fm. hueser, kimberly hill, valerie leblanc · session 1: secrets from the learning research:...
TRANSCRIPT
A u g u s t 4
Strategies and Techniques for Designers, Developers, and Managers of eLearning
A publication of
THIS WEEK — DESIGN STRATEGIES
2003
Changing Places: InstructionalDesigners Become Online Classroom ParticipantsCONTRIBUTORS: ARIANA B. BIANCHI, ANN M.BUSBY, JOHN DeCORE, SUSAN HORSEY, KATHLEENM. HUESER, KIMBERLY HILL, VALERIE LeBLANC
From June 24 to June 26, 2003, more than 150 instruc-
tional designers and developers, program and project
managers, other managers and directors, and Chief
Executive Officers (CEOs) collaborated in combined online and
onsite venues for The eLearning Instructional Design Sym-
posium 2003 produced by The eLearning Guild. This event was
the first time a live conference was simulcast using webcast
technology with voice-over-IP. The event was linear — i.e. only
one session was offered during a timeblock. A total of 10 sessions were pre-sented during the symposium. This struc-ture allowed every participant, whetheronline or onsite, to attend every session.
The experience level of the audiencevaried, with about 80% of all participantsindicating they were experienced ininstructional design. The audience wassplit, with half having formal training ininstructional design and the other halfbeing self-taught.
For most, this was the first direct expe-rience with an online classroom, while forothers it was the first time with audiocapability using voice-over-IP. Participants’role as “students,” in tandem with theirrole as instructional designers, gave aunique perspective on the use of onlineclassrooms for training and collaboration.Most found sitting “on the other side” anexperience they will not soon forget.
Continued on next page
W W W. E L E A R N I N G G U I L D . C O M
e-Learning designersand leaders don’toften have theopportunity to walkin their learners’shoes. At TheeLearning Instruct-ional Design Sym-posium 2003, avery large group ofyour colleagues wasafforded that experi-ence, and theresults were trulyilluminating, as wellas being a landmarkuse of web simul-casting technologywith voice-over-IP.
BackgroundThere were approximately 100 partici-
pants in the live audience and at least50 participants online, represented byup to 30 active “keyboarders.” (The num-ber of online participants far exceededthe Guild’s expectation of 10!) Four ofthe online sites paid for multiple partici-pants by subscribing to a “site license.”At these sites, including the Centers forDisease Control, the University of NewOrleans and others, one person operatedthe computer interface and representedthe entire group physically present.Online participants logged in from the
United Kingdom, Canada, and multipleUnited States sites, including the Districtof Columbia, Illinois, Arizona, andCalifornia. The online participants camefrom industry, government, and acade-mia.
A variety of industry professionals atthe onsite location in Boston deliveredthe symposium presentations, covering awide range of current e-Learning issuesof interest to instructional designers.(see Sidebar 1, below, for the list of pre-senters and topics.) Each of the 10 pre-sentations lasted approximately 90 min-utes, followed by a 30-minute break.
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The eLearning Developers’ Journal™ is design-ed to serve the industry as a catalyst for inno-vation and as a vehicle for the dissemination ofnew and practical strategies and techniques fore-Learning designers, developers and man-agers. The Journal is not intended to be thedefinitive authority. Rather, it is intended to be a medium through which e-Learning practi-tioners can share their knowledge, expertiseand experience with others for the general betterment of the industry.
As in any profession, there are many differ-ent perspectives about the best strategies,techniques and tools one can employ to accom-plish a specific objective. This Journal will sharethese different perspectives and does not posi-tion any one as “the right way,” but rather weposition each article as “one of the right ways”for accomplishing a goal. We assume thatreaders will evaluate the merits of each articleand use the ideas they contain in a mannerappropriate for their specific situation. Weencourage discussion and debate about articlesand provide an Online Discussion board foreach article.
