Bottom-Line Performance

Okay, so maybe 67.5% of statistics are made up. Nevertheless, it is commonly quoted that 75% of what we learn is “informal.” (See Marcia Connor’s 2004 article on Informal Learning to see the research on this.) Connor explains:

“Most learning doesn’t occur during formal training programs. It happens through processes not structured or sponsored by an employer or a school. Informal learning is…what happens the rest of the time.”

She goes on to explain that companies invest all their $$ and time in creating formal learning programs when informal learning is where companies are going to get the most bang for their buck.

Connor further distinguishes between what is intentional learning and accidental learning with this helpful graphic:

Notice that she categorizes “informal” and yet “intentional” learning as that which occurs via community, teaming, and playing. There is also informal, yet ”accidental” learning that comes from self-study, exploring, and internet surfing. This intentional learning is going to come from blogs, social networks, project opportunities at work, and interactive opportunities (i.e. playing). Social media was just starting to appear when this graphic was produced in 2004. It will be especially interesting to see how social learning applications evolve as social platforms achieve increasingly high levels of saturation.

The concept of informal learning is quite the rage these days as everyone talks about Web 2.0′s ability to make informal learning easier. At BLP, we have even launched our own Learning Lab to explore the possibilities mobile, social, and gaming platforms hold for learning. (You can play “Gridiron Guru” here)  While I myself am excited by the various Web 2.0 applications I see, I’m starting to have my doubts as to how easily these applications will make informal learning EASIER. Will the inundation of social communities cause us to opt out entirely? Where is the saturation point? As our attention becomes more fragmented, how can authentic “learning” occur? And what is “authentic learning,” anyway?

Many of us find ourselves sticking our toes into the water of social media without making a significant enough investment to drive value. I “dabble” rather than dive deep.

Companies who see informal learning as the Holy Grail that will eliminate the need for expensive, formal training need to think carefully. Informal learning IS largely what self-motivated people do.  Often, this description of “self-motivated” is not one that fits the profile of people who come to formal learning opportunities. If an “informal” forum exists, a non-motivated learner isn’t likely to seek it out even if it exists. A self-motivated employee likely will…if he/she can find information easily.  If various departments and pockets all set up their own social networks – or create collaboaration sites – suddenly we’ve created a nightmare for employees who are drowning in information. We’ve bombarded them with STUFF…much of which they won’t have time to use.

Companies need to give intentional, planned consideration to how they want informal learning to take place in their organizations – at least the part of it that involves online communities. One or two are great…there is a huge drop-off in ability to participate beyond that point. The same truth goes with blogs…exactly how many blogs can you keep up with? Again – planned consideration is the key. Creating a bazillion sites and blogs – just because it’s easy to do – sets companies up for disappointment. Always remember that LEARNING is the goal and all of these tools are just a means to an end.

As always, I’m interested in views that either contradict or support my own. Tell us what you think of the growing interest in informal learning…and social. networks as a means to facilitate it?

We’d also love to also have your participation in our social learning lab. Give Gridiron Guru a shot by clicking the image below:

Last week, we announced our new social learning lab and invited you to participate. Gridiron Guru is a social learning game playable on the iPad as a web app or from your desktop. It tests your football knowledge across four categories: rules, offense, defense, and game strategy. There are global leaderboards for you to track your progress against other players and plenty of social media activity going on via @TheKGuru Twitter account.

The game is live today! Head over to to start playing. We’ve decided to make one small change: The top three scores will be entered into a drawing to win the $25 app store gift card.

What are you waiting for? Let the social learning begin.

Yes, we’re all hearing the buzz. The holy grail of learning is shifting to games/gamification, mobile, and social. Within my team at BLP, we actually are already believers of the value that blending these three things together can have on a learning experience….but we want proof, not just gut feelings about this. So – we invite you to join our newly-created “learning laboratory” at Bottom-Line Performance and be part of a little three-part experiment we’re going to do.

Part 1 coincides with the Professional Football Championship Not to Be Named for Copyright Purposes. Since it’s in Indianapolis this year and so are we, we felt it was a perfect fit. We’re creating a game called Gridiron Guru that targets the casual football fan. If you can already explain how teams score, but you’re clueless or unsure when you hear things like intentional grounding, pass interference, 4-3 defensive formation, nickel defense, etc., then this game should help you learn…while you also have fun and engage with other people who are doing the same thing as you.

We chose a fun theme and approach, but our goal is serious. How well does a social/mobile/gaming approach work in helping people learn…particularly when no one is pushing them to learn? You get to opt into our little experiment – and you only play as far as you want to play. Yeah, we are providing a small incentive (Top 3 scores entered into drawing for $25 App Store card), but there is only ONE winner and, hopefully, lots of learners/players. Let’s see how much learning happens with this format.

