Tech4learning

Learning Transfer - More Than A Cameo Role

I've written a few times about my interest in using technology to empower the learning transfer process.  Full-service learning follow-through tools such as Action Plan Mapper and Friday5s offer a powerful solution to the problem of how to ensure that learning is put into practice back in the workplace.

At a more simplistic level, many of us have used e-mail as a way to keep in touch with learners and to either remind them of key points from the training or encourage them to keep plugging away at their action plans.

Last week, I received my first demonstration in the UK of a new e-mail based tool that sends out short single-question scenario-based assessments that encourage each learner to reflect on the learning received and apply that to a specific situation, by responding to say three possible options.

The Cameo tool automatically bounces back an e-mail containing feedback based on the answer given by the learner and within that feedback you can include links to other related resources to provide reinforcement and additional learning opportunities

The easy-to-use interface allows the trainer to set up a series of questions to be automatically sequenced at regular user-defined intervals and sent out to each group based on a trigger date, most usually the date of the classroom course or e-learning module.  The system's database keeps a close eye on the responses received, can chase in a number of ways those that miss a message and reports the overall performance of the group, helping to provide evidence of the levels of participation and learning reinforcement.

A short demonstration helps to show the entire process.

And if, like me, you wondered if an e-mail based system would work given the bulging in-boxes most of us have, apparently one client - with similar concerns - reported an impressive 95% participation rate.

Launched in the US last autumn, a second version of the software is heading our way in a few weeks's time.  Future enhancements, I understand, may include the ability to integrate the tool into your own LMS.

I like the simplicity of the approach, which tackles the issues of retaining knowledge after a training event, the need for application of learning on the job and preparing learners to meet the challenges ahead through scenario-based questioning.  With Blackberries and iPhones in the pockets of some learners, then this platform also provides a form of m-learning.

A Complete "Skill-Builder" Blend

Now I'm a big-picture thinker (INTJ in the MBTI world) and in my ideal world, completeness is the key to success (and global domination, but that's for another day).

So I was very impressed to discover the Rapid Skill-Builder solution from the Worldwide Center for Organizational Development.

I discovered them from an e-learning perspective but - as part of their "completeness", their solution is also available as an m-learning solution and t-learning (yes, t-learning - or trainer-led).

Essentially, via either a face-to-face route (short 2-3 hours workshops), or one via e-learning or a mobile device, you can offer your employees a complete competency development programme that literally covers every topic you would hope to find.  You could seamlessly blend the different methods too.

Whichever route you take, the formats are the same, with video scenarios used to demonstrate the theory and either trainers' notes or audio narration to deliver the facilitation aspects.  Consistent supporting materials help both the trainer and learner through the material.

The material has also been validated by the UK's Institute of Leadership and Management, an organisation I particularly respect, having worked with them in previous roles.  In fact, the material can be studied as part of more formal accredited programmes.

The pricing is transparent and very attractive, especially as you are offered a complete out-of-the box skills and competency development approach.

This is definitely a solution worth investigating if you have a clean sheet and are looking to introduce blended learning into your learning and development strategy.

E-learning Tools for Manufacturing

When it comes to my knowledge of generic e-learning content, I'm very familiar with the wide range of soft skills and IT applications training programmes available from the leading players in the market.

But when it comes to the manufacturing sector, I'll be honest to say that I've never really thought much about the need for generic e-learning training.  I've worked on custom e-learning projects for the chemical engineering industry that underpinned an on-the-job apprenticeship training programme, so didn't think much beyond that initial requirement.

So I was interested to come across Tooling U, a US-based provider of online training for the manufacturing sector, who offer a very wide range of e-learning courses in all matter of topics.

As well as covering the use of specific types of machinery, they also have courses that introduce the employee to the underlying processes surrounding the use of these tools.  They've also recently launched a range of soft skills modules for factory floor supervisors.  Given my own background in soft skills training, I reviewed the demo of one of these new modules and - putting aside the US feel to it - I was impressed by the instructional design and overall look and feel.

They also offer a range of m-learning versions under the TU Mobile brand.

I can't vouch necessarily for the technical content, but if you are in the manufacturing sector, then I'm sure you'll want to take a look.

To Twit or Not To Twit...

