How Long Should a Branching Scenario Be?— from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
How long should a branching scenario be? Is 45 minutes too long? Is there an ideal length for a branching scenario?
Excerpt:
Most of the time, the branching scenarios and simulations I build are around 10 minutes long. Overall, I usually end up at 5-15 minutes for branching scenarios, with interactive video scenarios being at the longer end.
From DSC:
This makes sense to me, as (up to) 6 minutes turned out to be an ideal length for videos.
Excerpt from Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement — from blog.edx.org
The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter — students watched most of the way through these short videos. In fact, the average engagement time of any video maxes out at 6 minutes, regardless of its length. And engagement times decrease as videos lengthen: For instance, on average students spent around 3 minutes on videos that are longer than 12 minutes, which means that they engaged with less than a quarter of the content. Finally, certificate-earning students engaged more with videos, presumably because they had greater motivation to learn the material. (These findings appeared in a recent Wall Street Journal article, An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses and its accompanying infographic.)
The take-home message for instructors is that, to maximize student engagement, they should work with instructional designers and video producers to break up their lectures into small, bite-sized pieces.
Is Compliance Training Killing Your Learning Culture? — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Adam Weisblatt
Excerpt:
There is a disconnect in learning and development departments in most large companies: On one hand there is an obligation to meet regulatory requirements for compliance training. On the other, there is the drive to improve business outcomes by creating a culture of learning.
These two forces can clash when expectations are not well defined.
Somewhat relevant/see:
Branching Scenario Podcast with Mark Parry — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
Mark Parry recently interviewed me for his podcast about branching scenarios, including how feedback is used to help learners in scenarios.
Moving from program effectiveness to organizational implications — from chieflearningofficer.com by Rachel Walter
Excerpt:
To summarize, begin by ensuring that you are able to add business value. Do this by designing solutions specific to the known business problem to achieve relevance through adding value. Build credibility through these successes and expand your network and business acumen. Use the expanding business knowledge to begin gathering information about leading and lagging indicators of business success. Build some hypotheses and start determining where to find data related to your hypotheses.
More than looking at data points, look for trends across the data and communicate these trends to build upon them. It’s critical to talk about your findings and communicate what you are seeing. By continuing to drive business value, you can help others stop looking at data that does not truly matter in favor of data that directly affects the organization’s goals.
Also, from the corporate learning ecosystem:
Creating Better Video For Learning, Part 1 — from elearningindustry.com by Patti Shank
Summary:
This is the first article in a series about what evidence (research) says about creating better video for learning. It discusses the attributes of media and technologies for digital or blended instruction, selecting content and social interactions, and the strengths and challenges of video.
eLearning Trailblazers: Learning Science Extraordinaires — from elearningindustry.com by Christopher Pappas
Excerpt:
Summary: This Trailblazers List features thought leaders who help us to dive into the cognitive processes and behaviors that shape learning science.
Learning Science Thought Leaders Who Share Their Expertise
Exploring the inner workings of the mind gives us the opportunity to design learning experiences that leave a lasting impression. Thankfully, there are some in our field who are ready and willing to research what motivates and inspires learners, as well as how to improve knowledge retention through the power of science. In no particular order, here are the top learning science experts who share their insights with the eLearning community.
From DSC:
Thanks Christopher for this great list! I would also add Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D. from retrievalpractice.org — and I’m sure there are several others that could be listed here as well. But as Christopher mentions, these are the folks who are intentional about sharing their insights.
Top tools for learning 2022 — from toptools4learning.com by Jane Hart
Excerpt:
In fact, it has become clear that whilst 2021 was the year of experimentation – with an explosion of tools being used as people tried out new things, 2022 has been the year of consolidation – with people reverting to their trusty old favourites. In fact, many of the tools that were knocked off their perches in 2021, have now recovered their lost ground this year.
Also somewhat relevant/see:
L&D Go Beyond Podcast: Bridging the Gap between Learning and Performance, with Charles Jennings — from upsidelearning.com by Gabriella Daniels
Excerpt:
Often, there is a vast gap between learning and performance in many organizations. Given Charles’ experience in the field, here are the key takeaways from this episode:
Training with Branching Scenarios — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
You can do live training with branching scenarios using full group discussions, polls, small groups, or assignments.
Excerpt:
How do you use branching scenarios in instructor-led training, rather than self-paced elearning? I think there are a couple of possibilities for doing live training with branching scenarios. These could work for either classroom-based training or vILT (virtual instructor-led training). For example, you can use branching scenarios in training as a full group with discussion or polls, in small groups, or outside of class as a discussion prompt.
Learning Content Maintenance: Don’t Skip This Essential Step — from learningsolutionsmag.com Adam Weisblatt
Excerpt:
L&D departments get bombarded with requests for new content, and they are reward for their responsiveness. As soon as one eLearning module is completed and loaded in the LMS, it is forgotten and the next course in the queue is started. Multiply this by all the organizations that share the LMS. The result is a catalog of thousands of courses that no one has time to look at.
It is important to see this from the perspective of the learner.
Second Career Satisfaction — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Natalie Schoof
Excerpt:
Hey teachers: In case you didn’t realize it, you’re an instructional designer.
I attended a conference (Learning Solutions 2022) where I met two other former teachers, who, like myself, had recently transitioned from the classroom to the field of instructional design (ID). We instantly bonded over our shared experiences—the rewards and challenges of teaching, of course, but also why and how we decided to move on.
Our stories had striking resemblances. I’m sharing mine here in the hopes that it might encourage other would-be instructional designers.
2022 Report: The State Of eLearning — from elearningindustry.com by My Learning HUB
What does the future of L&D look like? My Learning Hub surveyed 291 L&D professionals to get their perspectives on the state of eLearning.
Key chapters
5 Questions Every Digital Learning Job Seeker Should Answer — from teamedforlearning.com
These questions help you find a job that fits your skills, work style, and career goals. Answer these before you start your digital learning jobs search.
Excerpt:
There are five questions you should ask yourself before you start looking for a job in digital learning. These aren’t your standard questions about salary and daily tasks. Instead, we’re focusing on what you need to know about yourself before you seek out a new role. The answers will help you find a job that’s the right fit for your skills, work style, and career goals.
Remember, when you’re looking for a job, you’re not just trying to find an organization that wants you to work for them. You’re also looking for a work environment that can help you advance your career and meet your needs. So, grab a notebook or open up a blank document and start brainstorming your answers to these questions.
UX, Accessibility, & More: ID Links 5/24/22 — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
Excerpt:
As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on UX, accessibility, branching scenarios, Twine, instructional design blogs, free/freemium tools, and systems thinking.
Also from Christy Tucker, see:
Christy is back with yet another informative post on instructional design hourly rates and salary! If you are new to the industry or starting to explore freelancing, this can be helpful. https://t.co/UIPp9eU4KC via @christyatucker
— Taruna Goel (@write2tg) May 31, 2022
A Rubric for Selecting Active Learning Technologies — from er.educause.edu by Katie Bush, Monica Cormier, and Graham Anthony
A rubric can be an invaluable aid in evaluating how well technologies support active learning.
Excerpt:
Because the use of active learning is characterized by a broad range of activities in the classroom, comparing technology and determining which option provides more benefit to an active learning classroom can be difficult. The Rubric for Active Learning Technology Evaluation can provide some differentiation when comparing technology offerings. It has been designed to reveal subtle but impactful differences between technology in the context of active learning. The rubric was designed to be a tool for comparative technology evaluation and as such should be quick to use when comparing similar technologies. It is freely available to use and adapt under a Creative Commons license.
