Synapsys Blog - March 2005

Cost of developing interactive courses

One of the most common questions we're asked is "how much does it cost to develop an interactive course?" That's a bit like asking "How much does it cost to build a house?"... It's frustrating to get the answer "It all depends..." but it does. One of the key determinants of cost is the level of interactivity. Hundreds of pages of static content can be produced in the time it takes to build one sophisticated interactive learning environment.

One the other hand, the value of an interactive learning experience can be hundreds of times that of simply reading through electronic content....

Recent figures out from the US suggest that the custom development of learning content can range from US$15,000 per learning hour for low level interactivity to $42,500 per learning hour for full blown simulations.

We draw two conclusions from this:
1. If you look simply at the cost of development, you'll probably shy away from high level interactive solutions. Don't. Take the time to measure what the benefit is in changed behaviour that comes about from a successful learning experience. We've watched many organisations 'tick off' an eLearning initative because they've uploaded pages of content, even though nobody has changed how they do their jobs as a consequence. THAT is a waste of money.
2. New Zealand is a great place to get custom development done. Local costs are substantially below US prices, and you have the security of knowing that the solution will be developed appropiate to Western business processes.

Coordination, Collaboration, Cooperation

If you've ever given any thought to the differences between the three terms, coordination, collaboration and cooperation, this reflective piece from Dave Pollard is for you.

Link here...

The merging of KM and LM

Part of Synapsys' core philosophy is that we'll see in the next 10 to 15 years a coming together of Knowledge Management and Learning/training initiatives. There are a number of pressures driving this, many stem from the need to see actual, tangible changes in behaviour as a result of either type of initiative.

It's no longer adequate to measure how many courses are run, how many eLearning pages are clicked... What matters is how people change what they are doing as a result of the learning. Similarly, developing a knowledge repository on the intranet is meaningless if people don't know how to access the information, don't trust it, or it's not perceived as relevant to their jobs.

This focus on seeing change happen leads to a focus on questions such as:
How can we make information and learning relevant to people's work?
How can we serve it up when they need?
How can we contextualise it to suit the work at hand?

The answers to these questions lie in the integration of KM and LM initiatives - Synapsys's core business. These sentiments are starting to be echoed in the broader eLearnign community. See for example this article from Brandon Hall:
http://www.brandonhall.com/public/whitepapers/lmkm/

Mind Mapping Tools

Mapping
Concept Mapping, Knowledge Mapping, Mind Mapping, Flowcharting, & Note Taking are becoming increasingly important for today’s businesses. We have links to three software solutions for mind mapping included below. These can be useful tools for capturing information while on the go, while in meetings, and for helping you organize/brainstorm your thoughts while you think of them. The Synapsys development team uses Inspiration software, mainly for planning websites, brainstorming for projects, and capturing the groups’ ideas. Inspiration is very user friendly, great for visually minded people and you can easily switch back and forth from visual maps to text outlines. It is easy to learn to use, with lots of icons and symbols to choose from for your mapping. We have found this to be a very effective tool in our business.

MindManager software

Mind Mapper software

Inspiration software

Search Engine Optimisation vs User Optimisation

You may have heard of the term Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and why you need it to get thousands flocking to your website. There are companies that specialise in this field and will claim to put you in the top 10 search results of the major 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN).

But there is one thing that will beat any SEO code tweaking voodoo magic and 'pay per click' add campaigns hands down everytime. Something search engines love, and people love – Content.
On the internet content is king, the internet is about sharing information. If you have a website packed with good, relevant informative content, then they will come, the search engine bots and the humans.

Many web development companies select and develop content based on the users and the visual appearance they want to convey. They tend to see site optimisation as something that happens after the site is build. This is a trap.

Using FHM Magazines to get out of doing blog entries.

When you are asked to do a job by your boss, and you don’t produce, you need a good fall back plan.

In this technology driven paperless office world we live in, the old “my dog ate it” excuse just won’t cut it no more (unless your boss knows you have a *** big Rottweiler with a savage disposition).

Enter what I like to call “The Bootie Plan”, yes, there’s nothing like the female form reclining herself all over the glossy pages of a magazine to help your boss forget to kick your arse down to the unemployment office.

Now, I find the famous FHM magazine ( http://www.fhm.com.au/ ) to be quite the ticket for such a delicate operation as this. Their articles are good, and it has good weight and feel so as not to give an impression of a lame attempt at damage control. Word has it there is no equivalent for the fairer sex, try chocolates.