Use E-Learning Tools to Build Doorways to the World

MP3 audio for a Podcast

With all the excitement around Podcasts, have you considered using your synchronous delivery tool to capture audio for Podcast content?

For example, using the capabilities of your synchronous tool, you may already have all you need in order to provide 10-minute MP3 audio files that learners can download directly from your e-Learning Portal. This isn’t new content to develop, it already exists. All you need to do is repackage it and offer it in an MP3 format. Learners can “choose” which reference materials they need throughout the course and download those files that meet their unique needs.

After all, Podcasts are just MP3 audio files. Let the learner figure out which device to use for listening (iPod, MP3 player, PDA, desktop computer, or burn them to an audio CD for playback during their commute). Your synchronous tool probably provides a simple means for capturing interviews and stories from your experts.

The quality will not be as high as it would have been if you used Skype, or other recording methods, but this method is the simplest for your experts. They are not required to install anything new on their computers (which is often a policy or support problem for your IT department), or to travel to meet with you in person. If you’re only capturing audio, this is simply a phone call for your expert since they won’t need to log on to Live Meeting to share any visuals.

There are many great audio editors available. Audacity, for example, makes it easy to edit a conversation, and to add in an intro and closing by a host or narrator. By making the capture of the conversation painless for your experts, they’ll be more willing to assist you and you’ll be able to capture more relevant information in a timely manner to deliver to your audience, just-in-time.

MP3 audio clips for e-Learning

What about grabbing key statements and stories directly from synchronous recordings to use in your e-Learning script? No matter how great your script is, people love to hear from the experts and have a story or example to relate the concepts to what that means once they’re back on the job. Therefore, instead of spending time writing a relevant example or story, you simply go talk to one of the experts and capture their best practices. Use audio clips from your conversation with the expert within your e-Learning script. For example, the narrator or facilitator of your module can introduce key concepts and then introduce the expert to provide additional insight. Another benefit of using this technique is that you’ve introduced another “voice” to your e-Learning which can help capture your learner’s attention and make the e-Learning more engaging and relevant.

Video clips to quickly capture software simulation

If you have time, Adobe Captivate and TechSmith Camtasia Studio are excellent tools for capturing software navigation and adding user interactions. However, what if the module needs to go out tomorrow? Sure, you could simply get your SME online, record the synchronous event, and publish it. However, this provides few opportunities for learners to explore and test their understanding. How about taking the Windows Media Video (.wmv) file of the recorded event and editing it into smaller pieces that you incorporate throughout your e-Learning? Using this technique, you are able to introduce the concepts you are demonstrating and add user interactions and knowledge checks to validate understanding. Sidebar 1 gives you a quick tip on breaking Windows Media Video files apart for editing.

The power here is that you capture information, conversations and demonstrations once and then have a variety of ways in which to use the material — it all is up to you and how creative you can be.

Don’t underestimate the power of water cooler conversations

With the amount of time people are spending commuting to work and traveling for business, learning and performance organizations need to leverage the new communication medium available in popular MP3 players. But how do you blend mobile learning (m-Learning) events into your curriculum? Audio training has been around forever, so why aren’t we any better at designing learning material for this medium? Apparently, we’re still behind the wheel of the Oldsmobile.

Is m-Learning a tool that we can use to address the 80% of learning that occurs informally, regardless of what we develop? With the amount of information we encounter, along with the warp speed of business, m-Learning may be the perfect method to capture the collective intelligence that exists within organizations. If you consider how long a typical e-Learning course takes to develop, even using rapid e-Learning tools, you can understand why some content never makes it into the course. Think about upkeep and maintenance. You want to update your sales reps on the latest competitive information and positioning, but is e-Learning the best delivery method? Probably not. However, it is very simple to capture key conversations with associates that have just won a deal and to share the details of how they won the deal, if you plan to deliver this content via m-Learning

Are you gathering stories from your audience and SMEs when building an e-Learning script so that you can weave these stories throughout the material? When you explain abstract facts and concepts within a realistic context, in a story that learners find authentic and credible, it is easier for learners to see the relevance of the new information and how they might use it on the job.

In his book, Tell me a Story, Roger Schank suggests, “We can tell people abstract rules of thumb which we have derived from prior experiences, but it is very difficult for other people to learn from these. We have difficulty remembering such abstractions, but we can more easily remember a good story.” He later adds, “People who fail to couch what they have to say in memorable stories will have their rules fall on deaf ears despite their best intentions and despite the best intentions of their listeners. A good teacher is not one who explains things correctly but one who couches explanations in a memorable (i.e., an interesting) format.”

Where can you find the best company “war stories?” In those informal conversations that associates share over lunch or after hours at a dinner or networking event, that’s where. These stories are often about the unofficial procedures that are not in the company training or procedure manuals. When designing content for your e-Learning, interview as many experts as you can to uncover their stories of the innovative ways they have been able to get their job done, or, to uncover any mistakes they may have made along with some tips on how to avoid them. Stories about the mistakes are often the best ones! (See Sidebar 2.)

No matter what the delivery method, the strength of any e-Learning or m-Learning resource is in the initial design and script. The challenge is to step up and write a script that grabs the learner’s attention and keeps them engaged. People want to know from the beginning — what’s in this for me? Why do I care? With the demands on their time, learners need to understand immediately what value they’ll receive by completing the e-Learning. It is all about marketing once you launch a course. Unfortunately, we continue to jump back into that Oldsmobile and tell our learners our objectives for the course. You need to gain the learner’s buy-in from the very beginning and make the content relevant via examples and stories.

Conclusion

This is a good place to stop — where the development process begins, the script. No matter what technology you use, and how far out of the box you go with it, success comes down to the strength of your script. Think of the television shows you watch each week. Why do you watch? Why is one show so much better than another? It is the strengths and talents of the writing staff that differentiate one show from another. Everything builds from the script — the navigation, the graphics, the animations, the Flash interactions, etc. Once you have your script, what type of e-Learning will you develop — a room, or a learning portal?

We can use rapid e-Learning tools, forums, chat rooms, blogs, and wikis (just to name a few) to begin building these gateways to learning. It just takes changing our perspective and designing these wonderful new tools into our learning curriculum. The technology is there, they’ve built it specifically for us to come and play the game. However, we need to challenge ourselves to get out of that comfortable Oldsmobile and try something new, something different, and stop trying to make these amazing new tools fit into our old ways of design and development.

So, you can either go back to the good old Oldsmobile and keep designing “rooms,” or you can take a turn around the track with Jeff and begin pushing the limits of your e-Learning design and your imagination!

References

Cross, Jay. Informal Learning. (2006) Internet Time Group, LLC: Berkeley, California. Schank, Roger. Tell Me A Story. (1995) Northwestern University Press: Evanston, Illinois.

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