By the time school let out each summer, I was already done learning. Sure, classes were wrapping up and testing was done, but I was intellectually checked-out because it was too hot for learning. Right now, in the midwest especially, the heat and humidity are collaborating to ruin everyone’s days. The dew point is so high that windows and glasses are sweating. Everyone is so sticky in the muggy air that nothing seems like a good idea. Except maybe a thunderstorm. Does the misery make elearning difficult? I think so. Are there better times during the year to schedule elearning? Can designers and developers control the environments in which our learners launch elearning? These questions always make me think about flight simulators. In a flight simulator, you can control the environment — make it shake or even make it hot! So, I imagine the ideal Personal Learning Environment (PLE) — a utopic  arrangement of computer, desk, mouse, beverage, snack, window, lamp, and whatever else at whatever temperature at whatever time, wherever suits the learner best. Perhaps with soft classical music wafting in the background. I like the list Prometheus Training uses to prep learners for optimal elearning — is anyone else using such tips? Is anyone else melting? Are your screens dripping with dew? Photo Credit: greggoconnell

One of the best pieces of advice my father gave me was, "Discover what you’re good at and then learn how to make money at it." Just like most obedient young boys, I totally ignored my father’s advice. Even though I’ve been drawing and cartooning my whole life and developing elearning for the past ten years, I never put the two together. I’m a decent artist but most artists are their own worst critics, and even though I was passionate about it, I never once considered earning a living doing it. That is until I got serious and decided to officially freelance while working a day job. Some of you may know me through Twitter as @learnnuggets and some of you may know my work through NuggetHead Studioz. I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t have years of experience freelancing let alone freelancing full time to share success strategies. I do have some ‘getting started’ experience and things I’ve learned in the past year that I’ll share what I call my "3D Experience." Okay, so you have this thing you’re really good at. You’re really passionate about it and you want a piece of that industry’s pie. What’s next? Decide Deliberately deciding is crucial to your success. Think of it like a New Year’s exercise plan. You’re all excited about starting to exercise every day and lose the holiday weight. Off you go and usually within a month the ‘every day’ turns into ‘a couple times a week’ until eventually you don’t have the staying power to continue. Commit to a maximum amount of time. You might be willing to put in a lot of hours, but make your maximum a rational and reasonable amount of time that will still keep your family in balance. If you’re like me, it’s also keeping my chores up to par. I decided I could commit to 20 hours a week max. That’s four hours a night with weekends off or three hours a night with some work on the weekend.  This plan works for me because I am my family’s night owl. I get quality, evening  family time, and then, when my family goes to bed by 9:00pm, I get to work for a few hours. Treat it like a job. I treat it like a second job. Many part-time evening jobs are retail or restaurants. They typically close late, and if you’re on the closing shift, you’ll be there another hour or so shutting down. Time is time, and if you’re going to work hard, you might as well work hard for yourself. Think in terms of cost when deciding the amount of time you’re willing to commit. Go easy on yourself if you’re unsure; say ten hours a week. Remember, you still need to change hats when you go to your day job the next morning, so you want to ensure you’re still getting proper rest - and getting the work done. Describe Next, know what is it that you are going to do. Think of your skills and your talents. Describe what you will be doing to yourself before you start telling others. If you don’t know, what makes you think they will know? Definitely, differentiate between practical work and consultation. Are you going to be doing the practical application of the work? If so, to what degree? If you’re a designer/developer like me, you have to be honest with yourself about how long it takes to put something together. Whether it’s an illustrated graphic or developing an elearning course, describe the boundaries. I started off with offering the full bucket load from cradle to grave. Everything from instructional design to publishing and LMS support. That’s a lot for a shop of one to handle. I’ve scaled back and focused more on what I do best - design/develop. Are you going to be a consultant? If so, to what degree? A consultant brings years of practical application experience to a market where others hire you to help them down a path you once traveled. It’s still time invested but a different kind of time. Lots of phone calls, emails, managing calendars and perhaps even some traveling involved. Describing what it is you are going to do - and what you’re not going to do - sets boundaries. Not just for your prospective clients, but for yourself. The boundaries will keep you safe from bidding on a project that may be more than you can chew starting out. They’ll also keep the stress at manageable levels. Deliver The phrase, "Under promise and over deliver" comes to mind. When you bid on projects, be honest with yourself about what you can deliver. Not so much in terms of the project itself, but how many current projects you have and how many you can balance at one time. I manage anywhere from 4-6 at any given time. Usually I have 3-4 illustration/graphics projects (which take less time), and/or 2-3 elearning projects (which are spaced out in terms of their production). I do this simply because I’m creative, and creative people (me at least) get bored easily. I need multiple projects at one time so I can switch between them often. And often, one project helps solve problems in another. Add a minimum of 20% time to every bid. Even if you know without a shadow of a doubt you can make a peanut butter & jelly sandwich in five minutes, bid six minutes. Why? Part time freelance is still life, and the dog is going to run away, your kids will want to play a game, you and your spouse may need to consume an evening talking about something more important. If not the normal stuff, then—even worse—the really crazy will happen. Multiple things will interrupt you. Plan for it. Don’t overcharge. It’s very attractive to get all caught up in the world of being your own boss and wanting to make your first million dollars in the first year. Stay humble. Do the work. The rewards will come in due time. NuggetHead Studioz has only been an official business for less than a year. I have much to learn and only share these thoughts from what I’ve experienced already in that short time. Your situation will be different so just think through it carefully to ensure success. Oh, and of course…just do it!

