e-Learning Leadership Blog

Can We Stop Hiding Behind Failed e-Learning Design Models?

by Ethan Edwards, chief instructional strategist

I spent most of last week at ASTD’s annual TechKnowledge conference in Las Vegas.  As usual, there was an impressive array of vendors exhibiting in the Expo and a diverse collection of presenters in the sessions. I wish I felt more energized by these events.  I am inspired, in part, but I also come away feeling somewhat discouraged—mainly by the disconnect that is so evident between what is talked about and what actually gets created. 

While there is still much to know about learning, there is quite a bit of knowledge we can point to on what works effectively.  Yet it seems that somehow this research and knowledge gets bypassed in “e-learning” development, as if the technology is a magic ticket that supersedes common sense and gives designers a kind of instructional amnesty.  Developers and vendors alike end up creating e-“learning” interactions that would be rejected immediately if presented as instruction in any other context. 

For a moment, consider if this were an interaction in a classroom:

Instructor:  Read this paragraph and tell me when you’re done.
Student:  I’m ready for the next paragraph.
Instructor:  OK. Now read this paragraph and tell me when you’re done.
Student:  I’m ready for the next paragraph.
Instructor:  OK. Now read this paragraph and tell me when you’re done.
Student:  I’m ready for the next paragraph.
Instructor:  OK. Now read this paragraph and tell me when you’re done.
Student:  I’m ready for the next paragraph.
Instructor:  OK. Now read this paragraph and tell me when you’re done.
Student:  I’m ready for the next paragraph.
Instructor:  Which of these words did you see in paragraph #2? 

Or this: 

Instructor:  How do you turn on this piece of equipment?
Student:  I press this button.
Instructor:  No.
Student:  I turn this knob.
Instructor:  No.
Student:  I flip this switch.
Instructor:  No.  We’re moving on.

Or this:

Instructor:  Watch this video.
Student:  <silent>

Honestly, if those situations were to occur in a real-life classroom, those instructors ought to be fired.  In fact, I hope it would be hard to find any real person that doggedly persistent in obstructing the possibility of learning.  Yet those samples convey EXACTLY what I saw demonstrated last week in a great deal of e-learning  demonstrations. (To illustrate my point, re-read the above samples replacing Instructor with Computer.) 

These are monumental examples of failed teaching, and no amount of enhancement with prettier speech bubbles, or an avatar character reading the text with carefully orchestrated eye-blinks, or 3-D renderings of straightforward images, or automated narration, or even the speed with which they were created justify the belief that they are a useful contribution to learning.  If we as instructional designers create these kinds of applications and label it training, we’re simply not doing our jobs.

There was a website I encountered some time ago in which the transcripts of political debates were read by very young children.  It was done primarily with humorous intent, but I was surprised how clearly the readings highlighted the absolute absurdity of much political discourse.  When hiding behind the formality of officials in business suits speaking in formal settings, the pointlessness of the endeavor is easy to miss.  But put into the mouths of children, without the hidden agendas and preconceptions brought by the listener, the debates were exposed for the drivel they often are.

I encourage you to try something like that with e-learning scripts you are developing; it might be similarly insightful.  Try executing your design for e-learning in real life—have an instructor do nothing but what the lesson provides in terms of presentation of information and assistance to the student. Confine the student to doing ONLY those things that could be done online.  You may be surprised at how this simple little test illustrates how so many of our “accepted” models of instruction for e-learning utterly fail to support actual student learning.

Remember, any teaching event you create is in some way a conversation, and for a conversation to work, each participant must be present and participate in a meaningful way.  As you design each project keep in mind that you are building that conversation with a living, breathing individual:  instead of static presentations, create challenges; instead of judgment, provide helpful feedback for improvement; instead of mindless response mechanisms, simulate meaningful performance behaviors; instead of casting the learner as a passive observer, turn control over whenever possible for full involvement.

We need to shed the default behavior of thoughtless instructional design that is encouraged by the overly simplistic tools at our disposal.  We need to overcome unreasonable expectations for the rapidity at which e-learning should be churned out. Then perhaps we can actually start taking all the great things we know about training for performance change and begin to create a discipline for designing e-learning that actually gives people a chance to learn.

e-Learning Course Text: Less is More

by Angel Green, Instructional Strategist

This week, while in a meeting with a client, I was asked a question, “How much text is too much?” My response– all of it.

Let me be clear: I hate words. I am a writer, and yet seeing lots of words, sentences, paragraphs and bulleted lists in e-learning raises my blood pressure and leaves me feeling defeated. First, I know the learner is not going to read them and second, I believe the words can go elsewhere.

