Over the Christmas break thousands of people will have been opening Christmas presents and seeing a computer or laptop or a mobile phone. Amongst all of those people how many of them will know how to use them?

I helped buy a laptop for a family member this year. As a computer user since I can remember I didn’t really think of the fact that it came with no instructions. Nothing. Just a laptop and a power cable. Once I completed the windows setup I then had to update the computer with 44 updates. Yes - 44 updates. Sold as new and then I needed to spend an hour updating it. I can’t imagine many other shops getting away with that.

Another family member had a mobile phone, a fantastic piece of technology with a 5mp camera. Not set up to receive or send images. On the supplier website the phone was no longer listed so it was a trawl across the web to update the settings.

I read that apple have sold 50 iphone since 2007. Walk into the local apple store and see the number of people who are taking classes (old and young). Here is all our equipment - try it, don’t worry if it breaks and if you want we have training sessions.

I bought a new digital camera from canon - amazing value, but I needed to get on the website to download the manual to actually how to take pictures. You might think that I could use the manual settings but sometimes you just need to know the most basic features.

We sometimes wonder why we can’t get people interested in using computing, the internet or technology but after this Christmas I think we need to make it a little easy for people who are coming along to the technology party for the first time.

The 10 rules of painless procurement - from both side

A few weeks ago I picked up on a tweet about the tender process from @kevinmulryne and added a few comments along with @innerquest

As we had all been involved in the procurement process (from both sides) we decided to come up with a few tips on how to manage the process - if you are looking to submit a tender or if you are looking for a supplier.

We used a shared google doc to come up with several ideas, tips, experiences and these are our top 10 for both! I hope that you find it useful.

by Scott Hewitt, Tim McShane and Kevin Mulryne

scott.hewitt@realprojects.co.uk

kevin@mulryne.com

tim@fluffyclouds.co.uk

Flash – not the comic hero but the software, take some time to browse software and technical forums it generates huge comment. From those who want the iPhone to support Flash to others who will do anything that they can to avoid using Flash. Move sideways and you’ll see another discussion playing out about browsers, a few months ago you could easily find tech magazines and forums about Internet Explorer 6. .net magazine has ran a campaign called bring down ie6

This is nothing knew. In the early 90’s when I started working the designers and the programmers would discuss the merits of the PC v Mac. The PC users didn’t like the one button mouse, the mac users didn’t like the PC interface.

I read the current technical discussions with interest and sometimes they help to get things moving forward. The open source community is a great example of discussion, working together, testing and developing to refine the software.

For developers of e-learning this technical challenge is part of the job. It’s not just simple to say to your client that they need to update to the latest browser or move everyone up to the latest version of flash to get your solution working. Having worked in IT strategy supporting over 8000 users the update to the latest version of a piece of software looks quite straightforward but sometimes isn’t. As a result you might find that you are working with versions of software much lower than you are used to.

As developers we have more software available at our disposal then every before and so much of it is free. When working on a new project one of my first questions is ‘what is the PC/Mac specification’ many companies will have a specification document that you can follow. You may be disappointed if you get the answer that it’s IE6, early version of flash and no sound cards but this is when you need to get creative. My approach is to create ideas first and then apply it to the software. If you have a good idea and a narrative it will work across a range of platforms and you can deploy the version that meets you technical specification. I sometimes that think that it is easy to forget what we have, my first PC had 256mb hard drive and today I’m working around with a 16gig iPhone that can post me a GPS location, play music and I can get my email. This is where I start:

1.    Establish the computer specification
2.    Ask if you can complete a site test before the project hits start up to identify any technical issues early
3.    Focus on creative ideas – you can map good ideas to any platform – recent ports to the iPhone and iPad show this
4.    Manage expectations – if you know what the limitations are then communicate this to the project team
5.    Set up a clone machine in your office – you need to be testing in your target machine

It can be tricky to set up point 5 so you might think about asking the client if you can borrow one of them machines! It can be done I once managed to get a dual boot on Windows 95 using English and Japanese versions.

