Flipped Learning is like McDonalds
A popular branding technique is to rename something or say that it is new and improved and I wonder if that’s what's happening with Blended Learning. Here I am wondering if Flipped Learning is the new and improved brand for Blended Learning.
Are they the same thing or does Flipped Learning offer something different?
Fast Food Content
In essence each appears to be the same thing; in each, content is divided up between classroom and elearning activities. Typically the more complex content and the application activities are reserved for the classroom while the scaffolding and Tell/Show content tends to get passed on to the online treatments.
The difference I am seeing with Flipped and Blended activities is in their format choices. Here Flipped Learning activities center on video streaming and talking heads. With Flipped Learning stand-up instructors are taking cameras and shooting themselves doing their normal lecture activities.
This format is good as it allows for quick and easy content production. And this means that the online content is:
- Relevant to student needs and abilities;
- Relevant to emerging trends and topics; and
- Continuous and ongoing.
This format does have some limitations though as video is passive and linear. In addition just because something is online doesn’t mean that students will like or internalize the content. In this regard, a boring lecture is just as painful online as it is in a classroom. And a challenge with Flipped Learning relates to this—here the ease of production and lack of formality may increase the likelihood of bad content being created.
Three Course Meals
Blended Learning has an advantage in this regard as it has additional options when it comes to content. Typically with Blended approaches, the course objectives are used to drive the content strategies. So if a course objective is on a procedure, then your students may have the following pieces of online content:
- Text description of why the procedure was needed
- Video of the procedure being performed
- Interactive graphic walking the user through parts of the procedure
- Simulation of the procedure and
- Job-aid on the procedure.
Such a treatment would cover the procedure in a deeper way than a talking head. In addition, it may impact your classroom activities in a greater way— you may be able to move on to newer content faster or reach a higher level of learning within the content.
These benefits come at a cost though as extra development and testing time is needed with Blended approaches. As such, this may mean that your content isn’t as relevant to your students—Blended content will not be as immediate or continuous.
Finding the Right Meal
These differences present two unique cases for Flipped and Blended Learning. Here if you need quick and fast online content to support your classroom activities than Flipped content is a good choice for you. If however; you want your online content to expand or supplement your classroom activities than a Blended approach may make more sense.
Wake up ILT—It’s Time to Get Technical
We have never expected much out of our stand-up trainers in regards to technology. Sure some of them have used Blackboard to add content and a few have facilitated a discussion board or two but when it comes to technology; cutting edge is still PowerPoint. And the majority of our experience continues to look like:
These times are changing and soon expectations will drive a shift in what stand-up classrooms look like. Today I’ll talk about a couple of these evolving expectations and provide a glimpse of the future cutting edge.
Flipping Learning
Recent tools and technologies have lessened our dependency on specialized teams for online content. Now anyone can access free or cheap tools that allow you to build courses, capture screen demonstrations, edit graphics, record audio or shoot video. In addition skill-sets have improved to the point that many people are comfortable playing and working with these tools. Many users no longer need a programmer or graphic artist to build online content that looks good. And some of these people are starting to notice how this can be used for stand-up:
Here Flipped Learning is touted as the next thing for classroom training. Instructors in this model are taking their Tell/Show content and placing it online. This online content is then assigned to students as homework. This is nice as it addresses the self-pacing needs students have while giving instructors more freedom with their classroom activities. Here instructors can focus their classroom time around application and practice or use this time to individualize their content.
In this regard, stand-up trainers are recognizing that they can develop and deliver their own online content, which is important as your students may have unique needs. In addition, trainers are also beginning to take note of Khan Academy, YouTube, and other content aggregators as these sites can provide additional content to fulfill student needs.
eBooks, iBooks, …
Content in this regard doesn’t have to be limited to homework as the rise of interactive books and tablets presents additional opportunities in your classrooms. These eBooks allow you to develop content that your students can access for their Tell/Show needs. A bonus with these books is the possibility to create rich interactions that your students can access:
Here you can include your Do content and the potential of this can be seen in the following examples:
The above eBooks demonstrate the possibility of developing rich worlds that your students can launch. In addition students can share highlighted passages and notes that they have made within the content. Other abilities like text-to-speech and dictionary/thesaurus tools further support student needs.
