Over the Summer of 2013 I submitted an entry into the LPIs annual Learning Awards in the Learning Professional of The Year category.
I know that’s somewhat narcissistic of me but it was the only category I felt I could provide actual evidence for at the point I wrote and submitted the entry. All the other categories would have, I felt, required me to provide evidence, examples etc that I no longer had access to (I did contact my ex-manager on several occasions, but have yet to to receive a reply……)
I wanted to submit an entry that caught the judges attention, so I used iBooks Author to create an interactive entry using text, image carousels and embedded video. I also provided a PDF version for those without an iPad.
Screenshot of the cover of my iBook submission
I was short listed as a category finalist and presented to the judging panel in November 2013.
I was keen to pitch my entry not just against the Learning and Performance Institutes and my own ‘criteria’ but also against what many of you considered to be indicative of a modern and effective L&D professional.
I’m prepping my @YourLPI awards pitch Can you help me? What 3 behaviours/characteristics/attitudes etc should a modern L&D pro demonstrate?
— Craig Taylor (@CraigTaylor74) November 20, 2013
Here’s what some of you came up with
Learning Awards submission Wordle
What words, behaviours, characteristics etc do you believe are missing from this Wordle?
A few months ago I wrote this blog post which centred around a learner could tell that they were at a ‘just in time training’ moment. I won’t reiterate the entire blog post here as you can always go back and read it here.
After writing that blog post I started to put together a mindmap with ideas as to some ‘triggers’ that could initiate ‘just in time’ support. I put a tweet out asking if anybody fancied collaborating on the map and unsurprisingly a number of people volunteered to contribute (don’t you just love the way these tool, foster and promote this type of one-click collaboration).
Unfortunately I then forgot all about the mindmap until Clarke Quinn‘s recent blog post, so Dear Reader here is the mindmap that a few of us collaborated on over the balmy Summer of 2011 (you may need to zoom in/out or expand to full screen to view properly).
I’ve also made the map a ‘wikimap’ which means that anybody can make additions to it (hint, hint)
In this previous blog post I suggest some simple ideas as to how the conference experience could be enhanced and specifically talk about ‘pre conference’ online sessions
Let’s be honest, when your conference attendees have a number of concurrent sessions to select from, other than previous experience/recommendations of the facilitator, all they’ve got to go in is the session overview on the conference website. Why not invite each speaker (and potential attendees) to participate in a 10 minute online session in which they pitch their session and take part in a Q&A. It may also give the potential attendees an insight into the presentation skills of the speaker (AKA are they going to rattle off a load of bullet points at me?)
I’ve not yet seen this taken up by any conference organisers so I thought I’d take the bull by the horns and set up my own online sessions ahead of Learning Live to allow people up to ask any questions they may have about my session, make sure it’s right for them etc.
I’ll be using Google Hangouts to deliver these bite sized sessions which I know may prevent some corporate folk from attending due to Google Hangouts being blocked, so I’ve scheduled an evening session too.
Here are the dates and times: (all sessions are scheduled for 15mins)
30/08/13 – 0930hrs BST
03/09/13 – 0930hrs BST
04/09/13 – 1930hrs BST
To participate, visit the relevant link above a few minutes before each session commences, set up your speakers/microphone and let’s chat!
As part of the Certificate in Web Content Creation & Management (CWCCM) programme I am undertaking I have been asked to gather information about the Internet or intranet website on which I am working/intend to work. The following questions have been posed…
What is the site?
This Blog is one of the 2 sites that I am planning to apply my newly found knowledge from the CWCCM programme to. The other is my organisations intranet site.
2. Who will be responsible for creating content for the site?
As this is my personal Blog I am solely responsible for the content, however in terms of the intranet site, there are a number of departmental authors who are responsible for creating content. I am responsible for the initial and continual development of those authors, so I hope to cascade the learnings from this programme onto them.
3. How will the content be created?
Some of the content on my Blog will be created by others and embedded into my site such as YouTube videos and Slideshares, however some it will be self-created such as videos, images and podcasts. The intranet site will consist mostly of ‘in-house’ media but is unlikely to be anything more complex than some photos. This is likely to be for 2 reasons;
The skillset of the authorsThe poor functionality of the platform itself.
4. How will the content be stored?
Some of my Blog content will be hosted by the wordpress.com service whilst some of it will be stored on another platform and embedded into the Blog (i.e. YouTube & Slideshare). The intranet sites content will all be hosted on our own servers behind our firewall.
5. Where and how will the website be hosted?
My Blog is hosted by the wordpress.com site, however I have been considering moving that to a self-hosted wordpress service due to additional plug-ins and functionality that it can offer. Due to the nature of my Industry our intranet site is hosted on internal servers behind a very powerful firewall.
Regular readers will know that I participated in the Virtual Learning show towards the end of 2012, I had some original reservations around the thought of an entire day (the whole event was split over 2 non-consecutive days) being spent in online classrooms, however on the whole it was a positive experience, as you can read here.
I’m once again participating in the 2013 Virtual Learning Show, however this time I’ll be chairing a panel discussion which isn’t something you tend to see a lot of in online, synchronous activities. I won’t pretend that I don’t have some nerves about this:
Will having multiple ‘presenters’ cause problems?As I want the panel to use their webcams, will this cause technical problems?Will participants want to attend a session that doesn’t have a clearly defined structure and objectives?
However I’m sure that I’ll be able to put some of my concerns to bed over the next couple of months as I start to push Adobe Connect into areas I haven’t taken it before (either that or drastically change my plans!).
Whilst the title of the panel discussion is
I’m expecting that the session will turn into a general Q&A session between all participants.
When it came to selecting the panellists I wanted to avoid the ‘usual suspects’ and approached people who I know are doing some really great work within their own organisations but may not always get the airtime that I know they deserve – I hope you agree.
In order to maximise the time within the session itself, I’m inviting questions ahead of time via this Google Document
please feel free to drop any question you might have into this document.
Let us all know if you are planning on attending the panel discussion, or indeed #VLS13 in general.
In this, my first podcast, I am joined by a small number of my organisations elearning authors, Steven Mahay, Geoff Owens, Andrew Pilkington & Chris Hyndman to discuss an Action Mapping session that I had just facilitated. The purpose of the conversation was to further promote the thinking that elearning is not just the traditional ‘click-next’ type of elearning that many of us are used to and that podcasting is a relatively simple (and far quicker way of producing a learning resource) whilst also providing a period of reflection for the attendees themselves. The podcast was also a great learning curve for me as I had failed to set my Samson GoMic as the default recording device so I was reliant on the internal laptop speaker, hence the poor quality…. but I’ve learned my lesson and hope that you will join me in my next podcast in which I will have resolved my ‘teething problems’
Today saw me fortunate to attend my first RSC (NW) event on the subject of ‘Using Video Technology‘
The day started off with the workshop being welcomed by Andrew Quarmby from RSC (NW) via Skype, which was a nice touch as it demonstrated the ‘instant’ nature of video calling, whilst retaining the ‘humanity’ of a face-to-face environment.
