Jonathan's ID

Why kids hate music theory - a Music Theorist Responds

2009-08-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

The reason your kids can't get interested in music theory is because standard theory has little to do with performance. Rather, it is an explanatory system of composition. This took me some years to figure out as I was pursuing a PhD in Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music.

That said, as one advances in performance it is essential to have a shared vocabulary to verbalize musical ideas, which is provided by music theory. At early stages of performance, however, you are typically imitating other performers. Newer approaches to analysis (i.e., Schenkerian) can help advanced musicians decide on novel interpretations, but can also mislead the less-advanced.

If you want to spur someone's interest in music theory, challenge them to compose some music from scratch. The gap between what they can create ("yuck") and what they can perform (Gluck) may lead them to explore the language of music. And once you learn the lingo, analyzing music is sort of like solving a puzzle created by a genius. I guess that's essentially why I ventured down that path myself. (Not that you want your kids to go for PhDs in Music!)

Organizational Roles of Instructional Design (Part 2)

2009-07-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

A comment to my previous post on The Various Roles of Instructional Design prompted me to think about ways to structure learning organizations around these roles. I'm not quite there yet, though. So in preparation, let me propose some high-level roles and how they might fit into an organization. These are somewhat abstracted and the "various" roles in ID will generally fit inside one of the three. Call them "meta-roles" if you will.

I see three fundamental roles (here optimized for eLearning): Project Management, Instructional Design, and Instructional Technology. PM includes responsibilities often associated with training managers. Instructional Design includes working with SMEs and the whole ADDIE process, with an emphasis on design of course. Instructional Technology would include the "delivery technology" of classroom trainers as well as developers and LMS admins.

Why divide this way? I see these three categories as value systems that may conflict on certain issues, based on different backgrounds and responsibilities.

People in these roles may come from different backgrounds. For PMs it may help to have experience in business, in the particular organization, or industry. For IDs a grounding in theory or best practices can help. For IT a technology background is helpful.

PMs are ultimately responsible for delivering the project on time and managing resources. IDs are ultimately responsible for the content being accurate and effective. The technology people, possibly the developer, are ultimately responsible for the content getting into the brains of the audience with ease without going overboard on expensive and time-consuming methods.

When one person acts in two or more of these roles, the problem is not necessarily that they don't have the skills, but rather that the core values that define the multiple roles may conflict. For example, the PM's need to deliver the project on time and within budget is valid, but can conflict with the ID's need to deliver the most effective experience possible. If the deadline or budget slips, there are business consequences, but if the quality misses the mark, the whole project might be in jeopardy. So both roles have valid but conflicting interests.

OK, so what does this have to do with organizational structure? I would suggest that each of these three roles has a primary decision-maker (if there is more than one person). The primary/lead confers with the others about conflicts that arise and they work things out. If they can't, then there should be a management type to act as the ultimate decision-makers.

So what's a decision-maker? ...someone who shoulders the responsibility of choosing a path based on the information and recommendations provided to them. They free the "producers" to head for the destination without second-guessing the chosen path.

Based on this theoretical structure of balanced priorities and expertise, I suppose it would make sense to have three teams: PM, ID, and IT, with perhaps a fourth team for Trainers. Trainers would fit into the process just like the IT/developer group because they are a delivery medium. But culturally it might not be a good fit, as trainers are often closer to the ID folks in orientation than to the tech folks.

Management would go to the PM lead to ask "How are things going?", go to the ID lead to ask "What are you doing?", and go to the IT lead to ask "How are you doing it?"

And then there are those of you who wear all three hats every day. You must be asking yourself a lot of questions! Which one of your roles ends up making the ultimate decision?

The Various Roles of Instructional Design (Part I)

2009-06-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

Job descriptions in ID (or, ISD) these days are all over the map, with very little consistency. It doesn't help that few HR and Recruiters have any knowledge of, or experience with, the field. So I'm going to propose some roles as I understand them, in the hopes that some day hiring managers will be able to articulate better what they want/need in terms of talent for their training departments or projects.

Note that one person can hold multiple roles. These are ROLES not PEOPLE. And most of the time these terms are not used with any degree of rigor or standardization. So don't get offended, but please do share your suggestions and feedback!

Instructional Designer

Capable of performing or at least managing entire ADDIE process. Primarily responsible for translating raw content into instructional content. In the ADDIE process, this means Analysis and Design: interacting with SME, defining Learning Objectives, and writing storyboards or scripts. Additionally, IDs will be responsible for Evaluation planning and review, providing that is part of the project.

