Guest Author: David Miller Engagement is a concept in the e-learning industry that you should explore. Engagement refers to the way you’re going to interact with those who want to learn new things. You’ve got to see that all the engagement plans that you are going to utilise can work as demanded. Here are a few pointers that you can use today when finding the right e-learning standards. These should be utilised to make it a whole lot easier for you to attain your goals and to make it all work out right. 1.      Ensure that everything you say is up to date. If anything that you say is outdated then it will not be all that easy for you to keep anyone’s attention. It can be a huge distraction that suggests that you are behind the times and that you don’t really get whatever it is you want to talk about. Always check on your e-learning scripts to see that they are designed with the newest content in mind and that there’s nothing outdated in them. If you do come across something that doesn’t sound right then you might want to omit it or update it just to be sure. 2.      Write things that are relevant and sensible. Be willing to tell people things that you know are sensible and useful. Watch for how you talk about things like what people can expect out of the e-learning program or why the program is so important. Make sure you write things that you know are smart and helpful. 3.      Allow for a blended environment if possible. While it’s true that e-learning can be helpful in a variety of forms, you may also want to see that you are blending the e-learning environment with a face-to-face environment that is sensible and suitable for the demands that all have to follow. This is to establish a more holistic design that is not all that tough to manage. 4.      Keep all topics short and sensible. You should make sure you’ve got more than enough content to work with, but it never hurts to also have it written out in a form that is easy to recall and doesn’t waste anyone’s time. Don’t ever assume that you can keep topics long-winded. Make sure everything is concise and logical to the point where everything you write is logical and smart without taking more time to talk about than necessary. If you don’t have anything to say that is relevant then you should stop right there. You don’t want to spend loads of time talking about something. 5.      Write content that is unique and interesting. While it is important to write relevant stuff while working in a blended environment in order to engage the reader, it is even easier for you to engage the writer when you use content that is unique. That is, the content should be something that is not easily accessible in most spots. The content must also be gripping and enticing to where the reader’s attention will be easily kept. The important point with this step is to see that whatever you’ve got to say is something that could open the reader’s eyes. Try and bring attention to tips and pointers that are not explored by many others and explain why whatever you want to say is worthwhile. Don’t ever think that you should stick with the same ordinary staples of learning that everyone else likes to talk about. The participant’s ability to engage in an e-learning program can be influential to its success. You must watch for what you’re going to get out of your e-learning plans so you’ll create a program that is smart and worthwhile.   Author Bio: David Miller is an educational researcher who has several years of experience in the field of teaching, online testing and training. He is associated with prestigious universities and many leading educational research organizations. Currently, he is pursuing research in eLearning authoring software and is also a contributing author with ProProfs.

A New York Times article summarized an interesting research report on Evidence-based practices in Online Learning of the US Department of Education. The research took a longitudinal view spanning from 1996 to 2008 and investigated a sample of 99 comparative, quantitative studies of online versus classroom performance for the same courses. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. Believers in blended learning will be happy to see that the research found that this form produced the best results. Hence instruction combining online and face-to-face elements had a larger advantage relative to purely face-to-face instruction than did purely online instruction. Other interesting findings include: Variations in the way studies implemented online learning did not affect student outcomes significantly. The effectiveness of  online learning approaches appears broad across different content and learner types. Online learning can be enhanced by giving learners control of their interactions with media and prompting learner reflection. I would say that the instructional strategy used also plays an important role in the effectiveness of the education programs researched. The researchers admit this aspect by highlighting that in the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the classroom and online learning conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. The research also used some studies with rather small samples. Therefore it is hard to say if online learning really beats conventional education in the end. I think it still depends on the design and conditions, but some evidence for the effectiveness of blended approaches is found. 

In a quest to prepare a workshop on the use of social networking technology for business school alumni I stumbled across an interesting tool by Forrester called the Social Technology Profile Tool. This tool enables you to find out your social technology profile. It is one of the nice spin offs of Forrester research in this domain. For additional information you can view the presentation of the different stereotype profiles. Social Technographics Explained View more presentations from jbernoff.

Guest blog from Kay Buckby MITOL (Member of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning) One of the things that surprises me is how some organisations remain sceptical about the value of elearning. Elearning is not a consolation prize to traditional classroom training - it can be a highly effective and efficient way to learn, with distinct advantages to both the learner and the organisation. Here are 7 reasons to consider investing in elearning: 1. Learners can learn at their own speed. How often do learners confide that they are either bored because of the slowness of others or struggling to grasp a concept that other learners appear to understand? Well designed elearning means a learner can learn at their own pace, re-do sessions, ask questions to the forum and share knowledge with others. 2. If you have a remote team, learners can learn at a time to suit them. Most of us work in remote teams now - now there is no excuse to leave anyone out. Access to electronic files makes scheduling easy, eliminates geographic barriers and therefore knowledge and skills can be updated to suit business needs. 3. You will save money on training costs. When you consider the investment in face to face training, well designed elearning is the cost effective solution. 4. You can tailor to learner experience. Elearning can adapt for learner competence, experience and ability making the time spent learning stretching and not repetitive. 5. You will gain analytics to help you develop your people The metrics on traditional face to face learning and coaching are poorly measured in the main. Well designed elearning produces metrics that will enable you to assess talent, needs, gaps and additional needs. 6. You will be able to roll out initiatives more quickly Elearning can cope with large groups more effectively than face to face training. 7. Consistency of message Even with trainers notes, face to face delivery has a human element. I was part of a roll out of face to face trainers and one trainer "threw in a model" that she thought was useful to one group - bang goes consistency! Online courses from The Development Company: Minute Taking Skills: http://www.elearningmarketplace.co.uk/product/minute-taking-skills Running and Chairing Meetings: http://www.elearningmarketplace.co.uk/product/running-and-chairing-meetings Kay is a qualified trainer and coach. She works mainly with Managers and Leaders to enable them to be the best they can be. A firm believer that learning should be interactive and non linear, Kay storyboards the elearning developed by The Development Company using the same interactive nature she uses in face to face learning.

