Learning out Loud

Taking care of my audience

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 00:29:01 GMT

Learner Centered through Personas

My clients still ask me to “ help redesign and improve this curriculum, whilst at the same time determining and incorporating the learning styles of the audience .” While I used to ge t into detail about how learning styles do not have any academic evidence to support its claims, I now simply redirect the dialogue.

I might reference it briefly but otherwise prefer to invest my efforts into establishing that their desire is, in fact, to take a more learner-centered approach. Once we agree on that, I supply practical alternatives on how to achieve this.

Building the audience profile

In my work as a learning experience designer, one of the most essential elements is to ensure I understand the learner well. I get this from a thorough Learning Needs Analysis, in which I pay particular attention to the target audiences. In my aim to understand the learner, I build several learning personas , that represent the audience group.

As Rothwell made clear, it is important not to assume that all learners have the same characteristics. I therefore develop these fictional characters carefully and map the different characteristics as I (ethically) define the learner’s demographics, educational backgrounds, roles, ranks, age groups, ability levels, gaps, preferences, opportunities, and constraints. Once I get a complete picture of the different profiles that the program needs to cater for, I tie these to andragogic assumptions from Malcolm Knowles to gain an idea on how to design for the target audience.

The Learner: When you know, you Knowles!

Knowles’ andragogy follows on from where pedagogy stops. Whereas pedagogy solely focuses on methods of education that suit children, Knowles continues this continuum and goes on to differentiate how adults learn by making six critical assumptions for us to consider in designing their education, whilst still including the key pedagogical principles.

Knowles’ andragogic assumptions are:

1. Self Concept

While children are much more inclined (and expected) to take on a more dependent role in their education, this changes as the child grows up and moves from adolescence into adulthood. Once reaching maturity, people increasingly live their lives autonomously and are mostly self-directed.

This self-directedness in the learner sparks an ardent desire for this to be acknowledged and respected by their peers and instructors. This results in a yearning for more involvement, ownership and accountability of the planning, execution, and evaluation of their development journey.

2. Experience

Workplace learners own a wealth of experience. Not that they do not need to learn anything else, nor that content may not be new to them, but what we expect them to learn has levels of foundational knowledge, skills, and behaviors. These need to be respected, even when it is not obvious to start with.

Having prior experience can, of course, aid or hinder us. At worst, the learner first needs to unlearn things. At best, prior experience is successfully linked with new content. The first may slow the process down, and the latter could speed up and engrain the new learning content.

3. Readiness to Learn

One of the first questions I ask clients is why learners should care about the content and why they should care about it now. Adults have a desire for immediate applicability and relevance. As soon as the ‘what’s in it for me’ is clear, adults act. A new job, problems performing a work task, life-changing events, and situations can all spark the readiness to learn.

4. Problem Centered Orientation to Learning

As grownups, we learn most from problem centered situations. Just like the readiness to learn assumption we just explored; a task-based learning intervention brings benefits to the learner through the immediate applicability of the learning content by fixing perceived issues, in ways that memorization of knowledge would not. This may be why learning in the moment of need and performance support systems continues to get good traction.

5. Internal Motivation

Adult learners are more critical about what motivates them to learn and look for intrinsic motivators. They want to choose to learn, rather than being coerced into learning through external motivational factors. Their intrinsic motivation is certainly activated in terms of why the learning is relevant now, but as described in LaWaune Netter’s (2015) overview of Knowles’ assumptions, can also include:

· Better quality of life

· Recognition

· Self-esteem

· Self-confidence

· Self-actualization

6. Need to know

To be autonomous and self-directed, the adult needs to know how the learning will happen, what learning will occur when, how it relates to the overall task, what the benefits of learning are and equally what the consequences of not learning are. This means that an obvious structure, supported by robust goals and connections, is visible.

Make the right design choices through personas

Linking Knowles’ assumptions to the learner personas provides a good basis for a learner centered approach, as it will give sufficient room to differentiate between learners and the special needs they may have while we make smart design choices tying these to the ultimate learning tasks, and the desired performance outcomes.

References:

Rothwell, W. J. (2020). Adult learning basics. ATD Press.

Netter, L (September 20, 2015). Andragogy. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hbZM1kq6rQ

Pappas, C. (August 6, 2013). The Myth Of Learning Styles. eLearning Industry. Retrieved on December 16, 2022, from: https://elearningindustry.com/the-myth-of-learning-styles

Wallace, D. (December 16, 2019). Creating Learner Personas for Learning Success. Training Industry. Retrieved on December 16, 2022, from: https://trainingindustry.com/articles/content-development/creating-learner-personas-for-learning-success/

Killian, S. (November 22, 2019). Pedagogy: What It Is & Why Matters? Evidence Based Teaching. Retrieved on December 16, 2022, from: https://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/pedagogy/

Enough about culture...

mariola.diawara@wyklearning.com — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 08:00:24 GMT

Let’s fix the problem!

