KnowPlace Membership
Mood:  energetic
When I first began this exploration of training and online learning, I was directed by the course background reading list to .. KnowPlace!
At that point, I had no idea where this new certification (Cert IV Training and Assessment, Australia) was going to take me.

Now, months and a couple of thousand pages of reading later, I find this community again: A group of very like-minded people now that I have overcome some of my own naivete.

knowplace is ...
people!

In Knowplace, we work with a variety of clients who wish to improve their skills in the online environment. We:
1. Provide customized training geared to the needs of specific groups - both in Canada and internationally
2. Assist organizations and individualsmove into the online world quickly and efficiently
3. Work with partners using our dynamic open source/freeware environment to assist their clients
4. Maintain a world wide learning community for those interested in all aspects of online learning
5. Provide speakers and presentations on aspects of online learning at provincial, national, and international conferences
6. Assist learners who wish to take Capilano College: Continuing Education programs and courses.
Resource Our commitment

1
Customized Training

We haven't always worked online! The folks that work at knowplace learned their skills, and gained their knowledge, degrees and qualifications in the face-to-face world. Knowplace has been in business since 1988, but we haven't worked that long online! The experts have only been here for ten years. We learned how to transfer our skills to the online world through trial and error... We learned and continue to learn! We are happy to guide you with what we know.
The one important key that we have learned is that the Internet permits us to customize and individualize training programs, courses and workshops to meet the needs of others. We use the Internet in our face-to-face training programs, and the professional development training opportunities that we design for you.

As you can see from these pages, Knowplace offers a variety of programs to assist learners with a variety of skills needed in their professional lives.

The LMS Selection Process in a Nutshell
Mood:  quizzical
Now Playing: The LMS selection process in a nutshell
The LMS selection process in a nutshell (wholly pirated from Parkin's Lot from a link on the EdNA Groups forums)

Note: What's surprising about such and article is that it appeared to be needed at all. I can't think of a business manager at any level of business that would need this sort of information, but the author is directing his comments to teachers in Australia. It illustrates the state of naivete and raw awe that elearning provokes more than anything else.)


In working on learning strategies, I am sometimes asked to help a company decide which Learning Management System they should use. Here's the general approach that I recommend.

This is to be read in conjunction with my frequent admonitions to not allow the LMS to define your learning processes, nor to make its selection the starting point of your strategy development, nor to assume that any LMS is adequate to manage the totality of the learning that might take place. With that said, here’s an approach to selecting an LMS.

Form an LMS selection team that includes representatives of all those who will be involved in implementing and using it. Get someone from your IT department involved early, but ensure that they do not take ownership of the selection process. If you can afford it, get an objective outsider involved as well.

Agree on the strategic and operational processes by which you want to manage learning. These will follow from having already defined your strategic and operational learning objectives, which in turn will have been derived from the business goals of your various learning customers. Do not think in terms of LMS functionality, but in terms of process: what do you want to do, who is going to do it, how is it going to work.

Then look at this broad strategy, and list the requirements that a system supporting it must satisfy. Create a list of critical success factors for your e-learning systems. For example, if your strategy calls for you to implement competency-based learning, you may need to integrate with your Human Resource Management System (HRMS) data or your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. If you have operations around the world, you may have a need for multi-lingual or multi-byte character capability. Your list of requirements will probably have 12-24 items on it.

Some other factors that you should consider at this stage are:

* Will you need local support in multiple countries?
* What is your budget?
* Do you want to host internally or have the vendor host for you?
* How diverse is your target learner platform and your IT infrastructure?
* Do you want to manage classroom activity (scheduling, evaluations)?
* Will you be integrating third-party content?
* Will you need a system that integrates with CD-ROM content or allows offline work to take place?
* Do you need e-commerce or departmental charge-back capabilities?
* How granular are your tracking and reporting needs?
* Do you have to track compliance or certification training?
* Do you have special requirements for data security?
* Do you plan to integrate collaborative activities such as e-mail, chat, or communities in your learning?
*
Will you be managing synchronous virtual classroom activities?

Survey the market and come up with a short-list of systems that meet your critical needs. The survey can be done by issuing a request for information to all of the known vendors in the market (there are only 50 or 60 of any substance), by buying an off-the-shelf study, or by contracting someone to do the data collection work for you.

It is at this point where your LMS quest might lead you away from the straightforward purchase path: if your requirements don’t fit well what is available, you might explore the option of building rather than buying.

Reduce the list to less than half a dozen, using criteria that are important but did not make it to the critical list.

Next, develop a framework for evaluation of alternative systems. This is an important step, because it allows you to take control of the “demo process” and provides you with the right questions to ask. Without such a framework, you become a passive audience to the vendor’s presentation. The most helpful approach to defining an evaluation framework is to map out “a day in the life of a user” and then have the vendors talk about how their solution fits to that picture. You can break down a day in the life of an LMS administrator, a learner, an instructor, an instructional designer, an HRMS bureaucrat, and a learner tech-support person into a set of specific action steps, processes, or mini case-studies. Those steps, and the complexity of them, then become challenges to the vendor: Show me how your system supports these necessary processes.

Craft your RFP around your needs as already defined, don't use a template that you found on the web. Using someone else's idea of what is important is not only lazy, it can mislead the vendors and cause you to make decisions based on irrelevant criteria.Send out your RFP to your final short-list of vendors.

Once you have received responses to your request for proposal, cut the list to three. At this stage, you have enough information to differentiate the top candidates from the rest. All of your other criteria, the less important issues, the subjective feelings, the qualitative factors and so on can come into play.

