I have often seen courses where the learner has to read information in a popup on clicking a button. This click appears with its associated learner instruction and at times is just ornamentation on the screen. If this happens too frequently in a course, the learner starts responding in almost ‘Pavlov-esque’ fashion: a conditioned reflex (okay, so it was the dog and not Pavlov that responded, but you see my point!). The course is no longer entertaining and certainly not engaging. However by definition you could say it is interactive!

So here’s something I have done in the past to help the learner be a more ‘active’ participant in the course: I use scenarios. Instead of a button click for information, the learner is placed in a particular position and asked to respond. The situation does not necessarily flow from the content before it, but is not totally disconnected from it either. Responses can be simply yes/no, true/false options (although we at Saffron try to avoid these – here’s why), or slightly more complicated multiple choice options. In either case, it makes the learner pause and think, and thus the learner is more actively involved in the course.

As an example, consider the following:

“Six Sigma originated as a set of practices designed to improve manufacturing processes and eliminate defects, but its application was subsequently extended to other types of business processes as well.

In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as any process output that does not meet customer specifications, or that could lead to creating an output that does not meet customer specifications.”

With all due respect to the contributors at Wikipedia, this would hardly be the best way to present information for learners in an e-learning module. A number of people would tackle it as follows:

• Rewrite the first paragraph.
• Consider including the second paragraph in a popup with a button labelled ‘Defect’.

I admit I have been party to such a line of thought many times. With hindsight, however, I propose the following, slightly more interesting, solution:

• Rewrite the first paragraph for clarity. For example – Six Sigma is a set of rules developed to perfect manufacturing processes by reducing defects. Its principles have recently been extended to improve other types of business processes as well.
• In place of the second paragraph, position the learner in a scenario. For example:

The latest MPhone Touch2010 mobile phone advertisement is awesome! You order one over the internet immediately. On receiving the product, however, you find that the touch sensors are not working properly. Which of the following responses are you most likely to choose?

A. You call MPhone and give them a piece of your mind. You ask for a replacement handset immediately.

B. You take it to the nearest MPhone store and have them replace it. All’s well that ends well.

C. You ask for a full refund and pledge to yourself that you are never buying an MPhone again.

Feedback:

A. As well you should, some might say! This is clearly a defective product and not what you expected. Whatever happened to quality control? Had the company adhered to Six Sigma, the chances of this happening would have been quite remote. In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as any process output that does not meet customer specifications, or that could lead to creating an output that does not meet customer specifications.

B. That’s nice of you! There’s no point taking it out on the poor guys at customer care. It’s not their fault that the product has a defect, after all. But had the company adhered to Six Sigma, the chances of this happening would have been quite remote. In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as any process output that does not meet customer specifications, or that could lead to creating an output that does not meet customer specifications.

C. I don’t blame you! A defective product can be quite frustrating. Had the company adhered to Six Sigma, the chances of this happening would have been quite remote. In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as any process output that does not meet customer specifications, or that could lead to creating an output that does not meet customer specifications.

When compared to the original piece of text, or to the click and popup box suggestion, this approach is more thought-provoking and more engaging (and ultimately more effective). It provides meaningful interaction, as opposed to interaction for the sake of it.

So, consider yourself in a position where you have just received content from the client. Going through it you find that you are tempted to use a popup. What do you do? I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the options for this one.

Someone came onto our stand at the Learning Technologies the other week and asked, ‘OK, so you people at Saffron know social learning. What about anti-social learning?’ That intriguingly sly question got me thinking about what our role is in facilitating learning in our customers’ organisations: what exactly is it that we be should aiming to design and implement?

Consider the best versus the worst experience of “instructor-led training” in the classroom. The worst is staring at the back of someone who’s facing his or her slides and reading out the bullet points in an emotionless monotone (while you’re reading them at a different speed). The best is being in a class with a trainer who engages you and everybody else in the room in a dialogue about the subject. For example, the trainer may ask you a question but, instead of telling you whether your answer is correct or incorrect, then asks other members of the class for their opinion of your response. All answers are good answers: it’s important to know whether you’re right or wrong but it’s just as important to know why.

Today e-learning is an essential part of the training blend, in order to meet both organisations’ and learners’ expectations of availability, cost and timeliness. At Saffron we design e-learning that aspires to the best classroom experience – e-learning that makes eye contact – as you’ll know if you’ve been following the Spicy Learning Blog. Within the constraints of the medium, we aim to hold a conversation with our learners, anticipating and answering their concerns. For all that, e-learning remains a solitary, self-paced, self-study experience and one that perhaps runs the risk of becoming anti-social learning.

Social learning acknowledges a well known but often ignored truth that people learn best when they’re motivated to teach themselves and others. Adding social learning to the training blend counters any anti-social bias in e-learning design and provides a powerful underpinning for an organisational change programme, where the aim is to explain, motivate and persuade and not just to instruct.

That brings me to my title. Musing on anti-social learning got me thinking about why I don’t like “instructional design” as a name for what we do. The term instruction reminds me too much of PE at school: Arms Up! Bend Knees! Stretch! Instruction, in that sense, is completely contrary to the tone of our courses (and yours too, I hope). What we actually aim to design is a complete programme: an enjoyable, engaging and effective experience that uses, in each case, an appropriate blend of instructor-led, self-study and social learning.

So here’s my suggestion. Why don’t we call ourselves learning experience designers rather than instructional designers? It applies, incidentally, as much to our graphic designers and programmers of interactions as it does to those of us who write the storyboards. In other words, let’s set ourselves the expectation that, collectively, we design learning experiences, not instruction!

Imagine that a group of people each have a box with something in it. Let’s call it a ‘beetle.’ No one can look into anyone else’s box, and everyone says they know what a beetle is only by looking at their beetle. It would be possible that everyone has something different in their box. Maybe the box is even empty.

