Turn These Slides into eLearning

Article Title: Turn These Slides into eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Ever been handed a PowerPoint slideshow by a client, and then asked to convert it into eLearning? Me too. This article offers advice for producing effective training for requests like this, even with tight deadlines.

If a lack of time or familiarity with the content makes you question your ability to draft decent scenarios, perhaps the client knows someone who can do that part for you. Depending on the complexity of the training, a subject matter expert might be able to draft a few scenarios relatively quickly and easily.

Click here to read the full article.

Read Full Post »

Avoiding eLearning that Oversimplifies

Article Title: Avoiding eLearning that Oversimplifies

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Many believe that eLearning is only suitable for teaching basic concepts and procedures, with more advanced skills and knowledge requiring a live instructor. This article argues that eLearning offers an effective platform for more advanced skill building, and it describes how instructional designers can accomplish this through immersive scenarios.

In the most realistic scenarios, the options provided at each step aren’t necessarily 100% right or wrong. Instead, the options might represent realistic decisions people tend to make that are okay, good, better, and best. Since in life, we can make varying degrees of acceptable decisions (e.g., good, better, best), it makes sense to simulate these variations in eLearning scenarios so learners can experience and see the differences.

Click here to read the full article.

Read Full Post »

Building eLearning Scenarios in Working Sessions with SMEs

Article Title: Building eLearning Scenarios in Working Sessions with SMEs

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Many instructional designers attempt to write training scenarios independently, based on their knowledge of the client’s needs. While sometimes this can work, scenarios written in this way often lack the details to realistically simulate workplace situations. This article explains how collaborating with subject matter experts (SMEs) helps instructional designers create robust scenarios for training. The article also includes a short case study that illustrates how this collaboration can occur.

From your analysis efforts at the start of the project, you likely have a sense of how a particular scenario should be structured and what skills it should prompt learners to exercise. You might even know which situations to base the scenarios on. You probably know enough to build a basic structure, but you need the help of a SME to fill in blanks with realistic details.

Click here to read the full article.

Read Full Post »

Making Scenarios Realistic in eLearning

Article Title: Making Scenarios Realistic in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Training experts and writing experts agree: showing is more effecting than telling when trying to convey a message, regardless of whether it’s a storyline for entertainment or a procedure for the workplace. This article suggests techniques for writing training scenarios that realistically simulate a work environment.

Many of us tend to write scenarios that describe situations rather than create them. For instance: Mr. Brock calls to cancel his flight. What should you do next?

A simple approach to making this scenario more realistic is to write dialog. What does a customer typically say when calling to cancel? Are there certain statements that could influence what the learner’s reaction should be? Writing dialog, instead of basic description, prompts the learner to not only identify the next step, but also to first recognize a trigger for that step.

Click here to read the full article.

Read Full Post »

Conveying Tacit Knowledge in eLearning

Article Title: Conveying Tacit Knowledge in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Tacit knowledge – concepts we understand intuitively but struggle to explicitly articulate – is often difficult to clearly outline in training. However, instructional design techniques such as storytelling and social learning can help convey and reinforce these concepts. This article explains tacit knowledge and describes techniques for conveying it in an eLearning environment.

If you’ve ever stumped subject matter experts by asking how they made certain decisions, you may have stumbled upon tacit knowledge. When you get vague responses like “I just know,” or “I just caught on from experience,” you may be entering the realm of tacit knowledge.

Click here to read the full article.

Read Full Post »

A Formula for Storytelling in eLearning

Article Title: A Formula for Storytelling in eLearning

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning

Summary: Storytelling is a hot topic in the field of instructional design. This article lists ways to use stories in training and outlines the elements of a good story.

–

When a client asked our team to develop a sales skills enhancement course, we opted to base the training on the methods of the most successful sales person in the department. We included her stories to demonstrate key skills, and we used her stories as the foundation for a few problem-centered lessons. It worked like a charm.

Click here to read the full article.

Read Full Post »

Use Scenarios to Make Quiz Questions Relevant to the Job

Article Title: Use Scenarios to Make Quiz Questions Relevant to the Job

Publication: Integrated Learnings: eLearning blog

Comments: My co-workers and I are always brainstorming ways we can make training more engaging – especially e-learning. A recent theme in our conversations is storytelling.

Instead of just presenting information in training and then prompting learners to apply it afterward, why not make an entire lesson into a story? Introduce new concepts in the context of the story…instead of introducing concepts in a decontextualized way and bringing examples in later.

I’ve made a concerted effort design this way over the past several months, and I feel like it has really brought the content to life. If only I had the time to go back to previous projects and apply the same principle!

This type of thing can work with quizzes too. The story might not be as fluid and involved in a quiz, but even using basic scenarios seems to make quiz questions more relevant. And learning theories out there support this approach. I used my latest contribution to the Integrated Learnings: eLearning blog to describe my application of scenarios to quizzes.

Read Full Post »