Expirement on Twitter

Experiment on Twitter



Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Social Learning and Impacts

TrainingPayback.com is a social learning system that helps members collaborate, learn, apply and track learning impacts. Visit www.trainingmagnetwork.com




Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Testing the new SCREENR from Articulate

Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

What I learned from #LRNCHAT yesterday - Twitter as a spark plug

Twitter is a spark plug for learning.

I am a student of Twitter. I love Twitter since it epitomizes the succinct and instant learning I have been evangelizing (3-Minute eLearning) for about 10 years now. In 2007 I wrote about Collaborative Anthropologists - how Twitter can be a source for new job functions for learning professions.

#lrnchat is a great example http://twitter.com/lrnchat and http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/tracklrnchat/ which uses Twitter for a 90 minute conversation, Thursdays, 5:30 pm PST.

Read the transcript of last night's session. The topic was: Instructional Systems Design (ISD).

I recommend you experiment and join the sessions.

These are my thoughts:

The driver has to learn new skills

• The learner as participant at #lrnchat has to drive differently. Rule: you can almost drive anywhere provided the discussion is focused, approximately. It is pretty much following your own learning interests. Follow people and ideas that interest you. Something like a classroom where everyone is talking; but learning as well.
  
  
• This is no place for orderly minded and anal people.
  
  
• Patience is key.
  
  
• Accepting others' comments at face value; understanding their own interests; respecting their views even counters your own beliefs or styles.
  
  
• Speak from the heart. A sincere interest to participate and add value.
  
  
• Different styles on tweets are needed: make a statement; suggest an idea; respond to others; ask questions; provide structure; encourage deeper conversations; add links when needed.
  
  
• Listening (pausing and reading) is a much needed skill.
  

These behaviors I observed at #lrnchat:

(All my descriptions are made with spirit of candidness and friendliness. No offense intended to anyone - Oh boy a disclaimer.)

• - Provocateurs
• - Emulators
• - Researchers
• - Facilitators
• - Listeners
• - Traffic officers
• - Clowns
• - Creators
• - Gurus
• - Self-promoters
• - Reactors
• - Agitators
• - Parrots
• - Grade schoolers
• - Many more

All needed to make #lrnchat fun!

The most impressive learning for me - the learner is a facilitator too.

A key learning for me is to follow the people I wish to learn from; stay with them; have a conversation.

Conversations

The conversations in the session reflect of conversations I would hear and have when attending a face to face meeting, conference or small group meeting. The difference is that it is all packed in 90 minutes. It is like a focus group in an instant.

I learned that the sessions caused sparks in my mind and emotions to allow me to take a follow-up action, for example like writing this blog, and crystallizing my observations. The Twitter session serves as SPARK PLUG - or a booster for initiating learning.

It is unreal to expect 140 character conversations, but they are connectors, fibers that link people's thoughts; hence trigger follow-up conversations.

The constancy, contacts, and presence in a community of tweeters lay the ground work for relationships to build - a rapport building process. Relationships that can follow more in-depth conversations that leads to sharing and learning.

After the session, I end up thinking of the salient points I picked up from the session and pondering on them; hence this blog.

Improving one's repertoire of meanings and words in 90 minutes

The fun part is learning the games, meanings and words that people play to express themselves.

5 colors of SCORM - Aaron Silvers
Crapid Learning - Tom Stone

many many more .. see the transcript, a very interesting reading.

What I want to do next

I want to learn from the participants' answers to these questions:

What does one do after attending a lively #lrnchat session?
What emotional and cognitive "sparks" lead you to
learning a new skill?

Thanks to the organizers of #lrnchat for providing an experiment that helps people to have first hand experience.

Great work!


Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

How to avoid eLearning paralysis and get moving with your projects

Many eLearning projects have false starts and failed attempts. One reason is paralysis. What can you do about it? And how do you get moving with your projects.

eLearning abundance is a hay stack

The abundance of eLearning solutions is like a hay stack. There are thousands of solutions like Web 2.0 web applications, authoring tools and learning methods both formal and informal. Jane Hart has a good list of software http://janeknight.typepad.com. The pile of hay is increasing each day and the density is getting pack. The solutions are getting sophisticated and in many cases very simple, affordable and for free. I relate the abundance to what Chris Anderson describes as the Long Tail http://www.thelongtail.com.

The trouble is to find the right solution to fit a need, we need to do surgical search using a powerful magnifying glass.

Needles in a hay stack

What are we looking for? We are looking for Needles Points in a hay stack.

What serves as our magnifying glass? Key few fundamental assumptions.

• Ultra focus on the learners’ needs – Learners’ Needle Points
• Ultra focus on your skills and strengths – Designers’ Needle Points
• It is OK to use a “single solution/single result” approach to kick-off your eLearning programs.

Learners' Needle Points

I’ve created a chart that helps us focus on the few key fundamental assumptions.

When selecting a solution, consider the following standards. “Needs” is the compelling motives of e-Learners. “Learners’ Say” is how they describe their needs. “Learning Design” is what you need to do to meet the needs.

Key Point: Focus on the “Learners’ Needle Points.” Avoid being distracted by solutions that do not lead you to meet “Learners’ Needle Points.” When you obsess on learners’ needs your solution can’t go wrong.

Designers’ Needle Points

To focus and build on your strengths and reinforce yourself, consider the following. “Skills” are what you do to kick-off your eLearning projects. “What I do well” are what you do extremely well that adds enormous value to your projects. The list consists of skills needed to match the learners’ needs. “What others do well” are those skills you must recognize and harness to compliment your own skills.

Key Point: You need to recognize that to kick-off projects, most often you only have your own skills and strengths to rely on. This is your craft. You are a genius in this area. Build on this skill. If you are a good writer, write the best eLearning you can or if you are good in videos, use videos. If you are a software techie, use what is easiest and fastest to you. When you can, ask others with their craft to compliment your skills. If you are a software techie, use what is easiest and fastest to you. When you can, ask others with their craft to compliment your skills.

Conclusions

To avoid paralysis with your eLearning projects:

• Be obsessed with the Learners’ needs.
• Build on your strengths and skills.
• Find the single solution to get you started.
• Avoid being sidetracked by fanciful solutions that will paralyze you.

Use a magnifying glass and focus on the Needle Points because without the focus, one can easily get lost, confused and paralyzed with the enormous amount of options. Without the focus, one can lose confidence and then lose inertia in implementing projects.

Contrary to what consultants tell you, it is OK to have a “single-solution/single result” approach. Single-result is being obsessed with learners needs. Single-solution is being focus on meeting these needs.

Caveat. Expand your solutions as you have more experience and confidence. But never be sidetracked on being obsessed with the learners’ needs.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com
http://www.simplifyelearning.com

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

The Master SME: How to become one? How to work with it?

If you are in a shipwreck and are stranded in a desolate island with an SME (Subject Matter Expert), what would be your conversation like?

Ask yourselves, “What do we do?”

Both of your concerns become how to get off the island and go back to civilization.

In order of priority you will probably agree to:

• Make a BIG HELP sign on the ground for the search pilots to see
• Prepare a pile of wood and set fire
• Find food and ensure your safety while you wait
• Explore the island

Now you may never find yourself in a shipwreck and in an isolated island (heaven forbids) with the SME, but you are constantly in conversations with an SME, or you might be an SME yourself. If you have this conversation in the office, the dynamics change from having the sense of urgency in an isolated island to the usual behaviors we are all accustomed to, in corporate settings.

“What is important to teach?” You ask.

“Everything,” the SME answers.

“What is important for you to teach?” the SME asks you.

“I need to write the learning objectives first,” you reply.

What is the difference between the office conversation and the conversation in the desolate island?

“What do we do?” versus “What do we need to teach?”



