Missing the Point on Business Ethics

The fallout from 34 MBA students at Duke University having been caught cheating on an exam recently has put business education in the limelight once again. Business education hasn't received this much attention since Enron and WorldCom.

But the criticism and rebuttals have focused once more on whether business ethics can or should be taught. Instead, we should focus on teaching business students who already recognize right from wrong how to act on those values in the business world.

Business-ethics courses spend a lot of time teaching ethical theories and analysing those big, thorny ethical dilemmas - ones that can trigger what one professor called "ethics fatigue". Whether students find such approaches intellectually engaging or tedious and irrelevant, all too often they experience them as a primer on how to frame an ethical case to justify any position, no matter how cynical or self-serving. After all, utilitarianism is just made for a free-market economy.

And as for those "ethical dilemmas", too often they are couched as the kinds of choices that only a chief executive could love – because only a CEO would confront them. Suffice it to say that the average 30-year-old MBA graduate is not going to decide whether to run that pipeline across the pristine wilderness or whether to close that company's manufacturing plant.

When scandals arise, the skeptics snicker: "I told you so. You can't teach business ethics; a business-school course in philosophy or worse, soft-headed corporate social responsibility is just a politically correct exercise in cynicism."

The business-ethics professors patiently and reasonably argue: "Wait a minute! Did you really think that inserting one, often brief ethics course into the MBA curriculum would prevent all scandals? Does an accounting course prevent all balance-sheet errors, or does a strategy course ensure optimal competitive positioning? Why do we hold ethics courses to a higher standard?"

Let's not repeat this argument about whether ethics should be taught. Let's talk instead about what should be in those courses and to whom they should be addressed.

Rather than viewing ethics courses as a way to "fix" unethical students, let's focus on the majority of students who want to act on their values but are not at all convinced that it's feasible to do so. In their survey of MBA students several years ago, the Aspen Institute found that the majority believed that they would be asked to do things in their careers that would conflict with their values; that this conflict would be stressful for them; and that they didn't feel equipped to deal with that choice when it arose. These are not students who don't recognize ethical choices. They are not even people who don't want to do the ethical thing. In many cases, they simply don't know how to do it effectively.

Of course, that little modifier - "effectively" - can mean different things to different people. For some, "effectiveness" may mean that they are not systematically disadvantaged for taking their stand. In the case of those MBAs who cheated on their exam, often the excuse is: "Everyone is doing it so why should I be disadvantaged in the grading curve by not cheating?"

And for others "effectiveness" may mean doing the "right" thing in such a way that it makes a positive difference; that is, they don't want to take a stand (and perhaps take a hit) against "cooking the books" if someone else is just going to walk in and do it anyway. For both of these groups, ethics discussions need to be less about what's right and more about how to change the system, whether that means building a coalition of peers or convincing one's boss (or professor)that there is a better approach.

And some just don't have any idea what to say when the boss tells them to adjust their financial analysis before sending it to the client, or when team mates ask them to shift reported expenses from one quarter to the next in order to improve the numbers. They know it doesn't feel right but it seems to be the norm and they don't have a script at the ready to use, to slow down the action, to open the conversation, to make room for others to express their concerns, too, if they share them.

In research we conducted for a new curriculum, "Giving Voice to Values," sponsored by the Aspen Institute and the Yale School of Management, we have learned five important things:

• Many ethical choices are not really "dilemmas." That is, many times the "right" decision is rather clear.
• Pretty much everybody has stories of times when they have, in fact, voiced and acted on their values, as well as stories of times when they have not. That is, we all have the ability to do both; most of the time, we are not talking about "good" people or "bad" people."
• We can learn to voice our values more frequently and effectively if we understand the different factors that enable each of us to do so. That is, for some it may be fear of punishment and for others it may be the chance to make a positive difference. And we are more effective when we build on our individual strengths and "enablers" than when we focus on our weaknesses.
• Too often, classroom discussions of ethics spend more time analysing what the "right" thing to do is and what the rationalizations are for not doing it, than they do on crafting potential action plans and "scripts" to respond to those rationalizations. This time allocation should be balanced, if not reversed.
• Instead of asking "what would you do?" ethical-case discussions should ask the question "What if I were going to act on my values? What would I do and say? To whom? How? In what sequence?"

As we pilot the "Giving Voice to Values" curriculum we have seen that when class discussions shift in this way, it can be magical. Suddenly, the proof of students' savvy and smarts shifts from their competing to see who can be the most "knowing" about the ubiquity of bad actors out there, to collaborating to build the most effective strategy and script for addressing those inevitable ethical choices they all know they will face.

Mary C. Gentile, senior adviser to the Aspen Institute Business & Society program

PowerPoint - Storyboard Sketches

Here's how you can draw straight in to PowerPoint:

1. Switch to Slide Show mode
2. Go to the slide you want to design
3. Right-click and select Pointer Options
4. Click on your preferred style e.g. Felt Tip Pen
5. Use your mouse to sketch an image
6. When you exit out of Slide Show mode (click Escape or select End Show), ‘Keep’ the annotations

It might be a little tricky to use your mouse, but you don’t have to switch to another application, and you don’t have to save an image to a folder somewhere else and then insert it, so it’s a big time saver.

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.

The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.

Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation

To assess the effectiveness of a training program, educators often turn to the four-level model created by Donald Kirkpatrick (back in the 1950s). According to his model, evaluation should begin with level one and then should move sequentially through levels two, three and four as budget and time allow. Information from each prior level serves as a base for the next level's evaluation.

Thus, each successive level represents a more precise measure of the effectiveness of the training program, but at the same time each level requires a more rigorous and time-consuming analysis.

Level 1 - Reaction

How learners feel about the training (e.g. happy sheets, verbal reaction, surveys and/or questionnaires).

Level 2 - Learning

Increase in skills, knowledge or attitude (e.g. pre and post tests, interviews and/or observation).

Level 3 - Behaviour

Extent of applied learning on the job. Are the new skills being implemented? (e.g. sustained change, observation and interviews over time). For many, this is the truest assessment of a program's effectiveness.

Level 4 - Results

Effect on the business or environment (e.g. increased production, improved quality, reduced costs etc.). Results in financial terms can be difficult to measure and hard to link directly with training.

http://instructionaldesign.gordoncomputer.com/Evaluation.html

Book List

The Accelerated Trainer, by Lex McKee

The Art of Changing the Brain, by James E Zull

Efficiency in Learning, by Ruth Colvin Clark, Frank Nguyen, and John Sweller

Games and Simulations in Online Learning, by David Gibson, Clark Aldrich, and Marc Prensky

Graphics for Learning, by Ruth Colvin Clark and Chopeta Lyons

How, by Dov Seidman

Informal Learning, by Jay Cross

Made to Stick, by Dan Heath and Chip Heath

Memory: From Mind to Molecules, by Larry R. Squire and Eric R. Kandel

Michael Allen's Guide to e-learning, by M.W. Allen

Rapid Instructional Design: Learning ID Fast and Right, by George M. Piskurich

A Theory of Fun, by Raph Joster

The Ultimate Book of Mind Maps, by Tony Buzan

Universal Principles of Design, by Jill Butler, Kritina Holden, and Will Lidwell

See No Evil: When We Overlook Other People's Unethical Behaviour

My notes from See No Evil: When We Overlook Other People's Unethical Behaviour, written by Francesca Gino and Don A. Moore, both from Tepper Business School, Carnegie Mellon University, and Max H. Bazerman from Harvard Business School, Harvard University...

