Tag Archives: ideas

Training and Egos

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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I think the ego is a white elephant in the training world. I rarely hear this discussed and I have no stats to back it up, but hear me out.

By showing up for training, we admit to the instructor that we’re not experts. Before that, we have to admit the same to our bosses –– in fact, we often have to make a case for how un-expert we are and how it’s hurting the company. And even before that, we have to admit it to ourselves.

That could be tough on the ego, and if your corporate culture is ego-driven, such admissions may be unconsciously (or actively) discouraged. And what about if you’re in a profession in which being an expert is baked into the job description?

Do you agree? And as workplace learning professionals, is this within our influence?

Choose Your Own Adventure

Posted on by Judy Unrein
1

My mind has been on authoring technology lately. Specifically, how do I work around this tool’s shortcomings, or bend this one to my will?

These problems need attention, but it seemed like a good time to balance things out with a little Choose Your Own Adventure.

Choose Your Own Adventure #22, Tattoo of Death!

Choose Your Own Adventure #22, Tattoo of Death!

CYOA, if you’re not familiar, is a series of young-adult adventure books that allow the user learner reader to make decisions for the main character by turning to different pages in the book. Each decision may lead to success… a new decision… or certain death. They’re incredibly engrossing, and they made many a long, childhood car ride bearable for my sister and me.

I use them to illustrate the concept of branching in an ID class I teach; they’re also a great reminder that creating interactivity requires creativity… not necessarily fancy technology.

…And Finally, Learning Agents Part 6: Get Your Own (Using Illustrations)

Posted on by Judy Unrein
1

Illustrations deserve their own discussion; they’re my recommendation because they’re highly editable.

Angela, one of our recent stars. $18 for her files and 100% worth it.

Angela, one of our recent stars. $18 for her files and 100% worth it.

You can use clipart (and if you do, check out Tom Kuhlman’s now-classic post on clipart editing). For learning agents, though, one or two on-screen personas get a lot of focus and need to represent a wide range of behaviors, so clipart may not cut it.

For my money/time, I buy pre-made illustrations. The regular stock photo sites have illustrations, but the best collection I’ve found for learning agents is cartoonsolutions.com.

Most of their characters are elearning-appropriate and they come with various poses and mouths (meant to animate speech, but I also use them as facial expressions). I buy Flash versions and use Illustrator to edit them for stills. Add audio from a popular CSR, and you’re golden.

I’m still looking for more collections — any recommendations?

Learning Agents Part 5: Get Your Own (Using Photos)

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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For small shops, part of the difficulty of creating learning agents is developing media. I prefer using still images (photos and illustrations — more on those tomorrow) rather than animations and video.

Stock image from iStockphoto. Or Fotolia.

Stock image from iStockphoto. Or Fotolia.

Some IDs take their own pictures for greater authenticity, sometimes using coworkers. Some avoid this because of the possibility that it will distract learners (and the possibility that someone will leave — or change appearance — and create rework).

If you prefer stock, here are a few sites where you can get suitable images:

1) istockphoto.com, bigstockphoto.com, and fotolia.com have decent collections, often searchable by model so that you can judge whether all poses you need are available. Lots of their images can be found on any of these sites.

2) narratorfiles.com has larger collections of images, more focused on training purposes.

Do you use stock images or take your own? Why? Favorite sources?

Stay tuned: Get Your Own (Using Illustrations)

For small shops, part of the difficulty of creating learning agents is developing media. I prefer using still images (photos and illustrations — more on those tomorrow) rather than animations and video.

Some IDs take their own pictures for greater authenticity, sometimes using coworkers. Some avoid this because of the possibility that it will distract learners (and the possibility that someone will leave — or change appearance — and create rework).

If you prefer stock, here are a few sites where you can get suitable images:

1) istockphoto.com, bigstockphoto.com, and fotolia.com have decent collections, often searchable by model so that you can judge whether all poses you need are available. Lots of their images can be found on any of these sites.

2) narratorfiles.com has larger collections of images, more focused on training purposes.

Do you use stock images or take your own? Why? Favorite sources?



Learning Agents Part 4: Another Agent to Learn From

Posted on by Judy Unrein
1

When I was a software trainer, the most common question learners asked was how to remove Clippy/Clippit, Microsoft’s annoyingly interruptive Office Assistant. But he had good qualities. Clippy was a help agent; as such, he was designed to respond to the user’s questions and needs. What if our learning agents also acted as portals for help, in addition to making emotional connections as we’ve discussed this week?

learningagent04

Clippy at his best: responding, not interrupting

Thinking about ways to use an interactive learning agent (searching documentation on the intranet, linking to resources inside the course and on the Internet, providing contact with a trainer and help desk), I realized I’ve implemented these in e-learning before — just not using a persona interface. Tom’s comment this week suggested further uses still — exciting ones that probably involve LMS integration, that inspire me to ask:

Without technological barriers, what would you do?

Stay tuned: Get Your Own Learning Agent

~    ~    ~    ~    ~

“Post” script: Many apologies for the feed weirdness this week. I decided to actually go on vacation while I was on vacation, and I forgot to tell my blogging software. Lo siento, je suis désolé, ani mitzta’eret, ich entschuldige mich. (Yes, I’ve decided this paragraph doesn’t count in my word limit.)