Our game begins Monday, January 30th. If you want to play (and we hope you do), start following @thekguru on Twitter. He’ll announce the game’s start and send out the game link on the 30th.  You will need to create an account to play – but you only provide a name and email…and we aren’t adding you to any contact list. This is just for the game. Ideally, you’ll play on your iPad. If you aren’t lucky enough to have an iPad yet, you can play on your desktop. Android is not an option for this little experiment of ours….yet.

Our game ends at kickoff time Sunday, February 5th. We’ll tweet out the winner (as well as posting on the Knowledge Guru game site). We’ll analyze our first round of data and send out the results.

For Part 2 of our experiment, you can expect a college basketball-themed game (in March, of course) that focuses on the game of basketball for the casual college b-ball lover. We’ll deliver Part 3 at the end of April or beginning of May, and focus on the far more serious topic of  effective learning design. We’ll use the Knowledge Guru game engine again for our March game – and then go 100% social at the end of April when we play our learning design game on Twitter.

So – come play with us and learn with us. We’ll share our results after each game – and then results overall. We’ll share what people seem to retain, like, dislike, etc. and how much people learn (our game engine has some wonderful reports we can share!!).

We’ll be back in the near future with more on our short series of social media tips. For now, let’s talk about synchronous eLearning.

Synchronous eLearning (Distance Learning) was a hot topic at 2011′s DevLearn conference. Today, I want to talk about how to actually design synchronous e-learning courses. There are many elements of course design that need to be taken into consideration for synchronous e-learning. However, here are just a few questions to consider:

1. Technology

• Is there someone who can act as a “host” on the session and manage technical issues and questions?
• Is the technology that we’re using stable and robust enough to allow for interaction?
• Is the technology intuitive enough that it is a help and not a distraction to facilitators or participants?

2. Facilitators

• Are the facilitators comfortable using the technology?
• Can the facilitators offer feedback to participants on activities in real time?
• Are facilitators willing to take the additional time needed to practice and prepare for a synchronous e-learning course?
• Do facilitators have clear instructions on how to facilitate the activity? Below is an example of a duel facilitator guide we created for a client recently. In this situation, the course will be taught both face to face and online. Facilitators make the choice on how to facilitate based on their situation.

3. Participants 

• Have participants been given enough time to practice using the technology?
• Are participants given opportunities to interact with each other, not just with the facilitator?

4. Content

• Have I avoided the temptation to make synchronous e-Learning more about lecture than exploration? While it can seem “easier” to take this route, in reality synchronous e-learning requires MORE interaction and opportunities to ensure that participants are engaged.

• Is the course chunked into management bites? As much as possible, shorter modules are preferable in synchronous e-learning to avoid the dreaded multitasking of participants!
• Is the course designer/writer familiar with the technology? Has she/he ensured that what is written is actually feasible?

What do you think of my list? What’s missing that you always consider when developing synchronous e-learning?

“It’s time we start using Twitter for business. We need you guys to start Tweeting to help us market ourselves!”

The inevitable is upon us: social media is creeping its way into even the most traditional businesses. While the early adopters have created huge communities for themselves, those of us just getting started may feel a tad overwhelmed. In our last post, we talked about some basic tips to get you started with the Twitter interface and setting up listening posts for your topics of interest. Now, it’s time to start creating some content of your own.

No matter what situation you are in, what should you be saying on social? Something? Nothing?

Pretty soon, you're paralyzed.

Social media is tricky because personal and professional boundaries are blurred. When are you “you” and when are you a company man/woman? Just like in life, authenticity wins.  Here are four tips:

Your Interests Pique OUR Interest: I have a whole lot more to say when I am bubbling over about last night’s exciting football game than when I am trying to keep myself on topic and talk about TPS reports. If you have a hobby or two that really get you excited, it is totally okay to incorporate them into your social media posts! People want to connect with real human beings, not a carefully crafted message. Chances are  good that something about your day job excites you, too. Make a list  of your favorite parts of the gig and pick two or three as discussion topics. Don’t try and fake it, just express genuine interest.

Don’t Force It: “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything”, right? In social media, if you don’t feel like saying anything…don’t! If your only motivation to tweet is that you feel like it has been awhile since your last update, that energy would be better spent collecting some new information or knowledge that might inspire you. Find an article on your iPad or sift through some blogs on your RSS reader. Chances are good that something will spark an idea.

Conversation is Key: If you don’t already have an idea for a tweet, you probably won’t stumble across one while staring at your profile screen. Click through some of your followers and see what your friends and colleagues have been saying. You’ll probably find something being discussed that makes you want to chime in and EVERYBODY loves getting some interaction from their tweets.