Recently, I updated my stakeholders on the cultural aspect of a learning curriculum redesign project. It is a significant redesign project that includes organizational learning elements. As I was packing up, I got one last question:

“How much time and money should we invest in culture? Why can’t we just get on with it?”

No time was left to elaborate, so I could only state briefly:

“If I push my isolated vision and learning philosophy on the organization, the training team, and the program, I could indeed move faster. Would it make the redesign successful? Probably not. The success of this project depends on the dynamics, cultural aspects, and environment around the training-program. We organize these in such a way that they support and enhance the goals. They are vital for the adaptation of this change effort. Otherwise, people will revert to how things were in a heartbeat.”

Walking out, it occurred to me I should invest more effort in explaining the exact cultural effects on learning and change projects.

What is culture?

Culture from Schein’s description boils down to the shared learning of a group that found workable solutions to situations, experiences, and obstacles met. Evidence of what works and what doesn’t work shapes this culture and appears on many levels. It can be vocational, regional, national, international, organizational level, and sublevels.

Culture encompasses experiences, written and unwritten rules, behavior, norms, values, and traditions, to name a few. Some cultural identifiers are noticeable, others are much more subtle and even subconscious until questioned.

To link culture with learning transfer, Corinne Brion expanded on Lindsey et al.’s explanation on culture which has a more individual perspective. Lindsey offers that culture is how you identify with people who are like you and that differ from you, fed by your ability, everything you believe and undertake. It shapes our interactions with each other, and what we bring with us every day we get to work.

Brion’s conclusion was that if culture fuels every interaction, everything we do and how we do it, then it is interesting why so few of our scholars truly focused on models that include culture in learning transfer.

The risk in getting on with it

The Katzenbach Center conducted a survey of over 2200 executives, managers, and employees in 2013. Eighty-six percent of C-suite executives and eighty-four percent of managers and employees said culture is critical to the organization’s success. And yet, culture is not a major factor that is addressed in executing change projects.

In my project, not addressing requirements of both learning and culture increases the likelihood of failure. When the first efforts of change don’t work out as planned, this emphasizes that the old way of doing things was ‘better’. This directly undermines current and future change efforts. As learning strategists, we need to bring culture into learning transfer.

Leading with culture

I’ll go one step further, to increase chances of success you should lead your change program with culture. Understanding your cultural blueprint and starting from there will allow you to create a holistic change plan with a far greater success probability.

Two prime reasons I see for leading with culture:

The Power of Learning
L&D professionals hold influential positions. Especially in organizations that are formalized, and where trainer-centered teaching styles are favored. L&D teams directly influence organizational and individual performance. What they teach the workforce in terms of knowledge, behavior, and skills, as well as those subtleties of ‘the way we do things around here’, sticks.
It Takes Two to Tango
Organizational learning and culture are interrelated. Culture holds on to what has gone before, drives forward and influences learning practices. Learning practices simultaneously both restrict and adapt culture. One cannot be seen isolated from the other.

Leading with culture will help the organization embed change-welcoming circumstances that will help the transformation.

6 Steps to maximize your culture and learning relationship

The below steps are the best practices for running culture led learning programs. Add these steps to your change plan and see the uptake of your project increase.

1. x Define your strategic goals

For example, changing from a task execution focused organization to a customer partnering organization can have consequences on every aspect of the organization. That requires planning. How do you go from a control and market-based culture to one that is more focused on collaboration and service? Where are you now and where do you want to be?

2. Take inventory of your learning function

Consider:

How is it organized and performing?
Do the materials of programs reflect the goals, values, and ambitions of the new direction?
How is your L&D team developing your workforce, new and old?
Will they emphasize or obstruct the message you want to convey?
Who communicates what messages in the programs?

3. Diagnose and plot your current and desired culture

Use a reliable tool to diagnose and plot your culture. Include your supporting learning functions, even when they are not directly affected. You will want to understand whether their current culture position complements or is in direct conflict with desired state.

4. Start dialogue around strengths and weaknesses

Do this for both the current and desired culture. What has worked may continue to work and building on strengths gains momentum in the change process.

5. Name the critical items to address

Create an action plan on those items and equip the organization and teams with the right skills, knowledge, support, and resources. Link the cultural components to your change program, so the exercise of steps three and four are immediately connected.

6, Celebrate failures and successes in the road towards transformation

Especially the failures. For culture to embed, the learning must be repeated until small successes are booked. Failure is just one step closer to success.

