How to Build Interactions

The traditional, skill-based approach

Traditionally, companies have used the skill-based, team approach to build complex, custom eLearning scenarios. A skill-based team consists of an instructional designer, a graphic artist, and a programmer/ developer who all work together to create eLearning courses and interactions. Let’s look at an example of how the team approach is applied when building a course with interactive animations.

An organization needs a new course to teach employees the importance of security. The instructional designer designs the course; the team then comes together and identifies content areas where they would like to build some interactivity. The instructional designer wants a series of simulated situations with images and text and an assessment with audio/visual questions to evaluate learners. The team visualizes and designs how the interactions will work. The final step has the developer build in the interactions. At the end of the process the instructional designer uses an authoring tool, such as Captivate or Articulate, to combine the custom-created interactions—with content, graphics, and media—and turns it into a complete course.

The rapid, interactivity tool approach

On the other hand, in some companies the eLearning development group is small and solely consists of instructional designers. In this case, the instructional designers have to rely on rapid development software tools to build their eLearning courses. One such tool is an “interactivity builder,” which enables designers to build interactivity into their courses. An interactivity builder has a library of pre-built interactions, which users can view and use in existing eLearning courses. To use this tool, a user selects an interaction design template, inputs content and media, publishes the finished interaction in the desired format, and inserts it into eLearning content using an authoring tool or just plain PowerPoint.

Many companies with smaller training groups are using these tools more and more to add interactivity into their eLearning, especially when considering the costs of custom-built eLearning solutions. Interactivity builder tools can save time and programming effort that would otherwise be required to custom develop each interaction. These tools are created with reuse in mind, making them cost effective.

Here is an example of how an instructional designer would use an interactivity builder: An organization needs a new course to teach employees the importance of security.  The instructional designer works with the security team to define the learning objectives. The designer creates the content and decides to include three interactions in the course. Browsing the interactivity builder library, the designer chooses a simulated situation template with images and text and an assessment with audio/visual questions. The customized template includes the designer’s own content and media assets. The final step is to import the interactions into the authoring tool. The designer then builds the rest of the course.

Interactivity Building Tradeoffs

As you can see, the two methods of creating interactions are very different. Each may be the appropriate choice, depending on circumstances. Below is a list of tradeoffs and advantages for using either a skill-based team or an interactivity builder to create interactions.

Tradeoffs using a skill-based team:

• Resources. If you have a team in place, great! Unfortunately, not all companies keep a diverse training team onsite. If you go with this option, you will spend time reviewing and hiring trained professionals and maintaining the larger team.
• Time. Designing and developing custom interactions is a very time consuming process and can take months.
• Cost. Building and testing interactions requires a lot of development time, which adds more expense.
• Less or no interactivity. When teams are short staffed or working against tight deadlines, they often find themselves focusing on just getting the course done and out the door, thereby eliminating interactivity that may enhance learning. This is a huge risk because interactivity is too important to omit.

Advantages using a skill-based team:

• Custom designs. Working together, the team can create a fresh, new design.
• Custom design variety. The developer can create a variety of custom interactions to build interest.
• Flexibility and control. For interactions that are very specific to the course or type of training, a skill-based approach provides more flexibility and control in terms of the functionality. (For example, the U.S. Army needs a customized decision-making scenario to look like a graphic novel, which will be used to strengthen cross-cultural and peacekeeping skills.)

Tradeoffs using a rapid interactivity builder:

• Less control and flexibility. The interactions are pre-built as compared to programming custom interactions. Although a great deal of customization capability is built in, when compared to using a programming language for custom developing to specifications, it may appear limited.

Advantages using a rapid interactivity builder:

• Time. Less time is spent developing interactions, therefore the developer can focus time on building custom technical pieces for the course website.
• Cost. Lower development costs mean a large staff is not needed and, generally, courses are developed more quickly.
• Reuse. The interaction design templates can be easily reused and customized to suit your content
• Productivity. Team productivity increases. Subject matter experts and instructional designers can create an interaction and insert it themselves.