Keep the technical requirements in mind but don’t be constricted by it. If you start feel like that picking up an old course and see what you did all those years ago. I’d bet that it is still excellent work!

Each month and week seems to see the launch of a new piece of technology for people to get excited about. Last month I saw that the Bigtrak is making a comeback! Companies are able to have global launch days that captivate their customers with their new product and service. The new Apple iPad launch has been a huge success with huge volume of units being sold in the first days. The e-learning community has rightly been excited by the iPad and the possibilities that it provides for mobile learning.

The kinect launch doesn’t seem to have been met with the same levels of excitement despite the possibilities that it provides for learners and developers. Originally called Project Natal kinect is a movement controller that allows you to control the software with your body movements, you don’t need to hold any type of device. Due to my interest in game based learning I’d be interested in the first promotional video and the opportunities that this could provide for learners and developers. When the Nintendo Wii was launched people were amazed about the new game controller and the way that it would change the way that we play games.

A few months after its launch I was thinking about how we could use the controller within an e-learning resource. After testing, reading, coding, prototyping we realised that we could develop flash games within the Wii browser and develop a series of game based learning resources. The development project was a success but for each user to benefit they would need a Wii device, something that we are unlikely to see within an office or school environment. Jonny Lee through his TED video had showed the possibility of the  controller technology being used on its own and we had high hopes for a working alone device to reaching the market after time.

After E3 2010 the game industry was buzzing with hope that the Kinect technology will make it to the PC. The ability to use this device will open up new possibilities for designers that will allow learner to have an immersive experience. We don’t have any development costs or platform ideas but if we are able to have a device that works on a standard platform and supports PC development it can have a real difference. For example the driver assessment course that alongside actual drive training also has a hazard perception section using the device, a flight simulation or a adventure location based resource where you actually walk within the environment.

Kinect could offer a new device that will provide an interface that could make the same impact that the PC joystick made. The development of game based learning, virtual worlds and simulations appear to be the most platforms that will make the most of these technology. At the moment we don’t know the development platform or how much development costs will be but it looks like a very interesting movement.

m-learning, mobile learning, learning on the move there are many ways of describing mobile learning and mobile computing. There are a number of machines available from iPhone to netbook but is there an ideal device?

The PC has become the standard for delivering learning with an office environment but the mobile platform is still emerging. Mobile computing has been along for long than many people can remember, most people of the laptop but forget about innovative devices like the PSION and also the Apple Newton. I used both of these devices in the mid 90’s and they were being used within industry. Now I see mobile devices being used by virtually everyone from the mobile phone to the XDA mobile devices used by delivery man to track your parcel.

Within mobile learning we have a range of technical platforms to choose from, allowing choice for the users but providing an issue for developers and organisations. Few fewer of these devices actually share common applications that you can both simply use. Applications for the iPhone and the Android handset are superb but they can’t be swapped and they are usually part of a longer contract for mobile phone services.

Instead of looking for the ideal device or the best application platform HTML 5 may provide much of the functionality that we need, supporting mobile browsers and allowing content to work across multiple devices. During several development projects I’ve reviewed several mobile devices and here are few things that I noted.

Apple iPhone/iPod
You’ll need a developer licence or someone who has one
Development uses the apple development kit that uses objective c
You need to get your app reviewed and approved from apple
Unless you have company license for distribution all your apps will be on the istore

PlayStation Portable
Has browser support and supports flash
Can support a web-cam/camera
Has a slot for a memory card so that you can use your own content
Can be tricky to directly type a url
No contracts
Robust device

Nintendo DSi
Has browser support
Double screen
Memory card slot
No contracts

Android device
Uses open source tools
Lots of developers available
Well supported
Good browser support

Windows Mobile
Support the windows platform
Links with Exchange
Used to create bespoke applications
Can come with a wand for typing
Browser support

Notebook
Larger than other devices
Smaller enough to be mobile
Some times slow to start
Supports windows and Linux operating systems
You can use many of your existing programs
You can develop your own apps and deploy across the notebook

Interesting after reviewing the devices I came to the conclusion that it will be good to develop applications using HTML/5 to allow as many of the devices as possible to use the content. Each device has its own graphic requirements such as screen size but this appeared to be a good way to develop content within a cost effective method.

