Let's Talk Terminology
Many new and potentially confusing terms and phrases have been coming across my desk lately. I presume you have been seeing them as well, and you may wonder what they all mean. I thought I would offer some short explanations of them for you here.
Cloud computing refers to the invisible "cloud" of data and applications available anywhere and anytime. Mobile devices are the most pervasive in terms of accessing this ever-growing cloud of information that is, by its own nature, everywhere.
As defined in a Brandon Hall research paper on the subject, mobile learning is "personalized learning that unites the learner's context with cloud computing using a mobile device."
Also defined in the same paper is ambient intelligence (AmI): smart interactive technology that is both invisible and ubiquitous (omnipresent) and that adapts to its environment and users.
Mobi-sodes are short episodes of mobile learning, while an intraverse is the online universe that is available through your company's intranet.
Notice this growing list of similar terms:
E-Learning: electronic (online) learning
M-Learning: mobile learning (on handheld devices and cell phones)
V-Learning: learning inside a virtual world (such as Second Life)
G-Learning: learning via computer games
C-Learning: learning via collaboration with co-workers and associates
And of course you have all seen references to Web 2.0 and E-Learning 2.0. Web 2.0 is the stage of the World Wide Web where the Internet has become a platform for users to create, upload, and share content with others, versus simply downloading content. E-Learning 2.0 is the idea of learning through digital connections and peer collaboration enhanced by technologies driving Web 2.0. Users/learners are empowered to search, create, and collaborate in order to fulfill intrinsic needs to learn new information.
Finally, more businesses are concentrating on the bottom line and their return on investment (ROI) from their organization's training efforts and expenses. As a result, you will continue to hear more about Performance-Based Learning (PBL), which focuses learners on what they need "to do" to drive business results and delivers learning aligned closely to actual need.
I hope these explanations help. As I come upon new terms and phrases in our industry, I will be sure to share and explain them.
WHAT Do You Do For a Living?
"Did you say instructional design? What the heck is that?" Most of the time when I am asked by a layperson what we do here at CramerSweeney Instructional Design, I do NOT answer "We do instructional design" - a non-answer which would generate the above reaction. Instead, I answer something like this: "We write and develop classroom and online training programs on any topic for corporations of all sizes." I may even follow that extremely brief answer with the names of a few of our better-known (household name) clients. Hey, who doesn't like to name drop occasionally?
But what IS instructional design (really) and what is its true purpose? First consider the fact that we, as humans, are all learning all of the time. It's what we all do, even though we are not always (or even often) conscious of doing it. Most of our learning happens on the fly - through our experiences, our senses (what we see, hear, touch), our interactions and conversations. This is our natural way of learning. Sitting in a classroom or taking an e-learning course are other ways that we learn, but they are not natural to us. The purpose of instructional design, then, is to package these formal learning experiences in the most useful, effective, and engaging manner possible.
- Good instructional design helps learners make sense of new information being taught. Training should never be just a dump of information.
- To make sure learners understand what they need to learn, good instructional design provides clear learning goals. This ensures that learners will not focus on the wrong things and will focus on the appropriate specific pieces of information they need to learn.
- By including examples, practices, exercises, and discussions (interactivity) throughout the training, good instructional design provides the context and perspective (real meaning) learners need in order to understand and process (remember) new information.
- Using information from the subject matter expert(s) and compressing it into a streamlined course saves learners a lot of time (and saves companies a lot of money).
- By designing and developing engaging learning experiences, good instructional design better engages learners and provides more effective learning.
Learning is a natural and complex process that we engage in all the time. Yet, to make learning happen in an unnatural, formal environment, we need to package the learning using good instructional design! The next time someone asks me what instructional design is, I may add this to my previous answer: It requires pulling together relevant content to create effective, focused, and meaningful courses.
Make e-Learning Engaging - Please!
We've all seen dead-boring e-learning courses. Heck, many of us have probably been involved in creating less than stellar e-learning. But we all have had to start somewhere. And we have all seen (or at least heard about) the high drop-out rates of e-learners. Today, of course, we find ourselves in the new world of "e-learning 2.0" with uncountable tools at our disposable (including the web), some of which make developing effective and engaging e-courses not only easy but pleasurable! But what can we really do to keep learners engaged and ensure that they will complete their e-learning modules?
Allison Rossett and Antonia Chan wrote a useful white paper for Adobe Systems, called Engaging with the New eLearning, in which they offer 12 great suggestions. These are the high-level highlights:
- Participants must believe the e-learning will be useful to them.
- If value for the participants is not obvious, provide a vivid example to make it obvious.
- The program must provide opportunities for success, never failure or uncertainty.
- Make the program real to participants by, for example, anchoring the topic to something familiar to them.
- Since participant involvement will be required, demonstrate what that participation might look like.
- Make the program active and thought-provoking - keep participants doing and thinking.
- Make it human by including stories, lessons learned, quotes, anecdotal trivia, etc.
- Guide and track participants.
- Blend your e-learning program with other learning tools and opportunities, such as blogs, a performance support tool, an online assessment, online chats with fellow learners, a forum, videos, etc.
- Use online communities to help participants form relationships, collaborate, and work as a team with others - by using a blog, wiki, discussion board, and other online tools.
- Make it POP! Add some WOW! This requires creating something dramatic, compelling, and authentic that is still also perceived as valuable to the learner.
- Measure results and effectiveness, and keep on improving.
You don't have to begin implementing all 12 of these recommendations at once. Ease into them and have fun. If you're having fun, chances are better that your learners will have fun. Good luck!
Update on Mobile Learning
I don't know how many of you have been able to read The eLearning Guild's 90-page 360 Report on Mobile Learning. If you haven't seen it, I want to share with you some of the most interesting highlights.
