Another take on Cognitive Load Theory

The authors of the Eide Neurolearning Blog weigh in on recent research and articles on cognitive load (including the death of Powerpoint that have been talked about here). While they recognize that some of this info is useful for understanding ways to effectively present information, "...the researchers still underestimate the diversity of their audience." Their main take-home point:

For the classroom, what may seem to be redundant information in a presentation, may be necessary for students with different information processing preferences.

This comes back to some of the basic "instructional design" I learned early in the game: that it's important to present information in a variety of ways because each of us learns differently and has a different learning style (in addition to providing that critical repetition and reinforcement -- what Clark Quinn called "multiple representations" in his session at the eLearning Guild event: "Deeper Learning Cognitive Science and Instructional Design")

On a sidebar note: assessing your own learning style is a whole 'nother matter.

One test showed me to be a VKA learner (Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory)...

The TIPP learning theory showed me to be Traditional Personal with a visual preference (although I was also high on the auditory scale).

It's so easy to take one of these tests and skew your own results.

Conversations do matter

I am still quite brain dead from the the eLearning Guild event. Dead and yet quite alive. More committed to the power of blogging than ever. It was amazing to pick up conversations with people I had never met -- to continue right where we had never actually started -- to weave more threads together. To put real personalities and faces and human warmth on top of all these words I have been reading.

So now I'm sold on the values of social networking tools and Web 2.0. Completely. And I may start proselytizing. The last session on Friday I sat in on was "It's not innovative if it doesn't educate." It was Web 2.0 for beginners. And I realized that I'm no longer a beginner. I didn't learn anything new about the technologies or even how they are being used. But what I did learn is how much other people still don't know about this stuff. To the two women I was sitting next to, I was an expert. "You blog?!" "What's a wiki?" Neither of them had ever touched either thing. Not even wikipedia.

I was shocked. And yet not shocked at all. It confirmed what I have been thinking: that most of the e-Learning and training world out there is still doing the same old same old. Some folks don't want to change. Some folks don't know that they will have to change. Some are starting to have an inkling. And some folks probably won't have to change at all -- the old order is fine and this may not solve a problem. There is room for everything.

I had so much to share with these women in just a few minutes and I think they walked away really seeing the potential in these tools for their organizations. They were excited.

An so am I.

Thanks to all of you that I had a chance to continue conversations begun online. It was awesome!

David Byrne and PowerPoint

Remember back in 2003, when David Byrne published a book (described by AP Technology Writer Rachel Konrad as a "coffee table book for nerds") called E.E.E.I. Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information?

Oh that David Byrne, he's so creative and alternative co-opting PowerPoint like that. Check out some of the still slides from his work (I wish he would post the actual presentations...but I suppose even David Byrne wants us to buy his book).

In a March 13, 2005 article in The Toronto Star The Art of PowerPoint: David Byrne (Yes, that David Byrne) Defends a Reviled Software, "Byrne suggests that the medium itself is not the sole factor behind ill-fated attempts at over-simplifying complex information." The noted Edward Tufte blames PowerPoint. In contrast, "Byrne maintains that the proper use, or misuse, of PowerPoint lies in the hands of the user."

Here, here.

And the same holds true of rapid e-Learning tools and any in-house training effort. Of ANY e-Learning effort...This is why this training industry is not dead yet.

More on PowerPoint and Instructional Design

Continuing the PowerPoint conversation begun yesterday here and picked up by Clive on Learning: Don't blame PowerPoint...and Quintus Joubert PowerPoint vs. Interactive Learning...
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Here's another article on PowerPoint, found via Donald Clark at Big Dog, Little Dog: Bite the Bullet: Improving Your Presentation Strategies.

Some design tidbits:

Another colleague, Cliff Atkinson, who wrote Beyond Bullet Points, suggests taking most of your bullets off the slides entirely. Instead, put them into your Notes. You can use the notes for your own preparation, but by leaving just images on the slides you can deliver a polished talk that has a lot more impact; you won't be reading the
bullets (guaranteed Death by PowerPoint) and neither will the audience (who can
become distracted).

And this:

Few stage plays begin with all the actors on stage. For the same reason, you shouldn't project a complicated slide or diagram as one complete unit. Besides
the actors' egos and their need for an entrance, the fact is that no one can absorb a complex idea all at once. Introducing your important ideas sequentially lets them be absorbed more naturally. You can use the animation features of your presentation program to build your ideas a step at a time. Also, when you show a complex slide, the audience is distracted by trying to figure it out as you discuss it, so give it to them in stages as you talk about each concept.

