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Is It Possible to Learn from Self-Paced Courseware?

Can students learn from self-paced courseware or, does an instructor or facilitator have to be involved for students/employees to “really” learn?  That was the question posed recently during the IPT 523 course.

I believe it is possible for students to learn from self-paced courseware, but I feel two things need to be present in order for it to be effective:

  1. Context / relevance
  2. High fidelity multimedia

I can tell you from personal experience that a PowerPoint presentation (by itself or converted to E-learning) has little to no value if it is not in context or relevant to the learner’s needs.  In my current work as a consultant, I use PowerPoint as support material to the live training I conduct.  After the training session, I deliver the PowerPoint slides I create as job aids to reference as learners begin to work on their own.  Had they not gone through the training I provide and were simply given the PowerPoint slide to use as their initial training, I highly doubt it would produce positive results.

Note: I try to follow the “simple is better” rule with the PowerPoint slides I create and deliver. With that said, my slide decks aren’t very meaningful without the actual training session to support it.

The other aspect that makes self-paced courseware effective is multimedia, using all or a combination of audio, images, video, animation and text.  One way to clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of multimedia in self-paced courseware is looking at it through Dale’s Cone of Experience.  The more interactive you can make it, and the higher fidelity of the multimedia (the more real it is), the more effective it will be.

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By Justin Beller – June 24, 2009

Planning for Effective E-Learning

I’m in the first full week of the IPT 523 course and term Rapid E-Learning was mentioned in our class materials and readings.  You may have heard the term Rapid E-learning and wondered to yourself, what does it mean?

As I understand it, Rapid E-learning is delivering training (learning) by electronic means, utilizing quick design and development methodologies along with available resources to bring a final solution to your target audience in the most efficient manner.  If you have conducted your own research on the subject, you may have found different definitions.  Nevertheless, the result is still the same – creating an engaging learning experience quickly and inexpensively.

In addition to this course I’m taking, I also operate a small consulting company called PinPoint Performance Solutions.  A recent project with a client happened to coincide with this course and had me thinking about the process behind developing e-learning. Although it was successful, the development of the e-learning modules from start to finish was a little rushed, but for good reason.  Under normal circumstances I would have a planned out development methodology into distinct stages to produce a quality learning experience.

  1. Planning – analyzing the content, creating a look & feel and proof of concept
  2. Design and development – produce the e-learning based on the instructional design concept formed during the planning stage
  3. Testing – using a sample of actual participants from the target audience pool, test the e-learning module(s) functionality and effectiveness of knowledge transfer
  4. Delivery – after final fixes to any technical bugs or errors and content edits (if necessary), deliver the project to the client

These stages were discussed to some degree in our textbook.  As I reviewed those stages, two things came to mind.  First, in order to produce a quality learning experience you really can’t rush the process, even though you are developing under the banner of “Rapid” E-Learning.  Second, quality is controlled by following a defined process or model.

The e-learning development model in our text, to me, resembled the traditional ADDIE model of instructional design.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  In fact, it just goes to show that proper planning leads to better results as I learned when building traditional training programs. 

By applying these steps or phases to your e-learning development, and using basic project planning methodology, a quality learning experience can still be produced at a cost and within a timeframe acceptable to everyone involved.

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By Justin Beller – June 14, 2009

Start-Up Week for IPT 523 – Authoring Skills for Instructional Multimedia

It’s back to the grind for my second WELPS class.  This time it’s IPT 523 – Authoring Skills for Instructional Multimedia.  The course is centered on developing e-learning using Adobe Captivate and I’m excited to be a part of it.

Within the last 3 months I have been using Adobe Captivate as part of my consulting business.  It may seem ironic that I’m taking a class on a software tool that I’ve been using and mostly learned on my own, but by taking a formalized class I think it will result in me producing better training.

Wish me luck!

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By Justin Beller – June 4, 2009

What I Learned in IPT 525 – E-Learning Principles & Practice

It’s been a few weeks since my last post and at least two weeks since the completion of IPT 525 – E-Learning Principles & Practice. This is my first college course in so many years where I’m working to earn a certificate to add on to my current degree.  I’ve always felt that if you don’t walk away learning something, the course probably wasn’t all that good. Quite the contrary for this class. I learned a lot more than I expected and I’m sure it will serve as a solid foundation as I complete the remaining courses for this certificate.

So, what did I learn? It’s difficult to express exactly what I learned, but here’s a listing of the items that caught my attention:

  • Reusable Learning Objects (RLO)
  • Cisco’s RLO Strategy
  • SCORM, AICC
  • Metadata
  • Functions of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)
  • Accessibility of e-learning to people with disabilities

The bottom line to this course was that learning, delivered by electronic means (e-learning defined), can be flexible, reusable and accessible if a strategy is carefully planned out and applied.

It’s on now to the next course, IPT 523 – Authoring Skills for Instructional Multimedia.  It’s a hard-skills course where we’ll be using Adobe Captivate and applying it to e-learning.  It should be fun and I’m currently using it for other projects.  It’s a powerful tool and capable of doing many things and I’m looking forward to learning more about it and applying it back to the work I’m doing.

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By Justin Beller – April 21, 2009

Praise for a Fellow Student: Benefits of a SCORM-Conformant E-learning Strategy

I’d like to offer praise to a fellow student with one of their recent assignments in the IPT 525 class I am taking.

Sandra Stocks wrote an excellent paper on the Benefits of a SCORM-Conformant E-learning Strategy and applied it back to the organization she works in.  Sandra is part of a retail organization that serves pet owners with pet nutrition and pet products.  To educate staff on the items sold in their retail stores, Sandra is recommending to her employers an E-learning strategy based on SCORM.

What set Sandra’s paper a part from the others was how she illustrated one of the primary benefits of SCORM.  That benefit is being able to leverage third-party SCORM-Conformant content to be delivered on a SCORM-Conformant LMS.  For Sandra’s employer this saves time and money in development costs.  Instead of them building their own learning content to educate staff on products and services, vendors of the products they sell offer SCORM-Conformant learning content that they can leverage from and deliver on their own LMS.  An added benefit is they can also guarantee the quality of the content because it comes direct from the vendor.

This was just one of many benefits discussed by Sandra in her paper.  As someone who worked in a retail environment at one time designing and developing training, I was able to clearly see how her proposed strategy would work. 

Thank you, Sandra. Good work!

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By Justin Beller – March 31, 2009