Kasper Spiro

Book review: Leaving ADDIE for SAM: will agile eLearning development become mainstream?

May 3, 2013 By Kasper Spiro 3 Comments

I have read the book from Michael Allen ( and Richard Sites) with a lot of interest and it is a book that I can recommend to read, it does explain the why and the how of the approach and it contains a lot of practical stuff like examples and check list that will help you get started.

I believe that an agile approach will bring a lot of benefits to e-Learning development. I wrote a couple of post on this subject in the past few years so I am delighted that a heavy weight in our learning domain supports this trend, hopefully making it more mainstream. I’m interested in agile development because we develop the easygenerator software in an agile way. It gives huge advantages over the classic ‘waterfall’ models. I believe if you translate this to e-Learning development, it will change not only the way we create e-Learning courses, but also the courses itself. Michael and Richard present us an agile alternative for ADDIE: SAM (Successive Approximation Model).

The book starts with why we need a new approach. It lists the short comings of a lot of e-Learning courses in a clear way. It is followed by an analysis of ADDIE, looking at its original form and some new manifestations. It makes interesting reading because it is not a theoretical story but they have written it from the perspective of the learners needs. Their conclusion is: ADDIE falls short, we need something else (and I agree).

In the third chapter they have a look at what ‘good’ eLearning should be, I quote: “Concise, effective learning events, whether delivered through e-Learning or not, are meaningful, memorable, and motivational. And they achieve measurable results, too.” And they explain CCAF (Context, challenge, activity, feedback). With this they set the stage for the process and introduce SAM.

There is a simple version (SAM1), for small projects”

And a more extended version (SAM2) for larger projects”

I will not discuss all details (you should read the book) but what they do is take the iterative nature (short development sprints) of agile development and combine it with a prototyping approach. I like this; it will bring a lot of the advantages of agile software development to your e-Learning development. The book contains a huge amount of examples, checklists and even a complete project plan. It will help you to create learning goals and it gives examples of specific approaches (like the Savvy start and prototyping). The Savvy start is the second concept they introduce in this book. A concept that will help you to become more agile in your design process. It is clear that both authors have a few decades of combined experience in eLearning development. This enables them not only to develop an approach but explain it with very practical examples. And as you can expect from me I’m very happy with the chapter on instructional objectives, this is the way it should be done! The second part of this book is so rich, that even if you don’t want to switch to a more agile approach it is a must read. It is a goldmine of useful tips for every instructional designer.

Michael and Richard created a great foundation for a new agile approach. At the same time I think that they missed a lot of best practices and techniques that an agile approach can offer you. Daily stand ups, user stories, a back log, agile estimations, setting priorities, an agile team, demo’s to involve your clients. There is a lot more that can be used. I will write some future posts on this, trying to make the translation from best practices and techniques in agile software development to Agile e-Learning development. I will try to add another practical layer to the SAM foundation.

Ordering information Leaving ADDIE for SAM:

Books published by ASTD Press can be purchased by visiting ASTD’s website at store.astd.org or by calling 800.628.2783 or 703.683.8100:

Library of Congress Control Number (print edition only): 2009940017
PDF e-book edition ISBN: 978-1-60728-675-2
Print edition ISBN: 978-1-56286-711-9

And finally some links to earlier post I wrote on agile eLearning development:

A post with links to other ‘agile’ eLearning posts
A post that I wrote for the ASTD’s big question blog on agile development
And my first post on agile development after I joined easygenerator

Filed Under: ADDIE, Agile e-Learning development, agile software development, book review, e-Learning, Leaving ADDIE for SAM, Michael Allen, SAM

learning objectives: you need feed back to make them work

March 27, 2013 By Kasper Spiro 1 Comment

If you read my blog on a frequent basis you will know that I believe that Learning Objectives and learning are two sides of the same medal. I want to share a story with you that gave me an insight yesterday.