What’s the Answer?

Quality interactions are essential to engage learners. However, how you create them depends on your resources, budget, time, or need for a custom scenario. A skill-based team may be appropriate, if you have the resources and your company requires custom-build interactions. However, as often times is the case, if you have limited resources but need interactivity in your courses, then an interactivity builder is a good choice; it enables you to do more with less.

This is a guest post by Janhavi Padture on behalf of Harbinger Group.  Janhavi has more than 17 years experience in the information technology field with a focus on web development, project management and marketing. At Harbinger, Janhavi has been involved in strategy, marketing, CRM and new product initiatives including Raptivity®, YawnBuster®, and TeemingPod®. Janhavi has spoken at various industry conferences (and local groups on topics pertaining to online learning. Janhavi holds a master’s degree in computer science and an MBA.

Technology has always played a major part in education, beginning with computers supporting groundbreaking research at universities.  Later, desktop computers arrived in our schools and in our homes.  Now, mobile phones and tablet computers are used by individuals of all ages for educational purposes. Below are five of the best devices available on the market today for mobile learning.

#1 – Apple iPhone

Did you know that the iPhone (and other mobile smart phones) have more processing power than the computers used by NASA on their Lunar Missions?

NASA Lunar Mission Computer. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Presently, there are thousands of educational apps for the iPhone that let users of all ages learn all sorts of things. ITunes U, one of the now standard Apple applications, which is used at more than 1,200 colleges, allows students to access textbooks, course material, videos, and more for each class.

In addition to university level courses being accessible via the iPhone, there are apps designed to help toddlers learn their shapes and colors, which are used daily by little ones holding their parents phones.

#2 – Apple iPad

Like the iPhone, the iPad has access to thousands of educational apps, iTunes U, and a mobile browser that lets individuals connect to the endless information on the Internet.  But the iPad also has some advanced learning opportunities.

Apple has released software, iBook Authoring, that has allowed experts of all subjects to create amazing interactive books, which can be downloaded to the iPad.  Some of these books can help people learn computer programming languages, new spoken languages, or even how to improve online marketing efforts.

#3 –- Samsung Galaxy Note 10

Having one of the largest screens in the tablet market, make this a great device for learning.  The Galaxy Note 10 comes equipped with a front facing camera for real-time collaboration and rear facing camera which can assist someone with limited vision to point and shoot video and pictures.

One of the keys features that separate this device from the rest is the use of the S Pen, which gives the function of pen and paper on the large display —great for taking notes in class or even jotting down your ideas and theories while on the go.  When integrating this technology with Samsung’s Smart School solution, this allows for a truly interactive experience.

The Samsung School solution enables teachers to instantly share screen content from tablet or PC screens to an E-board and students’ personal devices— teachers have a high level of control while increasing student engagement.

#4 – Google Nexus 7

The screen on the Nexus 7 is a bit smaller than most tablets at just 7 Inches, but the price of this powerful device makes it great for educational institutions and eLearners. Unfortunately, this device only has a front facing camera, which limits its ability to conference with others for learning discussion and interaction.

It includes built in Google technology for easy and quick access to the world’s information and it also supports Google Now, which learns with its user to display the most important information at just the right time. For eLearners, Google now can deliver up to date research, control scheduling, and help manage your day.

#5 – Kindle Fire HD

This device is geared towards content more than apps, which makes it a great device for textbooks, educational movies, and access to educational PDFs. This is the least expensive tablet on the market and Amazon has been selling them at bulk discounts to schools across the country.  Additionally, Amazon’s Whispercast service allows easy management of fleets of Kindle devices.

The Wispercast service is a central management system that operates similar to a server; providing a gateway for Internet service, managing user names and passwords, and controlling content access.

Many trials are running in schools in Florida and Texas, so we shall see where Amazon takes this.  For a basic tablet that gets rid of all those bulky textbooks, this is the one you want.