Instructional Systems Designer

While this role is often used interchangeably with Instructional Designer, I think there should be some, albeit subtle, distinction. If the term "Systems" has any meaning, it should define the scope of design to be larger than a single course, involving curriculum planning and delivery/tracking information systems such as LMSs. If you need to develop new technologies, processes and templates, not just new courses, you are working on a Systems level. However, if you just need someone to turn out another course in your existing system, you would be looking for the Instructional Designer/Developer roles. This role will be most active in the Analysis, Implementation, and Evaluation phases, but would also have significant input in high-level Design and Development tools and processes. Generally this role should be strong with IT concepts as well as learning management strategies. This could be your one person training department, doing the whole thing, but even for a small organization that's a lot of ground to cover.

Instructional (Multimedia) Developer

Expert in one or more learning development and web/multimedia tools, comfortably moving between tools or learning new ones with ease (except perhaps Flash and Actionscripting, which are specialties in themselves). They are primarily responsible for creating the actual learning materials, perhaps from a storyboard or other content that has been processed by an Instructional Designer in the Analysis and Design phases. Strong graphic design skills/talents are helpful here, or you may need a Graphic Designer. In the ADDIE process they will be most active in the Development and Implementation phase. So if you need a course created from soup to nuts, you may actually need an Instructional Designer/Developer.

Instructional Technologist
This role is less commonly found. But if the term "technologist" has meaning, it is someone who uses or applies technology and existing processes to a problem (as in "medical technologist"). They may serve as Instructional Developers, but perhaps without the Graphic Design/Multimedia skills or Instructional Design background. They may operate or maintain instructional systems designed by the ISD, but you wouldn't expect them to create a new system.

Instructional Systems Developer

This is what I would call someone who can program a learning portal, LMS, or CMS, or at least can develop custom code to interface with such things. They'll need to know SCORM/AICC and whatever languages are required by your particular environment (.NET, Java, PHP, etc.). These folks are not Developing the courses, but are creating the environment in which students take the courses. Systems Developers (and Analysts) will want to follow software development processes (like RUP) instead of ADDIE.

Instructional Systems Analyst

This is also a rare beast. This would be someone who operates, diagnoses, and repairs ("optimizes") Instructional Systems, typically enterprise software like LMSs, CMSs, etc. These folks will be heavily involved in the Implementation phase, as that's when all the data begins hitting the servers.

Trainer/Training Specialist (anything with the term "Train")

These are your classroom and virtual classroom instructors. They are the extroverts who excel at going in front of people, creating an engaging atmosphere, and teaching synchronously. They adapt their lessons on the fly to changing content and audiences, and travel to various places. People in this role may be involved in the complete ADDIE process, as they are directly in contact with the students, but will generally not be involved with self-paced learning development, unless they are Instructional Designer/Trainers. [That said, I think the title "Training Specialist" as used in the wild is often a holdover from pre-ID days, with the meaning, "HR person who helps employees learn stuff." But they're probably an ID.]

eLearning/Multimedia Project Manager

"A good eLearning project manager needs to understand what makes good eLearning, so they can make decisions that positively affect the quality of the product, and leverage the talents of the project team. [...] Some organizations have split the PM role, so that instructional designers manage the project team while a PM only manages the schedule and budget." - Bob Elmore via comment on eLearning Guild LinkedIn Group: http://snurl.com/jvlft

Let me reiterate, before you get your nose out of joint or start rewriting your resume: one person can hold multiple roles. These are ROLES not PEOPLE. And most of the time these terms are not used with any degree of rigor or standardization. So don't get offended, but please do share your suggestions and feedback!

(Role info-graphic from http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Setzer/Experiencing_Objectivism_through_the_Enhanced_Tri-Quation.shtml - don't ask me, I just liked it!)

Enhanced Narration Techniques: Spice up your dry content

2009-05-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

Instructional Designers usually receive content in "raw" form from SMEs that needs to be nurtured into good instructional content. Usually I advocate that shorter is better, less is more, etc., but sometimes it helps to flesh things out a little bit to make the content come alive. One way to enhance a dry scenario description is to turn it into a little play. If you only have budget for a single narrator though, you can write it in novella format and have the narrator tell a story.

Here's how it could work. The following three examples are based on actual Workplace Harassment court cases. I rewrote them as brief vignettes to be read by a narrator while the learner views a custom photo. This approach serves the same purpose as a brief video for a fraction of the cost and time. The learner is then asked to evaluate the scenario to determine if it constitutes Workplace Harassment or not, and why.

