Archives for September 2014

Robin Williams once said about his acting career, “There is still a lot to learn and there is always great stuff out there. Even mistakes can be wonderful.” Mistakes can indeed be wonderful. Our adventures into designing mobile learning are fraught with them, particularly when we try to squeeze our eLearning modules onto a smartphone. In this article I’m hoping to pass on what I’ve learned from some wonderful mistakes: how to best adapt your existing eLearning for mobile.

In a previous article, Ten Tips: Distilling Existing Content for Mobile, I gave some brief recommendations on how to repurpose existing eLearning content. Here I’m digging a little deeper into the subject and providing more detailed guidance on how to adapt eLearning content for use on smartphones.

For many companies such a project is their first small step in providing learning content for mobile (mLearning). Once again my recommendation is to resist this approach if you can. Pushing content that was designed for a desktop or laptop onto a small screen is not the best way to go about learning design. Use cases for accessing learning content on a mobile device are very different than those for eLearning on a desktop. (See Right Time and Place: mLearning Use Cases.)

Conversion considerations

I divide “mobile” into two categories, “phone mobile” and “tablet mobile.” When I speak of mobile devices in this article I’m primarily talking about smartphones, not tablets. Designing learning content for a tablet has more in common with laptop or desktop eLearning than with smartphones (Figure 1 is how I see it). These guidelines are for “phone mobile” devices—those with a small screen that you typically carry with you everywhere.

Figure 1: Content similarities between devices

There are several ways you can adapt your existing eLearning content for mobile—from making a few small adjustments to completely redesigning it. Being able to view eLearning content on a smartphone doesn’t make it mLearning in just the same way that throwing slides meant for use in instructor-led training (ILT) onto a web page doesn’t make them eLearning. Redesign is always the best option.

Here are some levels of adaptation to consider—depending on the format of the current content, on the time and resources available, and on your learning objectives. This list starts from the rudimentary “low-grade” mLearning to the more appropriately designed mLearning.

If your goal is to have the eLearning content “accessible on smartphones” then the first few will suffice. If your goal is to create effective mLearning, then consider those further down the list.

Levels of adaptation for eLearning for mobile

1. Replicate the existing content as is and have it be accessible on a smartphone.
2. Duplicate existing content and have it be viewable on a mobile device using responsive or adaptive design techniques.
3. Adapt the textual content for mobile, keeping the existing graphics.
4. Adapt both the textual content and the graphics for mobile.
5. Convert content to a video or videos.
6. Incorporate the content into a quiz or knowledge check.
7. Completely redesign the content for mobile.
8. Create supplementary or supportive mobile content for the existing eLearning content.
9. Create a learning game from the content.

Adapting Flash-based eLearning

Often eLearning is in the form of Flash, which cannot be targeted to some mobile devices such as the iPhone. There are tools that can republish Flash source files as HTML5 or record Flash content as an MP4 video—however the problem remains that you are still left with content designed for the desktop but simply view it on a small screen.

Another option, if the interactions and animations are few, is to take screen shots of the graphic content and provide a sequence of relevant images along with text or narration.

Rather than attempt to replicate the exact format of the Flash eLearning on a smartphone it is better to locate the original text, graphic, and video source files and adapt them for mobile. Text can be rewritten, graphics adapted, and videos edited so that they are mobile friendly. This takes longer but can be much more effective.

Rapid eLearning tools content

You may have eLearning that was created in Articulate Storyline, Articulate Presenter, Adobe Presenter, or other PowerPoint-to-Flash tools that has narration and a sidebar of contents. If your text and graphics are large enough you can record just the content area of the screen along with narration. With this recording you can create a series of short MP4 videos of the whole module with narration. This is not the ideal solution—it’s eLearning on a small screen—but I have found this to be very useful when you need to access a large amount of Flash eLearning content on a smartphone.

If you have all the original source files for your content it is now possible in most eLearning tools to publish to HTML5 and view it in a smartphone browser. You can remove any navigation sidebar and so get a larger image on the mobile screen. Better still, adapt the source files for mobile by adjusting text and graphics as I outline below and you’ll get much closer to an optimal experience.

