e-Learning Leadership Blog

posted by Bong131779 on March 10, 2009 
AUTHORING TOOLS 
Going back to the Plato days I have had a keen interest in authoring tools. Unfortunately they have always been, contrary to the hype, hard to use and not flexible. Most tools today are not good for scenario based learning. Single action response with immediate feedback as opposed to multiply action time responses that allow the learner to experiment to learn. Multiply response learning really has two outcomes. It allows the learner to learn as he or she would in the real world and it allows the developer to track what is really going on with the learner. In this way the developer can track trends and patterns to make the WBT better. Another need in WBT tools is the ability to capture social learning in a WBT format. It needs to find some way to capture how a learner uses social learning and then put that experience in the WBT. AND it needs to do all this with the developer having to have computer science degree. Either that or we need to create a college degree that is something like ISD Computer Science.

posted by mbs_chet on March 12, 2009 
TECHNOLOGY, ART AND SCIENCE 
When I read through the white papers on this website I think to myself "yeah, that all seems natural, and obvious." But the truth is, it's not... It's not natural and obvious at all. From my limited e-learning experience, I feel that e-learning is part technology, part art, and part science. I think it could go without saying that a skilled e-learning professional could do more than the average, with less. I feel like there is a lack of material out there to walk newbies through design process step-by-step. I would like to see something that puts us in the mind of an industry leader from start to finish of a project. On a separate note, I would be interested to see some sort of e-learning designers challenge. Take a top designer and give them a tool that the average developer would have, and let them create what they may. I would love to see what they could come up with.

posted by EthanEdwards on March 12, 2009 
<CRITICAL AUTHORING CAPABILITIES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL CAPABILITY 
It's definitely true that some of the more simplistic and template driven authoring systems make it nearly impossible to create instructional interactivity. But I firmly believe that two relatively simple capabilities are responsible for the most important design features that make e-learning engaging: the ability to establish a clear context through full graphical control of the screen (rather than fitting text and discrete images into a prescribed generic framework), and variable driven content and branching. Without the first, it is difficult for the relatively simplistic response gestures available to the learner (pointing, dragging, typing) to have any meaningful behavioral significance. Interactivity is usually limited to superficial assessment of content knowledge through arbitrary context-independent response mechanisms (e.g., press a, b, c, or d). Without the second, it's nearly impossible to create a learner-centered design that can adapt to individual differences. Instead, all learners get essentially the same pre-defined content-centered sequence that ignores individual needs. It doesn't matter really how many additional media enhancements are present if these fundamental capabilities are unavailable to the designer.

posted by mallen on March 25, 2009 
VISION, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, PROCESS AND TOOLS 
I agree so strongly with the comments made on this topic. Establishing context is so very important and generally at odds with template-based tools. Demonstrated consequences to learner actions use the power of the context to make things "real". The most interesting interactions are data-driven. There's a tremendous amount of art in establishing the need dramatic components to the experiences. And so on. It seems to me that the 5 ingredients listed above are critically important to an e-learning success (vision, knowledge, etc.). And it seems that so many tool vendors feel they've come up with "the" shortcut. While I'm dubious that any shortcuts are possible (I actually saw an ad that said "<10 seconds to engaging, highly interactive e-learning with our authoring tool"), I frequently ponder how authoring tools might facilitate excellence beyond just making development faster and easier.

posted by PeterShea on September 12, 2009 
WAITING FOR THE HOLY GRAIL OF WBT 
I've been waiting for years for a drag-and-drop friendly WBT tool that has the power and flexibility of Authorware. For a while I was hoping Flash might fill in this role, but it's now obvious Flash's most powerful features are accessible only to advanced programmers. This has lead to a digital divide in our learning culture. Since the tools that help create the best e-learning require high skilled workers (such as the one's employed by Allen Interactions) the only people who can afford such quality e-learning are commercially successful companies. What about the schools and colleges which lack the funds to hire firms like Allen Interactions? I work at a community college where we deal with a large body of students who are at-risk for dropping out--largely because the old (and inexpensive) blackboard and lecture approach doesn't engage them. As the ID person (and a non-programmer) I use such programs as Adobe Capitvate and Camtasia and try to be as creative as possible. But when I see the demos that Allen Interactions has on their website, I can't help feeling a twinge of envy. The advanced drag and drop interactions opens up so many learning possibilities. Do you see any possibility for an "Authorware for the web" appearing anytime soon?