Introduction
THANK YOU for a great 2009! In spite of a difficult economic climate we’ve had a good year at Rivertown Communications. We’ve worked on many exciting projects with our existing customers and friends and began relationships with a number of great new customers. We continue to grow and have added two new team members. Micah is a skilled video and audio producer and e-learning developer. Celeste is experienced in administration, writing and editing. Our growth is because of your support, and we never take this for granted.
This newsletter is published periodically throughout the year by Rivertown staff and is sent to our customers, associates and others who have requested issues. We do not purchase e-mailing lists and do not share the names on our list with others. If you do not wish to be included on future mailings you may make the request at the bottom of the newsletter or contact me directly and I’ll have your name removed.
This month Dave Nelton (one of our instructional designers) gives a great overview on developing your first e-learning course. It’s a quick read and covers the basics. Thank you for your business and support this past year. I hope you and your families have a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2010.
Robb Jacobs
President
Rivertown Communications, Inc.
E-learning: From Daunting to Do-able
Designing and developing your first e-learning course can be a challenging task. You may be an experienced trainer or a subject matter expert but uncertain about where to begin when it comes to e-learning. It is important to remember that “good design” is “good design” regardless of the medium being used. The instructional design model, ADDIE, provides a basic framework and guide for designing your first e-learning course.
ADDIE Model
This acronym stands for the 5 phases contained in the model:
- Analyze. Identify the characteristics of the target audience.
- Design. Identify learning objectives, and select an instructional approach.
- Develop. Create instructional materials.
- Implement. Deliver the instructional materials.
- Evaluate. Determine if the learning objectives have been met.
Analyze
The analyze phase is usually about the learner. However, it can include the culture of the organization that is sponsoring the training. Here are some typical questions to ask during this phase:
- What is the problem you hope to address?
- Is training the best approach to address the problem?
- What does the learner already know about the topic?
- Are there any characteristics about the learner that would influence the design of the course?
- Who are the key stakeholders that must be informed or involved in the development of the training?
- Are there any barriers that must be overcome for the training to be successful?
Design
In the design phase you determine how the course will look and function. Here you identify the learning objectives, user interface, screen design and interactions that will be used in the course. These components are then put together when you create the storyboard.
Learning objectives. The objectives should describe the behavior the learner will be able to perform once the training is completed. Well thought- out objectives are important because they guide the overall training and set the stage for evaluation.
User interface. The interface is the look and feel that guides the learner through the course. The interface should be intuitive. Learners should always know where they are in the course and be able to access other areas of the course easily. Part of interface design should include standardizing navigation and special functions such as “print” and “menu.” Establishing standards can take time initially but saves a great deal of time and money when storyboarding or programming. Once standards are in place it is important to follow them.
Screen layout. It is important to plan how content will be presented and where it will appear on the screen. Try to always display text, graphics, video and other elements in the same location on the screen. Learners should not have to search the screen to find certain content.
Interactions. A well designed course needs to involve and challenge the learner. The types and quality of the interactions greatly influence how well the learner “likes” the training as well as how successful the training is at inculcating new behaviors. The interactions that you design are only limited by your creativity and the objectives for the course. However, all interactions should include feedback so that learners understand what has been required of them and how their responses were judged.
Storyboards. A storyboard is a paper representation of the course. It typically shows all the content and how the elements described above have been incorporated into the course. The storyboard is very beneficial to the programmer because it is used as the ultimate guide for developing the course. A storyboard can also be used to gain buy-in from key stakeholders that have an interest in the accuracy of the content. When used to gain buy-in, the storyboard is distributed to stakeholders for review and then the comments are synthesized into a final version.
Another approach that can be used to gain buy-in is to bring all the stakeholders together for a meeting called a “storyboard review” and then facilitate a reading of the storyboard and dialogue about the content. This approach can be very effective when there are differing points of view among the stakeholders. The drawback to this approach is that the meeting must be run by a skilled facilitator. Whichever approach is used it is important to have “approved content” before programming begins. It is far easier and cheaper to catch content issues at the storyboard level then after the course is programmed.
