The Learning Online Blog

Brandon Hall - LMS Trends & Issues Notes

2009-07-09T09:14:00.000-04:00

Tracy Hamilton makes some notes on Brandon Halls LMS Trends and Issues Webinar:

Discovery Through eLearning: Learning Management Systems - Trends and Issues (Brandon Hall Research) Webinar

Here are some stats that I found interesting:

- 88% of current Learning Management Systems have built in test systems
- 78% offer classroom management
- 64% have built in authoring
- 60% have LCMS features
- 50% handle e-Commerce

- 86% are SCORM 1.2
- 48% SCORM 2004 compliant

- 68% of vendors say that more then 50% of their implementations are hosted (this seems to be a rather convoluted number, but indicates that Hosted solutions seem to be considered more acceptable now than they were some years ago)

42% of systems allow searches (but no indication of how granular or useful the search feature actually is...)

- 20% blogs
- 17% wikis

Questionmark CEO discusses globalization and learning trends

2009-04-13T08:58:00.001-04:00

Will at Work Learning: Assessment Guru Hints at Trends Relevant to Learning Professionals:

Will Talheimer of Work-Learning Research recently talked with Eric Shepherd, CEO of Questionmark, to get a sense of the learning industry and how it has been affected by the downturn in the world economy.

Check the link above for the videos of the interview.

Main takeaways?

People are moving to where the jobs are, and jobs are moving to where the people are.
Content and assessments must be culturally aware as well as multilingual to target the global workforce.
Training budgets are being slashed.
Measure it to Manage it.
Increase in assessment tools being used in pre-employment screening.
Certification and tested credentials become more important to job seekers.

SCORM 2004, 4th Edition Released

2009-04-07T08:44:00.001-04:00

SCORM 2004, 4th Edition - Overview:

The ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) has officially released the 4th edition of SCORM 2004, here's the blurb:

"Acting on feedback from the ADL Community, ADL collected and analyzed reported issues to produce SCORM 2004 4th Edition (4th Ed.), a maintenance release that addresses defects in, and adds enhancements to, the previous versions of SCORM 2004."

Biggest changes?

Sharing data and objective info between SCOs
Jump Navigation requests
Partial completion status now rolls up (as opposed to relying on complete/incomplete as before)

And, of course, there's a new test suite and sample run-time environment to play with.

All in all, this is a welcome update that resolves a number of issues with SCORM 2004 3rd Edition. Nothing earth-shattering, but a welcome release all the same.

Best Video Conferencing Tools

2009-04-06T09:53:00.000-04:00

Best Video Conferencing Tools - Robin Good's Latest News

Robin Good has posted a useful list of low-cost and free Video Conferencing solutions.

Although Adobe Connect Pro is on the "Multi-party" list, the emphasis is on straight video conferencing, as opposed to standard Web Conferencing (which would include slides, whiteboard, etc.) apps like WebEx or Centra.

Free Language Lesson Podcasts

2009-04-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

Free Foreign Language Lessons | Open Culture:

Open Culture presents a list of free language learning podcasts:

"A great way to learn 37 languages for free. Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Russian and much more."

Nomee Introduces New Social Aggregation Software

2009-04-01T14:36:00.000-04:00

Nomee Introduces New Social Aggregation Software - ReadWriteWeb:

Ok, when I first read this headline on ReadWriteWeb, I thought it said Social Aggression Software. Now THAT would be an application I would like to see! But aggregation can be good too...

Here's the deal, Nomee is:

"a new software application for the purpose of aggregating all your social networking sites into a single desktop experience. [...] Nomee is not just aggregation software - it also functions as a social identity management tool, letting you control which identities are shared with which people. That makes Nomee more like a next-gen social address book than anything else."

100 Free Sites to Learn about Anything

2009-03-30T10:11:00.000-04:00

100 Free Sites to Learn about Anything and Everything:

Jane Hart has done it again with an excellent resource of 100 free sites including general reference resources, how-to guides, wikis, how-to videos, podcasts, courses, lessons, tutorials (including open courseware), e-books as well as other reference resources.

Xobni - Outlook Plugin comes out of beta

2009-03-25T10:29:00.000-04:00

Xobni

A new version of Xobni has been released (1.7), and the Outlook plugin is now officially out of beta.

According to the company, Xobni "saves you time finding email, conversations, contact info & attachments." It adds a sidebar to your Outlook window which allows you to view profiles of the people you're corresponding with and keeps tracks of related messages, phone numbers, and files exchanged.

I noted Xobni when it went into public beta, but reports of slowness and memory hogging kept me away.

The new version is supposed to be much faster, and have less of a memory footprint.

I'm going to give it a try. I'll let you know how it works with my massive email archive (I don't know how to delete).

Cheating SCORM

2009-03-23T10:20:00.002-04:00

pipwerks.com : Cheating in SCORM:

Philip Hutchison points out that the emperor is, in fact, naked. As many of us know, but prefer not to talk much about, SCORM (both 1.2 and 2004) is, on its own, vulnerable to "exploits" (aka cheating).

Philip explains:

"The fact is, SCORM — the most common communication standard in e-learning — is fairly easy to hack. It uses a public JavaScript-based API that is easy to tap into and feed false data, and because it's a standard, you know exactly what methods and properties are available in the API. It doesn't matter what vendor or product produced the course (Articulate, Adobe, etc.)… if it uses SCORM, it's vulnerable."

I have long used a bookmarklet to aid my testing, and can complete, pass, score pretty much as I please in most SCORM environments.

