Bottom-Line Performance

Process makes perfect. Every organization needs some tried and true methods that they can rely on in the trenches. I want to share a method BLP often uses when working subject matter experts (SMEs) to create scenarios that drive many of our e-learning courses.  After I review the process, I’ll share a finished example to help illustrate the end result of the process.

The 4-Step Process

We create “scenario worksheets” that we use with SMEs. We explain to our SMEs (who often initially resist the idea that we need stories to drive their content) that scenarios do several things: 1) Immediately engage the learner; 2) Give a contextual way to share content (i.e. a job context that mirrors’  learners own job contexts); 3) Set up a story that can be used to create interactivity by inspiring the learner to “solve” the character’s problems or challenges. 4) Keep the learner engaged throughout the learning.

Here are typical steps we use in creating scenarios and the questions we pose to SMEs, regardless of topic. We often create “scenario worksheets” that SMEs either fill in or respond to via interview based on this 4-step process. Note that the 4-steps are not completely linear. You may start with step 1, answer a few of the questions, move to Step 2, and find that new details related to the characters emerge as you go:

1) Define the character or characters in the story:

• What are their names?
• What do they look like? (age, gender, ethnicity, clothing, etc)
• What do they do? (We want to know their job title, employer, etc.)
• What information is critical to know about them? (i.e. are they new to the job, experienced, great performer, poor performer, unhappy customer, happy customer, etc.)
• What other background details will add authenticity to them and help paint a picture? (i.e.  prior experience, significant events in their lives, personal information, etc.)

2) Determine the situation:

• What does the character need to accomplish? (Obviously the challenge relates to the course you are writing. If you are creating a sales training course, for example, your challenge might be the need to increase sales in a territory. If you are teaching statistical design of experiments, the challenge might be the need to determine the best temperature at which to mix an active ingredient.)

3) Describe common obstacles that the character needs to overcome. These obstacles should mirror ones that exist in the real workplace:

• Does the main character lack information? Expertise? Time? Money? People resources?
• Does the main character face obstacles in the form of people who are hindering progress or success? This could be an uninformed customer, an unhappy parent, a disgruntled fellow employee.
• Does the main character face obstacles in the form of situational barriers such as economic conditions, a compressed timeline, unexpected turns of events, etc?

4) Define the process that the main character goes through to resolve the challenge and manage/remove the obstacles: (We typically write the content for this one based on the content provided by SMEs. Typically, It’s what they want to “tell” learners. We turn the “tell” around to become more of “show me” and “let me try it” types of events.

• What new information will the main character discover to resolve the situation? How will the character discover this information? How will they use it to solve their problems?
• What new skills will the  main character develop to resolve the situation? How will they acquire the skills?
• What resources will be available for the character to use as he or she resolves the challenges? Will we create job aids that the learner can use to help the main character? Will the main character access a virtual job aid?

An example

We completed a two-course series for a client a awhile back on basic electrical terminology and troubleshooting. The first course was designed to teach new sales reps basic electrical terminology. One method would have been to simply present all the terms reps need to know. However, this method isn’t very engaging or helpful to the learner. We opted, instead, to think about the “how” and the “when.” When would reps be likely to need an understanding of terminology? How would they typically be using the terminology? We crafted three scenarios for the course and then wove the stories throughout the course.

The entire course opened with 3 voice mails from the customers we created. Each subsequent module then focused on one of the scenarios. Learners started and ended each module with the scenario with the content required to resolve the scenario successfully sandwiched between. The course was hugely successful.

The three characters we use are introduced on the first screen of the course.

We opened each module with a review of the scenario. Learners then gathered the info they needed to respond.

Other tips

If we are creating a curriculum as opposed to a single course, we set up an Excel spreadsheet that lists the characters we will use and key details about them.  We also create image files for each character so we have a pool of images to use as we tell our story. These are both incredibly helpful organizational tools.

Mobile app developers know the mantra: make sure it works on every platform!

It can be difficult to make an app work on every version of iOS, let alone every Android tablet. When company’s decide to standardize their hardware, the developer’s job becomes considerably easier.

We were thrilled when Cummins approached us about their need for an easier way to rapidly author RFPs. We asked a simple question: “Want an App for that?” It was clear that their was opportunity for a unique approach to RFP creation.

