Synapsys Blog - January 2010

DIY eLearning - do it, but do it right

There has been an explosion of eLearning authoring tools that promise the ability to create effective, engaging eLearning content without even the need to know what 'HTML' means. Expensive or free, downloaded or used online - the options are endless.

We've noticed that as clients start to explore them, as many questions arise:
- Is 'simple' eLearning good enough?
-How do we make it genuinely 'interactive'?
-How do we make finished modules available?
-How will we maintain it?
-Do we have the expertise to use the tools well, and if not, how do we get it without getting stuck with an expensive consultant?

Our view?
-There are some fundamental attributes of any eLearning package that you should be able to achieve. If you can't, don't start.
-The better DIY authoring tools do set up an environment where you can create effective content without programming knowledge. However it doesn't follow that anyone can use them effectively. Not everyone can use a welding machine, a spreadsheet, or a syringe....

The essentials....
-The visual design and standard of content must reflect well on the brand of the organisation
-The information design must be pedagogically sound
-The modules must be transportable between delivery platforms
-The learner's brain must be actively engaged by the material through at least some interactivity
-It must be economical to maintain

As we reviewed and used the available tools, we realised that most applications provide varying degrees of functionality, but don't give authors the structure they need to create effective content. We also found many of the better tools prohibitively expensive. It wasn't just the purchase price, it was the time and cost of getting authors to the point where they could use the tool to create good content quickly.

Our response has been to launch ReB, the Synapsys Rapid eLearning Builder. It's a web based environment where we populate modules with page templates that reflect well on the client's brand and embed sound educational design features. As a web based service the cost model is very competitive, and clients can pick and choose how much support they need from us on an ad hoc basis. If you'd like to know more about ReB, contact us.

10 tips for creating effective eLearning

Ten tips for creating elearning experiences that actually deliver results

1. Don’t start with the technology
Start by being clear about the business is trying to achieve, and what experience learners actually need. It may or may not be eLearning.

2. Learning Management Systems – Get it right before you buy, not afterwards
Don’t start with choosing an LMS, don’t buy the first one that sounds ‘OK’. Test, pilot, gather requirements with the people that matter – the users.

3. Find your champion
eLearning will involve lots of change for many people. It won’t happen unless the initiative has overt, consistent support from the management team. Find your champion(s) and enlist them.

4. Experiment with creating content
There are a myriad of options, from contracting a company, to DIY, to SaaS services. Unless you’re setting up an eLearning development function, you’ll need to partner in some way. Don’t commit until you’ve tried creating the right level of content you need, and making sure it delivers results.

5. Get learners working together
Training isn’t the goal, changed behavior and improved performance is. People working in teams in a coordinated way is an important part of achieving this.

6. Interactivity generates learning
It might be cheaper to put pages of text online, but will it achieve anything? One way or another you have to engage the user’s brain. Interactivity is a critical part of the solution.

7. Get managers involved
If people are going to learn and change behavior, the organization is going to have to change as well. ‘Doing’ eLearning is not just about providing content people can study anywhere, anytime.

8. Know what your strategy is
eLearning is just another tool. Without a clear vision for what you’re trying to achieve, your effort is likely to be misdirected.

9.Return On Investment/Cost Benefit Analysis, ignore it at your peril
Enduring changes to bottom line performance will require investment. If you don’t project the return, you’ll find it hard to get the resourcing. Elearning may be cheap in large scale delivery, but there are a wide range of costs in getting established.

10. Make sure you can demonstrate success
Don’t get lost in the big systems issues. Small, piloted initiatives that are seen to work are critical to getting momentum.

Getting social and collaborative learning right

The goal of any learning initiative should be to make a difference. This difference could be increasing learners' knowledge in a subject or improving people's ability, efficiency, or satisfaction in their job. From the organisation's perspective, the value of these initiatives is seen in the extent to which this change occurs. Increasingly, organisations are seeing the value of creating opportunities for social and collaborative learning to drive this change.

Social learning techniques give learners the opportunity to apply their learning in a practical context, and gain feedback from peers and managers about how they have approached the task. It can be used to create ways for groups of learners to work collaboratively to achieve an outcome, learning from each other as they go. It can also provide a way for personal and shared reflection on their learning.

This kind of learning is less structured and formal than traditional classroom approaches, and as such it can be difficult to monitor. As a result it can be also be difficult to motivate learners unless there is transparency about the expectations and outcomes.

The challenge for an organisation is to make good choices about how they direct learners to do this, and to choose good tools for their learners. The good news is that there are a number of learning technologies that can help.

However, choosing between the many options available can seem like an impossible task. Many more organisations are making use of social networking tools such as Twitter and Yammer, and at the same time other business applications are become more social - from collaborative tools like Jive SBS and PBWorks, to CRM solutions like Salesforce.com introducing social collaboration into their services. Making the right choice, when many applications seem to offer similar capabilities, can be a difficult challenge.

From our perspective, you can succeed in this area by applying some basic principles, including:

• Get your activity design right - Focus on practical activities, using case studies and scenarios, to allow learners to apply their learning. Arrange for review by peers and supervisors, and coach them to provide constructive feedback and bring the benefit of their experience to solving a problem.


• Look at your current technologies first - If you are already using Sharepoint for collaboration, or a company intranet for peer discussion, see if you can use extend these to support social learning. Giving learners more than one place to go to discuss and share their knowledge and thinking could cause confusion and reduce the likelihood of effective engagement.


• Remove technological barriers to participation - if you need to introduce another application to handle social learning, consider how easily it integrates with your other systems. Nothing will kill collaboration faster than giving users yet another username, password and web address to remember.


• Don't forget the people - Technology doesn't create effective learning, people do. Make sure you invest in people to champion this approach, to foster and encourage learner collaboration, to facilitate involvement by managers and to ensure good quality evaluative data is gathered and reported on.


• Pilot and evaluate - Identify a small group or topic that you can use to trial these techniques. Ensure you have ways for learners to easily provide feedback. Measure the outcomes and compare it to the outcomes of other modes of delviery. All of this will be necessary evidence if you are trying to justify significant investment in people and technology to support this model.

We will be writing more on this topic in the future, including commentary on possible technology choices and examples of approaches to the design of social learning activities. In the meantime, get in touch if you'd like to talk about these concepts in more depth.