If you've worked for half as long as me I'm sure you would have already noticed the incredible importance Powerpoint seems to assume in our corporate lives. I'm also sure that you've received dozens of .PPT reports, agendas, project charters and documents in your working life. So much so, that it doesn't even seem wrong anymore! Let's take a step back -- what kind of a tool is Powerpoint again? A presentation tool. And why are we using a presentation tool to create awful documents? In today's post I want to address the practice of slideumentation, while keeping in mind people's motivation when creating such artifacts. A few clarifications:Have I ever created a slideument? YES many timesDo I work with people who create slideuments? YESAre people who create slideuments stupid? ABSOLUTELY NOT. On the contrary they're the most intelligent people you'll meetDoes ThoughtWorks have slideuments? YES, we're not perfect, are we?Does this blogpost represent a ThoughtWorks viewpoint? NO, these views are mine and mine alone!I hope that the FAQ ensures I don't lose any friends for writing this blogpost. With that said, lets proceed.Why Slideumentation is just wrong!A couple of days back I chanced upon this video. It's a fairly hilarious take on how to avoid slideumentation. Garrey Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame has said enough about why slideumentation is just bad, but let me give you my reasons of what I consider slideumentation and what I dislike about them."Slideuments are documents we create in a presentation tool. Slideuments are often created for a dual purpose -- to share over electronic media and to present in front of an audience. Often, we create slideuments only because it's apparently easier to create documents using slideware. In such cases, we don't even present the slideument. We only send it across over email or put it up on slideshare or discuss it at a table with our bosses."I'm not going to define slideuments further -- I'm sure you get the idea. But as you may have noticed from my definition, we end up creating slideuments for two reasons:We have slides that we need to present and also share with people who may miss the actual presentationWe wan't to quickly create a 'visually interesting' document using an easy to use interface.Don't worry, very very smart people create slideuments. Hillary Clinton's one of them. So let me first tell you why slideuments are a bad thing in my opinion:If your reason is #1 (above), then remember that if your slides can stand without you, your talk is kinda redundant. You might as well save people some time by sending them an email, writing a nice document (I'll come to this in a bit) or by putting up a blog post! Remember that your audience can read faster than you and if your slide says everything you needed to say, then you're not being much of a presenter, I'm afraid.If your reason is #2, then you have plenty more reasons not to slideument:Slideuments full of bullet points are documents most people will never read. Ask yourself -- how many such documents have you picked up and read from the first slide to the last?Slideumented reports hide complexity. To be very frank, bullet points are nothing but headings for more detailed information. Slideuments generally include only these headings. What about the details? It's complexity that's hidden somewhere at the back of your mind. By creating a slideumented report of your work over weeks and months, you've stopped all of that information from becoming explicit. What would have otherwise been a table of contents is now a many page report. Needless to say, this is a recipe for disaster.Slideuments encourage bad presentations. You might create the slideument only for a reading purpose, but someone is likely to use your slides and create 'Death by Powerpoint'!Slides generally operate at a much lower resolution than documents. Slideumentation creates extremely low quality documents that generally don't portray your professionalism.So, that's my case against slideuments. If you search for slideuments on Google, I'm pretty sure you'll see a lot more criticism.3 Parts to a PresentationSo, if we're agreed that slides are slides and that they shouldn't be able to stand without our narrative, then where does all the valuable information go? Garrey Reynolds says that you should consider three parts to your presentation:The Visuals: These don't have to be slides. You can do presentations in many different ways. If you do use slides however, they should contain simple visuals that explain the topic you're talking about at the time.Your Notes: Of course, you need to have some notes handy just in case you miss a point here and there. All slideware tools have a notes section built in, where you can enter your notes about the topic on hand.The Handout: This is where you can add additional detail. So if there's a complex chart add it in here. If you want people to refer your talk after it's over, then provide them a handout. Your handout should be able to live without you. Your slides should not.I cannot possibly tell you all there's to know about presentations, inside this blogpost. So I strongly recommend that if there's only one book you read about presentations, please read Presentation Zen and start to follow the Presentation Zen blog.Use a Word-processor for Documents, pleaseNow for the more difficult part - creating interesting documents. Now you'd think that this is a simple task, but apparently not. People seem to use Powerpoint as page-layout software more than a presentation tool. The pity is that the tool was never designed for the purpose and has some obvious failings when it comes to dealing with large amounts of text.So first things first -- you can create very interesting documents in just a few clicks using your good old word processor. Take a look at the documents in the image above. Those are templates from Microsoft Word! Now the next time you want to send a Powerpoint file as your 25 page report, think of how your favourite magazine would represent the same information. Then, select a template from your favourite word processor and start filling in the details. After a few rounds of working with templates you should be able to create your own stuff and lend your own brand to your documents. Here are a few tips on what kind of document you should create for some standard purposes.Type of DocumentSuggestionExamplesQuarterly/ Monthly/ Annual UpdatesTry a newsletterHere are are a couple of examples from Microsoft Word:Example 1Example 2ReportsTry Toyota style A3 Reports. Limited to an A3 size sheet, these reports are an example of simplicity in action. The thinking behind A3 reports is:"If you can't express it in one page, then it's perhaps not worth expressing." Obviously this means two things:You need to put in serious thought to simplify your report. I mean simple - not simplistic.If your report is simple and visible on a single page, then it'll perhaps be much easier to read for the people who eventually see it.Here's example template. Contact me for specific examples.AgendasIf you're sending out an Agenda for a meeting, perhaps a simple one page document will suffice, but if you're keen on trying something fancy, then try the events template from your word processor.Here's an example from Microsoft Word.Project Plans/ ChartersPlease, please, please don't pass around project plans in Powerpoint.Its tough to keep track of changes and at some point somebody will have an out of date document;There's always hidden complexity that you're bound to overlookInstead, try a project wiki. When you have to present reports, try the A3 format. When you have to make a presentation, make a presentation with simple visuals. When you need more detail, keep referring back to your project Wiki.There are quite a few wikis available on the big broad internet:Mediawiki is the wiki that powers the internetTWiki is a popular wiki that satisfies a number of enterprise use-casesWikispaces allows you to create a free wiki without the nightmare of hosting and maintainence.Confluence is my favourite wiki and is a full fledged enterprise knowledge sharing tool.Announcements/ EventsLast but not the least, if you're making announcements or creating a slideument to describe an event, please try a brochure. They're professional, easy to create and extremely good looking.Here's an example from Microsoft Word.As you might have guessed by now, I'm a sucker for good presentations and I just can't stand the misuse of good presentation tools! I hope my post today was helpful to you in some way. Please let me know what you think, by adding your thoughts to the comments section of this post. I understand this is a controversial topic, and I'm perhaps sticking my neck out for trouble, but I just can't help expressing myself on this topic.© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

Business Week published a nice article on how the Indian Tata Group builds a culture of innovation. The word ‘culture’ may suggest that innovation is hard to grasp. Not true in the Tata case. They have implemented very practical formal instruments to foster innovation in the organization. These instruments range from the Tata Group Innovation Forum, an Innovation Competition and Innovation Labs to 5 hours per week for personal projects. The good thing of this example is that it showns that your can build innovation into the DNA of an organization, even with the size of Tata. In my opinion it is about a combination of formal instruments and consistent internal communication. Tata shows that this can be the winning formula!