Introduction

This paper explores those circumstances in which people see no evil in others' unethical behaviour. Specifically, it explores the tendency to:

1. Overlook the unethical behaviour of others when we recognise the unethical behaviour would harm us
2. Ignore unethical behaviour unless it clear, immediate, and direct
3. Ignore unethical behaviour when ethicality erodes slowly over time
4. Assess unethical behaviours only after the unethical behaviour has resulted in a bad outcome

There are systematic and predictable circumstances under which people look the other way when others engage in unethical conduct. A critical input is the concept of bounded ethicality which refers to situations in which people make decision errors that not only harm others, but are inconsistent with their own consciously espoused beliefs and preferences - decisions they would condemn upon further reflection or greater awareness.

When does it become easier for us to overlook other's unethical behaviour? When that behaviour serves our own interest.

Why does it matter whether people condone others' unethical behaviour? Scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Anderson, which cost trillions of dollars, would not have occurred if leaders and employees had not overlooked the unethical behaviour of their colleagues.

Motivated blindness

• Psychologists know that individuals who have a vested self-interest in a situation have difficulty approaching the situation without bias, even when they view themselves to be honest.
• Research suggests that people evaluate evidence in a selective fashion when they have a stake in reaching a particular conclusion or outcome. Humans are biased to selectively see evidence supportive of the conclusion they would like to see.
• Example: accounting firms and auditors (e.g. Enron and Arthur Anderson).

Failure to see through indirectness

• Research suggests that people do not view indirect harms to be as problematic as direct harms. In certain studies, participants significantly discounted the unethicality if the focal firm acted through an intermediary.
• As a result, individuals and organisations intentionally create opaqueness when they believe the public may have ethical qualms with their actions.
• Example: a major pharmaceutical sells the rights of a new cancer drug to a smaller pharmaceutical, knowing that they will increase the price, to avoid negative attention.

Unethical behaviour on a slippery slope

• Research on visual perception has shown that people frequently fail to notice gradual changes that occur right in front of their eyes.
• Investigating the implications of "change blindness" shows that individuals are less likely to notice others' unethical behaviour when it occurs in small increments than when it occurs suddenly.
• Scandals such as Enron and WorldCom illustrate the "boiling frog syndrome" - if you put a frog in a pot of warm water and raise the temperature gradually, by the time the frog realises it is too hot, it will be cooked.

Thinking there's no problem - until something bad happens

• People tend to evaluate unethical acts only after the fact - once the unethical behaviour has resulted in a bad outcome, but not during the decision process.
• Research shows that people judge the wisdom of decision makers based on the outcomes they obtain. Bringing this research to ethical context, we find that people too often judge the ethicality of actions based on whether harm follows, rather than on the ethicality of the choice itself.
• One problem with this it that it can lead us to blame people too harshly for making sensible decisions that have unlucky outcomes.
• Consider why more people questioned Bush's administration's pre-war tactics, such as unfounded claims of evidence of weapons of mass destruction, once the difficulties in Iraq became more obvious.

Conclusions

• Human awareness is bounded: unconsciously, our minds imperfectly filter information when dealing with ethically relevant decisions. As a result of these limits, we routinely ignore accessible and relevant information.
• The clarity of evidence on bounded awareness and bounded ethicality places the burden on schools to make students aware of the possibility that even good people sometimes will act unethically without their own awareness.
• In addition, leaders must understand these processes and make the changes necessary to reduce the effects of our limitations. Considering the critical information that is typically excluded from decision problems should become a habit. Executives should be held responsible for the harms that their organisations predictably create, with or without intentionality or awareness.

Psychological Tests - Get to know yourself

• Explore your memory
• What's your brain sex?
• Personality type
• What disgusts you?
• Spot the fake smile

Try these psychology tests on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/index_surveys.shtml

Shift Happens (UK Version)

How NOT to Use PowerPoint

Business Ethics and Global Companies: The Background

My summary of Section 2 from the IBE's (Institute of Business Ethics) research document 'Living Up To Our Values' (2006).

Business Ethics and Reputation

• Conducting business to high ethical standards is not new and can be traced back to the early 19th Century.
• The IBE describes business ethics as the application of ethical values, such as integrity, fairness, respect, and openness, to business behaviour and it relates to all the activities of a company.
• Globalisation and digitalisation means news (good, bad, true, or false) is instantly and widely available. There is a responsibility not only to act ethically, but to be seen to be doing so.
• Reputation takes a long time to establish or rebuild but can be seriously damaged in a short space of time.
• A company needs to ask itself "would this action (or inaction) damage the company's reputation in the mind of a right thinking person?" This is similar to those commonly used for ethical situations, such as "how would this be reported in tomorrow's newspaper?"
• Management of reputational risk:
• Ethical business conduct changes over time.
• There may not always be a simple right or wrong answer (conduct that causes reputational damage in one country may not do so in another).
• Standards of conduct may need to be above that required by law to avoid reputational damage.
• Ethical business conduct should be integrated into existing decision making policies.
• Openness and transparency are key elements underpinning ethical business conduct.

Responsibilities

Global Companies

• Reputation is important for all companies irrespective of their size or sector (and is more challenging for companies that have operations across countries with differing cultures, values and legal regimes).
• The rise of the Internet and 24 hour news means that reputationally damaging information can be generated on a scale and speed unthinkable as recently as 10 years ago.
• Global companies derive their legitimacy from 2 core factors:
• Their success in creating economic value.
• Demonstrating that they operate to high ethical standards (economic success alone is no longer sufficient).
• With power comes responsibility - one of the challenges of the 21st Century is to achieve and be seen to be achieving such standards.
• Having high standards and demonstrating such standards will gain a competitive advantage.

Boards of Directors

• Directors of the Board are under a statutory duty to ensure and assure high standards, and that this is reflected in decision making throughout the company.
• The Board should ensure that senior executive is responsible for the overall programme of implementing these standards.

Specific Board Committee

• The Board's Committee role should be to oversee and provide assurance to the Board that its overall policies are implemented and being followed.

Senior Executives

• It is the responsibility of the CEO and senior executives to develop and implement procedures and processes, and must therefore assume a personal responsibility.

Global Codes of Ethical Business Conduct

A Global Code should encapsulate "how we do business". Such a Code would be expected to:

• Set out clearly the standards of behaviour.
• Emphasise the commercial positive benefits.
• Provide a means for employees to raise questions and concerns.
• Give a warning to expect disciplinary action if there are breaches.
• Use clear and simple non-legalistic language.
• Include specific expectations of the behaviour of senior managers.
• Include an explanation of how the ethics policies are implemented.
• Be a living document.

Policies and Procedures in Areas of Risk

• Identify the particular areas of ethical and reputational risk.
• Provide guidance and training to all employees.
• Someone, somewhere will be acting unethically despite all the best efforts - how a company is seen to respond will be critical to its reputation. Critical elements include:
• Promulgate the global code.
• Provide training.
• Provide specific functions, such as helplines and ambassadors with whom concerns can be raised.
• Provide clear company policies, such as investigation, reporting, and disclosure.

Openness and Transparency

A global company cannot meet its obligations without a culture of openness and transparency. Being seen to follow the highest standards of ethical business conduct is as important as doing so. A company should ensure that:

• The global code are key policies and procedures are publicly available.
• Where allegations of misconduct are made, the company is open about the actions is has undertaken.
• There is regular reporting, both internally and externally.

