Tag Archives: learning technologies

Ten tips to build interactivity

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Interactivity is a key component in the learning process. While it’s relatively easy for a teacher in a classroom to interact with the learners and, by ‘reading’ the situation, involve them in the learning process in the most effective ways, it’s much harder for those producing online learning materials. For one thing, they can only make educated guesses at their learners’ needs, state of mind, attitude to and preferences for learning and so on.

 

So, when developing online learning materials, it’s important to define the content that needs to be learned; determine what the learner must do as a result of completing these learning materials, and so decide on the most appropriate ‘treatment’ for the content. Users must interact with online learning materials to navigate through the materials; amass information and make decisions.

 

Considering what the learner needs to know or do – rather than what the teacher wants to teach – involves you in ‘interactivity’. So here are ten things to bear in mind about interactivity when you’re developing online learning materials:

  1. Allow the learners to control their learning – so they’re more likely to engage with the whole learning activity. You should always let them see where they’re going on their learning journey and what options they have at each stage of that journey.
  2. You should cater for different preferred learning styles. Not everyone wants to engage with the same type of interaction. Offer learners choices of interaction to go some way to ‘personalising’ the materials and so generate maximum engagement and motivation.
  3. Give the learners a reason to explore the materials and gather the information they need. Don’t ‘push’ information at them. Rather, let the learners ‘pull’ that information from the learning materials.
  4. Challenge the learners’ understanding – not just to find out how much they already know and, so, how much they need to learn but also to make them receptive to new ideas and ways of doing things.
  5. Give the learners choice over how they’ll learn – building in opportunities for those who need more information to get it as well as for those who need less information to learn by experiment and experience.
  6. Emphasise – in the learning materials - that these choices produce consequences. This can be done via establishing a scenario with various results depending on the learners’ decisions.
  7. Generate ‘tension’ throughout the materials. If you make learners care about the decisions they take, they’ll become more engaged with the learning materials and motivated to not only ‘succeed’ within the parameters of the learning materials but also to apply, in the real world, the lessons they’ve learned.
  8. Look for other ways – that is, things not specifically related to the materials’ learning objectives – to reward the learner for persevering with the learning materials. This could include permission to play a game (contained within the learning materials) for a while once certain key points are reached.
  9. Give helpful feedback following any assessments the learners take. That’s easier said than done!
  10. Make the materials look attractive to the user. Visually attractive materials aren’t necessarily the most effective – but if they’re not visually attractive, they won’t attract learners’ attention and, so, they’ll be ineffective anyway.

 

Instituted tastefully, interaction can help to make learning materials more intuitive for the user – making their message more memorable.

 

Of course, Harbinger Group’s Raptivity is a rapid interaction development software tool that comes with a library of pre-built customisable learning interactions. Users have access to over 180 pre-programmed Flash and over 110 HTML5 interactions including games, simulations, brainteasers, interactive diagrams and virtual worlds. Moreover, each type of interaction includes a number of standard templates – one of which is likely to be appropriate for any ‘learning situation’. The user merely has to add content to the chosen interaction. For more information, see Raptivity®

How to buy the best, safely

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Typically, buyers of learning materials want the best products at the least cost, in the shortest time cycles, with the minimum risk and from the best vendors. They also want ‘continuity’ from those from whom they buy.

 

Online learning is characterised by being produced by multi-disciplinary teams, to demanding project management requirements and – in software terms – in relatively small order sizes. This makes it difficult for online learning producers to grow or, indeed, to stay in business over the longer term.

 

As budgets get tighter, buyers look more closely at their key criteria for buying and that puts pressure on suppliers. It also suggests suppliers need to look and think ‘global’. There are a number of benefits to be gained from ‘going global’, or internationalising your online learning materials development requirements.

 

Internationalisation brings shorter time cycles and faster development for online learning materials. Using a global producer reduces the risk to the buyer – that the producer will not have the skills or resources to produce the required materials and may not have a robust enough business to provide continuity of after-sales service and maintenance.

 

Global producers – with a global reputation to keep – should produce e-learning materials of a higher quality with fewer defects that smaller producers. And, they should be able to keep costs to a minimum.