Development Phase
In the development phase the storyboard is used to guide the programming of the course. Sometimes there is a team of specialists that help with this phase. There can be instructional designers, programmers, graphic artists, and other specialists depending on the needs and complexity of the course. Because of advances in technology, sometimes one person can do all or most of the programming. There are a number of tools that are available to help with the programming aspects of creating an e-learning course. Rivertown Communications uses Adobe Dreamweaver and Flash as main development tools. Other tools such as Captivate help non-programmers produce e-learning courseware.
Some organizations have chosen to keep part of the overall development process in-house and send the remaining pieces to a development company. When this occurs the development phase is usually outsourced to a company that specializes in programming. This allows the sponsoring organization to keep full control because they retain the design phase.
Implementation Phase
The implementation phase for an e-learning course usually involves making it available either on the Internet or delivering it using an Intranet. Depending on the needs of the sponsoring organization there may be administration issues such as tracking of learner progress and testing. If these are desired a learning management system (LMS) can be helpful.
Evaluation Phase
The evaluation phase can be very sophisticated or very straightforward depending on the needs of the sponsoring organization. Regardless of the rigor you wish to use, ultimately you want to be able determine if the training has had an impact. Some questions you may want to consider:
- Did the learners acquire new skills, knowledge or abilities? This may be answered by using testing.
- Did the learners enjoy using the course? This might be answered by using a survey.
- Does the course support the objectives of the sponsoring organization? This might be answered by reviewing the goals and objectives for the course.
Positive evaluations can position you for creating future e-learning courses.
To help e-learning administrators capture valuable learner feedback Rivertown Communications has begun integrating survey forms directly in e-learning modules. Learner feedback is stored in a secure, on-line database and authorized administrative personnel are able to access the compiled data in real time. This subject will be covered in a future newsletter.
Digital Learning Forum
Save the date and start the year off by attending January’s DLF meeting. The “Digital Learning Forum” or DLF is a group of local professionals involved with using technology for training and education. We meet monthly for a presentation and discussion. It’s one of the best deals in town, combining networking, free refreshments, and a great presentation. There’s no cost to attend and everyone is welcome. Here are the details for our next meeting and a biography of the keynote speaker:
Presentation Topic:
The Digital You: Using Avatars and Virtual Worlds for Training
Speaker:
Laura Kusumoto, Vice President, Forterra Studios
When:
Monday, January 11, 6:00 to 8:00 pm Central Time
Where:
University of Saint Thomas, 2115 Summit Ave., St. Paul, MN, O’Shaughnessy Ed. Center (OEC) Room 454 (4th floor)
”Laura Kusumoto has over 20 years of experience in engineering, operations, creative design, 3D graphics, and AI. Before coming to Forterra Systems, Laura was President of IDO Systems, Inc., a startup that developed an MMP platform with virtual chat, dance, and robot-fighting applications. Before that, she headed operations for the digital media R&D group for LEGO, which included the commercial production Mindstorms. Laura was the producer in charge of the first Intuit (makers of Quicken) website, editor-in chief of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers Technology Forecast, and instrumental in the creation of a jet-fighter VR location-based entertainment system. Before moving into multimedia, Laura was an engineering consultant and analyst for organizations such as Hewlett-Packard and Xerox, and a project manager and software engineer in artificial intelligence, nuclear safeguards, and oceanographic applications. Laura received a MS in computer science at Santa Clara University.” (Forterrainc.com)
About Rivertown
Since 1991 Rivertown Communications, Inc. has been designing and developing custom e-learning systems and websites. Our clients range in size from small, single office organizations to global corporations. For more information on our services, click below:
E-learning systems Custom design and development, including learning management systems
Compass Plus™ Online survey tool to get the data you need
Video production To integrate into e-learning or stream from the web
Websites Learning sites - accessible and Section 508 compliant
If you are currently in the planning stages of a technology-based training or marketing program, call us. We would be glad to meet with you to explore how we might partner with you to help develop your program.
Initial meetings are always without cost or obligation and we genuinely enjoy getting to know new people and organizations.
Rivertown Communications - 651.430.0353 - Stillwater, Minnesota | 