We’ve got DevLearn on our minds right now (Vegas Baby!). Still, we’ve been busy doing a make-over. eLearning Weekly has moved and become eLearning Weekly Magazine. B.J. and Eric will continue writing the same sort of posts that followed the original tagline: "Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learned". We love to share the nitty-gritty elearning work flows and work-arounds. And we love the sense of community here at eLearning Weekly. The readers have chimed in and added comments that make the posts better for the next readers. Come by and see us at eLWmag.com and keep reading and reacting! Or just click the button below:    

Mark Lassoff of LearnToProgram.tv I was very lucky to catch Mark Lassoff in between speaking at DevLearn, working on his forthcoming book from Focal Press, and producing his next training video for the company he founded, LearnToProgram.tv. Mark is an anomoly in the world of elearning these days, because he knows how to code. I’m not just talking about the two big programming languages, HTML and Flash. Mark works with and trains javascript, PERL, XML, CSS, PHP/MySQL, and the new and somewhat talked about HTML5. In a world of rapid elearning tools that eschew code at every turn, I knew I had to talk with Mark, who mixes elearning and code everyday. eLW Mag Interview  with Mark Lassoff, Founder & Corporate Technical Trainer, LearnToProgram.tv eLW: I want to ask about your training work at LearnToProgram.tv, but first, tell me about the book you’re writing — I love to get a behind-the-scenes look before books hit the shelves. ML: I am currently writing a new title for Focal Press called Android Development Code Camp.  It’s part of a new series that I am editing for Focal that will include books geared towards beginners.  I am excited because it will be branded after my LearnToProgram.tv training company.  The people at Focal have been great to work with , and I am looking to produce a book that even a total beginner can read and work through and master beginning level application development in Java with Android. eLW: You’ve got that technical background, you know all the major programming languages, what courses do you offer through LearnToProgram.tv? ML: More and more courses every month.  We changed our focus as a company about three months ago and wanted to focus on the consumer or beginner market.  There are hundreds of thousands of people who want to learn programming, but no one focusing on that beginner’s market.  Right now we have three courses available- HTML and CSS for Beginners (Including HTML5!), Javascript for Beginners, C Programming: iOS Starts Here and Objective C for Beginners.  These courses are designed for people who are trying to learn web development, eLearning development and mobile development.    We’re introducing a new course every month. Our courses are delivered three ways- an instructor supported, asynchronous option that includes lab exercises, code listings and hours of video lecture is our least expensive and most popular.  Our self-paced HTML course has over 1000 students in it.  We also deliver courses instructor-led online.  There is nothing better than having a live instructor so we offer that option as well.  Finally, any of our courses can be delivered via traditional classroom instruction. eLW: I took your HTML/CSS course on Udemy.com. That’s a great way to learn code. That’s real elearning, but you’re kind of an outsider to the elearning industry. Explain that. ML:  Well, I’m not an instructional designer. I have no traditional training in education… However, I am lucky enough to be one of those people who can walk in to a room an teach- and I think teach well.  I find the eLearning industry to be frustrating- It seems to be very vendor driven instead of driven by best industry level best practices, professional ethics, and what is best sound educational practice.  Vendors start screaming "HTML5″ in response to media buzz and all of a sudden eLearning practitioners are all screaming "HTML5″ without having the slightest idea of it’s current implementation in browsers, it’s shortcomings or even it’s structure.  Some vendor said it’s good, and that’s good enough. I don’t mean to indict the entire industry- There are plenty of hardworking, creative, talented folks creating amazing work.  But the baseline still appears to be Powerpoint (or some easier/ more powerful modification to Powerpoint) and that’s sad.  It frustrates me to no end that people don’t want to learn HTML- they want a tool that creates HTML for the.  It’s easier.  What they don’t know is that there are countless limitations that each tool has.  You box yourself in with tools.  