Caddickisms

I’m pretty impressed with the CommonCraft videos. They’ve found a way to make YouTube a marketing and profit center for themselves, and a lot of their work is in the training and marketing industries. They’ve found a nice niche for themselves.

One of their recent blog entries catalogs some lessons learned in their previous year of business. I’ve pulled a few of the tips out below that I think apply to a training department - especially one that focuses on e-learning.

Simple is better. Approach an explanation by removing information instead of adding it. Remember Occam’s Razor.

Production values and ideas are often at odds. Flashy graphics and cool music are sometimes a poor replacement for a good idea. Spend time focusing on the message.

It’s not always about how it works - it’s about why anyone should care. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference (Elie Weisel). The path to a solid explanation is making people care as a first priority.

We all need a little more levity. Unstuff your shirt and make people laugh. Look foolish. Defy convention and do not take yourself too seriously.

Think about how those tips might apply to your business. Are you focused on the ‘how’ at the expense of the ‘why’? Can you afford to inject a bit of humor? Are you all glitz and no substance? Are getting too deep into the details?

That last question really hits home for me. I’m a detail person. I have a hard time writing a short email when I’m trying to make a point, and frequently provide more detail than is really necessary. Many times I’d probably be better served to provide more high-level information and let the recipient ask for more if necessary. In the same way, I’m wondering if we sometimes provide too much detail in our training sessions? Should we instead move some of the detail into performance support tools? Obviously that’s not an across the board answer, but it’s something we should be thinking about when designing sessions, whether online or in the classroom.

Technorati Tags: instructional design, business tips, training

Related posts

• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Interviewing for creativity (1)
• I’m a casualty of war (0)
• Video games and simulations (0)
• Training Mistakes (1)

In the e-Learning Guild’s discussion community, the concept of using stories for training is being covered. At one point, Christy Tucker noted that at a previous job she had worked with a person who had been a high school English teacher and was very good at creative writing. She really appreciated his skills in creating a story to engage the learner and push the concepts through. She then made the point that you didn’t have to luck into an English teacher to get those kinds of creative skills and made the following suggestions about interviewing that I think are great ideas:

One of our interview questions there asked potential instructional designers how they would assess learning for a particular objective from one of our courses. We specifically picked a higher-level objective and one that wasn’t immediately obvious for most people to measure in a fully online environment. People who talked about multiple choice tests and fill in the blank questions were generally eliminated; people who described scenarios or case studies or stories were the ones we likely hired. Sometimes in interviews we gave the candidate the benefit of telling them that we did no testing at all and focused on real-world activities before asking the question. Several interviewees gave us completely blank stares when we told them they couldn’t test–they simply couldn’t fathom any other method of measuring learning. I think you can do something along those lines to filter your candidates for those who “get” this approach.

This is really good guidance for getting into the head of the interviewee. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with questions that make the candidate really process through a task and show you that they’re capable of thinking creatively. Christy’s idea really struck a chord with me.

Related posts

• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Training Mistakes (1)
• SkillSoft buys NETg (1)
• Elliott Masie & Josh Bersin: Learning Trends (0)

In my last post, I mentioned a definition of e-Learning I wrote a few years ago. For the record, this is what I said:

How do you define e-learning? What are some examples?

My definition would be: Learning opportunities in which the learner/instructor interaction is facilitated through technology.

I would divide it into three catagories:

• Self-paced
• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

Self-paced courses are probably the first ones that come to mind for most people. These could include the infamous pathetic page-turners, well-designed, human-computer interactive courses, simulations, and guided web research sessions, for example. (It’s worth noting the the instructional designer here acts as the instructor in the creation of the content and voice).

Synchronous examples include web conferencing, virtual classrooms, conference calls, and video conferencing.

Asynchronous examples include discussion boards/communities, email, etc.

How does your definition differ, add, or subtract from mine?

Now I’d probably add some other examples, like blogs and podcasts for asynchronous vehicles, but the basic definition I think still stands. There were some interesting thoughts posted on that thread a few years ago. What are your thoughts?