 

There are 12 steps in learning design:

  • Client brief/study
  • Analysis
  • Concept definition
  • Interface and usability design
  • Software decisions
  • Content and interactivity design
  • Multimedia requirements definition
  • Template design
  • Documenting
  • Storyboarding
  • Prototyping
  • Micro storyboarding

 

When suppliers go ‘global’ they have to decide how to do all of these steps in a way that is related to each particular product and which incorporates clients’ wishes. One way to do this is to have task lists, then have templates and checklists for each stage and also have an additional level of review to take account of cultural and geographical differences between the producers and users of the e-learning materials.

 

As a global producer of e-learning materials, you need to ensure that the end user has access to the technology to use the materials you have developed. There needs to be an on-site co-ordinator for the users, along with local subject matter experts, local editors and end-user workshops. There also needs to be strong project management, not just taking account of but also exploiting the time differences between geographies – for example, using different time zones to reduce the time taken to develop the e-learning materials.

The people aspects of learning

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It’s all very well to promote the benefits of any or all forms of online learning – especially its flexibility – but people will only embrace this learning if they want to learn and are actively encouraged to do so by both their line and senior managers.

 

In addition to this managerial encouragement, there are other sources of potential motivation. One of these is that the learning must be done for regulatory or compliance purposes (basically, ‘do this learning or you lose your job’) but a further motivational source is the quality of the instructional design embedded in the learning materials.

 

In these days of rapid authoring tools and the idea that any subject matter expert can produce high quality e-learning at the touch of a template-wielding button, old fashioned instructional design has tended to take a back seat. Yet, to improve the chances of any piece of online learning being effective – in the sense of people actually wanting to do it and, maybe, even enjoying the experience – you should probably:

  • Set technical standards for the whole project – including lists of the software required and how it is to be set up.
  • Make sure that the instructional designer is fully briefed on the subject material by a subject matter expert (SME) – or that the SME is competent in instructional design skills in order to produce the learning materials.
  • Keep the format of the material simple.
  • Ensure that part of the production process is to test the programme rigorously with groups of users with similar skills to your target audience. Note their responses and the way they use the programme. Was it relevant to their jobs? Could its content be easily assimilated into working practices? Did they find navigating through the programme easy? How long did it take them to complete the programme? Did the user control the programme or go through it linearly (from start to finish)? And, of course, did the users enjoy the learning experience?

 

One common factor affecting the success of any learning project is the need for it to be supported wholeheartedly by all strata of management, led by senior executives. Nothing will succeed if you forget all of the people aspects of learning.

E-learning’s unlucky 13

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A while ago, over 100 learning professionals were asked what one thing most annoys them about online learning materials. Their responses were both varied and – significantly – many. Of these, the 13 most annoying traits of online learning materials were:

 

Patronising the learner

  • Having a section called ‘how to use this e-learning module’
  • Spelling out the materials’ objective – such as ‘By the end of this module you will have learned…’
  • Text-heavy sections labelled ‘Background’ or ‘History’- and the related issue of getting learners to read a company policy in the guise of it being ‘e-learning’.

 

Poor screen design

  • Pages cluttered – confusingly – with text and clipart graphics
  • Using text to explain what each button does, rather than letting the users explore and find out for themselves.
  • The use of fading text and pictures – in and out, in and out…- which just frustrates the user.
  • Inane, irrelevant and ineffective interactions – including fatuous multiple-choice questions.

 

Poor program design

  • The lack of a ‘page-turning’ running theme to keep user interest.
  • Having a robotic voice read all of the text as it appears on the screen – with no option to move on until the voice finishes (it’s a timeline the user can’t control).
  • Seeing the messages: Error 404. ‘Not Found’ and ‘Unable to open http://www…..’
  • Step locking – that is, making the user click everything that’s possible to click on before the page will advance (to ‘ensure understanding’ by the learner).

 

Performance issues

  • Images, such as an animated clock, along with the message ‘loading’ which takes several minutes to disappear, or the message, ‘Hang on, we’re having technical difficulties’ – followed by a frozen screen.
  • As the user submits something, the message appears on screen, ‘Sorry, your session has timed out’ – resulting in everything the user had produced disappearing into the ether.

 

If these traits seem worryingly familiar or, worse still, they’re recognisable in some of your own e-learning output, then there’s some useful guidance on how to make learning outcomes ‘work’, from Phil Race, at http://phil-race.co.uk/most-popular-downloads

 

On a different level, though, is the e-learning material – however it’s delivered – really what the learning is all about? Isn’t the real learning encapsulated and demonstrated in the activities that learners undertake, applying the knowledge they’ve gained having worked through the e-learning materials? After all, you can learn the Highway Code until by rote and you can use all the driving simulators there are but you can never say you’ve learnt to drive until you do it in a vehicle on a real road in the real world.