Whatever we do, whether a trainer, instructional designer, eLearning designer or developer, or an SME, we often fail to focus on what truly matters. Instead, we focus on the content, process and the technique of training, design or delivery; we miss the mark in helping learners. Our training and eLearning programs become dull, without focus and fail to impact the learners’ work performance.

What would the Master SME do?

We can learn from the masters in Karate – the ancient martial arts.

Experts say Karate masters focus on the center of balance, speed and power. Whatever their body position is they need to find the balance otherwise they’d fall. Thus, Speed and power are crucial to execute the moves.

In working with the SME or being an SME, we need to organize our content so learners can learn how to find their balance all the time. Balance to me means the key important performance actions the learner must perform at work at all times. Speed and power are the content that helps the learners execute and apply the key important skill and knowledge swiftly and consistently.

In the movie Karate Kid (1984), Miyagi teaches the bullied kid Daniel to defend himself and win the championship by emphasizing the few key moves Daniel can master in a few weeks, against his well trained opponents, the Cobras. Miyagi did not teach Daniel all the techniques. He focused Daniel’s energies and training on the basics that delivered the right blow at the right time.

The Master SME asks these questions:

1. What must the learners learn that are so critical to their success on the job, without which they would fail?

2. What should learners do consistently and swiftly to deliver the critical skills?
In the first questions, ask the SME or yourself using Pareto’s Law - “what is the 20% content that must be learned to deliver 80% of the results?”

In the second question, ask “what are the fatal errors that the learner needs to master and overcome in order to learn and apply the 20%” and “what are the most difficult tasks the learner must learn and execute to master the 20%?”


Where would SMEs find the answers to these questions?

1. SMEs’ personal experience.

2. Customer support logs often show valuable insights. Check chat support logs and audio support recordings.

3. Feedback from operations people who have to deliver and maintain products and services often times see the problems first-hand.

4. Leaders and managers who are watching out on how their products and services impact revenues and costs to the company.

5. Exception reports of accidents.

6. Case files documenting services rendered and provided.

7. Focus groups consisting of customers are good sources.

8. Product or software requirements specifications.

9. Product testing results often show persistent problems.

10. Lost, terminated or cancelled customers are good sources for information.

11. Financial records of returns, damages, and other related costs.

12. Success stories by everyone in your company who touché the products and services.

13. Attendees to past training sessions who have experience with the content.

Today’s business conditions oftentimes make us feel to be in desolate island. There are always urgencies and People need training now and quickly. But we have no total access and could not know all the content so we rely heavily on SMEs. This is also true if we are the SMEs ourselves. To become a Master SME, with excellence in the craft, we need to help them and ourselves by asking the key questions too. `


Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Cut to 30% eLearning Development Costs

Let us do the rough math.

Assuming a typical one hour eLearning costs $35,000.

This is how Do-it-Yourselfers think and do.
• Focus efforts on must learn, probably around 20% of the content.
• Apply authoring tools on the 20%.
• Develop images only for some 20% of the content.
• Develop exercises, tests, games and simulation only on the 10% of the 20%.
• Use HTML, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, etc. for the 80% references type of content.

As you can see, the step of separating “must-learn” from “reference-type” of content from the very start allows you to focus the least expensive media and tools to the references and the more costly development and creative time to the 20% content.

Your cost goes down to $10,500. It is also faster to deliver and learners learn better.



Another way of cutting down cost is making sure your estimation process helps in managing details. Oftentimes industry experts calculate eLearning development time by computing seat time. For example, one seat time hour is $35,000. I find this a questionable practice. What is involved in the details? How does one know what the learner is going through in an hour?

This is my suggestion.

Using your estimated design, estimate the following details:
• Number of text pages – number of words per page
• Number of images – what type and approach
• Number of tests – text based or other formats
• Number of games, exercises, simulation – is this Flash, or other tools

When you have these ball park numbers, ask each of the specialists like graphic artists, authoring specialists and Flash developers how much it would cost and how long it would take. Include in your specs examples or demos of what you want to emulate, follow or copy. Armed with the per unit costs, you can then now plug the numbers in each unit.

For example:
• Number of text pages - 200 pages X $10 = $2,000
• Number of images – 50 images X $45 = $2,250
• Number of tests – 20 text based tests X $5 = $1,000
• Number of games, exercises, simulation – 5 Flash animations X $500 = $5,000

Total of = $10, 250

Note: There might be other costs you need to account.

The benefit of this approach is that you have details to make good decisions. Without this level of details, you can’t control costs and time, and ensure quality.



Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Creating Micro-Scenarios – X-Men Plays Hockey

The purpose of Micro-learning is to provide short, snappy and provocative stories to help learners reflect on a real-life situation or provoke social learning conversations in discussion rooms, Twitters, Blogs, etc.

Full-scale scenarios are elaborate scenarios with multiple branching while micro-scenarios are small vignettes with 1 to 2 branches or a single compelling story leaving learners to reflect on the choices and consequences.

Even if Micro-Scenarios are 1-3 minute activities, they contain these key elements:

1. An emotional event
2. Characters involved in a story
3. Emotions are high
4. Conflicts have to be resolved
5. Choices are presented
6. Consequences have failures or successes

_____________________________________
Preview Examples
To view examples of Micro-Scenarios, please click here, and Search (top right) for “Micro-Scenario.” Or you can visit www.simplifyel.com and Search (top right) for “Micro-Scenario.” You will find these two scenarios below.

________________________________________




Hockey stick

The hockey stick has three parts: toe, heel and handle.

In storytelling, which is the heart of scenarios, the toe represents the past or present situation before problem (or the heel). The heel represents a depression or change where the emotions are heightened due to a problem that needs to be resolved; the heel is pointed down or at the bottom. And the handle represents an upward result from resolutions of the conflict.

This is a very rudimentary example.

“I was OK.” (Toe)
“But then something went wrong.” (Heel)
“Thank God with his help I recovered.” (Handle)

This is another example.

“My performance was great last year.” (Toe)
“Today, they are dropping to 30%.” (Heel)
“I was procrastinating on some tasks.” (Heel)
“What do I do?”(Heel)
“Once I started to focus on the must do tasks,
my performance started to excel.” (Handle)


Let’s use the X-Men playing Hockey illustration.

Using the X-Men approach represents having two or more involved characters. They have their respective toes, heels and handles. In X-Men we combine the two characters into one scenario. This approach is beneficial since many learning issues usually involve other people and emotions are oftentimes heightened between characters.

Let’s see an example below.

(1a/1b) Toes - John and Sarah

John was a manager and Sarah reports to John. John promoted Sarah because she has been an effective leader. Sarah was thrilled with the news.

(2)
Heels crossing between John and Sarah.

(2a)
Months went by and Sarah noticed that John has become overly demanding and to some extent unreasonable with his expectations.

(2b)
One day, John and Sarah had an altercation which ended with Sarah rushing to her lawyer and filing a suit against John. John was appalled.

(3)
When John was asked by Nancy, the Human Resources Manager, what happened, John said, “Well heck, I just asked her to treat one of our key customers to dinner.” Nancy asked: “So what should you do John?”

At this point, we now have all the elements: Event, Characters, Emotions, and Conflicts that needed to be resolved. Now you are ready to present the Choices.

Conflict Resolution Question

Before presenting the choices, we need to add a “conflict resolution question.”

For example: “So what should you do John?”

Then we can present the choices:

Choice 1 – “Nothing”, John Says.
Choice 2 – “What do you think Nancy,” asks John.
Choice 3 – “I should talk with Sarah and ask why?”

(4)
The scenario – the handle

Each choice has a consequence which leads to a resolution and/or a failure which could lead to more conflicts and choices. If the answer leads to a resolution, it allows John and Sarah to resolve the conflicts; the resolution represents the handle of the hockey stick. If the consequence is a failure and does not lead to a resolution, the problem continues to be in the heel of the scenario.

Scenarios without handles for self-reflections

Open-ended Micro-Scenarios are short stories without the choices and consequences. They are are excellent ways to provoke and encourage learners to submit and share their ideas on how to resolve the scenario. Learners can post their comments in discussion rooms, webinars, classroom training, and social learning sites like Twitter, Blogs and Wikis.


Related blogs

Compelling Characters
http://vignettestraining.blogspot.com/2007/02/compelling-characters-in-scenario-based.html

I’ve been robbed
http://vignettestraining.blogspot.com/2008/03/ive-been-robbed-ive-been-sexually.html

Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Think Artichoke eLearning, Understand Learner’s Instincts

Last July 23, 2009, I had an opportunity to be a panel member of the online event “The Future of the Business of Learning” sponsored by Corporate Learning Trends & Innovation. It was an insightful event featuring thought leaders Tony Karrer , Josh Bersin , Jay Cross, and Harold Jarche. The event was about challenges and opportunities in the learning industry. Please visit Harold’s blog for the session discussions. There were many great ideas on trends and how to find a business model that will sustain the business of learning.

Although the discussions were intriguing, I thought there was not much conversation on:

How can we we produce more quality programs at lower cost and faster speed and simplify our processes and software?

Why is this question important?

Eight out of every ten eLearning designers and developers I have conversations with complain about the complexity of elearning design and software. “It costs a lot of time and money to produce really high quality programs,” many assert.

This problem is like a serpent with several heads: instructional design, software, delivery, tracking, and the emergence of informal learning options. There is no consensus on how to address the issues, and we can’t expect a solution from a single source. One thing is for sure: as the demand for more in-depth learning designs (rich-media, scenarios, simulation and games) and informal learning methods increases (social networks), the pressure to bring down costs and increase speed of production and delivery increases. There must be a change in our eLearning approach.

So how do we begin? And where do we start?

I propose we look into simplifying eLearning.

As I listened to the discussions at the online conference, my thoughts boiled down to:

The state of learning as a business is not about comparing apples, bananas and oranges. It is about an artichoke.


Bananas, apples and oranges are easy to peel.



Artichokes require more work to get to the heart.

A change in the way we approach eLearning is like peeling the artichoke in search for the heart. We have to shed off layers to discover the core and foundations of what we do. Unlike, peeling an apple, banana or orange where the skins are thinner, an artichoke’s skin is layered and highly protected. We have to boil it first before we can begin to soften the skins. At the conference, the questions were more on the peelings of the artichoke, not the heart.

In simplifying eLearning we need to ask hard questions that help us cut to the heart of an artichoke. And for starters, let us ask:

What are the instincts of new learners?

I am convinced that we have NOT looked hard enough to understand the DNA of the new learner. Are we limiting ourselves by looking at the heart of the new learner from the old thick layers (like hardened skins) of instructional design, competencies, authoring tools, LMSs, ROI, corporate culture and network software? And if we have looked hard enough and discovered the instincts of the new learner, we have to transform our understandings into new norms, practices and tools that will help us help the new learner, further giving us clues and enabling us to develop and produce learning designs responsive to the demands of speed and costs.

On a practical level, we need to ask persistently when we design and develop eLearning:

How do learners acquire the skills to do a good job?

To genuinely get a fresh answer, ask the questions without using our usual assumptions, theories and biases about learners. Peel off the artichoke to get to the heart of the question.


Getting an answer to this simple question could impact how we design and develop eLearning. We can change our approaches and focus on creating new solutions to bring down costs, improve delivery and meet the needs.

The conference made me realize that eLearning today has become so complex. To simplify eLearning, I think, we need to revisit our understanding on the new learner’s instincts.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifyelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way" "Helping Learners Apply Learning"

Be vulnerable - An authentic way to tell a story

What stories help other people? Be vulnerable. Share what you have overcome.

Stories appeal when they are about personal circumstances. Real, honest, and from the heart.

Short video by Nancy Duarte.




Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.trainingpayback.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way" "Helping Learners Apply Learning"