Free-write for Insight: Not everybody loves to write, but we can all be writers if we put in a bit of effort. I make a habit of spending a few minutes each morning free-writing in a journal. It clears my mind and helps me collect my thoughts, but I also find ideas coming more easily in my work when I have a consistent writing practice. Even if you just pause to write a few paragraphs a day, you will start to notice improvement. It can be as simple as a three paragraph description of the toast you are going to eat for breakfast this morning. Be silly and enjoy the fact that no one is going to read it! You will gradually find yourself coming up with more “Tweet-worthy” thoughts in the process.

Social media is not going to feel easy and natural to everyone, but if you give it a little bit of time and effort, there is plenty of value to be found. Next up, we will talk about some of the tools you can use to help schedule and manage your social media activity.

With Apple’s education event looming this Thursday, all eyes will be set squarely on the future of learning. How can ebooks, the iPad, and social media shape the future of learning? We may not the know the answer, but what we do know is that a change is coming. In fact, it has already begun.

In preparation for that change, professionals everywhere are starting to turn their attention to digital and social platforms to figure out what all the fuss is about. Do I need to be using this for my business? What should I be doing on Twitter? Seasoned pro or greenhorn, we are all figuring it out as we go.

The early adopters of social media can be intimidating: they have thousands of followers and subscribers and seem to be posting constantly. How is a beginner supposed to keep up? Here are 5 practical tips for the professional just looking to get started on Twitter.

1. Show us the real you: Setting up an account is a great start, but don’t forget to include a photo and short bio. If I see an account does not have a photo or has not offered a short blurb about who they are and what they do, I usually assume their account is not active. It’s hard to know “what to write” about ourselves, but think of that 140 character bio as your chance to provide some context on yourself. It’s your elevator pitch in the world of social media.

2. Filter the noise: Twitter becomes useful when you start filtering! The best way to do this is to add people to lists when you start following them. I have created lists for eLearning, Social Media, Technologists, and even friends for my own Twitter account. When I want to check my streams, clicking on each lists provides more context for what I am looking at. It is easier to find what I need, when I need it.

3. Set up listening posts: Twitter is like a 24/7, asynchronous coffee conversation with the world, sharing the most current and useful ideas in any field imaginable. It is easy to tap into these fields by picking some keywords you are interested in and setting them as saved searches. For example, just typing “#eLearning” into the search bar will yield tons of posts from people all over the world discussing the topic. You can click “Save Search” then access your saved searches from Twitter whenever you want to check up on that topic.

4. Curate useful content: Don’t let that little voice in your head keep you from Tweeting. You know what I’m talking about. “But I have nothing to say!” “My thoughts don’t matter!” Nonsense! If you are a working professional, you obviously have some serious expertise in at least one field. Start sharing your insights because chances are someone else needs to hear it. Post links to interesting articles and blogs in your industry and be sure to provide some context as to what people are reading.

5. Do not protect your Tweets: Twitter is all about the open sharing of ideas. For those who have been working in a corporate setting for much of their careers, the idea of leaving something unprotected online can seem foreign and even scary. However, protecting your tweets will keep your thoughts and insights from being visible to the wider community that can best use them. Resist the urge to protect your tweets and always remember that YOU control what you post and what others will see. “Protect” your Tweets by keeping them relevant, on-topic, and interesting.

Focusing on these 5 basic tips will give you a great start on leveraging Twitter as a profesional and learning tool. We’ll follow up next week with a few of my favorite tools and utilities that can help you be even more productive once you’ve gotten started.

From Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, courtesy of C-2 Pictures (Get it? #T3)?)

Happy belated New Year from BLP! Now that the last chorus of  Auld Lang Syne has died down and the egg nog is put away, we are diving back in to our continued search for the best, RIGHT learning solution. The entire staff is sporting brand new iPads (happy holidays, right?) and as always we are elbow deep in discovering fun new apps, games, and gizmos.

If you are like us, you love talking about this stuff and sharing your take. That’s why we want to invite you to join in on our first ever Twitter chat for techies, nerds, and those obsessed with the latest, greatest gadgets and emerging technologies. It’s called Thursday Tech Talk, #T3 for short. No, we won’t be Tweeting with our Arnold Schwarzenegger voices.

Here’s how you can join in the fun:

1. Share your favorite tech article by posting to Twitter with the hashtag #T3 throughout the week. Be sure to include why we should read it!

2. Follow @BLPIndy on Twitter so you are ready to join in the conversation.

3. Join us (almost) every Thursday at 3 pm. We’ll gather the most interesting articles and Tweet out three of our favorites. We will then debate, discuss, yell, and postulate about them for 10 minutes each. You can follow the action by searching the hashtag #T3.

Sound fun? We thought so too! We’re looking forward to discussing the latest tech news with you.

–Stay tuned for more from Bottom-Line Performance in 2012.