As Ereaders and tablet penetration continues, this will become an increasing expectation of your students. Soon giving students a hard copy manual will not be enough. You will need to have eBooks with video and interactive graphics that students can use. In addition these books will need to include applications and widgets that support performance. For example a recent project I encountered focused on the Berg Balance test. A future eBook on this topic may have a widget that would allow students the ability to enter user data, and then this widget would calculate the test results automatically for students. A widget like this is much more powerful than a simple checklist or other job aid that might be used today.
For students that still want/need hardcopy materials, augmented reality may offer similar opportunities for your Tell/Show/Do content. Here you can use this technology to enhance your print materials to:
Incorporating eBooks and Augmented Reality in the classroom will require specialized knowledge, so you may have to work with your eLearning groups in order to meet these needs initially. That’s ok though as these groups have worked with technology and education for some time and can help you realize your visions here.
The Cutting Edge
The great thing about these technologies is they start to dispel the notion that classroom training is a one-time event. Here rather than patting our students on the back and sending them on their way we have the ability to do more. We can use these technologies to make these events life-long learning opportunities.
In this regard we can use these technologies to continue to create content that users can interact with long after the class is over. This content may be online materials that we created or shared links to articles, videos and other resources. The eBook route can facilitate these activities as a widget could be built for dynamic content. So you could have a feed or a web page that is maintained by an instructor and pull that information into an eBook.
In this world, stand-up trainers act as curators of knowledge. Here our classroom events are focused on Do content and students get their self-pacing and individualization needs through social and informal channels maintained by our instructors. Our instructors have followers and people interacting with their sites to discuss and grow their skills.
Most importantly though our classrooms don’t look like:
Can’t Touch This
The den was once my man cave—my safe place to go and watch TV or get some work done. Lately though this has become Max’s playroom. And if you saw it, you would note a series of pillows, blankets and other obstructions strewn around the room.
These steps are necessary, as Max sometimes focuses on the wrong thing. In this regard an angry cat or an expensive Smartphone can be more interesting than toy blocks.
So to keep Max focused on the right things I have found that a little guidance is necessary. Hiding things from him works for now and making access difficult is also a good solution—so a nice gate is handy, but even that is temporary. As I continue to interact with him, I can tell that this is a battle we’ll have for many years to come.
Unfortunately this is also a battle we as designers may have to face with our project sponsors, that is, how do we keep them focused on the right thing?
Today I’ll talk about some of my war stories with sponsors.
I Know What I Want
Project Sponsors are the ones that come to us requesting services so without them and their needs we wouldn’t be building training initiatives. Because of this I can’t bag on them too much, but as a designer I know that I need to watch out for them as they can set us up for failure.
Here sponsors may come to us with preexisting ideas on what the problem is as well and how it needs to be fixed. Often these sponsors are subject matter experts so it is a good idea to listen to them in this regard. Just know though that their expertise can lead to tunnel vision and may cause them to focus on only a narrow portion of the problem.
This is the case I experienced awhile back when one sponsor voiced a need to get their students using specific codes in a software application. These codes were important as they helped identify trends and problems in their workflow. This identification then allowed analysts to come in and figure out ways to maximize efficiencies and or cut costs.
When the sponsor approached me she had it all figured out—her users were not entering the right codes so they just needed additional training on them. And her solution focused on step-by-step training on each of the codes. However, as I talked with her it became apparent that this solution wasn’t going to solve the problem. In this regard these users had already received step-by-step training on the codes and it didn’t work.
So I talked with her some more and discovered that users were given a codebook to help them with their processing activities. This codebook was a large job-aid that listed all of the codes and appropriate use cases for each. This was a great performance tool, but it wasn’t being used much. In addition I discovered that the end users didn’t really understand how these codes could save the organization money—they didn’t see what an error meant for the company and themselves.
So the ultimate solution didn’t focus solely on the codes, rather our total problem and solution, focused on the need to get her students using their codebook as a performance support tool and connecting the use of codes to losses and savings within the organization. From that focus we then came up with a game that users played. This game covered the most common problem areas with the codes and had the users interact with them in a simulated environment. Here users saw the connection of the codes to the company.
Can’t We All Just Get Along
Besides focusing on the wrong thing you may encounter a situation where the sponsors can’t sign off or agree on the goals/objectives of a solution. This is a real problem as you can’t start building the training until these goals and objectives have been finalized.
This is the case I experienced early in my career when I had to work with two sponsors from different divisions. This project surrounded a training initiative for case processing software. This project was complicated by the fact that several groups made up the user audience. And here my sponsors represented each group and advocated for their specific needs relating to the training.