Ask your final vendor list to set up demo sites that you can explore. Get learners, instructors, administrators and so on to go in and play, then provide you with feedback. Ask for references in companies that have installed the systems, and be sure to talk to as many of them as you can.

Once you have had the chance to try out the systems, have had the vendor presentations, and have seen how they address the day-in-the-life requirements, you should be comfortable about making a selection. Each party in the LMS selection team may have a different view, and should have a different perspective, but you will have enough structured data to come to a reasonably comfortable conclusion. Pick an LMS.

Then, because vendor terms are rarely cast in concrete, negotiate!

Discussions on TechRepublic
Mood:  mischievious
from Thread: What kinds of PM forms/templates do you need?

[This is called a "I want the software to give me a personality"-type post. -- And you wondered what those guys really talk about? This conversation could be in any office anywhere in the world when someone asks for something like this.]
[Hint: Sometimes you just have to say what you mean, trust your intuition, and let the chips fall where they may. NO computer form or program can provide you with soft skills.]

Plaintive: I need the "How to tell a client that anything that is requested as the project is in the maintenace phase will be in the next release" form.

Consoling: It sounds like the client still thinks that this phase of the project is open and you think it is completed. Need to revisit what both of you agreed was the criteria for closing this phase.

Professional: If you have the project specified properly in the first place, you have change management through which each request goes. If the request is within the scope you provide it, if not customer chooses possible delay of the delivery and the extra cost.

This guy needs MSProject reports customized: need a comprehensive communications plan for details on all my stakeholders: management, team members, vendors, contractors. Would like a xls spreadsheet that can be sorted on various fields i.e. type of stakeholder, location, reporting structure ...

Buzzword bulls**t: We could use a "Service Request" form providing a high level summary of the request, justification, impact, benefit, cost etc...Thanks.

And we add more technology to solve what the original technology won't: IIL has a great web based product, UPMM. It prompts you to answer some basic questions to help determine if it is a small, medium or large project. All templates are MS Word documents. And you can import the methodology application into MS Project 2000 or greater. This replaces the default MS wizard and it is a great tool.

An attempt to return to practicality (long since lost): Kind of checklist that requires both client and the project team to identify the interface and responsibile sign-off personnel for different phases/deliverables during the PDLC.

Let someone else do the work answer: I would love to see you post technology roadmap templates, preferably in an excel format.

Actually, a good answer: I would be interested in getting a requirements work plan sample. i.e. Project plan (or charter) for the requirements analysis phase.

This should be in place already: How about an Issues log, Change management log both in Excel and a Lessons Learnt document in Word.

Also would you be able to give some suggestions for a format for technical documentation/template for developing a software application?

Trying to change the topic because the conversation got out of hand: Is there a simple form to determine the cost benefit analysis of a new project?

Happily picking up the new direction: As a federal government person, the ROI forms I have located are more centered around "profit" and "loss" for the business sector. I am looking for forms in Word or Excel that I can alter to determine the Return on Investment (ROI) for a project dealing with replacing some 300 desktop PC's with notebooks. This is for our traveling workforce and telecommuters. I am also looking for Cost/Benefit analysis guidelines for the same project so I can prove that while the initial investment is higher; over the life cycle of a notebook, the payback is worth the expense.

Practicality returns, unfortunately: One thing that has worked great for us is the Deliverables Expectation document. It ensures that the vendor understands what contract requirement(s) the deliverable is supposed to meet, format, etc. The Vendors like it too because it makes sure that we have a "meeting of the minds" before they go spend months working on a deliverable. Please contact me for a sample.

More "Let the software be my personality" stuff: Would like to have project specific WBS templates for different types of projects, such as Server Migrations, Database Consolidations, Upgrades (application, databases, OS), Application Development, etc. It would also be useful to have MS Project templates with the same type of focus.

A little creativity that makes sense: I would definately need a form to complete at the end of the project called "Lesson Learned" so, that it can be reviewed by all the team members and stakeholders for future projects..

A little defensive from on high here: I receive requests modify or create new form designs including the applicable data, need request form.

Critical Paths
Mood:  rushed
Topic: MSProject
I found a neat little download on TechRepublic to help learners focus on the concepts of Project Management.

It's free to use so long as I leave the TechRepublic branding in place.
The image above is only the first part of the file though. Far more useful is that it comes in a Word file with an area on the next page that the users can fill in themselves. I'll show the trainees how to save the file as a Word template that they can use over and over when working with MSProject.
They can print out and tack the tablets on their wall somewhere as reminders. Work is work, but you gotta find the fun in it.

Which leads to a discussion of Critical Paths...

Project Management is tough work. Trained experts get paid very well and they earn every cent.

Most simply put, the Critical Path is the way you get where you want to go. Every program, website, or plan has a Critical Path.
MSProject has the capabilities to allow you to layout an initial plan for the project, and to help you track its progress, to be aware of how costs, resources, and other constraints change over the course of the project.
That doesn't mean that everyone using MSProject will use those facilities. According to a Microsoft survey, about half of the users only use it to illustrate the initial plan, or "baseline" as it's called in Project.
If that works for them, then that is the definition of their Critical Path. (More on this in another post.)

