The Future is Bright... & Confusing

Having started my ID career in 2011 using TechSmith’s Camtasia for “live action” software demonstrations and Adobe’s Captivate for interactive software tutorials, I’ve personally come a long way to creating branched lessons and using Articulate tools to more easily be able to integrate variables, markers, and other interactive features into my courses.

When you start your ID experience creating short, micro-course software tutorials with a specific and limited audience, eLearning bells and whistles aren’t the primary focus of your efforts. I now realize just how vast the impact of effective eLearning can really be. The possibilities are endless.

My Recent Shifts

By integrating Articulate Rise into my ID work, I’ve learned to let go of some of the specifics and exact layouts of my courses. I wasn’t sure I could do it, honestly (we all have our own little control issues), but I did it and I love it. There’s definitely a big difference between Storyline and Rise, and both have a solid place at the eLearning table.

Through these blog posts I’m also getting more comfortable writing in a less-academic voice. I’ve always had a more formal tone to my writing and it’s something that I’ve worked on with the changes in corporate culture and communication expectations. Blogging is also something I never thought I’d really enjoy…but just today I recommended blogging to a friend looking to expand her sphere of influence in her business.

One of the biggest shifts I’ve experienced recently is refining some of my skills and approaches to course planning and design. I still struggle with taking the step of creating a storyboard between my outline/scripting and beginning actual course development. I know I need to slow myself down somehow and not get so excited about what it’s going to look and feel like in the software and spend the time detailing more of the content. I don’t think that this will end up causing me more time specifically, but I think it will shift time from (what is likely) unnecessary editing and shift it into the planning stages. This is going to take some practice.

Over the last six months or so I’ve sat through quite a few online Articulate webinars. These have been super helpful in not just picking up tool functionality, but also to get ideas of how a course could be created, what functionality could be included, and how the user benefits from different interactions. I’ve already put many of these tips and features/functionality to use in my courses.

What Defines a Real LMS?

I’ve been doing some research recently on LMSs and trying to find an “inexpensive” option that can be used for some testing. (Not an easy search to accomplish.)

Apart from some of the expenses involved in these systems, I’m also noticing that a number of these companies have their own course builders integrated into their software. And many of those LMS companies don’t make it as easy to upload a “pre-made” course into their system. Did importing SCORM and Tin Can files become too difficult?

In my view, this adds undue hard connections between an organization and where their courses are being hosted. If an organization decides to switch LMS services and they’ve built all their courses in the first LMS service, are they going to be able to export them and use them in the new system? That would make me very leery, especially with all the growth and changes that the software and database market is experiencing.

I understand that at this point there’s a lot of money to be made around anything associated with eLearning or instructional design, but I hope that this will ebb somewhat. I do understand that it’s expensive to program a database that does all the things that an LMS needs to do, so maybe in a couple of years there will be a return on investment to these companies, they’ll have worked out any number of bugs they might encounter, there will be more competition, and the cost will come down a bit.

There are so many businesses that could benefit from the information that can be gained from an LMS, hopefully they’ll have the opportunity.

What Defines a Real ID Tool?

What is the big fascination with PowerPoint all of a sudden? I repeatedly see organizations want to have their ID work done in PowerPoint – start to finish, not just as part of the process. When did that become a thing? Does this tie back to my last comments about the LMS situation? (Importing PowerPoint into the course builders appears to be a very common activity.)

I’ve seen a couple of situations where the SME(s) insist on having access to and control of the training content at all times. They insist on having things in PowerPoint because it’s a tool they are familiar with. They experience discomfort when content is pulled into systems they cannot get into and “fiddle with” whenever the mood strikes.

There are situations where PowerPoint slides are not the best resource to rely on for content delivery. Virtual reality immediately comes to mind. And how can you create scenario-based or branched courses in PowerPoint? The constant progression of technology means there will only continue to be more innovations that we can’t imagine today and I don’t see PowerPoint being able to support all of that.

So, What Is the Future?

Holograms? A contraption that makes sure a learners eyes stay on the screen and measures brain waves to make sure the information is getting through? What might virtual reality look like in 20 years? Will we be able to know the difference between virtual and non-virtual reality?

So many questions. So many unknowns. So many possibilities.

While we can list any number of potential trends, functions, features, practices that might become part of adult learning in the future, we will have to wait to see what actually takes hold. Should be a fun ride!