We were then cautioned over being blinded by any shiny technology, but to always bear in mind whether it added value to what we trying to achieve. A walk-through - talk-through of Skype was provided for those attendees who were not Skype users demonstrating
Video callsRecording Skype calls. (Pamela, Call graph, etc)Exchanging filesSharing desktop
… and for those of us that were using Skype, John Dalziel informed us that the latest beta version of Skype allows for up to 10 concurrent video calls to be made. (of personal use to me, as it will allow me to contact 3 x sets of Grandparents when my 2 1/2 year old is in a rare ‘good mood’).
John also directed us towards a resource that highlighted the environmental benefit of using technology to replace face-to-face events.
After a short break we had a look at ‘Interactive Training & Online Assessment’, with Nicola Harper from KAPLAN Financial providing us with an overview as to how they had used WebEx to facilitate synchronous online learning events to a widely dispersed audience.
What was interesting to hear from Nicola was that WebEx licences can be increased or decreased depending on the perceived need and that any chat-room sessions can be archived and displayed.
S&B Automotive Academy were next up with, what I thought was an exactly cracking example of using ‘live’ webcams
to assess vehicle maintenance apprentices undertaking an assessment whilst providing evidence. The clip below, shows a live stream from a garage servicing bay, the quality, panning and zooming functionality was truly superb.
There were quite a few questions asked such as
Q – “How can a remote video feed provide evidence of something that requires a physical check”
A – During any assessment, the mentor is present to provide any feedback/confirmation etc that the video stream itself cannot validate.
Q - What do External Verifiers (EVs) think of this approach?
A – EVs love the system as the quality of evidence is observable.
Q – How much?
A – £500-600 (although, I can’t quite remember what you got for this) -
I’m not sure as whether there would be any call for this on my site, as it is quite a small site and most of the work that takes place could not be streamed outside of our Firewall, however there could be applications for this to swap working practices amongst our other sites around the world.
RSC (NW) provided a great USB key with an eXe resource on it, to provide further examples and research into the use of video.
So what am I planning to do with all this newly acquired info?
All in all, it was a great day. Many, many thanks to all of those who contributed to its success (both in person and ‘virtually’) and I’m already looking forward to the next workshop.
Question mark made out of coloured poins on a cork board
Weeeeeell not exactly come *with* me, more of a ‘would you like me to ask any questions on your behalf whilst I’m there‘ (let’s be honest, you probably wouldn’t enjoy it and I’m sure you’ve got better things to be doing next week)
Why not take a look at the sessions I’m attending and let know via the comments section below (please include the hashtag #DevLearn) if there’s anything you’d like me to enquire about on your behalf.
Of course I can’t promise to ask every question or indeed guarantee a reply, but I’ll do what I can….
Evidence-based Training: No Yellow Brick Road
Taking Video to the Next Level
Building mLearning for iPads Using HTML5 and iBooks Author
Super-charging Google Sales Readiness with Gamification and Social Media
Developing a Multi-year Learning and Development Technology Strategy
Although I’ve been publishing video for some time now, both for myself personally and for Orgs I’ve been working in, it’s always been somewhat ‘quick and dirty’ using phones, flip cams, webcams etc.
My current employer however, is looking into the possibility of purchasing some higher end equipment, so I’ve been doing my research not only into the equipment itself but also the underpinning knowledge and skillset required.
That’s why I was quite excited to see this tweet appear in my timeline.
Here is the science behind the effectiveness of video in learning! http://t.co/kx86Fjt26e
— Nice Media HQ (@Nicemediauk) February 14, 2014
The link took me through to this blog post on the Video Arts site, with the title
The science behind the effectiveness of video in learning
I attempted to leave a comment against the post but kept getting an error message whenever I submitted it. Not one to be put off I called Video Arts to let them know their site was playing up (‘cos that’s the kinda guy I am) and was told that they would fix it.
Imagine my surprise to find that ‘fixing it’ appears to mean ‘removing the comments functionality against all posts’!
I don’t normally ‘scrape’ content from web pages, but here’s the article in full (don’t forget you can access the original here) with my original comment below.
It often feels like a no-brainer that video is a more effective way to share learning; everyone loves watching telly right? The billions of daily hits on YouTube certainly suggest that people enjoy watching videos, but there’s also plenty of science behind our assertion that video creates longer lasting learning.
So for all our clients who ask us “what’s the research that says video is the most effective tool for learning”, here’s a list of useful references….(be warned; our list gets more sciencey towards the end)
50% of Smartphone users watch video on their mobile device – the Educational Marketing Group 59% of senior executives said they prefer watching video to reading text – ForbesYou are four times more likely to look at video on a website than text and images – Cisco90% of learning comes from informal training activities like apps, social networks and video – Nick van Dam, Chief L&D officer, DeloitteLearners remember 10% of what they read (text), 20% of what they hear (lectures), 30% of what they see (images), 50% of what they see and hear (demonstrations, video), 70% of what they say themselves (speaking, giving lectures) and 90% of what they do (practice) – Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning85% of L&D professionals use video for learning – Video Arts client surveyVideo improves attention, motivation and the overall learning experience – Herefordshire and Worcestershire Lifelong Learning NetworkA comScore press release states that when professionally-produced video and user-generated video were used in conjunction for a comScore study, lift in share of choice was 35.3% for the featured product and 28% for the brand’s total line. Alone, professionally-produced video resulted in 24.7% and 16% respectively, and user-generated video returned 18.7% and 10% – comScoreDr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research says a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words – invodoVideo appears in 70% of the top 100 search listings – KISSmetricsVideos are 53 times more likely than text pages to show up on the first page of search results – GIGAmonEconsultancy estimates videos in universal search results have a 41% higher click-through rate than plain-text results – EconsultancyIn a Forbes study, it was found that three-quarters (75%) of executives surveyed said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly; more than half (52%) watch work-related videos on YouTube at least weekly – ForbesMore than half of senior executives share videos with colleagues at least weekly, and receive work-related videos as often – Forbes.Regularly posting videos helped the company’s website receive 200% to 300% more monthly unique visitors and a 100% longer average time-on-site spent per visitor. The average time spent on pages with videos was 3 minutes compared to 1 minute and 30 seconds averaged on pages without video – marketing sherpa29.9% of people say they would watch more online video content if the quality of content were higher and 26.4% would watch more if their access were more flexible (i.e., the ability to watch anywhere, anytime, from any device) – eConsultancyStudents asked about video-instruction universally express that video reinforces their learning, makes them feel visually stimulated, and holds their attention better than text – Cofield, J. L. (2002) An Assessment of Streaming Video in Web-based InstructionThe use of video has been deemed more effective for student retention than the use of text in problem-based instruction – Choi and JohnsonThe multiple symbol system of video enhances understanding of complex concepts and supports the acquisition of new concepts among learners with limited prior knowledge – Salomon, G. (1994). Interaction of media, cognition, and learning. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Information obtained visually is more memorable, and the simultaneous processing of both auditory and visual information increases learner comprehension and retention – Baggett, P. (1984). Role of temporal overlap of visual and auditory material in forming dual media associations. Journal of Educational PsychologyInstructors observe that students ask questions that are more specific and engaged in classroom discussion – Franciszkowicz, M. (2008). Video-Based Additional Instruction. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology
My response(which I’m still very happy to post against the original site, just as soon as Video Arts enable comments)
Hmmmm,
The *initially* impressive list of 21 items seems to largely fall down once you start to read it!