Text considerations

The amount of textual content per screen in eLearning is generally too much for mobile. You need to reduce it. This will mean paring down the text to the absolute essentials and breaking it up into multiple screens. Do what you can to remove or simplify any introductory paragraphs or discussion. Cut to the chase—users will want to read and understand the information on one screen within about 10 to 20 seconds.

Text should be easily readable on a mobile device without the need for zooming (Figure 2). Use sans serif fonts—they look cleaner and are easier to read on mobile devices. Helvetica and Myriad font types are two of my favorites for mobile. You may also want to consider increasing the line spacing so that the text looks a little less dense.

Figure 2: Text size too small (left) and about optimal (right)

People are more inclined to quickly scan mobile content rather than carefully read paragraphs, so keep your explanations and guidance clear, concise, and try to write in everyday vernacular. Consider using bullet points, bolding, or highlighting to bring attention to important words or phrases.

A great way to determine the best text size and font style for your mobile content is to play with some of your favorite apps, particularly news, magazine, or learning apps and see what fonts and text designs appeal to you. It will also give you some great ideas and insights for utilizing text in your mLearning content.

Graphics

eLearning graphics are intended for desktop or laptop use. They generally don’t view well on a small smartphone screen. Avoid the temptation to reuse these graphics unless they are easily readable on your target mobile devices without zooming.

Redesign your diagrams and graphics for mobile use (Figure 3). If you have the source files then this can be much quicker than recreating them from scratch. In some cases this may be as simple as increasing the size of the text on labels—in other cases it may mean redesigning and simplifying the graphic or breaking it into multiple graphics. You can get an idea of what will and will not work by creating a portrait screen size of the mobile aspect ratio, adding your graphics, and then emailing it to yourself so you can view it on the mobile device.

Figure 3: Desktop graphic used for mobile (left) and mobile-friendly graphic (right)

You should design graphics so they can be quickly understood, so that the information they contain is uncomplicated and can be quickly absorbed. Remember, your users probably won’t be sitting still when they read your content and may only be accessing it in sessions of a few minutes. Any graphic that is detailed and needs careful study is probably not going to work for mobile.

Graphics that are designed for eLearning are often in landscape orientation (Figure 4) as viewed on a desktop. The mobile user will probably be holding the device in a portrait orientation, so keep this in mind when you design or recreate graphics (Figure 5). Avoid requiring the user to turn the phone sideways to view content or a diagram because this entails using two hands and is poor usability design.

Figure 4: Desktop eLearning module layout 
(Image from module by eLearner Engaged)

Figure 5: Possible mobile layout

Conceptual deconstruction

As learning on a mobile device does not lend itself to studying detailed graphics or highly conceptual information, you must deconstruct such content for mobile. In your eLearning you may have a detailed diagram on one screen, where each element is discussed in detail via narration and animation. The equivalent for mobile use must be distilled into simpler component elements that can be explained relatively quickly—and the whole built up from these components.

For example, you may have an eLearning screen that shows the whole of the ADDIE process with descriptions for each phase (Figure 6). For mobile you need to break this down into multiple elements and discuss each phase separately. You might show a high-level diagram naming each of the phases and then have subsequent screens detailing each phase in detail (Figure 7).

Figure 6: ADDIE graphic from eLearning module (Editor’s note: Readers viewing this article on smartphones may wish to rotate their devices to landscape orientation to easily read this figure.)

Figure 7: ADDIE graphic redesigned for mobile

Navigation

eLearning content often has a lot of complex navigation and interactions. Keep these to a minimum on a mobile device where screen real estate is limited and viewing time is short.

Try not to replicate in your mobile version the same navigation you have in your eLearning module. Desktop navigation elements are targeted with a mouse pointer—mobile content on most smartphones is targeted with a finger or thumb. Target tap areas need to be much bigger. On a small screen you also need to think about movement of the thumb so place navigation elements within easy thumb stretch (Figure 8). For instance, placing a Next button top right would be poor design on most smartphones.

