Big Dog, Little Dog

Designing for Agile Learning

2009-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

This is the fourth in a series of posts on Agile Learning Design:

Post 1 - Agile Design: An Ethos for Creating Learning Platforms.
Post 2 - Planning in Agile Learning Design
Post 3 - Orientation in Agile Learning Design

The third concept of PODSI (Plan, Orientate, Design, Select, & Iterate) is Learning Design to facilitate interactions between humans and content in order to increase performance. It accomplishes "interactions" through the use of "awareness" that not only allows the content to sense and respond to the learners, such as feedback and guiding them to their next learning need; but also allowing the learners to sense and respond to the content; and as was noted during a Twitter conversation (with @usable learning and @Kathysierra), "the awareness should be more like Amazon's Lists rather than Clippy." Note that the definition is based somewhat on Safer's (2007) definition of interaction design.

Agile Design captures the texture & nuance of learning

Almost anyone can produce content but it takes a good Learning Designer to add awareness. It is also contextual in that it facilitates specific performance problems under a specific set of circumstances — my solution may not work for a similar problem. The end goal is to produce adaptive, agile thinkers, competent to perform within a dynamic working environment (Mark ley, 2006). While Learning Design is mostly art, it does has best practices.

Learning Design does not align itself with any one medium or technology, rather it is only concerned with the correct technology that aids in the learning/performance solution. Thus, it might be compared to distributed Learning (dL) that relies primarily on indirect communication between learners and instructors that allows the learners to learn at different times, at their own pace, as well as in different places. The old way of spelling the acronym was "DL", however this emphasized delivery method and learning equally, thus the correct acronym is now "dL", which emphasizes Learning without focus on delivery (Markley, 2006). That is, it uses face-to-face instruction when it makes sense.

Techniques to Learning Design

While there are specific methodologies for creating learning or instructional design, such as ISD, ADDIE, and van Merriënboer's 4C/ID Model; there are four design lenses or techniques that provide a means for viewing the overall structure of a specific learning design:

1. Performance-Centered Design

Focuses on the tasks that are composed of actions and decisions that the learners need to perform. A Learning Designer uses an Exemplary Performer as a model and then they build the instructional content and add awareness to it.

2. Guru Design

Focuses on the skills and knowledge of experts (SMEs), in which the designer may or may not be the guru. A Learning Designer uses one or more SMEs as knowledge sources and then they build the instructional content and add awareness to it.

3. Learner-Centered Design

Focuses on the needs and goals of the learners who guide the design; while the Learning Designer aids with the content and awareness. This is somewhat similar to user-centered design that is based on the concept that the people who use a product or service know what their needs, preferences, and goals are, thus they and the Learning Designer collaborate throughout every stage of the Agile Design process to build the content and awareness. It should be noted that the vast majority of so called "Learner-Centered Designs" out there are based on the other three design techniques because they are focused on what others thought the needs and goals of the learners should be, not what the learners thought they should be.

4. System Design

System Design focuses on the system's inputs, outputs, processes, feedback loops, goals, etc. to guide the design.

Specialty Designs (subset)

This includes ISD or ADDIE, which is basically a combination of Performance, Guru, and System Design, but normally little or no Learner-Centered Design (not because the model won't let you, but because the designers fail to). It also includes the micro-instructional designs, such a van Merriënboer's 4C/ID Model that focuses on task specific skills.

"The answer is, there's an infinite number of answers." - Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls

Almost no Learning Design project is accomplished through just one of the four approaches or subsets, but is normally a mixture of them, with one of them being the primary approach to design. For example, a Learner-Centered Design might perform System Design and call on experts or gurus to help with the design; while a Performance Design might include some System Design, in addition to using Merriënboer's 4C/ID for some specialty tasks.

So just as you can "plug and play" different tools or methods into ISD, you also plug these tools into an Agile Learning Design so that rather than working with a tool box that only contains a hammer, you work with a full set of tools that compliments the learning platform in order to fast-track and retain learning.

Learning Design Approaches & Orientation

The source of where you get the content (Exemplary Performers, Expert Performers, SMEs, and/or Learners/Performers) as discussed in the last post clues you to the level of complexity of the design environment, which in turn tells you the primary design approach:

Exemplary Performers → Simple Environment → Performance-Centered Design
Expert Performers → Complicated Environment → Guru Design
SMEs & Learners/Performers → Complex Environment → Learner-Centered Design
Learners/Performers & managers → Chaotic Environment → System Design

Or which could be pictured as:

Click to enlarge

Being able to locate the correct level of complexity of the environment tells you the main design approach to take:

Simple Design Environment - SCR

Sense by using a collaborative process to create shared awareness and understanding of each team member's perspectives in order to create a mental model of the learning problem so that the correct decision-making can be performed.

You know you are in a simple learning design environment when you have Exemplary Performers who role model the required performance while you observe and categorize into tasks, skills, knowledge, and performance steps.

You respond by applying best practices such as creating learning objectives through a series of If/Then statements:

If we want to increase sales of our new service, then the sales representatives need to be able to perform an effective sales presentation. If we want them to perform the presentation, then they need to learn these skills __________, __________, and __________ (skills are categorized by observing the Exemplary Performers role modeling). If they need to perform these skills, then they will require this knowledge __________, __________, and __________ (knowledge is categorized by interviewing the Exemplary Performers role modeling).

This series of If/Then statements can also be visualized by using Performance or Action mapping as Catchy Moore shows in this slide presentation:

Design Lively Elearning with Action Mapping

View more documents from Catchy Moore.

Complicated Design Environment - SAR

A complicated learning design environment is similar to a simple learning design environment except rather than having Exemplary Performers who you observe, you have SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), who you interview and ask questions in order to analyze their responses.

You then respond by discovering patterns in their responses and transforming the information into good practices. And normally the only way to determine if it is indeed a "good practice" is through a series of iterations. Thus while a simple environment will only require a few iterations, a complicated environment will require several more.

Complex Design Environment - PSR

Since there are no Exemplary Performers to observe or SMEs to interview, the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, thus the approach is to probe through deep collaboration among the learners, managers, and designers, such as telling stories about what they are experiencing (narratives). It is often helpful to look at the system and processes by starting with the output and working backwards through them in order see what to discuss (collaborate) and if it will help with the solution. Thus the primary design approach is Learner-Centered with the learners fulfilling the roles of SMEs, with perhaps some System Design added in. In addition, you can use a processes similar to the method Joe Deegan describes in his blog post, Project Based Learning in 3 Steps.

This probing effect should start to paint a picture or pattern that allows you to sense an "emergent practice" that can be responded to by designing and then implementing a solution based on the observed pattern. Since this will be a new practice, it will more than likely have to go though several rounds of iterations to arrive at the "emergent" practice.

Chaotic Design Environment - ASR

Since there is no relationship between cause and effect that the team (learners, managers, and designers) can agree upon, you will need to look at the system and processes by starting with the output and working backwards in order see what you can act upon. This might seem similar to a Complex Environment, but with a Chaotic Environment you are basically taking guesses of what to do (perhaps educated ones), while with a Complex Environment you are seeing patterns and getting an "Aha! moment" — this will work.

Once the change has been implemented, sense the environment again and see if the team can now agree upon the correct level of complexity. If not repeat the process with a new "act" until an agreement can be made.

By forcing changes into the chaotic environment you eventually push it into one of the other three domains. At this point a pattern should emerge that will allow the team to correctly identify the environment (more than likely a Complex Environment), thus you can now respond with one of the above three approaches.

The Complexity of Design Approaches

Knowing which design environment you are in helps with the planning by, 1) informing you of the number of design approaches that will be involved, and 2) estimating the number of iterations that will be needed.

1. As the level of complexity increases, the number of design approaches to solve the problem correspondly increases; however, there will normally be one major design approach. This will give you an idea of the scope of the design solution that you will be working in:

2. As the level of complexity increases, the number of iterations to reach a "good-enough" level correspondly increases. This will give you an idea of the number of iterations that will be needed:

Up Next

The design concept creates the basic plan for carrying out the Selection and development of learning objects for a dL platform, which will be covered in the next post. And while selection might seem rather mundane at first, it's more or less the heart of Agile Design.

References

Markley, J., 2006. The Army Distributed Learning Program. Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC): presentation given at the U.S. Army Courseware Conference March, 14, 2006. Retrieved No, 2, 2009: http://wow.tradoc.army.mil/tadlp/presentations/dlcwconf06.pp3

Orientation in Agile Learning Design

2009-11-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

This is the third in a series of posts on Agile Learning Design:

Post 1 - Agile Design: An Ethos for Creating Learning Platforms.
Post 2 - Planning in Agile Learning Design

The second concept of PODSI (Plan, Orientate, Design, Select, & Iterate) is Orientating to ensure you understand the contextual issues of the environment you will be designing in.

In the early 70's, three similar, but different, concepts emerged on the importance of orientation and learning — Boyd's OODA Loop, Double Loop Learning, and After Action Reviews.

Col. John Boyd, USAF, developed the OODA Loop for decision-making in a combat environment, particularly for combat pilots, and is now used in many organizations. He viewed problems as a cycle of Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action, (OODA) and determined that whoever could cycle through the loop the fastest would win in a combat fight.

Boyd realized that people normally performed three of the decision-making tasks — observing, decision, and then performing an action, perhaps without really thinking about it, but one of their biggest weakness was failing to orientate themselves to the environment; thus he spent most of his time talking about it. This is why he highlighted "Orientation" in his diagram.

Chris Argyris coined the term "Double Loop Learning" and "Single Loop Learning. Single loop learning has often been compared to a thermostat in that it makes a "decision" to either turn on or off. Double loop learning is like a thermostat that asks "why" — Is this a good time to switch settings? Are there people in here? Are they in bed? Are they dressed for a colder setting? — thus it orientates itself to the present environment in order to make the wisest decision.