Imagine the impact

Since I started leading my L&D projects with culture, I have noticed far more buy-in from all levels of the organization associated directly with the change.

Strategy&, part of PWC, released an article in 2013 that says that leading with culture is not a shortcut. That’s true, it is very thorough. But so far it realized real conversations around the changes coming our way, what we needed to prioritize in relation to cultural attributes, and their relevance to learning transfer. It helped our teams to understand their strengths and constraints and fix the fundamental behaviors and practices before we would start any change initiatives.

Priorities in change management for learning projects need to be reconsidered. Leading with culture enables us to tackle the biggest hurdles first, building on the strengths of the existing culture to minimize the challenges and obstacles along the route.

References:

Wikipedia contributors (2022, December 6). Organizational learning . In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:05, December 8, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Organizational_learning&oldid=1125922255

Schein, E. H. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.) . John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Cameron, K. S. & Quinn R. E. (2011). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework (3rd ed.) . Jossey-Bass.

Brion, C. (2022). Culture: The Link to Learning Transfer. Adult Learning, 33 (3), 132–137. Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https://doi-org.libproxy.boisestate.edu/10.1177/10451595211007926

Aguirre, D. et al. (2013). Culture’s role in enabling organizational change . PWC . Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/gx/en/insights/2002-2013/cultures-role/strategyand-cultures-role-in-enabling-organizational-change.pdf

Things that made me go: Aha!

mariola.diawara@wyklearning.com — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 07:31:57 GMT

Video, we really do need more instructional videos.

We kicked the OPWL eLearning class off with video introductions of ourselves. It was a fabulous start. First of all, because it immediately got us out of our comfort zone (there were criteria set to be successful) and the chance to get to see everyone and learn more about them.

Online - synchronous and asynchronous

This OPWL program is fully online. We hold zoom meetings regularly, but the rest is working through the learning platform and interacting via messages and forums. Especially, given that I’m currently based in The Netherlands, it has proven to be so valuable to see my classmates online, and when synchronous meetings were not possible to be able to replay the recording and provide or watch their video responses.

How popular is video?

I’ve always liked video. Especially for learning. I’m not alone either. A recent TechSmith research effort revealed that

· 83% of respondents watch educational video content more than twice a week.

· Two out of three employees complete tasks better when instructions are provided visually and absorb information 7% faster.

· More than 70% of YouTube viewers turn to the platform for help solving problems.

The research is described in the Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instructional Videos. Access it here . Rather than repeating their view on instructional videos and when and how to use them, I recommend you bookmark this resource for great how-to's and tips.

Good uses I've seen

Personally, I’ve used it effectively in compliance training. Including a leadership message to explain the WHY is so much more effective than plain text. Embedding an inspirational TED talk that is relevant to the topic is frequently welcomed by participants. Showing the right way of doing things via screencasts and tutorials, or including video links to past events are useful ways to engage and develop your audience.

A team I’m currently supporting, took their first steps in building an onboarding module for new joiners. They included relevant videos to make it more engaging and really helped give a better overview of what new staff coming in can expect from their new employer and training team. For them this was a quick win, for the new joiners a clear overview and support in their new career, setting them up for success.

My learning journey with new tools

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to play around with video tools and applications more this past semester. I invite you to check out a recent project I created in an earlier post .

Things that make me go: Hmmm....

mariola.diawara@wyklearning.com — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 21:41:30 GMT

She said what?!

During this class and others, our professors encourage us to provide critique to our fellow students. The criteria are that this feedback is kind, actionable, balanced, and solution focused. To always assume good intentions of others when we interact with them.

It has been so refreshing and if I could sprinkle one thing around in our industry, it is this. To be kind and considerate in our critique towards our peers, towards our clients and co-workers, and even ourselves. Especially when we/they get it wrong.

Fostering an optimal learning environment, always!

We work in the field of Learning and Development. Part of our responsibility is to encourage a positive, safe, and optimal learning environment. We should role model this behavior, but do we? And when we do, do we do this consistently?

My Learning and Development career has been a journey

My formal education was in Business Management. I rolled into L&D 15 years ago because I got so much fulfillment from supporting others in their learning journey. And during that rolling, I was fortunate enough to be mentored by a lot of talented professionals, who were willing to invest their time in me. I was like a sponge, soaking up all the knowledge and information I could find. Reading article after article, book after book, joining seminars and conferences.

There were true golden nuggets in there, but I also encountered some considerable disinformation (even from senior leaders) that later could not be proven, was plain wrong, or at the very least doubtful. But initially I took on this information as truth. I think we have all been there. Perhaps not even that long ago.

Is my algorithm off or is a trend developing?