The Critical Path for a business website may be for the visitor to buy their products, or request further information about their services.
The Critical Path for a golf or race game is to finish the course.
The Critical Path for some games is for the users to attain higher levels by acquiring points or powers. In this case, the Critical Path is to NOT have an endpoint. (Unless the player is killed off, of course!)
The Critical Path for most business software is defined by the users. MSWord, Access, and Excel, for example, do not define the work for a user, but provide them with the tools to accomplish their work.
Rarely is a Critical Path so tightly tied to the design of the software as in MSProject.
In the final analysis, the User defines the Critical Path.

A project has an endpoint. In the real world, the endpoint is rarely the same day or the same expense as originally planned. But at some point, all the tasks are checked off and all the resources are used.
The same Microsoft survey indicated that although less than half used most of Project's capabilities, 87% of the users said it helped them manage the project.

If the User can describe where they want to go, why Project?

Before this becomes oversimplified, let's take a look at an analogy.
You're visiting in Australia. You want to go to the local shopping mall. Your host will let you use a car, and your foreign drivers' licensee is legal for a couple of months.
You take out a map. It's not that hard to see a few ways to get there, but any way you go requires you cross the railroad lines. -- Which way is best?

Your host tries to describe the shortest route. It sounds confusing. Even on the map, it doesn't look like the easiest way to get there. The roads turn you first away from the mall, then through a strange-looking intersection onto a highway. Then you have to turn back and find parking. And your host goes on and on about parking.

Which one do you choose?
Then your host tells you that the trains come heavier at different times of day, and you may get stuck at the crossing.
Thinking a moment, your host tells you that you should know a little about the road rules here. You can't turn left on a red light, for example. You have to pay attention to the arrows if they're lit. -- Arrows? -- How do you tell if they're lit?

We're only talking about going 3 miles and crossing one train line, but it's beginning to sound like you should either have your host drive you or just go sit in the sun and have some tea.

Even in conversation, the answer is you take it one step at a time.
You break down your original Critical Path into shorter steps. A series of Critical Paths mean you can focus on the special requirements of each portion of your trip into the mall.

You can make it to the rail crossing, then all you have to do is be sure you're in the right lane. You're not in any hurry, so it doesn't matter if the trains make you wait.
Once across, go straight.
At the end of that road is that crazy-looking intersection onto a highway. From the map it looks dangerous, but when you get there it's a protected merge lane onto a 3-lane road road.
A little ways down the highway, there are large signs to guide you to the mall and parking.

What looked at first simple, then confusing, has turned out to be a short, pleasant drive. It could take 5 minutes if the lights, train and traffic are with you; or 20 minutes at the wrong time of day.

It's pretty much the same with a business project -- even learning MSProject.
First, you break down the course into manageable chunks.
Then you try to be aware of what can go wrong and plan for it.
And finally, you have to depend on a little luck, good or bad, along the way.

Oh, did I mention that dinner was at 7?

MSProject Training - 2
Mood:  spacey
I was more than mildly disappointed to find that "The Complete Microsoft Office Handbook" from the newsagent, published by 'Microsoft Windows XP, AUSTRALIA'S OFFICIAL MONTHLY MAGAZING" had nothing on Project. The CD did offer a few add-ins to try-n-buy. (Not interested.)

After completing the coursework, I went to the Microsoft site and took their short quiz from a link at one of the vendors' sites. Not surprisingly, I scored 8 out of 10. The quiz was on the 2003 version, which has a few changes from XP.

However, a trainer on the corporate level is expected to know more than the interface and the primary steps involved, so much more was needed.

I downloaded a couple of Tips sheets. They made a few good points about critical paths and resource allocations:

Background
Once the project's schedule has been calculated (with critical path analysis) and a Gantt chart created, the next step in the planning process is to create some resource assignments. These assignments add the people dimension - someone doing something. Assignments can be simple or they can be complex. What is important is a general understanding of the relationship between the task (something that needs to be achieved) and the resource (the individual that performs the work to achieve the task's objective). Once the basics of assignment and aggregation are understood, more sophisticated use can be made of the (often expensive) people that work upon projects.
When tasks have just one resource assigned to them, their scheduled start and the start of the
assignment are the same. The scheduled finish of the task is equal to the end of the assignment.

• Assignments should be made against normal tasks and not summary tasks or milestones.
• As the assignments above are sequential, the assignments can be carried out within the available working time and availability profile(s).
• Within Microsoft Project the default settings for tasks is that they are effort-driven with a task type of fixed units.
• The assigned units for an assignment is usually equal to the resource's max units value. This is the default for new assignments within Microsoft Project.
• Where the aggregated units are less than max units, the resource has additional capacity to carry out other tasks.

First Assignment!

One of my competitors -- and a friend -- has asked me in to help train an 8-person class in it next week.
Fortunately, I had worked with Project 97 a few years ago and she was skilled in 2002/XP. If nothing else, I can explain a few rudimentary project management concepts to the trainees, and show them how to read the manual. (There is an ancient IT proverb: RTFM. I will NOT expand the acronym!)

Filling in the Blanks

Whenever a term or concept seemed to have been treated too lightly by the course material (or in an article or tip sheet) a search was done on the Special Edition book. (There is no way I am gonna be able to wade through 1000+ pages in a week!)
If the Special Edition book seemed to be missing something, then the search was expanded across all of Oreilly's 2000+ books, and/or to reference material or articles on TechRepublic.

TechRepublic is an invaluable resource. Not only for How-to articles or checklists, but also for insight into the areas where users have problems with the software, workarounds, and what a user finds useful.

The guiding principle of AEmeritus is to not reinvent the wheel. The knowledge is out there, it's just a matter of knowing where to find it -- and quickly.
Using the resources of AEmeritus (-- My own experience combined with enterprise accounts. --), I can develop a graduate level course in Project, or any technology, into a textbook or manual in a short time.

