Rapid development cycle (RDC) - Custom eLearning development

Unlike many other vendors, Cyber Media Creations uses a rapid development cycle (RDC) approach to custom eLearning development. This approach is based on using rapid prototyping for each module. Essentially each of the modules in the course is treated as separate Lego block. CMC is able to develop each module independently. Our rapid development cycle also allows us to develop 3-4 modules at the same time. So what does this mean for you, the customer? It means that you can assign each module to the relevant subject matter expert (SME). What happens if the owner of module 1 is away on vacation? No problem, we start working on other modules that are ready for production. Using the Lego block approach, CMC can work on several modules at the same time. This translates into cost savings for our customers. It also gives them great flexibility in terms of scheduling modules for development. Based on our unique rapid development cycle (RDC) for custom eLearning development, combined with our unique business model CMC has been able to provide highly competitive pricing.

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Evaluating eLearning vendors and proposals

When you're selecting a new eLearning vendor that will be developing custom eLearning materials for you, how do you evaluate these vendors? The answer to that is pretty straight forward and I wrote a detailed white paper on that topic - Selecting an eLearning vendor: A guide to making an informed decision. Ok, so now you have three to four potential vendors. You ask them to provide you with a proposal based on a new course that you’d like to develop. How do you select the vendor for that project? Obviously you’re looking at what you are getting for the price. Is the vendor’s solution based on your needs? Does your program require interactive multimedia elements? On the surface the answer to this question may be an obvious “yes”, but in some cases you may be able to develop an excellent course that doesn’t have audio and video and that still meets your specific needs.

For custom development your vendor should be able to provide you with a detailed structure for your program i.e. number of modules, time per module. Your vendors should also provide you with an overall estimate of the development man hours required to complete the course. This is an important first step for any program. Additionally your vendor should list the multimedia eLearning elements that will be included. Now look at the vendors estimate of how many hours it will take them to complete the course.

Let’s look at a hypothetical proposal and plug in the numbers. Let’s say that the vendor says that the course will take 1500 hours to develop and the final course will be 3 hours long, then the ratio will be 500:1. So how does this figure stack up compared to the industry standards? Brandon Hall conducted an extensive survey, looking at eLearning development ratios. Here are the results:
Ratio (number of development hours: training hours) for each type of training:
- 34:1 Instructor-Led Training (ILT), including design, lesson plans, handouts, PowerPoint slides, etc.
- 33:1 PowerPoint to E-Learning Conversion. Not sure why it takes less time than creating ILT, but that’s what they discovered when surveying 200 companies about this practice
- 220:1 Standard e-learning which includes presentation, audio, some video, test questions, and 20% interactivity
- 345:1 Time it takes for online learning publishers to design, create, test and package 3rd party courseware
- 750:1 Simulations from scratch. Creating highly interactive content e.g 3D gaming virtual worlds

At this point I want to make it clear that the 345:1 ratio is for a third party vendor to create a course that they sell as an off the shelf course. The 220:1 would be for an eLearning vendor to develop a custom course for you, with 20% interactivity. Ok, so let's say that your vendor exceeds the 220:1 ratio. Now it comes down to evaluating the materials that they’ve developed to see whether you feel that it is worth the money. How do the other vendors compare? Did they provide you with the figures to measure their eLearning development ratios?

In my next post I will discuss how CMC’s Rapid Development Cycle (RDC) drastically reduces our development time for multimedia eLearning course. As a result our development ratios are much lower than the results of the Brandon Hall survey, which means that our customer get multimedia eLearning products at a HIGHLY competitive price, even when compared to offshore vendors.

Poll: Recession driving eLearning growth?

I am extremely interested to see whether the recession has led to more companies looking towards eLearning for more affordable training. Based on my experience, larger companies have been using eLearning for several years, although a few have resisted online learning. Recently I've been contacted by companies who are only now looking towards eLearning which made me wonder whether the realities of the recession are forcing companies to look towards new training solutions. Although many (if not most) organizations have cut training budgets, training still needs to be done. Is your company looking at eLearning to achieve your training results or are you still doing mostly traditional classroom training?