This article on the BBC News website has stirred up some discussions on some training forums.

It would seem that the vast majority of postings are from a small minority of users and that many users fall into the categories of either those who visit the once only, or only post every few months.  To date, I'm very much in the latter camp as I too have struggled to really get going with this as a communications or social networking media.

I've struggled with its usability and - to be honest - its purpose.  And I've not really seen any evidence of its wide-spread adoption in corporate learning and development solutions - even as a pilot.

But I've recently added two books to my bookshelf in an attempt to get "under the bonnet".

The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein (hashtag #TwitterBook - read the book to find out what that's about) was my first investment - hot of the press as it was only published a few days ago.

This is a very quick read - it keeps moving apace - and works by using a written commentary on the right-hand side, opposite one of more screen grabs of real Twitter examples.  I liked the honest of the authors when they wrote, "[Twitter] can be surprisingly hard to figure out.  The screens aren't particularly intuitive, and the jargon and symbols are obscure.  Even more vexing, it's not clear at first why people are so enthusiastic about Twitter."  Given the results of the recent survey and my own thoughts, this one comment made me want to read the book so I could be enlightened.

The book covers the basics of getting started, goes on to get you familiar with "listening in" to existing Twitterers, then leads you through posting your own comments, using the service to share information and ideas, enhancing your personal profile and finally looks at how Twitter can be used for business purposes.

As I mentioned earlier, it's a fast read and maybe - at times - some of the detail was skipped, which meant I was still unable to fully comprehend some of the aspects.  I realise though, that that's a personal thing.

But my interest was definitely stimulated, so I went on to add "Twitter Tips, Tricks and Tweets", by Paul McFedries to my collection.

This is a more traditional "how to" book.  It's very detailed, with clear step-by-step instructions and illustrations that helped me to begin to appreciated the concepts covered in "The Twitter Book".

The content is similar - how to get started, customising your profile, sending Twitter updates and following other Twitter users - but then goes much deeper into areas such as using Twitter on your mobile phone (which is less useful for UK users), searching for information on Twitter, displaying your Twitter feeds on other sites (I'll be trying that out on this blog) and becoming an advanced Twitter user by using the ever-growing range of tools and applications that extend Twitter's power and reach. And there are some really interesting ways to make Twitter a very powerful tool.

This book is marketed at both the novice and more experienced user.  Again - and refreshingly given the "hype" - the author writes, "If you hate Twitter or are simply mystified by the whole thing, I hope this book will show you that although Twitter isn't the life-changing event that some folks make it out to be, it is useful and entertaining if you use it in a way that suits you."

Based on these two books, I will certainly be taking more time to explore its potential as a corporate learning and development tool.

E-learning 2.0

It was with great interest that I started to read this new book.

Not only because I used to work for the publisher's sister company in Europe, but because this was one of the first books I'd seen focusing on e-learning 2.0.

If you buy this book, get it for the good up-to-date chapter (3) on what constitutes e-learning today, including synchronous (live) e-learning and some comprehensive coverage on the "new" phenomenon of rapid e-learning and when you might use it versus the more "traditional" forms of e-learning.  It must be mentioned that the author runs a company that sells a rapid e-learning authoring tool, but although the examples in the book do reference this product, overall, there is little "hard sell".

Buy it for its reference to the concept of social networking in the business world and among adults (chapter 4) and its discussion about podcasting (chapter 5); also for the first specific coverage I've seen in a book about the use of m-learning within the corporate learning arena (chapter 6).

Chapters 7 and 8 focus on what makes a successful e-learning course and if you're using a rapid e-learning authoring tool, then the clearly presented discussions about all manner of design issues will provide a crash course in creating an effective course.

Chapter 9 brings the book to a close with another "first" for an e-learning book - a good attempt at demystifying the world of standards and integration, in which AICC, SCORM 1.2 and 2004 are clearly and simply explained.  I also welcomed the author's realistic take on the subject of reusable learning objects and her honest view - shared by me and others - that there are probably few real good situations where a "pure" learning object strategy would make sense.

Although I enjoyed reading this book, I did struggle with my first reading of chapter 2, in which the author explains the stages that an organisation will go through with an e-learning strategy.  The discussions here seem to align e-learning with website development, which I've never really seen myself, but that's not to say there weren't some good observations.

