Personas are fictional characters that reliably represent a target demographic. Personas are commonly used when designing products and software to bring a tangible, detailed description of the typical user to the makers of those products. Designers use personas to understand product needs, the most likely uses of a product, how it should be tested to ensure user satisfaction. Thanks to personas, the user is present in all phases of the product’s design, and that presence helps shape design decisions. It is an undisputable source of information in case of opinion differences among designers; it’s the voice of the customer. It ensures the final product will provide the experience users are looking for. In learning, the increasing abundance of quality content will shift the attention from content to experience. Because good learning content will be available from many sources, learners will be more selective based not so much on content but on learning experience. This is where personas can help. But how to create personas for elearning? What are common features of a persona description? Are there examples available? Here are 5 tips and 5 persona examples. Personas are based on research. This research cannot be limited to market and demographic segments, because that type of information does not provide enough detail to build a persona. Although market information is useful and can help you find patterns and prioritize your research, you will most likely need to interview at least a few users, and then validate hypotheses from those interviews through quantitative methods such as surveys. Most likely this research work can be reused for more than one solution, so it’s time well invested. Personas contain just enough detail to avoid ambiguity. This means that in addition to obvious personal features such as gender and age, you will have to describe personal preferences - for example, in a marketing setting it could be that a persona is "more interested in quality than affordable prices". If you find yourself compromising on the description of a persona, it is probably a sign that you need to write two and choose which one is more important. If in doubt, refer back to research data. Personas don’t contain unnecessary detail. Personal details, preferences and motivations are there for just two purposes: convey meaningful research work that should influence design, and help designers develop user empathy. Anything else will simply distract the team. Persona documents are concise. We want to present credible characters to the team. But personas are just a design tool, and as such they have to be usable. A compact persona document of one, or at most two pages contains enough information for most purposes, it’s easy to print out and incorporate into charts, sketches and other design work. Personas have personal goals. Why do people learn? What is a successful outcome for them? As much as we’d like success to be measured as "completion of elearning course" (which is a task), this may not be exactly what people are looking for (which is the goal). Detailing personal goals will help design and measure the success of learning solutions. Sample personas Students and staff, University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/staff/websites/sample-personas Undergraduate students, NCSU Libraries http://learningspacetoolkit.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Personas-undergrad-061511.pdf Website users http://www.w3.org/WAI/redesign/personas US Department of Agriculture http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html Accessibility personas http://www.uiaccess.com/accessucd/personas_eg.html   The post Personas in elearning appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Tighter budgets and the pressure to "become more agile" are making L&D teams nimbler and pushing them to achieve great efficiency gains. But the process may also lead the team to inadvertently lose sight of the horizon, and that loss can easily cancel any cost benefits gained in this or the next quarter. How to bring balance? Here are five tips to long-term planning in an agile world.  1. Build a SME strategy  Sourcing external subject matter experts is expensive. Although external sourcing gets the job done and sourcing is as easy as cutting a new purchase order, you are probably feeling the pressure to cut costs. Define a strategy for transitioning from external to internal SMEs. You will never be able to source everything internally, and detailing what is likely to remain outside should be part of the plan. The business value of this transition plan may not always hinge on cost efficiency: the time "borrowed" from internal employees may be as costly, or more, than sourcing an external SME. The true value proposition is related to knowledge transfer. By having a reliable internal SME sourcing plan, you are demonstrating: Effective knowledge transfer That your learning department is actively managing that knowledge transfer The organization’s knowledge maturity, evidenced by reduced reliance on external sources  2. Choose tools and technologies for the long run  You just watched a demo of a new system that could host/author all your elearning. It brings innovative features, and although your department will have to make a few adjustments to make full use of those, it all looks great on paper. We should experiment with new technologies and bring the best out of them, but I have seen some of these solutions cause serious overhead to the learning department, and… yes, long-term cost commitments. Consider the following when evaluating new tools and technologies: Can it be hosted on your existing infrastructure? If not, what are the running costs? Upgrades: Who controls upgrades? What’s the upgrade cadence? What’s the cost? What happens to your existing content in an upgrade? Support: How quickly can you get help if things are not working as expected? Will support be an extra cost next year? What happens to support if you decide not to go ahead with that new upgrade? Exit strategy: When you decide to move to another