The end result: a beautifully efficient application called Cummins EasyRFP developed exclusively for the Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

Dustin used the rapid authoring tool Screenr to produce a simple walk-through of the app. But don’t take our word for it:

What do you think? Are mobile applications a viable solution to improve workflow and productivity in your organization?

So…anyone can create a course, right? But…very few people actually create GOOD courses that truly train people to do something.

If you are tasked with creating a course on a technical topic…and you have to rely on a subject matter expert (SME) to help you create this course, you need to get your SME to think in terms of outcomes as opposed to content.

Subject matter experts tend to want to share everything they know about a topic. It’s the course designer’s job to help them shape their thoughts into outputs rather than inputs. At BLP, we do this with a design meeting. Here’s a quick look at the main steps in our design meeting and the process we use to “shift” SMEs toward an outcome focus rather than an information focus.

Step 1: Verify required outcomes. This sounds amazingly simple, yet you wouldn’t believe how many times people say they need training and yet they cannot articulate a simple goal or outcome this training should achieve. In instructional design lingo, we call this a “course goal.” It’s a description of what learners will do on the job once training is complete. Here’s a few examples of course goals:

• When selling Product X, reps will position Product X against competition, communicate benefits, and successfully close at least 80% of sales.
• During customer phone calls or customer meetings, reps will appropriately communicate the “fit” of Product X for the customer’s particular situation.
• Patients will safely and confidently use Equipment X to do home treatment.

Often, SMEs who have been tapped to be content experts have thought very little about what OUTCOME they hope learners will have. They have focused instead on thinking about what content they want to deliver. We give them examples of possible course goals and then ask them questions to help them shift focus:

• When training is over, what does the employee need to be able to do on the job? (When you hear, “Well, they need to understand X, Y, and Z,” you simply re-direct them and say back. “But WHY do they need to understand X, Y, and Z? What will they DO with this information?)
• If this training is successful, what problem will you solve or prevent?
• If this training is successful, what improvement will occur?

Sometimes, SMEs simply cannot articulate a goal. If they can’t, try shifting to step 2 and seeing if you can distill the ultimate goal after seeing their responses to Step 2 questions.

Step 2: Define the learning objectives. Now – we don’t tell SMEs that we’re “defining learning objectives,” but it’s what we do. We ask these questions, and we have them write their responses to each one on individual Post-It Notes. Ideally, we’ll use different colored Post-Its for each “type” of question:

• What do learners need to know?
• What do learners need to do?
• What do learners need to believe/feel?
• What common mistakes do you want to prevent or what problem do you want to solve?

SMEs generally respond really well to this activity. They may not do a great job distinguishing between something people need to know (knowledge) versus something they need to do (skill), but they will brainstorm their thoughts and we can then organize them.

Step 3: Chunk everything. This is honestly what we do. Together with the SMEs we shift/move the Post-Its around into logical groups. Topic themes will emerge and natural hierarchies will form. We’ll put the Post-Its on flipcharts and name each chunk with a logical title.

Step 4: Identify required content. Now, the SMEs can start talking content. We will look at each objective we defined and discuss what content has to be included to support it. For example, if the objective is that the patient performs machine set-up tasks, then the content is clearly descriptions of the machine set-up tasks.

Step 5: Identify appropriate learning activities. This is something we sometimes do with SMEs..and sometimes without them. If an appropriate learning activity is a practice activity in answering customer questions, we will brainstorm with the SMEs what questions are typically asked, what common mistakes reps make in answering these questions, and what kinds of resources a rep typically has available. In other words, we use the SME to craft the structure of the learning activity and to help us populate it.

Step 6: Identify job aids. What tools can help the learner transfer the training to the job? Sometimes the answer is – nothing. Other times, SMEs will identify “job aids” they want the learner to have access to. Honestly, in our experience, this offers a nice outlet to the SMEs to spill out all the content they didn’t get to include in the body of the course. We call these “reference materials” and allow SMEs to include all the “extra” material that we helped them winnow out through Steps 1 – 5.

