Wiser After My First Rapid E-learning Course

My first rapid e-learning course was a great experience. The sheer development phase itself was thrilling in spite of the tight deadline breathing down my neck. After I rolled it out, my managers were delighted. However, I was still skeptical about how good it is. I decided to get some feedback.
Here comes the feedback and my learning from them:
Feedback 1: The course is not non linear: An oft-quoted concept. But how many of us ensure that our courses are non linear? I started off my course (I swear to God!) with the intension of making it non linear. But alas! Did I did not see the trees for the forest? Each of my chapters indicated that there was some previous information provided prior to that. It sounded linked – not independent.

A linear course has a fixed learning path – the learners are guided through the content page-by-page. A non linear course is where learners can choose their own learning path. To ensure that your courses are non linear, each topic/chapter/module should stand independent.

For example, if I were to make my course non linear, I would not have references to the previous topics. The learner should be able to start on a new topic afresh without having to rely on previous discussions or content. In e-learning parlance, we call it “modular topics”. Modularity ensures that each topic/chapter/lesson is an independent unit by itself. It does not require a background to make its content clear.

Here is an interesting blog post on linear courses by Rupa: What is a Linear E-learning Course?
Also refer Tom Kuhlman’s: Are Your E-Learning Courses Pushed or Pulled?

Feedback 2: Concept Introduction: My course was on FxCop, a Microsoft tool. The feedback suggested that it would be great if the course can start off with a case study or a real life scenario on why a learner would want to learn the course at all.
This brings the Relevance aspect of Keller’s ARCS model. One of the key factors that ensure learner motivation is relevance. The moment a learner can relate to something relevant to her, the urge to learn becomes natural. Learning no longer becomes a chore.

Feedback 3: Descriptive v/s Diagrammatic: I had a section in the course that explained a workflow that pertains to a set of sequential processes within the tool. To explain this, I had a brief discussion about the work flow, complemented by a flow diagram. The feedback suggested that I show the process on the tool itself, as a demonstration. The flow chart can then be provided as an extra reference. Great tip, I thought. However, I was not allowed to invest on any tool such as Camtasia or Captivate that would have enabled me to capture product demos. All I was allowed to touch was PowerPoint. So, I had to resort to the flow chart. As I reflect on it now, I could have probably captured the screen shots of each step of the flow chart and depicted them as a better instructional strategy.

Apart from these comments, when I reflected on the course again, I found something that totally lost its relevance: Avatar! I had an avatar in the course - called Sergeant Mac. Since FxCop is a tool that monitors flaws in code, the character that came to my mind was that of a cop. So I created Sergeant Mac and I loved him instantly!

However, halfway through the course, Mac is completely ignored and forgotten (ouch!). When I look at the course now, I wonder why I had him there at all in the first place. Had I used Flash to develop the course, maybe I could animate Mac and utilize him a lot more. But yes – it is a flaw - never use an avatar if you don’t intend to do much with it. The course would have gone fine even if Mac was not there to run it.

The flip side of it is my learners seem to remember Mac quite a lot. He has stayed on their minds. Probably it was a learner’s delight because it added a touch of informality.
But then why exactly would we want to use avatars in courses? If they don’t add value, they'd better not be used in the first place.

In all, it was a great learning. I feel post mortem helps…it’s all learning – not content resting in peace!

Rapid E-learning: Some Learning

I experienced my first rapid e-learning! And I feel a great sense of accomplishment.

Before I pen down my experience, I am eternally thankful to Tom Kuhlman for his inputs on his blog. At anytime during my work, one would find me literally glued to Tom’s blog posts, experimenting with all that he has taught on rapid e-learning with PowerPoint. Thanks to Tom for turning around my impressions about PPT. Long Live PowerPoint! Long live Tom!

My assignment was to create a short e-learning course on a Microsoft tool, FxCop. This is a tool that “polices” rule violations in code. With the help of this tool, programmers will be able to make flawless pieces of code and also ensure its maintainability and consistency.

