Monsters, Ghosts & Robots - Using #Characters in eLearning, Part 2

Here is another post regarding the use of characters in eLearning. Below is a collection of some of the more unusual characters from my courses and job aids along with brief notes on how they were used. 

The ghost of Alexander Graham Bell - He floated about while coaching staff through using the new IP Phone system. 

Ossie, the robot sidekick that assists during the Office 2010 course and also keeps the course's superhero, Captain Upgrade, out of trouble. 

Zombie PC Techs instructing staff on how to prep their computers and manage files before an operating system upgrade. FYI: The zombies used in this job aid were created and generously shared by Kevin Thorn, Chief Nuggethead at NuggetHead Studioz. 

eLearning Cyclops is now my blog and Twitter avatar, but was once a friendly banker that taught bank applications. 

Some of the Interesting Things I Saw at the MedBitquitous Conference

I recently attended the MedBiquitous Conference at Johns Hopkins. This conference focuses on technology standards in health care education (conference hash tag - #Medbiq2013). There was quite a lot I saw and learned during these two days, but here just a few of the things from the conference that I wanted to throw up on the blog. 


The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a great open online learning site, CDC Learning Connection, also added it to the Free eLearning page. In addition, they have a good guide for elearning designers, E-learning Essentials Guide, which is a good resource for anyone involved in creating elearning, especially anyone new to the field.

CDC has a goal of developing a central data store for public health training in which LMSes can go. Note: They are doing some cool work with Experience API... I also learned Tin Can API is also being called ExperienceAPI, but it depends on who you talk to, ADL or Rustici.


I saw a presentation on a mobile health application called EMocha. It was developed by Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education and is used in Africa and also right here in Baltimore.

I was very impressed by a presentation titled "Teaching Clinical Reasoning Using Game Tech," which showed one of their study's applications that used game tech in learning. What impressed me the most was use of video embedded in the interface. This simulator, which included an electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) and a labor and delivery room, allows one to view and hear the learner via video embedded in sim (see pic below). Being able to view and hear the learner's immediate reaction and feedback to the simulation was great as a course evaluation tool and can be a helpful in coaching the learner too. 

If you are involved in health care education or training, the MedBiquitous Conference is a great learning event. Hope to see you there next year!

Blogging Again

If you have been visiting, I am sure you noticed I have been writing very, very little lately. It has been an very busy at work, which of course limits time to blog but has more directly affected the motivation to blog. Many a nights I have said to myself, "I spent the entire day on my PC designing and creating eLearning, I don't think I want to spent tonight writing about it." Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy writing about eLearning and instructional design, but it needs to not feel like a chore.

In my opinion, the great things about blogging is that it is informal, or at least should be, and it should be fun for the blogger and hopefully for the readers too.

So, I am going to be far more diligent in blogging but in a manner that is more informal and just plain fun.

Thanks for your patience during my dry spell and hope to see you visiting again soon.

Jeff

L & D Global Events' Interviews

Over at L & D Global Events they have been posting a series of interviews of learning and development professionals. I have been reading them over the last several months and it has been a real pleasure to learn more about others in the field, including their perspectives on the L&D business, where they've been, where they're going and more.

This week they gave me the honor of including an interview of me. It is very flattering to be included in such great company. A great big thank you to @LisaAGoldstein and all the folks at L & D Global Events. Go check it out - "Meet Jeff Goldman."

Using #Characters in eLearning, Part 1

I am a big fan of adding characters to my courses when they are appropriate and work with the course design. Starting with this post, I am going to begin a series of posts sharing examples of how I have used characters in learning. When I refer to learning I am not simply referring to only web-based training (WBT), but also job aids, informal learning and marketing learning events.

So, I hope these posts demonstrate how characters can be weaved into a learning design to engage course participants, personalize learning, add entertainment value, provide an avenue for the learner to interact more directly with the content, and lend greater depth and realism to courses. Also, in later posts I will share strategies and examples of using characters in marketing courses and employing them in social media/informal learning.

This post's examples are from a course title "Introduction to Benefit Banking" and its sequel, "Business Benefit Banking." The first course introduced banking staff to a a retail banking service and the second was a commercial banking version of the service. The courses were made in the style of a film noir movie and involved the president of a competing bank, Big Al, hiring a private eye, Sam Price, to visit a branch where he questions staff to learn more about this new retail service. As the user progresses through the course, clicking the movie clapboards, they learn more. When the user is ready they could "report to Big Al" where he asks a series of questions. This was the course's assesssment and by the way when you got an answer incorrect, Big Al was not happy.

A commercial sales relationship service was later offered by the bank and for the training I created a sequel, titled "Business Benefit Banking." In this episode Sam Price was hired again to report back to Big Al about this new service.  A big difference in this course was that it was designed more as a game. When you enter the branch the cursor becomes an interactive magnifying glass and you must search for clues. Each clue provides content regarding the service plus a piece of the secret code. Once all clues are found, the learner will have the entire code and can then report to Big Al... In other words, take the final assessment.

If you are using characters in your learning programs, please feel free to share in the comments section how you have been using them.

Making Tweeps

I having been using Twitter for several years now and still loving it. The only issue I have are the challenges of getting others to adopt it. For me, Twitter is a great tool in my personal life and also a fantastic workplace tool. When trying to sell use of Twitter among my coworkers and personal acquaintances I tell them of the ways I use it and anecdotes of times it has been of great benefit. I have even sat with people assisting them with setting up an account and given one on one tutorials on using Twitter. Still, most have not adopted its use or gave it a limited try and then let their account stagnate.

Of course I am still determined to make tweeps of everyone - not giving up. Here are some of the things I tell people and coworkers when I describe the benefits of using Twitter.

• It is a fantastic means of creating a personal learning network (PLN) no matter what industry your are in or your interests. 
• Attending tweetchats, which are great learning events. These are where Tweeps in a specific community, like learning and development or health care providers, etc. discuss specific topics. Typically, they are fast and fun learning events. Interested, try #lrncht on Thursday nights. FYI, most tweetchats are very informal and about learning, connecting and having fun with people you share something in common. 
• Use as medium to teach and share your own knowledge. One can also post their Twitter feeds in courses, web pages, corporate blogs, etc.
• Be an active, vocal consumer. I will applaud great service from stores and restaurants, but I also provide my criticisms when necessary.
• Participate in the back channel of a conference, while attending or from afar. Heck, if enough attendees are in the back channel it is almost as good as attending live. I have followed sessions at elearning conferences and even had several tweeps there surprised that I was not physically in attendance, but was so involved in the session's conversation (backchannel). 
• Hear the news as it is happening and by the people making it. Yes, you must carefully consider the sources and accuracy, but that goes the same from most other sources too.

Am I missing something? Feel free to add it to the comments section.

For those of you who are not tweeps yet or want to some basics on using Twitter, here are a couple of resources. The first is is good intro for learning and development professionals. It is from @LnDDave and although it does not include his audio, the slide content itself stands up well even without the full webinar audio.

Twitter 101 for Learning Professionals from David Kelly

Twitter has an introductory tour available. This is also a good place to start for anyone new to Twitter.

If you know of some good ways "making tweeps" or have additional resources for introducing the power of Twitter, feel free to share them in this post's comments section. Thanks!

Coming to a Planet Near You

Tonight the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and NASA are landing the Curiosity Mars rover on the red planet. To say the least, no easy feat. They have put out videos that not only created some great hype for this venture, but are also very engaging and accessible means of educating the public on the purpose of the mission and how they will accomplish it. 




Check out the JPL YouTube channel for more videos and also the NASA JPL website for plenty of interactive learning. The JPL also has some wonderful infographics and a tool for creating your infographics.


Good luck Curiosity!