Audio Narration in Training

Cathy Moore does some very neat demos. One of her latest demo's is on the use of audio narration in training. Definitely worth checking out - great work Cathy.

How to get blog comments easily

Many of us often wonder how we can get more participation from our readers. Well I found one sure fire way - criticize Brett Favre. Yip, mention the words Favre and hype in one sentence and you'll get PLENTY of feedback alright! All I can say is at 8-1 the old man looks pretty impressive from my couch.

For those of you who don't like sport maybe you can write a post about why Bill Gates isn't a genius - seems to me it would be the same as saying that Favre is hyped. On a side note why hasn't anyone written and article about why Favre is pronounced Farv?

eLearning: Selling while educating

I often find myself in the precarious position of being both a salesman and an educator when going on a sales call. I was wondering if this is a norm in the eLearning industry or whether I am just in a unique position, as I deal with both the sales and marketing side as well as the development side. This may put me in a position where I am more familiar with the nuts and bolts of the industry, unlike your ‘typical’ sales person. I said precarious because I sometimes feel like I am the first person who educates the customer on the development cycle of an eLearning project and the amount of work that is involved from both the vendor as well as the customer’s side. In addition, some potential customers seem shocked by the average price of developing eLearning programs.

I sometimes wonder whether this realization scares the customer off, but at the same time you want to be as honest and upfront as possible. I would love to year from other people in the field to see whether my experience resonates with them. Have you had a similar experience? Is the duality of sales and educating necessarily a bad thing? Is this duality unique to eLearning or does it translate to other industries? Is this duality the result of the relative ‘youth’ of the eLearning industry? Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Narcotic elearning anyone?

I came across a very timely blog post from Cathy Moore regarding the amount of boring eLearning content out there. It is very timely because I was asked that exact question by a potential customer yesterday. My reponse was right in line with Cathy post:

No clear goal: We don’t look closely enough at the business reason for the course.
The wrong tool: We’re using elearning when another method would work better.
Too much telling: We think, “We know things that the learners don’t! We must tell the learners these things!”
Not enough time: Feeling pressured? You’re not alone. Several respondents to Elliott Masie’s 2005 survey mentioned problems like “ever faster development cycles that make it difficult to maintain minimum quality standards”
Lack of internal standards: Rigorous, written standards for elearning materials don’t appear to be wildly popular.
Fear of creativity: We’re sometimes afraid not only of humor but even of “safer” ideas like dialog, scenarios, simulations, “discovery” approaches, and the many other ways to show instead of tell.

I'm gonna add a few more ideas at Cathy's blog so make sure to check it out.

Is copyright causing a conundrum for trainers?

With the proliferation of applications that allow anybody to create content, where do we draw the line as far as copyright? Blogs are loaded with content that was not created by the author especially images. Is this an issue or are blogs different from other training/informational materials developed within your organization? Where do we as eLearning developers draw the line in terms of incorporating content that is available in the 'public' sphere e.g. Youtube?

Youtube videos are littered with copyrighted material that the content creator has manipulated/edited into a new format. Can we/should we reference these videos? Is copyright becoming less of an issue because of the fluid nature of content on the internet? Clearly the music industry is still battling the peer to peer applications, although most of it has not been terribly successful. Music sharing is not a new thing. Back in the day kids used to copy cassettes from each other. With the advent of the internet and peer to peer applications you can now share files with another person in Mongolia in mere minutes.

So some of the questions I would like you to think about are:

• Where does copyright begin and end in the web 2.0 era?
• Have the rules changed with the advent web applications like blogs, Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube etc?
• Are the rules different for learning programs vs. blogs?
• Is there a difference between music rights and copyright on images/video?
• Can copyright be an enforced with the advent of the internet, does this matter?

Springboks - World Cup Winners

Well my 4 year fix of high quality rugby combat is over and it ended in victory for the Boks! The build up to the World Cup has been tumultuous to say the least. The next four years will definitely be as interesting, especially with a push in many political circles for affirmative action in the selection process. Several politicians are also pushing for the exclusion of all South African players who decide to play their rugby outside of South Africa.