I would like to share how I went about creating it and the lessons I learnt during the process and thereafter.

Customer requirement: To create an e-learning course on FxCop. The course had to be rolled out within a time frame of 3 weeks and not more.

Audience: Developers whose nature of work involved coding.

Challenges:

•  Short time frame: 3 weeks
• Non availability of any rapid e-learning tools
• SME availability: Quite limited almost NIL

In short, no tools, no budget, no time, no guidance (I am the sole instructional designer in the organization.)

My Approach

As soon as the content PPT was passed on to me, I arranged for a quick discussion with the SME. To save his time and mine, I recorded the discussion we had on the content, his expectations, and all other details about the project. To record this, I used Audacity. It proved beneficial. Each time I had a doubt, all I had to do was play back our conversation. I would highly recommend this approach for all such SME discussions.

Following this, I quickly checked the content for gaps and flow. In discussion with the SME, these were addressed. One suggestion I have for any budding instructional designer is to never rely on SME completely for support on content. It is advisable to remember that to a SME, the course is only one part of his “KRAs”. Expecting him/her to support you on a full-time basis is going to disappoint you. As a best practice, it is always better to collate all your queries to your SME and discuss them in one shot. Remember to record these sessions too. Saves time, big time! This way, you don’t have to worry about taking notes too.

In addition to these SME discussions, I also constantly researched on the topic on the Web. This helped me understand the tool better. Some of the forums on the tool had discussion threads on some challenges that developers face and how the tool helps. I converted these snippets of information to “Did you knows”. These were nuggets of information – I would say “nice-to-know-information” – about the tool.

This was a value addition to the course. I hear that learners were delighted with such information apart from the main content. Following discussion threads in a forum will also help you draft assessment questions. You can make a case study of the problem being discussed and pose that as a question to your learner. Of course, as always, consult the SME before you publish these questions.

With able guidance from Tom Kuhlman’s blogs, I also created some pop ups and quiz pages. It was sheer delight learning them and applying them.

Due to the limited time and lack of any guidance in terms of reviews (on instructional designing), I published the course in a shape that appealed well to my SME and other stakeholders. I managed to meet the time frame of three weeks.

However, I was keen to get comments from e-learning experts. I got some great relevant comments. I shall share them in my next post.

How was your first rapid e-learning experience? Do share them.

Web 2.0 -Making the World Smaller

I was just observing a video that Tom Kuhlman had posted sometime back in his blog. The video was created by Common Craft. Simple video, great concept covered in simple terms. I loved it.

However, my thoughts went in a different direction. As the world grows larger in terms of technology, opportunities, innovations, this concept of Web 2.0 is actually bringing all of us closer. The tone is more about collaboration, about being inclusive. There is an urge to share knowledge. Help and Be Helped seems to be the undertone. For example, I have a way to share whatever I bookmark. At the same time, I get to see others' bookmarks too. I read some blogs. My blogroll tells others what other blogs I follow. In turn, I also get to connect to blogs of another set of bloggers...it goes on. Isn't it amazing!

Need information on where you can find the best of books on e-learning? Try tweeting and lo! in no time, you end up with more than what you asked for in the form of tweets from various followers.
Web 2.0 has truly changed the way we function. The world is certainly getting to be a better place than what it was before. We are getting connected, getting closer. For those who stand aside and watch the world pass by, I would say that what they miss is larger than what they can imagine. Just step in and be part of this amazing, collaborative, helpful world of Web 2.0!

My To-do List

My post for today is inspired by Ellen Wagner’s post: Why It Matters What They Call Us
I am more intrigued by what she has mentioned towards the end of her post.
She says: We have a while before the new economy picks up speed, so there is still time to get smart about working smarter, using our networks and letting technology mediate experience. We'll need to be ready. Sort of like training for a race. Or maybe even an ID-cathelon.

