Investing in the professional development of your employees is not a small ticket item, nor should it be. It’s too important. Spending some cash to show your employees you want to help them become better at their job is something you’ll find in profiles of companies included on "best places to work" lists. Despite its importance, trainers find it difficult to quantify the impact of a training program. Managers know they need to provide training, so they do it, but it’s often done in a way that’s not ensuring they (and their employees) are getting out of it what they’re putting into it. At Expand, we’re changing that. Big Data is changing how decisions are made in fields like marketing, so why can’t we use it to inform learning strategies? eLearning Makes Training Effectiveness Measurable Training that takes place in a classroom has some measurement challenges. It can be nearly impossible to know how many people quit paying attention and at what point during the training. Sure, you might be able to quiz the audience to assess what they absorbed, but it’s not an indicator of engagement. Some people are good test takers. Furthermore, it doesn’t take real life application into account. Did the learning drive behavioral change? How do you know? Converting classroom training to digital and mobile platforms creates myriad possibilities for measurement and reporting, empowering managers and training teams to make data-driven decisions that make learning better and produce better results. We’ve built a reporting framework for clients to measure learning performance. Here is what we monitor: Roll-up data: Aggregate and study data above the individual level, i.e. by department, retail store, division, business unit - however you group your employees. Look for commonalities and disparities between groups, then investigate why they exist. Training Completions: What percentage of your users have completed the learning? You can use this information to send reminders to those not completing learning as they should. It also sends a message about the subject matter of your training or how it’s presented. If completion rates are particularly low, it’s possible your audience isn’t seeing the value of the learning. Training Abandonment: Monitor how many of your participants are completing some, most or all of your training. If there’s a large drop-off at a certain point, there’s a problem with the content. It may be boring, too long, or, again, the audience isn’t seeing the value. Feedback on Course: Ask students if the learning was good, bad or otherwise. You can scatter these questions throughout the program or module so responses are collected as the audience is engaged, rather than after-the-fact. Behavioral Change: Survey students about your initial objective. If the initial objective was to train students on a 5-step safety inspection process, ask about their degree of familiarity with the topic. In this example, we see that before the training, 131 participants were not aware of—or fully understood—the 5-step safety inspection process. After training, however, that number decreased to just 30 participants. Ready to start collecting actionable data about your organization’s learning program? We can get you started. Let’s talk! photo credit: Jef Harris

Man oh man! Life has been busy, with lots of unexpected surprises (e.g. no internet connection for four days…IN TWENTY-FOURTEEN - COME ON!), so I’m a bit late to the TT punch. However, I’ve been reading How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens by Benedict Carey (of which I had much time to read this past weekend), and there was a concept I found incredibly interesting: Spaced (or distributed) Learning. I think what I found most interesting was the research that went into the findings related to spaced learning - it would have taken some dedication, that’s for sure! And while it certainly seems like an effective method for learning, it still baffles me and I’m not sure I could commit to such study practices on my own. What is Spaced Learning? Spaced learning is a learning method wherein an individual must learn a series of information (often quite dense in nature). In order to optimize learning and retention, spaced learning posits that one should space their study activities out, with distractions in between. For example, you have three sessions of study - one 10 minute session with a 3 hour gap in between, the next study session is 10 minutes with 1 day in between, and the final study session typically occurs in close proximity to the formal test (e.g. the night before). Spaced learning has been shown to enhance retention, allowing learners to score higher than their colleagues who are not implementing a spaced learning method for their studying. Essentially, spaced learning makes memories more memorable! Neat, eh? Resources Effects of Spaced versus Massed Training in Function Learning by M.A. McDaniel, C.L. Fadler, and H. Pashler Learning by Degrees by C. Lambert  Study Better: Space it out and Mix it up by N. Kornell Why Spaced Learning Works Better Than Cramming by M. Stenger

Ever wondered who this ragtag bunch of instructional designers, graphic designers and web developers really is? Well, wonder no more. Fresh from the cutting room floor (or our media guy's Mac) behold the lastest creation from Expand Productions. Expand Interactive : Who We Are Now that you've met our team, if you feel so moved, reach out! We'd love to meet you and chat about your eLearning needs.