In fact, I've often assumed that users would quickly figure out how to hack the system, and I run regular reports to find the cheaters (there are a number of indicators that would identify likely cheaters, the most simple of which is time... if a two hour course is completed in 5 minutes, you've probably got a cheater on your hands).

As the years go by, however, and no cheaters show up in my net, I've come to realize that either the cheaters are way smarter than me, or they simply aren't out there.

So why isn't the SCORM interface being hacked more often?

1) Security through obscurity - while the interface is published, most "average" users have never even heard of SCORM. It would take some effort to grok the standard. Effort that clearly, most users (in my experience) are not willing to make.

2) Fear of repercussions - cheating is one thing, cheating in such a way that you won't be caught is another. As I pointed out earlier, there are a number of ways cheaters can be detected.

3) Most users actually want to learn. In the world of corporate training, while users may grumble, most actually do want to learn the material presented.

and finally,

4) There are easier ways to cheat.

All the above being said, the issue of security in SCORM is something that LETSI and ADL should be working to address.

animoto - the end of slideshows

2009-03-20T10:19:00.000-04:00

animoto - the end of slideshows

Animoto takes a collection of your photos, some music and automagically mashes them up into a "movie trailer" video. 30 second videos are free, longer ones cost a bit ($3/video).

Actually, pretty cool.

(Via e-Learning Acupuncture)

Storytelling in the Digital Age

2009-03-20T09:50:00.001-04:00

We Tell Stories - 'The 21 Steps' by Charles Cumming

UK design company Six to Start won Best in Show at this week's SXSW Web Awards. Their project, "Telling Stories", was a six part experiment with Penguin books.

The project took mainstream authors, gave them classic novels for inspiration, and then twinned them with a design team to come up with new ways to tell stories online.

All of the stories are worth perusing, but my favorite was Charles Cumming's "The 21 Steps", which is told via a Google Maps style interface (satellite view).

SCORM 2.0 and beyond LETSI seminar

2009-03-19T09:26:00.000-04:00

SCORM 2.0 and beyond LETSI seminar

Sheila MacNeill has a recap of the recent LETSI webinar on the future of SCORM... or whatever it is that they are working on.

Apparently, contrary to earlier announcements, ADL will be retaining stewardship of SCORM, and will NOT be turning it over to LETSI. Instead LETSI will be focusing on what WAS called SCORM 2.0, but will now have a new name.

So what exactly is LETSI going to be doing?

Sheila explains:

... LETSI is not a standards development body or a trade association. It sees itself rooted within the implementation community. LETSI will work with existing bodies to help shorten adoption lifecycles through filling a gap in the current standards community. Specifically by helping to build communities and developing agile software development processes which should speed up consistency of implementation approaches. LETSI will not build a spec if there is an existing one which is fit for purpose and they are currently reviewing a number of standards as part of the SCORM 2.0 scoping work. LETSI hopes to enable a move towards a more agile, iterative standards development process.

More information available on LETSI's website

Forced Navigation - Learning Assembly Line

2009-03-16T08:47:00.000-04:00

Learnlets : Monday Broken ID Series: Seriation:

Clark Quinn discusses linear versus self-navigation in the first of a series of "Broken ID" posts.

One of the benefits to self-paced content over class-room, is that the learner can review the content in a way that makes sense to them. By doing this, they can gain some ownership over the material.

Courses that lock a user into a "click next" linear flow, are forcing all learners into the same mold, regardless of their prior experience, acuity, or understanding.

Imagine if you had a text book that only allowed you to turn to the next page, or back to the prior... would that really be the most effective way to utilize that resource for learning?

Yet it's done all the time in self-paced elearning courses.

Clarks states:

"The point is, while a good default is a reasonable choice, having some alternative paths might be worth considering, and allowing learner navigation is almost essential. Allowing learners to test out is a good option as well. Don’t lock your learners into a linear experience, unless you’ve really designed it as an experience"

New technology - the threat to our information

2009-03-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

New technology - the threat to our information

Norman Lamont informs us all of a threat to corporate communications presented by a piece of new technology. A technology that is becoming increasingly popular ... and potentially dangerous!

Something must be done, before it is too late!

New technology - the threat to our information

View more presentations from normanlamont.

Google Voice takes over from GrandCentral

2009-03-13T08:44:00.001-04:00

Official Google Blog: Here comes Google Voice:

Google announces that they are releasing a preview of Google Voice, "an application that helps you better manage your voice communications".

Based on top of the GrandCentral service that Google acquired in July of 2007, Google Voice will still do what GrandCentral did (a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones, a central voicemail inbox that you could access on the web, and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail) but will add googly goodness:

The new application improves the way you use your phone. You can get transcripts of your voicemail (see the video below) and archive and search all of the SMS text messages you send and receive. You can also use the service to make low-priced international calls and easily access Goog-411 directory assistance.

Check out the Features page for a run-down of what's new with Google Voice.

I just started to get interested in the GrandCentral service when it was acquired by Google. Google has kept the service running, but has disallowed new subscribers. With the launch of Google Voice, Google will be allowing new users again... the launch should be in the next few days.

Out of the new features, I'm particularly interested in the voicemail transcribing.

Convert PowerPoint to SCORM

2009-03-11T17:56:00.001-04:00

Eduforge: Convert PowerPoint to SCORM:

William Peterson of Eduforge posts an quick summary of some of the more popular tools for converting PowerPoint to a SCORM package.

Tools covered are:

Wondershare PowerPoint to Flash
Learning Essentials 2.0
Pointecast Publisher
Articulate Presenter
Adobe Captivate

Creative Commons Zero - Expanding the Public Domain

2009-03-11T12:46:00.001-04:00

Expanding the Public Domain: Part Zero - Creative Commons:

I've volunteered with Librivox (whose volunteers read and record books in the public domain and release the resulting audio files back into the publich domain) since its inception a few years ago, so the public domain is near to my heart.