This is the same problem that we, as project leads, face every time we start a new project with a client: how do I know that I’ve understood what the client wants?

With some things it’s easy. How long do you want the course to last? 20 minutes. What data do you need the course to track? Completion status, name and job title. But questions such as ‘How faithfully should I follow the content provided?’ won’t necessarily get you a definitive answer. And force feeding these answers through the Jeremy Paxman quiz maker isn’t yet an option available to the contemporary e-learning designer.

For instance, how do you know whether your client understands the technical limitations of rapid development tools when they opt to use them to build their company’s e-learning? Maybe you thought you’d explained it to them during the kick off meeting, and they made all the outward visible signs of understanding, but when you sent them the end product they asked you to add in a flashing button.

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes a project lead can make is to make assumptions about what a client knows. You don’t have to err too far on the side of caution and assume that your client knows nothing. But you do need to know whether your client’s understanding of ‘highly animation based’ is simply your default Flash course or an ultra hi-tech, multimedia-intensive learning extravaganza.

So, how do we solve this ‘Beetle in the box’ problem?

Improve your communications pattern.

If you’re concerned that you may not be able to deliver what a client has asked for, then it might be worth spending a bit more time liaising with your client. What clients expect at the beginning of a project may be radically different from what they expect mid-way through or even towards the end of the project life cycle. This is particularly true if your client is new to e-learning. After a couple of storyboard and interim releases, their understanding of the possibilities grow and so too can their demands for the course. You can then find yourself having to manage the expectations of an overzealous client.

Have regular conversations with your client. We find it helps to hold weekly teleconferences with project stakeholders to plot the project’s progress against the evolving expectations of our clients. Taking meeting and call notes helps because it gives your client the opportunity to confirm your understanding and ensure that you’re on the right track.

Meet your client’s needs and manage their expectations.

Not all projects that fail to meet client expectations do so because of a breakdown in communications. Sometimes a client may be unrealistic with their own expectations; they ask for their course to be built using a rapid development tool, fully aware of its limitations, but on seeing the end product change their minds. Ultimately, this client had something else in their box. And it’s our responsibility to make sure we manage expectations.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to focus more on what you believe an organisation needs. After all, we’re e-learning consultants as well as service providers.  Expectations are sometimes based on personal opinions rather than on what the course needs to achieve; so whilst I may not be able to visualise the look and feel that my client has printed in their head, I can recognise that if my client wants his staff to comply with the UK Bribery Act then they’re going to have to be taught how to complete an expenses form.

We’re always looking for ways to become better at identifying what our clients expect of the learning solutions we design for them. Understanding a client’s expectations will help to minimise those last minute change requests that can throw a whole project off schedule, and it will also help to ensure that you deliver high quality products that meet the needs of the company and its learners. A course that cannot meet its learner’s needs really is no better than an empty box.

Mantras such as ‘check, check and check again’ are often bandied around in the workplace, but what can we do to make sure our QA of everything we roll out is 100 per cent foolproof?

I recently bought a bottle of wine which the label described as ‘A crips dry white’. My friends and I thought this was hilarious; the point being that we all love to spot mistakes. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the reaction we want our learners to have when they are completing our courses! So we’ve selected ten basic top tips to prompt the reviewer and help you to make sure nothing gets through your QA.

1. Check the textual, visual and functional

It can be easy to prioritise one aspect of an e-learning course, but they are all equally important. It can help to complete one QA focusing on the text, then another on the visual and so on.

2. Ten or 10?

Agree a rule, and then stick to it and make sure it’s always followed. We prefer to write out numbers up to nine, and then use the characters for all numbers that are higher.

3. Is the instruction text accurate and up to date?

Make sure the text aligns with what appears on the screen. If an image or interaction has been moved then the instruction text will need updating too.

4. ‘It’s’ or ‘its’?

‘It’s’ should be used when abbreviating ‘It is’ and ‘its’ can be used in all other instances. It’s worth double checking your use of this, as spell-check and autocorrect have been known to get it wrong.

5. The capitals conundrum

The appropriate use of capital letters has been the basis of many a debate between instructional designers. Decide on rules and then stick to them. If an icon reads ‘Next’ or ‘Resources’, then retaining the capital letters when the icon is mentioned in the main text will aid usability. The rules that you agree may have to be bent at times, as some companies like the use of capitals and some don’t. Always check the relevant branding guidelines to make sure you’re writing within them.

6. Which side of the pond?

Find out whether e-learning needs to be written in UK or US English and then check against common errors when completing a QA. For instance, have you used the correct version of ‘learnt’ vs. ‘learned’, or ‘preventive’ vs. ‘preventative’?

7. Always stir your coffee

For words such as ‘practice’ and ‘practise’ it’s an ‘s’ for a verb and a ‘c’ for a noun… so stir your coffee! If you’re writing in US English the rules will differ, so bear this in mind.

8. Don’t confuse your hyphens (-) and dashes (–)

A hyphen is shorter than a dash, and is used to compound words such as ‘e-learning’. A dash is longer and is used to separate clauses.

9. A company is singular

Companies, teams and departments should all be referred to in the singular. For instance, ‘Saffron has an e-learning blog’ and ‘The instructional design team has developed the storyboarding process.’

10. Does everything work?

Even if you are satisfied that everything is working as it should be, try to complete a final functionality QA before a release. This way you’ll pick up any issues that may have found their way into a course since your last review.

• Does everything click, drag and rollover as it should?
• Do all URLs and downloads work?

What is the Multiple Intelligences theory?

For the most part, it’s common sense! Penned by Howard Gardener in 1983, the theory describes what those of us who went to school already knew: Different people learn in different ways.