If you can code you can do anything. eLW: I’m curious, too, about the tools of the trade in elearning. So much is done to avoid code and put elearning tools in anyone’s hands. Can you make a case for learning code? ML:  I think there are many things in eLearning you can’t do without code-for example, simulation.  Do you want the captain of your 737 to have learned in a simulator or from Powerpoint slides?  A few years ago we built a complex avionics simulator to train helicopter pilots from a government agency.  We had to write code-there was no way to do it well without coding. I realize that most elearning departments are understaffed, underfunded and overworked, but even learning HTML and Javascript will give you enormous power to modify, create and design learning interactions that stretch the abilities of even the most powerful toolset. Tools come and go- We have been coding in HTML now since 1994.  Actionscript has been around as long as Flash has.  If you can learn coding you make yourself a very powerful eLearning Developer.  While it’s difficult to learn to code, it’s not impossible for just about anyone.  Of course- as I think we often forget in eLearning- learning takes time, practice and effort.  There is no Power Point slide deck I can show you — no matter how many avatars I use- that can make you learn to code.  You actually have to do it.  You have to practice.  I’ve been coding for over 20 years- and I am still learning every day. eLW: You said your clients like you because you’re a skeptic. How does that help? ML:  I think critically.  If a vendor claims x, y and z, I want to see proof.  At DevLearn one vendor told me that with his tool, "I wouldn’t have to write Actionscript any more!"  Great- What are the limitations?  How would you accomplish this with your tool?  Oh You can’t?  Moving on… I just think I ask the questions that others don’t want to for fear of being seen as negative- or don’t know to.   eLW: Our readers are going to want to hear more from you. Can I persuade you to share your technical knowledge and outsider perspective with our readers, writing some articles for the magazine? ML:  It would be my pleasure. eLW: Terrific. As long as you are going to write for eLW Mag, can we offer some coupons for your courses in the eLW Basement? ML:  Sure.. If you go to my site- http://www.learntoprogram.tv, and choose any online, self-paced course, I’ll give you 50% off the published price.  Just enter the coupon code "ElearnWeek" at check out and the discounted price will be applied.  I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for eLearning developers to have basic HTML and Javascript skills. Now for a few personal questions that will really give readers a chance to get to know you. eLW: Word on the street is you have some insane 80s TV trivia knowledge. So I gotta try to stump you. Which show had a character named "Skippy" and who played that character? ML:  Wow, that’s easy.  Family Ties.  Skippy was played by Marc Price.  As a child Skippy got his head caught in the bannister three times. eLW: That was too easy, I guess. OK, Square Pegs: most famous actor? ML:  Well, I think you’re fishing for Sarah Jessica Parker- but the better actor on the show was Jamie Gertz.  Jamie just did an episode of Modern Family. eLW: OK. Growing Pains. First names of all the Seavers? ML:  Jason, Mike, Ben, Maggie, and Carol.  The last couple of seasons they had a baby? Right?  I can’t remember the baby’s name, but I remember the baby grew up during hiatus.  At the end of one season she was an infant and then at the beginning of the next season she had speaking lines.  Leonardo DiCaprio was on there for a season as well- He played some runaway that family adopted. eLW: Who played the kids? ML:  Easy- Tracy Gold was Carol- Her sister, Missy, was the governor’s daughter on Benson.   Kirk Cameron played Mike.  Jeremy Miller was Ben.  The late Andrew Koenig played Mike’s best friend, Sylvester Stabone.  His father played Chekov in the Star Trek Series.  Got any more? eLW: You are good. I give up. OK, no I don’t: Mr. Belvedere’s first name? ML:  Lynn.  Brice Beckman, who played Wesley, just had a series on VH-1 a couple of years ago. eLW: Amazing. Thank you, Mark. And for our readers who like networking, one final question: What’s next on your conference calendar? Or where can people find you online? ML:  We are talking about exhibiting at Learning Solutions, but have not yet made a decision.  I will likely be at the MLearning Show in June and will be back at DevLearn next year.  We’re also planning on going to ISTE 2012. I’d love to hear from people online- My company is http://www.learntoprogram.tv.  I am at http://www.MarkLassoff.com.  My linked in is http://www.linkedin.com/in/marklassoff and my email is mark@learntoprogam.tv. Hope everybody reads and responds to my upcoming columns. Buh-Bye.