 

It’s well-known that we learn by doing. Yet e-learning materials still ask learners to read something, watch a video and/or listen to audio and then answer some questions. How does anyone – including the user – know they’ve really understood what they’re supposed to have understood unless their understanding is demonstrated in reality?

 

After all, despite what those in the learning technologies world might prefer to believe, e-learning is not, nor can it be, the real world.

Doing the right things at the right time

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There’s a tendency to do ‘just-in-case’ training rather than ‘just-in-time’ training. In other words, people are given access to learning materials in case they ever need to know what they’re being taught.

 

Key issues in today’s workplace are the pace of change; the appearance of broader and more complex job tasks, and the question of whether learning should be just-in-case or just-in time. If you opt for ‘just-in-time’ learning, you’re opting for performance support.

 

This can be applied to:

  1. Organisations: their structure, products and knowledge
  2. Office technology
  3. Business: applications and processes
  4. ‘Dynamic issues’: competitors, marketing and technical

 

Where required knowledge levels are low – typically from zero to 20 per cent – the most effective way to create this knowledge level is via training, using online materials, workshops, coaching, drill and practice. Where the required knowledge level is between 20 and 70 per cent, the most effective way to create this is via performance support, encompassing online and offline reference materials, drill and practice. And where the required knowledge levels exceed 70 per cent, the most effective ways to achieve this are via learning: reference materials, direct support, virtual campus and learning communities.

 

To check you’re doing the right thing at the right time where a learning programme is concerned, use the acronym ‘PRIDE’:

  1. Promoted – not just how is the learning programme marketed and advertised, but is the programme a part of the culture of the organisation?
  2. Relevant
  3. Instructionally sound – not just is it well designed, but is the content always sound in the light of current developments. In addition, you need to check on the way that the trainers and tutors are putting over and/or supporting the programme.
  4. Demonstrate value – does this piece of learning demonstrate value (however that can be defined) within the organisation?
  5. Effective – is it doing what you want?

 

This approach can’t overcome the ‘politics’ that exists in organisations but, all other things considered, it can help to arrest the decline phase of the programme lifecycle.

 

Pieces of learning have a natural lifespan. For example, you know when a job aid has worked – because the people throw it away. However, to keep learning going, you need flexibility – or change – within the delivery media.

 

All learning delivery media are flexible, although some are more flexible than others. Generally speaking, the more inflexible the media, the higher the cost involved in changing it. Costs associated with changing delivery media include changing the content, testing the programme and deploying the programme – all of which have their own issues.

 

Often, when people produce a learning programme, they think of what’s expensive to do in the first place. They don’t think of what’s expensive to change.

 

The key points here are to remember the ‘PRIDE’ acronym; use transition media where appropriate; draw together disparate elements of information within the organisation to make new learning materials – and keep focused on results.

 

This article has been adapted from the contents of chapter 10 of Bob Little’s e-book, ‘Perspectives on Learning Technologies’ (e-book; ASIN: B00A9K1VVS). This e-book is available from The Endless Bookcase and from Amazon. It contains over 200 pages of observations on issues in learning technologies, principally for learning & development professionals.

Key issues in mobile learning

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The drivers for adopting new technologies in learning include not only the suppliers and customers (buyers) but also the consumers (users) – in other words, everyone. Decide, design, develop and deploy is the standard four-step process relating to technology. Increasingly – since about 2006 – consumers want to use mobile devices for learning and for the less formal ‘performance support’. Initially, there can a high cost of ownership (of the latest mobile devices). So the key issue for HR and learning & development (L&D) professionals is how to get the maximum value from, and use of, this technology.

 

Mobile devices are now readily available – and we all have them. Communications, games and entertainment, business services, L&D, commerce and other business transactions, as well as business opportunities are inter-connected with mobile applications in the sense that they both influence and are influenced by these mobile applications.

 

These days, it’s not about getting content to people but, rather, using mobile devices to answer specific learning, development and/or performance needs. The learning materials’ content and its treatment are influenced by what people want and need.

 

Add to that the benefits for learners from personalised and contextualised learning – from mobile-delivered programs that can discover where the learners are; what they already know; what they need to know, and then provide the relevant learning materials – and you can see how mobile learning (m-learning) can become an ideal medium to get the right information to the right person at the right time.

