Infusing Assessments with Advanced Interactivity

Assessments are inherently interactive. There is no assessment unless the learner interacts with the e-learning course in some way. What then does 'infusing assessments with advanced interactivity' mean?

Some instructional designers believe that throwing in some multiple choice questions make learning sufficiently interactive. We would like to question that. Learners are bored to death with the chore of answering the same types of questions: MCQ, Matching, Fill-in and Drag-drop. They need variety. They need to enjoy their assessments. Don't they?

Formative assessments, sprinkled throughout the learning material, aim to perform a knowledge-check. Here, there is huge potential for using a wide variety of exciting interactions.

When the nature of the learning content drives your decision, you might choose interactions accordingly. For example, a product familiarization course may involve labeling, a soft-skill course may use videos or simulations, and so forth.

Sometimes your instructional objective decides the interaction type. This would lead to interactions that require recalling a concept and applying it or simply memorizing it.

Finally, the nature of  your target audience influences the choice of interactions. Competitive audiences will enjoy games, those needing motivation could use other types of interactions.


Summative assessments, which occur at the end of a learning module, aim to evaluate the learner and report a score. Prima facie it stands to reason that summative assessments are more serious business, and should somehow steer clear of interactivity. On close examination, though, we find several situations where summative assessments too can benefit from advanced interactivity.

For example, a compliance training can include an assessment delivered as a simulation exercise. Similarly, when teaching leadership development, games can still deliver. The case of interesting assessments for K-12 is more obvious to make. Several questions can be delivered through game-like activities.

In conclusion, then, both formative and summative assessments can be infused with advanced interactivity to enhance learner engagement, enjoyment and retention, without compromising the key goals of knowledge checking and evaluation.

One great example of a simple interaction that works equally well in both types of assessments is Rapid Check. To see a demo of Rapid Check, click here. To hear about the various ways you can use Rapid check, watch this webcast.

Ad-hoc Social Learning Environment - How a Blog Drives Learning

I recently conducted  a one-month leadership development program at Harbinger Group. The program, dubbed BaseCamp 2010, addressed 40 participants drawn from the senior and mid-level ranks of the company. The goal of the program was to expose participants to selected ideas in innovation, strategy, leadership and vision: all of them set in the context of high tech industry. The participants were in different timezones and could not all meet in one place or at one time.

We decided to set up an ad-hoc social learning environment mostly using freely available tools. We decided to outline our curriculum in a skeletal form using a blog, and then set social interactions in the curriculum context. The program, conducted over five weeks, was  a great success.


In this post, I summarize what we learned about the ad-hoc social learning environments. Although these observations are based on the leadership development program, they may be applicable to other training types.



1. Blog is the watering hole
A learning blog is so much a happening place! The blog has a personal touch, it is easy to follow, its updates are delivered to participant's RSS reader instantaneously. We used Blogger, the Google blogging tool.

The instructor's blog posts were very short - often less than one hundred words. Blog posts provided a guiding theme and then pointed to a web  resource such as a YouTube video, or a podcast or a news story article or a case study. Learners were expected to consume the content and then respond to the questions raised in the blog post.

• For example, a blog post would show a crisis situation, followed by a media interview of the person who was in charge of handling the crisis. That would be the starting point for  a discussion on leadership.
• As another example, a New York Times story on a new innovative idea would serve as a springboard for a discussion.
• Or simply a blog would bring up two conflicting viewpoints on an issue and ask the participants to debate on both sides. 
• In yet another case, a blog post would provide a framework for various leadership traits, and participants would be asked to reflect and decide how they view themselves.

2. Comments are where the action is
Blog comments, though arguably the most primitive form of interaction, were of great value to the course. Participants had a lot to learn from each other. The blog post set a common context and comments were based on that context. Over time the quality of comments improved, and participants became more responsive to each others' comments.

The opinion was divided on whether comments should be public (open to everyone to read) or moderated (not open until the deadline). In our case we preferred the earlier option, because to us, it was more important that people learn from each other rather than compete for grade.

3. Social interaction pods are best for debate
We used TeemingPod for conducting debates amongst participants on a 40-page business case study. Everyone was online, at their own convenience, adding their points of view to TeemingPod.