- Of the eLearning Guild members surveyed, 17.3% use mobile learning (m-learning) sometimes or often.
- Members with 7+ years of experience use m-learning 25.6% more often than members with 6 years of experience or less.
- Of the Guild members who took the survey, 37.5% said they plan to do more m-learning in the next 12 months.
- The most popular m-learning platform used by survey responders is Blackberry (46.6%), with Windows Mobile being used by 26.9% and iPhone 15.2%.
- The majority (81.4%) of members who have implemented m-learning have seen improvements in learner/user access and availability, with 59.4% seeing improved user performance.
This is an avenue for learning dissemination that will, I have no doubt, continue to grow exponentially, especially as more development tools/software continue to pop into the marketplace!
Blending Corporate Training Smoothly
Article by Guest Blog Contributor Heather Johnson.
Corporate training is necessary for a variety of reasons, from focusing on a company’s critical needs to empowering employees to take control of their responsibilities and help improve business performance. Each organization follows its own methods to impart this training, both to new hires and existing personnel according to the needs of the company. E-learning programs, once considered the outcast in the training world, has gained in popularity for more reasons than one: - The software and resources needed are cost effective.
- They can be designed and tailor-made to suit the needs of your organization.
- They can be altered and changed as the nature of jobs and responsibilities morph to adapt to changing expectations and policies.
- They can be implemented rapidly.
- These programs are standardized, which means employees across the board are provided with the same instructions in the same form of delivery. Your company is thus more cohesive as a unit.
- They allow trainers to cut back on travel costs and time.
- With the Internet and the Intranet offering the advantage of connectivity anywhere and everywhere, employees can train on the job or at home at their leisure.
- E-learning development can be outsourced leaving your staff free to handle other responsibilities.
In spite of all these advantages that e-learning offers, organizations have moved on to a newer form of training, one which blends traditional and e-learning methods and takes the best of both to impart training to corporate circles. In other words, it’s old wine in a new bottle. Blended training came into its own when people started realizing that one size does not fit all and that each company’s needs are different.
Blended training sought to maximize returns on training programs from the organization’s point of view – it followed the principle that training programs exist not to educate employees and make them experts in their jobs but to help improve their performance in such a way that the business is profitable and that the organization’s goals are met.
With more emphasis on increased performance and maximum returns at the lowest cost, organizations are turning to a mixture of media and tools to impart training. Depending on their size and turnover, they adopt a blend of electronic and human training methods – the electronic aspect ensures that there is an element of standardization while the human aspect ensures that the process is accountable and the returns measurable. Formal classes, PowerPoint presentations, seminars on the web, manuals and discs with study material, books, meetings, conferences, hands-on experiences and simulations are all adopted in varying degrees by organizations, all of whom are striving to find the optimal combination that provides the best impact.
Guest Blog Contributor By-line: This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on California teacher certification. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.
Mobile Learning's Slow Birth
Imagine a birth taking 10 years. Can't imagine it? Neither can I, but that is how long it has taken mobile learning (m-learning) to finally begin to make a visible appearance. M-learning has been discussed for amost 10 years, yet is only now approaching actual deployment.
Why now? Simply because the portable devices needed to deploy m-learning are finally here. They include smart phones, ultra-portable computers, and iPods/iPhones. And the number of learners who have them grows every day. In fact, there are more people with two mobile devices than there are people with just one (i.e., a Blackberry + an iPod).
Increasing numbers of handhelds offer internet access (the "mobile web"), further unleashing learners from their desktop or laptop computers. Today, over half a billion mobile phones connect to the internet each day, bringing information to where it's needed or wanted - anytime, anywhere. In addition to text, this information is in the form of images, animations, games, movies, videos, music, even maps and location services. IBM's Institute for Business Value predicts that a billion people will be accessing the mobile internet by 2011 - only 3 years away! At that time, our mobile transactions and interactions will generate $80 billion for the web services industry.
OK, so how quickly can the training industry accept, adopt, and truly implement m-learning?
Very soon, I hope. First, we must begin with enterprise acceptance, including executives and IT professionals willing to support a mobile infrastructure. These individuals have already seen the value of being "unplugged" as desktop computers have converted to laptops and notebook computers. Mobility has already become a focus for IT departments. Adoption of enterprise mobility is all about increasing workforce productivity - certainly not a hard sell.
As learning professionals, the more we can demonstrate productivity gains from m-learning, the more likely companies will be to support m-learning implementations. And to do so sooner instead of later.
What technologies do the IT folks need in order to support enterprise mobility and m-learning? Wireless networks, mobile applications, middleware, devices, and security and management software. They are confused, however, over which wireless networks need to support specific kinds of enterprise mobility needs, especially where new technologies are involved. Plus executives want to know the pros, cons, and deployment issues associated with the many wireless network options. Organizations must also decide who should have access to them (the entire workforce, or just select groups) and how best to cost-effectively deploy and maintain these systems. Finally, what should they do when new mobile devices come to market (such as the iPhone)? Do they support those as well?
As a newborn, m-learning has been focusing on providing performance support and information to mobile workers. Unfortunately, there are those who believe that is not the same thing as "learning". In fact, it is learning - it is a learning intervention that is accessible at the exact time and place it is needed.
Time will tell how readily accepted and integrated m-learning will become in our careers and our lives. I am quite hopeful and excited about it. I believe we need to see the introduction of more mainstream tools that produce mobile output. As Ellen Wagner said in a recent eLearning Guild article, "We all acknowledge that mobile learning is a many-splendored thing that has the potential to truly rock our professional practice."
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