Technorati Tags: e-learning, education, instructional design, technology, definitions

Related posts

• Links from Corporate Learning: Trends and Innovations Day 1 (0)
• I’m a casualty of war (0)
• Training Mistakes (1)
• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Media and technology issues for learning and persuasion (0)

Why Collaborative Storyboard Technology Is Mission Critical

This is an excellent article extolling the virtues of collaboration for storyboarding your courses (and a little push for storyboarding itself). It doesn’t specifically promote a single commercial product, though it does highlight XStream Software’s tool at the end, but rather focuses on the generic benefits of collaboration in the Instructional Designer/Subject Matter Expert interaction.

I’m an easy sell for this kind of thing, but it certainly sold me on the concept. Less administration, more confidence, more accountability…. I’m in.

I was hoping to find a good, fully mature tool. I’ll have to keep my search going. However, I’m starting to investigate wikis and this seems like a good use for the right wiki. Unless I really luck out, I don’t think a wiki will do as good a job as a focused tool, but it may be close enough.

One thing I really like about this article, though, is the summary sidebar, “Storyboarding at a Glance.” It does a good job of providing the overall structure for the article’s arguments.

Technorati Tags: instructional design, wikis, collaboration, storyboarding, training

Related posts

• Training Mistakes (1)
• What I’ve been thinking (0)
• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Podcasting for learning Podcast (0)

Will at Work Learning: Take the Original Learning Research Quiz

I took this quiz a couple of years ago after seeing Dr. Thalheimer at an e-Learning Guild event. I thought I was doing pretty good until I got the feedback. I just took it again. I did a little better, but not as good as I thought I would.

The good news? I’m not really an instructional designer. The bad news? I do work in the learning industry and effect ID decisions in my role.

Thalheimer’s quiz (as with everything I’ve seen from him) is excellent. It provides well designed, relevant questions and thoughtful, research-backed feedback - in other words, it practices what it preaches. To quote from the feedback on one of the questions:

To have the proper impact, testing must be designed correctly. Too often, we test learners on information that is easy to test, yet we fail to test them on information they need to know. Let us use this test as an example. We’ve tried to develop questions that will benefit our target audience: trainers, instructional designers, performance consultants, and others in the learning-and-performance field. If a test question focuses on information learners can use to improve their practices, then the question is valuable—the current question is a case in point.

The feedback then goes on to contrast an irrelevant (but easy to test) question, with the question at hand.

The test uses scenario-based questions (another method shown to improve retention) to cover topics such as:

• Practice
• Spacing
• Sequence
• Pre/Post-Testing
• Repetition
• Learning vs. Testing Context
• Performance vs. Learning Objectives
• Generalizability (did I just make up a new word?!)
• Feedback

I highly encourage anyone in the Learning/Training/Performance industry to take this quiz and implement the feedback in their work. I know I intend to.

Technorati Tags: learning, training, Thalheimer, testing, performance, e-learning, research

Related posts

• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Training Mistakes (1)
• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Michael Allen’s Podcast Challenge (0)
• Media and technology issues for learning and persuasion (0)

Learning 2006 - Josh Bersin & Elliott Masie Dialogue

Josh and Elliot, two “thought leaders” in the learning industry, get together and talk about the things they’re seeing in the learning industry. It’s at least partially a teaser for Josh’s presentation at Elliott’s Learning 2006 conference, but there are some good things being said.

For example, Elliott, not for the first time, makes the beginning of a case to make a job in the learning field a part of a larger business career, not a career unto itself. There’s also a discussion about ROI and how it’s not really a sufficient, or even possible, metric to collect. Rather they’d like to concentrate on impact.

An underlying thought to much of what is said, is that learning is not necessarily tied to a “course” model, where you have content, test, content, test, etc. They argue that delivery should be more piece-meal, just-in-time, searchable, nuggets of content, with more of a performance support structure.

That concept is supported by new technologies like podcasts, blogs, wiki’s, RSS, and the like. Personally, I’m all for doing things that way. I’m trying to gently push my company into venturing into these territories (and let me tell you, that rudder is gonna be tough to move). That doesn’t mean abandoning formal classrooms and/or instructional design completely, but their point is a good one - sometimes you just gotta get it out there. They use their own discussion as an example of content that clearly has learning value, but was put together quickly and informally, with no slick interface and no instructional design.

