BRANCHING SCENARIO BASICS

To be effective, branching scenarios must mirror real-life scenarios, decisions and consequences.

Branching scenarios are a fantastic way to support deep learning through problem-solving opportunities that mirror real-life. The bad news is that they are time-intensive to create and supremely frustrating to revise, especially if you’ve jumped the gun and built them using rapid development tools before you’ve ironed out the structure and details. It’s worth your while to get it right the first time.

Are they even appropriate?

Yes, branching scenarios enliven otherwise dull content by adding problems, decisions and consequences as you’d find in real-life. However, as attractive as the pay-off might be, branching scenarios are not always appropriate. Have a high need for linearity? Branching scenarios are off the table. Unable to work with SMEs to create authentic problems, decisions and consequences? Give branching scenarios a pass. Tight timelines or conservative review panel accustomed to tell-and-test training? Branching scenarios might not be for you.

They are, however, viable options when the goals of your training are to support decision-making and critical thinking skills, and they’re especially effective if the stakes are high in real-life. For this you need the freedom to break from the tell-and-test approach, and the time, budget and buy-in to generate genuine scenarios, choices and consequences.

The structure

Branching scenarios have three essential components: a foundational problem that’s true to life, realistic decisions and consequences. For a branching scenario to succeed (more on success measures below), they must be realistic. Remember that in real-life, consequences compound; this is colloquially called the domino effect. The principle of the domino effect is that one decision can set off a chain of events with compounding effects. For a branching scenario to be effective, decisions must domino.

That said, consequences must ring true to real-life so that your solution resonates with the learner. Branching scenarios with disproportionate consequences can discourage learners and cause them to check out or blankly click through to bring and end to a frustrating experience. Alternatively, learners will quickly lose patience with branching scenarios featuring consequences that are inappropriately light.

What success looks like

Branching scenarios are intended to peek curiosity, engage a learner’s desire to experiment and inspire them to think deeply about the problem at hand. There’s no better way to kill curiosity and internal motivation than to give a learner a pass-fail grade or provide them with generic and fundamentally meaningless feedback. Or, worse yet, to present them with the mere semblance of choice. Consider providing feedback that explains why one approach is preferable to another, or why one decision might result in an undesirable consequence. Enable them to think differently about their choices. Construct decision paths with unique consequences. Provide learners with opportunities to right their course or start anew. The ability to try again is the defining feature of branching scenarios and the goal of feedback should be to enable learners to make better choices when they start over. Branching scenarios are successful when learners want to explore new decision paths.

Reducing the pain points

And yet, the pain points of designing and building branching scenarios are well-known and can discourage instructional designers and other learning professionals. This doesn’t have to happen. Consider the following methods to reduce the pain so you can focus your energies effectively:

Go old skool: Map out the decision paths using old fashioned pen (or pencil) and paper, explicitly identifying the problems, choices and consequences at every step. Determine how many layers of decisions and consequences will comprise your scenario. Decide how your scenario will end.

Don’t rush: Rapid development tools are fantastic assets but utterly useless if you haven’t defined your decision path. Building out your branching scenario prior to that absolutely essential step will surely cost you much valuable time not to mention many bitter tears.

Reality check: At every stage ask yourself or your SMEs if the scenario still rings true to life. This test extends beyond the problem, decisions and consequences to the dialogue (if applicable) and graphics. If it’s not genuine, it’s not useful.

If the branching scenario is designed properly, learners will want to try again. That should be the goal of any learning experience.

It’s Just A Matter Of Perspective…

I’ve had the great pleasure of speaking to many audiences about the ‘phenomenon’ of generational dynamics. This is the term used to describe the distinctive attributes of one generation vs. another and (largely) how they are challenged to understand each other – particularly in the workplace.

