point, in the bigger picture of one's health and wellness.

So, how can the Internet of Things begin to monitor and help us manage our learning?  I have some ideas but I'd love to hear yours.   

The Changing Context of Video in eLearning

If you haven't been following my previous posts you may want to review quickly before diving into this one.  At the very least be sure to have watched the videos from the first link.

What Have We Learned About Training in Over 70 Years
Creative Training Course Titles
Good Story Telling Takes Time - So Does Good Learning

1930s Film Projector

I think it's important that we begin to discuss the bigger training questions as they relate to these 2 videos. After all, there is a CONTEXT around each that is quite unique.  And however obvious these points might be, I think it's helpful to point them out because I'm certain their on your mind and you just don't want to ask or comment.  That's cool.

1937 had black and white film on reels of "tape" and it was a physical, analog, medium.  This required a long production process, and a long complicated delivery process.  The film needed to be duplicated and transported to many different locations.  The learners needed to be gathered into a room.  The properly skilled technician needed to setup and run the projection equipment.  Duh! Right? Yea, I know.

Okay, so what does that mean from an instructional design perspective?  Obviously, there HAD to be more to the training than JUST this video.  Did they break up into teams and have a lab session with a differential sitting there in front of them? Who was the intended audience?  Was the film intended for soon to be military vehicle mechanics or was it for ALL new Chevrolet mechanics?  Perhaps it was produced by Chevy but intended to be sent to mechanical engineering schools.  We don't know.  But if you do know, I'd love to hear about it.

The changes in instructional design have changed very little over the decades, while technology has progressed significantly.  The technology restrictions of analog media have long since vanished, and yet I still see the instructional models of old being employed.

Let's just take a look at video.  70 years ago it took a massive amount of effort, by today's standards, to get that film in front of a learner.  Today, with YouTube and other video sharing platforms and the simple fact that the internet is the greatest distribution channel ever, it takes VERY little effort to accomplish the same task.  But the reality is even bigger and better than that.  Because of mobile devices anyone can watch videos where ever they are at any given time.  And the best part is that they can watch it as many times as they want.

Google+ Hangout - 3 Viewers watching
the same video

Knowing that your learners can watch your video anytime, anywhere, as often as they want is a significant change in context since 1937.  Heck, it's even a big change since 1997.  And that's just video.   What about the fact that a learner could be watching the video WITH many other learners/classmates from around the globe at the same time.  AND they all could be chatting about the video and sharing comments?  Is this not a HUGE shift in learning context?

Stop telling me that a video is not training.  A video used in today's digital context can absolutely be effective training.  Video can now be a shared, interactive, repetitive, experience at very little cost.  The idea of viewing a film/video once and then moving on to the next part of the training is old and yet we still make that part of the learning EVENT design.  Your videos can be viewed multiple times, on multiple technologies, and in a group or alone with people in dispersed locations across the globe. So, shouldn't we be thinking differently about the instructional design opportunities that video now provides for us?

While the script writing and production values play a roll, it's really the delivery mechanism that changes everything.  That 1937 video is more effective, impactful, and valuable today than it ever was in back in the 1930s simply because it can now be a shared experience between a global audience.

How has video played a part in your eLearning?  Do your learners take advantage of collaborating while watching videos together?  Do you think they'll ever watch your videos on a mobile device?

Good Storytelling Takes Time - So Does Good Learning

This week we are looking at a system known as the Differential.  In my first post I asked that you review 2 training videos.  Around the Corner was created in 1937 and How a Differential Works was created in 2011.  In my last post I looked at the importance of titles, and today I wonder about management concerns that good storytelling is too time consuming and wasting employees time.


Stories take too long!
Both training videos do a good job of explaining the facts of how a differential works.  And to be clear, while I am biased towards liking the 1937 video better, I believe both get the job done.  And that is because I also believe there is more to learning than just watching videos.  More on that in later post.

Around the Corner is 9 minutes and 31 seconds.  How a Differential Works is 4 minutes and 44 seconds. So, if they both get the job done then you might as well just stop reading my stupid blog posts and just pick the shortest good quality videos you can find.  You certainly don't want to waste your employees' time, right?


In Around the corner we don't even get narration until almost 2 MINUTES into the video. GASP!  Can you imagine wasting so much precious training time?  How dare those designers not take our time seriously!!!  The NERVE!!!

I can hear today's Sr. managers and/or project stakeholders telling the instructional designers,

  "ya know, that's nice and all but let's cut down that intro to about 30 SECONDS."  

So, in the 2011 video you get an objective statement and a high level overview of what a differential is in exactly 33 secs.

I don't think anyone will argue that it's much easier to simply state the facts about any process.  And doing so will no doubt take significantly less time than telling the story.  I also don't think anyone believes that reciting facts alone is the best method of delivering content being learned by people.  Human beings respond to their feelings and storytelling impacts feelings.

To most of us watching the 1937 video, the intro is just a bunch of motocycles doing a synchronized circus act.  But to the mostly male trainees of the time these riders were part of the pop culture.  We can simply guess that viewers were engaged and drawn into the movie because of these riders and using their skills to illustrate the basic problem being solved by differential gears.

There are many people blogging about storytelling in learning.  I have not covered it all by any means, but I did recognize the importance of storytelling after watching these videos.  Did you notice anything about storytelling when you viewed them?

Creative Training Course Titles: Around the Corner vs How a Differential Works

In my last post I asked you to review a couple training videos about the complex gearing system in cars known as the differential.

I purposely did not mention which video I viewed first.  The video that Dan Roam shared on Facebook was the video from 1937.  I'll be honest and say my reaction to the first 60secs or so was something short of "this is lame! I must have clicked the wrong link.  These are motorcycles, not cars."  But then of course the story begins to unfold and connections are made.  Nothing short of BRILLIANT!

I will spend the next few posts pondering the instructional design of each video as I see it.  You may not see it the same as me.  And so, I'm hoping you'll join me in a conversation about these 2 videos and the 70+ years of instructional design and corporate eLearning theory between them.  As a quick primer I started with the simple yet often overlooked TITLE.

Around the Corner
What is in a name? What I completely missed in the 1937 video, the first viewing, is the catchy little title to the story...oh wait... excuse me... training.  They titled it Around the Corner.  What?  Why around the corner?  AH, NOW I GET IT!  Holy moly, they actually incorporated the problem being solved into the title...nice!  And besides, simply being curious about WHY the "course" is titled in such a way engages the learner.  I would think that even on a subconscious level creating interest in the first 5 secs with a mysterious title would be a good thing.  Even if the learners simply asked themselves why a training video would begin with such a title.

How a Differential Works
The title of the 2011 video is predictably How a Differential Works.  I'd swear the first spoken words are straight out of the designers handbook on how to write an appropriate objective,

 "We're going to explore what a differential is...".  

I wonder how many instructional design reviews it took for the Ph.D. to finally land on the word "explore" as apposed to learn, or discover, or look into.  I'll bet some of you reading this were critiquing every word.  Go ahead, it's okay to admit it.  You've been "trained" well, and you paid a lot for that masters degree, so you have every right to question each and every word your peer has chosen.  While I'm at it I'd like to point my finger at those of you dying to tell me that these are "information" and  <eyes rolling>  not REALLY training. </eyes rolling>
"For cryin' out loud, man!  Where's the practice and feedback?" 
Yea, I get it.  Now get over it.
But I digress...

I love these videos for so many reasons.  Discussing the titles is only the beginning.  The next time you begin the design process you might want to ask yourself how you might incorporate a creative title into your design.  Your stakeholders may not approve, but if they ask you "Why did you title it this way?"... well... then you've done your job well.

Templates: Love 'em or Hate 'em?

Do you use templates?  Are you a purist and despise templates?  Personally, I don't like to take a hard line on this topic.

I like to think of all templates as time-savers and as such they become productivity tools.  They don't impact my instructional design.  Unless a certain template is requested or mandated, finding a template also serves as inspiration.  And quite frankly every custom project you do should also be considered a template for any other similar project that appears in the future.  It has nothing to do with being lazy, but has everything to do with being productive and getting better at what you do.

Consider all of the things you were NOT able to do with the first project.  When a similar project starts you now have much of the work completed and you can use your development time to add, or improve the parts of the "template" that you now have time for.

Also consider a customer asking you to do work within an unreasonably short timeframe.  Instead of not being able to do the job, you could inquire if a pre-designed template solution would be okay.  I think its always worth asking.

Baked Goods Gift Tags

The internet provides an endless supply of templates for SO many different projects.  I'll share this one I just discovered from LOVE vs DESIGN.  Baked Goods Gift Tags.

Download Template here

But if you're looking for eLearning Templates a Google search will turn up many, but I'd recommend starting with the eLearning Brothers at elearningtemplates.com

Building the Instructional Designer's Relevance in 2012 - Aaron Silvers

@aaronesilvers

Aaron Silvers gave a fascinating presentation for the recent eLearning Guild's online forum entitled Building the Instructional Designer's Relevance in 2012.  You can find the recording here.  If you are not a paid member of the Guild you won't be able to view it, but presentations like this are exactly what makes the Guild archives well worth every penny you invest in a membership.  And yes, it IS an investment...in YOU!  Nobody can make you better at your craft.  You MUST own it and make time to improve yourself and your skills.

Is Image Memorability Important to eLearning?

I discovered this interesting research report from a tweet that pointed to an article in Scientific mind titled Haunting Scenes.  Read at the end why I found more info at MIT News.

Brent Schlenker
Program Director for DevLearn

I wonder how a silly pic like this, on the right, would rank in a memorability algorithm?

Exciting Research

The interesting news is that the research found "the most memorable photos are those that contain people, followed by static indoor scenes and human-scale objects."  Landscapes seemed to be forgettable.  According to previous research humans can remember thousands of images, but understanding what makes certain images more memorable than others was not known.  This study focused on memorability of an image as a measurable trait.  And they were successful enough to create an algorithm that can predict memorability.  Cool!

Disappointing Ideas Regarding Application of Results
The most frustrating part about the article?

"Such an algorithm could be useful to graphic designers, photo editors, or anyone trying to decide which of their vacation photos to post on Facebook" - Aude Oliva, associate professor of cognitive science and a senior author of the paper.

Seriously, MIT?  That's the best you can come up with?  <insert face in hands>
I understand that Facebook is hot and you need to encourage interest in your research in order to get grants and bla, bla, bla, but I was hoping to hear you say something about LEARNING.  I'm thinking that memory is tied to learning some how, right?

Applying These Results to Learning Design
My apologies to the researchers and to MIT for my pedestrian response to academic research.  But I see your research as being important to learning, education, and training more than Facebook and vacation photos.  Shouldn't we be more excited about the possibility of selecting better images that help learners retain more important information in long term memory? Memory does have a little to do with learning.

My favorite quote from the lead researcher, Phillip Isola:

"Pleasantness and memorability are not the same"

I know, in my experience designing eLearning courses, that making graphics simply looked nice, and pleasant, to the corporate stakeholders was the goal if not a battle you had to fight.  Corporate training developers are often asked to PROVE why they chose the graphic design elements they did.  And many times the selection of images to use are decisions based on the whims of clients, and Sr. Management.  Research like this is extremely helpful to our community in making the case for the design decisions we make.

But more importantly it helps us do our jobs better.  Creating media for eLearning courses is part of the job.  Understanding what makes an image memorable is a BIG DEAL!  

And yes, there is a lot more to the design of instruction than the memorability of the images used in that instruction.  But it seems to me like there is a useful connection here.  That's all I'm really saying.  Perhaps I'm wrong, and I completely missed the point on this one.  Oh well, wouldn't be the first time.

Read the research report yourself and let me know what you think.

---------------------------------

COMMENT:  I don't pay to read Scientific American and so I only had access to 5 paragraphs of the article.  So, did those 5 paragraphs entice me to PAY because I became interested?  No.  A quick google search of the researcher from MIT revealed his findings in other more user-friendly online magazines and the actual complete research paper.  Sorry, Scientific American. I liked the article in MIT NEWS.

AppleTV + AirPlay = Uber Projector Enhancement

Okay, so maybe not YET!  But when AirPlay is released everything will change...AGAIN!  I know a lot of you give many presentations a year.  And you must be as frustrated as I am with the continued need for cables/adaptors and projectors.  Setting up a projector correctly is NOT easy.  If you've ever dealt with A/V staff at events you know what I mean.  Its one thing to set up a projector to look good, and another thing entirely to get a speaker's laptop connected to the projector.  Its one of those constant nagging issues that continually makes me wonder why a smart tech company can't solve this problem with a cheap device.

So, I'm trying to download and new iTunes10 and its just not happening, so I'm cruising the rest of the Apple web site checking out the newly announced products.  Not ever really interested in the AppleTV originally, I decide to take a look.  And after hearing how disappointed Leo Laporte was about it, I had low expectations.  But once I started reading the features, and continually only seeing $99 light up in my head, I started having a change of heart for how I might benefit from this in my own media consumption habits.

AirPlay lets you Stream from iPad, iPhone, iPod to AppleTV

Then I had one of those lightening bolt moments when I saw the "coming soon" blurb about AirPlay which is part of iOS4.2 being released in November. 

Okay...um...WOW! This is a game changer: $99 connects all iPads, iPhones, iPods in a room to one big HDTV.  Hello? Do I need to say that again?

For fun lets just throw Face-time into this craziness.  Yea, I know...you're thinkin' the same thing I am...WOW!  What? You're NOT?  Okay lets talk through a scenario...

Little Johnny is sitting in his class learning about fish.  Teacher Betty is rolling through some flickr picks via AppleTV on the bigscreen of her scuba diving trip.  Little Johnny remembers that Uncle Flounder is a marine biologist at Sea World.  Bored by the slideshow he sends an SMS to UF asking if he's available to show some fish to his class.  UF calls LJ back via face-time.  TB hears LJ talking and doesn't get mad...she just asks if he has found something interesting to add to the conversation (because in this classroom that's just what they do).  Now UF is face-timeing with LJ and the conversation is AirPlayed via TB's AppleTV so the entire class can watch UF talk about the sharks he is currently feeding.  The class is now engaged.

How sweet would that be I ask you?  

But wait it gets better.  Originally I was on thinking about the many ways you could use this to share your content to an AppleTV from another device.  But then I started thinking about how this might change my Instructional Design habits.  Creating and finding media to display for a class/course now has an entirely new set of options.  Teachers could whip up a quick keynote presentation with links to YouTube videos and Flickr sets on their iPad and AirPlay it too the class.  ALL IN HD!

Tell me what I ideas you have!  And be sure to catch Nick Floro (@nickfloro) talking about Media creation at DevLearn's Learning Media Studio this November in SanFrancisco.  Media is becoming far too important for you to NOT understand fully.  You MUST be knowledgable and proficient in creating media in this day and age.  Its not that hard and its really quite FUN!

 DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

The eLearning Singularity or The Inevitable Evolution of eLearning Development

Its that time of year again where everyone wants to know what's coming up in 2010. Or we look back at 2009 and reflect. Both are excellent practices, but I think everyone has pretty much covered all of the bases. If you can't find any, then just leave me a comment and I'll see what I can find for you.

This might not be much of a look into 2010 but I definitely feel a new trend. I'm not even sure what to call it. After years of thinking about it and talking about it, I finally found a blog pot hit me in the face with it. I'd also like to put this blog post up as my choice for eLearning blog post of the year.

http://antonzolotov.com/2009/12/09/why-basecamp-and-campfire-would-be-a-better-learning-management-system/

Anton Zolotov takes a very NON-instructional designer approach to looking at Learning Management Systems. He refers to Blackboard because that's what his school uses, but his line of thinking could apply to ALL of the current LMS offerings.
As a programmer, Anton simply breaks down the functionality that is most used and recognizes the fact that there are other technology solutions that function better and cheaper. In this case he points to Basecamp and Campfire and their genius design that blows most other tools in this category away. Okay, those were my words, not his.

He closes with this paragraph which is very nicely said:

"I think that we can help our customers most by making software modular. Applications should have APIs that allow 3rd party developers to integrate their stuff with yours. As a developer, you are not losing that way – you are winning, because you benefit from the value that other people are creating by extending your software. Everybody wins. That’s the way it should be in education."

There is no reason why we can't modularize the functional requirements of Learning Management Systems. But of course, that is if you are thinking about a tops down application…something very late '90s. The idea that Anton leads me too is that of starting with the user. What if we created the "modularity" by starting with the user? Traditional Learning Management Systems function like giant ERM systems and the user has no choice in how they access the data or add/delete data. By today's 2.0 standards that's simply NUTS! What if we finally started with students like Anton and asked them what THEY use…or what would they LIKE to use?

Actually the technology is already working that out. The best example is standards around XML. Anyone can send me a calendar invite from Outlook and I can add it too my iCal, no worries. And of course, who even thinks twice about email being in the "right format" any more. Nobody cares. You write an email and you send it to an email address. You don't care what app your recipient uses to read the message. Should we care what app our users have to read our eLearning? It even seems strange to say (write) that.

Our development challenge in the coming decade rests in taking the responsibility to create learning content that can be accessed by ALL devices (both desktop and mobile) and sends data seamlessly too and from any cloud source. Some will call this a dream. I call it inevitable in this new decade to be sure.

DevLearn 2010 Conference & Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

Course Development+Social Network+Commerce

I'm knocking around this idea in my head and just wanted to see what people thought.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a clearing house of eLearning Development Projects? I mean, let's say I'm at a high tech company and someone says, "we need all of our engineers to know the basics of thermal dynamics". So you're the developer that gets this rock dropped in your lap.

If it was me I'd want to go to something like GenericElearningContent.com and search for 2 things: 1) colleagues that have done this before, and 2) existing courses, or resources used for similar projects. Maybe what find isn't a complete course but an awesome structure for a similar course with all the content stripped out...Bingo...you're in business.

My point is...we've all developed courses and had that aching feeling that we are reinventing the wheel. Shouldn't we ALL be able to come together and work as a community of practice to share the work we've done? Just think how much more valuable we could be to our employers if we had a pool of content and contacts to pull from for many of our more generic content asignments (granted, this will not work for proprietary learning materials).

Can you think of any generic courses you've worked on lately?

And yes, there are issues of copyright, and ownership, and all that. I know. I'm just sayin', If someone built that Web2.0 tool, I'd be ALL OVER IT! (wink, wink)

Maybe that already exists in Wikipedia, or Squidoo, but I don't think so. My guess is that if we pulled together every LMS library of every Fortune500 you would find tons of content created that is NOT proprietary and NOT unique to any one corporation.

I'm just sayin'!

GoogleSearch eLearning: page 14...eLearning Development: page 1

GoogleSearch_elearning_page14
Originally uploaded by Brent Schlenker.

Googling eLearning: Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development hits at page 14.
http://elearndev.blogspot.com

Not that I'm concerned about that sort of thing...ya know ;-)

UPDATE: Good news! A google search on elearning development puts elearndev.blogspot.com on the first page...item 3 no less.