If DevLearn 2011 at the Aria in Las Vegas did anything, it confirmed one certainty about elearning: elearning is exhilarating. eLearning is esoteric, cutting edge, tumultuous, and sexy. And elearning is an industry. Eric and Shonit Speaking at DevLearn11 Yes, elearning is a thrilling industry that combines esoteric theory like gamification, cutting edge tools like Cloud technologies, tumultuous teetering between HTML5 and Flash, and the inspiringly sexy and sleek iPad — the world’s most seductive learning tool. The eLearning Guild hosted quite a conference. Featured speakers spoke with vigor, sessions delivered an array of ideas and practice, DemoFest showcased elearning eye candy, and the expo bristled with the promise of the next best thing. Vegas was sunny. And Vegasy. … [read the rest!]  

Conference News! This April, in Chicago, I will be speaking about  mlearning design and strategy at Learning Tech 2012. I love Chicago. It’s a city with an energy that makes events especially invigorating. I hope to see you there, April 23-25. For more information, I contacted Courtney Green in New York to ask her about the conference: Courtney, we know I will be at the conference representing eLearning Weekly Magazine, who else will attendees have the chance to meet, and what companies will be represented? We have a great line-up of speakers, including Kevin Munson, Chief Learning Officer from Sears Holdings Corporation, Andrea Franklin, Educational Instructor, FedEx Custom Critical and Kacie Walters, Global Knowledge Management Lead, GE Healthcare plus many more! Who should attend this event in Chicago? Those who want to launch their learning to the next level and hear from innovative speakers to determine how you can elevate learning and maximize results. The event is focused on improving learning strategies with educational technologies across the corporate world, plus a special focus day for K-12 and higher-education professionals. Are there any sessions that will share specific and practical information that attendees can take and implement right away? We have a number of workshops, interactive sessions and case studies that will allow attendees to instantly apply! Including: Case Study: Integrating the iPad to Improve Learning - Michelle Burke, Director Learning & Development, Sears Holdings Corporation Strategies for Effective Mobile Learning - Eric Matas  Editor, eLearning Weekly Magazine Workshop A: Interactive "Learning Station"- New Tools and Technologies - Craig Weiss, CEO, E-Learning 24/7 Cool, I love Craig. He’s terrific. How can people register or find out more details? Please register by visiting www.learningtechevent.com. You can also email me, Courtney.green@iqpc.com, or call 1-800-882-8684.