This post was inspired by a recent discussion on the E-Learning Heroes Community and an article I read over at Freelancer Union. In the community, David asked whether individuals preferred being called freelancers or consultants. Most folks seemed to preferred being called consultants, and to be honest - so do I. While I don’t typically have a preference one way or the other, I think that consultant sounds a bit more professional and is full of fewer negative connotations (aka stereotypes) associated with the term ‘freelancer’. However, I do find that I am more often referred to as a Contractor…so I’m going to start my own home renovation business…I KID! It would be a very terrible business avenue for me to pursue; I’m not super handy. While I prefer being called a consultant or independent instructional designer, you can call me pretty much anything if you want to pay the price! I tend to associate my time as a ‘freelancer’ with grabbing anything and everything I could to make a bit of extra cash - some of these tasks were certainly not my finest moments, and some of them paid quite well. Whereas I associate my time as a ‘consultant’ as a more profitable and purposeful endeavour. What do you prefer to be called? Riding on the shirttails of that discussion, I happened upon the Freelancer Union article that discussed five common stereotypes about freelancers: Freelancers live a life of non-office-regulated luxury Freelancers live a life of grasping poverty, constantly anxious about their next job. Freelancers are flaky. ‘Freelancer’ is just a fancy word for ‘unemployed’. Full-time freelancers become weird loners. I’ve heard all of these stereotypes in my experience freelancing and ‘consulting’ (my grown up name for freelancing), and here are my responses to each: Sure. I get to wear whatever I want to work (when I’m not at my onsite gig), but I still have to motivate myself to do my work, and do all of the other things (e.g. bookkeeping) that would have been done by someone else if I worked in a traditional office. I’m split on this. I thought that when I quit my full-time job to consult full-time that I would struggle to pay my mortgage and put food in the mouths of my husband and pets; this did not happen. In fact, I did better, financially, in the first three months of working for myself than I ever would have staying where I was. Now I’m in a position where I can settle on 1-2 contracts at a time and be incredibly busy. The cash doesn’t flow regularly (I’m being paid this month for work I completed in July), but I saved a buffer and have never been late on a bill payment - take that, stereotype! You know…I’m kind of a flaky person in general. I’d like to think I’m a pretty intelligent and self-motivated person, but you know what? Sometimes I’m tired. Sometimes I get sick. Sometimes I mistakingly write down the wrong date/time for a meeting. But I assure you that in the end, the work gets done, and clients are generally pretty happy. Not to make excuses, but I am on an anti-anxiety medication that makes my memory a bit shoddy (but, it helps me not panic when work is slower - see #2). UNTRUE. Many of my best ‘freelance’ friends are busier and more successful than some of my 9-5 friends. So to #4, I say SHUT YO MOUTH! I’ve always kind of been a weird loner (or floater at best). In junior high I was voted weirdest…which I choose to accept as a term of endearment. I have a lot of friends and associates, but I’ve always preferred time to myself. That being said, I do think it’s important to extend yourself (socially) when you work predominantly from the confines of your home office. Why? Well - conversations with your cats, dogs, or walls can get very one-sided, and we always need a reality check. Luckily, there are tons of communities out there for people just like you, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding someone to connect with! What do you think about these stereotypes? Are some of them accurate?