Very, very few of the 21 bullet points actually provide any evidence that video is the most ‘effective’ tool for learning.
Admittedly, there are some references to what appears to be research towards the end of the list, but the author hasn’t actually bothered to extrapolate the actual evidence from the data.
Let me clear here. I am not at all ‘anti video’, but when a blog posts tells me it’s going to provide me with some ‘research’, I expect it to do that – not just cite a long list of examples that ‘video is popular’ – so is nicotine but it doesn’t mean that it’s effective for learning!!!
At least it will be on Monday morning when I’m back in work, having left behind the visionaries, disruptivists, forward-thinkers and all round ‘good eggs’ that I was surrounded by at Learning Technologies (LT) 2011.
Following last years attendance at LT 2010 I went back to work envigorated, inspired and with a spring in my step, so much so in fact that my organisation created a Communications Technologist role (it’s a Learning Technologist role… don’t ask its complicated)!
Unfortunately, what they didn’t create was any strategic support or vision to accompany that new post! In order to reduce the sense of frustration that arises from that situation, I made a deal with myself to ‘reign in’ my excitement following LT11.
That said, I still find myself ‘buzzing’ 48 hours after the conference finished so in order to make best use of that ‘buzz’ before it disappears (i.e. Monday morning) I thought I’d blog about my experiences at LT11.
As regular readers will be aware I always try to commit to a couple of action planning points from any event that I attend, in the hope that they will assist me in transferring any learning back to my workplace. I have outlined those actions in blue below.
Keynote – Roger Shank, Getting it right: how the corporate learning world must change
Never sit at the very front left of the auditorium at a future LT for 2 very good reasonsIf Roger moved more than a metre from where he was stood I couldn’t see him!The event photographer seems to take up residence in this area and his camera flash is brighter than the surface of the Sun (my retinas will bear testament to this!)
Exhibition nosey on Day 1
Recommend that my organisations project team look at the digital room booking displays that were being exhibited by Steljes, ahead of a new-purpose built learning centre being built on my site.
Prof Steve Wheeler – e-Learning 3.0 – Learning with the extended smart web
Consider how AUgmented Reality might be used as part of a new-starters induction tour. This approach (if we ever get handsets this side of Alexander Graham Bells prototype), could also be of benefit to all employees as part of their standard workphone handset package.Obtain a copy of the book Distraction by Mark Curtis.
Clark Quinn – Using games for effective learning
Serious gaming is something that has only just started to seriously register on my radar so I was extremely keen to find out a little more about it and how it could enhance what I am currently doing as well as enhance my skillset for the….. future
Unfortunately for me, I found that the session seemed to be pitched at those who already made the decision to go ahead with gaming and not those who were just entering the fray. I also thought that a great opportunity was wasted to prove the value of gaming by actually running the session as a game itself, an example of using the concept to sell the concept.
I assume (there’s the gaming naivety in me coming out) that this would have taken some time to prepare and given that Clark very kindly stepped in at the last moment to cover for another speaker, maybe this would have been his choice with more preparation time?
Exhibition nosey Day 2
Consider whether the Moodle off-shoot Totara LMS offered by Kineo may be a better option for my organisation than Moodle itself.Ascertain whether the Elluminate tool that we have just acquired a licence for is able to
James Clay & Maj Richard Gill – Mobile and Immersive learning
I have been following James Clay for some 12 months via Twitter, his blog, his podcasts and have even attended a couple of his workshops on the subject of Mobile Learning and podcasting, but I had never had the opportunity to see him speak live…. until LT11!
I gather from his blog posts, that he has never been an advocate (who is?) of bullet-point riddled slides and he certainly proved that point by providing a visually engaging presentation allowing only single, full-screen images or perhaps the odd word or two to adorn his slides as opposed to lines upon lines of text (this approach received very positive feedback via the Twitter backchannel)
Craig Taylor & Paul Simbeck-Hampson – Taking the next step
Yep, that’s right folks I was priviledged to speak at LT11, but I’ll cover my session in a future blog post. I shared my session with Paul Simbeck-Hampson who spoke about the opportunities that QR codes present. It became apparent quite quickly that for many of the audience QR codes was either completely new to them or they had only a fleeting understanding. Paul then went on to explain how QR codes were not only being used by large organisations to promote their brand but also how they were able to connect a learner from a static learning resource such as a book to a more dynamic resource such as a webpage. Whilst the video below shows how I have dabbled with QR codes in the past
I still gained an incredible amount from from Paul’s session, so what am I going to do with it?
Contact Paul and ascertain which of the many QR code producing engines is the most feature-rich.Encourage the use of QR codes on the exhibition display stands for Nuclear TV (a project I am involved in), as well as visual reference to other social media streams.Encourage the use of QR codes on the exhibition display stands for my own organisation, as well as visual reference to other social media streams.Use QR codes on my own business cards.Experiment with ‘pimping up’ my own QR codes.
There has been a great deal of discussion elsewhere on t’internet as to the disconnect between the exhibition and the conference in terms of what is being offered, what is being asked for, what is being sold and what is the ‘right’ thing to be doing. Whilst I am not in complete disagreement with this sentiment, I think it is worthwhile to add that whilst I saw plenty of examples of forward-thinking innovative practice downstairs in the exhibition, Curatr, Cofacio and Lightbox to name but a few, I also saw some old-school, discounted methods and practices being used upstairs in the conference; bullet-point riddled slides Powerpoint slides for starters!
So that is Learning Technologies over for another year, or is it just the start of lots more innovative, inspiring, challenging work for me within this……. I’ll let you know on Monday morning
…whatever it’s called it’s quick, simple and cheap to do!
