In my latest post for ATD, I show you how to apply more than two decades of research in the fields of applied linguistics and second language learning strategies to e-learning design. Check it out here!Filed under: mLearning

My first post on Dribbble.Filed under: mLearning

On Tuesday 11th March at 8:00pm AEDST (UTC +11hrs), @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. The topic for the chat is based on this article written especially for OzLearn by Jonathan Kettleborough (@JKettleborough): Why L&D can’t ignore alignment anymore. The chat will be moderated by Helen Blunden (@ActivateLearn) and the questions will be around how aligned L&D is to business. To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 11/3, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets). There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards. Hope you can join us for the chat!

At a recent L&D Meetup, we were talking to each other about what we’d been working on since we last caught up. A couple of friends were discussing changes to the Privacy Act and the e-learning courses that have been developed to communicate these changes to the employees in their respective workforces. The industries I’m talking about here are finance and insurance so I’ve no doubt each of the Legal Departments have been frantically enforcing the necessary amendments to the systems/policies/procedures across each organisation. It also sounded like the e-learning modules contain everything there is to know about the privacy legislation! They were saying that there hadn’t been too much direct focus on privacy for a while but these changes had breathed some life back into the area and now it was more urgent to make people ‘aware’. I was reflecting on this on the weekend (actually, I was vacuuming my place at the time and I was thinking about the night before) and I know these legislative/compliance type topics are generally quite dry - although it’s no excuse to blame your content  - and normally compliance means that employees will be ‘forced’ to complete the learning. So, we’re already on the back-foot because most employees won’t really want to do it to begin with. This highlighted to me two important and often neglected areas of learning design - motivating people and sustaining the learning afterwards. Motivation I’ve written a couple of posts about motivation and Ryan and Dec’s self-determination theory (SDT) of motivation before. At this point feel free to do one or more of the following: Click here and here to read the previous posts. Keep reading this post for a summarised version of the previous posts and some strategies for improving motivation in e-learning. Scroll down to the Sustaining the Learning section. Essentially, the SDT focuses on the degree in which behaviour is self-motivated and self-determined. We all have three basic psychological needs: Autonomy (a sense of being in control and having freedom) Competence (a sense of being able to do something), and Relatedness (a desire to be associated or connected to others). Contexts that satisfy these needs will result in more sustained motivation over time. If we apply this theory to e-learning and we use strategies to support these needs in the design of the course, we can improve learner motivation even if they are required to complete a course by their organisation. How can this be achieved in practice? Here are five examples, with some practical applications that I came up with: 1. Give people some control as they work through the module or course. Let them choose how they navigate through the course Give the option to skip parts that they already know Provide opportunities to explore different parts of the course. 2. Allow people to make meaningful choices and pursue challenging goals Use branching scenarios that have consequences for decisions made Increase the difficulty of challenges as the person works through a topic Offer rewards based on challenges completed rather than screens visited. 3. Provide opportunities for collaboration between learners Get people working together on tasks/activities that help develop competence Provide topic discussion areas and space to share resources or to ask questions. 4. Keep the stakes low and allow practice Provide multiple opportunities to apply the material they are learning to context specific situations Give them time to repeat practice activities until they succeed Provide tools and aids that can be used during the course and then back on the job. 5. Provide regular, meaningful feedback throughout the learning experience Let people know how they are going and where they are up to Motivation is important in any learning experience. If we can help satisfy the psychological needs of our people, we can improve their motivation towards the course they are completing even if they have to complete it. Sustaining the Learning Often when we complete an e-learning course (or classroom course, for that matter) it’s confined to a defined period of time. There may be a build up to the course but then once learners complete it, and are deemed ‘competent’ it’s back to work. Move on. They’ve been trained. The box has been ticked. Sustaining the learning after an event, be it online or classroom, presents a real opportunity for us in L&D. All too often, in my experience, after people complete a learning event they go back to work and it’s business as usual. Surely we can do more to sustain what has been delivered and bring about some meaningful change? If we just do things once in a course, it will be forgotten if the information is not reinforced. Last year, I read some interesting blog posts by Craig Taylor who implemented a campaign approach to compliance training in an organisation he worked for. I thought this was a wonderful idea so I floated doing something similar with our compliance program to our risk and compliance officer. It hasn’t been done before in my organisation and the good news is that I’m getting support from others and things are building (I’ll write a dedicated post about it in the next month or so). Using social tools and creating opportunities for networking and sharing knowledge are other powerful ways that can sustain learning over the longer term. Maybe if we did this, we wouldn’t need so many courses? How do you motivate your people towards learning and sustain it afterwards in your organisation?

learningsnippets:This is an amazing post from Andrew. Everyone working in the Learning and Development space should read it. Change is not always easy but it’s up to us to make it happen if we truly want to add value. Originally posted on Lost and Desperate: Photo Credit: tashland via Compfight cc I was struck by a post on the always interesting TeachThought again yesterday.  I’ve referenced their work before and the post didn’t just impact on me; Jane Hart also saw it and in the spirit of celebrating the positive, this post is my nod to what they’ve done.. The post lists 50 ‘crazy’ ideas to change education. Some easily transfer across to workplace L&D, some not so much. What I’ve done is use them as the basis of a new list of 50 big ideas. Our task is to take those 50 ideas and explain how and why we can/have/should make it happen. Alternatively, why they shouldn’t. So, the big 50… Make connectivity and sharing a catalyst for all learning. Stop claiming every person will be competent. Have people design their own quality criteria, and develop frameworks to help them understand… View original 686 more words