The articles contained in the Journal are allwritten by people who are actively engaged inthis profession at one level or another — not by paid journalists or writers. Submissions arealways welcome at any time, as are sugges-tions for articles and future topics. To learnmore about how to submit articles and/orideas, please refer to the directions in the boxon page 10 or visit www.eLearningGuild.com.
Publisher David Holcombe
Editorial Director Heidi FiskEditor Bill Brandon
Copy Editor Charles Holcombe
Design Director Nancy Marland
The eLearning Guild™ Advisory BoardRuth Clark, Conrad Gottfredson, John Hartnett,
Bill Horton, Kevin Moore, Eric Parks, Brenda PfausMarc Rosenberg, Allison Rossett
Copyright 2003. The eLearning Developers’ Journal™.Compilation copyright by The eLearning Guild 2003. Allrights reserved. Please contact The eLearning Guild forreprint permission.
The eLearning Developers’ Journal is published weeklyby The eLearning Guild, 525 College Avenue, Suite215, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. Phone: 707.566.8990.The eLearning Guild is an operating unit of FocuszoneMedia, Inc., 1030 Beatrice Street, Eagan, MN 55121.
The Journal is included as part of Guild membership.To join the Guild go to www.eLearningGuild.com.
SIDEBAR 1 Program agenda for The eLearning Instructional Design Symposium 2003
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Opening and Welcome: David Holcombe, The eLearning Guild
Session 1: Secrets from the Learning Research: e-Learning Design Strategies thatWork, Will Thalheimer, Work-Learning Research
Session 2: Evaluating the Effectiveness and Quality of your e-Learning, Lynette Gillis, Learning Designs Online, Inc.
Session 3: Real-world Techniques for Designing Effective and Engaging e-Learningwith Limited Resources, Chris Frederick Willis, Media 1 Interactive
Session 4: Leveraging the Benefits of the Classroom in Your e-Learning, Jean Marrapodi & Dan Barnes, Private Healthcare Systems
Day One Wrap-up, David Holcombe, The eLearning Guild
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Kick-off Day Two, David Holcombe, The eLearning Guild
Session 5: Seven Methods for Enhancing Learner Motivation in e-Learning, Ethan Edwards, Allen Interactions
Session 6: Rapid Prototyping of Interactive Simulation-based e-Learning, David Castillo & Emily Castillo, Amethyst Research, Inc.
Session 7: Targeting Learner Needs Through Effective Design and Interactivity inthe Virtual Classroom, Laurie Hemmings, Osram Sylvania & Mark Bucceri, CentraSoftware
Session 8: Practical Strategies for Building Truly Re-usable Learning Objects,Susan Horsey, The Investment Funds Institute of Canada
Day Two Wrap-up, David Holcombe, The eLearning Guild
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Kick-off Day Three, David Holcombe, The eLearning Guild
Session 9: What Every Instructional Designer Must Know About m-Learning, David Metcalf, RWD Technologies
Session 10: Integrating Project Management and Instructional Design to MaximizeResults, Robyn Walters & Kristin Hodges, Hewlett-Packard Company
Conference Wrap-up, David Holcombe, The eLearning Guild
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The technology used to create theonline classroom was vClass Version 4Virtual Collaboration Environment byElluminate (http://www.elluminate.com).Two personable Elluminate moderators,Dan Rickard and Rajeev Arora, facilitatedthe online group with technical guidanceand live representation at the Bostonlocation. vClass user features included acustom connection speed setting, anapplause button and emotion indicators,a “raise your hand” button for askingquestions in an orderly manner, a votingapparatus, a white board for collabora-tive use, an audio feed from the Bostonlocation, audio input for those withmicrophones, and a direct messagingarea for group chat. (See Figure 1,below.)
The experienceOnline participants received an e-mail
the week before the symposium that
contained instructions for installing, set-ting up, and testing the vClass software.Participants were able to test their com-puters before the event by logging on toan online classroom set up specificallyfor that purpose. Technical help wasreadily available before and during theevent for those who needed it.