MSProject Training
Mood:  sharp
Topic: MSProject
Sooner or later, someone is going to want to see an example of the attitude I take towards my work; and an example of some of the services available through AEmeritus. So, here goes.

There seems to be a demand for qualified corporate trainers in MSProject in the Melbourne area.


Individual Training Plan

I have MSOffice XP Pro on my machine, but my version doesn't come with Project. Small problem. The program I've put together for AEmeritus can train people on software online -- to proficiency -- even if the person doesn't have a copy of the software.

First, I went to my online corporate training account to begin working through the 87 modules on Project 2003. CustomGuide does a superb job of illustrating the interface interactively in an easily digestible modular presentation of the material.

AEmeritus has a corportate account with CustomGuide and can assign a seat for a trainee on any program of the MSOffice suite.

As you can see, the Project interface is clearly displayed. The large red arrow indicates where the user is to click to follow the steps in the lesson. A pleasant female voice (with an american or canadian accent) guides the learner, reading the instructional text on the left.
A learner can become familiar with interface and learn the important functions of the software (see the post on Critical Paths in this section) without having a copy of often expensive software.

Next, I found a good book on Project XP from Oreilly Safari.

Special Edition Using Microsoft? Project 2002
By Tim Pyron
...............................................
Publisher: Que
Pub Date: August 05, 2002
ISBN: 0-7897-2701-3
Pages: 1224

One of the best series of IT books for users and those who deal with the public is the "Special Edition .." series.

As I work through the CustomGuide course, I'll refer to the book for detail and insight. After covering a couple of chapters to be sure it would provide the level of understanding that I needed, the plan was put into action.

Note: The level of understanding that I need at this point is Advanced, but not Expert level. I'm not going to pretend that this Learning Plan will make me a Project Manager; nor am I looking to learn to program Project in VBA. -- I want to learn the program's Critical Path. -- What it is capable of doing and how it does it, based on the facilities of the program.
(Actually, I want a little more than that, too. But you'll see as I step through this plan how I get there.)

GWB has been a great source for humor, if not leadership. (Actually, other than when he thinks for himself, he does OK as a Prezzi-dant.)
This from the leader of the Free World??

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it." —George W. Bush, July 27, 2001

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

Bushisms from 2004

Bushisms from 2003

Bushisms from 2002

Bushisms from 2001

Bushisms from 2000

Top 50 Bushisms!

Mah peerless Leedah!

15. "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." —Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

14. "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." —Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

Posted by amoranthus at 8:37 PM NZT

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We roam the mad and subtle world ..
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Blogs
We roam the mad and subtle world,
Our lifes' experience like the boiling, purple,
Dark and threatening clouds overhead,
Until an idea draws down the raging swirl of concepts in our minds,
Twisting down to tear and rend the landscape
built so carefully from fragile pieces
Safe places no longer hold before the natural force of change.

-- Paul Donley

And yeah, I know it doesn't rhyme. The words just came to me while I was surfing.

Empathic Instructional Design
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Design
The Process
So, how do we do it?

We've taken the process from Leonard & Rayport's article and applied it to e-learning. Here are the five steps to empathic design that can be juxtaposed with traditional instructional design processes:

1. Observe:
   Observe users doing their daily tasks with the goal of identifying learning needs to real performance problems, and studying contexts under which they occur. If it is possible, instead of just observing, do the tasks to get firsthand experience of the problem and needs of the task.
   
   The observers should be from multidisciplinary fields such as instructional design, graphic design, human factors design, etc., to get a rich understanding of the problem.
   
   Example: When designing a training solution for a call center, send out a team to observe learners-to-be in action. Watch their actions, their expressions and identify their unarticulated needs. Empathize with them.



2. Capture Data:
   Capture the practice using photographic and video toolsets. Record the sounds of the working environment. Ask open-ended questions. Make notes of problems faced and solutions rendered. Chart out daily routines.
   
   Example: In the call center training above, photograph the call center environment. Listen to questions asked and answers rendered. Video the search for solutions to new problems. Capture the interactions between workers.



3. Reflect & Analyze:
   Share the captured data in its many forms with the team. Analyze the data. Picture the current state of performance. Visualize the desired state of performance. Identify "real" learning needs. Many times a discrepancy in performance might not be due to a learning need; it might just be the case of mis-aligned motivational issues (see Robert Mager's Analyzing Performance Problems, Pdf file).
   
   Example: For the call center training, massage the collected data and create scenarios of performance, problems and solutions. Build work flow diagrams and identify discrepancies. Share these with call center representatives.



4. Brainstorm for Solutions:
   Start the brainstorming session once learning gaps are identified. Discuss solutions for their appropriateness to learners and their contexts. Cross-pollination of ideas from different domains like video games, sports-training, televisions, etc., will broaden the search horizon.
   
   Search far and wide: Does the learner need just-in-time information? Would the Macromedia-type knowledge-base suffice? Is is better to have a print supplement? Would the learners be more attuned to audio streams? Would a Harvard-type case study be a viable option? Would a small simulation be appreciated? Can we adopt a Disney movie style? Would a blended solution fit in? Can the work environment be a part of the solution?
   
   Example: In the call center training above, assume the designers noticed that the workers didn't like to work with their computers during breaks. Instead, workers would gather in groups at the office lounge to cool-off and discuss work related problems. Just by these observations, solutions could be designed that are 1) available at the lounge, 2) not too grueling, and 3) are problem-based.



5. Develop Prototypes:
   Once a set of solutions are decided upon, small working prototypes are built and tested with learners to determine its learnability—the effectiveness of the solution in enabling learning.

Conclusion
In the course of writing this article we came across this:

When DigitalThink's design team was developing training software for Circuit City, they did something unusual. Team members donned the polo shirts of Circuit City sales associates and spent a couple of days working the sales floor, selling Palm Pilots, cameras, and stereos. Then they returned to their lab to begin designing 200 one-hour training courses for sales associates.

Needless to mention, we were delighted!

...
We leave you with this advice from a computer science professor to online instructional designers and developers.

My message to developers of distance learning and instructional computing technologies is simple: Follow the user-centered design practices that human-computer interaction specialists teach. Follow me around for a semester to see how important it is to have groupwork and direct observation. Watch how a lecturer reads the class as the class is listening and learning. Collect the artifacts that make up a class. Then, don't sacrifice any of these capabilities until you can propose something that surpasses them. Teaching more isn't teaching better.

(from Empathic Instructional Design on eLearningpost )

Rethinking The Midmarket Sept. 12, 2005
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Small Business
Microsoft is redesigning its business applications for midsize companies with an employee's role in mind
By Aaron Ricadela
InformationWeek

When Microsoft looks out on the $215 billion market for software and consulting at midsize companies, it sees a great opportunity, fragmented market share, and the potential for business to become a lot more efficient with a little infusion of technology. The world's No. 1 software company thinks it has figured out what those midsize companies need to run their operations better. The answer: Not what Microsoft has been trying to sell them.
...

To understand the jobs people do at midsize companies, Microsoft's engineers and managers spent two years studying their workdays in excruciating detail, recording their conversations, snapping photos of people at their desks, and generating 15,000 pages of transcripts. The conclusion: Most workers don't like their software, because it forces them to work with business automation and personal-productivity apps that are often incompatible. In other words, today's business software doesn't look like today's business. "Nobody in these companies has software tailored for how they really work. Everybody uses the same screen," says James Utzschneider, a general manager in Microsoft's small- and midsize-business division. "Our vision is that we're designing software for the way that people really work." That means a sales manager would see leads front-and-center, while an accounting clerk would see a list of invoices or a flow chart to pay bills against a monthly budget.

There's some data to support the notion that smaller businesses could use an IT boost. Microsoft commissioned a survey, reviewed by a Harvard University business professor, that concludes midsize companies with high IT capabilities grow 30% faster than their peers.
...

There are two ways to bridge this gap:
1) Let Microsoft tell the company how to do its business.
2) Train employees to use the tools that have already cost the company tens of thousands to do the company business.

That's where AEmeritus comes in.

An impressive competitor: Elicitus software
Topic: Value

Elicitus

(from the website:)
Leverage the Elicitus Suite all the way from PowerPoint? to interactive e-learning. Elicitus SlideConverter accurately converts PowerPoint? content and allows you to add further content, multimedia, interactivity, questions and tracking. The award-winning Elicitus Content Publisher helps you rapidly create SCORM and AICC standards-compliant e-learning courses, which work with leading Learning Management Systems. Elicitus Interactivity Builder, world's first and only Rapid Interactivity Authoring tool, allows you to add sizzle to your courses. Elicitus ProgressTracker allows you manage learners, deploy courses, capture progress information and produce tracking reports.

At first glance from the Seek website, elicitus looks very impressive. The sample lessons are in Flash with a lot of dependency on rollovers and boxed highlights for interaction.
And the list of customers is nearly overwhelming.
So is the pricing.
Elicitus provides less functionality than my software for about 3 times the price -- and that is without a LMS to track student progress.

The question is: How did they sell this capable, but less-valuable system to so many large companies?


If a proof-of-concept is needed for customized training, the 'How customers use elicitus' page offers it.

A Moving Picture Is Worth
Topic: Sales

Company gets a better response from its direct mail campaign by sending out video catalogs. (from Inc magazine)

You can spend thousands on a direct-mail campaign only to find you've filled more wastebaskets than orders. Polymer Plastics Corp., a company based in Mountain View, Calif., that sells printer circuit-board products, found a way to bypass the circular file. "If customers got a videotape in the mail, I figured they were going to have to look at it," says CEO Larry Stock. "Curiosity alone was going to kill them."

They don't just look. Stock estimates that when video catalogs accompany the paper catalogs, they generate 20 times the response of paper catalogs sent alone. After the videotapes were introduced, stagnant sales of one product line leaped from $10,000 a month to more than $20,000. Sales for Polymer's products have tripled to $2.3 million in the two years since the company started sending out the video catalogs.

Stock targeted the videos at customers, but "it's a real benefit to distributors, too," he says. Because the tapes demonstrate how to use the products, they serve as a sales and training tool that distributors can use in customer calls.

Evaluating Customized eLearning
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Value
Evaluating eLearning Custom Development Companies

By: Cheri Thompson

Most people are shocked when they learn the cost for customizing eLearning content. According to a recent survey of buyers and sellers of custom content, investments can range from $14K per finished hour (for no frills) to $100K per finished hour (simulation)?. Why so much you ask? There may be many reasons, but the bottom dollar is vastly contributed to one word.... Customization. Essentially, the only use for this development is within your organization. It is not reusable or resellable and has no value to others. More...

Successfully Implimenting an eLearning Solution

By: Cheri Thompson

While the rewards of a successful eLearning solution implementation certainly outweigh all the challenges, we must be aware of (and develop contingency plans for) the common obstacles to be encountered. The most common challenges we have observed with implementing eLearning have been:

1. Failure to Conduct a Cost to Benefit Analysis (CBA)

2. Not Implementing Change Management Simultaneously

3. Not Compensating for the Lack of Human Contact

4. Not Developing Contingency Plans
More...

The Role of Small Business
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Small Business
There are many more small businesses than big businesses, but big business gets all the press and publicity. Yet small businesses employ as many people as big businesses and account for most of the long-term job gains, according to government statistics. You don't have to be big to make a difference. Most sites on the Web are small. That doesn't make them unimportant or uninteresting.

In fact, small businesses -- whether they're called SOHO (small office, home office), Home business, or just Small Business -- provide about 70% of the jobs and economic activity in a healthy economy. Yet the training needs of this market segment are often overlooked. A good question is: Why?

Most small business owners will tell you they don't have time to worry about training. They're too busy running their business.

Let's start from the practical, and see what conclusions come to mind.

Here are five ways to market your work at home business that you may not have thought of before:

1) Enhanced Business Card - Get a business card with color, an eye catching background, and add your picture to it. Maybe you could also have a cool quote or a free offer on it, plus anything else you can think of to get peoples attention.

The point is you need to make it stand out among all the other business cards someone might see in a month. Make sure your website URL is on it in a highly noticable place. Then, leave it everywhere you can, and hand it out to everyone you meet.

2) Give away freebies - Underpromise and overdeliver! That is the best business marketing strategy ever thought up. Pretty much all the "big-dogs" use it in their marketing campaigns. You can too by giving away free stuff at your website, or in your newsletter, without telling anyone they will be receiving it.

Say someone visits your website from an ad you placed that didn't mentioned anything about getting a free ebook. They will be absolutely delighted to find the extra free gift.This is a great way to get people to not only return to your site, but tell their friends about it too.

3) Sponsor Events - A great way to spread the word about your business is to sponsor events in your area. There are many games, events, charity drives, intramurals, little leagues, etc... That are just waiting for people like you to give a little bit of your money to help out.

You will usually get your business name on a T-shirt, a sign, a flyer, or something else related to the event. A lot of people will be seeing these events and YOUR business name. It's a great way to drive local traffic to your online business website or offline business if you have one.

4) Blogs - Having your own business blog can be a great marketing tool. With a blog you can quickly and easily offer free business advice, information, fun stuff, resources, tips, or anything else you want.

If you have a very interesting and/or informative business blog people will keep returning for the great stuff that your blog offers. Update it every day or two with fresh info and you can build a strong following fairly quickly.

I have used this marketing technique successfully for the past few months. You can see one for yourself by visiting Trent Brownrigg's "home biz tips" blog.

5) Guestbooks - There are many people that have guest books on their websites that you can sign. Most of them allow you to put a link to your website when signing. This can be a good way to bring some traffic to your site and get a one-way inbound link that those search engines really love.

Make sure you don't just post a random comment or spam the guestbook. You should actually check out the website and leave a useful message. This will keep your reputation intact and provide the webmaster with usable information. A win-win situation!

Alright, now you are armed with five more work at home business marketing techniques to bring traffic to your website and customers to your business. Get going on them now so you can increase your profits this week!

Top Ten Design Myth-busters
Mood:  happy
Topic: Design
The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School
by Michael McDonough

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.
Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two. If you think I am wrong, just look around.

2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit work.
Only 5 percent is actually, in some simplistic way, fun. In school that is what you focus on; it is 100 percent fun. Tick-tock. In real life, most of the time there is paper work, drafting boring stuff, fact-checking, negotiating, selling, collecting money, paying taxes, and so forth. If you don’t learn to love the boring, aggravating, and stupid parts of your profession and perform them with diligence and care, you will never succeed.

3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
You hear a lot about details, from “Don’t sweat the details” to “God is in the details.” Both are true, but with a very important explanation: hierarchy. You must decide what is important, and then attend to it first and foremost. Everything is important, yes. But not everything is equally important. A very successful real estate person taught me this. He told me, “Watch King Rat. You’ll get it.”

4. Don’t over-think a problem.
One time when I was in graduate school, the late, great Steven Izenour said to me, after only a week or so into a ten-week problem, “OK, you solved it. Now draw it up.” Every other critic I ever had always tried to complicate and prolong a problem when, in fact, it had already been solved. Designers are obsessive by nature. This was a revelation. Sometimes you just hit it. The thing is done. Move on.

5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns.
In design this means “draw what you know.” Start by putting down what you already know and already understand. If you are designing a chair, for example, you know that humans are of predictable height. The seat height, the angle of repose, and the loading requirements can at least be approximated. So draw them. Most students panic when faced with something they do not know and cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the beginning. Then work on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a time. It is the most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as “Be where you are.” It works.

6. Don’t forget your goal.
Definition of a fanatic: Someone who redoubles his effort after forgetting his goal. Students and young designers often approach a problem with insight and brilliance, and subsequently let it slip away in confusion, fear and wasted effort. They forget their goals, and make up new ones as they go along. Original thought is a kind of gift from the gods. Artists know this. “Hold the moment,” they say. “Honor it.” Get your idea down on a slip of paper and tape it up in front of you.

7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance.
Overconfidence is as bad as no confidence. Be humble in approaching problems. Realize and accept your ignorance, then work diligently to educate yourself out of it. Ask questions. Power – the power to create things and impose them on the world – is a privilege. Do not abuse it, do not underestimate its difficulty, or it will come around and bite you on the ass. The great Karmic wheel, however slowly, turns.

8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is set up to facilitate the worst. It doesn’t depend on brilliance or innovation because if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It requires averages and predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant ideas go against the grain of the social contract almost by definition. They will be challenged and will require enormous effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial arts or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you believe in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be everything.

9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how brilliant your essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is, if you can’t output it, distribute it, and make it known, it basically doesn’t exist. Orient yourself to output. Schedule output. Output, output, output. Show Me The Output.

10. The rest of the world counts.
If you hope to accomplish anything, you will inevitably need all of the people you hated in high school. I once attended a very prestigious design school where the idea was “If you are here, you are so important, the rest of the world doesn’t count.” Not a single person from that school that I know of has ever been really successful outside of school. In fact, most are the kind of mid-level management drones and hacks they so despised as students. A suit does not make you a genius. No matter how good your design is, somebody has to construct or manufacture it. Somebody has to insure it. Somebody has to buy it. Respect those people. You need them. Big time.

Color is Important
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Presentation
Color, the amount of color, and its intensity, are one of the most important aspects of presenting elearning.

(Pushed the wrong button, I'll have to finish this later.)

... from Color Preferences Reveal Your Personality

by Geraldo Fuentes

According to the creator, Doctor Max Luscher, the colors have deep rooted psychological significance. Dr. Luscher's explanation takes us back to a time when humans were living in the wild. Daylight, symbolized by bright yellow, signified a new day, a bright beginning and a welcome relief to the deep blue or black of night, which carried with it the fear of the unknown and the time to hide and bundle up in animal skins for a period of resting and recharging. The green of vegetation promised nurturing in the form of food and medicinal plants and came to represent the a degree of control over nature. Red, especially the brownish hue that he selected, was to represent the color of blood and was therefore linked with the hunt and aggression.

In more recent times, marketing and package designers noted that sugar and other sweet products did not sell in packaging that was green while cosmetics suffered the same fate when associated with the color brown. In open ended tests, green was associated with astringent or tartness while blue seemed to best convey sweetness.

Modern dyes and tints now allow for a wide array of colors unknown in nature. This is why the instructions warn of association with things like clothing and common objects. Ideally, the colors will have appeal (or the lack of appeal) based on their association with the other colors in the set and this is the most reliable way to "read" our unconscious and inherent interpretations.

Supervert's Color Test is a Shockwave implementation of a standardized psychological test developed by Dr. Max Luscher. Basically it asks you your favorite colors, compares your choices to a table of responses, and then "analyzes" you accordingly.

Although the body does have quantifiable physiological responses to color — for example, red is "exciting" because it causes blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate to increase — Supervert does not intend to endorse color psychology by making this standard test available in Shockwave format. The intention, rather, is to demonstrate how projective psychological tests can be automated with software, thus making the analyst useless.

A Definition of Interactive Design
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Design

Interaction design is concerned with the behavior of products, with how products work. A lot of an interaction designer's time will be spent defining these behaviors, but the designer should never forget that the goal is to facilitate interactions between humans. To me, it's not about interaction with a product (that's industrial design) or interaction with a computer (that's human-computer interaction). It's about making connections between people.

Since behaviors and mediums are always changing, the discipline of IxD shouldn't align itself to any of these in particular. The rise of digital devices and the internet created a greater need for the discipline and many, many new opportunities for interaction designers. But it isn't the only place for our talents; analog situations can use our talents too, to create things like work flows and systems of use. As the internet and digital devices become more and more ubiquitous, interaction design will be involved in nearly every aspect of our lives.
-- from Danny Saffer's blog on his Masters Program at Carnegie Mellon University

One thing we, as Instructional Designers, have to do is remember that we are not just Instructors, but Designers. Our job is not just to put a course online (or on a CD), but also to make the content interesting and evocative.
Yes, evocative.
That's one of the main failings of many LMS systems today: They are simply an attempt to mimic a classroom on a webpage.
Moodle, an Open Source LMS that I truly enjoy, unfortunately falls into this category. For all the 'social constructivism' that drives its constantly increasing number of activity modules, it's still an attempt to put a classroom on a webpage.

It's the design of that webpage that makes or breaks the social constructivism and activity goals. If it ain't attractive, energetic and evocative, it don't matter how many good ideas are hidden behind a boring presentation (read:design).

When I first looked at Danny Saffer's blog, I said, "Ack! -- White on Red?!" My first thought was that this was gonna be a hard read, no matter what he had to say.
But I was wrong. Danny breaks up the in-your-face and anesthetizing color combination with frequent bold-gold, oversized links, images and an engaging arrangement of pages that keeps the blog moving. In fact, it's fun to read, even if he does get a little academic at times. (see above)

Another good example is CustomGuide eLearning site.
Initially, the site looks pretty mundane. The loading module is intentionally boring, with muzak (Am I showing my age here?) rolling idly by as the lessons download.
But once the lesson is there, the pace is quick, easy to follow, and the interaction is well-timed to keep the learner's attention.
A good comparison is with the Atomic Learning site, which is clearly designed by teachers for teachers. It's done in Quicktime movies. Essentially, one teacher lecturing another in a movie.
No interaction other than going from module to module. The modular design is its best feature; and it covers a lot of software.
Atomic Learning is more a audible, visual, example-driven Help file.

In the current marketplace, both online learning platforms are affordable, which makes them both -- for different reasons -- invaluable for anyone who really wants to learn software.