First off, I know I’m a day late, but you know what - it was a holiday and I think that warrants taking a day for myself. Let’s be honest, I did a lot more sleeping than I typically do, and it was GLORIOUS! Secondly, I’ve been plugging the heck out of How we Learn by Benedict Carey, and no I haven’t finished it (because I was distracted with ploughing through Amy Poehler’s Yes Please - which was amazing - go purchase/read now!), and this week’s TT post is going to discuss some concepts he talks about in his book: Incubation and Percolation. Part of what I love about this book is how relatable it is, and I’ve been that person at the poker game lately who relays study tips to friends who are finding themselves in the ‘mature student’ role. I love learning, what can I say?! Incubation The concept of incubation is one which emphasizes the importance of distraction in learning - which is great to hear, because I distinctly remember marathoning Criminal Minds episodes during much of my graduate degree. Good to know I wasn’t wasting my potential! Incubation should be used when we encounter a problem that we simply cannot figure out; we should step away from the problem, and come back at a later time - refreshed and renewed. From an Instructional Design context, I do this before reviewing products for delivery. You’ve spent so much time with a product, that you need that time away in order to provide a solid review and pick up any little errors you may have made. For me, most of my good (and functional ideas) come to me as dreams - having trouble getting some Storyline triggers to behave properly? Nap on it, and surely some idea may come to you! Having an enrolment crisis in a post-secondary university? Hit the sheets, and maybe you’ll come up with an idea for a new certificate program. Maybe my books will write themselves this way….no? Carey (2014) explains that incubation is "subconscious. We’re not aware it’s happening." - This explains why my dreamt up ideas make so much more sense! Basically we should just be napping all the time - I kid. But really. We should. J/K. An important step with incubation is verification, for obvious reasons. For example, one of the ideas that came to me to resolve a trigger issue didn’t work. BUT, it helped me think a little different about how to approach the issue, and I was able to resolve the problem in less time after incubation than before. Percolation Percolation is the idea that you let the mind linger on a problem, in order to provide a more well-rounded response. For example, when it comes to paper writing, term papers (based on all of the readings throughout the term) are often more well-rounded than say 6 papers throughout the term on 6 different topics. This is because the individual has time to percolate on one subject, without distracting the mind with different concepts or topics. Each reading and assignment throughout the term is provided on the same topic, in different contexts, with different goals, and they contribute to the greater whole of the end-of-term paper. Within the percolation chapter, an interesting study was discussed which suggested that unfinished tasks linger in our memory longer than those that are finished. In considering the term paper example, this makes a lot of sense. Students likely perform better, churning out a well-rounded term paper, when they are able to percolate on the subject matter, in different contexts, throughout the course of the term versus changing topics each week. By changing topics, the student finishes each assignment, and may not carry forward the context of which that assignment was attempting to illustrate (e.g. the importance of an outline, or historical overview, literature reviews, formulation of own opinions, etc.). Very interesting, no? Resources How we Learn: The Surprising Truth about When, Where and Why it Happens - Benedict Carey

This week’s challenge was a fun one - there were so many great submissions, and tons of inspiration! The Concept This week, we were tasked with creating digital magazine samples built using Articulate products. We were provided with examples of several popular digital magazines, and asked to make a few considerations. The Method Originally, I was going to develop a cat magazine, and create some actual content…because I consider myself somewhat of a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in that field. However, time got the best of me, and I became inspired by some images I found on Unsplash, so I took a more nature-y approach. I even added some very therapeutic sounds on the cover page. I sourced several images I wanted to use, added them (with varying levels of transparency) across four pages (including the main page). Grouped three sets of objects and added some triggers on the main page, along with a titleset that recurs (in style) on each page. I tried to take a different approach to layout for each page, and made use of some motion path interactivity on the second page - how fun! The Result Overall, I was very happy with the result, and I think it can be a useable template for various situations; specifically if you’re creating some sort of outdoorsy magazine, which is why I’m going to share the source files with you! Click here to view the live demo. Click here to download the FREE Storyline 2 template.