Code of Ethics - What Are They For?

Ethical values
Organisations often set themselves ethical as well as operational or business values which they aspire to observe in carrying out their business. Ethical values are those such as respect, honesty, openness and responsibility; whereas business values often focus on efficiency, service, quality, growth and profit.

Ethical values guide ideas of acceptable and desirable behaviour above and beyond compliance with laws and regulations.

An ethics policy:

• sets out an organisation's ethical values, standards and commitments to stakeholders that will underpin the way that it does business
• confirms leadership commitment to the above
• describes how this will be achieved and monitored through an ethics programme
• identifies the main ethical issues faced by the organisation/sector
• identifies other policies and documents that support and detail aspects of the ethics policy - such as a code of ethics, a speak up policy, a bullying and harassment policy, a gifts and hospitality policy, an environment policy etc.

It usually takes the form of a public declaration on values and ethics and can often be found on corporate websites.

Ethics Programme
This consists of the activities and resources used to support, implement and embed the ethics policy, thus ensuring that business practices and decisions are in line with ethical values. An effective ethics programme will be made up of the following elements:

A code of ethics
A central element of the ethics programme will be a code of ethics. Its main purpose is to provide guidance to staff. Unlike a code of conduct which is generally more specific ("do this or else" in tone), a code of ethics will usually be predominantly aspirational and supportive and guide staff to make decisions based on principles. The code illustrates how a company's values translate into concrete policies and procedures.

The main aims of an ethics policy, code and programme

• Values - to embed a set of ethical values into the organisations goals and strategies and the way it seeks to do what it does
• Ethical behaviour - to provide guidance and support to staff for making decisions and carrying out their work in a way that is compatible with the organisation's ethical values and standards
• Corporate Culture - to consolidate and strengthen a culture of integrity and openness so as to facilitate a sustainable business
• Risk - to minimise operational and integrity risks
• Reputation - to enhance trust among stakeholders so as to facilitate business success
• Sustainability - to minimise the organisation's negative impacts on and maximise its positive contribution to the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of wider society

Making an ethics policy work
Most large businesses have a code of ethics (c. 85% of the FTSE100), yet ethical lapses continue. To realise the aims described above it is not sufficient to draw up an ethics policy and post it on the intranet. An effective ethics code and programme are required.

Retrieved from Institute of Business Ethics (http://www.ibe.org.uk/codes_1.htm)

Mohive Webex - Interactivity L1

Notes from Mohive's first Webex on Interactivity (9 September 2008):

• The purpose of interactivity is to encourage the user to focus on and think about the subject matter. So, for interactivity to help enhance learning, there must be a connection between the subject matter and the choices that the user is asked to make. The point of interactivity in e-learning is to get the user involved and engaged in the subject matter – not in the interaction itself!
• Be aware that the ‘continue’ button in disguise (‘click on screen’ to move on) is not a real interaction.
• Understand the difference between a test and an exercise. The point of a test is to check whether the user has already obtained the required knowledge; an exercise is a tool for helping the user acquire that knowledge.
• As people learn by making mistakes, exercises should not be set up to punish the inquisitive user for clicking all the wrong alternatives out of curiosity to see what will happen by losing points or getting a negative score. Neither should the truthful user whose immediate reactions are not exactly what the organisation is hoping for be punished. The point of an exercise is to induce the user to think about his or her attitudes and actions, not to achieve a 100% score.
• Feedback in exercises should always be relevant and informative. Getting an answer wrong should provide a further learning opportunity rather than a slap! It is also often useful to give the learner another chance to find the right answer rather than telling them it the first time they fail.
• We should approach e-learning with the Socratic technique as it encourages thinking and treats the learner as a peer. E-learning often presents all the information, and then tests on it. This can have the effect of being very patronising (“What did I just say?”) and does not treat learners as peers. The Socratic method opens with questions to allow learners to explore their own knowledge and learn from any mistakes they make. The question should be ones where the learner can use their own reasoning to find their way to the answer and not “see how much you don’t know” haphazard ones!
• As a rule there should be one interactive exercise for each Learning Objective and any feedback should be strictly relevant to the point being made. It should add to rather than simply parrot the text in the exercise.
• Feedback could also be used to present a technical point. For example, if the course is on computer security, the options in an MCQ exercise could be (a) lock screen when away from computer (b) always close all files when you leave your computer etc. with (a) being correct. The feedback could then take you through the process of setting up your computer to lock the screen.
• Feedback should motivate the learner to want to learn more.
• Learning points should be presented in a practical context wherever possible.
• Remember, the 'Continue' button is not usually useful interactivity.

Useful Interactive exercises for teaching:

Letting the user explore a page with one or more pictures or diagrams (usually rollover or click to reveal) is useful for:

• Technical training where the user learns about the parts of a machine
• Understanding user interfaces or diagrams
• Understanding the points of view of a group of people with different interests (“panel debate”)

Sorting exercises where the user sorts elements into differently labelled boxes (usually drag and drop) are useful for:

• Learning procedures where things have to be done in a certain order
• Sorting products into customer groups
• Understanding the responsibilities of business areas

Multiple choice exercises can be used for:

• Understanding the meaning of a word or concept
• Choosing the correct response in a given situation
• Tests

Exercises where an elaboration is presented where the user clicks on key words or sentences (usually rollover or click to reveal) are useful for:

• Interviewing the CEO or an expert about a topic (Create a series of questions covering all points in that information and allow the leaner to find out about the information the CEO wants to present in the sequence the learners wants to discover it. This will feel more like a balanced dialogue between equals and empowers the learner.)
• Learning the meanings of several related words or concepts
• Expanding on or explaining each element in an emergency procedure

Interactivity

Excerpts from Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning on interactivity...

Definition: Opportunity for learner to engage with the content by responding to a question or taking an action to solve a problem.

Interactivity has dual powers that are capable of achieving behavioural change:

• THINKING – Thinking leads to understanding, which leads to increased capabilities
• DOING – Rehearsed performance can build skills

Well designed exercises provide encoding opportunities – integrating new knowledge with existing knowledge in long-term memory; promoting more connections.

Interactivity creates external events (i.e. clicking and/or dragging) AND internal events (thinking i.e. classification, analysis, and decision making). Interactivity forces learners to commit to an answer before receiving feedback (unlike questions/puzzles in books).

Interactivity is NOT:

• Navigation
• Buttons
• Scrolling
• Browsing
• Animation
• Video

Essential Components of Interactivity

1. Context – framework/conditions e.g. aerial view of office
• Should simulate real-life environment
2. Challenge – stimulus to action e.g. identify the most immediate safety threat
• Good: apply learning, multiple steps, put at risk (i.e. start again)
• Poor: revealing correct answer after mistake; using “No, try again.”
3. Activity – Response to challenge e.g. decide, then move employee to your office
• Good: allow learners to change their responses
• Poor: artificial questioning (a, b, c, all, none), one chance, allows luck
4. Feedback – Reflection of effectiveness
• Good: instructive, honest (negative/positive consequences), delayed
• Poor: immediate judgement, focus on passing test

e-Learning and the Science of Instruction

Clive Shepherd's summary of e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, written by Ruth Clark and Richard Mayer:

Use of media

• Use words and graphics rather than words alone (89% gain in learning).
• Keep graphics and text that relate to each other near each other (68% gain).
• Where possible, describe graphics using audio narration rather than text (80% gain). An exception here would be text (unfamiliar terms, instructions, etc.) which require time to process.
• Avoid presenting words as both narration and text (79% gain).
• Cut out extraneous/non-essential text, audio and graphics (82% gain).
• Use a conversational style, using the first and second person, for both text and audio (67% gain).