1.
Original:
Sumit complains to his manager, Rose, about the crude sexual slang used by the other sales reps. She says he needs to get a sense of humour and join in.
Enhanced:
A new sales rep, Sumit, is shocked by the crude sexual banter he hears at the office every day from his co-workers.
After squirming in his cubicle for several days, Sumit works up the courage to approach his manager, Rose. “I am not entirely comfortable,” he says, “with the sexual slang that all of you use here.”
Rose rolls her eyes. “If you want to be part of the group, you’ll just need to get a sense of humour and play along.”
2.
Original:
Albin and Rose have lived together for ten years and have just announced they’re having a baby. At an off-site meeting, Louise, his boss, jokes that Albin should make an “honest woman” of Rose, and marry her before the baby arrives.
Enhanced:
“So remind me, Albin, how long have you and Rose been together?” Louise asked, casually, at the company picnic.
“It’s been what, about 10 years?” Albin grinned, exchanging glances with his partner. “About as long as I’ve worked for you, Louise!” Then he added, “By the way, I want to make sure you’re not the last to find out that we’re expecting a child in a few months.”
“Wow, that’s big news!” exclaimed Louise. A mischievious look comes over her. “But you and Rose aren’t married…shouldn’t you tie the knot and make an honest woman of her?”
[Fun Fact: the male actor in the photo played the Romulan in Star Trek: First Contact.]
3.
Original:
Sumit disciplines Louise, who is physically disabled, about her increasingly sloppy work.
Enhanced:
Sumit calls Louise into his office, and gets up to close the door himself after she enters. That was one of the small gestures he had adopted to accommodate her blindness.
“Louise,” he began, “I just wanted to tell you that I’m disappointed in the quality of your work these last few months, despite what we have already discussed. It just looks sloppy and careless to me.”
Louise sits there impassively.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat before continuing. “I am going to give you one more chance to prove you can do this job, or else we’ll have to see if there is some other position that will suit you better.”

I don't pretend to be a gifted creative writer, but I've read enough books to figure out the syntax. And what do you think about the custom still photos - did you really miss the video?

Finding new avenues for creativity in your eLearning design will improve the end result, engage your learners, and also make your work a lot more enjoyable to do!

Supplementing Classroom with Online Multimedia

2009-05-19T17:45:00.001-07:00

There are lots of ways to supplement a live seminar/coaching approach with online multimedia that go beyond showing a movie or just dumping the whole presentation online.

A pre-event "teaser" can serve as advertisement and give students some background so they come to the class ready to learn. They can see the instructor and hopefully look forward to being informed and maybe even entertained a bit.

A brief webinar or online forum can build community prior to the class, maximizing the use of face time. People can get to know classmates and the instructor over a period of weeks before attending class, and it can be fun to meet someone in person who you've only "met" online.

In addition to coaching, an entertaining series of brief review videos or exercises, perhaps 20 minutes a week, would really help to reinforce concepts and bolster retention long after the training "event."

I've always wanted to implement a "sitcom" that ties concepts from the training into an ongoing story with characters and cliffhangers that keep people coming back every week or two. This could be podcasts with video or animation. Instead of cruising YouTube, recurring training could fit in nicely into a cubicle work-break, if videos were short and entertaining. Or you could create a game with ongoing competition for points. That's a great solution for competitive people like in Sales and Marketing.

The technology is here, the audience is ready, let's make training fun, effective, and an integral part of work.

Creativity in eLearning

2009-05-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

A common complaint about eLearning is that it's simply too boring. There is this unofficial PowerPoint template where you list a bunch of Learning Objectives, present a bunch of concepts, and ask some multiple choice questions. If you get "creative" with this, you might throw in a scenario to "make it real":

So that's what I would call the first type of creativity in eLearning: augmenting the template.

Another type of creativity involves going all-out with animations, metaphors, games, videos -- you know, the "engaging" stuff. However, all too often this approach misses the mark, as the "engagement" is applied as a layer on top of the instructional content, and is not organically tied to the content. So what you end up with is a cartoon or game with bullet points here and there -- "PowerPoint on steroids." Speaking of steroids, meet Del Toid the Sales Fitness Guru:

Even if the entertainment value is off the charts, I feel this is a bit of a sellout. This is tacitly admitting that learning is boring and the content is dry, so the only way to make the content go down easy is to put on a show and distract the learner from the tedium. I think we can do better!

