Friday
Jul202001
208 - My Wish List for e-Learning: 10 Innovations That Would Be Great!
July 20, 2001
#208 - - - July 20 2001- - - 41,398 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
e-Learning, Training and e-Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center: http://www.masie.com
Host of TechLearn 2001 - Oct 28 - 31 - Orlando, Florida
My Wish List for e-Learning: 10 Innovations That Would Be Great!
One of the perks of being an analyst of the learning and training field is
that I get to dream out loud about what is needed in our field:
* Two Help Buttons - One for Technical and One for Content Support:
Toolmakers of synchronous and live learning tools should ADD TWO HELP
BUTTONS to their screens. The first one would be pushed if the learner
needs technical help with the operation of the tool. The other would be
pushed if the learner has a content or learning question. Each button
would be handled differently, connecting with difference FAQ's and
connectivity to either a technical help desk or a learning content
resource. Nothing is more distracting then a learner asking a technical
question in front of 100 on-line students. Let's help both learners and
instructors by sorting help requests right at the screen.
* Instant Messenger Launching Live Sessions: In the past two months, I
have missed two live sessions, because I forgot about the scheduled
meetings and once because I lost the URL for entry into the on-line
session. I want to have my Instant Messenger box to pop up, reminding me
that I have a scheduled session and giving me one click access to the
session.
* Easy Note Taking: I took a great graduate course on-line last month.
The one challenge was that I had to print most of the documents, since
there was no way to annotate the content on-line. I want a yellow
highlighter and an easy way to ADD NOTES and REFERENCES while learning and
to keep those on my desktop for perpetual reference.
* Shrink Wrap LMS: While a large scale enterprise must implement large
scale learning and content management systems, there is a lot of
e-Learning that is happening at the departmental and small business level.
I would like to see a vendor provide a shrink rack, out of the box, and
affordably priced Learning Management System that can be up and running in
a matter of hours or days. We believe that this type of tool would
accelerate the growth of the e-Learning space and allow some organizations
to get started easily and expand to the enterprise.
* Drag and Drop Simulation Tools: Why can't we create a drag and drop
authoring tool for simulations. Pop up a scenario setting, such as a
customer service department or a sales call and then add simple
situations, actors and results. We need a PowerPoint type tool that can
create level one simulations with a simple template. Simulations will be
HUGE as a training tool and we need to create the tools and get them in
the hands of subject matter experts that can create very useful content.
* West Wing e-Learning: I want the character that Martin Sheen plays on
West Wing to enroll in an e-Learning course. Let's get millions of viewer
seeing that e-Learning is a real and normal component of the human
learning process. What better way to do that than through TV and movie
models. Actually, it would be fun to Tony Soprano or Detective Sipowitz
take a few e-Learning courses as well.
* A Truce With Knowledge Management: We need a truce with the Knowledge
Management field. There are so many great connections and leveraged
moments that are sharable between the advocates of e-Learning and
Knowledge Management. Unless we find a way to create a truce between
these two movements that are both aimed at organizational and employee
productivity, we will see a lot of good proposals become political fights.
* Universal Learner Card: I want to have a Smart Card (or an on-line
equivalent) that would house two sets of data for me. The first would be
a profile of how I learn. It could include (with my permission),
information about my language and reading preferences, my learning styles,
my professional background and even my personality profile. The other set
of info would be a complete learning transcript. When I attend a
conference, I could add the sessions attended. If I take a test or other
certification process, it would get added to my card. It would allow the
learner more ownership over their own learning history and protect the
learner from the legal issues of a previous employer refusing to provide
detail reference information.
* Less is More: I would love to see screens have fewer options. When I
visit some of the portal sites, I (and many other learners) are
underwhelmed with the large number of choices on the screen. We should
take a lesson form sites like Amazon.Com and provide fewer and more
personalized choices to learners.
* Positive Departure?: We should ask learners as they are leaving a
learning activity to press one button to describe why they are leaving.
Some folks are actually leaving because they got what they wanted and are
now going back to work. Let's gather information that tracks positive
departure as well as negative departure and those that are leaving to
return at another time.
