So I took all the information and put it into an ebook. The book itself contains a lot of information but it still didn’t seem like enough. Instead of adding more information into the book, I decided to create a series of video tutorials that further expanded on the theories and techniques mentioned in the ebook.

I truly feel that anyone that uses the ebook and tutorials can learn to create rapid elearning within a few weeks. I also give some advice on how to market yourself and your newly created portfolio.

If you are interested in purchasing the ebook, please visit the link below:

www.learntoelearn.com

That’s where my title comes into play. Too many corporations have fallen under the false assumption that presentations=training. By definition, a presentation is the act of formally presenting something.  It is also a pretty one-sided conversation. The presenter talks and we listen. That does not make for good training. I won’t go into what it takes to create good training, but the most important rule to follow is this: engage your learner. When you find yourself standing and talking for long periods of time, you have ceased to be a “trainer” and have transitioned into a “presenter.” I’m not sure about you, but I don’t like to hear someone talk for hours on end. No matter how brilliant they are, I can only handle so much information dumped on me at once.

Save the presentations for multi-level marketing schemes. I’ll take a good old training session any day.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

And, for some reason, the screen looks small when you play it directly on the page so I would suggest enlarging it as you play it.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

The day of the class arrived and we were joined by our honored guests. One was a thin, lanky young woman with large maroon glasses and a slight lisp. The other was a tall, heavyset man with a thick beard and a thicker Texan accent.  As we found out, both had written novels that were published within that year. Both novels were fiction: one was a detective story and the other a work of science fiction. As they took their seats at the front of the lecture hall, we couldn’t wait to let the questions fly. Before answering questions however, they first gave us some background information. The woman was in law school and had graduated with a degree in international business. The man was a full time author, with two more books in the works, and he had graduated with a degree in computer science.

Once we learned that neither of these authors had come from our literary school, we began scratching our heads. How was it that two authors, releasing fiction novels in the same year, had come from outside our school while not one of our literary graduate students had published a novel within the last five years? It was disconcerting to us to say the least.

After the pleasantries were out of the way, we were unleashed on these poor unsuspecting souls and the floodgates burst open. The questions flew. How do you feel about the use of narrative distance? Are you a fan of dramatic irony in works of fiction? Do you prefer your narrator to be omniscient or first person? These types of questions went on for about 20 minutes. The woman attempted to answer them but she stuttered and fumbled and we knew she was not speaking our language. The man, however, answered all our questions with one statement. And this statement was made with utter confidence and astuteness. His answer was this: “I don’t know what any of those literary terms mean; I just know when something looks right to me.”

This man had never taken a writing class; he didn’t know an allegory from alliteration. But he knew when something felt right to him.

You may be asking how this relates to instructional design and I’ll answer you with this. You don’t need any kind of formal training in instructional design to know when something feels right to you. If a course feels boring and you know you can spice it up with some interactions or activities, you are being a good instructional designer. If, when designing an elearning course, you feel that you need to give some context to your learners, you are being a good instructional designer. You may never have heard of ADDIE or Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, but you know when a course is effective and flows. You know all of this because you have been on the other end of learning. You have taken a course that you found dull or ineffective and you know what you would have done to make it better.

If you truly care about your learner, you are already on your way to becoming an effective instructional designer.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

I came upon a wonderful example of this type of scenario. It’s not animated; rather it’s more like a graphic novel. You are introduced to a few characters and you are immediately thrust into a real life situation. The style really works in the example and you tend to forget you are training because you are sucked into the narrative. Here is the link to the blog post:

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2010/05/elearning-example-branching-scenario/#more-979

As elearning developers, this is what we should strive for; it’s entertaining, engaging and informative. Don’t be fooled; It is time consuming to create something like this (as you’ll learn from reading the blog post) but definitely worth it.

Just an aside, if any of you are into comics (or have kids that are into comics) and have an Iphone, you need to check out the Marvel Comics app. It’s a great example of creating the illusion of animation without actually animating anything. This is something very important to elearning developers who don’t have time to animate but want something with a little movement.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

Join me at the BYOL Elearning Conference in November!