I’m observing a trend where we, as learning and development specialists, roll eyes and sigh deeply, before ranting about the people who have not yet read the memo on certain items. We even aim those daggers towards our precious community sometimes, perhaps to either to prove our worth or to defend a certain position. But what is there to prove and why should we succumb to shaming people into more informed knowledge?

Especially towards our network who are not in the industry, with clients or colleagues we work for/with. This group don't consist of trained L&D professionals. Somewhere they heard messages around mobile learning, virtual reality, gamification and certain models and learning styles and come to us with specific ideas around them that don't add up. They may truly believe that training will fix all of their problems, or that when the problem remains that the training must be at fault.

They do this, not to bug us, but because probably nobody has told them otherwise. Nobody explained that a type of training isn't the be all or end all. Or if it was explained, that it was done in a language that they could understand. Has anyone truly guided them in seeing the broader picture?

It is intriguing how we deal with it. Perhaps not overtly, but still visible to the untrained eyes and ears. We hear them talk and we scoff, we shake our heads in disbelief. We wonder, how often we need to repeat our message before people finally get it. Why won’t people listen?

Are we sure we explained it well enough?

I think people getting it really starts and ends with us. Me, you, and the wider L&D cohort. Somewhere, we have not taken appropriate ownership of our role and the responsibility that comes with it. It is our job to educate the people we serve, and then educate them some more. Educate them in ways they understand, finding their WIIFM. We cannot expect people outside of our industry to have to invest time into knowing the ins and outs relating to L&D specific topics. But we can make them understand better through their interactions with us.

Show our network examples of what good really does look like. Not condescending, but deliberate, clear, and kind. We share our case studies, our portfolios, and highlight our performance improvement mindset. Engage in conversations, dose our messages, taking small steps, and then some more. We have so much to offer the workplace, our community, and each other.

I want to petition for us all to be more patient, be kind, role model and practice what we preach, myself certainly included. Even when we think nobody is listening or watching.

Gratitude and paying it forward

I’ve been coached, educated, mentored, taught by a wealth of Learning and Development professionals, who took the time to tell me over and over again where my focus ought to be. They did so patiently, they did so kindly. I don't know if I'd still be in this industry if I was made to feel shame about my learning journey. For having gotten the memo too late. Let's get the memo on what good looks like when you notice the other person needs it. Do it respectfully, and when possible, do it privately. That's just in time learning, right?

My network didn't shame me. They allowed me to make mistakes, would take me aside to alert me on how to do better next time. If I made the mistake again, they would again take me aside and tell/show me again. I’ve also been coached, educated, mentored, taught by a wealth of my clients, peers, interns, competitors, leadership, subordinates, partners, vendors, etc. I’m grateful for those opportunities as well. Let’s get back to that development mindset. Let's market the Learning and Development competencies and skills. Let's collectively do better.

Thank you Boise State - OPWL cohort

To my entire Boise cohort, the students (past and present), the faculty members: Thank you. Thank you for bringing back kindness and the art of providing feedback in a respectful, actionable, balanced, and solution-focused manner. Thank you for raising the standard.

Let’s meet the external world like that. It will make us all better educationalists. Let’s go out and sprinkle some Learning and Development growth mindset around in our network and create a positive impact that way.

The future of video

mariola.diawara@wyklearning.com — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 06:01:57 GMT

Developments I expect to happen in the next 20 years

In recent updated research from TechSmith, 83% of respondents prefer to watch video to digesting instructional content via text or audio, with most respondents viewing videos 2-4 times per week. This number has remained pretty consistent with an earlier study dating back to 2018.

Growth and use of videos

The growth and use of videos for learning content has grown significantly. As the TechSmith report suggests this can be attributed to the rise of video streaming services, and the accessibility with easy-to-use equipment such as smartphones, webcams, and cameras.

I see this trend only increasing in the years to come. People get more and more comfortable in sharing information in this way and while Halls (2018) says not all learning content is suitable for video, in the next five years I don’t see this stopping people attempting to apply video to other learning content. Maturity in content and quality is moving rapidly. The line between showing and telling is getting increasingly thin. Topics and work practices are increasingly dissected to allow for more show (and do) and less telling. Allowing to push down and limit text driven learning.

Performance Support and Artificial Intelligence

In the next five years I believe the biggest jump could be seen in including video in Performance Support Systems, that delivers the right video (potentially in combination with other learning nuggets) at the exact moment of need. Personalized training, through implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), will support the learner more effectively in their development journey, benefiting the learner, but not in the least will this allow organizations to be in a better position to manage and anticipate on their talent development needs.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is getting increasingly popular. New opportunities are continuously explored, but I think this development is predominantly clearing space for the entry of Augmented Reality (AR). I believe in the coming 10 to 20 years AR interventions will become more accessible to the general public. The upside it has over Virtual Reality is that it isn’t built around a virtual world, but can be integrated in the real world setting.