Some time ago I wanted to improve my bathroom and in a moment of insanity I decided that I would do that myself. It worked out sort of OK, but every now and then the bathroom would leak. Because it is situated on the second floor, I have a problem on the first floor as well. This was not a part of my master plan. So I needed to have a contractor that could fix that for me. I hired Albert, a local contractor, that did some fine work for us a while ago. So last week he was in my house for a few days fixing the problem. I work 3 days a week from home, so he saw me sitting in my office; mailing, conferencing, calling (over VOIP) and all the other stuff you do when you work. He was really amazed that all this was possible. He told me that he has a website (made by a local guy) and that that guy also installed a PC with internet connection and mail in his home three years ago. He never touched it since, because he hasn’t got a clue what to do with it.

Later on he decided that I would need a new shower base (if that is the proper word for it; anyway I mean the thing you stand in while taking a shower), and he told me that it would cost me between 350 and 400 Euro. I surfed the web and found the perfect one in 5 minutes for 130 euro, I ordered it and paid for it on-line. He was in awe and understood that it would be profitable for his business if he would be able do that as well. I offered him to teach this. So we set out to define the learning objectives for this, they became (with the action mapping rules in mind):

Albert is able to send and answer mail from his own PC
Albert is able to search ‘Marktplaats’ (a Dutch eBay) and buy things from it

They looked simple enough. Yesterday evening I went over to his house and we started. It turned out he did really know nothing about computers at all. I had to explain that you don’t only have to place your mouse on the desired position, but that you have to do a left mouse click as well. When he typed a few words he asked me ‘How can I get a gap between the words?’ and I had to explain the function of space bar to him.

Based on his feed back I had to adapt our learning objectives. They became:

Albert knows how to operate the main function of his PC
Albert understands the difference between mail and internet
Albert is able to sent and answer mail from his own PC

We went on from there and decided that we would need several session to reach the original objectives. For me this was a learning moment. We changed not only the learning content but the learning objectives as well. With easygenerator we are proud on our adaptive courses that will advise a learner on an individual basis; but only on a content level. I now realize we have to offer facilities on the level of learning objectives as well. Another two hours well spent.

Filed Under: Adaptive learning, e-Learning, Learning objectives

7 Things to Consider to Ensure the Proper LMS Prescription

March 19, 2013 By Kasper Spiro Leave a Comment

Sometimes I get a request to host a guest post. This time I decided to place this post. The last 2,5 years my focus has been on eLearning authoring and I think this a very informative post on selecting a LMS. This post has been written by Jordan Barrish who is a Market Analyst for Capterra. She researches and writes about trends in a variety of software verticals, with a particular focus on learning management software. You can follow Jordan on Twitter - @jordan_barrish.

When you arrive for a check-up at the doctor’s office, the first thing your doctor does is take an inventory of what’s happening with your body. He’ll want to know what’s working and what’s not and only you can explain what’s actually wrong before proceeding to the examination.

As you are searching for your perfect Learning Management System (LMS), you need to have a sense of any problems in your organization to make sure you get the right prescription for an eLearning solution.

Here are 7 things to think about before considering an LMS:

1. Learners – Growing up, we learned not everyone acquires and retains information in the same way. If it’s possible, try to think about the information you are going to be sharing and how your users are going to be taking it in.

Tip: Typically LMS solutions are very customizable, but if there are certain learning needs in your organization make sure to address these before you jump into a demo.

2. Administrators – Especially if you are not going to be the one in charge of running your LMS, you want to make sure to choose a solution that is user friendly for your administrator. They will be handling your content and your learners, so keep them in mind; they will thank you later.

Tip: This also includes customer and technical support from your solution provider. Be sure to check out company reviews or test out their support lines to be sure your administrators will have a pleasant experience when trying to solve any potential problems.

3. Features & Functionality – Will you need customized templates or reports? What about assessment tools? Maybe you need an ecommerce feature or the ability to integrate with other applications and systems? Create a list of your must-have and nice-to-have features and have those handy as you demo different software products.
Tip: Some LMS providers focus specifically on corporate clients while others are specifically geared toward academic institutions. Many systems will work for both, but be sure to clarify that the solutions you’re considering meet your organization’s needs.
4. Content – What kind of content will you be hosting on your LMS? Does it need to be Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compliant? Will you be creating the content or will you need to outsource for this feature? Will you need to use PowerPoint conversion, a 3rd party course authoring tool, or would you prefer an LMS that has its own? It’s vital you have a deep understanding of the undertaking that comes along with creating and supporting your learning content. Creation of content that is not effective and engaging for your learners can limit the effectiveness of your LMS implementation.

