From eLearn Magazine: Series of Interviews with Elearning Experts

I’ve been catching up on blog and article reading lately and wanted to share this gem. Here’s a series on eLearn Magazine by Jeanette Campos: super IDs, talking about what they do. Some of my favorite quotes:

Cammy Bean:

When your business partners know that they can trust you, when they know you are going to follow through, you have more opportunity to push them toward better, more creative, solutions.

Kevin Thorn:

You can never take for granted the extra 10 minutes you have at lunch to grab a book or find a tutorial. Because today, there is no excuse for not learning your craft.

Craig Wiggins:

Some of the research we’ve uncovered is that L&D professionals don’t challenge their peers, they don’t challenge their clients, and they don’t always advocate for the best possible learning creations. And that’s unfortunate, because that’s how we can bring value.

Abigail Wheeler:

…Being sensitive to the culture of an organization—and learning as much as you can about the organization as you begin the work—can go a long way toward making everyone more comfortable, especially if moving into eLearning production is a new experience for many involved.

Two Books Already Available for Articulate Storyline

I can’t think of any better illustration of the power of the Articulate community than the enthusiasm it has generated about Storyline. And it’s deserved, but even so, this is unusual… To my knowledge, one Storyline book has already launched, and one is launching soon.

E-Learning Uncovered: Articulate Storyline, by Diane Elkins and Desiree Ward at Artisan E-Learning, is available from CreateSpace or Amazon. If you go the CreateSpace route, use code 97H8TCFF for 20% off through May 7th. There’s a free chapter available on the book’s website.

There’s another one on the horizon, as well: Storyline for Starters, by Phil Mayor, Steve Flowers, and Russell Still. Contents and some helpful resources are on their website and you can sign up to be notified when the book is ready.

Any books available that I haven’t seen? Feel free to post updates here.

DIWIWT: 10 Ways to Occupy eLearning by Connie Malamad

I’ve had several really bad cases of Damn I Wish I Wrote That already this week.

Today’s was from Connie Malamad: 10 Ways to Occupy eLearning. In it, she puts together some of the best messages for the learning community to hear right now, including not being an order-taker, getting out of your design rut using Thiagi’s 4 Door Model, making prototypes, learning from other fields… she’s on fire! Love it, love it, love it. When you visit, be sure to add your own idea.

It also reminded me of a post of hers called Is Design Thinking Missing From ADDIE? that she pointed me to at Learning Solutions, in response to my post-UTAOU post. We had a conversation about learning processes and techniques from other design fields… something that she is already exploring well on her blog.

Rock on, Connie!

The Starter’s Guide to ZebraZapps by Chris Lee

Congratulations to Chris Lee, who has just published the first book on ZebraZapps!

I haven’t done an incredibly deep dive yet, but the chapters I’ve read are conversational, well explained, and illustrated using realistic examples. Lee has also provided project files to practice on (free in the Zapps marketplace) and screencasts. The two things I find most impressive, though, are the attention he gives to higher-end features (often overlooked in software guides) and the amount of the book (almost half!) that is devoted to guided practice on a reasonably advanced project.

All in all, this book and the accompanying resources seem like an efficient and fun way to go from novice to proficient.

The Starter’s Guide to ZebraZapps is available for Kindle and Nook for a reasonable $9.95, and the book’s website allows you to download Chapter 1 for free.

Curious George, User Interface Design, and Enterprise Software

My boys have fallen in love with Curious George in both books and cartoons, and last night I watched Curious George’s Rocket Ride with them. In this episode, George ends up going to space because a mission requires buttons in the rocket to be pressed on four separate keypads at the same time — requiring an astronaut with four hands.

Now, there are plenty of things Curious George encounters that would never happen in real life, but bad user interface design is not one of them. Take this unfortunate example. And, well, the vast majority of enterprise software, which for the most part doesn’t kill, but wastes incredible amounts of time and money in lost productivity, decreased morale, and unnecessary training development. Mostly, buyers seem to put up with it because they don’t understand those costs or don’t feel like they have better options.

That thought always gets me down, so I re-read this article written by Marcia Conner at the beginning of this year. I love her parting words:

Start now. Pressure your vendors to do better. Don’t settle. Run simple usability testing with eight new hires. If you must, have a transition plan.

Be courageous and doggedly determined to create a healthy year.