Creative Commons has has been thinking about ways to "help cultivate a vibrant and rich pool of freely available resources accessible to anyone to use for any purpose, unconditionally". One result of this is CCO (a second as-of-yet unidentified tool will be released soon):

"CC0 (read “CC Zero”) is a universal waiver that may be used by anyone wishing to permanently surrender the copyright and database rights they may have in a work, thereby placing it as nearly as possible into the public domain. CC0 is not a license, but a legal tool that improves on the “dedication” function of our existing, U.S.-centric public domain dedication and certification"

Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles - Tim O'Reilly

2009-03-10T09:59:00.003-04:00

Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles - O'Reilly Radar:

Tim O'Reilly has been asking people to "work on stuff that matters":

"I'm a strong believer in the social value of business done right. We need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts."

His thoughts are worth reading in their entirety, so check the link above for the full article.

I want to focus, though, on his second point:

"Create more value than you capture"

Organizations and systems that seek to capture more value than they give are doomed to eventual failure.

How does this apply to elearning and training?

I've been around in the industry for over a decade now. I've seen training departments who were more interested in their own bottom line and their perceived importance in the organization than they were about what they actually contributed to the people. They were more interested in controlling information, than they were about growing knowledge. Maybe you've known a department like that? Maybe you're still working in one...

Good organizations need to keep an eye on the bottom line, but their "big goal" needs to be about more than simply making money.

When we are thinking about systems to support "training" (or learning, performance support, skill growth, whatever we want to call it), we should be thinking about creating simple tools and structures that will create value for the user.

The Web itself is a great example of this, as is Twitter: simple structures that give value.

In terms of the development of content, remember that the content is not really the goal.

O'Reilly notes about his own publishing business, that he is never upset to find that others have used his ideas to make themselves wildly successful. Even when he finds that his direct competitors have "stolen" from him to make their businesses better. Because his goal wasn't to control all his ideas:

"If my goal is really "changing the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators," I'm thrilled when my competitors jump on the bandwagon and help me spread the word!"

What's the big goal of your department?

What's the big goal on your current project?

Does it create more value than it captures?

Stephen Downes talks about OLDaily and online learning

2009-03-06T09:11:00.001-05:00

Xiphos : Stephen Downes talks about OLDaily and online learning:

Project Xiphos has an interview with Stephen Downes.

Stephen is widely accepted as the central authority for online education in the edublogging community. He is also widely accepted as the originator of ELearning 2.0. He was the winner of the Individual Blog award in 2005 for his blog OLDaily.

You can download the interview as a podcast.

Action Mapping for eLearning Course Design

2009-03-05T10:09:00.002-05:00

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

Cathy Moore explains in the Slideshare presentation linked above and embedded below, how her "Action Mapping" concept works.

You can find more info on her website, cathy-moore.com.

I like the basic principle of linking everything to an measurable business goal, and focusing on what people need to do in order to achieve that goal. This turns traditional corporate training development on its head. Here action mapping technique promotes the development of activities that simulate real world scenarios.

I'm not sure I like the graphical treatment, something about it strikes me as inelegant. But the concepts are solid and should improve instructional design if your organization is still stuck in the "information dump" mode.

... plus, you gotta love ninjas.

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

View more presentations from Cathy Moore. (tags: concept mapping instructional design)

Aren't books dead yet?

2009-03-04T09:54:00.003-05:00

E-Learning Curve Blog: What’s on your e-learning bookshelf?

Michael Hanley lists the e-learning books he keeps on his shelf.

It's startling to find someone who actually keeps books -- books about e-learning. To learn about e-learning, we need books? Physical books, made out of dead trees?

It just seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it?

Couldn't we just have a wiki, and let the collective intelligence of the learning community build the perfect resource?

Do you have any books hiding in your closet?

The Authors Guild's Next Target?

2009-03-04T09:41:00.001-05:00

Life Rocks 2.0: Listen to Website Content with Internet Text Speaker

Life Rocks 2.0 points to a freeware application that will read web content aloud:

"Internet Text Speaker is a freeware utility which can speak any selected text from any website. Internet Text Speaker once installed will integrates itself to the Internet Explorer and Firefox context menu i.e. the right click menu. Whenever you want to listen to any text on the website, select the text and then right click and choose Speak Text option."

Given the recent decision by Amazon to cave to the Authors Guild regarding the text-to-speech feature in the Kindle2, I wonder whether applications like this will be next to be attacked by writers and the publishing industry.

After all, this tool is designed to create unlicensed derivative works…

A Vision of 2019

2009-03-03T07:55:00.001-05:00

Microsoft Office Labs vision 2019 (montage video) - istartedsomething

At the Wharton Business Technology Conference, Microsoft’s Business Division president, Stephen Elop, unveiled the latest video production from Microsoft Office Labs called “2019″. This is part of a series called "Envisioning".

You can view the video at the link at the top of this post (both the short "montage" and the full-length piece).

Download Mr. Elop's PowerPoint presentation for more detail on Microsoft's vision.

The visualization of ubiquity is what most interested me. Flexible, unbreakable, transparent displays, "pico projection" (the ability for small handheld devices to project full-size images onto any flat surface), and 3D transparent overlays, will truly introduce the age of computing ubiquity. While now our cellphones, GPS units, and netbooks allow tiny portals into the digital world that walks beside us, future devices will allow an almost seamless integration of digital and physical.

Doodling boosts memory?