Tip: When thinking about your budget, keep in mind the possibility of 3rd party sources for content. This could cost you a pretty penny, so be wary of how much of the content creation your organization can handle on your own.

5. Web based or On-premises – Decide which type of software you need. Web-based means you can access it anywhere there’s an internet connection. On-premises means the software is installed on site.

Tip: Neither of these options is better than the other– but one may be better for your specific needs. Make sure to ask questions about security, backup files and data ownership.

6. Budget – LMS pricing is complicated, so it can be hard to determine a budget. While you don’t want to waste your time looking at solutions that are out of your price range, it’s important to consider all of your options and make sure you’re comparing apples to apples. Some LMS vendors charge a flat rate, others by number of learners and some by usage.

Tip: Typically software vendors do not list their pricing models on their website. Be sure to ask for this information upfront, either in your initial email or call with them.

7. Additional Fees - Be aware that many solutions charge fees for ad-ons that you may think are included. The best way to make sure there are no surprises is to ask. You don’t want to set a budget, sign a contract, and then realize the software can’t expand with your organization without exceeding your budget.

Tip: You may not need every feature a solution offers. Find out if you can purchase the LMS without those features to potentially cut down on extra costs.

Bonus

Finally, any other goals you have set out for your eLearning to accomplish. Be certain that whatever core functionalities those goals may require, that the LMS you plan to demo is capable of those. Do you want to be able to reach more students? Do you want to post video lectures to help cut down on classroom lectures? What about giving your students the ability to track their progress. Always keep your end goals in mind.

If your prognosis has been made and you are ready to start demos, take another few minutes and check out Capterra’s LMS Software Directory for a comprehensive list to help you get started.
Best of luck on your journey to eLearning recovery!

Filed Under: capterra, Jordan Barrish, LMS, Select LMS

#LSCon 13 Day 3 Keynote and wrap up

March 16, 2013 By Kasper Spiro Leave a Comment

I’m back home in the Netherlands after LSCON13. I owe you one keynote a a conference wrap up.

Yvonne Camus, Adventurer, Executive and Performance Expert, Leading a high performance life

Yvonne participated in the Eco challenge, a team expeditions race over 300 miles that ou have to complete in 12 days, through the Borneo jungle. It is a race that in principle is impossible to finish. She trained for 6 months with her team next to her job and her family live. A team consist out of four persons with at least one woman. If anyone drops out of the race the whole team is disqualified.

She was the only woman on the team and therefore the least powerful and the slowest. One day during a very bad training session het coach said: 8 out of 10 training are really good, 1 out of ten will be crap, 1 out of 10 will be awesome. And that awesome one you have to focus on. Focus on the last time you were brilliant. Ask yourself what did you do to reach that moment. And try to surpass it.

Based on her experiences in training and during the race she formulated riles for performing great:

Great will train with the intention of improving, relentless commitment
Surround yourself with incredible people. If two people on the team think exactly alike, one of them is not necessary.
You need raving fans
Plan to be excellent, energy follows thought; we move towards but never beyond what we can imagine.
Things go wrong. You trip over small things, like blisters, and that will distract you from your big goal.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional, misery doesn’t discriminate.
Visualize success, great things happens twice, first in your mind and then in reality

Conference wrap up

I’m not completely sure what to think about this year’s Learning Solutions conference, for us as a vendor it was a good show, a lot of interest in easygenerator and our free edition, and a nice bunch of solid leads and I was able to do some great networking. As far as the conference goes I’m less positive. The key notes were not on the same level as they were in the past two years that I have attended. Maybe I’m getting spoiled, but the past two years the keynotes made me rethink some of my ideas and gave me new insights. I had the feeling that I had to do something with what I learned. I went through the backchannel to read other summaries in order to see if have missed out on something important. The theme is clear it is about high performance. Great stories were told, it was entertaining, but I didn’t get any ‘Aha moment’, no big new insights.

