My eLearning tips on Litmos blog

Just as I gave myself a blog-or-else ultimatum... I wind up on somebody else's blog.

Nicole, from Litmos (a hosted on-demand training system provider based in Auckland, NZ), is a friend in the twitterverse. She asked me to contribute eLearning tips to her company's blog. I gave an off-the-cuff response, which Nicole was good enough to post.

Now I have to whip some draft posts into shape for this blog!

Here are the six tips I shared with Litmos:

1. Old news: Make sure your learning objectives are clear and measurable, then make sure that your content and assessment align with your objectives. The current crop of eLearning tools are sensational and feature-laden, but don't lose sight of what's essential to a powerful training experience.
   
   
2. Forget that you ever saw a PowerPoint presentation. Use text judiciously. Use graphics, video, and animation where possible to make your point. Use text to enhance or reinforce.
   
   
3. Liberate your voice-overs from identical messages in text or graphics. Script in a way that allows the narrator to target what's important about the visual elements on the screen. Your learners don't want to hear a voice reading bullet points.
   
   
4. Use white space. Don't pack too much into one frame. Same goes for voice; introduce narration after the learner soaks up visual information for a short span of time. Experiment -- not everything has to be simultaneous.
   
   
5. Keep the learner's mouse moving. Even a pop true-or-false question can be an oasis in a desert of one-way information. If you're stuck with dry material, mix it up -- a basic interaction is better than none.
   
   
6. The learner doesn't care about your tools. Think about creating a learning experience that's completely usable, transparent, and effortless for the learner. Get feedback on your efforts, and make adjustments.

Home office? No way -- it's your global HQ. Now be productive!

I have an odd live/work space -- a loft condo built in 1974. Great for pacing and distraction, lousy for isolation and productivity. Sometimes when I have a deadline, I'm committed to something else seemingly as urgent. Something like... this:



Why beat the buzzer when there's a snapping giraffe toy around? And Facebook, yelp, texts, twitter, Google reader, the cat running up and down the spiral staircase, and minor home improvements?

I'm aware that total self-discipline exists. So does the yeti. Of course, the job always gets done.

You all get the job done, too. How do you make deadlines less stressful?

I'd like to harvest some best practices for productivity from people who work from home. To avoid looking like a total loser, I'll share three livesavers of my own. Two are pretty popular. One isn't.

1. Dual monitors! A multi-monitor setup is an amazing boon to efficiency. Watch how much time somebody spends scrolling or switching app windows on a single monitor or laptop screen. It's amazing. Plus, for the first few weeks of ownership, you get to feel like Dr. No in his undersea lair. At least, I did.
   
   
2. A web-based task list! Outlook is great for appointments and email, but there's nothing like a nimble to-do list with overpowering reminder capabilities. I'm partial to rememberthemilk.com. It's not nearly as formal as Outlook, so I'm OK adding tasks like "do laundry" as well as sacred work tasks. The best thing (for me) about RTM is that it will send you text reminders before you have to do something. Besides, I hate making lists and RTM is fun (?).
   
   
3. LeechBlock! This one is like putting on a custody bracelet... voluntarily. First, you have to be web-depraved enough to need it. Second, you have to use Firefox 3 -- this time-saver is a plug-in for the browser. LeechBlock, as the developer so elegantly puts it:

   "is a simple productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. All you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them."

I've confessed to my procrastination habit, so don't be shy! What are your best practices for productivity? Here's a multi-bleg. Click the comment link and bring it -- any or all.

Procrastination:

• How do you get going?
  
• How do you avoid giving into temptation?

Productivity:

• What tips do you have for working more efficiently?
• What about hardware -- anything in your setup make a big difference?
• How about software?
  
• What time management epiphanies would you like to share?
  

Environment:

• If you aren't alone, how do you manage working while others are in the home?
• Where in your home is your workspace, and how do you prevent non-work distractions from corrupting your space?

OK, you saw what I have. How about you? Keep it coming!

Web 2.0: Reflection? Effectiveness? Fun?

I was inspired to start this blog through my participation in an excellent web event: Work Literacy. The nominal subtitle is "Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals," but it's a much richer experience than a discussion of tools. The six-week event encourages meta-thinking on how we practice as learning technologists, instructional designers, or whatever we call ourselves.

I'm an Instructional Systems Design person. My training is as a kind of lightweight behaviorist: content, example, practice, feedback. And on and on. Web 2.0 tools enable us to structure information and share experience in non-linear and powerfully interactive ways. My struggle is to use these tools to get creative and break out of my regular pathways.

So far, Work Literacy has generated week-long discussions on social networking, social bookmarking and tagging, and blogging. I'm with the crowd that has always received instead of given. In the upcoming weeks, I want to think about how to become a player in these exciting environments. Questions (rhetorical, but fire away in the comments if you feel the urge):

Social Networking:

• How can I use this tool in corporate training? My first thoughts run to new hires. What a great way to share tips, triumphs, anxieties, and peer experiences. I believe that the reflective/quiet in the group could use an asynchronous forum: fewer "why didn't I say that out loud?" moments.
• How do I select the right environment for the learning experience? Do I want these folks using twitter? A safer umbrella environment like ning? Or do I have the courage to talk about white label solutions with clients?
  

Social bookmarking and tagging:

• I'm not yet sure about this piece. I can see tremendous use for knowledge management within a client organization, and also a great tool for my informal band of corporistas to maintain a resource library.
  

Blogging:

• Reflection, marketing, technique, ... revenge. Who knows? My instinct right now is that this is going to be a free-for-all as I get inspired. I have all kinds of thoughts about how to navigate the corporate environment, manage the independent consulting lifestyle thing, and bring non-traditional methods into play.
  

I hope my test audience has something to say, or at least feels amused. Thank you!

Kickoff

I'm starting this blog for a number of reasons:

• I want a catalyst for lucid thought about consulting, corporate learning, the independent professional's lifestyle, and thriving in these supercharged days.
  
• I want to solicit feedback and dialogue from an informal community of practice, as well as the obligatory heckling from my friends.
• I want to bring in some excellent guest posters from complementary, related, or surprising fields: graphic designers, chefs, professors, students, poets, artists, lawyers, marketing wizards, IT pros... all have different perspectives on learning, training, creating, and doing business.
  
• My fabulous niece is the uncontested family blogging champ, and I want in on the action.

As I can't always keep a straight face, I will be posting on all kinds of things -- from sharing a home office with pets to the use of classical rhetorical techniques to engage learners and enhance business communication.

Publish Post

There will also be snarky political comments thoughtful socio-political discussion and various digressions about food, film, the fallibility of memory, social networking, and whatever else comes to mind.

You are welcome to:
(a) enjoy
(b) loathe
(c) forget
(d) all of the above