2009-03-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

A Sketchy Brain Booster: Doodling | Wired Science from Wired.com:

Wired examines a study that finds doodling may help students pay attention.

"Asked to remember names they'd heard on a recording, people who doodled while listening had better recall than those who didn't. This suggests that a slightly distracting secondary task may actually improve concentration during the performance of dull tasks that would otherwise cause a mind to wander."

Before we ask all our students to start doodling during lessons, or provide online doodle tools for our elearning content, it should be noted that the study found that doodling helps subjects pay attention during "dull" tasks.

The subjects were asked to memorize a string of random names, with no context.

"'People may doodle as a strategy to help themselves concentrate,' said study co-author Jackie Andrade, a University of Plymouth psychologist. 'We might not be aware that we're doing it, but it could be a trick that people develop because it helps them from wandering off into a daydream.'"

So doodling may be a mechanism to stop people from tuning out altogether. But there is no evidence to suggest that it enhances learning where the content is engaging and relevant to the learner and provided in context.

Also, like the recent study regarding podcasts, the sample size in this study was rather limited. 40 students were studied, half doodled, while the other half did not.

Study: Podcasts enhance learning?

2009-02-27T09:07:00.002-05:00

Study: class podcasts can lead to better grades - Ars Technica:

Jacqui Cheng examines a study performed by State University of New York (SUNY) Fredonia psychologist Dani McKinney. The study suggests that students who download a podcast version of a university lecture tend to perform better academically, than those who don't.

There are a few problems with the study, the first of which is the small sample size. Only 64 students in a single class were studied. I'm not sure how any conclusions can be drawn from such a small sample.

However, Cheng points out something that perhaps has more bearing. She notes that the podcast group was being compared with a group that attended a live lecture and received printed slides :

"I know from experience that many students think that printed slides are merely notes in prepackaged form."

So, even if we accept the findings, it may not be the podcast per se, but rather the style of note-taking it engenders that enhances learning:

"McKinney acknowledged that the students who downloaded the podcast simply seemed to do better with taking notes and paying closer attention to what was being said, as they were able to go back and repeat parts of the lecture they had trouble understanding. 'It isn't so much that you have a podcast, it's what you do with it,' she told New Scientist."

Effective note taking is a form of gaining ownership of the content. It is a way of personalizing and integrating new knowledge into our personal frame of reference. If a podcast can enhance a student's ability to make effective notes, it is little wonder that it's use may see an increase in test scores.

Note Taking and Learning: A Summary of Research by Françoise Boch, Stendhal University, and Annie Piolat, University of Provence is an interesting read in relevance to this. It also contains a useful reference section pointing to further studies.

A SCORM By Any Other Name...

2009-02-26T09:51:00.002-05:00

LETSI Blog - Name the Next SCORM:

LETSI, the group that was formed to steward the next generation of ADL's SCORM interoperability model, has decided to abandon the SCORM name, in favor of something more fitting the new challenges faced.

"We are going to leave SCORM’s constraints behind and change the name of LETSI’s interoperability framework."

So SCORM 2.0 won't be SCORM... but something new. And you can be the one to name it! Check out the linked article and submit your ideas to LETSI. Not sure if there is a prize for the winning name, however (there should be, if there isn't!), but you will guarantee your fame in the eLearning community... at least until the next, next generation...

Also, check out the SCORM 2.0 Assumption document that helps to explain what the new "thing" is intended to be.

Enterprise 2.0 Packages reviewed

2009-02-26T09:34:00.000-05:00

Jive, Lotus Connections and Socialtext | Jon Mell - Web 2.0 ideas and strategy:

Jon Mell looks at three social software platforms being marketed to the corporate world.

Here are the conclusions, but check the article for more detail:

"Jive - strongest discussion feature, the most depth in terms of customisation, the most “rounded” in terms of general use, has “Community” offering for public-facing projects. Subscription based pricing.

Connections - strongest profile features, excellent at finding expertise. One-off perpetual license model. Significant improvements coming in the Summer release. Can be used as a social operating system to power other applications

Socialtext - strongest wiki and status features, has offline capability and Sharepoint integration. Available as an appliance. Desktop client could have a dramatic impact on adoption"

The Future of Corporate Training : Karrer on Cross

2009-02-25T08:51:00.001-05:00

Corporate Training : eLearning Technology

Tony Karrer makes some excellent points in a commentary on Jay Cross's "eLearning is not the Answer".

In terms of Push versus Pull Learning, Karrer notes that, while learning professionals may wish it were otherwise,

80%+ of what everyone experiences is a continuous stream of requests for push learning with little to no opportunity to do something else.

E.Learning Age 2009 Awards Launched

2009-02-25T08:27:00.000-05:00

E.Learning Age Magazine's 2009 E-Learning Awards

The UK's e.learning age Magazine is seeking entries for its 2009 E-Learning Awards.

Last year's awards were announced in November and can be found here.

The ‘Least Assistance’ Principle

2009-02-24T09:45:00.001-05:00

Learnlets : The ‘Least Assistance’ Principle:

Clark Quinn makes some points about the role of rapid elearning and social learning tools. Similar to yesterday's post about "half designed" courses, he brings up the concept of "least assistance". What is the least assistance we can provide that will still help learners meet their goals?

Part of the key to both the "least assistance" principle and the "imperfect" design ideas of yesterday's post is that the system must support the learner's goals... not the training department's goals.

"we shouldn’t give people what they don’t need, instead we need to focus on what the ‘least assistance’ we can give them is.