The same goes for this year’s concurrent sessions. The main themes are mobile (and TinCan), performance support, creating more attractive (less boring) eLearning. A bit the same as last year. Last year we had the rise of TinCan and HTML5 vs Flash, this is still there but it is not new. For me the most informative session was from the AICC about CMI-5. That was interesting because I finally understand how all the standards relate to each other and what the future will be (see my previous post for details). So my conclusion must be; a nice conference but it didn’t blow me away. To put this in perspective. If I have to compare this conference to some of the European conferences (Like the Online Educa in Berlin and Learning technology in London), it is still a different league. On a scale from 1 to 10 LSCon13 would score a 7, the European shows will be around the 3-5 mark. I definitely will be here next year again (and I will go the Mlearn and Devlearn). They are as far as I’m concerned the top3 conferences worldwide.

I have also wrote post on day 1 and day 2 of the conference.

Filed Under: #lscon13, eLearning

Day 2 @LSCON, Nice keynote and I finally understand TinCan, Experience API, Scorm, ADL, IACC and CMI-5……..

March 14, 2013 By Kasper Spiro 2 Comments

Day 2 of the conference. I started the day with the keynote session, before the keynote some announcements were made. Joe Ganci received a guild master award from the eLearning guild and rightfully so. Great guy, always presenting, writing, reviewing and moderating.

Eric Berg of Lingos got on stage to announce the 2013 global give back competition, I’m an ambassador for Lingos, it is a great organization that helps non-profit organizations that work internationally with eLearning facilities. They help people who do well, do even better. This year there will be an global give back competition again (http://ngolearning.org/globalgiveback/default.aspx), your chance to contribute to this great organization. Get involved, donate your time and talent, it is a course and an organization worth supporting!

Key note: Daniel Coyle, Author and Contributing Editor to Outside Magazine
What makes high performance, what bridges the space between being bad and being great are the questions he started out with. We are told that becoming great is about your talent, hard work and passion. In order to find out if this is true he visited ‘hot beds’ that develop high performing people, looking for patterns.

What have high performers in common? They have all spent 10.000 hours learning their craft. Practice is magical and trans formative. What makes people learn? You learn when you have to struggle. When you present someone with all complete crystal clear information, they will not learn. When the information is not complete you are challenged to process this info, which enhances retainment. Making mistakes will make you learn, you need to push yourself to the limits, forcing mistakes. When you correct your mistakes they will trigger your brain into learning. Learning happens in a space where you are pushed to your boundaries and are allowed to make mistakes and fix them.

In your brain neurons will grow when used a lot, building better ‘wiring’ in your brain. This is why practice is so useful. It will deliver signals much faster when they have grown. Practice grows broadband connections in your brain! It will take 10.000 hours to make it perfect.

Daniel has three ‘habits’ that enhances great learning, we can learn from this.

Habit 1: Maximize reachfulness

Ruthlessly eliminate passive learning
Aim for the 60-80% sweet spot
Check reps Gauge
- Reaching the edge of your ability and repeating
- High level of emotional engagement
- Is there purposeful action?
- Is there swift feedback?

This takes a lot of energy, how do you motivate someone to put in the work? Does passion comes from the inside? Fast runners all are the youngest of their family. Because they were always challenged by their older siblings that were older and faster. You are motivated if you can make a connection to a role model.

Habit 2: Fill the Windshield

Promote staring
Encourage stealing
Create a mistake club

The world is a learning contest and we are the coaches. What makes a good coach? Coaches know a lot and talk a lot. Coaches are older, are able to connect to student. Great coaches don’t give long inspiring talks, but they will give short burst of inspirational information

Habit 3: Communicate like a coach

Connect
No speeches, sent short vivid information to individuals
Praise for effort, not ability

CMI-5 and XAPI (Tin Can API), Bill McDonald, Kris RockwellIt took me a while to figure the meaning of TinCan and I understood the impact it can have on our learning community, but I never understood why we have two competing standards (Scorm and AICC), and now there is a new standard emerging CMI-5 based on TinCan. So I was lost again. I attended this session and now I finally understand how it all fits together and where it is going. here is the story, I hope you can follow it, if you can it will help you.

