CSI: Denver - - Tim Tebow is Missing

***this is a draft, I'm sure, certain even, that the final will be award winning***

LORAINNE SCHOEMAKER:  Has anyone seen Tim Tebow since that last amazing game where football things happened but we didn't win?

TO BE CONTINUED

a quick rant about flexible spending accounts http://ping.fm/93NsT

Flexible Spending Accounts

Cool, I lost you already. 

These are called HSAs, MSAs, HRAs, FSAs, HDHPs.  My inspiration to write this comes from this link.

There, I truly lost you.  I rock.

The problem with Flexible Spending Accounts (beyond having another financial acronym) is that you’re giving stressed out tired employees one more thing to do, one more piece of paper to manage, and the perceived bother of managing that paper does not outweigh the perceived savings they can achieve.

If you’ve targeted CPAs you’re in luck, they will take probably take advantage.  If you’re targeting anyone else, consider it luck if they do take advantage.

Flexible Spending Accounts save people money.

If it’s your job to help people use their Flexible Spending Accounts, help them understand, and repeatedly reinforce, what’s in it for them (WIIFT?  WIIFU?).

An HR person telling me to use my Flexible Spending Account and providing me with endless handouts about it never worked.

Hearing directly from my manager how much he saved with 2 kids in daycare, and how easy it was to set up and use, DID WORK.

But it didn’t stick.    NOPE.  (And at base I’m a video editor who thrives on monotony…I should be taking moar paperwork to a lobster dinner.)

My manager’s Flexible Spending Account success was just one story.  It wasn’t repeated.  BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE USED IT!!!

Training programs for Flexible Spending Accounts have continuously been “Here’s the information.  Now do it.”  To be successful they need to have multiple success stories, and they need repetition!  And why not toss in a gaming element as well?  Show off how much employees are saving with their Flexible Spending Accounts.  Compete.  Celebrate.  Win stupid prizes.  Have something to show for it!

And make a big difference in employees lives because they WILL save money through their Flexible Spending Accounts….that you educated them all about through a personal, extended release strategy.

I’m Scott.  I help the people at corporations and organizations create web based training and eLearning tutorials.  Specifically, I help you write it, I create the video and graphics that go with it, and I help you put it all together.

 Scott Bell

wrapping up eLearning with frosting, bows and glitter http://ping.fm/WDjtq

eLearning: Summary

Download the full PDF article by clicking here.

So, this has been a journey!

Hi.  My name’s Scott.  I help the people at corporations and organizations create web based training and eLearning tutorials.  Specifically, I help you write it, I create the content (sound, video, graphics, etc.) that goes with it, and I help you put it all together.

While writing this article, I came across a quote: Learning is chaotic. 

Today’s hard and fast rules for learning do not apply to every learner, and will not be the same hard and fast rules for tomorrow.

As creators of training materials, we try to build a framework around this chaos called learning.  We have to be adaptable and change with the times.

Learning is an interruption.  If we are going to be successful, we have to be disruptive.

I’m writing this summary on the day that some training courses I created for the University of Washington Social Work Continuing Education Department have been glowingly approved.  Direct quote from the project manager, via my email: 

Scott - Thank you Thank you Thank you.  These 3 courses really look great!

And one of the project manager’s bosses:

Scott, these look great!  I appreciate your rapid response and flexibility.
These are fantastic products!

For this UW project, I

·         Helped write the narration scripts (they drafted, I revised)

·         Created the content, which means:

o   Sourced the voice over talent

o   Used at least 6 different programs to create the graphics and

o   Edit the video

o   Created downloadable course transcripts, and then

·         Assembled the video, graphics, transcripts, quizzes, into training courses on their system

Two years ago, I created content for a 25 volume online University-style training system for a multinational insurance agency.  This is my Real World Example B from that section of this article.

As of this writing, that training required for all sales agents, and profits have risen.

For that project, I

·         Interviewed SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) and then drafted and revised their speaking scripts

·         Hired and supervised two freelancers to help me out with videotaping, video editing and graphics

·         Assembled the video, graphics, training manuals, subtitles, quizzes, pages, chapters, and modules on a beautiful custom system

Back in the wings right now I have a training project for a state agency.  My source material is Power Point files.  With them I am:

·         Writing the narration script

·         Sourcing the voice talent

·         Hiring help for particular parts

·         Putting everything into self-contained courses with Articulate

·         Posting the finished product to the agency’s system

Is this starting to look familiar?