It has been a while since the last blog post,  sorry!

Many people will know that we have a set up an innovative project with the computer games art degree at Norwich University College of the Arts. In the current academic year we have decided to build on the success of the first year and run a series of student workshops.

In November we held the first workshop called building a game in a day. We are currently developing a series of lone worker protection courses and decided to use a real-life brief with the students. They had to develop the story, narrative, learning objectives and decide upon the audience for their resource before spending the afternoon building a sample module.

At the end of the day each of the student groups has to present their finished game module and also their documentation. I was hugely impressed with the manner in which the students took to the challenge. Some of the game ideas and concepts that were presented were excellent and could easily be used in a commercial project.

To support the students I enlisted the help of Sam, George and Shaun (last year’s work placement students) who provided expert software and also offered a critical eye. Anthony and I provided commercial and project management advice and an insight into what potential clients might be looking for.

The workshop was a great success with 10 excellent game modules being developed, with one group producing 4 example games. From my perspective it was interesting to see how the games design students pushed the software and also came up with new concepts and ideas that we might not have thought of. We are continuing to use computer games designers on our elearning projects and this workshop only helped to re-inforce my belief that they make an excellent addition to our team.

It was interesting to view the different creative processes that each of the groups had. We provided some rough timings and ideas but it was largely left to the students to organise themselves and their time. It was interesting to see how they all started to sketch out design ideas and process flow maps for how the game might work. It is clear to me that game design and instructional design share many principles and once we had introduced the students to the concept of learning objectives they were able to incorporate them into their design.

In December I was able to share my thoughts on the workshop with members of the Association of Learning Technology and the eLearning network during a webinar on serious games that I was presenting.

For more information on the workshop you can read an article that was featured in the Norwich evening news.

Scott

You get together practitioners, vendors, suppliers, buyers and users to ask them what they want!

It was at the elearning network event on Friday 25th September that this took place. New Models for Learning Management had a number of interesting speakers with the highlight being an interactive session led by Barry Sampson and Matt Brewer.

Mike and Barry suggested looking at 4 key areas to define what learners and organisations actually want. They were:

• IT
• Learning & Development/HR
• Learners
• Management

After splitting the delegates into 4 groups Barry and Mike assigned each group a role and asked them to define the ideal requirement for their role. The following discussion and specification was excellent with some great ideas coming forward with the key themes being a need to focus on the requirements of the learner.

With each group having defined their ideal requirements there was a group discussion where the outcomes were discussed. With each group coming up with close to 50 requirements the subsequent LMS could well be getting near perfection!

Barry Sampson from the elearning network has taken all of the group outputs and will be creating a specification document/mind map that will be available on the elearning network website.

I was sat with 2 delegates who were looking to procure Learning Management System and this document could save them both a lot of work!

The session proved the clear benefit in getting together all of the stakeholders and user groups before building any session. If I refer back to my IT degree and more recently my PRINCE 2 course getting together all of the stakeholders is seen an integral part of the design of any system.

The size and scale of Learning Management Systems means that a custom approach is out of the reach of some organisations but it was surprising to note that some of the more basic requirements were not being covered by the LMS market. The increasing use of social media, online learning and informal learning will make it harder for Learning Management Systems to provide what learners actually need unless they can adapt.

This was a great session, we may have found the answer to how to specify the perfect Learning Management System but the key message for delegates to take home was whatever you are designing you need to get the views and opinions and everyone who is going to be affected. Always remember who you are designing for!

One hour or 60 minutes or 3600 seconds, the hour is the standard by which elearning development costs appear to be measured. I’ve read with interest several blog posts about development cost per hour but what exactly is an hour of elearning and how is it measured?

In an industry it is valuable to have a benchmark or standard against which price and quality comparisons can be made but with the advances in technology and the range of development tools available is the hour still relevant?