I just found that I will be conducting my seminar “Instructional Design Techniques for Rapid Elearning” at the BYOL Elearning conference in November. I’m including the link below so anyone interested can check out the site. I’ve never been to this conference so I’m not sure exactly what to expect. The concept is to conduct brief, hands on learning sessions that cover a wide variety of topics related to elearning. I’m excited to be able to present my seminar, but I’m also really looking forward to attending a few as well.

As far as my seminar goes, I’m not sure how long I will have. I’m hearing from 1 to 3 hours max. I’m hoping to get over an hour but I can live with whatever they decide. I could get a full day out of my material, with all the hands on, but I’ll just have to wait for another opportunity. I guess that gives me some time to fully develop certain aspects of the course.

Well, anyway, check it out and hope to see you there. And if you are there, sign up for my seminar!

http://www.byol.com/

However, instructional designers are partly to blame for this situation. We haven’t been able to explain why we are important to the training process. We haven’t explained our value and the benefits we provide to the company as a whole.

I completely agree with this statement and the more I think about it, the more I reflected on my own career path. I started out as in instructional designer, creating instructor led classes and writing facilitation manuals. However, about two years into my ID tenure I was forced to make a serious career decision. I was working in the transportation industry when 9/11 happened. Needless to say, my particular company was hit hard and travel dropped off sharply. Because of this, they were forced to start cutting from the budget; and of course, training was the first to suffer. My company deemed classroom training (mainly the cost of travel and boarding for trainers) too expensive and the decision was made to convert our current classes to elearning.

At the time, I had dabbled in elearning but was far from a guru. I was given the option to stay and become an elearning developer or transfer to another department and become a technical writer. Well, I am fairly computer savvy and pick up new software quickly, so I stayed on as an elearning developer. The rest is history.

My point is that I did not explain my value or benefit because I was not given the opportunity. The decision was made for me. All the pleading and reasoning in the world could not have kept my position from being eliminated. I fear this is true for many people in our industry. There will always be classroom training but it has become limited. And when it is needed, trainers will create it.

The shift is now towards elearning and mobile learning. I believe this is where we need to focus our attention and efforts. We need to prove why we are important in the creation of these modes of training. The transition might be tough for some but my belief is that a good ID can create any kind of training; no matter what the delivery method

All this being said, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe classroom training will make a comeback and IDs will once again become valuable members of their training organizations. But it couldn’t hurt to have a backup plan. I had one and it turned out okay for me.

I would love to hear from others regarding your career path. How did you get there and was it by choice?

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

But by turning down these missions, or performing them incorrectly, you affect and alter the storyline; any of you familiar with the Choose Your Own Adventure books can understand this concept. But there is a big difference between this game and the books. With Choose Your Own Adventure books you make a decision and are taken on a completely different storyline path. In Red Dead Redemption, you make a decision and your storyline is only slightly altered. You can still reach the same ending but sometimes you make it harder on your character and sometimes you make it easier. It’s completely up to you.

So where am I going with this? The more I play the game, the more I think that it would make a great elearning course. Just imagine creating a course that puts the hero in numerous scenarios with the ability to alter his or her final outcome. I know this concept of scenario based learning is nothing new. I’ve created plenty of these courses myself, but most of the scenarios result in simple cause and effect outcomes. You present the learner with a scenario, she makes a decision based on the information provided to her and she’s told if she’s correct or not.

I’m talking about taking elearning scenarios to the next level. Why not put the learner in a scenario where there is no right or wrong answer, only a decision? The next scenario is dynamically created based on the decision that precedes it. No feedback is provided until the end of the course because, think about it: when we make decisions in life, we don’t get immediate feedback. No thought bubbles pop up and tell us if we are right or wrong. We just continue to our next decision and hope for the best.

In this new type of elearning, only when reaching the end of the course is the feedback revealed. Once the course is complete, we tell the learner what she could have done differently or how she could have come to this conclusion in a much easier fashion. Allowing the learner to reach the end of the course provides a sense of closure, much like a good novel. The main problem with current scenario based elearning is that the scenarios are seldom tied together to form a coherent narrative. With this new type of scenario, the lack of feedback during the course lends itself to an improved flow and makes the learning seem more organic.