The third type of creativity requires a great deal of thought and invention, as it organically merges content and presentation into something that is engaging as it educates. The experience here is of doing something interesting or fun, while learning something along the way. How about creating an avatar and vicariously experiencing some awkward diversity situations? If you were a Threeprong, how would you feel if a Printerhead said this behind your back:

How do you achieve this? First you need to identify the primary goal of the instruction and trim away all the clutter of concepts and facts that the learner should know, but won't remember. Second, you need to really think about what the learner might enjoy, but also what might turn them off. Third, and most important, you have to think backward from the desired result in order to come up with an "authentic" experience that would best create that result in the learner. Fourth, you have to adapt your idea to the practical realities of time, budget, tools, and skills at your disposal. And fifth, you need to sell the idea to upper management and corporate branding, if such stakeholder approval is required.

If the idea is strong and you get the green light, making it happen isn't the biggest problem. You will find solutions along the way and it won't feel like work, because you are doing something creative!

Virtual Heroes: Hire me plz!

2009-04-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

A company called Virtual Heroes was recently acquired by Applied Research Associates. Why? Go see for yourself!

Virtual Heroes creates simulations, serious games, and virtual worlds built on the Unreal engine designed for first-person shooters. You have all the immediacy, engagement, and replay value of a high-end video game with the structure and content of Instructional Design. You might know them from their work on America's Army, but they also do work in health care, for instance.

I'd like to know who does the ID for them, if it is in-house or comes from the client, or both. The art is amazing, and from the online demo it seems like you could really learn a lot, or at least practice what you've learned. I'm not sure if there is some sort of built-in help system or if you're supposed to know what to do when you enter the scenario.

In any event, it is great to see a use of this technology other than simulated killing and mayhem. I would spend more time in the world of Serious Games if I could get work in the field. Many of my school projects were game-related, and built in Adobe Director's 3-D environment. With Director 11 now out, I'm hoping to see it emerge as a game engine for learning.

Cows in the Classroom: Is it A.D.D. or me?

2009-04-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

It is always frustrating as a classroom instructor or lecturer to face a sea of blank stares when you pose a question to your students. (Hello 8:30am music theory students!) Online, it is even worse as you are simply met by awkward silence and people checking email and YouTube. This situation is not necessarily an indicator of boredom or being thick as a brick; rather, it is often a symptom of how you are presenting the material. Before you start spraying the air with Ritalin, acting all Jack Black School of Rock cool, or randomly putting people on the spot to scare them into paying attention, consider some of my suggestions.

After several minutes of being talked at or shown things, the audience enters a "passive learning" state much like watching TV. They may well be absorbing the information or at least paying attention. However, when you suddenly switch gears and ask a question, the audience has to come out of the passive state and start constructing a response, which takes some time and effort. This often creates the deer in headlights or blank cow look that distresses many presenters.

Asking questions is good (the so-called Socratic method), but if you're going to involve the audience the rules of the game need to be more clear. One strategy is to constantly pepper your presentation with questions, instead of simply telling a story or explaining a concept.

"So what do you think The Hag did after I sent the retaliatory memo?" [Audience response.] "No, she didn't fire me, instead she actually called in sick for 6 weeks!"

This can be risky if your audience starts taking over to class, but with adults this is probably not an issue. Also it can be annoying to people who would rather sit in the back and just take it in passively, but tough for them. You can probably improvise this pretty well though, and it allows you to constantly gauge the audience's involvement and comprehension, so you can modify your pace as needed.

Another approach is something we might do in e-Learning more than classroom. You could say, "I'm now going to tell you a story for 10 minutes, and then we're going to talk about it." So you start with some "passive" presentation of a known duration. Then you switch gears with ample warning and do some back and forth with the audience for 10 minutes or so. That way, people have a chance to switch modes, and also may listen more actively to the initial presentation. Notice that this version requires a more structured content outline and a lot more planning. One probably couldn't improvise this very effectively. However, you could create some pretty fun graphics to illustrate your points, which would really help keep attention and aid retention. We learn best when we're getting information "multi-modally" from both eyes and ears.

So that would be my last suggestion...if you really want people to remember something, 1) make it a focal point of your presentation, not just a sidebar, and 2) present it visually as well as verbally. What I end up remembering are things shown to me or things that were most entertaining -- in other words, those which I created my own visuals for. So, as a member of the audience I make a little movie in my head of the battle with The Cubicle Hag. I can then build an association between the Hag story and the take-away lesson about not taking abuse in the workplace.