The AICC developed in the early 1990 the AICC standard. Later on the ADL was formed and they wanted a more extended standard, based on the AICC specs. But they got into a technical argument (http vs API or something like that). So the ADL developed Scorm in a different (technical) way and we ended up with two standards. Both the ADL and AICC where working on a new generation of standards. ADL announced TinCan (version one will be out shortly) and the AICC worked on CMI-5. The TinCan announcement got a lot of attention, because it is more open and it facilitates the recording of learning experiences outside the LMS (mobile!). The problem with TinCan is that while it is very cool we don’t now exactly what to do with it. How will the fact that we can record learning experiences influence our learning design?? Tincan supports a learning model that we can envision (a bit) but that we don’t have yet. Scorm and AICC support the current model with reporting through a LMS. And this is where CMI-5 comes into play. The AICC will build CMI-5 based on TinCan but it will expand TinCan with the in-LMS tracking and tracing we are used to, replacing both Scorm and AICC standards we are currently using.

Pfff a whole story.To cut a long story short, we will end up with one standard based on Tincan and it can do reporting on learning inside a LMS and outside a LMS. That seems to be a very good thing (I think). Sometimes I feel a bit stupid not understanding all of this at once, but I guess I’m not the only one.

Filed Under: #lscon13, Aicc, CMI-5, e-Learning, IACC, SCORM, TinCan API, Xapi

Learning Solutions Conference Day 1, my recap

March 14, 2013 By Kasper Spiro 1 Comment

Yesterday we had day 1 of LSCON2013 and here are my findings. I attended a few sessions that I will report on in this post. I had to spent quit some time at our booth, because there is a lot of interest in easygenerator so I haven’t been able to attend all the sessions I planned. if you want to have a more complete overview, you should go to the conference back channel.

Breaking Down Barriers to Successful Performance Support – Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher
The first session was a morning buzz session. These kind of sessions start at 7.15 and are very informal. This one was about Performance support. I was interested because I thing performance support, training and eLearning together will integrate learning into the workplace. You can download their presentation through Mapdeck (search for ‘performance support’). Some of the top quotes for me:

Training can’t do the job alone
Things that block: Politics, ICT
support is only 2 clicks or 10 seconds away

Interesting for me was to hear eLearning specialist talk about the need to over a part of their training effort to performance support, in order to connect to the business and the business goals more. Definitely a trend in the learning (and support) land.

Keynote: Robert Ballard, Scientist and Ocean ExplorerI saw about 3 quarter of his presentation and than I had to leave to set up our stand at the expo. Interesting story about exploring the underwater world and innovative findings to make that happen. It didn’t do it for me, nice stories, but not really something I could take away from this presentation.

Myths and Realities of Cloud-based technologies for learning – Michael Allen, Shannon JacksonLike easygenerator ZebraZapps is a cloud-based authoring tool. They encounter resistance with companies to move their content to the cloud. But they found out that it is fear of the unknown. In a survey they found that only 16% of the respondents was able to give a somewhat correct definition of the cloud. Over 50% claimed that they will never use the cloud. But without knowing over 90% of them uses the cloud. Google aps, dropbox, facebook, Flikr are all cloud based solutions. In fact the cloud is nothing else then a bunch of web servers behind a firewall, like the servers data would live on your corporate servers. It is clearly fear of the unknown that drives people here. Good presentation and good initiative.

Your eLearning lives up in the cloud what does it mean? Facilitator: Joe Ganci, Panelists: Gary Lipkowitz, Glenn Bull, Lisa Stortz, Robert Gadd, Shannon Jackson

I was on my way to the second keynote of the day, when I passed the Technology Solution stage, which is hosted by Joe Ganci this year. He was just starting up a panel with vendors of cloud based tools. Before I knew it he grabbed me and added me to the panel. I think it was a nice session, like the session by Zebrazapps we tried to explain what the cloud is and take away the fear by adding facts.

The rest of the day I spent in the booth of easygenerator (come by when you are in Orlando -booth 515-). I haven’t made my mind up yet about this years conference. I haven’t been blown away by presentations yet (like last year). Let see what the second day will bring.

