I’ve received some good feedback on my post Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) for Managing Course Assets. One thing is pretty clear, LCMS tools have really headed towards a kind of super Authoring tool and there's a related but quite distinct need for support for a Warehouse. The need for the Warehouse - keeping track of learning content assets across the organization has its own set of requirements. I would really like to have a dialog (email exchange) with people who are managing large collections of production and produced digital assets in larger organizations who can describe how they are managing it. Know anyone who can contribute to this? In terms of use of traditional LCMS products towards the needs cited in the previous post, Brenda Robinson and I had a good "discussion" around this - email exchange. The following all come from her, and I've interspersed some commentary: Requirement: "We need to figure out a way to get information from other departments to make sure we have the most current information available." This in very common across all larger companies. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand has, nor do they know whether or not it is current or accurate. My larger customers faced the same problem and use LCMS to fix it. In a true enterprise deployment of LCMS all learning content and original source files regardless of what tools may have been used to develop it are stored and meta tagged in the LCMS central repository facilitating quick and easy search and retrieval. Problem solved because now we know what we have and where it is. Your reader also points out a common problem in larger organizations of knowing whether or not the content is the most currently available information. Meta tags provide information on where the content came from, who the owner of the content is, when it was created, when the last time it changed etc. Powerful and flexible workflows facilitate content reviews, approvals and provide audit trails. They can also be configured to have content contributors and approvers to digitally sign off on the content for accountability. Another problem solved by LCMS technology. Brenda is right that this is a classic example where an LCMS can help. However, this is only "problem solved" if you use the LCMS to manage your assets. If you are authoring using several authoring tools with distributed groups doing the authoring, then it's possible but unlikely that they will be willing to use the LCMS to manage all of those other assets. The LCMS can help with workflow and meta tagging. External vendors can work with the LCMS as well. The key is to have appropriate organizational standards and governance in place that people must work against. That said, I've found many large organizations that will operate this way for some kinds of content and manage that through an LCMS, but other kinds of content is built in other ways and does not use the LCMS. This most often devolves into the LCMS being used to manage assets that will be packaged (authored) for distribution. Requirement: "We need to set up a process to determine all courses the information will impact." and "We need to make the changes." This another example of a common problem LCMS’s solve. As you mentioned LCMS’s do come equipped with powerful easy to use authoring capabilities. While content can be authored, tagged and stored from any authoring tool the built in ones provide for very powerful content management. Your natively created content can now be managed at the asset level. Let’s say a company has 1000 courses on the LMS and let’s say our company logo has changed. Now imagine having to find every image of that logo and update it. Scary thought eh? J We probably wouldn’t do it. In fact there are many changes to company policy, regulations etc that happen every day and because you can neither find the content or find where in the content the change needs to happen and because it’s a daunting task to do it it’s not done. So what does this mean. It’s means that employee’s very often are working with out of date or incorrect information. Now let’s take that same scenario and let’s say we have the ability to search for that logo and click a button and every instance of that logo across all 1000 of our courses in our LMS is instantly updated and no LMS administrator had to lift a finger J Let’s say we have a change to policy and need to know what content that change will impact. Now imagine doing a quick search, finding that the change will impact 50 courses, make the update and all 50 courses are instantly updated in the LMS. Pretty powerful eh :) That’s why companies use the built in authoring capabilities when they can. Another problem solved by LCMS technology. If you use an LCMS in a smart way, then certainly you can help to determine what courses will be impacted by changes. If you are REALLY good, you could even have the same content assets get reused in multiple courses so that a single change can propagate changes out to all the courses. For something like the logo change - if everyone is using exactly the same logo asset from the LCMS, you will be in good shape. The problem is that a lot of what people want here is that when a policy changes they want to know - what courses do I need to go change and let's go make those changes. In many cases, the relationship between a policy and a set of courses is not well defined. If you know that's the kind of changes that will occur, you can be smart about how you keep track of things (in an LCMS or not). I've seen some cases with things like product descriptions where updates really do flow nicely because of an LCMS. But in many organizations, a policy change comes through and it's a lot of manual work to go find all the courses that have been authored that need to be changed - or more correctly you decide if it's worth it to make the changes with lots of the courses not getting updated. And in the case of a picture of a product - somehow authors have made their own copies to fit into their courses. It's certainly not changing the picture in one place and poof it gets update. Obviously, the LCMS can provide big time value here if used in a way that supports these changes. But if you have distributed authoring with different kinds of tools (not to mention service providers), it's a lot messier. Again, any LCMS vendor will tell you that all of these things can be done - but will you have the ability to really do it, especially when/if it adds overhead for things that are authored outside the LCMS. Requirement: "Save the previous version in the archives for discovery requests." This is common in highly regulated environments. How do we know what version of content a learner went through? Let’s say we are a financial services company and one of our employees messed up. Our regulator wants to know exactly what that learner was taught. We need to know to defend our company reputation or worse. Let’s say that regulated content has changed 25 times in the last year. How can we locate and retrieve the exact version of content that learner went through on say March 25th 2010? An LCMS can track, version and archive all changes to content. We would do a quick search in the archive, locate and restore an exact copy of what that content was on March 25th 2010. Let’s say the regulation for how long we keep content information is different for every state or country. In Canada the regulator say we need to keep the record for 7 years. In Germany 6 years etc. Most regulated companies want content to completely disappear soon as possible :) Again easy if you have an LCMS. Set your date once and poof it’s gone. No more evidence that it ever existed! This is clearly a place where authoring with an LCMS makes a lot of sense. Trying to do this with traditional authoring tools can be done - by saving copies of the produced courses along with their dates on a network drive. But you must manually handle all the policy decisions. And there's still possible issues around lack of electronic signatures and other controls. I.e., how do you "prove" that's the content. The LCMS can help back you up if used correctly. "Save the current version for future updates." With an LCMS you always have the most current version, it’s easy to locate and it is automatically updated where ever it might be. Again, a very good match for the requirements of an LCMS. One thing that's quite interesting is the the reader who originally provided the requirements works in an environment where there is distributed authoring with different authoring tools being used. I don't know if that includes third parties authoring as well. They need to decide what kinds of content would be best to author within an LCMS to get the value described by Brenda. And for other kinds of content, will the assets be tracked in any significant way. Again, please weigh in on this. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

There’s a lot of buzz these days about whether we should abandon the training industry’s go-to model, ADDIE, for an Agile approach. The discussion has been rich, with elegant arguments made on both sides. A disclaimer: we’re all about Agile, or rather, LLAMA - the Lot Like Agile Methods Approach - here at TorranceLearning. But that doesn’t mean we give up on what ADDIE has taught us. This article in Learning Solutions Magazine goes into more depth, but here’s the gist of it. One of the core tenets of an Agile approach is iterative development. It’s a process of getting progressively closer to the finished product, not by planning and designing more, but by building something useful and seeing what happens. ADDIE stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate. When you Implement and Evaluate, you are taking the next steps toward Analyzing. In many respects, this is how ADDIE was intended to work. The reality of it is that we often get pulled to the next project right after we "I" (and often before we get a chance to "E") and we never take advantage of learning from our experience. With Agile, the iterations are much smaller, allowing the project team to get experience and feedback with a working product much earlier in the process, and without necessarily increasing the length of the project timeline. You could call it ADDIEADDIEADDIEADDIE, but LLAMA rolls off the tongue a bit better.

Some have decried Ellen Pao's resignation from Reddit as a step in the wrong direction for gender equality in tech. The site's detractors say good riddance. The post Reddit Critics Laud Ellen Pao for ‘Getting Out of Hell’ appeared first on WIRED.