I did a podcast where I attempted to show a very abbreviated form of this design meeting process. You can check it out here (And, yes, I realize no one is going to nominate me for an Emmy or an Oscar for my scintillating performance in the podcast!):

How often do you find yourself with a request for “training” that is really more about sharing information? The ultimate goal isn’t training learners to DO anything; it’s about building awareness, providing details, or just communicating a message.

Sometimes “Telling” is the goal, not “Teaching” and, believe me, both are needed and helpful, if packaged effectively. My colleagues and I have been thinking about the best way to “Tell” and we’ve developed a prototype of an eMagazine, or eMag, as an alternative to page-turner e-learning courses. We had several goals we wanted to achieve. We wanted our eMag to be:

• An online solution that is rapid to develop
• A great way to address projects that are really more information than training.
• Highly engaging
• A good use of “new” media (podcasts, videos, social networking, etc.)
• A solution that enables user exploration rather than a linear approach
• Easy to share (via Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• A “quick hit” but with option for more depth
• Easy/intuitive to navigate

Our eMag is called “Lessons on Learning” to complement this LOL Blog and the LOL Live learning seminars. The topic of our specific eMag is learning design, from analysis through project management. Our eMag solution is designed to support LOTS of different topics, not just the one we chose. For instance, you could have an eMag on “Lessons on Management,”  “Lessons on Customer Service,” etc.

Did we meet our goals? We think so, but we need YOUR help to know for sure. Curious? Well, now’s your chance to explore our eMag prototype and give us feedback!

NOTE: Since this is just a prototype, only three of the “headlines” on the cover page are functional: Design it right the first time, Do they really need training, and the Table of Contents.

Once you’re done exploring, complete our survey to give us your feedback. Look for the link in the header of all interior eMag headers–you can’t miss the monkey in the “Survey Monkey” link.

Click HERE to begin.

Have fun and thanks in advance for your help!

Anyone who is a student of instructional design has heard of Robert Gagne’s nine events of instruction. In fact, when designing a course, most of us make quite sure we incorporate Gagne’s instruction event #2: (inform learners of objectives) right away. In our attempt to follow the rule, we often think less about HOW we share the learning objectives and focus more on simply listing them…in that dreaded bulleted list we introduce with the following words: “After completing this course, learners will…blah blah blah.” UGH.

Why do we do this? What does it really achieve? Gagne says we should inform learners of the objectives to create a level of expectation for the learning. By using a bulleted list, what level of expectation are we setting? What level of learner engagement are we shooting for?

Do learners really need learning objectives?! I think they do, but I wanted to seek out another opinion, so I asked a colleague.

This week, I spoke to Andy McGuire, Director of Global Learning and Development in Corporate Human Resources at Cummins, Inc. Andy is very passionate about learning objectives and has strong opinions about the best ways to present them to learners.

Andy says he was first exposed to the misuse of learning objectives while in the Marine Corps completing electronics training. “Every course I took started with the list of objectives,” he explains. “I didn’t pay attention; no one else did either. It didn’t motivate me to learn; it didn’t get me ready to learn.”

While completing his formal education at Indiana University, he learned just how important learning objectives are, but once he officially started his career in instructional design, he admits he relied on the same approach to presenting learning objectives because “that’s what I thought I was supposed to do.”

That soon stopped.

Andy says we should always include the learning objectives. “They have to be there…for the design team and for the subject matter experts…to be sure they are focused on the content that needs to be there.” But he challenges us to “be creative in how we present them” to learners. He emphasizes that we must show the value of learning objectives and can do so in a variety of ways. Some ideas Andy has used and seen done effectively (for e-learning and instructor-led courses) include:

• Begin an upfront discussion with learners that involves a series of questions about what they know/do currently.
• Paint a scenario for learners that depicts a “real world” situation where specific knowledge/skill is required.
• Identify challenges related to the course topic and have learners use/share their own experiences.

Andy says the point is to get learners to “organize their thoughts” so they are ready to learn.

Once they are ready to learn, you can summarize what you’ve done upfront by sharing the objectives, perhaps as a series of questions, considerations, or even images that distinguish current state from future state!

When it comes to learning objectives, Andy reminds us all to “think about the purpose, not just about the mechanics, of what you’re trying to do.”

I couldn’t agree more.