We have incredibly powerful devices in our hands every day, which are prefect for mobile learning.  Find the device that works for you and your needs and start learning while on the go today.

This is a guest post by Bryan Baker.  Bryan works with LeanForward, a mobile learning company.

Rather than thinking about training as just a course, webinar or job aid, think of it as the ongoing process of making micro-adjustments to employee performance—and more importantly, it’s the process of curating and providing the resources for employees to improve their own performance over time. Training needs to be a comprehensive approach to personal development that includes mentorship, connection to training content, opportunities to share and discuss the material with colleagues, and resources for self-directed learning.

Make Learning a Career-Long Priority

Supporting life-long learning in your organization means widening your gaze from specific problem solving to creating a culture that supports learning and sharing. Here are a few steps for getting started.

Recognize learning. Make sure your organization does more than give employees a pat on the back or a certificate for learning new skills. A commitment to learning new skills should be matched by a commitment to giving them opportunities to grow on the job and take on more responsibility.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. When an employee takes on new responsibilities, build in multiple opportunities for the employee to check in with the content expert or manager on this skill. Research reveals that people retain information better if they are reintroduced to it several times, so make that part of your process. Consider using technology tools to automate sending content refreshers to employees to help promote application and integration of new skills.

Another great way to turn a learner into an expert is to challenge them to teach the material or concept to someone else. This is also a great way to promote information sharing and communication.

Make content and conversation available. “Content curation” may sound like a fad, but it’s more than that. As content migrates online, training and learning managers have an essential role as curators—librarians of institutional knowledge. Part of making sure that training is not just a one-time event is making sure that employees have the access to the resources they will need to refresh their understanding, access new resources and engage with their colleagues. Performance support groups, internal wikis and social networks are other great ways to support the implementation of new skills and abilities over time.

In conclusion, take this series of posts on the most common mistakes in training as an opportunity to take a good look at what your organization is doing and what you can do better. Many of these changes don’t require big budgets—just thoughtful evaluation of how to make improvements to your existing workflow. More suggestions? Join in the comments.

About the Author

Kelly Meeker is the Community Manager at OpenSesame, the elearning content marketplace, where she creates, curates and shares with the learning and development community. Find her on her blog at www.OpenSesame.com/blog, on Twitter (@OpenSesame) or at kelly.meeker@opensesame.com.

Diagram copyright Bozarth, Jane (2008) From Analysis to Evaluation: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Trainers. San Francisco: Pfeiffer. This material is reproduced with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

When you have a disengaged employee, internal obstacles, or simply an unqualified employee, attacking the problem with a training-related solution will be ineffective. The solution to performance problems is not always reinforcing techniques or processes employees may already understand. The best solution may require deeper analysis of business processes to improve, simplify, or add resources—or to find a more qualified employee.

Understanding and Addressing Performance Problems

If you’re working with a manager to address a structural or performance issue, there are a few steps you should take to assess the problem.

• Job shadowing. If the performance problems affect a wide swath of employees, spend a few days with them. Keep an open mind, ask a lot of questions and take the time to understand how processes work currently before you make recommendations or develop training resources. Talking with a broad group of employees will give you a better sense of which challenges are rooted in personal issues, and which challenges are the result of ineffective processes.

• You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion. Often, training managers play the role of group therapist. Sometimes, managers impose their vision of “what’s wrong” onto a situation. Other times, simple communication breakdowns turn into bigger problems. It’s your role to unearth the root causes of performance and structural problems by bringing together diverse perspectives, and approaching the problem with an open mind.

• Use technology tools. Start by using technology tools to gather data and collect feedback. Making data-driven decisions will help balance out individual decision-makers and promote good action plans. Explore tools like Tableau (for data visualization) to see what performance gaps may map to weak points in your overall organizational performance. For example, if you map your company’s sales cycle, can you see where customers drop out the most? Can you address that weakness with training or more resources?Use technology tools to assess where your employees are looking for help. What questions are most popular in internal social networks? Can Google Analytics tell you what resources employees are accessing most in your learning management system?As you move into solution design, technology tools like internal and external social networks are a fabulous resource for enabling easier communication and performance support. A culture of communication and sharing will go a long ways towards interrupting performance problems before they develop.