Unique needs can be approached with simple steps and still create a unique, desired outcome.

I step in and execute those steps.  There might be a whole lot of steps (every need is unique), but I make my clients feel like it’s easy.

My clients (or more directly, my clients’ Project managers, managers at businesses and organizations, educators, human resources) already have their daily jobs to do.  When something like “build a training program for X,” is dropped on their plate, it can be a large order.  It took me 20-some pages to describe the various moving parts.  Particularly where creating the content is concerned; they may have never written a narration script, they might not understand the difference between the content itself and the way it is organized. 

I don’t think they should have to know any of this.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with not knowing how to do these things.  They are tasks best left to specialists.  There is no shame in not knowing how to do something, as long as you know how to hire someone who does.

A competent content specialist will be able to mesh his work seamlessly with your project.

Since 1994, I’ve been doing exactly this for all kinds of clients.  All kinds.  As I listened to a friend of mine giving me feedback on this article, he said something like, “Scott, do you know what a truly powerful force you are, how you have been so helpful to me and others as a project manager and content creator.  How you are able to quickly size things up then synthesize, reorganize and guide people.  Do you have any idea what a benefit that is?”

Yes, I do.  That’s why I wrote this.  What he said.  I like to call it my blender head.

                                                     haha, that’s a band logo.  Who knew?

BUT, back to the others described above:

Something I’d love to do for these educators, and any client with the need and the fit, is take advantage of Apples iBook Author, and start creating-then-posting fully engaging interactive iBooks to iTunes U, and otherwise branded eBooks for other convenient devices.

Something else I’d love to do, since I’m playing with ZebraZapps right now, is include this game-changing power (“game changing” - - get it?  Lol.) of game creation in more and more courses.

What do you want to do?

What do you want to create?

Learning should not be a hurdle to progress or a brick wall to growth. 
It should be fun.  And it has to be helpful - - to both the employee and employer.

                                                                                               -me

I’m Scott.  I help the people at corporations and organizations create web based training and eLearning tutorials.  Specifically, I help you write it, I create the video and graphics that go with it, and I help you put it all together.

 Scott Bell

today we take eLearning to the masses with MGMT and Delivery (not a new band, just a method) http://ping.fm/dxakH

eLearning: Management, Presentation, Delivery

Download the full PDF article by clicking here.

Once you have the Training and Content (the path, with all the twigs and rocks and stuff along the path), you need a system that will hold your program together and deliver it to your learners.

How does all of your content, all of your quizzing, all of your data gathering, come together?  Through your Learning Management System (LMS) and Content Management System (CMS), or the combo: LCMS.  What are these things?  Click that link and read the full Wikipedia entry for numbing detail. 

None of these acronyms create content. 

They do give your learners an infrastructure for viewing the training; organizing and presenting your content, quizzing, data gathering, etc.

Does your eLearning, web-based training program, need one of these systems?  Yes, in some form.  Will it be ridiculously confusing if I go on and on about them?  Yes. 

Bottom line is that you need to deliver your training to your learners, in the form and format most helpful to them, and the people who create your training content need an organized way to deliver it.

Again, mind numbing detail is available by clicking this wiki link.

You can buy this system off the shelf, or you can find one via the open source world, or you can hire a firm to build one customized to your specifications.

I support building one customized to your specifications.  Here’s why:

·         Off the shelf, open source, or custom build, there will be rules and a learning curve….you rarely just set these things up and go.

o   With a custom build, you are making the rules

·         Off the shelf, open source, or custom build, you will need technical support.  Each has support limitations, but I have found that:

o   When a knowledgeable firm does your custom build, you have available, helpful technical support.  You are one of a handful of clients, and your needs will be important.  You will actually matter to them, and their responses will show that.

o   Off the shelf will provide ok support, but you are one of a large group of clients, and support will likely involve call centers, automated menus, and other frustrating things.

o   I have never experienced helpful support on an open source product.

Those things said, I want to say a few more things to discourage you, in general, from going with an open source LCMS.

