Learning Conversations

I was in a meeting today where it was suggested that purchasing organisations could differentiate between potential elearning suppliers by using a standard "problem" as a challenge. A problem like "Create some elearning about how to open a bottle of wine".

There would be no opportunity to ask any questions. In fact, it was even suggested that these elearning materials could be used as demonstration packages for multiple potential buyers.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that...

I have any number of tools & techniques at my disposal to create elearning materials about how to open a bottle of wine.

• Using InDesign, I might create a glossy interactive PDF with a nice, graphically-rich, description of the various steps involved
• Using Word, I might create a simple step-by-step process, with a few images to support the text
• Using Xerte, I might create a small HTML5 package which can be tracked in a learning management system
• Using iMovie and my phone, I might create a 1 minute video with voice-over and put it on Youtube
• Using Wordpress, I might create a whole website about the history of wine, the role of the sommelier, and why opening it in a particular way is vitally important

As a buyer, how would you decide which is best?

Without the dialogue in advance of building the materials, it's impossible to know which is the right one.

Questions you might want to ask are:

• Do your learners like wine?
• Have they come across wine before?
• What about the people that prefer beer, and don't want to change?
• Do you need to track usage?
• Do you have a Learning Management System?
• Do your learners need performance support or do they need to have their thinking about wine changed?
• Where will the learners need to get to the materials? Will they be at their desks? Or out and about?
• How soon do you need it?
• Do you have a budget for good-looking graphical design?
• Do you have a learning management system? Do you need to track learner activity?

In choosing between providers, it's not about the product, it's about the process that generates the product.

Image credit: Wikipedia