solution (yes, it will happen) can you export your existing content and keep using it in another platform? What’s portable, what’s the cost of that portability, and what will be lost?  3. There is no "Delete" button, create one now Your team has adapted to the demand for faster, leaner production of learning solutions and job aids. You have embraced social corporate learning, and great material just keeps coming; your team has never been so prolific. Employees find what they want, satisfaction scores for L&D are up, reports look great. There is only one problem, and it may not be that obvious right now: there is no "Delete" button. Sooner or later, you are going to face the task of managing obsolete content and a web of cross-references. Make sure you plan for maintenance before maintenance becomes a problem. For each new learning solution, document expected shelf life, action needed by the end of its shelf life (update, discard, merge, etc.) and dependencies such as prerequisites, learning solutions known to point to this item, and learning solutions referenced within this item. Put that in database format so you can quickly search for an item and understand the implications of retiring or modifying it, and also pull reports about maintenance required one or two years from now. Handy during budget planning time. 4. Plan designs for the worst possible delivery scenario You have a group of employees based locally, where face to face delivery is not only practical but also the easiest option.  But your learning solutions must also reach out to mobile and geographically dispersed employees. Avoid the easy route of creating face to face designs and then hope that they will be somehow adapted to other scenarios. Start with the worst possible one - it is usually easier to repurpose solutions for the classroom than the other way around. You will also start with the one solution that works everywhere, even if you are out of budget or time to repurpose for classroom in the future. 5. Look outside and save It is sad to see the "not invented here" syndrome in action. But have a quick look around: we are surrounded by high quality content. Yes, it is external; no, it wasn’t created here, but it is still great content.  Of course there are learning solutions that for legal, compliance or competitive reasons will always be created in-house. But seriously, how many "Presentation Skills" courses can be put together, and how much of a competitive advantage can such a course be to any organization? Save budget, resources and accelerate solution delivery by leveraging great content that exists outside. Pay attention to the licensing and use accordingly; there is a vast amount of quality content released under Creative Commons with attribution as the only and very reasonable requirement. Where publication of derivative works is required, consider that possibility as a way to build your team’s reputation outside. The post Long-term L&D Planning appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Here’s a collection of things I’d rather avoid when delivering virtual training, either observed while attending sessions, or experienced through my own sessions and learned the hard way, turned into 5 webinar tips. Enabling the webcam After very interesting discussions with many L&D consultants and instructional designers, I concluded that having your webcam on during the entire webinar is a mistake. Your audience will get the impression that you are not paying attention to them, when in fact you are taking good care of them by keeping an eye on the 5 or 6 things you must constantly monitor during the webinar, even as you are talking. The effect is amplified by the use of multiple screens (see below) as you seem to be looking everywhere but to your audience. So switch the webcam off. A nice hi-res autofocus webcam. But use sparingly unless all you do is lecture Still, connecting with your audience is important, especially if they don’t know you already. If you need to enable your webcam, do so only during those time intervals you can dedicate exclusively to the camera. Intros, summaries, and answering questions are potential candidates for webcam interaction. Place the cursor on the webcam disable button and don’t move it from there, so you can click on it without even looking. For everything else, disable the camera so you can focus on the right things and your audience feels that focus. Providing only one input stream By default I’ll assume that in a 60-minute webinar, every participant will have about 6 to 8 distractions. I’m not talking about potentially justifiable distraction sources such as a phone call - it’s simply that the mind wanders. Perhaps a slightly pessimistic estimate, but in line with some studies on attention times while browsing the web. I believe you can’t prevent distraction. However, you can create additional input streams or "false distractions", inputs that may take the participant temporarily away from the main presentation but still keep them "on topic". How do you do this? Here´s a list of possible "on topic" distractions: Give handouts at the start of the session Bloomberg is an extreme case of multiple input streams. Too many for a learning environment. Allow chat (more on this later) Ask open questions that may require a web search Provide pointers to resources that complement the session. You can use URLs, but also things like QR codes that will ensure the participant’s phone is also "on topic" Using only one screen The amount of information and action you must oversee while running a virtual session cannot be managed comfortably with just one screen. I have only run one webinar with a single screen, and that was my first. All modern computers, including laptops, can handle a second screen. Some can have a third screen plugged in, and if I had that capability, I would use it too. Typically I have one screen fully dedicated to the virtual delivery software, and the second one holding my session script, my session notes, the chat windows and supporting software such as screen capture. My third screen, if I had one, would keep browsers and apps with all the documents I want to show, already pre-opened and ready to go. Lacking that third screen, these all go minimized until needed on my second screen. Not allowing chat I have learned the hard way that chat is a universal right and an integral component of virtual learning. My mistake wasn’t exactly not allowing chat, but restricting it to a few moderators because of other considerations (instructional, technical, topology) that I thought were more important at the time. They were not, and that became clear not during the session but when gathering feedback afterwards. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have changed the moderator setup, which was designed to allow face to face breakouts and some contingency in case the delivery system failed (Skype was my backup). But I would have allowed open participation in a parallel chatroom. There are a few good reasons for using local moderators; one of them is avoiding virtual breakrooms (see why) in favor of face to face ones. Thinking it’s over when the webinar is over Online delivery is a demanding task, and at the end of the session you may feel exhausted. But before calling it a day remember that learning is not time-bound - it’s an experience that doesn’t switch off like WebEx or Lync. You have a small time window at the end of the session where you still have a chance to reclaim your participants’ attention and keep them engaged with the material. Review attendance, then send that email (already drafted of course) out immediately, providing continuity to whatever learning program you are supporting. The 60-90 minute webinar you just completed is most likely a small part in a larger learning program, so ensure participants understand how it fits in the overall picture and what’s next for them. A webinar without follow up is a webinar quickly forgotten. Even if this is a self-contained program, you still need to get feedback while the webinar experience is fresh in their minds. More Webinar Tips? This covers some high-level operational aspects of running webinars. In a future post I’ll write about webinar tips for learner interaction. Any tips you would like to share?   The post 5 Virtual Training Mistakes - Webinar Tips appeared first on A Learning Blog.

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If you are here, it is quite likely that you have read the "Serious eLearning Manifesto". When I first saw a reference to it, I immediately left what I was doing, excited and determined to learn more. Then, disappointment. I can’t, I won’t sign the Manifesto. Here’s why. Blame is not the answer The Serious eLearning Manifesto devotes two paragraphs to blaming others. "Most elearning fails to live up to its promise"… "trends evoke a future of only negligible improvement".  Two paragraphs that, while short, constitute a whopping 33% of the manifesto. That’s right: out of six paragraphs, two are blaming the work of others. I am sure the four "Instigators", as they call themselves, are seasoned professionals. I am sure they have seen a lot more elearning than I have, including lots of poorly designed elearning. I have seen some of that too. However, I don’t claim to know the constraints and limitations that led to a particular piece of elearning. No matter how much I may know about the industry, I don’t know the specific circumstances that lead to bad examples of elearning. For anyone interested in learning, we live in truly exciting times. Technology is finally converging with learning in meaningful ways. We have only scratched the surface. Many L&D departments, even some belonging to hi-tech companies, are still suffering from a painful dichotomy that is simply a consequence of this early convergence: L&D staff are either non-tech or tech, learning professionals or elearning professionals, but rarely both. The divide is individual and sometimes organizational, perpetuated by L&D hiring strategies. This causes tensions, inefficiencies, and yes, probably bad elearning. I believe this is transitional, and the profession will evolve to embrace technology while standing on solid adult learning theory and practice. It is circumstantial. I do not believe that "bad elearning" is a trend, particularly one that "evokes a future of only negligible improvement". So I am not going to blame anyone for being in an L&D department in flux, trying to cope with the changes, let alone for their future work. It would be easy to fall for the "us vs. them" rhetoric and somehow distance myself from the pack by signing a manifesto that blames bad elearning on others. But I believe that won’t help the profession at this crucial junction. If there is one way we are going to drive substantial improvement in the field of elearning, it’s by sticking together. I won’t start that effort by proclaiming that there is a lot of bad elearning out there. Work together, learn together and win. Not exclusive to elearning Moving on to the Supporting Principles. I had a quick look at them and to my disappointment, there is nothing that I would not say of any type of learning experience. Assume for a moment that you haven’t seen the title, and read the Supporting Principles again, with "learning" (no leading "e") as the general concept in mind. Anything that doesn’t belong? Nothing? Well, yes, that is what I thought too: this is a set of generic learning principles, equally at home in the classroom, in the field, in elearning, in simulations and any other learning experience. Looks like a "learning manifesto" set of principles to me. Don’t get me wrong: there is goodness in every one of those principles. I just don’t see them confined to elearning. Are these common-sense principles being applied consistently to elearning? No. But the same goes for any other type of learning. Shall we go and blame them too, draft a "Serious Classroom Manifesto"? OK, I think you get my point. A value proposition I admire the elegance with which the Agile Manifesto was written. Although proposing a sharp U-turn in terms of how software projects are run, it