Learn. Show. Repeat.

Tag: e-learning

  • Happy New Year!

    Another year begins.

    A fresh start.

    A new page.

    I’ve always liked this time of year because it feels like so much is possible. Looking back and last year is done and like the years before we can’t change what has happened. The past is in the past as they say. But this year is just getting started and I’m feeling optimistic about the coming year because to a large extent what I want the year to be is up to me.

    Last year was a quiet one for me on the blogging and sharing front (I’m feeling rusty writing this post). This was partly due to having a young child which brings about a shift in priorities in a good way. The need for sleep becomes way more important. Despite this, I tried to stay in touch with the happenings in the learning field when I could by reading articles/posts and listening to podcasts here and there. There still seems to be a lot of people talking about what L&D needs to do, with far fewer sharing the how.

    My other reason for less blogging was that I felt flat, lacked motivation and that I’d lost my purpose for writing. I was tired of the constant content focus in learning – the course as the default. I was tired of creating eLearning content dumps where more meaningless interactivity was the goal. Unfortunately, the content design approach is still widespread and as a result we’ve conditioned stakeholders, SME’s, clients and decision makers that this is what we do. The people that suffer are those taking the modules.

    I’ve said before that our role is to support the people in our organisations who do the actual work. Working in learning presents an opportunity to get closer to our organisations and find out what people do, how they do it and what their challenges are. Then we’ll be better placed to offer solutions and experiences that have real impact rather than focusing on the number of objects we produce.

    Nothing will change if we keep doing the same thing. So that’s my goal for this year, to do things differently, evolve my practice and to reflect and share via this blog.

    Happy 2019!

    Image source: Canva

  • Looking Back at 2017

    As the end of another year approaches, I like many bloggers look back on the year that was. It’s been a quieter year on the blogging front for me as my wife and I welcomed the birth of our first child in May, a beautiful baby girl – Eva Rose – who has kept us busy and we’re learning lots!

    Here’s all of my 2017 posts (select a title to read):

    10 Blogs Every eLearning Professional Should Read

    Working with Images in eLearning (part 1)

    Working with Images in eLearning (part 2)

    Valuing all Sources of Learning

    Accessing Curated Content – Experimenting with Rise

    Learning and Development: You Have One Job

    Letter to an eLearning Creator (this was my most popular post EVER!)

    Response from an eLearning Creator

    Sharpening Your Axe

    A Little Help from Your Friends

    I also spent time creating more Storyline tutorials (which now stand at 38).

    Thanks for reading and all the best for the festive season from my family to yours! Catch you in 2018!

  • A Little Help from Your Friends

    I’m an advocate for continual skill development especially for people working in eLearning. Thankfully there’s lots of folks in this field who generously share their knowledge and expertise through blog posts or YouTube videos or articles or podcasts or books and make it available to everyone. While I do read widely and watch online tutorials, it’s through deliberate practice that we become better at whatever it is that we do. But lately I haven’t been making the time for practice and trying out these ideas and techniques myself.

    A few weeks ago, I decided to create some new Storyline demos (which you can see in the Samples tab or click on the images below). They are inspired by folks from the eLearning community through them sharing some of what they know. While there are many people who benefit from the expertise shared by others, I’ve noticed that the number who acknowledge this or thank them is much, much lower and at times I’m also guilty of this. So, I want to change that and show my appreciation to the people who have helped me create my new demos.I’m an advocate for continual skill development especially for people working in the eLearning field.