Already Augmented Reality is used in learning and working environments successfully. I personally remember in 2016 welcoming back my then manager from his business trip, fully enthused about a holographic beating heart he’d seen that was used for training medical staff. As recent as 2020 a holographic display was since used in the operating room and has “shown for the first time that using a holographic display improves physician accuracy when performing a procedure to treat irregular heartbeat.’. Washington University in St. Louis. "Holograms help physicians during cardiac procedure: Holographic display improves physician accuracy when treating irregular heartbeat." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 July 2020.

5 Questions to still ask

While this doesn’t rule out normal video and VR, this technology will increase over the coming 10 years and become more accessible to other industries and workplaces. As with everything, right guidance, application, and adaptation support will be needed. I think the 5 questions that Jonathan Halls introduced for video learning will still be relevant, be it slightly tweaked to that reality, to look something like this:

Is AI/AR a good idea for the training need of the organization?

1. Is the topic best understood by showing or telling?

2. How can the topic exploit all the communication opportunities these technologies offer?

3. Will the technology/learning environment be properly produced?

4. Can learners access it easily?

5. Is it the most cost-effective way to aid the learning?

References:

Knott. R, TechSmith, Video Statistics, Habits, and Trends You Need To Know [2021 UPDATE!] retrieved from: https://www.techsmith.com/blog/video-statistics/

Washington University in St. Louis. "Holograms help physicians during cardiac procedure: Holographic display improves physician accuracy when treating irregular heartbeat." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 July 2020.Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200721132842.htm

Jonathan Halls, Learning Solutions Mag, video clinic when not to use video for training (2018) retrieved from:https://learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/video-clinic-when-not-to-use-video-for-training

Evaluating courses on Rise

mariola.diawara@wyklearning.com — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 14:42:02 GMT

Reviewing and critiquing other courses in order to enhance my own design skills

What I’ve learned over the past years is that critiquing work of others and receiving critique on your own work are two different things, both with its own challenges.

How do you invite critique and don’t get personally offended when you receive negative, or even constructively intended feedback? Especially when the feedback received is in direct contrast with what you had aimed to achieve?

And how exactly do you provide feedback that is kind, actionable, balanced, solution-focused critique? For today’s entry in this learning journal, we were asked to do just that. We were asked to pick 3 Rise example courses from the list below and review them.

Rise Examples

Creating Social Change

Animal Guessing Game 

Food Allergy Awareness 

Designing Learning Objectives 

Maintaining a Professional Workplace at Pixomedia 

The Growing Power of Social Media

It was difficult just picking 3 from the list of examples, and I have a natural curiosity in learning how other people approach design. I just couldn’t help but go through all of them. I invite you to do the same. I learned so much from this exercise, but limit myself to feeding back on three courses. I’d be interested to learn what feedback you can give on either the remaining three, or the ones I did and let me know where your ideas and experience differ from my review.

My choices

Course 1: Creating Social Change

For anyone interested (and even if you aren’t) in making a start on getting involved in social change initiative: take this course! It contains a lot of very practical information.

Sequence of content and use of the blocks to convey information.

o The sequence of their content was very deliberate. It met and catered for the audience on several levels and it must have taken quite some considerate planning and analysis to design it.

o The content had timely links to external resources for further information on the topics and subjects that needed that.

o The tone and language used was personable, kind, engaging, and above all respectful and inclusive. It provided links and downloads to great resources to compliment the course.

How the designer paced and assessed the learners

It is rare that I see a course effectively go so deep into explaining such a topic. The top three things that stood out to me were how:

o A logical, compelling, and pragmatic storyline and course sequence was created

o At the start, the designer gave learners a recommendation on a part that could be skipped, depending on the learner’s readiness level (on answering the call to change).

o It engaged me in a scenario, where depending on my own views it would find an opposing dialogue partner for me. Not only great practice element, but thereby also respecting and including my own personal beliefs, biases, and opinions. In other words, it advocated exactly what it was teaching the learner on how to engage in constructive dialogue.

Noticeable visual design strategies and application of CRAP

o Other things I liked were that the images were recognizable and placed in the context of the written text. Initially, I believed it was not too much, and not too little. However, I came back after taking a break from this review and did the course again. My second review was on a day where my energy level is not as high as usual and where I believed it was balanced the first time reviewing, I struggled somewhat this time round due to the amount of text following each other.

o I took a look on what Clark and Mayer (2016) said about the use of visuals and text. I learned that the course used a lot of Decorative and Representational images, and is what I meant with the statement that they were placed in the context of the content. I believe more gain could have been had if more consideration was given to placement and type of the images used. Why?

