“Is Age a Problem?” A Provocative Vignette About Age Discrimination

The Vignettes series shows you a brief, concise, yet provocative and reflective learning approach. Your learners are taken through the “relate-interpret-apply process” within real-life scenarios to fire up reflection and interaction that generates deeper learning through experience sharing.

This week, we take a look at the case of a company production manager tasked with investigating a supervisor who may or may not be guilty of age discrimination. It poses the question of when a remark or question can be equated with discrimination. For new and inexperienced managers – even for existing ones who have biases – it can be tricky when facing decision-making tasks especially when it comes to selecting the right person for a job.

Where do we draw the line between the ability of someone to perform a job requirement and age? Can certain assumptions about job requirements possibly ignore basic employee rights? Click here to view "Is Age a Problem?"

How to Use the Vignette

While the situation presented is specific, this vignette covers a wide range of topics to include conflict-resolution, work ethics and other management-related issues. Use this vignette to spark learner interest in your training session, show it as part of your lessons or utilize it as post-training test. Face-to-face, eLearning or webinar, this vignette is intended to push your learners to the EDGE.

Vignettes are stirring and powerful stimuli for classroom training, eLearning activities as well as social learning communities.Click here to preview “Is Age a Problem?”

Next week’s featured vignette, “If There is Booze”, shows the situation of Bill, a manager who is faced with two opposing beliefs regarding after-office gatherings. Mahad, one of his team members, can not drink or even sit at a table where alcoholic drinks are served. Carlo, another team member, on the other hand, insists that he has a right to have his booze even if it could mean that Mahad will not be able to join the celebration. How should Bill handle this situation? How should he promote respect for both team members’ beliefs and rights? When does a belief become a right? Is there a compromise in sight?

Join us and let us know how you like the vignettes. We sincerely appreciate your thoughts. If you have any suggestions, improvements or topics of interest to you, please let us know.



Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Vague Stories Help Learners to Discover

 

Synthesis:
Uncovering parallel tracks is essential in contextual learning – where the need is to help learners find applications of an idea in a story or feedback. Precision oftentimes kills the ability of the learner to discover multiple real-life applications. 

In In Praise of Vagueness (Wired Magazine July 21, 2011), Jonah Lehrer writes about studies on the benefits of vagueness versus precision.

According to article:

And yet, as William James pointed out, vagueness is not without virtues. Sometimes, precision is dangerous, a closed door keeping us from imagining new possibilities. Vagueness is that door flung wide open, a reminder that we don’t yet know the answer, that we might still get better, that we have yet to fail.

The article reported that experiments in weight control suggest that the more people know precise outcomes or specific feedback, the more likely they get discouraged.

The fuzziness of the facts kept them motivated. The same logic, of course, should apply to any long-term goal (saving for retirement, studying for a difficult test, etc.) that provides us with plenty of feedback along the way.

The practical takeaway is that the weight scales of the future should focus on giving us vague feedback. Forget those decimal points – we need error bars and imprecise estimates. Nothing keeps us motivated like not knowing better.

Furthermore,

Bonus benefit of vagueness: According to an experiment led by Catherine Clement at Eastern Kentucky University, one way to consistently increase our problem-solving ability is to rely on vague verbs when describing the problem. That’s because domain-specific verbs – actions which we only perform in particular contexts – inhibit analogical reasoning, making us less likely to discover useful comparisons. However, when the same problem is recast with more generic verbs – when we describe someone as “moving” instead of “sprinting,” for instance – people are suddenly more likely to uncover unexpected parallels. In some instances, Clement found that the simple act of rewriting the problem led to impressive improvements in the performance of her subjects.

Vague stories and feedback intrigue me. In creating micro-scenarios and interactive stories, I often observe what Catherine Clement mentions that "specific action verbs tend to inhibit analogical thinking while generic verbs allow people to uncover parallel tracks."

Uncovering parallel tracks is essential in contextual learning – where the need is to help learners find applications of an idea in a story or feedback. In learning situations where the real-world applications are imprecise due to multiple variables or ever changing content, it is helpful to remind ourselves of parallel track applications.

Precision oftentimes kills the ability of the learner to discover multiple applications.

References:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/07/in-praise-of-vagueness/

Himanshu Mishra
http://himanshumishra.com/publication_files/Malleable%20information_Psych%20Science%202011.pdf

Catherine Clement
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1423287

Ray Jimenez, PhD 

Vignettes Learning 

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Surgical Insertion of Micro-Scenarios that Beautify and Fire Up Your eLearning

Synthesis:

The points of insertion of micro-scenarios in your eLearning program will boost learning effectiveness. The insertion points are important since it is best to use micro-scenarios sparingly and at the appropriate areas. When properly done, you can save on time and improve the quality of your programs.

Micro-scenarios – small, tiny, instant, rapid, quick and engaging learning – can add GLOW to your eLearning courses.

Using these types of scenarios to replace the page-turning type of learning will make you bankrupt. Why? Because scenarios can be costly if not used properly. Micro-scenarios are like diamonds on a ring. The shank of the ring is made of gold or silver, while the diamonds are strategically used to create the highlight or as a sparkling feature. The use of micro-scenarios utilizes the same concept.

Because they are high-packed interactions, micro-scenarios should be injected - yes injected or surgically embedded - in the right places and well-timed to make them work successfully. If micro-scenarios are used extensively – possibly wastefully – they become like wrongly applied Botox injections. Therefore, it is advisable to inject micro-scenarios in the right places and at the right times.



Scenarios are best used in must-learn areas. Please see related blog.

So, let’s be smart and inject micro-scenarios where they create the most impact in your eLearning projects.


These are the ten (10) areas.

1. Apply. When asking learners to apply ideas - instead of doing a memorization test, ask them to respond to a micro-scenario of a real-life event.

2. Response. Ask learners to pause and reflect on an idea - instead of just telling them, create a story interaction and scenario to elicit response.

3. Lesson starters. Start your lesson with a micro-scenario and story interaction - put learners on interaction mood at the very start. Get them hooked and engrossed so they can appreciate the topic.

