Scalable means they meet the need in most situations and are not cost nor time prohibitive to create.
One such instructional problem and pattern involve how to teach soft skills. Soft skills have no definite right or wrong. Instead they require the critical thinking abilities of the learner to approach the problem in a more effective or less effective approach. Subject areas that require soft skills training could include such topics as sales training, negotiation skills, customer service, leadership, etc.
Those of us who have led many instructor-led training sessions know that role playing can be a big part of teaching soft skills in a live environment. The idea is to help the learner build their own set of 'experiences' that they can draw upon before entering the real world. Role plays are nothing more than a simulation, and they are an easy and effective instructional pattern in instructor-led training.
How are these valuable role plays translated to the e-learning and mobile learning environment? Through the use of branching scenario simulations. It basically goes like this:
- The learner is presented a problem in the form of text, text and images, audio, and/or video
- The learner has to choose how to respond to the problem (usually through the use of multiple choice options)
- Based on how they respond, the scenario branches down a path
- At the end of the path, the learner may be presented with feedback and the option to retry the scenario to see if they can improve on their results
Using Rapid Intake's rapid e-learning authoring tools, we built the following scenario in front of a live audience at a trade show (hence the photos aren't very good) to demonstrate how quickly you can add this kind of immersive learning experience. Try this sample branching scenario here:
One of the great advantages of these kind of simulations is that it moves beyond information and into the realm of applying concepts to realistic situations.
Building these kinds of scenarios can seem challenging, but they don't have to take as much time as you may think. With e-learning software that supplies rapid authoring tools, you can focus mostly on the content, knowing that you don't have to worry about how to program the content. The programming is done for you. You just populate the content and tell the scenario where to branch to.
Have you used branching scenarios for soft skill training? Do your learners find them to be effective? As always, I welcome your comments.
Have you used branching scenarios for soft skill training? Do your learners find them to be effective? As always, I welcome your comments.
6 comments:
The problem I have with tools like Rapid Intake's (RI) boil down to four letters: j-u-s-t.
RI's rapid design application provides the shell: the structure that underlies a simulation. With it a relatively non-technical instructional designer (ID) can produce some cool stuff. What the post minimizes, not mentioning it until the very end, is all the work an ID goes through to create the learning experience: analysis and design.
If the ID subscribes to the ADDIE instructional design model then RI's application takes care of the second D: development; the other work, what the post's author called "just" is everything else.
Without the rest of it, the instructional design work, RI's application is just a cookie cutter.
@urbie It's true that good instructional design is still an important part of the development process, even for rapid development tools (and perhaps 'especially' for rapid development tools). Still, I would argue that much of the instructional design needed for branching scenarios and other interactive types of templates has been built into the template, not to mention that you don't have to do any of the development. Instructional design isn't just the content, it's how the interaction functions. It is the interactivity. That's the part that instructional pattern-based templates can help the most with: rapid interactions built on accepted practices based on good instructional design.
@Garin, I guess to extend what urbie is saying further, is the same thing a lot of people feel at present...that rapid deployment tools do in some cases encourage prospective clients to commoditize e-learning solutions due to the supposed ease and speed with which the end result can be deployed. This undermines the value of strong methodological needs identification and course design, particularly when so many affordable solutions allow anybody to be an ID (just like everybody is a photographer these days I guess.)
My view, coming from a sales background, is that the methodology and the tools equally present an opportunity to differentiate one e-learning platform from another.
BTW, I just stumbled across RI yesterday...Cross-platform compatability out of the box - fantastic! Keep up the good work.
@Aaron I completely agree. There's an interesting quote by Clark Aldrich in his book "Learning by Doing" when he is talking about why certain technologies actually survive during the technology adoption curve, where he says something like (sorry I don't have the actual quote I loaned the book to someone) "Idealistic purity is sacrificed for a solution that is scalable."
I used to rat on PowerPoint conversion for exactly the same reason. To many courses have been 'put online' only to make what as a bad instructor-led course even worse by not having an instructor present.
Template-based interactions based on widely adopted patterns of interactive learning is a way to hit a scalable middle ground where courses can be much more sound and productive instructionally than a simple converted PowerPoint, while still being easy, quick, and cost effective to produce. Yes, we sacrifice some quality.
As an analogy, a hundred years ago cars were being made, each one a custom build by specialists. Then cars began to be built based on widely recognized standards--patterns. They all began to have steering wheels. They all began to have the pedals in the same place. This is perhaps a crude analogy, but it illustrates the benefits that our industry is going through. Technology is improving to the point that effective (if not entirely custom or perfectly ideal) training can be built by the average trainer more easily.
So, yes, of course all of us instructional designers bemoan, to one extent or another, the loss of the custom built course, built by an instructional artist (and I believe most instructional designer are artists). But time after time, progress in every industry has been fueled by what is scalable, and individual instructional design for every course built, by someone highly skilled, isn't possible. It isn't scalable. So, instructional pattern-based technologies are the next best thing (in my opinion, of course), and they are scalable.
We all make these trade offs. My favorite example is homemade bread versus store bought. We almost all settle for store bought bread sometimes or even all of the time, even though we love homemade bread. Why? It's a scalable solution. Available when we want it, for the price we can afford. We give up the perfect ideal for realistic scalability that works well, if not perfectly the way we want.
(Phew...long reply...can you tell I'm passionate about this? :)
I have never used branching scenarios for soft skill training, but they sound interesting. While I agree with @Garin that it is ideal to have an instructor present, a lot can be gained from elearning. I completed most of my Master’s work online and with a lot of self discipline, finished the program at the top of my class. Elearning is something that interests me especially now that I am a working mother of one. How do you find the time to advance in your career when you are working and have a child at home? I recently stumbled upon this website, 2elearning. I want to check out their three day elearning conference in September. Has anyone heard anything about this?
That conference is hosted by eLearning Magazine. It's a new conference so I can't vouch for it, but I can vouch for the people who put it on. They've been around the industry a long time and seem very solid. We've worked with Jim Upton--very good guy.
Two other conferences to consider: eLearning DevCon (www.elearningdevcon.com) and mLearning DevCon (www.mlearningdevcon.com)
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