Figure 8: Thumb stretch on an iPhone 5

Design your navigation to be intuitive. Users shouldn’t need to think about how to navigate or move from screen to screen—it should be obvious, and whenever possible it should reflect the standard navigation gestures of the operating system of the target device. If it’s an iPhone keep it consistent with typical iOS navigation—if it’s a Samsung device keep it consistent with typical Android navigation.

If you have the UI development resources, then adding “hidden navigation” that only appears when you tap the screen is the way to go. This gives you the maximum area for your learning content—which is very desirable on smaller smartphone screens (Figure 9). As a general rule try to minimize the UI navigation “chrome” that surrounds your content. Giving the user access to navigation only when they need it is good design.

Figure 9: Content view (left), and navigation appearing after a screen tap (right)

Narration and video

Narrated eLearning modules work well at the office with headphones or at home with speakers. The user is usually sitting down and typically has at least 15 minutes or so to spare. Not so with a smartphone. The user may be walking, at a bus stop, in line at the supermarket, or grabbing a coffee at the local cafe. Narrated mLearning needs earphones or headphones and you need to think about the convenience and practicality of this for the user. Would your target audience have these available at times when you expect them to be using your content? You might have some great videos from your eLearning modules but would they work in the mobile context?

For this reason it is often better to have textual content than narration in mobile content. You can open and read more information in thirty seconds from textual content than you can by having to find and plug in headphones to listen to narration. Although narrated video may seem more attractive to the user, it can be much less convenient or effective in many mobile contexts. If you want to salvage any videos you already have in your eLearning, then consider creating videos with the option of turning captions on and off.

Keep your videos short—in order to keep attention and account for connection speeds. If your users are not in a wireless zone and are connecting via the cellular network then they‘ll get slow streaming or problematic downloads which will detract from the mobile experience.

Consider alternatives

Rather than quickly jumping to adapt your eLearning modules for mobile, think of ways you can supplement the eLearning you have rather than trying to duplicate it on a small screen. Having eLearning on the desktop and something different on mobile to support that eLearning is more powerful than duplication of content.

Here are some examples of supportive or supplementary mobile content you might consider creating.

Knowledge checks

Create short quizzes that are sent to a user’s mobile device after they complete an eLearning module. These can be used to help review and solidify the eLearning content.

Job aids

Create mobile job aids or mobile performance-support tools to help users apply what they covered in the eLearning modules. Something they can use on the job at work.

Games

There’s nothing better than playing a game on your smartphone to learn or review content. Check out some of the do-it-yourself mobile-game templates available on the internet.

Reminders

Send messages to users’ smartphones reminding them of which modules they have completed and which they need to start. These reminders can include quick reviews.

Evaluations

Use mobile to evaluate an eLearning module a day after its completion. Mobile evaluations on average have a higher completion rate than desktop based evaluations.

Spaced Learning

Use mobile to review the eLearning content at spaced intervals after its completion. Spaced learning is a highly effective way of improving recall.

Prototype first, then make your decision

Always prototype your ideas before deciding on a specific solution. What seems like a great idea on paper may look and feel very different when implemented on a small mobile screen. For text and graphic layouts I often create PDF mockups of potential designs, email them to myself, and view them on some of the target mobile devices. I also recommend creating mockups with wire-framing tools such as Fluid UI or Proto.io which provide design and navigation elements for Android, iOS, and Windows phones. These are great for building interactive working prototypes.

Play around with your prototypes, try out different ideas and designs, improvise, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes—lots of them. In my experience they’ll probably end up being wonderful ones.

Reprinted from Learning Solutions Magazine

Most of us have the technology capability in our living rooms to watch a whole season’s worth of TV shows in one day and to watch other shows whenever we like via on-demand channels and our DVRs. When you couple those conveniences with how second nature it has become to Google any question, you can see the appeal of just-in-time technology in training.

Rather than have the learning delivery dictated by trainers or executives, it often makes sense to allow employees themselves to decide when they need to access specific information or when they need quick refresher training. Here is how some companies are rolling out just-in-time (JIT) learning to their workforces using the latest technology solutions.