4. In webinars. Allow learners to respond to a micro-scenario and story interaction as an activity in a webinar. This enhances the learners’ focus and attention in the webinar instead of multi-tasking. (See related blog “No-Lecture Webinar”)

5. Coaching. During coaching sessions, encourage participants to respond to a micro-scenario and story interaction based on their answers, to gauge their questions and learning needs.

6. Software. In software training, instead of just capturing the motions of the screen to show how the software works, use a micro-scenario and ask learners to respond to a real-life case. Then ask them to apply the solution in the software. See related blog.

7. Risky topics. In topics of a "risky nature" where sensitivity is a “must” in the design - like sexual harassment, disciplinary action or ethics - use a micro-scenario and story interaction to put learners in simulated situations that are real and yet less threatening.

8. Reminders. Use micro-scenarios and really small ones like 1-2 minutes as reminders. When you send out an email to remind or promote your courses, add a micro-scenario to provide learners with a teaser or a glimpse of the type of exciting learnings that can be derived from the program.

9. Complex. Use micro-scenarios in complex content to help learners find context or relate the complex ideas with real-life meaning.

10. Harm. When learning requires some physical risks or potential harm, it is good to use micro-scenarios to expose the learners to the content without having to go through the risk of physical harm like in oil rigs, drilling operations, handling hazardous materials and others.


Conclusion

Micro-scenarios work pretty much like diamonds in a ring – it gives the necessary glitter to your eLearning program. However, it should always be “injected” at the right place and at the right time for it to be totally effective, relevant and valuable to your learners.


Related blogs

Engaging Technical eLearning – Tips on Design and Delivery

"How to Ask for a Raise" Scenario Plus 10 Reasons Why Scenarios Work

Creating Micro-Scenarios – X-Men Plays Hockey



Ray Jimenez, PhD
3Minute Worlds - Learning Community Social Learning, Work and Performance3Minute eLearning Games
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

"How to Ask for a Raise" Scenario Plus 10 Reasons Why Scenarios Work

Synthesis:
All learning approaches point toward imparting relevant content . But scenario- based learning possesses a distinct advantage ,tremendous value and the power to alter views, practices , accepted norms and even culture . Find out the 10 reasons why scenarios work and how it can empower your eLearning programs.
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Imagine that you would like to ask your boss for a well-deserved raise. How will you go about it? Do you have what it takes to successfully negotiate this?

Click on the image to play out this scenario to see how it can help you.

(Produced by Michael Gibson)

In a number of instances, I hear complaints that scenarios are challenging to produce – difficult to a point. However, for those who realize the incredible value it adds to their eLearning programs , this serves as a stimulus to press on and explore various cost-effective formats to achieve their goal.

At the onset, it is best to recognize that learners approach online learning quite differently from other formats. They can click away with their mouse or simply drop the study altogether. They are in almost total control of their learning. So how do you compel or engage them to learn?

Answer: put them on the spot. Thrust them into situations that require them to think, act and decide. Moreover, provide your learners with the opportunities to enact and respond to real-life scenarios. Simulate actual situations that deal with day-to-day experiences. Use stories to make their learning experience real, alive, living and enthralling.

Here I list the 10 reasons why leveraging Micro Scenarios and Interactive Stories truly works:

1. Learners’ participation is harnessed through story and experience sharing

Each of us carry stories within us. Micro Scenarios and Story interaction coaxes learners to share their own real-life accounts, listen to others and learn from each other.
(See related blog)

2. It boosts content absorption and retention in participants

People learn best when they can relate information to real-life situations. They do not remember facts easily. Stories help learners understand and recall the concepts behind the learning
(See related blog)

3. Learners get immersed in engaging real-life simulations for better job performance.

Replicating real-life scenarios help the learners recognize valuable nuggets of content that they can readily apply to actual job performance.

4. It challenges learners’ cognitive skills, evaluation and decision-making processes

Adding tension to eLearning stories focuses the learners’ attention on response and reaction. in the use of stories, tension serves as a lever, fulcrum or a tourniquet that can be tightened to get the desired action or reaction from learners. People tend to respond to a stimulus that raises their tension level, be it positive or negative. And we can take advantage of this basic human instinct.
(See related blog)

5. Un-learning perceptions, beliefs, accepted norms, practices and methods that bring about individual and organizational change.

“Stories help us unlearn and replace inadequate or outdated mental models by appealing to us at an emotional or intuitive level instead.” (excerpt from the writing of Deborah Sole, Learning Innovations Laboratories, Harvard Graduate School of Education)

6. Promoting new ideas or concepts and make them easily acceptable to learners

“If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must employ methods never before attempted.” Sir Francis Bacon

The story-based approach affords you a highly engaging and compelling method of presenting fresh, novel, innovative ideas that eases your learners into your desired mode of acceptance.

7. Learners embark on a journey through scenarios to synthesize complex ideas and skills

It is about recognizing patterns from a series of choices leading to the discovery of the ideas.
(See related blog)

8. Sharpen learners’ ability to identify high-impact ideas immediately applicable to their jobs.

Instant learning happens as a quick loop of experience consisting of an event, feedback and discovery. In the rapidly changing work environment where the demand for new knowledge and skill is fast and in constant flux, we have opportunities to use the instant experience loop. How do we do that? We replicate the instant experience loop by sharing stories and the realities of life.
(See related blog)

9. Converting boring, technical content into easily understood, user-friendly case scenarios of actual real-life work situations.

Using the case and scenario techniques enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning process. Technical content becomes more engaging and learners become skilled and are able to rapidly apply knowledge in the real world or work.
(See related blog)

Here listed are some of the ways to tell stories in eLearning. Find out how you can use them.
(See related blog)


10. Turning boring, static and stale learning objectives from mere documents into valuable tools - stories that spin off the discovery of more hidden stories.

