This brings us to User Experience (UX) testing. As the name so obviously suggests, it simply is the process of understanding the users’ experience with the eLearning course. It includes everything your users see, hear and do; the rationale behind their actions; and their emotional reactions to the results.

Every multi-device eLearning course is designed in a very specific manner. For every learner action, there is a defined resulting behaviour in the course. What user experience testing does is try and understand the user’s reaction when performing that action, either successfully or unsuccessfully. This is simply the instinctive response a user has to a new experience when they tap, click, swipe or read the content displayed and how it is displayed. If your users can’t find information easily or can’t navigate quickly through the interface, they will quite simply be dissatisfied. It can make the difference between performing a task accurately and completely or not, and enjoying the process or being frustrated.

We conducted a small user experience testing trial. We ensured that we included team members from different domains of our company so that we could get a more balanced feedback, and asked them to share their experiences about our own multi-device eLearning demo courses. Based on this experience, coupled with our experience in multi-device testing, here are our top 7 tips on how to conduct user experience testing.

1. Gather an adequate user sample:

Make sure your sample size includes enough people to test your eLearning course so that you find common themes among the results or feedback. This ensures that you have more accurate information to base your decisions on.

2. Provide users with background information:

Brief your users and tell them why they are there and why they have been chosen to participate in the user testing exercise. This allows your users to see the big picture and provide useful feedback.

3. Give users clear instructions:

Tell your users what they need to do and how they need to go about it. Giving them these instructions ensures that they are able to perform the task at hand without any hindrances.

4. Provide users with the correct course:

Always give your users a course that is complete and has been through quality testing. If you give them a course with major bugs or issues, they will not be able to provide complete and thorough feedback.

5. Ensure your users have all the equipment they would need:

If your users are going to be testing a course with audio, ensure that they have headphones. If your users are required to launch the course from the LMS, ensure that the LMS page is already loaded on the device.

6. Interact with your users:

Ask your users if they are comfortable with the task they need to perform or if they have any questions or concerns. Interact with them to pick up on their actions as well as their emotional responses while they are performing the task rather than at the end of it.

7. Inform users how their feedback will be used:

Tell your users what you intend to do with the findings or feedback you receive at the end of the user experience testing. This way your users know that the time they have invested towards the exercise is going to be used in a productive manner.

We found that user testing can bring out feedback on a variety of aspects, including but not limited to:

1. How much and what type of information to provide, and at what point, to correctly set learner expectations
2. Design aspects related to usability like affordance, visual cues, target touch areas, visibility of text entry boxes, indication of presence of content below the visible screen area on touch devices, and even consistency of controls
3. Sufficiency and clarity of learner instructions and interactive element labels
4. Content presentation and layering, including with regards to clarity of visual representations and metaphors, and ease of understanding and assimilation

The post 7 Tips for Conducting UX Testing for Multi-device eLearning first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

So, how do we really decide? What are the relevant and key factors to consider? The decision has a significant impact on the overall objective you want to achieve in addition to having an impact on the budget, go-to-market (timelines and effectiveness), and the eventual success of the initiative, to be able to produce money online, using different strategies like the use of digital coins from this DCForecasts news online. Arguably any approach could be short or long term. Thus, it doesn’t have a very permanent impact and can be changed later on, as the factors vary.

Let us look at the key factors to decide. Most of these factors are based on my own interactions with the people I meet, our current customers, and from the impressive array of projects my team delivers for our customers.

To note: The below information is more of a guideline. In the real world, there is no definitive formula and eventually it also depends on the attitude and mindset of the organization to choose either of the approaches.

1. Target devices

This is perhaps the most important and decisive factor to consider. If you are targeting only a small set of specific devices, say desktops and tablets (only iPads) or a slightly larger set of specific devices, say desktops, iPads and iPhones; using the tools may be a good option given the fixed devices and screen sizes.

However, if your target set is more diverse than this – desktops, tablets (small and big ones, iOS and Android), and smartphones (iOS and Android), then using tools may be a challenge as tools still lack the capability to produce outputs that can work seamlessly across a large array of devices. This may be relevant when you are catering to a BYOD environment and either reluctant or unable to restrict the devices a user may use to access learning. In such cases, the best bet would be to go for custom development using the core technologies. You could also look at using a few frameworks (not tools, more like development libraries) to create truly multi-device eLearning. E.g. Upside Learning’s FRED is a great fit in such cases. There is an open source framework as well – ADAPT which may perhaps be evaluated. To reiterate, this is the most critical factor of all. Also when using tools, ensure that you have done a thorough mapping of your target devices and the tool being used so it caters to all of them. This brings me to the second factor.

2. eLearning output

Tools, in general are getting better and more powerful but some of them may still have limitations in the kind of templates they offer. Hence impacting the overall design and level of the eLearning output you will obtain. Notwithstanding the target devices being taken care of, you also want to create powerful eLearning. For eLearning that involves and uses animated simulations, scenarios, rich levels of interactivities – tools may offer only limited features to achieve those. For such eLearning, custom development (or using frameworks) may be a better idea. However, for eLearning used for Compliance Training, Video/Audio based training, relying more on graphics and text (with audio) – tools would be a good option.

3. Where is the development happening?

Most companies that develop all their eLearning internally either as a policy or business model tend to rely heavily on tools to do so as per this news source. It is understandable and prudent, given the complexities in training, hiring, code maintenance, update, etc. However, if your development is outsourced, the factor which comes in play is more of long term code maintenance and content update.

4. Time to market

Another important factor to be considered in case you are working against tight deadlines. If your time to market is limited and rushed, using tools may be a better approach (subject to point 1) as tools generally reduce development time and testing time, in this case, we recommend using the Best methods for USA affiliates. However, if that is not a constraint you can then choose to go with the custom development route as well, and as for financial development, the use of resources as digital coins could be really useful for this, which you can learn from these news online.

5. Budget

Over a period of time, it is observed that using tools reduce the cost of development and maintenance compared to custom development. But it also depends on whether you are doing it internally or outsourcing. Internal development usually tends to have a fixed resource cost but can have high opportunity cost, or cost in terms of time to market given your bandwidth – true for both custom and in-house tools, to develop your financial conditions using investment tools as the delaware statutory trust to be able to invest money online and get some profits using these sources. Unless budget is a very serious constraint, So we took a loan,and getting a short term loan in 2019 is fast and easy if you have the right credit.  I recommend using the first 4 factors primarily to decide. At the end of the day – whatever we develop has to add value to the users and help them learn better.

The post Multi-device eLearning: Custom or Tools? first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Why Video Again?

What better than a video to answer that? Look at the video below.

Its evident video engages better and usage of online video is growing at a blinding pace.

Some of the interesting stats about videos:

• Video is currently 50% of the Internet traffic. It will reach 90% by 2014
• Mobile Video has grown by 5000% in last 3 years.

Why Videos in eLearning?

Here are some reasons to include videos in eLearning:

1. Engagement:

   Videos provide greater engagement than text or images for the simple reason that it combines audio, video and text. Also videos have more emotional appeal than animations or still photos. It helps to know that your audience is already watching tons of videos online and accepts video as a format for information delivery.

2. Performance Support:

   Videos make it possible to have ‘troubleshooting help’ and ‘how to’ guides made available on demand just when your staff needs them. We’re finding an increase in online training through webinars and most often recorded webinars have a good uptake. You could use videos as pre class/event material or as post class summaries/assessments.

3. Cross Platform/Mobile:

   With increased use of mobile devices, there is a need to create elearning that works well on large range of devices from desktops to mobiles. If done well video presents an opportunity to bridge the gap between screen sizes and multiple platforms.

4. Cross Language:

   Since videos ‘show’ pictures and can include subtitles they are much easier for non-native speakers of the language to understand.

5. Low Costs:

   Video production costs have come down drastically in last few years. With camera phones recording a video is a breeze and at almost no cost. This sort of quick and dirty video works well when you need to explain process or create simple ‘how to’ videos. Production value is not as important as the correctness of the content.

6. Interactive:

   One of the common issues held against using video is that it is passive and not interactive. I don’t agree with that; if you recollect a movie you watched that has had a lasting impact on your thinking you know engagement and interaction are different things. Google has recently added interactivity to YouTube videos called ‘Video Questions Editor Beta’, we are sure to see more interactivity coming in videos

7. Viral:

   As we saw in the videos embedded above, video tends to be more viral that other assets. In the future when your staff seeks their colleagues’ views on which training assets are useful for them, the viral nature of videos could be helpful.

8. User Generated Video:

   Many organizations have employees in the field spread far and wide. Now they are equipped (in most cases they can use their phones) to record events, processes, problems – just about anything they wish to share. Not only is this a great information collection exercise but can also be used as to evaluate employee learning and competence. Not to mention, it’s a great way to get feedback and suggestions from colleagues and peers.

Get ready for more video in eLearning in the next few years.

The post The Return Of Video To eLearning first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Yesterday, I read something along the lines of “the size of meaningful computational power approaches zero…” the article points to various trends on the hardware side of computing. They had an interesting graphic, which I have taken the liberty of reproducing here. This further led me to a great article on ReadWriteWeb – In the words of the Intel Futurist Rob Johnson – in 2020, however, “something remarkable happens,” Johnson writes. “As we pass 2020, the size of meaningful computational power approaches zero.” In other words, with a microprocessor that small, you can put a computer in just about anything. “When you get intelligence that small, you can turn anything into a computer,” Johnson writes. “You could turn a table into a computer. All of a sudden, it’s possible to turn your shirt, your chair, even your own body into a computer.”

My instant reaction when I saw the graphic was – we are now currently entering the mobile learning phase, will an ‘ubiquitous’ learning phase be next. It is hard to imagine the implications of being able to embed a tiny fully functional networked computer into pretty much anything we desire. Couple semantic agents that can make sense of ‘big data’ streams with fully functional computers that can sense their environment (sensors like mobile phones), communicate with other agents/computers, and take action on that basis – the possibilities are endless.

What would ubiquitous learning look like? Well, there isn’t an easy answer to that. It is hard to foresee what will come about personal computing technologies in the next decade. In my eyes, from a learning perspective, there are a few key themes:

1. Discovery and delivery – the ability to use agents that comprehend context, are able to make ‘coherent’ sense of varied data streams to search for information, discover, and provide content – just in time, in the correct context and in the appropriate format.
2. Machine to Machine communication – While there is no doubt that this will happen, and that the ‘internet of things’ isn’t very far away in the future. One thing I found fascinating is the idea that you could create a ‘learning profile’, an identity that is essentially a digital package of your learning preferences and the contents of your past learning, that can be accessed by machines. This would let the ‘machine’ actually tailor its user interfaces, learning content and the experience itself, and present information in a way that suits the preferences of the human.
3. Embedded learning – networked learning that is built into every device, every tool, every physical resource humans use; there is no need for specific training; the latest information is available just in time, from authentic sources, judged valuable by network analysis, provided with the right context and assists humans to complete tasks

How this will impact learning is a big question? Are we moving to a world where only learning of the higher orders will be necessary? Will we reach a point where humans learn simply because they have to? Xira makes a cutting comment on the ReadWriteWeb article ‘Education is meaningless (but worthwhile?) when a computer can do anything you can do for nothing.’ Will this scenario really materialize?

From a formal learning approach where knowledge and skills are acquired through blended learning, to a technology enabled extended learning approach where the time required to achieve competence is reduced as compared to formal learning, we are now slowly moving to an ‘embedded ubiquitous’ approach where learning is embedded with the work, and is provided just at the time of task execution, just enough to accomplish the task at hand. Mobile devices and technology are the first wave in technology that supports this type of learning; it only gets better from here.

The post Embedded Ubiquitous Learning 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.

The post How e-Learning Is Flowering? first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

As one of the comments there suggested training is seen as a cost-center in most organizations it is only natural to look for something cheapest.

I don’t intend to mean that you can’t find effective eLearning solutions that are cheaper than others, but yes if the focus is to find the cheapest solution, chances  are you overlook some other  (and I must say) more important parameters. It is certainly possible to work with limited budgets and still create good eLearning. You just need to know which areas to spend the scanty budgets you have. Not necessary to show a 3D simulation for negotiation skills. The solution needs to engage the mind, encourage reflection, and induce behavior change. Rather than dazzle the learner with slick animations and out of the world FX.

It would good to look at it from a different angle. Do you know the cost of bad eLearning? I think bad eLearning is much costlier than good eLearning. Let’s look at some examples:

Cost of bad health and safety training for the workforce?

Cost of bad clinical analysis training for doctors?

Cost of bad sales training?

If you buy eLearning on ‘the cheaper the better’ basis, you would do well to consider what would be the impact on your organization if that eLearning fails or does not result in desired learner behavior or performance. You will be surprised!

The post The Real Cost of Bad eLearning first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Key highlights (as shared in the executive summary are):

–  North America will continue to be the biggest market

–  By 2014 Asia (which includes Australia and New Zealand in this report) would overtake Western Europe to become the second largest market after North America. The compound annual growth rate in Asia is a very healthy 33.5%

–  East Europe is second fastest in growth terms at 23.0%. Vibrant outsourcing hubs have come up in countries such as Belarus and the Ukraine.

–  There is resistance in regional markets to content that has been translated but not localized. This is creating demand for local content in each region.

–  There’s virtually no self-paced eLearning being used in primary and secondary education in Japan, proving that it is a ‘myth’ to assume technologically advanced regions are more likely to adopt self-paced eLearning. In contrast 100% of primary and secondary schools in Korea and Singapore offer some type of online education.

–  Adoption of self-paced eLearning is now wide spread across buying segments. North America where corporate are still the top buyers, will see academic buyers emerge as top buyers in next five years

–  New tool and learning platform suppliers are entering the market at a steady rate in each region even in more mature markets like North America.

The post Global Self-Paced eLearning Market Forecasts first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

So, how to select a vendor for elearning outsourcing?
I my view, to make an informed decision when selecting a vendor, one should evaluate a potential vendor on four counts – capability, credibility, costs & continuance. Below are my thoughts on each of these.

CAPABILITY
An eLearning development vendor should have eLearning as its core (if not the primary) business. To evaluate capability you should:

1. Review their website not just from the design but also from the content point of view. Also, check their blog (don’t disqualify if they don’t have one). This will give you some idea on their views and knowledge on eLearning.
2. Check work samples to evaluate the quality of their output. Samples can provide insights into their expertise in learning design & development. To get a good idea of a vendor’s overall skills, check as many samples as possible – minimum being 10. It is even better to ask for samples from your domain (Pharma, Construction etc.) and of the level / type (scenario based, video based etc.) of solution you are planning.
3. Ask for profiles of development team members who may work on your project. You would be better off to have employees (as against vendor’s contractors) working on your projects. For a small business you may even want to check profiles of the owners / promoters of the business.
4. Understand their development processes and see how well would they work with your setup. An eLearning development process should be mature & flexible enough to accommodate the iterative nature of eLearning content development. Beware: Process written in process documents could be very different from that put in practice. Ask the vendor to substantiate the process with documents from some past projects.
5. Ask how many projects have they delivered and how varied have these projects been. A team that has delivered large number of projects usually has richer experience to contribute to your project and can even handle unexpected situations. Additionally, large number of projects helps in smoothening of development processes by incorporating learning from past experiences.
6. Understand their working style. Know how they communicate and collaborate with clients on live projects, their office timing, team availability during emergencies, usage of web-based system to help keep track of various projects etc.  (A web-based project tracking system is extremely helpful if you are planning to have multiple projects running simultaneously and / or will have multiple people at your end coordinating with the vendor teams.)
7. Ask about their LMS & standards competencies. An in-house team of experts on this helps a great deal when integrating courses into new systems. You may like to check the different LMS systems have they integrated courses with and how they test and certify compliance.
8. Finally, enquire about what all they would NOT DO. For things they don’t do themselves, do they have any partners in place. If yes, what is their capability and credibility?

CREDIBILITY

To evaluate credibility you may want to:

1. Check how long have they been in business. In today’s economic scenario, especially the last 12-18 months, anyone who has survived 4-5 years should be reasonably stable. You may still want to do a financial review to be absolutely sure that the company is profitable and hence stable.
2. Speak with some of their long-term customers. This should tell you a lot about how well the vendor manages its customers in the long run and if they have been able to deliver value over that period of time.
3. Enquire if the vendor is willing to do a small, free/discounted ‘proof of concept’ project for you. It does require some efforts from your end, but, more importantly, it helps in eliminating the wrong vendors who might be looking alright otherwise.
4. See if the vendor has won any awards or any other recognition. Not all awards are the same, but winning some recognition always adds to the credibility.

COSTS

It is obvious you seek cost advantages when considering outsourcing. However, ‘cheaper the better’ is not always the best philosophy. Ultimately, your solutions need to deliver on their promise. What you need to be looking for is the cost to quality ratio. While evaluating past samples ask for actual costs of those samples too. Most often you would be told of costs in units of ‘dollar per learning hour’. You would need to bring down the parameters to be able to compare apples with apples. Even better way would be to provide scope of work and point to a reference output and ask the competing vendors to quote on that basis.

CONTINUANCE
While you select one or two vendors based on above criteria, you may want to ensure longer term association with a good vendor. There is cost and risk involved in switching a vendor and it is best if avoided. Hence, as a final safeguard you may want to:

1. Check if the vendor can grow (in volume of work) if you wish to increase business with them.
2. Ask how they keep up with latest trends in their domain. Ideally you should be looking out for some signs of continuous improvement or innovation setup within the company. After all, they need to help you with cutting-edge solutions in future too.

Hope these points help you select the best vendor for you needs. If you would like to add some more tips on this topic, we would love to hear from you.

The post eLearning Outsourcing – How To Select A Vendor? first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.