I recently discovered a free quizmaker tool by Studiyo (beta). Rather than write about it, I quickly built a short quiz on elearning tips to show you some of what it can do. This took about an hour to make (including time to find the photos). Studiyo might be worth adding to your elearning toolkit.
Again, another post about the 21st century learner. This is an interesting video of different educators discussing their desire to see traditional education morph into something that gives students a chance to participate and create rather than regurgitate and memorize. They explain that students are active content creators in their free time, yet they are expected to be passive content receivers when they enter the classroom. I think expectations are rising for what people want from education. Soon, if not already, it will not be enough to send people to a class to sit and listen and then call that training.
Are we ready for them? These learners are creators, self-taught, gamers and are used to having a sense of control over what and how they learn. I am watching three of these learners develop before my eyes on a daily basis in my home and find it fascinating. All of my children have used a computer from the age of three, can text message, use an ipod, play online games and are increasingly comfortable with creating content and using new forms of technology.
The new century learners' poor grammar, lack of political correctness and inability to pay attention to what does not capture their interest may be cause for concern. On the flip side, we also see individuals who have a strong desire to contribute, participate and be engaged. How will this affect workplace learning? What will we do about it?
Workplace training and development will need to center on finding ways to capture interest in order to foster the best environment for learning. This won't be easy and making this happen might be the most important goal and challenge we will face. The immersive nature of virtual worlds for learning and just-in-time information resources delivered on video and audio will help teach people what they need to know in the future. And, for those who are really interested in a subject, an old-fashioned, well-written book will always be a winner.
I attended a class this week in instructional design for virtual worlds hosted by the Gronstedt Group in Second Life (SL). As an aside, you might want to check out the article Anders Grondstedt wrote about training and 3D worlds in Training and Development magazine. When the class began, we teleported to MIST Island and were shown instructional design examples by our guide, Abbott Bundy (his SL name), a teacher in SL.
We learned some interesting things in the class, almost all of it related to instructional layout and design for 3D worlds. In the image above we are seen entering a large classroom with floating chairs for viewing three screens. The instructor spoke about optimal layout and design for maximum viewing. We also discovered techniques for learner engagement, such as creating treasure hunts to gather information and learner checkpoints to measure progress. We also learned how to build a training center that gives the idea of a separate space without a huge time investment spent building the architecture.
I'm convinced the need for sound instructional design will not go away. With the currently changing information landscape, there are many new ways to deliver content to learners. What is exciting are the variety of ways we can engage learners, a vital component of today's knowledge economy.