In many cases, the least assistance we can give is self-help, which is why I believe social learning tools are one of the best investments that can be made. The answer may well be ‘out there’, and rather than for learning designers to try to track it down and capture it, the learner can send out the need and there’s a good chance an answer will come back!"

Over-designed, heavy courses may meet the desires and goals of the training department, but they may not always meet the true needs of the learners or the organization as a whole.

The Beauty of the Imperfect

2009-02-23T12:27:00.001-05:00

Why Doing Things Half Right Gives You the Best Results - HarvardBusiness.org

Donald Clark (Big Dog, Little Dog) points to an article on HarvardBusiness.org that talks about the importance of "half design". For the perfectionists among us, this might be a hard concept to grasp, but I feel it has some validity.

When designing systems for elearning (or software in general), designers often strive for as close to perfect as they can get. When Peter Bregman, the author of the article, was in the midst of design cycle, he came to a realization that:

My perfect is not [the user's] perfect.
They don't have a perfect. In fact, there is no they. There are [...] individuals, each of whom wants something a little different.
The more perfect I think it is, the less willing I'll be to let anyone change it.
The only way to make it useful to everyone is to allow each person to change it to suit him or herself.
The only way people will use it is if they do change it in some way.
The only way I will encourage them to change it and make it their own is if I make it imperfect.

I'm not sure I completely buy point 5... I've used, and even liked, systems that I was unable to change or alter in any way. However, there is no doubt that the feelings of ownership and empowerment that come with making a system your own is an excellent motivator.

In his training, Bregman asked his participants the critical question:

Why won't this work for you?

And then, regardless of what they said, followed up with:

That's a good point. So how can you change it to make it work?

So, how can you leave your training unfinished? Do you dare to ask: "Why won't this work for you"? How can you allow your learners to take ownership and fill in the blanks themselves?

Practice, Practice, Practice!

2009-02-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

Clark Aldrich's Style Guide for Serious Games and Simulations: Commentary: On Practice:

My Dad used to say that there were three ways to get good at something: "practice, practice, practice". And, of course, he was right (though I'll admit, I didn't like hearing it at the time. It was usually preface to me doing something I didn't want to do ... namely, work hard. My father's other favorite phrase was: "hard work's nae easy").

Clark Aldrich, the guru of simulation, has an article exploring the importance of practice in learning:

"Concepts that seem simple, narrow, and isolated when written are deep, complex, and extendable when modeled in simulations."

"Simple theories take practice to use successfully, and the simplest rules when applied intuitively are more powerful than the broadest database or the most complex process. This inverts entire curricula."

It's one thing to teach a concept, it's quite another to provide the tools and the support that allow someone to truly master a skill.

Clark also points to an excellent article in Fortune magazine called "Secrets of Greatness" (hint: there are three ways to become great at something...).

Whatever You Do... Don't Choke

2009-02-18T09:06:00.001-05:00

How to Avoid Choking under Pressure: Scientific American:

Scientific American points to recent studies in performance and "choking" under pressure. It has interesting implications for those involved in learning and training. The studies indicate that if we engage our critical mindset while attempting to perform a high-pressure task, we are more likely to fail.

"The idea that too much self-monitoring hinders performance aligns with the well-established theory of how the brain learns to perform complex motor skills—anything from speaking to typing to cradling a lacrosse ball. The part of our brain that is most involved in learning a new task is the cerebral cortex, which controls higher-order, conscious thought and is adaptable to novel situations. But as we play a piece of music or practice a speech over and over again, we gradually transfer the control of that activity from the cerebral cortex to another area of the brain, the cerebellum, which orchestrates the lightning-fast motor activation needed to perform complex actions"

This is well-known in sports training ("muscle memory"), but not always considered with knowledge work.

In a study of golfers, it was found that those individuals who focused on a holistic single-word cue (e.g. "smooth" or "forceful") performed best (as opposed to those who tried to focus on multiple concepts or those who focused on random words).

In a separate study, it was found that those who practiced under high-pressure conditions (perhaps unsurprisingly), performed best under pressure.

These results indicate that turning up the heat from the very first day of practice may be one of the most effective ways to immunize yourself against blowing it. “Performers train and train, but it’s not that common to specifically train under these kinds of psychological constraints,” Oudejans says. “They’re trained in how to play their game, but they don’t train under pressure, so they fail.”

So, how can you ratchet up the pressure during training... particularly during online training?

28 Web Conference Training Tips

2009-02-17T10:07:00.001-05:00

28 Web Conference Training Tips

Syberworks, an LMS and web conferencing solution provider, has posted an article listing 28 tips for web conference training. Most of them are well-known and obvious, but there are still some good thoughts worth reviewing, even for seasoned veterans.

Here are some highlights:

2. When developing PowerPoint slides to use in web conference training, follow these guidelines:
Simplify content.
Use a large, bold, simple font like Arial.
Have no more than 6 to 8 lines of text per page (fewer are better).
Make no more than 4 to 5 training points per page (fewer are better).
Use plain backgrounds that contrast well with the text without clashing.
If possible, avoid complex animations (i.e. no spinning text, etc.)
5. Test all aspects of your presentation ahead of time. (Enlist the help of an online facilitator or a student for these tests.)

12. Limit each session to 60 - 90 minutes. Longer sessions are not productive.

13. Limit your audience. When possible, keep the number of people attending small. (No more than six people are best.)

14. You might want to ask your technical people to set up a dual monitor configuration on your PC (or laptops) for you, so that your presentation appears on one display (as others are seeing it), while your delivery screens and notes appear on the other.

19. Have more than one Web Conference option ready to use. Then, if some participants can’t connect, you can create a new conference on the spot, with different conference tools.