One last idea would be to break up your content into bite-sized pieces, and change it up frequently. You could call this the Sesame Street model, or perhaps MTV. Perhaps a series of blog posts as opposed to a journal with hefty articles. I wouldn't go as far as verbal Twittering live in the classroom, but that sure would be interesting to see in practice.

(Image from http://www.kendallgiles.com)

"Have you used Adobe Articulate?" [sic]

2009-04-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing this a lot lately. Not that the confusion is surprising. After all, Adobe Presenter and Articulate Presenter are both plugins to PowerPoint that convert presentations to SCORM-compliant SWF eLearning modules.

Adobe Presenter (http://www.adobe.com/products/presenter/) includes a Quiz Manager, whereas Articulate Presenter does not include quizzes. However, you can buy Articulate Studio (http://www.articulate.com/products/studio.php), which bundles Articulate Presenter with Articulate Quizmaker, thus giving you similar features for more money (and arguably better all around). For high-end results, upgrade to Articulate Studio Pro and add Engage.

So now that I've cleared up the confusion, how do you answer that question? A simple yes or no doesn't seem to cut it. You'll just have to gently explain your experience using Adobe Presenter and Articulate Studio, and hopefully everyone will forget the question.

Good luck!

Grammer Cop: we don't want to see your BUTs

2009-04-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

At Amadeus, we were encouraged to replace the word "but" with the word "and" in our writing, especially in professional communications. This is not always easy to remember or accomplish! I recently had the opportunity to explain the concept to a friend who has been sending out requests for informational interviews:

Starting your letter with "I am not looking for a job from you, but..." says the opposite of your intent. That construction, the clause followed by BUT, besides starting with a negative statement, is heard as follows: "I am not looking for a job from you, BUT blah blah some cover story for this email and please give me a job please please." I guarantee people will not hear what comes after the BUT. Consider softening that statement and putting it later. No BUTs! (You can try substituting ANDs if you can make it sound natural.)

How about, "As I search for my next career move, I am reaching out to people in the industry to network and to learn and share ideas." Basically that says, "I am looking for a job AND I am networking" without asking for a job directly. See how that plays differently from "I am NOT seeking a job from you BUT I want to talk to you anyway."

Using my own advice, I wrote this sentence to my friend:

"By the way, great letter! Is there some way you can put more of your own voice into the language? That would convey more sincerity and will help you get a better response."

...which was originally written thusly:

"By the way, your letter is a good start, but I'd like to hear something more in your own voice, sounding a little more sincere."

...which would be heard as "By the way, your letter sucks and sounds like it was ripped from a template." (Perhaps my inner self-critic just leaked out, as that is what my internal dialogue sounds like!)

All three sentences convey the same essential idea that was loosely formed in my brain, but they all express it differently and thus impact your emotions in different ways. (Which of the 3 above sentences would be more likely to inspire you to take action and rewrite your letter?)

FYI, if I had started with a negative, such as: "your letter is NOT bad, BUT" the effect would have been a even more negative. That's because, like algebra, the two negatives of NOT and BAD cancel each other out.

Now that I've finally bridged the math and verbal disciplines, I bid you adieu.

The hidden cost of Web 2.0

2009-04-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, blogs, forums, wikis, etc. There's a lot of hype, but also a lot of potential value. However, there's also a lot of risk and hidden costs, especially if your organization has strict guidelines about what content is allowed on its information systems.

In addition to planning and setting up the technology, not to mention marketing it, you'll have to devote a considerable amount of resources to forum moderations, blog comment reviews, etc. And you'll want to draft guidelines and train people to follow them. Or else you may get a call from Legal or Branding about "What's this stuff doing on our website?" When you start explaining all the moderator and maintenance work involved in running a tight ship, your already-overworked staff can start to get cold feet.

Interesting that I encountered the same blind spot in the late 90s with websites. People thought if you built it, then you were done. I tried to explain that you needed ongoing maintenance and support to run a website, but people would see it as a one-time expense. I think you still encounter that mindset outside the technology field. Of course, the same applies to eLearning. The materials will not get updated and maintained on their own, whereas a live instructor can more easily adapt to changing conditions. Yet eLearning is often approached as a one-off expense.

The moral of the story is, Learning and Technology is never a one-time event, but rather an ongoing part of life. Events are great marketing tools to draw attention and create excitement, but they too often fade into distant memory crowded out by new events. (This is not limited to ID: Fernando Laires, a piano teacher of mine, once complained that music was all too often treated as a series of isolated events instead of part of the fabric of culture.)

