The Logical Blog by IconLogic

TEACHING ONLINE: Get People Talking

by Jennie Ruby, COTP

People like to hear themselves talk. I don’t mean that in a bad way. What I mean is, people like to express themselves and feel heard. Feeling heard helps us feel connected to the others we encounter, the people we interact with, and—here’s my point—the people we learn with. Feeling connected with the instructor/facilitator and the other students/participants plays a huge role in our engagement with an online class. When you are the online instructor, make sure you are fostering this connection in your classes.

 

Your learners are not empty containers for you to fill with information. In adult learning, the learners are also teachers. Ask them to help you teach the class! Well, okay, maybe not literally like, 

 

“Fonzarelli! Would you like to get up here and teach the class?” 

 

But more like this: 

 

“Amy, can you think of a way you might use [what we just learned] in your work?”

 

Often in my online software classes, I stop and ask this:

 

“Have any of you used [this concept or technique] in your projects? Raise your hand or give me a green check.”

 

Then I call on one of the participants who signaled yes, and I ask them to come off mute and say hello. Once their mic is working, I repeat the question and invite them to tell how they have used the [concept] in their projects. They typically share one or more really good examples, express some degree of enthusiasm for it, and/or have additional comments or suggestions.

 

After that—and this part is really important—I invite the class to respond to what they shared.

 

“Does anyone else do something similar?”

 

“What do you think, Eliana, could you use this in your projects?”

 

The result? The class members are engaged with one another as well as with me. Those who share their experiences feel heard and appreciated. (Did I mention thanking them for the concepts they shared?) The class benefits from hearing a broader range of examples than I might think of alone. And voices other than mine are heard over the audio connection, adding variety and interest to that dimension of the class.

 

Bonus points: If you are discussing a later topic in the class, and it relates to what a class member shared earlier, make sure to recall what the participant shared, mention it again, and tie it to the new topic. Doing this makes the class feel more dynamic and alive, and less like a canned presentation. Once more the participant feels heard and appreciated, and everyone gets just a little bit more out of the entire class experience.

 

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Join me in June when I team with Kevin Siegel and AJ Walther for ICCOTP's Online Training Professional certification course. 

 

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Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP, is a veteran eLearning developer, trainer, and author. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional. She teaches both classroom and online courses, and has authored courseware, published training books, and developed content for countless eLearning projects. She is also a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, print publishing, and eLearning.

 

TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: Pros & Cons

by Kevin Siegel, COTP, CTT

I started teaching online a dozen years ago and I owe it all to a case of the flu. I recall that I awoke in a nameless hotel, in a nameless city somewhere in parts unknown. I was supposed to teach something to someone but I couldn’t wrap my thoughts around the specifics. All that I did know was that I was sicker than I had ever been before or since. This wasn't just the flu... it was Mr. Flu. I called home to consult Dr. Wife who was gracious to confirm my diagnosis (she’s that good) and was kind enough to remind me where I was, where I was supposed to go, and what I was supposed to be teaching. Because I was under contract, I went to the client site and taught the class as expected. (I did disclose my illness to the client and suggest we could reschedule; however, people had flown in from all over and there was no way to put the class off.) The class went fine, thanks for asking. But travelling while sick is the worst (I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that if you have prior experience). I told Dr. Wife that I never wanted to travel again… EVER! Of course, the problem with that pronouncement is that I’m a trainer... avoiding travel is impossible. Or is it? Back in my day, the technology available to teach online was limited to short, boring webinars. There simply wasn’t fast enough Internet, affordable software or hardware, or enough bandwidth to host anything but lecture-based webinars. Nevertheless, using an early version of GoToMeeting, I advertised a few online classes and quickly got enrollments. Over the years, I’ve perfected my online teaching style and now teach others how to successfully teach online. And while training classes online has extended my career (I was truly headed for retirement before discovering how great teaching live, online classes can be), I must be honest and say teaching online is not always awesome. Just today, for instance, I was preparing to teach a custom TechSmith Camtasia class. I was greeting my students as always and then, two minutes before the official start time, my router decides to take the morning off. Luckily, I have backup Internet (backup plans are something we discuss in the trainer certification class) and started the class on time. However, the stress of the moment got me thinking about the main pros and cons of teaching online.