The debates were organized in groups of 6 to 8 learners, and each group discussed several aspects of the case. The discussions were asynchronous and mediated. As their instructor, I could challenge certain points of view. When I thought the discussion was going off on a tangent, I could bring the main issue out front and center.It was great fun being part of six different groups debating a case study at the same time - something I could never hope to do in a classroom.

4. Interactivity adds fun
We used Raptivity games to add fun to learning. One interaction, for example, was a fun exercise where you paired related concepts. By the time you had finished the game, it served to re-kindle major takeaways from then entire course. Then, you were supposed to write an essay describing what you learnt. Participants enjoyed that.

5. Twitter creates immediacy 
We used a Twitter gadget inside the blog, and that is where we posted deadlines, status updates, how far we were from completing grading and so forth. We also announced class average scores through the Twitter gadget. Soon the whole class started following the Twitter ID, so we removed the gadget and ran our Tweets separately.

6. Asynchronous interaction works great
There may be some value to bringing everyone online at the same time and conducing a class using a web meeting platform. In our case, we discovered that we did not need this. The whole of BaseCamp 2010 was delivered in asynchronous mode, and that did not stop us from interacting in meaningful ways.


7. LMS is fine for the boring stuff

We did use the LMS only to grade lessons and assignments. We also had the mobile quiz results tracked thru the LMS - Moodle, in our case. All the record-keeping and statistics happened there.


Judging from the participant feedback at the end of the program, as well as their work output in strategic planning sessions soon after the program concluded, the program was a great success. We saved major costs and saw growth in employee engagement. 

Have you explored social learning enviroments? Are you considering that idea? What are your thoughts? Any suggestions? Concerns?

Emerging Trends in Interactivity that Training Professionals Cannot Ignore

In this post I would like to relate five emerging trends in interactivity that training professionals cannot ignore. I will also name a few tools that help you leverage those trends.

Interactive Presentations
Presenters are increasingly relying upon interactive elements to help their presentations come alive. Trainers and teachers can no longer make do with bullet points. Learners expect interactive elements in your presentations. Examples of tools that help you build interactivity to your presentations are YawnBuster, Flash and Silverlight - to name a few.

Virtual Worlds, 3D Environments, Learning Games
These interactivities create immersive experiences. Second life, Proton Media, Teleplace are some of the tools that let you do that.

Rapid Interactivity
Tools for building interactivity quickly and easily have lowered the entry barrier to interactivity building. Raptivity is a great example of that. Over 200 readymade interactivity templates are part of Raptivity and you don’t have to write a single line of code to create a branching simulation or a crossword or a 3 dimensional tour or a virtual world experience.

Composite Applications with Widgets
In web-based learning environments, composite apps are a big value-add. I recently completed a leadership development program for 40 managers. And the entire training program was delivered over a blog. The blog posts contained Raptivity elements, exercises and modules the learners to complete, and I used a Twitter gadget inside my blog. The Twitter gadget was my way of communicating with them in real time instantly.

User-Generated Content from Social Interactions
Embedded social interactions bring content alive. These are fascinating and they are a breeze to set up. It’s extremely easy to embed social interactions to bring content alive. Sidewiki is an interesting tool. Its a little Wiki that sits on a website and people who know stuff in addition to what they see on a website, can go ahead and add it to Wiki. So, here’s the site and here’s the little SideWiki with user generated content. Together, the result is richer than the original content. TeemingPod is another tool that lets you embed social interactions into your training content.

So, if you are a learning professional, these are some of the things you need to aware of and there are several technologies you can take advantage of. At first, the tools may look intimidating, but let me tell you, it’s never been easier to set up a learning environment, to bring interactivity to your learning content than it is today.

Stop Hovering over Learners

Helicopter Parents: Image courtesy The Telegraph, UK

Helicopter parents, as we know, hover over kids, micromanaging every aspect of their lives.

Unfortunately, like many other well-meaning actions, helicoptering can deliver more harm than good. It has been argued that too much hovering sometimes backfires, because kids learn their values backwards: they feel entitled to things that they must earn, they lack empathy where it is needed.

