New eLearning Tools Roundup – #ASTD2011

 I spent most of my time at ASTD ICE on the Expo floor.  Our booth was in eLearning Alley – along with Allen Interactions, Articulate and the eLearning Brothers.

There were a lot of new authoring tools on the show floor this year.  Here’s a quick run down on the tools I checked out and some of the buzz:

Articulate Storyline

Tom Kuhlmann and Dave Anderson of Articulate were showing off their new tool, Storyline, which goes into beta this summer.  It’s a separate product from Articulate Studio, but seems to do some cool things with branching and trigger states.  It’ll come with various character packs so you can create stories right out of the box.

Zebra Zapps

This is Michael Allen’s new love product child.  Not for the entry level user, but this product will certainly allow developers to quickly create some cool interactive experiences. Zebra is a cloud-based authoring tool.  The Zapps part is because it creates little interactive apps.  Get it?  Took me awhile…

I think their market will extend beyond the elearning space into marketing and website development.   While it’s not yet creating SCORM objects, this will come. 

Lectora Snap!

I didn’t actually view this product, but I did talk to one of the booth dudes at Lectora.  This is essentially an entry point product -- $99 for PowerPoint conversions to SCORM objects.  At that price, why not just try it out? (Although you can try it out free for 30 days).

Lectora has gotten the rap as being the complicated tool on the market now. Feels like Trivantis is moving back to basics and trying to meet the market where it’s at.  Maybe this is their gateway drug to Lectora?  Hook ‘em with Snap and then get ‘em interested in more sophisticated elearning development.

Shift

This isn’t a new tool, but the first time I’d checked it out. Shift is a collaboration, server-based authoring environment (this means your stuff lives in the “cloud”, allowing a geographically diverse team to work on the same project at the same time).  It’s got built in templates – over 200 of them – along with agents/avatars that you can do lip synching on etc. 

It’s not cheap, but server-based collaborative tools do run more expensive than desk-tops tools.  $8,500 for a one year subscriptions – which includes two developers and one administrator. Additional licenses for $3,500.

Jambok

This isn’t an authoring tool, but it is worthy of note.  Jambok is social learning in a simple user interface.  Let your people upload videos, screen casts, etc.  Jambok was just acquired by SuccessFactors…so it’s got that going for it.

That’s a wrap

I know I missed a lot of other tools and cool products.  The ICE expo is massive.  Did you see something interesting that I didn’t? 

Falling in Love all Over Again with ISD – with Allison Rossett at #ASTD2011

These are my notes from a session with Allison Rossett “Falling in Love All Over Again—With ISD” at ASTD ICE in Orlando, May 24, 2011. Forgive typos and incoherence…

*****

ISD got its start in WWII – when the country was preparing soldiers for war. 400 + films – taught standards. Observations in classes to see that standards were met.

From the war, these trainer types went into industry – telecom (ATT)

Walter Dick – “ISD is applied educational psychology”

Instructional design is all abut theory.

Behaviorism – incentives and consequences. what it looks like when you can do it. Get drill and practice, with knowledge of results. Practice, practice, practice. Great for pronunciation and vocab (Rosetta stone)

Cognitivism – what’s going on inside. Motivation. The mind and belly stuff.  Do they GET IT? Think alouds, scenarios, checklists.

Constructivism – bred of cognitivism. Discovery learning.  Find the key messages yourself.  Your own way of being better with customers. When people find their own way, they really get it. Webquests.  Emphasize the process of engaging with others – where there’s no one agreed upon outcome. John Dewey, Bruno, Vgotsky, Brent Wilson…

Connectivism – from know-how to know-where. Find it yourself through networks and community. Downes, Siemens. Personal knowledge management.

Motivation Theory – John Keller, ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction)

“Adult Learning Theory” – she doesn’t believe in it. Good learning theory is good learning theory.  Difference is that kids want to talk about dinosaurs.

Connectivism & ARCS: US Navy’s Project MMOWGLI – thousands of players participate to work with pirate attacks off of Somalia.  This is a gnarly problem. Don’t know what the protocol or policy is – not teaching to objectives – but we’re trying to figure it out.

ID Basics:

• begin with the end in mind, data drives decisions, classroom is good but often not sufficient
• ID is how we make good decisions

ADDIE – the problem with this…

ID Greatness:

They can see it is all about them their tasks, their priorities.  The WIIFM.

The experience is vivid and authentic – full of worked examples, with opps to think about and DO something. “So that’s how it works” – with commentary and progressive building checklists that explains how it works.

Success and stretch. (If it’s all success, then it feels like a waste of time).

The ID brings order to chaos. Make choices to extend lessons, information, etc. Don’t let the learner just flop about.

Evidence-Based Instructional Design

• just serving up a tasty buffet isn’t enough.
• people learn best with worked examples, repeated practice on stretch tasks

Greatness emerges from positive deviance!

Example of sales training in pharma:

• Find the lesson or message you want them to know. Have a really clear way – not a spreadsheet! – where we clearly communicate what greatness will look like.
• Then have classes, simulation. etc.
• On demand support

Great ID for CPR Training?

(www.articulate.com showcase example).  You find a person and you have 3 minutes to save the person. “You are walking down the street when a man falls to the ground…”  The conditions are real. It’s scary.

You don’t need stuff until you need it – performance support “Adult CPR app” – American Heart Association app.

Will you have it in the moment of stress?

Great ID touches minds and hearts.

Assure that employees experience some success as they grow. Build in success. Don’t start with a test that brings them to their knees. Not good for confidence.

Reveal your sources – why are they credible? – tell stories

Use two side arguments. Approaches that admit multiple views are more convincing than one-sided litany. Assume they are smart. People learn better from controversy.

Prepare them for the barriers you discovered when you did the analysis. Share the issues to come and the workarounds.

Encourage reflection. Provide some structure.

Use role modeling and conversations.

Use stories – show emotions and reactions.

Engage people in examination of examples.

Touch minds and hearts with stories that ring TRUE.

Deliver smarts – shifting it closer to where it’s needed.

 

Moving Forward

Always: practice, feedback, examples

Today: scenarios, commentary, checklists, coaching, problem solving, aided (mobile support) and unaided performance (learning)

Tomorrow: organization knowledge, community, social networks, performance support, choice!

 

Giving learners choices – is too much freedom too much?

Sometimes the learner doesn’t know enough to make a good choice. Need good scaffolding. The ID picks the right spots for choices. Help the learner make a good choice – structure. Don’t want to give them so much freedom that they fail or lose confidence.

Great ID:

• delivers solution systems
• delivers in rooms and into the workplace
• it is influential