The world of e-learning development is moving at a fast pace, with gamification taking centre stage and its predicted use moving us beyond learning into solutions tools, using wearable technology for learning, something I’ve written about in the past but is hitting the headlines again, and Artificial Intelligence systems being used to provide a framework for personalised learning. However, there is still a large proportion of organisations and individuals that have still not engaged with any form of e-learning. Is this because of a lack of awareness of the benefits of e-learning, reluctance to move away from traditional delivery methods, or perhaps a lack of confidence to embrace technology for learning and development? Frequently we hear that "e-learning doesn’t work in my industry" or "e-learning is a poor substitute for face to face training", but when questioned these statements often come from those who don’t like the idea of it, haven’t actually tried it or have had a bad experience of some form of e-learning. There are without doubt poor examples of e-learning, just as there are poor examples of traditional training, however the advantage of e-learning is that an organisation can ‘try before they buy’, something not readily available with face to face workshops or courses. How often can a learning and development manager trial a selection of face to face courses to find out which best meets their needs, have bespoke changes to a course to cover their own specific learning objectives and have it available 24/7 to all staff? Of course they can’t, but e-learning offers this and more. So what’s the problem? I think that many of the barriers to the adoption of e-learning revolve around the fear of losing those aspects of face to face training that work well, trainers believing that their position is threatened, moving trainers out of their comfort zone and of taking a foreseeable risk in adopting something new. No-one can blame anyone for thinking that these fears are real, but actually they stem from a lack of awareness and understanding of implementing e-learning, or a lack of training and support to implement it effectively. Adopting e-learning as part or whole of a learning and development strategy does not mean staff undertaking training in isolation, or trainers being made redundant. On the contrary e-learning works best when it is combined with practical activities that enable the learner to practice the knowledge and skills learnt through e-learning in a supportive environment to develop competency. The most widely used online learning is for compliance training; induction, updates to legislation and regulations, and sector specific requirements. This training can be covered in a far more engaging and effective way than using traditional methods. Many years ago I trained IT practitioner apprentices, and the health and safety unit was the one training day that however varied and active I tried to make it, it was a challenge to keep the apprentices engaged. With e-learning I could deliver the same content in a fraction of the time and make the content engaging and interactive, with instant feedback on activities that motivated the apprentices to progress. Although a complete advocate of e-learning I am the first to say that e-learning alone is not always the most effective method for all training requirements. However, I would say that a blended approach; a combination of face to face and e-learning, can rarely be improved upon whatever the industry. Not just from the perspective of effectively developing knowledge and skills, but improved knowledge to competency. Much of which is down to the learner being able to revisit the training as often as they like to reinforce learning, and being able to learn socially online from others, a very effective and empowering form of learning. But for trainers, teachers and learning and development professionals the move to delivering an effective blended model of learning and assessment is not something that they can always take in their stride. Planning the model, sourcing or building online learning content and supporting the learning are new skills for many; it’s rather like ICT teachers who teach office applications being asked to teach programming. Whether live webinar training, developing learners online peer collaboration skills, developing online social learning, and delivering assessment and feedback online, professional development and support are required, and planning is key. Without doubt the easiest, most cost effective and often the most effective training method to fulfil a training requirement, particularly in the workplace, is wholly delivered e-learning of some form. But we shouldn’t overlook the fact that for many the transition to implementing e-learning is not always as straight forwards as it is for others. Author: Carolyn Lewis, Managing Director of Elearning Marketplace and Learning Technology Consultant working on many government funded commissions, and supporting private and public organisations.

First things first. I could really get into trouble with my wife if she reads this post. Let me explain. I was having a conversation with one of my friends about elearning and the associated costs and I almost laid a wager to say that you could produce quality elearning in a relatively short time on a pretty low budget. Now this is something all of us (at least in internal teams) have had to go through haven't we? Someone comes to us with an urgent request for creating elearning and gives us all of $100.00 to work with! I've felt like 'old mother hubbard's bare cupboard' in such instances.So, let's come back to my wife. I decided to take on the challenge and give myself 10 hours on a Saturday and a budget of $0.0 to build an elearning module. Obviously it's a bit of stretch to call my work top-class, but given the time-constraint I placed on myself, I'm happy to have a first-cut which I guess I can easily show to an internal client if necessary. Now if my wife was to know that I was doing elearning work in all the (long) breaks that I took yesterday, from helping her around in the house, from watching movies and from following the India-South Africa cricket match; she is going to be livid. So, you and I have a secret to keep. If we're agreed on that, then let's start breaking down what I did and how you can do some similar things.Course SpecificationsSharing Effective Feedback by Sumeet Madhukar Moghe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.Based on a work at www.learninggeneralist.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.learninggeneralist.com.I decided to build a course on Effective Feedback because this is something I continue to need at work and is in line not just with some conference submissions I've been making, but also with a webinar I'm doing in April (more on this later). I don't consider myself to be a subject matter expert, but I guess it's a topic I'm fairly passionate about, so I played the role of the SME as well. A few more details:Course Duration: Approximately 25-30 minutesTools Used: Articulate Studio '09Course Location: You can access the course here and you can download the zipped, offline version here.Development Time: 10 hoursHow I Aggregated ContentFeedbackView more presentations from sumeet.moghe.Given my time constraint, I decided that I was going to have to trim down my research in a big way. So I decided to repurpose some of the content I'd used in the past, to deliver face-to-face presentations and workshops. One of them is what you see above and the other is here. I also used a lot of Patrick Kua's writings, since I found his blogposts to be a very astute assessment of the skills behind effective feedback. That gave me a fair amount of existing content to repurpose and helped me move forward very quickly.How I Designed the CourseI decided that I was going to keep my course navigation mostly linear. I also decided I wasn't going to do anything hugely fancy with the course. I took the approach of sketching out a few mockups (like the one above) using Balsamiq, to give me an idea of where I wanted to go with the course. I also did a few quick sketches on paper to draw out the flow of topics in the course. I must say, I could do some more work on the design and language, but I'm postponing that to another iteration. The key for me was that I didn't want to detail out every screen. The fact that I was using a rapid tool meant that if I had the general flow and navigation thought through, I could move through the development in a fairly quick, iterative fashion.How I obtained Media AssetsMedia assets for your course are always likely to put a drain on your budget and I had none! I decided to go cheap and use free media assets. Here's what I did.I did almost all of my graphics editing using Powerpoint. The only other tool I used, was the free application - Poladroid. It's quite easy to create vintage style polaroids using the tool, and it gave me an opportunity to have some fun along the way!I used the Design Comics toolkit for all the characters in the course. They come in various poses and are open-source, so you can choose to edit the SVGs if you choose.The other images are royalty free pictures from my favourite free-photo resources -- stock xchng and I also used some of my favourite Microsoft illustrations.Lastly, I used a snippets of a video from the Carnegie Mellon University free podcasts. It's that of my favourite speech ever -- Randy Pausch's last lecture. Lastly, I got my Artculate player skin free of cost from Kineo, for filling out a survey to support some of their research.Myths about Rapid ElearningSo, with all that in place, I was able to put together this elearning module on feedback, which you're free to download and use for non-commercial purposes. My aim with this experiment was to bust some of the myths associated with rapid elearning in particular. I'm not going to say much more than what's on the link, but I do want to reiterate that Rapid elearning doesn't have to be CRapid elearning. Rapid elearning doesn't mean that the speed will kill your quality.It means that if you spend a reasonable amount of time designing and planning the right approach, you now have the tools to reach an implementation quickly.It means that you can go through several iterations of the course with your clients.It means that the cost of change for your courses remains low.It means that your dependence on programmers and costly tools remains low and you can empower your teams and SMEs through a familiar tool and familiar interfaces.It means that you can respond to your organisation's learning needs faster and effectively, as long as you have the willingness to put some thought into your design and learning strategy.If your approach towards design remains sound, then coming up with something really creative isn't tough! Sometimes a little inspiration can help.What did you think of today's blogpost? Hopefully, you'll never have to build a course with no budget and with 10 hours to finish it, but my hope is that you can respond to similar situations with increased confidence in the future. My course is still a work in progress (and I can share the source files if you'd like), but I'd love to hear some feedback about that as well and maybe get some free QA! As always, your comments will help me in a big way, so please comment liberally on this post and drop me a line if you'd like. Till next time, ciao!© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