South Africa not only ended the World Cup victoriously, they also won several IRB awards including team of the year, Jake White was honored with the coach of the year and Bryan Habana won IRB's player of the year - great job boks! In addition, the Boks now top the world rugby rankings, followed by New Zealand, Argentina, England and amazingly Australia at number 5!

Here are some great Youtube videos - enjoy!

Rugby World Cup Victory 2007 - Celebrations CT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQkbmkDwcos
Springboks 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfF0r5d9oR4
Race debate after SA victory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2M9LxO5HJ0
Try Savers and Rib Breakers 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALLfx2kvlLo
Springbok rugby tribute - The link is a temperamental but worth the wait!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUacdcvu-T0
RWC 2003 Best Tries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXmorzTmLRo
Springbok Rugby Tries '05/'06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_m_LWDeCbc
National Anthem of South Africa - AWESOME video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pVfhd1tLdU

My final thoughts on the Rugby World Cup of 2007
Op die bokke and Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika!

How to lose a customer in 5 minutes or less

Considering how difficult and time consuming it can be to get a new customer why do businesses find it so easy to lose a current customer? Nothing destroys a business relationship as easily as bad service. Thrown bad response to said bad service into the mix and you have a fatal combination. Let's look a quick example.
I was out with my family last night and we decided to swing by the pharmacy across from our local medical center to pick up a prescription that was sent through earlier in the day. My wife called ahead to make sure that they had received it and that it would be ready. We were assured it would be. The unnamed pharmacy provides drive through service so I can pull up to the window without dragging my whole family including my cute little ankle biters along - perfect!

Drive up, press the button, automated lady tells you to fill in all the info, couple of minutes later a real person says they'll be there in a couple of minutes...no problem so far. 15 minutes go by and I have more cars piled up behind me than at a Rutgers football game. I decide to press the button again. Same robotic lady followed by a person saying we'll be with you in a few minutes. After 5 minutes a lady behind me gets out and politely comes up to my window asking if I had seen a ‘real’ person yet. I inform her no such luck and we proceed to press the button again. Same response as before.

After another 5 minutes my 3 year old informs me "Daddy I have to go potty". Fearing what would happen if I lose my place in line I get out, my wife takes over the driver's position and the 3 year old and I walk around. Once inside the pharmacy I head to the 'service counter'. I ask for the key to the restroom as that is always locked. I also inform them that my wife is on the other side of that window merely waiting for one item that has already been sent through. Response: 'I am not in charge of the window and we are very busy tonight'. Translation ~ I only work here dude, not my problem! Meanwhile back at the ranch I was passed by a guy in a pickup who drove around and was in the pharmacy receiving his order. There were also two other people standing around waiting - wow very busy indeed.

I hate bad customer service and worse still I hate the response that it is not problem I just work here. Take some pride in your job and in your organization. Anyway, I head to the potty and in the meantime my wife calls them on her cell. The response is a sigh and eventually someone came to 'help' her. Actually it was the young lady who told me she was not responsible for the window - hmm.

That little incident cost them my business. In a few minutes they manage to lose a loyal and regular customer. Although the whole experience was pretty bad, it was the 5 minutes that I spent chatting to the staff (5 minutes) that decided my response.

Many businesses are focusing on training, but more needs to be done in the area of basic customer service. Given the fact that bad customer service can DIRECTLY impact your bottom line I am amazed that not more is done in this area. Is it my imigination or has customer service declined over the past few years? Given my example doesn't it seem like more should be done? What has your experience been either as a customer or an employee related to bad customer service? Have you lost a customer or been the customer who has broken a business relationship because of bad customer service?

RWC 2007 - Springboks all the way

To say I’m excited would be the understatement of the century!

The South African rugby team (the Springboks – Boks for short) have made it through to the World Cup final where they will meet the English. This 2007 World Cup has been one of major upsets with the favorite team from New Zealand (the All Blacks) being knocked out by France in the quarterfinals. In the other quarterfinal England (a MAJOR underdog) beat the mighty team from Australia (the Wallabies). With France vs. England and South Africa vs. Argentina in the semi’s most people favored the host nation (France) to take on the Boks in the final….wrong again, England beat out Les Bleus to make it back to back finals for them.

