e-Learning Guild Synchronous Learning Systems

e-Learning Guild presentation on Synchronous Learning Systems hosted by Steve Wexler, Karen Hyder, and Karl Kapp.

• Steve Wexler waxed poetic about his job and the opp to work with such great people at the e-Learning Guild.
• Karen Hyder: works for the e-Learning Guild -- wrote survey questions among other things.
• Karl Kapp: Assisted with survey questions...wrote an essay on 3D tools (with Tony O'Driscoll).

Surveys -- Steve had four different survey questions to kick things off in an interactive way:

• What will you be doing during this webinar? 53% of particpants said they will be multi-tasking while watching this presentation. This is true of all synchronous learning -- presenters have to keep people focused.
• Which Guild Research Surveys have you taken?
• Have you used the Direct Access Portfolios (live, interactive research)? 81% said no! Steve reminded us all that this is available to all Guild members (paying Guild members, right?)
  
• What do you want to explore today? 61% wanted a side by side comparison of tools.

Survey Results (as of July 9):

• 4,126 members told which surveys they used
• 1,717 rated their systems
• 882 members completed this survey
• 27% use more than one SLS (Synchronous Learning System)

Four Things You Need to Know:

• Synchronous learning is pervasive and growing -- 65% of Guild members use these tools
• These tools are NOT commodities -- people use the tools differently
• Quality of synchronous learning can be great or horrible (what are the habits of highly effective synchronous learning implementers? Read the report, view the data, buy their report!)
• It's going to change drastically -- integration with virtual social worlds

Karl:

• Interesting to note the # (27%) of organizations that are using more than one tool.
• 50% of respondents indicated that they thought they could use their tools to greater potential. Means there's a lot of way to better leverage these tools.

Steve:

• People who deliver synch learning through LMS consistently report better ROI and satisfaction than those who don't

What approaches to training are people using right now within their organizations? (Survey from the Training Modalities Report)

• Classroom instruction used 89% of time
• Synchronous learning is used about 60% of time
• Guild tool lets you break this down by specific industry (e.g., Insurance Industry or Healthcare).
  

[Insert lots of plugs for the Guild Research tool and explanation of how to use it....Note to Steve: this is when participants start multi-tasking....;) ]

Showed some trends in the Financial industry showing how use of synchronous learning has grown over the past 6 months.

Karl: "The two of the most used items for synchronous learning are lectures via PowerPoint and software training (app sharing)."

$199 for a printed copy of the full report...$995 for full access to the Data and the report (if you're a member). At these prices, not something I'll be buying anytime soon.

Which tools do you primarily use? (cross all industries)

• WebEx 19%
• Adobe Acrobat Connect (Pro/Breeze) 10.5%
• Elluminate 4.2%
• GoTo Meeting 2.8%

Length of sessions:

• 30-60 minutes (almost 50%)
• 1-2 hours (37.3%)

Other little points of interest:

• Synch Learning is mostly used for internal purposes.
• 65% used the Synch System used across the entire enterprise....
• People who have third party hosting (vs. hosting in-house) report a better ROI.
• Different results for different company sizes....
• Mostly used for small training sessions 6-15 attendees.

Biggest topic areas for Synch Learning:

• Desktop/Web Application training
• Product Knowledge

Feature use frequency by product:

• Breakout rooms: Elluminate Live had the most use of breakout rooms, followed by Saba Centra Live
• Chat: Elluminate , followed by Connect and GoToMeeting
• Editing of recorded sessions for later playback: Adobe Connect, Elluminate Live
• (When looking at Guild Research, always see how many people answered the questions...)
  

(A participant noted that Pharma doesn't use Chat because "it is unfiltered."

Cost Per Learner:

• Saba Centra Live was the highest followed by Adobe Acrobat Connect
• GoToMeeting comes in at the low end

Do you believe you got a good ROI?

• GoTo Meeting had the highest score, but only 12 responses
• WebEx had a lot of responses and pretty good ROI

Synchronous Learning in a 3D Environment -- apparently you just have to read the essay written by Karl Kapp and Tony O'Driscoll. (Someone asked if this was available for purchase separately from the full 360 Report; sadly it's not).

• Protosphere
• SecondLife

3D tools are starting to be used around the fringes of organizations: simulating job shadowing, training first responders, teaching language, technical simulations.

3D is just starting to gel (like the early days of e-Learning). It will take some time....

If you completed the survey, you can get the summary of the report for free. Everything else is available for a fee from the e-Learning Guild.

Mostly it was a great commercial for Guild Research!