Scheduling a meeting with work colleagues is usually very easy to do as (in my experience) everybody is ‘connected’ via an email management client such as Outlook which allows you to organise meetings around peoples availability as you can usually see their calendar which (you hope) they’ve kept up to date.
The problem lies when you are trying to arrange a meeting with people outside of your organisation who do not exist in your calendar system, again in my experience this usually involves time exhausting multiple phone calls and/or emails around the relevant parties in order to arrange a mutually convenient time.
Well no more!
I discovered Doodle several months ago and had the opportunity to use it ‘in anger’ for the first time during the planning stage of my first panel podcast.
Doodle allows you to publish potential dates and times onto the internet, publicise that information to your meeting attendees, who are then requested to select the option(s) that best suits them. A cut off date can be applied to the Doodle which means that you can be getting on with the more important things in life, whilst your meeting attendees are only taking 30 seconds out of theirs to select their preferred times.
Throughout the process you can drop back in at any time to see which option(s) are shaping up as the faves. Once the window of voting has closed, Doodle will even tot up which option is the most preferred.
Here’s a quick overview of how easy it is to set up.
So over to you..
Are you currently using this tool yourself, if so what have your experiences been?
If this is the first time you have heard about it, can you see any occasions when you might find it useful?
Why not share your thoughts with everybody via the comments section of this blog post…
I’ve been thinking about how I can maximise my use of G+ to add further value and I’ve come up with a plan.
From now on, whenever I publish a blog post that is likely to encourage some comments I’m going to suggest a Google Hangout a couple of days later to discuss it in more detail.
The Hangout will be 15 mins max and will take place over a lunchtime – sandwiches and nibbles are of course welcome!
My plan is to record the Hangout, post it to YouTube and then bring it back down to my blog to promote further discussion.
In fact, why am I waiting for my next blog post? If you’ve read my recent ‘Get your foot in the door’ series and have a comment to make, a question or perhaps want to suggest a ‘get your foot in the door’ app to others then why not log into G+ at 1230hrs on Monday 30th Jan 2012, track me down and join me whilst I ‘hang out’?
As part of the ‘Web content maintenance and evaluation’ unit within the Certificate in Web Content Creation & Management(CWCCM) programme I am undertaking, I have been asked to ‘create a plan for evaluating the success of the Internet website on which I will be working.’ (i.e. this blog)
So without further ado, here is my plan:
My first measure of success will be whether I am personally gaining anything from the blogging experience. I have always maintained that my blog is first and foremost for me. A place to capture my reflections, shape my vision and generally ‘let off steam‘. If others gain something from reading my blog, then I am obviously really pleased, but is is not the primary focus of my blog.I find blogging to be something of a drain on that precious resource ‘time’. Perhaps this is because I am chose to undertake the CWCCM programme at the same time as a Rapid eLearning Development programme AND prepare for a session at Learning Technologies 2011 AND prepare for my first Pecha Kucha at the February eLearning Network event. So my second measure of success will be whether I am still ‘blogging’ in 6 months time. It is 11 months since my first blog post, so I am hoping that in itself suggests that blogging will be a permanent part of my CPD going forward, but who knows…..?Finally I would consider my blog a success if I were able to achieve the goal that I set myself in a previous piece of CWCCM homework which was to increase the average daily views of my blog from 10 to 15 per day by August 2011. Since that previous blog post my current average per day is standing at 21, so all I have to do is maintain that effort and I will have not only met, but exceeded that target!!!!!!!!!
Do you blog? If so, how do you measure the success of your blogging? Have I been too prescriptive or are my targets not SMART enough?
Why don’t you let me know in the comments box below?
If you’ve not already read my previous blog posts ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (visuals only)’, ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (with audio), Bringing in the BackChannel and The Learners Voice then I’d strongly suggest having a read of them before you read any more of this post.
Why?
Well for 2 reasons really:
1. The earlier posts will provide you with the context behind this post.
2. You will notice in the the earlier posts I suggest that whilst a modern, bullet-point free, visually rich presentation is certainly very engaging and less cognitively challenging for any learners, this approach certainly falls down when you distribute the slides on their own after the event.
Essentially all the learner is left with is a collection of pretty slides, which without the context that your narrative provides may fall short of it’s intended purpose. I mentioned that an audio recording of your ‘live’ presentation can be coupled with your slides to provide that important narrative, possibly utilising Slideshare to synchronise the various elements.
The second of this series of posts coupled visuals with a ‘non-live’ audio recording. The benefit of this was that I could keep the duration fairly short, improve the quality of the recording and stick to the ‘script’ – Of course, that also meant that any questions that were asked during the live session are lost to the learner and that any interesting digressions are not included.
To illustrate this point the audio recording below was recorded live at my LSG session. The audio was taken from my lapel mic, into the audio mixing desk and then directly into my Zoom mp3 recorder.
(listening time 59 mins)
Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes
Upon reflection, I’m not sure that I would ever use this type of audio as a learning resource. I feel that the lulls throughout the recording (when the attendees were undertaking group work) would be off-putting to a listener and only serve to make the recording longer, although of course those silences could be edited out.
I also feel that the duration of a ‘live’ recording would be naturally longer than a ‘clinical’ scripted recording, again I feel that the shorter the resource, the more likelihood of a learner accessing it.
But what do you think, would you rather listen to the live, uncut, raw recording?
Would you prefer the scripted, shorter version?
Or would you actually prefer to have both resources made available so that you can make your own choice?
Don’t forget, this is Part 5 in a series of posts surrounding my LSG11UK session.
Part 1 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points with visuals only
Part 2 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points with visual and audio
Part 3 – Bringing in the backchannel
Part 4 – The Learners Voice
Part 5 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points live recorded podcast
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I intend to provide a brief synopsis of each chapter of ‘Designing mlearning‘, but more importantly I intend to answer the questions that Clark poses at the end of each chapter and then pose those same questions back to you ‘Dear Reader‘
Chapter 4 – The technology it’s not about
We start this chapter with a nod to the fact that the iPad (1) was announced during the writing of this book. Given that this is still considered a ‘recent’ book, this shows very clearly how dynamic this market is.
From looking forward we take a look back at a brief history of mobile devices commencing at the Palm Pilot, skipping ahead to mobile phones, through media players to smartphones. From there we review the advent of handheld games, tablets and recording devices, before acknowledging that by the time many readers pick up this book some of the descriptions will already be out of date.
We then take a look at a trend that gives a fairly clear indication of how things are going at the moment – “convergence”. More and more devices are providing a 1-stop shop for much (if not all) of the functionality that we used to associate with multiple devices.
Towards the end of the chapter we are reminded just how quickly this field is developing as Clark suggests that we may even be moving towards wearing glasses with a Heads Up Display - imagine that!
