It’s not that rapid e-learning tools are entirely replacing trainers or instructional designers. They are, however, becoming a preferred choice of developing and delivering training in the corporate world. Their ease of use and overall cost is relatively low compared to the more traditional forms of training. Nevertheless, these software applications are merely tools and in the hands of inexperienced instructional designers or subject matter experts tapped as trainers, they are ineffective.

Instructional designers  have their place in the training process as they analyze and validate training needs. With their knowledge of adult learning and how to maximize the potential of each learner, they can organize and present the content in a fashion that is easy to learn and relevant to the learner. More importantly, they can create activities and exercises that give the learner an immediate opportunity to demonstrate what they learned and get corrective feedback.

Sadly, I have to agree with the author of the blog post that inspired this particular post that some companies are trading quality for speed. While it is understandable that managers and human resource departments need people to be trained quickly and efficiently, the science behind adult learning often gets overlooked.

I feel the profession instructional design is losing some ground as being an established function within organizations. This is largely due to the economy. When cuts in a company need to be made, training is often the first to go as instructional designers are largely a support and administration function of an organization. They are not a line function, which generates revenue directly for a company. Such cuts, in my opinion, are not necessarily a wise move as I discussed in a previous post.

Rapid e-learning tools, in place of qualified instructional designers and trainers give a false impression that anybody can put together training and I hope that changes when the economy turns around. Instructional designers must do a better job demonstrating their value within their organizations. At PinPoint, we’re happy to say we use rapid e-learning tools, but we back-up everything we produce with sound instructional design.

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• Communication Modes
• Rehearsal/Response Options
• Instructor Pacing
• Social Presence

The class was split up into groups and each was assigned a feature to explore and research.  Our goal was to find what research is out there and published on these features and share our findings with the class.

I was actually pleased to be assigned to the subject of Social Presence in synchronous e-learning.  One of my goals since starting the WELPS certificate program was to find ways to bring social media into e-learning and the workplace.  Conducting some research this week led me to some recent papers on the use of social media in the classroom.  I read about three papers and a couple articles on the subject.  Out of these papers and articles, I found a few that speak well to the subject at hand.

First thing’s first: let’s define Social Presence in learning.  Out of all my research, pretty much all of them agree that Social Presence is…

Tools, systems, structure and functionality that supports social interaction between people and group members.

All of the articles I found agree too that when Social Presence is reduced, communication decreases leaving people and group members feeling disconnected.

The Papers

Enhancing Social Presence in Online Learning: Mediation Strategies Applied to Social Networking Tools

Key points:

• Using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook to create or augment social presence in e-learning places the responsibility on the students to participate and make the necessary connections with others. However, guidance by the instructor must be given to ensure that social media is being used as an educational tool and not a message board or photo sharing site.
• Since most incoming students to college courses and people in younger generations are already engaged in these spaces, instructors should make a concerted effort to engage with their students.
  Students participating in online courses often have a sense of isolation, impacting their success.  Therefore, participation in social media spaces with fellow students builds a sense of community they may not receive in the virtual classroom.

Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence

Key points:

• Although learning management systems (LMS) and virtual classrooms offer a wide variety of tools for social interaction and social presence, some lack the ability to offer just-in-time social interactions and connections.  Twitter can offer free-flowing, just-in-time interaction.
• Learning can take place outside the context of the classroom environment.  Twitter enables users to connect with their fellow students without being tied to the LMS or virtual classroom.
• The nature of Twitter enhances the student to write concisely due to character restrictions (140 characters), target specific audiences and maintains and ongoing relationship after the class complete.
• Instructors should provide clear guidelines for use to support learning and interaction with fellow students.

—–

As you can see, if the synchronous e-learning platform you use does not afford social presence, there are ways around it by utilizing third-party applications.  In order for it to be effective, some guidance should be provided for it’s usage.  However, too much guidance will stifle social presence which should develop organically among the learners.

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What does that mean?

The common myth is that something more visual, like a video, is better than text or spoken word for example.  The truth is, it is not the delivery mechanism or media that is chosen for instruction that facilitates learning, it is the components that make up the instruction that enables the learner to gain new knowledge or change their behavior (whichever the primary performance objective is).

Those “components” and their examples are:

• Communication mode – text, audio, graphics
• Instructional methods – definitions, examples, demos, practice
• Instructional architecture – receptive, directive, guided discovery, exploratory

Out of these components, I wonder how a learner’s learning style comes into play? According to the authors, the media doesn’t matter.  It’s the components employed that are important as to whether or not the learner gains new knowledge or changes their behavior.  Certainly, some media is going to work better than others at delivering a message based on learning style.