Many people have weighed in on this topic – but few – in my experience, have attempted to understand what drives the ‘contempt’ that is often spewed at the generation known affectionately as Millennials. Instead, terms like lazy and entitled are thrown around as though they apply unilaterally. Of course, in the greatest of ironies, the people most apt to ‘label’ these twenty and early thirty-somethings, are the ones that ‘created’ them.

Yes, workplace Boomers – Generation Y are your offspring.

The truth is, there are far more cross-generational similarities, than there are differences. Sadly, most discussion about generational dynamics is at best stereotyping, and at worst, ageism.

So is there merit to this ‘dynamic’ at all? In a word, yes.

Experiences. Specifically, those significant socio-economic, political, environmental and/or cultural experiences each of us are exposed to. These are the foundations of the phenomenon. Why? Because, it is a generation’s exposure to these key events during their formative years that become the flagpoles for their views of the world – and ultimately – the drivers behind their opinions on how things ‘should be’.

For example, I feel safe in arguing that an individual’s perspective on life would have been shaped by living through an event as significant as the Great Depression. This would not preclude other events in that person’s life from impacting their perspective – but certainly the Great Depression would be among them. Perhaps that individual would have been less likely to use credit, choosing instead to pay cash. Perhaps they would have been more likely to have savings (under their matress) rather than trusting a financial institution etc.

If you apply this same principle to Millennials, you can begin to piece together how this demographic would view the the world around them – personally and professionally. Moreover, it begins to explain why an entire generation is often branded as ‘entitled’.

Let me explain.

Depending on your age, you will remember that failing in school was a distinct possibility if you performed poorly. Receiving a zero for not handing in an assignment was understood. ‘Repeating a grade’ because of poor performance was the ultimate consequence. But for Millennials, these concepts are largely foreign. This have never been their reality.

So what?

Well, if you are not familiar with the concept of social advancement, it simply refers to the position most school boards (at least in North America) hold regarding failing children. Instead, of ‘holding students back’ or having them repeat a grade for a second time, children are moved with their peer group, irrespective of academic success. This is for the betterment of their social advancement. Ideas such as receiving a zero, or an ‘F’ grade are largely a thing of the past. In some cases, even the use of red pen to indicate errors has been banned. This is all to insulate (a potentially impacted) child’s self-esteem from damage and ultimately to secure their long-term academic success. Students receive feedback that is designed to be constructive, not critical. All with an aim to drive improvement, without negatively influencing self worth.

It doesn’t matter what your perspective is on this notion, merely that the impression on those individuals with these experiences is very real.

But why would grade school, or high school matter to someone that’s in the workplace and now 25 years old?

Remember, you do not measure sociological impact in days and weeks, you measure in decades. If you’ve never been allowed to fail (or more importantly) there has always been a second chance, how might you be impacted when you interact with someone that has? Perhaps a manager or client, for whom ‘getting it right the first time’ is the only option. This is the ‘dynamic’ in action. This is today’s workplace.

In the example I’ve sited, an employee that failed to ‘get it right the first time’ would most certainly receive feedback. Every generation understands that. However, for those of a certain age, this feedback would be received (or presumed to be received) as their boss is handing them a ‘pink slip’. But for Millennials, (remember the experiences shaping their perspective) feedback is a thoughtful way to help them improve, to create a better ’employee’ moving forward. Certainly not a forerunner to their termination. Which employee might seem ‘entitled’?

Here’s another example.

When I look back on my youth, I cannot remember a time when I ever questioned a teacher. Their word was law. They were not my equal and they were certainly not to be challenged. My grade school principal was approximately 9 feet tall and 900lbs (or so). He too was not interested in my self-esteem. He was quite content never to speak to me – unless he needed to. If, ‘he needed to’, I was in trouble.

Today, teachers and administrators alike, have taken on the roles of school liaison and ambassador. Typically, they stroll warmly through the hallways, waving and smiling at their students. They encourage collaboration and welcome (respectful) disagreement of their opinions and decisions. Certainly not the figures of intimidation I remember. But if respect is ‘earned’ (today’s understanding) and not given (yesterday’s understanding) how might these views collide in the workplace?

