Tandem Learning's A-Musing

Adult Learning Theory in Games and Simulations

2010-12-09T14:30:00.002-05:00

This week I have a guest blog post on the LEEF (Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum) blog. Visit the blog to read about how adult learning theories align with games and simulations as learning design strategies. Then, check out the rest of the blog and see what LEEF 2011 has to offer!

In the Clouds

2010-12-07T16:14:00.006-05:00

Many of us at Tandem work remotely. This benefit poses some unique obstacles when it comes to the technology we use. We have had to find tools to help us to work smarter, while not disrupting our work flow.

Everyone has seen those Microsoft commercials airing recently where people "Go to the cloud." Well, we've gone to the cloud for most of our technology solutions. SaaS (Software as a Service) options make the most sense for us. For example, we don't have an IT department to help us maintain something like a physical server.

Before I came on board the company tried to maintain a Sharepoint system. It ended up being too complicated and just too much for what we needed. We then tried Basecamp. Though Basecamp is the cool kid of file sharing and works for some teams, we weren't taking advantage of its collaboration features and instead were trying to use it like a file server, which it is not.

We're now using a cloud file system called Egnyte (Velma to Basecamp's Daphne). It has a few features that really work for us. You can mount it like a drive on your computer, which helps with adaption for people who don't want to use the web version. It has file versioning, file locking (making a document read-only), FTP-like file sharing features, the ability to upload large files through an FTP, and has a feature that easily allows you to back up your computer. It has also allowed us to get rid of a separate cloud server where we housed really large media files that we weren't able to store on previous file servers.

Egnyte, however, is not a collaboration tool. We didn't use the whiteboards available on Basecamp, and though we are on Yammer, we don't really use that as a collaboration tool either. It turns out that we like to meet face-to-face to collaborate. Since some of us are on the West Coast, we've been able to accomplish that through our use of Skype.

Skype recently released a Group Video Calling beta that we've been using on our conference calls. Since we're rarely physically together, seeing each other through Skype has helped bridge the gaps. We finally have visual cues as to when it is ok to speak without stepping on someone else's comment, and we're held accountable for any eye rolling or fantasy football stats we're checking while on a conference call. (I can see you typing!)

We also use SaaS solutions for our Outlook/Entourage email through Mailstreet, and we are trying out a time tracking solution online through Toggl, which offers both desktop and smartphone widgets.

It turns out that keeping our head in the clouds was a pretty smart decision.

Achieving Flow in Learning

2010-12-06T14:39:00.005-05:00

I have to admit… I’ve been harboring a professional crush for Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi since grad school, and only partly because he is a fellow rock climber and he has a name that’s fun to pronounce. The other (more significant) reason is because I am interested in his flow theory work. In short, flow is the state of mind/being in which one is completely immersed in the task at hand. Think about when you’re thiiis close to finishing that really hard song you’ve been working on for a week in Guitar Hero, or [insert a relevant task that is of interest to you]. That complete focus, concentration, and sense of exhilaration is flow. (For more information, check out Csikszentmihalyi’s talk on TED and this article from Fast Company)

Now, imagine what our learning initiatives could achieve if learners are in a state of flow! Flow is not something you can provide to another or instill in someone else, but rather something that must be achieved through one’s own participation in an activity. As designers of learning experiences, let us ask ourselves this: is there anything we can do to help support learners in achieving that state? How can we design learning experiences to optimize flow in the target audience? Here are some ideas:

Motivate Your Audience: Before becoming engrossed in an experience, learners need a reason to enter the experience in the first place. The first step in helping learners achieve flow is through motivation, and we can look to our old friend the ARCS Model from Keller (which is nicely outlined here)

Set the Tone to Minimize Distractions: Provide an environment where distractions are minimized as much as possible. For example, state ground rules during a workshop that requires electronic devices to remain off for the duration of the session. If you’re designing an online experience, set expectations for time requirements so that learners can plan accordingly and dedicate the time necessary to complete the exercise.

Reduce Cognitive Overhead: Just like a buzzing cell phone can interrupt a state of flow, so too can complicated workshop logistics and inelegant e-learning interfaces. Simplify your designs to ensure that learners are fully able to focus on the learning activity rather than logistics or navigation.

Tell a Story: Try storytelling, using deep character development and compelling plot lines to draw your learners in. It doesn’t need to be complicated or tech-laden, just interesting to your target audience.

Given the choice between disengaged learners who are required to click a next button every once in a while to learners who are engrossed in a learning experience, I’d take the latter every time. Let’s help our learners achieve that state of flow!

Immersion without a 3D Environment? Yes we can!

2010-12-06T11:49:00.002-05:00

In a previous post, I talked about design as the essence of what makes a learning experience “immersive”, not just the technology that is used as the environment where the activities take place. In this post, I’d like to take that idea a step further and discuss the possibility of encouraging that sense of immersion in our target audiences without the use of virtual world technologies. Is it possible? I think so!

The advantage of using a virtual world to create a sense of immersion is the rich visuals and aesthetics that are established in the world. It can look almost identical to the environment in which the actual practice skill takes place, therefore supporting transfer to the real world. The other great advantage is that sense of presence that is established, not only through a 360(o) view of the environment, but also through the connection that one makes with his/her avatar. That connection goes a long way to drawing you into the experience and having a vested interest in what your character is doing there.

We can all agree that the connection with a learning experience and the sense of immersion are incredibly valuable elements of an effective learning experience. However, it’s not the most critical element. What IS critical is the design of the experience, and presenting interactions that elicit the problem solving and decision-making skills that we’re trying to help our learners hone. (I just ran across a great paper that discusses the importance of cognitive realism in contrast to physical realism, which emphasizes the authenticity of the problem in the environment over the environment itself –a must read!).

When the budget/timeline/stakeholder support/all of the above are not conducive to a 3D environment, there are other strategies that can be considered instead. Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), interactive videos, even live role play can be immersive if the design is rich enough. Each of these strategies uses different means of communicating storyline, events, and characters. To get that richness of design that will aid in immersing the learner in the experience, be sure to:

Develop your characters – give them characteristics that make them feel human and that help establish empathy in your audience; give your characters some personality!