§ Learners, whilst trying to make sense of material, digest it effectively in a variety or combination of ways. It therefore makes sense to consider how to offer the information. Images can influence the learner’s psychological engagement in a positive manner through fostering deeper cognitive processing in learners. This way, images and text work together to embed the content.

Course 2: Animal Guessing Game (Links to an external site.)

I thought this was cute. I don’t have (biological) children myself and the children I have were beyond this age when I met them. But I can see how this can be a simple and yet fun game to do with a very young audience. I got two wrong myself. I will now forever remember the sound of a duck and the sound of a goat and not mistake them for something else.

Sequence of content and use of the blocks to convey information.

o I liked how the sequence and navigation was consistent and simple

o Not sure for how long this would hold the attention of a child, not having children myself. I believe there would have been an opportunity to group the animals so you could try certain groups more often than others if needed/wanted.

How the designer paced and assessed the learners

o It could be tempting to get all sorts of activity based interactions in, but for the purpose of this game on the whole it was effective and right. I did wonder whether something similar could be achieved with the flashcard items, but

noticed we cannot record audio on those (yet).

o It would have been nice to see a progress bar, especially if you want to try the ones that the child got incorrectly without having to go through the entire game.

Noticeable visual design strategies and application of CRAP

o The animal images were beautifully picked and relevant to the sounds. The contrast, the repetition of the sequence, the alignment and proximity were all there. The overall design was very clean, easy on the eye and the mind.

o I contemplated whether replacing the static images on the reveal section with moving videos with the initial played sound would

be even more fun. But, again, for what it was and said it would do I believe the images served its purpose and extra investment of

moving images probably would not be worth it.

Course 3: Food Allergy Awareness (Links to an external site.)

Another course well planned and enjoyable.

Sequence of content and use of the blocks to convey information.

o The learning intervention provided the learner a comfortable mix of variety in interaction.

o That being said, chapter 5, 6, 7, and 11 all displayed the same interactive elements in them. It was a stark contrast to how

the earlier chapters were organized. It stood out to me because I noticed that my attention was slipping near the end of the

training. Not all 4 need adjusting, but perhaps giving two other chapters (for example 7 and 11) a different interactive element would suffice.

How the designer paced and assessed the learners

o The knowledge check at the start. It helped determine my understanding. It gave feedback on my answer and thereby allowing me to not only already have a good understanding about my entry level on the subject, but also already have some key take-aways, before even starting on the course content.

o What I liked about the scenario was that the tone of voice was friendly and on an equal level. Not condescending, or instructional, but a relaxed engaging dialogue.

o The quiz at the end of the course built on the first quiz in the course and subsequent teachings. This time, having gone through the

training, I could answer them confidently.

Noticeable visual design strategies and application of CRAP

o The visuals used were somewhat appropriate. They were beautiful and related to the topics/content, but I would suggest

finding more images directly related to food allergies to drive down the message. Similar as to the first course that was reviewed: Creating Social Change.

In general across all courses

Strategies that I thought were successful

Key take-aways are that:

o Pretests are generally a good idea when you suspect learners may already have some knowledge on the topic (or think they have). I might use this kind of test in future. It is a good way of gaining the attention of your audience.

o Planning and finding all related systems to ensure you cover all required topics is essential for a quality learning experience. Before designing the course it is key to have a clear understanding who your audience is and what motivates them.

How I could use these strategies in future projects

o The way to incorporate this into my own learning interventions is to give myself sufficient time to walk through planning. The analysis is the most important part of the intervention I think.

o While I go through courses now, I contemplate on the planning journey the designers took. For the above reviewed courses about Food Allergies and Creating Social Change, I have this movie playing in my brain of a spiderweb where all systemic aspects are being plotted while the designer works towards identifying the learning objectives and elements to include.

o In this process, thinking carefully about supporting images and audio/video is important. Text alone, or too many unrelated content will actually hamper the learning.

A lot more can possibly be said about all of these courses, but the above constitute my main take-aways. Share with me what stood out for you.

References

Clark, Ruth C., and Richard E. Mayer. E-Learning and the Science of Instruction : Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central,

Thinking about Planning (and Thinking)

mariola.diawara@wyklearning.com — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 09:38:55 GMT

Planning Instructional Videos: There are no right or wrong approaches, or are there?

TechSmith’s Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instructional Videos

One of the main thrilling things about working in Learning and Development is that I’m constantly exposed to new ways of creating, curating, and distributing content. It makes this line of work so exciting.

One of the joys I’m currently experiencing is that I’m improving my video making skills. As part of my learning journal, I’ve reviewed the TechSmith's Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instruction Videos and want to share with you about what resonated with me.