does so in a gentle, inclusive, respectful way. "While we see the value in this, we value that more". But there’s more. The principles behind the Agile Manifesto stand the test of time. They do not hinge on circumstantial evidence that points to bad software development (although it’s out there). And by doing so, by sticking to values and not "trends", the agile manifesto will outlive many "future trends". Politeness, respect, values, timeless principles, no pointing fingers. Is there a learning manifesto written in these terms? I will sign that. The post Why I Won’t Sign the Serious eLearning Manifesto appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Opinions about locking navigation in elearning are riddled with assumptions. These assumptions are not always disclosed as part of the conversation. So when I hear yet another "best" course of action regarding lock navigation, it usually feels like a cacophony: while most opinions are certainly sound (pun intended), we haven’t really agreed on the score. to lock or not to lock… But untangle the web of assumptions, and you will find good arguments on both sides. Here are some of the assumptions I like to tackle before answering the lock navigation debate: What we mean by "elearning" The nature of the problem elearning is trying to solve What "locking" means The scope of locking elearning is many things One learner and one machine. This may be your understanding of "elearning". Mine isn’t, I tend to think about a more integrated experience where learners have access to an environment where they can interact with each other. Call it social learning. An opportunity to involve management, SMEs, and others we would not think of as "learners", but who contribute to the learning experience. "Lock" in this environment could mean not allowing to post, for example. Or not being able to connect with certain contacts. Would you consider other forms of locking? Would your answer change if this was your understanding of elearning? What problem are we trying to solve? For companies in regulated industries, there is a need to document when employees learned, or at least had an opportunity to learn about certain policies or procedures. Every click on "Next" becomes a signature, and we need to collect and retain that proof. In other environments, we don’t need employees nor employers to prove anything. We are just providing opportunities to learn. Why lock anything then? Keep reading, I think there is a strong argument for certain types of locking even in this context. What "lock navigation" means Does it mean I cannot progress through the learning experience unless I follow a certain sequence? Or is it related to my ability to successfully complete assessments? And does it mean the sequence is forced every time, or just the first time I go through the learning experience? I often find that in discussions about locking, opinions are heavily influenced by the capability of the software that is being used to implement the learning experience, as opposed to the requirements of that learning experience. We should be able to think beyond the confines of those annoying functionality hurdles. Hacking, experimenting, engaging with the LMS authors. Don’t let the software win. Or define what "locking" means. The scope of locking Another common assumption is that when we talk about "locking", we mean "page-level locking". But what about module-level locking, assignment completion locking, prerequisite locking, timed locking? In the pharma industry, there are very good reasons why you would lock one learning experience unless another has been completed. In a complex web of SOPs, sequence locking brings structure and order. One of the most seasoned online educators, The Open University UK, uses timed block locking. This means that learners gain access to chunks of a course one or two weeks at a time. One of the reasons for doing this is so that learners turn their assignments at about the same time. But a more important reason is that social chatter is in synch across learners. Because they are all hovering within a reasonably ample selection, the principles of self-directed learning are not breached, but the larger group still stays within topic and can have a coherent chat about it. Can you see this type of locking being used for say onboarding employees together across geographies? So would I lock navigation? There are very good reasons for using various types of locks, and sometimes for no locks at all. It all depends on context, assumptions and goals. The post On the "lock navigation" debate appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Learning designers who only start thinking about the translation of an elearning solution when the original language has been released face unnecessary additional costs and, potentially, a lengthy list of minor corrections that will lead to an inconsistent, expensive, hard to maintain solution. Here are some recommendations for designers who want to minimize cost and hassle when creating elearning that will be translated into other languages: Would learning goals change? Subjects usually covered by elearning modules such as compliance are likely to change slightly or a lot depending on the country or region. Do all the goals still hold in all the geographies and legal contexts where the solution will be deployed? If not, bring these back to the design board and look at ways to integrate them seamlessly at all stages, from course catalog filtering to navigation to assessment. Are your elearning platform and design truly global? Typical platform limitations that may Writing text from right to left changes the layout of menus, navigation and other interface elements give you a headache, or even prevent you from offering a solution in a specific language are the inability to display right-to-left text, navigation bars and menus (languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are right-to-left), the inability to handle multiple character sets in a single module, and lack of flexibility in handling formats such as time, date and