These were the two messages that stood out over three days in Sydney at the iDesignX Australian Instructional Design Conference (21st March) sponsored by B Online Learning & Articulate the eLearning Design Workshops with Tom Kuhlmann and David Anderson (22nd and 23rd March). I was fortunate to attend the sessions in Sydney last week and for me it was a dream come true to not only be in the same room as Tom and David but to hear and learn directly from them (I also got to meet them which was an incredible experience and a real highlight too). Practice As someone with a keen interest in learning generally, but eLearning in particular, I’m always looking to other experienced people in the learning field to find out how I can improve my own skills and knowledge. While it would be great if there was a magic pill you could swallow and voila! you’d be transformed into an eLearning whizz, the reality is that when you look at anyone who is successful in their field, the one thing they have in common is a commitment to developing their skills over a period of time. Tom and David are no exception to this. Over the years they have worked on many projects but they also make time to experiment and try new things. The speakers at iDesignX also showed that they have put in a lot of effort over the years to get to where they are today. Tip: a good place to start practicing your eLearning skills is in David’s Weekly Challenge. You can also learn more about building great eLearning courses at Tom’s Rapid eLearning blog. Sharing Tom and David are role models when it comes to sharing. Their jobs at Articulate along with their travel schedule must keep them extremely busy. However, they are extremely generous with their time and have a great willingness share what they know, provide advice and help anyone who needs it. It’s something all learning professionals can learn from and do more of. So, in the interests of sharing, here’s firstly what I took away from iDesignX (you can also check out all the tweets at #iDesignX): "Instructional design is about crafting the appropriate learning experience. We need to reframe content so that it’s meaningful and relevant. Then we need to give learners something to think about and have them make decisions." Tom Kuhlmann - VP Community at Articulate "Tips when using virtual training: prepare and support participants, consider cognitive load, design for different levels of engagement, have learners interact often, support facilitators, pilot the training and test, test, test, test." Brenda Smith - Medibank Health "When using video in learning experiences, authenticity is very important." Mark Parry - Parryville Media "Clean and balance (in graphic design) creates stability and can direct learner focus." Minh Nguyen - DEEWR "Using curation for learning design > collect, filter, evaluate, arrange, present, distribute." Anne Bartlett-Bragg - Ripple Effect Group "Before you gamify your eLearning course, make sure it meets the learning objectives." Ruth McElhone - B Online Learning "Learning experiences should be meaningful, memorable and motivating." Ruth McElhone - B Online Learning "Using video for manual or process tasks shows the correct way to do something." Tony Nye - Australian Red Cross Blood Service "Pictures clarify words and stories add context to content." Blair Rorani - Ever Learning BTW this is the ninja I drew during Blair’s session: "What makes an industry pro? Experience; Skills (practice your craft); Authority and Luck." Tom Kuhlmann - VP Community at Articulate "Luck is where opportunity and preparation meet." Tom Kuhlmann - VP Community at Articulate "You need to be proactive and look for opportunities. Sharing expertise creates opportunities." Tom Kuhlmann - VP Community at Articulate And from the workshops with Tom and David: On using PowerPoint for eLearning: PowerPoint is a really good tool to create an interactive eLearning course. While you can’t do everything that an authoring tool does, hyperlinking from one slide to another can create the feel of an eLearning course. PowerPoint is also handy for creating and editing graphics, just look at this photo frame I created using edit points and soft edges: Also, what I was able to do by modifying clipart images (before on left, after on right): On designing an eLearning course: Ask yourself: What content needs to be in the course? What is the right look and feel? What is the learner supposed to do? Be intentional, stick with a consistent design and don’t settle for defaults (colours, fonts etc.) On eLearning makeovers: Review the five common components of eLearning courses: Text - should be from the same font family Elements - the goal is unity not uniformity Colours - use colour for contrast and emphasis Background - it should contribute to the visual and not dominate People - if you use characters maintain unity On interactivity: Interactivity connects the user to content. There are two types of interactivity: Touch - the learner interacts with the screen (by clicking, dragging or hovering) Decision - the learner interacts with the content. On Learning Objectives: When thinking about learning objectives, ask yourself: Who is the learner? What is the situation? What do you want them to do? How can they prove it? On building interactive eLearning: Know your tools - don’t build clunky courses Create relevant content Use stories for learning especially if there’s a lot of content Remember the 3 C’s: Challenge the learner Give them choices Have consequences for decisions There were at least a couple of hundred people at the conference and about 80 people each day at the workshops. If everyone incorporates just one or two of the things they learned into their eLearning courses the quality would certainly improve. But if everyone also shared what they’ve learned with others in the field, it would help to improve even more courses and contribute to building a strong community of learning professionals! All in all it was a great three days of learning from the best in the field and also chance to meet lots of people that I’d only known via Twitter and make the physical connection. Let’s follow Tom and David’s example by practicing our skills and sharing what we know so that we can develop ourselves as well as others. If you went to the conference and/or the workshops what did you learn and have you shared it yet? Footnote: This post originally appeared on the B Online Learning website.

On Tuesday 8th April at 8:00pm AEST (UTC +10hrs), @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. The topic for the chat is based on this article written especially for OzLearn by Jonathan Kettleborough (@JKettleborough): Alignment Requires Clarity The chat will be moderated by Tanya Lau (@TanyaLau) and the questions will be around the need for L&D to have clarity about the business in order to be aligned with the business. To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 8/4, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets). There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards. Hope you can join us for the chat!

The Showing My Work series of posts are what I’m using to ‘narrate’ the projects that I’m working on or have developed. In a previous post, Practice and Sharing: The Keys to Success, I talked about the two key messages from the from the iDesignX Conference and the Tom Kuhlmann and David Anderson workshops I attended in March. With this in mind, I decided that I’d make more effort to participate in David’s weekly eLearning challenges to help build my skills through practice. This post is about a recent challenge I completed and I wanted to share how I came up with my entry and what I learned along the way. The challenge for the week was Summary and Resource Slides in Online Courses and the idea was to give some love to the very end of the course. My initial reaction was that I didn’t think that there was much you could do at all with the last screen of the course! But I went back to the challenge a few days later and looked at the entries that community members had started to post and I thought about what the summary screen represents which is the end of the course. So I started to think about things that symbolise coming to the end of something. The ideas that came to mind were - getting to the finish line of a race or a sunset ending a day or a plane that is coming into land and you have to put your seat and tray table up and stow items in the overhead locker. In the back of my mind I was also thinking about how I could make these themes work on-screen and how the learner would interact with them. I was looking around for some graphics and more inspiration, when I came across an image of some candles and I thought that could work - as the learner ‘blows out’ a candle, a resource, some takeaway info or job aid could be displayed. That was ok but it still wasn’t quite right, it wasn’t enough. Then I thought, while the summary screen is a way to finish the course it’s also an opportunity to give learners something to take away from the module, so what about a party theme? If it was your birthday party, you’d probably receive some presents and in this case the presents become the takeaways - resources, contact details and some additional info. As you click on each present a layer appears and as the layer is closed the present disappears as it’s been ‘opened’. I ended up keeping the candle idea too. Once all the candle flames are clicked on or ‘blown out’ a final layer appears indicating that it’s the end of the module. I built my demo in Articulate Storyline on one slide and used layers and changes of state to achieve the interactivity. The images were from clipart and I created a colourful background that ties in with the party idea. Before I went to the workshops I had seen the weekly challenges and sometimes I thought that they’re not really that relevant because when am I going to do something like that in a project? The same could be said for the above example, would you really end a module with a cake and presents? But it’s more than that. On reflection, there were a few things I took away from this challenge: I was able to apply what Tom had shown us in the workshop by taking a clipart image (the cake), separating into pieces, removing the parts I didn’t need and saving the flames as individual images. I worked out that I could show a layer in Storyline once other objects were hidden (in this case, when the flames were hidden the exit button layer would appear). It helped me to think about the summary screen in a way that I ordinarily wouldn’t have. I was able to participate in a challenge and learn from the ideas of others in the community. While the challenges are a bit of fun, they do provide a mechanism for practicing and improving your technical skills and developing your creative skills which is just what I need. You can also see how others approached the same challenge and what they came up with, which can lead to building on ideas or finding new ways to solve problems or to designing a part of a course in a different way from what you’d normally default to. Maybe you can have your eLearning cake and eat it too! See also Tom’s blog post about building better courses.