For more information on effectively presenting learning objectives, Andy and I both recommend Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning. Refresh your memory of Robert Gagne’s nine events of instruction by reviewing his book The Conditions of Learning. Both books are available on www.amazon.com.

Previously, I focused on identifying the elusive “need to have” content that supports the performance objectives in a course design. I mentioned that, in many cases, some percentage of content exists, but not in written format. Usually this means the content lives inside the head of a subject matter expert, or SME. My job is to get it out of that SME’s head and into the course. But how? Through osmosis? Hypnosis? Charm and Persuasion? Not quite. What would you say if I told you…Mad Libs?

Remember Mad Libs? Mad Libs is a game I played all the time as a kid, usually at birthday parties and on road trips with my family. Mad Libs is basically a book of little stories that contain lots of missing words. Players must “fill in the blanks” with words they choose. The kicker is that they don’t know how their words will be used in the story until AFTER they’ve chosen the words. One player asks another for a noun, verb, adjective, etc. without giving the other player any context for that word. Once all of the blanks are filled in, you read your completed story out loud only to find you’ve created a pretty silly plotline, which is the point of the game! (Check out the Mad Libs website for more information: http://www.madlibs.com/home/)

How does this relate to working with SMEs?

SMEs don’t have a lot of time. Heck, they’re SMEs! They’re in high demand and usually play critical roles in their organizations. They know a lot and usually like being asked for their expert opinion and knowledge. If you’re lucky enough to schedule a good chunk of time with a SME, they might talk your ear off! They’ll want to tell you everything they’ve ever known about a given topic because they’re passionate about it. You need to cut to the chase…you have to get just the “need to have” content from your course design into the actual course! SMEs will love you and want to work with you again if you can use whatever time they can give you efficiently and creatively.

I’ve had a lot of luck using several types of Mad Lib course development tools with SMEs, but for now, I want to focus on just one: scenario-building worksheets.

These worksheets allow a SME to “fill in the blanks” of a case study, employee scenario, or process-in-action sequence without having to start with a blank piece of paper. For example, if I need help with an employee scenario, I create a worksheet that includes four main sections: the employee, the situation, the tools/resources he/she uses, the steps he/she takes, and the results. Within each section, I literally start writing the “shell” of the story, but I include “blanks” for the SME. Here’s a small example:

Tim, a customer service manager, has been asked to review the last three months’ worth of dropped call reports. His manager is concerned with the apparent increase in dropped calls and wonders if the staff is struggling with resolving customer issues in a timely manner.

Tim reviews the reports and notices: _________________________________.

Based on what he sees, he asks himself the following questions:_____________

To get the answers to his questions, he takes the following steps: ____________ and he reaches out to the following people: _____________________________.

To help bring the scenario to life, I may also include images in the worksheet, such as a photo of “Tim” or a graphic of a report or pie chart. I try to think of anything that might help the SME fill in the blanks.

And don’t think I just email this worksheet to a SME and say “good luck!” Just like Mad Libs, we build the story together. Sometimes this is over the phone and other times it’s face to face. Some SMEs might want help getting started and then prefer to complete the rest of the worksheet on their own. Other SMEs might want to just “think out loud” and I use the worksheet to take notes, much like an interview guide. If that occurs, I’ll send the completed worksheet to them for their review and simply ask them to verify I got it right. The point is, you must find out what your SME prefers and consider their needs, as much as possible. If you do, you’ll have a win-win on your hands.

What other techniques have you used to get the most out of your SMEs? Fill in the blank: When I work with my SMEs, I have success when I _____________________.

As a first-time BLP blogger, I was very eager to lock down my e-learning topic and join the ranks of my fellow bloggers. Last week, I determined my three blog topics for the month, all focused on curriculum design and development. I felt good identifying my first topic: designing an e-learning course with little to no content in sight, and then…do you know what happened next? Ironically, I had created the topic and struggled with…the content. I can’t escape!

So, I did what I always do…begin the “content inquisition.”

Don’t get me wrong! I never start designing an e-learning solution from a content-driven approach. My first step is to focus on desired outcomes: what do learners need to know and/or know how to do after completing the course? What should they believe? What will success look like? Will they do their jobs differently, and if so, how?

Once I have the answers to all of these questions, I begin the content discussion. If you want learners to DO this, what content should we share with them? Why? How will THIS content help learners DO that? It is the battle between the “must-include content” and the “nice-to-include content.”

Dr. Ruth Clark wrote about removing the “nice to have” content (and avoiding cognitive overload) in her book, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction and in an article called Design Strategies: Efficiency in e-Learning: Proven Instructional Methods for Faster, Better, Online Learning she co-wrote for the E-Learning Guild’s e-magazine. Although the article is about five years old, it is still one of my all-time faves. Check it out at: http://www.clarktraining.com/content/articles/Guild_E-Learning.pdf

My goal, after the dust settles, is to have a clean, concise list of content that obviously supports the desired course outcomes. Then, the real fun begins…finding this content! The inquisition continues….

1. Can we review any of this content before we finalize the course design?
2. How many different “sources” should we rely on? (Websites, books, existing training, subject matter experts, etc.)?
3. What % of the content exists in a written format and just needs to be inserted “as is” in the program (existing procedure, for instance)?
4. What % of the content exists, but is from existing training, guidance documents or other written sources and needs to be edited and/or repackaged?
5. What % of the content exists, but is not in a written format (i.e., a subject matter expert knows it)?
6. What % of the content needs to be created from scratch and may not need to be discussed and agreed upon prior to “releasing” for use in the program?

If the majority of the content is already available and easily accessible, I feel really good about finalizing the design with the help of a content map. If I can map the existing content to the course objectives, I’ll have a clearer vision of the course overall course structure, length, and types of learner interactions. I can also easily identify content gaps and “nice-to-have content” that might try and sneak into my design!

If the majority of the content does NOT exist, I recommend incorporating a content gathering step into the design phase of the project. I’ve learned that a more robust design leads to an easier and more successful development phase on an e-learning project.

So…how do you create a solid e-learning course design when the content you need to support the course objectives is…mysterious?

It seems important to begin this post with a disclaimer…this is my “multimedia developer” opinion. You’ve been warned.

As a multimedia developer the thought of developing e-Learning with an LCMS development tool sends shivers up my spine (not the good kind, like when you learn a new way to make something animate in Flash…yes, I know I need to get out more).

Don’t get me wrong, the majority of LCMS development tools are great for rapid development, and are a great way to manage content and content objects with a single application. However, my experience is that if you want sophisticated or slick-looking/functioning e-Learning, you won’t want to use the development software of an LCMS. Although huge strides have been made in improvements of this software, it is still necessary to incorporate Flash elements to get that slick movement and learner interaction that only Flash offers.

As I step down from my “Flash soap box”, I acknowledge that as with every other e-Learning development tool purchase (whether it’s Flash, Captivate, Articulate, Lectora, etc.) you need to be sure that when deciding on an LCMS you are clear what the LCMS development tool can and cannot do. Your learners have a certain level of sophistication (different in every situation) and will expect a certain level of interaction, function, and look.

So, when researching an LCMS be sure that when evaluating all the great “LMS” capabilities you don’t forget the “C” in LCMS. You don’t want to get stuck with an LCMS development tool that is no better than PowerPoint circa 1993.

Tom Kuhler and his “Rapid e-learning” blog once again bats 1000 by sharing tips for creating e-learning scenarios. Tom’s recent post, “7 tips for better e-learning scenarios” has inspired me to share a 4-step process we use to work with subject matter experts (SMEs) to create scenarios that drive many of our e-learning courses.  After I review the process, I’ll share a finished example to help illustrate the end result of the process.

The 4-Step Process

We create “scenario worksheets” that we use with SMEs. We explain to our SMEs (who can initially resist the idea that we need stories to drive their content) that scenarios do several things: 1) Immediately engage the learner; 2) Give a contextual way to share content (i.e. a job context that mirrors’  learners own job contexts); 3) Set up a story that can be used to create interactivity by inspiring the learner to “solve” the character’s problems or challenges. 4) Keep the learner engaged throughout the learning.