currency according to the rules of the target language. Typical design limitations include the inability to allow for longer terms and sentences (for example, by stretching button sizes or text boxes) and assumptions with a language component -such as puns, grammar construction and metaphors- that are embedded into visual interfaces or activities. Have you included personas that fit the target language? Personas describe your audience Personas describe your learners in rich detail in rich detail, and this description informs the design process. An elearning design that does not include personas in all target languages may not be a complete solution, as you may be overseeing important factors. You can learn more about personas in this post. Is the content culturally acceptable? Gestures, flags, pictures, maps, colors, popular sayings and many other things we believe to be harmless can be highly offensive in other cultures. Don’t forget those day-to-day objects that people usually remember by brand, such as Sharpies and Post-Its, and measurement expectations, such as inches and centimeters, gallons and liters, etc. Are you creating text-dependent videos? If you are shooting real-life scenes that rely heavily on the text that appears on screen, have a clear description of what has to be filmed again in a target language and be aware of the cost. For software, even though capture solutions such as Camtasia make it very easy to translate and rebuild the video in very little time, consider what is being captured too. For example, if translating into French, will you need a French version of the operating system and application you are capturing? Text can also be your friend: subtitling is an acceptable alternative to fully translated video, although in some countries you will find that regulations call for a full translation. Have you estimated and included translation cost and effort into the overall project plan? Video translations with native actors, voiceovers, text translation, system builds and applications in native languages… have a complete inventory and explore options beyond giving everything to the same provider - sometimes you can get text translated by a vendor that specializes in the terminology of your field, while another one can get better quality media translations. Rather than thinking about "translating elearning", it’s best to "design elearning for translation". You will save time on the long run as your designs remain stable while your company grows to reach new countries and audiences. For more tips, go to elearningindustry, yourlearningworld and learndash. The post Translating elearning into other languages: 6 tips appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Sooner or later, your L&D department will receive a request to create a training solution that you know is not necessary. You know it won’t address the root cause of the performance problem, and you would be adding an unnecessary training item to your catalog. So how do you say "no" to unnecessary training in a way that doesn’t hurt your relationship with the business? Can you say "no" and at the same time initiate a productive conversation that points to the source of the problem? There are many approaches to achieve that, but in this post I am going to share a small downloadable template that has worked quite well for me in some contexts. Borrowing a page from Human Performance Technology principles, it explores in a systematic way the factors that may be affecting performance. 30 Minutes But wait… Human Performance Technology… that sounds like a long consulting process, right? Well, no. I learned my lesson and know that many teams are too fast and nimble for a more conventional consulting process. I have always completed this template with the business leader that requested the new training in about 30 minutes, and in most cases it was an eye opener for them, both in terms of offering a solid, well justified "No" and in pointing to the right areas to tackle performance. There is just one rule for filling out the template: all the data must be provided by the business owners. Your role is to facilitate and clarify the use of the template, not to contribute data. In practice, I always keep control of the file by projecting it on a large screen and typing all the information. Business leaders can then focus on reflecting so they provide an accurate account of the system they are trying to improve. How does it work? The template guides you through a review of environmental and individual factors that affect performance. The goal is to mentally review each of the areas and assign a score. It doesn’t have to be very accurate. In fact, if you have more than one business owner at the table, expect some disagreement. In those cases, do not try to drive consensus; instead, simply enter the average. Remember, you are trying to complete this in around 30 minutes so you can use the remaining 30 to discuss what (if not training) can be done to address the problem. The template has questions grouped under six areas, taken from Performance Improvement literature, derived from original work by Gilbert (2013): Information Resources Incentives Knowledge/Skills Capacity Motives You will find three questions under each of these areas. Feel free to customize them according to your context. They should represent a substantial portion of one of the six high-level areas above and be potential causes of poor performance in your context. Briefly explain that you are asking your business owner contact to provide their perception on each of these areas and questions in a 9-point scale. When answering each question, they should keep in mind the problem or opportunity that they believe justifies new training. Don’t let them dwell on any question for too long. Average out, compromise, put a dot on the scale and move on. By the end of the exercise, you will have scores calculated for the 6 areas, and those requiring more attention highlighted in red and orange. Is Knowledge/Skills one of them? If not, training is most likely not part of the solution, and