Filed Under: #lscon13, e-Learning

How to Engage Learners with Scenario-based Learning

March 1, 2013 By Kasper Spiro Leave a Comment

Over the past few weeks I wrote an article on scenario based learning, together with Hans Kövi. He is the Creative Director of Inbrain, our Dutch partner. We both see a growing demand for scenario based learning, we believe it is the affordable ‘serious gaming’ option. The article is published as featured article in this months ‘Learning solution magazine.

Filed Under: e-Learning

2012 in retrospective: top 10 posts

January 2, 2013 By Kasper Spiro Leave a Comment

It is the time of the year to look back and to make plans for the new year. In this post I will have a look at 2012 based on the top 10 post of this blog. The top 10 is:

There are three post in this list (on 1, 4 and 10) about a new metaphor for eLearning. A generic one, one on learning maps and one on cased based learning. I do believe that this is a topic that will be big in 2013 as well. We need to find more effective ways to present our learning content to our learners and that means we have to move away from the current ‘book’ and ‘slide show’ metaphors.

50 educational thinkers. A real great series of posts by Donald Clark. I learned a lot, not only by his selection of thinkers but also by his great summaries of their central thoughts.

The launch of our free edition was big for easygenerator (number 3). A new step in easygenerators endeavor to change e-Learning. We are now live with the free edition for two months and are now approaching the 1500 users mark in over 80 countries. That is something that exceeded expectations. Will be interesting to see what will happen in 2013.

Agile e-Learning development. I’m happy that this post is in the top 10. I think the waterfall model and ADDIE have to many limitations. I believe a better way is the agile approach that comes from software development. An other interesting development here is Michael Allens SAM, an agile methodology for eLearning development. On his corporate blog is an interview with him on SAM. We need to move away from ADDIE and SAM might be the way.

My post from the mobile eLearning conference on trends also made the top 10. Well mobile (both smart phones and tablets) is a game changing trend by itself and that day at MLearncon was a very educational day for me. Also the first post where I used my mind map notes. In 2013 there will be a lot more on mobile and on mind maps.

How to keep formal learning relevant. Our world is changing and we have to change too to keep relevant. This is a trend that will be even bigger in 2013, TinCan wil come and will really be a game changer: I can’t wait. Both subjects are in the top 10.

The post on Blackboard is a representative of another trend: consolidation. We will see match more take overs in 2013, Not always for the best, but it will happen more and more, it is a sign that our industry is growing up.

I’m happy to see that this blog is growing (almost 250% up in comparison to 2011) although that is not my goal. My blog remains mainly a place for me to put done notes and thoughts, but it is nice that people appreciate this. I wish you all the best for 2013 it will be an exiting year for everybody in the e-Learning community and I will keep writing about it.

Filed Under: e-Learning Tagged With: 2012 in retrospective, e-Learning, elearning, top10

Free eLearning authoring with easygenerator, already over a 1000 users!

December 5, 2012 By Kasper Spiro Leave a Comment

Reblogged from easygenerator.com:

We launched the free edition of our on-line eLearning authoring tool November 1st at DevLearn. This week we registered user number 1.000. This post is to celebrate that first milestone. This post also contains information on extra functionality we will make available to the users of the free edition in the coming period and some facts and figures about those users.

We had a lot of contact with the users of the free edition. We have a community in Yammer and we have at least two webinars per week to get them started. Based on the feed back we received we decided on some future changes for the free edition. The highlights are:

Branding
The free edition has a fixed look and feel, which is branded in the easygenerator style. We will change this and create a look and feel which is more neutral. In easygenerator you can set the look and feel by applying master pages. In collaboration with our partners we will offer a series of master pages. There will be a number of master pages with a fixed unbranded look and feel, we will have master pages where you can do limited branding (your own logo and background image) and we will offer the ability to use customized master pages. These options will probably be available in January or February and can be purchased for a one time fee.

Question types
The current free edition has three question types. We are currently rebuilding all question types from flash into HTML. In the first half year of 2013 these HTML based question types will become available and will be a part of the free edition.

Extra space
In the free edition you are allowed to create 10 courses and your repository is limited to a maximum of 250MB. Next year we will offer upgrade programs that allow you to create more courses and have a larger repository.