If you have other items to add to this list, send me a note at
emasie@masie.com and I will add them in a future TRENDS. We will have a
build a major wish list that incorporates these suggestions and publish it
at TechLearn 2001 on October 28th in Orlando, Fl (www.techlearn.com)
Yours in learning,
Elliott Masie
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
e-Learning, Training and e-Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center: http://www.masie.com
Host of TechLearn 2001 - Oct 28 - 31 - Orlando, Florida
My Wish List for e-Learning: 10 Innovations That Would Be Great!
One of the perks of being an analyst of the learning and training field is
that I get to dream out loud about what is needed in our field:
* Two Help Buttons - One for Technical and One for Content Support:
Toolmakers of synchronous and live learning tools should ADD TWO HELP
BUTTONS to their screens. The first one would be pushed if the learner
needs technical help with the operation of the tool. The other would be
pushed if the learner has a content or learning question. Each button
would be handled differently, connecting with difference FAQ's and
connectivity to either a technical help desk or a learning content
resource. Nothing is more distracting then a learner asking a technical
question in front of 100 on-line students. Let's help both learners and
instructors by sorting help requests right at the screen.
* Instant Messenger Launching Live Sessions: In the past two months, I
have missed two live sessions, because I forgot about the scheduled
meetings and once because I lost the URL for entry into the on-line
session. I want to have my Instant Messenger box to pop up, reminding me
that I have a scheduled session and giving me one click access to the
session.
* Easy Note Taking: I took a great graduate course on-line last month.
The one challenge was that I had to print most of the documents, since
there was no way to annotate the content on-line. I want a yellow
highlighter and an easy way to ADD NOTES and REFERENCES while learning and
to keep those on my desktop for perpetual reference.
* Shrink Wrap LMS: While a large scale enterprise must implement large
scale learning and content management systems, there is a lot of
e-Learning that is happening at the departmental and small business level.
I would like to see a vendor provide a shrink rack, out of the box, and
affordably priced Learning Management System that can be up and running in
a matter of hours or days. We believe that this type of tool would
accelerate the growth of the e-Learning space and allow some organizations
to get started easily and expand to the enterprise.
* Drag and Drop Simulation Tools: Why can't we create a drag and drop
authoring tool for simulations. Pop up a scenario setting, such as a
customer service department or a sales call and then add simple
situations, actors and results. We need a PowerPoint type tool that can
create level one simulations with a simple template. Simulations will be
HUGE as a training tool and we need to create the tools and get them in
the hands of subject matter experts that can create very useful content.
* West Wing e-Learning: I want the character that Martin Sheen plays on
West Wing to enroll in an e-Learning course. Let's get millions of viewer
seeing that e-Learning is a real and normal component of the human
learning process. What better way to do that than through TV and movie
models. Actually, it would be fun to Tony Soprano or Detective Sipowitz
take a few e-Learning courses as well.
* A Truce With Knowledge Management: We need a truce with the Knowledge
Management field. There are so many great connections and leveraged
moments that are sharable between the advocates of e-Learning and
Knowledge Management. Unless we find a way to create a truce between
these two movements that are both aimed at organizational and employee
productivity, we will see a lot of good proposals become political fights.
* Universal Learner Card: I want to have a Smart Card (or an on-line
equivalent) that would house two sets of data for me. The first would be
a profile of how I learn. It could include (with my permission),
information about my language and reading preferences, my learning styles,
my professional background and even my personality profile. The other set
of info would be a complete learning transcript. When I attend a
conference, I could add the sessions attended. If I take a test or other
certification process, it would get added to my card. It would allow the
learner more ownership over their own learning history and protect the
learner from the legal issues of a previous employer refusing to provide
detail reference information.
* Less is More: I would love to see screens have fewer options. When I
visit some of the portal sites, I (and many other learners) are
underwhelmed with the large number of choices on the screen. We should
take a lesson form sites like Amazon.Com and provide fewer and more
personalized choices to learners.
* Positive Departure?: We should ask learners as they are leaving a
learning activity to press one button to describe why they are leaving.
Some folks are actually leaving because they got what they wanted and are
now going back to work. Let's gather information that tracks positive
departure as well as negative departure and those that are leaving to
return at another time.
If you have other items to add to this list, send me a note at
emasie@masie.com and I will add them in a future TRENDS. We will have a
build a major wish list that incorporates these suggestions and publish it
at TechLearn 2001 on October 28th in Orlando, Fl (www.techlearn.com)
Yours in learning,
Elliott Masie
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