Handouts from each presenter (copiesof slides, authored papers, references,etc.) were available to online participantsbefore the conference started. Havingthe ability to download and print theseahead of time made it easier for onlineparticipants to follow the presentationand keep notes as necessary. Onlineparticipants also had the unique abilityto look at referenced web sites during apresentation.
When the vClass moderators turnedthe microphone over to an online partici-pant, that person’s voice could be heardin the room in Boston. In fact, Rajeev
mentioned how fascinating it was towatch the onsite audience’s faces asthey looked for the disembodied owners.Online users also had a live audio feedfrom the Boston location, including theability to hear questions asked by onsiteparticipants (when they used a micro-phone). These were useful features for“blending” the two audiences. Thelaughter and emotion indicator buttonswere available, but most online partici-pants were too busy to use them(although we did use the checks andapplause buttons throughout).
The PowerPoint slides used by presen-ters were visible to online participants inreal time. However, there were difficul-ties (depending on the participant’s con-nection speed) seeing applications andweb sites used by presenters. The mod-erators did “share applications” whenev-er possible, but there were a few timeswhen they were not able to share what
FIGURE 1 The Elluminate system allowed for various types of interactions. The list of participants is in the upper left corner of thescreen. Participants could use this area to vote, “applaud,” or “raise their hands” to indicate a question. The Direct Messaging areaallowed group or private text exchanges. The White Board-Main Room contained the presentations or an area for group collaboration.
the presenter was showing. Some presenters made better use of
the online classroom features. Through-out the symposium, online participantshad opportunities to interact with thepresenter and the onsite audience viapolling (yes/no and multiple-choiceanswers) and the online whiteboard.Online participants were even able tocomplete a group activity using the col-laborative whiteboard and share theirresults with the onsite audience. Duringone presentation, the topic of which wasonline classrooms, the onsite audiencewas allowed to see the online classroomspace, complete with participant list anddirect messaging “conversations.” Theonsite audience received this very welland with high interest.
There were other vClass features usedonly by the online participants, andthese features greatly enriched theirsymposium experience. When the onsiteaudience broke out into group discus-sions or exercises and took breaksbetween sessions, the online partici-
pants were able to converse with themoderators and with each other withinthe bounds of the online group space.During these times, and especially duringthe presentations themselves, onlineparticipants made heavy use of thedirect messaging area to “discuss” thepresentation and answer each other’squestions — all without whispering orpassing notes to disturb the presenter!Online participants could also indicate tothe rest of the online group, via a“stepped away” button, that they weretemporarily not interacting with the com-puter screen and keyboard.
Advantages and disadvantages ofonline vs. onsite experience
We found that one of the greatestadvantages to participating online (asopposed to being physically in atten-dance) was the opportunity to catch upquickly if part of a presentation wasmissed or not understood. Online partici-pants could type a question into thedirect messaging area and send it to
the rest of the online group immediately.Someone else invariably knew theanswer, and was able to supply it quick-ly. Alternatively, one of the greatest dis-advantages was that online participantscouldn’t always see what the onsite audi-ence saw, leaving them feeling left out. It was clear to the online audience whichpresenters had made an effort toinclude them in this unique symposiumvenue.
The direct messaging chats wereextremely lively and informative becauseof the varied backgrounds of the onlineparticipants. Some online participantsfound the online chat “distracting;” howev-er, they could opt out of the chat duringpresentations. Interestingly, many saidthey tried opting out, but felt “cut off” sothey turned the messaging back on andjust dealt with the distraction. (See Figure2, left and Sidebar 2 on page 6.)
Others felt that multi-tasking betweenthe presentation, the direct messaging,and typing their own input held theirattention much better than if they hadbeen physically present onsite in Boston.Some of us found that having multiple,content-related tasks to attend to keptus on track much more effectively thanthe typical mono-task classroom environ-ment.