Perhaps I’m falling into the very myth I’m trying to debunk here.  One thing I didn’t notice in the text was discussion of some upfront audience analysis that should be done before pulling instructional components together to create synchronous e-learning.  It wasn’t covered in the first two chapters of the text.  Maybe it was only assumed this would be done before any instructional components were pulled together.

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Due to course scheduling, I wasn’t able to register for a course during the Fall ‘09 semester because, well… there wasn’t one scheduled that I wanted to take.  In fact, had I went with my original plan of selected courses, I wouldn’t have been able to take the courses I wanted to until the start of the upcoming Fall ‘10 semester or following Spring ‘11 semester (I think).  Either way, it would have had to sit out for quite a while in order to take the courses I wanted to and receive my certificate in a timely manner.

Unfortunately, I had to compromise somewhat.  Please don’t misconstrue me.  Every course that is part of the WELPS Certificate are worth their weight in gold.  However, I have a feeling that IPT 511 – Synchronous E-Learning in the Workplace, where GoToMeeting will be the preferred application for the course, will be a cake walk.

For the last two years in my professional career, practically all of the training I delivered was synchronous over virtual classrooms.  If the course description is correct…

Students will examine principles and techniques for developing and implementing synchronous web-based learning strategies to improve performance in the workplace.

… this is going to easy.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure I’ll learn something new. I always seem to in these courses which has made the experience thus far very worthwhile.

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Articulate is a software company that produces e-learning authorware to create your own media-rich, interactive e-learning courses.  The term Rapid E-learning is used quite often throughout their website and supporting Rapid E-Learning Blog written and managed by Tom Kuhlmann.

Here are 5 of my favorite posts at the Rapid E-Learning Blog that I think will help explain Rapid E-learning and show how you may take advantage of this development methodology within the e-learning space.

• 5 Simple Ways to Get Started with E-Learning Development
• 9 Free Tools That Help Me Build Better E-Learning
• How to Add Scenarios to Your Rapid E-Learning Courses…Rapidly!
• 7 Tips for Better E-Learning Scenarios
• 5 Secret Tips from an E-Learning Pioneer

BONUS: Don’t let the term “Rapid E-learning” fool you.  While it is possible to build quality e-learning quickly, Jon Lloyd at VMG doesn’t believe so. He outlines why in his post, There’s nothing rapid about Rapid eLearning.

I happen to believe it is possible to create quality courses quickly, however the expectations between the developer and the client should be measured and within reason.  Developing e-learning is a craft and you can’t rush the creation of a quality learning experience at the expense of the learner’s needs.  Remember, that is where it should all begin and end.

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(1) Rapid E-Learning

Rapid E-learning is delivering training (learning) by electronic means and utilizing quick design and development methodologies, along with available resources, to bring a final solution to your target audience in the most efficient manner.  However it is defined, the result is still the same – creating an engaging learning experience quickly and inexpensively.

“Rapid”, in my opinion, shouldn’t be taken too literally.  The successful development of e-learning modules from start to finish shouldn’t be rushed – and for good reason.  Planning in distinct stages works toward producing 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

Two things come to mind when reviewing these steps. 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 like the traditional ADDIE model of instructional design.

(2) Learning from Self-Paced Courseware

About half-way through the course the question was posed, “Is it possible to learn from self-paced courseware”.  My answer is, “Yes, but it depends.”.

Two things need to be present in order for learning to be effective:

1. Context / relevance
2. High fidelity multimedia

A PowerPoint presentation on its own (converted to e-learning) has little or no value unless it has context and is relevant to the learner’s needs.  Keeping things simple is effective, but unless there is context to the courseware it leaves a less than desired learning experience. 

Another aspect that makes self-paced courseware effective is multimedia, using all or a combination of audio, images, video, animation and text.  To demonstrate the effectiveness of multimedia in self-paced courseware take a look at Dale’s Cone of Experience.  The more interactive you can make your training, and the higher fidelity of the multimedia (the more real it is), the more effective it will be.

(3) Interactivity

Interactivity is more than just delivering content in an online format.  Just because you use multimedia, doesn’t make it interactive.  You have to have things such as challenges, decision making and problem solving on the part of the learner integrated in the content.

Elements such as the following help make e-learning interactive:

• Activity (task)
• Case study (to provide context)
• Discussion Activity (with other learners)
• Quiz (with feedback from a moderator or automated by the learning module)

In the past, I’ve taken issue with e-learning that are "page-turners" and sit-and-view modules. By adding these elements you can support learning and provide rich – interactive experience.