How does a parent instill a sense of personal responsibility in children? What will help teens develop decision-making skills? One school of thought says, stop hovering. Don't go nuts with worry.

Excessive hovering is not unique to parenting. Such excesses have their parallels in the learning world.

Take e-learning design, for example. Often we design courses that spoon-feed learners. When we do everything for learners, they end up thinking they in fact cannot do it themselves. Excessive guidance and tracking can actually shut down communication, depriving us of a key goal of interactivity.

Are you a helicopter instructional designer? Take this simple quiz.

1. I don't always provide immediate feedback - sometimes I delay it so the learner can observe the consequences of mistakes. (Yes/No)


2. My learners have a choice to navigate a course relatively freely - they can jump ahead or drop several levels back based on how they are doing. (Yes/No)


3. I allow some means for learners to self-assess, and reflect on their accomplishments (Yes/No)


4. My games and simulations carry an element of risk to learners, so they must weigh their decisions carefully (Yes/no)


5. I use pre-test or other methods to establish a learner's current level and maintain an element of stretch throughout the course. (Yes/No)


6. Assessments I design have multi-level hints: I do not give it all away at once. (Yes/No)


7. I mix informal learning experiences in the structured learning path. (Yes/no)
   

Please grade yourself. Here is a suggested grading scheme based on the number of affirmative replies:

6-7: The chopper has landed. Your learners will breathe easy.

4-5: The Hovering Bird. We know you enjoy flying, but with some persuasion, you can land the helicopter.

2-3: The Black Hawk. You have the approach of a military helicopter. The target will never be out of sight. At times you hover at close range.

0-1: The Lawnmower. You believe in mowing down the learner's path clean of all obstacles.

Interactivity-Centric Blended Learning

We showed this graphic for the first time at DevLearn 2008 Conference & Expo at the Fairmont San Jose. The conference theme was, in keeping with its Silicon Valley venue, learning in a Web 2.0 world.

The topic of the talk was “Fostering Interactivity in the Classroom, Self-paced eLearning and Informal Learning.”

Although the graphic shows interactivity driving three learning modalities, there are important differences in the way interactivity drives these . To explore the differences, we only need to understand what is unique in each modality.

In classroom learning, learners are addressed as a group, all at once. Thus, group dynamics plays an important role. Everyone needs to keep pace with each other and the instructor. This means synchronization is critical.

In e-Learning, each learner is addressed separately, and learns at his or her own pace. Here, the key is engagement. It is easy for learner to get distracted, and e-learning designers endeavor to prevent this. Also, the instructor is absent from the scene at the time of learning, so the instructional designer carries a greater weight on his/her shoulders at the time of designing.

In informal learning, social interaction is pivotal. Peer learning thrives on people talking to each other. However, their interaction needs a learning context. If there is no context, there’s no learning.

The rest of the talk explored how these important differences manifest themselves in each modality. In classrooms, interactivity takes the form of facilitated group activities. In e-learning you will see non-trivial human-computer interactions, now popularly known as interactivities. Informal learning thrives on embedded social interactions, which make online interaction happen in a learning context.

Speaking Engagements in London and Paris

After spending two weeks in London and Paris, my interactions with elearning professionals have left me even more convinced about the need for embracing new technology to advance learning.

At the Olympia 2 Conference Center in London, the topic of my talk was “Unleash the Potential of Learning Interactions and Informal Learning.” The occasion was the Learning Technologies 2008 Conference.

Globally, eLearning occupies an increasing portion of the total learning delivered but still there are concerns about learner disengagement and non-completion. The root causes of learner boredom are traced to the lack of interactivity, learner isolation and content obsolescence. Some of the existing technology can address these concerns, but not in a scalable and economical way.

The audience participated well, and most of the discussion centered around two questions.

1. How to leverage rapid interactivity technology to create high level learning interactions
2. How to uncover the potential of social interactions as a tool for content enrichment using available technology

Next week, it was the Palais des Congrès in Paris where iLearning Forum 2008 met. Here, things were a bit different, because I don’t know French. Fortunately, the talk was fashioned as a joint presentation between myself in English and Peter Isackson of InterSmart Communication in French. Here our game plan was to:

1. Discuss some existing Web 2.0 techniques and tools for collaborative learning
2. Uncover the value that informal learning could bring to self-paced online Learning.
3. Introduce the concept of Contextual Informal Learning interactions for better learning outcomes with FlockPod
4. Illustrate the potential of social interactions as a tool for content enrichment

People are increasingly using social networking tools on the internet to share ideas, information and opinions and to connect to one another. Similar Web2.0 inspired collaborative tools could really change the face of online Learning.

An oft-quoted study by CapitalWorks revealed that over 80% of learning on the job occurs through informal means. And yet ‘informal learning’ is one key ingredient missing from self-paced online learning as we know it today.

A question then is, how can Web 2.0 inspired social interactions be introduced in the context of online learning?

Blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarks, forums and other technologies may lead to learning, but they alone are not sufficient in addressing this problem. Important questions remain unanswered: How to ensure that informal learning happens ‘in the context’ of self-paced online content? How to ensure that interactions follow a structure conducive to learning? Better yet, how to ensure that interactions lead to content enrichment?

For best learning outcomes social interactions must fulfill these conditions:

1. Take place in the context of the presented course page
2. Allow learners to contribute and voice opinions
3. Provide educators the flexibility and control over interactions as well as content.

Social learning tools could have many applications such as collaborating on internal projects, threaded discussions on a topic, group assignments, peer support, hand-raising and debates, just to name some.

Dr Isackson and I addressed these issues and provided an illustration of the new exciting social interaction pod technology as a solution.

Keeping Interactivity at the Center of Rapid Development

Bryan Chapman is Chief Learning Strategist at Chapman Alliance. Formerly he was the Director of Research and Strategy for independent research and consulting firm Brandon Hall Research.

What we DON'T need in the industry, Bryan argued at a recent webinar, is a
faster way to create page-turning courseware! Yet, in many cases, the phrase “rapid development” has become synonymous with cranking out content that resembles an online book format.

Does it have to be that way? According to Bryan, the answer is an emphatic “No.” Forward-thinking organizations have figured out how to balance learning development, much in the same way we’ve figured out how to create blended learning. The key is using the right, best-of-breed tools for specific, desired learning outcomes.

The webinar, sponsored by Harbinger Knowledge Products, focused on these objectives:

• How and when to use the right interactive tools for the right instructional needs
• How to mix interactive exercises and other modalities to create dynamic, engaging course content
• How to infuse rapid development without sacrificing interactivity

Bryan opened his presentation with a Rapid Development Feud game, which aimed at discovering why we don’t use interactivity during rapid development. In his quintessential enthusiastic and energetic way, he then went on to make several key points.

Blended Learning and Interactivity
IBM blended learning model arranges various learning modalities in three concentric circles.

1. Classroom in the center - the culminating experience
2. Exercises, practice, games and simulations in the middle ring
3. Whitepapers, guides, documents, presentations and other reference material in the outer ring

Rapid authoring tools address the "outer ring" learning experience, whereas rapid simulation and game development tools such as Raptivity target the "middle ring".

Interactivity and Instructional Design
Dont wait till too late in the course development cycle to apply interactivity. In the ADDIE model, you need to think of interactivity as you prepare a variety of intermediate deliverables, including design documents, storyboards and prototypes, not just the final course.

Interactivity should meet instructional goals: An example was shown how Raptivity does this with a labeling exercise.

Tips and Suggestions - Using Interactivity for Rapid Development

• Create an interactivity “sampler” to show to internal customers, SME’s, etc. Review before design activities.
• Don’t create navigation controls at the page level. It’s a waste of time.
• Page turning isn’t bad if used in moderation. Add a healthy mix of interactivity.
• When prototyping, create a prototype for each interaction, not just a single lesson or module.
• Consider using multiple tools to meet the need.
• One caution: make sure interactivity choices don’t overshadow the instruction. It is possible to use too much of a good thing.

All in all it was a very useful session for rapid development practitioners. Bryan also shared his research on the cost of development per finished hour of learning, and how it varies with the level of interactivity.

You can view a recording of this event here. You can also download the presentation.