Let’s dive right in: The most important tips they provided

The team at TechSmith really gave a step-by-step process and other tips and best practices for producing and publishing instructional videos. But what stood out for me the most were the following two:

Just get started and publish. For me, being quality driven, getting started with what I fear to be a sub-par product feels uncomfortable. But, if I let that paralyze me – the video (or training, or job-aid, or survey) will never see the light of day, nor will I ever improve. It is about putting in the miles that will improve the quality over time. Learning from feedback, constructive critique, and simply just starting and not throwing around all the excuses why I’m not quite ready yet. Which leads me to the second most important tip…
Equipment. I used the excuse of equipment to stop me before, but really – over time (after having bought all the equipment) I tend to do a lot with simply my mobile phone and webcam. And it still works. Yes, certain equipment I am grateful to have invested in, like my microphone from Blue Yeti, but on the whole I’m able to produce quite a lot with basic, already available equipment.

How the information in their guide aligns with my initial thoughts about planning a video

Getting to the actual planning of the video, the TechSmith guide aligns pretty good with my own process. I like to think about the audience and what they need to know (and that which they already know that I either should not include or could build on).

The team suggest writing a storyboard , and I typically combine this with the script narrative . I go straight to the script outline and include screenshots or PowerPoint slides in the script to have a clear overview of the sequence of the video.

When it comes to recording narration, I used to approach this different than suggested in this guide. I’ve recorded the actions before as outlined in the script and then added the narration. There would be two issues I would encounter:

I'm needing to speedread due to my actions going quicker than my voice, or be ahead when the actions on the screen are moving a little slower. It would increase my 'ehms' and hesitance in my voice, which subsequently would require a re-record.
Doing it the way I used to could result in different sound quality due to a lot of re-recording, as the recording would also result to be done in 'stages'. Simply by changing your seating position could ultimately change the sound of your voice. I'll share more on this in a later post with some examples.

I’m now seeing the use of first recording, but need to play around with this some more to get it just right. Doing the recording of narration upfront could possible prevent the above issues encountered, but it means the script must be very solid in terms of the sequence. Play around with this yourself and see what order you would find most helpful to your videos.

Planning for me in general

A lot of my planning (now) is focused on audience, content analysis, and settings, tools, and equipment I need to use. Where I needed to improve is ensuring I reserve sufficient time in my schedule for this activity, and ensure the video is the ideal length of time. This would prevent being (generally) overly optimistic around the actual effort required and helps me to reassess the focus (and content) of the video, if needed. Thereby securing that the most important content also has the main focus on the video.

My process for approaching tasks or processes that are unfamiliar to me.

As I mentioned before, I could get paralyzed with inaction when I first started. This I changed with the ‘just get going’ approach, but also meant in the past I would spend too little time planning ahead and then being unprepared for interruptions and challenges. This lack of planning back then would easily double my development time. One piece of advice: “Don’t fall into that trap!”. Yes, certainly do ‘just get started’, but I would suggest you get started by reviewing some easy to follow tutorials and guides. Like following the TechSmith’s guide to creating instructional videos was really helpful to me. If you are using their step-by-step process from day one when creating instructional videos, this will help you be encouraged in the ease of the process and the quality of your first videos.

That's it for now. Hope this was helpful to you. It is always fun to see and hear how you got on with your projects, and what worked and didn't work as expected.

Resources

https://www.techsmith.com/blog/instructional-videos/

Working with Camtasia, storyboards, narration, and closed captions

Sun, 19 Jun 2022 21:25:03 GMT

For OPWL523, I had to create a video using Camtasia. You can find the video here . Below is some more detail on the design process.

Camtasia

I have heard great things about Camtasia, but never had a need for it before. Until I started my OPWL e-learning class. When I downloaded the program it felt very familiar. I have used Win Movie Maker for a few years now, and the interface was very similar. Because I needed this particular tool for a graded project, I decided that rather than just diving in, I would learn to get around the tool first. So I sat through the certification program that is made available through Camtasia. It is something I would recommend everyone doing. It was a time investment at the front that paid itself back when I had to start producing.

What I missed, or haven't found yet, is more elaborate sound editing options (such as minimizing sound, removing sound from audio. Win Movie Maker had great features around this but I have not yet managed to come across these. Let me know if I overlooked it.

Process

Step 1

Accessed and reviewed the materials provided by the instructor and downloaded the resource files.

Step 2

Walked through the process step-by-step, and planned the video using word in a storyboard format

Step 3

After doing some planning, wrote out the script for the video's dialog.

Step 4

Brought all the elements together in TechSmith Camtasia, and produced the video.

Step 5

Captioned the video.

Step 6a

Upload the completed video and the caption file to YouTube.

Storyboarding
I storyboarded this project. It was another investment (timewise) that paid itself back in full. To be honest, I rarely make time for this in working life. Pretty much because I tend to work with rapid e-learning development tools and making a mock-up takes as much time and effort as storyboarding. However, I noticed I struggled in getting the flow together for the video that I was meant to develop and created a storyboard. Divided in two columns, with visual and content representation on the left, and initial narration ideas on the right. The latter quickly moved into full blown narration script. I realized I could use it when taking the step by step approach of recording the video and the narration. The final process of the project - actually recording and producing - took much less time than anticipated this way. With the narration script ready, the closed captions were a breeze.

Narrating
For the narration of the video, I used my Blue Yeti microphone. A good microphone doesn't have to be expensive, but makes all the difference. I am thinking about making a sound box for it, to improve the audio slightly and have it consistent. Now you notice a slight change in sound quality, even though I didn't (to my knowledge) make any changes to my set up. So I have to conclude that by not using a sound box the quality could change depending on how you sit in front of it (slacking/straight posture). I will test this in future projects. I used the cardioid pattern on the microphone and believe that works best.

Having a script (and lubricated vocal cords) are essential to a good recording experience. I would suggest you consider uploading your script onto the dedicated Camtasia feature within the tool. This way you don't have to use paper that can make a sound during recording. Using a tablet or mobile phone would also work, but I prefer using the tool. Also, for this type of work, I try to work with a touchpad instead of a mouse. Microphones pick up any noise.

Then, learn to love your own voice. Thankfully it is not the first time I have done this, and I've gotten used to the sound of my own voice (for newbies, stick with it and you will too). Looking back though, I could talk a little slower in some areas. Also there is a section where there is a slight deviation around on screen action and voice walkthrough (when uploading the dataset and later when checking the mean and median checkboxes), where it is just slightly off my desired alignment. For now I have found it acceptable, but had I had more time I would have fixed that. On the whole I'm content.

Closed captions
Camtasia has an awesome tool for captioning your work. I was dreading doing this work as I thought it would take forever, but it has this feature to synch the script with your audio. Literally done in under 5 minutes. One of the mistakes I made when I began, was that when I uploaded my script I entered a white space for every new sentence. This meant that when I viewed the captions on YouTube the captions would show a text cursor flashing at the next line. So please don't do this. Fixing that took me as long as synching the script.

You have to download the caption file and upload them separately to the video. It was timed already obviously, so not much effort - other than just learning how to do this.

Conclusion on Camtasia

I loved using this tool. I just know I will use this again and again for instructional videos. As I learn this tool, I will keep you posted on extra features I have discovered. Again, I really value their hands on certification training. It speeds up getting through the learning curve and getting familiarized with the functionalities.

In closing: other useful resources

For this assignment we used Camtasia, a non-linear video editor. Camtasia is geared predominantly towards screencasting. For more advanced video editing there are better suited options. These are described in below article:

6 Best Non-Linear Video Editors, and What Exactly NLE Means (videosoftdev.com)

In class we were given exposure to DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic Design. It was chosen as 'Tool of the week' and is used by a variety of video-editing professionals. My professor (Rafael Da Silva) explained how it has been used to edit films like Deadpool 2, Jurassic World, Sicario, and Solo: A Star Wars Story (Links to an external site.) . He went on to explain that while you can upgrade DaVinci Resolve to DaVinci Resolve Studio for a modest cost, when it comes to producing instructional video, there’s virtually no reason to do so.

I have downloaded and installed DaVinci Resolve on my machine and will definitely play around with it to increase the depth of my video editing skills in the near future, and I will certainly let you know how my experiments go with this tool.

Learning out Loud

Taking care of my audience

Learner Centered through Personas

Building the audience profile

The Learner: When you know, you Knowles!

1. Self Concept

2. Experience

3. Readiness to Learn

4. Problem Centered Orientation to Learning

5. Internal Motivation

6. Need to know

Make the right design choices through personas

﻿ References:

Enough about culture...

Let’s fix the problem!

What is culture?

The risk in getting on with it

Leading with culture

6 Steps to maximize your culture and learning relationship

Imagine the impact

References:

Things that made me go: Aha!

Video, we really do need more instructional videos.

Things that make me go: Hmmm....

She said what?!

The future of video

Developments I expect to happen in the next 20 years

Evaluating courses on Rise

Reviewing and critiquing other courses in order to enhance my own design skills

Thinking about Planning (and Thinking)

Planning Instructional Videos: There are no right or wrong approaches, or are there?

Working with Camtasia, storyboards, narration, and closed captions

References: