The Advantages of Having a Language Style Guide

1. Ensures Consistency

A language style guide ensures consistency in communication, and helps avoid conflicts about what is right.

2. Reduces Iterations

Employees need not spend time in asking for and giving clarifications for any issues. When the receiver processes/understands the message as soon as it has been sent, there’s no room for such iterations.  This results in  increased productivity.

3. Reduces Escalations

Often, inconsistent language usage results in management personnel being embroiled into unwarranted email chains instead of concentrating on strategizing and managing. The presence of a language style guide ensures such escalations are reduced and time is spent on other tasks.

4. Encourages Employees to Communicate

Often employees, for lack of standard guidelines on how to compose written messages, may hesitate to avoid written communication altogether or, if they feel compelled, end up sending across unclear messages.

5. Customized Client Guidelines

You can share your language style guide with their clients, instead of clients sharing their own guidelines each time a project is initiated. Clients can then suggest their preferences as additions to the existing language conventions, which will then make up for guidelines for that specific client for all future projects. For example, you share your US English Style Guide with your American client, who then advises you on their preference about the usage of the serial comma.

I hope these 5 reasons for having a language style guide help you in making an informed decision for having your own language style guide in place.

Are you now ready to make your own language style guide?

The post 5 Reasons For Having A Language Style Guide first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

From the CEO of a company to the housekeeping staff of a multinational corporation and from the principal of a college to a 5^th grade student in a school, smartphones find themselves firmly entrenched in India’s technological landscape.

However, the report also says that the penetration of smartphones as a percentage of mobile users in India is still just 6%. This percentage, according to the report, is the lowest among the top 30 smartphone markets.

There could be a couple of reasons for that; firstly, many people may not see the need to use a smartphone on a daily basis; secondly, many may not be able to afford one. There are millions of such people in India who still carry mobiles with the most basic of functions, many of who mainly populate the rural parts of the country.

With mLearning initiatives targeted mostly at tablets and smartphones, there is a huge but yet largely untapped potential for mLearning in the country. Tapping this potential could bring a multitude of benefits not just to organizations but also to educational institutions looking for innovative ways to engage their students.

Here’s an easy, simple way in which we can take the first step in getting mLearning to such mobile users.

mAssessments
Taking a cue from the marketing community, the presentation of eLearning assessments on mobiles can be slightly modified as follows.

Learners who do not have smartphones can take the course on desktops at local computer institutes, designated regional government establishments, etc. and then opt for taking the assessments on their mobile phones. Here’s how this type of mAssessment might work.

The learner will be required to answer the questions as we answer any marketing SMSs. The assessment questions could be sent to their phones one at a time. The number of answer options in each question would depend on the nature of the question. All the learner will need to do is reply with the correct option’s number or letter, particularly if the question is a multiple choice single answer type. For multiple choice multiple answer type questions, the learner can answer with the answers separated by, for example, commas. For instance, if the answer to a question is options 2, 3, and 5, then the learner can simply send an SMS: 2, 3, 5. These answers may or may not be preceded by question numbers i.e., Q1, 2, 3, 5. The learner can simply send Q1 3 if the question is multiple choice single answer type. The feedback then can be immediately texted to him or her, thus enabling the individual to make informed decisions.

This kind of partial mobile learning is likely to provide dual benefits to the learners. One, they can take the assessments at their own convenience, much later after their regular eLearning session is over or may be after further studying the topics offline. Second, they can take the assessment just before they apply the knowledge learnt in their respective areas of work, thereby ensuring success at each new task they undertake, such as operating agricultural equipment or factory machinery for the first time. For example, if an individual is supposed to start, and later operate, an upgraded or newly installed piece of heavy machinery for the first time and needs to reinforce his knowledge about the first step in that process, that individual could be sent a message with a question with options on how he or she may do that. As mentioned above, an immediate feedback would provide timely confirmation of the correctness of actions the learner intends to take. SMS feedback could be supplemented or supported by other forms of feedback.

So, no need to wait for a smartphone in every hand. It’s the regular cellphone that can be handled smartly. Cheers to mobile learning.

The post Mobile Learning: mAssessments Through Text Messages first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Well, my intention is not to go on and on about the time saving virtues of eLearning, those are too obvious, otherwise eLearning wouldn’t have taken such great strides. Today, I am going to ask you a question that takes this time saving a step further.

The importance of an assessment at the end of an eLearning course cannot be overemphasized. As the learner submits his choice of answer for each question, the selected options are tracked via the LMS and recorded in the database.

While the learner is answering, at some point however it might become clear that the learner may not secure a passing score even though he answers all subsequent questions correctly.

For example, let’s assume that for one particular course the learner is required to score 80% to pass the assessment with 20 questions in the assessment. That means the passing score would be 16 questions answered correctly. Translated, the learner cannot afford to score more than 4 questions incorrectly. For some learners, at some point – precisely at the point where the learner records his or her 5th incorrect answer – it will become clear that they are not going to achieve the passing score of 80%.

At that point, the learners could be notified that they will not score 80% (or whatever the passing score) in that assessment and as per the requirement of the organization notified either of the following:

1. Stop the learner from proceeding further and ask the learner to retake the entire course again.
2. Stop the learner from proceeding further and ask the learner to retake only the assessment.
3. Notified that he will not score 80% and let him proceed with the rest of the questions anyway.

This time saving feature not only spares the learner hassle of answering all questions and then going back to retake the course or assessment, but also this idea can collectively save several man hours for the organization. In a competitive environment where time-management is of the utmost essence, this time saving could have a huge positive impact on the work schedules of organizations.

Now, this will obviously be not fit for courses where module-wise knowledge checking is warranted and done (and a detailed feedback is provided to the learners where they are directed to that specific module where they haven’t done well). This is where each module is fairly independent of each other in terms of continuity of learning.

There is another possible dark lining to this time saving silver cloud. If a learner is notified in between questions that he or she is not going to secure a passing score, the learner will most likely be de-motivated. This might affect the learner’s concentration while answering all subsequent questions – all of which, for all we know, the learner might answer correctly. As a solution to this one, we could ask the learner at the beginning of the assessment itself, whether he or she would like to be notified of their score in between questions. If the learner chooses ‘Yes’ then he or she is mentally prepared! Do we let the learners spending time ‘surfing the course and assessments’ or let them know their score and ask them to reconsider proceeding?

Do we save those precious minutes or let the learners complete their assessments and do it all over again?

Now, I am expecting a huge debate on this one. Bring it on!!

The post A Time Saving Assessment first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about how eLearning proofreading can sometimes get tricky.

In this post, I have included 5 time-tested tips to help you become an ace at proofreading your own eLearning content.

1. Get Into the Proofreader’s Shoes

Proofreading eLearning content is boring. Trust me, it is, especially when you are checking your own work. Writing eLearning content is a lot like squeezing the last remaining drops of toothpaste out, and proofreading the same content is like pushing the paste inside the tube again. But what if someone challenged you to it? If I were you, I would take up the challenge without thinking that the task was boring. In all probability, you would do it with more enthusiasm than ever. So, why not adopt the same attitude when proofreading your own content?

Now, tell me, did you find those 4 spelling mistakes I challenged you to find? I can’t play poker, but I sure know how to bluff but idn poker I get it. I know you didn’t, because I didn’t make any! But I bet you were busy looking for them, but surely didn’t find them.

You looked for the mistakes because I challenged you to find them and then got into the role of a proofreader while doing it.

It is plain simple human nature that we tend to find mistakes in someone else’s work. Assume your content is not yours – that it belongs to that someone else. Take up the challenge and proofread your own content the same way!

2. Read Something That You Like – Everyday

You probably write something or the other everyday; at least a few emails if nothing else.  But do you take time out to read? Chances are that you’ll be able to spot an error whenever you come across one.

3. Invest Time

Proofreading eLearning content such as a storyboard, a blog-post or any other document, needs time like any other activity. Your company not only pays you do your job; it also pays you to add value. And you add value by investing time not only on writing blog posts, but also proofreading them. A few minutes of cautious effort can go a big way in eliminating all those annoying distractions that an online reader despises.

4. Refer To The Dictionary

Nobody’s an expert. Everyone needs help at some time or the other. It’s always a good idea to refer to online dictionaries or handy dictionary apps like Wordweb which gives you the meaning of any word at the press of a button (well, three in this case), and don’t be afraid to ask.

5. Practice Reading Aloud

It may not always be possible, but practice reading your content aloud the way you want your learners to read and interpret it. This is a powerful proofreading tool that will help you to relate to your end users and connect with them. This seemingly simple activity will help you add suitable punctuations where you pause, replace tongue-twisters or heavy content with simple words, and get the flow right.

The post 5 Tips For Proofreading Your Own eLearning Content first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

What was entertaining though, in an otherwise mundane day, was the bemused look on his face. A storyboard was about to be sent to the client, and he had noticed what he thought was weird magical performance rendered by the standard spellchecker in the MS Word document.

The spellchecker thought the word Summery was perfectly fine.

Well, it was, and it is.

That’s because it’s a perfectly grammatically correct word, though rare in everyday usage. Remove the ‘y’ for a split second and you will see the obvious meaning. It simply means “Belonging to or characteristic of or occurring in summer”.

Sometimes, this is the way the importance of good old manual labour is highlighted while proofreading content in eLearning storyboards. What is not underlined in red often goes unnoticed. And F7 does not notice it either. Many content developers and proofreaders tend to miss this and end up wondering, mostly after the client feedback, how did such a simple thing slip through? It is because they relied too much on automation and ignored the old word-by-word manual check.

So next time you check your content, do not forget to honour the good old manual labour. Proofreading eLearning content is not rocket science, but it can be tricky as the curious case of my confused colleague shows.

Read each word both for its individual meaning and in the context of the content-and use the spellchecker only for the finishing touches. That is the rule by which I live by. Do you?

The post eLearning Content Proofreading: Don’t Trust Anything first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.