27. Follow up with your learners after their web-conference training. This could be by email or perhaps even through a test to gauge their understanding of the material.

28. Keep a log of all training and notes. It can help improve your future training.

Skimming the New York Times

2009-02-16T08:37:00.000-05:00

The New York Times has released a new tool, which is currently being called Article Skimmer.

The idea is to recreate the experience of spreading out and scanning the Sunday New York Times. The form factor of the newspaper (particularly one as weighty as the Sunday Times), has many inherent benefits. The tactile nature of the experience is one thing that, to date, the Internet cannot match. However, NYT's Article Skimmer tries to capture the essence of skimming or scanning through the sections of the Times in order to spot articles of interest (that we might never find through the NYT's standard interface).

I like the clean no-nonsense look of the Skimmer. The skimmer seems a much "quieter" experience when compared to the main page, where screen real estate seems to be used to compete for my attention. I also like how new articles in the skimmer are presented on a white background while older articles are gradually faded with gray backgrounds. The keyboard shortcuts are also a nice touch.

In all, a pleasant reading experience... we'll see how long it lasts.

Is the Relational Database Doomed?

2009-02-13T10:43:00.000-05:00

Is the Relational Database Doomed? - ReadWriteWeb:

ReadWriteWeb has a well-written article on the new contender to challenge the long-standing dominance of the Relational database. As an old-school database developer from back in the day, I've seen a lot of reports about the death of the relational model.

"Relational databases have been around for over 30 years. During this time, several so-called revolutions flared up briefly, all of which were supposed to spell the end of the relational database. All of those revolutions fizzled out, of course, and none even made a dent in the dominance of relational databases."

But with the rising trend of cloud computing, Key/Value databases that thrive in the cloud are gaining ground. Though unlikely to unseat the RDBMS, key/value databases have some definite strengths.

The article analyzes some popular cloud-service contenders: SimpleDB, Google AppEngine Datastore, and SQL Data Services, as well as some non-cloud contenders such as CouchDB, Project Voldemort, Mongo, and Drizzle.

Can you spot what's wrong? The Quality Content Question

2009-02-13T10:30:00.001-05:00

Content Quality : eLearning Technology:

Tony Karrer makes a great point about one of the fears people have about Learning 2.0 style tools.

When people consider installing tools that are "freeform", a worry often arises that "bad" content will be posted and seen by users. In this case "bad" could be something untrue, damaging to the company, or just poorly written, confusing or misleading.

Karrer counters this by stating that the individual who posted the "bad" content, is probably already distributing their ideas via email, conversations with associates, etc. Web 2.0 tools have the ability to "shine light" on mistaken concepts by putting mistakes out in the open where they can be corrected.

If your system is to be truly successful, you want your user population to do the correcting themselves.

Karrer points out:

People (especially employees) enjoy the opportunity to find things that are wrong, tell you why its are wrong, and maybe correct them.

It's a natural instinct to correct each other, the challenge is to make it easy and safe to do so.

But is it Enterprise 2.0?

2009-02-11T08:50:00.003-05:00

As business struggle to implement "2.0" tool-sets within their organizations, The question of precisely what "2.0" means in the context of tools for business is becoming increasingly important. Long-held assumptions and conventions within the corporate world can make the shift a difficult one.

Andrew McAfee (Associate Professor in the Technology and Operations Management area at Harvard Business School and coiner of the term “Enterprise 2.0”) outlines what, in his mind, defines an “Enterprise 2.0” application (a web 2.0 application for business use).

I Know It When I See It

Here are his criteria for 2.0:

• Is it freeform?
• How frictionless is contribution?
• And is it emergent?

Freeform means “that the technology does not in any meaningful way impose, hardwire, or make and enforce assumptions about
- Workflows
- Roles
- Privileges
- Content
- Decision right allocations
Instead, people come together as equals within the environment created by technology, and do pretty much whatever they want.”

Frictionless means “that users perceive it to be easy to participate in the platform, and can do so with very little time or effort.”

Emergent (in this context) means “the appearance over time within a system of higher-level patterns or structure arising from large numbers of unplanned and undirected low-level interactions […] activities that help patterns and structure appear, and that let the cream of the content rise to the top for all platform members, no matter how they define what the cream is.”

“Too many corporate collaboration environments that I’ve observed, in contrast, come up short on the frictionless and freeform criteria. They make it far too difficult for prospective users to contribute, and they persist in slotting people into pre-assigned roles based largely on the formal org chart. In many cases they also impede emergence by having many small and mutually inaccessible environments, instead of one big one.”

Lovely Charts - Online diagramming tool

2009-02-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

Jane's E-Learning Pick of the Day: Lovely Charts:

Jane Hart points out a cute online tool called "Lovely Charts".

Lovely Charts is an online diagramming application that allows you to create professional looking diagrams of all kinds, such as flowcharts, sitemaps, organisational charts, wireframes, and many more - for free.

while it may not have all the feature of Visio, the charts and diagrams it creates a attractive and the tool is easy to use. Great for including in presentations.

Locking E-Learning Course Navigation

2009-02-05T09:04:00.000-05:00

The Rapid eLearning Blog has a nicely written article arguing against "navigation locking":

Does President Obama Support Locking Your e-Learning Content?

The gist of the article is that “locking” navigation, or forcing users to view all content, is needlessly constraining and unproductive.

Part of the hurdle, I feel, in gaining adoption of this concept is that course owners invest a great deal of time and effort in the development of content... it seems counter-intuitive to allow users not to view all of it.

Here are some quotes from the article:

Unlock access to information. Think of your course content like a supermarket. The shelves are filled with all sorts of items. Give the learners a shopping list (performance expectations) and let them do the shopping.