For the most part, the direct messag-ing stayed on the topic of the presenta-tions. Toward the end of the symposium,people were getting tired, were morefamiliar with their online peers, and per-haps not paying as close attention to thepresenters as at the beginning. Overall,participants exchanged meaningful expe-riences, asked probing questions,answered thoughtfully, and gained agreat deal from the richness of the directmessaging interactions. Online partici-pants felt they learned as much or morefrom each other as from the onsite pre-senters. Some online participants saidthe ability to direct message with peersmade them interact much more thanthey would have if they had been onsitein Boston.
An opportunity to actually work togeth-er came when one presenter offered a20-minute period for collaborative work(most of the others kept theirs to fiveminutes). This really became exciting.There was a short learning curve onusing the whiteboard tools, but severalpeople dove in and filled out information
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FIGURE 2 In the Direct Messaging area online participants discussed not only thecontent of the sessions but also engaged in casual and personal networking opportu-nities.
on the chart provided. The Elluminatemoderators were able to display thecompleted chart for the onsite audience,while an online spokesperson explainedit to everyone. (See Figure 3, below.)However, the online audience was notable to see the work completed byonsite groups. Audio explanations alonecan be hard to follow, and the onlineaudience would have liked seeing whatthe other groups produced during theexercise. These missed opportunitieswould have been an invaluable part ofthe experience. (Editor’s Note: The Guildis developing a strategy to overcome thislimitation.)
Having “hands-free” access wasanother distinct advantage. In past expe-riences, many online participants had touse the telephone to access confer-ences, but vClass was completely tele-phone-free (unless you had to use a dial-up Internet connection). The technologywas a real plus! Connecting through theInternet left online participants free to
take notes, type in the chat window, anddo any number of other tasks.
Another online advantage was to beable to slip away if necessary withoutdisturbing a whole room full of people.Online participants also had the uniqueadvantage of going home after the con-ference to sleep in their own beds (andof saving travel expenses!). Of course,the opposite of this point is that onlineparticipants missed out on the socializ-ing that “being there” affords. The onlineaudience was not void of socializing how-ever, it was just a different kind ofsocializing done through direct messag-ing. A testament to the strength of suchonline socialization is that the inspirationto form a follow-up group of instructionaldesigners who plan to continue to worktogether grew out of the camaraderieformed in the online group of symposiumparticipants.
Some disadvantages included techni-cal difficulties with losing audio andvideo occasionally. These were bigger
problems for those with lower Internetconnection speeds. The occasional dis-ruptions were very stressful and leftsome online participants feeling thatthey had missed something. Most onlineparticipants did not actually miss infor-mation, but the “chipmunking” thatresulted from stored audio playing at ahigher speed to catch up took some get-ting used to.
One important request that resultedfrom our experience was to have a spaceto meet that wasn’t directly connected toa symposium presentation. This wasnoted by The Guild to include in the nextsymposium. Once a session was fin-ished, online participants were cut offand had to log in again for the next ses-sion. An informal, continuous onlinemeeting area would have been more“seamless” and would have allowed theonline audience to continue where theyleft off rather than just abruptly being ter-minated. However, the software isdesigned to log into each session, allow-
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FIGURE 3 The Whiteboard-Main Room section was used during one session for a group exercise. Here you can see the input fromthe various online participants.
DESIGN / s t r a t e g i e s
ing members to track attendance andrecord sessions in a reasonable file size.The Guild will work on a way to provide aseamless “informal room” experience foronline participants, and perhaps even foronsite participants as well. This wouldundoubtedly enrich the experience forboth onsite and online participants.
Although a transcript of the direct mes-
saging and the whiteboard area could besaved immediately, the ability to do thiswas lost as soon as one logged off asession. It would have been very helpfulto have access to the transcripts rightaway. This would have helped the onlineaudience with session transitions, andeveryone in training and educationknows how important transitions are.