User base
I also want to share some information on the user base. At this moment we have 1077 users, spread over 6 continents and 71 countries. 51% is from the United States, followed by The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

Continent Graph

Markets
As far as we know about 45% of all users are from corporations and 20% has an educational background. About 10% of all users works for an eLearning company. The rest is from governmental organizations, Non Profits, Student or Unknown to us.

We are very exited about the interest in this edition. When we launched it we really didn’t know what to expect in terms of numbers and types of users. The response has exceeded our expectations and we are curious where this will take us next year. In case you are interested you can register and activate within minutes. Just click here to go to the form.

Filed Under: e-Learning, e-Learning authoring tool, EasyGenerator, eLearning, free edition

Returning to the didactical roots: innovation in eLearning?

November 22, 2012 By Kasper Spiro 3 Comments

Earlier this month I presented at DevLearn on connecting learning to the business and this week I did a webinar and a seminar on adaptive learning. During these sessions I noticed that our basic approach (Determine learning objectives, Figure out how to assess and then create only the content that is really needed) is far from standard. Most people create content, create an assessment and that is it. But the funny thing is that this ‘old school’ approach is the foundation of innovation at easygenerator.

Originally I’m a teacher in social studies and economics. They taught me that for every lesson you want to create you need to figure out your goal first and that you need to find a way to asses if that goal is reached in the end. Only then you could start creating your lessons. I did apply this approach through my working live: with teaching, with writing books (on bookkeeping – how boring can you get?-), when I create eLearning and even when I manage a company. I know it is not common practice, but I still believe that this is the way to go.

Old school didactics
Let’s first take a look at this old school approach.

As said you start out with your learning objectives. Creating sound and useful objectives is an art in its own right. I will not go in too much detail here but I’m a fan of the action mapping approach from Cathy Moore. The essence of this approach is that learning is not about obtaining knowledge but to (learn) to be able to perform a task. Cathy doesn’t link this to learning objectives, but if you do, they should state what the learner needs to be able to do.

The second step in the development process is the assessment: how do you prove that the learner is able to do the task? You can do this by asking questions, presenting cases, really anything that will measure the performance and comes up with a score. By the way thanks to our new emerging standard (‘Tincan API’ aka ‘the experience API’) we will be able to measure this in real live and use the outcome in an eLearning course). When you create good cases (or scenario’s) this assessment will be the learning experience by itself.

And only then you start creating the content. But in the spirit of Cathy Moore only the content that is really, really needed to (learn to) do the task. When in doubt leave it away, ‘less is better’ and much cheaper!

Innovation
We have applied this principle in the authoring platform of easygenerator and it has become the foundation underneath the innovations we have created and will create in the future. I will explain.

In easygenerator we created a dashboard to create and manage your learning objectives. You can’t create a course without a learning objective (if there no goal there is no point in creating a course after all) in easygenerator.

After creating the course you need to set how to measure the progress in the course. You do that by connecting the Learning objectives to questions and cases. In fact you are determining how to assess the objectives. Finally you connect these questions to related information pages.

And this simple approach will change and enable a lot:

It will change your design process and with that the kind of course you create.
The learner is able to see the objectives and his progress on the objectives during the course.
The course is able to present a personal study advice to the learner.
You will be able to report the outcome per learner per learning objective, giving you meaningful data to evaluate you course and your contribution to the companies goals.

These are only the first developments we did based on this approach, a lot more will follow. This video shows you how this works for the learner and for the author.

Based on these very basic dialectical principles we will continue the innovation of eLearning courses and the creation process. Some of the things on our road map are:

Create non-hierarchical metaphors and interfaces for eLearning courses (no book metaphor).
Create better support for designing eLearning courses in our authoring environment.
Implement TinCan
Create learning maps, where the learner can navigate through on his journey to reaching his learning objective
Create better support for case based and scenario based eLearning in the authoring environment

And there will be much more. But the bottom-line is that this idea is independent of a tool, it is how you organize your development process. You can do this on paper if you want, but I believe eLearning developers should do this much more, regardless of the tool they are using.

Filed Under: Action Mapping, Adaptive learning, e-Learning, eLearning, Learning objectives