Managing eLearning

Association LMS – Yes or No?: The Truth Is…. You Might Not Need an LMS

Watching a Webinar or Chatting on a Social Media Platform is Informal Learning

I receive calls from associations who insist they need an LMS when they already have the software systems to deliver their informal professional development programs.  Here are five questions you should ask yourself before entering the murky world of vetting vendors and sending out LMS RFPs (requests for proposals).  (Full disclaimer: I am CEO of Web Courseworks, which markets a SaaS based LMS and course development services).

My premise comes down to the question:  Are you providing informal or formal education?  I’ve blogged about this before (Social Media vs. Formal Education) and so has Ellen at ALearning (Information or… Information?).   The answer is simple:  If you are providing informal learning only you do not need an LMS.  Period.   Chances are between your website’s content management system, association management system and/or your social media platform you can deliver a plethora of information to your members.  On the other hand, if you are providing formal education chances are you should seriously be in the market for an LMS.

First, what do I mean by Informal and Formal Learning activities?

Here are the questions you need to reflect on:

1. Do you provide education for a formal designation?
2. Is your designation, certification, or credential taken seriously?
3. Do you have a professional online course designer on staff?
4. Are you willing to staff for an LMS administrator?
5. Do you want to generate revenue from your formal education?
6. Do you have the staff to run your education programs like a business?
7. Do you believe that a formal educational experience should take serious time commitment on the part of your members?
8. Does your community of practice have a list of expected competencies and is the association responsible for licensing or upholding the quality of professionals in the community?
9. Do you currently have a classroom based formal education program that must go online?
10. Is it important that members perceive your educational offerings as of high value?

If you answered yes to three or more of these questions you should take a serious start down the road of reviewing Learning Management Systems.

eLearning in ‘the Cloud’: Should you go with a brand name or look deeply at the facts?

Several eLearning pundits predicted that 2012 will be “the year of the cloud” for those delivering education over the Internet.  While I don’t disagree that cloud computing will continue to be an important, evolving service, its use loosely as a term makes it difficult to pin down an exact definition for this buzzword or how it will impact eLearning in 2012.  What is true is the buzz about using a Cloud service is reaching a fever pitch.  So let me ramble a bit in hopes of educating managers about the cloud and suggest questions to ask vendors.

The term has only recently become popular, but the concept of “the cloud” has been around much longer and is often used to describe software delivered to users as a service via the Internet Browser.  The idea is that the guts of the software you are using lives in the cloud, not on your personal computer.  Software as a Service has been with us for some time.  This is a decades old concept.  What is different is the acceptability of housing personal files and company data files in the cloud.  Educators, for example, have been using cloud hosted services to deliver education for over a decade.   What is different is what a user should expect from the cloud: in terms of features, security, redundancy, power/scalability, and automation.

What is “the cloud?”

From the user standpoint, the concept of cloud computing can best be explained as a collection of server delivering resources that can be accessed remotely via the Internet in real-time.  These servers are housed in a bunker like structure called a Data Center.  In other words, your data, your software applications are not housed on your computer; they’re on a service’s cloud of web servers (often virtual servers) usually accessed by you via the Internet using a browser like Chrome or IE.  You are renting the use of the software and storage space.  The cloud is effectively a group of servers; more specifically– “virtual servers”–which simulate running multiple computers on a single piece of hardware.  This is beneficial since it’s possible to get more use out of the piece of hardware than if it was just doing the work of one.  A simple explanation:  if I have ten Dell servers each at 10% utilization I will have ten physical pieces of equipment to maintain and upgrade or using the cloud I can have only one server at 100% utilization. The term cloud leverages the fact that these virtual servers can be started up, shut down, upgraded, moved from physical machine to physical machine, etc all through software and in response to demand or other event.  For example, you might want to have more web servers running during the day when traffic is high and fewer during the evening when traffic is low.  Typically cloud servers cost out per hour.  This can be more economical than keeping all of your web servers running all of the time.

What defines a cloud for eLearning?

Clouds are defined by the technology they provide: computation, software, data access, and storage services.  A cloud can be defined as a place for users to create or store files, but has alternative meanings that, for example, explain how using a cloud can optimize processing power on the user end through its network.   Services now deliver software such as Microsoft Office from the cloud.  This means a computer user is renting the use of the software- usually via a monthly payment automatically deducted from a credit card.

Enterprises have been using hosted applications for learning software for over a decade. Software as a service (SaaS) is one type of computing that is almost always in the cloud and delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture.  The biggest change in attitude towards the cloud has come over time as Chief Technology Officers realize they do not have to maintain software and services within their own buildings and can maintain the same control via renting the software and server capacity.   Or, the CTO realizes their kingdoms are at capacity and welcome departments outsourcing to the cloud.  Think– enterprise sales tracking installed on each salesperson’s desktop containing a copy of ACT or a ten dollar a month bill for each salesperson’s online log-in to SalesForce.com.