The online audience was there, then wewere not, so we had to start over. Wefelt that we lost a lot of thoughts by nothaving immediate access to past chattranscripts. Also, when the moderatorsprovided an online evaluation of the ses-sion, we were locked out of our chat,and automatically logged off when it wascompleted. Some participants found this
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SIDEBAR 2 What ONLINE participants are saying about their experience
“The online element in The eLearning Instructional DesignSymposium was an excellent opportunity for faculty and staff ata state university with limited travel funds to participate in rele-vant sessions. The most enjoyable surprise was the almostinstantaneous camaraderie that developed among the onlineparticipants. Through lessons learned, future online elements ine-Learning events will surely further integrate the online and liveparticipants, as well as improve speakers’ ability to address theunique needs of the online groups. Overall, this was a reward-ing and satisfying experience for all who attended from ouronline site!”
Donna Carter, University of New Orleans
“I have attended several online learning events, but nothing assatisfying as this one. I enjoyed having the audio functionwhich offered me the opportunity to type in the chat area. Theknowledge sharing that the online participants achieved in sucha short time was awesome! Someone would make a commentabout something a presenter said, and someone else wouldadd to it. I learned as much from my online colleagues as I didfrom the excellent presenters.
An example of this is when I said that I missed a connection,and asked if anyone else got it. This is the conversation thatensued:
— “I think the question earlier about negative motivation is agood one...can you have negative motivation and what is theimpact of it.”
— “Motivation is exponentially more important than content forinstruction. I think the point is that motivation is more impor-tant than content, but content is also important.“
— “He’s demonstrating a conceptual explanation of howincreasing student’s motivation to learn actually produces bet-ter results than just improving content.”
— I said, “OK, I see it now, thanks. It’s intuitive to mostinstructional designers. Our experience tells us they (the stu-dents) have to be motivated to get through it (the lesson/learn-ing experience).”
— “I don’t agree — all the motivation in the world with poorcontent will produce poor learning outcome and wrong behav-ioral change.”
— “I don’t think he’s advocating poor content.”
— “Yes, a question of balancing content and motivation — getting the magic “mix” for biggest payoff...”
— “It’s not about poor content; it’s about adding motivationwhich makes an exponential difference for the learner.”
— “I think we all agree that motivation is important.”
As you can see, each person built upon a single idea/questionand made it significant. I can’t wait until next year when wecan do it again!”
Ann Busby, PBGC, Washington, D.C
“What an amazing learning opportunity! I learned from theseminar leaders. I learned from the experience as an onlineparticipant and I learned from the other online attendees!”
Valerie LeBlanc, The Information Architecture Group, Inc., Ontario, Canada
“The online element in The eLearning Instructional DesignSymposium was an excellent opportunity for me to increaseboth my knowledge, and my contact list of ID & D people work-ing on e-Learning curriculum. I am shy in a live situation, and Ifound the online environment allowed me to leap over the hur-dle and land on my feet. The online environment felt very safe,allowing me to express myself more freely than I might havehad I been in the audience for the symposium. In addition, hear-ing the audience response to our live broadcast of the white-board work we did was enlightening to both the online andonsite participants. I have a lot of knowledge to share andappreciated the fact that others online were also very open andwilling to share as issues, terms, approaches, and problemscame up. I am looking forward to the continued contact that theonline group put into place before the end of the conference.Thanks to all my fellow online participants, we will try thisvenue again, it was a lot of fun, as well as informative. The ID& D work we all do can often leave us feeling isolated from oth-ers in our field, as each “company” goes about “creatinginstructional packages” for customers.”
Kathleen Hueser, UDLP, Minneapolis, MN
“I began the symposium grateful to be able to attend online(rather than missing it altogether), but disappointed in knowingthat I would miss out on networking with my peers. Was I everwrong! I networked more with the online group than I have EVERnetworked with peers at conferences I have attended onsite.Never before has there been interest, and an opportunity, tocontinue the camaraderie developed with fellow event partici-pants. I know this experience will reverberate throughout mycareer as an Instructional Designer in many ways.”
