Start with Courseware or With the Other Stuff?

Dave Boggs recent post No eLearning Tectonic Plate Shift Here had some interesting comments about my article Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids. He seems to see the same thing, but claims that it has always been this way. Has it? Or is there something different now?

Now I know that Tony is an academic, and he's probably teaching at a University and doing consulting, but ...

I always worry when someone labels you "an academic" because it sounds like they think you don't work in the real world. Since Dave and I don't really know each other I have no idea if he means it in any particular way. Dave, just as a heads up. I was a professor of Computer Science and Multimedia for 10 years but had to leave when my company started to grow. I continue to write, speak and sometimes teach, but I'm much more of a hands on developer of eLearning Solutions than "an academic." I helped build two companies in the multimedia training world and then started my company, TechEmpower, and grew it when it became clear that the web (online learning) meant that people would need help with strategy, selection, integration, and development. Because of my dual background in hard-core systems and human performance, I've had a chance to work on some pretty interesting things. As an example, for the first four years of eHarmony's (the marriage matching site) existance, I was essentially a part-time CTO. I've worked with a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies on different eLearning projects and regularly network with folks at these companies who are active with defining technical direction for eLearning. So, when I'm talking about trends, that's where I'm coming from.

what he is talking about is NOT some grand revelation that has just started and he is certainly not the first one to see it.

Its a natural progression for a company to start with the courseware scenario, and then move to adding other elements. I am not saying its right or wrong, its just what I have seen happen most of the time at corporations.

I wouldn't necessarily claim that anything I write about is a "grand revelation" nor would I say that I'm claiming to be "the first one to see it" - it's hard to ever claim that. When Dave says "it's a natural progression ... start with the courseware, and then move to adding other elements ... " is simultaneously making my point and missing the bigger picture.

Three years ago, most every company would follow the pattern courseware -> other elements. In other words, the general model was to build eLearning solutions by thinking about the courseware first and secondarily think about the leave-behind materials, e.g., online job aids, help, etc. Why did we start with courseware? Well that's what most people were thinking about at the time. You had your LMS in place. You built your courseware and tracked it with your LMS. You STARTED with the COURSEWARE.

Today, I see more and more companies STARTING WITH THE OTHER STUFF. We may not even produce courseware. It may not get tracked under the LMS.

And, I'm not so sure that this is as obvious as Dave would have you think. After all, take a look at what Bersin suggests in his Four Stages - eLearning Technology: Leading with an LMS - Harmful to Your Health (or Skipping Stages in Bersin's Four Stage Model), or an article in CLO about on demand information eLearning Technology: Tools for On-Demand Information - An LMS? or the recent article in Learning Circuits - eLearning Technology: The Real HCM Maturity Model ... all of these suggest the LMS and courseware as the center of the eLearning universe. If all you did was read these articles, you might very well find yourself starting with Courseware still.

I would also say that Tony mentions wiki use for reference material -- well again, he is pushing a philosophy there which has yet to translate into the collective training/learning gestalt of most corporations who are thinking about e-Learning.

Well we do agree on this. Today, you are more likely to find people building the other stuff with Dreamweaver, RoboInfo, MS Word, their company CMS or by hand than with a Wiki. But, if you haven't really started doing this yet - I would highly recommend looking at Wiki technology. It will lower your barrier to using these techniques significantly. And will lower your ongoing maintenance costs as well.

I'm realizing that Dave likes loaded terms "an academic" ... "pushing a philosophy" ... I certainly am suggesting that you seriously consider what I'm saying the next time you are thinking about a learning solution. There are too many variables to know if this approach will be right for you in your particular case. And thank goodness for that, because you might need to hire someone like me (or Dave) to help you figure out how to to approach things in your particular situation. But is it worth considering?

My comments are turned on, I welcome your thoughts on this. Or post in your blog and let me know about it. :)

E-mail 2.0

To paraphrase that old adage about the weather, everyone complains about e-mail, but no one ever does anything about it. E-mail has become a technology that we couldn't live without in our business and personal lives... yet it's rife with spam, viruses and fraud. In fact, one estimate places the amount of spam at 90% of all e-mail traffic!

In response, Kelly Martin of SecurityFocus makes the modest proposal that the backbone of our e-mail system, Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), is fundamentally broken and should be scrapped. Designed to be used by a handful of engineers and geeks, SMTP was excellent at what it was designed for -- and is, indeed, the reason why e-mail has evolved into such a successful medium. But it wasn't designed for security or accountability, and patchwork attempts to make it so can't keep up with the threats.

To that end, Martin proposes developing a new e-mail system that incorporates a high level of security (encryption, compression, secure identities and public-private-key authentication), along with peer-to-peer instant messaging and videoconferencing. The system would be open, of course -- and there, Martin is realistic about the difficulty in getting the various commercial e-mailers to adopt it.

Similar proposals have been made before and have gone nowhere, in part because the existing e-mail system is so firmly entrenched. Yet the demand and the know-how is there. The open source community could rally resources and expertise just as it did to create Linux, and enterprises and commercial operators would certainly welcome a spam-free protocol. Perhaps what's needed is a spark of some kind, whether from a handful of determined developers, an innovative company, or a government body.

Source: The Register

LA Cops Use Drone Aircraft to Catch Crooks

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) -- otherwise known as drones -- have made their mark in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, allowing our military to spot and even destroy the enemy from a safe distance. Now, UAV technology is being considered by US law enforcement for surveillance and rescue operations.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has begun testing a 6-foot long, 4-pound, battery-powered UAV called the SkySeer that can be carried by an individual officer, assembled within five minutes, and can transmit video in real time. Far cheaper and more discrete than helicopter surveillance, the SkySeer will be used to pinpoint the location of fugitives or injured people needing rescue. It can also fly into highly dangerous situations without risk to lives or heavy equipment.

Currently, LA sheriffs only have a single prototype SkySeer. If all goes well, they hope to increase that number, and also develop a web portal to allow other law enforcement officers and subject matter experts to view real-time SkySeer video from any location.

Source: BBC

Death Forecast

Maybe this is a bit morbid, but its quite an interesting little tool.

It also reminds me that I'll need to write more about using tools as part of eLearning Solutions sometime within the next 43 years (how long I have to live).

As a suggestion to this tool, they really should have a series of specific suggestions keyed off of each question to suggest activities that you should take to improve your life expectancy (assuming that's our goal). Better yet would have been to support creating an Action Plan. We;ve used these techniques quite successfully on several projects to help move people towards best practice behaviors.

Leading with an LMS - Harmful to Your Health (or Skipping Stages in Bersin's Four Stage Model)

I recently was piling through my stack of magazines and ran across an article in Training & Development Magazine that reference "the stages of eLearning" from a Josh Bersin report. Unfortunately, the article is only available to ASTD members and via registration at Bersin's site. The stages are:

Stage 1: Getting Started - Cost savings, off-the-shelf, LMS implementation
Stage 2: Expansion - Blended learning, rapid e-learning, greater use of LMS, custom courses
Stage 3: Integration and Alignment - Governance, HR integration, performance management
Stage 4: Learning on Demand - LCMS, performance support, search

This is similar to the stages I pointed to in my article The Real HCM Maturity Model. And, though I understand what Josh is going for in the model, I think that it is more a model of what people have done rather than what you should do.

First, Stage 1 should not include "LMS implementation." I think this is often the biggest mistake that people make. You don't need an LMS to do eLearning. And if you are early on, chances are that going after an LMS can be a really tough way to get started. Alternatives are described in my article Tracking Without an LMS. If, as Josh suggests, you only need off-the-shelf courses, then you likely can use your providers' LMS implementation. That will be enough of a learning experience to understand why I don't want you to "lead with an LMS."

Second, I would suggest that you follow the Shift in eLearning from Pure Courseware towards Reference Hybrids and skip right to Stage 4 (minus the LCMS). In other words, pick up a Wiki tool, or RoboInfo or Dreamweaver and start to build online reference solutions with integrated search first. Maybe you'll create a hybrid solution with some integrated Captivate movies. But if anything the LMS will get in your way of doing this.

Virtual Job Interviews

Job seekers and employers have been able to connect through the Web for years.  Now, an online video system called HireVue seeks to "webify" another element of the hiring process -- the job interview.

Through HireVue, a candidate can participate in an online pre-interview using a webcam and web conferencing software.  This allows employers to pre-screen more candidates before committing to in-person interviews.  Candidates, for their part, can get a better feel for employers early in the process.

Source:  Springwise

The Mindless "Hive Mind"

Consultant, author and filmmaker Jaron Lanier offers a stinging rebuttal to the claims that the "wisdom of crowds" is smarter than individuals in an essay titled "Digital Maoism."  In it, he argues that "foolish collectivism" that typically drives Wikipedia and digg is eclipsing individual expertise, with inaccuracies and loss of focus as the result.

As an example, Lanier cites his experience with the a relatively new meta-site called popurls, which aggregates the most popular links from digg, del.icio.us and similar sites.  "In the last few days," he writes, "an experimental approach to diabetes management has been announced that might prevent nerve damage. That's huge news for tens of millions of Americans. It is not mentioned on popurls. Popurls does clue us in to this news: 'Student sets simultaneous world ice cream-eating record, worst ever ice cream headache.'"

Lanier doesn't totally dismiss collective intelligence, but he cautions against putting too much credence or confidence in it, particularly when it gravitates toward hype, trivia and mediocrity.  "Every authentic example of collective intelligence that I am aware of," he writes, "also shows how that collective was guided or inspired by well-meaning individuals. These people focused the collective and in some cases also corrected for some of the common hive mind failure modes. The balancing of influence between people and collectives is the heart of the design of democracies, scientific communities, and many other long-standing projects."

Some may dismiss Lanier as an elitist, but he makes some very sound points that explain in part why collective tools such as wikis are still, for the most part, on the periphery.  Collective intelligence remains immature, and it's still up to the early adopters to strike a balance between leveraging group intelligence and helping others interpret and direct that intelligence.