We finish off the chapter with these questions being posed (along with my responses):
How can you take advantage of any of the dedicated devices (media player, camera, PDA, phone)?I’m not sure that we really need to go out of our way to take advantage of the plethora of dedicated devices, after all our learners are already using them within their day-to-day lives to take pictures, record video, access the web, read novels etc. Given that dedicated devices are in my opinion “High Street” what I think we need to do is to tap into learner’s familiarity with them and start to drip-feed examples of how they can use them within a workplace environment. Why not model some good examples using dedicated devices? Often when I facilitate face-to-face activities, I make a point of recording audio feedback, video voxpops and photographs of interactivity using dedicated devices in order to model good practice for the attendees to (hopefully) follow.How can you capitalize the increasing ubiquity of the converged devices?Let’s be honest most organisations (even now) are not providing converged devices (read phones and tablets) to support learning programmes or ‘overtly’ to maximise performance. I believe they are providing them so that you have little or no excuse for not responding to emails! But let’s not let this worry us, instead let’s leverage the growing distribution of mobile devices for our own ends and start to offer resources, assets etc that can benefit from the functionality of the converged device.Have you considered the tradeoffs of providing (devices) versus supporting devices ?I guess the provision of devices ensures (to a certain degree) greater control and in turn ‘peace of mind’ (wrongly in my opinion) to organisations, but hey, if it increases the chances of mobile uptake then maybe it’s worth it? Of course, this approach no doubt brings significant expense with it in terms of providing the devices, however I’ve no doubt that it is easier to support 1 x device type as opposed to trying to support learners own devices. Of course allowing learners to use their own device means that they will be familiar with it and therefore more likely to use it and quite possibly less likely to need support, although the cost and logistics involved in trying to support multiple device types cannot be ignored.So folks, why not take a look at the questions above and provide your own responses in the comments below?
I’ve always said to myself that I would never write a book review, until the day that I had pored in the (no doubt) significant effort that it would take write a book myself. A sort of ‘who am I to criticise‘ perspective.
That was until this weekend; allow me to explain.
I have been looking for a non-fiction, work-related book to read for some time, to break up the months of fiction reading I have been doing. I started to gravitate towards ‘Designing mlearning‘ by Clark Quinn, however I was out off by one of the 1-star rating comments that had been made. (I tweeted about this experience and since then the book has received 2 x positive reviews). Given that the book was quite expensive for a self-purchase (even on Kindle), I decided to look for something else….
Fortunately for me I popped into work the next day (it was a weekend) and lo-and-behold, it was sitting on our library bookshelf – Result!!
I’ve only got 2-3 chapters into the book, however I have decided to stop reading and start again.
Why?
Well because Clark has very cleverly asked a small number of questions at the end of each chapter, which I think is a great way of providing a period of self-reflection and ‘action planning’ for the reader. So great an idea in fact, that my plan is to write a blog post after each chapter in which I will briefly explain what the chapter covered, but more importantly I’ll answer the very questions (where possible) that Clark asks and will then turn the tables on you ‘Dear Reader’ and ask them of you..
As mentioned in a previous blog post, I’m participating in Learning Live 2013. Whilst I was directly involved as a speaker on Day 2, I also attended as a participant throughout the 2 day event.
Here are my key takeaways from Day 2 (Day 1 can be found here)
Session: ‘Connecting & Collaborating – Building a Network Oriented Workplace’
Presented by Rob Brown
Relationship and collaboration are crucial for today’s top-functioning organisations. The ability to network and build networks is critical for organisational performance. More than that, the leveraging of those networks is a massively unexploited competitive advantage. With 90% of learning coming from relational and experiential sources, the power of a network is clear. What organisations struggle with is creating a culture of connecting and networking that facilitates greater learning. Who knows what and who knows who are just two simple metrics that are rarely measured. Yet networking capability is both coachable and measurable, creating a much more collaborative, sharing and connected culture that positively impacts the bottom line.
Likely takeaways from this session:
Why a connected culture counteracts low engagement and information overload.The 7 biggest networking mistakes employees make.How to foster trust, thereby increasing innovation and productivity.Mapping out networking capability for employees – spotting the best networkersThe role of likeability and why it’s more important than technical competence6 corporate strategies for building an internal network at any level.
My key content take-away
Rob was a very fun, engaging and informed speaker, however I was somewhat disappointed in the session content as I was unable to see where any of the above ‘likely takeaways’ came out during the session. Now I know that the word ‘likely’ is contained there, but I’d like to think that if the above session outline is being used to attract people to the session (as it did me) then it would explicitly cover those items.
I was under the impression that this session was going to be about how to ‘Building a Networked Orientated Workplace’ however it seemed to be more about personal networking skills as opposed to how to build an internal network. Don’t get me wrong, there was a section towards the end of the session ‘3 phases for building a networked orientated workplace‘ that touched on the subject, but I’d expected something far more focussed.
Session: ‘Building a Business Driven Collaborative Learning Culture’
Presented by Ron Edwards
Like many organisations, QA has a distributed workforce with a desire to keep staff informed, engaged and continuously learning how to best meet customer needs with new products and better services. QA chose a mix of formal learning reinforced by social media based learning to improve Sales education efficiency while increasing sharing of best practices. This approach was recently recognised with an LPI Gold Award for Social Media Programme of the Year and has resulted in an increase in new business wins by 17%.
This session will explore:
Business drivers behind adopting a collaborative learning approachSuccess factors in planning, launch and engagementGetting the mix of face to face, virtual, elearning and social media learning rightHow a more collaborative learning culture is emergingMeasurement and business resultsWhat’s next in terms of refreshing the approach and increasing engagementThoughts on gamification as a way to increase valuable contributions
Delegates will learn:
Six principles of effective use of social media to gain business resultsTricks of the trade for successful online community launchesThe value of video sharingGamification challenges and opportunities
My key content take-away
QA utilised the platform that they already had in place for their clients. Whilst I can understand the rationale for this, I’ve yet to see a single platform that can match the efficacy of using multiple ‘best of breed’ platforms.
Think, plan and think again about your content architecture. How can we group or information, do we even need to group information if we ‘tag’ it well enough, provide a good search functionality and allow related results (as Amazon does)
Their story about distributing Flip cams to their workforce reminded me of the BT Dare2Share story – it’s a oldie but a goodie!
Compliance Training – From Course to Campaign!
Presented by me!!!
Compliance training is often seen by many L&D practitioners as a ‘thorn in their side’; a necessary evil that despite their best efforts, remains low-down on most learners list of things to concern themselves about. If this applies to you and/or your organisation and you’d like to ?nd out how to take a signi?cant step change in the delivery of your compliance training, then this session is for you! Craig Taylor will guide you through his journey in turning compliance training from a selection of stand-alone courses to a series of ongoing campaigns. He’ll share his background thinking, hints and tips to obtain that critical ‘buy in’ from stakeholders and the research to back up his campaign approach along with those all important ‘lessons learnt’; AKA the bits that Craig got wrong!
