RKCS Learning Solutions

Earlier this week, I was involved in a forum discussion and another user asked for some advice about creating a course. In trying to create the course, he was operating under the premise that the modules created should be no longer than 15-20 minutes long, have 2-3 objectives and a couple other specifics which I am not remembering at this point. While its good to have a foundation, I’m not so sure I agree that there MUST be a specific number of items in every course. I’m not sure that every course needs to be a specific length. BUT, we do live in an age where information must be delivered fairly quickly and intensely in order to grab the majority of a learner’s attention. So, while the days of the 1 hour course are probably gone, I’m not sure I would lock a course into 20 minutes. Why? Well, here are a few of my thoughts:

1. You are assuming length ONLY by audio. There is no way to know how long the learner actually spends reading/exploring (assuming that you built in the option for the learner to explore **eyebrows raised**);

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There is always something new, isn’t there? There is always a new toy, new app, something new to learn. The intent is that if you use all of these apps, you will be uber-productive, be ahead of the curve, on the cutting edge of tech and be raking in tons of dough. OK, so I may have been slightly tongue-in-cheek. But, two of the latest bits of tech that some have been buzzing about (awful pun) are the iPad and Google Buzz.

Now, Google Buzz, if you have not checked your gmail account recently, is a stripped down version of the GoogleWave that many have been patiently awaiting. This looks to be a competitor to Twitter. However, so far, although I’m sure that one can use anything productively if they try, I just have not gotten the Buzz as yet. The drawback for some is that you have to have a gmail account and the people you “buzz” and follow must also have a gmail account. Now, how is that different from Twitter, you say? On a basic level, it’s not…really. The winning assets for me currently are usability and availability. Many more folks are on Twitter it seems and it has become a social networking bear. Although, you can do the same things with Buzz, at the end of the day, on a business level, it becomes about reach. Right now, Twitter has the REACH that Buzz does not. Of course, humans are fickle and that could change at any minute.

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OK. So, the title is a bit long. But I found this interesting read by Cath Ellis called The 10 Commandments of eLearning. Her number 1, regarding putting the pedagogy first instead of the technology, is a ringing refrain that I have heard time and time again. Yet, there are still many examples of products and projects in which the tool is showcased instead of the learning.

Cath also notes that risks should be balanced with safety. Her premise there is that going online is a risky thing for some people and so the environment should be made safe with introductions, reflections and social activities. This is definitely true in a social networking sense and in an online classroom sense. This may not necessarily apply to the employee who is doing an online training because they have to. Additionally, let me present the flip side that some feel a little TOO safe online. Therefore they feel empowered to share information or communicate in a manner contrary to their normal behavior patterns. This can be positive and negative.

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I read an interview with Dr. Werner Oppelbaumer this morning regarding mobile learning or m-learning as it is commonly called. Although there might have been a slight sense of tongue-in-cheek, there was still the legitimate question of the long term use of m-learning. Yes, everyone has cellphones, smartphones, PDA’s and iPhones (which are apparently in their own category). But how many people actually use them for heavy educational/training purposes? This is not meant to be a disparaging question. I am simply asking a question that I might need to research on my own as well.

I also received another email this morning about Blackboard releasing an application for the iPhone, similar to Facebook and other networking apps for the same device. Some of my graduate work was done on Blackboard, e-college and other similar platforms. In trying to think back, I wonder how having a mobile platform for these might have been useful to me as well. It might not have had a great impact for me because I see a mobile platform being extremely useful for those who might not have immediate access to a computer or laptop. So, in attending faculty colloquia as an online professor, the mobile platform might have been useful to me in the airport. I could have answered my discussion questions and prepped myself for the next week of work. Maybe accessing a learning module while sitting in bumper to bumper traffic might have given some advantage. Maybe checking my classmates responses during a boring sermon at church might have gotten me ahead of the game (but church is NEVER boring, right ). Maybe scanning an online document during a meeting or seminar might give me a leg up. Of course, this train of thought might be limiting m-learning to only phones. I am leaving out the possibilities of mediums such as the iPod (or any mp3 player) and handheld gaming systems such as the Sony PSP or the Nintendo DS (Sidebar: Apparently EVERY kid in the world has a DS, or so I am told by my daughter. She is 5 and told me that she “totally” has to have one). This technically means that formats which we are still becoming familiar with such as podcasts are forms of mobile learning. I suppose another use in the educational forum might be automatic dispersion, tracking and submission of homework or other school projects.

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I have an interest in voiceover and narration to say the least. I have spent some time over the last few months researching (and to a degree learning) the voiceover aspect of things because I figured it could only add to what I do as an eLearning developer. Now, in looking at a lot of the eLearning examples I have come across, many are narrated. Some are definitely done by professional voice talent. Others are done by a person with a computer and a mic. If you are that person, I hope you were not offended by my reference.

One of the things that I noticed in some of the examples was that the voice was saying the same thing that I was already reading on the screen…verbatim. At first I rationalized and thought that it might have been for the same reason that closed caption is included in some presentations. Then I thought it may have just been a personal pet peeve or preference. Then I began to look around and found that others had the same personal preference. But I am not one to write off ideas or methods so easily. Maybe there is a reason for this technique. Although Chris over at eQuixotic quoted some stats from Richard Mayer’s book, Multimedia Learning, in which he notes that removing spoken text from screen increases learner retention by 28%. But then, for every technique that proves a point, there are others that reach another conclusion. Another blogger refers to this on-screen narration technique as a means of fulfilling the obligations to SENDA (Special Education Needs and Disabilities Act). Of course, that is the British equivalent of Section 508.

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