The game of learning design

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Soccer strategy

The gamification term has become popular over the last few years. Professor Werbach from Pennsylvania University defines gamification as, “the use of game elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts” (Gamification MOOC in Coursera 2015) . If you’re producing engaging elearning in my view it seems almost impossible not to be using at least some features of gamification.

I’m currently engaged in a gamification MOOC  in Coursera, although I’ve participated in other gamification MOOCs, this one in particular encouraged me to reflect about gamification in my learning/elearning design.

I have been using gamification features in teaching and instructional design long before the term became mainstream. The reason for this is that gamification and good quality learning share many of the same features and foundations.

Here is a taste of what gamification and good quality learning have in common:

A business goal and objectives

Both should start with a well defined business goal and then specific objectives for how to meet this business goal. Solutions are built to achieve the business goal and motivate certain behaviours of the target audience or players.

Engaging and fun

To make a difference in learning design or gamification it is critical that the experience is engaging, fun, and memorable. Game theory examines and breaks down what fun looks like and how solutions (both gamification and learning) can utilise the different features of fun to get results.

Motivation

Fun is important and makes life more enjoyable, but that’s not what it’s all about… it’s also about motivation. Both gamification and learning design address how the target audience (or players) can be motivated to continue the desired behaviour after the intervention has occurred. They both have strong foundations in motivational psychology to achieve better results for desired behaviour.

Practice, challenge and progression towards success

It’s not a single one off event but something more engaging. Having opportunities to practice and a sense of challenge and progression are valuable. How can you turn your learning design into an experience rather than an event?

 

Learning about gamification is a great way to refine learning design. So much scientific research has been done on motivation and how to engage people in games. Why not borrow these lessons learnt and apply them to learning design and/or other contexts.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about gamification and how it applies to learning design? Follow me to hear more.

2014 the year of the story

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Top Story Concept.

In 2014 my focus was very much on creating interactive elearning and utilising the power of the story through interesting design and technologies. This showed under my five most highly viewed and popular posts for 2014. If you haven’t already, check these out:

  1. Using digital stories in elearning
  2. The awesome tool Videoscribe
  3. Rapid prototype vs storyboard
  4. Why storytelling should be part of your elearning kit
  5. 10 steps to create a digital story for elearning

These are also topics I’ve especially enjoyed blogging about. If you would like to hear more on any topic please comment to let me know. Have a wonderful 2015!

Sourcing stories fast for training

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Find Story

Something I’ve learnt during my time teaching, training and undertaking instructional design is that people love to share their stories. It’s a natural drive. Why not then use stories to enhance learning and streamline your design at the same time?

As mentioned in previous posts, stories are an extremely powerful way to teach or train. But where can you source these? Do you need to come up with a story from scratch? Or do you need to spend hours working with a SME constructing stories? Surely there’s an easier way…

Well of course there is! Source your stories directly from those with the experience.

Sourcing stories directly mean they will be authentic, believable, targeted and related to your audience already.

Here’re couple of examples of when I’ve sourced stories directly and how I’ve used them.

Staff stories in speech bubbles

Within a Complaints online course, one of the learning outcomes was to identify how complaints could improve business processes and service.

For this outcome I sourced stories from different areas of the business by asking for examples of how complaints had led to business improvements in the past. I then presented these examples in speech bubbles pointing off the edge of the screen. This used minimal media due to time and budget constraints and considerations.

These stories had a powerful impact in supporting the learning outcome and they took very little effort to source and present. It also meant that I didn’t have to tell why complaints are important to a business – it was made obvious by the examples.

Staff audio stories

Stories are also great in system training to explain why things are done in a particular way and as a result how it impacts on the customer and the business.  In one situation I needed a way to explain why it was important to group related information together within the software system.

For this outcome I sourced stories from experienced staff on cases they had worked on. Explaining why information was grouped together in these cases and what the benefits of grouping the information was for both the customer and the business.

These stories were much more powerful than simply telling staff what to do. They gave context and real life examples. To present these stories I simply recorded staff telling their stories, then edited the audio and placed it directly onto the LMS (Learning Management System) course page.

Microphone with cable connected ready for an interview, singing

A fast and effective approach with minimal multimedia skills required.

What techniques do you use with integrating stories into your learning design? I’d love to hear from you…

Follow me to hear more about this and check out some of my other posts about using stories in e/learning.