A person who is double loop learning is basically "orientating" herself to all possible solutions within her environment by asking a series of "whys" that is similar to Sakichi Toyoda's (the founder of Toyota) method who used a technique he called the Five Whys — when confronted with a problem you ask "why" five times. By the time the fifth why is answered, you should be at the root cause of the problem.

Amusing, but informative video on double and single loop learning (6.21 minutes):

Before the early 70's the U.S. Army used Performance Critiques to determine the effectiveness of training (mostly war games), which in a nutshell determined who won and who lost. Deciding that this was not the best way to get their money's worth they came up with the After Action Review (AAR):

The U.S. Army's did a slight twist on orientating oneself in that after a learning event, there is still more to learn by re-orientating oneself to the past and then asking a lot of whys so that new learnings are created — one prepares for the future by learning from the past. Learning is transformed from an event to a process by discovering "lessons learned."

Differences between a Performance Critique and an AAR:

Orientation in the Agile Design Environment

With all this emphasis on orientation you would think that by now we would have it down pat, but the truth is that people do not spend enough time on it, thus solutions continue to miss their intended mark. To aid us in orientating ourselves to the proper level of complexity so that the initial learning architecture can be designed, we will use the Cynefin (pronounced cunevin) framework.

The Cynefin framework was created by Dave Snowden and coworkers at IBM's Institute of Knowledge Management and consists of five domains:

Simple - the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all; the approach is to Sense - Categorize - Respond by applying best practices.
Complicated - the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and the application of expert knowledge; the approach is to Sense - Analyze - Respond by discovering patterns and then apply good practice.
Complex - the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance; the approach is to Probe - Sense - Respond by sensing emergent practice, such as telling stories (narratives), which is similar to an AAR.
Chaotic - there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level; the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond to discover novel practice (take action) in order push the environment into one of the other domains so further action can take place.
Disorder - the state of not knowing what type of causality exists, thus people will revert to their own comfort zone when making decisions.

In this short video, Shawn Callahan of Anecdote gives a very good explanation of the Cynefin or Complexity model:

While gaining a full understanding of Cynefin framework requires a fairly extensive workshop, there are a few simple techniques that will help to identify the complexity of an Agile Design environment. However, to do so we need to tightly define three terms: subject matter expert, exemplary performer, and expert performer.

Subject Matter Expert (SME): Knows the subject or task, but does not presently perform in that area. An example is a college professor that teaches business, but is not engaged in a business; or a person that has performed in the subject area in the past in a wide variety of contexts, but is not presently a performer in that area.

Exemplary performer: Is able to perform the tasks for a certain subject area and is worthy of imitation, but does not have a great deal of knowledge about the peripherals surrounding the subject or task.

Expert performer: Is able to perform the tasks for a certain subject area and is worthy of imitation; in addition they have a great deal of knowledge about the peripherals surrounding the subject or task. An example might be a physician assistant (PA) who works in that job during the day and teaches college courses about it at night or a PA who not only performs the duties, but has performed in a number of surrounding areas that gives him a broad context of the subject and tasks. Basically an expert performer is both a SME and Exemplary Performer.

These definitions of the various "experts" that learning/instructional designers call upon are keys for identifying the complexity of the design environment:

Simple

In a simple design environment someone on the team has identified one or more Exemplary Performers who will be the role model(s) for the learning being designed. For example, a manager comes to you who wants to train her people to perform in the same manner as an Exemplary Performer she has identified; or during your research you identify a few Exemplary Performers who will make perfect role models.

While this is normally one of the easier learning platforms to design, it does have a couple of pitfalls. The first is thinking that since it is fairly easy to design, it is also easy to learn and perform, thus the failing to build enough practice time into the learning platform. Designers often become so absorbed in their work that they fail to realize how much time they are putting into it, thus they spend a couple of weeks working on the task, then think they can transform it into a two-hour information dump.

The second pitfall is failing to support the informal learning that must occur after the formal learning. There is an average of an 1:4 ratio in which one hour of formal learning produces four hours of informal learning. Thus support for the informal learning is also required to transform a training event into a learning process — the U.S. Army helped with this by giving us the concepts used in an AAR.

Formal learning is a seed that produces a lot of informal learning. If you don't plant the seed, you don't get the fruit. If you don't nourish the plant (informal learning), you end up getting underdeveloped fruit.

Note that the two pitfalls are not limited to a Simple environment, in that they can also occur within any of the other environments. However, in a Simple environment you will probably be more concerned with practicing within the formal learning environment than within an informal learning environment.

Complicated

In a Complicated design environment someone on the team will identify one or more Expert Performers whose skills (exemplary performance) and knowledge of the surrounding tasks and subject matter can be combined and/or transformed to form a "good enough" practice. The idea here is to take the "best" practices of their exemplary skills and subject matter expertise, along with the input of others, and combine them into a workable performance solution. In addition, you are going to start relying on the learners or affected (those who are going to be most affected by the learning solution) more as the problems are going to be slightly more wicked than within a Simple environment.

Like the simple environment, you will have to watch for the two pitfalls; however, in this Complicated learning environment you will probably have to pay about equal attention to both the formal and informal learnings of the learners/performers, in addition to relying on more iterations to ensure you get the feedback of the affected.

Complex

In a Complex learning design environment there are few or no exemplary performance examples to draw upon, thus you rely mainly upon subject matter experts (SMEs) and others to try to draw a picture of an "emergent" practice. However, some, if not most of the SMEs, should come from the environment (those affected) as they are probably the best "experts" of that environment.

While the initial learning platform might start out with more formal learning than informal learning, you need to look for solutions during the design and iterations to support informal learning while lessening the need for formal learning. This is because the complexity of the environment normally only requires a small seed of formal learning but needs extra nourishments of informal learning.

Chaotic

In a Chaotic learning design environment the initial solutions will come mostly through the managers and affected/learners. While the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond, it will more than likely require several iterations, rather than a one time shot. After each iteration, reexamine the environment to see if it has dropped to a lower level, more than likely a Complex environment, then take the appropriate approach.

We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future. - Marshall McLuhan

While you will often look to the past to predict the future, entering a chaotic environment is often uncharted territory, thus you will need an intense amount of collaboration to create unique solutions so that you do not harm your customers and the workers/learners with a poorly implemented solution.

Disorder

If by chance you discover you are in a Disorder environment where no one is sure of the environment, then more collaboration is called for with perhaps a few more "experts" (mostly the learners). Remaining in this state is unacceptable.

Agile Matrix for Orientation

I took the main points (practices) of this post and inserted them into the Value and Principles Matrix (See first post on Agile Design for Learning) to show how orientation fits into the values and principles of Agile Design:

Download Excel Matrix file for Orientation (xls version): Agile_Matrix4.xls
Download Excel Matrix file for Orientation (xlsx version): Agile_Matrix4.xlsx

Note On some systems the xlsx version will try to download as a zip file. In that case, click the above xlsx file with the right mouse button to bring up the context menu and then click "Save Target As..." item. When the dialog window opens, change the extension from .zip to .xlsx — this will save the file correctly.

Planning in Agile Learning Design

2009-11-03T08:12:00.001-08:00

This is the second in a series of posts on Agile Learning Design:

Post 1 - Agile Design: An Ethos for Creating Learning Platforms.

The first concept of PODSI (Plan, Orientate, Design, Select, & Iterate) is planning to ensure the goal or target is identified and that all stakeholders see the feasibility of the project. One of the most common mistakes with designing learning processes is failing to link the learning platform with a business need — the business unit or customer does not understand how the performance solution links to their business needs and/or the designers fail to link the correct solution to a real business need.

Business linkage is a "high value add" that is defined as the difference-making in business because it adds high value (Garnevale, Gainer, & Villet, 1990). Yet, defining how our learning processes and platforms link to other business units is one of the activities that we normally spend the least amount of time on (Trolley, 2006). One way to understand your customers' need is to determine how they will evaluate the effectiveness of the learning solution before you begin the project, not after.

Another impediment to identifying the correct business linkage is the failure to bring the learners into the planning stage. Rittel (1972) noted that often the best experts with the best knowledge for solving wicked problems are those affected by the solution; in this case it is the learners themselves. Yet, the only time we normally bring them in is to be guinea pigs for testing our learning process. Now normally you will not be able do bring the entire population of them in, but do bring in enough learners that will actual represent the population.

The learners are the real stakeholders, thus even if you or the managers don't agree as to what they are saying, you need to listen, guide, and act on their needs and perspectives so that they take ownership of the learning and performance solution. This is one way they gain metalearning and metacognitive skills.

In addition, Rummler and Brache's experience was that 80% of performance problems reside in the environment, such as processes and systems, so ensure the problem is really a learning/training problem, not some other performance problem; while most of these problems do require some sort of learning solution, ensure you get to the root cause.

Note that Rummler and Brache's 80% rule could differ greatly from yours; if the performers/learners have a great deal of autonomy, then you would expect a larger percentage of performance problems will be in the skills and knowledge area (learning solutions), rather than the environment (other performance solutions) as there is less of a chance that an autonomous performer is restricted by a process or system. Another reason is if the performers/learners work in a highly evolving or complex environment that require unique solutions from them, rather than relying on a process that leads them to a preplanned solution.

Since designers, managers, learners, and perhaps some subject matter experts and/or exemplary performers will be in on the planning, a high degree of collaboration needs to take place to accurately identify the problem and solution. Collaboration does not mean agreeing with everything others say as this leads to group-think or the Abilene Paradox. You want the team members to disagree and share information. To encourage lower status members to share, which may often be the learners, the members' expertise needs to be acknowledged to the group at the onset of the planning stage — people who sense they have a high status in the group will more likely want to share their knowledge.