Let’s focus on my first reason: the learner is not going to read them. We have plenty of experience witnessing that learners scan - not read - the words on screen, especially when there is a large amount of text. The fact that people read entire novels on tablet-like devices (a Kindle, an iPad or even their smartphone) has little to do with the fact that, in an e-learning course, learners still do not read large quantities of content.

Learners seek the path of what they need to do in order to complete the e-learning course. They want to get to the “good stuff’ – the interactions, the engaging pieces – as quickly as possible – and get it over with.

Our job as content writers, course developers and instructional designers should be to write as little words as possible. What content that does go into the e-learning course needs to be impactful and meaningful. We need to understand the mindset of our learners. We need to push a concept of less is more, and we need to identify alternative ways of delivering the content. Which leads me to my second point, words can be delivered elsewhere.

We’ve all suffered through it – the legal, compliance, executive committee or marketing team review our initial draft of a course (our alpha). Their response –“Looks great, but we need to tell them X.”  So, we start adding in text.

Little by little our original, provocative, scenario based e-learning begins to transform into the typical, boring formula of an e-learning course: reading content and clicking Next. What started as a wonderful endeavor to provide learners with an engaging experience quickly morphed into a page turner with a couple of great interactions.

It happens to us, too – far more often than I’d like to admit.

What we need to do is gather empirical research and push our review team to look for alternative means of delivering that content. Are there PDFs that we can include? Are there links that we can send learners to for more information? Are there job aids we can reference, or develop, that can get the content the lawyers/compliance/executives say the learners must have without having it bog down our e-learning with a series of text screens?

When the answer is yes, we are good to go on our merry way of creating engaging and scenario driven content. But, when they balk at that, and they will, it becomes our duty to the learners to look for creative ways to deliver content.

We will have words we want/need/are required to include in an e-learning course. How we choose to present the words to our learners is up to us. Sure, we can give them long, passive text screens – asking them to click Next when they have finished reading. Or, we can think of unique ways to present content. When words are a necessary evil, it is our job to find the best way to give the learner that content.

I am sharing with you an example of a (relatively) easy and creative way to present content. Maybe this will spark some creativity and imagination.

In this example for our wonderful client DBi Services, it would have been easy to construct a static text page that told the learners that following the established safety requirements and protocols was vital to their job. However, we decided to use a creative and innovative way to give the same information in an entirely different manner.  The focus of the learner is on one section of content at a time and the use of humor keeps the learner involved.

I hope this inspires you to think creatively, tell a story, incorporate media and images as often as you can and keep the learner engaged – even if they are only reading text. And, if you have some creative ways you have given the learner the words they need, please share them!

Bundle Up This Winter

by Richard Sites, studio executive

Just because many people head to Florida during the winter months to escape the snow, wind, frost and freezing conditions found elsewhere, doesn’t mean we don’t have cold weather. Ok, I get it – it’s relative. But to us native Floridians, it’s cold!

This past Sunday was no different. As my gaggle of golf buddies gathered together to get our weekly round underway, we were faced with a frost delay. The thermometer read 28 degrees, and to me, that’s cold.

The key strategy for ensuring you have proper attire in the winter in Florida is to dress in layers.  Rest assured the moment you think it will remain cold all day, the temperature spikes and you end up sweating off 20 pounds. What you need to do is build up from a solid, but breathable, base. Pullovers and windbreakers layered above short sleeved shirts are the norm.

And yet it strikes me as almost comical because, without fail, on one of these cold mornings at least one of my golf buddies is sure to arrive for tee off dressed inadequately for the weather – like in shorts and a light jacket.  “It’ll warm up” is the typical response when the harassment begins. It might be true, that as the day goes on the temperature will rise, but it is exposure to the current, not future, temperature that matters. We can handle a few minutes in freezing weather – but we struggle with three to four hours of it. The effect of the temperature takes some time.

The effect of instruction takes time as well, and this is the true when we create e-learning or blended training programs. We need to create several layers of instructional strategies (formal, informal, asynchronous, and synchronous) to provide learners with the greatest opportunity to feel the effect of the training.

While jackets and sweaters might keep out the cold so that we can stay comfortable longer, we don’t need to remain bundled up when the temperature finally peaks. Conversely, we don’t want to act as if we have already reached the peak temperature hours before it hits. So too, our various instructional strategies need to keep the current learner needs in mind, while also preparing for the future. Layering our strategy will keep the learner involved longer. And the longer they are involved, the more of the effect of the training will have.