Training managers who are integrated in the business process from start to finish are prepared not only to design and manage excellent training programs, but also to recognize when the answer isn’t training and to make a useful recommendation to leadership.

About the Author

Kelly Meeker is the Community Manager at OpenSesame, the elearning content marketplace, where she creates, curates and shares with the learning and development community. Find her on her blog at www.OpenSesame.com/blog, on Twitter (@OpenSesame) or at kelly.meeker@opensesame.com.

You don’t want to disregard this gut feeling entirely. Having a good working relationship with the people you’re going to deal with on a day-to-day basis is crucial to the overall success of your training program. Unfortunately, the salesperson is typically not the individual you end up partnering up with once you’ve signed a contract. Instead, you find yourself dealing with sales engineers or customer service representatives.

This is fine if you love the product or service you’ve purchased, but if you find yourself having trouble justifying the purchase seconds after your superstar salesperson has stepped out of the boardroom, you may want to reconsider what aspect of the product or service actually impresses you. Here are our recommendations for making a decision based on the needs of your learners, and not on your social preferences.

How to Make the Right Purchasing Decision

• Make a list. Before you step into any sales meeting, you should have articulated a precise list of needs. Be sure to think critically about how those different needs affect different people in your organization, and which needs are most important. When you come into a meeting equipped with this list, you can easily determine which products or services are a good fit based on their features rather than the face attached to them.
• Check it twice. Both before and after your initial meeting with a salesperson, you should take the time to get to know their product or service on your own. Detaching your own perception of the product or service in question from the influence of the salesperson will help you gain clarity. If you’re considering purchasing a technology product, get a demo or trial license and use it.
• Don’t go it alone. Test it out yourself, and invite other people in your organization to review different options. You may be rooting for one product that works best for you, but you’ll need participation from a cross-section of the eventual users to make the right decision.
• Beware the workarounds. A salesperson addressing your specific needs with suggested workarounds may be a red flag. If a service is appropriate for your organization’s needs, workarounds should be minimal. Make sure you understand how much you’re compromising your needs before you sign on the dotted line. When you decide to purchase from a company with their promise that they’ll implement a set of workarounds, hold them to it and get the salesperson involved if necessary.
• Check out cloud tools. Most software tools are now available as cloud services. If your company’s security and firewall settings will allow it, you’ll save administrative and support efforts by using cloud tools. You’ll be able to rely on the vendor to keep your version of the software up-to-date, reduce server costs and have more flexible access to the resources. This includes elearning authoring tools—the Adobe Creative Suite, Articulate and other popular tools are now available as cloud subscriptions.

Technology tools are a great way to expand the reach of your training programs, but since you often need to make long-term decisions when purchasing technology tools, take the time to get it right.

About the Author

Kelly Meeker is the Community Manager at OpenSesame, the elearning content marketplace, where she creates, curates and shares with the learning and development community. Find her on her blog at www.OpenSesame.com/blog, on Twitter (@OpenSesame) or at kelly.meeker@opensesame.com.

The onboarding process is an exciting period for new hires and the organization alike. Everyone’s excited to get to work—and managers are often too quick to end the training phase because they want to get back to their own work.

As a result, organizations rush or even skip the onboarding process, in favor of more pressing tasks. But onboarding sets the tone for an employee’s relationship with the organization, and it’s essential to get it right. The first months of a new employer-employee relationship are a key opportunity to ensure the new employee understands not only their role in the organization, but the context of their role.

Furthermore, good onboarding helps new employees both embrace and exhibit your company culture. Take the time to cement these ideas early, before you are stuck coping with overwhelmed, underprepared and confused new hires.

Here are the essential first steps for designing your onboarding program.