Note that by arguing, we mean focusing on the problems, not crass behavior; telling narratives, not finger-pointing; and finding solutions that benefit the organization, not trying to force one's agenda. No matter how complex or argumentative an issue is, it can normally be broken down to three basic artifacts:

Questions
Ideas
Arguments (pros and cons)

Paul Culmsee tells a great story about using these artifacts to guide the discussion and collaboration in a blog post.

One of the tools for capturing the ideas during planning is a concept or mind map. While Paul's story uses Compendium (free), just about any mind mapping tool will work; however, Compendium was built especially for this type of collaboration in order to show different viewpoints, positions, and pros and cons organized by using logical connections:

For other tools that will aid the collaboration process, see McKinsey & Company's Using technology to improve workforce collaboration. In addition, the article includes a neat Flash based collaboration types and tools app that shows day-to-day activities with various technologies that promote work and learning flows.

Since this is an "agile" environment, we have to ensure that all the individuals are able to interact in a manner so that everyone understands the goal or target that needs to be met — exactly what change of performance will occur after the learners return to their jobs and how that change benefits not only the business unit, but the entire organization as well.

While I've given a few practices to support planning in Agile Design in this post, they can be supplemented by other practices, such as the Analysis phase in ISD, as long as they support the values and principles of Agile Design. This can best be checked by determining if they fit in the Value and Principles Matrix:

For example, I took the main points (practices) of this post and inserted them into the Value and Principles Matrix:

Download Excel Value and Principles Matrix file: Agile_Planning_Matrix.xls
Download Excel Value and Principles Matrix file: Agile_Planning_Matrix.xlsx

A final point is that planning is not a one-shot affair, but is iterative, thus it can be returned to on a as needed basis. For example, the next concept, Orientate (which will be covered in the next post), will often have to be performed before the initial planning can be initiated and/or once the learning solution is ran thru its iterations. Thus planning is not rigid, but follows the Agile values' of evolutionary and adaptive to ensure customer and learners' needs are met.

References

Garnevale, A., Gainer, L., & Villet, J., (1990), Training in America: The Organization and Strategic Role of Training. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Rittel, H. (1972). On the planning crisis: systems analysis of the "first and second generation.Bedriftsokonomen. No. 8, pp.390-396.

Trolley, E. (2006). Lies About Learning. Larry Israelite, ed. Baltimore, Maryland: ASTD.

Agile Design: An Ethos for Creating Learning Platforms

2009-10-26T08:20:00.000-07:00

Software design and related practices and methods have had a significant influence over the Instructional Design field. For example, ADDIE, Dick and Carey, and Rapid Prototyping are heavily influenced by software development methodologies (Rawsthorne, 2005). Software design methodology is now going through another paradigm shift — Agile Design. And rather than being a methodology, it is more a philosophy or ethos that is best described by its manifesto (Agile Alliance, 2001):

We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

The Agile approach recognizes the need for collaboration, faster design solutions, feedback and change for producing business value in our ever faster and more networked society. Thus, for learning professionals to keep pace with the rest of the organization, Agile Design could easily be adapted to fit the needs of the learning and training community by providing an ethos for the design of learning:

We are uncovering better ways of designing
learning processes by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Solutions that promote and speed the development of learning processes over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract and formal negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

Because we still value the items on the right means that we do not have to abandon the technologies that make up our profession, such as ADDIE, 4C/ID, ARCS, Captivate, and PowerPoint. But rather we pull the best concepts from them that will support the values and principles of Agile Design.

Values and Principles of Agile Design

Since Agile is a more of a philosophy, it has values and principles that guide its practices. The Sidky Agile Measurement Index (SAMI), developed by Sidky & Arthur (2008), is probably the most widely used method for guiding Agile principles. It is composed of five values: communication, collaboration, evolutionary, integrated, and encompassing. These five values were heavily inspired by three of Malcolm Gladwell's ideas in The Tipping Point:

People = communication & collaboration
Message = evolutionary, integrated, & adaptive
Suitable environment = all encompassing

Listed below are the five values with their descriptions (please note that I changed the descriptions to fit learning rather than software development):

Encompassing: Establishing a vibrant and all-encompassing environment to sustain agility
Adaptive: Respond through change through multiple levels of feedback
Integrated: Develop high quality learning solutions in and efficient and integrated manner
Evolutionary: Deliver learning processes early and continuously
Collaborative: Enhance communication and collaboration

The Agile Manifesto basically outlines 12 principles; however, Sidky & Arthur (2008) discovered they could group them into five tight principles (please note that I changed the descriptions to fit learning rather than software development):

Embrace change to deliver customer value
Plan and deliver learning processes frequently
Human centric
Technical excellence
Collaboration with business people

These five values and principles can be placed in a matrix to guide the selection and population of practices that will best achieve the ethos of Agile Design. The matrix shown below lists the five values in the left column and the five principles in the top row. I then listed some Learning Design practices, concepts, and processes that may be used to guide a performance project. Note that the principles may vary from organization to organization and may even change from project to project within an organization, but any adopted practices should always be guided by the values and principles; that is, they should never go against them:

So that you don't have to reproduce the above matrix, I am including the Excel file for the Agile matrix of values, principles, and values. The xlsx file is for the latest version of Excel and is the one shown above. The xls file is for older versions of Excel and is the same except the colors are brighter and may need to be toned down:

These value and principles make Agile more adaptive rather than predictive; and people-oriented rather than process-oriented (Fowler, 2003). It is misleading to view it on the opposite end of a spectrum from "plan-driven" or "disciplined" methods as it implies that agile methods are "unplanned" or "undisciplined." A more accurate distinction is that methods exist on a continuum from "adaptive" to "predictive" and agile methods lie on the "adaptive" side of this continuum (Boehm & Turner, 2004):

To achieve an adaptive and people-oriented process, a strategy is implemented that allows collaboration among the designers, business unit (customer), learners, exemplary performers and/or SMEs, and other interested parties. To accomplish this, a conceptional framework is initiated that allows the strategy to carried out — Plan, Orientate, Design, Select, & Iterate.

Plan, Orientate, Design, Select, & Iterate (PODSI)

Plan by identifying the potential target, vision, and feasibility of the project that will ensure the active participation of all stakeholders. Determine if the managers are indeed going to collaborate or are willing to learn to collaborate. If they simply want you to be an order-taker then, "run my friend run, run as fast as you can!" Find a project with people who desire to collaborate.
Orientate in order to recognize the level of the complexity of the environment (Cynefin) so that the initial learning architecture can be started to solve the problem. Use Exemplary Performers and/or Subject Matter Experts to help identify the complexity of the environment.
Design by using a collaborative approach or model so that only the minimum required knowledge and skills are taught that will resolve the problem. Build other useful benefits into the learning process during the final iterations.
Select the correct learning objects, processes, and tools that will provide the needed knowledge and skills that support both formal and informal learning — the use of small learning objects will increase the speed of iterations and allow you to more easily transform parts of the instruction into informal and nonformal learning.
Iterate by prototyping the initial design and to determine what other performance support technologies are required that will fully support the learners' quest to better performance. Use After Action Reviews to transform deficiencies into actionable items. Transform the formal learning objects to informal or nonformal learning as possible.

"Failure at an organizational level seems to come from the inability to customize processes and make them their own. Trying to apply someone else's template to your organization directly doesn't work well. It leaves out too many important details of the previous successes and ignores your company's specific situation." — Kent Beck (2006 interview with InfoQ)

PODSI is dynamic in that the above stages are not step-by-step, all encompassing solutions but rather selected concepts from our discipline that best support Agile. Even though they may be performed in order, particularly for the first iteration, the concepts should be thought of more as a network, rather than a flowchart or template. Thus, while the last concept is to iterate the learning process in order to achieve the best solution, the other concepts are also iterated throughout the life-cycle of the project on an as-needed basis.

Essence of Agile Design

Thoughts?

Throughout the upcoming weeks I hope to expand on PODSI, thus I am interested in hearing your feedback, thoughts, and ideas. Please feel free to share, rip, and mix.

References

Agile Alliance (2001). Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Retrieved on June 28, 2009 from http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

Boehm, B.; R. Turner (2004). Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley. pp.165-194

Fowler, Martin (2003). The New Methodology. Retrieved on June 28, 2009 from http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/newMethodology.html

Rawsthorne, P. (2005). Agile Methods of Software Engineering should Continue to have an Influence over Instructional Design Methodologies. Cape Breton University & Memorial University of Newfoundland. Retrieved on June 28, 2009 from http://www.rawsthorne.org/bit/docs/RawsthorneAIDFinal.pdf

Sidky, A. & Arthur, J. (2008) Value Driven Agile Adoption: Improving an Organization's Software Development Approach. Fujita, H. & Zualkernan, I. (eds). New Trends in Software Methodologies, Tools and Techniques: Proceedings of the seventh SoMeT_08. Volume 182. Oct 15, 2008. P149-164. The Netherlands: IOS Press. Retrieved Oct 22, 2009: Google Books

The Brick & Mortar Mix of Learning

2009-10-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

In his blog, Jay Cross points to relative old, but interesting article on informal learning: Informal Learning and the Transfer of Learning: How Managers Develop Proficiency and notes, "If you're still relying on formal training to develop managers, you might want to give this one a read."

The paper is more interesting for what it omits, rather than what it purpose seems to be. That is, it seems to tout the importance of informal learning, rather than from what I see is the real key finding — its the mix that matters. For example, it makes several comments along these lines:

"Because skills learned informally are likely to share similar features with transfer tasks in terms of context and content, the potential exists for skills learned informally to be more readily transferred than skills learned in formal training contexts."

"Our study suggested that managers learn mostly from informal learning, that proficiency is the product of informal learning, and that metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation skills moderate informal learning and the transfer process.

In the paper they show the following chart (p377):

When referring to the chart they note, "The distribution indicates that managers reported learning all twenty skills predominantly from informal learning activities." Yes, while the managers believed they learnt more from informal learning, the chart actually seems to be showing that they learn a core base from formal instruction, and then they build from their proficiency from there. In addition, some core skills only need a drop of formal learning to get the process going, while others require a heavy dose.

