How to get people to use your systems
Context, Management & Implementation, Social Networks 1 feedback » 1713 viewsIf you want to get people to use systems then there are a few things you can do:
- Make it the only way they can get things to happen. Eg. claiming expenses
- Make sure it fits in with other systems they already use. Eg. email, SMS
- Make sure it provides plenty of hand-holding when they first use it. Eg. SocialCast
- Make sure they understand how it can help them. If it's not obvious, then market it.
- Make it simple to get to and to get started.
- Make sure that the message about the system can spread virally
- Make sure you keep your potential champions on board at all stages of choosing and designing the system.
- Talk to your users about how they're using it
And here's how to stifle adoption:
- Keep your champions and users at arms' length
- Use language in the interface that only a few people understand
- Make sure all the messages about the system's benefits are centrally driven
Any more?
Leon Cych's post on outdoor video streaming got me thinking.
I wondered if I could do the same thing with my phone (a Nokia 5800 - their first attempt to compete with the iPhone, now incredibly cheap).
All About Symbian has a list of 25 top free apps - one of which is Qik, a live video capture utility.
It's a three stage process to get started:
- Download the app to the phone
- Create an account on qik.com
- Login to your account on the phone (make sure you're using wifi or on an uncapped data rate)
Hit the Stream button and you're instantly streaming video to the qik website.
I did try using the rear-facing camera to record myself, but the quality isn't up to much.
So you have to use the main camera, which makes it a bit hard to see what you're streaming (as you'll see below!)
Once the video is finished, it's also available for playback from the Qik site. It can be embedded on any webpage, and sent to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube et al.
Where can I see this being used in a learning & development context?
It's fabulous for streaming and recording stuff that is OK to be public. Conferences, public meetings, conversations etc. The sort of things that you'd put onto Youtube. Not so good if you want to restrict access. For that you'll need uStream's Watershed service.
At the moment, I've no specific application. But it's nice to know it's there when I need it.
A question was asked today on the Learning & Skills Group forum about whether elearning has different accessibility and usability standards to normal web design.
My answer is an emphatic "No!" - at least it shouldn't have.
The problem is, we (the corporate elearning fraternity) have got so used to our "click next to continue" paradigm, that we've forgotten how people really use the web.
The accessibility standards for elearning are exactly the same as web design. You need to follow the W3C WAI guidelines and criteria.
Some useful links:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ : The source of web accessibility standards. Start with: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php
These days, you should focus on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2. See: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php#whatis2
http://achecker.ca/checker/index.php : Checks individual URLs or files
Another web-based tool : http://www.cynthiasays.com/ - There is a paid-for desktop version, which allows checking of whole elearning packages offline: http://www.hisoftware.com/products/accverify.html
Also, look at the RNIB pages on accessibility, and the Shaw Trust. Both of these provide services that will help you assess your content for accessibility - although the Shaw Trust is more general, as it includes testing with people who don't use a mouse/trackball.
With usability, there are no hard and fast standards, but, again you should follow general web conventions (which I'm afraid most elearning materials fail spectacularly to do). Jakob Nielsen's site is a good place to start - although follow what he says, not what he does.
At this point, I'm going to quote from Stephen Downes superb essay on Principles of Effective Elearning. It's five years old, but still entirely valid:
Between [Yahoo and Google], designers have hit on what are probably the two essential elements of usability: consistency and simplicity.
How many of our elearning modules and systems can we say have user interfaces that are simple and consistent with web conventions?
Can you change an organisation from the inside?
Learning, Change Management, Education reform, Politics 3 feedbacks » 1002 viewsLot's of things are coming together for me at the moment. This post is an attempt to try to mash them together and see what comes out...
1) I'm reading the Cluetrain Manifesto. If there was ever a book that says what I've been thinking - this is it:
Many people in today's world seem to assume that official authorisation is required to learn new things
At some point you've got to break down and trust people both inside and outside your organisation.
Does your organisation have any genuine passion to share? Can you deal with such honesty?
Organisations don't know who their customers are any more.
The Net is next to impossible to understand unless you've experienced it for yourself.
I could go on, but I'd probably end up quoting from every page...
2) Through Twitter interactions with Tony Parkin, Doug Belshaw, Eylan Ezekiel and a host of other people who have been pushing the boundaries for years, I'm re-engaging with my passion for schools and teaching. We've been saying for years that networks fundamentally change the dynamic of education. That classroom walls can be broken down, that learning is a wider process than that of knowledge transfer from teacher to student. Yet, with all the thinking and fantastic practice that is going on, we still haven't really changed the underlying organisational structures that our schools are based on.
