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The Scenario-based Learning Series: #3 How to implement Scenario-based Learning | Hornbill FX Blog

Previously we defined Scenario-based Learning (SBL) and its key components and after that explained when to use SBL. In this post we will discuss various steps involved in developing SBL

In our last two posts, we defined Scenario-based Learning (SBL) and its key components and after that explained when to use SBL. Let us now discuss how to develop SBL.

Being an ardent reader, I know how a story works.

A typical SBL is more than a three-act story. Despite the story, characters and profound situations, there are two essential parameters that we need to factor while developing the SBL:

The need to align the story to the performance required

The potential of interactivity

Okay, where do I start?

Here is a blueprint of the steps involved.

1. Begin with the end in mind

Define the learning objectives based on the end goal of the training. For example, if we need to develop web-based training for System Diagnosis and Repairs, the learning objectives must be as follows:

Access and interpret the relevant system data

Diagnose the issue

Identify and perform prescribed steps to repair the system

2. Decide the delivery media

Once the learning objectives are defined, we must then proceed to develop the delivery media. In our example of the web-based training for System Diagnosis, the training will be delivered with on-screen instructions through interactions such as clicking on the on-screen objects, dragging the objects to correct locations and text input. The key criterion is to involve the learner and keep them engaged.

3. Develop the Narrative

Narrative: A spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

– Oxford Dictionary

A narrative doesn’t have to be in detail. A set of images recounted as a story is an effective way to depict a scenario. In our example of system diagnosis and repair, a collection of images showing a series of system crashes is enough to establish the narrative.

4. Put the learner in control

The objective of the SBL is to train the learner for real-life situations through simulated triggers. The goal of the trigger is to prompt the user to be action ready. This can be a situation where the narrative is disaster ready. Everything that can possibly go wrong has gone wrong. At the end of the trigger scene, the learner becomes the decision maker who intervenes just in time to make correct decisions and avert the disaster.

5. Support the situation with data

Every scenario needs some data which the learner needs to process to execute the assigned tasks. In our example, the learner needs to handle all the system crash data, and the events leading to the issues. The instructional approach must be not just to identify the correct answer, but to let the learner follow an efficient process to find the right answer.

6. Never lose your learner

A typical SBL must provide Guidance and Instruction to navigate through the scenario. It is essential that you feed the training content to the learner in an orderly fashion rather than leaving it for discovery. This progressive disclosure acts as a scaffold to the SBL and saves the frustration of trial and error. In our scenario of Systems Diagnostics, you may display a message “Click here to see what our experts suggest to do in this situation.”

So, instead of forcing the learner to perform a set of procedures, we provide guidance and freedom to learn from mistakes.

For further reading, visit our: Scenario-Based Learning Blog

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Take on the omnipresent attention-deficit disorder, overload of information, never-ending to-do list, and lack of interest, with animation-based training.

“The Brain Lady” Dr. Susan Weinschenk argues that there are four essential reasons we are drawn to video:

#1: We pay attention to faces. #2: We listen to voices. #3: We mirror the emotions of the other. #4: We pay attention to movement.

This must come as no surprise, considering the number of videos published and watched on Youtube (everyday, people consume millions of hours of videos, generating billions of views). For long, experts have predicted that video will make for the most effective marketing content in the coming years.

For further reading, visit our: Animation for eLearning Blog

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The Scenario-based Learning Series: #2 When to use Scenario-based Learning? | Hornbill FX Blog

In our last post, we defined Scenario-based Learning (SBL) and discussed its key components. Now, we are all set to explore various learning situations where SBL can be useful and see how.

Isn’t Scenario-based Learning applicable to all types of learning situations?

Yes, but the approach differs based on the tasks. From the learning design perspective the learning objectives can be categorized into the following two types:

1. When the Learning is Process Oriented – These are typically information based and sequenced set of tasks that the learner must perform every time the relevant situation is triggered.

For example, when helping a bank customer with regular documentation. Here the learners need to follow a checklist of actions to successfully implement the learning.

We can do this by interspersing the concepts with various levels of the scenario. So the learners go through a section that contains a part of the theory and then a relevant scene.

Tip: It is ideal to run a single story across all the sections. However, we can also use different plots for each chunk provided the environment and roles are relevant and consistent each time.

2. When the Learning is Critical Thinking Oriented – Let us assume another situation where a hospital is training its nursing staff for post-operative patient care. The nurses must be aware of all the patient care procedures and be ready to respond to any unique situation that may arise. Here, the learner needs to adapt his/her skills to the individual case and develop a solution based on concepts learned.

