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I’m celebrating the release of my first audiobook narration, Black Sails, White Rabbits; Cancer Was The Easy Part, by holding a raffle!

If you’d like to win a FREE copy of this audiobook, just make a comment on this post including your real name before 11:59pm on May 30th, 2016.  I will compile all the names, pick one at random, and announce the one lucky winner the first week of June.

Of course, if you don’t want to wait and you’d like to show your support now (not to mention hear a rippingly good tale), this audiobook is now available on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and on iTunes.  If you make this audiobook your first purchase (not freebie) on the Audible website, that helps me even more!

Black Sails White Rabbits is the extraordinary autobiography of sailing athlete Kevin A. Hall, whose dreams of competing in the Olympics and raising a family were put on hold at the age of nineteen when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.  Then bipolar disorder.  Then testicular cancer again.  And Kevin’s bipolar disorder takes the form of what is now called “Truman Show Delusion”–when an episode hits, he thinks he’s the star of a global TV program.  How Kevin has weathered his illnesses, faced his demons, and achieved his goals makes for one heck of a tale–at turns darkly funny, frightening, surprising, sweet, and moving.  Kevin is a super-bright man, and he doesn’t pull any punches; you’re right there with him as it happens–and that’s especially true of the audiobook version.  He’s not only a great sailor–he’s a terrific storyteller.

I’m honored that Kevin selected me to narrate his book.  He had his choice of some extraordinary talent, but when he attended the Alice150 international convention with our mutual artist friend Wendy Ice in October 2015 in NYC, he saw me perform my new one-man show Through the Looking-Glass Darkly, and decided I was the man for the job.  I’m thrilled Kevin is so happy with the resulting audiobook.

If you want to enter my May 2016 raffle, remember to make a comment on this post before June 1st.  If you want to buy the book now, you can use the links included in this post.

If you enjoy the audiobook, and know others who would, please do share this information with them.

Thank you for your support, and good luck!!

On January 206h, my ATD NYC eLearning SIG co-chair Mark Cassetta and I partnered with Hal Christensen of the Performance Support SIG to offer another of what I’ve come to call “interactive roundtables”.  In these roundtables, rather than inviting a speaker, we give ATD NYC members a little bit of “homework” on a selected topic, and then we all get together to share what we’ve contributed–a “flipped classroom” approach.  We discuss what works well with contributed samples, and share ideas for enhancements.  Everyone walks away with a pack of examples, and great ideas they can leverage for their next eLearning course.  We held extremely successful eLearning SIG roundtables on both Instructional Design Fixes and Gamification in 2015, and for the first meeting of 2016, it seemed only right to focus our spotlight on the grossly-underappreciated workhorses of learning: Job Aids.

Why job aids?  “They’ve been around since the dawn of time,” I hear you say.  “They’re so old-fashioned in this digital age,” I hear you say.  “They’re not sexy,” I hear you think to yourself.  (Yep, I’m listening.)  Well, the reality is that job aids have only become more important in this digital age–because now a job aid can appear in more formats than ever, and they are easier to share than ever.  And with very little effort, you can even make them look sleek and appealing.

What exactly do I mean by job aid?  I mean any kind of material you create to support and reinforce your key teaching points with your learners once they’re back on the job.  A job aid should always be clear, and to the point.  A job aid is not usually the place for history, theory, background, etc.  A job aid should focus on reminding your learners how to get the job done (step-by-step, if needed) quickly and efficiently.  No frills.  Just the facts.

Why do job aids remain so relevant?  Because every training course is subject to the same simple, unfortunate fact: a huge percentage of the eLearning we offer up so lovingly is completely forgotten back on the job.  By simply including one or more job aids in your eLearning, you’re empowering your learners to download the just-in-time support tool they will need later on to reinforce what they’ve learned–at the moment they actually need it!

Whenever I work with a new eLearning client, one of the first things I explore during my needs analysis is whether the client might only need a good job aid or two.  Honestly, sometimes that will fill the knowledge gap in question quite well–and building a whole eLearning course in those cases is not an effective use of time, resources, or budget.

But even when eLearning is the appropriate solution (or part of a blended one), I always look for opportunities to share some of the key information of the course in job aid format, usually a PDF downloadable from within the course itself.  I’m alway amazed when a client says they don’t see the need for job aids!  Any opportunity you have to offer inexpensive, effective performance support is an opportunity you should seize with both hands.