Tell a good story –not just the facts, ma’am; add some elements to your storyline that aren’t necessarily critical, but that make the experience feel real

Pose an authentic problem – make sure the problem presented is one that is relevant to your learners, and help them draw the lines from the learning experience to their real world tasks

Create a sense of urgency – ever watched a movie or read a book where the plotlines were so lame that you didn’t even CARE what happened next? That’s not what we want our learners to feel, so try creating a sense of urgency by making sure learners know what the stakes are in the story, require learner input at cliffhanger-type moments… even allow them to fail

These strategies have worked well to create a sense of immersion in some recent learning experiences I’ve designed. If you have other suggestions for creating a sense of immersion in non-3D learning environments, please share! I’d love to learn from you.

A Learning Experience that's "Addicting"

2010-10-07T11:47:00.007-04:00

What do Zombies have to do with social media and learning? Nothing. Until the eLearning Guild DevLearn 2009 conference.

In 2009, we at Tandem Learning started playing with our food.

That is, we um, engaged the curious minds and creativity of our fellow learning industry enthusiasts through an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that was run during the conference and in the weeks leading up to the live event. Together with our industry peers, we fought off invading zombies, and provided practice in using social media for collaboration in the process.

What is an Alternate Reality Game? It is a game that originated in the entertainment industry as a marketing/PR strategy. Television series, video games, and movies have capitalized on the excitement and buzz generated by ARGs to increase program viewership or herald the coming of a new video game release. Game play involves a series of activities that are elicited through an engaging and evolving storyline. Interactions with the storyline and game characters may incorporate tools like email, voicemail, web sites, and social media. The game experience typically spans several days, weeks or months, depending on the overall goal and scope of content.

Why is this relevant as a learning strategy? That excitement, buzz, energy and momentum that are generated from the game are EXACTLY the kinds of reactions we want to achieve in our learners! That alone can make this an interesting strategy to achieve learning goals, but the opportunity to create a storyline and incorporate many different types of content, interactions, and activities also makes it a flexible, scalable option as well.

Since DevLearn 2009, we have gone on to design, develop, and run several more successful ARGs for our clients. Through those implementations, we have not only found that it is an effective learning experience, but it was also an exciting, energizing way to learn. Some comments we’ve heard from learners so far:

“It felt real! The game was very realistic and I definitely picked up some new ideas that I’ll use in the field”
“It’s completely addicting! I want more!”

Want to find out firsthand what this "addictive" learning experience is all about? We have more tricks up our sleeves for this year’s DevLearn conference. Follow the game hashtag on Twitter (#DL10ARG) as well as Dr. Strangelearn, and join the experience!

Immersive Environment /= Immersive Learning Experience

2010-09-17T11:43:00.002-04:00

Often, the concept of immersive learning is described almost synonymously with the environment in which the learning takes place. That is, the setting establishes immersive learning through technologies like 3D virtual worlds or augmented reality.

There are components of a virtual world, for example, that support immersion in the world (like identifying with your avatar). However, the immersive learning environment itself does not guarantee an immersive learning experience for your target audience. There is more to immersive learning than simply graphical treatments. A virtual world does not inherently achieve a sense for the learner of being drawn into the setting where he/she feels completely present and absorbed by it. A learner is not going to feel immersed in the environment without knowing what to do and where to go in a space, without understanding the purpose of being there, and without becoming adept at navigating throughout the environment. The result when obstacles like these are not addressed is cognitive overhead that interferes with the sense of immersion, and learners are never able to really feel present in the setting to sufficiently practice new skills in an authentic context.

For a learning experience to be truly immersive, we as designers need to create not only the environment but more importantly, we need to establish a holistic experience that helps our learners achieve a state of flow. We need to help learners see the value in the goal of the exercise. We need to eliminate extraneous bells and whistles that do not support either the learning goals or the sense of immersion. We need to design interfaces that are transparent to users. We need to structure activities that support the learning goals. If we have not designed with that (and more) in mind, we are not fully utilizing the capabilities of the virtual environment, and we are certainly not establishing an immersive learning environment.

Immersive learning environments have much less to do with technology than they do design. In my next posts, I’d like to explore the concept of an immersive learning environment that does not rely on technology at all, and what elements of design support immersive learning. In the meantime, share your thoughts on this topic!

Do-Over! Turning Back the Clock on your Old Designs

2010-09-09T13:32:00.003-04:00

I have an almost uncanny tendency to completely forget about work I have done in the past. It is probably because of the pace at which I move from one initiative to another, and the fact that I am constantly thinking ahead about what needs to get done next (and hopefully it’s not early onset dementia).

When I’m trying to solve a problem, or have a sense of déjà vu and the strong feeling that I might have tackled a similar issue before, I poke around in old design work as one avenue for inspiration. Sometimes I get lucky and something useful turns up during that trip down memory lane, either ideas that were proposed but never implemented, or structures, concepts, or templates that can be reused for my current work.

The experience is kind of like when I look through old photos: one thing leads to another and suddenly I’m sitting there with snapshots covering every inch of the floor and I have a big grin on my face thinking about the good times they represent. Except when I’m reviewing old designs, I’m intensely critical about the decisions I made. I inevitably pick them apart and judge every aspect, completely forgetting about budgets, timeline constraints, or client demands and focusing solely on the design decisions as if they were made in a vacuum. Instead of a grin on my face, I’m wincing as if I just came across the 8th grade photo with the bad perm and braces. I think to myself: “Ugh, why did I do it that way?” or “That’s the strategy I used?” I quickly come to the conclusion that if I were to do it all over again, I would do it differently and it would be soooo much better.

This process might not sound like much fun, but looking back on my old designs is not just nostalgic and/or cringe-inducing, it’s actually useful! A fresh look at my own designs after time has passed and without the lenses of project constraints helps to refine ideas to a level that wasn’t possible when there were budgetary or timeline limitations. Those are the ideas that are recycled, revamped, and improved upon as inspiration for my next endeavor.

Today, I came across the design for a game that I did a year ago. When I reviewed the documentation, I thought to myself “Hey, this is actually good!” For me, this was a rare reaction. Maybe I ate my Wheaties the day I wrote that, or the kids slept through the night and I was feeling particularly well-rested, but I like to think this self-analysis exercise is actually working and helping produce better designs each time I do it.

