Clever Hamster

Program notes: e-Learning Showcase

Thursday, February 16, ASTD Austin monthly program: "e-Learning Showcase"

Topic: A survey of innovations in e-learning, from three of Austin's developers of learning software:

• Enspire Learning
• 360training
• Fusion Learning Systems

Notes:

• True simulation training is still quite rare due to its development cost (~$15K/course hour).
• Output trend: Delivery standardizing on Flash, due to general availability, cross-platform support, public acceptance, and support for mobile devices.
• Development trend: Most don't use any of the standard CBT development tools, but use in-house templates with Dreamweaver, for example.
• Strategic trend: Most seek to separate the interactivity engine/plumbing from the actual content (usually as XML), to support reuse and maintenance.
• Still not that much video; rather, many use "action graphics" (animation effects using static graphics) to engage learners.
• Metrics on success are still rare: most metrics merely track the easy ROI numbers, such as how the cost of developing the course online compares to the likely cost of creating and delivering the same content in the classroom. Almost no one is quantifying whether learning occurs.

Workshop notes: Task analysis for instructional materials

February 7, 2006 - SALT Conference in Orlando

Workshop: "Improving Interfaces, Instructions, and Training Materials Through Task Analysis" by Richard Catrambone, School of Psychology; Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center; Georgia Institute of Technology

These notes extrapolate how I felt Richard's ideas mapped on to our authoring challenges.

Goal: Design training materials and interfaces to help learners/users to:

1. Get started quickly
2. Solve novel problems (which cookbook procedures can’t support)

Solution: Perform task analysis first! Task analysis of procedures provides guidance and roadmap, so create materials after task analysis. Task analysis

• Provides the raw material
• Is not standardized (adjust method to fit each project); there are dozens of methods out there, none of which have become widely adopted, because they’re too heavy and formulaic
• Requires skills of “knowledge extraction” (to brain-drain SMEs)

Method: Task analysis requires an interdisciplinary pair: Domain expert (SME) + “Knowledge extraction” expert (writer). Writer works intimately with SMEs before developing domain experience to do a novice-eye analysis of task domain (that is, don’t teach yourself the software before task analysis). Analysis must finish before starting production of any documentation/teaching materials.

1. With SME, identify a set of problems/tasks you want people to be able to solve/do; this list serves both as the doc development plan and allows me to build skeleton book structures
2. With SME, solve the problems/tasks (SME drives, you interview and take notes)
3. With SME, demand “why did you do that? how? when? who?” for each step (“what”) and record the details of explanations, rules, definitions, implications, conventions
4. Only now, on your own, use solutions and notes to create materials

Dangers of examples and demos

• Users beg us for specific examples and demos, but these are very often not effective at building knowledge
• Problem: Shows “how” and “what” very well (cookbook), but misses “why” – generalizations that build up intuitive understanding of the product
• Solution: Ensure examples/demos expose the underlying knowledge/rules.

Summary: How to create good documentation

• Ask: what does learner/user need to know/do?
• Insist on tight collaboration between domain expert and knowledge extraction expert
• Don’t invest effort into a formal, exhaustive analysis of the domain
• Focus on the novice’s needs; avoid getting sucked into conveying your SME’s view of domain
• Be as explicit as possible in revealing the rules of the domain
• Focus on the task analysis, and let the procedure set and authoring fall out of that work

Workshop notes: New technologies in the classroom

February 7, 2006 - SALT Conference in Orlando

Workshop: "Cutting-Edge Technologies in the Classroom and On-Line: Table PCs, Digital Ink, PDAs, and Bluetooth Devices" (Presenter: Steven Mark, Assistant Professor, East Carolina University)

NEW USES OF AUDIO

• Podcasting: distributing audio/video files over the internet via syndication, for listening on mobile devices and PCs. Podcasts are audio/video web feeds for anyone to subscribe to. Podcasts might be downloaded, but subscribing to automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from downloading and streaming.
• Bluetooth: Bluetooth headsets combined with bluetooth-enabled devices make wireless lecturing and recording very easy across PCs, cell phones, and PDAs.
• Instructional usage: Steven and many other instructors are podcasting their classroom lectures, which students listen to on their iPods. Some recordings are after-the-fact postings of live classroom lectures, but some are classroom-lecture replacements for efficiency: the instructor requires the students to hear/watch the canned lecture before coming to class for hands-on activities.
• Portability: Research confirms that younger learners want portable content.
• Audacity: Free, open-source, cross-platform software for recording and editing podcasts.
• Podiobooks: Audio books serialized into podcasts, for free use; author-approved.
• Magnatune: Public-domain music safe to incorporate into podcasts.
• Podcast411: Reference site for creators, publishers, and users of podcasts.

NEW USES OF VIDEO

• Tools review: Camtasia 3 can export to PocketPC and (soon) to cell phone and video iPod and can integrate into MS Office the way SnagIt does; avoid PowerPoint Producer at all costs, as it's known to crash computers; an easy free demo tool is Microsoft's MovieMaker.
• Videoconferencing: Instructors are increasingly using Skype to make PC-to-PC phone calls to conference in up to 10 people for free, and many add the video as well. These conferences are optionally recorded and podcasted by the one (instructor) initiating the conference.
• Use talking heads: Distance-education research shows that students do prefer the "picture in picture" capabilities of Camtasia and the like, in which talking heads accompany the slide content. It seems to improve their sense of connection and immediacy.
• Narration and captioning can be co-developed from either direction: the speaker can narrate a slide presentation, which can be transcribed and entered as "open captions" (Camtasia 3), or the speaker can write up slide captions, which can later be recorded as narration. Offering both is best, for accessibility and support of adult learning styles.
• Avoid forcing forums: Conversely, early experience shows that requiring learners to post to forums at a fixed frequency just creates irritating busywork, not satisfying interactivity.

NEW USES OF TABLETS

• Defined: Tablets, now in their second (and successful) generation, are laptops equipped with touch-sensitive screens used with a pen-shaped stylus and a special version of Windows for the added functionality. Pure tablets work only in this stylus mode, but "convertible" models look to be more popular: the screens swivel on a central hinge to open up the unit for conventional laptop usage. When used in tablet mode, you can tap and switch to portrait mode for writing comfort or convenience.
• Price: The special OS as well as the super-cool chips required for in-arm use do make them a bit more expensive, but prices are dropping as volumes are increasing. I believe the OS includes the OneNote note-taking/management software that many find compelling.
• Handwriting transformed: Unlike the handhelds that tried to offer handwritten data entry on tiny entry screens using cryptic codes, the tablets have ample space for full-sized, natural writing, which the Gateway tablets we used in class effortlessly translated into text entries. The recognition utility had several customization settings to adapt to different users. The combination of the compact tablet form-factor and silent stylus writing finally make it possible to take meeting/class notes electronically, without a desk, without the obstruction of an open laptop, and without the irritating "tap-tap-tap".
• Markup and drawing transformed: The tablet OS adds both "felt-tip" and "highlighter" markup tools to Office applications (maybe more), so that live presentations can be more dynamic (fill in the blank, complete diagrams, highlight key points, populate lists, log group work), and that review copies can be more visual and personalized. The markup can be saved/reused as graphics.
• Multimedia transformed: Steven now grades his homework in a "live" session, by marking up ("ink annotations") the homework file on his tablet and simultaneously audio-recording his comments to the student; the student watches the recording, which might include Steven's talking head, via his webcam. The tablet lends itself to DVD viewing.