Practice questions and worked examples

• Better learning results when practice questions are distributed throughout the learning, rather than all at the end.
• Questions that ask the learner to merely recognise or recall information previously provided in the training will not promote learning that transfers to the job.
• Transfer is maximised when the practice questions mirror real-work situations.
• For critical tasks, such as those with safety consequences, more practice is required.
• The more practice the better the learning.
• Instructions for practice questions and feedback should be presented as text rather than audio and placed alongside the question.
• Where audio or video is needed for practice, include a replay option.
• Worked examples/demos are popular with learners and can replace some practice questions.
• For procedural tasks, a single worked example is likely to be adequate.
• For problem-solving tasks, a wide range of worked examples might be needed.

Collaboration

• Collaborative tasks should be designed in such a way that they require learners to interact and contribute to a group outcome, i.e. they cannot be achieved by single participants working alone.
• Collaborative tasks work best with learners working in pairs or groups of no more than six.
• Heterogeneous groups get better learning outcomes than homogeneous groups.

Control

• Learners like learner control rather than program control.
• Student preferences and judgements often may not be good indicators of the way they learn best.
• Use learner control for learners with high prior knowledge or metacognitive skills and/or for courses that are advanced rather than introductory.
• When using learner control, design the default navigation options to lead to the most important instructional elements.
• Make sparing use of links that take the learner away from the current screen or which provide the primary means of access to important elements of the course (because most learners will regard these as peripheral).
• Provide advice to help learners make decisions about what to do next.
• Use program control when most of the audience is likely to be novice and/or high levels of skill attainment are critical.
• Use course maps to provide an overview and orient learners.
• Provide basic navigation options (back, forwards, menu, exit) from every display.

Accelerated Learning

Lex McKee's M.E.S.S.A.G.E model of Accelerated Learning.

M – Mindset

ECO - Environment, Clear distractions, Connect with learners, WIIFM?

E – Entrance

VHF - Visual, Hearing, Feeling - Big picture, stimulate the senses (use of audio & music)

S – Switch Ownership

MI7 - Multiple Intelligence - Don’t design to your own strengths

S – Store

AEIUO - Association, Emotion, Imagination, Order, Unusual - mnemonics, colour…be visual

A – Act

PVC - Playfully, Verify, Confidence - Be imaginative

G – Go Again

RRR - Reflect, Rehearse, Rhythm – Not learnt until can do unconsciously

E – Engage

VVV - Vision, Imagination, Commitment - Identify key triggers, visit the future. It pays to dream…

Web 2.0...The Machine is Us/ing Us

Professor Mike Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, explaining Web 2.0 in just under 5 minutes.

He has also created a fantastic anthropological introduction to YouTube, which can be found on...yes...YouTube.

Use of an Online Coach

Although research is quite new, most documents I read support a conversational style of writing (using 1^st and 2^nd person language) and the use of an onscreen character to help guide the learning process – the thinking being that this helps learners engage with the computer as a social partner. (Remember Tom Hanks in the film Cast Away where he plays a FedEx employee stranded on an island and befriends a volleyball to keep him company? We all want a friend!)

Assuming you write sufficiently informal so that learners feel they are interacting but no so informally that it’s distracting or the material is undermined (know your audience!) it’s believed we make more sense of material presented this way.

Regarding the use of coaches/avatars, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between using real characters or cartoon characters. In fact, the image of a character does not always need to be present as long as learners can hear their voice – what’s important is that they sound conversational rather than a machine-simulated voice. In addition, coaches should be used to provide instruction rather than for entertainment purposes.

In summary, coaches:

• Do seem to serve a valid instructional purpose
• Can be visually realistic or cartoon-like
• Work best when their dialogue is presented via audio narration (natural and conversational)

Compliance Training

Here are some highlights from an article on compliance training written by Laura Overton (Skills for Business Network) for the e-learning age magazine:

• Compliance training will continue to be boring and uninspiring as long as organisations believe that it is about telling people about the law, a process or a procedure and then ticking the box that the organisation is compliant.

• Always focus on the desired behaviour rather than factual knowledge.

• Engage with human stories and encourage the learner to make that leap of imagination to think “that could have been me.”

• By understanding ‘why’ first, you can then make the emotional commitment to take compliance seriously.

Rapid Prototyping

An interesting article on Rapid Prototyping. Not totally convinced about the fully iterative approach for us, but completely agree with the need to place more emphasis on Prototypes and in getting them out sooner.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael promoted the ADDIE development approach (analyse, design, develop, implement, evaluate). ADDIE was adopted wholesale by much of the e-learning industry. If you have ever received a proposal from a custom E-learning developer it probably had a project path which went along the lines of:

Analysis > sign off > design document > sign off > storyboard > sign off > script > sign off > in blood > now you can see what it actually feels like in the alpha > too late for changes, remember you signed off > etc.

It’s a very linear model that has its roots in traditional software development. Nice, safe, reassuring – and totally unsuitable for e-learning at today’s pace. ADDIE, you're a baddie...

It’s been around for a long time now, and we’ve spoken in the past about the need for an overhaul. We’re not alone. Jay Cross has been vocal in his criticism of this approach and “the fiction that design takes place in discrete steps.”

In his book “Creating Successful E-learning” Michael recognises the limitations of the linear ADDIE model. He points out that its application has led to lots of problems in e-learning:

“Boring e-learning results from using outdated processes that focus on content presentation, accuracy and comprehensiveness, processes that rely too much on up-front analysis, not providing stakeholders with an effective way of being involved.”

The key criticism comes back to the focus on a linear sign off process which limits design and creativity, and it just not reflective of real life:

“Specification documents and storyboards are ineffective ways of creating, communicating and evaluating design alternatives”

“Poor designs get pushed through the process and are not recognised until too late”

“The need to redesign as better ideas are discovered is considered a fault (and one the client should pay for), rather than part of the process”

There’s too much of a focus on one part of the issue, another part of the issue, all in micro-steps, and it’s not until very late in the design process that you can pull back to see if you’ve guessed what it is yet. By then it’s often too late to make changes, or at least not without costs. The first sense of how the design actually works and will feel to users and stakeholders should be much, much earlier in the process.

In Michael’s view, Rapid E-learning gives you a chance to accelerate the first version. He recommends an approach which involves rapid prototyping from the beginning of the process, to get to a first working version quickly, that you then iterate until it’s ready for release. He calls it successive approximation, neatly aligned to the Wikipedia model in that there’s no ‘final version’; things just get incrementally better with each update.

Unlike design specifications that are rooted in documentation, rapid prototypes:

• Are fun!
• Shorten the process
• Improve information sharing
• Help people talk more constructively - everyone has a view on a prototype
• Lead to more creative designs

Multiple Choice Questions

1. I opened a course on a topic I know nothing about, clicked through without reading anything, and took the assessment. I passed! What does that suggest?