Monthly inspiration – Powerful stories for change

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Old Way, New Way

We all know the basics of structuring a story so it has a beginning, middle and end and some sort of plot, challenge or problem. But what is the difference between a story that misses it’s audience and a story that resoundingly connects with people enough for them to take on the story and even make changes because of it?

I’ve been inspired by Nancy Duarte’s Ted talk that simply explains common features of great communicators and how they connect and with their audience. In short Nancy explains how people are brought on a journey gradually. She idenifies a formula of flitting between the present truth and future possibility and how this toing and froing can move people towards accepting and adopting the ideas to work towards the future state of bliss.

This technique could work not only for training, it could also work for coaching conversations or even in personal situations helping someone to move forward to change.

I hope her Ted talk inspires you as much as it has me. I can think of multiple ways to use this model both for training and learning and for beyond.

View her Ted talk here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks

I’d love to hear your thoughts – follow me to hear more of mine.

Happy holidays – Lorraine

And the Duarte site for extra inspiration http://www.duarte.com/

Should elearning be the answer for all training?

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Thinking Business Woman Making Decision Yes, No Or Maybe Isolate

Years ago I was asked to do an elearning software simulation to train on software systems. On talking to key people I found that the changes were very small, non-complex and only applied to a handful of specific people. Don’t get me wrong I think system simulations and demos are a great learning resource. However, in this case building a software simulation would have been overkill when it was only for a small change and for a very small audience.

Before committing to a solution, there are some basic questions and things I like to know first like:

  • What is the need or performance problem?
  • Is it initially a training issue or does something else need to happen first (like developing business processes)?

If it is initially a training issue then I like to know:

  • Who does it affect? What type of roles do they have in the business? How many people need the solution?
  • Will the solution need to be available for new hires or other needs in the future?
  • What possible solutions are available?
  • Is there even a capacity for elearning? e.g. what technology does the audience have access to?

I never agree on a solution straight away as I think it’s important to consider all possible solutions and then find the right solution/s to match that particular business need. I also consider whether the training needs can be met in a more effective (easier, quicker, cheaper, more sustainable or better) way?

So in some cases, elearning may not be the best solution to match the business need or performance problem.

In the case mentioned above a short simple job aid met the business need and was a quick easy solution. The audience reported back the job aid was simple to follow and they were able to use the new part of the software system correctly and with ease.

What do you think? Should elearning be the answer to all training? Please share your thoughts and follow me to get notified of new posts.

Coding individualised feedback in Storyline

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Time To Learn Concept

In a recent project I wanted to give feedback that was more than just a result of a single choice selected in an elearning scenario. Instead I wanted a way that remembered an individual’s series of choices over different slides to later provide them with feedback about each choice they made. This way the learners would feel as if the feedback was specifically tailored to them. I did this by coding in Articulate Storyline.

Storyline is much easier to code in than Captivate and Lynda.com is well worth the investment to get you started.

In the Storyline example below, coding enabled me to give individualised feedback to the learner at the end of the activity – dependent on the choices they made on previous slides. The activity was to write a system (file) note and the learner received feedback once they had constructed the whole note. Unfortunately I can’t show you the final version as it’s proprietary, however, this first prototype with placeholder content should give you an idea how this individualised feedback could work.

Want to know how to replicate this? I’ve put together a guide that you can print out and takes you through the code step by step. Why not try it out yourself?

Coding individualised feedback

This code and individualised feedback design could work well for incremental activities or skills. What activities could you use this coding for? What techniques do you use to make your elearning feel more personalised?

I’d love to hear your ideas and examples, follow me to hear more of mine.

Designing Twitter activities

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bigstock-Share-edited

 

Using Twitter as a learning tool – part 3

In my other posts I introduced using Twitter as a learning tool and how you can do this. In this post I’ll share some ideas of learning activities you could design in Twitter.

When designing Twitter activities keep in mind they should be able to be completed while your learners are on the go and therefore need to be short and simple to complete. As a guide it should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete a Twitter activity and no more than a couple of sentences of text (remember the tweet limit is 144 characters).

Research and share activities

In a previous course I designed the majority of the Twitter activities as research and share activities. These were activities where  students were asked a question and then to find examples supporting the question and tweet these.

For example a course that examines social media use in society and the advantages and disadvantages of this could pose a question such as: What situations can you find where a community has used Twitter as their primary source of information? Tweet your example using the course hash tag #……

In research and share activities it is important to remind learners to use a common hashtag so they can search and read other peoples tweets and examples as well.

If a full answer to a research question requires more than a brief sentence or two, then change the activity from a Twitter activity to something else more suitable such as a forum post.

Share opinions and thoughts

Again this type of activity starts with a question and invites learners to share their view on a question. Here’s an example below:

This technique could be used as a motivator to introduce a topic or to explore different views.

You could also tweet link to another website such as a polling website so learners can anonymously share their opinion/vote.

Interact through a mock Twitter account

Tom Kulhmann from the Rapid elearning blog gives an awesome example of how Twitter could be used by setting up mock Twitter accounts with personas from the past. It’s an old blog post but has great ideas that are still relevant now.

Follow the thought leaders

Following thought leaders is an excellent way to learn from the best. It’s primarily what I use Twitter for.

You can set up opportunities in your learning content that encourage your participants to seek and follow thought leaders in their field. This may include inviting the learners to follow a subject matter expert or lecturer of a course. It could include giving learners a list of thought leaders in the area of learning/content they are interested in or even some common hashtags that are used in their field on Twitter.

Follow-up questions after class (face-to-face or virtual class)

As well as using Twitter to motivate learners at the beginning of a topic or getting them to explore and interact with content, why not use Twitter to help reflective learning as well? Pose questions and ask for sharing after they have attended class – keep what they’ve learnt fresh in their minds. If they attended a training event you could even ask them to commit what first action they’re going to put in to place when they’re back on the job.

A school teacher told me that she regularly used Twitter to get her students to share something new they learned that day – what a great way to get students to reflect on their learning!

These are only the tip of the iceberg for the types of activities that can be done in Twitter. I’d love to hear your ideas for other types of learning activities in Twitter.

If you enjoyed this post please follow me or share it forward.

Monthly inspiration – 3 quick tips

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As this has been a very busy month,  I’ve had to get my inspiration quick and on-the-go. What are some ways you get inspiration and improve your practice on-the-fly when life gets hectic? Here are some techniques that work for me:

1. Seek inspiration anywhere and everywhere

The other day I was at the museum with my 2 year old daughter. While sitting down she handed me a book – How to be an explorer of the world. It had some different and interesting perspectives. Although the book was targeted to the parallels between art and science, I could see a lot of parallels with instructional design and my own learning.

Here’s a page I found particularly intriguing:

page 1

Inspiration can be found everywhere.

2. Choose a focus and examine that focus everywhere

Inspiration and learning doesn’t only come during work hours or in the work place it can be anytime and anywhere. Inspiration can be grabbed while on the run.

I find it useful to have a specific focus. For example, if I wanted to improve my choice and use of fonts in elearning design, I would study fonts everywhere I go. I would look at places surrounding me and how fonts are used on websites, signs, marketing posters, products, tv adverts and elsewhere. What techniques are being used to gain attention, create emotion, and draw the audience into reading the text?

This technique could be used for focusing on other areas of elearning design e.g. storytelling, developing personality in characters, use of colour, creating realistic environments, just to name a few.

3. Be deliberately unfocused

This is the opposite technique as the previous one. This is where you would choose to be deliberately unfocused and instead let inspiration find you when your brain is resting. These are the moments of clarity that we have when we’re relaxed and our brain has switched off. Have you ever solved a problem while you’ve been sleeping?

Below are some instructions from How to be an explorer of the world to help achieve an unfocused state, why not give it a try?


book 3

What are some ways that you grab quick inspiration? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Follow me to hear more of mine.

Wrapping up your elearning

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Imagine a dear friend buying you a beautiful thoughtful gift but running out of time to wrap it and just handing it over in an old plastic grocery shopping bag. What a difference it would have made taking the time to wrap it nicely. The same goes for an elearning course – just a small amount of time and effort in thoughtful presentation and implementation makes a large difference.

Wrapped gift

Have you paid attention to how you’re going to present your course, or is it a last minute rush to just get it up and ready to go? Here are some things to consider before the delivery deadline that will make a difference to how your elearning course is received.

Communication and marketing plan

I’ve heard of wonderful asynchronous courses being developed only to find out six months down the track that hardly anyone has completed them. Often this is simply because no-one knows the course is there – a small oversight with a large impact. If you’re going to spend effort in designing and developing a course, it makes sense to spend some effort in making sure that people know it exists. Ask – how will potential participants know that a particular course is available and ready to access?

Utilise already existing communication channels in your organisation. Let potential participants know the course is available through the company intranet, bulk emails, messaging through managers or other methods relevant to your organisation. Also by using several communication channels you’re more likely to reach as many of your target audience as possible.

Everyone in your target audience should know about the course and where to access it.

Also consider how you’re going to market the course. How will you build curiosity, anticipation and motivation. How are you going to pull people in to complete the course?

Reduce barriers to accessing the course

Make the course as easy to access as possible. Reduce the amount of steps, reading, clicks, and logins required to access the course. No-one has the time or inclination these days to spend their time searching for a course, it needs to be easy to find and access.

I recently looked at a well designed course in Articultate Storyline. Unfortunately before entering this course, the LMS page provided screeds of unnecessary text and reading describing the course. I was literally bored and had turned off before even entering the course. There is no need to describe a course indepth before accessing it. Only give the minimum information necessary before the course. Your audience does not need to know all the learning objectives of the course (snore) – just how the course is relevant to them.

In summary the elearning design does not finish as soon as course design is finished. Consideration also need to be given for how the course is communicated, marketed and accessed. Remember to fully wrap up your course – it’s worth that little bit of extra effort.

To save effort and time you may also find these posts useful:

Learning objectives how to use them

Secondhand shopping for elearning

How to bake an elearning course

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Pouring Cake Mixture Into Baking Tin

It occurred to me that instructional design of an elearning course has similarities to baking a cake. What parallels can you think of? What elearning skills are required to go from home baker to professional pastry chef?

Bake for your audience

First understand who you are baking for so you can choose a recipe to suit – no point on baking a nut cake for a person with a nut allergy.

Alternatively no point using lots of high definition video for a company that has little bandwidth or creating a course full of audio when your audience’s computers have no speakers. Choose tools, techniques, and an appropriate tone to match your target audience.

Keep the occasion in mind

Why are you baking a cake, is it for a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding, or something else? The purpose will inform what sort of cake you will make and how it is presented.

a chihuahua blowing out candles on a piece of cake

In elearning the why is also important. Why is an elearning course being developed? What’s the strategic purpose and the performance goal? You’ll need to know this before exploring possible solutions.

The ingredients

What and how much ingredients are needed to successfully bake your cake?

This is where we set the specific learning objectives. What are the behaviours that are required for success and how important are each of these?  Cathy Moore’s action mapping is an excellent method for sourcing both your performance goal and your learning objectives.

Content of the recipe

The baking instructions are always in order, with the equipment needed.

With an elearning course, you also need to logically chunk and sequence the content so it flows in a coherent manner. What equipment is needed to support making the content i.e. rapid elearning tools, multimedia software and equipment, project documentation.

Final checks before baking

Review the recipe. Do you have everything you need?

woman cook reading recipes book, isolated on white

Check your proposed solution with your stakeholders and and adjust the solution to ensure there is agreement on what the end result will be.

Baking your cake

Put your cake in the oven, set timer, watch for quality. Use a skewer to test.

Begin developing your storyboards, prototypes and drafts. Watch project time frames, quality and budget. Put your elearning course through a review, testing, and sign-off process so you know when it’s fully completed.

Taste testing

Second and third opinions are invaluable.

Closeup of woman eating chocolate cupcake

Pilot your elearning course with a small group of your target audience. Does it work how it’s intended? Do any adjustments need to be made before sending a completed course out to the wider audience?

Eating the cake

Mmmmm…. my favourite part!

How do you know your course has hit the mark, what are you using to assess success?

This post by no means includes everything about baking a cake or making an elearning course. Unfortunately it’s not a ‘piece of cake’ otherwise everyone would be producing results like this:

Final Touch Ups On Ruffled Wedding Cake

Like anything, producing high quality elearning courses takes practice.

If you found this post interesting, click on the links below to read some related posts:

Why storytelling should be part of your elearning toolkit

Performing an elearning makeover

In the meantime, I might just have a piece of cake, mmmmm….