Coming to Training 2008?

Lots of famous training folks will be in Atlanta next week for Training 2008. I hope to see you at my "E-Learning on a Shoestring" session, to include material from Better than Bullet Points. Also be sure to look for workshops from Patti Shank, Karl Kapp, Jennifer Hofmann, Saul Carliner...

And this year marks the return of the fun "99-Second Presentations". With emcee Thiagi, I'll be joined by people like Lou Russell, Marc Rosenberg, Donald Kirkpatrick (yes, that Donald Kirkpatrick), and Ray Jiminez.

I'll be signing books on the Expo floor at noon on Tuesday, so if you're coming please be sure to look me up! Hope to see you there--

Top 100 FREE Tools for Learning

Last year Jane Hart of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies asked learning professionals to submit their recommendations for top training tools. She's configured the answers in several ways, including
Top 100 Free Training Tools.

Watch for the results of her 2008 poll!

The problem with most e-learning # 471

So how often does this happen? A trainer or instructional designer comes up with a great idea for making online content engaging and interesting-- something better than bullet points-- and by the time management and marketing and the Policy Police get through with it it's turned back into a dry, cover-every-possible-contingency-CYA-and, yes, bullet-ridden mind-numbing, learning-less online presentation (not "training").

I've heard from people who've been told games are "too much fun", "we aren't allowed to have anything light", and my favorite, to the student who knocked it out of the park on his final project for one of my e-learning development courses, "It's too entertaining". HUH? Time to push past the fear and give something interesting a try for a change. Stand your ground!


"Death by Risk Aversion" image used under creative commons license: Kathy Sierra/Headrush.

Finally! A FREE virtual classroom tool

I've gotten many, many questions about this and finally have an answer.

Here's a product with much of the functionality as the big boys:
Chat, VOIP,video, and an object-oriented whiteboard (one of my favorite features, and one missing from several commercial products).

Check out www.wiziq.com (pronounced Whiz + IQ like the test). Live demos scheduled regularly.

Driving School

Yesterday's "Zits" comic pretty much sums up much of what's wrong with most training...e-learning...presentations....

See the left side of this panel.

Storyboarding with PowerPoint

Readers of Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging E-Learning with PowerPoint will have noticed all...all...all...the artwork in that one. With 400 images there were bound to be some glitches. In the section on storyboarding with PowerPoint there's a discussion of sending PPT files to Word to create a printed "script", and figure 2.20, page 50, needs a correction. See the Bozarthzone, "bullets" link to access a printable pdf with several sample screens showing the side-by-side image with text result. (One screen is shown above).

Evaluating E-Learning

Happy new year!

Students in my facilitated multiweek "Online Trainer" course look at lots (and lots) of examples of e-learning, good, bad, and ugly. One of their final assigments is to apply their new learning in developing criteria for evaluating an asynchronous program. One of the groups in the Fall 2007 class came up with this excellent list, with items not seen on many existing checklists or tools. Thanks to the members of the "Red Group" for letting me share this.

And: "Better than Bullet Points" ships on Wednesday! Order early and often!

Evaluating an E-Learning Program
by Stephanie Freeman, Steffi Adams, Deanna Sevits, & Freya Brannon

Question
What criteria would you use to evaluate the quality of an e-learning program, either one a vendor is offering or one you were developing in-house?

Criteria
Objectives: Does the course clearly state the objectives up front and does it deliver, does it provide the amount of information required, does it provide too much information?

Instructional Strategies: Are they varied, are the strategies appropriate given the subject matter and backgrounds of the learners, are different learning styles addressed?

Appearance (Graphics/Concept/Theme): Is there enough white space or does the course look “busy”, are the graphics of good quality, do they enhance the subject matter and are they consistent throughout the course? Does the course have a concept or theme – does it engage the learner, does it work with the subject matter and enhance the experience or detract from it?

Functionality (Organization/Navigation/Accessibility Issues): Is the material well organized, does it need to be provided in a specific order, are the modules too long or too short? Is the navigation easy to follow; is it consistent throughout the course, does the interface work? Are accessibility issues addressed, are accommodations made for hearing and vision disabilities – audio transcripts, color blindness, captions on graphics?

Language: Is the reading level appropriate for the intended audience, are unfamiliar terms explained, are acronyms spelled out, are neutral terms used regarding age, sex, race and religion, are there grammatical or spelling errors?

Interactivity and Feedback: Does the course allow for interactivity for the learner, does it provide positive reinforcement and is it helpful when the learner is incorrect, does it allow for interaction between learners and with the trainer, does it allow the learner to give feedback to the trainer?

Evaluation & Measurement: Does the course allow the learner to evaluate its effectiveness, does it allow for measurement of the learner’s progress - can they apply what they learned, does performance improve?

Delivery and Updates: How will the course be delivered, will more than one method be used, will it be a blended course, will the course require changes to keep it up to date, if so, how will they be delivered and will delivery be in a timely manner?

Technology: Is the required technology and software available, do the links work; are the file sizes acceptable for downloading or viewing, will there be support if the learner has a problem?