Kimberly Hill, Instructional Systems Specialist, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, MD
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rather discombobulating.Later, the Guild archived the session
recordings making them available to allparticipants of the symposium. Althoughthis is a convenient feature for thosewho weren’t present for some or part ofthe presentations, the rich opportunityfor interaction is lost. The archived ses-sions will likely be somewhat more bor-ing to observe and hear with no opportu-nity to engage — a distinct advantage of
synchronous e-Learning.Another feature that the online audi-
ence would have appreciated is a way toupload individual pictures. Perhaps ifthere had been a “lounge” or “commonroom” this could have been offered, aswell as a place to post bios. We lost somuch valuable information about eachother after each session. The online par-ticipants would have also appreciated anoccasional video feed from the Bostonlocation to see the onsite event and the
SIDEBAR 3 What ONSITE participants are saying about their experience
John DeCore, Program Manager at SI International was at The eLearningInstructional Design Symposium in Boston, and discussed his viewpoint of being anonsite participant.
“We bonded better than at most conferences, since the number was limited to 100onsite participants. The socializing afterwards and during the breaks helped facili-tate this bonding as well. There were CEOs, graphic artists, and program man-agers mixed in with instructional designers, so when we did group work, everyonegot a sense of what the other team members’ roles were. I found that interesting;and thought that these people would work together more often, but apparently thatisn’t always the case.
Everyone was seated at large round tables with six to eight people at each table.This arrangement meant small group work was possible. Another thing I liked wasthat David Holcombe, the conference facilitator, asked everyone to move to anothertable after each break which made meeting and networking with new people easier.I have never had such a successful networking experience.
Those of us onsite were as curious about the online participants as they wereabout us. We wondered what their experience was like and it was very interestingto hear how much the online participants enjoyed their online sessions. I wouldsuggest that a laptop be positioned on each table or a few in the back of the roomso onsite participants could “chat” with those online.
One of the most interesting points during the events was the 20 minute exercisethe online participants were able to share on their whiteboard with the onsite atten-dees. The exercise asked the small groups to develop an ID team and work througha form. The online group became one team and each table onsite became a team.A far as I could tell, most of the tables didn’t get as far as the online group did.My group spent their time discussing the roles and decided to play roles differentfrom their “real” ones. Thus, our group didn’t have anything to share since wenever got as far as completing the form. While there was much creativity abouthow to address the learning challenge (teaching the learners how to fry an egg), mygroup did not get to record our ideas on the easel paper provided. I found it inter-esting that the online group immediately recorded their thoughts on the form usingthe whiteboard too (see Figure 3 on page 5.) This reinforced to me how differentmedia produce different results.
I also liked that everything from the presentations — the handouts and the tapedonline sessions — would be archived online after the event. It was great to knowthat I can always go back and review anything I missed.
Finally, I was so impressed by the positive response by the online participants thatfor next year’s symposium, I am considering setting up a remote site for my staff!”
Other comments by the onsite participants about the Symposium ONLINE included:
• The symposium online was an important part of the overall experience. It demon-strated successful use of an e-Learning tool, added additional participants, andallowed participants who could not travel to be a part of the event. Good work!
• The access to the handouts and the taped sessions for both the online andonsite participants is great and will reinforce my own learning and add tremen-dous value to me as a participant.
• Excellent job with the online symposium. If there were any technical issues, theywere completely unknown to those of us who attended in person. The onlineforum added value.
For most, this wasthe first direct experience
with an online classroom,
while for others it was the
first time with audio capa-
bility using voice-over IP.
Participants’ role as “stu-
dents,” in tandem with
their role as instructional
designers, gave a unique
perspective on the use of
online classrooms for
training and collaboration.
Most found sitting “on the
other side” an experience
they will not soon forget.
DESIGN / s t r a t e g i e s
participants there. David Holcombe,President and CEO of The eLearningGuild and moderator of the symposium,told us that they had actually thought ofscanning the crowd to share with theonline attendees, but unfortunately thedigital camera Elluminate brought wasn’table to handle the challenges presentedby the lighting limitations in the ballroom.Future symposia will address this andallow for more visual interaction betweenthe two groups.