Here are the IA Summit 09 presentations on SlideShare. Many of these presos are difficult to follow because they have no notes. Nevertheless, we can get a feel for the topics that were discussed.

"How do you run the A/C on a spy plane? Where's the Start button on a nuclear power plant? Don't try to wing it—read the directions! A portfolio of classic instruction manuals." Another related site: The Product Manual Archive.

After Academic Earth we now have YouTube EDU. This is a initiative to gather and group all academic content on YouTube. There aren't too many videos on the site now but that should improve soon.

I just wish this was mandatory for CEOs. "Jeff Bezos is spending this week working in an Amazon distribution center in Lexington, Kentucky. He apparently wants to see what it's like to be a rank-and-file Amazon employee. More CEOs should try that once in a while."

Jakob Nielsen's new piece tackles donation usability. I'm not surprised at his findings. We found similar themes when we did the redesign for the National University of Singapore Giving website. We found that there was a need to inform donors on why their gifts were needed and how they will be used (the LEARN section). Also we found that there was a need to pay-back in kind by honouring donors (the HONOUR section). It goes without saying the the DONATE section had to be without flaws. So glad to know that the findings are similar across continents.

Key idea from the latest HBR article on internal collaboration: "The problem here wasn’t collaboration per se; our statistical analysis found that novice teams at the firm actually benefited from exchanging ideas with their peers. Rather, the problem was determining when it makes sense and, crucially, when it doesn’t. Too often a business leader asks, How can we get people to collaborate more? That’s the wrong question. It should be, Will collaboration on this project create or destroy value? In fact, to collaborate well is to know when not to do it. "

John Caroll explains how HCI came into being: "In the early 1980s, HCI was a small and focused specialty area. It was a cabal trying to establish what was then a heretical view of computing. Today, largely due to the success of that endeavor, HCI is a vast and multifaceted community, loosely bound by the evolving concept of usability, and the integrating commitment to value human concerns as the primary consideration in creating interactive systems."

My new article at PebbleRoad: Reviewing intranet-based collaboration setups "The ability to form groups and collaborate on the intranet is key to making the intranet a place for ‘doing work’. A well-planned collaboration setup allows staff to use the setup easily and effectively. Here are 7 heuristics that can help review existing collaboration setups in organizations."

Jesses James Garrett delivered the IA Summit 09 closing plenary. Some nice pointers. "With perception covered by visual designers, sound designers, and industrial designers, cognition and emotion are the manifest destiny of IA. User experience is not about information, rather, it is always about people and how they relate to information. By structuring the information, User Experience Designers structure the tools that humanity uses. And, as a result, we influence how people think and feel. The final result is that those tools, in turn, shape humanity. We should embrace that responsibility."

Business week has put up a useful list of content strategy links. Good starting points to the growing awareness of content strategy. In addition here is a link to content strategy presentations made during the last IA Summit.

Continuing on the content strategy thread, here is a bunch of checklists that can be used to evaluate the quality of content on the website or intranet. "In my experience, a common misperception of the evaluation of content quality is that its scope is limited to the correction of typos and grammatical errors. Correcting spelling and grammar only scratches the surface. To truly consider content quality, we need to examine its quality along several dimensions."