Here the role of SBL is to nurture critical thinking so that the learner may analyze the situation, identify the issue and execute a treatment plan based on the patient care procedures. A Scenario-based Learning environment can effectively nurture this type of skill development.

Great! That means I can introduce the SBL to all types of learners, right?

Yes, but we may need to tweak it depending upon the target audience.

Mostly, a classic scenario-based eLearning solution favors the learners who are already familiar with the basic concepts. The content is branched and has an unstructured learning pattern that does not follow a structured linear flow but stimulates the learning experience based on the occurrence of events in a situation.

But if you try to introduce the same traditional scenario-based training to a learner who does not even have the necessary skills beforehand, the non-linear (branched) and response based interface may be quite overwhelming. In that case, you may need to trickle down the learning by introducing a small chunk of content first, followed by a small relevant scenario each time. However, the flow of information from one concept to another remains linear.

For further reading, visit our: Scenario-Based Learning Blog

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The Scenario-based Learning Series: #1 What is Scenario-based Learning?

My Dad was a remarkable story-teller. Whenever I stumbled upon a problem and looked up to my Dad for a suggestion, he would promptly mold his thoughts in the form of an appropriate story. Not only would the characters in his stories feel relatable to me, but his message would also be much apparent.

He understood that sometimes skill outgrows experience. Moreover, what better way to translate the skills to experience than relevant stories that discuss similar scenarios.

In this post, we shall discuss what Scenario-based Learning is and what its key components are.

I am a Nerd. Define Scenario-based Learning for me:

Scenario-based Learning (SBL) is a simulated learning environment where the learner practices on guided challenges with an objective to enhance responses in real-world tasks.

You may have heard some people calling it as problem-based learning as well. But hey, “What’s in a name?….” The overall objective of the learning design remains the same. (Well that sounded like a rhyme).

I have case studies in my e-Learning. Why should I switch to SBL?

Case studies provide highly structured content and then questions designed around the case to build knowledge and skills. Whereas, an SBL provides learning from the experience of consequences that an actor faces due to the decisions made within the scenario.

The case studies dump the complete information at the beginning, thus increasing the probability of Cognitive Overload. Whereas, an SBL runs on the principle of Progressive Disclosure. It presents just enough information to respond effectively to the present task/ question, thus reducing cognitive overload. Based on the response, the next set of data is revealed.

Moreover, an SBL develops a learner-centric instructional environment that enhances the expertise, builds critical thinking, and accelerates the knowledge transfer where on-the-job training involves high risk or requires more time to gain experience. Whereas, case studies are favorable for building skills for procedural tasks, to perform tasks efficiently.

Sold! Where should I start?

It is always better to start with a checklist of components essential for a structured SBL-

For further reading, visit our: Scenario-Based Learning Blog

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10 Ways Colors can Transform your eLearning

Have you noticed how animation films use color extensively? Why is color so important? Here are 10 ways color can make your eLearning courses a pleasure.

Colors play a big role in animation. In our eLearning courses, we use color palettes to define tone, lighting, emotion, and mood of the course. Finding Nemo is set underwater. What shades of blue to use? How to convey emotions in such a dark space? How to ensure that the main characters stand out? By rendering a few keyframes from the storyboard, color scripts bring these aspects to the forefront for the team to discuss.

Here are 10 ways we use color in our courses. Quick Visual Search: Our brains are wired to understand color-coded information quickly- however complicated it might be. Crisscrossing grids of metro maps are easy to read because they are color coded.

Object Identification: We identify objects better when they reflect what we see in real life. A flamingo painted purple confuses our brain because we expect flamingoes to be pink. However, we sometimes use this dissonance to draw attention.

Emphasis: In our eLearning courses, a section highlighted using color shouts out to the brain that it is the most important piece on the screen.

For further reading, visit our: eLearning Course Blog

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Does eLearning Really Work?

You say, “we have tried instructor-led training and have seen reasonable success. Is eLearning worth the risk?” We say, “hell, yes.” Let us elaborate.

As an immersive eLearning company, we get asked this question often. Most skeptical, yet open-minded, clients of ours worry that they might be embarking on something that isn’t tried and tested. However, when we tell them all the reasons eLearning is, in fact, better than instructor-led-training (ILT) in many cases, they are inevitably convinced to take the plunge.

The Market research firm Global Industry Analysts had the same question, and they’ve found some interesting answers. As per their forecast, the Global eLearning market will triple its revenue from $107 Billion in 2015 and Reach $325 billion by 2025.

eLearning is often better than ILT

With companies increasingly moving towards blended learning, eLearning is considered the second most important training method.