This goes back to the previous post in which I noted that some learning episodes that are strictly informal may be too narrowly based in that the learner only learns part of a task or superficial skills that may not be transferable to the job (Bell and Dale 1999).

Thus, just as we have a "blend" of learning media and processes, we also need the proper mix of formal and informal learning. This means you not only have to select the proper blend of formal learning, but also select the proper mix of formal and informal learning. In turn, you then have to select the best blend of informal learning that will help the learners transfer their skills to the job.

In the paper they mention a study in which pilots with more flight experience perform better on a simulated flight test (that is, a transfer task) than did their novice counterparts. Now I don't believe that anyone is going to argue this point, but the other part to it is that those better performing pilots would have never been able to perform in the first place if it was not for their core skills gained with formal learning.

In the comment section on my previous post Michael Hanley notes, "...the reality is that all of these exist on a 'learning continuum.'" This learning continuum is also the subject of a post by Clark Quinn: The Formal/Informal Continuum.

Thus, its not a matter of designing learning from one side of the continuum or the other because you need the core skills from one side and the proficiency of actually being able to put those skills into practice from the other side. In addition you need that mix from the middle that is not readily identifiable as either formal or informal.

Informal Learning, huh, yeah, what is it good for?

2009-10-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Robert Bacal's post, "What Do Intellectually Impoverished Educators/Trainers Do To Make A Living? Why They Make Up New Fancy Sounding Terms" attempts to be a call to action to go beyond the hype, but turns quickly into what seems to be almost a hyperbole of fear. While Robert writes of informal learning, learning 2.0, education, and training; I'm going to stick with informal learning in the workplace to help keep this post more focused.

First, there seems to be some confusion as to the origin of the term "informal learning" by both the poster and commentators. While Jay Cross brought the concept to its present level of popularity, Malcolm Knowles is generally considered to be the originator of the term through his book published in 1970: Informal Adult Education: A Guide for Administrators, Leaders, and teachers.

Robert makes a feeble attempt to define informal learning, but basically makes no sense at all — "informal learning simply refers to learning that occurs....well, informally."

Actually both informal and formal learning has nothing to do with the formality of the learning but rather the direction of who controls the learning objectives or goals. In a formal learning environment the training or learning department sets the goals and objectives, while informal learning means the learner sets the goals and objective (Cofer, 2000).

In addition, if the organization (other than the training department) sets the learning goals and objectives, such as a line manager directing OJT, then it is now normally referred to as "nonformal learning" (Hanley, 2008). Thus in a formal learning process, learning specialists or trainers set the goals, while a nonformal one has someone outside of the learning department setting the goals or objectives.

Robert mentions the terms "incidental learning" and "intentional learning," which basically refers to the intent of the learning objectives. An intentional learning environment has a self-directed purpose in that it has goals and objectives on what and/or how to learn; while incidental learning occurs when the learner picks up something else in the learning environment, such as the action of a model, that causes him or her to loose focus on the learning objectives or goal and focus on an unplanned learning objective.

While incidental learning is often dismissed by trainers, it is an important concept because it often has a motivating effect with the learners that leads to "discovery" learning. So unless other considerations prevent it, it can be worthwhile to detour from the primary objectives to take advantage of an unplanned "teachable/trainable moment." For example, if I'm instructing the learners to operate forklifts and we are discussing safety concepts, one or more of the learners might become interested in a safety concept that is unrelated to the operation of forklifts. However, if possible I should try to help them with the unrelated concept, which in turn should help to motivate them with the related safety concepts pertaining to forklifts. In addition it could lead one or more of them to become more interested in the safety program and perhaps lead them to become more involved with it.

If we were to map out the above types of learning it might look something like this:

While it might seem obvious to most readers that both formal and informal learning include both incidental and intentional learning, it might not be as obvious that formal learning often includes episodes of informal learning and vice versa. A two-year study calculated that each hour of formal learning spills over to four-hours of informal learning or a 4:1 ratio (Cofer, 2000). Thus Bell used the metaphor of brick and mortar to describe the relationship of formal and informal learning. Formal learning acts as bricks fused into the emerging bridge of personal growth. Informal learning acts as the mortar, facilitating the acceptance and development of the formal learning. He noted that informal learning should NOT replace formal learning activities as it is this synergy that produces effective growth.

And of course the opposite also occurs in that episodes of informal learning often leads to formal learning. In addition, some learning episodes that are strictly informal may be too narrowly based in that the learner only learns part of a task or superficial skills that may not be transferable to the job (Bell and Dale 1999).

The Hype of Informal Learning

Robert does make a good point when he writes, "people going around trying to convince corporations that classroom learning is wasteful, and that they should be pouring money into informal learning activities."

As stated earlier, "informal learning should NOT replace formal learning activities as it is this synergy that produces effective growth." Yet it seems that some informal learning proponents still wish to do away with most formal learning processes. For example, they will list several references that claim that only 10% to 20% of formal learning processes actually transfer to the job (Cross, 2007, p. 32), but they fail to check any of those references — if they did, they would find it is based on a theoretical question rather than any real research.

Another fallacy is claiming OJT as part of informal learning in order to increase its importance and raise its percentage of the total learning. In order to claim OJT and other organizational directed learning, they would have to redefine informal learning in basically the same manner as Robert does — informal learning refers to learning that occurs informally.

Perhaps the newest hype or bandwagon is claiming that 80% of learning is informal and 20% is formal but paradoxically training departments spend 80% of their budget on formal learning and 20% on informal learning. Yet they fail to mention that a large portion of formal learning is informal learning that has been transferred to the learning department because it is difficult or inefficient to learn in an informal learning environment or because it is an important part of a process that cannot be left to chance. Thus its almost a dammed if you don't spend money on informal learning and damn if you do because now it is no longer informal but rather formal learning — because now you, well, uh, "formalized" it!

In addition, a lot of informal learning is created through formal learning process — remember the 4:1 spill over ratio? Now while we do need to support informal learning processes more, lets not attack the very thing that helps to create informal learning and synergizes well with it. In fact this is probably one of the main reasons that training fails to transfer to the job — trainers and learning specialist fail to follow through after the training event. Training/learning is a process; just as Tom Peters urges leaders to manage-by-walking-around, we also need to walk-around and help with the informal learning that is required for the formal learning to fully transfer.

Why Should We Invest in Informal Learning?

Just because informal learning has been hyped does not mean it has little or no value. As already discussed, there is a close synergy between formal and informal learning in that neither is very effective for many types of learning processes.

The real power of informal learning seems to be based with its close ties with social learning. Allen Tough, one of the pioneers of informal learning, discovered that learners interact with an average of ten or eleven people during an informal learning event (1999). He also noted that there may actually be more social interaction in an informal learning event than there is with a similar one of formal learning.

It is these multiple and repeated social and self learning episodes in the process that makes informal learning a powerful tool. That is, the number of connections greatly increases the chance for an idea, value, or pattern of behavior to be passed from one person to another (Pontus, Magnus, & Kimmo, 2009). Thus information can be both abandoned readily and reacquired if later proved useful.

In a quite interesting story, Marcia Conner reports how Humana uses simple social media tools to engage with people across the organization in order to learn from each other. These tools further increase the number of connections — if individuals can learn many times, successful learning occurs regardless of the transmission pattern (Pontus, et al., 2009). This concept is similar to overlearning — practicing well beyond the point of initial mastery.

Since this is starting to lead to the next hype on Robert's list — learning 2.0 (self-directed learning using social networking and collaboration tools or informal learning on steroids) — it's time to sign off.

References

Bell, J., and Dale, M. (1999) Informal Learning in the Workplace. Department for Education and Employment Research Report No. 134. London, England: Department for Education and Employment, August 1999.

Cofer, D. (2000). Informal Workplace Learning. Practice Application Brief. NO 10. U.S. Department of Education: Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education.

Cross, J. (2007). Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hanley M. (2008). Introduction to Non-formal Learning. E-Learning Curve Blog. Retrieved October 19, 2009: http://michaelhanley.ie/elearningcurve/introduction-to-non-formal-learning-2/2008/01/28/

Pontus, S., Magnus, E., and Kimmo, E. (2009). Repeated learning makes cultural evolution unique. PNAS, 2009, 106 (33), p. 13870.

Tough, A. (1999). Reflections on the study of adult learning. Paper presented at the 3rd New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL) Conference, University of Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada. Retrieved January 8, 2008 from http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/sese/csew/nall/res/08reflections.pdf

My iPod Learning Mix

2009-10-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Since Jeff shared his great 10 Killer Content Sources for Your iPod Learning Mix, I decided to share a few of mine.

Note that the links will take you to their web site with RSS feeds or straight to their RSS feeds. If you wish to use iTunes to manage your feeds (as I do), open iTunes, click on "iTunes Store", click on "Podcasts" (Top of window), enter the title of the podcast into the search field and when iTunes list it, click the subscribe button.

This Week in Tech - MP3 Edition

This is perhaps my favorite podcast as Leo Laporte does a marvelous job of leading a panel of experts, such as John Dvorak or Kevin Rose (Digg fame) to discuss the latest on technology. This is one of the more interesting ways to learn as you feel you are at the kitchen table with a bunch of experts.

GROKS Science Radio Show and Podcast

Dr. Charles Lee and Dr. Frank Ling interview an expert a week on a science topic. These guys are smart interviewers as they always study up on the subject before the interview.

ASTD T+D podcasts

ASTD's podcasts are normally based on their magazine articles, thus are normally read to you. While this format does lead to a less engaging listening experience, it does help you keep up with the world of training/learning in that you can listen while walking or riding -- my preferred method for listening to podcasts.

Brain Science Podcast

Dr. Ginger Campbell takes you through the wonderful world of the brain, either by interviewing others or through her own experiences.

