This month’s Big Question in The Learning Circuits “PRESENTING THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LEARNING” is an interesting one for us, the professionals and votaries of learning, training and change.

How do we ‘market’ the use of social media as a new tool or avatar of learning?

First, are we sold on it? Many of us have mixed experiences and opinions about using social media in an organizational setting to learn and improve workplace performance. I think I find blogging and LinkedIn more useful than Facebook or Twitter. I am sure many of you have opposing views.

Social media represents universal wisdom, present on such platforms that are moderately accessible, despite most IT departments’ reluctance to open them up for lesser mortals like us . Of course, it has its own negative features just like any other tool.

If you are convinced in principle that social media, with all its shortcomings, is still a very powerful medium that can really empower people with JIT (Just-In-Time) learning on anything under the sun, it is our responsibility to present it to our ‘customers’, so that they benefit from it and thereby benefit our organizations.

Let’s see how you can do it. Research shows that when any new innovation is presented, potential users go through five distinct stages of adoption:

1. Awareness
2. Interest
3. Evaluation
4. Trial
5. Adoption

It is advisable to keep in mind that educating people on new innovation takes time and effort.

We should also keep in mind that, people vary in the time to adopt new things. This process of “Diffusion of Innovation” was first popularized by Everett Rogers (1962) in his text book, Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers 1964). He defines diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.”

It helps us immensely to take a quick look at adopter categorization on relative time taken.

The normal curve distribution above shows people differ greatly in their readiness to try new products or services. The graph shows that after a slow start, thanks to the innovators and the early adopters, an increasing number of people will adopt the innovation. The number reaches a peak and then drops off, as the innovators and early adopters rush off to try some new alternatives.

Research shows that:

• Innovators are adventurous and take risks.
• Early Adopters are guided by respect. They are opinion leaders who adopt early but carefully.
• Early Majority are deliberate in their choice, though not leaders.
• Late Majority are skeptical and wait till the majority have tried.
• Laggards are traditionally the last set of people to adopt change.

How do we use this knowledge in popularizing Social Media as an innovation in learning methodologies especially in Corporate Training?

My suggestions are:

1. First target the Innovators and the Early Adopters through free workshops and contests. They are risk takers and get attracted by anything new.
2. Present success stories and case studies collected from the Innovators and the Early Adopters to the Early Majority.
3. Once these groups are behind you, the others (Later Majority and Laggards) will automatically follow.

I think we should give adequate time to see results.

In this blog, I will share my experience of working on Multi-lingual eLearning courseware development.

First and foremost, you need to develop multilingual courses in such a way that it is easy to translate and localize into multiple languages. Especially, if there is voice-over in the course, which needs synchronization with the animation.

Avoid using the images with text superimposed on it. If textual content is required, then add it to the top of the images separately, but avoid merging it with the image.

If you’re using authoring tools like Lectora, Captivate, Articulate, etc., then you can use the translation tools to develop the translation file easily. If you are using other course development tools like Adobe Flash or coding, then you need to create the translation file manually. This format works for the legacy courses, which are developed without considering translation in future.

Please look at the below format for Non-voiceover course. This format is applicable to any languages. In the below format, you will find 3 tables.

• In the first table, you need to write the translation language details.
• In the second table, you need to include all the general text for translation.
• In the third table, you need to put the text page wise.

In Table 1, you need to type the source and the translated language and the date of translation. Translator should update the versions after each revision or changes.

Table1

Table 2 consists of global content including all the general content based on the course like GUI text, help, glossary, resources pages etc.

• Page #: This column is used as reference for translators and developers.
• Source Text: Put all the source text. Break the content into paragraphs. Use separate rows for each paragraph.
• Translated Text: In this column, the translators will translate text based on the source text.
• Image/ Buttons/Other Text: In this column, input all the words included on the images (If present).
• Translated Text For Image/Buttons/Other: In this column, the translators will translate the image text.

Table3

Software product training using authoring tools like Captivate or Adobe Flash is an effective mode of eLearning.

Screenshots of the software acts as a raw content for developing an online course. The learner is taught on how to use the software by creating a simulated environment. The effectiveness of learning can be enhanced by using audio. Both Captivate and Flash can impart training. Let’s see, which one is more suitable.

If the software has an intuitive interface and navigation, the learner can easily learn the software by simple demonstration using Captivate, a rapid elearning tool.

If the software is complex and has multiple users and tasks, it becomes difficult for the user to learn the software, hence Adobe Flash is recommended. Some of the examples of complex software are SAP, Call Center software, Customer portals etc.

For complex software products, the effective instructional strategy is using Watch-Try-Do (WTD) approach. The strategy is to first show the operations, and then invite the learner to try and perform the required operations with some guidance and finally, allow him/her to try the operations all by themselves. This approach provides a smooth transition in learning – from watching, to trying and finally, doing the operations.

The raw content for the complex software products will be Captivate screen, describing the flow of the software, its navigation and its uses. Based on the Captivate screens, a detailed storyboard is developed to incorporate Watch-Try-Do. Using Adobe Flash, we can create WTD simulations with ease.

For both simple and complex software products, Captivate plays an important role in developing eLearning content. It helps to record screens and navigational flow of the product effectively. It also integrates audio and offers a customized interface for the learner to navigate and explore the simulation.

Share your views on using Flash and Captivate software for imparting product training.

We started Elearning Edge on June 2, 2009 (four months to date) with a purpose of making it a one-stop platform of ready-to-use resources for learning professionals.

Our experience in the elearning industry for the last 9 years has resulted in a large accumulation of useful resources like assessment components, templates, online courses, ILT courseware, PowerPoint decks, webinars, graphic components – everything and anything that will help learning professionals.

It is really gratifying to see that the membership has crossed 1000 in just four months. I am taking this opportunity to thank all the members for joining us.

I would also like to ask what resources you would want to help you succeed in your jobs and make your working life easier.

What else can we do to make this group, eLearning Edge the largest eLearning group on LinkedIn?

Share your views!

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Developing a highly interactive course is a mammoth operation. If you’re looking to create highly interactive eLearning course using graphics and animation, then Flash is highly recommended. Most of the online product training, sales training and software training require courses with high interactivity for effective learning experience.

Similar kind of output can be achieved using Articulate Engage. Unlike other authoring tools like Lectora and Captivate, Articulate Engage gives you an option to create interactivities, which will help in creating effective learning experience.

Subject Matter Experts (SME) or Instructional Designers (ID) can use these templates to create storyboards and complete the course in short time, making it cost effective.

Some of the popular instructional approaches that can be used are given below along with the Articulate screen shots.

Clickable Circular Diagram: Shows various elements of a process.

FAQs: Useful as a quick reference for sales training kit.

Glossary Template: Highly visual glossary page for explaining the concept or a term easily.

Guided Imagery: Useful for product training and explaining the parts of a product.

Labeled Graphics: Useful to explain software screens or labeling parts of a product. When the user clicks on the rollover icon (hotspot), the explanation for same is displayed.

Media Tour: Useful for animations and embedding videos.

Process: It explains the process/procedure in a step wise format. Recommended for production or manufacturing processes.

Pyramid: Shows various steps or hierarchy levels in a process.

Timelines: Shows history or process of any activity vis-à-vis time.

Click on Tabs: To provide additional information on a given set of topics.