Gardener initially described seven basic intelligences. They are:

• Linguistic intelligence: demonstrating abilities with spoken and written language.
• Logical-mathematical intelligence: the capacities to analyse problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically.
• Musical intelligence: skill in the performance, composition, and recognition of music, patterns or rhythms.
• Kinaesthetic intelligence: using the body or parts of the body to solve problems; learning by doing.
• Spatial (or visual) intelligence: interpreting, recognising and using visual cues such as images and charts and the ability to perceive objects in space.
• Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to understand the intentions and motivations of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others.
• Intrapersonal intelligence: the capacity to understand oneself, appreciating your own feelings, fears and motivations.

The idea of multiple intelligences is now widely accepted in education, and teachers are encouraged to utilise methods that stimulate each of these to get pupils to engage in lessons. The theory is even widely utilised in corporate training.

How can we apply this to e-learning?

There is no reason why multiple intelligences should not be catered for in e-learning. Just because the audience is accessing the course online, it doesn’t mean that all of the users now miraculously learn in the same way – they don’t. As an instructional designer, you need to design courses with a variety of interactions that will allow you to keep learners engaged by appealing to their specific intelligences. I’ve briefly described some examples of how you can do this.

Linguistic: Conversation-style scenarios and links to online forums or chat rooms will benefit linguistic learners. You can also use additional information pop-ups throughout the course or get the learner to use a ‘notepad’ facility to jot down ideas they have as the course progresses.

Logical-mathematical: This type of learner enjoys problem solving activities such as arranging the steps in a diagram or working out the correct answer using a series of clues. Using graphics such as Venn diagrams to illustrate your point will also engage this type of learner.

Musical: You can use word-plays, such as mnemonics, to solidify learning for individuals with musical intelligence. Using audio case studies will engage these learners (but don’t forget to include a transcript for learners that prefer to read the information). Using sounds and music that are relevant to the learning are also good practice.

Kinaesthetic: You can really engage your kinaesthetic learners by giving them the freedom to explore virtual environments and do activities that require them to get physically involved, such as drag and drop interactions.

Spatial (or visual) intelligence: Using graphics and images to back up the information you’re providing will really help to engage visual learners. Avoid using images that aren’t applicable to the learning as these can detract from the message you’re trying to give. A good way of engaging visual learners is to ask them to choose the correct image to answer a question, rather than just sentences.

Interpersonal intelligence: You can stimulate interpersonal intelligence using well constructed scenarios. Ask the learner to put themselves in someone else’s shoes to make a decision, or provide advice to a fictional colleague. Get your learners involved with other learners by providing links to online forums and chat rooms.

Intrapersonal intelligence: Intrapersonal intelligence focuses on the internal aspect to learning and using reflective exercises is a great way to engage these individuals. Ask your learners to think about how they can apply what they’ve learned to their specific circumstances. Provide links for further private study, as these will often appeal to the intrapersonal learner.

These are just a few ideas. There is so much more that you can do to ensure that the courses you design are engaging for the full range of learners. Just remember that variety is the key; add a little something for everybody and you’re sure to produce a course that all of your learners will enjoy. Next time you’re storyboarding, try it for yourself!

Western fonts and typefaces fall into one of two identifiable categories; either they have small features at the end of strokes to distinguish each character, or they don’t. Serif fonts (or “Roman” fonts) are the ones with the swishes, and sans serif typefaces are the ones that don’t. Put simply, Times New Roman is a serif font; Arial is sans serif.

Sans serif fonts (also known as “gothic” script) have become the acceptable standard. At Saffron, we use a sans serif font for this blog, our website, our courses, even our internal communications. Am I complaining? No way. I would pick using a sans serif font to write an email ten out of ten times. Why? I think for me the main reason has to be that it looks cleaner – the text sits on the page nicely and doesn’t look like it might err off course into the empty spaces and escape from the page.

It’s not just me that prefers sans serif. A quick sweep of the office shows that everyone else is of the same mind. “I think it’s more accessible” and “the space between characters makes Arial easier to read” were two of the replies I had. But the remark I found most intriguing was “I would pick Arial to write an email, but when I was younger I used to love Lucida Handwriting”.

I hate Lucida Handwriting. A scrawling monstrosity, it renders even the most fluid prose completely illegible. To be honest, in that aspect it probably reminds me too much of my own handwriting, which is so lacking in definition that a friend once said it was like “the heartbeat of a dying man”.

So why would anybody pick a serif font designed to mimic handwriting when writing something? I think the answer was hinted at when the colleague admitted that she was “younger” when she liked to use it. It makes communication seem more personal and identifiable, even if in a really rudimentary way. It’s probably also why publishers prefer to use serif fonts for classic fiction. We get a sense of history with the antiquated script of the characters, but also feel like a singular, personal voice is trying to speak to us.

That’s why we avoid serif fonts in e-learning. Text needs to be open, accessible, and, frankly, anonymous. The same reason we avoid serif fonts is the same reason we avoid the use of “I” in our instructional text. “We are going to look at” and “I am going to show you” make the same point, but notice the impact.

We often try to foster a sense of community in our instructional writing for business, encouraging the employee (the learner) to identify with the business (the teacher). Companies have been making the progressive effort to change their language to homogenise and simplify their communications, which is great for everyone. Fewer words + user friendly language = happy customers = profitable business.

But if we want to be indentified by our writing, why use the same font? I’m not taking about simply making all our communications Arial-based. Everyone uses Arial. I’m advocating companies developing their own, branded sans serif font that they can use in communication. Not just focusing on logos and headings, but adopting a typeface that is identifiable, a kind of corporate handwriting. It carries all the weighting of the brand and its core values but, unlike a static logo, can adopt. Employees identify with and get used to using the “voice” of the business because they can begin to visual recognise the business voice constructions in communications, and know when they should be using appropriate language for the business because the separation from their personal communication is evident in the typography. lf business communication attains a greater degree of homogeneity, then the knock-on benefit for elearning is that instructional designers will be able to replicate the business “voice” of the client with greater success, maximising the effectiveness of their courses.