The key benefit of stating a learning goal as a story is that it allows us the opportunity to continue using the story to deliver the rest of the lesson.
(See related blog)

Conclusion

Everyone has a story to tell. People listen to them. Engage your learners. Hold their attention. Encourage interactivity. Promote sharing of real-life stories. Achieve your learning objectives with Micro Scenarios and Interactive Stories. Push your learners to the brink of a new learning threshold – content discoveries through stories.

Rediscover the power of stories that are applied to eLearning designs to provide a highly creative way for eLearning professionals like you to bring learning content to life.

Related Blogs

The Battle of Stories – Instructional Design Approach

Adding Tension to eLearning Stories to Engage Learners

How to instantly grab e-learners attention!

How to Embed Learning Goals in Stories



Ray Jimenez, PhD
3Minute Worlds - Learning Community Social Learning, Work and Performance3Minute eLearning Games
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

The Battle of Stories – Instructional Design Approach

Synthesis
For stories to really be effective and serve their purposes, of imparting lessons that the learners need to learn, we also need to identify the strongest ideas or stories that we want to change or “battle” with. Finding the impact stories and slogans is a great starting point in gathering what we need to know regarding the ideas that we want to change. And from there, we can “gear up” with the right stories and win the “Battle of Stories”.

How to Use it to Improve your eLearning Program

How do you find high-impact stories for your eLearning program? What right, appropriate and engaging stories become the basis for your design and development of a lesson?

Designing and delivering eLearning is like winning the “Battle of Stories.” The more powerful and well-designed the story is, the more that the lesson within that story will win the minds and hearts of the learners. Many of the ideas I discuss here were triggered after I read “Re:Imagining Change” by Patrick Reinsborough and Doyle Canning . It showed me a lot of parallelism in the work we do in eLearning especially with story impacts.

Here are examples of battle cries we hear in our organizations.

On Ethics
It is OK to cheat, for profit’s sake
VS
Small, harmless cheating leads to monstrous problems

On performance
“I work as hard as I can when my boss is around or inspires me”
VS
“I am driven by my passion”

For every idea, there is a story that promotes it. We are constantly battling using different stories to help learners “un-learn” things.

Instructional design question

Our instructional design and development of lessons should start with identifying the strongest idea and story we want to change in relation to the content we want to teach.
So we ask basic design questions:

• What are the stories that promote a particular idea?
• What are the new ideas and what stories can promote these new ideas?

Finding the right stories to battle with, as the saying goes, is a key design consideration. Failure to find the right stories diminishes our efforts and investments in helping learners learn. Finding the right idea to battle with is just the first step; how to use them is the second step. We need to develop a counter idea or an idea we wish to promote and build the stories to support it.

Let me focus on how to find the stories that are most important to battle with.

The first part is to ask “What are impact stories on performance?” and the second part is learning “how to find impact stories”.

Impact Stories – those that affect performance

What are the characteristics of these stories?

Stories that impact performance are powerful stories that carry the ideas and the beliefs with them. They are “memes” that are handed down by work and group practices. Often times, these stories are unquestioned, and are accepted as truths.

Impact stories are experiences that control people’s or learners’ behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs. We can also refer to them as high-impact stories or stories that impact performance. Different organizations and each work aspect have their own impact stories.

Impact stories have slogans

It is easy to detect impact stories because they have slogans attached to them.
These are good examples of impact stories (notice the slogans) worth having a battle with:

• Ethics: Cut corners, do not get caught
• Sales: Customers always complain
• Performance: It is OK to fail, befriend your boss
• Safety: It is a Cover Your Ass thing (CYA
• Software: Let the user figure it out: trial and error

The examples above seem to sound pessimistic or show the negative aspects of our workplace. The point is that these types of stories are what we battle with everyday in a learning situation. They don’t have to be negative stories, but they are stories that can erode or weaken the positive content you wish to teach.

These are good examples of impact stories (notice the slogans) which we hope to win the battle for:

• Ethics: This is a very ethical organization
• Sales: Customers tell us how to be better
• Performance: We adhere to the highest performance standards
• Safety: It saves lives, families and makes good business sense
• Software: We should make it easy to use
• Brand new content

However, one might ask: How about ideas that are completely new? There might not be stories associated with them yet. This is a good question since many of us design courses with new content. For example, the content might be a new data entry system that is being added into a software database - a brand new software and brand new method. Even in this case, there is an impact story. The learner’s current skill, past experiences, and inclination to technology carries some stories that often control behaviors and thoughts. These impact stories are so ingrained, we often think that they don’t exist.

Finding the impact stories

If we want to wage a battle, we better identify the right ideas to support. This sounds very familiar since we often see a lot of issues surrounding our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am reminded of an interview by NPR on the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. The researcher for the Pentagon Papers was asked, why the war continued even with all the protests and body counts. He answered: “Our leaders truly believed that losing a war and allowing North Vietnam to occupy South Vietnam would cause a domino effect. And that communism, belief systems of Russia and China, would continue to drive more occupation to other countries”. This is their story. So strong is the story in the minds of our leaders that the stories of the protestors could not win the battle of stories.

There are scientific and formal ways, as well as informal ways, to find the stories to battle with.

Click here to play the exercise.

Mapping impact stories

Mapping stories means capturing the stories and organizing them so we can identify and prioritize which ones to battle with.

The most common method is conducting interviews with subject matter experts, people on the job and customers (internal or external) who are affected by the topic area.


Conduct a survey, interview and ask these questions:

• What are the beliefs, practices, and methods that help achieve results?
• What are stumbling blocks, and challenges that stop the results?
• What are real and verifiable facts?
• What are the moving stories, experiences, success cases and incidents?

The key to obtaining good impact stories is to direct the questions to specific “delivery points” or “contact points” where the stories are experienced at the highest level. For example:

• Sales: at points where there is contact with customers
• Safety: where accidents are most likely to occur or dangerous areas
• And/or records that show the above

Slogan mapping - “Slogan Jam Sessions”

Slogans are the ultimate expressions of strong beliefs and engrained knowledge in people. These are instinctive and instantaneous. Slogans are used by people to express their views, and emotions regarding a subject. If one needs to know what the deep seated feeling of a group of people is, one can ask the question: what slogan do you say to express your view on a subject?