Why the move from course to campaign? How to obtain that all important ‘buy in’ from stakeholders How to ask for what you want from external agencies. Why you might consider a campaign for a campaign. Share Craig’s lessons learnt
That’s right folks, I was facilitating my session at the end of Day 2 which revolved around the work I had done in my previous organisation to move compliance training away from ‘stand alone’ pieces of content to an ongoing 2/7 series of campaigns, you can read some of my posts on the subject here
There’s a lot of buzz in the learning industry around Gamification. Some would argue (myself included) that the term gamification is watered-down by applying it to poor applications of gaming. I think that’s why there’s a lot of discussion around “Game-Based Learning” and how it is different than what “Gamification” seems to have become.
Gamification is often used in the context of “make a game out of it”, and it’s in that context that I think the term is losing it’s power. Taking content and putting it into a Jeopardy game board instead of a standard multiple-choice quiz might be a little more fun, and maybe it’s even more engaging if you add in badges or a leaderboard to add the motivation of accomplishment and/or competition, and there IS value in that. I just don’t see the “Make it a game” approach as something that adds much depth to the learning, as it’s missing a critical component: Play.
That’s the difference between “Gamification” and “Game-Based Learning” in my mind. With game-based learning, the learning is embedded directly into the play by design. It’s not a case of bolting on gaming elements to enhance engagement. It’s a critical distinction that I think needs to be understood to truly appreciate the power of games for learning.
Sometimes it helps me to see an example of a concept in action for it to really click. When it comes to games-based learning, that example came in the form of, of all things, turtles. More specifically, Robot Turtles.
Robot Turtles is a game created by Dan Shapiro to teach young kids how to code. It’s geared for younger kids in general, but has a lot of flexibility in it so that it can be adapted to older and more experienced players.
The simplified object of the game is to move your turtle around a board to capture a gem. You move your turtle using cards (Turn Left, Turn Right, Move Forward, and Laser). There are different types of obstacles that players need to navigate around on their way to the goal.
At it’s core, that’s the whole game. But in practice it’s so much deeper. Let’s look at some of the specific actions that players engage in during the game.
Understanding what each card doesCombining multiple cards to form a path for your turtle to followReading the actions described in the series of cards and moving your turtle accordinglyEncountering obstacles, and changing the order of the cards to go around themMaking sure your turtle’s path doesn’t conflict with another player’s turtle
You’ll notice that there’s nothing in those actions, or in the game description, about coding. To me this speaks to the critical difference in game-based learning as compared to the general assumptions about gamification: the learning is embedded directly into the play. Robot Turtles isn’t a course on “How to Code” put into game form. It’s a game that teaches and reinforces coding concepts and skills through it’s play.
Let’s look at the actions players engage in again. This time, I’m going to replace some of the words to emphasize the coding concepts that are taught through the game.
Understanding what each card does each COMMANDCombining multiple cards COMMANDS to form a path for your turtle to follow a LINE OF CODEReading the actions described in the series of cards the LINE OF CODE and moving your turtle accordingly EXECUTING IT Encountering obstacles, BUGS, and changing the order of the cards to go around them and EDITING YOUR CODE ACCORDINGLYMaking sure your turtle’s path CODE doesn’t conflict with another player’s turtle CODE
My kids love this game. Part of the reason they love it is that it’s not teaching disguised as a game; it’s a game. It’s a game that was specifically designed to reinforce coding skills through it’s play, and it succeeds tremendously towards that end. Watching my son and daughter play is wonderful. I can see the wheels turning as they place cards down, watching them execute the code in their minds. I see them collaborating when their codes conflict, each moving cards around so that both codes can be executed. I see them building different game boards, adding variables to work codes around, including some variables they have invented for themselves that weren’t included in the game.
Robot Turtles is not teaching with a gaming facade. This is a game at heart, intentionally designed as an experience through which learning happens during play. To me, this is the lens through which we should be viewing game-based learning.
Robot Turtles is the best-selling game in Kickstarter history – with good reason. Here’s a great promo video showing Dan Shapiro and his kids playing and describing the game. While the Kickstarter is over, the game has been picked up by Thinkfun, and can be ordered here.
Regular readers will know that I ‘moonlight’ as the Social Media correspondent for an industry-wide communications channel called Nuclear TV. (although I have now started calling myself Social Media and Technologies correspondent because……. well, because I can)
I recently had the Pullizter-worthy idea to conduct a number of TV reports on the use of Learning Technologies and Social Media within other industries, businesses and corporates.
In order to generate interest in the project I put out a tweet asking for willing interviewees and was contacted by Laura Overton from Towards Maturity.
Here’s the chinwag that we had….
If ‘you’ feel that ‘you’ have a story that you would like to share with others relating as to how your organisation is using learning technologies to add value to the business, (particularly where you have used them in a regulated, compliance driven market) then why not drop me a line.
The interviews will be hosted on the NLTV channel as well as this blog, if the interview is less than 15mins then I will place it on YouTube and you will also be provided with the edited footage and separate mp3 file for your own use.
Little did I suspect that my attendance at the Learning Technologies 2010 (LT10) conference would lead to such a welcome career change…
…over the last 12 months or so I have become to realise that my L&D career to date has been very ‘traditional’; by traditional I mean that I hadn’t fully recognised the breadth of technology that was available to enhance learning activities. Sure I had seen, participated in, and even designed a number of traditional ‘click next’ e-learning modules, I had downloaded and listened to podcasts (mainly from the Ricky Gervais camp!) and had even dabbled in Facebook (but gave up on it after getting one too many ‘nudges’). However I had never fully recognised how these and other tools (or having attended LT10, I now term ‘Web 2.0 technologies’) could be used to such great effect for learning purposes.
I returned to my organisation on a ‘high’, not only from having been surrounded by like-minded L&D professionals for 2 days, but also from the thirst for knowledge that had been created for all things ‘technological’.
It appears that this personal ‘high’ was not lost on my organisation who have offered me a change of role from L&D Adviser to Learning and Communications Technologist. Whilst the role profile has not yet been written it will involve looking at how as an organisation we can better harness technology to enhance both formal and informal learning activities.
If you have any advice that you would like to offer as I take this new role forward, I shall look forward to hearing from you.
Let’s be honest, I think it’s fair to say that one of the biggest barriers to a whole sale adoption of mobile technologies is senior management. Which got me thinking about what sort of app you could recommend to them, to get your foot in their door.