On the Media

The National Public Radio helps you make sense of the latest news by doing in-depth studies and criticisms of the sources behind the latest stories.

TedTalks (audio)

While most of you are probably familiar with their videos, you can also keep up with Ted through their podcasts.

Xyleme Voices

While they normally only podcast about every three or four weeks, they do come up with a few gems, such as an interview with Clive Shepherd the episode before last.

NPR: Story of the Day Podcast

NPR is one of my favorite news sources and this podcast spotlights some of their best stories.

BBC Digital Planet

More on technology from a British perspective.

This American Life

Chicago Public Radio presents their award winning show with master story teller Ira Glass.

Data & Training, Learning, Folksonomy, Scenario Learning, Outsourcing, & Rapid eLearning

2009-10-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

Training to Climb an Everest of Digital Data - New York Times

Science these days has basically turned into a data-management problem.

For the most part, university students have used rather modest computing systems to support their studies. They are learning to collect and manipulate information on personal computers or what are known as clusters, where computer servers are cabled together to form a larger computer. But even these machines fail to churn through enough data to really challenge and train a young mind meant to ponder the mega-scale problems of tomorrow.

Learning new tricks improves wiring in the brain - Reuters

"We tend to think of the brain as being static, or even beginning to degenerate, once we reach adulthood," said Heidi Johansen-Berg of Oxford University's department of clinical neurology, whose study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience on Sunday. "In fact we find the structure of the brain is ripe for change. We've shown that it is possible for the brain to condition its own wiring system to operate more efficiently."

Folksonomy folktales - KM World

The Dewey Decimal System is not a good example of a taxonomy. Folksonomies are the exact opposite of the wisdom of crowds. Hierarchies are not rigid, conservative and centralized.

Scenario Based Learning - Speak Out

A SlideShare presentation (20 slides)

The U.S. Is Outsourcing Away Its Competitive Edge - Harvard Business Blog

You focus on R&D and turn over the low-margin commodity manufacturing to contractors. You make out like a bandit because you have the intellectual property and your contractors have so much competition they cannot afford to charge you more. All this assumes your manufacturing partner is content to subsist on your table scraps. But what if they have their eye on the prime rib, too?

There's nothing rapid about Rapid eLearning - VMG

However, in today's times, it's worth understanding that rapid just isn't what it says it is.

As a testament to this, I did some quick research and found four studies over the past seven years to demonstrate the reality of the situation. Interestingly, the findings are very similar (see below for details): the time to create one full hour of an intermediate level, Captivate/Articulate style elearning product is around 200-250 hrs.

Learning Objectives, Brain, Content, iPod Learning, Training Stats, & Dilbert

2009-10-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Do learners really need learning objectives? - Bottom-Line Performance

Why do we do this? What does it really achieve? Gagne says we should inform learners of the objectives to create a level of expectation for the learning. By using a bulleted list, what level of expectation are we setting? What level of learner engagement are we shooting for?

New Mathematical Model Suggests How The Brain Might Stay In Balance - Science Daily

Magnasco's model differs from traditional models of neural networks, which assume that each time a neuron fires and stimulates an adjoining neuron, the strength of the connection between the two increases. This is called the Hebbian theory of synaptic plasticity and is the classical model for learning. "But our system is anti-Hebbian," Magnasco says. "If the connections among any groups of neurons are strongly oscillating together, they are weakened because they threaten homeostasis. Instead of trying to learn, our neurons are trying to forget."

Content still king on the Net -

Net users still spend 42 percent of their time online using content sites, more than any other category. That figure represents a 24 percent jump from 2003 when Net users spent 34 percent of their time on content sites.

Content - 42%
Communications - 27%
Commerence - 13%
Community (Social Networks) - 13%
Search - 5%

Turn on your iPod and learn - The Independent

Dr Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York, led a study of two groups of students who were asked to listen to an introductory psychology lecture. One group attended the live class, the other listened via podcast. When given a test on the subject a week later, the podcast group scored 71 per cent while the in-class group scored 62 per cent. Within the podcast group, those who took notes and listened to the lecture more than once came away with an average test score of 77 per cent.

Cream of the Crop - ASTD

In 2008, BEST Award-winning organizations had an average of 40.6 hours of learning content for each employee.
Average expenditure per employee among the BEST Award-winning organizations fell from $1,451 in 2007 to $1,303 in 2008, a decrease of 10.2 percent.
On average, BEST organizations spent $1,633 to make one hour of learning content available in 2008 - a sharp decline from an average of $2,241 in 2007.
BEST Award winners commit an annual average of 2.33 percent of their organizational payroll to workplace learning and performance expenditure.
The ratio of learning hours used to learning hours made available was 65.1 in 2008, indicating that on average, each hour of content was accessed more than 65 times.

Dilbert Does Twitter

Oh, yes. Every little thing you do is interesting.

Learning, Presentations, Twitter Polls, Design Programs, Foot in Mouth

2009-10-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Why One Way Of Learning Is Better Than Another - Science Daily

It is a well known psychological principle that learning is better when training trials are spaced out than when given all together; however, the differences between the two types of training can now be shown at the molecular level.

Steve Jobs' Presentation Secrets - Business Week

Learn what Jobs does to captivate his audience and how you can use his techniques (18 slides).

storyboard the plot
benefits
offer Twitter-friendly headlines
introduce the antagonist
draw a roadmap
create visual slides
every 10 to 15 minutes, breaks up the content
use zippy words rather than technical, vague, or confusing ones
share the stage
use props
plan a water cooler moment
practice... a lot
have fun!

6 Great Twitter Quiz and Polling Apps - Read Write Web

A list of 6 services you can use to get the answers you need from your Twitter friends and followers

World's Best Design Programs - Business Week

Companies in every industry have adopted design thinking to offer fresh insight in functions from strategy to finance. Listed here are 39 master's and MBA programs from North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia that significantly integrate design thinking and business. One of the more interesting looking ones is a degree in Emotional Design from Brazil.

Ballmer: IBM should ignore profits, get back into the hardware business - Computerworld

This is kind of off the wall from what I normally post but there seems to be a great message in there (like maybe sometimes you should engage brain before opening mouth) -- "Ballmer told The New York Times that IBM made a mistake when it quit the PC, hard disk, and networking equipment businesses, because companies need to diversify if they want to profit over the long term." The article continues with,"I.B.M.'s strategy has worked out O.K. for its investors over the last decade. Shares of I.B.M. are up about 30 percent since 1999, while shares of Microsoft have dropped about 30 percent over the same time span."

Prototyping, Distance Learning, Habits, & Mentoring

2009-09-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

Integrating Prototyping Into Your Design Process - Boxes and Arrows

When aimed well, a prototype can answer design questions and communicate design ideas. A prototype's fidelity has the most influence over its effectiveness. Fidelity simply refers to how realistic the prototype is.

How-To: Engage the Managers of Distance Learning - Training Magazine

One of the drawbacks to distance learning is it easily can result in the learner's manager becoming disengaged from the learner's training, yet we know a manager's participation in employee training improves results. While there are several ways to address this issue, one of the most effective is through your Learning Management System (LMS).

How Long to Form a Habit? - PsyBlog

Although the average was 66 days, there was marked variation in how long habits took to form, anywhere from 18 days up to 254 days in the habits examined in this study. As you'd imagine, drinking a daily glass of water became automatic very quickly but doing 50 sit-ups before breakfast required more dedication (above, dotted lines). The researchers also noted that:

Missing a single day did not reduce the chance of forming a habit.
A sub-group took much longer than the others to form their habits, perhaps suggesting some people are 'habit-resistant'.
Other types of habits may well take much longer.

Online Mentoring Programs - eLearn Magazine

In general, face-to-face mentoring often translate well to the online environment. Many of the same basic principles utilized during in-person meetings apply online, too.

Mentoring Is Overrated. Try Tutoring Instead - Business Week

Three participants - each from different companies - got together during the break to teach themselves (and each other) how to marry the software to the statistics. Intriguingly, this ad hoc group had synergistic skills: One knew the software but had a shaky understanding of the statistics; another understood stats but had only a casual acquaintance with the software; and the third had a problem he thought the software could solve. Fifteen minutes of explanatory give-and-take around the keyboard later, everyone had clearly "learned" more about their own skill and competence by attempting to "teach" their colleagues. The software jockey gained greater fluency with the package as he demo-ed how to integrate the problem with the statistics. The stats geek got a better sense of the math in the course of helping translate the problem into the software. The guy with the problem better understood its underlying challenges in the course of defining it for the statistician and the software.

Internet, eLearning, Connectivism, UI Flows, Writing, & Data

2009-09-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Is the Internet melting our brains? - Salon

No! The author of "A Better Pencil" explains why such hysterical hand-wringing is as old as communication itself

What does a real life e-learning strategy look like? - e-bites

An elearning strategy from real life that has the following aims:

Give my L&D team direction in terms of what we were going to do in re to e-learning
Give the wider HR department a roadmap of what we were going to do and how
Tie in with the organisation's people goals and demonstrate how the my L&D department was going to contribute – essentially making the line of sight clearer.

CCK09: Connectivism and Constructivism - Christy Tucker

A framework for comparing four learning theories - behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism:

How does learning occur?
What factors influence learning?
What is the role of memory?
How does transfer occur?
What types of learning are best explained by this theory?

A shorthand for designing UI flows - Signal vs. Noise

Flows are hard to communicate during the design process. Drawing out every state of a flow is too time-consuming. And drawings become instantly outdated as screens change. On the other hand, flows written down into stories or paragraphs are hard to reference and they don't easily decompose into checklists for design and review.

The Pen May Be Mightier Than The Keyboard - Science Daily

Second, fourth and sixth grade children with and without handwriting disabilities were able to write more and faster when using a pen than a keyboard to compose essays, according to new research

"People think language is a single thing. But it's not," said Berninger. "It has multiple levels like a tall building with a different floor plan for each story."