·         Linux is open source, and free.  If Linux was both Free and Easy, everyone would use it. 

·         Wordpress is open source.  Wordpress requires technical support from technical geniuses and technical coaches, most of whom are not free.

·         You generally get what you pay for.  Right?  Right.

·         Your time has value.  Right?  Right.

On the other hand, Filezilla is open source, and I love it.  It always works for me.

All that said, a few words to encourage a Custom Build.

·         It’s built to do specifically what you need. 

·         You have a choice of programming languages that will do various things for you.

o     Example:  a custom system built on Microsoft .NET can give you web, windows, tablet, phone, xBox (how incredible would it be to deploy your xBox-compatible training program?)

§  These options might be paid add-ons or plug-ins with other systems.

·         You make the rules

o   You are not compromising your training to fit it into a generic system’s template

o   You are working with the firm to design

§  How your training will look

§  How learners will interact with your training

§  How you manage your training content

There are a lot of options out in the world.  I have my opinions.  You need to pick the presentation and organization method that best fits your needs.

Which brings us to Delivery.  Yes, it’s different from organization and presentation.  How will you get your training program to the learner’s fingertips?  Delivery has two layers:  The Pipe, and the Devices.

I kinda feel like drawing pictures again…

Delivery: Pipe

If your learners are staying in your office building, in your town, potentially even in your state (Rhode Island is tiny…), your Pipe can be potentially be Local Distribution.  This can happen via your own highly responsive corporate servers, or a local data center.

On the other hand, if your learners are spread far and wide, across states, the country, the hemisphere, the world - - or if your servers simply are not robust enough to handle your training experience, you will need some hearty distribution.  There are services for this.  A couple are Amazon hosting (EC2 at this writing), and Windows Azure.  This is “the Cloud.” 

You might even think of iTunes, Newsstand, and iTunes U as cloud services - - because you use them to access data/media from anywhere with a signal.  YouTube is video in the cloud….so if your training is all video, and you don’t care about security, and have some other method of reporting, your training could potentially live on YouTube.

Delivery: Devices

These are the computing devices that the learner can use to access training.

·         Desktop PC

o   Learners probably have one at work, likely to have one at home

o   Easy to set up a workstation where learners can log in and access training

o   Windows or Mac

o   Physical keyboard and mouse

o   Wifi or Ethernet internet connection

o   Not portable

·         Laptop

o   Learners possibly have one at work and at home

o   Windows or Mac

o   Physical keyboard, mouse options (physical, trackpad, multi-touch)

o   Wifi or Ethernet connection

o   Portable

Desktop PC’s and laptops have been around for the longest, as a device type they have logged a lot of training time.  Right now, they are what the majority of people are used to using.  Your training content can be robust, sugary rich media, or simple.

·         Tablet

o   Learners possibly have one, or their employer might provide one

o   Mac, Android, possibly Kindle Fire (Microsoft is building a prototype)

o   Touch screen

§  Will use gestures and need a design that allows users to click with big ole fingers.

o   Wifi internet

o   Highly portable

·         Smartphone

o   Learners possibly own one, employer might provide one

o   Mac, Android, Windows

o   Touch screen

§  Gestures, design for finger clicks

o   Wifi or 3G/4G internet

o   Highly highly portable

As I understand it, designing for tablets and smartphones is basically the same (iPhone/iPad, Android Phone/Android Tablet).  Same display size ratio, simplicity, larger buttons for clumsy fingers.  It’s been a little amazing – and makes complete sense - to see how iPads have become learning devices of choice for educators and government agencies.  They’re just so portable, and just so intuitively easy to use.

In my mind, I’m lumping “eReaders” in with Tablets.  So much can be done with interactive eBooks and iBooks that I think it’s just a matter of time before they completely take over the market.  When you combine engaging, interactive eBooks with simple delivery via Amazon and iTunes, and program in a pipe back to the database for reliable reporting, you have a brand new way to think about textbooks and the way people learn.

WHEW!

That just about wraps things up.  I know, for some of you this is far too oversimplified.  For others, it’s far too much to take in.  No matter where you are in my galactic continuum, I hope this article has helped you generate your own notes and questions.

Tomorrow is the last little bit - - See you then!