It’s difficult to explain the excitement of a World Cup to an American. Can you imagine a situation where the U.S. has to select a national football squad from all the various NFC and AFC teams? Now imagine that there are at least 4 international teams that equal the power and skill of your team. Who would you select at quarterback – Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre? [I mention Favre because I am a MAJOR Packers fan]. Imagine the excitement and discussion that would go on.

Who would be the team’s coach – again the two top sides' coaches come to mind as obvious favorites. Would they want the job and all the pressure of leading their side to global glory? Who would you select as wide receivers to compliment the QB’s? Running backs? Could you select Ladainian Tomlinson based on his current form? Are their players on the opposing sides that could counter his running style? Maybe we need to look a guy like Reggie Bush….

Let’s take it one step further and imagine that the new national team loses to Romania in the build up to the World Cup. Oh you didn’t know that Romania had a national football team…well they do in this world. Anyway, Romania is a developing football country (a so called Minnow) that has a great defense that shut both running backs down for the day. Furthermore Brady had a terrible day and threw two interceptions..now what? Should Tony Dungy quit? Maybe it is time to replace him with Bill Belichick? The guy never looks happy but he wins games even if he records some additional footage from the sidelines. Now that I have some NFL supporters’ blood boiling I want to welcome you to the world of international sport. Yes, we have the Olympics but the atmosphere is nowhere near as intense as an international team competition like the World Cup – Rugby, soccer, cricket.

Thanks for allowing me to digress from the world of eLearning and to share my excitement about what should be an epic game on Saturday. The Boks were hoping that Nelson Mandela could come to France to inspire the team to glory – as he did in SA in 1995 – but unfortunately he isn’t physically able to. Nonetheless, he will share a message with the team via video prior to the game and we all hope that this will inspire the boys to glory. On Saturday wear green to show your support.

Op die Bokke!

eLearning jokes: Not funny?

I’ve read a couple more posts on the use of humor including Geetha Krishnan's Humor in eLearning. Geetha’s post echoes most of my thoughts on humor including the issue of political correctness. What I found the most interesting were the horror stories from people who have used humor an offended people.

Make sure to check out David Lee’s comment where he mentions a sales meeting that went wrong due to the use of humor “After returning home from a very successful sales meeting where my product presentations with my marketing manager had received among the highest ratings from the sales force, I was called into my boss's office. The VP of HR and my boss's boss where there. I was informed that two jokes we included in our presentation had offended a handful of representatives and they were calling for the dismissal of me and my marketing colleague. Fortunately, a personal apology and an official reprimand calmed the offended employees and we kept our jobs.”

Earlier Davis states that “No instructional designer can be expected to know so much about every target employee to ensure a joke or a cartoon will not offend. In the case of instructor lead training, there is no assurance that every facilitator will have the background understanding and comedic timing to deliver a joke well. Best case scenario is you humor most and bore some. Worst case scenario is the company is sued and people lose their jobs.”

Do you similar horror stories? Would you agree that humor in training should be avoided? Could this be the sad reality of training in the year 2007? Are all blondes sensitive about blonde jokes? Is it possible for us to laugh at ourselves? Are jokes by their very nature at the expense of others? If so, is the price to high to pay? Are there are examples of training that uses humor effectively?

Interestingly the same argument is often made in connection with marketing i.e. humor in marketing is to risky. One of my favorite and most succuessful advertising campaigns is the Aflec duck. Maybe the key is to make fun of animals.... Then again the Geico gecko has a British accent. Are the British offended by the associated connection?

Humor me

I came across an interesting post [Laugh, and your learners laugh with you. Maybe.] by Cathy Moore discussing the use of humor in training. She mentions that most customers are very opposed to using humor (of any type) in training. I would agree with her that there is a perception that anything laid back will not be taken seriously by the audience. This has definitely been my experience with our corporate clients. Admittedly we have worked extensively in the Pharma/Biotech industries and they appear to be more serious in their approach. I am wondering if there are industries where humor is more widely used in online training.