And then it dawned me; one of the things that senior managers do a LOT of (whether they actually need to or not) is travel (I think it’s a kudos thing for many of them)
So I’ve taken a little wander around some of the app stores and found some travel related apps that I imagine will make their lives a lot easier when they are on their travels and of course if their lives are made easier by having a native app at their disposal, there’s a much better chance of them seeing the benefit of mobile technologies when you attempt to ‘get your foot in the door’ ……
British Airways (iOS) – £FREE
British Airways (Android) – £FREE
IOS National Rail Planner - £4.99*
Android National Rail Planner - £3.49*
AA Breakdown and Traffic (iOS) – £FREE
AA Breakdown and Traffic (Android) – £FREE
* (I have actually downloaded and used this app myself, check out the reviews for my thoughts)
Inevitably there will be some people who do not have a mobile device and will bemoan the fact that you are offering their colleagues who do have a mobile device something that they themselves are unable to benefit from, or they will complain over the fact that the apps cost money – don’t let this put you off.
Simply tell them to carry on using whatever tool or process they have always used – simples!!!
And you know what? Even if people don’t opt for these apps, you may have just sewn the seeds for them to look for an alternative….
I’ve always said to myself that I would never write a book review, until the day that I had pored in the (no doubt) significant effort that it would take write a book myself. A sort of ‘who am I to criticise‘ perspective.
That was until this weekend; allow me to explain.
I have been looking for a non-fiction, work-related book to read for some time, to break up the months of fiction reading I have been doing. I started to gravitate towards ‘Designing mlearning‘ by Clark Quinn, however I was out off by one of the 1-star rating comments that had been made. (I tweeted about this experience and since then the book has received 2 x positive reviews). Given that the book was quite expensive for a self-purchase (even on Kindle), I decided to look for something else….
Fortunately for me I popped into work the next day (it was a weekend) and lo-and-behold, it was sitting on our library bookshelf – Result!!
I’ve only got 2-3 chapters into the book, however I have decided to stop reading and start again.
Why?
Well because Clark has very cleverly asked a small number of questions at the end of each chapter, which I think is a great way of providing a period of self-reflection and ‘action planning’ for the reader. So great an idea in fact, that my plan is to write a blog post after each chapter in which I will briefly explain what the chapter covered, but more importantly I’ll answer the very questions (where possible) that Clark asks and will then turn the tables on you ‘Dear Reader’ and ask them of you..
It’s that time of the year again folks when Jane Hart is reminding us all to submit our ‘Top 10 Learning Tools 2011/of the year’.
This is something that I contributed to for the first time last year and it was interesting to see where my preferred tools came in the ‘Top 100' ranking structure that Jane works out from all of our submissions, it is also a great place to catch wind of any new tools that are out there.
I am once again contributing to this years list, however I have decided to take a different tack. Whereas my list last year probably (I say probably because I can’t specifically remember) contained things like:
TwitterYouTubeGoogle ReaderSlideshareetc
I have decided to approach things from a different angle this year and have decided not to concentrate on the actual platform, but to think more carefully about how I get access to that platform. After all, it’s no good being a member of some of these wonderful online platforms if you can’t get to them. There are also a few in there just to remind us all that sometimes the answer doesn’t need to be a ‘click‘ away at all! I think it’s also worth mentioning that I have only very recently started working in a new organisation, Epic. What better time to consider what tools have been effective for my personal learning, within a real-time learning moment.
So here’s my Top 10 list of learning tools, in no particular order.
1. My phone (this allows me to phone people up and ask them a question, at which point I find Tool No 6 to be particularly useful)
2. My iPad (this allows me to review online information and communications in order to bring me up to speed on a given subject, of course without Tool No 4 I am somewhat limited in what I can do)
3. My laptop (not only can I do everything on this that I can do on Tool No 2, but I can also far more easily create content, which of course allows me to reflect upon what I am creating thus adding to my own personal learning experience)
4. Internet signal – WiFi/3G/4G/Ethernet (come on admit it, how many of you who submitted an entry into Janes Top 100 tools, overlooked the fact that *most* if not all of the tools you suggested rely upon being able to gain and maintain access to the t’internet?)
5. Falling over – not literally of course, I mean making mistakes. What more powerful tool can there be for learning than those amazing synapses in our brains firing adrenaline, emotions such as guilt, worry, embarrassment, shock etc after we have realised we have made a mistake. Sometimes bruised egos, flushed cheeks and yes – scraped knees serve us very well indeed.
6. My ears – let’s be honest, they’re in ‘receive mode’ far more than our Internet signal. Next time you’re amongst your team colleagues just allow yourself to listen to what’s being said….
7. The Epic intranet – a purpose-built repository of the specific ‘must/should/and could knows’ of my organisation. This has been of immense use to me over the last couple of weeks and no doubt will continue to be so in the future.
8. The guy who sits opposite me – His name is Andy Costello and he has been a godsend to me during my first few weeks working at Epic. Not only providing support when I have asked for it, but also providing it when he anticipates I am approaching a ‘just in time’ moment. Truly contextualised, semantic performance support.
9. Books/magazine etc (not fussy about the format)
10. My Son and Daughter – watching them grow up, evolve, learn, make mistakes etc provides me with some wonderful ‘lightbulb’ moments. Seeing how they navigate the challenges and problems that you and I take for granted, like carrying a plate without spilling its contents reminds me that all the learning challenges that you and I face are surmountable, I mean look at everything else that we have achieved in our lives!
“Yes” in so far as it is about introducing the concept of mobility into your L&D approach…
…. and “No” in so far as it’s not about a lengthy, decision riddled, strategic approach, it’s about simple, pragmatic approaches that you can adopt (and indeed may already be doing) that can help you get your foot in the door, prior to moving onto other things.
Most of the slides used in the screencast below were inspired by the JISC Mobile infokit by Doug Belshaw – so thanks to Doug and JISC for providing the inspiration for this.
Regular readers of my blog and social media followers will know that I’m not a huge fan of click-next, self-paced eLearning. Sure, there’s a time to wrap the whole learning experience up in a SCORM object, bury it deep within a Learning Management System and track the bejesus out of everything. (When I say everything, of course I’m not actually referring to whether the learner has been able to synthesise the content and has an ability to recreate it in the real world and the subsequent business impact, I’m actualy talking out who did it, when they did it, what score they attained, whether they ‘passed‘ and lets be honest about this; how good their short term memory is!).
The time being when an organisation needs to tick a box and cover their asses to prove that ‘training’ was provided to a learner, the place being (alas) most organisations. (I’ve just re-read the text above and realised I’m going off on one again, so I’ll get back on track…)
I much prefer the approach of providing support at the point of need via relevant resources. Many people will assume that those resources would be of a technical nature and of course they could be. They could also be a poster, a handout, a leaflet etc.