• I am a genius!
• The assessment was too easy.
• Maybe the course was too easy, too.
• Maybe the course didn’t even need to be written.
• b, c, and d

2. In a multiple-choice question, when is the longest answer the correct answer?

• Rarely
• Sometimes
• It’s almost always the correct answer, and it’s often stuffed with new information that should have gone in the main part of the course but we forgot so now we’re putting it in the quiz because we can’t possibly leave out the tiniest detail
• Occasionally

3. When is “All of the above” the correct answer?

• With alarming regularity
• When we try to cover too much in one question
• When we use a question to teach instead of assess
• All of the above

4. When is it NOT a good idea to avoid negative questions?

• Never
• Sometimes
• Always
• What?

5. How often is the correct answer a?

• Usually
• Frequently
• Often
• Almost never, because if a is the right answer, then the learner doesn’t have to read all the other options we spent so much time writing and revising, and where’s the ROI in that?

6. We can confuse learners when we:

• fail to actually complete the sentence we started in the question.
• inconsistent grammar in the options.
• sometimes we veer off into another idea entirely.
• wombats.

Learning Styles and Pedagogy

Learning and Skills Research Centre has completed a systematic and critical review of learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning.

It is a bit of a beast (182 pages), but it does a thorough job of examining and reviewing the 13 most influential learning models.

With a serious risk of oversimplifying the findings let me try and summarise the appeal and doubts surrounding learning styles…

Appeal

• For learning to take place, we must know how people learn; we must know what model to operate in
• Learning styles respect differences in individuals
• There is knowledge that traditional methods fail many people, and learning styles are a simple solution to this
• Learning styles can be used to increase self-awareness about individuals’ strengths and weaknesses
• Individuals can become knowledgeable about their own learning
• Learning styles question individuals’ behaviour
• Learning styles offer more control; more effective learning
• Individuals can choose an appropriate strategy

Doubts

• There is a wide variety of learning styles, all provided for different purposes and from different perspectives - there are a large number of models, mostly sampling a small group of students, and in specific contexts
• Learning styles are now used commercially and are highly protected. Therefore any criticism is not welcome
• There is the risk of ‘labelling’ individuals, and a belief that traits cannot be altered
• There is a varying level of quality in the models
• There is a lack of empirical evidence of effectiveness of the strategies. There is serious doubt over the reliability and consistency of results – most models are inconclusive with no clear evidence about their stability over a lifetime (and therefore cannot be recommended)
• There is no one language or agreed vocabulary of learning styles – instead they overlap and compete with each other
• Even for those that believe in the individualistic approach, the models are not successful at ‘measuring’ people’s preferences
• There is doubt over the use of language (especially in translation) and mechanics (Are people’s first answers the most accurate?)

Summary (as I understand it)

Learning can be enhanced when students have self-awareness about their own behaviours and they (and their teachers) play to their strengths. But, there is a such a wide variety of learning style models - each one developed in isolation, with no agreed vocabulary, and with varying degrees of quality, and such a lack of empirical evidence – that no single model can be recommended.

Many have called for the integration, consolidation, and rationalisation of the various models, but – due to the diverse nature of the models and the commercial factors now involved – this is not likely.

Reducing File Sizes

Reduce the file size of your storyboards by compressing the pictures:

1. Right-click on an image and select Format Picture…
2. Select the Picture tab
3. Click Compress…
4. Select All pictures in document
5. Click OK

Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning

The three priorities for training success:

• Ensure learners are highly motivated to learn
• Guide learners to appropriate content
• Provide meaningful and memorable learning experiences

Learner Motivation

7 ways to enhance learner motivation:

1. Build on outcomes (WIIFM; involvement; a list of objectives is not motivating!)
2. Put the learner at risk (don’t baby your learners, but avoid negatives)
3. Select the right content (meaningful)
4. Use an appealing context (novelty, humour, animation)
5. Have the learner perform (authentic) tasks
6. Provide intrinsic feedback (see the consequences)
7. Delay judgement (allow time to review and reflect)

Navigation

1. Let learners see the boundaries of their universe
• How long will it take? What does it cover? How hard will it be?
• Display structure (current section and topic) at all times
2. Let learners see how the contents are organised
• Provide course menu
• Show sequence of topics in the order of recommended study, or by discipline, or by instructional activities (e.g. simulation, practice, and problem solving)
3. Let learners see where they are
• Visual progress indicator ("Halfway there!" "I'm in the last room!" "One more stone to complete the pyramid!"
• Topics icons could change status as learner progresses - current topic highlighted, and completed topics marked with a coloured bar
4. Let learners go forward
• Why would you want to back up through a series of submenus to go to the next topic?
• Continue function only disabled during a challenge, when the learner must successfully complete an activity before being allowed to proceed
• Could use graphical map to show learners where they have arrived
5. Let learners back up
• Click the left arrow to take the learner to the previous screen. Do not restart the section (use the menu for this)
6. Let learners correct themselves
• Provide intrinsic feedback through which learners see the consequences of their choices (instead of just hearing "No, that's not correct. Try again.")
• Include Replay button
• Provide other features - glossary, volume, and notes

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Allens-Guide-E-learning-Interactive/dp/0471203025

Can Avatars Help Learning?

The main benefit of avatars is that they can help personalise a course, increasing its human qualities. For example, we have used photo/video avatars of people that the learners recognise and this has proved successful. It has also been shown that people find it easier to understand when they’re conversing with a person (although the jury is still out whether an avatar can achieve this).

However, it will be no surprise that if used incorrectly, avatars can be very distracting. (I saw this line referring to Microsoft’s paperclip avatar: “Looks like you’re planning to kill yourself. Office Assistant can help you write your suicide note…”) Other points to note are that guidance is fine, but learner control is also required, and avatars can’t (generally) take questions from learners (as you would expect in a normal conversation) so it’s best when the avatar interacts, by asking questions for example.

In summary, avatars are best used to enhance the message, not when they are the message – they should not turn courses in to instructor-led PowerPoint presentations. In another recent course we developed, the avatar was introduced in person at the start (and was a realistic, recognisable person), but we then only used their voice throughout (maybe popping up every now and again to summarise the key points) and this worked very well.

Regarding the use of audio, it is best when first and second person language is used for avatars. It has been shown that learners are more engaged and learn more by using "you" and "we" in the learning. Furthermore, according to Clark & Mayer, avatars should speak via audio narration, use a conversational tone, and have familiar human accents. On-screen text or machine-generated audio do not work as well.

Dump the Drone

Cathy Moore's (curiously long, but) useful presentation showing why we should ‘dump the corporate drone’ from our courses:

Corporate drone:

• Makes it harder to learn
• Kills motivation

In your content:

• Add people
• Tell a story

Why cut text?

• We read slower online
• We’re used to games
• A quicker pace is more interesting

In summary, make your content challenging, not your language!

Death by PowerPoint

Don't blame PowerPoint. Good design, regardless of the technology, is what makes good learning.

Also, have a look at this presentation by Karl Kapp, Professor Instructional Technology:

http://breeze.bloomu.edu/powerpointtips/

Rapid Development

Here’s a nice statement from Donald Clark’s blog …

While I admire the efforts made by LINE Communications and Kineo to provide rapid development offers, we must be careful to see this as a useful service at the bottom end of the market and not the solution as a whole. It’s great that we can offer cheaper, faster content production by using smart tools, speedy processes and small teams. This is a very useful bottom layer in the market.

However, a toolbox doesn’t make you a builder, Word does not make a novelist, Excel doesn’t make an accountant, [and] PowerPoint doesn’t make a presenter. Rapid Development Tools are not what makes Rapid development work; it’s having experienced people who can fast-track the writing, build and process.

Let’s push on with making the page-turning, basic stuff cheaper and faster, but let’s, at the same time, make sure we have quality content in the upper layers of the market with simulations, games and scenario-based learning.

Kineo, the learning consultancy, has done some excellent work on rapid e-learning solutions, and they recommend some fantastic free tools for the job (surveymonkey, audacity, freemind, moodle), but I do agree with Donald and I particularly like the middle paragraph. The expression “Word does not make a novelist” is much more memorable than “rapid development does not necessarily make good learning” and will have a lot more meaning for those who are not familiar with our development processes or the importance of good Instructional Design.

LRN Terminology - The 3 E's

1. Enlistment – New Business Development or sales

2. Engagement – Account Management

3. Enablement – Programme Management and deployment

Is Gagne Relevant for the Design of e-Learning?

An article from Tony Karrer’s eLearning Technology blog...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

There's an interesting discussion sparked by Donald Clark's “Gagne's Nine Dull Commandments”. His basic point is that Gagne's…

1. Gaining attention
2. Stating the objective
3. Stimulating recall of prior learning
4. Presenting the stimulus
5. Providing learning guidance
6. Eliciting performance
7. Providing feedback
8. Assessing performance
9. Enhancing retention and transfer to other contexts

…is in his words “an instructional ladder that leads straight to Dullsville.”

His examples unfortunately hit a little too close to the mark for many of the courses that are built out there:

1 Gaining attention

Normally an over long Flash animation or corporate intro, rarely an engaging interactive event.

2 Stating the objective

Now bore the learner stupid with a list of learning objectives (really trainerspeak). Give the plot away and remind them of how really boring this course is going to be.

3 Stimulating recall of prior learning

Can you think of the last time you sexually harassed someone?

4 Presenting the stimulus

Is this a behaviourist I see before me?

5 Providing learning guidance

We've finally got to some content.

6 Eliciting performance

Multiple-choice questions each with at least one really stupid option.

7 Providing feedback

Yes/no, right/wrong, correct/incorrect try again.

8 Assessing performance

Use your short-term memory to choose options in the multiple-choice quiz.

9 Enhancing retention and transfer to other contexts

Never happens! The course ends here; you're on your own mate.

I completely understand his point about the misapplication of this model and the fact that applying it without some creativity leads to boring courseware. But, let's not throw this away as irrelevant quite so quickly.

I personally am a big fan of a model where you accomplish 1-3 by challenging the learner with an example that leads to the primary questions you are trying to answer with the course. Let's take his example: Sexual Harassment Training...

The example would be something that is a borderline behaviour (someone talking about the Janet Jackson superbowl incident, a joke being discussed between colleagues, dating a co-worker when its not boss/subordinate) that should be seen as true to life, the characters should be sympathetic (not an obvious harasser) and it should lead us right to the key questions: Is this inappropriate? How do you determine that? What should you do if you have a question? What is the impact on you if you are involved? What is the impact on you even if you aren't involved?

Generally, this accomplishes 1-3 and hopefully you can lead the person through the example to all of the key questions (objectives) through the example. Sometimes you need to embellish this. Note: I personally try to avoid putting the learning objectives straight into the course. The language of learning objectives and the language you use when interacting with a student is different.

Okay, continuing the example, let's be a little creative about how to present the content. We don't just want to present a bunch of information and have them read it. Let's continue the example that we set up and have the person in the story learn (along with us) how they should handle the situation. Have them find out (maybe in discussion with someone from HR) what the four factors are that can be used to determine harassment. It's going to cover the exact same thing, but you are doing it via a story and just changing language. Sometimes you need to stretch a bit or take the learner out of the story with some notes to cover additional material, but they are at least engaged.

Now for testing - unfortunately for a topic like the four factors that determine harassment, you are probably going to want to use a multiple choice question. I would argue that asking that via multiple-choice is going to be fine for the learner in this case (especially since you didn't hit them over the head with "learn this" in the first place). Definitely you should be able to set up scenarios and allow them to try-out different answers and see the result. Or test the user via a multiple-choice - what should you do in this scenario. Of course with a compliance topic, you are often limited on how gray you can make the examples - especially during testing.

Finally, as for follow-up, we have so much more opportunity these days. With sexual harassment as the topic, it may be a bit harder to do follow-up because you are trying to get people not to do something. I prefer to check in and see if they are doing something. But, wait, maybe we can convince the compliance office to allow us to ask learners if they've noticed any questionable behaviour (which is actually one of the goals of more enlightened compliance programs - they do want reporting of possible incidents)? How about a nice short follow-up storyline-based piece that you can remind the user of the importance of the topic and maybe teach them something more? Even a reminder email from the compliance office is better than nothing. Sure, all the user may do is delete it - but give it a good subject line that at least puts the thought in their head for about two seconds. We certainly will provide additional content via eLearning in another year or two to help follow-up on it. Normally I also want to try to engage with managers who are involved in the overall performance initiative, but with the topic of sexual harassment, I'm worried that they would blow it off completely (what's in it for them).

What's my point with all of this? As instructional designers, we need to use models like Gagne, but we also need to be creative. It takes me five seconds to add a little extra cheese and garlic salt to my kids Kraft Mac-n-Cheese, but man does the extra stuff make all the difference in the experience.

Flash Player - Security Settings

On some machines, learners have been unable to exit a course without using the Alt+F4 keys. This may be due to their security settings. In these cases go to the Global Security Settings Panel:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html

• Select 'Always Allow'
• Click Edit locations...
  • Select Add location..
  • Browse for folder
  • Click OK.
• Close the web page down

TED Talk - My Stroke of Insight

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for. She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions (motion, speech, self-awareness) shut down one by one. An astonishing story.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Audio Narration vs Onscreen Text

Here are the key research points:

1. For learners who will not be getting audio, you need to have an option where the narration can be read.
2. The best results when using text + audio is when the text is short ‘blurbs’ that reinforces key points.
3. Having the narration text on-screen has mixed results in studies and does not appear to add value except in cases such as non-native speakers. Many users find it annoying because the narrator speaks slower than they read and will turn off the audio.
4. Having long text passages on screen that are supposed to be read simultaneous with different audio narration is highly distracting and is detrimental to learning.
5. Use first and second person language and learning agents where possible.
• Learners are more engaged and learn more by using "you" and "we" in the learning.
• Further, establish a person who is talking to you and directing the learning. According to Clark & Mayer, avatars – or "learning agents" - should speak via audio narration, use a conversational tone, and have familiar human accents. On-screen text or machine-generated audio does not work as well.

The Art of Changing the Brain

Clive Shepherd's summary of The Art of Changing the Brain, by James E Zull:

Main premise: "Learning is change. It is change in ourselves because it is change in the brain. Thus the art of teaching must be the art of changing the brain" Or, more accurately, "creating conditions that lead to change in a learner's brain."

Relevance is fundamental: "If people believe it is important to their lives, they will learn. It just happens." And, therefore, "if we want people to learn, we must help them see how it matters in their lives."

About rewards and motivation: "When we try to help someone learn by offering an extrinsic reward, the chances are that learning will actually be reduced." Why? "The first thing our controlling brain sees in a reward or punishment is a loss of control." So, "we devise all sorts of ways to get the reward without carrying out the learning." On the other hand, "extrinsic rewards can get a learner started on something. Often people do not actually know what they are going to enjoy." And, "Extrinsic rewards can also sustain a learner at times of pressure and difficulty."

About memory: "If we don't use or repeat things, our memory grows dim. And yet, if something made sense to us or engaged us emotionally, we can also recall amazing amounts of detail."

About prior knowledge: "All learners, even newborn babies, have some prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is persistent - the connections in these physical networks of neurons are strong. They do not vanish with a dismissive comment by a teacher." Also, "prior knowledge is the beginning of new knowledge. It is where all learners start. They have no choice." And once more for emphasis: "No one can understand anything if it isn't connected in some way to something they already know."

About the order in which we teach: "A teacher's best chance is to begin with concrete examples." Unfortunately, "teachers do not necessarily start with the concrete. Our deeper understanding of our fields can lead us to start with principles rather than examples. WE start where we are, not where they are."

About the importance of practice: "Synapses get stronger with use. The more they fire, the more they send out new branches looking for more, new and more useful connections."

About experts and novices: "Whether we are an expert or a novice, our brains basically sense the same things. The difference is that the expert knows which part of his sensory data is important and which part isn't."

On visualisation: "Vision is central to any concrete experience that we have. In many ways our brain is a 'seeing'' brain. Images are by far the easiest things for the human brain to remember." However, these images do not have to be specially constructed by a teacher: "The experience itself provides by far the richest images. These are undiluted and direct, rather than transported or filtered through text, film, TV or lecture." Nevertheless, "if we can convert an idea into an image, we should do so." By the way, the origin of the word teacher is an old English word, techen, which means to show.

On sound: "We cannot focus on a particular sound to the exclusion of all others for long. The brain expects movement in sound. Eventually we begin to ignore it; we literally do not hear it ... This is called habituation ... Nothing demonstrates habituation more than a lecture. Unless we break up the sound every few minutes, we are almost certain to induce habituation."

On reflection: "Our task as teachers is to give assignments that require reflection and that induce learners to reflect on the right things." Why? "Even the quickest learner needs time for reflection. She must let her integrative cortex do its thing. If she doesn't, her ideas and memories will be disconnected and shallow. They may be adequate for the moment (to pass a test, for example) but still transitory and ultimately unfulfilling." How? "When we reflect, we seem to do better if we shut out sensory experience. That way our brain is not distracted by receiving new information at the same time it is working with old information."

On overload: "We should be careful not to overload working memory. A classic error of college teachers is to keep shoving information in one end of working memory, not realising that they are shoving other data out the other end." Breaking things down into simple components is not dumbing down: "When we are new at something, we are all basically in kindergarten. We can only start with what we have, so if our students already have prior knowledge about the subject, they can easily attach new things to those old networks. But if they are asked to hold new things in isolation, then working memory is engaged, and working memory does not expand with maturity or experience."

On testing out our ideas: "Testing our ideas through action is how we find out we are on the right track. The only pathway that seems unproductive for learning is the pathway that excludes testing of ideas."

About stories: "Stories engage all parts of the brain. They come from our experiences, our memories, our ideas, our actions and our feelings. They allow us to package events and knowledge in complex neuronal nets, any part of which can trigger all the others."

Awareness Test

Basketball and the gorilla - a test of perception.

There are many difficult angles / perspectives to discuss regarding the video. Here are the main points:

1. It’s about focus and misdirection. If you tell someone to do something specific (i.e. focus and count the number of throws between people in white shirts) then that is what they’ll tend to do. It shows the power of language, the power of persuasion. We need to consider language more in our courses. Rather than starting with a list of learning objectives, we should be getting learners excited about the course and the benefits of completing it.

1. In the Mindset section of MESSAGE, we talk about clearing distractions; clearing the mind before learning. “It’s difficult to see (or learn) anything while you’re concentrating on something else”. We have talked about the 7+-2 rule for working memory. Recent studies have shown this may be even less. Therefore, it’s more effective to shut down (or park) anything that’s not relevant to the learning.

1. Another aspect we talk about in Accelerated Learning is the Big Picture, and again if we’re focused on one specific thing we’re missing the Big Picture, which is important for learning.

Action Mapping

Another link to Cathy Moore's blog. A good reminder to focus on what people need to do, not overloading them with everything they may need to know:

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/?p=215

BT Environment and Climate Change

Both BT games have gone live:

http://www.btplc.com/ClimateChange/NewMedia/Games/index.htm

Intrigue 2016

This game is suitable for everyone. You will be amazed at what you can learn about climate change whilst having fun playing the game with friends and family.

"You've just witnessed the murder of world famous climatologist Dr Earnest Merryweather in his laboratory, moments before he was going to reveal his discoveries on solving the world's climate change problems. You are challenged to take a journey through a series of puzzles to see if you can discover the secrets that Dr Merryweather was about to reveal to the world and to identify the Doctor's killer..."

Go Wild!

A children's online climate change board game. 

Climate change is dramatically affecting the natural habitats of creatures throughout the world. Play our board game in seven continents as one of the creatures that lives there to see how climate change is effecting their changing world. As you move around the board you will play mini games, answer questions and learn facts about the environment where your creature lives to discover how climate change is threatening it and what you can do to help.

Translating Constructivism into Instructional Design

All instructional designers are expected to be familiar with the theories and their consequences on the process of instruction. Here are my notes from the latest article I’ve been reading:

Translating Constructivism into Instructional Design

The implications of constructivism for instructional design are revolutionary as they replace rather than add to our current understanding of learning.

According to the constructivist theory, knowledge is being actively constructed by the individual. Learners strive to make sense of the world based on their personal filters: experiences, goals, beliefs etc. Individuals live in the world of their own personal and subjective experiences. It is the individual who imposes meaning on the world. Individuals build a personal view of reality by trying to find order in the chaos of signals that impinge on their senses.

Implications on the design process

Analysis

Constructivists search for authentic tasks and let the specific objectives emerge and be realised as they are appropriate to the individual learner in solving the real-world task. The goal, for instance, is not to teach a particular version of history, but to teach someone how to think like a historian. Instructional designers must confront students with information and experiences that threaten their ‘misconceptions’ and offer support to this reflective process.

Development

Constructivists point to the creation of environments that are student-centred, student-directed, collaborative, supported with teacher scaffolding and authentic tasks. Such environments involve tools to enhance communication and access to real-world examples, reflective thinking, multiple perspectives, modelling or problem solving by experts in a context domain and mentoring relationships to guide learning.

Active learning – Meaningful understanding occurs when students develop effective ways to resolve problematic solutions. Such situations foster motivation.

Authentic learning – Learners are more likely to view a problem from an ownership perspective when the situations represent authenticity. Learning occurs when instruction recreates real-life complexities, students become aware of the relevancy and meaningfulness, and instructional designers situate cognition in real-world contexts.

Multiple perspectives – An important strategy is the presentation of multiple and alternative views to learners; multiple representations of knowledge from different conceptual and case perspectives.

Collaborative learning – A central strategy is to create a collaborative learning environment. Learners should be able to explain and justify their thinking.

Evaluation

As there is more than one way of solving a problem, each student’s approach is more important than a particular solution. The students’ ability to explain and defend decisions is an important element of evaluation.

The Challenges

The conundrum that constructivism poses for instructional designers is that if each individual is responsible for knowledge construction, then designers can not determine and ensure a common set of outcomes for learning. The key to developing constructivist models is to provide learners a measure of control. However, this creates problems of accountability that students will learn. Learners might construct the wrong knowledge, skills and abilities since some students just want to be told what they need to learn.

Constructing the theory

A distinction needs to be drawn between extreme and moderate approaches to constructivism. Some of the assumptions and prescriptions of a more moderate constructivism are consistent with instructional design theory:

• Content of each individual’s mental models may be different, but the structure is the same
• Teaching authentic tasks in context is desirable, but there is also a need to teach abstractions
• Learning should be active, but not always collaborative
• Testing could be integrated and consistent with the learning objectives, but separate assessment of achievement is also possible

The instructional designer’s toolbox contains an increasing number of possibilities. Other theories also have their strengths. For example, constrained, sequential instructional design is most suitable for introductory learning while constructivist approaches are more appropriate for advanced knowledge acquisition.

Technology tools

Multimedia and the Internet are alternatives to the linear structure. As an experiential learning tool, virtual reality could be considered. Multimedia, socratic dialogues, coaching and scaffolding, role-playing games, simulations, storytelling structures, and case studies could facilitate more active construction of meaning. Microworlds and virtual reality simulations could stimulate authentic learning. The World Wide Web could offer multiple representations of reality.

Conclusion

1. Pragmatic constructivism could be built on moderate theoretical assumptions that are more compatible with instructional design practices.
2. The emergence of rich constructivistic environments can be facilitated by the emergence of powerful technology tools.

Retrieved from the ‘Journal of Educational Technology & Society’ website: http://www.ifets.info/others/

Effective Meeting Management

When planning and designing successful meetings...

1. Always have a purpose and an agenda (with timings)
2. Always know who Mr/Mrs Big is – Who’s the boss, who’s the decision maker? Make sure you engage them
3. Allocate different roles to different people (not necessarily 4 people, but at least 2)
   1. Facilitator – runs the meeting
   2. Scribe – writes notes on a whiteboard for everyone to see (‘parks’ ideas)
   3. Timer – watches clock (as per agenda)
   4. Minute taker – someone who takes copious notes (no notes = no meeting)
4. Be very clear on what the ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ for the meeting are (and use this terminology with the people present)
5. To close out, ensure the meeting met everyone’s expectations (e.g. check items off the whiteboard) and follow up ASAP

Code of Ethics - Research

1. Ethics Resource Centre

The Ethics Resource Center is devoted to independent research and the advancement of high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions.

http://www.ethics.org/

2. How to Write a Code of Ethics

Why have a Code of Ethics; guidance on writing a Code; considerations for writing; essays & speeches; sample Codes.

http://www.ethicsweb.ca/codes/

3. Institute for Global Ethics

The Institute is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting ethical action in a global context. Their challenge is to explore the global common ground of values, elevate awareness of ethics, and provide practical tools for making ethical decisions.

http://www.globalethics.org/index.htm

Spaced Repetition

The spacing effect is "one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning".

Human forgetting follows a pattern - we forget exponentially. A graph of our likelihood of getting the correct answer on a quiz sweeps quickly downward over time and then levels off.

Ebbinghaus showed that it's possible to dramatically improve learning by correctly spacing practice sessions.

Your chance of recalling information when you need it declines over time according to a predictable pattern. However, if you rehearse your knowledge over time the rate of forgetting levels out and the time between these refreshers can increase.

Retrieved from Wired News:

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak?currentPage=all

Translation and Localisation

Here are a few points to consider when designing courses that need localising:

• Script in Word to allow text to be exported for offline translation.
• As ever, employ a simple writing style and use clear language.
• Keep text succinct - every template has a character count before scroll bars automatically appear. Bear in mind that we need to allow double text length for some languages.
• For the same reasons, ensure Lesson Titles are also kept to a minimum
• Avoid images that are country specific.  The content may always need some adaptation, but help reduce this effort by trying to ensure the imagery is relevant for each location.
• Avoid including words in your images and animations, as embedded text requires manual translation.

Mouse Party

Here’s a link from Cathy Moore’s blog.

A nice drag-and-drug to see what happens to a mouse’s brain.

The narrator explains everything before the text is shown to reinforce it. Is this better than simultaneous text and narration?

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/drugs/mouse.cfm

Retrieved from Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah (learn.genetics.utah.edu).

Creating Treatment Documents

The Treatment document is created before the storyboard to give an overall idea on the strategies to be incorporated in the final solution. Consider the following elements when creating a treatment document:

1. Client name
2. Course name
3. Course objective
4. Course complexity level (in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy) I.e. Knowledge…Application…Evaluation
5. Course language
6. Target audience i.e. roles, prior knowledge
7. Instructional strategies
• Instructional theories i.e. drill and practice, concept mapping, Gagne, mnemonics, authentic activities, discovery…
• Creative approach
• Traditional / linear or story
• Real-life (office) or metaphor (James Bond)
• Use of interactivity
• Assessment types i.e. within the content, at the end of each module, or at the end of the course
8. Media strategies
• Photographic or illustrative (2D or 3D)
• Use of audio and/or video
• Linear or non-linear navigation
9. Course flow (with timings)

Instructional Models/Theories: http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm

Corresponding Instructional Strategies: http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/strategies_tactics.htm

Retrieved from Nada Dabbagh's Homepage, George Mason University, Instructional Technology Program.

The LRN approach to ethics and compliance education

In the London office we have a brochure called “The LRN approach to ethics and compliance education”. It defines the following ten key features of LRN’s approach to learning:

1. Legally accurate content
2. Progressive learning approach (Awareness, Knowledge, Skill)
• Goes beyond the laws, from conceptual understanding to practical analysis
• Adds variety to learning experience
• Organisation can choose level of proficiency required
3. Learner-centred design increases effectiveness and motivation
4. High impact, engaging presentations using rich media and interactivity increases involvement and active learning
5. Realistic business world scenarios make learning relevant
6. Validated learning assessments measure effectiveness and increase learner confidence
7. Customised instruction capabilities enhance relevancy and engagement
8. Extendable and adaptable tools for offline and blended learning
9. Opportunity to add supplemental or complementary creative learning experiences
• E.g. Games, posters, and video scenarios
10. Leading-edge technological innovation
• E.g. Avatars (3D characters that lip synch), Text-To-Speech (TTS), mobile delivery, and serious gaming

Two theories on adult learning are quoted as influencing the design of LRN courses:

1. (Robert) Gagne’s Learning Theory
2. (Malcolm) Knowles’s Learning Theory

This is correct, and they are still relevant even though they’re 50 years old, but what we should also add, what’s new, is our latest understanding of cognitive neuroscience (what we know about the brain and how it works). This is presenting us with more solid evidence for why we should design one way rather than another. Topics include:

1. Overload – The brain has limited processing (7+/-2 rule); benefits of a visual approach; provide learning when it is needed, not before.
2. Retrieve – We never lose anything from Long Term Memory, just the ability retrieve it, which is a function of how you encode it (number of links provided).
3. Engage - Unlike classroom environment, learners can walk away from a PC; Grab attention – make exciting, surprising, fun
4. Challenge - Learning benefits from being a challenge – targets, rewards, unattainable