Pros Online spaces are inexpensive: Prices range from free to a few hundred dollars per month depending on the size of your online room (our rooms can hold 200 people) and features (our vendor offers eCommerce and full back office support for the learner registration process). No travel for anyone: Talk about a commute buster! With online classes, nobody needs to travel. Teach or attend classes from home... in your slippers. All that you need to teach or attend an online class is a computer (or perhaps a tablet), and good, reliable Internet access. Global reach: We have students attend our class from all over the world. In one Adobe Captivate class I had a group of 15 attendees. Ten of the students were from across the U.S. and the others were from the UK, Australia, Belgium, Japan, and India. Less intimidation = better Q&A: This one surprised me. Given that the students are not in the same physical space, I’ve found that I get more questions and more attendee engagement than in onsite classes. It’s rare when I ask my classes “are there any questions?” that I hear crickets. I’m thinking the main reason is that online students are more relaxed and don’t feel the glare from another student who either doesn’t like the question or thinks that it is silly.

Cons Technology can let you down: Did I mention that my router went down just before my latest class start time? That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to things that can, and will, go wrong. The best thing you can do when technology fails you is to have a backup plan. (Again, that’s something we cover in detail during the certification class.) 1 Ticket=1 Seat? How do you know if only the people who paid for the class are in the class? If you find that someone has invited all their friends and colleagues to attend the class for free, what is your game plan? Do you confront the student or let it go? The unprepared participant: You can tell your attendees exactly what they need to do prior to class a million different ways. However, a small percentage of your students will arrive to class late, without the software, or without the support materials. You name it, I’ve seen it. Prepare to have your class schedule seriously hindered by an unprepared participant. There’s my short list of online training pros and cons. I’d be curious if you have your own list of pros and cons to share. If so, please share them as comments below… but please keep Mr. Flu to yourself.

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If you'd like to become a certified online trainer, there's still time to sign up for the next International Council for Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP) certification course.

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Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the US Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.

ONLINE TRAINER CERTIFICATION: Become a Certified Online Training Professional

Become a COTP!

Online training can be great training, but it all starts with an awesome trainer! 

More and more companies are embracing live, online classes. If your company wants you to teach online, great. But teaching online isn't as easy as it sounds. For instance, how can you be sure that your class isn't boring? How can you keep your audience engaged, even when your content isn't very exciting?

The International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP) promotes standards of excellence in delivering online training in a wide variety of formats by instituting a certification process for online trainers.

The Online Training Professional certification process (COTP) aims to ensure that online training events and classes provide high-quality, memorable, enjoyable, and, most of all, effective learning experiences to participants.

Learn some best practices for engaging an online audience. Learn the hardware and software you'll need to host online training. Are your materials ready for an online world? We'll teach you how to prepare your existing materials for online access and even how to create awesome, visually-appealing presentations.

If you need to include quizzes in your online course, do you know how to create effective questions (and surveys)? We'll show you how. And you'll get a chance to take the controls of an online training room and teach for a few minutes to your fellow COTP candidates.

The next ICCOTP class is in a few short weeks and there is still time to sign up.

 

eLearning: Create Icons Instantly with Iconion

by AJ Walther  

Previously I shared some tips for creating your own great looking flat design eLearning. A recurring trend in flat design is the use of simplified icons in lieu of detailed drawings, images, or photos. Many icons can be found by inserting symbols or certain Clip Art images from within PowerPoint. Creating your own icons from scratch is also not terribly difficult. As an alternative, I'd like to share a fun (and free!) tool for quickly creating and customizing icons for use in eLearning.

Iconion is a free download that is still currently in Beta. After you've downloaded Iconion, you can choose from a large array of icons from four different icon font sets: Typeicons, Linecons, Font Awesome, and Entypo.

 

To create an icon, simply select an icon from the left of the Iconion window, preview it in the center panel, and then add a style from the right panel. The styles are many and varied and, in addition to looking great in your eLearning, would blend seamlessly with Windows and iOS. After you've chosen a style, you can make stylistic tweaks to fills, background colors, gradients, blurs, etc. From there you can save your icon to your desktop in a number of fully scalable sizes. Fast, easy, and great looking!

Here's an example of how I incorporated some icons from Iconion into the slide deck for an online training course here at IconLogic:

eLearning: Voiceover Audio That Will Keep the Learner's Attention

by Jennie Ruby 

How can you use your voiceover script to keep the learner's attention within an eLearning lesson? Here are the two most important factors: Make it proportional and make it conversational.

