Walter E. Glasser

T raining should pa}' for itself many times over, but training directors are often hard put to prove that their costs even equal results obtained. One answer to the problem is to assign dollar values to the results just as computations are made when the t

When Management Squints

Workplace Wearables Wearables seem to be flooding the consumer market. According to Wired, as of September 30, there were 266 wearable devices on the market (including 118 fitness wearables), with 23 slated for release before the year is out. Indeed, the recent Wearables + Things event saw a multitude of new devices that can collect your biometrics (like blood pressure and temperature) or count the number of push-ups, jumping jacks, and steps you perform.     But some pundits are raising the question whether this is where the wearables market can make the most impact? San Francisco start-up OnBeep is betting the answer is no.OnBeep has unveiled Onyx, a $99, hand-free contraption that clips onto your shirt and wirelessly connects with your cellphone—so that you can instantly communicate with colleagues. Jesse Robbins, OnBeep founder and CEO, told Wired that while the device certainly has uses in the consumer market, he sees Onyx being used more effectively by business teams, such as event planners, construction workers, or restaurant staff, for example. If he’s right, Onyx may be the first step toward a future that has a cable technician sporting a live-streaming, head-mounted camera that helps him consult with other technicians and figure what’s wrong with your connection, or a nurse who wears smart glasses to see veins beneath the skin of patients.  Granted, many questions remain around cost and security. Shane Walker, an analyst at research firm IHS technology, explains that wearables would likely need FDA or CE mark approvals if they report diagnostics related to patient care in any way, for example.   Meanwhile, some pundits are questioning whether workers will really want to be that “plugged in” to co-workers and managers—All. The. Time. In any case, Onyx will provide a nice test case for workplace wearables. Stay tuned.   TrainingIndustry.com Names Top 20 in Gamification TrainingIndustry.com has released its first annual list of Top 20 Gamification Companies. The list is designed to help buy-side organizations in their searches for the right gamification training partners. Selection is based on the following criteria: features and capabilities of the gamification products/servicescompany size and growth potentialquality and number of clients/users geographic reachawards, recognition, and competitive differentiation. Here are the 20 companies listed in alphabetical order. Allen Communication Learning ServicesAxonifyBreakaway GamesBTSCustom Learning DesignsDesign Digitally Inc,EnspireGamelearnG-cubeGlobal Training SolutionsGP Strategies – Content DevelopmentKnolscapeNIITPerformance Development GroupProfitAbility L&D Services LLCQStreamRaytheon Professional ServicesSafron InteractiveSweetrush Inc.Tata Interactive For more information, visit http://www.trainingindustry.com/top-companies-listing/gamification/2014/2014-top-20-gamification-companies-list.aspx. MOOCs Expected to Grow 56 Percent by 2018 The Research and Markets study, Global Massive Open Online Courses Market 2014-2018, reports that the MOOC market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56 percent to 2018, according to a report from Research and Markets. According to the report, the Global MOOCs market is driven by several factors. One of the major factors that are driving the growth of the market is the rising cost of education. Education is an important aspect for employment in today's world but the rising costs, increasing student loan debts, and declining average pay of graduates have made it difficult for students to receive quality education. As a result, students are opting for MOOCs as these courses are of low cost and provide much better quality of education. Commenting on the report, an analyst from the team said: “Big data tools and analytics are increasingly contributing to the increasing popularity of MOOCs. Universities are turning to MOOC providers for large student data analyses. Examination outcomes and assignment grading are made easy with MOOCs because of the online nature, which is otherwise a slow and tedious procedure with traditional data gathering techniques. The records are easily managed with big data tools, giving educators the advantage of real-time data management.”Further, the report states that the future of the global MOOC market is, however, constrained by certain factors. The main factor is the low completion rates of students enrolled in MOOC programs. In 2013, the average completion rate of MOOCs was less than 7 percent. This was mainly because of the lack of motivational factors such as college credits or certifications. The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors. To learn more, visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/2889826/global-massive-open-online-courses-market-2014. U.K. E-Learning Analyst Names Top LMSs Learning Light, the U.K.-based independent e-learning industry market analyst, has produced a list of the top-performing learning management systems (LMSs). Learning Light based its analysis on several factors:cost of ownershipfeatures and functionalitiesdevelopment pathwayfuture proofing your purchase.  According to Learning Light Director David Patterson, “We’ve carried out this research in the light of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS)’s statement that, from September 2014, Individual Learner Records for funded further education courses must show a minimum of 10 per cent of individuals’ learning via materials delivered online. This is going to increase demand for LMSs in the U.K.—and, at present, there are some 600 LMSs from which to choose.” Learning Light’s list (in alphabetic order): NewSpring supports mobile delivery and integrated social learning. It has its own content creation and importing environment, as well as adaptive learning pathways.Docebo has features that include classroom alignment, lots of integration options and APIs. Docebo also has a content market place, which is useful. Future development pathways look good as well.Enable by Virtual College features solid reporting and highly evolved competencies and e-portfolios, driven by Enable's assessment functionality.Kallidus, an LMS that's especially suitable for the mid-corporate training space, links well to blended learning and offers resources management, while ROI calculation is also provided.LearnUpon is a simple e-learning platform designed mainly as an LMS for training companies. It can handle SCORM and other content and is excellent at simply uploading and managing content.Litmos offers a functional, user-friendly development environment to import or build courses. It also can operate as an LRS (Learning Record Store) in recording Tin Can statements that are linked to the LMS.Moodle is a popular open-source platform. Learning Light says the best configurations come from Webanywhere, which can integrate Moodle with Google Apps.Nimble by Elearning 24/7, based on free nimbleAuthor templates, is a skills-orientated LMS. Elearning 24/7 offers off-the-shelf courses, as well. To learn more, visit http://learninglight.com.