What kind of job aid you need will, of course, depend on your training content.  It could be, for example:

• A checklist
• A worksheet
• A step-by-step how-to guide
• A “Yes/No” decision tree/process flow
• A set of best practices reminders
• Or something else that best suits your content

And the format could be (among others):

• A PDF file (almost universally readable)
• A brief video clip (Mp4 plays on almost any device)
• A podcast (Mp3 plays on almost any device)

The point is, job aids are almost infinitely flexible, and now with the digital age, and the advent of mobile learning, they can be in the form of video and/or audio support, as well.  Well-designed job aids can provide great “snapshots” of your key information points, and help ensure your eLearning course (or classroom training) continues to resonate weeks and months after the learner takes your course.

We had a great joint eLearning/Performance Support session on job aids.  There wasn’t an empty seat in the room (a lovely meeting space graciously provided once again by CUNY–thank you!!).  Hal, Mark, and I offered a brief overview about the purpose and scope of job aids, along with a few samples we examined.  You can view and download a PDF of that PowerPoint file here:

Job Aid Overview

We had a host of great submissions shared by attendees, in a wide variety of styles and format.  Discussion was both animated and enlightening.  And often quite funny.

If you’re not already a member of ATD NYC, I urge you to explore all that’s available to you with a membership.  For one thing, in addition to the excellent Chapter meetings, there are all the different SIG meetings–including eLearning, Performance Support, and more.

And speaking for our eLearning SIG, in 2014 I started offering our sessions simultaneously as in-person and webinar format. So even if you don’t live in the NYC area, you can still benefit from our eLearning SIG’s sessions online, and share in all the great brainstorming.

Our next eLearning SIG meeting will be in March, on a topic to be decided by our members.  I hope to “see” you there!

Ever since Microsoft discontinued their clip art gallery, we’ve all been scrambling to find inexpensive or free stock photos. But in a way, this is a good thing. The images in that clip art gallery were looking dated and dull. And once you start checking out other options, you realize there’s a gorgeous world of visual inspiration from a much larger pool of talented artists and photographers.

You may already have sites you like. I have been finding photos that work for me at Unsplash.com  and Deathtothestockphoto.com. Both offer free sets of images every week or so.  The latter also offers a fee-based subscription plan.  If you want to swim in a larger pool, check out Stockup stock photos.com; it’s a handy collection of free stock photo sites.  Whatever sites you use, always check the permissions for each image. Some require attribution, some don’t.

Once you find some good sites, how do you know what images to pick?  Here’s a suggestion: if your course’s script doesn’t already include a theme on which you can build, you can still look for groups of images that have a common vibe to them and create your own visual metaphor for your course.

For example, suppose you’re doing a course on awareness, or alertness, or even just communication. It’s easy to find a series of images involving cups of coffee.  Add some text, and you have a title page.  But you also will need to make some choices about font and font color. You could do something like this:

But it’s not as legible as it needs to be.  So you could lighten the image and try a different font color:

The bottom line of course needs to be readability, so play around and see what looks best. If you don’t already have in mind a color scheme, you can easily create one, even without using Photoshop or a similar high-end tool: simply drop your image onto a PowerPoint slide, right-click it and easily alter the photo’s look dramatically with the image editing tools:

And once you settle on a visual style you like, you can alter your other images to align with that style. For instance, here’s an image I can use for all my section introductions:

As you can see, with a little creativity you can collect free stock photos from various sites and turn them into a cohesive visual theme for your project, which will give your course a real touch of class. Now that you’ve been released from using the same old clipart in every project, get out there, explore your options, and have fun being creative! And if you have free stock photo sites you love, share the URL in the Comments below. Thanks!

PS: Tom Kuhlmann over at Articulate and I seem to have had similar things on our minds this week. For more on finding and using stock photos, check out Tom’s blog.

Learning folks! If you are serious about understanding and using principles of Gamification in your learning projects, Prof. Kevin Werbach is offering his superb and FREE online course on Gamification at Coursera starting this month (November)!

Yes, this does require a few hours of work each week for the six week duration–but the assignments are fascinating and fun. You will walk away with a head full of great ideas that you can actually use. I consider this course a “don’t miss” for anyone in the learning field.

Enroll now.

These days everybody is talking about Gamification, and how applying elements or principles of it can enhance your learning interactions.  And it’s true: used strategically, Gamification can make your learning both more fun, and more memorable.

But often people think they have to sign on with an expensive external provider that offers all the bells and whistles of a gamified environment to reap the benefits.  And since most people in learning and talent development teams don’t have the budget for it, the conversation about leveraging Gamification often stops there.  But it doesn’t have to.

This November 17th, I’m offering a session I call “No-Budget Gamification” and it’s going to be a roundtable hands-on discussion and work session among meeting attendees, rather than just sitting back and listening to a speaker.