Make the Voiceover Proportional to the Action

In a recent informal test at a conference for instructional designers, the audience started waving and yelling "Stop! Stop!" after less than two sentences of voiceover text was read for one PowerPoint slide. Now granted, that second sentence was a doozy, weighing in at more than 47 words, but still. Two sentences? How short is our typical learner's attention span these days, after all? Probably much shorter than you think. 

The learners we address with our eLearning projects are bombarded with information, often in the form of movies, videos, and television. Scenes change in modern movies approximately every minute and a half. But in a movie, even during that short time, something is continually moving on the screen.

On many kinds of eLearning products, there may be nothing moving at all, as a still slide rests on the screen or a still screenshot sits waiting for the next interaction. So with absolutely no motion on screen, how long can the audio drone on?

At the conference, the elapsed time was less than 12 seconds before the audience became impatient.

To some extent, the type of lesson will determine how much voiceover is proportional to each action. On a software demo video, a lack of action for as little as 7 seconds can have the learner shaking the mouse to see if the video is still running-even if the audio voiceover is continuing. During compliance training, on the other hand, the learner may expect relatively longer voiceover descriptions and recitations of rules.

But that doesn't mean learners will like it. Consider aiming to have something move on the screen, illustrate the point, or change in some way about every two sentences. You can achieve the right proportions by either adding visual elements or shortening the voiceover script.

Use Plain Language and a Conversational Writing Style

The writing style of your voiceover text will greatly affect how "listenable" it is. Long, academic-sounding, repetitive sentences will have your learner eager to move on quicker than short, plain-language sentences.

Test yourself: try reading each of the following paragraphs. Which one makes you want to stop reading sooner?

Example A: The capability for the creation of user-defined functions has been instituted with the current version. This capability is not entirely new but was previously available via pass-through to and from a custom module, which is a function of most programming languages. However, these modules did not allow this functionality to be embedded directly within another function, and this inherent limitation was a source of frustration to users.

Example B. In previous versions of the program, you could create a custom function, but only within an entire custom module. Now, you can embed your own custom functions directly inside another function. This means there are now countless ways you can use custom functions within your own applications.

With little change in the technical terminology and content, Example B will seem easier to focus on for most learners. The best writing style for a voiceover uses shorter sentences, addresses the learner directly, uses plain language when possible, and uses active rather than passive voice.

Instead of "The capability for the creation of user-defined functions has been instituted..."

Try this: "Now, you can create your own user-defined functions."

Instead of "This was previously available via pass-through..."

Try this: "Before, you had to pass your custom functions through a..."

Instead of "These modules did not allow this functionality"

Try this: "You can now do x"

Remember that the voiceover for a lesson is written for a voice. Make that voice conversational rather than academic in style. Make it proportional to the amount of action on screen and you'll keep your learners clicking painlessly through the lesson while remaining focused.

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If you love Jennie's grammar articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

Flipped Learning Gaining Steam

Flipped classrooms are gaining in popularity. If you've never heard of the flipped classroom, here's a definition courtesy of the Flipped Learning Network:

"The flipped classroom is a pedagogical model in which the typical lecture and homework elements of a course are reversed. Short video lectures are viewed by students at home before the class session, while in-class time is devoted to exercises, projects, or discussions."

 From the Flipped Learning White Paper:

"A teacher stands at the front of the classroom, delivering a lecture on the Civil War and writing on a white board. Students are hunched over desks arranged in rows, quietly taking notes. At the end of the hour, they copy down the night's homework assignment, which consists of reading from a thick textbook and answering questions at the end of the chapter. This dramatic, defining period in our nation's history, which left questions unanswered that are as relevant today as they were then, has been reduced to a dry, familiar exercise. The teacher is acutely aware that many students do not understand the day's lessons, but he/she does not have the time to meet with them to help during the 50-minute class period. The next day the teacher will collect the homework and briefly review the previous night's reading assignment. But if students have additional questions there won't be time to linger; the class cannot fall behind schedule. There is a lot of material to cover before the test at the end of the unit.