A weakness in both systems, AtomicLearning and CustomGuide, is depth. Within the limits of each elearning platform's presentation, the user can 'drill down' into the quirks of the software. -- But if the modules don't cover it; it don't exist.
To its credit, CustomGuide does touch on some strategic concepts in certain presentations, like MSProject.
I think both follow well Mr Loewy's MAYA principle.
It's an aspect of Information Technology that's frequently decried: By the time you build it, its outdated. Scope creep must drive MAYA mad.

What's missing is two steps, as I see it:
1) Case studies that take what's learned (or explicated) in the modules and illustrate how to use it;
and 2) interactive problem solving based on the learners' own needs and goals.
The strategies that are missing need to be made into examples. Then those strategies need to be made responsive to the goals and requirements of the business.

That's where I want AEmeritus to begin: with the business' needs and goals.

Design is Design
Mood:  not sure
Topic: Brainstorming
Anyone who thinks the problems of today's designers are unique should read Raymond Loewy's 1951 book Never Leave Well Enough Alone. It's a glimpse into a time when another design discipline, industrial design, was in its nascent stage, just like interaction design is today.

Loewy, for those of you who aren't up on your design history, was one of the premier industrial designers of the mid-20th century. He (or more correctly his firm) did a staggeringly broad selection of designs, from refrigerators to trains to logos, and changed the look of products forever. His most famous dictum is the MAYA principle: Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.
Loewy summarized his design philosophy with the acronym, MAYA - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. It served as a guiding principle for Loewy and those in his employ reminding them not to push a design, however excellent, beyond the threshold of acceptability to consumers and manufacturers.

Loewy’s belief that every object, no matter how simple or complex, has an ideal form that expresses its function with economy and grace, was characterized through his work.

A couple of good online learning systems
Mood:  bright
Topic: B2B


"My firm, Credit Suisse First Boston, estimates the postsecondary education sector to be approximately 9 percent of the total for-profit industry, or $9 billion. The postsecondary market will remain a very attractive sector for the foreseeable future, offering a 15 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. Indeed, when compared to K?12 education and corporate training, I believe the higher education sector can take greatest advantage of the increased use of technology, especially the Internet, in delivering the educational product. Distance learning via the Internet will drive tremendous growth." ?Greg Cappelli
Senior Equity Analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston from the book, " TheWired Tower: Perspectives on the Impact of the Internet on Higher Education" By Matthew Serbin Pittinsky

Atomic Learning provides software training using a unique, just-in-time approach. Our library of thousands of short tutorials on dozens of applications are focused on answering the common questions teachers, students and anyone else may have when learning software. We like to call them "atoms of learning" and they are easy to access whenever and where ever you need them.

Atomic Learning is intended as support for schools and teachers. Their lessons cover a wide range of software, including Open Source (read: Linux). The short, modular format is energetic and easy to use. Because they cover an ever-expanding range of software, they are an invaluable resource for learning.
Unfortunately, the lessons are not interactive. They're done as Quicktime movies.

CustomGuide makes all our computer training courseware and eLearning available online for free evaluation — preview any title and compare it to the training materials you're using. We also post all of our prices online, so whether you're interested in purchasing a single book or a global eLearning account, you can expect straightforward and honest pricing.

CustomGuide produces the Personal Trainer book series as a complement to its eLearning system, complete with lesson files drawn from its online lessons. The lessons are interactive, short, and modular. Their presentation is professional and easy to use.

10 Damaging E-learning Myths
Make no mistake about it, the e-learning industry is going through troubled times. The current economic climate isn’t conducive to providing top quality e-learning and there are mixed opinions about the success of this type of training. We can argue about the causes of this phenomenon forever. However, this article presents 10 damaging myths that we feel are contributing to the problems facing our industry. These myths seem to be spreading at an infectious pace. This list isn’t intended as a criticism of any existing e-learning company – we have tremendous admiration for anyone who works in this difficult industry. Rather, this list gives us an opportunity to look again at the assumptions and beliefs that have come to define our dealings with customers.

Posted on: March 3,2003 | Read more...

Fortunately, these guys are in the UK. I'm in Australia. They have a lot of good ideas.

A couple of excerpts:
1. Volume = value
E-learning tends to be priced in terms of hours of learning content produced. Customers ask, "How much will it cost to produce a one hour e-learning programme?" Suppliers also talk in those terms: "we currently charge ?10,000 per hour of e-learning, with reductions for volume". Here lies the danger: value is becoming equated with volume of content rather than the degree to which a solution meets the training need. This is generally leading to conformity within the industry and a reduction in quality.

Currently, it would be difficult for a supplier to make the following argument:
"If we spend more time in the analysis and learning design of the project we can probably think of a way of meeting your training need in half an hour instead of an hour. However, because we need to spend budget on the extra thinking time, we still need to charge you for an hour. You still get a better solution though: your trainees will spend less time away from work and will probably get a more focused learning experience. You are paying for value or service, not volume."

We’re waiting for the day we can make that argument.

2. We are producing content
Many customers still approach suppliers with the question, "How much will it cost to turn this content into e-learning?" They think they are in the content delivery business instead of the 'improving user performance' business. The language that customers use also betrays this bias. They talk about ‘content producers’ and ‘scriptwriters’ rather than learning designers or instructional designers.

We wish clients would come to us and say, "How can we use e-learning to solve this performance issue?" This would set the focus firmly on people and performance rather than content. It doesn’t matter how much quality content I produce if it doesn’t lead to a change in learner knowledge, attitudes or behaviour.