 

‘M-learning’ is an area of learning technology which is developing rapidly. Today’s key issues include how can:

  • Users and their employers get maximum value from, and use of, this technology?
  • Learning materials be personalised and contextualised to make them appropriate for the user, whatever her/his need, location and delivery device?
  • The increasingly wide range of mobile devices be best used to deliver both (formal) learning and (informal) performance support materials?

This article has been adapted from the contents of chapter 11 of Bob Little’s e-book, ‘Perspectives on Learning Technologies’ (e-book; ASIN: B00A9K1VVS). This e-book is available from The Endless Bookcase and from Amazon. It contains over 200 pages of observations on issues in learning technologies, principally for learning & development professionals.

 

 

The challenges of change

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There’s always change but the corporate learning sector has been experiencing more than its usual share recently.

 

On a strategic level, there’s a growing trend towards learning technology suppliers moving away from control by learning technologists. A recent 101-page IBIS Capital report on the e-learning sector, with market information and analysis from Learning Light, highlights 42 significant mergers and acquisitions in this sector since the beginning of 2011. Since those figures were compiled, the UK-based Kineo has been acquired by City & Guilds and Italy’s global player in the learning content management system market, eXact learning solutions, has been acquired by the international management consultants, Lattanzio Group, Neither of these buyers had previously owned a learning technology company.

On a tactical, technological level, the sector is experiencing change in terms of new sources of learning delivery. These tend to be social media dominated, such as Pinterest, Pearltrees, Storify and ShortForm. As Seth Godin, the blogger and best-selling author, has observed, ““We don’t have an information shortage; we have an attention shortage.”

 

These new technologies build on and encourage the easy spread of information and conversation. They are encouraging those in the field of corporate online learning to widen their understanding of learning and development (L&D). There are now many acknowledged routes to ‘learning’, along with a growing range of learning delivery channels. Results, in terms of improved job performance, having ‘learned’ – rather than following a prescribed method by which to learn – are becoming the key criteria in corporate learning effectiveness.

 

This trend is unstoppable – given the continued growth both in vehicles for learning and in things to learn and apply – but it’s putting greater strain on L&D professionals. When ‘learning’ was a simpler business, it could be managed and administered. Outputs in terms of numbers (the number of people who took a ‘course’ or achieved a ‘pass score’ in a test, for example) could be determined and were unambiguous – even if they didn’t mean a great deal in terms of the learners’ transfer of skills and actual job performance.

 

L&D professionals are now facing some deep psychological issues which strike at the heart of their identity, self-image and self-worthiness. For example, is their role to continue creating and/or finding learning materials and then making them available to learners? Or should they be enablers, counsellors, mentors and then ‘learning accountants’ who assess the value of a learner’s learning experience in the light of that person’s resulting change in job performance?

 

The latter may be preferable in today’s business world but it will be hard to do.

 

How can L&D professionals establish an objective basic performance level for a learner, from which to benchmark that learner’s subsequent performance? How will a piece of ‘achieved learning’ be discovered and analysed by the L&D professional? Over what period will that piece of learning remain ‘valid’ to enable the L&D professional to take account of it to see if the learner applies it in her/his job?

 

Increasingly, learning activities are informal and, thus, will probably be unmonitored since modern learning technologies make it easy for people to learn from others – especially their peers. Many ‘amateur’ learners won’t necessarily know they’ve undergone a learning experience and yet they will have learned something which will help them do their job more effectively or efficiently.

 

Developing technology offers humanity a great many advantages. Yet for the L&D professional, this will pose problems. It merely multiplies to opportunities for informal learning. This should have enormous benefits in terms of performance and productivity but it makes it even harder to quantify and justify the L&D professional’s job.

 

So there could be even greater changes ahead where corporate learning and corporate learning technologies are concerned.

New era dawns in learning personalisation technology

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At this year’s Learning Technologies exhibition (in London, 29/30 January), the learning content management solutions provider, eXact learning solutions, will be outlining how recent technology advances are enabling the personalisation and contextualisation of learning materials. In particular, it will be revealing key aspects of the latest version of its award-winning eXact learning content management system (LCMS).

 

In future, LCMS architectures must be able to sit at the cornerstone of an enterprise’s content strategy – interoperating with the HR, L&D and ERP systems that are already there – to personalise learning content on demand. In so doing, they’ll develop a more effective and efficient learning content ecosystem.

