Better Blogging

I've not been a very active blogger. Most of the little time I get away from work is spent catching up with other interesting blogs and websites. One of the blogs I follow is the Bamboo Project Blog. That is how I came across the 31-day Comment Challenge. The concept sounds interesting and will probably give blogging newbies like me the opportunity and the motivation to connect with the rest of the world. So, I've decided to jump in.

While reading up on this challenge, I came across the earlier one on better blogging. The tips from that challenge have now been added to my "to-do" list.

Let's see how everything turns out. The past few days at work have been relatively relaxed...the few days of transition from one project to another. So, I've been able to read up more, write more, learn more, and basically do more. I've got myself started on a number of new things. Soon, I may go back to the days of very little time for anything. But, I hope to keep this momentum going inspite of that.

And if you are part of The Comment Challenge remember to add the " comment08 " tag to your post.

My first steps in e-Learning 2.0

E-learning 2.0, much like Web 2.0, is about communicating, collaborating, and experiencing content first-hand. Over the past year or so, I’ve been reading a lot about all the exciting new stuff happening in the industry.

I have to admit when I first heard about and read blogs, they never quite seemed educational to me! They were more for, well “time-pass”. But, now, blogs are where I’m learning most from, especially, the new learning trends. Those blogs are what inspired this one! Just reading about what others have done, are doing, will be doing is enough to set me want to know, want to learn, want to do more! In the same “genre” are podcasts, webcasts, etc. which I’m yet to try myself...maybe some day I will.

Then, there are wikis. I was intrigued about its potential; especially after I read someone describe an actual course they developed with a wiki as one of the elements. That’s when I thought… well, maybe this works. So, I went ahead and created one! No, its not in the public domain right now…maybe I’ll put it out there when I feel more confident about they way it is shaping up. But, I’m definitely warming up to the idea of how it may work in a classroom/community/group based learning system. There are some concerns about the authenticity and credibility of the information people put up in these wikis. There are reports that the original wiki, Wikipedia may have some accuracy issues since the content is not ratified by experts. This is also leading to serious concerns because a huge number of people, students and teachers included, are increasingly using Wikipedia as a source of reference for practically everything under the sun! That said, the power of wikis as a collaborative tool is definitely worth considering, especially in an instructor-led learning environment, where someone can ratify the wiki contributions.

What other exciting stuff have I learned? Well, there’s rapid e-learning. I’m not a great fan of using rigid, inflexible templates to create look-alike courses, and I definitely don’t subscribe to the notion that someday anyone will be able to use them to create meaningful, effective learning. However, I do see the utility of using the rapid e-learning tools too. Especially, now that I know not all of them are as rigid as I thought they were. You can definitely create some pretty neat stuff with them. So, I’ve decided I’m going to start using some of these tools.

The other interesting e-learning 2.0 development is Second Life or virtual worlds in general. This is an area I’ve only really read about and am itching to try. And in all probability that is going to be the thing I do next (when I manage to get enough free time of course!).

Oh and that reminds me of the regular educational games -the serious kind that people are now thinking of calling Immersive Learning Simulations. I created a few of them some time back for a K-12 audience and well, I want to do more! I loved the concept, challenge, and creativity involved in creating them. I absolutely believe that games can be a great educational tool if designed correctly.

I guess that’s my list of what I’ve learned and what I plan to learn about e-learning in general and e-learning 2.0 in particular.

How much ID do we need?

I’ve been following the LCB for some time now. This time I thought instead of just being a passive audience, let me jump in with my own thoughts.

This month's question is:
"For a given project, how do you determine if, when and how much an instructional designer and instructional design is needed?"

Instructional designers definitely bring a lot of skills to the table. ID doesn’t mean taking a bunch of theories and applying them to every course. ID also doesn't mean just taking some content and entering it into a tool or slideshow without too much thought. It’s much more than that.

First and foremost, IDs have the ability to identify with the audience. They understand what the learner needs and to what extent from a course. They apply their logical and analytical abilities to not just break down content into logical blocks but also structure and design these blocks in a way that helps learners learn more effectively. They identify when to use what kind of instructional treatment. Their ability to understand the learner’s requirements and align it with the company’s requirements is what makes them an essential part of training.

Sure we have rapid authoring/development tools now that can make it easy to develop courseware. But then these tools are, as their name suggests, for development not design. You can’t just dump content in and then get the tools to structure it logically and insert appropriate activities and exercises. Someone should know when and where to use which feature of the tool in the course.

Having worked with a lot of SMEs, I can say that we can probably have SME create training content if they’re going to be the ones conducting it. That way learners can ask questions for more clarity if required. Because most of the problems I’ve faced with them was either too much or too little content. We (IDs) had to constantly ask them questions to get the right content for the course. Though they were experts in their field, some of them had absolutely no clue of what or how to teach. They would sometimes forget that we might be teaching technology to people who haven’t been exposed to it before. Getting them to drop jargons and keep it simple was essential.

Instructional designers are also involved in creating the material for courses that SMEs deliver. The moot point being that SMEs know their subject matter, but they may not know their audience and their learning needs that well. IDs help streamline the learning. I'm not saying SMEs can't do it...a lot of them can, but they do need to develop some instructional design skills if not have a full-time instructional designer helping them. I've even been on projects where IDs doubled up as SMEs.

And yes the intensity of ID involvement may vary from project to project. Some may need only high-level input, where the ID defines the course structure and overall strategy that stands true for all courses in a program. The ID may also be involved in creating a typical proto and then create some global templates. Using these materials, maybe someone else like the SME or content writers can plug in content to create the complete courseware.

Then there are the custom courses, which generally require more intensive and hands-on work from IDs. They need to design each course to look different yet consistent from the other. Such courses require an ID to design everything from the course structure and overall strategy to a screen-level breakup and treatment of content.

So, basically it depends…but do we need instructional design at all? If you need an instructionally sound, complete learning experience, you definitely do!

How it All Began

Since I intend this blog to be on my experience with e-learning, let me start from the beginning. How did I get into e-learning?

It was the June of 2002 when I passed out of college. It was also the period of an IT slowdown- the dotcom bubble had burst and there were not many jobs for fresh out-of-college kids like me.

I wanted a job in the high-flying software industry, but nothing was quite working out. And the only ones that seemed available were the call-center ones and the marketing executive ones. In one, I’d have to answer calls from mostly irate customers all night and in the other I’d have to sell things even I wouldn’t buy. I decided both were not for me and so continued waiting for my dream job to come along.

Then one day, I came to know about an e-learning company that was looking for Technical Writers. I was excited. I wasn't completely sure what e-learning was but it seemed like a perfect stop-gap arrangement (I was still dreaming of a software developer job). I'd always loved writing (I’d be at the top of my English class almost throughout school...in fact, my English teacher wanted me to take up writing as a career, but that was never seriously considered.) And here was an opportunity that looked like it would also involve some technical know-how. It seemed to be the perfect combination.

I went for the test and interview and was offered the job the same day. I joined the next day. Turned out that the term “technical writer” was not entirely accurate. I was more of an Instructional writer, writing storyboards for software and other IT-training courses. That, to me, was even better! I could work with different, new software all the time!

As I started learning and understanding what e-learning and instructional design was all about, I felt I’d found what I’d been looking for. I’d found something that appealed to several different sides of me, the writer, the thinker, the techie…it was no longer a stop-gap arrangement.

The best part was that I was there at the right time working with the right people. I got to learn a lot and fast. My interest drove me to learn more and consequently achieve more at work. I didn’t have much of the theoretical knowledge (Maybe I still don’t). Although, I did go through some formal training at work, most of what I know has been picked up on the job. I frequently found that the ID practices I’d been using had their basis in some theories I didn’t know about. And I believe to some extent that is the best way to learn. Unless you know to apply them, theories hold little value. And that is true for whatever you want to learn, whatever you want to teach.

Now, I’ve spent close to 5 years in this field and have moved to projects other than IT and with that has come the other revelation, it it not so much about IT anymore...it is about writing, about learning, about ID... it is all about e-learning.