These are examples of slogans. Try to fill blanks after each phrase with the beliefs and knowledge that drive the slogans.

“Let’s kick ass” ______________________

“Innovation is collaboration” __________________

“Super-charged team” ___________________

“We are a green organization” ________________

Capturing slogans is a good way to find stories and identify the idea that you want to battle with. You can do this by interviewing people or conducting “Slogan Jam Sessions”.

Conclusion

To win this “Battle of Stories”, we need to use the right “gears”. We can do this by examining the impact stories and slogans that have brought about the ideas and stories that the learners need to “un-learn”. Once we are able to gather this, it will be much easier to battle with the ideas, and create and design stories that we can use to successfully teach to the learners.


Ray Jimenez, PhD3Minute Worlds - Learning Community Social Learning, Work and Performance3Minute eLearning Games"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

eLearning Design for Short Attention Span and Overloaded Learners

Synthesis:
With the barrage of distractions thrown at these already-overloaded learners, we are faced with the challenge to help them focus on what is necessary, must-learn, what is of immediate relevance and content that is rapidly applicable to their jobs and tasks at hand. My goal here is to provide helpful tips to engage our learners’ attention and achieve our learning objectives.
_______________________________________________________


Design for Short Attention Span Learners
Word Play Exercise (Fill in the Blanks)

(Click here to play the exercise)

Do learners have short attention span or are our learning programs too long that we lose our learners in the process?

At the eLearning Guild Learning Solutions Conference, March 23-25, 2011, I facilitated a breakfast session on “Design for Short Attention Span Learners.” It was refreshing to hear so many good ideas on how to help learners assimilate knowledge in spite of the distractions, mobility and rapid demand for learning.

These are the common themes.

1. Useful content immediately
Programs should be focused on must-learn and immediately-useful content. The ultimate goal of total content mastery can be learned while on the job.

2. Valuable content
Work with the SMEs to enlighten them that not all content is important. The designer should take on the challenge of highlighting what the SMEs consider as valuable aspects of the learning when presenting the program design.

3. Quick Search
Enable the program to provide a quick search, to allow learners to dive into the details of the lessons. This helps learners to study quick references and materials while on the job.

4. Small releases
Release small sections of the program progressively instead of attempting a big launch period after several months of work. Learners will definitely benefit from small lessons spread over several determined intervals instead of taking them through a huge chunk of learning data at one singular time.

5. Easy navigation
The navigation design should assist learners to access all available types of content at one glance or in a single site. For example, they can click on videos, audio, references, lessons, reviews, programs, lessons, modules, tests, etc. rather than keeping them hidden.

6. Indexing content
Prepare a good index list of topics that are linked to specific pages in the lessons or programs to facilitate rapid access for the learners.

7. Multi-format
Design programs so that some of the content are in simple formats like PDF, Word, PowerPoint and HTML with a good mix of the more complex formats (audio, video, image or Flash) resulting in an engaging, definitely interactive yet comprehensive, compact and not overly produced learning model.

8. SMS and Mobile
For new updates on the programs, use SMS, text messaging and mobile devices with links to the specific pages.

9. Synthesis
Always provide a short synthesis to inform learners about the gist of the content.

10. Bookmark and sharing
Learners can bookmark and share relevant pages to help other learners. Certain programs cannot be shared by just focusing on specific single pages. Learners have to read the whole lesson or module before they unearth useful content.

11. Unbundle authoring content
Consider authoring lessons and modules as separate or stand-alone units of programs rather than creating traditional closed and encapsulated courses developed by simply following the structures of authoring tools. They become a flexible and easily transferrable set of learning objects. Learners can then scan, view and select quickly from small lessons rather than large programs.

12. Simple time savers
Simple time savers are: 1) video and audio files that show how long they are; 2) a short introduction or synopsis before asking learners to read a long document.

13. Working competency versus full competency
Help SMEs and internal clients understand the difference between programs that help learners acquire vital and critical skills and knowledge immediately needed on the job (working competency) and those that they can master later (full competency). Sometimes, programs become excessively long and very boring because they force the learner to develop full competency even at the onset of the learning process.

14. Instant conversations
In many instances, learners simply need a person to call, chat or exchange emails with, to inquire, validate, or acquire more understanding. We often forget that the ability to have instant, quick and short talks makes a huge difference.


Related blogs

How to instantly grab e-learners attention!

FREE: Millionaire Game - How to create the iPhone touch, look and feel in your e-Learning? Use e-Learning Reusables

DIYEL #13 How to avoid impersonal programs and encourage conversations




Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Are you an Agnostic or Principled Learning Professional?

Synthesis:
As learning professionals, have we analyzed how our approaches affect our learners and their specific learning and performance environments? Why does one choose to adhere to his/her present method? Are you an AGNOSTIC or PRINCIPLED Learning Professional? A deeper understanding of these professionals may hopefully lead you to an enlightened decision. Perhaps, the Agnostic is the unbounded innovator in us and the Principled is the traditionalist in us.
_____________________________________________________

As learning professionals, have we analyzed how our approaches affect our learners and their specific learning and performance environments? Why does one choose to adhere to his/her present method? Are you an AGNOSTIC or PRINCIPLED Learning Professional? A deeper understanding of these professionals may hopefully lead you to an enlightened decision. Perhaps, the Agnostic is the unbounded innovator in us and the Principled is the traditionalist in us.


Image provided by eLearning Arts.

An executive I work with complained to me:

“This vendor is telling me to spend 200 hours in task analysis. Don’t they know that we pretty much know the tasks?”

“We have so many learning rituals that are irrelevant.” he continued.

“We should rid ourselves (trainers and learning professionals) of practices that appear to be based on sound principles but are actually impractical and apparently outdated thinking.”

As I attend conferences and meet clients and friends, I also keep my ears to the ground and listen to how learning professionals evolve or drastically change their approaches. I look for patterns that help deliver results, improve learning, drastically cut costs and increase speed of delivery. Moreover, I specifically look for something out of the ordinary that I can also learn from. In fact, I’d like to share some interesting differences between the Agnostic and Principled Learning professionals.