  They say in order to get where you want to go, you have to know where you’ve been. That may be true. But before you can even take your first step, you have to actually know where it is you want to go. If you don’t know what conclusion you want at the end of a journey, how do you know whether the journey was a success? This has been a challenge the training industry is still trying to overcome. What’s the goal? What are the objectives of the training. And even more important, how do you measure them? It’s been hard to measure training effectiveness, which means that measuring against learning objectives tends to fall somewhat by the wayside. But if you do that, you’re just  doing training for the sake of training—because it’s "something we’re supposed to do." More Training is often the mantra when it’s not clear how to solve a problem, or when other known solutions seem too challenging or expensive. But it’s like throwing money at a problem:  it doesn’t always fix it. This Is Why eLearning Objectives Are So Important The good news is that eLearning’s very nature allows us to measure our efforts. Good measurement gives us the information we need to determine whether a training project is successful or not. But you have to know what’s important to measure. A strong and clear learning objective not only tells you whether training efforts were successful, it also guides the instructional designer and the learner, not only for this course, but for future learning efforts. It creates the feedback loop that allows training to improve over time. We emphatically recommend that clients have a very clear objective for every training project, and if it’s unclear, we’ll help sort it out. It’s absolutely essential for everyone to know and understand the objective and definition of success from the beginning of a training initiative. We can’t claim success - for us or our client - if we don’t know what is supposed to happen after completion. Now, not all definitions of a successful training are learning objectives.  Sometimes maybe you’re trying to impress  your boss, leave a legacy, make a splash. Whatever. But most training programs do have learning objectives. So let’s look at how to make them. Creating a Good Learning Objective Remember that objectives and goals are not the same thing, even though the words are often used interchangeably. Goals are broader in scope, while objectives are more specific, and often relate to a broader goal. Let's take a look at some simple examples of learning objectives."Upon completion of this training, you will be able to... ...add new sales prospects to the CRM." ...complete the steps of quarterly substation maintenance." ...operate the retail check-out system." ...create detailed reports using the data analysis tool." There are several you should note about these examples: Each objective starts with a verb, because we’re looking to change behavior. We want our learners to be able to do something overt after training is complete. Avoid objectives that focus on more obscure achievements like "better understand." Each objective refers to what the learners will do, not what the trainer or instructional designer will do. Each objective is clear, realistic and doable. Each objective is targeted toward the audience the training is targeting, so that they will feel it’s important information and worthy of their time. Organizational knowledge is simply too important and use too many resources to skip goals, objectives and measurement. Make the most of your investment and show your employees you value their efforts and want to help them become better at their jobs. Not sure where to start? Give us a call, we’re happy to help. photo credit: Andrew_D_Hurley  

As some of you may know, my husband and I have a beagle/german shepherd. He’s a rescue dog that we acquired from the city pound nearly two years ago, and as with many rescue dogs, he comes with a slew of isms. This is Oliver:   He is 41lbs of pure energy and excitement; there are very few moments when he is ‘powered down’, and he’s taught me quite a few things in my short while of being a consultant and entrepreneur. 1. Do NOT Schedule Client Calls for Wednesdays. This one was a no brainer; in our neighbourhood, the waste removal services come around each Wednesday. They alternate between garbage/recyclables and recyclables/compost every other week…and in the summer (just for fun), they do all forms of collection each and every week. This means that the enemy (garbage truck) goes up one side of our street, then down the other collecting garbage, then does the same for recyclables and compostables. Oliver absolutely hates the garbage truck and will valiantly protect his homestead by scaring them off with incessant barking. This does not bode well for client calls. 2. Apologize in Advance. Whenever I do begin a conference call, I begin by apologizing in advance. We’ve worked very hard to get Oliver’s barking down to a minimum and it’s an effort made in vain. He’s a beagle. He barks. So typically, I will let my client know that I have a dog, and apologize in advance in the event that his barking occurs. Initially I thought this would be an annoyance, but most of my clients have been understanding and even empathetic (most seem to have their own barkers). 