So it goes for distance education using the Internet.  Advanced Learning Management Systems now also come with services attached.  Often administrative support and consulting services are included on the use of the software, allowing the customer to build corporate eLearning viability and online education business offerings.

Learning Services:  Delivery of Learning Website- eCommerce/content delivery/tracking of learner performance

A learning management system (LMS) delivered via the cloud is generally a web application seamlessly delivered over the Internet, accessible from anywhere in the world.  It is hosted on servers at a third parties’ data center.  The use of the Learning Management System is rented.  Advantages for the enterprise are that the software is updated frequently, and does not have to be maintained by the customer.  The application is essentially “version-less” in the customer’s mind since only one active code release exists.  Usually the LMS SaaS provides updates on a quarterly or bi-yearly basis.  The using enterprise does not have to purchase hardware or people to operate/set up the servers.  And during peak usage the cloud service increases capacity to service more users.  Sophisticated clouds will automatically spawn virtual services to meet increasing demand.  Some purists claim that this capacity to automatically spawn virtual services is a key part of being a cloud service.  Others use the term more loosely.

Learning Services:  Authoring SCORM Learning Objects/Modules

What the eLearning pundits are talking about for 2012 is authoring content in the cloud. The cloud provides the capability for collaborative development tools for creating, reviewing, and publishing interactive tutorials, assessments, and learning objects.  Typically the control of authoring eLearning content rested with individuals working with specific authoring software installed on desktops.  Project managers looking for efficiency and repeatability have longed for online systems that allowed for distributed workflow that is scalable.  Imagine an online system where subject matter experts can review module pages anytime/anywhere and comment in context and where comments are captured in a database.  The pundits are saying that if websites can be built on a “what you see is what you get” model so should it be for eLearning content.  Content can be meta-tagged, stored for re-use and re-publishing to new formats.  In other words, the eLearning development department is sophisticated to the point where people are asking:  Isn’t there an online system out there that can make us faster and better?

Biggest Concerns Hidden in Cloud Rhetoric

As an eLearning manager, it’s imperative to make sure you’re getting the advantages of the cloud when a company uses the buzzword in their product promotion. Perhaps some of the biggest concerns hidden in the haze of the cloud’s popularity are its ability to deliver on the promise of redundancy, scalability, and security.  Where these virtual servers are housed is a legitimate question to ask.  What data center are the servers being housed at?  And what type of certification does the facility hold?

There are no guarantees. Amazon had a 2011 publicized service hiccup due to human error and Sony has been hacked. Known security issues exist with larger brands, whereas many good SaaS providers have impeccable records.  So go figure.  Here are few topics to ask questions about.

Redundancy and Scalability

The key to redundancy is to design an architecture that does not have any single point of failure. A cloud computing system must make multiple copies of client information and store it on other devices and transfer workloads for easier information retrieval or in case of a break down. Redundancy enables the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. The redundancy associated with clouds is not always a given, but it’s easier as a side effect of this structure.  Since most of the cloud serving a site should be made out of disposable machines (since it’s ideal to shut them down, start them back up, rebuild them, clone them frequently) the loss of one or more virtual machines due to a software or hardware issue is less of a problem than it would be otherwise.  This doesn’t apply to all, but to most.

Security

The security of the software running on the cloud is up to whoever’s managing it.  The security benefits of running in the cloud at a reputable data center must meet certain physical location security measures to accommodate; like HIPPA or other guidelines.  Some data centers are certified (SSAE 16) and must submit to security audits.  Regularly performing a security analysis is vital to the security of any network. It is the only way to ensure that firewalls and access controls are properly configured and that server updates have been applied.  Consider the importance of both physical and electronic security: escort-only physical security, alarm system, video surveillance, motion detectors and glass break detectors, and dedicated network security experts.  Ask your cloud provider if the data center is certified.

All of this can be thrown out of the window when talking about many uses of the cloud.  It’s a big buzz word/ marketing term and gets thrown around a lot.  In some cases it means that someone has placed one or more constantly running virtual machines on a provider,  but it isn’t anything new.  It just has a new name.

As an eLearning manager looking to deliver, author and store content in the cloud, you should be asking questions about auto redundancy, scalability and security. A reputable company with a handle on these important aspects of cloud computing is much more reassuring than just a brand name.

Disclaimer: Web Courseworks offers CourseStage, a learning management system and CourseCreate, a web based authoring system.

Medical Educators – What Will They Think of My Small Project Collaboration Model?

I am speaking this coming Sunday at 4:00pm at the Alliance for CME conference in Orlando, FL on “Developing Interactive Online Education: Engage the Subject Matter Expert via Micro-Collaboration.” Conference attendees represent the association’s 2,200+ membership base of professionals committed to educating medical professionals. Only about 10% of these CME professionals are actually doctors.