Next time you have a window of time or need inspiration, try it! Look back on work you have done in the past and reflect on your own designs. I guarantee you'll learn something from it. And please: if you come across my 8th grade photo, let’s keep it off of Facebook, ok?

ThinkBalm Innovation Community Becomes Tandem Learning Innovation Community

2010-06-25T13:56:00.000-04:00

After we broke the news that we planned to disband the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, members of the community expressed lots of interest in finding new leadership for the community moving forward. We are excited to announce that effective immediately, Tandem Learning will assume the community management responsibilities of the newly named Tandem Learning Innovation Community.

The value of this community is in the membership and the collective wisdom and experience of the group, and Tandem’s focus on new technology, user experience, learning design, and strategic business innovation allows them to touch on the areas of interest that bind our community together. We believe the leadership at Tandem is committed to maintaining the integrity of the community while finding new and exciting ways to add value to everyone who participates.

Exciting times are ahead for all of us and we’re looking forward to what happens next!

Erica Driver, co-founder and principal, ThinkBalm
Sam Driver, co-founder and principal, ThinkBalm

We’re so pleased to have the opportunity to continue the amazing work that Erica and Sam began in 2008 as we assume responsibility for the newly deemed Tandem Learning Innovation Community. While we know many of you from our work in virtual worlds and immersive technologies, we’re looking forward to interacting with all of you in the weeks ahead as we plan for the future of the community. In our new role as the community managers, we will honor the tenants of the community as established under ThinkBalm and will seek even more ways to bring value to our members. Please feel free to contact me directly with your thoughts, ideas, and feedback...this community belongs to all of us and it’s your input that will continue to make it valuable and successful.

Koreen Olbrish, CEO, Tandem Learning
Koreen.olbrish@tandem-learning.com

Interview with the Newest Hire at Tandem Learning: Tim Martin

2010-06-15T16:32:00.006-04:00

Who is Tim Martin?

As part of introducing the newest Tandem Learning team member, Tim Martin, we conducted a brief interview to get inside his head and help answer the question: Who is Tim Martin?

Jedd Gold: Tim, we couldn’t be more excited to have you as part of the Tandem team. Welcome!

Tim Martin: Thanks, glad to be here.

JG: You obviously have a long and respected career in the eLearning industry and have accomplished a lot. But before we get into that, let’s get to know the REAL Tim Martin.

TM: Sounds good – where do you want to start.

JG: I hear your art is housed at the MOMA – true or false?

TM: Well, one of my hobbies is printmaking, making etchings and artist books. I do have artwork that is held in many private and public collections, including the Franklyn Furnace Artist Book Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

JG: Amazing. You’ll have to show us some of your work sometime. So you said “one” of your hobbies… what else do you do in your spare time? (not that you should expect to have much from here on out…)

TM: Those who know me well know my passion for ethnographic filmmaking. I am a working anthropologist, and I study the African Diaspora and migration of traditional belief systems resulting from slavery. I have been documenting Haitian Voodoo with Marilyn Houlberg since 1984. I am also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer having served in São Tomé and Príncipe where I worked to diversify the economy of a slave plantation that became “independent” in 1975.

JG: Yeah, me too…OK, let’s talk a little about your career in the learning space. Can you give me the highlights?

TM: I started as a Director at The John Marshall Law School producing training programs and synchronous satellite course for continuing legal education and judicial training. In 1995, I joined IBM Education and Training, Catapult Software Training as a business and P&L manager where I managed a staff of 150 technicians, instructional designers and software instructors providing tens of thousands of instructor lead training and performance based computer based training courses. I was named to the Presidents Club in 1997 as the top P&L manager for efficient managing of the $9m business unit supporting the strategic training needs of some of IBM’s largest clients such as McDonalds, Sears, Allstate and Boeing. From there I joined Allen Interactions as an e-learning consultant and worked with Dr. Michael Allen bringing better design and cognitive engagement to e-learning courses that made real business improvements for clients such as Intel, American Family Insurance, United Airlines and Ameritech. Then, in 2004, I joined the eLearning Guild as Director of Business Development. My focus was on bringing e-learning suppliers and software into the media company and, as a key member of the management team, I contributed to the growth of the membership, revenue, and profitability while helping the e-learning market as a whole to grow and succeed.

JG: Tim, after all this failure, I’m rethinking our decision to hire you…so you have held all these different roles at several prestigious companies in your career and have been really successful. What made you choose Tandem as your next endeavor?

TM: First of all, I started in the industry in a role where I was coming up with innovative ways of providing distributed learning to professionals. That was a pretty exciting way to start in this industry. Today, Tandem is engaged in so many of the newest and most exciting training methodologies. I just wanted to get back to my roots and help make a significant contribution to shaping the way organizations learn through Social Learning Technologies, Serious Games and Virtual Worlds. Second, I think Tandem is a really exciting company that, despite all of its success to date, is still in its early growth stages. The opportunity to come and be a part of that is a huge draw for me and I'm excited to be here.

JG: Well, let me say on behalf of all of us at Tandem, and our current and future clients, that we’re very glad you’re here.

ID/LXD, meet UXD Part 3: Prototyping

2010-06-10T10:54:00.003-04:00

Usually, when I’m designing a learning experience that has no precedent, something that’s completely different from anything I’ve seen or designed before, I have a grand vision in my head of what the experience will be like for the learner. The problem with my grand visions is similar to the common phenomenon in dreams where you can’t see people’s faces. No matter how hard I squint my mind’s eye, I can’t see the details of every user interaction; I mostly have a high level picture, and more importantly, a sense or feeling of how the experience will play out.

While it’s important to have the sense or feeling that you want your learners to experience, the details do become critical at some point (like when a question from the developer prompts you to think for the first time “Hmmm, what DO I want that button to be called?).
Storyboarding is the standard for defining the user experience during the design process for a more traditional, linear learning format, and when you already have an interface template to work within. But when you’re creating something that is non-linear or that allows learners to take the reins and decide what they will do in the experience (like games), previous and next buttons are no longer helpful. You’ll need different tools to define the experience and communicate to the developers how it should all work.

As a User Experience Designer, prototyping was a standard step in the process. One of the purposes of the prototype was for usability testing exercises. However, it was also an incredibly helpful design tool because it forced me to define those details that were not clear in my vision and to work out the nuances of the interactions so I could create the feel and user experience I was going for.
Prototyping does not have to be time intensive or expensive. In some cases, prototyping may require an actual working portion of the site, module, or application. But as a design tool, simple hand drawn sketches or slides created using the drawing tools in Powerpoint will help tremendously.

Below, you can see a paper prototype I did, complete with cutout popup menus, for a recent game design (“The Change Game” – stay tuned for more on that). Pretty rudimentary, isn’t it? I’m no artist, but this was never intended to be shared with anyone (except the developers who thoughtfully waited to laugh at my art skillz until we were off the phone); it was really just an exercise to help me through the design process. I borrowed some colored pencils from the kids’ art supplies, sat on the floor and started drawing.

So, for your next project that requires a little outside the storyboard-box thinking… try it! Even if you just draw it on paper and no one ever sees it. Your end product will be better for it!

(And if you’re feeling brave, share your sketches here and let me know how it turns out!)

ID/LXD, meet UXD Part 2: Card Sorting

2010-04-16T13:20:00.001-04:00

One of the most valuable exercises I employed when serving as Information Architect at a previous job is called card sorting. In this activity, a complete inventory of content is tallied for the end product or system. Each content item is written on an index card, and end users are asked how they would sort the cards into categories. (In my experience the exercise was always conducted using paper and pen, with end users physically moving and sorting the cards, although I suppose if geography were an issue an online system could be used as well.) Users were also asked to create new cards to include content that they felt to be important that was not already represented by the existing set of cards.

Each user would inevitably categorize content in slightly different ways, but patterns did start to emerge. Some of the time, our assumptions about appropriate categorization and linkages were confirmed. However, there were always views on how end users related content elements to one another that were quite unexpected. These finding were the most exciting and insightful of the exercise.

The resulting categorizations were then analyzed to identify common patterns and variance. Both the common patterns and surprising outcomes gave us insight into how the users viewed the content, and informed design decisions that ultimately made for an experience that was intuitive to those using it.

What can we, as Instructional Designers/Learning Experience Designers, take away from this? It may offer a way of approaching some design challenges from a different perspective.

A card sorting exercise can be a great way of taking inventory of existing training materials and drawing connections and parallels among them. We often work with clients who have a vast vault of old materials that could potentially be reused or plugged into new curriculum designs. Clear categorization and relationship mapping among the materials can help define prerequisites and different learning paths. We can also better identify ways to repurpose existing materials and identify gaps when defining new curriculum.

Another thought that comes to mind is an activity common to our standard practices: task analysis. Interviews and observation can be effective in determining how experts do what they do. Now, think about conducting a task analysis from a different perspective. What if experts were approached with a card sorting exercise to help us gain insight into their thought processes and reliance on knowledge for each step within a task? You might be surprised to see how the relationships are articulated through sorting cards.

My colleagues don’t know this yet, but I’m planning to spring a card sorting exercise on them some time next week. Well, guess the cat is out of the bag now. In the meantime, I welcome your input and experiences in using card sorting for learning design!

ID/LXD, meet UXD: Part 1

2010-03-01T12:20:00.003-05:00

Instructional design is a practice that has ties to many fields, including one critical and often overlooked parallel to designing learning experiences: User Experience Design (UXD). UXD is a field that focuses on the human touch points to a system, most often a computer-based system.

I spent several years of my career as an Information Architect (IA) / (UXD). Although I was (for the most part) not designing user experiences specifically for learning solutions, the principles and practices of the field are incredibly intertwined with ID/Learning Experience Design.

As we consider new and ever-changing tools and media in which to encourage learning (eg, social media tools, virtual worlds, games, mobile learning), we can no longer rely solely on research in adult learning theory and behavioral psychology, We must also be keenly aware of the implications of human factors, user-centered design principles, interface design, and information architecture. With that understanding, we will not only be better prepared to design elegant interactions for learners, but we can also apply lessons learned from the field of UXD to view our overall learning design.

I’d like to share a few of the practices that I employed as a UXD to introduce a very relevant and useful parallel field from which to learn. Over the next flew blog posts, I’ll highlight a tool, practice, or concept that is integral to the design of user experiences. Think of these tools and techniques not only as they relate to interface and interaction design, but also how the concepts and thought processes can be interpreted and translated to benefit the process and outcomes of learning design. First at bat: the concept of transparency.

Transparency
Achieving transparency in interaction design is one of the central goals in the practice of UXD. When an interface is transparent, the mechanics of accessing information or completing tasks in the system does not require thinking about the interface. Users will get exactly what they expect when navigating a site or application, and information is perceived to be readily available.
If you have ever considered and cautioned yourself against “cognitive overhead” or “seductive augmentation” when designing a learning experience, you can see the relation here. The idea is to keep things simple: Design in a way that is purposeful and unobtrusive rather than adding unnecessary flash simply for the cool factor.

The benefit of this in interaction design is obvious: users do not need to spend excess energy deciphering where to look, what to click and how to get what they need. What can we learn from this in the learning space? In addition to transparent interface design in our deliverables, think about how the design of your learning activities provides relevance and practical application to the learner. Are your learners readily able to get what they need out of the experience?

Sometimes desired behaviors are explicitly stated, modeled, and practiced as part of a learning experience. Even then, we need to ensure that we are supporting learners in transferring the experience and adopting acquired behaviors in their daily life.

Metaphors, analogies, and cases are also examples of valuable and frequently used learning tools. These strategies may require a bit more in the way of translation to real life in order to make the value and application transparent to learners and solidify improvement in performance. This is increasingly important with the rise in popularity of games-based learning. We want to make sure that our learners walk away from the learning experience with not just “wow, that was a fun game” but “wow, that was a fun game… and I get it. I understand what I should be doing differently and how to do it.”

The next time you design a deliverable, ask yourself: Is this a transparent learning experience?

LXD > ID: Expanding our Profession’s Definition and Skillset

2010-02-08T09:14:00.004-05:00

About a week ago, a fellow learning pro (thx Julie Dirksen @usablelearning!) posted a link to One Mind, a great blog about Learning Experience Design (LXD) from Joanna Wiebe. I have always preferred that title over ID for many reasons, some of which are articulated by Joanna as she describes her role as LXD. A portion of my career was spent as a User Experience Designer (UXD) and Information Architecht (IA), which was the main inspiration for my preference for the title, and it made me think a little more about why.

Instructional Design as a descriptor of this profession has made me cringe since grad school when I learned the difference between behaviorism and constructivism. Even back then, the title sounded outdated as it seemed to harken back to the roots of the profession, when didactic delivery of instruction was the norm.

Constructivism has long intrigued me, even before I knew what it was. When my sister became a Montessori teacher and I became familiar with Maria Montessori’s teachings, I saw a departure from the traditional forms of instruction, where the teacher has the majority of responsibility to ensure learning takes place in the classroom.

As in Maria Montessori’s teachings, and the theory and methodologies of constructivism, the onus of learning shifts, placing more responsibility on the learner to achieve the goals. As learning design professionals, we need to shift our own focus from designing delivery of instruction toward design of an experience or environment that fosters, supports, and encourages the learning that will accomplish our goals. We need to allow our learners to take on more responsibility, which will inevitably lead to a sense of ownership and therefore added motivation to succeed in the stated goals. How can we do this? By designing more holistic learning experiences that incorporate strategies such as social learning, authentic practice, and opportunities for experimentation. We also have a lot to learn from other professions and disciplines, such as UXD.

This is not to say that behaviorism and more traditional methods of instruction don’t have their place – I do believe that they remain relevant and have their place in appropriate learning strategies. I also believe that now more than ever we have the ability to provide our learners with holistic learning opportunities by taking advantage of new technologies and design strategies.

Is this simply a matter of semantics? Perhaps. But the exercise of pausing to think about the meanings that the titles evoke reminded me of the broader scope of our design challenges and I hope it gave you pause and inspiration as well. In my next few posts, I plan to highlight other professions (including UXD) as well as learning theories and strategies (like social learning theory) that can inform our processes and outputs in learning design, ultimately helping us create more holistic learning experiences.

A learning game… er… taxonomy?

2009-09-25T13:25:00.003-04:00

I’ve been focusing a lot of time and energy over the past several months on games. Not games like Guitar Hero, Monopoly or even general shenanigans (although I enjoy all of those). Serious games, rather, and the myriad of ways in which they can be crafted to address learning needs. Most of my recent efforts have involved designing, writing, reviewing, and recommending games for various learning purposes. (Some of my favorite titles for recent game designs include Role Play Roulette, Heroes and Villains, Fortune Teller, and Screen Writer among many others)

In this post, I’d like to share some of the thoughts and strategies that have gone into my design decisions, and hope to generate a discussion where you can share your thoughts as well!

Games for learning can take on many forms with different mediums/delivery mechanisms, structures, and can be used to achieve varied desired outcomes.
• Learning games can be used as a strategy in and of itself for an individual learning event, or incorporated as a smattering of one or more smaller activities within an event.
• They can provide learners with opportunity for practice, and they can also be used as the culminating event of any learning experience, as a wrap-up or even an assessment.
• Learning games can be designed to be single or multi-player, to be played live in the real world (like ARGs and workshop games), with or without technology like mobile devices, GPS, or computers, and range from the simple (think omnipresent Jeopardy knock-off) to the very complex (like 3D war games that teach combat skills).

In a sense, determining a game strategy should not be all that different than the design of any other mechanism used to create a learning experience. It is another tool in the toolbox, albeit a valuable one, that should be considered as an option where it makes sense. As with any learning design strategy, it is essential to identify what it is that you want your learners to accomplish (all roads seem to lead back to those learning objectives, eh?).

Bloom’s taxonomy is a popular classification for different levels of skills and knowledge when crafting learning objectives. Desired behaviors and outcomes are organized into levels from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills. If we think of our learning objectives in this manner, then it should follow that game strategy should mirror a similar pattern. That is, there should be a strong link between what we want learners to be able to do upon completion of the learning activity and the design of the game. Think about what type of game experience is suited to the goal. Just a few examples:
• If it’s important for learners to quickly recall data points, create a speed-timed game that requires fast recall (ever play Brain Buddies on Facebook?).
• If evaluation of information is a critical skill, create a storyline and characters (perhaps a courtroom scene?) who present their case with descriptions, data, counter-arguments, etc. and the learner is tasked with determining which is most appropriate to the situation.
• If it’s important for learners to determine when and how to call on others for information, data, and or involvement, allow for a multiplayer structure or an experience with multiple characters.

P.S. Creativity is critical! OK, the whole taxonomy thing might be bit academic. That is not to say that learning games can’t be fun. In fact, that is a requirement if you want people to play it and you actually want to call it a game. What’s a game if it’s no fun to play? Don’t limit yourself to traditional simulation-type designs that incorporate a score. Think beyond what you have already seen in corporate training. Think about games you actually play for fun and how you can be inspired by the structures of those games. Spend some time playing Wii, Nintendo DS, and poking around on sites like Kongregate (just log it as “research” on your timesheets. It is valuable time spent, I swear to you).

These of course, are not the only considerations for determining game design strategy. Many other factors besides desired skill level come into play, like target audience preferences, technology requirements, re-playability options… I could go on. But I think I’ll spare you for now and save it for another post.

"So what is it that you do?"

2009-08-08T23:06:00.005-04:00

I find this one of the most difficult questions in life to answer, particularly with people who know me personally and for some odd reason want to know more about me professionally.

The funny thing is I'm totally incapable of explaining the what-is-it-that-I-do. From what colleagues have told me, this is not uncommon. Actually, I'm amused by my father's explanation that I do "something with computers, maybe programming." My father says this with the realization that I actually failed CSE 101, took it again to erase the F on my transcript, and succeeded in doing so with a very solid "D." That's what I call parental love...no doubt bolstered by a strong sense of poor ROI.

Not too long ago, a friend of over 20 years asked me "so what is it that you do?" since the company he works for is in need of client product training and he heard me yammering (excuse the social media pun) about learning initiatives and Twitter in the midst of a BBQ. I gave the practiced speech and bless his soul, he got it!

Not surprisingly, this question comes up a lot with regard to Tandem Learning since the general tack in American business is to lead understanding by defining roles and responsibilities. This is well before presenting capabilities, showing any demonstrations, or detailing Tandem's products, services, and general offerings.

So, what is it that we do?

I often find bullet points very comforting in times of self-identification:

We design and develop learning experiences across industries
We believe that karaoke isn't a crime (and neither was skateboarding, by the way)
We drive to become THE leading provider of innovative learning solutions
We leverage game design and theory in our approach, particularly with regard to virtual worlds and immersive learning environments
We manage a solution from kick-off to delivery without breaking a sweat or sweating a break
We rock you like a hurricane

That's more or less the 8 miles high version of it anyway. The worm's eye view of the day-to-day events is wonderfully exciting to me but most people might find it a little geeky and a lot boring.

Or they may just call it "something with computers, maybe programming."

Ammo for Serious Games

2009-05-18T21:59:00.003-04:00

As children, we are encouraged to play. Famed educator Maria Montessori had said of children that “play is their work”. In childhood, play is perceived as an essential learning and growth experience, but at what point does play become no longer a beneficial learning experience? Or does it continue to be an effective means of self improvement? As we “mature” and spend time in the grown-up world, playing becomes less important and something that is of little to no value from a professional growth perspective… or is it?

Recently, the Tandem team has been fortunate to engage with several clients who are not only open to the idea of serious games, but who believe in the potential of such games and are enthusiastic about implementing them to tackle organizational learning needs. However, for every one of those clients, there are many others (mostly in decision-making upper management roles) who cringe at the idea of a “game” and put the kibosh on the idea instantly for fear of employees obsessively playing Ms. Pac Man in favor of actual revenue-generating work.

One of the ways in which we can educate our clients on the value of serious games is by sharing research and published articles that support this learning strategy. In reality, play theory is a well-established concept that has been around for many years, not just in relation to childhood education, but related to adult education as well. There has also been recent research that shows the relevance of games for learning.

The following resources (mostly from Lloyd Rieber, a favorite from my grad school reading) provide validation for serious games used as learning tools, and can help educate our clients in support of the strategy in their organizations. I hope they help you in your efforts as well.

· Seriously Considering Play (Lloyd Rieber)
· The Value of Serious Play (Lloyd Rieber)
· Designing Learning Environments that Excite Serious Play (Lloyd Rieber)
· Serious Games Institute (a wealth of info; I’d suggest starting in the Research section)
· How are Games Educational? Learning Theories Embodied in Games (Katrin Becker) (love the parallels drawn to Gagne’s Nine Events)

If none of these resources are sufficiently convincing, try reiterating the words of one of our clients: “Having employees spending too much time on training efforts would be a great problem to have to address.”

What other tools and resources do YOU use to support the use of serious games to meet learning goals? I’d love to hear from you!

GDC thoughts: serious games… seriously?

2009-03-31T16:27:00.002-04:00

Just back from an inspiring and enlightening, albeit exhausting, trip to San Fran for the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), and I am reflecting on what I learned during the week. I saw some fantastic examples of games that combine beautiful art with addictive gaming strategy. The independent games were especially exciting, largely due to the fact that you get to hear right from the designers’ mouths the ways in which the games were created (Cletus Clay™ was my favorite. Check out how they went from clay to game!).

I spent most of my session time in the Serious Games Summit, hoping to learn from others who are creating games for learning purposes. While every session contained some valuable information, I was ultimately disappointed in the quality of instructional design and learning forethought of the serious games that were presented. What I saw were many examples where game design was carefully thought through, only to have learning goals and objectives considered as an afterthought: does the content fit within this game design? Can this game teach anyone anything? Learning seemed like a forced goal within the games. Like throwing spaghetti at the wall, it seemed to be left to chance that the games had any educational value.

It made me think of my days spent as an Information Architect and User Experience Designer, spotting programmer-designed interfaces from miles away. Serious games that have a game designer but no instructional design influence may be fun and beautiful, but are likely to fail from a targeted learning perspective. Until learning needs and objectives are considered and incorporated into the design of a game from the very beginning, it’s unlikely that the games will be effective and achieve consistent learning results.

Social media literacy

2008-12-27T10:08:00.000-05:00

Many moons ago, I did my Master's thesis on media literacy in education. It was a pretty unconventional topic at the time, but I was intrigued by the application of critical thinking skills to the analysis of popular media, specifically advertising and news. With the media affecting so much of kids lives, I felt like learning how to find truth in media was just as important to learn as analyzing a Shakespearean sonnet.

Funny, and sad to admit, but the Internet was just not a major media player at the time I did my thesis. I've thought over the last decade or so about how my research might have been different given the paradigm shift in how people get information and entertainment. And in the last couple years, with the emergence of social media, I've really adjusted my thinking even more.

Let's start with a definition of media literacy. There are lots of them, but I like this one from Rick Shepard:

Media literacy is an informed, critical understanding of the mass media. It involves examining the techniques, technologies and institutions involved in media production; being able to critically analyze media messages; and recognizing the role audiences play in making meaning from those messages.
Source: Rick Shepherd, "Why Teach Media Literacy," Teach Magazine, Quadrant Educational Media Services, Toronto, ON, Canada, Oct/Nov 1993.

Check out more definitions and opinions on the Media Awareness Network.

One of the most interesting things about media literacy for me was the "third level" of study: looking at who controlled and filtered the messages conveyed through the media and to what purpose. I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that people always have a purpose, and power corrupts absolutely. Thus the emergence of the "liberal media" and Fox News--news with an underlying purpose of pushing their "agenda."

So how does this relate to social media? And is there such a thing as social media literacy?

Social media, although diverse and much more egalitarian in its source, is still a form of media. No matter the source of content, the principles of media literacy still apply. Questions like: Who is the source? What is their agenda? What perspectives are you not hearing? --are all questions that should be applied to any form of communication in order to truly "get it." Social media may not always have the same goal of mass media in communicating a message to a large, diverse audience, but applying the same analysis principles is essential to understanding the purpose of the messages communicated. In fact, its essential that as new technologies and methods of communication are adopted that we look at how communication is changing, and why.

One of the challenges I had in studying media literacy was that, in the end, what media education hopes to teach is the critical analysis of media messages. What essentially are media messages? Communication. Communication is a much broader scope than just media, so then, is the critical analysis of communication simply "literacy"? The traditional understanding of literacy is simply being able to read. But in order to truly succeed in modern culture, you must be able to do more than just read. You need to be able to "read between the lines," to question, to challenge, to critique. Check out this article about the need for integrating social media literacy into mainstream education.

As social media expands and media changes and evolves, critical thinking skills are a constant.

So, yes, there is such a thing as social media literacy, just as there is media literacy, just as there is literacy. There is simply more of a need for awareness of the importance of critical analysis of all of the forms of communication you are exposed to every day.

The future of learning

2008-12-20T12:08:00.000-05:00

After reading this blog post on The Future of the Web, I realized that perhaps I should actually write down the things I've been saying over the course of this year about the future of learning. The end of the year is usually when people start making predictions, and since I'm constantly talking to people about my predictions for what learning will look like in 5, 10, 20 years, I'm ready to put my predictions out there for comments, praise, and ridicule...so here goes. For what they're worth, here are my thoughts on the future of learning...

Within 5 years:
-The majority of the population will have some experience engaging with online content as an avatar
-All Fortune 500 companies will have some implementation of virtual worlds, most likely as a tool for learning and collaboration
-Social networking tools will routinely be used as tools for developing learning communities
-Serious games, simulations, and immersive learning environments will be standard additions to corporate learning curriculum
-Print training modules will no longer be developed and "printed" but will be delivered through interactive and searchable online tools
-Conferences will all incorporate online components, with sessions held virtually and incorporating social media for community building and discussion

Within 10 years:
-The K12 educational system, higher education, and corporate learning will all incorporate virtual worlds as a daily tool integrated into how students and employees learn
-Curriculum will revolve more closely around user-generated content, development of learning communities, and social media
-Knowledge management for enterprise will be dynamic and fluid, facilitated and monitored by the organization but developed and maintained by the learning communities within organizations
-With the capacity to develop experiential learning, performance objectives will usurp learning objectives and ROI (or ROE) will routinely be measured for learning initiatives based on cost savings, revenue generation, decreased turnover, etc.

Within 20 years:
-There will be complete interoperability between the now often divergent learning systems--LMSs, knowledge management, assessment, social media/networks
-People will routinely be immersed in virtual worlds and virtual content online
-People will have an online "identity" which will include an avatar representation that is used to engage with content across the web
-Virtual reality environments will replace 3D immersive environments, allowing for even more experiential learning

I'm sure that I'll be surprised about which of these predictions happen a lot faster than I think, and which of them never materialize. I'm also sure that there will be some amazing breakthrough innovations that I can't imagine that will change the game completely

I'm also pretty sure that I'm going to be really excited to be a hologram someday.

Virtual Worlds News article on Tandem Learning

2008-12-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

A little write up on Tandem Learning today in Virtual Worlds News. If you were wondering, I like Second Life more than Jedd does.

The intersection of adult learning principles and virtual worlds

2008-10-15T11:21:00.000-04:00

I just posted the following brainstorm in ThinkBalm's Innovation Community. For those of you not a member of that community, I'd love to hear your feedback here!

_____________________________________________________________________________________

With the introduction of any new technology that can be used for learning, often what we know about how adults learn is thrown out the window because the new technology is "cool" and will "increase motivation." Eventually, though, adult learning theory wins.

Here are a list of proven adult learning principles for e-learning, and how they intersect (or don't) with virtual world technology:

Modality principle: audio narration, not on-screen text, should drive instruction
Virtual worlds are typically driven by visuals and supported by audio or instant messages (text chat). Although chat is text on-screen, it is dynamic in a way that mirrors audio, unlike the static text in e-learning modules or PowerPoint presentations. I would argue that virtual worlds adhere to the modality principle of adult learning.

Redundancy principle: on-screen text should key-point the narration, not provide a transcript
This principle again challenges us to consider the meaning of on-screen text. If we compare text chat to audio narration, then virtual worlds provide little other on-screen text, unless a presentation or text pieces are provided in-world. In these cases, to adhere to the redundancy principle, those print pieces should be focused on key points.

Seductive augmentation principle: don't use extraneous, distracting sound or visuals
This may be the biggest challenge of virtual worlds for learning. Part of the opportunity of virtual worlds are the openness of them. This openness can lead to a variety of distractions that can diminish the effectiveness of learning, making this a very difficult principle to execute in a virtual world.

Personalization principle: use a conversational style
If the seductive augmentation principle is the most difficult to manage in a virtual world, personalization is perhaps the easiest to incorporate. Interactions are by their nature personalized in a virtual world. Obstacles to personalization may include chatbots or artificial intelligence attempts that are awkward or demonstrate inaccuracies.

Practice principle: use interactive learning exercises to foster comprehension and anchor in long-term memory
Virtual worlds provide an opportunity for truly interactive learning exercises that allow users to practice what they learn. Just like a typical e-learning experience these exercises or opportunities for practice must be built into the learning. This is not automatically built into virtual worlds, but it is a principle that has much more creative, immersive possibilities in them.

Spacing principle: interactive learning exercises should be distributed throughout a lesson, and ideally spaced out over time
Similar to the practice principle, the spacing principle is more dependent on the design of the learning experience than on the technology. Virtual worlds allow for application of the spacing principle if the learning experience is designed to incorporate spaced activities.

Response contingent feedback principle: write interactive learning exercise answer feedback that is tailored to a learner's specific answer
Virtual worlds are developed around the concept of live interaction, thus response-contingent feedback would be an assumed part of any learning experience in a virtual world environment. Not only can feedback be response contingent, but it can also take the form of live coaching. This is a clear benefit of virtual worlds for learning over other e-learning methodologies.

Analogical learning principle: use analogies or comparisons to increase comprehension
Although analogies could certainly be designed into virtual world learning experiences, the true benefit of virtual worlds is the ability to allow users hands on experience and immersion in the environment or scenarios that they are learning about. One could argue that the entire virtual world is a mirror of the real world learning environment, and thus analogies are not as necessary...or that the entire virtual world is in some ways an analogy.

Mnemonic principle: use mnemonics to encode learning to long-term memory
The mnemonic principle is based on the assumption that there is some information that just needs to be committed to memory, and the use of mnemonics helps link those concepts to other existing concepts already in memory thus helping to more easily remember new concepts. As with several of the other principles listed here, virtual world learning experiences could certainly include mnemonics if incorporated in the learning experience.

From the above analysis, the biggest risk to the success of virtual world training design is seductive augmentation. Instructional designers working in virtual worlds should be thinking about the benefit/distraction ratio when developing virtual world learning experiences in order to minimize the negative effects of distractors.

In the end, it comes down to good instructional design: virtual world technology allows for new possibilities for practice and immersion, but adult learning theory must be applied in order for learning experiences to be effective.

Virtual worlds, all things considered

2008-09-10T07:23:00.000-04:00

Luckily for me, I have a lot of friends who send me research and stories about the use of virtual worlds, some in particular for learning, since my nose has been to the grindstone building one of my own.

Its only fair that I share the wealth and pass along some of the stories I've found most interesting lately (although they've been published over the last few months...it takes me awhile to get caught up).

There's already been a bit of research done on using virtual world technology for medical education, surgical training, etc., but this article talks about the use of virtual worlds for patient education. Given the opportunity to connect with other patients and maintain a certain level of anonymity, I would surmise that very soon, virtual worlds will be one of the most interesting ways that patients receive disease and therapeutic information, in addition to building strong support communities.

MSN recently featured this story about body consciousness and avatars. I spent a lot of time researching and thinking about avatars, especially as the development of our virtual world identities evolve and avatars are our primary means of engagement with others in-world. I still believe avatars are one of the keys to the success of virtual worlds; understanding the psychology of how we identify ourselves in digital medium will reveal important data on how to increase participation and maintain user engagement.

What if the future isn't really virtual, just augmented? Augmented reality has been much discussed recently; check out this game to see how merging the real and digital can make for some extremely innovative ways of interacting with others, and the world. I particularly like the idea of augmented reality in allowing for competition and game play. Maybe augmented reality experiences will be the catalyst to bring virtual worlds more mainstream?

Finally, love this talk by Jane McGonigal. If you don't have time to check it out, I want to draw particular attention to the four points that she identifies as keys to engagement:

1. satisfying work to do
2. the experience of being good at something
3. time spent with people we like
4. the chance to be part of something bigger

She makes note of how World of Warcraft addresses these points--interesting that no matter what world you're in, these are probably the things that matter most to keep you engaged.

Defining virtual worlds, simulations, serious games...

2008-07-12T18:45:00.000-04:00

So I'm back from London and the Visual Web convention. I feel like there are a ton of things to write and reflect about, and I'll try to catch up over the next few days. Things are moving so quickly now, I think its becoming more difficult to keep up.

One of my key takeaways from the conference was quite simply that no one has settled on how to define virtual worlds, serious games, simulations, and gaming as separate entities. Well, that's not completely true--it was pretty well accepted that we weren't talking too much about gaming for entertainment, but actually, that was a big part of the first day. It's really mushy--what's the definition of a virtual world? how is a simulation different? what's the difference between a serious game and e-learning, or for that matter, a serious game and a simulation?

Far be it from me to think I can clear up the muddle, but I'm going to try to do it anyway. For me, for the rest of the Tandemites, and for the industry in general, I feel like we need to get our definitions and stories straight. So here goes...

E-Learning

Definition:
Any learning experience delivered via technology can be considered e-learning. I would propose that e-learning is the umbrella under which any of the learning experiences listed above could fall. Traditionally, however, e-learning is thought of as online tutorials delivered to individuals and structured similarly to print tutorials with the added benefit of optionally including multimedia.

Usefulness for Learning:

E-learning is useful in its portableness, scheduling flexibility, and opportunities to include rich multimedia experiences. User data can be tracked and assessments can be scored and recorded automatically.

Virtual World

Definition:

An online virtual "space" where participants can engage in a variety of activities in an unguided and unmonitored manner. A participant's presence is signified by the presence of their avatar, which is the virtual representation of themselves in the environment. Interactions can be first, second, or third person perspective.

Usefulness for Learning:

Virtual Worlds are perhap best at providing an opportunity for real-time communication. Learning activities such as group events, one-on-one coaching, and guided real-time debriefs or small group chats are probably best-suited for the virtual world environment.

Simulation

Definition:

Simulation can be defined as an immersive learning experience, providing real feedback, both immediate and over time, to decisions that the user makes. The perspective of the user is typically first person, although there may be opportunities to be a "fly on the wall" as a mechanism of providing feedback.

Usefulness for Learning:

Simulation was designed to provide a risk-free environment for complex decision-making. Model-based simulation, like a flight simulator or a financial simulation, can demonstrate how minute decisions can have immediate and long-term consequences. For scenario-based or soft skill simulations, interpersonal interactions are "scored" to provide feedback in the style of employee or client satisfaction. For any type of simulation, answers are not typically "right" or "wrong" but instead must be considered in context of the decision-making environment. Behavior change has been shown to increase in learners participating in simulations because they better understand the complexity and consequences of decisions.

Serious Games

Definition:
A Serious Game is a game developed to address a serious topic and with the goal of teaching the player something. Like simulations, there is scoring and some measure of success. Unlike simulations, serious games need not provide realistic immediate or long-term consequences for decision-making. Serious games may best address their learning objectives by exagerrating outcomes to make a point, or by taking a serious topic such as combat missions, and improve strategic decision-making by removing players from some of the realism.

Usefulness for Learning:

In contrast to simulations that try to add realistic complexity to situational decision-making, serious games focus learners on a single or just a few skills to be improved. This can be particularly useful for improving specific skill sets in a way that motivates the learner to participate in the learning activity. Also, serious games do typically simulate the real world environment. In this way, serious games allow for the type of application of skills that is also seen in simulation training.

Games

Definition:

This may go without saying, but for the sake of comparison, games are an entertainment experience for players, without an explicit goal of learning.

Usefulness for Learning:
Since there is no stated learning objective for games, the usefulness of them for learning is more in the subversive goals that can be accomplished. Players can often "learn" more about important topics, or learn skills, while they think they are just "playing." As such, games can be a powerful learning tool if used correctly for those purposes.

Obviously, these definitions are simplified and could certainly be expanded on to be more comprehensive. But there needs to be a place to start. Without a shared understanding of the definitions of these different learning experiences, it is almost impossible to have a meaning dialogue about their pros and cons, and their most valuable uses. I for one am ready to start having these conversations. Let's hear your ideas around the definitions and then let's get started.