If you send them to the store and they come back in 10 minutes (because they already knew where everything was located) or an hour later (because they needed to orient themselves) it makes no difference. You’re not assessing them on how they shopped. You’re assessing them on buying the right products on the list.

Let the learners prove what they understand. Whether the learner looks at a screen or not is irrelevant. What’s relevant is that they know the information well enough to demonstrate understanding.

Don’t make your course linear. […]By using a linear approach you hinder your options and possibly make the course less effective.

Tom suggests using a scenario-based approach by placing the learning in situations where they need to make decisions relevant to the goals of the course. Although he cautions:

This doesn’t need to be a complex design process with elaborate scenarios. It could be simple problem solving questions that guide them through the information.

Hard to argue with this!

Adobe Captivate's SCORM Packager

2009-02-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

The Adobe Captivate Blog: SCORM Packager:
Auromita Bhadra on Adobe's Captivate Blog, states:

"A new addition to Captivate 4 is a separate application called SCORM Packager. It can be used to combine multiple Captivate SCOs, Flash Created swfs, Presenter quiz, Course builder quizzes into a single multi-sco SCORM package (zip). It extends Captivate’s capability of creating a SCORM enabled package by allowing user to combine these packages. This application will be useful when SCORM complaint courses created by different users have to be clubbed together into a single package."

The tool can export in SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 formats.

Usability testing on the cheap

2009-02-03T10:24:00.003-05:00

elearningpost : Usability testing on the cheap

Elearningpost has some great tips for economical usability testing. The UserFly site is particularly interesting:

A friend of mine asked me about doing usability testing on the cheap. Thought I'd share some apps and websites I have bookmarked.

* Userfly - This is a new service and could become the next big thing. It captures user sessions on video and overlays it with screen interactions.
* Silverback - Mac only app that uses the video cam on the mac to record user reactions and screen interactions. I use this frequently.
* Ethnio - Online recruitment for conducting usability studies, focus groups and surveys.
* Usertesting - Low cost usability testing. Captures user sessions on video.

Flash on the iPhone - Apple and Adobe collaborate

2009-02-02T09:41:00.000-05:00

Bloomberg.com: News:

Adobe Systems Inc. faces a challenge in creating a version of its Flash video software for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen said.

“It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating,” Narayen said today in a Bloomberg Television interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “The ball is in our court. The onus is on us to deliver.”

Last year, Steve Jobs said that Flash was too slow for the iPhone, and that "Flash Lite" wasn't capable enough. Apple wants Adobe to write a new version of Flash specifically for the iPhone.

It's unclear how successful this collaboration will be, or when/if Flash will ever come to the iPhone. One should never discount Apple, I suppose, but it seems ridiculous to put significant effort into tooling an application for a single handset, even one as popular as the iPhone.

Hopefully the "new" version of Flash will be useful for more than just iPhone.

Concise writing is best for elearning � Making Change

2009-01-30T08:44:00.000-05:00

Concise writing is best for elearning � Making Change:

Cathy Moore points to some research that indicates that lessons with more words result in poorer test scores.

"The study compared three lessons about the same weather process. All lessons used the same illustrations but varied in the number of words.

The lesson with the fewest words resulted in the most learning."

Elearning!: Learning Leaders 2008

2009-01-30T08:41:00.000-05:00

Elearning!: Learning Leaders 2008:

"The 2008 Learning Leaders [...] represent a wide range of innovative solutions to training and business challenges. The 26 winners of this annual program from Elearning! magazine and Bersin & Associates include 16 organizations from across the telecommunications, technology, military, manufacturing, consulting and retail segments and 10 providers of training and development solutions and services."

Here's the run-down on the "Vendor Innovation" category:

> Allen Communication Learning Services: The Allen Learning Portal.
> Brainshark: a YouTube-like open market for e-learning.
>InnerWorkings: a structured learning and testing environment integrated within Microsoft Visual Studio.
> Kognito Interactive: The Investigator is a Web-based, interactive learning simulation.
> Mzinga: Social Learning Suite
> NIIT: a global LMS.
> PDI Ninth House: “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Interactive Edition”.
> Richardson: Richardson QuickSkills, a package of Web-based courses.
> Saba: The Saba Knowledge Center
> Suddenly Smart: SmartBuilder v3 Flash-based Web e-learning development platform.

Rapid authoring for immersive 3D games

2009-01-27T14:56:00.001-05:00

Clive on Learning: Rapid authoring for immersive games and sims:

Clive Shepherd points to an upcoming release of a 3D "elearning" game engine:

"Caspian Learning's Thinking Worlds, the first tool that I know of to support the rapid creation of immersive, single-player 3D worlds for learning."

The product looks interesting, although I have to say that, in general I frown on the use of 3D... unless it is actually warranted by the material (e.g. the 3D representation of an engine part has clear learning value to a mechanic). Just being able to walk around with a 3D avatar and answer multiple choice questions does not good learning make.

2009 Horizon Report | EDUCAUSE CONNECT

2009-01-26T09:17:00.000-05:00

2009 Horizon Report | EDUCAUSE CONNECT: "The annual Horizon Report is a collaborative effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Each year, the report identifies and describes six areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education within three adoption horizons: a year or less, two to three years, and four to five years.
The areas of emerging technology cited for 2009 are:
• Mobiles (i.e., mobile devices)
• Cloud computing
• Geo-everything (i.e., geo-tagging)
• The personal web
• Semantic-aware applications
• Smart objects"

e-Clippings (Learning As Art): The U.S. Air Force: Moving Full Scale Into Social Media

2009-01-23T08:58:00.000-05:00

e-Clippings (Learning As Art): The U.S. Air Force: Moving Full Scale Into Social Media: "The U.S. Air Force: Moving Full Scale Into Social Media"

Mark Oehlert has an interesting post about how the USAF is utilizing Web 2.0. He points to a longer article by David Meerman Scott:

http://www.webinknow.com/2008/12/the-us-air-force-armed-with-social-media.html

What Happens to Training during a Recession?