(We have created an 8-part comprehensive report containing a series of one-to-two page “briefs” regarding learning game design. This is part 8: When You Play Test…And You Find Out the Game Is Not Fun. If you would like to see the white paper in its entirety, check out the Learning Briefs section on our website.)

When you play test early versions of your game, you WILL find out some things don’t work as you envisioned. Perhaps the game is too hard – or too easy. Perhaps it takes too long to play. Perhaps some key learning isn’t happening. Or, perhaps the rules are confusing. There are several things you can change to improve the game play experience. Some of these are pulled from the Brathwaite and Schreiber book. Others are gleaned from our own experience.

• • Consider whether the user interface needs to be adjusted. Perhaps it’s creating confusion or it’s “snoresville” in design.
• • Change how the scoring works – either by giving people more points or fewer points, or by establishing a major penalty that causes people to really think before moving forward.
• • Allow players to affect game play of others.
• • Mess with the play order or the game loop. (This only applies when you are playing a multi-player game, obviously. In Uno, you can lay a card down that forces the turn order to change. In Farmville, there is a sequence – or game loop – of things a player can do. Changing the order can affect the fun factor.)
• • Get rid of a rule. In general, the fewer rules you have, the better you are. Note that there are exceptions to this. Example: Civilization is an extremely successful game that is very complex to learn.
• • Make a resource limited (or unlimited).
• • Get rid of – or add – a level or an entire round of play.
• • Use the “rule of two” – take a game value and double it or divide it by two.

Earlier this week, Adobe confirmed that it is ceasing development on Flash for mobile devices and will instead increase its investment in HTML5 and related tools. Here’s the message from Adobe:

“…HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively.  This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” - Danny Winokur, Adobe VP and GM of Interactive Development

What does this mean to you, as developers and distributors of eLearning? In the short-term, Flash will continue to be an important part of the e-Learning developer’s tool belt; there are simply too many users out there who still rely on browsers that aren’t yet compatible with the latest HTML5 and CSS standards. So if you are using tools that output as Flash (e.g. Articulate Presenter) or you incorporate Flash into your courses, you can continue doing so as long as desktop delivery is how you plan to distribute eLearning.

The rising desire for mobile learning and the accompanying goal to efficiently “build once and deploy everywhere” aren’t feasible with a solution that anchors you and your audience to a desk. (Get up to speed with our great brief “Lessons on mLearning”). If you think your organization is going to go “mobile” in the next year, it’s time to talk to us about alternatives to Flash-based solutions.

If you are already anticipating making the switch from Flash, feel free to share with us in the comments section.

(We have created an 8-part comprehensive report containing a series of one-to-two page “briefs” regarding learning game design. This is part 7: Play Testing Games — An Essential Step. If you would like to see the white paper in its entirety, check out the Learning Briefs section on our website.)

You can definitely brainstorm a game idea in an afternoon and build a simple prototype. However, going from the rough idea to a polished game takes iterations and time. A great game requires lots of tweaking, modifying, and refining. Creating prototypes and play testing them is critical to designing good games. Play testing is the only way you can figure out whether your core dynamics and game mechanics work.

Game play dynamics – how players react to the game and the impact of various rules and feature sets don’t emerge from your written design. They emerge as you play test, which is why you need to build prototypes. The cheapest and fastest way to play test is to start with paper prototypes. Even if you are ultimately creating an online game, first build it on paper (or perhaps in PowerPoint) to see if it works as you imagine it would. You can make changes much faster and cheaper when you haven’t invested hundreds of hours building the first rendition of your game.

* After initial play testing, you will creat a design document. You will update the design after each iteration of play testing. This is a living document, not a one-time creation.

A creative design team can come up with a simple learning game design in a few hours – and build a rudimentary prototype in a bit more than that. Once a prototype is in place, you need people to play it and other people to watch them play. You debrief the experience, and you build another, more robust prototype. However, the second rendition is STILL a prototype with many things mocked up rather than refined (e.g. we may create the cards associated with a board game in a Word table and then print and cut them up for initial rounds of play). A game board might be printed as a series of PDF pages and taped together for initial rounds of play. We avoid going to a production version until we’re confident we have the right user interface and play experience. Only after we are sure the cards are keepers do we invest the dollars in creating the polished version.

If the game is an online game, we may rough out animations and game mechanics in PowerPoint first or build one level and play it to see how we refine things before moving forward. True story: One of our biggest mistakes was with our Knowledge Guru™ game. We were so confident of our game design that we built an entire rendition of the game after documenting our initial design. Once we play tested, we found out our initial game mechanics didn’t work (translation: game wasn’t fun). We had to completely rebuild it. Ouch!

Rule to remember:

You cannot tell how fun or effective a game will be from reading a written design document. You have to play test. Game design and development is an iterative process. Be prepared to play and revise, play and revise again.