So while you are bundled up this winter, consider the different ways you can broaden the learning moment for your learners. And Happy New Year!

eLearnChat Podcast: ZebraZapps Discussion & Demos

by Christopher Allen, product marketing manager, ZebraZapps

On January 11th 2012, I joined Rick Zanotti and Jean Franzblau on eLearnChat to talk about ZebraZapps. Watch the below podcast as we discuss the evolution of this new authoring tool and its future impact on the e-learning market.

About eLearnChat:
eLearnChat was created by Rick Zanotti and the late Terrence Wing, two well-known e-learning and media professionals.  eLearnChat hosts top influencers, shakers and movers in the e-learning and training industries. Topics can range from e-learning, multimedia development, project management and more to social media. These shows are recorded during a LIVE stream on justin.tv/relatecorp.

 

Shake Up Your e-Learning in 2012

by Ethan Edwards, chief instructional strategist

Over the holidays, I had the pleasure to visit Alabama for the first time.  I enjoyed seeing new sites (and check off one more state capitol from my list of places to visit) and sample local customs.  My hosts offered up a snack unfamiliar to me:  a Georgia Milkshake.  You make a Georgia Milkshake by taking a glass of buttermilk and crumbling corn bread into it.  It sounded strange…not bad, necessarily, but I couldn’t quite imagine wanting to drink buttermilk with crumbs in it.  As when faced with any new experience, I had to choose what to do: to reject the idea, reluctantly agree to sample a tiny bit, or enthusiastically take a full portion.

Well, I took the full portion, and let me tell you, it was delicious!  To be fair, just as I feared, the first encounter with the crumbly buttermilk was a challenge to my expectations of what is good as set by my past limited experiences; but very quickly the delights of the combination became apparent, and we were soon talking about different variations on the combination. 

That little encounter reminded me once again how important it is for us to always be open to what is new, and even more, how it is often our duty to push boundaries lest we find our lives unreasonably constrained.

Nowhere is this more important than in designing
e-learning.  We all profess interest in improving our training, yet very rarely do I see examples of designers trying anything new.  Tired presentations of content with senseless test questions permeate training.  Tool manufacturers create structures that really only help the designer replicate the kind of lessons we have already grown tired of…only now it’s easier to make them.  Advice from experts for ways to improve our e-learning too often takes the form of superficial changes of little substance…like some new backgrounds to use or a new way to make buttons.  (If I’m dissatisfied with drinking milk, putting it into a prettier mug isn’t going to make the milk any better.)  Even more expensive solutions and technologies, like 3-D avatars, are too often used to simplistically dress up an essentially passive learning program, rather than transforming the core interactive model that leads the student in new ways of exploration and learning.

So as we start the New Year, I encourage you to treasure the new.  As long as we continue down the same paths we are already disappointed by, there’s no way we can hope for better outcomes.  Unless you are absolutely content with the effectiveness of every bit of e-learning you created in the last year, then it is imperative that you force yourself to try new ideas.  And don’t just take a tiny sip of the new milkshake, armed with the foregone conclusion that nothing but the routine is practicable.  Be bold; attempt something you haven’t tried before.  You may get too many crumbs at first, or you might get a big gulp of sour buttermilk, but with a little trust in experimentation, you’re sure to discover something incredible that can become part of your everyday routine and really enhance the success of your learners.

Reflecting on a Holiday Tradition

by Ethan Edwards, chief instructional strategist

The other night I had the pleasure of engaging in one of my favorite holiday traditions:  watching the 1947 Warner Bros. film Christmas in Connecticut.  If you’ve seen it, you know it to be one of the warmest, most charming of holiday films.  It centers on a Martha Stewart-like character, Elizabeth Lane, played by the irresistible Barbara Stanwyck, author of a popular magazine column, “Diary of a Housewife,” in which she routinely describes her perfect lifestyle as cook, chicken farmer, wife, mother, etc. in the idyllic Connecticut countryside.  The only problem is that’s she’s really a single girl, domestically-challenged, living in a tiny New York apartment.  Hilarity ensues when her unsuspecting editor commits her to prepare one of her signature Christmas meals for a sailor returning from battle.

The problem is that Ms. Lane knows how to convince anyone of her expertise, but when called upon to actually do anything, she’s absolutely helpless. It’s a trap so easily to fall into.  I see it far too often when listening to tool vendors or content suppliers or conference speakers. On paper, the instructional designs and content plans look like the real thing…but too rarely does anyone bother to look beyond the surface to see if they actually do any good, either for the learners or for the organization.  As in the movie, ability to relate content knowledge doesn’t necessarily translate to competence in performance.

As we wrap up yet another year, I find it helpful to reflect on these challenges and others and make a commitment to avoid the same mistakes that for so long have kept e-learning from reaching its potential impact.  And just for fun, take a look at this wonderful film.