you have one or more areas highlighted in red. Use the remaining 30 minutes to talk about them. And yes, perhaps training is part of the solution. If so, make sure you develop a learning solution that ties in with everything else, particularly what also appeared in red or orange. Use carefully Finally, this is not a template I would use on every occasion. But when I am going to meet number-driven, time-poor business owners who are looking for a quick performance analysis and are genuinely open to suggestions to tackle a known, well-defined problem, this approach has worked well for me. The template has been pre-populated with a fictitious example where I have been asked to provide training to employees who are not completing incident reports on time, and the reports are not descriptive enough to address the incident. The business owner wants me to develop application training so employees use the report filing software efficiently, and also a writing skills workshop. Thanks to this template, we conclude that the team will need to be more explicit about why filing correct reports on time is important to the business, and will need to tweak the incentives that support this activity. No new training is developed. Download the template Practical use notes: This is an Excel 2013 file that uses conditional formatting. I use a bullet to place my score, but any symbol or letter will do; just make sure all other cells are empty so they are not computed. Also, if you modify the template by adding more questions, keep in mind that the formulas may require some editing. Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance (2013) T. F. Gilbert, PFeiffer The post How to say "no" to unnecessary training appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Good learning objectives capture the essence of a learning solution. From the results of a gap analysis to how the solution will be measured, they are a snapshot of what the ADDIE cycle will look like. They have multiple audiences: business owners, designers and learners must all find the right answers in every learning objective. In addition to Bloom’s cognitive domain map and some sample verbs, I’m adding two important checkpoints as part of the writing learning objectives process. First, ensure that it is clear "what" will be learned. I often find that a great deal of content is in fact reference or a job aid, but not necessarily something that must be learned. It is also important to state "why" learning it is relevant to the learners and to the business. The second checkpoint ensures that we will be able to measure results by describing specific, observable and measurable goals. Being specific means carefully avoiding verbs such as "consider", "be familiar" or "see". They are ambiguous and hard if not impossible to assess. Should every learning objective follow these rules? I tend to break the rule on occasion, leaving space for humor, participation and learners who want to go beyond the scope of the solution. Still, I keep this handy reference present whenever I’m writing learning objectives. The post Writing Learning Objectives appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Dear Jane, I am going to be blunt: No, we don’t need a storytelling workshop. No, I don’t think we need to review our solution portfolio to include storytelling. It’s not that I don’t believe in storytelling. I get it. But frankly, I think we are all well beyond the basics of writing a story. In fact, I believe we are accomplished storytellers. But we are not that good at reminding ourselves of the things we do well. Or perhaps the hype that surrounds some topics drags us into self-doubt. In hindsight, making so much fuss about that Forbes article a couple of years back was a mistake - it turned us blind to our own storytelling abilities. So it’s almost insulting, yet vital that I remind you of your own portfolio. No, not the work you do today: I’m talking about the elearning work you were doing back in 2012, before you read that article. Here’s what you will find: Case studies Remember those compliance courses where you used case studies with narrative? Rather than explaining how to be compliant, you showed actual cases of good and bad compliance behaviors and results. Then, you let learners explore what makes them compliant. That, Jane, is storytelling. Yes, that was back in 2012. Personal accounts In solutions ranging from onboarding to change management I see good elearning examples where you used senior and executive videos capturing values, humbling and inspiring experiences. Candid stories told in the first person. That was pre-2012 storytelling too. Vicarious learning Although some people may not see it that way, I believe that learning by watching others learn is also telling a story. Their mistakes, their wins, all captured in a reality show of sorts where personal experiences as they discover new skills become the narrative. More stories, your stories. Past events One of your favorites: in your brainstorming and idea generation workshop, you explain how 3M’s Post-It notes were invented. You use a story, the story of Arthur Fry. Dramatizations So turning to your Health and Safety portfolio, how could you forget the hassle of finding "actors" for the manufacturing plant accidents, or even better, getting permission to cause the "accidents" in front of a camera? To us, those videos were artefacts in an accident prevention strategy. For the learners… they were stories. All these stories are the result of planting the right foundations: using personas and scenarios. Personas help us connect with learners as we work through the elearning design, and they make storytelling much easier, authentic. I hope it makes sense now when I say you don’t need a storytelling workshop. In fact, you are in a position to deliver one. After all you, Jane, are an accomplished elearning storyteller. So please, please stop reading posts about storytelling. You should be writing one. Thanks Jane. See you on Monday Antonio The post You, the elearning storyteller appeared first on A Learning Blog.