Every now and then comes a book that makes me think about my practice and shines a light on how to do it better. Ken Watanabe's Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People is one such book. Initially written to teach kids problem-solving approaches, this book became the most popular business book in Japan in 2007. In 120 pages Ken brilliantly describes explorative and iterative problem-solving approaches that make so much sense. Here is his approach: Understand the current situation Identify the root cause of the problem Develop an effective action plan Execute until the problem is solved, making modifications as necessary He describes this approach in 3 fun-filled stories: Mushroom Lovers, a kids rock band, trying to get more people to attend their monthly concert John Octopus on figuring out how to save enough money to buy a computer to pursue his dream to become a CGI artist in Hollywood Kiwi on deciding which soccer school to attend One thing is quite clear: this needs a rapid or iterative approach and will not fit well into a prescriptive approach. The problem that I see is that most clients demand a prescriptive approach. For example, clients want to know upfront the number of interviews that will be done or the number of usability tests that will be conducted in the research study. Such decisions I think are to be made in context and only if there is a need for them. But I also acknowledge that clients need some indication of effort to plan for resources needed. So we have a problem. The rapid development approach seems to be a possible solution (a hypothesis) but I'll need to test it out on a few projects to see if it works!

Jakob Nielsen on IA tasks: "Although usability has improved overall, IA is becoming a sore thumb that's preventing websites from meeting their business goals... Bad IA is now the greatest cause of task failures because it's the stumbling block for getting anywhere on a site. Users try to find their way around a site, and if they're particularly motivated, they might even try again if they fail. But if users are repeatedly led in circles or dumped into no-man's land by weak search, they give up and leave for another site. That's why deficiencies in your IA are costing you a lot of money, right now. "

Metropolis magazine lists 10 tips that IDEO has learnt creating the Ormondale Elementary School in Portola Valley, California. It seems the items in this list have been around for many years now. So the problem is not about knowing what to do, but how to do it. Jay Mathews's book, Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America is a much better read on how to bring change to the classroom. Here are some items from IDEO's list: Change the discourse. If you want to drive new behavior, you have to measure new things. Skills such as creativity and collaboration can’t be measured on a bubble chart. We need to create new assessments that help us understand and talk about the developmental progress of 21st-century skills. This is not just about measuring outcomes, but also measuring process. We need formative assessments that are just as important as numeric ones. And here’s the trick: we can’t just have the measures. We actually have to value them. Teachers are designers. Let them create. Build an environment where your teachers are actively engaged in learning by doing. Shift the conversation from prescriptive rules to permissive guidance. Even though the resulting environment may be more complicated to manage, the teachers will produce amazing results.

Interesting read from Strategy+Business. In this piece author Kenneth Roman describes the business genius of David Ogilvy and the principles he used to build the enduring firm. More than anything else, the glue that held together the organization as it grew around the world was training. Ogilvy used the metaphor of a teaching hospital. "Great hospitals do two things," he said. "They look after patients, and they teach young doctors. Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people. Ogilvy & Mather is the teaching hospital of the advertising world. And as such, it is to be respected above all other agencies."

A UIE article by Stephanie Lemiux: "Faceted search lets users refine or navigate a collection of information by using a number of discrete attributes - the so-called facets. A facet represents a specific perspective on content that is typically clearly bounded and mutually exclusive. The values within a facet can be a flat list that allows only one choice (e.g. a list of possible shoe sizes) or a hierarchical list that allow you to drill-down through multiple levels (e.g. product types, Computers > Laptops). The combination of all facets and values are often called a faceted taxonomy. These faceted values can be added directly to content as metadata or extracted automatically using text mining software."

From Patrick Lambe: Here’s another in our series of video tutorials to different practical knowledge management techniques. It’s taken from a workshop we conducted last week on knowledge audits and knowledge mapping. For ease of use it’s split into three short parts: Different types of knowledge; Different strategies for different knowledge types; and conducting a knowledge audit and building knowledge maps.

Just got a tender requirement spec that had around 200 pages for a 3 page web application. Yes, this video sums up the feeling.