Before I share my observations, allow me to define some terms. An Agnostic is a learning professional that is passionate about immediate results. This practitioner uses learning principles and practices only if they serve the end results. The Principled learning professional is also results-focused, but strictly adheres to practices that have been proven and tested in the past. The differences basically lie in the mind set and outlook of these two specialists. These determine their inclinations towards being Agnostic or Principled.

Here are a few of my observations. For easier understanding, we shall refer to these learning professionals as either AGNOSTIC or PRINCIPLED from hereon.

ROI in training and learning

The Principled believes in exact, long-drawn and often, stringent systems of measurements and time-tested scientific methods. As a result, the ROI reports tend to be historical, like a financial accounting process. They tend to be less adventurous and adaptable in their approaches.

The Agnostic uses anecdotal data to gauge learning impacts. This allows for quick information gathering. Jeff Beck of Knowledge Advisors says that anecdotal data are valuable ROI measurements. They are faster to collect. They attribute a deep value to the link between rapid and applicable learnings to job performance. See my related blog - Proof of Direct Link between Learning and Performance.

Don’t bother tracking learning completion

I am familiar with a division within CISCO that does not bother to track learning or training completion. This is the work of an Agnostic. The Principled will insist on tracking completion because it is part of the delivery process.

In the case of CISCO, the change and demand for new content is rapid. Systems engineers need the knowledge in a matter of minutes. For example, there are hundreds of anti-virus and malware patches released each day that it does not make sense to track if the learner has completed the lesson. The ultimate test is how well they apply the ideas on the spot.

Train learners on the essentials and let them learn how to find solutions

One large online retailer I worked with, reduced their two weeks on-boarding training to two days. Initially, the Principled insisted that the 10-day on-boarding program should persist. However with 100,000 products, the Agnostic realized it was impossible to train or even begin to orient workers on all these, during on-boarding classes. As a result, workers’ orientation centered on the basic policies of the company and trained them on the usage of the Wiki Product and Customer Management System to find answers to questions and provide solutions.

Twitter that impacts immediate performance

Mark Oehlert, in one of his presentations on Social Media mentioned about how a company applied a Twitter-like application to help engineers deal with electrical transmission line emergency responses. Engineers found it faster to send a tweet to alert other engineers of problems in their area that would impact other aspects of the electrical grid. The Agnostic found a practical way to use Twitter. The Principled would have been stuck with the question-how do I apply Twitter to learning and training instead of asking “where can this tool impact the performance of people?”

Just-in-case and just-in-need training and learning – very costly impact

The Agnostic uses eLearning beyond its traditional definition - from just-in-case-knowledge to a just-in-need learning. Knowledge and skill requirements are changing so fast that the Agnostic focuses on immediate “working knowledge” rather than “full competency” training for ongoing learning on the job. The Principled continues to focus on compacting all knowledge in one training because of the fear that learners may miss the knowledge. Unfortunately, most learners can only retain so much in one sitting. Consequently, investments in long and elaborate courses are wasted. See related blog on How Much Training is Enough Training?

“They don’t know what they don’t know”

This is my favorite because it continues to be a training professional meme. It is so well-accepted that many use the statement without much thought.

I often hear “the Principled” say …

“If we don’t train learners on the content, they will be unable to do the job” or “learners cannot be trusted since they don’t know what they don’t know.”

Many of the “Principleds” adhere to the notion that people lack inherent wisdom to perform their jobs. The truth is, it’s pretty much the opposite.

Reversely, the Agnostics believe that the learners have a certain amount of experience, regardless of quantity and quality. Their approach aims to help the learners build on these experiences and connect them to the learning environment. This understanding of the learner’s wisdom is the foundation of social and informal learning. People can learn and contribute while they share with others. The job of this learning professional is to multiply this capacity. Please see Jay Cross on information learning.

Conclusion

Whether one is Agnostic or Principled is often a reflection of our growth process as learning professionals. We tend to be Principled when we stick to rituals from principles and practices we are accustomed to. In the process, we have ceased to question them or assess its efficiency especially in performance applications. The Agnostic is that part within ourselves that awakens to the realization that learning environments and its learners are evolving, sometimes faster than we can change our mind sets and outlook with a willingness to adapt better performance results.

Perhaps, the Agnostic is the unbounded innovator in us and the Principled is the traditionalist in us.


Related blog

Proof of Direct Link between Learning and Performance

How Much Training is Enough Training?
_____________________________________________________

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Is it spoon-feeding or discovery scenario learning?

Synthesis:
Scenario- based learning should take learners through a journey of discovery ; involving them in the events that take place at various points in your scenarios. It propels learners to think about the choices presented and not merely determining the right or wrong answers. Join me on a train ride to gain a better understanding of how to create a more engaging scenario for your next SBL challenge.
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I conducted an informal survey of 20 workshop participants asking them this question:
How do you know if your scenario-based elearning program works? The responses were:
•Learners pick the right answer or options.
•Learners do trial and error until they find the right answers.
•Learners reflect on the choices provided.
•Learners were engaged.

It was intriguing to me that no one mentioned about learners discovering the learning points from scenarios.

On the surface, the responses seemed descriptive of a scenario- based eLearning program. However, on further scrutiny, they were symptomatic of a surface- level or shallow understanding of how scenario-based eLearning works.

The Heart of Scenarios

Although the answers described some characteristics of scenarios, they did not mention the core idea of why scenario-based eLearning works, which is:
It is about recognizing patterns from a series of choices leading to the discovery of the ideas.

The emphasis is on PATTERNS and DISCOVERY.
•Identify the end idea to be discovered.
•Set up different choices leading to the discovery of ideas at the ending.

Signs of Spoon Feeding

After more prodding, I confirmed my suspicion. Oftentimes, scenarios are unknowingly used as extensions of instructivist (telling) methods, rather than the implementation of the constructivist (discovery) methods.

It is spoon feeding when “scenarios” pose multiple choice-like questions.
•When it is a memory recall question.
•When choices lead to a right or wrong answer.
•When feedback is like a lecture ...this is right or this is wrong.

This situation stems from a lack of clarity that scenario-based eLearning is a constuctivist(discovering ) method and not an instuctivist (telling ) method. Due to strong previous backgrounds, many developers or instructional designers write scenarios as if they are writing instructional lessons rather than presenting a series of choices for learners to discover ideas.

Hollywood Vs. Training

In the moviemaking industry, script writers are into discovery writing to allow its audience to experience the unveiling of events and revealing more of the story as the film progresses. They cannot simply shift to just “spilling the beans” and telling everything outright about each scene. That would certainly bore the moviegoers.

In the elearning industry, trainers and instructional designers who have gotten used to the traditional instructional styles would find it particularly difficult to shift from simply instructing or using the telling method to integrating scenarios that will allow the learners to pinpoint patterns and discover ideas, thereby, creating materials that engage their learners. However, in this case, the shift is totally beneficial for a more positive learning experience.

Seeds of Discovery are Like Train Travel

Scenarios are like train tracks. They have metal rails, wooden ties and the ballast.

e-Learning,

The ballast is the content which is the foundation of the scenario. The metal rails and the wooden ties represent the story which helps roll the train coaches. The train stops are the events of the story while the final destination is the outcome. The learners are the passengers.

Content is not to be apparent or immediately divulged . Rather, it should assume a story form that draws in the learners.

The story should glide, lubricate and move the train. It ought to allow the participants to get involved in the unfolding of events and solicit insights instead of just telling them to listen in a communication scenario. Use characters to represent the content and let learners discover the idea/s through the actions and behaviors of the characters. This initiates discovery.

We shall look into the story about a character named John, a sales person rejected by prospects. He appears not to be able to understand what the customer wants.

But to illustrate my point just a bit further, do you notice that when traveling a certain distance by train, we begin to enjoy the trip when conversations revolve around the people, the places and highlights of these places along our journey? These conversations are the train stops. Each stop triggers certain questions in our minds. What is this place? What landmarks can be found? The questions vary depending on how the ride goes. Nonetheless, train stops arouse curiosity and interest. In scenarios, the train stops are the events.

The train stops - as events- are natural places to pose questions to the learner. This is where learners choose options. The choices are presented in story form and must be continuous. Using John as our primary character, the events might play out like this...
- Event 1- he sent a proposal to the client
- Event 2- client rejected the proposal
- Event 3- John has to review and redo the proposal
- Event 4- John meets with his manager. He gets warned that he needs to get this sale..
So on and so forth....
Each event asks questions of the learner to help them discover what John should do.
This becomes an opportunity for deeper learning.

Opportunity to link event discoveries and develop into a pattern

Scenarios are not one-time discoveries of answers. That would be too boring. The gradual discovery of John’s actions and attitudes ,triggers something within us. It sort of acclimatizes us to get more involved in the story and the various situations of its character/s.

Arriving at the destination is a sure thing. But you gradually build a conclusion based on your travel.

Scenario-based eLearnings are like travels

Let’s say we travel from an urban setting to the rural area. We begin to notice new patterns at every stop. The sky gets bluer, more trees dot the landscape, people appear to live in a different way and buildings are less imposing. We now begin to grasp clues of certain patterns. Ultimately we gain better perspectives.

Conclusion...

One way you can test how SBLs work is to imagine yourself in this scenario.

Let’s say you and other learners are hauled in enclosed carts ...no stops...no windows...destined for somewhere ... seemingly regarded like cows for delivery. No alternative options.

Sounds stifling , right? No chance to discover ideas along the way. I’m not sure what experience that is but I don’t think I would like to take that route or even attempt to go there.

Click to play these example that may help inspire you in your scenario building efforts:



Related Blogs

How to add the human touch in your eLearning design

Inspire others - be a Master Storyteller -Study the Profile and Survey

How to Embed Learning Goals in Stories
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Workshops
Join Ray's work on Scenario-based Learning and recieve a $150 discount.
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Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

“Brain Freeze: Does your eLearning System Cause Learning Paralysis?”

Synthesis:

The advent of technology options can be exciting.  However, the influx of information to an individual’s brain may prove to be debilitating to one’s decision making process or may result to learning paralysis for learners. Considering the limitations of the brain’s working memory to handle a certain quantity of information, elearning developers should seriously reflect on their implementation strategies. Avoid the Zombie Tech effect.
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How many of us are guilty of these: answering emails while having dinner with our families; feeling left out when you miss the most recent tweets; unable to set aside the iPad and continuously checking Facebook while playing “Angry Birds?” If you exhibit one of these behaviors, you may be suffering from what I call the “Zombie Tech Effect.”

(Click here to play the self-reflection exercise.)

The Zombie Tech Effect is my description of behavioral manifestations when we suffer from information overload that disables us from making quality decisions or results to learning paralysis.)

Twitterization overload

In a Newsweek article (February 27, 2011), (link) Sharon Begley reported a study conducted by Angelika Dimoka, director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University on “combinatorial auctions.” Dimoka explains that in bidding wars that resemble eBay, the more information the person receives, the less likely he/she makes good decisions.  Although there are many benefits to Twitter, Facebook and many other social media tools, Dimoka says there are unintended consequences. A serious side effect is “brain freeze.”

In her study, volunteers’ brain activities were measured with an fMRI. As the information load to the brain rapidly increased , the activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - a region behind the forehead that is responsible for decision making and control of emotions – freezes; it ceases to function as if a “circuit breaker had popped.” A key reason is that our brain’s working memory can only handle seven items at one given time . Anything beyond that must be processed into long term memory. Any additional information from that point and beyond tends to hamper or paralyze people’s ability to make sound decisions.

Sadly, the deluge of information and the rate at which the brain gets bombarded with them cause diminishing or negative returns as it struggles to make smart and successful decisions.

People experience information anxiety

There are impacts on productivity and well being with information overload.

In “Dying for Information?” a investigative work on the effects of information overload, (Waddington, 96), 44% of the over 1,313 managers and executives interviewed, believe that the cost of collating information exceeds its value to the business. Furthermore, two-thirds of the respondents report tensions with work challenges and loss of job satisfaction because of stress associated with information overload.

Old familiar learning term - cognitive overload

Dimoka’s investigation and previous studies on cognitive overload reminds us that there are inadvertent consequences if our learning approaches do not add the cautionary step to ensure we are not inundating our learners.

In the training and learning practice we have become accustomed to the concept of not overloading our learners. Too much information does not help learners retain or learn.  However, we seem to have ignored this old rule whenever we design technology driven assisted learning, in particular eLearning and social learning projects. The same symptoms of learning paralysis and information anxiety do exist and are observable in our learners.  How do we identify these problems and what do we do about it.

Learning models and assumptions about learners

In June, 2008, I wrote about Groundswell Insights – Why Trainers Often Say, “It Does Not Work”. The chart below is a learning model showing different types of learning behaviors and the environments wherein they operate.

(Click here for wider view of the chart.)

In this chart, I aim to explain that different methods of learning result from different givens. As learning designers we need to orchestrate these conditions that will produce the right combination of results.  We can either do a good work of matching or cause havoc without well-thought-out plans.

How, where and when does information overload and “brain freeze” happen in learning environments? Many of them are systemic – software selection and implementation practices. 

The right tools for the right objectives: We should not use Twitter, Facebook and other similar tools to aid in deliberate practice – where we expect learners to retain knowledge and build the mastery of skills. Neither should we use instructional methods of teaching when we post and share knowledge in Twitter or Second Life.  In essence, to support a learning behavior, the right combination of tools must be applied. 

Suggestion: Avoid embracing tools and technologies without experimentation and testing. Sometimes the hyped up functionalities deliver less than promised. Have a personal experience to see the impacts of the tool.  In some instances, it is even better to see the experiences of early adaptors. 

Awareness and readiness: Another failing I often observe is using the tools like Twitter, Wiki and Blog in learning designs and presuming that the learners have the readiness – skills, attitudes, equipment – to be creators in open learning environments.  The power and promise of technologies could not compensate for the lack of the learners’ readiness. The lack of proper skills definitely causes learning paralysis and anxiety.

Suggestion: Conduct a Techno Profile Survey. This survey helps you assess the readiness of your audience.

Business culture and practice: If your organizational culture and the nature of your business mandates a specific learning method, this supersedes all other possible approaches. Here are two case comparisons. In the first case, a Cisco technician has to have instant learning through his/her smart phone because new valuable information happens almost every minute – like a solution to the most recent virus attack.  On the other hand, a pharmaceutical lab technician has to learn safety compliance procedures for HIV drug research – where rigid rules must be followed.  As a result, the Cisco technician welcomes the newest updates since it is critical to his/her performance.  However, the lab technician is required to adhere to strict routine processes. 

Suggestion: Have a strategic level conversation with your top leaders. Align your learning system and practices with what supports  the business needs and interests.

Marriage or divorce between an LMS and Social Learning:  LMSs work best to support just-in- case learning, while social learning systems are ideal for just- in-time learning. Combining these two tools under one roof may be good vendor hype; however, they could lead to “psychotic” learning systems. To illustrate, many of the content published in LMSs are compliance or mandated learning. Many learners grudgingly study the courses. Social learning systems, on the other hand, are highly interactive and participative systems. Learners are self-motivated to contribute ideas. Inherently, these two learning motives and behaviors are not compatible.

Without a proper strategy for selecting learning systems, companies could be throwing their learners into confusion and overwhelming them with too many types of learning methods.

Suggestion: Select one dominant purpose for a learning system – an LMS or Social Learning. Before you modify, purchase or implement a hybrid solution, think twice about your implementation strategies to minimize confusion.

Conclusion

We can easily overwhelm learners with information and content overload from our lessons. However, what is more problematic is the inappropriate selection of systems and implementation practices: readiness, methods and goals, business culture and learning system selections. Include plans to check for systemic information overloads in your implementation strategy.

Ray Jimenez, PhD 
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

How to instantly grab e-learners attention!

To instantly grab e-Learners, remember embedding content into stories.

Embedding Steps

1. Relate
2. Interpret
3. Apply

Which statement grabs you instantly? Life is full of trials and tribulations or I started work at 3:00 am and finished at 11:00 pm, exhausted. The fist statement is a technical content, whereas, the second statement is a story.

Many experts agree that in e-Learning, storytelling is a good approach to instantly grab learners and help them relate the content to real life situations, hence, helping them to retain and apply the content. Thus stories carry with them the emotional aspects of learning. 

Emotions as integral to learning  

According to Rosenfield (1988), emotions have important connection to memory; Caine and Caine (1991): stories add and help in storing information, thus triggering its recall.

"The emotional depth and range that learners have affected their actual capacity to grasp ideas and procedures. Similarly, content that is emotionally sterile is made more difficult to understand. ... To teach someone any subject adequately, the subject must be embedded in all the elements that give its meaning. People must have a way to relate to the subject in terms of what is personally important, and this means acknowledging both the emotional impact and their deeply held needs and drives. Our emotions are integral to learning. When we ignore the emotional components of any subject we teach, we actually deprive learners of meaningfulness." 

Stories and storytelling as carry learning ideas 

Furthermore, stories and storytelling are the carriers of emotional content. Stories, which I call organics, have different forms: narrative stories, anecdote, example, metaphor, demo, illustration, and other forms that bring the emotional and real-life aspects of content.  

Two types of content

There are two types of content: technical which are factual, objective, mechanical content and the emotional which are real-life situations, personal context and understanding of the content. The technical and emotional content work hand in hand. However, we discover that in designing e-Learning pages, there is even a greater need to magnify the emotional side. There is practical reason to this. In classroom or facilitated sessions, the good instructor or facilitator can successfully relate the technical and emotional content. Unfortunately, in e-Learning, the facilitator and stories are absent and we oftentimes find the lessons to consist more of technical or mechanical content. Something is lost in the conversion. The emotional content is “lost in the translation”.