"Although it conflicts with decades of research into effective practices, this model of instruction remains all too common in American K-12 and post secondary classrooms. However, more and more educators now recognize that the learning needs of students, rather than the curriculum pacing guide, should drive their instruction. Educators are developing ways to personalize learning, using technologies such as video, digital simulations, and computer games. However, unless the traditional teaching model is altered, technologies such as these will have limited effects. One alternative model gaining attention and advocates is called Flipped Learning. In this model, some lessons are delivered outside of the group learning space using video or other modes of delivery. Class time, then, is available for students to engage in hands-on learning, collaborate with their peers, and evaluate their progress, and for teachers to provide one-on-one assistance, guidance, and inspiration."

Read the full White Paper.

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How hot is flipped learning? Check out these factoids:

• Two years ago, 73% of teachers recognized the term "Flipped Classroom," in 2014 that is up to 96%
• Two years ago, 48% of teachers had flipped a lesson; in 2014 that is up to 78%
• 96% of teachers who have flipped a lesson or unit would recommend that method to other teachers
• Flipped classroom teachers indicated that a majority of students with special needs, English language learners from low income households, and those in advanced placement classes particularly benefit from flipped learning
• The majority of flipped teaching still occurs in high school--however the number of elementary teachers and college instructors has increased over the past 2 years
• Over the past 2 years, flipped instruction has expanded in all subject areas

Source: Sophia.org.

Adobe Captivate: Preloaders

by Kevin Siegel   

 

I received an email last week from a Captivate developer who was concerned with how long it was taking for a published lesson to begin playing for his learners. The lesson wasn't all that big and wasn't that long (both things can lead to lesson bloat and increase how long it takes for a lesson to begin to play). He also verified that his web server wasn't the issue. In fact, lessons created by other Captivate developers in his company downloaded faster than his.

 

Once he told me that other content loaded with decent speed, I had a likely culprit: the Preloader and/or the Preloader percentage. I helped him tweak both, and he reported that his lesson is loading much faster.

 

Of course, if one Captivate developer can overlook the role of the Preloader, it's possible others have as well. So read on folks and let's delve into Preloaders and how to control them.

 

What's a Preloader?

 

When a learner clicks the link to start an eLearning lesson, the lesson will rarely begin playing right away. Why? A specific percentage of the lesson needs to download before the lesson will play. The time it takes for that percentage to be reached depends on a few things: the size of the lesson, the speed of the learner's internet connection, and the capacity of the server to send the data to the learner (bandwidth).

Captivate's Preloader feature allows you to both control what the learner sees as they wait for the lesson to begin playing, and the percentage of the lesson that must be downloaded before the lesson will begin to play. 

Captivate ships with a few Preloaders you can use when you publish your lesson. However, many of my corporate customers prefer to brand the lesson and use their corporate logos as the Preloader. You can accomplish the task easily enough. First, with a project open, display Captivate's Preferences (Edit > Preferences for Windows users; Adobe Captivate > Preferences for Macintosh users). Then select the Start and End category from the Project group.

To load your corporate logo and use it as a Preloader, click the Browse button to the right of Preloader. Find and open your logo. You can use any of the following formats as a Preloader: jpeg, gif, bmp, wmf, or swf.

To control how much of the lesson must be downloaded before it will begin to play, change the Preloader % value. The higher the Preloader percentage, the longer the learner will have to wait before seeing the lesson. If you set the Preloader % lower, the lesson will play sooner. However, since little of the lesson will have been received by the learner, the lesson with sputter along instead of playing smoothly. If you set the percentage too high, the learner will have to wait for the lesson to begin playing at all. A best practice would be to set the Preloader somewhere in the middle. I typically set my Preloader % to 50, which tends to work quite well.



Once you publish your lesson, the Preloader image will appear for your learners until the Preloader % is reached.

 

If you'd like to see a demonstration on adding a preloader to a Captivate project, check out the video I created on IconLogic's YouTube channel.

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Looking for instructor-led training on the top eLearning tools? We offer live, online training on Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia Studio.We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

 

eLearning: Free Zombie Characters

by AJ Walther  

Even though Halloween is months away, you can still inject a bit of terror into your eLearning. Head over to NuggetHead to download free zombie eLearning characters. Not only are these zombie characters fun, but with some creative imagining they could be ideal for a range of professional eLearning circumstances.

 Here are a few that come to mind:

• "How to Deal with Difficult People" soft skills training
• "How to Deal with Office Disputes" soft skills training
• "How to Get Through to Adult Learners" soft skills training

Here's a little something I put together using the characters: 

 

  

For more on eLearning characters:

• eLearning: Using Bitstrips for Characters and Scenes
• eLearning: Finding Characters
• Adobe Captivate 6: What a Character!