Ho hum. This is all basic ID stuff, I suppose.

I also stumbled on this interview by Karl Kapp with Jane Bozarth over at e-Learning guru.com that had some good nuggets on basic instructional design and using low cost tools (like PowerPoint) to build effective e-Learning.

I've always pooh-poohed PowerPoint as an e-Learning tool...but it's all in how you look at, I suppose. And the truth is that so many of these so-called great e-Learning authoring tools out there these days just provide a developer with basic PowerPoint functionality plus a SCORM wrapper. Whoopeee.

But, as Clive says, we shouldn't blame PowerPoint -- nor should we blame all the authoring tools. It's the instructional design you lay on top of these tools that matters...

BTW -- If you haven't already, be sure to check out the demo lite version that's available for Clive Shepherd's course "Ten Ways to Avoid Death by PowerPoint". Excellent use of storytelling to make a point!

Off-the-Shelf Content: Help!

I have some questions that I am hoping someone can answer for me...or at least point me in the right direction. I've been trolling and coming up empty....It's kind of an e-Learning 101 question, but not in my realm. I've always been about custom content.

So -- how does off-the-shelf content work? Say, if you're purchasing a course library from SkillSoft or some other vendor:

• If a client has their own LMS, do they purchase the courses outright and host them on their own servers? If so, is the vendor able to track usage or do they just sell the content for a flat fee based on LMS seat size?
• Or do clients purchase courses that can be launched through their LMS, but that are hosted by the off-the-shelf vendor? So the vendor can closely track actual usage and charge based on that actual usage?
• How are off-the-shelf vendor pricing models generally structured? By actual usage? By projected use (based on some factor like LMS license)?

I'm trying to advise a client but I have little to no experience in this area.

Thanks!

NewsFlash: PowerPoint Bad For Learning

Found via SlashDot, an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald "Research points the finger at PowerPoint."

The article cites new research from the University of New South Wales (home of John Sweller, "founding father" of Cognitive Load Theory).

Some key nuggets from the Sydney Herald article:

It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the
written and spoken form at the same time.

"The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster," Professor Sweller
said. "It should be ditched."

"It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented."

And how many e-Learning courses have you created with on-screen text bullets timed to narrative audio? Raise your hand. Me too. You know -- appeal to multiple learning styles; address the needs of both auditory and visual learners....

If the on-screen text is just a blurb that relates to the audio is that any different? I'm thinking about Karl Kapp's recent post Design: Bullets Be Gone. Or should we just end this practice completely?

eLearning Guild Event -- My Sessions

As I've mentioned here before, I'm extremely excited about attending the upcoming eLearning Guild event here in Boston. Excited in sort of a geeky schoolgirl way. I'm excited to go to as many sessions as I can. I'm excited to pick people's brains. I'm excited to get feedback on our products and services (yes, my company will have a booth). And I'm even excited to work my booth -- althought that won't be my primary responsibility -- as the resident instructional designer, my job isn't selling, it's learning...

So here are the sessions I'm most interested in attending (you should see my schedule -- there are at least 3 things circled for each time slot...how to choose? how to choose?):

Wednesday
10:45 - 12:00 Deeper Learning: Cognitive Science and Instructional Design with Clark Quinn
1:15-2:15 Fast Track Intro to Learning Theory with Maggie Martinez
2:45-3:45 How to Apply Techniques of Professional Game Designer to E-Learning with Jeff Johannigman
4:15-5:15 The Future of Rapid e-Learning (Panel Discussion) hosted by Paul Clothier

Thursday
10:45 E-Learning Technologies and Practices -- What's Really Happening Out There with Tony Karrer
1:30-2:45 PLE: Peparing for the New e-Learning Environment with Steven Downes
3:30-4:45 Using Simulations and Experiential Learning to Develop Leadership with Bjorn Billhardt

Friday (if I can actually get myself into the city that early...)
8:15-9:15 Using Questions to Deepen Learning: What the Research Says with Will Thalheimer
9:30-10:30 It's Not Innovative If It Doesn't Educate -- Appropriate Use of New Technologies with Keith Resseau

So it's a little bit of instructional design, some gaming, rapid e-learning, and just trying to get a general grasp of what's really going on out there. I'm interested in personalities -- hearing from some of the notables in our little blogging community.

And I'm wondering if I'm missing something really cool. Anyone have different suggestions for me? A particular speaker? A particular topic? I want to be efficient. I don't want to spend an hour in a talk that is just a recap of the conversations I'm taking part in out here, when it turns out that this Great New Thing is happening in the conference room two doors down.