Given my interest in technology however, I’ve always been intrigued and surprised at just how overlooked the intranet is in many organisations, in terms of being able to deliver support in a way that is no doubt far more in people’s ‘workflows’ than an LMS is!
It’s this fascination with how under utilised intranets tend to be, that led to me volunteering to facilitate a number of scoping workshops in a previous organisation when the decision was made to overhaul its intranet offering.
Being a global organisation those workshops took place at each location with the same questions being asked of each group.
Below is the Google Doc that I produced to present the outcomes of the scoping workshop that I conducted, I hope you find the questions that were asked to be of use to you if you are considering developing your own intranet platform. As you can see very few of the questions actually refer to an ‘intranet’ at all, but instead ask how people work, the types of info they require, the media that info is presented in etc
A few days ago I posted my initial thoughts on facilitating an un-conference based around the theme of using technology to enhance learning. I was at that time a little dubious over the uptake of this, but the pieces seem to be falling into place…
… I’m really pleased to say that the support and interest over the last week has very encouraging, here’s how I did it.
Emailed all internal facilitators to invite them to the un-workshop, including details of the venue and the offer of a Flip Ultra camera being presented to a randomly selected participant on completion of the day (always helps!)Those facilitators that responded positively were sent a link to a Poll Daddy survey asking for them to contribute their ideas and suggestion for the days content. I opted for Poll Daddy over the Survey Monkey licence that we possess, as I will ultimately want to ‘poll’ the attendees and I am unsure if Survey Monkey has that functionality (note to self; look into this functionality). Google Moderator required everybody to have a GMail account, so it was a non-starter.
I have also invited out IT team along, to allow them to see the direction that we are trying to take in terms of Learning Technologies. I am hoping that this will grease the wheels of progress in the future and may allow IT the opportunity to interact more closely with their customers.
Anyway, 6 days after sending out the initial email I have 9 confirmed attendances and 1 tentative, with a week still to go it is shaping up to be a great event.
Let’s be honest as Learning Folk who have an interest in using technology to add value to our organisations and our learners, we have a tough job on a number of fronts. Not least of which is the challenge in positively influencing those people in our organisations who are responsible for giving the ‘nod’ or putting their hands in their pockets.
So why do we make it hard on ourselves by (at times it seems) making up words or at best picking an existing word to explain what we are doing i.e. curation and gamification???
Surely a couple of words or even a sentence to explain what we are doing is better than trying to cram our plans into a single word?
I have been working with a published author Fiona Talbot for a few weeks now and she has been telling me of some work she has been doing with Corgi/Gas Safe to rewrite their manuals by putting them into Plain English. Interestingly the rewritten version is slightly longer than original version.
Because sometimes in order to make things clearer to people we need to take the time (and word count) to explain things in Plain English as opposed to using jargon or overly complex words in a vain effort to sound ‘with it’ or dare I say it…. ‘buzz wordy’!
I’ve been thinking about this for some time, however a recent blog post from Saffron Interactive prompted me to respond to. I suspect that there may be some problems with Saffrons commenting system as I left the comment over 29 hours ago and it still hasn’t been moderated so I though it best that I reproduce the original post (and my comment here)
This is a report back from my first day working at Saffron Interactive. Apologies for the short delay, but you’ll understand that I have been very busy for the last month! In an exciting start to my Saffron career I spent my first day attending the Learning and Skills Group (LSG) conference at Olympia – a great way to be introduced to the world of e-learning.
I do not come from an e-learning background but I have always had a keen interest in technology and games and one particular talk really captured my imagination. I’m sure most people are familiar in some form or another with the world of video games whether through PCs or a range of consoles covering all ages and tastes. Gaming however is now beginning to have an effect outside of our leisure time and is becoming prevalent in everyday life, for example the way we shop, network and … learn.
For those unfamiliar with Gamification – a new and growing concept in the world of e-learning – the idea is based on the use of gaming mechanics to increase user engagement whilst delivering key learning objectives. For those still somewhat mystified by the term I have included a definition below;
“Gamification works by making technology more engaging, and by encouraging desired behaviours, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming.”
Radoff, Jon (2011). Game On: Energize Your Business with Social Media Games. Wiley. pp. xxxii. ISBN 9780470936269.
At the LSG conference, this was explored in depth with a talk from Alicia Sanchez who has been appointed “Games Czar” at the US Defense Acquisition University (DAU).
Alicia’s talk presented some interesting examples, in this case based on military procurement, an area that apparently requires regular and incredibly stringent compliance training. By using the setting of a game, a far more positive response was generated from the workforce in digesting the necessary content for their roles. One such example was a simulation where the user would carry out compliance checks on weapons on the premise of preventing an alien invasion.
What’s more as gaming has begun to take on a social aspect, this can be incorporated into e-learning for even higher levels of engagement. For example, in the same way that Xbox players use “gamer scores” to celebrate achievements and relate to their peers, the DAU allows players to build online profiles giving added value and a social element to their learning achievements. This is also great from a learning provider’s perspective as it provides a method for demonstrating the impact that its courses have on user groups.
If you take this social aspect in combination with a Gamification style of e-learning further, it is also clear how learners working together could gain huge additional benefits in terms of organisation and teamwork given the right environment. In a previous organisation I worked at, the Sales Director actually mused:
“If teenagers can work together in World of Warcraft to be organised and achieve common objectives I do not see why our sales force cannot do the same!”
It will be interesting to see if many of the positive side effects of massively multiplayer gaming would become increasingly prevalent as an additional benefit for this type of delivery. Although I would add a caveat here that had the sales force assembled itself into a 30 man raid group and stormed customers offices (a la World of Warcraft) it may not have gone down well. I do hope however you can see the point I am making In terms of cooperation between departments and employees.
Of course there are limitations to the Gamification of learning. Budgets are always under increased scrutiny and is there as one of my colleagues put it an assumption that “if its fun it can’t be good for you”? Even taking these issues into account it will be interesting to see if this is a view that shifts if Gamification style courses begin to build up a backlog of case studies with quantifiable results. The other long term factor here could be as younger generations of the workforce come into management positions with a greater familiarity with the culture of gaming there will be an increasing appetite at senior levels to champion this as a style of learning.
As a final note I would like mention one of my favourite solutions of this type currently on the market: a revision of House of the Dead which is not only guaranteed to improve users’ typing skills but also looks like great fun!
I look forward to giving some further updates on Gamification from the Saffron perspective in the coming months.
Screenshot of the cover of my iBook submission
Learning Awards submission Wordle
Question mark made out of coloured poins on a cork board
Robot Turtles is a game created by Dan Shapiro to teach young kids how to code. It’s geared for younger kids in general, but has a lot of flexibility in it so that it can be adapted to older and more experienced players.
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Close up of a Zeiss scope