After interviewing a doctor and a former nurse, now a performance improvement specialist, I realized how my micro-collaboration model is relevant to CME professionals who often work with busy medical professionals to create educational products.  In order to build in more learner engagement within our online activities, we need to engage and increase collaboration with the SMEs. In no situation is this more challenging than working with medical experts.

Communicating with Experts

My model suggests that designers and developers of online education view collaboration with experts through five lenses.  First, it is important to understand the power dynamics.  Doctors can be full of hubris.  There is a joke goes that it is not evidence based medicine but “eminence based medicine”.  And some experts are even considered rock stars in their field.  This presents a personal power imbalance when working with expert doctors.  My interviewees tell me that there are two main ways of approaching this. One is to position yourself as a professional educator by explaining your product development process and your credentials for doing a needs analysis and for writing learning objectives.  You have the templates, those are your tools.

Another way to gain the respect of the expert is to offer to help them gain prestige through publishing or positioning them on a team with a rock star.  Positioning yourself as a professional means making sure you take care of the structure of the project by appointing a project manager who knows how to run a project.  You might have to wear two hats but it is critical that the busy expert knows there is a schedule and process that respects their limited time.  This might mean you record the expert discussing the topic with other experts, transcribe and repackage the content for their approval.

The third frame of my model asks you to consider how to develop a shared language with the expert. You might take a look at the doctor and view the medical expert’s brain as a rubric cube to solve.  Use communication tools to solve this puzzle while you earn respect for what you know. Make the discovery process and expertise sharing process go smoother by over communicating dynamically.  This means being able to brainstorm, interview, and otherwise find ways to prompt passionate communication and sharing.  Using a mind mapping software can help. Consider using flowchart software or whiteboard to make sure you are on the right track.  Use professionally produced graphics and art boards to help communicate your concepts.

You can also enable collaboration by using formal formative evaluation.  This forth frame involves getting the expert involved with user testing evaluation while you are developing iterations of the educational product.  Nothing like the goose bump moment of seeing users excited about the product you have built together.  Also try to provide resources for continuous improvement of the educational product.  As many medical professionals like to say: “What is true today is not true tomorrow.”  Receive an extended commitment from the expert under the notion of quality improvement.

Lastly, my last frame of my model –momentum- should keep you aware of the passion level of all team members, especially the expert.  I like to suggest the team maintain a “Spiking Mo Schedule”.  An example of spiking MO might be presenting the computer program’s interface on art boards.  Anything that gets your experts excited and engaged is a momentum builder for your project.

Learn more about my micro-collaboration model.

Medical Subject Matter Experts: Medical Records Implementation and Training Challenges

A growing number of hospitals and ambulatory clinics are consumed with the task of implementing medical records software.  This national rollout of medical records software has increased the need to collaborate with medical experts.  Technological advancement means adoption of new ways of thinking and often requires Change Management training.  Special use of medical records holds the promise of improved patient outcomes through medical educational interventions for both medical practitioners and patients.  Implementation of a medical records system for software engineers involves understanding of the clinic workflow, while practitioners need a better understanding and appreciation of the advantages of using medical records software.  When there is two way respect and communication, good things happen for the patient and for medical care in general.

Over the holidays, EPIC Systems, a national provider of medical records software, invited me in to their audio studios to do a podcast on the relevance of my micro-collaboration model to medical records implementation.  I was excited to hear that my model can be applied generally to working with any type of expert, even brain surgeons and ER doctors.

I will be speaking at the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education Conference in Orlando, FL on January 22nd and hope to explore in depth the importance of micro-collaborating with medical experts.

Take a listen as I discuss the need for medical records software implementers to understand how to engage doctors and staff through micro-collaboration.

Disclaimer: This interview does not imply an endorsement by or partnership with Epic Systems.

Click play to listen to the podcast (approx. 24 minutes)

As a frequent eLearning blogger, I’m excited to share how Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, is continuing to be a leader and innovator in the eLearning industry. His TechEmpower site eLearningLearning.com serves as a gateway to the very best eLearning blogs, including ManagingeLearning.com, by aggregating eLearning-related content from a variety of sources that are organized around keywords.

Karrer has just announced that eLearningLearning.com now has a powerful personalization engine. Based on a combination of social signals, interests, and other factors, the site’s platform now creates a custom newsletter for each subscriber.

Karrer says of the new feature, “The reason that I’m most excited about this is that I partly use eLearning Learning to make sure I don’t miss things that is good content that is relevant to me.  Now with personalization, it is even less likely that something will sneak by.”

Read more about what he has to say on his blog eLearningTech.blogspot.com and sign up for the eLearning Learning newsletter here.