So how will it work?  As we did with my earlier session on fixing common eLearning design mistakes (which was a huge hit), we’re taking a flipped classroom approach.  I’m providing a PowerPoint deck that includes a very simple template, a simple example, and some handy reminders of the basic principles of Gamification.

All you need to do is think about one of your own projects, and complete the simple 1-slide template with ideas for how you might use elements of Gamification to enliven your learning project.  That’s it!  Then on November 17th, we’ll get together (in person and virtually via webinar) to compare solutions and brainstorm even more great ideas.

This approach is simple, fun, and genuinely effective.  By the end of the meeting, you’ll have at least a handful of great ideas for how you can leverage the principles of Gamification to enhance your own learning projects–without spending a dime!

If you’re a member of ATD NYC, or if you’re thinking of joining (non-members can audit one session for free), make sure you register for the November 17th meeting ASAP so that we can save a place for you.  The event should be listed in the ATD NYC events calendar by Tuesday, 11/3.

And be sure to download the “homework” and free Gamification info deck well in advance so that you’ll be ready to play at our meeting: No-Budget Gamification Homework Assignment  In fact–why not download it now and get started.  Even if you can’t make the meeting, you’ll find a lot of great information on Gamification in my slides.

Have fun, and we’ll “see” you on November 17th!

My schedule these days is busy enough that I’m not always able to take part in the weekly eLearning Challenge over on the Articulate Forums. But there have been a couple recently I couldn’t resist as a voiceover artist.

For one challenge, the task was to create a simple example of a soundboard; in other words, a single slide that offers various soundbytes when you click on objects. The other challenge was to create a voiceover portfolio.  I decided combining the two challenges would be a perfect way to create a little reminder of the variety of voiceover styles I offer.

Creating the Soundboard:
I sourced some fun graphics from the various free icon sites, gave them all the same kind of shadow in Powerpoint, and then used Articulate Storyline 2 to put together my simple soundboard. In Storyline, it took me all of two minutes to select all my arranged icons and convert them to a button set–meaning only one button can be clicked at a time. Storyline automatically created my “Selected” and “Visited” states for each button. To the viewer/listener, everything happens on a single slide. On the back end, I’m actually housing each audio clip on its own sublayer.  That way the audio will automatically stop when the visitor clicks a different icon to explore a different audio clip.

I also decided to forego the traditional “player” frame, designing this sample to appear frameless instead by making the player elements transparent.  The result is simple and clean.

Think of all the creative ways you could present a lot of information on a single slide this way in your next eLearning project–for example, a series of motivational clips from your company’s senior executives.  It’s interactive, it’s fun, and if you have good audio clips, it can also be memorable.  And isn’t that what you want your eLearning to be?

About my VO Work:
When I’m asked about the “quality” of my voice, I generally respond: it depends on the project!  For typical eLearning narration, my voice is warm, confident, and encouraging.  For other projects, I can provide a much more quirky, character-driven voice.  I always suit my VO to the project.  I love recording in studios with an engineer running the booth.  But for a lot of my projects these days, I work out of my home office/studio.  I keep things simple: I start with a high-quality MXL USB.009 mike, which has a headphone jack on it.  That way I can listen via headphones as I record without dealing with the half-second audio playback delay that USB causes.  I use a foam soundproofing box, a pop filter (to minimize “popping” from plosives like “b” and “p”), and Audacity or a similar audio recording software.  When it comes to finalizing my VO clips, I always use a noise removal filter to take out any subtle room sounds, and of course I cut out any background clicks or other noises I might have made while recording.  I take out some breaths, and leave others in–I find that removing all the breaths make the recording sound less human and immediate.  I also normalize all the tracks for consistent final sound levels.  I believe strongly that the better performance you give, the less editing you need to do–and that translates into better-sounding VO!

Click the image on this post to have a listen–and if you need my voice in your next project, you know where to find me!

Enjoy.

This week’s eLearning Challenge on the Articulate forums was to create an animated GIF image file. There was a further requirement that it be a “reaction” shot–the kind of thing you see all over the internet these days. I decided rather than using goofy footage from a popular film or television show (which can introduce all sorts of rights issues), I would create a few quick animated GIFs that were motivational, and could be used safely in a business’s eLearning project without (a) fear of offending anyone or (b) fear of legal action.

Of course, then I needed to fill the gap between knowing what I wanted to do and knowing how to do it. I’ve never created an animated GIF before. I figured it would be great if I could leverage some of the cool animations that come built into Apple’s Keynote software, and simply capture something quick in animated GIF format. (Of course I could have taken the same approach with PowerPoint, but I like the animations better in Keynote–now if only Articulate Storyline could import from Keynote!!) A quick Google search later, I learned about a free program available from the Mac App Store called GIFGrabber. The reviews were great, so I downloaded it and gave it a test drive.