Again, I agree with Cathy that humor is easier to use in a classroom setting mainly because the feedback from the audience is instantaneous. In a classroom setting you get feedback right away and if your joke flops you can move on very quickly changing your approach/speaking style-this is obviously not the case for online training.

Something that Cathy didn't touch on and that one comment mentions briefly is the multi-cultural nature of the training audience. This makes it trickier as humor definitely differs from country to country and even more so from area/region to region. It is VERY difficult to develop a course that will be funny for the entire audience. Actually, now that I think about it there are also substantial differences in how the different genders perceive humor. I am always amazed at how specific advertising campaigns really highlight these differences. Quite regularly my wife and I sit at the TV and I crack up at a Miller beer commercial and she is sitting next to me looking perplexed.

Another area that really limits the use of the humor is the environment of political correctness. Let's face it; much of the humor that is really funny may offend some group of your audience. This means that much of the humor is scaled back and becomes corny, rather than funny.

I would say that humor can be used, especially if the audience is small and homogenous. The more diversified the audience the more difficult it is to pull off humor.

Great service: Spread the good news

Either I'm just getting older and grumpier or companies are focusing less on customer service and not willing to back the products that they sell. Luckily I had a super surprise while doing business with the guys from MCCOM. Ok so their name is not catchy, but these guys get business.

Here's the story:I needed to capture some video from a Betacam tape provided by a customer for a fire training program. We didn't own a Betacam player so I looked around for one on the internet. I came across MCCOM's site and called them up. They had a Betacam player, so I swung by their office/mini-warehouse to pick it up. They were likable and I ended up chatting to them for over an hour. That would be a pretty good plug for them if that was end. As you may be guessing it isn't.

We tested the machine at their site to make sure it worked and I tested it once I had it set up at the office. No issues either time. Well yesterday I fire it back up as I was ready to capture the tape...no luck! I got sound, but no video. I called the MCCOM guys up to see if there was any setting that I was missing. After some discussion we decided that it may be a dirty head and they recommended that I bring it back in for a clean.

After some amount of testing, cleaning, poking and prodding earlier today we all realized the machine was shot. Luckily they had another one in stock. When I wanted to pay, both Scott Trupp and Mike Mehalko said "absolutely not!' I explained that I was more than willing to pay as the machine worked when I tested it and it is a used machine. The still refused my money and said 'just enjoy it and spread the goodwill'. Thanks Mike and Scott I intend to. What a privilege to work with people who are willing to do the right thing and who understand the value of building a long term relationship with your customers.

If you are looking for "new & used broadcast video & audio equipment, these folks maintain an extensive inventory as well as broker equipment for their customers. Their many services include: custom studio design, appraisals, liquidations and facility upgrades. They buy used video equipment from complete facilities to Non Linear Suites to individual pieces of equipment. Or they can take your used equipment in trade toward newer or New equipment", please contact them and remember spread the good news!

Let the RWC games begin

I seldom write about non-eLearning topics but today I have to share my excitement! In a few hours the RWC 2007 kicks off in France with 20 top nations from around the world representing their fans hope for glory.




Although much of the American population is oblivious to the start of this amazing event, I will be glued to my TV watching as many games as possible (thank goodness for TIVO). Based on the Bok team [South African team = Springboks] selection I am confident that they will be facing the All Blacks come the final on October the 20th. Hopefully the magic that Madiba provided in 1995 by wearing the Springbok jersey will work again this year.

In closing all I can say is:
OP DIE BOKKE!

Rusting to success

I never thought of success in terms of rust, but I had the privilige of having some relaxing time on the plane from Chicago and I read the September issue of Business 2.0 from cover to cover. I would highly recommend this issue to ALL members of small businesses. The issue covers the latest business disruptors/innovators and also give some detials about previous disruptors such as the founders of Facebook, Google, Microsoft etc. The whole issue was filled with inspiration for small businesses to keep going and to keep thinking about new ways to help people do what they do more effectively, easier and quicker. One particular article struck gold with me. The article about Fred Franzia was elightening and VERY amusing. Wow, talk about a fish that swims agianst the current.

My favorite Fred Franzia quote from the article is:
"Success is easy if you think of it as rust: It's inevitable if you keep at it."