Blended learning is an effective training delivery model being implemented across the globe, however with so many variations of the model and range of learning technologies available how do those in charge of learning and development decide which has been the most effective and cost efficient? Well the answer is that most decisions are based on price and learner feedback, because the return on investment of the training isn’t worked out and there aren’t processes in place to include the measure of effectiveness. Some interesting research conducted by IS Interactive Services, with over 500 senior learning professionals, on the future of blended learning backed up the fact that very few organisations measure the return on investment (ROI) of their training budget.  It found that only 28% of those surveyed measure training against business KPIs and the most common form of training evaluation is ‘happy sheets’, the learner evaluation. With a variety of data analysis methodologies it is surprising that more businesses don’t measure training ROI. There is a strong business case for training staff, evidenced by a wealth of research and surveys, as it improves staff retention, performance, motivation and loyalty, but if a business doesn’t gather the evidence to prove this then where is the business case? Some time ago there were some figures out on the ROI of Corporate Training that said that $1500 invested in training per employee results in 24% higher profit margins. Certainly e-learning can improve the ROI of the training budget, in fact calculations done in the US found that it can be 50-60% greater than for traditional training, which itself can have a 4 x ROI, if done well*. For some guidance on measuring the ROI of e-learning take a look at the article on TrainingZone. * Syberworks E-learning Benefits and ROI Comparison of e-Learning vs Tradtional Training

Who doesn't want to create engaging elearning? But when managing projects, you're often balancing time, cost, money, scope and team. Sometimes, the mix of these factors means that you end up having to design simple and quick, linear courses - where every learner moves along only one predictable path in the course. That said, I'm a big believer in doing more with less and today I want to share with you three ways to make the most of when you have to create courses using linear navigation. So without further ado, let's get going. Tip #1 - Try a Webcomic Approach. If you've seen the Google Chrome comics by Scott McCloud, you'll realise how powerful a medium the webcomic is. The reason why webcomics are so effective is because they not only simplify complex topics, but they also make these topics seem less intimidating. More importantly people are used to flipping pages in a comic and so linear navigation doesn't seem odd to your audience. So if you have an engaging story, a comic approach automatically draws your learners to click the Next button. I can understand that Scott McCloud's work can make you feel it's really difficult to do, but if you look at the video above, you'll realise that its quite easy to create comic scenes quickly, provided you have the right image repositories. I recommend the design comics toolkit and elearningart's character packs, to get you kick started with this approach. If you want a sketch like feel to the elearning art character packs, then take a look at this tutorial. Once you've created your scenes, there's the question of integrating the visuals into a story line. If you want to use Powerpoint, then the above video can be a good starting point and you can then use Articulate Presenter to stitch together the elearning. If you want an online magazine style effect like in the video, then you could use a tool such as Issuu or Yudu. Now, I recognise that you'd love some inspiration to get started, so here are two webcomics that I really like: Secret in the Cellar by the Smithsonian MuseumTelstra's 3Rs of Social Engagement (while this includes talking characters, remember that you can get them at a very low cost using Codebaby Studio)Tip #2 - Use Effective Interactivity A couple of months back I'd written a post titled "The tools don't matter, use your creativity". If you look at the example from that post, you'll notice that it's a fairly linear course, as is the original course by Kineo. That said, the use of effective interactivity makes both courses easy to get through. One of the reasons I'm a big fan of Articulate Studio 09, is that it puts the power to create effective interactivity in the hands of less skilled people such as me. Here are three of interactions from the rapid elearning blog, that Tom (by his own admission) built with very little effort: Mini Cooper - A replica of an interaction from Allen Interactions using Articulate Engage5 Common Quiz Mistakes - A demonstration of quizzes using Articulate QuizmakerEthics Refresher - an excellent example of how you can develop scenarios using only a form-based authoring tool.Now before you started thinking of me as an Articulate salesman, let me tell you very frankly that I'm nothing but a very passionate user of the tools. And by the way, don't believe me - rapid elearning is no myth; take a look at the examples! Tip #3 - Use the right LanguageIf you're on a really tight budget for the year (and yes, I understand because I've been there), then Articulate isn't your only option. Remember that you have some free options for linear elearning, in the form of the following tools: ExeLearning -to create HTML based elearningUdutu - the free, yet full-fledged authoring toolXerteand CourseLab5 ways to make linear navigation more interestingView more presentations from Cathy Moore.That said, one of the most underestimated tools for corporate elearning is Slideshare. If all you have is a well made presentation, then Slideshare is your way to convert it into flash based elearning. If you look at examples like this and this, you'll notice that indeed it's not impossible to create engaging, interactivity free elearning (yes, I classify that as elearning) without fancy tools. I've taken too much time to come to the point here though, but both these presentations are excellent examples of how to use language appropriately to create interest in linear courses. One of my favourite resources with tips to use language to create interesting elearning courses is the one above. Cathy Moore does a great job to illustrate how clever use of language can make your linear elearning course extremely interesting to navigate. So really my third tip includes all five of Cathy Moore's tips. Take a look through the presentation to know more!For today's post, I'd like to give away the course files for the example in Tip#2. You can download them here. I'm sorry I can't give you the comic from Tip #1yet, but I promise to make it available once I have the opportunity. It's my passion to try doing more with less, so this blogpost is quite close to my heart. How did you like the examples in today's post? What methods are you trying at work to ensure that you can make the most of your budgets?  I'd love to hear from you, so please feel free to add your thoughts to the comments section. Hope you enjoyed today's article.© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

Clive Shepherd twittered a nice presentation ‘e-Learning Sucks’. It covers the fact that most e-learning design just follows traditional instructional design models (’lectures’). I come across this phenomenon often when subject matter experts use authoring tools to braindump their knowledge into powerpoint like e-learning modules. They call this rapid e-learning, but a good friend of mine tends to call this e-sleeping (in the presentation you see why!). eLearning Sucks View more presentations from Red Magma. From the nice design of the slides you can grasp where the critique comes from: media & game design. Although I agree that principles of media & game design can be excellently applied to e-learning this is not the only route. Not all powerfull stuff on Internet looks great. You just have to be creative in using the strengths of internet to support learning. Conclusion: nice work and good points, but there is more to good e-learning design when you ask me.