Turns out, while the features are very limited, it was as easy to use as advertised.  I simply added my text to a slide, chose Keynote animations, then used GIFGrabber to capture the animations playing.  I didn’t have much time, so I simply created three motivational messages, and used the same fun animations for each.  Between the font and animation options, the possibilities are almost endless.

I also learned that when posting animated GIFs online, you need to post them at full size in order for them to play.  WordPress was eager to downsize them, but I quickly realized that was stopping the animation.

I’m sure with some playing around I could reduce the file size, etc.  But for now, here they are.  If you like them, feel free to download and use them in your own eLearning projects.

Enjoy!

Great Job!!

Well Done!!

Congrats! You win!!

This week’s eLearning Heroes Challenge on the Articulate Forums was all about course navigation. And you know what?  It’s always a good time to talk about navigation. If you are still creating all your eLearning courses with a strictly linear path, then you’re missing a major opportunity to engage adult learners.

I know what you’re thinking: “But it’s a Compliance course, and people just need to get through it as quickly as possible.” Change your mindset. Free yourself and your courseware from the limits of linear thinking. Regardless of the topic, you need to make your learning interesting and engaging for your learners, or they won’t remember your key points a minute longer than the answer to the last quiz question.

Sure, sometimes a linear 1-2-3-4-5 etc. progression of slides makes the most sense. But if you’re looking to involve your learners, and encourage them to remember your information, help them invest in the course, even just a little bit.

How do we do this? In this simple sample, I give the learner free choice to decide on the order of topics, and use branching to deliver the content, while still ensuring that they complete all the material successfully before moving on through the course.  Offering them the opportunity to explore as they please is a small gesture with a large impact.

Adult learners like a course better if it gives them at least a little bit of autonomy, the ability to make their own choices. Think about it–do most people really like to be told what to do, or where to go? Even in a Compliance course, where the stakes for demonstrating mastery of the topic can be high, you can still give your learner some choices.

You can also entertain and engage your learner while you’re at it. I regularly recommend using a scenario-based approach to learning. Why? Because everyone loves a good story, for one thing. And a good story can offer opportunities for you to involve the learner in creating the outcome you seek.

In the example I’m sharing here, I’ve created a very basic template in Storyline 2 that you could use for a Compliance course, or any other type of course. I’ve picked the topic of Information Security, which is a concern for all businesses, regardless of size. I kept the look and feel very neutral and professional. I present a simple menu page that introduces three characters, and invites the learner to click on the characters in whatever order they choose, to explore a risk scenario and help that character avoid making a terrible mistake. So without overdoing it, I’ve introduced a story element, and a little bit of drama to pique the learner’s interest. In my sample, I’ve set up a simple one-slide scenario and one quiz question for each character’s path, but obviously you could do a lot more if needed–although remember that brevity is always a goal.

Using characters introduces a human element. Making up a real-world scenario the learner would easily recognize makes that character and situation all the more real. Asking the learner to step in and prevent the character from making a big mistake involves them in affecting the outcome of an event they feel could actually happen in their workplace. Note my word choice there: regardless of the topic, you need to get your learners to feel something if you want them to remember.

In this sample, I’ve set up the questions to allow infinite attempts. You could also add meaningful feedback for wrong choices to enrich the experience. What you’re subtly doing is making your points, and allowing your learner to explore and fail in a safe environment, while setting them up to succeed, even if they miss on the first try. And when they succeed, I congratulate them and award them a badge for preventing a disaster (a little touch of gamification).

Once they explore all three scenarios, and earn all three badges, then and only then, a button appears inviting them to move ahead with (or perhaps complete) the course. Isn’t that a lot more interesting than rigidly controlling the navigation and forcing your learner to proceed 1-2-3-4-5 in lockstep? This way, you’re still subtly controlling the environment and the learner’s experience. You’re still ensuring they cover all the material. But you’re giving the learner a stake in the game, allowing them to make choices, engage with your content, and come out as heroes.

Next time you start a project, try looking at your course content and navigation in a new light.  Consider:

• Free-choice navigation systems like the one shown here (or a map, or a diagram, or whatever your imagination devises)
• Believable, recognizable characters
• Scenarios that will grab your learner’s interest
• Little touches of gamification

Sure, creating a course with branching takes a bit more work to design and build. But the end result will be a course that your learners might actually enjoy and remember!

To view the sample template in action, click the image at the top of this post.

Here’s a high-level look at this simple template’s structure: