The Total Learner Experience

5 Steps for Rapid Needs Analysis

In today's world it's almost impossible to carve out enough time in a project schedule to perform a comperehensive needs analysis. Many people are forced to perform iterative analysis as they deliver. To help ensure the effectiveness of your learning experience, consider this 5-step rapid needs analysis process when you find time is of the essence:

1. Identify the improvement opportunity.
   • Identify and clearly state the issue or improvement opportunity, and the desired organizational outcome. It's easy to assume that all the key stakeholders know what the issue or opportunity is, but there can be significant variations in people's viewpoints. Many times stakeholders have general expectations in their heads (such as "our managers need to be more professional") that require you to drill down to specific behaviors. Performance issues or opportunities need to be clearly stated in terms of measurable behaviors, and agreed upon by all the stakeholders.
2.     Collect the performance data.
   • There are a variety of methods available for data collection, including interviews, observation, surveys and other source documents. Select the best methods for the particular organization and situation. Whenever possible, conduct interviews because they enable you to ask follow-up questions and provide richer data. The key is to gather just enough needed data. Gather information from a variety of sources, including managers, supervisors, accomplished performers, and typical performers. Relying solely on the performers themselves can lead to major gaps because people can't easily articulate why they do what they do, and they make assumptions about what they know versus what a newcomer to the job would know.
3. Analyze the data.
   • Once you have documented the data, look for consistencies and inconsistencies within the findings and avoid jumping to conclusions. Next, identify the performance gaps by comparing what people are doing to what they should be doing.
4. Conduct a cause analysis.
   • Before you select solutions for closing the performance gap, identify the causes for the gap. Consider whether the cause is due to a lack of skill or knowledge, or if there are motivational or other workplace obstacles to achieving desired performance.
5. Recommend the solution.
   • Based on the causes for the performance gap, identify appropriate solutions. Keep in mind how the performance issue links back to organizational results and needs to ensure you propose solutions that are both realistic and relevant. You should almost always recommend multiple solutions, because there are usually multiple causes for the performance gap.

Going Blended: Questions to Help Define Your Learning Strategy

I often work with clients who have questions and are interested in blended learning solutions. Here, I've outlined what I believe are a few positives and challenges for going blended, and then I leave you with questions you can ask yourself to help determine the best path to follow.

Classroom Training Positives:

• Face to face. The Instructor can see/recognize when a student is understanding the material or not, and offer a personal touch.
• Classroom training is the current comfort zone in many organizations. Students may be more accustomed to it, and may not feel comfortable with online training.
• Classroom training often comes with a manual that students can use to refer to after the class is over.

Classroom Training Challenges:

• Time away from the office.
• Travel expenses when necessary.
• Training is more generalized in order to reach a broader audience. A student may find it necessary to sit through half the class before the Instructor hits upon what they really came to learn.
• The cost involved in creating a classroom course can be absorbent. Time spent on development, cost of materials, etc.
• The cost involved in contracting an outside vendor to teach specific classes can have a large impact on a training budget.
• Deciding what courses to develop and train in-house is often limited due to budget constraints, which means you will need to choose wisely where/when to allocate resources.

Virtual, CBT, or Online Training Positives:

• Typically these courses are offered anytime, anywhere, so scheduling is not a problem.
• The cost involved in contracting with an outside vendor for online courses is often volumetric driven. This means you can often offer hundreds of courses per user for often the same price you pay for one course offered via classroom taught by an outside vendor. 
• Broader selection also means that you can use online courses to supplement classroom training.
• Online courses often allow the student to take an assessment, which enables them to hone in on the specific lessons they really need to learn while by-passing the lessons they already have sufficient knowledge within.

Virtual, CBT, or Online Training Challenges:

• Online learning sometimes means learning a new technology. This can cause some to see it as a stumbling block rather than a building block.
• Students may feel online learning is not personal enough.
• Students may lack the discipline to work through online courses on a regular basis. Sometimes they are challenged to find the time to dedicate.

So here are a few questions I would suggest you ask yourself in order to better understand how you may want to build your training program:

1. What is your current budget?
2. Can you afford classroom training?
3. If yes, how many and which classes would you have resources to create and offer? 
4. For those classes you are not able to offer, what virtual or online courses can help supplement your classroom training?
5. Are there any virtual or online courses that would complement your classroom training? For example, would they make good pre-requisites or post follow-up reference material?
6. How many students do you support? Are they global?
7. What initiatives will you need to consider in this training year/cycle? One-time (like an office upgrade), short-term (like leadership training for managers), or on-going (like those tied to job families). What courses would support those initiatives?
8. What is your organizational culture and how do they currently "like to learn"?
9. What is your vision for your training program?

Understanding the audience and plugging in the appropriate training for them is key for success.

On Story

Recently, I tweeted on what I feel are five necessary elements of a disruptive learning experience:

1. Story
2. Journey
3. Failure
4. Redemption
5. Resolution

I’ll expand a bit here on what I mean by Story.

Story unlocks creative consciousness
Many of us that work on the creative side of writing and instructional design (and I argue that proper instructional design requires good writing) toil with what makes story most effective for our audiences. The very idea of story is about discovering the essence of what makes us human: good writing drops the reader directly into the heart of the matter, with tension, romanticism, impracticality, and the power of emotions guiding the journey. Good writing leaves behind a residue of memory upon which all our experiences are built.

In telling stories, we conflate passion, bring about calamity and acts of treachery and expose the tragic power of conflict and memory. Good stories induce the solitude of forgetting -- which is critical to discovering a deeper understanding of the world and our choices, problems, joys. In effect, we transfer our selves to others with effective storytelling. We play an active present-tense role in the composition of who we are and the characteristics we desire in others.

Circumstances often force a consciousness upon us. The more measures we take to understand, the more elusive understanding often becomes. Story allows us to compose our own works of philosophy. The story of you, how you come into sharper focus, comes from a play of reflections on your experiences. Those experiences subconsciously informs the very composition of every story you create.

Story opens doors
What is a story, what is it to be an integral person? What composes our self, and our own identity? There is a distressingly fragile barrier between freedom and self-censorship—it’s a constant conflict based on environment and predicament. How wide the door opens is based on a myriad of personal and professional conditions. The point, realistically, is to learn how to open the door completely.

Story advances humanity
Story delivers social interaction, knowledge and happiness. It’s immoral not to advance story, and not to use it effectively to further our human condition. Educators have a moral imperative to be precocious, brilliant, and bracingly idealistic when advancing how story can bring our audiences a broader knowledge and ability to accelerate their own advancement.

Story was used for thousands of years before it was finally invented -- and using it effectively is key to the creation of a powerful learning experience.

Instructional Design Rules to Break

The world of instructional design is overrun with endless rules. Many rules are steeped in years of research and driven by appropriate learning theory. However, we think there are some rules that are OK to be bent, twisted, or broken to fit specific needs. There’s an old saying that in order to break the rules, you need to know them. In this series, we are going to take some long-lived rules of Instructional Design and discuss the when and how to break them. Agree or disagree? Let us know!

Rule #1: “Avoid Direct Instruction”

Direct Instruction (DI), is the explicit teaching of a skill-set using lectures or demonstrations of the material, rather than exploratory models such as inquiry-based learning (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Direct_instruction&oldid=526504905). Think of the last “training class” you sat thru while a droning facilitator dumped data from a seemingly endless PowerPoint deck. Many Instructional Designers try to avoid DI at all costs because it’s seen as old-fashioned, ineffective and didactic. Exploratory learning came along in reaction to the DI “sage on the stage” model, and has been overused to such an extent that many see it as the only way to design effective instruction. However, by rejecting DI because of an assumption that it leads to a poor design, you lose out on its distinct advantages.

Research tells us that learners must construct their own understanding in order to truly learn. In the real world, learners working through exploratory models often go down rabbit holes, learning valuable information and skills, but ones that may not be relevant to the task at hand. Exploratory learning is critically important when you want learners to be invested in the topic and when skills are more important than fact. But for learning data and facts, DI cannot be beat.

DI can save time and effectively transmit data, facts and procedures. We’re not arguing that DI should be used exclusively. Many learning organizations use DI exclusively (and, in our opinion, ineffectively) in the form of PowerPoint-style data dumps with little interactivity. A better model is to create an exercise that encourages the learner to explore a relevant case study, view targeted direct instruction related to the case, conduct problem-solving and reflective group work, and then finally prepare a presentation or teach-back to their peers. Don’t think you have to avoid DI at all costs, just be sure to integrate it effectively with interactive activities and exercises.

This series is co-written with Wiggle. Check back for the next rule to break: Get Buy-in From All Your Stakeholders.

Why Classroom Instruction Still Works

Yes, we have multiple delivery channels for "learning experiences". I get that. We have eLearning, Virtual Live, mobile, printed manuals, phone support, hell even Skype and FaceTime. Yep. Learning Experience Designers (LEDs) have lots and lots of choice. But, for me, the first default I go to when considering a new learning experience is classroom. I only end-up delivering about 50% of my learning experiences in the classroom, but here's why I *think* classroom first:

Classroom works when...

...you need your learners to connect to each other. Really connect. Like, sit next to each other and discuss, argue, debate, show and tell, and listen. When you have a class full of colleagues, everything is immediate and "on the line". Something someone says (yes, even the facilitator) might spark a change, motivate someone, or possibly change an entire intiative. Someone might stand up, speak out, or make a huge difference in how content is presented.

...the material is dynamic and requires "radical attention". If what you're doing, showing or teaching requires undivided attention, you can get that in the class. You can move your audience to participate deeply, share passionately and be more open and vulnerable. Eye contact, body language, sweat, odor, clenched fists, lighting, sound... environment can radically alter the learning experience.

...networking is important. It's likely that participants will meet someone they didn't know or make deeper connections to colleagues they may kinda know. These relationships may stick for years and may open up new avenues for learning and sharing.

...groups need "deep support". Your learning experience may provide a foundation of support to help take a business intiative or program to the next level. You may not even know ahead of time what impact a classroom experience will have on a program or even an individual's ability to synthesize their learning into real work.

...you want to build something bigger. In many corporate cultures something happens every day that might be a building block to something even bigger, and participants may become part of a tribe that goes beyond what an online experience can provide.

Learning experiences are about transformation, and a great learning experience can happen in almost any modality -- but think of the possibilities of what can happen when people connect to each other in the room.

Create Losing Designs

We spend a great deal of time planning for learner success. Do we ever create the ability for learners to lose? Should we?

Our society puts a premium on “winning” -- nowadays it seems like every team gets a trophy -- not just the winner. Americans are culturally bound to the ideal of winning. However, in the real world people lose all of the time: athletes lose games and tournaments, politicians lose elections. In high stakes situations like these, losing has a real consequence. How does this affect learning?

Low stakes losing occurs every day. When we lose, we tend to either give up, or continue to practice to overcome the failure. Any casual gamer is familiar with losing and attempting to overcome the loss by quickly replaying the game. Losing, in this context, can be a big motivator, driving the will to practice, which can lead to increased skill. Learning to lose effectively is actually a skill in itself. Resiliency in the face of losing and using strategies to improve is an important life lesson and professional skill. If losing always equates to complete failure, then learners stop striving, stop attempting creative solutions, and see themselves as incapable.

In learning design, a primary goal should be to create an atmosphere where losing is acceptable and intrinsically motivates the learner to try again. The potential learning value from this type of experience is measured not by how often the player loses, but by how much they improve through repeated practice.

In your training design include opportunities for low stakes losing before learners are thrust into their high stakes, real-world situations -- be it a qualifying exam or on the job performance.

Recommendations for a “losing” design:

• Make content available on demand so that learners can review material as needed
  • A common mistake is being overly controlling with content. If the goal is for learners to gain knowledge and skills, shouldn’t they have free access to the tools that can make that happen?
• Communicate how the learner is performing relative to passing scores or via peer-to-peer review as appropriate
  • By communicating how comparatively well they are doing, learners can better sense where they can improve. This also gets their competitive juices flowing.
• Allow plenty of practice opportunities before the final assessment occurs
  • If the only time that learners can demonstrate knowledge is a final graded test, their opportunities to “lose” are reduced to one high stakes moment. Build in low stakes assessment opportunities that prepare learners for the one that counts.
  This post also appears on Wiggle Learning.

On Winning

“Training” and “competition” are not usually words that are associated with each other. However, competition is an innate motivator and humans by nature enjoy winning.

Certain aspects of winning are universal to all competitive activities, including learning. A recent Newsweek article about winning provides insight into how instructional designers can create more engaging training. The author notes that winning by itself is not the most compelling impetus, but that winning while a competitor loses is more satisfying (this would seem obvious to anyone with siblings).

Rather than using  a “task completion” metaphor, instructional designers should use a gaming and winning metaphor when designing training. Rote tasks can be made more engaging if instead of simply reading and reacting in a safe environment, the learner triumphs over a tension-filled activity. Similarly, you can provide competitive opportunities with other learners virtually.

In many K-12 situations “safe” learning environments take out so much of the excitement of competition and rating. You have an obligation to make sure every beginner learner succeeds, but you also have an obligation to groom the special talents that individuals have as well.

How do you turn cognitive tasks into challenge?

Learning objectives can remain the same, but it’s the way that it is presented that changes. You don't have to completely redesign your training to make it more challenging. Consider these simple ideas:

Allow learners to be wrong

• Allow and penalize for incorrect answers. If learners can complete a course by merely clicking through content, they have little reason to engage with the content. Activities that allow for “failure” can create “good tension”.

Add variable scoring

• Reward learners for learning more difficult material by acknowledging that all content is not equal.

Add timed components for some activities

• While not appropriate for all activities, it does create a feeling of tension.

Allow for replay opportunities

• This reduces some of the negative aspects of the capability for “failure” allowed by other competitive components.

Create opportunities to share leaderboard scores outside of the learning environment

• Rather than learning taking place within a silo, authentic learning events can bleed into the larger community.

A simple multiple choice game can be either boring or competitive with a simple design tweak:

Boring

• The learner answers a question and then views the answers tagged with "correct" and "incorrect" feedback.

Competitive

• The learner answers a question. They receive variable points based upon the correctness of the answer, difficulty of the challenge and the speed with which they answered. They are then shown their score relative to other learners. The feedback is also contextual and continues the gameplay.

Take some lessons from this short quiz. How many times did you feel compelled to play?

This post also appears on Wiggle Learning.

The Potential of Augmented Reality for Education

This month I will be participating in a panel discussion about the Potential of Augmented Reality (AR) for Education at SXSW in Austin. I'm lucky to be joined on the panel with some leading experts in the field of AR: Tish Shute, Brendan Scully, Karen Hamilton and our fellow blogger here, Enzo Silva.

Tish Shute, founder of Ugotrade, a leading AR blog, explains that AR is in a critical development stage:

"Augmented Reality is in its infancy and we are just beginning to see AR learning apps emerge for young children on consumer devices, and museums are pioneering AR in situated educational experiences. AR has a long history in military and industrial training and simulation excercises because in these areas bulky high priced equipment is not an obstacle to adoption. We are in the middle of a data revolution. Soon just about everything in our world will have a data shadow. Sensors everywhere will allow us to communicate with the world around us in totally new ways. AR is the natural interface to bring relevancy to data. It will turn arcane spreadsheets, vast unstructured data sets - the data wakes of our cyborg lives - into visible, visceral, interactive, optimizable, and actionable parts of everyday life." 

Others on the panel include Brendan Scully from metaio, Karen Hamilton from George Brown University in Toronto, and Enzo Silva from Oracle. Enzo organized the panel, and will be moderating.

We're hoping to have a dynamic and interactive discussion about where AR is currently, where it's going, and how organizations can begin to leverage the technology to build more authentic and immersive educational experiences.

We hope you can join us in Austin! Until then, check out this cool video from metaio on multichannel AR:

 

Do You Have a Curriculum Strategy?

Many training organizations may think their curriculum is aligned to the company's business needs. Can you confidently say that yours is?

When you look holistically at your curriculum, does it:

• Meet definable and observable performance standards?
• Enable you to determine if learner achievement of the curriculum objectives occurs?
• Allow you to determine if the instructional elements effectively meet the curriculum objectives?

Do you evaluate the effectiveness of your instructional programs along the following criteria:

• The instructional content teaches to the objectives specified
• The time required for instructional programs are appropriately aligned to the student time available
• Instructional materials and resources are easily accessible and contextual to the student's physical and virtual environments
• Appropriate assessment mechanisms are included that provide performance-related remediation
• Performance-related data is tracked and stored
• The instructional activities are evaluated to determine effectiveness

Too often, training organizations become siloed and redundant in their efforts to train the workforce. Consistently measuring the effectiveness of your curriculum and ensuring it's aligned not only to identified business needs, but also to the organization's competencies, will help you provide a measurable and sustainable ROI to the business.

The question is: how do you intend to ensure your curriculum strategy stands up to the test of alignment and effectiveness? Consider these three actions to help you get started:

• Evaluate all curriculum and instructional components annually
• Leverage business intelligence software to gather usage data on your course catalog. Consider deeper analysis on courses and/or programs that are not being used or accessed frequently
• Ensure that all courses fit into a program or curriculum that is tied directly to a business need
• Question the request for training if it can't be easily shown what the desired outcome is or how it is aligned to a business need or goal
• Provide supplemental support services for post-course evaluation

The primary success factor resulting from a well-defined curriculum strategy is performance improvement. By focusing your efforts on an appropriate strategy, you will move one-step closer to demonstrating true ROI to the business and the audiences you support.

Building Motivation in Online Learning

When creating online learning, the primary goal is to create a course or program that fosters "a continuing motivation to learn," which is defined by Maehr as "voluntary engagement in continuing to learn more about a given topic."

The complexity of human motivation makes it hard to find a one-solution-fits-all model for learners. However, the ARCS model establishes basic criteria an instructional designer can leverage to increase the potential for establishing learner motivation while reducing learner malaise, frustration, and/or dropout. 

The ARCS model consists of these four components:

• Attention
• Relevance
• Confidence
• Satisfaction

Consider the following tactics for each ARCS component. However, there is no substitute for proper analysis to uncover the motivational elements specific to your audience. Without that analysis, you are likely to include too many, too few, or wrong motivational elements.

Attention:

Gain learner attention by integrating:

• High-resolution graphics
• Interactivity and animation
• Conflict and failure
• Problem-solving and inquiry

Relevance:

Provide relevance to the learner's situation:

• Describe clear goals that are consistent with learner expectations
• Connect content to the learner's prior experience and/or knowledge
• Include guided instruction and navigational systems (while allowing self-determination in the consumption of the content)
• Incorporate "authentic" activities based on learner's job or tasks

Confidence:

Make the learner feel confident and aware of learning outcomes:

• Communicate clear expectations for successful completion
• Teach to the learner's "Zone of Proximal Development" -- avoid tasks and/or activities that are too easy or too hard
• Include activities that require critical thinking and minimize guessing
• Provide positive and contextual feedback that emphasizes learner achievement

Satisfaction:

Design for happy learners by:

• Recognizing learner achievement through reward mechanisms and in-context encouragement
• Providing opportunities for the learner to apply what they're learning
• Designing the right amount of work for the subject material
• Creating consistency between the content and assessment mechanisms throughout the material

Also, consider these additional design strategies:

• Reduce the word count on the screen compared with printed or narrated text
• Improve the quality of quizzes (consider quizzes as a motivational tool)
• Incorporate more interactive elements
• Create an automatic messaging system triggered by learner progress that can send positive email providing encouragement, reminders, empathy, and advice. 

References:

• 1986. Maehr, M.L. The motivation factor: A theory of personal investment. Lexington Books.
• 2004. Keller, J.M. and Suzuki, K. Learner motivation and E-learning design: a multinationally validated process. Florida State University, USA, Iwate Prefectural University, Japan.