All of my colleagues at Allen Interactions join me in wishing you the very best of everything, whatever your traditions, in this holiday season.  Below you’ll find a little game built in ZebraZapps to entertain you for a few moments – help Santa build the last two toys for Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Help Santa build the last two toys in time for Christmas! | Roll over the white "Z" in the bottom right to access the video controls, which allow you to maximize the zapp.

An Iteration Versus A Change

by Richard Sites, studio executive

At the heart of the Savvy process is the iteration. Taking small purposeful steps forward in an effort to both create and uncover the appropriate design, content, media and interaction. The idea of iterating toward your goal may be easy to understand – even exciting to think about – but putting it into action might be a little more challenging.

There are myriad reasons why implementing an iterative process in your organization may be challenging, especially if you have always worked through a traditional, sequenced process. So I won’t even attempt to address them all. Rather I will focus on the main challenge in the effective implementation of an iterative process: What is an iteration?

There is a very common misunderstanding about iterations and using an iterative process. I often hear people say that they already use an iterative process, when in fact they use a process that has a lot of changes in it. When I press them to tell me how they iterate through the process, I am usually told of how they “added a button” or “changed the color” or “revised the content.”

While all of these are certainly methods of implementing an iteration, they alone are not iterations – they are changes. So what’s the difference – and the big deal after all? Everything!

As I mentioned earlier, iterations are purposeful reconsiderations of the previous form in an effort to better address the performance or learning objective. A change is merely the alteration of some element. Simply stated, an iteration is a cycle of review and redesign focused on improving the instructional moment.

So why is this distinction important? Well, remember the “E” at the end of ADDIE? It stands for evaluation. In an iterative process we don’t have to wait until the end to reach the E. As long as there is something to evaluate, the iterative process allows for evaluation at any point. An iteration gives us that moment – a change doesn’t.

Let’s put it like this: If someone does not like the gift you gave them, which is the best way to ensure you get it right next time?

1. Change the wrapping paper.
2. Move the bow to the other side.
3. Use less tape.
4. Get another gift.

Happy Holidays to all of you and we will continue this chat next year!

Savvy Continues: The Iterative Design Phase

by Deanna Sedivy, studio producer

I liken the Savvy Start to the excitement of getting ready for the first day of school. For some of us, it may have been years since our last first day of school, but we all remember the experience – getting school supplies ready, preparing to meet new people and learn new things.

The Iterative Design Phase reminds me of what made me anticipate that first day of school. During this phase, we get to meet the client face-to-face and learn more about their business and challenges. Since we generally spend a few days together, we also get to know each other as people as well as business associates.

As e-learning professionals, this is the time we need to put our faith in the Savvy process. For ADDIE fans, this Iterative Design Phase covers the A-D-D stages, at least at some level. The major difference between ADDIE and our Successive Approximation process is that very important key term ‘Iterative.’ The Design – Prototype – Review cycle within the Iterative Design Phase is how we iterate through this phase.

How, what, where, and when we design – prototype – review depends as much on the calendar as anything else. By this I mean that we might design a prototype in the Savvy Start, review it on Day 2, then make other revisions to the design based on the review during the Additional Design stage. So while we are still iterating through the three steps, we can accomplish this across various stages of the Iterative Design Phase.

Savvy Start

A Savvy Start is a project kick-off meeting held over a period of 1 to 3 days. The purpose of this meeting is to brainstorm ideas, create on-the-spot rapid prototypes, discuss the client’s issues and challenge existing designs and beliefs.

It is important for us to do more listening than speaking at first. Let the clients and stakeholders take the time to explain their perceived problems, corporate environment and principles. Our role is to guide the conversation and cut short any wandering discussions.

Then, talk through their needs while brainstorming ideas based on their explanation. From these discussions, disposable prototypes will begin taking form. Throughout the meeting, the project’s design, prototypes and evaluation are done iteratively in small steps.

Project Planning

During the Savvy Start, you will have initial discussions around delivery goals and required review cycle durations. It is recommended those who hold ultimate sign-off responsibility are present during at least part of the Savvy Start. During this time it is important to discuss the components of the project, such as budget, scope, time and quality.

Project planning is ongoing and can change throughout the project, but now is a good time to set some initial expectations.

Additional Design

Any prototypes created during the Savvy Start should be sketches which communicate an idea and/or process, but that can easily be thrown away. Additional designs may be produced during day 2 or 3 of a Savvy Start, or once you’ve returned to your ‘home base’, after some reconsideration of the initial design. The agreed upon prototypes and additional designs are included in a Savvy Start Summary document and are the foundation for the next phases of iteration.

In my next blog, I will discuss the Development Phase, which includes the Design Proof, Alpha, Beta and Gold releases of the course. Remember that I am only discussing a high level overview of our process in my blog posts. For more information, please get your hands on a copy of one of Michael Allen’s books. (They make great gifts!!)

Happiest of Holidays to you and yours!

Designing. For A Change.

by Angel Green, Instructional Strategist

People were angry, hurt and shocked. They planned boycotts, wrote letters and even signed petitions. A political uprising? A response to a human rights violation? An endangered species threatened? Not exactly…it was Facebook. Facebook changed the way their 800 million active members viewed their news feeds and status updates.

Change. There are few guarantees in life, but change is one. So, why is it so hard to accept change? Why is there such resistance to change? And, how should we use the study of the psychology of human change to our advantage as we work to create performance changing learning?

In my years designing learning solutions, I don’t recall a time when a client asked us to design training with a goal of keeping employee performance at the status quo. Sure, we’ve had plenty of “refresher” training requests, but these requests generally are the result of performance indicators showing slips in productivity, declining sales or increased error percentages.

The goal of 99.9% of training is to change performance. Employees are asked to change their behavior for any number of reasons: an upgrade to a software program, a new organizational procedure or process, to comply with ethical and regulatory business requirements or to increase in sales or customer satisfaction scores.

By studying theories of the psychology of the way humans react to change, we as developers of training can do our part to lessen the anxiety, frustration and hesitation to behavioral change.  My goal for this blog is to offer some specific steps you can take, rather than summarize a plethora of theories about change.

• Follow the emotions.  In the book The Heart of Change, Kotter and Cohen suggest that behavioral change follows a See-Feel-Change sequence. To capitalize on this in training efforts, we have to remember that our learners are humans. They are not robots who will simply take data (content) and then make a change on the job. First, show the learner the problem or the solution to a problem. This “show” can be powerful through the images, stories, videos and testimonials you choose to use in the training. Next, through the interactions you create, you will move to the feel stage of the sequence. Allow your learners to feel frustration, anger and pessimism. Give them the opportunity to feel hope, pride or anticipation of success in their job because of using the new system. There are many ways you can demonstrate feelings in the characters of your training program – have their facial expression and body language change or write their thoughts out in a bubble over their head. Choose words that show you empathize with the learner’s feelings. The change phase only occurs through an internal desire to take action, which leads me to my next tip…
   
• Be specific. Don’t beat around the bush or use ambiguous terms. To change behavior, you need to give specific direction on the actions that need to occur. Every year, people make New Year’s resolutions to “lose weight”. Unfortunately, this resolution often fails because it lacks clarity. Rather, the resolution could be written: “Take a brisk 30 minute walk three times a week before work.”  Instead of “Provide excellent service” be specific – “Use the customer’s name during your transaction.” In order to be specific, it may be helpful to…
   
• Find, or create, a bright spot. I recently read the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by brothers Chip and Dan Heath. One valuable suggestion they offer is to showcase a bright spot – a person, department or branch that is the success story. Let’s say you’re looking to increase sales. Talk to the top sales folks; get their story and showcase it in the training. Looking to reduce errors? Which assembly plant has the fewest errors and what do they do differently? Get tips from the best and use them. Give your learners a role model. If this is an entirely new venture, create a bright spot. Create a character that employees can relate to and showcase the success she has from using this new process/software/technique. Finally….
   
• Influence the influencers.  This is one area where you will need to wear more of your organizational development consultant hat rather than your instructional design hat. The truth is, we can design the best learning solution: follow the show, feel, change model, be super specific in our directions, create a shining bright spot and still fail miserably in changing performance. Why? Because our influencers aren’t influencing change. Humans are influenced – by leaders, by peers, by people they aspire to be like (think celebrity endorsements). Influencers in your organization can make or break the change. Your role is to find some influencers and involve them early in the design of the training. The worst affront to change efforts are statements like, “Sure, this is how corporate says we need to do things, but really…we don’t do it that way here.” 

Had Facebook heeded some of this advice prior to launching the new format – perhaps announcing the changes that were coming (show), generating excitement (feel) by creating a story of a user whose life is better now that she is able to see the instant her friend “likes” a photo (create a bright spot) – those 800 million users wouldn’t have been so upset. Of course, I don’t know too many Facebook users who jumped ship when the changes were made. But most organizations don’t have the luxury that Facebook does at the moment. Most of us need employees, and customers, who feel they are valued and that they are part of the organization.

By understanding how humans react to change, you can better design learning that motivates employees to make the changes the organization seeks. I encourage you to spend some time reading books and articles on the psychology of change. I promise it won’t be a fruitless effort.

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