Recommendations for Creating an Exceptional Onboarding Program

●      What are your assumptions? Before you shake your new employee’s hand on their first day, take a step back and take a critical look at your organization and your onboarding program. Too often, employers shift directly into training an employee for their specific roles and responsibilities without introducing them to the organization at large.

When you greet your new employee on the first day, you embody the organization’s attitude towards their team members. You want to make sure you’re starting with a discussion of the organization’s mission and vision, moving on to the goals for this position, and discussing how they fit into the big picture.

●      Organize institutional knowledge. As the training manager, it’s your role to ensure new employees have the resources they need to get started effectively. That means ensuring that resources are not simply in your brain or in other employees’ brains: Everything needs to be online, and not simply in blocks of unorganized Word documents. This is the time to start organizing your institutional knowledge (whether in your learning management system or using another internal website), so that new employees are not reinventing the wheel. Think of yourself as the company librarian, who focuses on making sure the resources are curated, well-organized and up-to-date.

●      Make the time. As the training manager, not only should you invest a significant amount of time in managing a new employee’s first several weeks of employment—you need to make sure their direct supervisors and peers do the same. Taking the time upfront to ensure that they understand the company’s goals and what they’re expected to accomplish will prevent early miscommunications from snowballing into larger problems down the road.

Specifically, create a sample “new employee” calendar that managers can use to plan a new employee’s experience.

●      Get personal. Provide new employees with the opportunity to develop both professional and social relationships with co-workers. Fostering these different relationships—friends, allies, mentors, etc—is crucial for creating a workplace where new employees feel comfortable. Healthy workplace relationships help employees —newbies and veterans alike—enjoy spending time at work, stay motivated, and know where to turn with a question.

Remember that creating an effective onboarding program is an investment. The time you spend fine-tuning your onboarding program will save you time that you would otherwise spend correcting employees in the future. Share your successful onboarding examples in the comments!

About the Author

Kelly Meeker is the Community Manager at OpenSesame, the elearning content marketplace, where she creates, curates and shares with the learning and development community. Find her on her blog at www.OpenSesame.com/blog, on Twitter (@OpenSesame) or at kelly.meeker@opensesame.com.

As readers of this blog are well aware, a lot of thought and effort goes into optimizing training programs, which means there are many opportunities for things to go wrong.

In this series, we will take a close look at four common mistakes that organizations of all sizes make when creating training programs. We’ll also look at solutions for these problems and strategies for eliminating them outright.

The Four Most Common Mistakes in Training
When we asked our Twitter followers what training blunders they commonly ran into, we received many insightful responses. We’ve combined the thoughts of these elearning professionals with our own field-tested insights and came up with the following four mistakes:

1. Ignoring onboarding. This is the most crucial time for the training department, and yet it is frequently overlooked by companies eager to get their new hire on the floor. By taking the time to initiate new hires into company culture and get them started on the right path, you save time correcting future mistakes and decrease the potential for unhappy employees.
2. Falling for the salesperson, not the product. When you’re evaluating vendors for training products or services, if you find yourself having an excellent understanding of the positive qualities your salesperson possesses, but can’t recall the features you discussed, something is wrong. While the training products you use aren’t the only key component to your training program, making clear-headed purchasing decisions is an important foundation.
3. Assuming you have a training problem. Before you get to work developing training, you want to make sure the problems your company is experiencing don’t lie elsewhere. You don’t want to build your training problems on shaky foundations—perceived training issues that are actually unrelated.
4. Training is not a one time event. The modern workplace changes so rapidly that constant training is a necessity. Just as learning is a life-long process, training should also be continuously integrated into an employee’s work experience.

Come back next week, we’ll suggest the most effective ways we know to manage training programs and build a strong, learning culture to support your organization.

About the Author

Kelly Meeker is the Community Manager at OpenSesame, the elearning content marketplace, where she creates, curates and shares with the learning and development community. Find her on her blog at www.OpenSesame.com/blog, on Twitter (@OpenSesame) or at kelly.meeker@opensesame.com.