I was thinking what kind of training I should go through to get ready for the “race”. Surely, when the economy picks up and the industry gathers speed, I don’t want to be left behind. How do I gear up for the race and ensure that am on track and on par with everyone else…or even get better at that? I decided that I have a to-do list that I ought to draw up. Here are my thoughts:

• Get technology-oriented: By being technology-oriented, I do not mean learning new programming skills or learning about some new technology that’s not going to add value to my ID skills. I mean learning new technologies that will enable a better learning experience. Learning new technologies that will help me be less dependent on others to get my course up. New technologies that will enable faster, quality learning experience.
• Get better at meta learning: Really! Am so lost in this myriad of knowledge and sources of knowledge. Where do I start? How do I keep pace? Do I know that I don’t know? What more should I catch up on? How do I learn??? For this, I need to get better at all avenues of social learning. And I want to know how I can be up-to-date.
• A presentation at IDCI: Am working on this. Want to present some topic at any of our IDCI sessions.
• Learn Rapid e-learning: Tom Kuhlman is my inspiration. I want to develop at least one rapid e-learning course using any tool. So that also means I need to learn some new tool.
• Become a pro at Project estimation! Numbers confound me!
• Create at least one game-based e-learning course.
  I could come up with more. But for now, I think I need to do all of these before this year ends! And as we go further with the year, I know my list will expand. But for now, this is what I am focusing on.

Do you have a to-do list ? Would love to read them too.

Instructional Designers Community of India

Finally, a long-cherished dream comes true - an Instructional Designers community in India.

We have finally managed to get this community up and going. With two successful meetings, the third one is already underway. Each meeting gets richer, better, with new faces from the e-learning community joining us, sharing their knowledge, learning new things. When we all leave after the community meetings, we realize that we've learnt so much...and much more to catch up on. I feel it is a humbling experience too to know that there are others who know so much more.

Am glad this community is growing. We expect to spread the word around and be of maximum help to Connect, Collaborate, and Learn!

This month's Big Question: Where is your time spent?

I found this month's Big Question quite thought-provoking. It was like jamming my brakes and pausing to gather my thoughts. With so many new tools and technologies, it is definitely easier to update myself and get better at it.

And now for the answers:
How much time do I spend and how did I find time for all the relatively newer things like reading blogs, twitter, social networks, etc.?
Unfortunately for me, my organization still has most of the sites blocked in office. Except for Google and a few other sites, am cut off from practically all sources of knowledge. So, the only way I can catch up with the world is when I get back home and connect to my computer. Thankfully some of the blogs are accesible and so I catch up on them when in office. Infact most of my knowledge is gathered through the blogs I read. However, when am back home, I catch up on all that I missed during the day.

What am I doing less of today than I was 3-5 years ago?
I just remembered I have a television at home!

Am glad am not stuck to it any more. But books are something I cannot give up on for anything else. There's nothing like settling in with a steaming cup of coffee and a great book :-) I do find time for that.

Do you have less of a life with all of these new things?

Life has certainly changed.

Now, I know that there are so many ways in which I can be on par with others in my field. So in that way, life is certainly better - to know that you are connected all the time. I also believe in giving optimum attention to everything in life. If I spend most of my time blogging or tweeting with no time for anything else, I know life is getting lopsided. I like a fair share of everything. So life is certainly richer - never lesser.

Instructional Designing - My first lessons

This is my first blog. As I write this, I feel the excitement, a sense if achievement that finally, I started one too! It sure feels great. I want to share all that I have gathered so far over the years. I request all my readers to comment, criticize, guide, and teach me on all that you can as you read on.
My learning in instructional designing did not start with learning theories. It started with my own experiences. I don’t have a degree in Instructional Designing. Am an English Literature student who took to e-learning. It took a while for me to learn that Gagne had propounded those 9 events. Keller’s ARCS model was totally unknown when I started off. My learning started on the floor - with my very first project.
Let me take you back to this scene which happened about 8 years back when I started on my e-learning career.
I started my career with an e-learning vendor in my home town. We were supposed to roll out courses for our clients in the US. We were trained by e-learning experts. The training that they gave is one of the best I’ve ever known.
My very first project was to create an Instructor-Led training course on Microsoft products. The product that I was supposed to teach was Microsoft Publisher, an all-attractive tool with which you could make brochures, newsletters, and what not. My assignment was to teach my learners on how they can make a brochure by using the MS Publisher tool.
For that, my tasks were:
- Explore the tool
- Create a brochure, which I can first show my learners
-Teach them how to create a similar brochure
The strategy was simple – show and teach. My first step in instructional designing was slowly unfolding.