Now I know that creating a course like this will be difficult. The amount of programming and behind the scenes research will probably be substantial. But the payoff could be magnificent. This type of course would appeal to a younger generation of learners, those who do not buy into our current (and sometimes outdated) elearning models. And this type of learning could get younger people more interested in the actual creation of elearning. Every kid wants to make video games for a living. Why not “elearning” video games?

FYI – the name of this post is based on the maker of Red Dead Redemption: Rockstar Games.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

The more clients I deal with, the more I have come to realize that instructional design is dying a slow and unceremonious death. In the past (8 to 10 years ago), instructional designers were present in most training departments. Keep in mind that this was before elearning gained moderate popularity in most corporations. The instructional designers were there to mainly create instructor led training classes. They usually worked hand in hand with trainers and SMEs and had a significant say so in the development of classes.

Now, fast forward to the present. Not only are dedicated instructional designers becoming rarer, the process of instructional design is being bypassed altogether. As corporations move away from instructor led classes and more towards elearning, the emphasis is now on rapid development. So now not only do companies want courses developed faster, they also want inexperienced employees (mainly trainers) to develop them.

Let me stop and state that I am not placing fault on these trainers, nor am I questioning their competence. The fact of the matter is that most corporate trainers were employees that performed their previous jobs at very high levels, and because of that they were promoted to trainers. Most of these new trainers knew the system extremely well and were very good at the training aspect of their jobs. The problem arose when they were tasked to create new training programs based on new programs and procedures.  Many of these individuals had never been exposed to any kind of instructional design techniques or adult learning theories, yet they were asked to create training for their entire organization.

I wish I could offer some solution for this problem but I can’t. We are in a society where we want everything, all the time, right now. And elearning is no different. There are some companies out there that do employee dedicated instructional designers or, at the least, provide instructional design training to their new developers. But those companies are few and far between.  The only thing I can do is voice my opinions to anyone that will listen to them and I encourage you to do the same.  I’ve even created a seminar titled “Instructional Design Principles for Rapid Elearning Development” and hope to present it several times in the next few months. The first presentation will be at the BYOL Elearning conference in November. Click this link for more information – http://elearning.byol.com/sessions.asp

If you are interested in scheduling this seminar, please contact me at requests@learntoelearn.com.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.

For your birthday, you are given a guitar and two coupons for guitar lessons. The lessons are on separate days and taught by two different teachers. The first lesson is taught by Mr. Jones. You show up for class, brand new guitar in hand.  As you walk into the classroom, Mr. Jones asks you to leave your guitar outside; he says you won’t be needing it. You think it’s strange, but you comply. You spend the next eight hours listening to Mr. Jones tell you how to play the guitar. You also get to watch him play. You are able to ask as many questions as you like, but you never once touch a guitar. The next day you pick up your guitar and try to remember what you were taught in class. You fumble around for a few minutes and realize you don’t remember much, if anything, from the previous day. In frustration, you put down the guitar and walk away.

The second lesson is taught by Mrs. Alvarez. She calls you the day before class and reminds you to bring your guitar. You walk into class expecting to sit and listen to her talk. Instead, she immediately instructs you to pick up your guitar and practice strumming. The next seven hours consist of her playing chords and scales while you follow along on your own guitar. At certain points, she instructs you to play while she watches you, correcting your finger position at times. At the end of class, she provides you with a packet full of lessons and practice songs. When you get home, you can’t contain your excitement and you pick up your guitar and lesson book, and practice all night long.

By now I hope you see where I’m going with this. The class that called for active participation had a drastically different impact than class which treated the learners as mere observers. We learn a task by performing it, not by watching it being performed.

Elearning is no different in this aspect. Students learn much more when they actively participate in elearning rather than when they simply click through screens and answer a few random True/False questions.  If your course is a software simulation, don’t just show the learners how to perform a task. Let them try it themselves. Let them make mistakes and feel a little frustration. This is the only way to truly teach them. And if your course is teaching soft skills, allow them to participate in the decision process by providing them with simulations that immerse them in the content.

Remember, the key phrase is active participation. When we eliminate participation from our elearning courses, our students are learning to play the guitar without the guitar.

For more information about adult learning, instructional design or elearning, visit www.learntoelearn.com.