Bottom-Line Performance

For a change of pace, I’m going to be concise in my post. I LOVE podcasts, and I’m excited by their potential as a means to delivering information that is NOT training. (Too often, clients say they need a “training course” when what they really want to do is deliver information. You don’t need a class or an e-course to deliver info. Podcasts are a GREAT way to deliver information!

As I was skimming my Google reader, I came a cross a post from the Rapid eLearning blog, authored byTom Kuhlman. He had a fantastic post (as indicated by the 50 comments I’m seeing on it only a day after he posted it). He gives a great tutorial on how to use a virtual world as a “set” for a video shoot and use avatars as the actors. He took the time to put together a demo that you can access from here:

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Check it out and then let me know what possibilities you see for this tool!

What’s better for learners – listening to an audio podcast or watching a video podcast? It’s an interesting question because Podcasting News (April 16th edition) reports on research by Arbitron/Edison Media Research that most people (a whopping 75%) are viewing/listening to podcasts from their computer – NOT a media player. Other research finds that people who listen (as opposed to watch) tend to multi-task while people who are viewing a video podcast focus more.

I’d love to do a small research project to see which way enables people to actually LEARN more – listening only or watching/listening. If you’re interested in participating in such a research project, let me know. My thought is to create two podcasts – one audio and one video – on the same topic with the same post-test and see which way enables people to learn the material better. Post a comment or send me an email if you’d like to participate; if we get enough interest, we’ll create the podcasts and see what results we get!