Exploring the tool itself was great fun. I was overwhelmed by the art work you could do with their colorful graphic options. I let myself loose on the product! I created such a colorful brochure that at the end of it, I was swelling with pride. The next day, I couldn’t wait to show it off to my trainer. However, her comment changed my entire perspective about my approach towards teaching itself. And ever since, it has kept me on track. She picked my brochure, admired the color and jazz on it, and told me: “Tell me why a customer would like this brochure. If I were your customer, I would reject it.” It was shattering to hear. But when she explained why, I was amazed. The brochure was jazzy and colorful, alright. But that’s all it was. The intention of the brochure is not to show off my art work -it was to present information. There was no structure to the information. The placement of information was not quite user-friendly. The description of the product for which the brochure was designed, was not quite clear. Will the customer understand what product we are talking about? I don’t matter here. What matters is the information, customer satisfaction.

I understood what she was talking about. Looks do matter – but the “inner matter” matters more. As the project proceeded, I picked some lessons. Those lessons don’t pertain to brochure creation alone! They apply to all my courses that I would create from then on. I am glad I made a mess of that brochure, for what I gained were some priceless lessons. They have remained with me ever since. Here they come:

Lesson 1: You courses should look attractive, alright – but the “inner matter” is what makes it wholesome, worthy. How does one achieve that? For that, the instructional designer should be sure of what she is going to teach first. The command over the subject should be proper. She can achieve that by an in-depth understanding of the subject that she is going to teach. Once her learning is complete, the teaching is smooth. The teacher has to learn first before she can pass the knowledge to her students.
Lesson 2: I learnt that structuring your courses is important. The rule is: Simple to complex. General to specific. Start teaching simple stuff first. Show the big picture first and drill down to the basics. Guess my dad had a reason when he insisted that I learn how to add 2 and 2 before we got on to the lesson on Trigonometry!
Not just that, all those little bits of your course should be connected. We call this “flow” in e-learning parlance. When you move from topic to topic, lesson to lesson, it should emerge as a beautiful well-connected craft.
Lesson 3: Keep it simple. The way you present your matter should be simple - not jazzy. The idea is not to show off your vocabulary. A student should not be intimidated by the instruction. Rather, he should look forward to a great learning experience. This is where communication plays well. Simplicity of language is the best when it comes to communicating your ideas. The idea is to help your learner understand a specific subject.
Lesson 4: Hand hold and then let them fly off. You should provide enough guidance to understand the matter. Provide meaningful assessment questions. Every bit of the assessment question requires great caution when you build it. First of all, the question should test what the learner has already learnt. Your questions should not be a means of teaching him what he does not know yet. If he needs to know something more before he can answer that question, teach that extra bit of information as a separate section. Test him only on the information that has already been taught.
Another important part of assessment questions is the distracters you use. In a multiple choice question, the distracter deserves equal attention as the question itself. I shall discuss this in detail later on.
Lesson 5: The customer is the King. A very important lesson indeed. A course might look better if it were designed your way. But probably, that is not what your customer wants. An extra animation might give you the satisfaction of having created a great course. For all you know, the customer might not want it at all. Too bad -but then that’s how the game goes. Not you – the customer runs the show!

These are some of the basics that I picked up at the start of my career. But they went a long way in grooming me as an instructional designer. Where does this learning end? It doesn’t – as per my experience. Learning is an ongoing process. The more you learn, the better your course gets, and richer the experience for your learners.

What were your lessons? How have they shaped your ID career so far? Let’s share.