 

The recently released version 10 of the eXact LCMS enables contents to adapt, in real time, to learners’ perspectives and learning preferences – along with their skills and competency gaps, their location and the available device to deliver the learning and/or support. It uses an open framework which allows users to develop and integrate their own learning authoring template sets.

 

To improve the productivity of learning content production scenarios, eXact learning solutions has enriched its LCMS suite with a real-time rendering engine that, attached to the template framework, enables adaptive learning. In addition, the new version supports the management of learning content creation and delivery for organisations that require a scalable, extendable modular system to meet high-volume, professional and consistent learning output demand.

 

For those requiring integration with a third party learning management system (LMS) or delivery portal, version 10 renders adaptive learning content on the fly and consolidates the same content objects in different standalone packages – such as a SCORM, offline HTML, iPhone and/or Android versions, PDF printout and so on – for further download, handover to an LMS or other use.

 

eXact learning LCMS’s templating approach and its embedded authoring tools  – eXact learning Packager and Online Editor – combine the power of XML-based content modelling with the ease of use of semantic structuring and the flexibility of responsive web design (RWD) technologies such as HTML5. It also provides both rapid authoring capabilities and model-based automation of content production in different languages that can be delivered on different channels and platforms.

 

Comment: It’s a new era in the LCMS world in more senses than one. Not only does the exact LCMS offer some radical steps forward in personalising and contextualising online learning – the goal of many learning technologists this century – but exact learning solutions itself was acquired, earlier this month, by Lattanzio Group a leading international management consulting group, Although the Group is based in Italy, over 50% of its turnover comes from international activities. The Group’s range of expertise aims to grow the performance of businesses and public administration organizations.

 

This acquisition continues the trend of moving learning technology companies away from control by learning technologists. Not only might this provide the learning technology industry with a broader, more strategic and less tactical vision but it might also help the sector move more into the consciousness of ‘mainstream business’ (rather than merely those in the HR and training function).

The fourth, annual, top ten e-learning movers and shakers

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Now in its fourth year, here – based on nothing more than experience and prejudice – are the new lists of the ‘Top Ten’ most influential people in the corporate e-learning sector, in the World, Europe, the UK and Asia-Pacific.

 

Again, there has been increasingly keen debate among the judges as to who genuinely warrants a place on these ‘top tables’ of the great, good and seriously influential in online learning. Perhaps this indicates that, after some four years, these lists are being taken more seriously.

 

Please bear in mind that these lists are compiled, from a corporate online learning perspective, on the basis of a person’s perceived current influence on the online learning industry – as a practitioner, commentator, facilitator and/or thought leader. It’s unlikely that readers will agree with all – or even any – of the judges’ decisions. However, these lists represent what a number of people think about the personalities who lead the corporate online learning world.

 

World List

 

  1. 1.    Elliott Masie. Head of The MASIE Center, a Saratoga Springs, New York, think-tank focused on how organisations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. (Position last year: 1)
  2. 2.    Jay Cross. A writer, commentator and speaker. He was the first to coin the term ‘e-learning’ many years ago and continues to promote informal learning. (Position last year: 2)
  3. 3.    Tom Kuhlmann. One of the world’s best known e-learning designers. (Position last year: 6)
  4. 4.    Craig Weiss. An e-learning analyst, expert, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7. (New entry for 2013)
  5. 5.    Cathy Moore. A well-known blogger about e-learning. (Position last year: 4)
  6. 6.    Steve Rayson, of Kineo, now a worldwide player in the corporate online learning sector and recently acquired by City & Guilds. (New entry for 2013)
  7. 7.    Roger Schank. A long-established thought leader in this sector. He is president and CEO of Socratic Arts. (Position last year: 5)
  8. 8.    Amit Garg – Co-founder of Upside Learning, m-learning evangelist, international speaker and contributor to the Upside Learning Blog. (New entry for 2013)
  9. 9.    Harold Jarche, the Canada-based ‘thought catalyst’, writer and blogger. (New entry for 2013, having been ‘bubbling under’ in 2012)
  10. 10.  Vikas Joshi. Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Harbinger Knowledge Products (based in the USA as well as India) and a thought leader in the field of interactivity. (New entry for 2013)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

 

 

Europe List

 