In 2010, a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education (US DOE) found that “students in online conditions performed modestly better, on an average than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.” This is still evident by the steady increase of expenditure in online education.

For further reading, visit our: eLearning Development Blog

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The Painstaking Art of Developing Successful eLearning

Creating eLearning is nothing less than making a Swiss Watch.

While the learner experiences a good curriculum design with intuitive and real-life scenarios, just like the owner of the watch who just sees the hands tick and the calendar move, only an instructional designer/ watch-maker understands what it takes to run it flawlessly.

There are a million moving pieces in an eLearning, which if missed or not put together correctly can result in an unsuccessful training. Here are some of the key pieces that an instructional designer must include to make training successful.

1. KISS (Keep it Short and Simple)

For an SME even the tiniest detail is as important as it gets. But an Instructional Designer must think through the Cognitive Load. It is here where the nice to have chaff is sorted from the need to have wheat. This helps the learner remember the key takeaways without losing focus.

The thumb-rule of content delivery is to break the content into small logical chunks that get to the meat in few minutes and wrap it up before it gets too lengthy. Such chunking not only saves learners time but helps in linking relevant information for better long term recall.

2. Make Learning Fun

During my early days as an Instructional Designer I was tasked to develop an eLearning course on monotonous content such as Banking Regulations, and my mentor had only one instruction for me. Make it Fun!

Since then, I took this as my primary resolution for all the courses that I developed.

eLearning can be fun, or engaging.

If an Instructional Designer blames the content for boring courses, it means he needs to work more on the content. Whether it is Soft Skills training, Information Security, or KYC Documentation, they all can be fun or engaging, if not both.

But what if the content doesn’t lend itself to humor? Well, then we can use relevant real-life examples to connect the content to the learner.

For further reading, visit our: eLearning Development Blog

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Quality Animation – A Classic Approach to your eLearning Development

Making high-quality animation doesn’t mean you have to perfect every frame to Disney standards – rather, it’s about moulding every story the right way to meet your communication needs.

At Hornbill FX, we have a clear demarcation between quality and grade. We don’t confuse the two, we tell our customers not to confuse the two, and now, we are telling you!

The grade of an animation film is the technical excellence of it — frames per second, immaculate squash and stretch, accurate follow through and overlapping action and the like. Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a very high-grade film. In fact, it uses all 12 principles of animation, and is theoretically very strong.

But while using animation for eLearning, you don’t need your own Snow White. An engaging, interesting, memorable Doraemon will do. The Japanese manga series — Doraemon, that is — isn’t technically outstanding animation, it ignores some principles of animation clearly. But, does that make it a bad quality film? We argue that it certainly does not. Quality — for us at Hornbill FX — is conformance to requirements, meeting the objectives of the communication.

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2D & 3D Animation – The Magic of Moving Images

Excited by the magic of animation? So are we! We’ve put together the basics of what goes into making an animation film. Animation might have gone digital today, but 2D animation still involves drawing images (sometimes on paper, often on tablets) and putting them together in quick succession without digital models or virtual landscapes. Let’s look at a standard animation studio process:

Design the Characters: We first sketch the key characters to show how they will look in the front view, the profile view and in the 3/4th view.

Design the Set: Next is to imagine the environment in which our characters will exist and thrive.

Create Concept art: Sketches of the character with the background are drawn based on the description in the script.

Make a Storyboard: Like all good animators, we use a visual script to help us visualize your eLearning animation, organize and edit them.

Record Audio: Once the storyboard is approved, based on your specifications, we pick voices and record the content. At this point, a written script evolves the outline of the 2D or 3D character.

For further reading, visit our 2D & 3D Animation Blog

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Learning Methodologies Explained with Building Blocks

Learning methodologies can be complex and boring. But in case you are explaining them to a client, much of the complexity can be avoided.

If you opened this article hoping to convince your client by giving them a jargon-less overview of the top 3 popular eLearning developmentmethodologies – ADDIE, AGILE, and SAM over a coffee, you got just what you wanted.

Larry, Curly, Moe and … Building Blocks?

Any training development comes down to following a standard set of tasks that define the efficiency and quality of the learning outcome.  We call these standards as learning methodologies. Over the years, these standards have evolved to form three main strategies:

ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop Implement, Evaluate

AGILE

SAM (Successive Approximation Model)

Instead of directly talking about the differences between these methodologies, we will talk about Larry, Curly and Moe who wish to construct a Lego building for their school project.

Read More: eLearning Development Methodologies Blog

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Animation – Kid’s stuff or child’s play?