I'm not saying throw out the baby with the bathwater. But the trouble is, there just isn't the critical mass of networked people in each institution. What would happen if they all got together to create a new way of doing education?
3) A similar situation is happening in corporate learning. There are individuals within L&D teams across the country (and the world) who are connecting, learning how to learn and trying to demonstrate how training has to change not just just to keep up with society but to make training better. What would happen if they got together to create a new way of doing corporate L&D?
4) We keep having conferences. Teachmeets are becoming some of the most valuable CPD events for teachers. Yet very little real change is happening at a structural level.
5) We have a choice. We either stay inside the current structures and try to change them from the inside or we leave them.
6) Let's assume, for the moment, that leaving is not an option, so how do we change the current structures? We have to play the game. Use the accepted methods to communicate and make change happen. That means engaging with the regular media and lobbying government (or the management).
7) So here's a proposal. I'm focussing on schools for now:
Education policy conference
(Thanks to Eylan for his significant input on this)
Purpose: To look at education in its widest sense and propose recommendations for government.
Participants: A mix of 'stakeholders' (eg. teachers, policy-makers, industry leaders, parents, techies, kids!)
Method:
- Prepare the ground with a series of prompt statements (see below) - publicised widely and discussed in various media spaces.
- Raise the issues of assessment, curriculum, the place of school in society and the home, infrastructure and ethos.
- Participants to contribute to a conference wiki under those headings.
- Participants to come prepared to a day's conference to discuss, agree, and map out a 5 year plan towards creating a 21st century education system.
- The final statement must have three aspects – it must be written for a policy audience, must show stages of development, and must be simple to sum up.
Prompt statements
- The National Curriculum should stay But Ofsted should go
- Testing must be rigorous but results should not be published
- Schools have a moral and societal obligation to help shape children's lives to be healthy and respectful of authority
- If teachers choose resources / suppliers then those choices should be accountable to the community
- Classrooms should only be used when absolutely necessary
- The government should appoint a Chief Education Officer, and an independent advisory board on education
- The Open University is a model of highly effective, scalable education that could be replicated across schools and universities nationwide.
So, what do you think? Could this work? Would it make any difference? Only if it had a high enough profile.
OK, this is a very boring post. It's all about code. But, if you ever have a single website which you need to rebrand for a specific client, and you can't use a content management system, then here's how to do it.
Basically, the code looks for a parameter in the URL (eg. www.mywebsite.co.uk?client=myclient), switches to the alternate stylesheet that matches that client name, then stores a browser cookie so that every subsequent page will also use the same stylesheet.
There are four stages to making this work:
1) Get a copy of JQuery. It's a mature javascript framework that makes it a lot easier to write clever code without having to worry about cross-browser incompatabilities and all the difficult stuff.
2) Set up two CSS style sheets. You can do more, but let's leave it with just two for now. One is the main one, the other is the alternate. Try not to replicate the CSS too much, as both sheets will be downloaded. So make the alternate stylesheet just have the bits that will need to change.
3) Create a separate javascript file that will do the switching and cookie setting.
4) Link the CSS sheets and your javascript into your HTML pages
Here's the custom javascript you'll need:
Code:
// Always put this in when using JQuery as IE tends to cache Ajax | |
$.ajaxSetup ({ | |
cache: false | |
}); | |
| |
// Extend JQuery to get variables from URL | |
$.extend({ | |
getUrlVars: function(){ | |
var vars = [], hash; | |
var hashes = window.location.href.slice(window.location.href.indexOf('?') + 1).split('&'); | |
for(var i = 0; i < hashes.length; i++) | |
{ | |
hash = hashes[i].split('='); | |
vars.push(hash[0]); | |
vars[hash[0]] = hash[1]; | |
} | |
return vars; | |
}, | |
getUrlVar: function(name){ | |
return $.getUrlVars()[name]; | |
} | |
}); | |
| |
// Function to create cookie | |
function createCookie(name,value,days) { | |
if (days) { | |
var date = new Date(); | |
date.setTime(date.getTime()+(days*24*60*60*1000)); | |
var expires = "; expires="+date.toGMTString(); | |
} | |
else var expires = ""; | |
document.cookie = name+"="+value+expires+"; path=/"; | |
} | |
| |
// Function to read cookie | |
function readCookie(name) { | |
var nameEQ = name + "="; | |
var ca = document.cookie.split(';'); | |
for(var i=0;i < ca.length;i++) { | |
var c = ca[i]; | |
while (c.charAt(0)==' ') c = c.substring(1,c.length); | |
if (c.indexOf(nameEQ) == 0) return c.substring(nameEQ.length,c.length); | |
} | |
return null; | |
} | |
| |
// Function to delete cookie | |