    [vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”4826″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://www.mattguyan.com/portfolio/onboarding/story.html” css=”.vc_custom_1511848183290{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1511862868993{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”]A little while ago, Ryan Martin, of Broken Co-Worker fame, shared a blog post about how he sets up his modules in Articulate Storyline and how he created an introduction piece to a module he referred to as ‘Onboarding’. It was simple yet effective and I combined this with some tips I picked up in an Articulate Live webinar about animations, delivered by Tom Kuhlmann to create my own intro piece.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”4827″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” css=”.vc_custom_1511848588034{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}” link=”https://www.mattguyan.com/portfolio/pristyle/story.html”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1511849937665{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”]In the same post Ryan, referred to creating a quiz based on the app Google Primer. I already had this app and I recreated a similar style in this sample about Beer and Food Matching.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”4828″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://www.mattguyan.com/portfolio/quiz/story.html” css=”.vc_custom_1511849466927{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1511850056600{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”]I find that many eLearning quizzes look the same, so I wanted to create something different. For this, I used the Free-Form question slide in Storyline. I also wanted to create a custom result slide that had elements of data visualisation. I had seen a YouTube clip from Alexander Salas that showed the percentage score count up to the result. The content for this demo came from an old blog post by Cathy Moore that’s all about multiple choice questions.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”4847″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://www.mattguyan.com/portfolio/typography/story.html” css=”.vc_custom_1511849478174{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1511850641862{padding-right: 5px !important;padding-left: 5px !important;}”]If you haven’t seen any of the YouTube clips from David Charney, you should check them out. He shared one that showed how to create an expanding panel in Storyline that I thought was cool the first time I saw it. I finally gave it a try in this sample, the difference being that placed interactions on the expanded panels.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]While it’s good to read (and watch) widely, you learn so much more by jumping in and trying things for yourself. There are lots of people who ‘Show their Work’ and if you come across a helpful blog post or video – like it, share it, leave a comment or even better drop the author a note to let them know it was helpful.

    A big thank-you to Ryan, Tom, Alexander, Cathy and David for sharing what you know with the world![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

    friends

    Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash

  • Sharpening Your Axe

    There was a woodcutter. He used to work incredibly hard to ensure a good livelihood, but he always felt that his work was not giving him enough output. Every day he would decide to work harder and longer, but at the end of the day he would find his pile of wood smaller than the previous day.

    One day, when he was busy as usual, he noticed a bigger pile of logs with a woodcutter sitting next to it. He asked, “How can you have a bigger pile than me in less time, and how can you relax so early in the day?”

    The other woodcutter replied, “I take time off to sharpen my axe.

    Pile of logs

    I first read this story in a blog post by Ryan Tracey and it’s stuck with me ever since. In Ryan’s post, he talks of manager’s not giving their teams time to ‘sharpen their axes’ and how this is a short-sighted approach. However, whilst I agree with his view, I also believe that all eLearning ‘woodcutters’ should find the time for sharpening rather than waiting for our workplaces to give us the time. In our field, it’s important for us to sharpen our axes to not only be more productive but to be better practitioners.

    Most people – if not all – transition into the (e)Learning field and while there are many creating eLearning, only a small few actually do it well. If you pick up a guitar and strum the strings you’ll hear sound. But there’s a big difference between producing sound from an instrument and producing music. Creating eLearning is no different in that there’s a big difference between creating an interactive content dump and something that has impact and helps people to perform better.

    Generally speaking, eLearning has a poor reputation for being an effective solution for workplace learning. One of the reasons for this is that anyone can buy an authoring tool, maybe complete a course in how to use it, watch some tutorials and then call themselves a developer. However, the tools in trying to make eLearning creation easier, have unintentionally created a false sense of competence in many users. By this I mean that just because someone can easily insert some text and pictures and interactive objects into a tool and then click a few buttons to convert it into a SCORM file for uploading to an LMS doesn’t mean that they can really create useful, meaningful eLearning. Using an authoring tool and an LMS is a start but there’s many more skills required.

    Everyone is busy and many people believe they don’t need to improve (or don’t realise they need to) because they can already do it but it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s up to all of us to DO something regularly to hone our skills. The only people who can improve our industry are those working in it – you and me. So, what can you do to sharpen your eLearning axe?

    Here’s some ideas:

    Firstly, spend some time reflecting and note the areas that you’d like to improve. If you don’t have any areas for improvement, look for ways to share your expertise with others.

    Join an association such as The eLearning Guild, The Learning and Performance Institute or Australian Institute of Training and Development.

    Read some blogs, here’s some suggestions.

    Listen to podcasts, check these ones out.

    Read some books, here’s some of my favourites.

    Join a community such as E-Learning Heroes.

    Connect with other practitioners on social media – LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Facebook.

    Attend a conference.

    Join a Meet-up group in your area Third Place and IDeLers (if you’re in Australia)

    The important thing is to do something regularly, actively and make it a habit. If you look at anyone who is good at what they do regardless of their field, they continually develop themselves. We should be no different.

    What do you do to sharpen your axe?

    Image source: Morguefile

  • Response from an eLearning Creator

    Dear Engaged Learner,

    Thank-you for your letter and my apologies for the delay in replying. I receive so many from engaged learners like you that it takes me a little while to respond but it always warms the cockles of my heart to read them.

    I’m so pleased to read that you were engaged during the course but I honestly can’t take all the credit. You see, my colleagues and I usually receive a request for some training when there’s a real or imagined issue or when the legal or safety teams say it needs to be done. We don’t dig to deeply to find out more because it’s always a knowledge gap and creating courses full of information is always the most effective solution. Plus, it’s what we’re known for! Our motto here in the creation team is “if we build it, they will learn”.

    When I develop a course, I work with people who have expertise in the field called subject matter experts (or SME for short and is pronounced smee). But they are so much more than that as they are usually experienced writers, graphic designers, assessors and learning theorists. Even though I have many years of experience, multiple degrees and diplomas in Adult Education and Multimedia and Educational Psychology, write for numerous online publications and actively participate in the eLearning community I still don’t know as much as they do about online learning. They’re so amazing! The SME’s also like to change their minds a lot and they always want to add just a little more content to the course which is quite ok with me because they know best and it always makes the courses better.

    The Communications and Marketing area also deserve a pat on the back for supplying us with the 153-page branding guideline document that spells out the exact colours and fonts to be used as well as the layout and crucial logo information (size, position and inclusion throughout). These things make such a significant contribution to learning but more importantly, it makes the courses look like everything else that’s produced by every other department in the organisation. This will ensure we don’t cause panic among people who won’t know where they are or who produced the course and also keeps them engaged.

    Even though most people use computers and the internet for work and at home and have done for many years without instruction they may not know how to navigate through our courses. Which is why we include the navigation help in every course (even if they are the same). Also, having people think for themselves in online learning is dangerous so it’s much easier if they are always controlled which is why I don’t let people skip anything. As you mentioned, you didn’t want to miss anything which is great because you need to read all of it to learn.

    I’m happy that you liked how I jazzed up the course as the content was dull so it seems like I was able to engage you and at the same time show you how clever I am. There is some well-known and much-loved “science” behind it though. The use of audio to read screen text, images on every screen and lots of clicking, dragging and hovering is because I’m catering for different learning styles, such as seers and listeners and touchies. There’s over 70 learning style models that we use and we manage to have something in there for all of them! This helps people to learn much more effectively and guides many creators here and around the world to produce engaging learning experiences.

    I’m so glad that you enjoyed the game show knowledge check! For the next module (and please keep this a secret) you’ll be a knight that goes on a quest. Along the way you’ll come across a series of dragons who’ll ask you questions and if you choose the right answer you’ll slay the dragon! It’s going to be so much fun and so engaging. You’ll be able to print a certificate for this one to add to your collection. I often look fondly on the ones I’ve accumulated over the years.

    Well, while I may never meet you, I’m easy to find. Just look for the tower made from the finest ivory and that’s where I’ll be along with the rest of the learning and development team working on our next engaging course so that people will know more stuff.

    Signed,
    The Senior Head Specialist Consulting Advisor in Instructional Learning Architecture Design and Creator of Engaging Knowledge Development Solutions for Organisational Capability.

    Image source: morgueFile.com