Want more creative PowerPoint ideas to take your eLearning to the next level? Attend our Optimizing PowerPoint Design for eLearning and Presentations live, online, instructor-led course. 

Developing User Assistance for a Mobile World

Smartphones have sparked a huge, new software segment – the mobile app. They have also changed how traditional desktop software is being designed and developed. This creates an important pair of questions for user assistance professionals: What is our role going forward in mobile and how can we prepare to take that on? User Assistance does have a role in supporting mobile apps. As the mobile market continues to expand, this is becoming the next frontier for user assistance professionals.

This half-day, online workshop is designed to provide an introduction to key topics and also to foster discussion on the best ways to design UA for this new paradigm.

Registration includes an ePub copy of the book Developing User Assistance for Mobile Apps, PDF copies of slides and handouts, and access to a recording of the workshop.

eLearning & Training: How Long is Too Long?

by Kevin Siegel   

You can create the best-looking, most well-written eLearning lesson anyone has ever seen. But for the lesson to be effective, one of the most important things to keep in mind is that more does not mean better. If your lesson plays too long, you run the risk of losing the attention span of your learner and lowering the effectiveness of the lesson in general.

So how long is too long? The answer is directly tied to the average attention span of an adult learner. According to Joan Middendorf and Alan Kalish, Indiana University, "Adult learners can keep tuned in to a lecture for no more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time."

In their excellent article, The 'Change-Up' in Lectures, Middendorf and Kalish found that after three to five minutes of 'settling down' at the start of class, a lapse of attention usually occurred 10 to 18 minutes later. As the lecture proceeded the attention span became shorter and often fell to three or four minutes towards the end of a standard lecture.

I have been teaching classes for nearly 30 years (both online and in-person). Keeping my students engaged (and awake) has always been a top concern. Here's one final quote from the Middendorf and Kalish article (and it's something to which any trainer can relate). One of their colleagues attended a class and observed the following: 

"I sat in the back of the classroom, observing and taking careful notes as usual. The class had started at one o'clock. The student sitting in front of me took copious notes until 1:20. Then he just nodded off. The student sat motionless, with eyes shut for about a minute and a half, pen still poised. Then he awoke and continued his rapid note-taking as if he hadn't missed a beat."

In the 1800s, people had very good attention spans. In her article, Keeping Pace with Today's Quick Brains, Kathie F. Nunley cited the Lincoln-Douglas debates which were literally read from paper and lasted for hours. Nunley said that "people stayed, listened, and paid attention."

Back in the Lincoln-Douglas days, there was less competition for the attention span of the debate attendees. But what about today? Why are attention spans getting shorter? More likely than not the culprit is the distractions and experiences of modern daily life.

"Today's mind, young or old, is continuously bombarded with new and novel experiences. Rather than novel opportunities every few days or weeks, we now have novelty presented in micro-seconds," said Nunley.

eLearning and the Common Goldfish

So eLearning lessons can last anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes and still be effective, yes? Ummm, no. The 15-20 minute range was for an in-person classroom with a live trainer. The times are just a bit different when it comes to asynchronous eLearning lessons that will be accessed over the Internet. 

According to the article Turning into Digital Goldfish, "The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of a goldfish."

Granted, a learner accessing your eLearning lesson will have a greater attention span than a typical web surfer--or even a goldfish. However, in my experience developing eLearning, I put the attention span of an adult learner at 15-20 seconds per slide or scene. If the slide/scene plays any longer, your learner will begin to fog out.

I know what you're thinking: 15-20 seconds is not enough time to teach anything. If your slide contains some voiceover audio, a text caption or two, and an interactive object controlling navigation (such as a button or click box), 15-20 seconds is perfect. Your student will have enough time to understand and absorb the content before moving on to the next slide.

I encourage students who attend my eLearning classes to try to chunk a one-hour eLearning course into several short eLearning lessons. That would translate into 12 Captivate eLearning lessons (if you use the 5 minute-per-lesson timing) for the 60-minute course.

What do you think? Is 3-5 minutes the right amount of timing for an eLearning module? I'd love to see your opinion as comments below.

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Looking for instructor-led training on the top eLearning tools? We offer live, online training on Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia Studio.We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.