LIVE CHAT AND ONLINE GUIDES

The next best thing to being able to tap the shoulder of a work buddy in the next cubicle is to be able to tap the virtual shoulder of an expert. At health-care staffing provider CHG Healthcare Services, online chat provides flexible learning.

“When we roll out new technology to a division in our company, it is not always possible to have on-the-floor support for the duration of the rollout period,” says Senior Technical Training Specialist Zach Sumsion. “One technique we have leveraged to account for this limitation is live chat—where assigned trainers support rollouts remotely by standing by via live chat, able to answer questions in real time as they surface.”

Rather than give learners all the information they need in one shot prior to major technology rollouts, CHG “provides a foundation of how to use a new application, and then the rest of the strategy is on-the-job support,” says Sumsion. “Because this strategy can be resource-intensive, the online chat model allows more flexibility while still providing on-demand support. Our strategy for these rollouts also leverages an online repository of step-by-step guides.”

CROWD-SOURCING FOR ANSWERS

Another way for employees to get fast answers to questions is to give them the ability to throw their questions out to a “crowd” of colleagues online, or engage in what some call “crowd-sourcing,” says Michael Helton, director of Online Learning, Combined Insurance. “Crowd-sourcing is an interesting concept in terms of learning because it provides the ability to tap into the collective knowledge and experience of an organization.

Say, for example, a salesperson repeatedly is receiving a specific type of question. JIT technology would make it easy for that salesperson to search for a response to questions and receive dozens of possible responses. Another benefit is the speed at which questions could be answered.

“On our internal portal, I routinely see questions answered within seconds of posting,” says Helton.

However, Helton adds, with crowd-sourcing and internal professional/social media, there is the challenge of participants providing incorrect guidance or advice. Therefore, he says, it is always a good idea to have some sort of moderation by subject matter experts to ensure the company is protected.

INTERNAL WIKIS AND BLOG PORTALS

An online portal where learners can get questions answered by internal wikis and blogs contributed to by colleagues and outside experts can be a just-in-time resource—provided the content is in an engaging and accessible format, says Paula Crerar, vice president of Product Marketing at learning technology provider Brainshark, Inc.

“Anything that makes content easily accessible is a boon for just-in-time training. A well-maintained and organized content portal can work as a centralized location for learners to go—a ‘one-stop-shop’ for everything they need. The whole idea behind just-in-time training is that people don’t have to waste time searching for the right information,” says Crerar.

The type of content is also important to consider, she notes. “For example, a two-minute video presentation on a new product update might be more effective than a multi-page technical spec sheet. Technology is available to make the creation of these types of resources much easier, which enables not only more timely delivery of content, but also helps ensure content is more effective and engaging.”

CUSTOM PATHS

Your employees don’t have to be young and tech savvy to optimize just-in-time technology. The technology has advanced enough that the way employees tap into JIT information can be adapted to their individual preferences, says Eric Vidal, director of Product Marketing at learning solutions provider InterCall.

“Different visual aspects make the usage of virtual learning environments more intuitive and user friendly for older generations. For instance, you can create a virtual host who will greet users as they enter the environment. The host then will guide them throughout the different rooms,” says Vidal.

Companies also can create custom learning paths for each employee. “This creates less confusion as to what session or room employees should go to next,” Vidal says. “The overall visual nature of virtual learning environments, as well as the extra features, helps prevent older employees from becoming overwhelmed by all of the environment’s features.”

ON YOUR SMART PHONE

With most of us accustomed to getting our questions answered wherever we happen to be—typically on our smart phones—it’s only logical that companies offer the same option to their employees. Rather than requiring an employee to be at a computer to access fast answers, some organizations are making that information available on mobile devices such as their phones, says John Buelow, executive vice president of SNI, a provider of negotiation skills training.

“At SNI, we have our Preparation Planner available on our mobile app. Our clients can pull this checklist up on their phone in the midst of a negotiation to remind them of our systematic approach to negotiating,” says Buelow. “Despite the fact that we cover the components of the Preparation Planner in our instructor-led training, we know that busy professionals cannot rely on remembering our seven steps when under pressure. Our just-in-time tech training helps to reinforce the system.”

INSTANT PERFORMANCE METRICS

Some of the most important information employees search for relates to their own performance. Companies now can offer employees the ability to get instant metrics about how they’re doing, says Frank E. Paterno, vice president of Marketing for Intelliverse.

“Intelliverse gives salespeople real-time feedback that helps to answer ‘How am I doing?’ or ‘Am I going to make quota?’” says Paterno. “Real-time statistics show salespeople if they are meeting the required activity levels for that hour or day. No longer does a salesperson have to wait for the end of the month to get a report that shows how he or she did. Instead, with real-time feedback, salespeople can improve their results—before it is too late.”

Ultimately, no matter the technology, when implementing JIT solutions, it is vital for companies to have a clear outcome or goal in mind, stresses Jimmy Lin, vice president of Product Management and Corporate Strategy at The Network.

“They should know where they are lacking and what they need to meet their objective. Furthermore, they must ensure their goal is not too broad. They should look to attack one problem at a time and choose or design their solution to meet their objective.”

QUICK TIPS

• Live chat in which employees can ask a co-worker or subject matter expert a question provides immediate access to information in an informal way.
• Internal wikis and blogs can be effective just-in-time (JIT) resources, provided the information is presented in synthesized, at-a-glance formats, such as short video presentations.
• JIT technology solutions can come with virtual hosts that lead users through the material to help them find what they’re looking for.
• We live in a mobile, smart phone era, so be sure your JIT resources can be accessed on smart phones and tablets—not just on employees’ office desktop computers.
• JIT technology can give employees information about their own performance whenever they need it, so, for example, salespeople know before it’s too late whether they’re meeting their sales quota.

  Reprinted from Training Magazine

With the rise of big data and HR analytics, the demand for analytical skills in the workforce has increased substantially. According to a 2013 global study by the American Management Association and the Institute for Corporate Productivity, 58 percent of business leaders say analytics is a vital part of their organization today, and 82 percent of business leaders say they expect analytics to be a big part of their organization in five years.

While the era of big data may have arrived, the analytical skills that organizations need to interpret and use complex data have not kept pace, the research suggests. It is no longer enough for an organization to have a few experts able to analyze data. Ultimately, to take advantage of the vast potential of people analytics, organizations have to become data smart.

The challenge is pressing. Much like financiers and marketers use data to forecast future earnings and measure consumer habits, talent leaders can now use people analytics as an important driver of corporate decision-making. Like other functions’ use of data, people analytics improves an organization’s ability to predict risks, adapt to change, make informed decisions and compete in today’s business environment.

As a result, the skills needed to understand data are not just quantitative; they must also enable employees to gather and analyze information, formulate plans and solve complex issues. In essence, employees need fact-based analytical skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making.

Obstacles Ahead

Lack of resources and corporate culture are the biggest impediments to an organization’s ability to build analytical capacity, according to the 2013 i4cp study, “Conquering Big Data — A Study of Analytical Skills in the Workforce.” (Figure 1.)

Jay Jamrog, vice president of research at i4cp, said many companies are producing and collecting data, but they lack the skills to turn it into actionable information. “A good predictor of whether employees will be able to leverage data is the organization’s analytical culture,” Jamrog said.

To achieve peak performance in data analytics, organizations would be wise to devote more resources to creating an analytical culture. For many companies, this is not so much a question of skills as it is an across-the-board culture change. This kind of change can be created by investing in training and development to build analytics skills, but there are also other tools companies can use that stretch beyond skill building to help create an analytics culture.

Storytelling, for instance, can play a role in influencing cultural shift. “While not everyone is comfortable crunching numbers, most employees can relate to a good story,” Jamrog said. He recommends organizations identify and use situations in which a department has gathered and analyzed data properly, asked the right questions and formulated an action plan. Leaders can then share the positive effect the plan had on the organization through internal communication channels such as town hall meetings, employee newsletters and blogs. They can also be used as case studies in employee training programs.

“Sharing these success stories can help managers get over the fear of big data and can do more to change the culture than only developing the analytical skills,” Jamrog said.

Talent Segments to Develop

Midlevel managers: Efforts to build analytical skills will pay off when development focuses on the midlevels of management, both in the short term and as managers advance in the organization.

The AMA/i4cp study probed the perceived skills of different management cohorts and found that senior executives and functional experts are thought to have the most highly developed analytical skills. At the same time, the broad midlevels of today’s organizations still have way to go (Figure 2).

The need to build analytics skills in middle management is further supported by a June 2011 McKinsey Global Institute paper. It predicts “a need for 1.5 million additional managers and analysts in the U.S. who can ask the right questions and consume the results of the analysis of big data effectively.”

The paper continued: “This gap cannot be filled by simply changing graduate requirements and waiting for people to graduate with more skills or by importing talent. It will be necessary to retrain a significant amount of the talent in place; fortunately, this level of training does not require years of dedicated study.”

Millennials: When assessed by generation, the i4cp/AMA study found that millennials are the least analytically equipped. In fact, according to the study, nearly 20 percent of millennials are perceived to lack analytical skills. Meanwhile, 58 percent of Gen X is perceived as advanced in analytical skills, as are 41 percent of baby boomers. Just 35 percent of millennials are perceived as advanced in analytical skills, according to the study (Figure 3).

Despite their familiarity with technology, millennials are not seen as having adequate analytics skills. As i4cp research suggests, what is really at issue is an analytical mindset, which includes both quantitative and qualitative ability. In other words, employees need to know what to look for, what questions to ask and how to make inferences to draw conclusions based on data.

HR and sales professionals: Analytical capability by job function was also addressed in the study (Figure 4). It showed that HR and sales were perceived as the functions lagging the most in the skill area. On the other hand, 58 percent of employees in finance were perceived as advanced in analytical skills, followed by the executive team, at 51 percent.

According to Jamrog, one of the issues facing HR is that data may not be readily accessible in one place because of disparate systems. “Some data may be in the compensation or finance department; other data may be in an HR system or a performance management system,” he said.

Additionally, HR may not have adequate resources or as much experience in data analysis as other departments.

“HR has had a hard time telling a story with data,” Jamrog said. “They haven’t really learned that discipline to the same degree that marketing and finance has. They are proficient at reporting efficiency data, but it’s a shift for many of them to tell a story with data around effectiveness and impact.”

For talent management professionals, Jamrog suggests exploring the data surrounding just one talent segment core to the organization. “I would first want to know who are my current high performers,” he said. “Then, I would conduct research to answer some key questions: Why are they high performers? Where did I recruit them? How were they onboarded? What training did we provide them? What kind of supervisor do they have? Start by collecting the different data points and see if they tell a story.”

Strategies to Build Analytical Acumen

Despite the need for employees with high analytical capabilities, the i4cp/AMA study found that only 26 percent of organizations said they had the ability to meet their analytics needs, while another 17 percent plan additional hiring to do so. The majority of respondents (47 percent) plan to invest in training current staff to meet their capabilities gaps.

Although there’s evidence that organizations have awakened to their shortcomings when it comes to data analytics, for HR and talent managers a steep road is ahead. In light of this, many organizations are creating strategies in an effort to identify the key skills and competencies needed to properly apply data analysis to the HR function.

As a result, HR and talent managers have begun to ramp up training and development investments to meet that demand. Among the strategies being used: They’re imparting data analytics skills through formal training programs and informal peer-to-peer exchanges, and they’re using cross-functional projects and job-rotation programs that allow less-experienced employees to work alongside colleagues who are proficient in the subject area.

Of course, to conquer big data, organizations must first learn to embrace it. If they are to maximize its full potential, the immediate task is to figure out what questions to ask, what skills their employees need to learn and how to provide them with those skills to meet the demands of the fast-moving, information-heavy business environment.

Once these critical data analytics skills are mastered, organizations will wonder why they ever made decisions without them.

Reprinted from Talent Management magazine