Here are typical steps we use in creating scenarios and the questions we pose to SMEs, regardless of topic. We often create “scenario worksheets” that SMEs either fill in or respond to via interview based on this 4-step process. Note that the 4-steps are not completely linear. You may start with step 1, answer a few of the questions, move to Step 2, and find that new details related to the characters emerge as you go:

1) Define the character or characters in the story:

• What are their names?
• What do they look like? (age, gender, ethnicity, clothing, etc)
• What do they do? (We want to know their job title, employer, etc.)
• What information is critical to know about them? (i.e. are they new to the job, experienced, great performer, poor performer, unhappy customer, happy customer, etc.)
• What other background details will add authenticity to them and help paint a picture? (i.e.  prior experience, significant events in their lives, personal information, etc.)

2) Determine the situation:

• What does the character need to accomplish? (Obviously the challenge relates to the course you are writing. If you are creating a sales training course, for example, your challenge might be the need to increase sales in a territory. If you are teaching statistical design of experiments, the challenge might be the need to determine the best temperature at which to mix an active ingredient.)

3) Describe common obstacles that the character needs to overcome. These obstacles should mirror ones that exist in the real work place:

• Does the main character lack information? Expertise? Time? Money? People resources?
• Does the main character face obstacles in the form of people who are hindering progress or success? This could be an uninformed customer, an unhappy parent, a disgruntled fellow employee.
• Does the main character face obstacles in the form of situational barriers such as economic conditions, a compressed timeline, unexpected turns of events, etc?

4) Define the process that the main character goes through to resolve the challenge and manage/remove the obstacles: (We typically write the content for this one based on the content provided by SMEs. Typically, It’s what they want to “tell” learners. We turn the “tell” around to become more of “show me” and “let me try it” types of events.

• What new information will the main character discover to resolve the situation? How will the character discover this information? How will they use it to solve their problems?
• What new skills will the  main character develop to resolve the situation? How will they acquire the skills?
• What resources will be available for the character to use as he or she resolves the challenges? Will we create job aids that the learner can use to help the main character? Will the main character access a virtual job aid?

An example

We completed a two-course series for a client last year on basic electrical terminology and troubleshooting. The first course was designed to teach new sales reps basic electrical terminology. One method would have been to simply present all the terms reps need to know. However, this method isn’t very engaging or helpful to the learner. We opted, instead, to think about the “how” and the “when.” When would reps be likely to need an understanding of terminology? How would they typically be using the terminology? We crafted three scenarios for the course and then wove the stories throughout the course.

The entire course opened with 3 voice mails from the customers we created. Each subsequent module then focused on one of the scenarios. Learners started and ended each module with the scenario with the content required to resolve the scenario successfully sandwiched between. The course was hugely successful.

The three characters we use are introduced on the first screen of the course.

We opened each module with a review of the scenario. Learners then gathered the info they needed to respond.

To see the intro and first module of this course, click here. Be aware that there is audio.

Other tips

If we are creating a curriculum as opposed to a single course, we set up an Excel spreadsheet that lists the characters we will use and key details about them.  We also create image files for each character so we have a pool of images to use as we tell our story. These are both incredibly helpful organizational tools.

Happy Friday! Designing elearning usually involves some sort of storyboard. A storyboard is a way for someone, usually my client, to visualize how a programmed course will look – without us actually programming it. This way, the screen’s look and feel can be approved before we spend the time programming the course…which theoretically should keep the edits at a minimum once the course is programmed.

There are a few challenges with this approach, primarily that it is hard to imagine what the text in a Word document will look like once inserted into that screen image.  And, it’s even harder to visualize animations or courses that are highly interactive. So, there often are edits made after programming even if a storyboard was approved. How can we help everyone know what to expect from an elearning course?

Check out this post on interactive storyboards by Anne Derryberry. In it, she uses a tool from xtranormal to create a 3-d version of a conversation.  I went to the website and created my own conversation using audio conversation text from a recent course. It’s very simple to use. It took me about an hour to complete, and that included the time on 1 phone call, 2 IM conversations, approving 1 graphic, and a couple of emails.  So, I would put it at about 30 minutes. 

Jennifer’s Example

It’s certainly not perfect (although, I love that I was able to insert air quotes!), but it would be a lot easier to evaluate than just reading the audio on a page. I can see LOTS of ways that we could use technology like this to help our clients visualize what will be in a course. And clients can use it to help SMEs and others in their organization anticipate the final version. I encourage you to check it out! How could you use this or similar technologies?