Animation is often treated as ‘kids’ stuff’, something that’s not meant for adults, especially not for learning. Let’s see why that might be mistaken.

Close your eyes and think of ‘animation’. What comes to mind? Disney? Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Cars? That’s right. It is in films (often children’s films) that we see the best of animation. So, we can see why one might think animation is for kids.

But thinking animation is for children is like thinking gaming is for kids (wait, you don’t think that, do you?).

Let’s start with The Simpsons, who’d call it a kids’ show, huh? The point is — the only thing that makes a film ‘kids’ stuff’ is the idea and not the medium. A lot of animation films are aimed at kids, sure, but animation itself is certainly not kids’ stuff. Allow us to elaborate.

Read More: Animation in eLearning Blog

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Learning Objectives, Dynamic Programming and a Cup of Coffee

Learning Objectives are just like a ladder. They bridge the gap between the learners’ existing skill sets and what’s expected of them, step-by-step. They also help define the course of the learning, strategize the dissipation of content, align the learning plan to the overall learning outcome expected from the learner.

Today we will discuss some quick tips on developing effective Learning Objectives.

But before we discuss, let’s have a hot cup of coffee (essentially anything hot; you may prefer a cuppa as well). Now, imagine gulping it all at once.

“Are you crazy!”, you must be thinking.

We drink a hot coffee slowly, sipping, knowing that it is wiser to take in small amount at a time. This is a same route a good e-learning course follows. Splitting the hot information into such small sips that they don’t, well – burn your senses.

Read More: Learning Objectives Blog

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The Right Bang for your Buck

Choosing engaging and immersive learning experiences can give your corporate eLearning the cost-effective edge.

Everytime we meet clients who are looking for alternate ways to deliver their training, they often start with the observation that their existing training method — instructor-led training (ILT) or ‘Chalk and Talk’— isn’t ideal. They say that it’s tedious to organize, learners don’t have the opportunity for follow-ups /clarification later, and that retention is not optimal. But the most pressing concern with ILT is the meagre return on investment. In fact, a client once said, “Often we feel like we don’t get anything tangible for the investment we make. The learning dissolves into thin air, and we are often left with nothing to go back to”.

So, why should you consider immersive eLearning?

Let’s start with the bottomline: It is significantly less expensive to execute; almost free to scale. Think of it this way,: once ready, replication cost of immersive eLearning is minimal; no additional expense on venue, logistics, trainer etc.

Read More: Immersive eLearning Blog

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Learning Done Right!

Learning is effective when you process and retain the information you learn. In this week’s post, let us learn how to use Instructional Design to make learning effective.

Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, hasn’t heard about Instructional Design. For the uninitiated, Instructional Design is the discipline of making learning more effective using instructions.

Used during World War II in military training, Instructional Design has grown in popularity since and has become an efficient mechanism to ensure the quality of instruction. In fact, Instructional Design is all around us. It’s in the little ‘what’s new and how to use it’ notes that Google or Facebook provides, when they upgrade. It’s the magic ingredient in Google Analytics training programs or how-to-do videos.

Read More: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-done-right-deivanai-durairaj-1d/

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What's all the buzz about Immersive Learning?

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling, but the lifelong attempt to acquire it” - Albert Einstein

Learning a new skill or taking a course can help you make significant advances in your career. Or maybe even just boost your confidence. For adult learners, who juggle learning new skills with the demands of adult life, the benefits of e-learning are manifold.

The HBX learning Space aims to help professionals across all walks of life stay informed about the amazing things that are happening in the world of e-learning.    

This week’s resources focus on an emerging buzzword : “Immersive Learning”. Immersive learning moves the learner away from the conscious task of knowledge assimilation instead creates immersive environments that stimulate interest and trigger synapses to achieve outcomes in a more engaging and effective manner.

Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-all-buzz-immersive-learning-deivanai-durairaj/

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ONE BYTE AT A TIME

Last-minute studies:

Admit it. Whenever we pick books, we look at its size and the last page before starting it — or place it back on the shelf, intimidated by its bulkiness.

Gone are the days when people had patience to pore over passages in books.

How many of us are guilty of peeking at our phones during lectures, or even in work spaces?

We live in a digital era where we check our phones more out of habit than notification flashes. Banning personal electronic devices at places of work and education can never be a wise solution. The more we try to curb the usage, the more becomes the addiction! The lure of a forbidden fruit, perhaps.

Read More: https://medium.com/@hornbillfx/what-if-learning-was-byte-able-8e9a365369d0

Visit us: https://www.hornbillfx.com/