There is one section though - the author's review of audio within e-learning courses - where I have to use my own 15-plus years of experience to provide an alternative viewpoint to her comment that you should "think twice about deploying audio for your courses".  And I can only speak from my own experience, but from my days of deploying e-learning to over 70,000 staff at a large retail bank (where staff openly requested courses with audio, over those without);through consulting into large multinational organisations; working with two Brandon Hall award-winning e-learning development houses where audio was used throughout every title; to my more recent projects of rejuvenating Captivate-authored software training modules by re-purposing them with audio narration, I can testify that audio does make a very positive difference to an e-learning module. 

This doesn't mean (and here I agree with the author) the narrator reading word for word what is presented on the screen.  Instead the narration should only be reinforced with short bullet points or appropriate graphics.  With in-house rapid e-learning projects, including the voice of the subject matter expert can add the authority and credibility that some learners need to "trust" the content. 

In response to the comment that audio adds considerably to the production times, with my own rapid e-learning projects, it generally take two hours to record an hour of final audio and less than half that time again to perform any edits.  I'm currently able to produce a finished hour of content with audio in about 6 to 8 hours, which is less than half the time mentioned in the book.

But that aside - and thanks for bearing with me and my own personal opinions above - this is a good book for anyone new to e-learning and who's looking for up-to-date messages, which are lacking in the other books on the subject, many of which are now dated in terms of their messages.

iPhone, therefore iWeb-conference

Having spent the last few weeks badgering the providers of rapid e-learning authoring tools to bring forward their plans to offer options to output content that can be played on a Blackberry, when offered an upgrade by my phone company the other week, I went for an iPhone!

So now I have a personal interest for looking for ways in which this device (albeit not a mainstream corporate mobile option in the UK at least) can be used to facilitate learning.

I was reminded that Webex has recently added the ability to take part in a web-conference from an iPhone, but not being a current user of this platform - and given the fact that competing Flash-based web-conferencing systems couldn't run on the non-Flash enabled iPhone - I was interested to find a solution that was designed specifically for the iPhone, complete with its own iPhone App.

Touch Meeting from web-conferencing provider, Persony, allows you to host or attend a web-conference from your iPhone (or a computer).  Two video clips show this in action.

It is possible to sign up for this service free of charge (but you are restricted to just three participants), although this would be OK for periodic small coaching sessions. 

The solution is US-based too, so at this point in time, for an international audience anyhow, I think this is just a great taste of what is possible.  Hopefully it won't be too long before other vendors develop their own solutions and if Apple ever moves to offer Flash on the iPhone, many other other major corporate web-conferencing provider will be able to bolt on this platform. 

Although I wouldn't see a need for a webinar to be delivered solely to an iPhone platform, on those occasions when a participant was travelling, they may rather attend from their iPhone (accepting some of the limitations posed by the size of the device), than miss the session altogether.

On-mobile Learning

The title of the posting came to me in a flash - and having Googled the term and not found any other mention of this phrase, if it ever takes off, you heard it first here, folks! After all, if we have online learning, why can't we have on-mobile learning?  Of course, the jury is still out on whether mobile learning will take off,  As there are so many platforms in use, e.g. Blackberry, Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian, course developers are struggling to determine which to support.

But various content providers are beginning to make their materials available for deployment on one or more of these platforms and it was interesting to see the launch of an "on-mobile" library from OnPoint Digital. 

Now I've been keeping an eye on OnPoint Digital, but because of their US-focus, I've not really been able to mention them on this blog.  For instance, their flagship CellCast dial-in service - to the best of my knowledge - will only prove (cost) effective Stateside.  It's worth pointing out that UK-based custom e-learning developer, Saffron Interactive, has also considerable experience in this area too, with it's i-Cast service.

With their new CellCast Mobile Library, OnPoint Digital have partnered with many of the aforementioned providers to offer their mobile learning content through an e-commerce portal site.

Content has been sourced from 50 Lessons, SkillSoft, Soundview Executive Book Summaries to name probably the best-known.  You can browse their catalogue, now numbering over 500 titles, before previewing and making your selection; then purchasing it for downloading to a mobile device or (and I'm guessing again this is more for American users) listening to podcasts via a mobile phone call.