After-action/follow-up meetingBecause we online participants did not
want to quit when the symposium ended,(how’s that for happy customers?), theGuild and Elluminate arranged for a fol-low-up meeting. For that meeting, wedecided to post a PowerPoint slide with apicture of ourselves and some biographi-cal information. We also discussed withthe Guild representatives our lessonslearned and made recommendations forfuture symposia. The Guild was not only
open to these suggestions, but theywere actually excited about all they’dlearned and all we’d recommended tooffer others the highest-quality learningexperiences.
Lessons learnedThis was the first synchronous e-Learn-
ing event for some participants. Becauseit was superbly run, it not only had allthe ingredients required for success, butexcellence. Those participants will taketheir experience and change the waythey write e-Learning experiences for oth-ers. In fact, it would be surprising ifmany, even “old-timers,” didn’t takesomething away they could use in theirlearning development methodology.
Some of the introverted participantsfound the medium a little intimidating,but would never have “been able to learnso much about so many people in sucha short period of time.” Introverts seemto thrive in this environment becausethey have the time to think through thediscussion points without being “put onthe spot” for an immediate response.
Key observations/suggestions forimprovement
The online participants made a num-ber of suggestions:• Only use streaming video when every-
one can receive it; for those who could-n’t, it was a frustrating time.
• Open an after-session “lounge” foronline participants to socialize. Theonly opportunity we had was duringsessions, and it may have cut down onsome of the “off-topic” conversation ifwe’d had the social space.
• Determine how to include “lurkers”and non-participating members. This isalways a problem, but at least in aface-to-face event, the presenter cansee who may need to be included.
• Offer a space for pictures and bios(perhaps in the “lounge”). WhenRajeev put his and Dan’s pictures upat the end, it was fun. It definitely putfaces to their names for us, and wouldhave been even more relevant at thebeginning.
• A scan of the room or clip of the liveaudience and the room would havemade us feel more connected, too.
• We weren’t told until close to the endthat we could save the chat as text8
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SIDEBAR 4 What presenters are saying about their experience
For most of the presenters at the symposium, it was their first experience conduct-ing an online course and none of them had ever conducted a simultaneous webcastwith an onsite audience and online audience. The presenters also found the experi-ence educational and eye-opening. Susan Horsey is an e-Learning Consultant withthe Canadian Institute of Financial Planning and shares her “key learnings” fromthe presenter’s point of view.
“I have facilitated both online and traditional classrooms. However, I had neverused Elluminate; and, most importantly, I had never facilitated online and traditionalclassroom simultaneously. To me, this was the big challenge.
It’s critical to test the presentation with each medium. While the presenters had a demonstration of the Elluminate technology prior to the symposium, most of usdidn’t ever see our presentations in the Elluminate environment before the liveevent. Like any other form of training, you learn from the tests what works andwhat doesn’t work. I think that if I could have seen my presentation as the onlineparticipants were seeing it, I would probably have fine-tuned it for that audience. Infuture, I’d suggest a trial run using both media to make sure that both are workingas expected.
The most important thing I’ve learned is the importance of establishing interactionand bonds across the two media. While I feel that the online group bonded and theface-to-face group bonded, in future I’d like to explore ways to establish a bondbetween the online and face-to-face group. Some things I’ve been thinking ofinclude:
• Sharing brief bios or photos of online participants, in addition to the onlinegroup’s idea of sending a photo of the classroom event.
• Presenters should plan questions and exercises that really engage the online par-ticipants when we’re having discussions. I got a much better sense of the onlineparticipants as an audience when David Holcombe asked them to share theirexperiences during Laurie and Mark’s discussion of webinars. I think we shouldthink of more ways to ask direct questions of the online participants that capital-ize on their perspective, rather than making do (as I did) with, “And do we haveany questions from our online learners?” Somewhere down the road, I’d like tofind ways to have online and face-to-face participants collaborate in small groups.