Amazingly that is the consistent message from all of the start up entrepreneurs that are profiled in the magazine. Keep at it, believe in yourself and work hard. The rust will take care of itself!

Putting a $ amount on trust

I bumped into a business associate the other day and he was telling me a horror story about a new LMS implementation that went horribly wrong at a large fortune 500 company. Accordingly to him they had an excellent computer systems validation (CSV) team in place and all was going well. Suddenly the company found a cheaper supplier and kicked the first guys out. The new guys came in and didn't know what they were doing and all the wheels fell off the bus. Does this sound familiar? Have you had similar experiences with 'cheaper' low quality vendors replacing 'more expensive' top quality guys and gals?

My associates seemed to be of the opinion that this is happening more and more. Companies focus purely on the $ amount being charged and don't look at the bigger picture i.e. the cost of bringing a new group up to speed, building relationships between team members, additional time spent on project management, policing the quality of the final product etc. Much of these activities can be grouped under the broad label of trust. Can you trust you supplier to deliver a quality product on time and on spec? What dollar amount can you put against that feeling of trust? Is it really worth getting someone new in and not having that trust and security? Is the example I cited a case of shortsightedness or is there more to it? Your thoughts are appreciated.

Personally I have a network of suppliers that I've selected based on both cost and quality. Once they've been selected I consider them as part of my company and I build a long term relationship based on both parties mutually benefiting. Unless their price to quality ratio drastically increases I wouldn't cut the relationship to save a few $'s somewhere else. To me, if it looks too good to be true it probably is. Putting a $ amount on a business relationship built on trust is highly risky and not worth the gray hairs. In my case I am losing hair at a rate of knots, so I have to take good care in this department.

40's up!

I was amazed when I noticed that I have posted 40 entries on this blog (this being # 41). I also counted 23 comments which I think is a great ratio of comments to posts.

Thanks for the feedback I really appreciate. I enjoy blogging although it was pretty hard to get the juices flowing initially.

Death by video?

We live in the multimedia age. One unfortunate Miss Teen USA contestant massacres a response to a question in a beauty pageant (while mentioning my country of birth) and EVERYONE watches it on Youtube – with subtitle included.

Surely given the massive amount of video that people now have access to on their cell phones, smart phones, PDA's, internet, TV, TiVO etc it makes logical sense to bombard people with video in training programs, right?

I am constantly amazed at the number of customers who want video in their training programs. The reason that I am amazed is because when I ask them why video is needed they look at me with blank stares. Apparently it is so obvious that no explanation is needed. Don't get me wrong many of our training programs use video elements/segments but these are tied directly to the objectives of the program.

So this begs the question - can a training program suffer from death by video? Surely having a video training program is much better than having just text on screen. I would say - maybe. Having the talking head video on screen for 30 minutes is just as boring as the text based page turner. Yes, I did say boring. Fact is people are busy and they want something that engages and entertains them. This is best achieved by use a combination of eLearning elements such as text, interactive graphics, audio and video. The last two elements may be limited based on your budget, time frame, deployment method etc.

Back to video. Using video is a great idea but use it in limited amounts to meet your learning objectives. What are users going to get out of the video? Why do they need to see the video? Does the video have graphics included, multiple narrators/actors i.e. will it engage the user? If you can adequately answer these questions then you should use video. The best idea is to split any video that is longer than 3-5 minutes into separate learning segments. Contemporary business people share one characteristic with gold fish, their concentration span is VERY short. This means you have to keep them hooked and using video can be a great way to achieve this.

Just make sure that your training program doesn't suffer a quick and horrible death by video.

Business Matchmaking: Chicago

I am very fortunate to be able to make a trip out to Chicago for the Mid Western regional SBA Business Matchmaking event. This is an amazing opportunity for buyers and sellers to interact on a one on one basis and I would HIGHLY recommend it to small business people. I went to an event in Ft. Lauderdale last year and we got a very nice contract out of it with the NFPA, as well as some great leads for future projects.

The format of the event is speed dating for business. The nice thing is that you are matched with buyers based on your product descriptions and their buying needs. I will let you know whether this event turns out to be as successful as the previous one.