Thinking about it, I might go and trawl the internet to find a font and adapt it for my own. Why not? There isn’t just one sans serif font out there, so why restrict yourself? Discover a new handwriting.

What are your thoughts on e-learning and business typography? Think the design of one of your courses would have looked better in another font? Perhaps you’ve even used serif fonts to build courses – let us know why you prefer them in the comments box below.

How often do you learn something new? And I mean completely new – something you’ve never heard of before or perhaps something you’ve never tried. What’s the process that you go through to learn this new knowledge or skill?

I’ve recently learnt something new, something I’d never dared try before – rollerblading. Now I know that the typical e-learning course isn’t daunting, potentially painful nor, to be frank, initially terrifying but I’ve been surprised at how many parallels can be drawn from my experience of learning this new skill and the way information can be taught and conveyed in e-learning.

In an online course, the learner might be introduced to a topic and taken through it step by step. Gradually, as they progress through the training, their knowledge increases until by the end they have achieved a desired level of competence which might be assessed in an end of course test. Now, priding myself on having an element of balance, I had hoped that I’d master the basics fairly quickly. However, I soon learnt that balance isn’t enough on wheels; I struggled to keep track of what my feet were doing and even where they were going! So how did my ever patient instructor teach a nervous and uncoordinated person to learn something totally alien to them? I noticed that his approach was very similar to that used in an effective e-learning course.
 

Animation and video can be an interesting way to convey information, replacing static text and image screens and increasing the learner’s engagement. Likewise, instead of telling me how to perform a parallel turn, my instructor would show me. That might sound pretty obvious but, most importantly, he then challenged me to do it myself – alone. Practice makes perfect, apparently! Furthermore, rather than telling me why I wobbled or, embarrassingly, fell flat on my backside, he would ask me why I thought I was finding something difficult or what I thought I was doing wrong. This test then tell approach was definitely crucial to my learning as it made me think for myself whilst forcing me to correct my mistakes as they happened, which is always the best way to learn (and remember) information.

I know that I wouldn’t have absorbed half of the information given to me if my instructor had merely told me the facts. It’s the hows and the whys that have increased my knowledge the most, improved my ability to balance and move on eight wheels and, of course, motivated me to persevere! Clearly, explaining the reasons for complying with something like a process or regulation and outlining the benefits of a certain behaviour or approach will be far more encouraging and inspiring – and luckily those taking Saffron’s e-learning courses will be able to practise and make mistakes in a far more safe environment than when rollerblading!

Clarity and legibility are essential in e-learning. Here are Saffron’s top tips on how to use some of the basic principles of typography not only to achieve legibility but also to bring interest and energy to your e-learning projects.

1. Create contrast
Always ensure that there’s a good contrast between the text and the background; never sacrifice legibility for aesthetic reasons. Contrast is also necessary to emphasise key points and focus the learner’s attention. This article describes the key principle of typographic contrast that every designer should know.

2. Build a hierarchy
Use typography to indicate the importance of the elements on the page. Have a strong and clear focal point and ensure that all other elements are arranged accordingly. Items that are logically connected should be grouped together, whereas elements that are not directly related should be arranged as separate entities.

3. Use a grid
Avoid random layouts by using a grid. This helps you to visually connect items with each other and achieve a more logical and structured layout. Mark Boulton describes how to use grid systems for web layouts in this article and although e-learning screens may require a simpler grid, similar principles can still be applied.

4. Allow space to breathe
Do not overcrowd the area with unnecessary elements. The blank area (‘white space’) is necessary to draw the learner’s attention to the key content and make the text easier to read. Create white space by increasing the leading (line height) and by maintaining clear margins around text and graphics.

5. Be consistent
Make sure your use of typography is consistent across all screens and if you are using a grid then make sure you use the same one throughout. Each screen of your course should provide a look that flows together as a clearly defined single project, and not as an autonomous entity with an individual layout.

Check back soon for a downloadable version of these tips, and don’t forget to visit regularly for top tips on all things learning and technology related!

We at Saffron don’t like to pigeon hole ourselves as simply training providers. Yes, we design and develop e-learning, but we do a whole lot more than that too. We’re all about performance improvement and people productivity, and there are more ways to achieve those things than training alone.

In this day and age, with advances in technology opening up all kinds of new possibilities every week, isn’t it time we all broadened our minds a little and started looking beyond training?

For instance, in the past it might have taken days or weeks to notify an entire sales team of updates to a product or service. Not only is that eating up time and money, it also means that for a certain length of time some people are selling the old version, blissfully unaware of the updates. Why not send update notifications direct to their mobile phone instead? That way, they know about the changes right away and can access the details again as and when they need to, at the touch of a button.

Likewise, if line managers are constantly flooded with emails or phone calls from new starters asking the same old question, why not find a way to let them ask and answer questions amongst themselves? Build a wiki, a forum, a portal or a fully fledged social network to facilitate this. With a bit of encouragement it will soon sustain itself, it can be used to start the settling in process before a new starter’s first day, it will complement any existing formal induction training and – crucially – it will save time and therefore money.

One thing that takes up a lot of time in every organisation is compliance training – if every employee needs to take several one hour courses every year or two, it soon adds up. But is it really necessary? How about offering staff the option to download a diagnostic assessment to a mobile device to determine whether or not they actually need to sit the full training course? If the assessment is designed properly, passing it provides confirmation of compliance in a fraction of the time it would normally take them to re-sit the same course they took the year before.

I could offer more examples, but the point is that there’s more than one way to skin a cat – if you need to improve productivity or performance and save time or money, a formal training course isn’t always the answer. These days, the possibilities are seemingly endless – with a little imagination applied to technological innovations, we can all achieve great things.