Remember, ‘entitlement’ is a perception. Typically its arrived at through the lens of someone that doesn’t believe another has earned the right to have what they’ve asked for. So who decides? That’s the real problem. If a boss that ‘cannot be questioned’, engages with an employee that ‘has always been allowed to voice their opinion’, we experience a generational divide.

Honest communication is the only real answer. It almost always is when attempting to drive positive change. Open exchanges aimed at understanding  – rather than awkward meeting room glances, private gossip or social media driven tirades.

A Millennial is no more entitled, than a traditionalist (having grown up in the wake of the Great Depression) is cheap. It’s just a matter of perspective.

 

 

 

WEB STANDARDS

AN INTRODUCTION

There’s a strong need in today’s world to have your applications be responsive. Gone are the days when your client would accept an application that you had to sit and wait for no matter how functional it was. This idea of impatience has led us to look to different ways of delivering our web applications, be they Learning modules, an LMS, your Blog, or your website. The perception exists that if it’s not loading fast enough, the product simply does not work.

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT?

Today’s web browsers are much different than the iterations before them, and we’re seeing a strong swing towards the new and improved. Just recently too, Microsoft announced that support had ended for Internet Explorer versions 8, 9, and 10. An announcement that was long overdue in the eyes of every web developer, and a source of programming frustration that no longer exists. The new issue is how we can leverage those old applications to run at today’s standards or the reverse scenario of whether a legacy browser is trying to run a new platform.

A quick way to see if your browser is ready to handle what the web has to offer is to look at a website called www.acidtests.org. Here you can take your browser through it’s paces to see how well it can put together a reference image, and it will get a score out of 100. Higher is better in this case too, and you’ll want to watch out for the types of errors your browser may generate.

A lot of these issues are being mitigated by frameworks and new development tools, for eLearning or otherwise, that take all of this into account and aim to show your content as it was intended. Two authoring tools that aim to have the most web-enabled flexibility are known as SHIFT and Adapt. These will remove the constraints of the mostly flash-enabled eLearning we’re accustomed to and bring it into a more responsive environment.

WRAPPING UP

If you would like to explore more about gamification, mobile learning and eLearning, take a peek at our company website: Pathways Training and eLearning, at http://www.pathwaystrainingandelearning.com/. We always look for fresh ways to engage learners and to make the learning experience as fun as possible!

eLearning Dev Tips – mLearning Module Development

As the eLearning industry continues to grow, and innovation continues to push the boundaries of cellular technology, the potential of mLearning modules becomes more and more apparent.

In the world of today, people have multiple pieces of technology that could only be described as tech-companions. Everyone I know has multiple devices, ranging from Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Smart Phones. The need for creating modules that work on multiple devices more and more obvious.

While Articulate Storyline does a great job of keeping things simple, user-friendly and streamlined. (Which may be why it is an industry standard.) Adobe Captivate has real standout feature when it comes to the future of the industry as we move towards developing adaptable content.

Responsive Projects

The Responsive Project feature of Adobe Captivate, is quite fascinating. In a nutshell – it allows the developer to create content that will be able to work for various forms/devices.  To break it down:

The user can set the details of various device profiles.

Content is applied to the slide.

Captivate then registers the contents unique position data for each of the profiles that have been created. Even going so far as to register how text is configured within assets like buttons. This is very useful since the largest thing to change from profile to profile is the screen real estate.

Pictured above you can see a snapshot of the Responsive project slider. Where developers can toggle various layouts for their content on the fly.

 

If you would like to learn more about eLearning and mLearning please visit www.pathwaysinc.ca

 

Button Sets in Storyline 2

This week I’d like to talk about an oft-overlooked feature of Storyline which enables your user to select only one option out of many. Let’s say in one slide of your eLearning course, you have a series of icons and you want your user to click on each icon, in order to display related text boxes. Upon selection, you want to reduce the opacity of the selected icon, and to restore all non-selected icons to their ‘Normal’ state. In short, you want your icon ‘Selected’ state to be mutually exclusive, so that only one icon at a time can be selected.