We read and are told that learners work at different speeds at different times and in different ways yet the one hour matrix is readily applied. I’m interested in what constitutes the hour? Is it the time the learner uses the course? Are we using an average? For the development company is it number of screens x number of minutes? I’m not sure of the answer but I’m conscious that as we deliver on different platforms in different modes to an ever wider learner group that an hour used as a standard could be misleading if it’s not applied consistently and everyone knows how it is measured.

Often I read a blog post about company x who are paying £ 000’s for an hour of elearning and want to know whether it represents value. I don’t think that you can make an accurate assessment without knowing more information including the full details of what the developer is being asked to do. Development time using Rapid tools is widely regarded as being less than custom work and its only when you factor in all of the development tasks only then can you start to make an assessment.

In a creative industry like e-learning benchmarking costs will always be a challenging task but perhaps it’s time to think about a basic formula that will provide a base for suppliers and developers to work from.

Before the internet explosion and during the birth of CBT and e-learning roles were much easier to define. I worked in several e-learning development teams that consisted of

Researcher, Programmer/Author, graphic design, technical person, intstructional designer

over time the roles began to blur, the number of people required for each skill changed, programmers learnt photoshop and graphic designers learnt HTML and basic code and this led to much more flexibility, a good thing!

So has the same thing happened in Instructional design, its a term that I still hear but I’m not sure that I know what it means any more. Social media, interactive media, CD-Rom, web, podcasts, sim, games are just a few of the learning technologies that we are working with - I’ve not even mentioned iPhone! Maybe the job title is the same but the role and skills that are required have changed substantially. The instructional designer role is now much of an interactive designer, applying their thoughts, ideas and skills to a range of interactive media. At Real Projects we’ve thrown another set of skills in by using games designers on e-learning projects who bring a whole raft of new ideas and skills including Game Theory..

I’m never comfortable with the idea of keeping people firmly in their role, agile development and the rapid pace of technological changes means that was as well as being an expert in your field you need to have an understanding of what is happening in all the other development areas. Its no use putting forward a design that won’t work technically or isn’t making use of the amazing new technology that is out there. Check out PaperVision for an example. In our office we regularly exchange websites, articles and videos that we’ve seen to others in the team and everyday we seem to find something new.

What next for the instructional designer? I think they still have a vital role to play but the composition of what’s needed is going to change. They are going to need to be able to work on a range of media taking a little bit from game design, graphic design, instructional design and learning design. They could be the members of your team that actually being everything together.

I might be missing something here but after spending the last 15 years working in e-learning and new media it is still far more common to have a conversation about accessibility when talking to a client about a website than a piece of e-learning. Website design has made great strides in supporting usbaility standards, although it still has work to do. With all the different platforms, browsers and technologies it is difficult to achieve complete standards compliance but it does appear to be a common theme in the web design areas. Within e-learning its just doesn’t seem to have the same importance at the moment.

We have worked with e-learning teams where we have created levels of content to provide as much access as possible. NCSL is a fine example of an organisation that has a really clear set of guidelines for developers that includes their position on accesible content. These guidelines help everyone involved are opened up for developers to suggest improvements and also to challenge.

I’m sure that accesibility is a consideration for lots of learning providers, developers and trainers but it doesn’t seem to have the same weight within e-learning. A simple google search saw these results for the term accesiibility e-learning (7,280,000 results) website accessibility (64,500,000) - quite a difference. There are clearly a number of practitioners and researchers carrying out a great deal of work in this area and my google search is hardly a thorough piece of research but I did find the numbers interesting. I’ve got lots of friends and colleagues in the industry who are looking at accessibility but does the industry really discuss what’s needed?

Has the time come for the e-learning industry to look a set of standards relating to accessibility for e-learning design could help? A set of design standards and good practice might also bring some balance to the tender process where so much of the evaluation process is based on price. I know that lots of e-learning practitioners are carrying out great work in this area but isn’t time we all come together?

Thoughts?

During my web searches I found several interesting links and articles:

http://www.skillsforaccess.org.uk/

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy.aspx

http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue51/ball-rvw/