I was interested to see that Skype has recently announced a partnership with LG and Panasonic, which means we will soon be able to buy a TV which we can use to Skype and browse the internet (find out more here). Promoting this new technology Skype’s business development manager, Jin Kim claimed that,

“TVs have lacked two things to date… eyes and ears” because “they haven’t had cameras and they haven’t had microphones.”

This led me to wonder… does e-learning also lack eyes and ears?

In fact, I think that many e-learning courses already possess ‘eyes and ears’ thanks to new technologies. Take mobile learning for example, where the learner progresses through the course and answers questions by speaking. Or how about social learning? Forums and help desks are evidence of an e-learning strategy’s ‘ears’ while the use of social networking points not only towards ‘eyes’ but also towards an age of collaborative learning that Skype and social networking sites’ popularity makes possible. And what about the advances being made in PC-based e-learning where we can now use techniques like 3D graphics, which allow the learner to pan around images and really become immersed in the learning? Surely highly interactive learning such as these examples could be counted as the ‘eyes and ears’ Kim is referring to?

This led me on to thinking that even if we do have ‘eyes and ears’ in our learning courses, does this actually enhance the learning in any way? For me, the following benefits come to mind:

• A positive first impression
• Learner engagement and motivation
• More realistic scenarios and environments where the learner can safely practise making decisions
• The ability to tailor the learning for different preferences, learning styles and capabilities

So far we’ve been focusing on how technology can give learning its ‘eyes and ears’ but I believe that this can also be created through instructional design. For instance, a scenario can be made more realistic by using well researched case studies written in a conversational tone. Or the learner can choose how they want to progress through a course by selecting to experience a certain scenario from a different point of view, for example, an interviewer versus an interviewee.

Kim’s thoughts about the evolution of TV are interesting, but I don’t think we can expect to see e-learning strategies reliant on cameras and microphones anytime soon. Instead, we should continue to vary the approaches we take and to be creative, rather than focusing only on the technology involved. After all, the most innovative graphics, interactions and technology will fail to engage the learner if the instructional design falls short.

(See Cat’s top L&D tip here.)

We English like nothing more than a bit of bad weather. It gives us something to talk about. We discuss it in the lift, in the bus queue and on the train. Bad weather is probably the only time that it’s acceptable for the English to talk to strangers!

As you may have heard, we’ve had a bit of snow. On one of the days that I was snowed in, I had the opportunity to sit and think about our industry – particularly, why is it that at the first sign of trouble, organisations cut their training budgets? Surely any form of logic would tell you that it should be the other way round. In times of trouble, we should be investing more in our people because we want them to achieve more.

I think the answer lies with us, the L&D professionals. For too long we have viewed training like chicken soup – its good for the soul and how can you argue that it won’t make you better? Unfortunately, this no longer washes with the CEO who has a million competing priorities. Often he or she is faced with making a decision between a business plan that has a clear return and a training budget where the benefits are hard to quantify. Unsurprisingly, it’s the training budget that gets squeezed.

We have to do better in this area if our organisations are to get the support that they deserve from L&D. We have to look at every programme as if we were paying for it ourselves. In this situation, would we spend the money if we could not quantify the return? We often hear that it is not always possible to determine the return from a training programme. In which case I would say don’t do the training – save the money. What about compliance training, I hear you say, we have to do this. I agree, but it’s a myth that you can’t measure the return from compliance training. The number of completions is an obvious measure but you can also measure the before and after effects in terms of, for example, the number of breaches or the calls to the help desk. By thinking about the return and measuring tangible results, we not only create financial benefits for the organisation but we help to make the training more palatable for the learners.

One project that comes to mind is some competition law training that we delivered. Initially the course was scoped to be a long programme that laid out the law. When we looked harder at the business benefits of the programme, we could not justify the costs. The subject matter expert, when confronted with this, admitted that actually learners did not need to know about competition law, only how to recognise the risks. They would then call a help line. This thinking resulted in a shorter, more effective course that actually had the desired impact. The change of heart came from looking at the training as a business proposition rather than an obvious foregone conclusion.

In my view L&D is not a support organisation, it’s a business unit and like all business units it needs to demonstrate tangible benefits – if we can’t do this, we may find that very quickly we are out in the cold.

Imagine a fully immersive virtual environment created for a safety training product, for example. If this environment is presented to the learner using techniques similar to those used to create a game’s 3D environment, would they not find the experience closer to the real situation and would it not leave a more lasting impression?

To further examine the safety example we can look at a situation where the learner is being trained in how to work safely on the roof of a building. The learner would view the location from a first-person perspective and would be able to move freely around the roof, study the environment and identify potential hazards. Using ambient sounds and effects would add more realism to the experience and allow the inclusion of aural hazards, such as sounds of machinery or nesting birds on the roof. The learner would be guided along by an artificially intelligent trainer, in the form of a 3D character, who would not only respond to questions but also react to the learner’s behaviour within the training environment. For example, the learner should not approach closer than two metres to the ungraded edge of the roof; if they did the trainer would call out with a warning then proceed to give an explanation of the correct regulation once they had the learner’s attention.

Recently there have been vast advancements in computer and video games but at the same time these advancements have, by their nature, made the games more complicated. This has created a new hurdle for game designers – how to provide guidance for a new player that is enjoyable and involving enough to keep them interested in playing the rest of the game.

Previously, when game tutorials were first introduced, they were often bolted on as separate modules to the actual game itself; they were basic and often tedious. A player was given the option to play through the tutorial or to skip it completely and start playing the game straight away. For seasoned game players skipping the tutorial was not a major issue but for more casual players this often resulted in them finding the game too daunting and not understanding how to progress, causing them to lose interest.