function eraseCookie(name) { | |
createCookie(name,"",-1); | |
} | |
| |
// Function to switch style | |
function switchStylestyle(styleName) { | |
| |
// check styles against title attribute - disable all those that don't match | |
| |
$('link[@rel*=style][title]').each(function(i) | |
{ | |
this.disabled = true; | |
if (this.getAttribute('title') == styleName) this.disabled = false; | |
}); | |
createCookie('client', styleName, 365); // Set cookie - for a year | |
} | |
| |
// | |
// code to execute when page ready - vital for any JQuery driven site | |
// | |
| |
$(document).ready(function(){ | |
// | |
// Set style | |
// | |
var c = readCookie('client'); // Check if this browser already has the 'client' cookie | |
var stylesheet = $.getUrlVar('client'); // Check for a variable in the URL | |
| |
if (stylesheet!=null) { // If there's a new variable in the URL then reset the style | |
switchStylestyle(stylesheet); | |
} else { | |
switchStylestyle(c); // otherwise set it based on the cookie | |
} | |
| |
}); // End of Document Ready function |
And here are the relevant parts of the HTML:
Code:
<html> | |
<head> | |
<title>My website</title> | |
| |
<!-- Bring in the primary stylesheet --> | |
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="main.css" media="all" /> | |
| |
<!-- Bring in the alternate stylesheet --> | |
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="sheet2.css" title="myclient" /> | |
| |
<!-- Bring in the JQuery framework --> | |
<script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/jquery.js"></script> | |
| |
<!-- Bring in the custom javascript you've written --> | |
<script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/customscripts.js"></script> | |
| |
</head> | |
<body> | |
| |
This is where the bulk of your HTML will go. | |
| |
</body> | |
</html> |
Credits:
JQuery howto: Get URL parameters and values with JQuery
A List Apart: Working with alternate style sheets
Kelvin Luck: Switch stylesheets with Jquery
I don't normally write directly about the company I work for (Capita Learning & Development). I value my independence too much for that.
But, there are times when we put out stuff that's worth talking about. Today's a case in point.
We've just published a research report (embedded below), based on the opinions of senior decision makers among the UK’s largest 500 firms.
Here are some of the findings.
- The majority (70%) of business leaders fear that inadequate staff skills are the greatest threat to their ability to capitalise on the recovery.
- More than two thirds of business leaders admit that their under-trained workforce is struggling to cope with expanded job remits following waves of job cuts during recession.
- ... as the economy moves out of the downturn, two fifths (40%) of leaders estimate that at least half of employee skills risk becoming obsolete.
- Over a third of leaders (36%) lack confidence that their employees have the skills required to deliver the firm’s upturn strategy, with close to half (46%) casting doubt on their L&D department’s ability to provide these learning services.
- Over half (55%) claim that their firm is failing to deliver the necessary training for recovery.
- Around half fear for their company’s ability to respond to surges in demand (51%), retrain and redeploy people where required (47%) and identify where current skills are becoming obsolete (49%).
- More than two thirds (67%) of business leaders are concerned their employees are struggling to cope with expanded remits following job cuts.
- More than half (52%) describe their L&D function as slow to respond to the changing requirements of their business during economic turbulence.
- As strategic objectives have evolved, close to half (46%) of senior managers report no significant change in the training delivery to their workforce. Going forward, almost as many (43%) expect no significant change to L&D delivery over the next 2-3 years.
- The vast majority (82%) of leaders lack confidence that their firm’s L&D strategy and delivery are aligned to the company’s operational strategy.
- Half (50%) believe that their L&D function is stuck in a ‘business as usual’ mindset.
You could argue that this data is simply designed to point people towards Capita Learning and Development. That might be partially true. Even so, it's quite clear that L&D in general really isn't hitting the spot where businesses are concerned.
Perhaps that might be because we still have the mind-set that "learning" is a commodity that we deliver. We provide training to meet perceived training needs. Every performance problem is seen as solved by a training intervention.
Perhaps L&D needs to rebrand - towards performance consulting... Often performance problems are more around culture, systems, processes and communication. Solve those, and you won't need to provide training in a lot of cases.
Is there still a place, in today's complex and rapidly changing market, for a learning and development function that just sees itself as a provider of training?
A couple of weeks ago, I made some suggestions about how we could run conferences that have a wider reach, and are much more useful to attending delegates.
As a follow-up, I'd like to ask a couple of questions about whether you'd be willing to pay for such a conference. No personal data will be collected. Just your answers to the questions. If you’ve got any comments, please leave feedback on this post.
Just to be clear, this isn't going to be a list of functionalities. Instead, it's a set of ideals that I would look for from a vendor.
Demonstrable knowledge
Any vendor in this space cannot just dish out software. They need to understand learning, how people interact with software and how organisations will use the software. Part of that will be marketing happy-talk, but it must be more than that. Vendors need to be openly taking part in the conversations that are happening around corporate learning - engaging with the thought-leaders, sharing knowledge, advice and best practice.
Keeping pace with ideas
Given the rate of change in technologies and how they're being used outside the firewall, it's important that any arrangement with a vendor should include ongoing feature updates. If you stand still, then you'll get left behind. This is the strength of the Software As A Service (SAAS) model. Firstly it's far easier to keep the code base up-to-date if it's outside the firewall, and secondly, the these vendors tend to understand the nature of the internet far more than those that just supply software as a product.
Quality support
It really bugs me when I hear about vendors getting away with providing little or no support. As a consumer I value the excellent support I get from companies like Hostdime and T-Mobile. I don't understand we put up with anything less from our vendors? I've written about the Art of User Support elsewhere. I think vendors are allowed to get away with bad support mainly because the people holding the purse strings are not the ones who are asking for help.
Jane Hart is collating her annual list of the tools people use to support learning and development.
Here's my contribution. In descending order of importance:
- Google search. Need I say more? It's fast. I know how to get the best out of it. It's my secondary brain.
- Google Chrome. I was a Firefox person, but Chrome is just so much faster. My browser is my gateway to information and to people. It's also where I test any web-based materials I create . Chrome's developer analysis tools are second-to-none.
- Snagit. From Techsmith. Allows you to quickly take screenshots, or just particular windows or parts of the screen, and then to make them look pretty (eg. torn edges, shadows, arrows) quickly and easily. You can even save profiles, so that every screenshot automatically gets the same treatment.
- Jing. Also from Techsmith. But free. It creates 5 minute (max) videos of your screen activity along with any narration you want to do. There's no editing capability, but for ease of use and effectiveness it can't be beaten. I can't count the number of times I've been able to help people with a quick video that only took 5 mins to produce. Just as if I was showing them in person.
- Wordpress. It's not just a blogging tool. It's great as a content management system. Very flexible, and easy to customise. And with a fantastic mobile (especially iPhone) interface
- Webex. There are other web-based meeting/presentation tools. But Webex is what we have available. It works. It's robust.
- Moodle. Flexible. Tried and tested. Teacher/trainer-friendly. And, with Moodle 2.0 coming out, even easier to connect to other Moodle's, repositories and data systems. Hard to beat really.
- Google Reader. The heart of my personal learning network. It's where I go for in-depth thought and analysis from people I trust to deliver.
- Context Sensitive Learning. A tool that I push at every opportunity. It acts as middleware between systems that you're trying to get people to use, and the learning content that will help them use it.
- Yammer or Socialcast. Both very similar, and both work fantastically in large organisations to help break down the structural holes (pdf) that stop ideas spreading.
Conferences, presentations, streaming video and conversation
Learning, Learning & Skills Group Send feedback » 2174 viewsThis post is in response to Clive Shepherd's thoughts on "Video Streaming brings events to a much wider audience"
Clive,
Live video streaming from conferences makes the assumption that conferences are all about delivering content.
I really don't understand why we've got into this way of thinking.
Conferences are the one time when I can have live face-to-face conversations with my peers and experts in the field.
If I was in the conference organising business here's what I'd do:
- Get presenters to submit their presentations in advance as a video or narrated Articulate (or similar) package. Perhaps, if I was going for quality, this would be produced professionally, at a video studio, in front of a small live audience
- Allow access to these presentations to paying delegates, along with a means of delegates raising questions or comment about the materials - that's price band A
Ensure that expectations are set for the face-to-face day. It will be about:
- Conversations
- Practising skills
- Coaching
- Have a face-to-face conference for delegates (price band B), offering them the chance to meet, in person, with the presenters and to engage with them about the presentations. No video streaming required, as there would be no presentations
- Ensure that the f2f conference includes sessions for particular interest groups (as happened very successfully at the recent Learning & Skills Group)
- Ensure that people can find each other, perhaps using a social networking / tagging (eg. Elgg) system that allows people with similar interests to get together. This would need a real-world mirror system to help people find each other without having to go around peering at each others name badges. Perhaps some sort of signage on conference tables so that delegates can create a conversation group at a specific table.
People learn through conversation. So let's build our face-to-face events around that.
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