Visions of data - New Scientist

As new ways of analysing the world around us are developed, new ways to visualise that information are needed. The recent Eurographics Symposium, held in Berlin, brought together international researchers with new ideas about how to make data easier to interpret and act on.

Idioms, Doodling, ID, Employee Benefits, Mentoring, & Critical Thinking

2009-09-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

Figures Of Speech: Understanding Idioms Requires Both Sides Of The Brain - Science Daily

...though the interpretation of language involves widespread activation bilaterally, the right hemisphere has a special role in the comprehension of idiomatic meaning.

Doodling 'may help memory recall' - BBC

Doodling may look messy, but it could be a sign of an alert mind — Doodlers performed 29% better in remembering facts. The theory is daydreaming distracts from a boring task, which results in poor performance, but a simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task.

Citation: "What does doodling do?" By Jackie Andrade. Applied Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 3, Feb. 26, 2009. Also see Wired.

Related closely to the Yerkes-Dodson Law.

The role of theory in instructional design - Janet Clarey in A Brandon Hall Research Blog

One of the themes of the research — participant desire to use theory and report that they often do, but decisions are often made on the basis of intuitive judgment and practical wisdom developed over time.

I would add that the theories we learn help to build our Schemata — a mental model of a person, object or situation. This includes cognitive maps (mental representations of familiar parts of one's world), images, concept schema (categories of objects, events, or ideas with common properties), event scripts (schema about familiar sequences of events or activities), and mental models (clusters of relationships between objects or processes). For more information see: Learning and Declarative Knowledge and Capability Model.

Employee Benefits

A poll released by MetLife found that 89 percent of employees will look to either increase or maintain their level of employer benefits in 2010 despite economic hardship - Employee Benefits Top of Mind in 2010

However, another survey reports 66 percent of Americans are unsatisfied with pay.

Shifting the Shape of Mentoring - ASTD

In 2007, Rockwell Collins' mentees were asked to rate the ways mentoring allowed them to contribute to the success of the company. They identified three top areas:

receiving or providing encouragement, motivation, or support
helping me understand a different point of view
gaining or providing valuable knowledge, skills, or experience from another person.

When asked the same question in 2009, mentees rated the top three areas as

gaining or providing valuable knowledge, skills, or experience from another person
building or expanding my network
helping me understand a different point of view.

Critical thinking? You need knowledge - Boston Globe

We have neglected to teach them that one cannot think critically without quite a lot of knowledge to think about. Thinking critically involves comparing and contrasting and synthesizing what one has learned. And a great deal of knowledge is necessary before one can begin to reflect on its meaning and look for alternative explanations.

Proponents of 21st-Century Skills might wish it was otherwise, but we do not restart the world anew with each generation. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. What matters most in the use of our brains is our capacity to make generalizations, to see beyond our own immediate experience. The intelligent person, the one who truly is a practitioner of critical thinking, has the capacity to understand the lessons of history, to grasp the inner logic of science and mathematics, and to realize the meaning of philosophical debates by studying them.

Camtasia for Mac, Education, Blogging, and Brain Cells

2009-09-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

Review: Camtasia for Mac - eQuixotic

Ultimately Camtasia for Mac is a beautiful piece of software that is intuitive and enjoyable to use - and bargain-priced at one third the cost of its admittedly more features-rich (but ugly and clunky) Windows comrade. Does it suffer from the typical version 1.0 rough edges? Yes, but not as many as I expected. TechSmith did a fantastic job with this initial release.

After Years Of Toil, Sustaining Change In Education Still A Vexing Problem - Science Daily

"What really is an effective practice?" Century asked. "Just because something works in a particular setting or context, does that mean it's effective?" Century has doubts. "When you're talking about replicating best practices, the research tells us that that doesn't happen. It's a fallacy," she said. Educators instead need to think about how practices inevitably change as they move from place to place, Century said.

At Your Fingers, an Oxford Don - New York Times

The Department of Education recently announced that it was developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a "vision of how information and communications technologies can help transform American education." The plan, the agency said, will include "concrete goals," with a draft expected early next year.

The long tail of blogging is dying - Guardian

Facebook's success is built on the ease of doing everything in one place. (Search tools can't index it to see who's talking about what, which may be a benefit or a failing.) Twitter offers instant content and reaction. Writing a blog post is a lot harder than posting a status update, putting a funny link on someone's Wall, or tweeting. People are still reading blogs, and other content. But for the creation of amateur content, their heyday for the wider population has, I think, already passed.

Star-shaped Cells In Brain Help With Learning - Science Daily

In order to learn something, i.e. to process new information, nerve cells grow new connections or strengthen existing contact points. At such contact points, the synapses, information is passed from one cell to the next. Once a synapse is created, new information has a means to be passed on and the information is learned. Enhancing an acquired skill through practice is then accomplished by strengthening the synapses involved. Incoming information elicits a much stronger response in the downstream nerve cell when passing through a strengthened synapse, as compared to a "normal" synapse.

Color Design, Training, ISD & ADDIE, & Learning

2009-09-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Color Basics: Dos and Dont's - Colour Lovers

Colour and Typography remain to be the two most important elements in design. When you harmoniously combine them all you attract a quicker attention to the subject, reinforce impact and recognition, help in establishing powerful identities and brand, set a mood. Today we examine the DOs and DON'Ts in designing with colour.

Ice breakers are harmful to the learning process - examiner

In 1912, an unsinkable ship, the Titanic, sank when it hit an iceberg. In 2008 learning situations, unwitting trainers, sink training programs when they begin by announcing, "We're gonna' start with an ice breaker."

ADDIE is dead! Long live ADDIE! - gram consulting

For me ADDIE has become a useful heuristic, not even a process really, but a framework for thinking, coaching instructional designers, and managing learning and e-learning projects. Many e-learning designers these days are not formally trained in Instructional Design and initially think of it as instructional "writing" more than the holistic and systemic approach at the heart of ADDIE. Likewise customers and subject matter experts are much easier to work with once they understand the broad project process that ADDIE represents. For these two purposes alone I am thankful for ADDIE as a framework . ADDIE has staying power because of it's simplicity. Purists will say it has been watered down too much but in many ways that's what keeps it alive.

Design, processes, and ADDIE Clark Quinn in Learnlets

...the processes we learn are scaffolds for performance. ADDIE is a guide to help ensure hitting all the important points. It's no guarantee of a good design. It takes understanding the nuances (see Broken ID), and some creativity.

Win fans by dropping the potato pancake - Signal vs. Noise

What made Julia Child so popular - The only way you learn to flip things is just to flip them:

"When you flip anything, you just have to have the courage of your convictions," she declares, clearly a tad nervous at the prospect, and then gives the big pancake a flip. On the way down, half of it catches the lip of the pan and splats onto the stovetop. Undaunted, Julia scoops the thing up and roughly patches the pancake back together, explaining: "When I flipped it, I didn't have the courage to do it the way I should have. You can always pick it up." And then, looking right through the camera as if taking us into her confidence, she utters the line that did so much to lift the fear of failure from my mother and her contemporaries: "If you're alone in the kitchen, WHOOOO" - the pronoun is sung - "is going to see?" For a generation of women eager to transcend their mothers' recipe box (and perhaps, too, their mothers' social standing), Julia's little kitchen catastrophe was a liberation and a lesson: "The only way you learn to flip things is just to flip them!"

Learning, Net Generation, Mind Mapping, Brain Training, & SharePoint

2009-09-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

Harvesting Learning's Fruit: A Downstream Training Investment - Living in Learning

A graphic illustration for a sense of what harvesting means and when we accomplish it.

Prepare - to create readiness in our learners prior to formal training
Deploy - delivery of formal training in a variety of blends
Reinforce - post-training implementation intended to sustain capability

International research project studies impact of new technology on teaching and learning - Update

The results of this study contradicted the prevailing view of Net Generation learners as being technologically - savvy multitaskers who live and breathe digital technology and favor teamwork and collaboration. (Definitions of the Net Generation - also known as Generation Y, or the Millenials - vary but generally the term refers to people born after 1982, which is the date this study used.) The study found that, for the most part, there were no significant differences between Net Generation and non-Net Generation learners at BCIT in terms of their preferences and use of technology and their learning characteristics.

Freeplane: Free Mind Mapping Software - Freeplane

Freeplane is free mind mapping software based on FreeMind. Uses include knowledge and project management; writing theses, essays and books; creating simple web pages (like this one); note taking; brainstorming - and many others. Avalable for both Mac and PC.

Does brain training really work? - BBC

There are five main problems with current research:

SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS 'NOT PROPERLY CHECKED'
BRAIN IMAGING 'NOT PROOF'
CONTROL GROUPS
THE BENCHMARKING TEST
WHAT WORKS FOR ONE MIGHT NOT WORK FOR ANOTHER

As John Grohol notes in his post:

Just another article reminding you that engaging in regular exercise and engaging in simple pencil and paper tasks (like Sudoku or the crossword puzzle) - both of which have good research support - are likely cheaper and more effective than most brain training programs.

SharePoint is not enterprise 2.0 [a zen moment] - mrmerlot

That's right. No bolding. No ALL CAPS. Just a simple statement of fact: SharePoint is not enterprise 2.0. I reached this zen moment and it only took the first six hours of SharePoint Site Content Administrator (SCA) training for me to get there. At hour six, I realized two things:

The structure of SharePoint is based on the fact that people within an organization inherently do not trust one another.
SharePoint plays by the Vegas mantra: What goes on in SharePoint stays in SharePoint.

Worked Examples, Presentations, Red, Processes, & Tetris

2009-09-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

Ruth and Richard on worked examples - Dave's Whiteboard

A worked example is a step-by-step demonstration of how to perform a task or solve a problem. That means that in some cases, a worked example can look a lot like a job aid. Especially for procedural tasks (those you perform the same way each time), worked examples are natural ways to show specifically how to accomplish some task.

It Used to Take Three Highly-Trained Professionals to Make a Presentation - Duarte

In the old days presentations were made with careful planning and close collaboration between the communicator, the graphic analyst, and the draftsman because that would yield the best results. However, anyone who builds presentations today has all three of these roles folded into one, yet we're not officially trained in any of these skills.

Winners wear red: How colour twists your mind - New Scientist

Most researchers believe that red directly affects how you perceive the wearer of that colour. In nature, red is often used to signal dominance and aggression, and in humans this is reinforced by cultural symbols such as warning signs and stop signals. Red is clearly context specific. In achievement situations red means danger, which leads to avoidance, but in romance situations red means sexual availability or romance and that leads to approach behaviour

We don't need no stinkin' process - Energized Work

Another thing is ... we don't need no stinkin' process. I reckon it's because our team is small, has only generalising specialists who have worked together for ages, we trust one another implicitly, and our environment is extremely collaborative and fun-packed. Ok, it's not entirely accurate that we have no process. I just wanted to use the Blazing Saddles clip. There is some semblance of a process but, honestly, it really, really doesn't feel like it. It just feels like the natural flow a conversation takes. Perhaps it's that the interactions are so second nature to us it just seems like everything is a conversation triggered by something that's happened or has been discovered

Is Tetris Good For The Brain? - Science Daily

The girls who practiced showed greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. Compared to controls, the girls that practiced also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred.

However, cnet reports the study was funded by "Blue Planet Software (BPS), Inc., the company holding exclusive licensing rights to Tetris".

Extending ISD Through Plug and Play

2009-09-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I wrote about the dynamics of ISD in response to Ellen Wagner's blog in which she noted that the biggest complaint about ADDIE is that it is too linear. In her post Ellen states that ADDIE is a process model, not a learning model. That's quite true, but now we have to ask what is the purpose of that process? And it is not instruction, but rather learning. That is, instruction is the means but learning is the real goal.

While some may think this is just a way to give ADDIE a new makeover, it is actually an older concept than the dynamic evolution of ADDIE for Bèla Bànàthy, an instructional system design pioneer, wrote about this in 1968. In his book, Instructional Systems, Bànàthy noted that in such a system instruction is part of the process while learning is the main purpose (to gain knowledge and skills). He also noted, "The effectiveness of an instructional system, therefore, can be measured by assessing the degree to which it provides for the learner a system for learning. An instructional system serves its purpose to the extent to which it brings about in the environment of the learner all the possible interactions that result in the attainment of the desired performance."

Since learning is the true purpose of ISD or ADDIE, then it has to be even more robust. However, we must first make a distinction between two terms — Instructional System Design (ISD), which includes ADDIE, and Instructional Design (ID). And for that we can thank Jerome van Merriënboer who discusses the two terms in his book, Training Complex Cognitive Skills.

ISD has a broad scope and typically divides the instructional process into five phases:

analysis
design
development or production
implementation or delivery
evaluation

ISD models provide guidelines and directions for performing the activities in each of the five phases. The activities in the phases are normally similar to this:

Click image to enlarge

ID models on the other hand are less broad in scope and typically focus on the first two phases of ISD — analysis & design. They concentrate on the job and task analysis and the conversion into a learning strategy & a blueprint ready for production. Having less scope they can go into greater detail. Examples of ID are Merrill's Component Display Theory and Reigeluth's Elaboration Theory

The broad scope and heuristic method of ISD has often been criticized by others because it tells learning designers what to do, but not how to do it. Yet it is this broad and sketchy nature of ISD that gives it such great robustness. Merriënboer writes, "the phases may be listed in a linear order, but in fact are highly interrelated and typically not performed in a linear but in an iterative and cyclic fashion." He further notes that other ID and learning models can be used in conjunction with ISD.

Thus, ISD basically becomes plug and play — you add other components to it on an as-needed-basis. For example, the ISD model below has Action Mapping, 4C/ID, and Prototyping plugged into it for designing a robust learning environment for training complex skills:

Click image to enlarge

The ISD model uses the additional components to extend its capabilities:

Action Mapping is used for the task analysis and to help pinpoint the learning objectives
4C/ID is used to design the instruction for complex cognitive skills
Prototyping is used to test the instruction and for rapid design
The ISD model helps to ensure all essential requirements are performed

Taking full advantage of the full evolutionary growth of ISD provides a dynamic and extendable model that provides a process for creating a viable learning process. How have you extended the capabilities of ISD?

References

Banathy, B. (1968). Instructional Systems. Palo Alto, California: Fearon Publishers.

van Merrienboer, J.J.G. (1997). Training Complex Cognitive Skills: A Four-Component Instructional Design Model for Technical Training. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Educational Technology Publications.

Wikipedia, Groups, Complexity, Training, & Work

2009-09-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia to Color Code Untrustworthy Text - Wired

Starting this fall, you'll have a new reason to trust the information you find on Wikipedia: An optional feature called "WikiTrust" will color code every word of the encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has persisted on the page.

Trial by consensus sounds sketchy, but majority opinion has nearly always dictated society's definition of truth. A 15th century encyclopedia would have insisted that the sun revolves around the earth. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica asserted that bacteria causes the flu, since viruses hadn't been discovered yet. So perhaps it's not a question of whether to trust consensus. Rather, whose consensus do you want to trust: a handful of experts, or thousands of anonymous internet users and a clever computer algorithm?

Group Polarization: The Trend to Extreme Decisions - Psyblog

We tend to think that group decisions average out the preferences of participants so they would come up with something closer to the Ford Focus. But the psychological research doesn't support this conclusion. In fact group discussions tend to polarize groups so that, rather than people's views always being averaged, their initial preferences can become exaggerated and their final position is often more extreme than it was initially.

Chess to Go - Cognitive Edge

Go uses a 19 by 19 Grid, 181 black stones and 180 white stones. While the average number of legal moves in chess at any point is 37, in Go it's between 150 and 250 and rarely falls below 50. The most powerful computer around today would require 5 days to calculate all possible combinations of the next 8 moves (5.12 x 10 combinations). While computers can defeat the best human players, in Go they only manage an intermediate amateur level. The different values of chess pieces make it easier to calculate position, in Go it is far more difficult; the placement of one stone early in the game has an impact on play 100s of moves later. Chess is complicated, Go is complex and the differences give us a way of understanding the different strategies on of robustness and resilience which I raised yesterday.

Real trainers don't do Twitter - The Recession-Proof Trainer

The title of this post is deliberately provocative. It can be taken in two ways. I do not in any way suggest that real trainers should or should not tweet. The meaning of the title is simply that, apparently, not many real trainers do tweet. There are many training and performance gurus that I admire - few seem to have Twitter accounts. Those that do, do not tweet often; or gave up after one month. On the other hand, many "social learning" advocates are very active of Twitter.

The Four-Day Workweek Is Winning Fans - Times

A year ago, the Beehive State became the first in the U.S. to mandate a four-day workweek for most state employees, closing offices on Fridays in an effort to reduce energy costs. The move is different from a furlough in that salaries were not cut; nor was the total amount of time employees work. They pack in 40 hours by starting earlier and staying later four days a week. But on that fifth (glorious) day, they don't have to commute, and their offices don't need to be heated, cooled or lit.

The Evolving Dynamics of ISD

2009-08-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ellen Wagner recently wrote a very good post, What is it about ADDIE that makes people so cranky? in response to a recent #Lrnchat session on Twitter. She followed up on that post with #Lrnchat, ADDIE and Making the World a Better Place.

In her post she wrote, "It seems that the biggest objections to ADDIE are that it is linear." Yes, when ADDIE first made the scene in 1975 it was strictly a waterfall method in that except for the Evaluation phase, which is performed throughout the entire process, the other steps were performed in linear order. For example, in October 1981 Russell Watson presented a paper to the International Congress for Individualized Instruction. He wrote, "The five phases of ISD are analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation and control. The first four are sequential in nature, but the evaluation and control phase is a continuous process that is conducted in conjunction with all of the others." He included this diagram with the paper:

Click picture to enlarge

However, by at least 1984 the model evolved into a more dynamic nature for the first four phases. For example, a 1984 Army manual reads, "As the model shows, all parts are interrelated. Changes, which occur during one step of the model, affect other steps. In the ISD process, nothing is done in isolation, nor is all done in a linear fashion; activities of various phases may be accomplished concurrently." This is the model they show:

Click picture to enlarge

Thus even one of the most disciplined and structured organizations had to evolve the model to a more dynamic one. My guess is that since the ISD model was designed at a university, they wanted to take a summative approach in order to evaluate the validity of the learning/training theory. Yet Instructional design practitioners in the real world are more concerned with actually producing an effective learning process to meet the need's of the business, thus they take a more formative approach in order to refine goals and evolve strategies for achieving those goals.

Also note that one other change occurred, the title of the last phase evolved from "Evaluation and Control" to "Evaluation."

References

Watson, Russell (October 1981). Instructional System Development. In a paper presented to the International Congress for Individualized Instruction. EDRS publication ED 209 239.

U.S. Army Field Artillery School (1984). A System Approach To Training. ST - 5K061FD92

Heavy, Performance Appraisals, Training, Presentations, & Ethics

2009-08-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

Holding heavy objects makes us see things as more important - Not Exactly Rocket Science

Want your learners or team to think more deeply about a task? Then use heavy paper stock or a heavy clipboard:

Gravity affects not just our bodies and our behaviours, but our very thoughts. That's the fascinating conclusion of a new study which shows that simply holding a heavy object can affect the way we think. A simple heavy clipboard can makes issues seem weightier - when holding one, volunteers think of situations as more important and they invest more mental effort in dealing with abstract issues.

