Did you hear? There’s a new iPad coming out!

But before you get too excited, should we really be developing eLearning for the iPad? 

It doesn’t support Flash. You can’t really do video conferencing with it and other platforms. It was never created to handle all of the demands of an eLearning course. 

Still, Apple does control 74% of the tablet market with their iPad family. As that continues to grow, it’s a good idea to at least make eLearning for the iPad an option. 

Learning the iPad will be a beneficial starting point. Inherit in its design are a number of cool programs you can use to create iBooks and QuickTime movies. Maybe it’s not exactly what you’re used to, but that’s okay. It will still work. 

Next and hardest of all, you have to move away from Flash; this is likely a good idea anyway. As HTML5 slowly catches on, we’ll all be moving away from Flash soon enough. This transition will be difficult, because almost all eLearning authoring tools export Flash files. But companies like Travantis has iPad templates in Lectora and even Adobe has jumped on board (sort of.) 

Check out this video showing you how to convert a Captivate file to HTML5, therefore making it possible to use in the iPad.

This is the last we’ll talk about gamification…maybe. We think it’s super interesting and the implications for eLearning are pretty staggering, so we can’t promise that we won’t revisit the subject in the future. 

But we had to show you this video of Gabe Zichermann talking about mastering gamification, and like the topic - it’s super interesting! We can promise that. 

As you well know, not everyone in your audience learns the same. This is amplified in some ways if you choose a gamification strategy. Take note of the age gaps in your company and be aware that different generations have different views about games. 

This image from the whitepaper, Do you Need Games in Your eLearning Mix?, by Upside Learning sums it up pretty nicely. 

We’ve been reading a lot about gamification lately. It’s not a new idea, using the theory of game mechanics to turn things not normally considered games into a kind of game has been around for decades.

Remember S&H Green Stamps? That is widely used as great example of gamification, and that’s from way back in the 1800’s. But games are slowly creeping into almost everything we do. 

And why not add it to your eLearning? You already have an element of it in activities that are used to keep the learner stimulated and engaged. Sometimes gamification is just taking that a couple steps further, making the activities part of a long-term goal where learners accrue points, badges or tokens over time. 

Of course, it’s not entirely that simple. Game theory is highly complex and still being solidified as a science. To truly gamify something for maximum return, you have to understand and implement more than a framework.

Here, Tom Chatfield does a great job explaining how games affect the brain and easy ways you can include game mechanics in everything from government to education (hint, hint):

It’s all about video today:

Here’s a video about the Instructional Design Process.

Here’s some advice on creating high quality training videos. Basically, you have to be well prepared, get some practice before the shoot and know your end-user’s online experience. 

Here’s a funny training video. Yes, it involves Star Wars. 

Here’s a long, but informative research paper about designing video for learning and assessment and how video can actually increase cognitive abilities.

Here’s a video about Instructional Design and video tools. It includes a quick history of using videos for training purposes. 

Here’s how to use a free (or upgraded paid) tool called Jing to do some cool video stuff.

And finally, here’s an office safety training video from the ’50s that will hopefully make you chuckle. 

The National Inflation Association announced this week that it believes enterprise social networking will “revolutionize the workplace…[and] the enterprise social networking companies with top-tier solutions will experience growth over the next four years that is similar to Facebook’s growth over the last four years.”

It explains enterprise social networking as, “Facebook for the workplace, but without the socializing.” It goes on to say that these types of networking tools can unite teams from all over the company to work seamlessly together on projects. Shared knowledge will skyrocket and productivity will increase. 

It lists a number of new enterprise social networking software applications and tools, including Jive, Lithium, Telligent and sectors of IBM and Microsoft’s SharePoint,  that are posed to take off this year. 

While valued at only $600 million last year, NIA predicts, “This industry is likely to grow 61% annually and become a $6.4 billion market by 2016.”

It seems it’s only a matter of time before the personal, social networks today of  work their way into our business lives. As training professionals, you’ll likely begin utilizing these tools to facilitate learning more and more.

Everything you need to know about social learning in 2012.

What is social learning?

Social learning theory has been around since the 1960s when Albert Bandura’s inflatable clown experiments lead to the idea that observational learning can take place via model, verbal instruction and symbols.

This symbolic model is more often what is referred to currently, where different types of media like social networks, movies, television and the Internet can all lead to changes in behavior. This is social learning in the digital age.

eLearning professionals can utilize blogs, RSS Feeds, social networks, file sharing sites and robust communication and collaboration tools to further social learning. Content curation can also be used to narrow down good information to pass to learners.

While many great tools exist to take advantage of social learning, much of the success of this model relies on company culture, learners who are willing to share and communicate.