The solution developers came up with in more recent games was to integrate the tutorial directly into the game which also served as an interactive introduction. This new form of tutorial was designed to integrate in such a way as to make the new player unaware that they were even being taken through a tutorial. It was a gentle and more immersive start to the game which guided the user into understanding how to play the game without detaching them from the game itself. Using in-game interaction to guide the user through the basics made the learning process more effective as well as more enjoyable.

Learning new information is always easier when it is presented in an interactive and fun format; therefore modern e-learning courses tend to look more like computer games than training manuals. If the ultimate goal of an e-learning product is to leave the learner with a full understanding of the subject and for the information to be memorable, isn’t developing more realistic and immersive learning environments and experiences a natural evolution for the future of e-learning?

Please share your views on the subject. What else can e-learning designers learn from game designers and what dangers might occur from making an e-learning course more like a computer game?

Effective project management is often the deciding factor when it comes to e-learning project success. Here are our top ten tips for making sure that you always deliver!

1. Have a formal project kick off
Before you start the project, make sure you understand the learning objectives, the client’s expectations, the timelines and the risks. Also make sure that the client understands the approach that you are going to take.

2. Start with the end in mind
Define the end goal and end date first and then plan backwards from this point. If you have to deliver a working course by 20 March, when do you need the pilot? If the pilot is needed by 12 February, when do you need the first build?

3. Keep it simple
Your instinct may be to use a Microsoft project plan – resist this at all costs. Create a simple table of deliverables and feedback dates – something that is easy to maintain and easy to understand.

4. Take an ‘it’s either done or it’s not done’ approach
Track your project using milestones – tangible deliverables which are either done or not done. Avoid using percentage complete. Ask yourself what 80% complete means, when the other 20% will be done and how much effort it will take.

5. Manage risks
The key to risk management is to ask: what could go (horribly) wrong? Once you have a list, don’t leave it in your desk draw. Actively manage it and try to mitigate the risk.

6. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
The biggest reason for project failure is lack of communication. Often people on projects just don’t talk enough, becoming overly reliant on emails, plans and reports. As a minimum, arrange weekly team conference calls or meetings.

7. Manage the subject matter experts
Subject matter experts, who are balancing their role with their day jobs, can cause delays to your project and need to be managed. Communicate the process to them and make your expectations clear. Put your project dates in their diaries.

8. Don’t forget prototypes and pilots
Your stakeholders will really understand what you are proposing when they see it. This is a good thing and helps to narrow requirements. Therefore you should build prototypes and you should always have a pilot.

9. Don’t be shackled by the plan
Project management is a people business. Don’t spend all your time updating the plan and documenting the process. Spend your time working with your team, understanding their issues and managing the risks

10. Watch your optimism
It’s natural to be optimistic and to believe that everything will go right. Try to keep a lid on this and keep asking yourself, what could go horribly wrong and how will I manage the situation if this happens?

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Volkswagen recently launched a website, www.thefuntheory.com, built around the idea that by adding fun into the equation it’s easier to change people’s behaviour for the better. In their own words…

“This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.”

To back up this idea, VW decided to re-think three everyday tasks and inject their own brand of fun into the situation to see if they could achieve a positive change. The projects they decided to undertake were to change a bottle bank into an arcade machine, a subway staircase into a musical instrument and a public bin into “the world’s deepest bin”. The results of each project have been documented on video and can been seen on the Fun Theory website. Having seen the videos and knowing how the projects turned out for VW it’s clear to see that an element of fun really can help achieve a change in behaviour. (Although I think that the novelty of the musical staircase would probably be outweighed by the rise in complaints about the noise and injuries cased during rush hour!)

For VW, the Fun Theory website acts as a positive influence on their brand name even though it doesn’t have any real relevance to the world of automobiles or their day-to-day business. This is not always the case when you are trying to change behaviours in other lines of business, but that is not to say that it cannot be achieved! The same technique can be seen in many other businesses. For instance lots of energy companies are now trying to push the use of real-time energy monitors to help their customers see how much energy they use. This type of interaction allows the customer to see the impact they can have by making small adjustments, turning the whole process of reducing their consumption into a challenge that the customer can track and monitor.

Another example of introducing fun can be seen in www.smart.fm, which claims to take the hard work out of learning. The service aims keep people motivated to hit their goals by creating personalised learning programmes for them. The programmes are designed to harness the powers of a learning technique called graduated interval recall, guiding the learner to revisit their learning at key points to aid the retention of the knowledge. The fun factor in this service is that you are able to monitor your progress in a variety of formats, from tracking personal goals to testing long-term retention or item memory strength, and many other formats. The whole service is also available on the move via the iPhone which again buys into the fun factor of making the service available without the need to be in front of a PC.

There are probably many other engaging examples of fun being used to change behaviours and this seems like an opportunity that’s too good for the e-learning industry to miss.

Creating original graphics for an e-learning course can be a challenging task, particularly when anything that’s created has to comply with strict branding guidelines. An engaging graphic environment is essential for an interesting and successful learning experience. Read on for our top five tips for achieving this.

1. Work on the concept
A strong concept is a must for any design. An interesting theme that runs throughout the course can help keep learners focused and engaged in the content. While the idea should be based around the subject matter, using metaphors and indirect associations can often provide the most attention grabbing results.

2. Explore different technologies
Advances in technology have created new opportunities in every field of design, including e-learning. Subscribe to blogs, magazines and training websites like www.lynda.com to make sure you stay up to date with new software and techniques. If the budget is tight, using free software like Google SketchUp can help add new elements to your work.

3. Never stop experimenting
It is easy to get comfortable with a proven style or concept that you know has always worked in the past. Attempting something new might not always be as successful as your proven techniques but exploring new creative methods can lead to improved and more exciting graphic solutions.

4. Do not decorate – communicate
Each visual element should serve a purpose – it should help to communicate the message (the content of the course) and contribute to the overall design concept. Check your work carefully to ensure there are no elements that serve a purely decorative purpose as they can be distracting for the learner.

5. Make it unique
While stock photography can be useful, relying on it entirely can often result in dry and unoriginal work. Use your own photographs to assemble interesting compositions. Ask a colleague to be a model for a photo that can then be used as a reference for an illustration. Include scanned and hand drawn elements to add a personal touch to your work.

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Top five tips for designing engaging graphics for e-learning

We are all eager for fresh and creative ideas to make our courses innovative, effective and engaging for the end user. But we can’t simply rely on random activities, chance or some creative ‘greater providence’ though. It is actually a solid and well structured approach that we need in order to generate and flourish brilliant ideas.

The well known name given to this approach is ‘brainstorming’ (although some governmental organisations have recently concluded that the term is offensive to people with epilepsy, suggesting the alternative ‘mind shower’). Actually, none of the above sound particularly inviting for people like us immersed in the pouring London weather, but that’s another kettle of fish…

Behind the creative output there are several techniques and methods to explore, including brand new trends like ‘nominal group technique’, ‘group passing technique’ and ‘electronic brainstorming’, all of them with the aim of using a fun and energetic process to create a list of ideas to kick off a project. The preferred method will vary of course depending on the objective, the available time and the participants. Below is a run through of what I have found to be the most useful and effective for our specific aims: a process of illumination (you might describe it as ‘sunbathing’), dumping the old soggy ideas for the fresher brighter ones that will enlighten our projects. Hopefully my suggestions might add a little spice and improved effectiveness to your brainstorming process.

• The objective:

Define and agree the topic for which you will be generating ideas. It’s good practice to create a background memo and send it out with the invitation to the participants. This should contain the session name, objective, time, date, and place. Describe the objective in the form of a question, and give some example ideas and references you might have found. Send the note well in advance, so the participants can think about the subject matter beforehand and come to the discussion prepared. It’s important to gather all the possible information around the project in advance of the session, as gaps in knowledge and information appearing during the idea generation might interrupt the flow of fruitful creative juices.

• The group

Brainstorming works best in small groups. If a group gets too large, more than 10 people, it can be difficult to control and some attendees may not feel as comfortable participating. A facilitator or meeting lead should take responsibility for getting everyone involved in the process. It doesn’t need to be a creative mind but someone with strong meeting leadership skills. They will then be the point person to ensure ideas flow and to drive the process, while the others bring the wildest ideas to the surface. The lead might decide to set a time limit as having a ticking clock can help keep the ideas coming. It’s also sometimes recommended that managers and superiors don’t attend, as they may inhibit and reduce the generation of unusual ideas. But make sure the group does include one good representative for each branch of expertise the project involves. For instance, for our e-learning projects it is advisable to include at least an instructional designer, a developer and a designer. You never know who will put forward the final juicy idea, so don’t underestimate the benefit of having extra points of view, as an ‘outsider’ mind might provide the unique perspective you need.

• Putting pen to paper

All we need to brainstorm is a pad and pencil. Assign a person to write down all the ideas, thoughts and everything that comes to mind in order to produce a ‘mind map’ that can be easily seen by all of the attendees. Create the mind map starting with your core central concept and branching off the new ideas in different circles that connect to the central theme and to each others. All ideas and thoughts should be recorded; worry about trimming them down later. It’s important to reduce ‘dead air’ and to keep the ideas to freeflowing; do not self-censor or hesitate before offering an idea and keep writing – as the pen must be touching the page the entire time, wandering, doodling and sketching without fear.

• Achieving quality through quantity

So the goal is to express very quickly as many ideas as possible. A free flux of consciousness is what can help bring up your most brilliant ideas. The point is that the more ideas you generate, the greater the chance of producing an outstanding solution: throw out any and all ideas related to a project, leading eventually to one or a few that are worth taking further. At the end you should even push yourself the extra mile – once you think you’ve exhausted all of the possibilities, take a big breath, re-examine the ideas you have got and push the group to add a few more to the box.

• The ‘all ideas are good ideas’ rule

Another important rule that follows the previous one is that all ideas should be encouraged and no one should issue any criticism toward any idea presented, no matter how off base it may seem at the time. No negative comments are allowed; instead build on, extend or add to the ideas when the opportunity is given. This will help create a supportive environment and encourage every participant to take part in the process. By suspending judgment, and reserving criticism for a later stage, participants will feel free and comfortable to generate unusual and unique ideas.

An ‘ideas book’ might be a great tool to keep outside the actual sessions. You can decide to place it somewhere in your shared network and make it accessible to everyone as a place to log all the extra ideas might come to mind. This can be a powerful source for refining concepts and providing inspiration for new ones. It also gives participants some ‘soak time’ to think deeply and evolve ideas. The individuals aren’t that comfortable with the face to face sessions might find in it a great way to contribute.

• Walking on the wild side

To get that long succulent list of ideas, unusual perspectives and the suspension of assumptions are needed. This is certainly not the time to hold back and the purpose is to invite everyone to participate, to dismiss nothing. You might indeed find that the ideas that seemed initially to be risky, unrealistic and nonsensical turn out to be the best one at the end. For this reason, brainstorming can be a great way to boost morale among participants and help them to feel part of the process. Just using sticky notes, markers and flip charts in a creative way to gather suggestions might add new engaging platforms. Also changing the setting could be beneficial, so don’t hesitate to move your location to the park, for instance, or anywhere might seem more inspiring. Yes, even in London there are a bunch of friendly days, fresh air and green spaces for spreading the wings of your ideas.

• Fortune telling

Now that you have all the tea leaves in your cup of tea it is time for the divination and refinement of your objective. This is when you sort through your list of generated ideas, start finding connections between the ideas that are related and prioritise the most promising ones into a more finished list. If you have done a good session the shiny solution should magically appear at the top of your list and the future of your project will appear blooming and full of promise. If you feel you have got the right solution to move forward then agree a timescale and who’s responsible. After the session it is important to circulate notes and give feedback in order to spread a transparent and positive result. In doing that people feel their participation and efforts were worthwhile and have resulted in action; they will be then motivated and keen to contribute again.

Good luck – and let us know if these tips work for you, or your ideas for getting the creative juices flowing!

At Saffron, we are always excited by new technologies which can be used as tools to enhance learning and usability. One of the many interesting projects I am currently involved in is the development of a RIA (rich internet application) product, using Microsoft’s Silverlight platform.

In this project, I used Expression Blend to recreate a user interface, based on the original Photoshop graphics, which was then passed on to our developers. The great thing about Blend is that it automatically converts all graphics to XAML, without the need to write code manually. Learning to work in Blend wasn’t difficult thanks to the intuitive user interface with its sleek graphite color scheme and well-arranged layout. Despite being new to this software, I found it straightforward to use which allowed me to concentrate on design rather than spending time searching for the right functions.

In the first stage, the original PSD graphics had to be converted into XAML using Blend which was a smooth process thanks to its support for importing Photoshop and Illustrator files. However, the import was not able to preserve all Photoshop effects and I found the best results were produced when importing vector layers. Blend is able to convert PSD files to XAML code with the original layer structure and names still intact. Additionally, individual layers can be selected for import whilst ignoring others; the pre-import preview function proved to be very useful for this.

After creating the initial static images, the animations were added. Creating animations, such as button controls, was painless using button transition states in Blend, especially as there was no need to write any code. The animation process itself is slightly different from Flash – in Blend, the process works with a true timeline and keyframes are created automatically as the timeline playhead is moved and the object properties changed. This approach seemed slightly quicker than using tweens in Flash but it’s hard to imagine how a frame by frame animation would work in Blend.

When animating movement, Blend creates a movement path which can easily be edited, thus controlling the movement animation; I also found this slightly more flexible than motion tweens in Flash. Another asset that deserves a special mention is the gradient tool in Blend which allows you to create and refine values of gradients directly on the object by dragging the gradient end points, which is extremely convenient to use.

One of the notable features of Silverlight, as often mentioned by Microsoft, lies in the improved designer-developer cycle. This was clearly proven in our experience as we at Saffron had a tight deadline to achieve, and it enabled both designers and developers to work in parallel. Silverlight is undoubtedly worth considering when choosing a platform for RIA, but is it a good alternative to Flash for creating engaging e-learning content? In my opinion, Silverlight can be a very useful tool for e-learning, especially in the following cases:

• When project deadlines are very tight and the project involves making multiple changes to design. Silverlight’s superior designer-developer workflow and team collaboration support means reduced overall development time as designers and developers can work on applications simultaneously.
  
• When the project involves full screen or HD videos. Silverlight 3 supports hardware graphics acceleration. This can lower CPU usage considerably, which means HD videos can be played on older low spec computers.
  
• When the project involves 3D or complex animations. Silverlight’s support for 3D graphics and animation rendering is superior to Flash and provides smoother animation due to GPU acceleration capabilities and perspective 3D support. This website provides a number of examples of Flash verses Silverlight performance comparisons.

There are probably many other reasons to use Silverlight for creating engaging e-learning content that I’ve not mentioned here. Please share your experiences of working with Silverlight and Expression Blend in the comments box below.

Whether they’re for an assessment or part of the training course itself, writing questions can be a tricky business. Read on for Saffron’s top ten tips for creating effective questions that test learners in the right way, on the right thing.

1. Draft the assessment before the content
If step one is defining the objectives and learning outcomes, step two is drafting the assessment. Make sure each question maps back to the outcomes and then focus the training content on the assessment.

2. Randomise the assessment
Ideally an end of course assessment will have a pool of questions, with a random selection drawn on each attempt. This means, if learners fail once, they can’t simply memorise where they went wrong but are actually tested again.

3. Remember: quality not quantity
When it comes to assessments, it’s better to have 10 excellent questions than 40 substandard ones. Likewise, multiple choice questions generally work best with four options – don’t go below three or above five without a very good reason.

4. Use questions to drive the learning
We’re big believers in the value of the test and tell approach. Don’t just give learners information and then test them on it. Instead, ask them to think for themselves with a question before correcting or confirming their answers.

5. Focus on behaviours
We’re in the business of changing behaviours. This means we need to enable learners to do the right thing, not just to remember facts and figures. Make sure every question relates to a choice or decision learners will face in real life.

6. Make it challenging…
If the right answer is three times as long as the rest, or the wrong answers are likely to make learners laugh not think, there’s no point even asking the question. Yes, coming up with plausible wrong answers is hard, but it’s worth the effort.

7. …but keep it fair
Don’t try to trick learners or give them an impossible choice. Negative questions, options that are identical except for one word, and questions on topics that weren’t actually covered in the course are neither fair nor effective.

8. Avoid yes/no questions
Giving learners a 50% chance of guessing correctly is not the most effective test. If you must use them, include a couple more options and make sure that ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’ are qualified, so learners have to justify their choice.

9. Help people learn from their mistakes
Don’t just use ticks and crosses to show how learners have done. Provide constructive feedback to reinforce the message if they answer correctly, and explain where they went wrong if they answer incorrectly.

10. Keep the learners’ experience in mind
Focusing on behaviours is one way to answer the ‘what’s in it for me?’ question. But there are other ways – for instance, pre-tests assess existing knowledge and point towards the most relevant training units. Time efficient and effective!

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Top ten tips for writing effective e-learning questions