As JISC says, "e-Learning is fundamentally about learning and not about technology. Strategic development of e-learning should be based on the needs and demands of learners and the quality of their educational experience." I would add to this that effective e-learning is also about meeting the employers needs and not about superfluous visual or auditory affects, but the quality of the content and user engagement to effectively meet the learning objectives, whether set  by an employer or learner themselves. With so much discussion going on about what is the current or next big thing in e-learning authoring, e.g. gamification and augmented reality, it easy to lose touch with what the demands of learners and employers are and what is a quality learning experience? Whether you’re commissioning an online course to meet a specific workplace requirement or buying off-the shelf e-learning, the quality of the outcomes for employers and learners should be based on the fundamental criteria as below and not whether it has the ‘wow’ factor. The course meets your learning objectives This is the most important factor and can only be evaluated if you are clear exactly what the learning objectives are. The balance between delivery of information, interactivity, visual effects and self-assessment activities is appropriate for learners This is tricky as we all have different likes and dislikes. I have on many occasions evaluated an online course and felt it lacked the hook to get me fully engaged whether through interactivity, interest or visual representations, and then a colleague or customer has chosen that particular course over another that I have preferred. I know companies that have evaluated online courses and found them excellent against a set of quality standards, however reviews of those courses by many learners haven’t been positive. Fancy visual affects might look at first to be engaging but actually they can detract from the purpose of the course which is for the learner to learn. For an employer the important factor in finding the right balance for learners is that the content is varied in its delivery. Information that is delivered in a varied, visually pleasing way whether this is with video, animation and/or graphics with text combined with some interaction will keep the learners’ interest. If every page looks pretty much the same and the only interaction is pressing the ‘next’ key it can be extremely boring, especially if a large proportion of that page is text. Video is a popular medium for learning, but if that video is set in an uninspiring environment, and pushes information at you by a person standing talking throughout the video, like a lecturer at the front of a classroom with no props, it’s unlikely to be an effective learning experience. Very importantly there should be opportunities for the learner to do self-assessment activities to check their understanding of the information that has been delivered, at appropriate points through-out the course. It doesn’t have to be a set of questions and answers, much more engaging and effective is a workplace scenario where the learner has to make decisions based on the knowledge they’ve gained in the course. It is at the appropriate level for learners, including language and complexity of content Language that is too complex for a learner will quickly disengage them and stop them from taking on board the information the course is delivering.  In many aspects of education it is advised that the level of the language is one level down from the level of the subject matter. So for instance if delivering a maths level 2 course in the UK the language should be level 1. Whether a course has the right complexity of content comes back to the learning objectives. If a course provides too much detail or complexity over and above the required objectives, or a topic is wrapped up in a lot of superfluous words then the learner will become disengaged or will skip content. It is either sufficiently generic in context or is contextually appropriate to the learners’ role In many cases a generic context to an online course provides a better learning outcome, as the knowledge and skills learnt are transferable to other roles and employers. However, some training requirements are very specific to a particular job role or industry, and in this case the context of the course should be appropriate to the role environment. The alternative option, which at Elearning Marketplace we often support organisations with, is to take an off-the shelf course and make bespoke changes to meet required learning objectives. It is easily accessible by learners With the vast range of different devices now available and some individuals and organisations having strong views on what they use, its important to make sure that the online course you choose runs without any glitches on the devices to be used. If mobile devices are to be used it is important that the course is mobile responsive. This means that when the course is loaded on the device it changes its format to fit the screen, it is then easily navigated and read without having to pinch and expand the page, or scroll across the screen. However, not all mobile responsive e-learning runs on all devices. In particular courses that use Flash don’t run on Apple devices unless an additional browser is installed. More recently many of those developing e-learning are publishing in HTML5 which enables their courses to run on any mobile device. However, there are some fantastic courses that are currently being developed that still use Flash to obtain the required output, so the important point is being aware of what you are purchasing. A fully accessible online course is one that enables any learner to access it whether or not they have a disability. Knowing your learners and any specific needs they might have will enable you to select a fully accessible course that can be visually or physically altered by the learner to meet their requirements. In summary, don’t let your choice of e-learning be swayed by the ‘wow’ factor, but concentrate on what will provide learners with the best learning experience and outcomes. You can go to great lengths to choose the right online course, but the fact is that you are unlikely to please everyone.  Let me give you a recent example of when we completed a UK government funded project, which produced nine online scenario modules mapped to a Diploma qualification. The trialling of the modules took place with the required audience, which were 16 to 24 year old apprentices. We collated all the learner feedback from the trials and found that approximately 60% enjoyed the interactive activities and felt engaged in the scenarios, and approximately 40% found the interactive activities frustrating and slowed their progress.  Thankfully our customer was very happy!