Lest someone read into this that I am advocating dropping ID work, I’m not. I do think, though, that we need to start taking more advantage of technologies that support nuggets of content, and providing a way for the user/student to get directly to the piece they are looking for, rather than concentrating solely on full-blown training events, which is where many training organizations focus.

For a more in-depth look at that concept, listen to Elliott’s podcast on “Fingertip Knowledge“.

Technorati Tags: Josh Bersin, Elliott Masie, Learning in a Flatter World, industry trends

Related posts

• Training Mistakes (1)
• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Interviewing for creativity (1)
• I’m a casualty of war (0)

Creating Passionate Users: Re-igniting passion

We can’t expect passionate users, if we ourselves can’t hold (or rediscover) the passion we felt for the work we chose.

That is an excellent point. When the world is beating down on you with a sledgehammer, it’s easy to lose sight of the passion you had when you first began in your field. And for those responsible for providing training to others, that can really hurt effectiveness.

Passion is infectious. But so are boredom and apathy. If you are a trainer, your passion can change the way a student perceives your subject. If they thought it would be stale you can convince them that it is exciting because it’s obvious that you find it interesting. Conversely, if you appear bored to tears yourself, it becomes very easy for the student to mentally check-out.

In the blog I’m quoting, Kathy refers to a book she recently read on teaching/learning: Harvard University Press: What the Best College Teachers Do.

What makes the best teachers so good?

From the Harvard Press website book summary:

The short answer is–it’s not what teachers do, it’s what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out–but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn.

Okay, so passion is important in learning. That’s all great and inspiring for instructor-led, face-to-face training situations. But what about the corporate training world, where students/employees are geographically dispersed and getting together in person isn’t feasible? How do we apply these concepts in an environment where instructional designers are creating self-paced material that gets delivered online? How do you communicate passion through a cold, impersonal computer screen?

I’ll be honest with you: I don’t have the answer.

I do, however, have some ideas. (Actually, to continue with the whole honesty thing, they aren’t really my ideas. This is more of a list of things I’ve heard and agree with.) None of these are a silver bullet. Some are just minor things; others take a lot more effort (but presumably have a larger impact). Not all are practical for every situation, nor is this an exhaustive list. But they all have the potential to communicate passion. Consider using some of these techniques in your next designs.

• Use stories and narrative. Create a plot and draw your user in, don’t just show the screens or the process steps and move on.
• Use pictures showing faces with strong expressions.
• Use graphics that add excitement (but make sure they are relevant to the content! See “e-Learning and the Science of Instruction” by Ruth Colvin Clark and Richard E. Mayer for more)
• Don’t be afraid to show a little personality - even if it’s corny.
• Use color.
• Use audio. (but don’t just read the text or use irrelevant sounds — again, see “e-Learning and the Science of Instruction”)
• Give the users a choice in the order they go through the material. If it doesn’t have to be a linear presentation, let them choose what to learn next.
• Pepper the lesson with questions that present problems in real-life situations.
• Write in the first person. It makes the user feel like there is someone there.
• Use case studies from your own experience - especially failures and ‘a-ha’ moments. E.g., “When presented with both a ‘Remove’ and ‘Delete’ button, be sure you know which does what (see section 5.2). When I was first learning how to use the user administration screen, I was trying to remove a user from a test group, but accidently deleted my boss from the system!”
• Make unexpected parallels to common non-work experiences. Compare a file management system to a toaster (yes, I did that in my first user manual).

There are plenty more possibilities. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe I’ll post more ideas later. Maybe I’ll expand upon some of these. (Then again, maybe not … I’m fickle that way.)

How do you infuse your passion into your deliverables? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Related posts

• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Interviewing for creativity (1)
• Corporate Learning Forum - why? (2)
• Corporate Gaming: Recruiting and training (1)
• Training Mistakes (1)

Learning2005 learningwiki.com - Mistakes
Elliot Masie’s Learning Wiki has a page for common mistakes trainers/instructional designers make, as reported by subscribers to his newsletter. He received over 700 responses — the wiki page is just an ‘executive summary’.

Some of the quotes, I can relate to completely. The ones that ring my gong the loudest are quoted below:

Skill Level/Needs Analysis Mistakes:
- Responding to ‘crisis’ situations with quick-fix training – invariably, it doesn’t work and credibility of training plummets.

Measurement Mistakes:
- Level 3 assessments: we don’t do enough of them. These are crucial and how we show our worth. We have to prove that learners can actually transfer training to the field, because if they can’t, why did they go to training?

- Assessments don’t match the objectives. We have to measure what we said we’d train.

- Not gathering product improvement feedback during training session - too focused on delivery to record.

Inspiring & Relating to Learners Mistakes:
- Designing for the “lowest common denominator” and then expecting everyone (regardless of experience and knowledge) to use the whole program.

Management & Learning Mistakes:
- Being an “order taker.” In other words, failing to help the business understand what the best options are to meet the performance need and, instead, just fulfilling requests as they come in.

Content & Design Mistakes:
- Teaching more than needed: not sticking to objectives.

- Always providing “sunshine” training: what happens when things go right. Customer critical moments typically occur when things go wrong, so preparing learners in some way for those situations can have a dramatic impact on business results.

Innovation & Interaction Mistakes:
- Require people to use pre-course e-Learning and then trainers repeating the content in the follow up workshop through (endless) PowerPoint presentations.

- Failure to use adult learning techniques such as collaborative learning and role playing.

- Courses are not designed or facilitated with a focus on intensity: challenging assumptions, a focus on problem solving and a focus on reasoning complexity.

Technology Mistakes:
- Being guided by what the technology can do rather than selecting technology that can do what you need.

- Not anticipating problems with technology when rolling out e-Learning programs across an organization (assume it will work on everyone’s computer).

- Not understanding the technology and how to use it effectively.

Development, Delivery, Follow-Up Mistakes:
- Learning is very much like marketing: working to influence human behavior towards certain actions/choices. Until learning and development programs are developed with a keen eye towards repetition, reinforcement, and emotional connection (yes, emotional!) - a complete learning package, not a learning event - knowledge and skill retention will suffer.

Related posts

• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Media and technology issues for learning and persuasion (0)
• Interviewing for creativity (1)
• I’m a casualty of war (0)

I think it’s official: I’m addicted to Kathy Sierra’s blog.

Yesterday she made a great (if a tad long) summary of some pretty basic points she made earlier in the year that apply to learning.

Here’s a bulleted list of her main points:

• Get past the brain’s “crap filter” [i.e., point out why it's important]
• Learning is not a one-way “push” model
• Use visuals to improve (and speed up) understanding, retention, and recall
• Use redundancy to improve (and speed up) understanding, retention, and recall. Say the same thing in a different way.
• Use conversational language
• Maintain interest with variety and surprise
• Use mistakes, failures, and counter-intuitive examples
• Show, don’t tell.
• Use chunking to reduce cognitive overload [nice graphic example on this one]
• Help the learner relax and feel confident
• Build curiousity
• Use “spiral experience model” to keep engagement
• Use a gaming concept of “next level”
• Allow the learner to think
• Use the 80/20 principle - know what to leave out
• Use emotions to increase attention and memory
• Use timing and pacing
• Never understimate the power of fun

Each of those are expanded upon in the post - some more than others.

In the comments, she lists some of her references (quoted below). I didn’t have time to follow all the links, but I’m going to try to find time to look at anything I don’t have to buy.

* Cognitive Scientist, early AI guru Roger Schank

* Designing World Class E-Learning (by Roger Schank)

* E-Learning and the Science of Instruction (by Ruth Colvin Clark, Richard Mayer)
(The book summarizes much of the research that’s spread out elsewhere)

* The Media Equation (Clifford Nass, Byron Reeves)
(OK, yes, these ARE the guys who gave us Microsoft Bob — but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some of the best research out there about human/computer interaction ; )

* Flow (by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)

* The art of human-computer interface design (edited by Brenda Laurel)
(Check out her book — “Computers as Theatre”, too)

* Mind Hacks
(You can get to the book from their blog)

And while I’m here, another great reference for all this is the Cognitive Daily blog

Related posts

• Training Mistakes (1)
• Tips from CommonCraft (0)
• Re-igniting passion (0)
• Interviewing for creativity (1)
• Instructional Designers: do you know what you think you know? (0)