Learning Conversations

"If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." Abraham Maslow

With the growth in rapid elearning tools like Articulate, Adobe's Captivate (UPDATE: And Adobe's Breeze Presenter), and Atlantic Link's ContentPoint it means that anyone who can use Powerpoint can create materials more suitable for online delivery.

Since the launch of Powerpoint, it (and tools like it, eg. OpenOffice Impress) has been used to create the default backdrop for anyone standing up and speaking. Sometimes it is used particularly well, complementing the speaker's words so that, together they make a far more engaging and memorable experience. (See Presentation Zen for some superb examples)

Too often, though, presentation tools like Powerpoint are used completely inappropriately. Examples abound of text-filled slides, distracting animations, and speakers that read out the words on the slides.

The next stage in the presentation tool's development was to use it independently of the speaker - as an authoring tool for standalone documents. There are great examples, like this one on Action Mapping from Cathy Moore.

But, again, there are untold numbers of people being subjected to slide-based documents that should never have been put in that format. See, for example, Hilary Clinton's recent "docupoint" as described at Presentation Zen.

Now that we've realised that Powerpoint has limitations when you use it online (for one thing that vast file sizes that you have to handle), we're moving to "rapid elearning". Which basically means converting slide-based materials into Flash and adding some nifty navigation and additional media elements.

Computer geeks have, for a long time, known that if you put Garbage In you get Garbage Out (GIGO). The same is true for rapid elearning. A Powerpoint containing pages of bullet points will never become a good elearning package (ie. engaging and memorable) without a complete rethink from the learner's perspective. Just as it was never a good idea to send it to someone as a Powerpoint expecting them to work their way through it. Just as it was probably the Powerpoint, combined with the speaker reading out each bullet point, that sent people to sleep in the meeting.

So when and how should we use rapid elearning tools?

There's no absolute answer to that... It's more a case of making sure rapid elearning is just one of the tools in your toolbox, and you follow two simple principles:

Start with the learner - what do we need them to be able to do?

Consider whether they need learning activity or marketing activity? Learning & marketing overlap in many ways, as both are designed to affect a change in behaviour. In many cases, good learning involves marketing, and good marketing involves learning. The distinction that I would propose (for now) is that marketing is about provoking a response through simple, high-level messages. Whereas learning is about changing behaviour through more detailed understanding. I'm up for debate on this one!

How detailed does the message need to be at this stage?

Create materials that are appropriate for the level of detail. The table below may help:

There are no right answers, and no strict demarcation lines. But if you always keep a balance between the needs of the learner and your objectives, using the right tool for the job, then you're heading in a good direction.

Of course, I've not even touched on learning-specific stuff here like assessment (whether for the learner's benefit or the organisation's), or interaction with experts and peers. That's maybe for another post...