2009-01-19T09:18:00.002-05:00

The article below is from August of 2008, but as the Recession continues to deepen and the ripple effects are being felt everywhere, I think it is as relevant as ever (although it tends to understate the effect that the recession will have on corporate training initiatives):

Steady Under Pressure: Training During a Recession

"The current climate is causing many training leaders to step back, if not cut back, and rethink how they deliver training."

Udutu Online Course Authoring

2008-12-31T10:16:00.002-05:00

On principle, I'm leery of "simple" course authoring tools. They certainly have their place, but I've been disappointed with a lot of tools that end up restricting users into proprietary formats and systems.

Udutu is a Canadian company that offers an online course authoring tool as well as a hosting environment and a number of other things that I haven't fully sussed out yet. They appear to make their money from hosting elearning content ($1/screen per month...).

The core offering is a free to use authoring system that allows users to built simple self-paced elearning courses. What I like about the system is a) it's free and b) it allows you to export a SCORM package that you can import into your own environment.

As for the rest of the offerings (hosting, Facebook apps, etc.), I'll need to investigate a bit further. But it does look like a tool that could meet a need for rapid development of SCORM based courseware.

Sheriff's Dept Utilizes "Podcasting" for Training

2008-12-30T10:04:00.002-05:00

Orange County Sheriff’s Dept. Tapping the Power of Podcasting.

An interesting case study from Apple on how the OCSD is utilizing Apple's Podcast Publisher software to create and distribute "podcasts" (primarily video, it appears) for training and information dissemination.

“Podcast Producer enables us to almost instantly create audio or video content and deliver it in several different formats,” says James. “That’s in contrast to the weeks it used to take for our video unit to produce training content or communications.”

The case study is mostly a marketing piece for Podcast Producer, and doesn't get into details about how and when the officers primarily access the content (one picture has sheriff watching a video on his cruiser's computer display... is that really typical?), what the user's opinion of the initiative is, how the content is mixed with other formats, etc.

I would be interested in finding out more about how this initiative was implemented, where it fits into their overall training program, and what has been most and least effective.

from elearningpost

Jane Hart's Review of 2008: 100 great articles

2008-12-29T09:08:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again, when people either look forward or look back in review.

The wonderful Jane Hart of C4LPT.org (Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies) keeps track of e-learning resources and tools across the web, and she has compiled a list of her favorite articles from 2008:

Review of 2008: 100 great articles

This is an awesome list, with articles from the likes of Jay Cross, George Siemens, Donald Clark, Stephen Downes, and many others.

Do yourself a favour and peruse this list.

JamStudio - Online Music Factory

2008-12-28T10:50:00.003-05:00

JamStudio is a online "web 2.0" type tool for creating songs and music.

I thought this was an interesting site for a number of reasons. One, it looks like a fun gizmo to tinker with. Second, it looks like a great playground or sandbox to help teach kids (or anyone looking to learn music) about chord progressions and simple composition.

The tool is "free", but most of the useful features which make it more than a time-waster are available through a subscription. I like, however, that they have made the application available for free to teachers and their students (though teachers must apply for an "educational grant").

A tool like this that allows students to play and create, and then share the results with their teachers and fellow students seems excellent. Of course, like most useful tools, the challenge would be for the teacher to make the best use of it.

The interface is a little cluttered, but seems relatively intuitive... I got the gist of it in just a few minutes, and I'm not stellar musician by any means.

Got Web2.0 sussed yet? Check this chart out! | julian101.com

2008-09-03T08:51:00.000-04:00

The article below links to a well laid out graphic that identifies the major features of Web 2.0:

Got Web2.0 sussed yet? Check this chart out! | julian101.com

EPSS - Performance Support Alive & Well ... as Web 2.0

2008-08-27T08:13:00.002-04:00

Jay Cross has a great post examining the history of "Electronic Performance Support Systems" (EPSS) and how it relates to so-called Web 2.0 tools being used in organizations today.

In 1991 Gloria Gery described EPSS as:

…an integrated electronic environment that is available to and easily accessible by each employee and is structured to provide immediate, individualised on-line access to the full range of information, software, guidance, advice and assistance, data, images, tools, and assessment and monitoring systems to permit job performance with minimal support and intervention by others.

Sound familiar? It should. As Jay says:

Overall, what are corporate blogs, feeds, aggregators, wikis, mash-ups, locator systems, collaboration environments, and widgets, if not performance support?

Jay makes a clear distinction between Performance Support and traditional "e-learning" which is thought of as instruction. Providing just-in-time information is not instruction, but what difference does it make... as long as it gets the job done?

Web 2.0 tools focus not on perfecting the competence of an individual but producing a supportive network that sustains and builds organizational competence. Jay states:

We have given up the idea that competence must exist within the person. Competence exists within our collaborators and within the net.

The challenge for today's "training departments" (whatever they may currently label themselves) is how to create a cooperative interplay between traditional e-learning and Web 2.0 "Performance Support" systems.

Obligatory First Post

2008-08-26T10:08:00.000-04:00

This blog will be a repository for items which catch my interest regarding online learning and training, and for my reflections on industry trends and the outlook on future developments.