Monday, December 1, 2014

The main thing!

I had written earlier about how the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!

So, what is the main thing in an LMS implementation?

It certainly is NOT the technological act of installing the LMS on a server, creating the structure and adding learners. What is the point of having a system that tracks learning, if there is nothing to learn? Which brings us to the next item in the LMS implementation - courses.

At a basic level, courses will be either Instructor Led, which means that the LMS is used simply to track attendance and feedback. So, in this approach, the LMS turns out to be a very expensive attendance and feedback tracking system.

At the next level, we have content dumps - pdfs, videos, slide decks, audio and animations, which are simply uploaded for learners to view. Again, quite an expensive proposition to simply store and run content repositories.

The real impact of an LMS really comes to the fore, only when content is created specifically for self-paced learning, which is packaged for the LMS, so that at least the basic benefits of tracking progress and assessment scores can be achieved. This in turn allows learning administrators to analyse data and trends from real-time learning activities that an LMS is adept at tracking. Therein lies the true value of an LMS.

Therefore, in my view, in an LMS implementation, packaged self-paced learning content is the main thing in an LMS implementation. Without this, the LMS will remain a tool which is used to track attendance and maybe feedback, which in turn will lead to less usage of the LMS.

Which brings me to my next point... When budgeting for an LMS implementation, it is absolutely important to budget for development of content. This budgeting for content development can be either in-house or out-sourced (the quintessential make vs. buy conundrum), which will be dealt with in another post.

Therefore, I submit
Content is King, And that is the Main Thing!!

Friday, November 14, 2014

Oh to learn like a child!

Today is when India celebrates children's day, on the occassion on the birthday of its first Prime Minister, Nehru, who was so fond of children that he was called Chacha Nehru by everyone! (Chacha in Hindi means paternal uncle)

I only thought it apt to post this thought today. As teachers / trainers / coaches, can we make learning enjoyable? As enjoyable as it is for a child? Can we ensure that everyone learns like a child?

CHILD...

Continuous

A child is continuously learning. It learns to rollover on its tummy, then rollback, then turnover and rollback from both sides, then crawl, then stand, then walk, then run!

All of us would have heard the term continuous learning or lifelong learners, but how many of us are indeed lifelong learners? The most important aspect in continuous learning is the presence of milestones. And each milestone should be something that has tangible benefits associated with it. As trainers, we must ensure that our learners are aware of the milestones and what benefit will accrue on achievement of the milestone.

This is where terminal objectives and enabling objectives come in handy.

What is also noteworthy is that a terminal objective will be an enabling objective to some other complex task that the learner can move on to. Once the child learns to run, locomotion does not stop, there is the whole array of jumping, climbing, hopping, somersaulting etc.

Honest

A child is honest in its learning, in both effort and intent.

How many times as both learners and trainers have we experienced people who are at a training (either attending or conducting) for a reason other than to ensure learning.

Without honesty, even the best-designed training will not fulfill its ultimate requirement - that is to ensure learning.

So, when encountered with situations which go against this basic tenet (we just want to reward our employees by sending them on an offsite, and to make it look official, we want a training conducted during that time), what do you need to do? You need to follow your heart and list down the learning implications and ensure that the program being designed is honest and ensures learning.

Remember, every situation can be converted to a learning situation, but not every learning situation doesn't require training!

Intrinsic

A child learns because it wants to from within. It doesn't need any outside stimulation, although that always helps. It wants to crawl and walk because it knows that once it is able to move from one location to another it can get to whatever toy it wants without needing to depend on someone else.

How can we as trainers ensure that what is being taught is grabbed by the learners with an open and eager mind? We need to ensure that the benefit is clearly articulated in a manner that is appealing to the learners. And in order to do so, you need to have a very good understanding of the learners - not just their demographics, but their entire past (how did they get here, what all have they done), present (why are they here) and their future (what do they want to do / achieve).

Here is where audience analysis, complete with environmental conditions come in most handy and if done comprehensively, learners will come seeking learning, which obviously is a wonderful situation to be in.

Lived

Have you ever seen a child who learns something but does not use it? Precisely... Learning has to be lived! Remember the good old school days when subjects were taught just because they were prescribed as part of a syllabus?

Unless, you live what you learn, i.e. you are able to put into practice the knowledge or skill you have gained, it will be very ineffective. Which is where it becomes extremely important to ensure that what is being taught is related to real-life and that the learner is given an opportunity to practice what has been learned immediately.

In fact, what works best is if in real-life the learner can practice what has been learned. In order to achieve this, we need to ensure that we are not mere trainers, but we are completely aligned with the operations teams, where we are able to time the training such that real-life practice is available just after the training.

Delightful

And above all, the learning needs to be enjoyable. And to a large extent, if you have ensured that above four points, a large part of learner delight would have already been achieved.

Learners enjoy learning when they learn new and relevant things in a safe environment. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you are imparting new knowledge or skills, that these knowledge or skills are relevant and of interest to the learner. It is also important that these are imparted in an easy-to-understand manner. So, the language used, the examples given, the interactions used are all pegged at the level of the audience.

The most important point is to ensure that all of these are directed towards ensuring learning and not for any other purpose. What is the point of having a tough assessment, just to prove that the topic is complex? Wouldn't it be better to ensure that the complex topic is clearly understood by as many learners as possible?

Wish you CHILD-like learning!

Monday, November 3, 2014

Whose LMS is it anyway?

Continuing with my earlier post on LMS, I wanted to write about "the main thing", but Manish Mohan's post on What type of CLO are you, inspired me to write this post instead.

So, who does the LMS belong to? Here is a list that might sum up what you would have heard in several organizations.
  • L&DWell,duh! Aren’t we responsible for all learning-related matters? So, the LMS is ours!!!
  • HRNow, wait just a minute. We have this fantastic HRMS and LMS is part of it, so it’s ours!
  • ITYou think this system will run on thin air! We control where and how it runs; it’s ours, and if you don’t agree, we’ll remove all your access rights. :)
  • FinanceIn this day and age, when websites can be made free, we don’t understand why we paid a tonne of money for this system, and it seems we will continue paying more. So, it’s ours; we need to keep a close watch on this!
  • OperationsMeh! Who’s going to use this system? Us! Back off now!! It’s ours, and we will use it as we please.
  • CEOI think you are all forgetting, who agreed to this huge investment. It is my baby! I want to showcase it to the board as my idea and I will show what impact it has had on revenue, bottom line etc.
I guess in any organization, who the LMS belongs to, depends on various circumstances and situations specific to that organization. But what is most important is that in order for any LMS implementation to be successful, all involved departments must be in sync, and all three types of CLOs need to be satisfied!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Yell, Yum, Yes!!!

Yes, I am a South Indian, and yes, that is how many South Indians would pronounce LMS (Learning Management System), but that is not what this post is about.

Having interacted with a variety of stakeholders who want to get on the LMS bandwagon, I can broadly categorize them into the following three types.

The Yell type, the Yum type and the Yes type!!!

Yell
These are the ones who make a lot of noise. For them, the LMS is yet another means to publicize the work that they are getting done. Typical things you will hear from the Yell varieties:
  • I need to make sure that I can justify to the board / top management etc. the investment that has been made in the LMS.
  • How can we ensure that all people are enrolled in the system from day one?
  • What kind of reports can be published to show usage?
  • We need to populate this with as many courses as we know!
Yum
The yum varieties are those who are looking for the yumminess in the LMS. For them, this is another thing that must look good, feel good and be marketable. Typical things you will hear from the Yum varieties:
  • We need the best-in-class LMS. Cost is not a consideration.
  • Let's only upload high-end courses. All courses must have plenty of 3D animations, video, multimedia, the works!
  • The interface must be customized to suit our company colors etc.
  • We must have a learning companion / avtar throughout the course.
Yes
The yes varieties are the ones that we love. They are the ones concerned about the learners and learning! Typical things you will hear from the Yes varieties:
  • What type of tracking is available?
  • How easy is it for learners to search for courses?
  • What types of assessments are available?
  • Can learners retake the courses as many times as they want?
  • What types of media are supported?
So, while I am sure, as an e-learning professional, you would love to have as many of the Yes varieties as possible, remember that you will come across a mixture of the above. Also, since typically, you will be dealing with multiple people in the same organization, you will find predominant Yells, predominant Yums and predominant Yesses.

The challenge with the Yells and the Yums, is as Stephen Covey would say:
The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing
And in an LMS project, the main thing is to ensure managed learning!!!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Just did it!

Yes, you may have guessed it right! That is indeed an obtuse reference to the Nike ad!! At my first job, one of the senior managers had put up the Nike motto Just Do It all over the place. A few years down the line, I was reporting to him, and he was still advising me to do it! And doing it is what has always been a problem for me - I am waiting for the right moment!

But hopefully, no longer...

Here I am, at the close of Deepavali, the festival of lights, which signifies a new beginning, having given up the comfort of a salaried job to jump into the unpredictable world of freelancing!

Image taken from: http://danieltay.me/what-you-should-know-about-freelancing-adam-byrnes-freelancer-com/
Why have I done this? Will I be any different from the white pen above? Will I still be doing what I had been doing, but without strings attached? Or will I be able to do different things? Was the string chaining me down, or providing me support?

Well, that only time will tell. But, what I do know is that and I adapt a quote of another boss of mine:
"Off the merry-go-round; onto the roller coaster!"

I hope you follow me on my travails...