—–

So there you have it, my recap of the class and what I took away from it.  Of course, this post is repurposed from previous posts, but the three main points discussed here are what I feel are the highlights of IPT 523.

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Elements such as the following help make e-learning interactive:

• Activity (task)
• Case study (to provide context)
• Discussion Activity (with other learners)
• Quiz (with feedback from a moderator or automated by the learning module)

In the past, I’ve taken issue with e-learning that are "page-turners" and sit-and-view modules. By adding these elements you can support learning and provide an interactive experience.

No related posts.

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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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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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There are many different strategies centered on RLO’s.  On a more basic level are the strategies discussed by Hodgins in his paper The Future of Learning Objects.  According to Hodgins, there are three RLO strategies that will determine success.  These are either being used currently or will be in the near future:

1. Make it relevant, make is easy- for RLO’s to be readily adopted they must be deemed by learners as high-value.  They must be conceptualized, designed, constructed and selected quickly and easily.  The technology to facilitate this must be easy to use, but the underlying complexity of the technology doesn’t have to be rudimentary, nor should it. Learners are primarily concerned only with what is being presented to them and in context to their learning needs.
2. Connect everything to everything – RLO’s by their nature have a high potential for digital connectivity.  Leveraging technology can bring connectivity to a whole new level through the use of metadata (descriptive information to categorize and catalog content) by supplying a basis for making connections between RLO’s and people.  Technically, new paradigms emerge of sharing information by promoting blended learning solutions.
3. Everything is “just” a node – Learning content, or RLO’s, are decentralized, thus leaving the decision and control of what needs to be learned in the hands of the learner.  Because everything (the RLO’s) are on their own, yet connected to one another through relational metadata, learners approach their learning needs in a contextual fashion whereby based on their need they are able to pull together the “nodes” or RLO’s they need, assemble them and consume the learning when needed.

Cisco Systems have long been using RLO’s in their learning and have created detailed strategies that have evolved over the years to become more effective.  Their RLO’s are structured to give objects the necessary context to ensure a meaningful experience for the learner.  It also allows for RLO’s to be leveraged in problem-based learning, exploratory environments, performance support systems, job aids, help systems or blended learning solutions.  The strategy Cisco employs is focused on design, development and implementation of RLO’s with the underlying philosophy that if these areas are taken care of, the training will be effective creating a better learning experience and accommodate multiple approaches to learning.  This strategy is expressed in Learning Object Development (LOD) stages:

1. Granular analysis – determining performance objectives based on specific audience(s).
2. Design and mine – where the training solution is structured, objectives captured and content types identified.  It’s also an opportunity to find what is currently out there on the subject and leverage from the content if possible.
3. Reuse and develop – actual development of the training solution, reusing (if possible) learning objects in existence and forming the training in context to the training need.
4. Delivery and reference – the training solution is delivered in a variety of formats and chosen learning architectures.
5. Lifecycle maintenance – once a learning object is created, it can then be maintained over the course of its lifecycle.  A change to a single learning object that is shared among many different training solutions can be updated in one location and published to many destinations.

All throughout these stages, evaluation takes place to make improvements to the development process or impact of the overall learning experience.

Whether the strategy is the basic model illustrated in the Hodgin’s paper or the detailed Cisco Systems model, they do work and make an immediate impact when applied.  In 2003, ASTD awarded General Motors an Excellence in Practice Citation for illustrating their blended approach to performance-based training among auto mechanics at their dealerships.

The problem that faced GM in 1999 was that mechanic training became too expensive.  Traditionally, it was instructor-led training over the course of several days.  The training grew far too complex as GM began introducing more models into the marketplace.  With more models came more demand for training that would have forced GM to expand its training infrastructure nationwide at a cost too great for the company to meet and continue to support.

The solution was to restructure the delivery of training by using E-learning as a delivery method including the use of video, web-based, computer-based and interactive distance learning.  This reduced the number of training facilities needed and increased the availability and effectiveness of the training.

Although there as no mention of the use of learning objects in the paper highlighting the reasons behind awarding the citation, it is conceivable that GM made use of learning objects in a strategy to accomplish their goal of reducing training costs and creating effective performance-based learning among their mechanics.

RLO’s may have been used for web-based and computer-based instruction where the “basic building blocks” of mechanics are developed (such as Electronic Fuel Injection or ABS Breaking Systems), but when accessed by the mechanic who is taking a service course on a specific model of vehicle, the RLO’s are assembled and presented in an organized fashion in context to the model they are studying.

—–

On their own, RLO’s are just “nodes”, as mentioned in Hodgin’s paper, but if they are brought together in a strategy (whether basic or detailed), the learner has a better experience resulting in better performance.

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