Adobe Presenter and Rapid eLearning tools

2009-04-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

At ASK Learning we developed a process with Symantec for rapid development of modules using Adobe Presenter. We were using version 6.1 with Office 2007. After creating the storyboards in straight-ahead PowerPoint, we'd animate the graphics using Presenter and record and sync the audio. At this point we'd also add quizzes. We'd publish them with SCORM to work with their LMS. These featured voiceover in dialogue with two employees discussing the info on screen, as opposed to straight-ahead narration like we did in Captivate when I was working at Amadeus. This is somewhat more fun for everybody, but is more difficult and expensive to write, perform, record, and edit.

Articulate Presenter is the same concept as the Adobe product, except you also need QuizMaker and together they cost twice as much. Articulate is widely considered a best-of-breed solution from all the eLearning gurus. You can add Engage and put in interactive elements, but now you're at 3x the cost.

Adobe Captivate can convert ppts as well, but that program is a little strange to use unless you are recording tasks in an application. It's probably better to stay within the PPT application.

We occasionally had issues with animations not playing properly, but that could be more a factor of PPT, not Adobe. For example, PPT tables can't be animated directly, so we put colored boxes over the cells and remove them in sync with the audio. Also, the Adobe Presenter UI is not intuitive at all, in fact it is downright rotten. But remember it is a plugin to PowerPoint, not a standalone application. The player interface isn't all that great either, and the navigation tends to take up so much space that the main window appears small, especially when viewed within an LMS interface (and not in a popup window). But for the price it is a useful enhancement to PPT. It might work better with Adobe web delivery technology, but if you are delivering another way, that wouldn't matter. Publishing tends to be very slow.

In short, Adobe Presenter gets the PowerPoint-conversion/rapid-eLearning job done for a good price point, but if you can, spring for Articulate Studio with Engage. For screen capture and simulation go with Captivate.

Future Learning Tech

2009-04-22T14:03:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this awesome report about emerging learning technologies:

This is the 2009 Horizon Report from The New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE.

I'll add some comments as soon as I've gotten through it.

ROI of eLearning

2009-04-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

I came across an article on ROI by Claire Schooley from Forrester, and highly recommend it for companies thinking about moving to online learning to save money (link below).

While I didn't find a lot of new ideas, the arguments are well laid-out and are consistent with Bersin & Associates research and everything I've learned so far working in the field.

Phasing in:

In particular I liked the description of phasing in an online initiative focusing on specific types of content to achieve quick wins and early ROI. There is some advice on change management and internal marketing as well, which is extremely important to maintain the political support.

I believe in coming up with a long-range plan (typically 3 years) and really shooting for the moon so to speak, so you know what it is you want to achieve. Then break it down into phases and tracks and programs until you have some doable next steps. Show success at every milestone, or modify your plans accordingly. You can/will/should always modify the long-range plan, but it is essential to have one. Otherwise you end up with a patchwork collection of disconnected legacy systems.

Case Study:

The case study is based on using a Software-as-a-Service Learning Management System (SaaS LMS) and off-the-shelf content. While this would certainly result in the high ROI cited, a lot of organizations will struggle with fitting these options into their culture, branding requirements, and IT infrastructure.

Choosing modalities:

Companies need to be wary of swapping ineffective online instruction for inefficient classroom instruction, in the hopes of saving money. The article points out a lot of things to consider when creating a blended program, so you invest your training dollars where they'll do the most good. There are some good descriptions of when to use classroom/virtual classroom/online modalities on pages 2-4.

I recommend choosing a few key subjects for custom eLearning development, where you can get learners enthusiastic about learning online. This requires a broad analysis of the entire curriculum and some very strategic long-range planning. Then it requires some very creative designers and developers to make it work.

http://www.salt.org/weblink/industry/ROI_Of_eLearning.pdf

Where's the Id in your ID?

2009-04-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Blogging is kind of about Ego (let's face it). Instructional Design is sort of the Super-Ego of Learning. And we should strive to put more Id in our ID.

This means stories, games, humor -- the stuff of life. Why? Because learning is a non-stop part of life.

And in eLearning in particular, the human guide disappears to be replaced by the learner's personal relationship with -- the computer. Do you like your personal relationships to be dry and stiff? No, you probably swap stories, play games, and share jokes. That's probably what learners do online for the most part anyway.

So, how do I propose to achieve the Id-ification of Edification? I'll get back to you on that.

(With less Freud because I am no Psychology SME. And more complete sentences. My pledge to you.)

[infographic from: http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk]