Earlier this week I commenced an online programme, devised and facilitated by Google on, well, using Google! In particular Google Search.
The purpose of this blog post isn’t to review the programme as a number of other people including Jay Cross and John Curran are already doing that, although I will say that I disagree with John to a degree over his comments on the decor of the room that that facilitator is being filmed in and the quality of the Google Presentation slides (not PowerPoint). For me the content of this particular programme is what interests me, not the aesthetics. I guess you could say that from a ‘care curve‘ perspective, I ‘care’ enough about the content/substance to overlook the aesthetics/style.
The trigger for this blog post has been the realisation or maybe a re-realisation of how much we overlook the everyday things, the things that are under our nose, the things that we take for granted.
None of the tools/techniques that have been revealed in the programme so far are ‘hidden away’, none of them require you to dive into the settings or to hack your way around the ‘accepted’ way of doing things!
They have been right there, hiding in plain sight, under my nose, under your nose!
This got me thinking about what else we overlook in our lives that we could use to enhance our or others learning. It’s a tricky question as I’m obviously asking myself to know what I don’t know – a tricky feat, but I am going to make more of a conscious effort to look more closely at the tools/platforms/devices etc that I am using and see if I’m missing anything.
What about you?
Do you have any example of where you have missed a blatant opportunity to use a functionality/approach/method that was staring you in the face?
As the end of a year approaches it’s time for the blogging fraternity to turn to the tried and tested ‘Top ‘this that and the other’ of 2012? and ‘My predictions for 2013? blog posts.
Far from me to turn down the opportunity to poke a little fun, here are my 2013 predictions / absolute cast iron guarantees…
My Twitter stream will continue to be bombarded with Instagrammed photos of hot beverages and food. Fortunately I use Tweetbot which allows me to permanently block hashtags. Unfortunately hardly anybody tags their #instagram photos.We will see a new word being made up within the L&D fraternity.Certain bloggers will still rant on about ‘killer apps / platform / piece of hardware. Why can’t things just be ‘good’, ‘effective’, ‘worth having’?Any podcast with ‘week’ or ‘weekly’ in the title is unlikely to ever be that, beyond its 5th episode.I will unsuccessfully use facts, data and research against gut feelings and anecdotes.2013 will be the year of mobile. Again.Apple will release an ever-so-slight modification of a product. Tech bloggers will work themselves up into a crotch-twitching, salivating frenzy reporting….. erm…. on the ever-so-slight modification.We’ll continue to have a L&D wide survey released approximately every 4 daysMany vendors will continue to ignore the native functionality of mobile devices whilst blowing their trumpets about how they are ‘leading’ in the mlearning world.A ‘free to use’ service will change its Terms and Conditions. Users will form baying mobs and burning torches will be seen.Certain ‘thought leaders’ in our field will use ever more bizarre diagrams to explore their concepts. It’s cos they’re clever see….
… and that is of Social Media correspondent for Nuclear TV.
This is a ‘title‘, I hasten to add that I have not bestowed upon myself but as the nucleus of Nuclear TV sits within my immediate team (and I never stop harping on about the benefits of engaging with Social Media), I guess it was inevitable that I was going to end up with that role!
This interview was the first (of what I hope will be many) insights into how a highly-regulated, security-conscious sector such as the Nuclear Industry is engaging with Social Media, the challenges that it brings and the rewards that it can bestow.
I must admit to being slightly nervous about conducting this interview, not about appearing in front of a camera, but about speaking on a subject such as Social Media, when there are far more knowledgeable, influential people out there who are already commenting on Social Media far more eloquently that I could hope to do..
… what do you think?
… did I get it right?
… did I miss anything?
…would you have done things differently?
If you have any feedback, it would be great if you could provide it in the comments area below, as this will allow me to ensure that future commentaries really do reflect ‘current thinking’.
So it’s been a whole weekend since I decided to step away from Twitter and concentrate my energies in G+.
As with most reflective exercises, the first weekend has presented me with nothing that I didn’t already know, but it has brought them to the forefront of my mind.
Firstly, I feel that I have used Twitter for 3 purposes to date:
The posting of links to my own online contentThe discussion of professional areas of interestMindless, banal waffle (which rather interestingly was one of the contributing factors to me ‘going off’ Twitter – was I a part of the problem???)
Whereas in comparison G+ had only ever (with a handful of exceptions) been used as a place to tout links to my blog.
I hadn’t really looked at other peoples contentI hadn’t gone out of my way to seek out and follow new peopleI hadn’t engaged in any conversations.
This realisation has confirmed that my decision to engage with G+ on a deeper level has been the right one, in fact my plan (at the moment) is to completely transform my usage of the 2, so I’ll still be posting blog links etc to Twitter but expect to see less conversation and waffle (I can hear the sighs of relief from some of you now) instead if you want to engage in that, then why not head over to G+ and say Hi….
Podcasting? That phrase has come about as a result of the rise in popularity of the iPod, right?Well actually, No! That is however a popular misconception brought about, more than likely, as a result of the inclusion of ‘pod’ within both terms. The podcasting community generally accepts that the first person to use the term was Dannie Gregoire on September 15th 2004 who took the phrase ‘programming on demand’ and created the acronym ‘pod’ – hence podcast.
I’ve recorded some audio clips and placed them on my organisations intranet, am I podcasting?
Technically, No! A ‘true’ podcast is one which allows listeners to subsribe to it’s feed and subsequently receive updated podcasts from you, as and when you publish them. Just placing an audio clip on a webpage or emailing it to somebody, falls a little way short of a true podcast… BUT… you are doing more than a lot of people, so keep up the good work.
Surely you need a lot of technical equipment to Podcast, I mean just look at a radio studio.
You’d be surprised at how little equipment you need to podcast. In fact, services such as Audioboo and iPadio both offer Smartphone apps that allow you to record audio and then upload it onto their website, which then provides a feed that listeners can subsribe to… Voila! a podcast! For those of you without Smartphones, iPadio even offers a London based number that allows you to ‘dial’ into an audio recording system, which again publishes a feed. So you’ve got no excuse!
I like the idea of podcasting, but I doubt that anybody would want to hear what I have to say.
How do you know until you try? On of the most successful podcasts of all time was the Ricky Gervais podcast in which Ricky and Steve Merchant just engaged in conversation with their radio producer Karl Pilkington. Nobody ever expected it, but that unscripted, conversational, humorous dialogue has proven to be a killer formula. If you’ve got a subject that’s close enough to your heart that you feel passionately enough about it to talk into a phone or microphone for 5-10 minutes every week, then you have enough material for a podcast. Go for it, you never know!
I like the idea, but want to do a bit more research, where should I start?
A great starting point would be to pick up a copy of ‘Podcasting for Dummies’ which provides easily understood, humorous, technical advice for beginners onwards, whilst if you are searching for some good examples of podcasts (particularly if you are responsible for the education of others) then why not have a listen to some of James Clays podcasts.
…. when I stumbled upon the ‘edit video detail’ toolbar at the top of the page. Now I had seen this previously and had chosen to ignore it as my video editing is done in either Flipshare or more recently in Windows Movie Maker.
What an oversight on my behalf!!!
Within the video editing options there is an option to add annotations. Now this in itself is nothing startling as many video editing tools allow you to annotate on top of the video footage, but what this allows you to do is to add a ‘spotlight’ on top of anything that is being shown in the YouTube footage.
This spotlight (imagine a hot spot) will then allow a URL (including another YouTube video) to be added to it.
This then allows your YouTube video to become interactive in so far as the viewer can be steered towards making a choice which then jumps them from one YouTube video to another to another etc etc depending upon their choices. For a far more in-depth account as to how to do this then check out this blog post.
Of course I almost fell over myself in an attempt to try this out so I hope you’ll all be able to see past the poor lighting and dodgy camera angles to the real potential that this approach to using YouTube can bring. My only niggle at this moment in time is that upon completion of the clip it jumps (as any YouTube clip does) to a ‘related videos’ window, this in turn stops the viewer from making any on-screen selection at the end of the clip, so it prevents the viewer from being able reflect upon the available choices.
Confused?
Then try watching the following short clip without making any selection and you’ll see what happens at the end of the video. Then you can replay the video and start taking part for real…
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.
There’s been a great desk of chatter recently about compliance training. Actually, maybe it’s no more than usual, perhaps I’m just sensitive to it at the moment.
Why so?
Well because since the beginning of 2013 I have been working to revamp our mandatory compliance training offering from 2 perspectives
1. Is the content technically correct (fear naught Dear Reader, I’m passing the buck on this one to the SME)
2. Is the method and media we are using the most likely to positively effect behavioural change (this is where I swing into action!)
Our current mandatory training is offered via traditional ‘click-next, self-paced’ eLearning delivered via our LMS and covers the following subjects
Data MattersManual HandlingDisplay Screen Equipment (DSE) awarenessRisk AssessmentHealth & Safety (H&S) InductionDiversity (I’m still arguing the toss as to whether Diversity training is mandatory or not and I have some interesting researched kindly surfaced by Donald Clark that suggests even if it is, that it’s not proven to effect any positive change)Financial Crime PreventionPrivacy and ConfidentialityTreating Customers Fairly (TCF)
My plan is to adopt a campaign not course approach for each of these subjects, which (in my head) seems a logical and effective thing to do, all I have to do is convince the compliance department….
…. and you know what….
I have!!!
Keep on reading this series of posts to discover how I managed to get the SMEs/sponsors buy in, ascertain what we wanted, engaged with suppliers and (in the fullness of time) the end result!
….Don’t fall asleep on me; for a change this is going to be something H&S related that was fun, engaging and memorable. (you heard it here first folks)
My organisation is understandably H&S focussed and always strives to support initiatives such as the recent European Health & Safety week, despite maintaining a keen focus on H&S, regardless of any external initiative. However this year my boss suggested to our Compliance Department that perhaps we should do something ‘different’, alongside the more traditional email/intranet/poster etc campaigns in relation to the importance of maintaining equipment.
This is what he came up with…
Whilst the video clip doesn’t show it too well, each of the tricks had an underlying safety related theme such as:
Not undertaking tasks you aren’t trained to do (a cash in an envelope trick)Checking equipment thoroughly (using a piece of PPE that went from being serviceable to unserviceable… whilst an audience member was wearing it! along with the guillotine trick that you can see in this clip)Following instructions clearly (a simple hand grasping trick, which didn’t provide the desired (safe) outcome)
The feedback from the multiple shows that took place around site (to fit in with working patterns/geography) was very positive with comments such as
“refreshing” “memorable” “fun“
being in great abundance with the most obvious sign of approval being that people were arriving ahead of the performance times and were even phoning us to ask why the magician hadn’t been yet….. can you honestly say that your learners have ever had that response to a Health & Safety event?
This whole approach fits in with a ‘one liner’ that @larshyland mentioned at the last eLN event “think campaign, not course”
Think about it..
Many thanks to Constantia Artiste Management for allowing this footage to be used in this blog.
Question mark made out of coloured poins on a cork board
Weeeeeell not exactly come *with* me, more of a ‘would you like me to ask any questions on your behalf whilst I’m there‘ (let’s be honest, you probably wouldn’t enjoy it and I’m sure you’ve got better things to be doing next week)
Why not take a look at the sessions I’m attending and let know via the comments section below (please include the hashtag #DevLearn) if there’s anything you’d like me to enquire about on your behalf.