With 2011 nearly behind us, I’d like to look ahead to the New Year and share my predictions for the eLearning industry and how to cope with the changes.  As is constant in the technology field, I believe eLearning will continue to evolve and change to better meet the needs of upcoming tech-savvy generations. I’ve divided my predictions into three categories: eLearning Management, eLearning Design, and eLearning Technology.

In the midst of the Digital Age, we have instant access to knowledge that was once difficult or impossible to find. “Just Google it”: a modern day mantra. Social media discussions have become a common way to obtain information. Relying on listservs to share information among a community of practitioners has evolved into launching social media networks. Educators, however, would argue that “informal learning”, although important, has several missing components that will ensure social media platforms remain the domain of the member services/free benefits department, while formal education efforts remain the domain of the association education directors; and a source of non-dues revenue.  A post by Ellen Behrens on the aLearning Blog inspired me to share the importance of formal education in an association’s mission to teach. Creating a learning environment that fosters instructional education by providing learning activities and resources that go beyond the information you can simply “Google” or find on a discussion platform is vital to a quality learning experience. She quotes Elliott Masie, internationally-recognized elearning futurist, analyst, and researcher, who said, “It’s not the information, but our ability to use or apply the information, that truly counts.”  I might add that it is also the credential attained by achieving certain formal educational milestones that truly counts towards a member’s career.  I.e. resume contains completed formal learning achievements vs. I learned how to manage a team via posts found on the XYZ member’s social media platform.

What is the role of social media in education?

It could be argued that any member of an association could be just as qualified to teach and recommend industry best practices as the association-ordained “subject matter expert”  and that they should have a platform on which to do so. That perhaps the best way to get information now is to have all the members in a forum post out a thread and gather all the collective knowledge and allow members to decide on the best and most applicable information. That peer to peer connection is the best form of informally acquiring meaningful and actionable knowledge.  Generally, however, these volunteer member experts have the time to only briefly answer a question or suggest a resource.

No question, interaction on social media sites have their place. Listservs have been a popular and valued tool of communities of practice for decades.  Members connecting with members is a way to gain knowledge; they can function as a collective group of teachers or mentors. And discussion chatter like the chat string connected to a webinar is great to have as an additional educational tool. That said, this current fade towards installing white label social media platforms will not replace an association’s well-planned educational offerings anymore than YouTube will replace the community college.  I do not think more members are participating in association discussions just because they are posted on the association’s members only site as compared to participation on the good 0ld fashion listserv.  Participation is mostly motivated by a personal need to know or current policy issue basis.  Most importantly, there is a difference between the value of collected information in a discussion thread and planned instructional activities, testing and the resulting diploma, certificate, designation or credential.

Is this information really education?

As explained by Behrens, the difference between information and informational training is that information is the content basis for informational training. A manual of best practices for her hypothetical Association of Campground Owners and Managers (ACOM) is just information until it is incorporated into a training manual that not only provides best practices, but interactive, step-by-step instructions that help the learner come to a conclusion on how to incorporate those best practices recommendations into their own work. The same explanation can be applied to the collective knowledge acquired through discussion threads. There is value in members sharing information among a group of similar practitioners, but its true value does not come to life until it is incorporated into a formal educational endeavor moderated by an educator with learning objectives and grading rubric in hand.

What is a good educational experience?

In my view, education is about a formal effort to engage a learner in an exercise of intellectual strength training. In other words, “information” is like playing a round of golf and thinking you got some exercise, while formal instruction is the equivalentof an intense cardio workout. Time and effort is the main difference.

Associations should promote these educational workouts that ensure teaching and learning are taking place. This happens in the eLearning space with the help of a learning management system and well designed learning activities that equal in Behrens words “informational training.” All the better if the course offered online is led by an instructor that is fully utilizing the features of the learning management system. And yes, this includes the guided use of the good old-fashioned discussion thread. Social media platform not required (Full disclosure: My company offers a learning management system for associations called CourseStage).

Providing more than information requires that instructional designers assemble strong online learning activities. Remember the challenges involved in designing a good live workshop? Today’s challenge is to build online learning activities that encourage learners to connect the new knowledge they are acquiring with what they do on the job. Increasing levels of interactivity have a direct, correlative relationship with higher levels of learning. This is to say that designing a course that challenges the learner to interact and connect segments of information improves learning effectiveness far better than information memorization. It moves the learner up into the higher levels of critical thinking as described in Bloom’s Taxonomy such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation.  This  begins with the creation of lesson learning objectives and test questions.  It ends with finding ways to get learners to apply what they are learning to their careers and to their on the job, day to day activities.  The primary goal is to motivate learners with a strong product and a compelling “carrot and stick”.  It is also important that communities of practice communicate expected core competencies and provide the products to achieve competency.

Having an up to date Learning Management System is a mandatory component of offering formal education to members. Assuming that association education directors are investing in interactive online activities that stand alone, the learning management system can also provide quick, formal activities that enhance strong learner involvement. In fulfilling an association’s mission to teach, a learning management system should be able to provide learning paths, adaptive learning, tests, content related surveys and a learning journal that together create a substantial, formal, educational product that members are willing to pay for.

While social media can function as a component of an association’s communication and information transfer, it should not over shadow or replace the role of formal educational products.

The Reports of Flash’s Death are Slightly Exaggerated: Implications for eLearning Managers

Over the last few weeks, Flash has been quite the technology water-cooler topic. Some people are predicting the end of Flash entirely with the looming promises of HTML5. Don’t forget to take into account where these reports are coming from. Many of the exaggerated claims of Flash’s uselessness come from pundits with an agenda and those talking about web site pages not eLearning initiatives. Adobe recently announced it will no longer develop the Flash Player for mobile devices. Does this mean Flash has seen its last day?  Hardly. Well, at least not in the short-term.

If you read blog posts like that of Tony Karrer carefully, he calls the end of Flash “a long and slow death” and that we are years away from its ultimate demise.  It’s true. Flash currently serves as a plug-in proprietary technology that allows for advanced functionality like interactivity and animation within the confines of HTML and its extensions. As noted in the timeline below, HTML5 isn’t projected to be fully developed until 2014 and global research agency Millward Brown reports figures that suggest Adobe’s Flash is available on 99% of desktops in mature markets.  It’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

In recent years, smartphones and tablets have driven the craze to create a language that works on both desktops and smartphones. HTML5 provides this promise of an open standard with capabilities to create full games natively within the desktop or mobile browser without the need for Flash.

With all of this in mind, the decision to move away from Flash as a manager of eLearning is a complex one. If you’re concerned about what to do, here’s my take: Consider the market demand, company resources, and the technology’s functionality.

Market Demand

What bloggers have avoided in their rampant push for HTML5 is recognition of the corporate IT stranglehold on Internet standards. Corporate IT departments run very conservatively. Remember how long it took for corporate IT professionals to approve Flash? Many corporate desktop users’ computers are ruled by an iron fist and there will be slow migration to workplace browsers using HTML5. The majority of corporately controlled computers in use are using older versions of Internet Explorer and HTML 5 is not supported on Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8.

eLearning is a dominant fixture in the corporate world. Since a lot of self-paced eLearning modules are created for viewing on a desktop, there is a lot of life left in Flash even without mobile device capabilities. For many compliance-type training courses, desktop delivery has proven to be most effective for their content and controversy over whether employees should be required to utilize their own mobile devices or tablets to complete training on their own time will keep it around for a while. Before making the jump to HTML5, consider how responsive your core client market is to the change and forecast impending demands for the future.

Company Resources

If you’re a manager like me, you’re working with employees who are Flash developers and you want that technology to live as long as it can while you’ve got that talent in your arsenal. Joab Jackson, author of “Adobe Flash vs. HTML5” quotes IDC software analyst Al Hilwa as saying, “The old adage goes, the best language to use is the language you know.” Flash developers are ubiquitous and the sheer number of them will ensure our teams create using Flash for at least the short term.

When it comes to eLearning, most of us are working with finite resources. Therefore, when looking at how long Flash will live, you have to determine how economical it is to make the switch HTML5. Don’t underestimate the initial costs of training programmers and converting legacy eLearning projects. Conversions take resources and will not be a priority in this economy unless driven by specific special projects like outfitting a board of directors with iPad compatible eLearning resources.

Technology’s Functionality

Most importantly, for those of us promoting engaging, interactive eLearning, current capabilities of HTML5 to recreate the interactivity of Flash, puts us back in the Internet Stone Age of 1995. While projections of its capabilities when it is completed in 2014 certainly provide more creative freedom for developers, it still pales in comparison to Flash capabilities as it exists today.  In terms of interactive learning activities, it will be a while till HTML5 is a viable competitor with Flash in this regard. HTML5 is just not ready today as a tool to build interactive components like simulated communities, branching engines, and video game-like activities.

The good news is eLearning managers don’t need to make a decision on this today. As HTML5 is further developed, I believe the costs and benefits will become clear, especially to developers. Regardless, Samantha Amjadali quotes Adobe Evangelist Paul Burnett her article “Why the Web Needs HTML5” who says, “Flash will always sit alongside HTML in order to add more engagement than is available in HTML and CSS.” HTML5 will make things much more interesting for developers, but until it can outperform competing plug-in technologies, it won’t be able to replace Flash.

The Road to HTML5 – An excerpt from “Why the web needs HTML5” by Samantha Amjadali

HTML (mid-1991)

For the first time, simple text documents can be linked to and accessed easily by anyone connected to the internet from anywhere in the world. Before this, only documents on the same computer could be linked to and access involved typing commands rather than simply pointing and clicking. Basic HTML also included the ability to add bullet lists, block quotes and pre-formatted text. A previous document access system, Gopher, was in existence at the time. It was far more rigid and hierarchical than HTML and remains in use by a small group of enthusiasts.

HTML+ (late 1991-94)

Tables are introduced, as is the ability to create questionnaires that can be filled in. Mathematical equations can now be created natively (though this feature is fully replaced in 1998). Large documents can be split into small modules to enable faster load times. HTML+ is later folded into HTML 3. 

HTML 2 (1995)

Work on HTML 2 started long before HTML+. It combined HTML, HTML+ and various other tweaks in the intervening three years. HTML 2 marks the introduction of server side-image maps (allowing hotlinks to be created on images).

HTML 3.2 (January 1997)

The proprietary blink and marquee tags are dropped but other proprietary tags that are by now in common use are officially folded into standard HTML. Integration with style sheets (a separate, though allied, technology), which allow more efficient and complex module-based layout, are also brought into standard HTML for the first time and footnotes and forms are improved.

HTML 4 (December 1997)

Version 4 doesn’t bring many huge changes to HTML other than a number of browser-specific tags being made standard as well as support for other languages. Disability support is introduced, as is extended handling of scripting and reworked style sheets.

HTML5 (2004)

Work on HTML 5 started as far back as 2004 but it wasn’t known as that until 2007. Work on HTML5 is expected to be completed in 2014; however, as it’s being described by HTML5 editor Ian Hickson as a ”living standard”, even that target may be optimistic. HTML5 brings with it the ability to display audio and video natively within a browser without plug-ins as well as dynamic rendering of 2D shapes. It also features improved accessibility, security and forms.

Read what else Samantha Amjadali has to say in her article “Why the web needs HTML5” online.

Read what else Joab Jackson has to say in his article “Adobe Flash vs. HTML5” online.

GSA Schedule: What is it? Do you need it? How do you get it?

For years I have been jealous of competitors who are part of the elite group of companies that work with the federal government. This year however, I’m turning my envy into action. After thorough research, Web Courseworks has begun working towards becoming eligible to contract work with the government. My motivation for sharing our journey stems from my frustration of pulling requests for proposals off FedBizOpps, but realizing that without a GSA Schedule everything listed on the site was useless information on projects that were most likely already spoken for. Knowing I’m not the first person to find the process a bit overwhelming, I hope to explain how to make it as painless as possible to undertake.

So, what is a GSA Schedule? A GSA Schedule is a contracting number that provides the necessary eligibility for companies to work on government projects. By filling out the appropriate solicitation form based on the type of schedule you are hoping to obtain, you are able to submit an offer for your product or service. Once a GSA Schedule contract is awarded, the company is then qualified to start marketing their product or service to the government and win contract awards. Agencies prefer this method of contracting because they know they are getting an approved product or service with an already established price tag. Explore more about the process on GSA.gov.

We debated at Web Courseworks whether or not we wanted to take on the initiative ourselves or solicit outside help. Even with how comfortable we became with taking on the project, the benefits of working with someone who knew the ins and outs of the process emerged the best option.

Before jumping into filling out a solicitation form I mentioned, I suggest doing some research. Decide which single Schedule is best for your product or service. View the complete listing of types of Schedules and download current competitor Schedules on GSAeLibrary.gsa.gov. Check out what contracts your competitors have been awarded in the past through sites like USAspending.gov. Decide if you can compete with the offerings already available to the government. Often, companies offer discounts to the government. GSA Schedules are public information, so you will be able to view competitor pricing information and other data not usually so readily available. The obvious downside to having this information at your fingertips is that once you have a GSA contract, your information is available to the public as well.

After completing our initial research, our next step was registration and certification. This pre-step to filling out the solicitation form includes registration and certification through the following links: DUNS, CCR, ORCA, and Past Performance Evaluation.

Next, choose and respond to a solicitation. Once you submit the solicitation to the correct GSA Schedule you identified in the research phase, it is sent through the review process. The offer will sometimes be returned to the vendor for corrections and clarifications. It then goes through a pricing negotiation and is eventually approved and the GSA Contract is awarded.

If this doesn’t have too much appeal, consider if you actually want your own GSA or if you would be better off as a subcontractor to someone who has one. Being a subcontractor can be an easy way to for small businesses to get involved in government projects. Web Courseworks has subcontracted in the past, but decided having our own GSA Schedule was worth the effort. Learn more about Subcontracting through GSA.gov.

While this overview is a good resource for understanding the basics of the GSA Schedule process, there are a number of additional resources worth seeking out. Here in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Procurement Institute (WPI) provides technical and marketing assistance to area businesses looking to sell their products or services to the government. After several conversations with WPI, I had a firmer grasp on the process and a number of good contacts I could reach out to for further information.

One of the best recommendations I received was that if you’re in Washington, DC, start circulating and make connections with the agencies you’re looking to work with. On one of my recent trips there, I sat next to a veteran lobbyist on a Monday morning celebrity flight of sorts with Senator Herb Kohl and Congressman Paul Ryan. My discussion with the lobbyist solidified my conclusion that I needed to start networking in DC. Yep, it is a “who you know” place.  With each trip to DC, the puzzle seems to make more sense.  Yep, it is a game of sorts that requires you to be a student and learn.

I looked like quite the rookie dragging my luggage around Capitol Hill (note to self, next time have a better plan for storing it while making rounds to different WI and agency offices). I met with Governor Walker’s Office Federal Liaison Officers whose role is to assist WI business owners with working with the government. At the Senators’ offices, I began explaining my business and I could tell by the facial expressions that they were screaming “rookie” and why?   One said, are you here for an ““ask”?” I replied, “No, just to explain who we are, what we can offer.” I soon learned an “ask” comes into play when you have a specific reason to ask someone for their business, assuming you have a GSA Schedule.

The rookie mistakes on this GSA trip to DC were numerous, but when I make another trip out there and know what I’m asking for, I’ll be much more comfortable. In the end it comes down to what you know and who you know. Right now, working on getting the rest of our solicitation form completed, figuring the rest out one step at a time.

*****

The catch to all of this GSA Schedule talk: having a GSA doesn’t guarantee you any work and if you aren’t able to secure contracts, you’ll lose your GSA. Look forward to the next blog post on GSA when I’ll address how to make the most of your GSA once you have it.

I just got my copy of Bill Horton’s second edition of E-learning by Design.  Really, there is so much new material in this book that the publisher should have given it a new title.  Disclaimer: Bill and I are friends.   However, as he will attest to, I enjoy being  intellectually critical of his work. A little background. One of the first books I reviewed by Bill was  the e-learning “bible,” Designing Web-Based Training in 2000—a book that had helped many of us learn about and cope with yet another development and delivery technology for workplace education—and he was staying true to his no-nonsense design philosophy (link to Amazon: Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime).

During that time, when excess ruled the day, many remained grounded by Horton’s insistence that we apply practical solutions when creating e-learning. He has been spreading his message of simplicity and utilitarianism to the masses at conference sessions, at workshops, and in his books for more than 20 years.

The 2006 sequel to Designing Web-Based Training, E-learning by Design was 100% Horton. He sharpened his focus to cover just those topics that designers could control, but expanded those topics to be even more informative and useful.

OK, on to the new book, the new edition of E-learning by Design.  I’ll highlight the organization of the book, commenting on what has been added—and what has been taken away. I’ll discuss different ways to apply this how-to book.

Book tour
The book begins with an overview chapter on designing e-learning. This is not just some boring rehash of what you think you already know. This chapter provides the blueprint for the rest of the book. In it he stresses that good objectives are the foundation for good learning materials. And, it has been updated and expanded from the previous edition.

Hortonism: Unless you get instructional design right, technology can only increase the speed and certainty of failure.

If you understand this chapter and put it into practice, you can be a qualified instructional designer. Horton’s process “requires selecting, organizing, and specifying the learning experiences necessary to teach somebody something.” He advocates identifying goals, explains how to write objectives, and touches on the concept of creating “learning objects.” One of the gems of wisdom in this chapter (for me, anyway) was Horton’s advice to design your tests first. And that leads me to another pithy quote:

Hortonism: There is no clearer and more precise statement of a learning objective than a test question that measures whether that objective has been accomplished.

At the heart of e-learning design is the development of learning activities, which Horton categorizes into three types: Absorb, Do, and Connect.

According to Horton, these types of activities help people learn by getting them to “consider research, analyze, evaluate, organize, synthesize, discuss, test, decide, and apply ideas.” He devotes a chapter to each type, providing numerous examples and links to live demonstrations. He provides examples like: augmented slide presentations, story-sharing, drill and practice, guided analysis, discovery activities, games, virtual machines and simulations, and “ponder” activities.

Bill has reorganized and reclassified these activities based upon what he learned in the years between editions. And new in this edition, he tells designers how to use these various activities for both social and mobile learning applications.

In the Tests chapter, Horton explains the reasoning behind testing, details how to construct question types, and shows how to avoid trick questions. He also suggests that we “test early and often.”  Savvy e-learning designers can even use test questions that engage learners and provide feedback.

Hortonism: “Each topic accomplishes one learning objective and accomplishes it fully. That’s what makes them topics”.

Chapters Six covers how to design topics. Here he discusses how to combine Absorb, Do, and Connect activities with tests to completely meet the needs of a learning objective.

The subject of Chapter 7 has changed in this edition. It is devoted to the design of games and simulations, something I felt was missing from the previous edition. But what happened to the “old” Chapter 7 about designing lessons? It has been moved online in PDF format and is available on the book’s Website: www.horton.com/eld.  Amazing HORTON to supplement with online readings:  Old Chapter 7 is now Online Chapter 12.

Back to games and sims. Bill tries to clarify the fuzzy distinction among games, tests, and simulations. He starts out with simple learning games like jigsaw puzzles and quiz-show interactions. Then branches into branching scenarios, task simulations, and immersive role-playing games (I also recommend Clark Aldrich’s Complete Guide to Serious Games and Simulations).

Typical HORTON, Bill has created a matrix to help designers choose the best game or simulation for the type of learning objective they are trying to accomplish. And, he discusses at length the intricacies of learning game design.

Hortonism: If game sounds frivolous, call it a simulation. If simulation sounds too stuffy or expensive, call it a game.

Chapter 8 used to cover strategic decisions, of interest to department managers. That chapter is now Online Chapter 13 (Guess you have to open your browser and go to www.horton.com/eld.

The new Chapter 8 discusses social learning. Bill stresses that social learning isn’t new and doesn’t require social media. But new technologies have made it more powerful, convenient, and fun.  I totally agree, all this hype about social learning is helpful but nothing new.  As if we did not know how people really learn and just discovered it is social?  Good, go ahead and tweet!

Hortonism: Social learning is learning from other people—co-workers, fellow students, experts, consultant, customers, and consumers.

Throughout this chapter, Bill teaches us how to integrate the many ways people communicate electronically into meaningful learning experiences. As a measure of how important the social aspect of learning has  hit home for people, this chapter is one of the longest in the book.

Chapter 9 is also totally new and goes into depth about mobile learning “for people on the go out in the world.” In this chapter he touches on the two aspects of mobile learning: enabling mobile individuals to participate in conventional learning and, what he calls,  real mobile learning where individuals learn from “objects, environments, experts, and fellow learners” encountered in the real world. Designers will find numerous tables that tie capabilities, limitations, learner characteristics, and environmental conditions to specific design guidelines.

Since Horton is aware that many e-learning developers are busy supporting the use of live web conferencing sessions or instructor-led sessions organized by a learning management system, there is a chapter on designing materials for synchronous or asynchronous electronic classrooms. This used to be Chapter 9, but is now Chapter 10. It has been streamlined considerably due to the addition of the chapters on social and mobile learning.

For readers of the first edition, you may be asking what happened to the chapters on visual design and navigation. Those too have moved online as Online Chapters 14 and 15.

Hortonism: Teach the class, don’t just let it happen.

The last new addition to the Second Edition is the Appendix on what Bill calls “essentialism.” He defines it as teaching “just what people need to learn” and nothing more. In twelve pages, Bill outlines how to use usability testing techniques coupled with rapid prototyping to discover exactly what learners need to know and what they can figure out on their own—and what they didn’t need to know at all. According to Bill, this approach can reduce the size and scope of a project by up to 90%.

Too many post-secondary courses focus on instructional design theory and on what Horton calls “ponderous instructional systems design methodologies.” Essential building blocks of interactive design are neglected.

Yet, the speed of technological change mandates that instructional designers be taught the skills of pragmatic interactive design that enable them to utilize new technology, yet stay focused on facilitating learning. This book should be required reading for graduates of curriculum and instructional design programs.

Putting the book to work
Let’s examine how you might put this book to work for you.

Does your e-learning development group have published standards for instructional design and course development? This book can help furnish a framework for reaching agreement among staff and clients. Or you can benchmark your current standards and definitions of quality e-learning against examples found in the book.

Time for professional development for you training staff is often hard to come by. You can assign readings from the book and discuss a few important points for five minutes before each staff meeting.

Post the companion website on your department Intranet. It contains wonderful examples that are indexed to each chapter, providing a great resource tool for igniting a brainstorming session.

Horton’s 2000 edition has been cited in academic texts. And if he weren’t so cynical about advanced degrees, we would surely be calling him Dr. Horton. Yet, that is essentially what defines Bill Horton. He is our industry’s Henry David Thoreau.

Hortonism: “Essentialism blatantly shouts that the goal of education is not to teach everything about a subject but to teach just the things learners need in order to apply skills and knowledge in their lives. Essentialism attempts to identify what few things learners actually need to know, do not know, and cannot figure out or look up on their own.”

Recommendation
Buy E-learning By Design if your work involves e-learning. Even if all you do is browse it or use it as an occasional reference to resolve a disagreement among team members, you will come to realize that Bill Horton’s “practice, practice, practice” work ethic has once again produced a book chock full of value.