Embedding content into stories

Embedding content into stories is the technique of relating mechanical content into engaging stories. The technique is valuable when you wish to instantly grab and engage your learners. Essentially there are three steps. 

Embedding Steps

1. Relate
2. Interpret
3. Apply
 

Relate the technical content to real-life situations

Relate refers to adding meaning to new mechanical content by presenting or translating them into emotional and real-life experience. The experience might be events, people and conversations. Furthermore, it is not sufficient to relate real-life situations. The real-life situation must have emotional aspects to them. To relate the technical content to real-life meaning involves one or more of these methods:

• Citing unresolved problems – helps learners to focus on specific, meaningful and real-life conditions. Example: “John lost his left eye due to a furnace blast. He used the wrong protective goggles.”
  
  
• Using familiar and personal experience – helps learners to understand the content by finding a relevant meaning in their personal lives. Example: “When was the last time you had to work 24 hours to meet a timeline?”
  
  
• Using visualization and emotional experiences – helps learners imagine and picture in their minds and capture the emotions of the content through a story, metaphor, examples, illustrations and other organic methods. Example: “He touched my shoulders, leaned on me, whisper in my ears and sad ‘you smell great’”, she sobbed while telling her story to the lawyers.”
  
  Brainstorming questions:
  
  What is the mechanical and technical content? What is a real-life problem situation that depicts the content? What can learners easily relate to? What familiar events are familiar to the learners? What stories and other form of organics help the learners visualize and feel the emotions of the real-life situation? 
 

Ask learners to interpret the story

While the learner is relating the story, it helps the learners when they are asked to interpret the story. Interpretation is a mental process that allows the learners to connect the story and the content in their own lives and their own create their meanings. The story and the content becomes part of learners’ experience. And therefore helps the learner to personalize and own the story and content. This is similar to the learner discovering the answers for themselves. To help the learners’ interpret the story and content, one or more of these methods would work: 

• Asking the learner to respond – this helps the learners move from an observer to a participant in the story. Example: “If you are Pearl, what would you do?”
  
  
• Bring the learner into the story – this helps the learners become a character in the story. Example: “To stop this accident recurring, what would you do as a safety officer?”
  
  
• Ask the leaner to resolve the problem – this helps the learners to actively offer their personal solutions to the problem. Example: “How would you resolve Nancy’s dilemma?”
  
  Brainstorming questions:
  
  How do you invite the learner to respond? How can the leaner become a character in the story? What and how do you ask the learner to resolve the problem?
  
  

Ask the learner to apply in their own real-life situations

To further engage the learner and strengthen the learning process, ask the learners to apply their understanding of the story and content in their own lives. This process is either a thinking or an action process. By applying the solution to a problem or the learning discovery into their real-lives, the learners satisfy themselves that indeed they discovered the meaning of the story and content. If not, learners will go back to interpret the story and will try to understand it further. Applying the ideas helps in retention of the knowledge, but even more important is the immediate usefulness of the ideas. The usefulness of the discovery helps learners recognize the immediate value of the content in their own lives. To help the learners’ apply the story and content, one or more of these methods would work:

• Reflecting on the application – this helps the learners reflect on how they can apply the solution in their own lives. Example: “Why is this case useful to you?”
  
  
• Applying in a personal case – this helps the learners apply the solution in a very specific personal case. Example: “Select a situation at work that you can apply your solution?”
  
  
• Responding to a similar story – this helps the learners apply the solution in another related or similar story. Example: “In the related story where John and Martha had the same disagreement, but John, in this case, terminated Martha, how would you apply the ideas that you learned?”
  
  
• Applying in off-line activity – this helps the learners extend the learning into a specific work project. Example: “Go off-line and have a conversation with your boss. Ask him: ‘How would handle this situation?’”
  
  Brainstorming questions:
  
  How do you ask the learner to apply the story, content and solution in their personal lives? What is a related story that you can ask learners to apply the content and solution? 
 

Now, let’s look at some examples.

Example 1 - Sales Training

The technical content
To close a sale you need to know what the customer needs. Understanding the customer needs helps you offer the right product or solution. The more you know the customer’s need, the more you close the sale. The story Would you buy from a salesperson if he does not know what you need? What’s the worst thing that can happen? How would knowing the need of the customer help you close more sales? Reflect for a moment. Which content helps you immediately relate to real-life situation?

Example 2 - Cashier Training 

The technical content

Scan each product correctly to get an accurate record of the sale and update the inventory. A mistake is very costly for the company because of excess inventory and wrong forecasting in production.  

The story The delivery driver complains – “I just delivered 100 cases of product X, but you still have 100 cases available, on-hand? Why did you over-order?” 

What likely happened in this situation? What would you do to avoid the problem? Reflect for a moment. Which content helps you to immediately relate to real-life situation?

Example 3 - Leadership Training 

The technical content 

An effective leader has integrity and can be trusted. The leader who is trustworthy builds a bond with his team members.

The story 

How do you feel a leader whom you can not confide your personal concerns?

For team members to confide in the leader, what must the leader possess? How do you build integrity and become trustworthy?

Reflect for a moment. Which content helps you to immediately relate to real-life situation?

In the above examples, we used the common patterns for questions?

Questions are basic technique of engaging the learners. 

Example 4 - Leadership Training (A Story)

The technical content 

An effective leader has integrity and can be trusted. The leader who is trustworthy builds a bond with his team members.

The story

It has been rumored that Dana was fired because Peter, her boss, reported to HR and legal that Dana had misused her company credit card. “I trusted Peter and I was asking for his advice”, Dana said. Dana was cleared of the allegations and kept her job. What do you think happened in this case? What happened to the trust between Dana and Peter? If you are Peter, why is it important to preserve the trust between you and Dana and how would you go about preserving this trust?

Conclusion

To instantly grab e-Learners, remember embedding content into stories. Embedding Steps

4. Relate
5. Interpret
6. Apply

Ray Jimenez, PhD  

Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"