• I’d like to see ways to share the online chats in the evenings or breaks. Thissounded like a very rich discussion, but it was exclusive to the online group.Perhaps organizers could provide logins for face-to-face participants who havebrought their laptops, so they can communicate with the online group. Or, evenset up one or two kiosks that allow face-to-face participants to login, view somechat, and send a message of their own.“
files; it would have been nice to knowthat up-front.
• One thing the moderators learned wasto be in charge of the onsite audi-ence’s microphone volume; we didn’talways hear their questions.
• We appreciated the moderators tellingus in advance to expect an audio orvideo loss (presenter going onto theInternet where they couldn’t follow,etc.). That let us know it wasn’t oursystem going out.
• Offer a practice session before goinglive. Several participants tested theirsystems to ensure everything worked,which increased their confidence inusing the software.Everything considered, it was an
extremely satisfying event with many“aha!” moments caused from the infor-mation garnered from formal presenta-tions, and from the behind-the-scenesinteractions of all the online participants.Would we recommend it to others? Ohyes, we found it a highly stimulating andinteractive learning event, and it hasinspired plenty of unanticipated butpleasing post-symposium discussion and activity.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORSAriana B. Bianchi, M.A. is an
Instructional Designer, Editor, and Writerwith The Human Equation, Inc. She previ-ously worked as a teacher/trainer in aca-demia. She has eight years of experi-ence in education and instructional sys-tems and academic preparation inComposition & Rhetoric, EducationalTechnology, and Instructional Design.Currently she designs and develops web-based courseware on employment prac-tices and risk management issues forcorporate, small business, and individualtraining.
Ann M. Busby, MS. Ed, has 22 yearsFederal Government experience and iscurrently the Program Manager Technical(core business skills) Training forPension Benefit Guaranty Corp., inWashington DC. She has been aninstructional designer for PBGC, the USMarine Corps, and the US Army, andresource manager for DoD PolygraphInstitute. In a different direction, shedirected child development centers forthe US Army and US Air Force. You canreach her at [email protected].
Kathleen M. Hueser, Ph.D., has been
an Instructional Systems Design &Development Principal ISD for threeyears with UDLP-Armament SystemsDivision, Minneapolis, MN. She is cur-rently working on Customer Training(Operator & Maintainers) for Army FCSNLOS — Manned vehicles. She hasbeen doing Instructional Design for over32 years for a variety of learners frompre-school through graduate school. Sherecently shifted from the academic tobusiness and the defense contractingarena.
Kimberly Hill is an InstructionalSystems Specialist with the Food & DrugAdministration in Rockville, MD. She hasa M.Ed. and completed CP32 internshipwith the US Army Chemical School. Shewas with the FDA for 2 1/2 years design-ing web-based training and helping tobuild “ORA U” to train investigators, ana-lysts, and other public health personnelthroughout the United States.
Valerie LeBlanc is an InstructionalDesigner, Trainer, and Consultant withThe Information Architecture Group, Inc.Her background and experience is ineducation and information technology.Valerie has been creating courses relat-
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The Essential Conference for e-LearningDesigners, Developers, and Managers
San Francisco, California • November 12 — 14, 2003 Pre-Conference Workshops November 11, 2003
The annual conference of...
The program is divided into three core practice areas thatmirror the three main roles that e-Learning producers areengaged in — Designer | Developer | Manager. The ProgramCommittee, comprised of volunteer Guild Members, has iden-tified the most critical topics that address these areas andthose topics will be the focus of all our General Sessions,Think Tank Sessions, Concurrent Sessions and optional Pre-Conference Workshops.
Every session is designed to allow time to hear from theexperts, debate and discuss with your peers and explore topics to their fullest. In addition to the structured time you will spend learning in the sessions, you will also have ampleopportunity to network with the other participants in morningdiscussion groups, over lunch, and during social activities.The size and format of the conference will help you developimportant professional connections during the conferencethat you can continue in the months and years to follow.
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The eLearning Guild™is a Community ofPractice for designers,
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ed to IAG’s Requirements Discovery Processfor several years. During the past two yearsher focus has been on the e-Learning environ-ment. You can reach Valerie [email protected].
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