Tech Headlines for November 2014

This is where you stop thinking that I'm cool, if you ever did.Here it goes: I read Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People when I was a teenager. Yep, I did, and I'm not too proud to say that it had a profound effect on me, even to this day. The anecdote that I remember most is the one about one of his sons learning to play baseball. Covey and his wife realized that by jumping to defend and shelter him, they were actually feeding his weaknesses, completely unintentionally, by sending the message that he wasn't strong enough to withstand criticism.This lesson of unintended messages still affects how I communicate, how I parent, and how I design. And it's that last part that I want to talk with you about, because being sensitive to unintended messages can be very helpful as a designer. And everything about the design of a learning solution sends messages, from the delivery modality to the writing to the interaction design to the graphic design.Take a second to think of the (good, bad, and indifferent) messages sent to learners in these situations, all of which I've seen:- You walk into a training room where upbeat music is playing, the tables are stocked with ice water and glasses, and each place is set with a slick, high-quality printout of the agenda.- You open an e-learning module and the company logo on the first screen is stretched and pixelated.- The questions on a final exam are so easy that most learners could answer them on common sense alone.- Simple content that could easily be mastered with a job aid is instead put into a course with audio narration and locked-down navigation, forcing learners to sit through twenty (or more) minutes of content that they could read on their own in five.There aren't any right or wrong responses to these situations, but there are more common ones than others. For example, most people in the first situation would feel valued and get the message that the company cared about the training; some might perceive the situation as inauthentic. That's one reason that designers need to be in tune with their audiences: to be able to predict how they will interpret the messages sent by the content and structure of the design.In my conversations with instructional designers, I've found that we tend to be very aware of negative messages communicated by the look and feel of the content (for example, by pixelated or stretched images and ugly clip art), but we may not be as in tune with what we're communicating by the structure of the solution -- for example, by wasting the learners' time or not letting them freely navigate the content. So let me spell it out: When we do those things, we're communicating that their time isn't important and that they aren't capable of directing their own learning. And in the information age, companies should be more interested than ever in workers being concerned about their own productivity and self-directed to learn and find solutions.Did you hear that? Companies should be interested, not just designers. So my challenge to you is more than to be aware of unintended messages as a designer; I challenge you to push back on your clients who arbitrarily want to make bad design decisions for you. In fact, I also challenge you to push back on clients who want to make bad design decisions for reasons that they feel very justified in. Don't be afraid to bring your expertise as a designer into the conversation.But that is a conversation for another post.

Walter E. Glasser

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