  1. 1.    Richard Straub. The Secretary General of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), overseeing ELIG’s role as advisor to the EU on all things to do with e-learning. (Position last year: 2)
  2. 2.    Armin Hopp. Founder and President of digital publishing AG/ Speexx and a member of ELIG. (Position last year: 7)
  3. 3.    Fabrizio Cardinali. Chair of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG) and Senior Vice President of eXact learning solutions’ Global Business Development. (Position last year: 1)
  4. 4.    Thea Payome. Editor of the Germany-based CheckPoint eLearning ezine and website. (Position last year: 3)
  5. 5.    Helge Scherlund, the Denmark-based writer and blogger on e-learning topics. (Position last year: 9)
  6. 6.    Christophe Ferrandou, the Paris-based founder and CEO of goFLUENT, an award-winning producer of business English training. (Position last year: 5)
  7. 7.    Steve Rayson, of Kineo – a UK-based company which continues to expand its interests. (New entry, having been ‘bubbling under’ in 2012)
  8. 8.    Pascal Debordes. Head of Cegos‘s international partner network. (Re-entry from the 2011 Europe list)
  9. 9.    Sally Ann Moore. An events management and online learning consultancy specialist, based in Switzerland, who organises a number of events around Europe and the rest of the world that are related to online learning. (New entry for 2013)
  10. 10.  Dr Ladislava (‘Vlad’ka’) Knihova. A key champion, user and publisher of e-learning applications within the corporate and academic sectors in the Czech Republic. (Position last year: 4)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

 

UK List

 

  1. 1.    Donald H Taylor. The power behind the success of the Learning Technologies conference and Chairman of the Institute of Learning and Performance. (Position last year: 1)
  2. 2.    Laura Overton. A member of ELIG and Managing Director of Towards Maturity, a not-for-profit community interest company that provides research and online resources to help organisations deliver effective learning interventions at work. (Position last year: 3)
  3. 3.    Steve Rayson, of Kineo, now a worldwide player in the corporate online learning sector and recently acquired by City & Guilds. (Position last year: 4)
  4. 4.    Jane Hart. Founder and CEO of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies – and a well-known blogger. (Position last year: 2)
  5. 5.    Clive Shepherd. A writer and commentator on the online learning scene. (Position last year: 6)
  6. 6.    Piers Lea. A member of ELIG and CEO of LINE Communications. (Position last year: 7)
  7. 7.    Martin Baker. Founder and CEO of the Charity Learning Consortium (CLC), comprising over 100 member organisations and supplying e-learning and resources for over 150,000 Third Sector staff and volunteers. (Position last year: 9)
  8. 8.    Julie Wedgwood. She has been described as the trainer’s trainer and an advocate of free tools (Position last year: 5)
  9. 9.    Charles Jennings, A conference speaker and thought leader. (Re-entry from the 2010 UK list)
  10. 10.  Phil Green, of Onlignment – a human performance consultant and educator, with particular skills in online communication and learning. (Re-entry from the 2010 UK list)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

  • Ben Betts. Managing Director of HT2 and a specialist in collaborative and game-based learning principles, focusing on engaging learners in online collaborative learning. (Position last year: 9)
  • Donald Clark. A long-established speaker and commentator on e-learning. (Position last year: 10)
  • Clive Snell. The publisher of E-Learning Age magazine and the man behind the E-Learning Awards.
  • Nick Shackleton-Jones. Head of online and informal at BP and a well-known writer and speaker.
  • Elizabeth Eyre, the editor of Training Journal
  • Steve Wheeler, author of ‘The Digital Classroom’, speaker, avid tweeter and blogger.
  • Kenneth Fee, a specialist in evaluation, talent development, work-based learning, leadership and management development, who is a director of the Stirling-based company, Airthrey Ltd.

 

Asia-Pacific list

 

  1. 1.    Amit Garg – Co-founder of Upside Learning, m-learning evangelist, international speaker and contributor to the Upside Learning Blog. (Position last year: eight)
  2. 2.    Sahana Chattopadhyay – Enterprise Community Manager at Thoughtworks and writer of the ID and Other Reflections blog. (Position last year: 2)
  3. 3.    Abtar Kaur – Professor of education and languages at Open University Malaysia, Programme Head for Master of Instructional Design and Technology and Programme Coordinator for Bachelor of Teaching (Science), international speaker, consultant and award winner. (New entry for 2013)
  4. 4.    Manish Mohan – Senior Vice President at NIIT, mentor at e3cube, extensive corporate career, award winner and writer of the Learn and Lead blog. (New entry for 2013)
  5. 5.    Sumeet Moghe – Training Manager at Thoughtworks, avid tweeter and writer of the The Learning Generalist blog. (Position last year: 3)
  6. 6.    Joyce Seitzinger – Lecturer of blended learning at Deakin University, author of Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers, international speaker and writer of the Cat’s Pyjamas blog. (Position last year: 5)
  7. 7.    Anne Bartlett-Bragg – Managing Director Asia-Pacific of the Ripple Effect Group, Executive Director of the Learning Technologies User Group, Lecturer of e-learning at the University of Technology Sydney and contributor to the Ripple Effect Group blog. (Position last year: 7)
  8. 8.    Rob Wilkins – Head of Learning & Development at Aussie Home Loans, extensive corporate career, avid tweeter and writer of the Ruminations of a Learning and Development Professional blog. (Position last year: ‘bubbling under’)
  9. 9.    Ryan Tracey – E-Learning Manager at AMP, Advisory Board Member at eLearn Magazine, Reviewer at the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, author of magazine articles and writer of the E-Learning Provocateur blog. (Position last year: 10)
  10. 10.  Zaid Ali Alsagoff – E-Learning Manager at the International Medical University, avid tweeter and writer of several blogs including ZaidLearn and e-Learning In Malaysia. (New entry for 2013)

 

‘Bubbling under’

Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:

  • Anne Forster (Forster and Gibson), one of Australia’s foremost independent e-learning consultants. (Position last year: 1)
  • Sue Waters Support Manager at Edublogs, lecturer, documentation writer, author of the ‘Sue Waters Blog’. Editor and co-author of ‘The Edublogger’ blog. (position last year: 4)
  • Zoraini Wati Abas Teacher, consultant and author of the ‘Eye on Learning’ and ‘Research in Education’ blogs.
  • Jeevan Joshi Principal Consultant & Founder of KnowledgeWorking, Producer & Community Manager at The Learning Cafe, speaker, author of the ‘KnowledgeWorking’ blog and co-author of ‘The Learning Cafe’ blog.
  • Vikas Joshi. Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Harbinger Knowledge Products (based in India as well as the USA) and a thought leader in the field of interactivity.

 

 

Of the 38 names on the four lists (27 men and 11 women), those appearing on more than one list are

  • Steve Rayson (World, Europe & UK)
  • Amit Garg (World & Asia-Pacific)

 

This is the same number of people who appeared in more than one list last year – but, last year, those names were Fabrizio Cardinali and Jane Hart.

 

Elliott Masie and Donald H Taylor have remained top of their respective lists since the lists were first published, in 2010. In the European list, Richard Straub returns to the top position which he last held in 2011; while Amit Garg makes a dramatic rise to the top spot in the Asia-Pacific list – a rise which also sees him enter the World list for the first time.

 

Garg’s is the most dramatic rise this year, although Craig Weiss also has reason to be pleased with his entry into the World list at number four. Steve Rayson makes impressive entries into the World and European lists while consolidating his position in the UK list chiefly on the impressive global performance of Kineo, which was recently acquired by City & Guilds.

 

Increasingly, commentators – especially bloggers – are featuring in the lists. This confirms the growing influence of social media, not just within the corporate online learning sector but in all aspects of community life.

Observations on 2012

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As thoughts and images of 2012 are consigned to history, it may be worthwhile reflecting on the – few – key developments in the online learning world that occurred in these 12 months. 2012:

  • Was the year that HTML5 established itself. Tool developers who are serious players in the industry have ensured that their tools publish to HTML5. Flash may still be with us but those who’re still wedded to it are finding it extremely difficult to produce effective mobile learning materials. Now, HTML5 is a completely different matter.
  • Saw the emergence of the next generation of SCORM, in the Tin Can API. With Tin Can, content becomes part of a larger group of things, called ‘activities’, and content creators become more like ‘activity providers’. Tin Can is changing the way that content communicates with LMSs. The LMS doesn’t need to know that the content or the learner exist until the learning experience is completed. This means that content (an activity) exists apart from, and outside, the LMS. It’s launched outside the LMS – making the LMS a Learning Record Store (LRS).
  • Saw the cloud become increasingly important despite the price of hard disk space declining sharply. Many development tools exist in the cloud rather than being installed locally. The cloud is rapidly changing the way we work – especially in terms of developing online learning – as well as changing how we inform ourselves via our access to news and comment.

A happy, prosperous and enjoyable 2013 to all ‘Bob’s Blog’ readers!