Performance Appraisals Positively Affect Employee Attitudes - CLO

Receiving an evaluation has a significant influence on an employee's engagement level and views of their immediate manager and organizations. Employees who are given a performance appraisal are more engaged and are more satisfied with their job and the company overall. The research indicates that receiving a performance appraisal has a significant, favorable impact on how employees rate their pride in the organization and their willingness to recommend it as a place to work. Furthermore, those employees who receive a performance appraisal are more likely to say they intend to stay relative to those who have not received a performance appraisal.

Applications training: teach the good stuff first - Dave's Whiteboard

I'd worried so much about the size and complexity of the Legion software that I overlooked the point I keep harping on here: the training isn't about using software, it's about doing work.

Find Your 20% - Jane Bozarth

Closely related to the Dave's post is Jane's post:

Rather than starting from a lot of information and finding a way to deliver it in the available time (the result: lecture + bulleted slides), find your critical "20%". What are the 2 or 3 key takeaways? If I ran into your attendee 2 weeks from now, what would they say were your 2 key points?

Why Be an Ethical Company? They're Stronger and Last Longer - Business Week

Witness Costco. Wall Street analysts have long chastised Costco's management for paying high wages and keeping employees around for a long time, resulting in higher benefits costs. Costco CEO Jim Sinegal has responded by saying that keeping good employees is strategic for the long-term success and growth of Costco. To date, he has backed up this assertion with per-employee sales that are considerably higher than those found at key rivals such as Target (TGT) and Wal-Mart (WMT).

Instructional Design, Learning, Multitasking, & Camtasia for Mac

2009-08-25T09:21:00.000-07:00

Love-Hate Theory, Learner Motivation, Connectivism and Other Such Thoughts... - Sahana Chattopadhyay in ID and Other Reflections

Thoughts on the fundamental theories all of us IDs start out our ID career armed with:

Learners learn best when they are able to align the new knowledge with knowledge from the past.
Once this connection has been established, the learner will very likely exert himself/herself to acquire the new skill.
In today's Digital Era, Connectivism adds another crucial dimension to the traditional learning theories.

Primacy/recency, or, first (and last) things last - Dave's Whiteboard

This is a pair of related ideas: "in a learning episode, we tend to remember best that which comes first, and remember second best [that] which comes last."

More on Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning - Karl Kapp

In the last post I linked to Nicholas Carr's post, Close down the schools! and it criticism on the New York Times post about the report.

Kark Kapp also makes some observation about the report in Online Education: Better than the Classroom?. He notes, the more time someone spends learning a topic and the better the DESIGN OF THE INSTRUCTION...the more learners learn.

Multitasking Muddles Brains, Even When the Computer Is Off - Wired

What happens to people who multitasking all the time? In every test, students who spent less time simultaneously reading e-mail, surfing the web, talking on the phone and watching TV performed best.hey fare significantly worse than their low-multitasking peers. However, as for what causes the differences, whether people with a predisposition to multitask happen to be mentally disorganized, or if multitasking feeds the condition is unknown.

But there may be some good news for multitaskers — while not the most efficient way to work multitasking may be good for your brain because of the mental challenge.

Today is the Day! Meet Camtasia for Mac! - The Visual Lounge

System Requirements

Mac computer with an Intel processor
Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later
Quartz Extreme support
1GB of RAM
Approximately 4GB of available disk space
QuickTime 7.5.5 or later
CD drive required for installation

Free 30 trial. Cost: $99.00 until Dec 31, 2009, after that it is $149.00. More information.

eLearning, Captivate 4, Cubicles, Stress Image Generators, & Peter Principle

2009-08-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

Close down the schools! - Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog

The headline on Steve Lohr's Bits post sounds pretty definitive: "Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom." And the quote that Lohr gets from the study's lead author, Barbara Means, sounds equally definitive: "The study's major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing - it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction."

But the study itself, which was conducted by SRI International for the US Department of Education, is considerably less definitive than the coverage would have you believe. Before school boards start firing teachers and shuttering classrooms, they might want to read the actual report.

Adobe Captivate 4: Project Templates... A Strong Foundation For New Projects - I came, I saw, I learned...

If you want to take the best components of any Captivate project and use them over and over, you can save any of your existing Captivate projects as a project template. The next time you create a Captivate project, you can use the project template and quickly produce a new project that contains those "best in class" components from the template.

Also see Design Templates.

Bulldoze Your Cubicles for Better Collaboration - HBR

Companies are finally realizing what their employees have known for ages: Cubicle cultures just don't work. With concerns about knowledge-sharing among older and younger generations of employees skyrocketing, organizations are concluding that impersonal "cube farms" discourage collaboration, stifle employee engagement and, as a result, strangle innovation at the exact time when it's desperately needed.

Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop - New York Times

According to Bruce S. McEwen, head of the neuroendocrinology laboratory at Rockefeller University, the new findings offer a particularly elegant demonstration of a principle that researchers have just begun to grasp. "The brain is a very resilient and plastic organ," he said. "Dendrites and synapses retract and reform, and reversible remodeling can occur throughout life."

13 Fantastic and Fun Image Generators - Mashable

The tools on this list help you generate respectable graphics in a jiffy - design talent optional!

The Peter Principle Lives - BusinessWeek

The cure for our malady? We should return to what Dr. Peter wanted: rewarding ordinary competence and being wary of feats that come too easily. Perhaps the late Ray Kroc is the right role model here. One of his first steps in building the McDonald's empire was to run his own outlet - he cooked, cleaned bathrooms, picked up the trash. The focus on doing ordinary things well was, he believed, key to McDonald's success.

eLearning Tools, Social Media, Training, Web, & a Metaphor

2009-08-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

What e-Learning Tools are You Using - Karl Kapp

Along with the survey out how long it takes to develop one hour of training, Robyn DeFelice and Karl Kapp also asked about what elearning tools were being used. The two most widely used tools were MS PowerPoint and MS Word, with Adobe Flash and Adobe Captivate coming in third and fourth.

More rogue. by Janet Clarey in Brandon Hall Analyst Blog

How to use social media in a more formalized strategic manner:

Respect your learners intentions and make informal learning resources available and useful.
Aggregate, organize, make available and decide what to deliberately suppor
Structured, but not formal, intentional but not directed.

I disagee with the second point in the post, "[ID should] stay the hell out of it" because the above is basically what good ID is all about.

Corporates invest in innovative training to manage costs - Business Standard

When a leading global supplier of passenger automobiles did not find the desired impact on job performance after various instructor-led, course-based programmes due to low-literacy level and different cultural backgrounds among its factory workers, the company created a vivid presentation using animations, simulations and procedural videos that increased curiosity among the workers who absorbed the messages in the highly-graphic training presentations.

Advance of e-learning continues to be overstated - Training Journal

Martyn Sloman, learning and development adviser, CIPD, says: "Simply saying we support blended learning solutions is not enough. We must work much harder to integrate e-learning into broader learning and performance support activities. The best organisations are doing this, but the worst are simply making e-learning available to the individual on their PC and hoping that something will happen as a result."

Personas - MIT

Personas shows you how the Internet sees you:
Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, currently on display at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab. It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one's aggregated online identity.

Do people really walk in circles? - 60 Second Science

This seems to be a good metaphor for providing visual clues in Instructional Design:

Yes, people do really walk in circles - but only when stripped of important visual clues, such as the sun or moon, according to a paper published online today in Current Biology.

Stress Training, Training Development Time, Social Media, Imitation, & Consciousness

2009-08-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

August 18, 2009

Mental Stress Training Is Planned for U.S. Soldiers - New York Times

The Army wants to train 1,500 sergeants by next summer to teach the techniques.

In an interview, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army's chief of staff, said the $117 million program was an effort to transform a military culture that has generally considered talk of emotions to be so much hand-holding, a sign of weakness.

"I'm still not sure that our culture is ready to accept this," General Casey said. "That's what I worry about most."

How Long Does It Take to Develop One Hour of E-Learning-Updated for 2009 - Kapp Notes

Perhaps the most interesting part of "Time to Develop One Hour of Training" is the comparison of 2003 and 2009 numbers.

For example: in 2003, the low estimate for developing One Hour of Instructor-led, Web-based training delivery (using software such as Centra, Adobe Connect, or WebEx-two-way live audio with PowerPoint)was 30 hours and the high estimate was 80 hours. In 2009, the low estimate is 49 and 89...both higher. Is it taking us longer to develop e-learning than it did six years ago??

Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble' - BBC

Choose the people you want to follow carefully:

40.5% could be classified as pointless babble
37.5% as conversational
8.7% as having pass-along value.
Self promotion and spam stood at 5.85% and 3.75% respectively.

Social media poses huge opportunity and risk for corporate world - Finance & Commerce

Last week, executives from companies as varied as Wal-Mart, McDonalds, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Mayo Clinic gathered at General Mills' headquarters in Minnetonka to discuss the opportunities and concerns presented by social media. And one thing became clear: For now, companies seem more fearful of being left behind than they do of losing control.

73 percent said they would increase the use of social media over the next 12 months.

Human See, Human Do--And That Goes for Monkeys, Too - Scientific American

But, so far, evidence suggests that an evolutionary adaptation to subtly imitate may promote the formation of social groups-building cooperation, reducing conflict, and aiding the survival of each individual.

These results may open up a new field of research, Paukner says. "In the past, we looked at imitation as 'What did [the imitator] learn?' But the role of the model has been largely ignored," she says. "Turns out, imitation is not just good for learning something new. It's also beneficial for the whole group-or whole species."

A "Complex" Theory of Consciousness - Scientific American

Conscious states are highly differentiated; they are informationally very rich.

Although consciousness is the only way we know about the world within and around us-shades of the famous Cartesian deduction cogito, ergo sum-there is no agreement about what it is, how it relates to highly organized matter or what its role in life is. This situation is scandalous! We have a detailed and very successful framework for matter and for energy but not for the mind-body problem. This dismal state of affairs might be about to change, however.