As I await my flight to London, a strange thought possesses me. How much of Agile is valid today? A lot of Agile practices are almost a decade old. Since then, the enterprise collaboration landscape has changed significantly, team dynamics have changed quite a bit and dare I say the market is a lot more mature, having been through two relatively bad periods. This has always made me feel that to be Agile, you almost need to be 'not really Agile'. After all, the dictionary meaning of 'agile' seems to be:agile |ˈajəl|adjectiveable to move quickly and easily : Ruth was as agile as a monkey | figurative his vague manner concealed an agile mind.Well if that's the case, I feel like it's almost outdated to believe that a lack of colocation has to eventually mean a lack of collaboration and communication. Well there's no doubt that a colocated team in a team room will most likely generate great discussion, that said we've got technology today that can simulate team room like environments even without having people colocated. I say that a truly Agile team is so passionate about communication that they'll end up being resourceful enough to generate more communication in a distributed mode!It's not that you can't communicateThe fact is that today, more so than ever, the world is really, really flat. The notions of distance are almost becoming irrelevant with the advent of what some people are calling webvolution. Yes, there's not much one can do about 12 hour time differences. That being said, there's been significant advances in technology to ensure that if there's a fair overlap in timezones, teams can collaborate almost seamlessly without having to bother about colocation. Dinesh and I recently submitted a proposal to Agile 2010 to demonstrate how we're seeing teams adapt their way of working to ensure that distribution doesn't mean disaster! Here's a table from the proposal that indicates the various tool types that you have at your disposal to create rich communication within teams, distributed or not! Using a combination of enterprise social software and tools on the public internet, teams can actually make distribution seem much easier than we've traditionally made it out to be. Of course, there are some common sense considerations to distribution -- take a look at Mark Rickmeier's recorded talk for more information.Tools - How?Potential Implication - What?Agile Practice - Where can this be used?BlogsPersonal knowledge management, Learning and reflection, provides opportunity to convert potential ties into actual tiesTeam knowledge bases. Organisation wide knowledge sharing. Iteration reports. Daily Handoffs. Project timelinesWikisProject/Product Documentation, Co-Authoring learningRetrospectives, Negotiating Requirements/Stories, "Handovers" across time zonesWorkstreams - MicrobloggingAmbient Awareness - Who knows what?Standups, Distributed Dev Huddles, "Handovers" across time zonesSocial BookmarkingKnowledge SharingParticularly in the area of cross-project knowledge sharing and organisational knowledge basesSocial NetworkingSerendipityFinding experts in the organisation, leveraging weak ties, building relationships with potential problem solversPrediction MarketsCrowdsource complex decisions/outcomes - Estimation, likely release dates,Estimation, Release Planning (this is one which we’re yet to see in practice)Idea Management PlatformsOngoing improvement to practicesBrainstorming, Design decisionsWeb Conferencing ToolsDistributed pairing/reviews/Distributed Pairing, showcases, training, workshops, really all sorts of meetingsVirtual WorldsVirtual Offices, Realistic distributed simulations, synchronous learning, shared workspacesAll sorts of meetings, team room, Retrospectives, (There’s a state farm case study for this)Video ConferencingMeetingsIPM’s, RetrospectivesCollaborative Software Development EnvironmentsContextual Collaboration (one-stop collaboration platform)All kinds of practices, but particularly improving on communication and visibility.You just need to communicate differentlyNow you may argue that while the tools have been there for a while your mileage has been different. I don't deny that possibility. I don't even deny the fact that your communication may not have been as rich as what you've seen when you communicated face to face. This though, is not a problem with the tool -- it's a paradigm shift that we need to adjust to. Just like we say today, "What did we do before Google?" we will say in 2020 "What did we do before the social web?". The change is destined to happen -- but before that we need to adjust ourselves to the context of the platform. I relate this to how we change our communication in various cultural contexts -- a conversation on the streets in England is significantly different to a conversation on the streets of India. Similarly, we adjust our style of travel based on the context; we change our style of eating based on the context too. So why not think of communication in a similar manner?Conversations are great, but think of the value a facilitative tool like Google Wave brings you. The collaborative nature of tools such as Wave ensures that people like me who have a loud voice and can be extremely overbearing don't get an opportunity to derail the conversation. As a corollary, people who generally take time to get their thoughts organised or those that are generally shy, have the opportunity to now make their point in peace. Now to make best use of the medium, you need to appreciate these advantages and commit yourself to the context. In a similar manner, I believe webinars are far more facilitative than a face to face classroom session. In classrooms, people have to hold on to their thoughts for the fear of disturbing the sage on stage. In webinars OTOH, people can air their thoughts freely and without reserve at any given time. Now you may not be able to talk face to face, but can you communicate better - hell yeah! Take a look at some of the webinars from the virtual, free LearnTrends conference last year, if you don't believe me. As I always say, "The social web is more facilitative than facilitation!". You can keep making the comparisions and I suspect that if you're fair, you'll reach the same conclusions.The future is so bright, I should wear shades!The coming years promise a lot in terms of enterprise collaboration. I was recently reading Karl Kapp and Tony Driscoll's Learning in 3D, and the way the world is progressing towards the immersive internet, it could mean great things for society in general. Better collaboration platforms will mean lesser travel and hence a smaller carbon footprint. The diminishing need for colocation will mean that working moms, people in underprivileged countries can work in the best firms without having to leave their homes -- a great diversity boon for the industry! The fact that people will be able to work from their homes means that companies can spend less money on facilities and channel saved funds towards better pay and new business -- good news for all of us! The future is very, very bright indeed! As a knowledge worker, the possibilities of the webvolution really excite me. I believe big things can happen if we can change our perspectives slightly. What do you think? Let me know by adding your comments to this post. Hope you enjoyed today's article!© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

One of the interesting fields of innovation today is business model innovation. Although technological innovations raise most interest and have the highest impact, business model innovation is the lever to business success in most cases. Examples like Google, Easyjet and IKEA prove that innovative business models can generate sustainable business success. In the module on Innovation & Entrepreneurship that I conduct for TSM Business School I used the very practical Business Model Canvas approach propagated by Alexander Osterwalder. For a brief summary of the idea watch the following video of his 7 minute presentation at the Emerce Day in the Netherlands.

From Wikipedia:  Nan-in, a Japanese master , received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!""Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"I've been thinking about this for a few days -- does increasing experience in a company eventually stifle innovation? Why do younger, smaller companies seem to innovate more than large organisations with years of experience?I've often felt that when a company is young, there are a lot of people with less experience who usually jump at most new ideas. There are those with a vision for the company that support these new ideas. Yes, there are pragmatists, conservatives and skeptics who may not be as gung-ho about new ideas, but in the initial days of the company, they're outnumbered by the enthusiastic lot and eventually they convert. It seems as if ideas flow in a viral fashion in these organisations.Fast forward a decade and a half and a lot of the innovators are now grizzled professionals. The visionaries have learned from their mistakes and are more risk-aware. Yes, there are new innovators, but because of the shift of the original enthusiasts, the company now has a larger number of people with their own set ideas of success and with a strong criticism for every new idea. They've got experience to know why specific ideas will fail, they know that they'd rather not experiment and invite risk! As it turns out, new ideas get beaten down even as they're mentioned. People spend so much time trying to justify their ideas, that when it's time for implementation, they've lost all their steam. As a consequence, innovation suffers.I have seen this phenomenon myself, but I don't know what organisations do to get out of such situations. Any thoughts?(Photo credit: london_ally under the Creative Commons)© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

I'm speaking at the 11th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP2010Dates: 1-4 June 2010, Trondheim, NorwayEarly registration deadline: 24 March 2010XP is a leading international conference on agile methods in software and information systems development. XP 2010 will bring together software and information systems professionals, both researchers and practitioners, to discuss the latest trends, applications, and theory, share experiences, and reveal new research results in agile software development.XP2010 features a full four-day program of up to nine parallel tracks with Tutorials, Workshops, Experience Reports, Research Presentations, Invited Industry Talks, Lightning Talks, Open Space, Posters, and a Doctoral SymposiumThis year's keynote speakers are:Scott Page (University of Michigan Ann Arbor): Leveraging Diversity in Parallel: Perspective, Heuristics, and OraclesDavid Anderson (David J Anderson & Associates, Seattle, Washington): Catalyzing Lean: Building a Limited WIP Society in Your OrganizationBjørn Alterhaug (NTNU) & John Pål Inderberg (NTNU): Improvisation: Between Panic and Boredom Perspectives on teamwork, dialogue and presence in music and other contextsXP2010 will be held in Trondheim, which is Norway's third largest municipality.  Trondheim is a Norwegian center of education, technical and medical research with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and SINTEF located in the city. NTNU has about 25,000 students. The conference will be at the Rica Nidelven hotel. On the riverbed floor of the hotel you will find the conference section with airy meeting rooms, all with wireless internet access, natural daylight and a view of the Nidelven river.  A thousand years ago the Viking King Olav Tryggvason sailed up this river before founding his seat of government in Trondheim.  For the fourth year in a row the Rica Nidelven Hotel has been presented with the award for Norway's best breakfast. Over 400 hotels in Norway compete annually for this award, which is judged by a panel of top chefs from Norway and Twinings.For an overview of topics and presentations, please see the conference program at http://xp2010.org/.© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

Whether it’s online reviews or the number of social media ‘likes’, ‘+1s’ or ‘followers’, should we basing our decision on whether to use a service or purchase a product on what they tell us? According to a recent BBC report,  Navigating the potentially murky world of online reviews, 89% of British consumers are likely to be affected by online reviews. Globally it is said that around 70% of consumers base their purchasing decisions on online reviews, and social media ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ are also having a significant impact on customers buying habits. Of course word of mouth has always been a very powerful decision maker for buyers, but now that word of mouth is not just confined to friends and family, but widened to the views of a global online voice. In an American Express article Lisa Gordon, founder and CEO of Pollen-8 said "today’s customers seek opinions from a wide variety of reviewers", and these customers are not confined to consumers, but businesses as well. The BBC report highlighted the fraudulent nature of many companies’ online reviews and how positive reviews are being purchased in large numbers. This certainly makes you question how some online businesses, new as well as those who are very established, obtain such large numbers of positive reviews on their products and services. Some very big and reputable brands have been enticed by click farms, a form of click fraud, where a large group of low-paid workers is hired to click on paid advertising links for the click fraudster. These click farms are also operating as online social endorsement farms to mislead customers. According to a Guardian article back in 2013, ‘click farms have become a growing challenge for companies which rely on social media measurements - meant to indicate approval by real users - to estimate the popularity of their products’. Many of these click farms are in Bangladesh and the reason they do it is that it is a profitable business. In February 2013, Microsoft and Symantec shut down an operation that used up to 1.8 million PCs that were being used to create an average of 3 million clicks per day, bringing in $1m per year since 2009*. Whereas reputable businesses will proactively seek reviews from their customers, the less reputable are taking a short cut and faking them. In an Institute of Directors video Peter Muhlmann provided an amusing analogy "faking reviews is like peeing in your pants, it’s warm at first and then it gets very cold!" presumably meaning that fake reviews might be a quick solution, but in the longer term they are very likely to have a negative impact on your business due to damaged reputation. As in the case of the headline ‘Fake Reviews: Amazon’s Rotten Core‘ and ‘Fake Tripadvisor reviewers face legal action‘ In this revealing video CBC’s Erica Johnson shows us a growing industry that’s designed to deceive. So what can customers do to identify fake reviews, well we came across a tool developed by Cornell University called the Review Skeptic, which lets you cut and paste a review to see if it’s likely to be real or fake. Admittedly it does say that it is best used for hotel and restaurant reviews, but we thought we’d give it a go. Our reviews are verified, which means that they can only be submitted by customers who have purchased from us; a genuine order/invoice number has to accompany the review. We copied and pasted a number of our customer’s reviews into the Review Skeptic tool and it told us that one was fake, so in our case it was pretty accurate, but not 100%. Our top tips for consideration when identifying fake reviews If you answer ‘yes’ to any of these then our advice is to ask the company if you can make contact with the review contributor or at least seek further reassurances on other websites: 1. Do reviews sound like a sales ad for the product or company? 2. Is there an unrealistic amount of 5 star reviews? 3. Are all the reviews positive? There should be some that include less favourable comments; no-one is perfect! 3. Are there lots of reviews within a short time period? 4. Do reviews talk about product features, rather than service or quality? 5. Do reviews compare that business’s products favourably against other suppliers’ products? 6. Do reviews use many of the same buzzwords or technical terms that the website uses in describing its products/services?   Author: Carolyn Lewis, Managing Director of Elearning Marketplace Ltd and learning technology consultant. * How low-paid workers at ‘click farms’ create appearance of online popularity

An interesting HBR Blog post ‘Learning from Toyota’s Stumble’ by Stephen Spear. It reflects on what we can learn from the recent issues Toyota is facing with pedal malfunctions. Toyota for a long time has been leader in quality and books were published on the Toyota Way in almost all management area’s. From this case we can learn that this competitive success is fluid. According to Spear the way to sustain success is to continue learning and improving: "The capabilities to do this are poweful but fragile and need constant reinforcement … This includes developing people by investing time in mentoring and developing their capabilities for pushing the boundaries of quality, efficiency, safety, and responsiveness, and taught them how to build those capabilities in others. But as we are now sadly seeing, the capacity for developing people can be overstretched. It was not recognizing this and succumbing to the temptation to make growth its first priority that led to Toyota’s current problems". This stroll of events caused great damage to the carefully developed image of Toyota being the most reliable car manufacturer in the World with quality and innovation as it’s guiding principles. Conclusion: It is already hard to become a true learning organization, but it is even harder to stay one …

Yet again, I'm writing a blog-post at the airport! Over the last couple of days I've been part of a very keen set of discussions in the HR space. One of the topics we touched upon was Diversity, particularly in the IT industry. We discussed means to increase the number of women in the company and to keep them supported, but while in those discussions, I felt that the lack of women in the industry is perhaps a systemic problem. The real reasons for a lack of enough women in IT feel like:not many women study or have an interest in computer science;women are subject to a number of socio-cultural pressures that men aren't a part of;in a male dominated industry, there are very few women role-models to look upto - resulting again in #1 above.Fixing these root causes seems like a huge program of change beyond just providing a few measures at work. Here are a few thoughts I have about actually increasing gender diversity in IT.Tackle the problem at the Grassroots -- target studentsAll across the world, computer science doesn't seem to be a hugely popular discipline with young girls. The key could be to introduce young girls to the magic of programming at an early age. One of the projects that really excites me is Alice. Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience. Alice allows children to learn through a head-fake -- they believe they're playing a game, but on the sidelines they're actually writing a program in a modern object oriented language such as Java. Prentice Hall has gone to the extent of creating instructional materials to actually teach students how to program, using Alice as the teaching tool! Could companies support the educational system by sending their experts to schools and universities using Alice as a a teaching platform. That way we can introduce computer science as a discipline that's just as interesting and creative as management or humanities.Join Forces in the IndustryWhile a single company may not have many women superstars, there's absolutely no dearth of thought leadership from women in IT. Often we make the mistake of trying to solve our gender diversity problems in isolation. It may not be a bad idea for like minded companies to join forces and seek out great female potential by using their role model women as hiring ambassadors. A women only career fair with superstar women representatives from various companies could actually help other ladies be attracted to computer science as a career. In general, these alliances need to be strategic -- short term alliances are likely to be frustrating, but longer term alliances may actually allow organisations to build on each other's successes.Recognise Socio-cultural Influences -- Experiment with Next-gen ToolsThe webvolution, and immersive internet presents us with some very interesting possibilities. There's no doubt that the technology is still immature, but companies need to still start experimenting with virtual worlds as a way to create real-time, synchronous workspaces. Women, particularly in India are under the influence of great socio-cultural pressures. The ability to work from home and still enjoy a high degree of collaboration could be invaluable in increasing diversity. Karl Kapp is a great proponent of such technology and I think that when we can actually make 3D technology an inseparable part of work a few years from now, companies will enjoy significant advantages in addition to being able to increase their diversity. Here are some obvious advantages that come to mind:lower investment on facilities -- possibly lower opex;lower cost of commute;lower pollution levels as a result of lower cost of transport;lower carbon footprint as a result of reduced travel;better salaries as a consequence of money saved on lease, office space, etc;faster growth of business as a consequence of virtual workspaces and the ability to invest elsewhere.What other ideas do you have to increase gender diversity in the IT sector? ThoughtWorks is keen to right the wrongs of this industry in it's own small way and I can try to channel some of your suggestions in the right direction. Let me know what you think by adding your thoughts in the comments section.Photo credit: chrisjfry under the Creative Commons and Dr. Karl Kapp for the Protoshpere screenshot.© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

The German drugstore Schlecker will be leaving the Dutch market. The price fighter faces decreasing revenue and decided to close all stores. Recently we have seen quite some companies aiming at price competition close their doors. Although it always has been argued that this strategy is not sustainable, it is interesting that it becomes clear in these economic times. On the one hand you might expect that buyers are more price sensitive and turn to these discounters. One the other hand the business models depending on low margins and high turnover are high risk in these times. From studying succesful companies it becomes clear that applying a hybrid strategy is the way forward. Generic strategies like the ones described by Porter are to limited to stay competitive in the current competitive landscape and economic climate. Succesful organizations adopt a combination of competitive aspects to build a Hybrid Strategy. Examples are: IKEA (differentiate in design + low cost), Toyota (quality - although under pressure + price) and Ahold (quality + price). Just competing on price isn’t good enough anymore. Therefore we enter an interesting new era of strategic management in organizations.

These are live blogged notes from Nigel Paine's webinar about Innovation on the Learning and Skills Group.From the LSG:Nigel Paine is a change-orientated leader with a worldwide reputation and a unique grasp of media, learning and development in the public, private and academic sectors. The former head of training and development at the BBC, he left the BBC in 2006 to start his own company focussed on leadership, creativity, innovation and learning, working with companies in Europe, Brazil, Australia and the USA. He teaches for several weeks each year at Wharton Business School in Philadelphia on a doctoral programme aimed at Learning Leaders.Difference between Innovation and CreativityCreativity - "The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, to create new  meaningful new ideas"Innovation - "Something new or different introduced."If you're not introducing anything new and tangible, you're not innovating.Nigel conducted a poll asking people how innovative they think their organisation is:14% Very innovative28% Quite28% A bit10% Not really20% No AnswerWhy is Learning and Development ImportantInnovation is mainly about people -- if you don't have people who are capable of looking beyond the horizon, innovation will most likely not happen.Dan Pink's new book 'Drive' is about motivation - it's a human need not driven by carrots and sticks. e.g. (real story) University VC sends an email to all his professors saying they need to be innovative from Monday onwards.Questions for individuals and organisations to ask themselves:Did you do today better than yesterday?What do you want to be remembered for?What's your legacy as an organisation?Innovation requires people and that requires L&D to contribute to people's development. A culture of learning is a culture of thinking and that leads to innovation."If something works it's already obsolete."Definition of Innovation by DruckerDrucker says innovation is, "Change which creates a new dimension of performance". You can also call this the definition of L&D, says Nigel5 Kinds of Wealth by SharmaEconomicRelationshipHealthAdventure/ Challenge/ Fun Contribution and Impact If you take the last two Adventure/ Challenge/ Fun and Contribution and Impact you can create meaning for your organisation. Learning environments lead to an environment of innovation.5 ways you can make innovation thriveWhat stops innovation?Innovation that doesn't get supported from top is doomed - L&D can't drive it alone. We need executive endorsement.Management needs to set an example by being innovative. Too much process stifles innovation.Everything doesn't need a business plan - you should only need a business plan after you've gone through a few trials. Can't make people jump through hoops right at the beginning.There are more things that organisations do to stop innovation than they do to facilitate it!What helps innovation?1. The Taylor PhilosophyOpen: What might workCull: What will workFocus: energies on success2. It takes timeInstant returns rarely happen - you need to be in for the long haul.3. Lots of dangers en-routeYou have to be aware of what they are and deal with them as you go on. If you don't have the new dimension of performance -- you can't justify this effort though.4. Not Just a People IssueIt's also an environment issue. It's about how you work with people. A great environment is just as important as great people5. You need the right processese.g. Innovation forum at Intel, 20% time, Innovation and LearningNigel asked the group: Is L&D Involved in Innovation?Yes a lot - 10%Yes - 29%Hardly - 26%No - 6%No Answer - 28%L&D's agenda should be to drive innovation. There's a link between personal growth and organisational success. If people feel they are growing they'll contribute to the organisations success. Link learning to innovation - this is critical.© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

These are live blogged notes from the Learning and Skills Group Webinar today.Nick Shackleton Jones is the Informal Learning Manager at the BBC and the author of one of my favourite LnD blogs.Why Rapid DevelopmentIncrease OutputReduce Development CostsDevelop your trainersReduce Development TimelinesInvolve Client and SMEs in DevelopmentMaintain control and updatabilityWe do this now because we can!The Big Picture: Now you can co-create content with your SMEs with a low budget and you don't need to wait ages to gather the money to do something. Bottoms up is the future of LnD.Challenges - What's the worst that could happen?The worst that could happen could be:Clients as authorsand Trainers become developersNot sure this is a bad thing though, because purposing content is a skill too. As Nick mentioned, training becomes the quality control in this situation.The worst that could happen is that nothing really happens.So where are BBC today and how did they get there?BBC does some really cool courses using really rich media, videos, etc -- I saw one of them last year. Some of their clients are actually producing some high quality content as Nick demonstrated.Application training has become really easy to create, using tools such as Camtasia. Within the space of days or hours, there's an LMS compatible course available for your new system.They've now started to do some really immersive game-like environments and some very interesting courses, e.g. the ones they've done on Storytelling. What they learnt along the way. 'Mistakes are often the stepping stones to failure.'ProcessPair client with the learning consultantProject management skillsInstructional design skillsTechnical/graphical skillsRetain control of publishing to LMSOnline workflow helpsHave a strong implementationLead by example - show great stuff as examples!Have a rapid development 'bucket' budgetContentCreate a template - so courses look like they've come from the same sourceSeparate 'awareness' from 'resources'Use scenarios - put people in a situation and provide them feedback on what they doContextualise/ tell storiesPolish the graphicsConsider Accessibility - rapid tools can do this in a repeatable, standard fashionUse video/ voice-over if possibleKeep the length less than 20 minsFeature peers where you can - people like to see people they know© Sumeet Moghe, 2009

Recently I wrote a working paper for the International HRD Conference that will be held on June 2-4, 2010 in Pecs, Hungary. This working paper will be presented in the conference stream: business strategy, organizational learning and knowledge management. The paper tries to establish a connection between the fields of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Strategic Management through the concept of absorptive capacity. Up until now the corporate university has been claimed to be a strategic instrument for learning and development in organizations. The strategic nature of the corporate university remains unclear lacks scientific fundament. With this paper I try to establish a fundament for future research into the strategic potential of corporate universities.Working paper: Corporate University for strategic innovation

Visual Design BasicsView more presentations from sumeet.moghe.I'm sorry I'm not doing a weekend blogpost, because I'm busy hosting RubyConf India. That said, during my spare time I put together some slides for a lunch-and-learn session that I'm planning next week. The topic of the talk is 'Visual Design Basics', and while I understand you won't glean much information from the slides, you can try and get a flavour for what I'll bark about! I'll try to do a slightly more detailed blogpost about this in the future.© Sumeet Moghe, 2009