There are two ways achieve this: the first is convoluted and involves interweaving triggers with multiple dependencies, such that the state of one icon is dependent on the states of all the others. This is a scary prospect, and it turns downright nightmarish when you consider the possibility of one of your instructional designers (looking at you, Robinder) asking you to add three or four icons, and maybe to split the icons up between two slides.

Luckily, there is a good (ie., easy) way to do this, which will – with no triggers – enable you to achieve your dreams of iconic mutual exclusivity. Simply select all the icons, then right click on one, and under the ‘Button Set’ option, choose either an unused button set, or create your own. A button set automatically ensures that only one of its contained elements are selected at a time. Here’s a quick demo to show the basic functionality provided by a button set.

I hope this helps improve your workflow, and improves the usability of your eLearning courses! For more tips and tricks related to creating eLearning content with Storyline, check out our website at: http://pathwaystrainingandelearning.ca/.

MIDDLEWARE

AN INTRODUCTION

Middleware is a term that can send chills down the spine of a developer, or savvy businessperson or to the layperson, not mean anything relevant. Middleware is basically used to enable communication between any set of platforms, and to that end is known as “software glue”. No matter now much we’d like to get rid of it, many factors in the business world will continue to keep it around unless some things change. Having said that, your next question is likely: How does this apply to eLearning?

WHY IS THIS RELEVANT?

As it applies to eLearning there are some very identifiable examples of Middleware. One we’ll focus on for now is the Articulate Mobile Player. This application for your mobile phone or tablet enables the flash exports of Storyline to work in an environment that has stopped supporting it for quite a few years now. It provides the notoriously insecure flash to once again grace us on mobile in this case, albeit within the confines of an app. Without this application, a Storyline course would not be able to run in any available mobile browser on either Apple or Android. It’s a situation that takes the idea of being ahead in an industry and calls it into question. Particularly when you see such an object running on someone’s phone and someone may ask: Your phone can still run that?

Many would rather see eLearning that doesn’t need to depend on a secondary source to be functional in every situation. In particular, when we’re swinging towards bringing our eLearning with us. Having said that too, it’s not truly mobile when it requires the user to be sitting at a desktop.

WRAPPING UP

If you would like to explore more about gamification, mobile learning and eLearning, take a peek at our company website: Pathways Training and eLearning, at http://www.pathwaystrainingandelearning.com/. We always look for fresh ways to engage learners and to make the learning experience as fun as possible!

eLearning Dev Tips – Locking Navigation

As our team grows and we acquire more and more talented programmers, and eLearning professionals our knowledge base broadens and we pool together more insight, and techniques. Recently a new team member offered up a new variation on locking navigation

Often when developing eLearning modules, the developer will be required to lock navigation. This decision is made so that the learner will not be able to skip or miss content.

To understand which version is simpler, lets break them down into steps. In my experience with programming, cleaner and simpler code is better as it leaves less room for errors or bugs to arise.

Method 1 – Variable method

The variable method requires the creation of a True/False variable. It can be named anything, but best practice is to use a name that will instantly describe its intended function. I usually use a name like ‘SlideLock’ or some variation of it.

1. On the slide master, create a trigger that when timeline starts, variable SlideLock is set to true. This way whenever the learner advances to a new slide, the variable is set to true.

The trigger might look like something like:

adjust variable>SlideLock>to>True>when>timeline starts> on slide master

2. Then on each slide on the module you have to set the next button with a condition, to only work when the variable SlideLock is false.

The trigger might look like something like:

Jump to slide>Next Slide>when>User Clicks>Next Button>if>variable>SlideLock>equal to>false

3. Then again on each slide you need to establish the factor which will trigger the variable SlideLock to change from True, to False. This change is situational and will be dependant on the slides content. Sometimes it will be the completion of an activity, other times it might be as simple as when the timeline ends.

The trigger might look like something like:

adjust variable>SlideLock>to>False>when>timeline ends> on this slide

Method 2 – Disabled State method

The disabled state method is

1. On the slide master, create a trigger that when timeline starts, the Next Button on the player will change to a disabled state. This way whenever the learner advances to a new slide, the Next Button on the player will be set to a Disabled state.

The trigger might look something like:

change state of>Next Button>to>Disabled state>when>timeline starts>on slide master

2. Then on each slide you can establish the factor that when triggered will cause the state of the Next Button on the player to change to Normal State. This is unique as per the specific slides needs. Sometimes it will be the completion of an activity, other times it might be as simple as when the timeline ends.

The trigger might look like something like:

change state of>Next Button>to>Normal state>when>timeline ends> on this slide

Review

Comparing the 2 methods it is quite clearer that the Disabled State method is shorter, and cleaner. Not having to rely on variables makes things considerably simpler, and also easier from a programming stand point.

If you would like to learn more about eLearning and its Best Practices

Please visit www.pathwaysinc.ca

WHAT GAME-BASED LEARNING AND GAMIFICATION CAN (AND CAN’T) DO

Games and gamification are not magic bullets.

Lumos Labs, the maker of a suite of so-called brain-training games called Luminosity, has recently been ordered by the Federal Trade Commission (U.S.A.) to pay $2 million in damages. The reason? Lumos Labs’ aggressive marketing strategy is built around the false claim that its games promote brain health and can reduce or delay the impact of brain diseases such as dementia. There is no valid or reliable evidence – qualitative or quantitative – to support the claim that Luminosity causes improved brain health. And anecdotes, as compelling as they may be in advertising, are not evidence.

So what can game-based learning and gamification actually do?

Multitasking

There is some evidence to support the claim that gaming may improve our ability to multitask.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have studied the cognitive ability of older adults, aged 60 – 85, as they complete sessions in a driving simulator called NeuroRacer. The complexity of the simulation increases as gameplay continues thus forcing players to multitask the more they play. The study has demonstrated that with practice, players can improve their ability to multitask and the effects can be felt in subsequent NeuroRacer sessions months after game-play.

It is unclear if these skills can be transferred to the real world.

Strategizing

A European study of 152 participants (of which 80 were female, 72 were male and the average age was 14) found a “robust positive association” between gameplay and physiological changes in the brain – these changes are related to higher-order activities such as decision-making, prioritizing and strategizing.

What does this mean? We may be able to leverage games and game elements to promote the development of complex decision-making processes that involve sorting through and prioritizing mass amounts of information.

Focus

Flying in the face of popular and often vocal alarm about video games and shrinking attention spans, a Bristol University study used neuroimaging to see gaming brains at work and found they remained focused throughout gameplay. How did they do this? Researchers had participants study in the conventional way (reading notes and reviewing sample questions) while viewing their brain activity. Then they had participants complete a gamified, competitive study session while viewing brain activity as before. The result? Learners were much more focused when study was gamified.

Implications for adult learning

So what does all this mean for Instructional Design and adult learning?

Do, not tell: Science does support the claim that we retain information better if we’re able to apply it immediately. Games and gamified learning, if designed well, can provide learners with genuine opportunities for application and feedback that would support the retention of new information and set learners up for knowledge transfer.

Remember your audience: Digital natives are, obviously, more familiar with games and game elements than those of us who were introduced to digital life via the Commodore 64 or the Atari. Using games and game elements for digital natives means you can streamline or dispense with cumbersome text-based instructions.

Design a fun experience: Learning solutions that incorporate game elements or adopt the game form should be fun. And if the learning is fun, odds are, you’ll find higher engagement, retention and completion rates. Capture and interpret the data and share the results.

If Luminosity has taught us anything, it’s that we must learn to be critical of grand claims about the effects of games on the brain. Yet despite the abundance of misinformation about the cognitive effects of gaming, it’s clear that games and game elements can be used to support learning. They’re powerful tools, not magic bullets.

Using the ‘Visited’ State in Storyline 2

Storyline 2’s built-in states can be a real time-saver if you take the time to understand them correctly. Built-in states are self-triggering; this means you can replace a half-dozen triggers with a single built-in state, if you play your cards right. Let’s take a look at the ‘Visited’ state today.

‘Visited’ triggers itself when an object is clicked, and remains triggered until the slide is reset. You can use this state as a gating mechanism when controlling how learners navigate your course. If you have a group of links and want to ensure that your learner visits each before proceeding, you can assign each link a state named ‘Visited,’ and only allow the slide to advance once all links are visited. ‘Visited’ is a keyword within Storyline, and any state with that name will automatically take on the properties of this built-in state.

My favourite way to accomplish this setup is to set the Next button to disabled when the slide’s timeline starts. This greys out the button and prevents it from being clicked. Then I create a trigger which changes the state of the Next button to ‘Normal’ once all your links have been clicked (ie: once the state of all your links is ‘Visited’). The trigger setup looks like this:

---

 

Action: Change state of

On Object: Next Button

To State: Normal

When: State

On: All of

    -check off each of your links

Are: Visited

---

---

The process of doing this sounds more complicated than it actually is in practice. Give it a try and you’ll be impressed with how efficient the process is; the whole setup only has two triggers!

As an added bonus, you can change the visual look if the ‘Visited’ state to give your learner a visual reminder of what they’ve already seen. You can increase the transparency to ‘grey out’ the visited objects, or put it to 100% and make each object disappear when clicked. I like to put an unobtrusive checkmark in my visited states to make it even more explicit that the link has been seen.

I hope this helps improve your workflow, and improves the usability of your eLearning courses! For more tips and tricks related to creating eLearning content with Storyline, check out our website at: http://pathwaystrainingandelearning.ca/

New Year Resolution’s for the Office

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At the start of ever year there occurs a phenomenon that is as predicable as the rising Sun.  The event in question is the annual setting of the New Years resolutions.  Quitting smoking, losing weight, easing up on the drinking, etc.  These are just a few of the resolutions that many of us decide to tackle with the best intentions, only to have most if not all fall by the wayside before Ground Hog day. Regardless of our collective success rate, in thinking about resolutions it often occurs to me that they usually focus on improving attributes of our personal lives or well being.  But what about resolutions for our business life?  Should we all add one or two office resolutions in there just to keep a good balance?   With that in mind, here are a few of my suggestions for 2016.

Tell more people about eLearning.  Considering I work for an eLearning company this resolution would seem rather obvious, but business contacts and customers aside I still come across many family, friends and acquaintances that have only the smallest understanding of what eLearning is and what we can do with it.  My boss recently told me one of the worst things a sales person can hear from a customer (potential or otherwise) is “I didn’t know you guys could do that…” so I resolved to tell as many people as I can all the great things we can do.

Make a sale.  Considering I am not a salesperson (officially) this one may be a bit of a stretch, but assuming I am successful with my first resolution, this will hopefully not be as daunting.   It helps that I truly believe I work for an amazing organisation filled with talented eLearning professionals, so hopefully my sincere belief in our collective eLearning talents will help seal the deal.

Get it right the first time.   I recently wrote about the importance of the First Time Right process as, among other things, an opportunity to remind myself and my team that being thorough in everything we do will go a long way towards ensuring a project is brought to a successful end on time and under budget which is obviously the goal for all of our projects.

While I cannot guarantee a successful year if I strictly adhere to all of my resolutions, I am quite certain the effort will most definitely be worth it and something to look back on with pride when reviewing 2016.