As Marcia Conner notes in her article, Where Social Learning Thrives, “It’s not easy for people to make the shift from a culture where they fear they are not good enough and need to improve, to one where they feel safe enough to want to improve for the enjoyment of it. Some will think it impossible for a whole culture to shift from fear-based fixes to joy-based learning, from coercion to inspiration. Others have witnessed it and will cheer along.”

Examples

The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies has put together an outstanding list of examples of companies experimenting and finding success with social learning.

IBM, for instance, uses social learning in a wide variety of ways. It has no company Twitter handle, but has a few thousand employees on the social network. It has decentralized social learning, putting learning almost completely in the hands of learners. This may not be the best approach for all companies, but there has to be an element of giving up control and allowing learners a safe, collaborative space to learn from each other.

Another example of social learning in the marketplace is Northrop Grumman’s on-boarding process, which involves networking groups that help to integrate new hires. This along with several other programs helped cut the company’s turnover in half.

Benefits

Here are some general benefits of instituting a social learning strategy:

• People are already learning on their own; this is your chance to give them the right information
• You’re helping to build a learning community where employees can use and share their knowledge, creating more productive and efficient teams
•  The goal is always performance, not necessarily passing a test or taking a class. Social learning affects performance as learners become more self-reliant and autonomous, discovering the best answers on their own
•  Social learning is generally more cost effective
•  You can create and steer conversation, like on social networks, and get immediate feedback                             
  

Drawbacks

Here are some things to think about before you institute a social learning strategy:

• Many social networks and social learning tools lack security and privacy
•  Creating and monitoring a social learning program can be a lot to manage and you will need a comprehensive tool that fits the specific needs of your company
• It is easy to want to control the process and create a kind of “formal” social learning, but this might crush social learning before it even gets started. You should provide only the framework; you can’t force social learning
•  You and your team will have to move away from traditional learning development and reporting. Often success can only be measured by proof that a learner can do something they couldn’t do before. This can be hard for training teams to make the transition from traditional thinking on what learning should look like and how to measure its achievement.

Resources

Social Learning: The Future of Social Learning slideshow

The Future of Learning is…Social presentation

Social Learning Theory notes

100+ Examples of Use of Social Media for Learning list

Social Business Council site

Check out a few tools:

• Elgg: Open Source Social Networking Engine
• SocialText: Business Collaboration with Enterprise Social Networking
• GroupSite: Where Social Networking and Collaboration Meet
• Bloomfire: Social Learning Software
• Mzinga: The Leader in Social Software and Analytics Solutions 
• Ning: Create a Social Networking Site

We were just reading this article on eLearning forecasts for 2012, and two of the five forecasts mention a paring down of the traditional big-bang-for-your-buck Learning Management System.

Talk about the death of the LMS goes back a few years, but it seems that the trend is continuing.

Many companies are now opting for a “lite LMS,” removing many of the bells and whistles historically part of the LMS package and relying on a few key performance tracking and talent management pieces.

Do you think the LMS is dead? Friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to join the discussion.

Sure, we’ve talked about the value of videos as well as infographics and graphics, but now some eLearning designers have taken both a step forward with - animated infographics. We’re as excited as you are!

Check out this great example below on the Fundamental Elements of Design.

The Fundamental Elements of Design from Erica Gorochow on Vimeo.

See more examples and potential inspiration here.

As 2011 comes to a close, we decided to give you a rundown of the most popular trends in eLearning for the year:

Mobile Learning

We did a whole blog series on this very topic because it’s so popular this year.

Mobile learning has been talked about for a few years, but a few things came together this year in particular to take MLearning to the next level:

• Widespread interest and adoption generated new tools to create great eLearning for mobile device
• Mobile devices, including tablets and smart phones, caught up technologically with the needs of mobile learners

Social Learning

Social media is huge: 800 million active Facebook users, 21 million U.S. Twitter users, 64 million North American LinkedIn users, 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.

It’s staggering, but this year these networks have proven to be great tools for eLearning, sparking discussion, creating learning communities and giving immediate feedback.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is used on mobile devices to add a layer to learners’ existing realities based on their locations.

The mobile device camera is the lens and MLearning principles are applied to give the learner additional information, computer-generated objects and scenarios and supplemental video.

It’s been very popular this year, but really, we’re just beginning to see what augmented reality can do.

Chunked Learning

Everything in our world moves so fast; it’s hard for learners on the go with short attention spans to sit down and take training.

That’s why this year we’ve seen a huge rise in chunked learning, or snack learning. Quick bursts of information, very useful and easy to consume, usually in video form is one of the most effective ways to institute and take advantage of chunked learning.

As the Millennial generation comes of age in the business world, this trend is likely to continue well into the future.

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Happy New Year to all!