Cost and Copyright: Is the course cost effective to deliver, to maintain and update? Is the course material protected, are the resources referred to in the course properly cited? Will copyright issues increase the cost?

Additional Resources: Are they chosen so as not to overwhelm the learner, will they aide the learner and are they easy to find, are web-base resources reliable, trustworthy and kept up-to-date?

Voices

I get a lot of questions about narration for e-learning programs, particularly adding narration to PowerPoint. Here are a couple of sources for voice talent that will give you an idea of the voice talent available (both North American and British English) as well as ballpark parameters for pricing. Do-it-yourselfers might find some inspiration and guidelines here as well.

http://www.voices.com/
http://voice123.com/s/voiceovers.html

"Better than Bullet Points" available NOW!

Available now for preorder-- will ship in early January. FREE shipping from Amazon.com.

FREE Training

There's been a discussion on one of the training listservs about free training and/or free content. The discussion is open to pretty much anything, from ILT to web-based. Based on the comments so far it appears that many are looking for ways to use new collaboration technologies, with universities are leading the way. Here are some of the suggestions offered. Rice University's Connexions project: http://www.cnx.org/ MIT Open Courseware: ocw.mit.edu Wikiversity: http://www.wikiversity.org/ Teachertube: http://www.teachertube.com/ Sapling Systems http://www.saplingsystems.com/ Microsoft http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/FX100565001033.aspx OER Grapevine http://oergrapevine.org/OER_projects

Please add your own suggestions. I've had to start moderating comments but am approving them asap.

FREE tool for creating content for iPods

This just in from the Learning Consortium:
"Mogopop is a free service that lets you create content for iPods. Mogopop says to think of its projects like "a mini website that runs on your iPod." Mogopop has a project builder where you can add text, photos, audio, and video to your project. When completed, your project is published on the Mogopop site for the public to download. All mogopop contenct can be found in an iPods NOTES."

Click here to view video tutorials for using Mogopop

JotSpace FREE online whiteboard

"JotSpace is a free web-based, collaboration whiteboard. It allows multiple users to work on the same board simultaneously as if in the same room. Whiteboards include sticky pads, photo uploads, chat, connectors and markers that never run out of ink. Great for training and planning."

JotSpace is preparing to launch its alpha version and is looking for prelaunch testers. Visit the website for more information.

Great new FREE features from SnagIt

SnagIt, one of the best investments you'll ever make (and still only US$39,95!) has just added new one-click features for publishing to blogs, flickr, or skype, and added a nifty new 'desktop sticky note' tool, too.

How to paint the MONA LISA with MS PAINT

It's GGG....REAT! Karl Kapp's Book Tour-- Week 2

If you haven't yet gotten your hands on Karl Kapp's Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning are missing out on a real treat. I spend a lot of time in trainer development work and have lately run into (yet another...) disturbing trend. Lots of trainers are interested in "Generations" training, but invariably these trainers are 50+ who stand and orate, backlit by their boring PowerPoint slides, about "Them": "the Millenialls", "the Xers"... and how we must tolerate and accommodate Them. It's about time we heard from someone who understands and defends Them-- the gamers, the future.

Kapp is a champion for "Them" and I, for one, can't wait to see more of Them in the workplace!

Fewer words, more text

Here's a new item for my "end of email" campaign. And amen! Frumpy Netiquette from Donald Clark's "Plan B" blog.

Just because they've HEARD of it doesn't mean it's valid...

...So lately I've experienced a new phenomenon: trainers and instructional designers knowingly including invalid, untested, or discredited tools or theories in training because it's "what people have heard of". To wit 1: a certain 4-letter personality-type assessment that has no construct validity, no predictive value, and boasts a body of "research" for which the insturment's publisher has provided the grant money on the condition that the grantee's research "promote the use of" the instrument. To wit 2: a certain TAXONOMY of training evaluation-- not a "model", or a "theory"-- that everyone has heard of, hardly anyone uses, and that has been shown time and time again to be flawed and, basically useless.

Both times the designers insisted on leaving the stuff in because "It's what the learners have heard of."

As practitioners, isn't it our responsibility to help people discover things they maybe haven't heard of?

Wouldja like some snake oil with that, ma'am?

Love it, love it. Today's pretty email ad said I could attend a "webinar" (red flag! red flag!) and see how a "Web communication tool" could, for several thousand dollars, let me:

"Add interactive audio, video and animation to existing presentation and create and deliver dynamic and effective training courses".

I already have that product. It's called PowerPoint.

And PS: NO PRODUCT will take slides and magically transform them into "engaging, rich, multimedia content." That takes innovation, creativity, and instructional design expertise.

It's about design, not software.

So buyer beware.

Top 10 Tools

One of my favorite sites, the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies, has asked for lists of "Top 10 Tools". Here's my submission.

News Flash: Register now for NAGTAD online and get $100 discount + free membership

See the NAGTAD blog at http://nagtad07.blogspot.com/ .