Does your work stress you out? We’ve all experienced the squeeze of work-related stress from time to time, but too much stress at the office too often can make a huge dent in your quality of life and decrease your productivity. We’re not okay with that, and we’re actively seeking ways to make our office a more peaceful place. It’s not unusual to find us hanging out with our yogi photographer friend, Michelle Massey Barnes. For those days that you can’t join us on the mat, check out Megan’s new blog on DBusiness, 3 Paths to Office Zen, for some tips and tricks to keep office stress at bay. Remember to breathe. It’s all going to be okay.

Ellen Pao's critics see her resignation from Reddit as a sign she didn't have the skills to be a successful CEO of the company. The post Detractors Say The Problem Wasn’t Reddit, It Was Pao appeared first on WIRED.

I'm going to be moderating a CalTech MIT Enterprise Forum that looks at Entrepreneurial Opportunities in eLearning - basically where do we mutually see a good opportunity to create a successful eLearning Startup. I've talked a bit about this in eLearning startups: the startups in eLearning sit in smaller niches or by attacking tangential opportunities in eLearning. They are going after things like: specialized tools and content that meet particular industry or audience needs games and simulations web 2.0 approaches that leverage distributed content creation, social aspects as part of learning, collaborative learning and editing. and in Business of Learning, Future of Business of Learning,  Future of Learning and the #LCBQ : What will the workplace learning technology look like in 2015, there are a lot more thoughts around where learning is heading from a business perspective.  In the case of the CalTech MIT session, the attendees are mostly interested in where there's opportunity to do an eLearning Startup.  I'm very much looking forward to hearing from the speakers and panelists, but I thought I would use this as an opportunity to both respond to this month's #LCBQ (2011 Predictions) and to prepare for the session.  Technology's Impact on Learning and Education is Greatly Underestimated We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run. Roy Amara, Institute for the Future. We are collectively underestimating the incredible impact that technology is going to have on education.  I've talked before about a world in which the Best Lecture is available to us anywhere.  This already is available.  Distance is really dead.  If we are going to force students to sit through lectures, shouldn't they be the absolute best lecture?  Tell me how you are going to compete with Physics Lectures by Professor Lewin?  People will argue that Dr. Lewin's is not appropriate for all students or in all situations.  Agreed, but you can't tell me that the high school and college lectures going on around the world is the best way to educate students.  Of course, should it even be a lecture?  How about if it was an interactive experience instead?  With the death of distance, what does this mean for universities?  Should we all be taking online courses from the very best we can access?  How does a local university with a limited brand compare to an online degree from a much bigger brand?  Or compare to someone who aggregates content from various online sources? What does this mean for high schools?  My daughter last year took an online summer school course taught by her high school teacher.  This year we are trying to find an online high school course (US history but not AP US history) taught by someone else.  It's hard to find that today, but there are dollars there ready to be spent. If you doubt this impact, make sure you take a look at what's happening in things like SAT prep, Driver's Ed, Tutoring.  In places that are not controlled by government, there's incredible adoption of technology that has greatly shifted things online. Books I'm excited to Rob Angarita co-founder of Cramster that is now part of Chegg on the panel.  Cramster helps students with homework by providing answers to textbook questions and interactive support - think little pieces of eLearning for helping students figure out those problems.  It also wires into an online community and tutoring services.  Chegg is basically Netflix for textbooks.  Rather than buy a textbook, you rent it for the semester.  It will make college bookstores obsolete - think Blockbuster - actually they just won't be called bookstores - they will be called a campus store - they will sell all sorts of other things and handle local fulfillment to the college market. Of course, just like Netflix, Chegg is going to face a really interesting battle as books go digital.  Textbooks are going to go digital as well.  And when they go digital, there are going to be eLearning Startup successes like Cramster that can address specific needs. In fact, more broadly publishers will need help to find ways to make their materials relevant in a digital world.  I'm working right now with two eLearning startups doing exactly that.  They are partnering with publishers to make their books come to life as interactive content and tools. Niches There are also a ton of smaller startups emerging that essentially focus on niche topics.  These can be one person shops that selling training to particular audiences.  I recently heard a podcast from a one-person operation that had a list of people in the world of real estate.  He would put out offers for an upcoming course that he would teach online.  If he got enough interest in the course, then he would actually make it happen.  If he didn't get enough interest he wouldn't offer it.  He was doing $400K per year as a one man shop with virtually no overhead. For more about this: Long Tail Learning - Size and Shape Aggregation, Curation and Social Signals Of course, this also suggests that there are going to be big time opportunities for an eLearning Startup that aggregates offerings for particular audiences.  For example, my daughter wants to take that online high school course.  It can be from anyone as long as it gets her credit from her high school.  We'd like it to be a great experience from a well known brand.  What are my options?  As the number of options grow, the need for directories grows.  This is an eLearning Startup that someone should do immediately. More broadly, addressing the issue of information overload for particular audiences is going to provide big time opportunity.  Aggregage does this for particular topics - allowing curators to bring in appropriate content and the wisdom of the crowd through social signals to filter to the best content.  This kind of approach (using curation and social signals) is big time opportunity for dealing with the increasing flow of information.  We'll see startups providing rating systems, filtering systems, etc. People With the death of distance, that also means that you have immediate access to people across the globe.  This greatly changes things like tutoring and language teaching.  You can now be working with a tutor or teacher from anywhere in the world.  We've seen quite a few successful eLearning Startups doing these. But there will be a lot more in things like mentoring, matching,  getting quick help, micro-consulting.  Look at the success of eLance and Amazon's mechanical turk.  Quora (Q&A) is getting a lot of buzz - I'm still not sold, but it points out the continued interest in connecting people around questions, help, content. Buyers I added this after I posted, but here's a great capture that will help you think about the market more generally and who the buyers are for your startup. Tools Of course, during any gold rush the people who have the sure thing are the ones supplying the gold miners (shovels and jeans).  There are likely going to be lots of opportunities to be an eLearning startup providing tools.  Incumbents will definitely be tougher here.  But we still don't have a really good solution for niche content providers.  The real estate training company has cobbled together a solution.  Lot's of people have tried the marketplace, but white label has not been done well.  There also will likely be tools around: Creating performance support - Learning meets action.  See: Performance Support in 2015 Mobile Augmented reality Communication (leverage platforms, but in a learning context) Virtual environments Integration with Google Docs And ???? Now it's your turn.  If you were going to do an eLearning Startup - where would you focus?  Or if you are doing an eLearning Startup - what is it? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Garin Hess wrote a post 5 Reasons Flash is NOT dying...give me a break! and it seems like my recent post  Mobile Learning and the Continuing Death of Flash got him a little fired up.  I am fed up with people saying Flash is dying. That it's old technology. That HTML5 is the ultimate replacement. That it shouldn't be allowed to go forward. Come on! Give me a break! Garin has some good arguments on why he likes Flash as a delivery mechanism.  Probably worth visiting his blog to read them.  Let me go back to the original issue that I raised a little less than a year ago in Beginning of Long Slow Death of Flash: As a Part-Time CTO, I am continually making choices about what platforms to use, what do we build for, how do we integrate with social networks, etc. And just like a few years ago when it became clear that you shouldn’t build desktop applications anymore, I think we are hitting a tipping point where you have to question building anything that uses Flash as the delivery mechanism. I'm defining my technical approach for my eLearning Startup or for my application that will be delivered to employees, consumers or students, etc.  This could be a new authoring tool, an aggregator, the course playback mechanism, a recruiting tool, etc.  My technical choice needs to seem like a good choice 5 years from now.  I need to think about what will produce the best user experience.  The costs.  Technical and business risk. Garin raises a great point.  We don't know whether Apple iOS will eventually support Flash to stave off competition from competitors.  Originally, I thought that Apple would bow to pressure.   No one at this point really knows.  But let's assume for a second that you believe that Apple will cave and iOS will support Flash.  And let's also assume that we are not strictly talking HTML5, but rather HTML+JavaScript + some ideas of where it is today and where things are going. What's to Like about Flash 1. Greater consistency across platforms.  2. Good support for animations, 3D, and video.  Video especially is problematic without Flash to do cross platform. 3. Able to do things visually that are hard with CSS/HTML.  As an example, CSS 3 introduced linear and radial gradients. Good. Can these gradients be applied to the text rendering engine? No? Why not? http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2009/02/24/css3-feedback-graphical-thoughts/ like rounded corners, no surprise [gradients] came up. (All we need is to define wet-floor-reflect and we’ll complete the Web 2.0 design tricks hat trick.) Yes, CSS 3 can do awesome things, and I love it. But it was designed to just barely meet the design needs of today. Any time you want to experiment with a wildly new design direction, you find yourself fighting against the way HTML and CSS were intended to be used. 4. Flash (AIR) can create and use raw TCP or UDP sockets. Of the above, 2, 3 & 4 of are likely to be a question of what the site/app needs to be able to do.  #1 is definitely an issue as you need to write once and test everywhere for HTML.  Flash Concerns There are some things I would be concerned about: 1. Security - some recent security issues with Flash that caused real damage are a continuing concern for me. 2. Closed - as Garin points out there are lots of people working with Flash - an ecosystem.  That said it's still closed.  And it's MUCH smaller than the world that works with HTML. 3. Commercial - it costs money for Flash development and anytime you are dealing with something that's commercial and closed, there are clear risks. 4. Installers - these are somewhat annoying and there are greater risks around them. Will I Choose Flash? So - what do I use as a developer? It's way too complex a question because there are a ton of factors that will need to be considered for any given system.  Here's some things I would definitely look at: What's our mobile strategy?  Are we actually looking at Apps or via Mobile Browser?  Big time tradeoffs in each? Do I need an interface that could be provided more quickly via Flash?  I've been involved in creating some pretty sophisticated interfaces via HTML+JavaScript.  But there are development cost tradeoffs to be made.  As an example Flash is used by Zynga to create their games. What's the cost of Cross Browser HTML compatibility issues? What's our strategy around multiple screen resolutions? Will we need to run in low-end phones with basic web access capabilities? Right now Flash is causing performance issues on mobile devices.  This will be improved, but there will be issues.  What will the impact be of those issues? What audio and video do I have?  Complex animations?  Can these be Flash elements within an HTML wrapper? Do I need audio or video capture? 3D? Do I need raw sockets? Who is developing it?  What skills do they have? How easy/hard is it to source people with the skills? What are the implications downstream for the organization?  Do we believe it will help or hurt us around time of acquisition? Impact of iOS? All of the above is greatly impacted by the choice that Apple makes around iOS support.  People want their content to work on iPhones and iPads right now.   To Gain's point, if Flash is on iOS and gets over the current performance issues, then it's going to win out far more often as the delivery mechanism of choice.  Of course, my guess early on was that Apple would bow to pressure.  But then it became clear they wouldn't in the short term.  Now, no one knows. Using Flash Interestingly, I'm right now looking at technical choices for an eLearning Startup.  And guess what - Flash looks like it will make sense as a choice.  Of course, we are trying to hedge our bets and we are definitely making it an element on the page rather than betting the entire delivery on Flash.  The idea is that we could change the approach for that portion if another solution comes along.  iPhones and iPads will be supported as an app - ugh.  But we don't really have another choice for now. All of that said, I still will tell you - even though you won't be happy to hear it - if this application didn't need these specific features that are supported by Flash - we would choose HTML+JavaScript because it would work on iPads in the browser.  That's why I still believe until we know that iOS will support Flash - it's death is continuing for now.  Choices are being made to avoid it everyday by CTOs. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

We are completely geeked to announce our new Eleventure elearning library, a business skills curriculum designed for and hosted on the LearnCore LMS platform. The first 30 courses in the series cover a broad range of business skills to help employees take their performance, their careers and their organizations to the next level. "With Eleventure, think about ‘elevating your business venture’ with all those things you need to succeed in your worklife," says CEO Megan Torrance. "There’s a point in your career where you need to start looking bigger. You need to build teams, work with others, communicate your ideas, craft a value proposition, build a virtual team, work across generations … all those things that they never really teach you in school. That’s what Eleventure is all about." Training leaders know that elearning is awesome. When you’re responsible for training a large number of people, elearning lets you reach a large number of people, wherever and whenever they need it, in a repeatable and trackable way. We think about it this way: With elearning, employees get a consistent message time and time again, without travel, without time away from work, without having to buy donuts and reserve the training room. Everyone’s on the same page, at precisely the time and place they need to be there. But when you’re buying an off-the-shelf curriculum, your number one concern is about adoption. A lot of elearning out there is downright boring. And it doesn’t even come with donuts. No one bounds into work in the morning eager to take the latest elearning course. That’s what keeps training leaders awake at night. And it was foremost on our mind when we created Eleventure. "The way we consume content is changing, but corporate training hasn’t kept up with the trend toward instant, bite-sized content," says LearnCore Cofounder Vishal Shah. "This has resulted in poor adoption and experience with training. Eleventure is flipping that idea and building professional content in a fast, fresh, action-oriented format. We are excited to merge the best learning platform in LearnCore with the best content in Eleventure and create an experience that people actually want."

Turns out that whole Axis-controlled-America alternate-history thing is even more disturbing when you pair it with a patriotic hymn. The post The Man in the High Castle Finally Has a Trailer, and It’s Super-Creepy appeared first on WIRED.

This month's #LCBQ is the first with the Big Question Thought Leaders.  It's been fun working with them and has definitely added a new spark.  I'm hoping that others will join the effort.  We strongly believe the #LCBQ offers an opportunity to have something online that's like a sophisticated cocktail party.  Lots of discussion and debate around interesting questions for eLearning professionals.  We would welcome lots of discussion. This month's LCBQ is What are your Predictions and Plans for 2011? I've attacked this by looking at my past predictions, then looking at lots of predictions from other folks, and finally I get to my Top 10 eLearning Predictions for 2011 My Past eLearning Predictions You can see some of my predictions from the past in: Ten Predictions for eLearning 2008 eLearning 2.0 - Increasing Pressure Virtual Classroom Tools - Meeting Tool + Second Life Lite Authoring Tools - Captivate and Articulate Will Dominate Less Authoring - More Web Pages Mobile Learning - Continued Scattered Examples and Disappointment Metrics-Driven Performance and Learning Interventions LMS => More of What You Don't Want Serious Games - Seriously Sorry, Not for You Niche Online Discussions Knowledge Worker Skills - Just Beginning in 2008, Big in 2009 12 eLearning Predictions for 2009 "Self-Directed Learning" Increases eLearning 2.0 Grows - But Creating "eLearning 2.0 Strategy" Fails Corollary: if you have SharePoint installed, you will be using SharePoint a lot more this year. Increase in Consumer/Education Social Learning Solutions will Increase Pressure for Social Learning Solutions in Corporate Learning Quick Wins & Toolkits Virtual Classroom Tipping Point Greater Domination by Leading Tool Vendors Niche Tools Emerge and Get Traction in Niches More Wiki Pages - Same Authored Minutes - Less Classroom Minutes Knowledge Worker Skills Mobile Learning Niche Growth Top 10 eLearning Predictions for 2010 Hacking Work Convergence Ramps Up Big Time More, Lower Cost Learning Solutions (Low-Cost Test and Quiz Tool Comparison, Low Cost LMS) Social Learning Grows But Becomes More Specific Lots of SharePoint More Examples of Mashups and Add-ons to Extend Simple Self-Paced eLearning Major Merger LMS + Talent Management Vendors Turmoil in Learning Organizations Open Content Cloud Computing Predictions and Trends from Others Some predictions I've seen from other sources that I've selectively edited to make them short enough to easily consume. Horizons Report 2011 (PDF) Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less Electronic Books Mobile Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years Augmented Reality Game-Based Learning Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years Gesture-Based Computing Learning Analytics eLearn Magazine - Predictions for e-Learning in 2011 Lisa Gualtieri The Rise of Curation Charles Jennings Working and Learning Merge Roger Schank Death of 'You Will Need it Later' Harold Jarche Networked Learning Karl Kapp Dramatic Increase in Gamification Draconian Social Media Policies Killer Augmented Reality App Developed Saul Carliner Informal Learning Apps for the iPad and Similar Tablets Trend toward shorter programs Janet Clarey Personal videoconferencing, telepresence technologies, tablets, and integration with existing systems will drive innovation in Virtual Classroom Tools. Elliott Masie Learners as designers. Learning apps. Video galore. Rovy F. Branon Learning Management System App Stores Bob Little Apps, Not Courses Inge de Waard Augmented reality moves towards augmented learning with easy tools: Wikitude, Layar, ARToolKit... Situated learning (learning within context in a community of practice) grows thanks to augmented mobile reality. Virtual classrooms and smart-boards are used in a more student-centered way (not putting all the attention to one person up-front=bad). Tony Bates - eLearning Outlook for 2011 1. Course Redesign             We will see increasing efforts at redesigning courses to incorporate both online and face-to-face teaching 2. The Future is Mobile 3. Open Educational Resources Matures 4. More Multimedia 5. Learning Analytics 6. Shared Services between Institutions Manish Gupta - e-Learning Predictions for 2011 Live Online Training to Grow in India Birth of Motion Controlled Learning & Interactivity Performance Support Tools to Gain Adoption Outsourcing to Continue Growing  Gaming to Gain Momentum  LMS’s to Remain Primary Delivery Mechanism for e-Learning Glenn Hansen's 2011 predictions - 2011 - the year of collaboration Collaboration tools such as micro-blogging software (e.g. Twitter, Yammer), wikis, blogs, discussion groups, etc. open up exciting opportunities for people to access relevant information where and when they require it. The availability of cost-effective resources to facilitate wide collaboration (including open source software that enables wikis, discussion groups, chat and even web conferencing) presents the chance for organizations to reconsider the effectiveness of the performance support being offered to their people. Of course, you can’t look at learning in 2011 without mentioning mobile learning. Jon Aleckson - eLearning predictions for 2011 and beyond Just-in-time learning Greater access to information Peer coaching Cloud training Ability to reach those previously unreachable Tools allowing for easier collaboration and interaction Richer media experience (videos and simulations) Content repositories & Learning Object distribution and searchability  Movement away from static textbooks as primary resource Customized learning spaces, i.e. personal learning environments (PLEs) Customization of content presentation and access eReaders and eBooks providing better and more interactive content (just in time) Changing paradigm of "bounded courses" to unbounded courses where learning is a continuous process that can occur anywhere and at any time Sharing resources and co-producing content to reduce cost Informal learning, sharing own learning with others via internet (e.g. blogs, wiki) Nick Morris - 10 eLearning Predictions for 2011 2011 will finally see the end of Internet Explorer 6 The rise of mobile learning The rise of the 'robot teacher' Student adoption of Twitter The return of 'distance learning' Increased use of Twitter in teaching Increased use of Facebook in teaching The death of RSS The rise of the eText Book The launch of an 'email' killer VLEs will go cloud Predictions and Hopes for Elearning in 2011 Ellen Wagner, Executive Director, WCET Mobile learning in all of its rich and nuanced forms will finally become an obvious, self-evident solution for learning because we are finally focusing on meeting the needs of learners who are mobile. Analytics will be the buzzphrase of the year. Some Mobile Learning Predictions for 2011 Mobile learning will get its own identity. Investment in mobile learning will significantly increase. Mobile learning sub-disciplines will begin to emerge. Mobile learning development for tablets will become one of these sub-disciplines. Flash will still have an impact (at least in the area of mobile learning). 10 Predictions for 2011: Trends that Will Reshape the Training Industry Total spending for training services will increase by an estimated 7-9%. Training department staffing will grow by a modest 2%. Selective outsourcing continues to grow while comprehensive outsourcing will become less popular. The role of the learning leader is shifting from being a program manager to a solution architect. Learning technologies are becoming social, collaborative, and virtual. Speed will become the new mantra for training. Convergence of educational institutions to the supply chain of corporate training will change the supplier landscape. Learning content will be transformed for easier consumption. Success metrics for learning will be based on content access, views, involvement and downloads. Learning leaders will be more focused on relevancy of information. Learning Technology Trends To Watch In 2011 Growth of Social Learning To LMS or Not Pocket Video Technology Mobile iPad or Alt-Tablets Virtual Worlds Rising Up Augmented Reality Blogs eBooks QR Codes 5 Trends to Watch 4 in 2011 Lite LMS Extended Enterprise/Channel Product/Distributors Market Marketplaces & Exchanges by LMS/Learning Portal Vendors LMSs focusing more on the end user experience HTML5 &  Rapid Content Authoring Tools CLO Magazine - Five Trends in Learning Delivery 2011 Increased Fidelity of Experience Kiosk Learning Crowdsourcing for Learning Assignments Data Mining The LMS Adds Informal Learning Top 5 things I hope not to hear in 2011 Death by PowerPoint I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn Dear Twitter Learning styles don’t exist If Facebook were a country Enterprise mLearning Predictions for 2011 mLearning Engagements Expand. Device Diversity is the "New Normal" Mobile Apps Become Essential to Enterprise mLearning Pad/Tablet Use Explodes Authoring Tools Will Evolve Private Social Networks Win Over Public Market Consolidations Will Occur Here Come the Experts! New Features and New Possibilities My E-learning predictions and plans for 2011 #LCBQ 2011 Moving from the LMS to the workplace Form courses to nuggets and collaboration Disclosure of content: capturing context And still more: 2011 Predictions Reciprocity: The Word of 2011 Nuts and Bolts: 2011 Resolutions by Jane Bozarth Learning Circuits eLearning Trends 2011 Reflections on 2010 and Predictions for 2011 eLearning & mLearning: It's All Happening--And Faster Than You Think 2011: Integration Predictions for e-Learning in 2011 e-learning outlook for 2011 Looking at this another way, I went to eLearning Learning and looked at what were the keywords that arose based on eLearning Predictions 2011 and based on what were the keywords that were more active during the beginning of 2011 than in the past.  Here's what came up. iPad  Cornerstone OnDemand Plateau Saba  Augmented Reality  Cloud Computing  Analytics  Mobile Learning  GeoLearning  Performance Support  Outsource  Low Cost  iPhone  Learning Theory Creative Commons  Facebook  Portal  Learn.com  Leadership  eLearning Strategy  Knowledge Management  Voiceover  Obviously, the Cornerstone OnDemand is because of the IPO.  Others are actually are fairly instructive about what the current trends are in eLearning. My Predictions So with all of that as a lead up.  Here are my top 10 eLearning predictions for 2011. Prediction #1 => Growth of Working Smarter and Increase in the Schism Between Learning and Doing Organizations What do you call the combination of informal learning, performance support, social learning, providing help directly at the point of need, providing tools, access to peers/experts and the other kinds of techniques that can be used to improve business results but that are not training? Jay Cross talks about this in terms of Working Smarter: I don’t talk much about training or learning these days. The goal is achieving the outcomes you seek. How you get there is immaterial. Sometimes it’s easier to add smarts to the workflow (performance support) than to stuff things into people’s heads. I have reframed how I help organizations get things done. It may or may not involve learning. I call it working smarter. Jay has launched Working Smarter Daily that collects some of the best thinking on how people and organizations can work smarter.  Interestingly, it's Xyleme - an LCMS vendor that is sponsoring the site.  I find that interesting because clearly they see the need to capture and deliver information and support in new ways in organizations. While I like Jay's approach, I'm not sure that specific term will be embraced.  At the same time, we are struggling to find a term to describe how to describe this broader set of approaches.   In trying to come up with next month's #LCBQ, we specifically wanted to be able to name this. That said, I think it's clear in 2011 that there will be a growing schism between traditional training organizations that increasingly are marginalized and those that go after working smarter.  I think of this as the difference between those focused on learning and those focused on doing. Prediction #2 => Mobile Tipping Point You can see that my predictions for mobile were rather pessimistic in the past.  In 2008, I talked about how there would be "Continued Scattered Examples and Disappointment" In 2009,  I said we would see "Mobile Learning Niche Growth."  My belief is that mobile this year has reached a tipping point a bit like Virtual Classroom tools in 2009.  We have reached a time when there's a kind of ubiquity for access of content on new kinds of devices (cell phones, smartphones, tablets) and in places away from the home and office.  The explosion in the world of mobile learning (mLearning) is fueled by the numbers, but also by the need to provide new kinds of learning and support that can be used at the point of need.  When everyone has a mobile device with web access, clearly there are opportunities to provide content in new ways. We are seeing the beginning of lots of Mobile Learning tool offerings.  And I think there will be a wave of eLearning Startups that leverage mobile deliver as a differentiating factor. Prediction #3 => Curation Hot in 2011 Lisa Gualtieri predicted 2011 as "The Rise of Curation."  There are many people, especially those who come from the world of publishing that are calling 2011 the Year of Curation.  If you've not been hearing this term a lot already, you soon will. Why is Curation an "it" term in 2011? The answer is simple: Information Overload provides inherent opportunity for curation.  A great diagram is in Information Overload Paradox: The post talks about the issue of overload: I can certainly consume more content than I could two decades ago, but no matter how much content is available, I can’t consume much more. And relative to the sheer volume of content available to me, I’m actually consuming a smaller percentage every day. And talks to where they perceive to be the real opportunity: The real opportunity here, in my opinion, is to create - and curate - the best content focused on one specific area frequently enough that you become the one brand that consumers look to for this information. Publishers are clearly looking closely at this issue as the question is whether content creation provides as much value or is curation the real value creation.  I've argued that many training organizations and eLearning companies look and act like publishers.  In the Business of Learning, I asked: While training as a publisher of courses and courseware faces an increasingly challenging market, what other things can learning businesses successfully sell to internal or external customers? In a world where content creation is devalued, but where helping employees handle information overload is highly valued, there's a clear opportunity to look towards filtering and curation as a means to provide high value.  What does this mean for a learning (or more correctly a doing organization)?  It means that you will take on responsibility for getting into the flow and finding of relevant information to help people do their work. Prediction #4 => Text-to-Speech Growth Accelerates Watson (the IBM machine that beat humans on Jeopardy) shows us how intelligent machines can help answer certain kinds of questions.  One thing that I've not heard discussed as much is the voice recognition and text-to-speech of the application.   In the Fall of 2010, I did a series on Text-to-Speech in eLearning.  There were lots of folks who argued that human narrators produce better results.  And while that will remain true, the point is that there are lots of applications and eLearning scenarios where that simply won't make sense.  To achieve lower cost, faster time-to-market and to be able to support growing mobile access and specialized kinds of information access, I think we are going to see growth in the use of text-to-speech. Prediction #5 => Book Publishers Moving into eLearning I've really been struck over the past few months on the opportunity and need for traditional book publishers to move into new kinds of electronic publications.  In eLearning Startup Opportunities, I point to Chegg's acquisition of Cramster.  Chegg is roughly Netflix for textbooks.  Cramster provides interactive and social support to help students answer textbook questions.  The clear issue for Chegg is that textbooks will soon be delivered electronically.  The logistics aspects of the company becomes less important in that world.  But the opportunity is clear - create additional value on top of the text books and you will be a winner in the world of electronic text books. In the Business of Learning, publishers clearly needed to think about how they might go after specialized tools and content that meet particular industry or audience needs games and simulations web 2.0 approaches that leverage distributed content creation, social aspects as part of learning, collaborative learning and editing. Of course, a lot of traditional publishers will not be making this transition on their own.  Worse yet, there are many publisher who do not have the rights necessary on the content to be able to make this transition.  However, there's so much opportunity here.  I've been working on two different projects where books/publisher content was used as the basis of a startup where the content was used as the backdrop for tools. Prediction #6 => Content Creation - Rapid, Low-Cost are the Key in 2011 Many of the trends I've cited Curation and Publishers Moving into eLearning talk to the need to look beyond traditional content creation.  Looking to move upstream where possible.  What if you are still in the content creation business?  Well, despite the predictions by lots of other people that is listed above, I don't see a lot of sexy new things around content creation such as gaming.  Instead, my belief is that the discussion will be much more around rapid, low-cost content creation.  Closely related will be outsourced, especially off-shore content creation.  Production of content into eLearning is becoming much more of a commodity.  This is especially true when the content is more about compliance than performance. Prediction #7 => Video Takes Off It's been amazing to see how the bandwidth in most organizations finally reaching a point where video can be pushed out as part of our solutions.  It's also amazing how simple it is to capture video.  And video is close to being possible out to mobile devices.  Put this all together and video is going to really take off as part of learning solutions. Corollary => Open Source Video Technologies I'm dealing right now with delivery of video on mobile devices.  It's a mess.  There's clear need and opportunity.  I expect to see a lot of activity around this especially with things like Kaltura Raises $20M for Open-Source Video Technologies.  It's early for this technology, but I'm paying close attention to solutions that will enable video to be delivered much more like images. Prediction #8 => Lots of Discussion around Enterprise Gamification As you know, I'm big time into using social signals as a means of social filtering.  My belief is that this crowdsources aspects of curation.  With the growth of Facebook Like buttons, there are all sorts of new social signals going on.  This has real value for the enterprise.  But what's been interesting to see building over 2010 and early 2011, is the growing discussion around social games that relate to the enterprise. CubeDuel is Hot or Not for coworkers - basically making a game out of rating coworkers.  Combine this with LinkedIn Skills and you have an interesting way to rate everyone's skills. Badgeville allows you to add a social game layer onto your content. Rypple gives users the ability to create custom badges and, more importantly, define what they mean. My belief is that there are ways to allow interaction with content to provide greater engagement through gamification, social discovery, improved personalization.  I'm sure we'll hear a lot about it this year, but I'm not quite sure that it's going to be reality for most organizations.  Still I'm going to be reading closely things like: Enterprise 2.0: social scorecard and social media karma. I don't think this is going to have much impact in 2011, but it's a discussion that we are going to have.  And I'm not quite sure if gamification is what I want to talk about or more about automated curation and the socialization and personalization of content. Prediction #9 => Learning Analytics Hype Learning analytics, data mining came up several times in other predictions.  There is definitely a lot of interesting information that we have around our content, talent, learning, etc.  However, unless you can turn that into actionable information especially the kind of Data Driven learning solutions, then I'm not sure I buy that this will be much more than a neat thing to talk about and for vendors to sell.  My belief is that we'll hear a lot about it in 2011, but that by mid 2012 the focus will change to more actionable information related to doing. Prediction #10 => Augmented Reality not a Reality for Most Augmented Reality came up in several of the predictions I cited above.  Last year I posted: Augmented Reality for Learning that contains lots of great infromation about this topic and why many of us believe it is going to have big time long-term impact.  The automotive example where mechanics have a heads-up display with real-time support is in the context of the work is amazing.  Unfortunately, the reality is that most eLearning Professionals won't see any impact for several years.  Actually, the Horizon Report putting it at 2 to 3 years is probably optimistic at best.  Much like games for learning - I believe in the impact, but the amount of discussion is far greater than the reality of use. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

I just got off the phone with someone who has a fairly common need that I've heard before.  The needs are very similar to those in Rapid LMS and  LMS Solution for Simple Partner Compliance Training.  In this case, they are looking to provide their content as eLearning and sell it to individuals and organizations.  Key aspects: Individual eCommerce - someone can go on and buy the course just for themselves Group eCommerce - someone can go on and buy a block of courses that can be taken by people in their organization Pricing will need to be variable Group reporting - the person who bought for the organization should be able to see who's taken, completed, etc. Users will self-select their role which will take them to the appropriate version of a SCORM course Test at the end, pass or retake Provides certificate for the individual that they can print This all seems like pretty simple stuff right? What system would you use? Would you consider a marketplace solution for this?  Do any marketplaces provide the group eCommerce capabilities?  What are the tradeoffs of putting it up on a marketplace? I'd like to hear your suggestions and it would definitely be helpful to the person trying to solve this problem. Related posts: LMS Selection Process Low Cost LMS eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

LLAMA is everywhere! And now you can learn our Lot Like Agile Management approach in the November issue of TD at Work. The Association for Talent Development (ATD, formerly known as ASTD) publishes this very practical series every month, with techniques ready to implement. This month, it’s all about Agile. What’s really great about the state of Agile in the training industry is the newness of it all. We’re still in early adopter phase here, where a few people are putting it into action and finding out what works (and what doesn’t). And a whole lot of people are standing at the very edge of the sidelines poised to jump in. When we do find other Agile adopters out there, we have instant new friends on our Agile journey. What tools do you use? Are you XP or Scrum-based? How do you run your Kanban boards? What’s your estimating basis? It’ll be important for us Agile aficionados to help newcomers feel welcome into our world of jargon. That’s where publications like the TD at Work come in.

The official Star Wars Twitter account just dropped an incredible BTS video that was screened at this evening's Hall H panel. Enjoy! The post This New Star Wars: The Force Awakens Video Is Simply Incredible appeared first on WIRED.

One of the biggest cultural shifts that new team members at TorranceLearning face isn’t our casual-every-day dress code or the lack of enclosed offices. It’s not the open book finance or the daily sync up sessions. Nope. It’s our fearless estimating. We take an Agile project management approach to estimating: We break things down into small pieces. We estimate each piece with no padding, no "just in case," no safety margin. We communicate with each other when we know if the estimate is off. We don’t punish people who exceed their estimates. We thank them for letting us know. We communicate with amazing transparency with our clients. This article describes our approach to Fearless Estimating in some more depth. This takes new team members some getting used to. And it takes new clients some getting used to. But it’s all part of our very transparent approach to working with each other, and it’s essential to our ability to get great courses delivered to our clients on time, in budget, and just what they need.

One of our colleagues came to me with a particular challenge, and I'm not sure I have a good answer, nor do I know specifically how to go about finding an answer. I'm hoping that readers can weigh in on both aspects: (1) specific thoughts or suggestions on LMS products that might fit and (2) how do you get answers to questions like this? Continuing Education Requirements Requirement #1: The LMS needs the ability to apply multiple types of continuing education credits to a single course, have the user select multiple types of credits to obtain and print certificates with the appropriate wording for the desired credit(s). Use Case: Becky Bonds is an RN with the responsibility for coding the plan of care in her office. She has acquired HCS-D credentials and must complete continuing education to maintain the certification as well as nursing continuing education for her RN license. The LMS offers courses with both nursing and HCS-D credits. Before completing the course she indicates that she wants to obtain both the nursing credits and the HCS-D credits available on the Assessing and Coding Wounds course. After completion she is notified that she has passed the test and has access to 1 hour of credit for each type. She then prints her certificates. Requirement #2: The LMS needs the ability to enter expiration dates and approval codes into the credit records and assign owners to the record. The fields for the dates and codes must be printable on the certificate and the date must be able to trigger an expiration message to the credit owner. Use Case: The Assessing and Coding Wounds course was approved for HSC-D credits on April 22, 2010 with an approval code of BMSC-LHC1234 and an expiration date of April 22, 2011. Jennifer is the credit owner for the HCS-D credit and receives a reminder 90 days prior to the expiration date to reapply for another year. She sends off the request to the BMSC and receives the approval for another year with the approval code of BMSC-LHC2345. A new credit is created for the new approval period and applied to the course when the period starts. The old credit is retained with previous completions. Requirement #3: The LMS needs the ability to create customized, course specific evaluation/survey assessments that are required to obtain a completed status for the course. Use Case: Evaluations are required for the ability to offer nursing continuing education through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Each course with CE nursing credits must have completed, summarizable evaluations for review by the ANCC. Typical Gap Found The biggest gap is in the number of credits most LMS products allow on a course. Most of the ones we’ve looked at allow for one credit per course. We need to be able to put multiple credits of varying values on each course. And each of those credits must be tied to an approval code and expiration date. When the credit expires (usually after 1 or 2 years) we need to be able to update the credit. The value usually stays the same, but the approval code changes. However, we need to retain the older credit so that people who took it while it was in force still have access to the approval code for certificates. The value and approval code (and sometimes the date range for the validity) must be available to print on certificates. We like to be able to have the user print individual certificates based on their need. So they can either pick the certificate by discipline/CE board or it is automatically assigned based on something in their person record. Rather than having one certificate with multiple statements on it for however many credits the course has. Each board has a different statement they like you to put on the certificate. The other issue centers around offering course materials to field facilitators for them to present locally. But, we have to approve the facilitator before they can access the materials by reviewing a biographical data form (something like a resume) and a conflict of interest signature. It’s basically a workflow where a person in the field requests permission to teach a topic, an admin has to review their credentials against the course requirements and either approve or deny their access. There is other stuff around it too, but most LMS’s have restricted approval processes that go all one way or another (manager approval OR admin approval), not one where I can choose the approval workflow on a course - by - course basis. Solutions? Any suggestions on specific LMS products that should be evaluated? Does customization make sense? Have you had a similar issue and found a way around it? Getting Questions Answered This is probably not the right venue to ask this kind of question, but I couldn't think of any other good way/place to get this question addressed. In my LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers, I point out several ways that you can search for experts who might help you. But I did a quick search for things like LMS and continuing education and didn't really come up with people who I thought would be able to help. If you have this kind of question, how would you go about getting help? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

We might not know what's going on, but it sure looks Lost-y! The post Carlton Cuse Is Bringing Plenty of Lost To Colony appeared first on WIRED.

The first couple of responses to this month's LCBQ Addressing I Want it Now #LCBQ have come in and Kasper Spiro's caught my eye: On demand: agile e-Learning development #LCBQ.  Like Kasper, I'm very familiar with Agile in software development.  I was not as familiar with it in terms of eLearning development. So, I wanted to pull together some reading and resources around Agile eLearning, Agile ADDIE, etc. I found some amazing resources using eLearning Learning and via search: What Agile Means to Me- ID Reflections ADDIE isn't Dead; it's just more Agile- Integrated Learnings The Agile Elearning Design Manual - Of Project Spaces & Project Managers- The Learning Generalist Agile instructional design- Jay Cross's Informal Learning Agility and Autonomy- Learning and Working on the Web Designing for Agile Learning- Big Dog, Little Dog No time for design?- Making Change Agile, Lego and Training: The common factors.- ID Reflections Agile e-learning- Clive on Learning The Agile Elearning Design Manual - Agile Re-explained- The Learning Generalist I lost my agile virginity- Challenge to Learn Tackling Wicked Problems Using an Iterative Approach- ID Reflections Get Real: Mission Critical E-learning- Lars is Learning The Agile Elearning Design Manual - Why Synchronous Learning makes so much sense today- The Learning Generalist ADDIE isn't dead; how can it be?- Integrated Learnings The Agile Elearning Design Manual: Problems with existing approaches- The Learning Generalist The Agile Elearning Design Manual - Iterations huh?- The Learning Generalist Agility through collaboration- Learning and Working on the Web The Periodic Table of Agile Learning- Big Dog, Little Dog Harold Jarche » Instructional Design Needs More Agility- Learning and Working on the Web Orientation in Agile Learning Design- Big Dog, Little Dog Towards an alternative e-learning- Onlignment Agile Design: An Ethos for Creating Learning Platforms- Big Dog, Little Dog Planning in Agile Learning Design- Big Dog, Little Dog Selection in Agile Learning Design- Big Dog, Little Dog Iterations in Agile Learning Design- Big Dog, Little Dog Agile Learning Design: Tools for Learners- Big Dog, Little Dog Bonus Items Recommended by my Tweets Agility through collaboration Is ADDIE dead? Agile Instructional Design I'm still studying all of this to see whether I really buy that Agile methods will work.   Lots of my experience tells me that while we intended to be Agile, put something out and then update it.  It's the updating part that doesn't happen.  If Agile turns into rapid elearning, then we are back to Rapid eLearning Tools Debate. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

2014 was a big year for us in our Agile journey. No, we’re not any better at yoga, despite having a yogi in residence. No, 2014 was a big year for us because really set ourselves to sharing what we’ve learned with others. Generous Collaboration is one of our core values, you know.  Megan was out giving conference presentations & workshops at Training 2014, Learning Solutions, ATD’s ICE, Learning DevCamp, Online Learning, DevLearn. She worked with several clients to bring them custom in-house workshops, too. (And we’re hosting a workshop Feb 3-5 at our Clocktower Labs training space in Chelsea, MI.) And we wrote about it! Check out the links below to the year’s worth of articles and publications. The book! A Quick Guide to LLAMA: Agile Project Management for Learning You’ll find in short order that this book isn’t a how-to book. It’s a guide, a reference, a companion piece to your project management. Some of it applies to whatever project approach you’re using. Some of it is Agile-specific. As you go through the book, you will take the pieces that work for you and your project and make them your own. On Time. In Budget. What They Need (even if that changes!). That’s what you can expect as you implement LLAMA or any of the Agile project management approaches. What Does It Mean to Be Agile?   Agile project management is an approach for managing a creative project process, where team members accept and expect change throughout the life of the project. Here are the hallmarks of the agile process, and a way to begin learning how (and why) to put this effective, fluid approach to work for your eLearning development projects. Reconciling ADDIE and Agile   Many instructional designers know and use the linear ADDIE approach to development projects. At the same time, many are also aware of agile methods that offer significant flexibility and facilitate changes. Does a designer have to choose one or the other? Not really—and this article explains why. TD at Work: Agile and LLAMA for ISD Project Management The Agile methodology helps project managers respond to rapidly changing business requirements that can shift even before a project is complete. It guides you to better target the deliverables required to meet a project’s goals, fine tuning as necessary. A form of Agile, the Lot Like Agile Methods Approach (LLAMA), is designed specifically for instructional projects. Fearless Estimating: Agile Project Management Answers   We account for the unknown in project planning by padding our estimates of time and budget. Everyone does it, out of fear of the consequences of failing to meet commitments. A key shift necessary in adopting agile project management is to shed this mode of estimating the work at hand. Here is some expert advice on becoming fearless. The Secret of Better Project Management: Task Cards   Project management needs to be flexible, simple, and client-friendly. It must also accommodate client suggestions and designer inspirations after the project starts. While ADDIE summarizes the important steps in a systems approach to instructional design, it has trouble with common scope issues: task management, time, and budget. Task cards are a key innovation that resolves this. Better eLearning: Agile, LLAMA, and Lean   Agile project management and lean manufacturing influence many activities today. LLAMA (lot like agile methods approach) applies those two processes and instructional-design best practices to deliver effective eLearning. At the Learning Solutions 2014 Conference, we crowd-sourced ways to reduce waste in instructional design, and we present the results of that work here. All-Around Agility A combination of two or more distinct "agile" concepts could lay the groundwork for a highly successful training project.

You did want to see as many of those images from that Star Wars: The Force Awakens Comic-Con reel, right? The post 11 Stunning Shots From That Star Wars Video, Just Because We Love You appeared first on WIRED.

This month's #LCBQ is: How do you address the "I want it now!" demand from stakeholders? There are some great responses that can be found by visiting the link above. Corny 1986 line. :) Content Needs This is a very crude self-assessment, but I believe it makes an important point. If you are reading this, you are a knowledge worker. Consider the content (knowledge, information, learning) you personally need to get your job done. Draw a circle in each quadrant based on the amount (percentage) of the content that you need that's: Slow changing vs. fast changing. Will the content remain roughly the same for two years? Or will it really be out of date in two years? Large audience vs. small audience. Is the content I need applicable to a relatively large audience or do I have fairly particular needs? I did a crude version of this for myself and came up with the following: Definitely the vast majority of the time, I'm needing information that is relatively fast moving and is specific to the particular situations I face. In fact, often the information does really exist. Actually most of us that are Concept Workers will find that we play in that upper right quadrant most of the time. That said, there are some exceptions that I could think of. For example, I consume a fair bit of content that's around technology. There's a fair amount of it that has a pretty large applicable audience. Of course, most of it is pretty old news in two years time. There is some information around core technologies that will last longer. I also should point out that the information is more specialized all the time, meaning ever smaller audiences. So, that kind of information makes for Fast but Larger audiences. And when you consider the trends for most concept workers (knowledge workers), we clearly are heading towards faster moving content aimed at smaller audiences. Workplace Learning's Challenge Now let's put on the hat of someone in workplace learning. What's our ideal kind of content? Workplace Learning's ideal content: Slow changing and large audience How big is that circle? How is that circle doing for most knowledge workers? This isn't something new, it's just becoming more and more clear. I've discussed it in Disruptive Changes in Learning, Innovators' Dilemma in Learning/eLearning, Business of Learning, and Learning Performance Business Talent Focus. The reality is that we need to find ways to insert ourselves into the faster moving content and be able to change the dynamics to reach smaller audiences. These relate to speed. One of the nice things about the responses to this month's LCBQ is that they relate directly to speed even though they were not necessarily aimed at the bigger picture above. Responding to the Need for Speed I like where Glenn Hansen started his answer: Don’t assume that training is the answer. Even if some kind of training is reasonable, don’t assume the stakeholder in question has identified the right solution. And liked Glenn's point about what's required: Work up your material to the point where it conveys the skills and knowledge needed and where it is professionally presented and fit for purpose. Don’t chase perfection, because it’s more likely your information will be out of date by the time you have it ready. This is echoed quite a bit by the collection of Agile eLearning - 27 Great Articles that I pulled together previously. In terms of specific suggestions there are some real nuggets in several of the responses. Clive has some very good suggestions on speeding things up in The Big Question: How do you respond to the ‘I want it now’ demand?. Open Sesame's response similarly has some good ideas for rapid solutions. Jeff Goldman also has several suggestions for speeding the process or approach in his post: A Priest, A Rabbi and an Instructional Designer Are in a Bar and Identify a Training Need: A response to the #LCBQ." However, his punch-line struck me as defending slower processes: Oh, the priest, rabbi and instructional designer identified a training need, collaborated on designing an effective learning program which was not implemented until it was damn well ready to be implemented. It's fairly contrary to the rest of his more reasoned approach. And if the stakeholder hears slow moving training solutions as the response that won't be ready until it's "damn well ready." Well ... good luck with that. I also feel a bit the same way about Tom Gram's response that included: The best strategy is a preventative one. He's correctly arguing that you should try to cut off some of the problem at the pass, but the reality is that you should get yourself ready to be fast, agile or however, you want to describe it. So let me ask you ... do you feel the need? The need for speed? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Are you planning to be at the Association for Talent Development’s TechKnowledge conference this week in Las Vegas? Catch up with Megan and Michelle! Here’s a complete schedule of our events. See you there! Wednesday, January 14 TechKnow Expo - Stop by and say hi! We’ve even got a life size replica of our Lego project planning board! 9:00 AM - 6:30 PM | Augustus Ballroom W204 - Using Tin Can (xAPI) and RFID to Create Personalized Interactive Learning 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Milano I/II | Session Description | Add to my TK planner app Book Signing - Quick Guide to LLAMA: Agile Project Management for Learning (or just a really good excuse to get together and talk about Agile) 2:00 PM -2:30 PM | ATD Bookstore | Book | TD at Work   Thursday, January 15 TechKnow Expo - Stop by and say hi! We’ve even got a life size replica of our Lego project planning board! 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM | Augustus Ballroom TKChat 3 - TK Chat - Practical Uses of xAPI 9:15 AM - 10:00 AM | Expo Augustus | Session Description | Add to my TK Planner app E-Learning Check-Up 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Expo Augustus | Session Description

As Bruce Campbell himself said, the Starz series will be "like Full House, but with carnage and mayhem." The post Ash vs. Evil Dead Will Be A Bloodbath For the Ages appeared first on WIRED.

I had an interesting conversation with Patrick Randolph from TalkWheel about different kinds of asynchronous conversation models that are emerging and how they might fit into broader eLearning Initiatives.  Particularly we focused on the implications of TalkWheel, Quora and Namesake.  Below I've captured aspects of our conversation (interestingly enough done via email - how old school).  This post represents thinking from both of us that I've edited heavily to make it more easily consumed here in the blog.  There's obvious value in bringing the classroom collaboration dynamic to online learning.  We see some of this dynamic when we run webinars and have chat.  We also see it in twitter (see  Twitter for Learning).  The main issue with these is that the primary value is in the real-time nature.  While Twitter is asynchronous, it's not easily used as other kinds of tools for discussion. The standard model for asynchronous conversations is discussion forum software like vBulletin.  I've talked before about the significant value that can be obtained as part of Discussion Forums for Knowledge Sharing at Capital City Bank and how that translates in a Success Formula for Discussion Forums in Financial Services.  I also looked at Making Intranet Discussion Groups Effective. However, I've struggled with the problem of destinations vs. social networks and the spread of conversation (see Forums vs. Social Networks).  Because of that I've been watching closely what's happening with various tools that have different ways of supporting asynchronous conversation models.  There are some new tools emerging that have a different take. Talkwheel  is made to handle real-time group conversations and asynchronous ones.  It can act as an instant messaging service a bit like Yammer, HipChat for companies and other groups, but the layout is designed to make these discussions easier to see, archive, and work asynchronously.  Because of the ability to attach documents, it can act like a collaboration platform.  Each comment made within a thread appears as a tiny circle next to the name of the person who made the comment, and is linked by arrow to the person to whom the comment was made. The comments are also stacked and color-coded on the right side of the screen for reference.  This organization makes the conversation seem more like a roundtable discussion.  Patrick tells us: Talkwheel’s design makes class conversations easier to follow, more interactive, and more effectively organized. It eliminates the problem of navigating multithreaded conversations, enables real-time group conversation, and makes referencing asynchronous conversations much easier. Talkwheel’s dashboard organization allows teachers to organize all their classes and projects in one centralized location, while Talkwheel's analytics helps teachers and administrators quantitatively monitor their students’ progress throughout the year. Talkwheel’s collaboration platform is a new way of bringing students together in a way that is conducive to the group needs of online learning. In addition to e-learning, Talkwheel helps enterprises improve productivity and communication both internally and externally and allows users to organize their social and professional networks in an effective manner. It can be tried for free at Talkwheel.com. Quora is a Q&A site nicely integrated with Facebook that has done a good job providing a means to ask questions and get answers.   Each Quora answer is rated by users until the most popular answer is found.  You can see a question below that had 16 answers provided by some pretty good folks and the top answer had 586 votes. The answers are then used to provide valuable information to Quora users and the rest of the web. Quora has been able to form quite an elite network of VCs, entrepreneurs, and other experts to answer questions.  They've also created topic pages such as: Learning Management System.  It collects questions answer answers on that particular topic - you'll notice that there's not much expertise flowing around eLearning topics. Finally, Namesake, is a tool for real-time and asynchronous conversations.  It's a bit like Quora but more focused on conversation as compared to Q&A and it allows real-time conversation a bit like twitter.  You can see an example of a conversation around phones below. Like Quora, the goal is to build a network of user selected experts to provide valuable information to users. Within Namesake, any user can create topics of conversation for real-time chat and can follow conversations. Unlike Quora, Namesake is designed for real-time chats very similarly to the AIM Chat Rooms of old. New comments are stacked on top of the most recent one, updates are done in real-time, and chats are organized by high-level subject. TalkWheel has taken a very different approach to its conversation model and is definitely aimed at smaller groups.  I think that each conversation model has it's place and TalkWheel is more competitive with forum software but a much different visual model.  Quora and Namesake are more trying to address the conversation from social networks issue. All of these point to new types of conversation models that are emerging in tools. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Are you planning to be at the Learning Solutions Conference & Expo, March 25-27 in Orlando? Catch up with Megan! Here’s a complete schedule of her events. Hope to see you there!   Tuesday, March 24 P08 - Using Agile Project Management for eLearning 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM | Session Description | Add to my LSCon planner app     Wednesday, March 25 F01 - Bridging the Gender Gap 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM | Session Description | Add to my LSCon planner app 305 - Managing Data-driven Learning Projects 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Session Description | Add to my LSCon planner app     Thursday, March 26 Morning Buzz (MB16) - Agile Project Management 7:15 AM - 8:15 AM | Session Description | Add to my LSCon planner app 608 - Adopting Agile Requires a Culture Change - Are You Ready? 2:30 PM AM - 3:30 PM | Session Description | Add to my LSCon planner app Book Signing - Quick Guide to LLAMA: Agile Project Management for Learning (or just a really good excuse to get together and talk about Agile) 12:15 PM -12:45 PM | ATD Bookstore | Book | TD at Work