Of course I can’t promise to ask every question or indeed guarantee a reply, but I’ll do what I can….
Evidence-based Training: No Yellow Brick Road
Taking Video to the Next Level
Building mLearning for iPads Using HTML5 and iBooks Author
Super-charging Google Sales Readiness with Gamification and Social Media
Developing a Multi-year Learning and Development Technology Strategy
Let me start off by saying that I do not consider myself an ‘academic’, I’m more than happy to dive into a book (fiction or non), but tend to stay away from L&D related books due to the authors assuming that everyone wants to wade through case-study after case-study (I don’t!).
My interest however, has been re-ignited after reading ‘Informal Learning’ by Jay Cross. This book succinctly put into context the spending/outcomes paradox that many organisations face (mine included) by presenting a simple 4-column bar graph showing that most organisations spend the majority of their money exactly where it is least effective. The use of simple analogies and wonderful diagrams really brought the subject of Informal Learning alive and has given me plenty of food for thought.
Before viewing this webcast, please fill in all required form fields (*) Please select one United States Canada Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia (Hrvatska) Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Czechoslovakia (former) Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France France, Metropolitan French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda S. Georgia and S. Sandwich Isls. Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka St. Helena St. Pierre and Miquelon Sudan Suriname Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay US Minor Outlying Islands USSR (former) Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands (U.S.) Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Yugoslavia (former) Zaire Zambia Zimbabwe Please select one Less than 9 10 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 249 250 to 499 500 to 999 1,000 to 4,999 5,000 to 9,999 Larger than 10,000 Please select one CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, Pres, GM CIO, CTO, CKO, CSO, Technical VP IT/IS Director IT/IS Manager IT/IS Network Administrator IT/IS Database Administrator IT/IS Professional/Admin/Staff Programmer/Developer - Software Programmer/Developer - Web Sales VP/Director Sales Manager Sales Professional Marketing VP/Director Marketing Manager Marketing Professional Business Operations VP/Director/Manager Business Operations Administrator HR VP/Director/Manager HR Professional/Educator/Trainer Finance VP/Director/Manager Finance Analyst Finance Accounting/Controller Consultant Legal Student/Education Professional By submitting this form, you consent to our privacy policy and agree to receive relevant information from the owners of premium content you choose to view on the site. Speaker: David Spark, Founder, Spark Media Solutions We all have at our disposal an endless number of ways to communicate. With each new form of communications we develop we form new norms of how we should and shouldn't behave. But the self-correcting crowd doesn't always work. Some forms of rude, offensive, and irritating engagements begrudgingly become accepted. Ever feel you're the only one annoyed? Probably not. Join David Spark, author of the "annoying communications" blog series, for this fun and engaging webinar about improving your in-person and online communications.
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.
Once again, I consider myself extremely lucky and privileged to have been asked to speak at the Learning and Skills Group Annual Conference earlier this month at London Olympia.
I always try to facilitate a session that (I hope) has immediate take-aways for anybody that has attended. I believe that there are enough people speaking at a strategic and theoretical level about L&D and it’s associated disciplines without me throwing my hand in too, so I always try to ensure that I do what I can to offer what I call a ‘Monday morning quick win‘ i.e. something that can be implemented immediately (or at worst very quickly back in the workplace) following the attendees return to the ‘real world‘!
This time around I wanted to offer people the next step in improving their presentations. I get the feeling that there are more and more people who understand the need to move away from bullet-point riddled slides but are not sure exactly ‘what’ should replace them.
It was this uncertainty that I hoped to address during my session by showing some examples. It is these examples that will form the basis of my next few blog posts:
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
But let’s get things started, by having a look at the Slideshare presentation below. At first glance it ticks all the boxes in terms of reducing the bullet points and using images to illustrate my story, but there’s something missing. It would be great if you could take a few minutes to progress through the slides and leave your thoughts in the comments box below……
….because earlier this week Lesley Price and I both tweeted about the same subject within an hour or so of each other. This was the thought that was running through my mind as I was driving home a few days ago, which I subsequently tweeted about…
Later on that evening Lesley tweeted this
This led to an exchange of tweets between us, which resulted in Lesley being kind enough to share an experience with me via this email.
A couple of years ago… I fell down stairs and sprained my ankle really badly. I had to be at a Technology Conference organised by Becta as I was facilitating a table…. Natalie, my daughter took time off work to drive me. She sat on the table I was facilitating…. even although it was an educational technology conference and she was a primary school teacher, she had no idea of the language and jargon that was being used. It was almost like the Emperors New Clothes and she was the child watching from the side lines. She sat all morning and the first part of the afternoon taking it all in. She then just said…. I have no idea what you are all talking about, what does Social Media mean? I typed that into questions that were coming from the floor… Facilitator picked it up and came to talk to her. She was youngest person in the room and just said… “now that I know what it means…I can tell you I use SoMe all the time…I just don’t see what all the fuss is about, that is my life! Why all the discussion??? Why don’t you just get on with it??”I have just talked to her again about it this evening and she still remembers the occasion… and still does not understand the facination by oldies. SoMe is part of her life…. she is not into Twitter, doesn’t see value in it. If you look at profile of average user of Twitter I can understand that. She uses FB, FB chat, skype , skype chat and txt all the time. Sometimes using more than one at once… makes for interesting conversations lol!!I am trying to persuade her to start blogging… she has wonderful ideas. Although she teaches reception she also runs Computer Club for Girls with Yr 6 girls. When the Tsunami and Japanese earthquake story started breaking, she put BBC news on her interactive white board and had it running all day as her reception class were interested in the live commentry that was coming through and bombarded her with questions. She doesn’t close down social networking when she is teaching, not that she spends any time on it, it just runs in the background, the kids are now used to ‘silly noises’ that come from her laptop and tell her she when she has a message! So kids completely understand SoMe… just don’t call it that…. they see it as normal… why are the rest of us making such a fuss about it instead of getting on with it!!So my question to you ‘Dear Reader’ is are we right, or are we waaaay off the mark?Is the ‘social’ holding things up due to it’s ‘connotations’?Should we just be referring to media, learning, networks etc and work under the assumption (a dangerous thing I know) that the ‘social’ is inherrent.Why not let me know your thoughts in the comments box below?
I facilitate a lot of elearning workshops and from my experience most of the people who attend are just getting started. Generally the transition to elearning happens like this. They’re good at explaining things and go from explainer to trainer. Then somewhere in the process the organization says that they’re switching to online learning.
Now the trainer has to make another transition as she goes from creating and facilitating workshops to building elearning courses. And as we know, building an online training course is different than creating a facilitated live session.
So the challenge is: How do I learn and get better at building online training especially when working with limited resources?
If you’re just getting started, don’t worry about being perfect. The first online course I ever built was a mess (as I look back on it today). I was teaching people who had never been online how to navigate this new thing called the “World Wide Web.” What should have been a fun course full of discovery was a long-winded, information-heavy course. I made learning about the Internet about as fun as doing taxes.
But that’s OK. I received some good feedback and the next course was a little bit better. And with each one that followed I tried something new. Over time I learned to build better elearning. You only know what you know. Do the best you can, and then learn from it to get better at what you do.
Essential point: You’ve got to start somewhere. Do something with the expectation that the next time you’ll incorporate what you learned to build it a bit better.
If you want to be good at something, you have to practice. Building courses is a job and we usually only commit to the job what’s required to get our paychecks. That means we work from 9 to 5 and at the end of the day, we’re done. The challenge is that during the 9 to 5 we only work on projects and have little time to practice.
Great athletes start with natural athletic skills. But what makes them great is that they start with their skills and practice, practice, practice to build on where they’re currently at. If they didn’t they’d never be exceptional.
If you want to be good at your craft, you have to practice doing more than building the same type of course over and over again. Build practice activities into your routine as part of your on-the-job development. Tell your boos it’s cheaper than going to school.
Essential point: Take time to practice building something new. Practice new instructional ideas and production techniques you can add to your next course.
This part is a bit harder, but pays off big time. Start a blog or portfolio. The goal isn’t to become a recognized blogger with lots of subscribers (although that could be a goal). Instead it’s your public learning journal and a means to reflect on and share what you’re learning.
This will let you solicit feedback and get ideas to help build better courses. It also helps the person like you who wants to learn more. If we want better elearning, we need fewer blogs from thought leaders who throw out big picture ideas and more from practitioners who share practical tips and tricks.
Essential point: Writing about your learning experience will help you and those like you to become better developers. It’ll also add your voice to the community at large.
Every week, David Anderson posts a simple elearning challenge. The idea is to promote exactly what I referenced above—practice doing something new to help build your skills.
It’s all about fleshing out some ideas, sharing them, and getting feedback. Most people develop simple prototypes but some put in a bit more polish. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do something to push your boundaries a bit. That’s the key.
Essential point: The weekly challenges are happening now and an easy way to get into the habit of trying new things. That saves time trying to come up with different ideas and helps establish a routine of practice.
There are a few who take the challenge one step forward by including a write up of what they did. What I like about these posts is that the participants are at various levels of experience. Some are just getting started and some have quite a wealth of experience. Not only do they share some nice examples, they also often share good production tips and some even share their source files.
Create a Comic Book Inspired Course via Paul Anders
Gamify Your E-Learning via Jackie Van Nice
Typography Challenge: Create a Design Tip Poster via Gemma Henderson
Create a Drag & Drop Interaction via Dan Sweigert
Use Characters in Online Courses via Montse Anderson
Makeover a Quiz Results Slide via Jeff Kortenbosch
Build an Interactive Screenshot via Allison Nederveld
Build an Interactive Screenshot via Michael Hinze
Odds are you’re building the same course over and over again. That won’t do. Want to build better courses? If so, commit the time to learn something new and apply what you learn.
What do you do to improve your skills? Share your thoughts here.
May 20 & 21: Fargo, ND (ASTD). Sign up for one or both days here. Day 1: PowerPoint for E-Learning Day 2: Build Interactive E-Learning with Articulate Storyline
June 11 & 12: Lincoln (ASTD). Sign up for one or both days here. Day 1: PowerPoint’s No Longer a Slideshow Freak Day 2: Getting Started with Articulate Studio ‘13.
Before viewing this webcast, please fill in all required form fields (*) Please select one United States Canada Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia (Hrvatska) Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Czechoslovakia (former) Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France France, Metropolitan French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russian Federation Rwanda S. Georgia and S. Sandwich Isls. Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea Spain Sri Lanka St. Helena St. Pierre and Miquelon Sudan Suriname Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay US Minor Outlying Islands USSR (former) Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Viet Nam Virgin Islands (U.S.) Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Yugoslavia (former) Zaire Zambia Zimbabwe Please select one Less than 9 10 to 49 50 to 99 100 to 249 250 to 499 500 to 999 1,000 to 4,999 5,000 to 9,999 Larger than 10,000 Please select one CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, Pres, GM CIO, CTO, CKO, CSO, Technical VP IT/IS Director IT/IS Manager IT/IS Network Administrator IT/IS Database Administrator IT/IS Professional/Admin/Staff Programmer/Developer - Software Programmer/Developer - Web Sales VP/Director Sales Manager Sales Professional Marketing VP/Director Marketing Manager Marketing Professional Business Operations VP/Director/Manager Business Operations Administrator HR VP/Director/Manager HR Professional/Educator/Trainer Finance VP/Director/Manager Finance Analyst Finance Accounting/Controller Consultant Legal Student/Education Professional By submitting this form, you consent to our privacy policy and agree to receive relevant information from the owners of premium content you choose to view on the site. Speaker: Christine Comaford, New York Times Bestselling Author, Leadership and Culture Coach If today’s leaders want to improve accountability and productivity, they must be better able to communicate with and influence others. And the key to getting there lies inside the mind.
In this new webinar, discover aspects of neuroscience that can be applied to your leadership with remarkable results.
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Lisa Johnson shares her teams success of delivering training to over 7000 people who are scattred throughout the length and breadth of the UK, with a team of only 5 people. Here’s how they’ve done it….
(listening time 22mins)
Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes
Shownotes
WebEx
The Charity Learning Consortium
BT Dare2Share project
Lisa had asked me to consider the duration of my podcasts as she had found anything 30mins+ to be too long. This married up with additional feedback I had received so we decided to ‘rattle through’ with a 20 minute(ish) podcast, which I think works quite well – but what do you think?
Would you have rather Lisa and I discussed things in a greater details but with a longer duration?
If you’ve not already read my previous blog post ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (visuals only)’ then I’d strongly suggest having a read of it before you read any more of this post.
Why?
Well for 2 reasons really:
1. The earlier post will provide you with the context behind this post. 2. The purpose of this specific post is to act as a comparison to the first post in this series, hence the benefit of viewing the first one!
As you will have seen in the previous post, using the approach of images and single words in a presentation is certainly visually engaging, however where it falls down (as highlighted during my live session by Laura Dickson) is when the presenter/facilitator is no longer present to provide the narrative – the engaging presentation is now nothing more than a collection of images and out of context words.
Here are the same slides that were contained in the earlier post, but this time with the narrative.
Don’t forget, this is Part 2 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
I recently attended this Kineo event. I had originally intended to produce a Storify from this event, but there were several different event hashtags in use throughout the day, so I rapidly gave up on the idea – sure I could’ve manually added the tweets but you know how it is…
Instead, over the next few posts I’d like to share with you a few tools and platforms that @DonaldClark referred to during his session, starting off with ‘Encore’.
Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of anything that can be done minimise the forgetting curve and automate the process of ‘forcing’ the act of recall around a subject so I was pleased to see Donald highlight ‘Encore‘.
In a nutshell, it’s a Moodle plugin that can be used to synchronise with a free app. The plugin is configured with certain content reminders / frequency etc and then pushes those to the app allowing a steady drip-drip-drip of ‘tasks’ directly to the employees / students mobile device.
Encore showing an alert on an iPhone
The FREE demo involves undertaking a SCORM piece of eLearning with a Moodle, completing a ‘self assessment’ using Moodle’s inbuilt assessment tool which then unlocks the ‘Encore’ plugin. At this stage you can select to receive the automated ‘tasks’ by email or the Encore app (see below)
‘Tasks’ showing within the Encore app
As sound as the principle is, there are a few areas where I feel some improvement could be made. Having spoken to Learning Pool (the company behind the app) they were very vocal about their desire to receive feedback so I going to speak to them at the end of the 3-week ‘demo’ that is available and relay this feedback onto them.
Firstly (and this is not a criticism, just an observation) but if you’re not using Moodle (or possibly Totara?) then this obviously isn’t for you! Hopefully other LMS/VLE providers will latch onto the idea though??Despite this being a Moodle extension it’s not freely available. Having spoken to Learning Pool they said that even if your Moodle (possibly Totara?) isn’t supplied by them that that the Encore extension could probably be purchased from them.The Encore app is only available on iOS and Android, with Windows on the roadmap but a definite ‘No’ to Blackberries (possibly a stumbling block for corporates who currently use BB?Whilst the end user has the option of receiving the reminders via email or the app for me this still relies on (assuming that the organisation is wishing to tap into the mobility of the employee / student) the end user having a smartphone. I’d like to see the option of using SMS as a delivery channel. Sure, some of the more media rich activities may not be accessible to feature phone users, but as I see it, at present, none of it is accessible to feature phone users.Some of the activities I undertook in the trial period were just tests of short term memory (see below), which for me, weren’t the best examples of spaced activation of learning, however I think with some thought around reflective questions (possibly with the option for ‘free text’ responses) and short videos there could be a real opportunity for this app to serve as a ‘trigger’ for deeper thought and processing. An example of a ‘task’ within the Encore app
All in all, I think this is a great step forward in terms of demonstrating that mobile learning can be and is so much more than responsive ‘click next’ elearning.
The key to success is having clear goals and then mapping out a way to meet those goals. Without the map, you’ll never know if you got where you intended to go. In a previous post we looked at how to build learning objectives. Today we’ll take it a step farther and look at a simple process that will help structure the objectives around measurable actions.
There are many courses that exist for reasons other than performance improvement. For example, a lot of annual compliance or things like sexual harassment training are usually more about the awareness of policies and less about actionable activities.
On the other hand, there are many courses that do expect that upon completion the learner is able to do something specific. Perhaps they’ve learned a new procedure or how to apply a given policy in the work environment.
Understanding the type of course you build is important because it’ll help you craft the appropriate types of objectives, measure their success, and help you manage your resources.
Once you understand why you’re building the course you can focus on who is going to take it, why, and what expectations exist after the course. One way to begin is by answering the questions below.
Who is the learner Why is this important to him? In what situation would he use this information? What is the course objective? How does he prove that he’s met the objective?
I create a simple table to look over the answers. Here’s an example based on my experience working for some large organizations.
As part of our ethics training, there was a course on how to deal with bribes. This course was important because we had a number of international sites and many of our sales and procurement staff had to deal with bribery as part of the business culture. Even though we only had a handful of international staff, everyone who took the ethics training had to take the bribery course, regardless of getting bribed.
For the international staff the bribery course was performance-based. We had specific behavioral expectations. For all of our other staff, the objective wasn’t centered on their performance. Instead the objective was to build awareness of the company’s policies on bribery which fit into the larger context of being an ethical organization.
Here’s an example of how this I could have completed the table for this course and the tow different audiences.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
You’ll notice that I broke out the two types of learners and their course objectives. For those who encounter bribes, we focus on the performance aspect. As we build the course, we want to create the types of situations they encounter and have then make the decisions that are in line with the organization’s policies.
For the IT analyst who is never bribed, we create a scaled down course. There’s no need for them to go through time-wasting situations not relevant to their job expectations. In their case, the objective is general awareness of the policy. Presenting the content in an engaging manner and having them certify their understanding is all we need.
A few key thoughts:
Build the course appropriate to the performance expectations of the learner. If none exist, then don’t force them through the same type of course for those who do have performance expectations. Taking a course costs time which is equal to money. And pulling someone from their work to go through irrelevant scenarios is a time-waster. Don’t overstate the importance of the course. Subject matter experts have the tendency to do this. In this example, the temptation is to suggest that everyone needs to be able to make the appropriate decisions so they should all go through the same training. While it’s technically true if presented with a situation everyone should make the right decisions, but forcing people to take certain types of training because of some remote chance that they’ll be bribed is a waste of time. Focus on how the learners will prove their understanding. Are they able to make the right decisions in certain situations? How do you know? If the person needs to make certain types of decisions in certain situations then make that the burden of proof. Create situations like they’ll encounter in the real world and have them demonstrate their understanding through the decisions they make. If they don’t encounter those situations, then the level of understanding centers on general awareness. Instead of a decision-making situation, you can focus on the principles that drive the policies. Perhaps a simple case study would do the trick.
I know that some people say the non-performance courses shouldn’t even be built. They should be job aids. Perhaps. But they do get built and often you’re not in a position to force that change. By understanding what the organization expects from the learner you’ll be able to craft good course objectives and determine the appropriate proof to ensure they’ve been met. If they have performance expectations focus on what you want them to do. If it’s about policy awareness, certify their understanding with a simple quiz.
How do you determine the course objectives in your training programs?
Click here to cast your vote.May 4-7: Washington DC. I’ll be at ASTD International Conference & Expo. Swing by the Articulate booth #419 to say hello.
May 20 & 21: Fargo, ND (ASTD). Sign up for one or both days here. Day 1: PowerPoint for E-Learning Day 2: Build Interactive E-Learning with Articulate Storyline
June 11 & 12: Lincoln (ASTD). Sign up for one or both days here. Day 1: PowerPoint’s No Longer a Slideshow Freak Day 2: Getting Started with Articulate Studio ‘13.
…. Actually following today’s eLN event ‘Innovation in Compliance Training’ maybe it isn’t an oxymoron!
I’d had really been looking forward to this particular event as my organisation is heavily regulated and delivers a great deal of compliance training; to that end I was really keen to discover how other organisations and Instructional Designers have gone about dealing with the dry, uninspiring beast that is Compliance Training. I was so excited about the potential of the event that I invited my organisations Health & Safety Manager along, which he duly accepted… now the event had to deliver….
The day kicked as usual with @RobHubbard welcoming everybody and we were swiftly into the 1st session…
Creating a successful compliance culture – Viv Cole
This was a great intro session for many reasons, not least of which was that it was a group discussion exercise (so it got us all talking, first thing in the morning) on the subject of our thoughts and opinions on a compliance culture/training. Our particular table recognised the need for a lot of the Compliance Training that goes on, however a consistent thread of discussion was the fact that a lot of organisations adopt a ‘carpet bombing’ approach to compliance training. There was even an example of a financial sector organisation forcing there groundsmen to undertake basic FSA training; talk about ‘LARGE hand, small map’! I was pleased to explain that in my organisation there are only 2 x events that every employee has to undertake:
Fire SafetyDisplay Screen Equipment Awareness
and that we have adopted an Assess-Train-Assess approach to many of the other compliance events that we deliver, meaning that an individuals competence (or lack of) is the driver for refresher training as opposed to a refresher period expiring. This was something that I had hoped to deliver a Pecha Kucha on at today’s event, but circumstances unfortunately prevented me from doing so.
Viv then went on to share a list with us of the crucial ingredients to a successful compliance that had been created during a round table event with a number of compliance managers earlier this year list:
Leaders walking the walkclear responsibilitymandatory inductionregular updatesconsequence of non-complianceautomation of chasing mechanisms2-way relationshipalignment to business drivers
Stephanie Dedhar -User focused design to deliver gold-standard compliance training
I had been looking forward to Stephanie’s session in particular, as we had been tweeting in the run-up to the event and I was really intrigued as to how she was going to incorporate the Wordle that she had been requesting words from via Twitter.
What she did, which I thought was a really clever idea (and one that I intend to steal in the near future) was to use the responses from eLN members as a TNA tool to determine the content of her session, and here she is in full swing…
Stephanie extolled a 3 stage principle of:
Making the learners careShowing them that it mattersHelping them to live it
Like any good speaker, she inspired me to look into a few of her ideas in greater detail/implement a few actions on my return to work; they were:
Review this YouTube video on typographyAsk our Compliance department to provide facts and figures on fire-related incidents and Display Screen Equipment related injuries. This data would be broadcast over our info-screens to (hopefully) make the learners ‘care’.Review Stephanie’s award-winning piece of compliance elearning (Stephanie has subsequently informed me that she is no longer able to provide access to the content itself, but has directed me here)
Laura Overton – How the recession has impacted elearning
Laura Overton then took to the mic, to launch the Towards Maturity Learning Technology Benchmark 2010. Given that these were the results of an in-depth survey, there was a lot of data which would not be done justice by my Blog, so why don’t you mosey on down to the the Towards Maturity website and have a look at the report yourself? What really surprised me was that the use of Virtual Classrooms was reported as dropping compared to the previous benchmark??? How come? Surely in the ‘greener’, more cost-focussed world are living in, the uptake of tools such as this would be on the increase? Maybe @barrysampson’s tweet hit the nail on the head?
My action planning point from this session is actually a carry-over from a conversation with Laura at WOLCE and that is to:
Take part in a Beta test of the 24/7 online tool that Towards Maturity are developing.
Clive Shepherd – Competency or Compliance?
@cliveshepherd started off by regaling a tale of some time that he had spent in Uganda (which has been, and still is still considered as a risk-area) which had been preceded by a piece of understandably necessary elearning. The point that Clive was making was that the moment he was told it was MANDATORY, he became turned off to it.
To use Clive’s own words “we are the keepers of our brains, if we put ourselves of the learning itself then there is little if any chance of it happening“. This struck a real chord with me as my organisation does make many pieces of learning MANDATORY, now given that a significant % of our learning activities are H&S related, then perhaps this is inescapable, but for me there was a tie-in to what Stephanie had said about making the learner ‘care‘ about undertaking the learner.
Clive mentioned the great Blog post by @shackletonjones on the Affective Context Model. I’ve seen/read this blog post a few times and I get something different from it each time; it’s definitely worth a view, or 2, or 3….
Action planning points from this?
Review the Affective Context model blog (again)Consider a coloured hue with a photo to reinforce the context of the image (I spotted Clive has done this with a couple of images taken of him sitting at his PC)
Holborn Bars once again came up trumps with the lunch and we were back in for the Pecha Kucha 2010 final between Phil Green, Tony Frascina and Matt Brewer with Matt Brewer walking away with a Kindle for his efforts, which I hope he will be donating to his daughter, given her efforts in producing the images for his Pecha Kucha
Peter Phillips – Zzzzzzz Wakey Wakey, compliance doesn’t need to be boring.
Peter took us on something of a whirlwind tour of good and bad elearning design. He reminded us how easy it was to write bad multiple choice questions and how quickly you could fall into the trap of just designing ‘click next’ type elearning – in fact he showed us an example where the learner had to undertake 41 (no that isn’t a typo) consecutive mouse clicks to progress!!!
Peter referenced @CatMoores work a number of times, in particular her ‘Dump the Drone’ blog post
And Tom Kuhlmanns work in relation to do we really need instructions on how to use an elearning course?
He also showed us some great examples of engaging, emotionally charged elearning in these 2 examples
What really struck home for me though was his statement “good learning is good learning, regardless of the ‘e’” – and I do believe he’s right!
It was during the ensuing comfort break, that I had a quick chat with @larshyland who came up with a great phrase “think campaign, not course“. Great point Lars, and with my organisation now having a graphic designer and TV film/production crew, this is something that I will look to leverage in the future.
What am I planning to do with this sessions content?
Critically review the multiple choice assessments within the elearning I have produced
Donald Clarke – Compliance or Compliant?
Last up before the mad-dash for the tube was Donald Clarke who opened up by saying that he had no issues with the H&S related compliance training that took place, but it was the ‘Equality and Diversity’ type compliance training that he took issue with. Donald referenced several pieces of US research that disproved any benefit from undertaking such learning activities and came out with a fantastic soundbite
“The plural of anecdote is……. ‘not data’”
He also described the simple social media policy that the Channel 4 head implemented which went a little something like “Don’t be a dick!” – he then compared this to the tomes of rules that the BBC had produced, interestingly my organisation is considering implementing a Social Media, I wonder which approach model they will use
As previously mentioned I had taken my H&S Manager with me and I was really encouraged by his positive comments throughout the day and the vision and ideas that he had already started to formulate for the future.
There wasn’t much Tweeting going on throughout the day (which always surprises me, given the nature of these events), but for those of you who are interested here is the TweetDoc.
As always, the informal conversations that took place during the day were just as valuable as the formal sessions so I would like to thank everybody who contributed to an excellent day in whatever way. – Cheers!
If the answer to either of the above questions is ‘Yes’, then read on…
As many of you will know I’ve recently started working on a 6 month contract with an investment bank in the City of London, which means I’ve reluctantly joined the ‘not so exclusive’ commuting club!
Commuting has it’s downsides:
Long daysNot seeing my kids Mon-Friday (they’re in bed when I leave / get home)Having to pay a small fortune for the joy of being transported from A to B and back again via dirty, draughty, poorly maintained and very often delayed trains.
That’s why I was very pleased to discover an online service called DelayRepaySniper. Their site has been recently updated to a rather nice responsive design, thus making it far easier to use the site from a mobile device, which let’s face it, is what you’re likely to have available during a delayed train journey! (Train Operating Companies (TOC) take note in terms of your Delay Repay online forms!)
iPhone view of notifications page
The website allows you to input a number of journeys i.e.
Newhaven Town – London VictoriaLondon Victoria – Newhaven Town
and the site will then email you every 24 hours to let you know of any delays that have occurred on that route. (think of it as a ‘nudging’ reminder)
iPad/desktop view of notifications
You can then either make the claim yourself via the Delay Repay system of your TOC or DelayRepaySniper, for an additional fee, can process the claim on your behalf.
There’s obviously a lot more to it that that and I’d encourage you to take a close look at the site to see if this could be of use to you too.
iPad/desktop view of site
So how could this be used to get your ‘foot in the door’ with mobile learning?
Let’s be honest, people would rather have their hard earned salary in their pockets than in the pockets of a service provider who has failed to meet their service level agreements! Why not research this more closely, discuss and demo it to your work colleagues (on your smartphone / tablet) and if people within your organisation would benefit, then you’ve got a wonderful opportunity to ‘get your foot in the door‘ and prove the worth of performance support via mobile devices.
Why not take a look at the site and consider whether you might want to direct your colleagues towards them.
Delay Repay Sniper
If you’d like to find out more about ‘Delay Repay’, here’s a list of Google results – just look for your TOC
Google search results for ‘delay repay’
Inevitably there will be some people who do not have a mobile device and will bemoan the fact that you are offering their colleagues who do have a mobile device something that they themselves are unable to benefit from – don’t let this put you off.
Simply tell them to carry on using whatever tool or process they have always used – simples!!!
I probably review at least two hundred elearning courses each year. Most of them are designed by people just getting started so they then to look for feedback that can cover a broad range of topics.
Many of the courses I review have common design issues. Often it’s those little issues that make the difference between a course that looks like it’s built by a beginner and one that’s a bit more polished.
In a previous post I highlighted three common design issues and offered tips to fix them. Today’s tips are based on some things I see quite a bit related to the branding of courses.
While I don’t necessarily agree with all of the branding that happens in many online training courses, I understand why organizations do it. However, often the branding goes beyond common sense.
Look at the example above, how many times do you need to see the organization’s name or logo? It’s in the title, the logo panel, and on the screen at least three times.
What’s the point of this? Does all of this branding even do anything positive? I can’t imagine that it actually makes people feel better about taking courses or being part of the organization. What’s next, a company tattoo?
With all that said, the copyright is a good idea. Don’t want anyone to steal that design.
If you have to add the branded items to your course then try to limit when you do so. A few simple ideas may be to make the logos smaller or watermark them so they’re less obvious.
Something I’ve done in the past is create an animated splash screen that I can add to the beginning or end of a course. It’s a bit more elegant and consistent with the brand requirements, but it doesn’t interfere with the course content. By moving the branded elements off your content screens you’ll have more room for the important stuff.
If you need to add branding to your course, then do it where it makes sense. Most authoring tools have a place for you to add a logo and you can also add brand colors to the template and player.
Click here to view the elearning example.
In the example above, a course on social media guidelines, Hitachi customized the template (and course colors) to match the branding in the logo. This helps meet the organization’s guidelines and still gives more control over the content on the screen.
I’m sure this will upset some people, but one thing I can’t stand about going to a kid’s play is that the play may only be 45 minutes long, but then after they spend another 30 minutes thanking everyone who helped out. That’s all good and I truly appreciate those who volunteered, but come on! No one came to the play for the credits. Do all of the back patting at a cast party.
The same can be said for elearning courses. Seems like I’m seeing more and more courses that begin with a series of screens like the ones above that are more like commercials and production credits. They have little to do with the course content so it’s probably a good idea to drop them.
If you do need to add all of that information, then take it off of the course screen. A simple solution is to create an “About Me” tab to hold all of that type of information. It’s in the course for those who want it, but it’s not part of the content flow.
Also, here’s a bonus tip. If you create a live action video don’t use the outtakes to create a gag reel. Unless you’re a master comedian like Emo Philips odds are the gag reel isn’t as funny as you think it is.
You don’t need to use all of the features in the player template that comes with your software. Here’s an example: many elearning templates offer a side menu. However, that feature can be turned off if it’s not needed.
In the example below, the only reason the side menu area exists is because the developer inserted the branded logo. Other than that, all of the space below the logo is wasted. It’s also confusing. If the learner is used to a side menu and then sees this example, she may think that something’s broken.
If you’re not using the side menu, a more elegant solution may be to get rid of the logo panel. This gives you a different course profile that doesn’t have a big empty area.
Like it or not, branding requirements exist. The key is to work them into your course design so meeting them makes sense. What do you do to deal with branding requirements that may interfere with your course design?
January 23 & 24: Las Vegas, NV (TechKnowledge): Mike Taylor will host two creation stations on Building Interactive E-Learning with Articulate Studio ‘13. January 29-30: London (Learning Technologies): I’ll be doing a quick presentation on interactive video using the Articulate applications. If you’re at the conference, swing by the Articulate booth. February 4-6: Karlsruhe (LEARNTEC 2014): I’ll be at the conference working in the Articulate booth and would love to meet you. March 11-12: Phoenix, AZ (ASTD). Details coming. March 19: Sydney (iDESIGNX): I’m excited to attend my first conference in Australia. Looking forward to meeting many of the blog readers there. I’m organizing a workshop while in town. Contact me if you’re interested and I’ll send details as soon as we know.Place I’ll be in 2014: Indianapolis, Lincoln, and Dallas. More to follow.
Earlier this week I commenced an online programme, devised and facilitated by Google on, well, using Google! In particular Google Search.
Question mark made out of coloured poins on a cork board
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‘
This led to an exchange of tweets between us, which resulted in Lesley being kind enough to share an experience with me via this email.
Encore showing an alert on an iPhone
‘Tasks’ showing within the Encore app
An example of a ‘task’ within the Encore app
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Click here to cast your vote.May 4-7: Washington DC. I’ll be at ASTD International Conference & Expo. Swing by the Articulate booth #419 to say hello. 
My action planning point from this session is actually a carry-over from a conversation with Laura at WOLCE and that is to:
iPhone view of notifications page
iPad/desktop view of notifications
iPad/desktop view of site
Click here to view the elearning example.