I’ve recently started to play golf. It’s not the first time I’ve ever tried it, I’ve played the game a few times in the past but found it to be a frustrating experience. This time though I plan to stick with it, practice and not just rely on visualisation and thinking positive thoughts! When I went for my first coaching session (I received four sessions as a gift), the golf pro Andrew, brought out his iPad and asked me to hit a ball while he filmed me. Then we sat down and had a look at the footage. He drew a green line on the screen to see how I was positioned as I hit the ball (which turned out to be not too bad). He was also able to break down my swing into chunks - setting up, backswing, coming down and follow through and give me pointers about each. After some time spent practicing, he filmed me again. Then we talked about how it was different. After the session Andrew e-mailed me the following summary of what we discussed: Set up: 1) Left thumb down the centre of the grip. 2) Right thumb relaxes over. 3) Feet together. 4) Little step with your left then big step with your right. Swing: 1) Position 1 (as shown below). 2) Position 2 (as shown below) thumbs to the sky. 3) Position 3 (as shown below) right heel up. Keep running through your routine over and over to achieve consistent results. Even though you can see the direction of the ball, I can tell you that it went perfectly straight! What I find particularly useful about this approach was that it didn’t just rely on someone telling me what needed correcting but that he could show me where I needed to improve and I could also see it for myself. Afterwards, I was thinking how this approach might be useful for workplace learning and an obvious application would be a task that requires a particular technique, for example lifting something safely. You could do something similar to what Andrew did, film a before and after with some instruction in-between along with some follow-up afterwards. A few years ago I went to a training session on facilitation skills and one of the remarks that has stayed with me is ‘people can’t argue with their own data’. In that context it was referring to having the people in the room generate content/ideas during the session that you can come back and refer to later. Filming me as I hit a ball also provides content that I can’t argue with. I can see what I’m doing correctly and incorrectly and make the necessary adjustments with some coaching. While you can watch others using video, say in a scenario or for compliance, it’s also possible for you to be the star of the show. How do you use/have you used video in your workplace?

Blunder: a stupid or careless mistake. Alternative words: mistake, error, gaffe, fault, slip, oversight, inaccuracy, botch. This post was inspired by David Anderson’s eLearning challenge: Death, Taxes and E-Learning Mistakes. The purpose of the challenge was to highlight blunders found in eLearning courses and Articulate Community members provided many great examples of what not to do. I wanted to bring these examples together and share them here (just in case you haven’t seen the challenge). I’ve taken the blunders identified and grouped them into categories. Layout: Double branding of screens. Split attention (having to combine information together to make sense of it). ‘Previous’ button on the first slide and ‘Next’ button on the last slide. Many different backgrounds. All slide space filled. No contrast. No reuse of design elements (e.g. titles are all different). Poor positioning of screen elements. Menu items in the wrong order. Terrible, eye-searing colour scheme. Timing issues e.g. characters/photos appearing on-screen at the same time, when that wasn’t the intention. No way to exit a layer. Being able to click on buttons on the base layer while viewing a layer. Branding the course with company logo on every slide. Redundant/confusing navigation. Poor alignment of screen content. Inconsistent use of colours. Text: Poor grammatical construction. Long lines of text. Bloated wording. Inconsistent font types. Spelling mistakes. Using words that don’t actually exist. Incorrect punctuation. Tacky font choices (e.g. Chiller and Curlz MT). Colour choices that make some of the text almost impossible to read. Font choices/sizes that are difficult to read. Too many exclamation points and ellipses. Sizing on the bullets for bulleted lists. Small text that is all jammed together making it hard to read. Images: Using decorative graphics. Images copied from iStock and have the watermark on them. Random, dated clip art. Cropped characters that appear to float. Meaningless pictures. Images that are various styles. Overlapping images. Stretched images. Audio: Bad voiceover that fades in and out with background noise. Monotonous tone of voice. Poor soundtrack. Text-to-speech narration giving the course a robotic feel. Animation of text and objects are poorly synchronized to the audio. Video: Media/content that makes no sense. General: Repeating the same information via different modes. URL’s that don’t work. Closed caption that lags behind the spoken word. Link / 404 errors. Resources button that does not work. No attention to detail. Overuse of animation. Boring content dump followed by a quiz. Way to much instruction for how to use the course. Default quiz and feedback slides. Courses that are excessively long. Elements like the Resources tab turned on even thought there are not resources.   Some of the Community members (including myself) put together or shared some samples that show the types of errors listed above. Click here to view them. In a recent blog post, Jonathan Kettleborough talked about some eLearning errors that really give this form of learning a bad name. He referred to the mediocrity of some courses that he has completed because they contain errors that should have been picked up before the course was released. The post is definitely worth reading. Many of these blunders can be overcome by a thorough quality assurance process and piloting of the course before release - maybe a checklist of items to look for would help? The others require eLearning professionals to develop their skills and knowledge into how people process information and also how to design for the online environment. I hope that by bringing these types of blunders out into the open, we can make a conscious effort not to keep making mistakes that result in a poor user experience and generally give eLearning a bad name. As people involved in creating eLearning, let’s eliminate blunders in our courses! What are some eLearning blunders that you’ve come across?

On Tuesday 13th May at 8:00pm AEST (UTC +10hrs), @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. The topic for the chat is based on the third article in a series written especially for OzLearn by Jonathan Kettleborough (@JKettleborough): Alignment Requires Consistency The chat will be moderated by Con Sotidis (@LearnKotch) and the questions will be around the need for L&D to be consistent with the needs of the business. To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 13/5, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets). There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards. Hope you can join us for the chat!

A couple of weeks ago, I began the Master eLearning Course (MEC) that is run by B Online Learning and over the next three months along with the rest of my cohort we will design, deliver and facilitate an eLearning course. I find that eLearning courses fall into one of two categories, either stand-alone modules developed in an authoring tool (which is usually what I create and develop) or ones like the MEC that are facilitated by a person, a Learning Coach in this case, over a period of weeks or months. I’ve had some experience of this type of facilitated online delivery as a participant and it has generally consisted of a list of resources to be read, activities to maybe complete and very little contact from the facilitator. However, this not how the MEC operates, the structure is clear and defined and the support has been terrific. Our group is also fortunate that our Learning Coach is Ruth McElhone who is very experienced in this form of design and delivery. She’s like the Obi-wan Kenobi of online facilitators (with Princess Leia looks) and by the end of the course I’m sure our group will become eLearning Jedi. MEC combines the use of Articulate Storyline modules within the LearnFlex LMS that also has discussion forums and other places to interact and share with students via Connect. So far, there’s been a good amount of information delivered in a variety of ways. Interaction is encouraged and rewarded by using gamification to motivate us to reach ‘Contributor’ status. There are also plenty of resources to download and refer to later depending on what you want to learn more about. One of the strengths of MEC is that even though it’s mapped to two Units of Competence from the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, it doesn’t have the feeling that we are just working through the elements and performance criteria of each unit that you get from other VET courses. My initial thoughts are that it’s a great course for those who are new to the world of eLearning design and development. MEC lays a good foundation in these areas and while I do have some eLearning instructional design experience, I haven’t been bored and if anything it’s been a good refresher. I wish I had done this or something similar earlier in my eLearning career. Already in the first module of the course we’ve looked at rapid eLearning, scoping a project, stakeholders involved, copyright, health and safety, learner characteristics, accessibility, authoring tools, Learning Management Systems, SCORM and eLearning development teams. There’s a lot to take in but like any form of study you need to dedicate time and effort into learning and developing your knowledge and skills. It’s self-paced so you can complete the topics in your own time and as much or as little as you like. I believe that it’s also beneficial to get involved in the discussions and sharing with others in the group. Not because you have to as part of the course but because that’s what helps to build and sustain a community of professionals long after the course is finished. I’m looking forward to what the next few weeks have in store and as well as sharing the development of my own eLearning course. This is the first of a series of posts describing and reflecting on my experiences of the Master eLearning Course by B Online Learning.

The Showing My Work series of posts are what I’m using to ‘narrate’ the projects that I’m working on or have developed. In the spirit of Work Out Loud Week #WOLweek and because it’s been a while since I’ve written a Showing My Work post, I thought it was time to jump in and share some stuff that I’ve done over the past few weeks. I’ve participated in a few of David Anderson’s eLearning challenges now and I’m enjoying connecting with other terrific designers, being inspired by what they create and share as well as developing my own skills. In this post, I wanted to share how I created three recent challenge activities using Articulate Storyline. Tabs Interaction This challenge was about creating an interaction using tabs (like the tabs in a folder or book). The beauty of tab interactions in eLearning is that they allow learners to choose which parts of the course they want to complete. While I did create a very basic tab interaction at the end, I took this challenge on a bit of a tangent to begin with by playing on the word ‘Tab’. Firstly, I took an image of the Tab key from a keyboard and using layers, the image would move or tab across the screen each time it was clicked. Secondly, I created a screen with a fridge and cans of Tab Cola in them. Each time you take a can from the fridge (by clicking on it), a fact about Tab cola appears in the fridge door. I created the fridge using standard shapes found in Storyline and used a picture of a fridge as a guide. You can view my Tabs Interaction by clicking here. Meet the Theorists This challenge was about creating an interaction that introduces an instructional design principle that could be used by someone new to the field. Typically, what you’d see is the image of the theorist along with information about them and their research or discovery. This type of content can be a bit dry so I wanted to make it more interactive. I started with three theorists and found an image of each. Then I added picture frames that have a question inside them and the learner drags the image of the theorist and places it in the frame to reveal some information about them. Again I used a layer, one for each response (nine layers in total) along with the drag and drop interactivity. You can view my Meet the Theorist submission by clicking here. Interactive Step Graphics The objective of this challenge was to bring a sequence of steps in a process to life. I wasn’t sure about this one and almost didn’t participate but I saw a fridge magnet that had the steps to DRABCD, which is an emergency response acronym. When I read the steps, I was thinking about imagery and I wanted to do something different so I decided to take my own photos. Instead of using real people, I borrowed some Lego from my nieces and then using my iPhone I took the images myself. The photos were taken on our kitchen bench. I positioned the characters into positions to represent each step. You can view my Interactive Step Graphic by clicking here. Reflections All three challenges are different and I did some things I hadn’t done before - using the play on words in a fun way, involving the learner with some dry content and taking my own images for use in a module. I’ve said in other Showing My Work posts that I do struggle at times with look and feel as well as being creative but by making time to participate in the challenges, I’m learning to think differently in my approach to creating eLearning. It needs to be more than just presenting content to learners, there needs to be interactivity. What they also show is that you don’t always need big budgets to create an interactive piece of eLearning. You can see more eLearning challenges and other community members showing their work by clicking here and some have written blogs too!

It’s been several weeks since my last post about B Online Learning’s Master eLearning course that I’m working through. We’ve moved through the second module and covered chunking content, writing for eLearning, using simulations, interactivity, checking for understanding just to name a few. I can’t believe that we’re well over half-way time is moving so quickly. In this second stage of the course we were to develop a piece of eLearning that can be for use in your workplace if you want it to be. I’m not going down that path because I want to develop a sample for my portfolio of examples and to also tap into the expert guidance we have available during the course. While this will be beneficial for me, my brief is effectively "create a small piece of eLearning on any topic you choose" which is kind of daunting. Along with the topic, I needed to create a bit of a backstory as well - learner characteristics etc. so, as I have an interest in craft beer and brewing so I thought I’d go with that and I might learn a bit more about the topic too. I also wanted to showcase some of what I can do in terms of design and use of Storyline. When I’m putting a module together I like to take a pen/pencil and write my ideas down on paper. I jot down random thoughts and think about how the module might look in terms of images, the theme of the course, anything really. While it looks a bit messy, it does help me to clarify my thinking and get my ideas down.   In the MEC we’re using PowerPoint to create our storyboard which is ok, and although I’ve used Word in the past this way works well too and it’s clear how the screens will be set out. I found that storyboarding in ppt was great for a couple of reasons - the SME gets a much better idea about how the course will look and also because you can get some of the decisions about layout sorted earlier in the development process. I found that using Master slides saved heaps of time and I’m loving using them! Here are some of my screens from the PPT:   Once the storyboard was completed I sent it to Ruth for some feedback. What I liked about the feedback I received was that it was both positive and constructive. It was detailed for some screens and Ruth offered some great suggestions for improvement that I have since incorporated. I’ve now built the module in Articulate Storyline and here are some samples screens from the finished product: This screen is my ‘Home’ page. I have four topics, each is a different area of the pub that learners go to - The Cellar is about beer and brewing, The Bar is about pouring beer and using the right glass, The Lounge is about different beer styles and The Restaurant is about matching beer with food. Different areas unlock when other areas are completed. The quiz appears once all areas have been completed.   This screen depicts the brewing process and I’ve included it because each icon was made using the ‘Insert Shapes’ functionality in PowerPoint. Learners hover their cursor over each icon to find out about that stage of the brewing process.   This screen is the opening of the ‘Quiz’ instead of having a pass mark, learners just need to fill their glass of beer and they can do this by answering questions correctly. A minimum of 10 questions will do it but if they do get a question wrong they receive a different question. If they get that one wrong they go back to the original question. In all there are 20 questions in total.   In the MEC, like many other courses, you do need to be disciplined and allocate a few hours each week to work on the course otherwise it’s easy to fall behind. In addition to the assessment tasks there’s self-paced modules to complete and webinars to attend. While there’s plenty to do, Ruth’s weekly email updates are a good source of information and encouragement to help keep us on track. In the course itself, it’s good to see things picking up in the forum area ‘Connect’ as other people share articles and comment or ‘like’ others. As someone who uses twitter as part of my own development, it’s nice to be able to interact with others and hopefully encourage them to keep this going after the course has finished. I’m looking forward to the final stage of the course, where we will be learning how to facilitate in the online environment - something that I haven’t done much of at all. This is the second in a series of posts describing and reflecting on my experiences of the Master eLearning Course by B Online Learning.

On Tuesday 12th August at 8:00pm AEST (UTC +10hrs), @OzLearn is having its next monthly twitter chat. The topic for the chat is based on the post You Can’t Predict the Value of Working Out Loud by @simongterry To join the chat, go to Twitter at 8pm on 12/8, search for @OzLearn and join in the conversation (don’t forget to add #ozlearn to your tweets). There is also an OzLearn LinkedIn group where you can view the Storify of the chat afterwards. Hope you can join us for the chat!

Last week I submitted my final assessments for my Master eLearning course through B Online Learning. It was somewhat bittersweet in that it meant that the course was coming to an end but at the same time I felt a sense of accomplishment now that I was finished. The third and final part of the course focused on facilitating in an online environment which is something that I haven’t done before. Part of what we did was to put together a 15 minute webinar and facilitate it with other students. I found this wasn’t as easy as it looks but a good learning experience nonetheless. I don’t have much online facilitation experience, I have however, been a student in a few online courses in the past and in my experience this is where they tend to fall down. There’s usually a lot of good resources to be found but not much in the way of involvement from the facilitator. This wasn’t the case in the MEC. In fact, one of the strengths of the course was our Learning Coach Ruth and it wasn’t so much what she taught in terms of content (which was good) but how she facilitated throughout the course. She set the example by being supportive, encouraging and providing regular updates and feedback. Even though there are quite a few people completing the course, there’s certainly a good level of personalisation and this is one of the things that sets the MEC apart from other online courses that I’ve completed. I’ve written a couple of posts how if we can satisfy people’s needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness we can improve their motivation towards the course they are completing. The MEC is does this and is probably the reason the course didn’t feel like work as I was completing it. For me, some key takeaways include: always keep the learner at the centre of eLearning design the importance of supporting learners during their online course the need to keep developing your skills, there’s always something new to learn. I’d definitely recommend the MEC to anyone starting out in eLearning as it provides a solid foundation as to how much goes into creating an eLearning module or course. It would also be beneficial to anyone wanting to brush up on their skills. You do need to put in a fair bit of work into the course and manage your time but it’s definitely achievable even if you are working as well, you just need to pace yourself. My advice to anyone thinking of doing the MEC would be to commit some time each week to complete the work rather than leaving it until the end. You should also check out ‘Connect’ which is where you can share resources and make contact with other students. So while the journey of the MEC has come to an end, my own journey in the world of eLearning has a long way to go…. Oh, and by the way, I passed the course! Yay! This is the final in a series of posts describing and reflecting on my experiences of the Master eLearning Course by B Online Learning.

After 44 posts and more than 19,000 views, this will be the last post on the Learning Snippets blog. A little over 18 months ago, I took what was for me a brave step into a whole new world and wrote my first ever blog post. Since then, I’ve connected with (even met) many other tremendous people who have challenged my thinking and helped me to become better at what I do. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has followed along; read; liked; shared; or commented on any of my posts, I’m grateful and really appreciate it. While I’m still figuring this blogging thing out as I write, the act of writing itself helps me to reflect and clarify my thoughts (and I think my writing is getting better too). So, while I’m moving on from this blog, I have started another called Learn. Show. Repeat. The new site has come about as a result of the experiences and influences over the past year and a half and represents how I’ve changed along the way too. I still intend to document what I’m learning but as you’ll see on the new site, I’ll also be showing more of what I’m doing in the eLearning space and sharing some valued members of my PLN that might help you too. I hope that you’ll join me there! Cheers, Matt

At Bottom-Line Performance (owners of the Knowledge Guru platform), we have a "learning game design peer group" that meets a few times per year. I started the group three years ago to help build game design skills and to foster deeper knowledge of the power of games as learning tools. People who design games need to play games to gain perspective and understanding of core dynamics, game mechanics, and game elements and how these all weave together to create a good or poor game experience. Here are three great games we have played within our Peer Group. All three are commercially available; one is marketed explicitly as a learning game. I’ve made a few comments about each one to help people understand the value of playing and evaluating the game design of each one Pandemic - This is a cooperative game rather than a competitive game, which is one reason to play it and evaluate it. It is a complex strategy game where the players work together to stop the spread of four diseases. It’s a difficult game to play - and difficult to learn BUT it’s also incredibly fun. I think playing it brings out a few key questions a learning game designer should ask: When the rules (game mechanics) are pretty complex, what’s the impact to learning the actual knowledge or skill the player is supposed to learn? When does rule complexity actually enhance learning? When rules are PART of understanding process complexity, it can be a good lesson. How would you debrief an experience such as this one with players? Is a game such as this realistic to create for the workplace if players don’t have at least 1/2-day to a full day to play and then debrief the experience? Ticket to Ride - There are a ton of versions of this game, each with slightly tweaked game rules. The basic game goal, regardless of version, is to score the most points by executing the most lucrative train routes.  We explored mechanics that made this game a bit different. These are key questions to ask as you evaluate this game: 1) You didn’t have full knowledge of how you were doing in comparison to your opponents as you didn’t know what tickets they were trying to complete. How could you use this concept in a learning game? 2) There were no limits as to the number of cards you could hold in your hand. You could acquire unlimited resources but you had to give up the opportunity to create a route if you opted to collect a resource. How could you use this concept of choosing between two good actions as a concept in a learning game? 3) You had to gamble a bit when deciding to take a ticket and attempt to complete it. If you failed to complete a ticket by the game’s end, you had to deduct the value of that ticket from your score. Again, how could you leverage this concept within a learning game? Robot Turtles - This game is actually designed for ages 4 and up. It’s a cooperative game as well. No competition involved at all. It is a bona fide learning game designed to teach players programming logic. You have a "game master" who moves turtles on a board at the direction of the players. The turtles and the game master are a metaphor for programming code and a computer. (The computer only does what the code specifies.). We had a group of non-programmers play the game, which was designed to have several "levels" of play. As players mastered a basic level, the game master introduced a more complex element. Key questions we discussed: Would players "get" the comparisons to the true skill being taught without a facilitator/instructor making the connections with them? (We decided "no," which brings up an interesting question about using a learning game as a stand-alone event where there is no set-up or debrief of the experience.) Was the use of levels effective in helping people get started playing fast and then building complexity as people got proficient? We decided yes. We strongly advocate learning game designers to consider the use of a tutorial level or advancing levels of complexity to make it easier for players to learn. Want to dive deeper? Join Karl Kapp and myself at ATD 2015 in Orlando in May where we will deliver a full day workshop on learning game design. Alternately, we’ll be at Learning Solutions (also Orlando) in March. Or…check out the entire "Get Started with Learning Game Design" blog series I wrote: Part 1: Play and Evaluate Games. Part 2: Game Goals and Core Dynamics Part 3: Game Mechanics (aka Rules) Part 4: Game Elements Part 5: More Game Elements to Consider Part 6: Rewards and Scoring Part 7: Think about the learning and then the game The post Designing a Learning Game? Play these 3 Games First appeared first on .

Some people cringe when they hear the words "process" or "procedure." Others appreciate and value them. Either way, processes and procedures are essential to a successful organization. That’s why so much of the training organizations deliver year after year is supposed to help align employees with a process or teach them a procedure they must follow. In an article on process training I wrote for our BLP Lessons on Learning blog, I shared that 41% of respondents to our 2014 Learning and Remembering Survey listed policies, process, and procedures as the primary type of knowledge employees must know on the job. This was the most mentioned training topic! The challenges L&D professionals listed in their survey responses likely sound familiar to anyone involved with process training. Organizations struggle because they have too many processes, too much training for employees to consume, lack of buy-in with key middle managers and lack of real motivation to change habits in the first place. That last reason, getting employees to buy into the "why", is especially important. It’s not so much a matter of learning as it is an issue with motivation. …Let’s assume that your employees are human beings who are intelligent and capable of following basic steps. They could learn the process and follow it if they wanted to, but they have not found a compelling reason that motivates them to do so. - excerpt from "Is Your Process Training "Nice to Know" or "Need to Know"? Many of our customers, Johnson & Johnson and Ally Financial to name a few, use Knowledge Guru games to teach a specific process that learners need to follow. We also create many custom learning solutions that include a gaming component where the goal is process alignment. While games or gamified solutions are sometimes the answer, they can only do so much when you have a process problem instead of a learning problem. How can games and gamification help align processes and procedures? I mentioned above that games may not be the answer if you really have a "process" problem. We sometimes conduct a training needs analysis with clients to discover if this is the case. If the real issue is that employees either A) do not know the process or B) are not motivated to follow the process, games and/or gamification can help. Serious games and gamification can… 1. Help employees remember how to follow the process. We always emphasize the importance of aligning game mechanics to instructional design principles. Our Knowledge Guru platform utilizes spaced learning, repetition and feedback loops, for example. The "Quest" game type includes a Bonus Gate where questions that players missed earlier in the game are shown again. When serious games are aligned with the science of remembering, learners are more likely to retain key facts long after they play. 2. Make Middle Managers Happy… or at Least Happier. In environments such as call centers or factory floors, managers do not want their employees to take large amounts of time away from their work. Training that is distracting or disruptive to the flow of work will often not be supported. Many of the benefits of serious games and gamification can be realized in just minutes a day. Knowledge Guru "Quest" allows administrators to set how frequently players can play and also allows them to "lock" worlds for set lengths of time. An email reminder can be enabled to invite them back. This way, employees only play in small chunks. 3. Motivate employees to learn about the process. Most learning professionals first turn to games or gamification because they hope to engage or motivate their learners. Points, badges and leaderboards can help with this… but they are not often enough to motivate by themselves. Your solution might also incorporate story, avatars, minigames and aesthetics to create an experience employees will find interesting. 4. Help build context and relevance. One of the best way to increase adoption of a process is to show the "why." Any game-based solution should make liberal use of relevant scenarios that ask learners to correctly follow and apply the process. Custom-built games can go even further by incorporating characters, stories and gameplay that mirrors the workplace. Watch out for solutions that present scenarios "at random" or via an algorithm! There is value in controlling the order in which content is seen so that learners can build on past knowledge from previous sections of the game. The post How Games & Gamification Can Help Align Processes and Procedures appeared first on .

You need to deliver training to your employees and want it to be "engaging." You’ve read articles and attended webinars that discuss making learning experiences engaging, yet most of the advice seems vague. What is an engaging learning solution? Why do some learners find a certain type of training engaging, while others do not? The challenge you face is even more difficult when your content does not exactly jump off the page. Teaching call center employees how to follow a critical procedure or pushing product information to sales reps in an exciting way is not a simple task. And while learning solutions must include instructional design that purposely leads to retention of this type of content, retention cannot happen if learners are not motivated to learn. …That is, unless we take a look at what truly motivates people. When we consider our learners as human beings who are influenced by culture and driven by common goals, we can begin to see what approaches, stories and themes will truly motivate them. One such theme is The Hero’s Journey. What is the Hero’s Journey? Mythologists (the people who study myths across cultures) will tell you that The Hero’s Journey has been repeated over and over again throughout human history. You’ve seen it before: the hero leaves the safety of home to face great challenges and ultimately overcomes those challenges. She returns home victorious and shares this victory with her people. We see The Hero’s Journey all around us: in movies, in books, in classical myths and modern stories. It’s a classic pattern where the individual inevitably identifies herself as the hero or protagonist. The Hero’s Journey is retold over and over again because it is meaningful to people. It almost always leads to a powerful and inspirational story. That’s why when you are looking for a way to motivate employees to follow a process or learn about a new product, creating a "Hero’s Journey" for them to follow is a great place to start. Here are three ways you can transform your next training initiative from required activity to heroic quest. The approaches work especially well for product knowledge training… and we have seen them used effectively with process training and customer-facing training as well. 1. Start With a Challenge Instead of listing out learning objectives, start your next training experience with a challenge or goal. All of the Knowledge Guru themes we offer start with a goal or "Quest" of some kind. In addition, many customers create a broader theme or narrative that they use within their LMS and throughout email communications sent to players. Every "Legend" game theme starts with a challenge of some kind. Players begin a heroic journey to become a Knowledge Guru.   In the "Quest" game type, players are on a journey to unlock knowledge. The game itself is structured as an extended quest where the learner is the hero.   In this "Hazard Communication" course we developed for Roche, learners are challenged to become a "Safety Sidekick." This becomes their quest throughout the course. The course went on to win a 2014 Horizon Interactive award.   2. Make it Personal While goals and challenges are motivating to learners, unnecessary content is the opposite. Make sure that you are presenting the right content to the right learners throughout the experience by personalizing the learning. At the end of each world in the Knowledge Guru "Quest" game, learners play a minigame that is personalized based on their weakest content areas.   Many of the custom eLearning solutions we create allow learners to select their role and receive content tailored to their individual needs.   3. Make it Last The Hero’s Journey is seldom complete in a day… let alone a 30 minute eLearning course. For example, Johnson & Johnson broke their "Talent Guru" game into a 5-week program with short gameplay sessions and competition each week. By extending your learner’s journey, you also increase the benefits of spaced repetition: learners retain more knowledge when they have the opportunity to apply it multiple times over several days or weeks. Knowledge Guru’s "Quest" game type allows users to lock worlds for a period of time and email players when the world is ready for play. This breaks gameplay into short, manageable chunks over an extended period of time.   The post Turn Your Product Knowledge Training into a "Hero’s Journey" appeared first on .

I interviewed Paula Rossini, Global Program Manager at Cisco, to learn more about how Cisco uses Knowledge Guru games to teach its sales associates. Cisco’s sales associate training program (CSAP) has won multiple Brandon Hall awards for its innovative approaches, including a 2014 "Gold" award won in partnership with BLP. Can you describe your role at Cisco?  I’m a Global Program Manager. I focus mostly on content development and delivery of different programs within our worldwide sales and partner enablement organization. I focus mostly on new hires and early-in-career employees. The Cisco Sales Associate Training Program (CSAP) is our keystone program along with the Partner Sales Academy (PSA). We also have a new hire acceleration program (SNAP) and a new internship program for university students. What learners do you use Knowledge Guru games with? We first introduced Sales Guru (the name we gave our Knowledge Guru games) games for sales associates and engineers in the CSAP program. It’s used as a reinforcement tool. We now have Sales Guru games for the SNAP new hire acceleration program. While the games are a reinforcement tool in the CSAP program, for SNAP we use it as an assessment tool. You’d think it was daunting to use it as an assessment tool… but SNAP associates already have experience selling, so it’s a more mature audience. They can play the game as often as they want until they pass. How are the games part of a learning solution? What other pieces are involved in the training? In CSAP, the associate goes through synchronous classroom training. This training is taught by a virtual facilitator. The facilitator uses Cisco Telepresence to give the virtual instructor-led training. For example, associates take Data Center as a six-day module. Every day they have 3.5 hours of training, and at the end of Day one the facilitator tells them to play the Sales Guru game in preparation for the next day. There is a schedule posted on the LMS where associates can see exactly when they need to play each game. During each module, associates play part of the game at the end of day one, three and five. There is a frequency by which they are expected to play the game before they do the next one… which is part of how we use the repetition.  At the end of every technical module, we have "technical office hours" where the trainer goes through the entire module in summary format. The Sales Guru prepares associates for the assessment they take at the end of the module. SNAP is an asynchronous virtual program. People go through a series of eLearning modules. For most of the technical eLearning modules, they have a Sales Guru game attached to each of them as a final assessment. Was there a challenge you hoped to address by implementing Knowledge Guru games into the curriculum?  There are lots of highly technical concepts in the solutions we offer that are difficult to assimilate. Associates struggled a lot to understand these concepts. We felt that, through Knowledge Guru’s use of spaced repetition, we could teach the associates and engineers better. We first launched the game with our toughest topic of all: "Data center." Little by little, we rolled it out to other technologies. Knowledge Guru is a reinforcement tool for all of the technologies in the program. What do you want the learners to know or do after playing?   We want them to be able to assimilate the technical content they learned in the module and pass their technical exam. You mentioned to me that many of your learners are virtual. How have you worked to engage and connect learners with technology throughout the program, and how does Knowledge Guru fit into that effort? We use Cisco TelePresence and Cisco WebEx to virtually facilitate the CSAP training. The Knowledge Guru games are launched from the LMS along with the rest of the program materials. We teach the learners virtually so that multiple locations throughout Europe can all be taught by the same facilitator. What did you do to encourage adoption with players? The success of the game really depends on the involvement of the facilitator who leads the session and the "producer". The facilitator teaches the learners while the producer makes sure they are paying attention and completing pre and post work. The producer supports the facilitator on WebEx. The producer encourages learners to play the Sales Guru games throughout the module. The really good producers have some best practices like leaving the leaderboard up, showing the associates who’s winning, and encouraging gameplay. How did players access the games?  Players launch the games from the LMS. During the pre-work, they see what day they need to launch the game. How did Cisco communicate about the games to learners?  All communication happens through the LMS. Associates can see all materials available in a single location. Both the facilitator and the producer encourage gameplay during the session. The games are also integrated into the slide deck of the facilitator… and the producer reminds them, too. Sometimes, the facilitators reward learners with some candy or some other small "prize." What results have you produced from the program with the help of Knowledge Guru?  We received very positive learner feedback from the Data Center game, so we expanded into other modules. After this expansion, we surveyed associates and found that they rated the game 4.93 out of 5 in terms of its value as a learning experience. They rated the repetition in the game a 4.93 out of 5 and said it was highly effective in helping them retain the content. We receive continuous anecdotal feedback that associates really enjoy the game and that it helps them to understand the content better. They say that it really does help them to pass the exam. While not a direct correlation, we do have a 98% pass rate on the technical exam. What have been the keys to successful implementation for you?   Collaborating with Bottom-Line Performance was very important. We had an honest partnership where Sharon (Boller) would tell us up front if she had concerns with how we planned to use the game. That honest collaboration led to success for us. Project management was also important. As soon as we had the green light to proceed, BLP guided us through the process of creating our games. The BLP team helped us hit milestones every step of the way, and it made a really big difference. Now, we are at the point where the games have really become a part of our process, and it’s much easier to create and modify games. The Brandon Hall "gold" award that Cisco won for its use of Knowledge Guru was the second in just a few years for the CSAP program. What do you think sets the program apart? I like to say that, at Cisco, "we drink our own champagne." Cutting edge technology is really important for us. When we have made mistakes along the way, we have taken those and turned them into lessons learned. We reflect on how we’ve done and take feedback very seriously.  Associates and stakeholders in general provide feedback and we take that feedback, change, and go with what makes sense. We continuously evolve, and that is a big part of why we are doing really well.  In short, our keys to success are feedback, technology, not being afraid of change, and learning from mistakes. What advice would you give to others on creating their first Knowledge Guru game, or bringing a serious game into their organization for the first time? Start with the end in mind. Understand or identify what they want to accomplish. Based on those learning objectives, you can find out the best way to implement the game. It’s also important to look around and do your due diligence for looking for the right learning partner. It doesn’t need to be a big one. Pick one that fits your needs the best and with whom you can have an honest conversation where the learning partner genuinely wants you to succeed. Don’t just pick biggest partner out there because they are big and reviews are good. Go with one that will meet your requirements. The post How Cisco Uses Knowledge Guru to Teach Product and Technical Knowledge (Interview) appeared first on .

The Knowledge Guru platform continues to expand its features and functionality using customer feedback as our guide.  The Spring Release is all about usability: the features we have added streamline the user experience, enhance reporting capability, and increase the platform’s versatility. Universal Login Now, TheKnowledgeGuru.com/login is the official starting point for all users. Players, game authors and system administrators all use this simply URL, also available by clicking "Log In" from any page on the Knowledge Guru site, to access their games. There is no need to memorize a specific URL, and users see a list of all games assigned to them after logging in. All users simply log in with an email address and a password. Of course, you can still direct players to a unique game URL to log in for a specific game. More Leaderboards in Quest Consistently we’ve heard customers tell us that they LOVE the new Quest game type… except that they miss all the leaderboards they are used to in the original Legend game type. We’ve revamped Quest to include three leaderboards while retaining the "Around Your Area" board. We’ve adjusted this dashboard view of progress to include more player information as well. See the images below: Resource Links for Individual Questions (Quest Only) We introduced Performance Challenges in the Quest game type… and the ability to link out to resources as part of the challenges. Now, you can link to resources such as websites or PDFs directly from a specific question. When a player clicks the resource link, a new window will open that shows the resource. Here’s what it looks like: A Third Customizable Registration Field (both game types) The customers who are most successful with Knowledge Guru make great use of the platform’s reporting and tracking features. We’ve added a third custom registration field that links to a back-end report. So…if you create a field called SUPERVISOR, you will be able to access a report labeled Supervisor Performance Report from the game author site. The new All-Star report in the Quest game type that identifies players who have earned three stars on every level of a Quest game, along with their total score.  You can use this report as a means of incentivizing players, perhaps offering recognition to all players who earn three-star status across all levels of the game. If you opt to include this third field in your games, you will have a report associated with it. This enhancement is in both game types. The Player Progress Report has been enhanced and now identifies the player’s performance on every question in the game - not just overall performance by objective. This enables a supervisor  to provide pinpoint remediation if needed. This enhancement is in both game types. See What Success Looks like in our Upcoming Webinar Serious Games+ Learning Science = Win: How to Teach Product Knowledge, Policies & Procedures Wednesday, June 10th at 2 pm EDT / 11 am PDT Want to learn more about Knowledge Guru? We’re hosting a webinar that features case studies from four Knowledge Guru customers who are using the platform to drive business results and win awards. Register   The post Knowledge Guru Spring Release Provides More Leaderboards, Expanded Reports, and Easier Login appeared first on .

For the third straight year, the Bottom-Line Performance team will head to ATD International in support of our Knowledge Guru platform. As usual, our schedule is full of educational sessions and workshops that explore learning science, retention and learning game design. Here’s where we will be in Orlando: Saturday, May 16th Play to Learn: Designing Effective Learning Games: All-day preconference workshop - W103A BLP President and Knowledge Guru creator Sharon Boller and Dr. Karl Kapp Ed.D lead this popular workshop on learning game design all over the US. Participants learn basic game mechanics and game elements and then spend an afternoon prototyping their own game. Monday, May 18th - Wednesday, May 20th Expo Booth 602: Visit us in the expo to see a demo of Knowledge Guru, view some of the custom solutions we create, and pick up a free T-shirt. You’ll also be entered to win a free Knowledge Guru subscription. Tuesday, May 19th When Remembering Really Matters: Learning Strategies for Long-Term Retention 1 pm - 2pm, W311GH Sharon Boller shares the research on remembering, and forgetting, then introduces eight strategies that increase learning and remembering. You’ll see how effective learning strategies helped a hemodialysis manufacturer reduce patient drops from therapy, helped a SaaS company double its sales pipeline for a new product, and decreased employee turnover in a higher education setting. Serious Games + Learning Science = Win: How to Teach Product Knowledge, Policies, and Procedures 3 pm - 4 pm, W107 Join me as I share research on games and learning science, then put theory into practice with four case studies that show how Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud and a Fortune 500 financial services company have used Knowledge Guru to drive business results. The post Follow the Action at #ATD2015 appeared first on .

Are you a do-it-yourselfer? When it comes to serious games, ATD says you probably are. In an ATD survey conducted for its 2014 research report, Playing to Win: Gamification and Serious Games in Organizational Learning (link), 71% of organizations reported that they prefer to develop serious games in-house. 83% said they planned to develop gamification in-house.  I’d say that’s a confident group! In the same survey, only 20% of organizations were already using serious games for learning, while 25% were using gamification. That means most organizations have never used games for learning before and plan to do it without help from a vendor. The challenge of in-house game design One of the reasons serious games are hard to create successfully in-house is the lack of game design skill most organizations have on their teams. Your instructional designers may be good, but have they played lots of games? Have they designed games before? Many instructional designers continue their education and earn masters degrees in instructional design. Can you master game design by taking a one-day workshop? Getting Around Game Design Organizations often get around the lack of in-house game design expertise by using game templates or a full fledged gaming platform. When the platform you use already has gaming built in, all you have to do is think about your content. A platform can make life much easier for your team… but creating the game itself is less than half the battle. You still have to implement your game. And that’s where things really get interesting. If You Build It, They Won’t Come… Unless You Have a Plan No matter how fun your game-based solution is supposed to be, you will still need a plan for launching it, promoting it, and measuring it. How will you communicate about the game? Will you require players to play? How will you incentivize play… or do you need to incentivize? These are all questions you must answer as you implement a serious game or gamification initiative. In my role, I get to collect stories from organizations who wish to submit for industry awards. These are typically the "best of the best." They planned for success, either partnered with us to build a solution or created their own game with Knowledge Guru, and drove meaningful business results from their efforts. What’s interesting about these award-winning implementations is just how similar they are. I find that the companies that are most successful with games and gamification in their organizations take many similar approaches when it comes to implementation. So whether you are preparing to launch your first-ever serious game, or are looking to make your next initiative more successful than your last one, consider these tips for a successful implementation: 1. "Required" works best. Let’s face it: employee time is limited, and most of us only have the energy to focus on the activities that are truly essential to our jobs. Even if your serious game is fun, is it equal or greater than the myriad of entertainment options available to us around the clock? Our experience shows us that the organizations that are most successful with serious games require play. For example, Johnson & Johnson has integrated Knowledge Guru into employee goals & objectives for the year. 2. Blend into a curriculum: use as part of a learning solution. You probably have lots of training initiatives happening in a calendar year. Games might be a great addition to the mix, but you should not plan to replace all of these existing training events with games. The case studies I have gathered all show organizations having the most success when games are part of a larger blended curriculum or strategy. This allows you to narrow the focus of your game to cover a specific skill or set of knowledge. 3. Use the game as a reinforcement (most of the time). Games and gamification make great reinforcement tools. In fact, most organizations we have worked with position games as either a reinforcement, or a motivating first exposure to content that will be covered in greater detail later. It is also easier to launch a game as a reinforcement when you are attempting your first go-around with serious games. 4. Offer incentives and/or provide sufficient motivation. No matter how you dress it up, completing a serious game is still training that is part of a job. Unless your learners are highly intrinsically motivated, we recommend providing prizes and rewards. Encouragement from senior leadership can be even more effective. The grand prize winner of a Knowledge Guru game hosted by one of our Financial Services clients specifically cited how meaningful it was to be recognized by company leaders as part of winning the game. 5. Create a communications strategy around the game. Learning and Development leaders need to think more like marketers when implementing all types of training. Every single case study I have seen of a successful Knowledge Guru implementation incorporates some sort of multi-part communications strategy to get the word out about the game. This could include many things, from advertisements in a call center to a series of emails or even a collection of advertisements placed throughout a company intranet site. 6. Use reporting and adapt the training. Most organizations first get interested in games because they want to motivate or engage their employees. This is only part of why games are powerful organizational learning tools, though. For example, Johnson & Johnson was able to identify a specific learning objective that learners were missing as a group, then adjust their overall training to better focus on the weak process step. The organizations that are successful with serious games and gamification take advantage of the data they gather on learners and act quickly to adapt their training and processes. 7. Gather insights via surveys. It is not uncommon to survey learners after a training initiative is completed… especially after a pilot. Games are no different. The surveys conducted by Knowledge Guru customers have revealed many valuable insights that impact future games. In one survey, a player commented that they learned a more effective way to do their job through the game that had not been covered in company-wide training. Our client was able to take this information and launch new training to teach the effective process to the rest of the department. See Four Case Studies In Our Recorded Webinar Want to learn more about how to implement effective serious games? I cover these implementation tips in the recorded webinar below, adapted from my ATD International 2015 presentation. You’ll also see four case studies from organizations that have implemented a serious game that drove real results. Access "Serious Games + Learning Science = Win" The post 7 Steps to an Effective Serious Game or Gamification Implementation appeared first on .