The subject matter includes leadership and management skills, sales and marketing, as well as IT skills (in particular how to get the most from your Blackberry - a good use of mobile learning) and other personal effectiveness topics.  The content is available as video clips, podcasts and even animated slideshows, which I've covered before as a possible m-learning format.

The content can be run through all the main platforms, although you may need to download and install a "widget" to be able to playback the object.

With initiatives like this, hopefully on-mobile learning will be given a good chance to develop.

Virtual Training - Walking the Talk Online

Now it's rare for me to post a piece about a particular training provider, as the focus of this blog is on the tools you can use to deliver corporate learning and development solutions using learning technologies.

But today I learned about a particular provider, TMA World, whose newly promoted blended learning offer, via an informative video piece, provides a clear example of how we should be using webinars, together with e-learning modules and podcasts to deliver technology-driven blends.

Over the last four years, I've worked on similar programmes that delivered training in international leadership and teamworking using the same tools that a virtual/remote team would (or in some cases, should) use on a day-to-day basis. 

I've long felt that the best way to teach remote working skills is not with everyone in the same face-to-face classroom.  We need to take people out of their comfort zone and I've seen first hand how trainees learn from their first faltering web-conference session experience and build confidence over time to finally deliver a confident performance in the final programme webinar.

TMA are experts in their content field and I hope we can learn from how they are using web-conferencing alongside other media types to challenge any myths that remain that the virtual classroom cannot match a more traditional workshop.

Social Networking and Learning at Work with Yammer

Recent conferences have picked up on the theme of how we can leverage the power of sites similar to MySpace and Facebook at work and not just for internal communications, but to offer learning opportunities of the more informal nature.

We're still at the early stages here of what is often termed "e-learning 2.0", but some early adopters - wary of tying up IT department time - might consider starting off with a Google or Yahoo Groups account.

But recently, I've become very conscious of the need to ensure that employee conversations around any theme remain secure and protected against any manner of security breaches. 

If your organisation uses SharePoint to power your intranet, then you may be able to leverage the collaborative communications features of this platform, to keep your internal networking within the firewall.  But if not, then you might be interested - as I was - in the Yammer internal business networking service.

When I first read about this site on the BBC's mobile website's technology pages and visited the homepage, I was intrigued by how simple it was to create an in-company network.  This then got me thinking about the security issues, so I was pleased to follow some links to learn more about how you could secure (or claim) your new networking site.  There are also two sections on the website explaining their privacy and overall security policies, which would be priority reading for your IT and data security managers.

The site itself offers the usual networking features of sharing information - across the business and within specific groups - and connecting with others and you can see some of these features illustrated by screenshots.  There are even plugins for the iPhone and - more useful for most UK corporates - the Blackberry.

The basic "unclaimed" service is free, but to activate the tighter security and management controls costs $1 per person per month, although they would appear to offer different pricing for larger organisations.

 

E-learning Gets Vocal

Sometime I hope to be able to blog about a great voiced based tool that could add an aural dimension to asynchronous e-learning objects.  I've known about it for over a year now, but unfortunately, it was withdrawn by its vendor after a few months of beta testing, pending a further overhaul.

But having whet your appetite, I'm pleased to review another tool, in a similar vein, although different in many respects.

VoiceThread offers the ability to collaborate via voice messages around on-screen content.  From a corporate training point of view, the content could be a PowerPoint slideshow.  Not only could the trainer present their slides via video or just by voice, but their trainees could comment back via a number of different methods - voice (via a US telephone number of VoIP), text, audio file or video clip.  

Not only can you comment by voice, but you can also annotate the content as you do so.  The vendor refers to this as "doodling" and your doodles are even synchronised with your commentary.

The VoiceThreads can be shared with others too, so creating larger learning networks.  They can also be embedded into websites and even exported onto mobile devices as video files.  When you've embedded the VoiceThread into your site or blog, the conversations can continue or really get started.

Thanks to the power of sharing, you can see a demo of how to embed a VoiceThread into a learning blog on YouTube.

I think this is a great way to create rapid e-learning that not only enables you to deliver your content quickly across the web, but it also adds in the missing social dimension that has held e-learning back in the past.