As I worked with the sponsors I discovered that one of them wanted training surrounding the step-by-step processing requirements in the software and the other wanted to focus on the factual and conceptual content within the software. These differences caused some tension within the group and kept us from agreeing on the goals and objectives for the course.
As I continued to work with them I discovered that they wanted similar things when I pushed them on it—here they agreed that they needed all of this content as part of the solution. So they recognized each other’s needs but they couldn’t agree on which was more important. This reignited the fighting in the group and as this fight continued tunnel vision set in—my sponsors only saw what was important to them.
This went on for several weeks and I employed a variety of strategies to try to get them to agree—I met with them together, I met with them one-on-one, other designers were used to facilitate discussions, I laid out the similarities, I advocated for each need, … all to no avail. We were stuck and we were soon at a point of no return as the implementation date was fast approaching.
Ultimately I was able to get them to agree and move forward by moving around the sponsors. Here I met with key managers in their areas and explained the situation. These managers were then able to champion and sell the need for the total solution in a way that worked. The sponsors finally agreed and we able to develop a solution with steps-by-step processing as well as conceptual, factual and attitudinal information. This last knowledge type I added to the project as it is a need that is often overlooked (See knowledge types for software training for more information).
Leading a Horse to Water
Max's Interest Levels
As these stories illustrate your project sponsors can get stuck focusing on things that can derail your training initiatives. Here they may be blinded to the real problem or may not see the full needs of their audience. Regardless of the type of project sponsor you have it is your job to guide them back to a safe place.
Fortunately your interactions with these sponsors are usually limited to the front end analysis part of your projects. Once the goals and objectives have been finalized these sponsors usually go away—leaving you stuck to deal with SMEs, Project Managers, and the occasional ID.
Max is a different story—I’m stuck with him for a while and as the graph shows I’ve got a lot of distractions to deal with here; however, I’m looking forward to these challenges!
NSFW or Is It
Sometimes I have ideas that might be fun for courses but never get the chance to implement them. The other day I had one of these on using Internet memes. This approach wouldn’t work well for many audiences so I doubt I will get a chance to try it anytime soon. So rather than let that idea fall to the wayside and be forgotten I thought I’d share it.
After all maybe you could find a use for it and if not, maybe it will trigger some other idea that may be more appropriate for one of your audiences.
One popular type of meme is to reuse an image to convey a concept—maybe it’s a bad friend that everyone has or a superficial complaint about having a difficult life. Regardless of the concept, these memes can be pretty funny and the 40 best memes of 2011 post has many great examples of them.
Make a Note of This
If you look at some of these memes you may start to see a connection to content pieces you have within your courses. For example a lot of us deal with new software implementations and a lot of this content deals with:
- Notes—this is content that highlights specific steps or values to use within the software.
- Activities to Avoid—this is content that identifies specific steps or values to avoid within the software.
- Selling Points—this is content that will sell or highlight why the software is useful.
- Tips and Tricks—this is content that identifies activities that will allow you to use the software to its fullest potential.
So let’s take a look at how this content may get represented with a meme. Here a popular strategy that is used with software manuals is to create note boxes for Notes, Tips and Tricks and Warnings—instead of the standard note box you could use a meme:
Other ways you may represent your other content pieces with these memes are:
- Interrupting Kayne—could be used to identify Notes
- Scumbag Steve—could be used to identify Activities to Avoid
- Success Kid—could be used to identify Selling Points
- Most Interesting Man—could be used to identify Tricks and Tips
Quote This
Let’s use another popular strategy to highlight how these memes could be used. Here we can look at the quote boxes, which is a technique that is used to break up text and highlight a chunk of content that you want people to remember. With this technique you can highlight key information, facts/figures, or an interesting piece of content. And a use of this might be:
Post This
Wallposts and Twitter comments are a common activity for many of us today and these activities can be a way to push content to your users. These informal techniques may engage your users in a way that your normal course content can’t and may lead them to access formal content for further learning.
To get this started you can use an avatar of one of these memes and start posting short content chunks. Part of these messages can contain links for further information:
Where to Find Your Memes
The following sites can help you out with identifying memes but you might want to be careful when accessing them, as this content is not always suited for work.
Don’t let that stop you though as these memes are becoming more mainstream and a popular way to express ideas. So today this may only be suited for a small audience (generation Y and some gen Xers) sooner or later though most of us will know what they are and be comfortable with their use.