3. Schedule yourself Accordingly I’ve been over-extended, and it can suck. Even if I’m passionate about the projects I’m working on, there’s only one of me, and I still have other household responsibilities. Come 4pm, I will be reminded (not so gently) that someone needs feeding and to play fetch or go for a walk. This can seem like a cumbersome task if I’ve over-extended my self. Basically, you don’t need a beagle to tell you this, you  just need a reality check and for someone (me - right here) to let you know that you have a lot of other things going on (that’s life), and even if those 5 projects all sound amazing, you’re not superhuman and something’s gotta give! 4. Know your Job and Keep your Eyes on the Prize. For Oliver, this is fetch. He knows as soon as we near the field behind our house, that I will unclip his leash and he will enter work mode, fetching the ball as many times as I’m willing to throw it. Sometimes his focus and determination can be a short-coming (he had a toe amputated this past year in a frisbee-related incident), but generally, he loves his job. For me, this is my business and clients; when it’s time, I always settle in and focus on the work to be done. Like Oliver, sometimes this can be a short-coming…see #3 - say for example, when I over-extend myself. But generally, I love my job. 5. Don’t be a Jerk. When Oliver is focused on his job, of fetching, his focus and determination and passion lead him to be a bit of a jerk. He doesn’t like sharing (his ball), and will quickly snap at someone who tries to take it. This has taught me (in addition to #3) that when feeling over-extended, share the wealth. Recommend other individuals with similar skill sets who may be available to take on new work and deliver a comparable product. Don’t snap at anyone who tries to eek in on your workload…most times it’s with the intention of helping.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it...so goes the adage. This is especially true when you’re surveying or quizzing learners to determine how much they’ve learned about the topic covered during training. Asking the right way is very important. We’ve all taken quizzes in which the questions pretty much answered themselves. You end up with the feeling that the information you just learned isn’t really all that important, it’s just some required bit of whatnot to make a training seem credible--- kind of like the garnish on your plate; it has no dietary value or flavor, it’s just there to make your plate look fancy. Asking a question the right way can force a learner to think about what they just saw. For instance, after watching a required eLearning video on how a manager should deal with sexual harassment issues between employees, a manager may learn that he or she must report all harassment complaints to the corporate office, by law. The quiz question on that topic can be asked two ways: "Are you required by federal law to report every incident of sexual harassment that is reported to you?" The answer is obvious. You don’t even need to see the training to know the answer to that one. Be more creative in the phrasing of the question: "As a manager, you want to be sensitive to the associates that report to you. Can you address a sexual harassment complaint on your own, to spare an associate from possible embarrassment?" The answer isn’t so obvious here, is it? In fact, you almost want to say "Sure you can. After all, you don’t want to embarrass anyone." But, if you paid attention and understood the training, you know you can’t. Quizzing Your Learners Is Important Because… It allows you to evaluate training retention. Were participants paying attention, or were they secretly on their phone and just clicking the "next" button? You can glean the effectiveness of the course based on how participants’ respond to the questions. If a significant percentage miss the same question, there’s an issue either with the question itself or part of the training content. It gives you some perspective of the individual learner, as well as entire groups, so you can look for trends in the rate of success or failure. It allows you another chance to reinforce the content and provide feedback. Quizzes are a learning mode. Here are some other things to think about when writing assessment questions:  Be sure it makes sense and is directly tied to the learning objectives. Have someone proofread for typos, incorrect grammar and other concerns. If the question is complicated, offer an example to add context. Quizzing is for evaluating how much a learner retained from training, as well as the effectiveness of the instructional design. If the questions lead to the answers, or aren’t making the learner think, they aren’t giving you a very accurate picture of success. Our training modules include quiz questions throughout the duration, in order to monitor engagement and retention as learners complete the training. Check out one of our work samples to see our approach, and if you have questions, give us a shout! photo credit: albertogp123

This past week, in the OLC Teaching Certificate program, I stumbled upon an individual who was using something called Actively Learn within the course they were developing. I’m always keen to check out new technologies, and I wasn’t let down by this one! Actively Learn allows you to create deeper engagement and instructor presence in an asynchronous environment by allowing you to provide markup within your readings and incorporate interactive quizzing. Once I watched the demo for this application, I knew I had to make a push to my faculty members to begin using it within their online courses. So far, I’ve demoed it to 2 people and recommended it to 3 people currently developing courses…and it’s only been three days! I see it being useful for courses that require a good amount of synthesis, as it can allow students to form more well-rounded understanding of the readings instead of just passively engaging with the materials. I also think that by combining questions (which the students must answer before moving on) allows the students to have a greater understanding of the materials as a whole, which may in turn lead to greater academic achievement. I recorded a quick demo (below), and it’s obvious that I’m still new to the technology myself, but I wanted to show both the teacher and student perspective. Check it out and see how you can make Actively Learn work for you!