It’s not always possible to boil a training industry conference down to
a single phrase, but if pressed to compact the messages from this
week’s Adobe Learning Summit down, it would come to this: Start small.
Those words of advice weren’t part of every session at the Nov. 9
conference, but they came up often enough to be noteworthy. The message
was clear: Don’t get overwhelmed by the size and scope of the current
training industry, and its critical contribution to the business world.
Whether you’re rolling out one e-learning course for a single
department in a small company or launching a massive global initiative,
don’t get overwhelmed. Start small, and things will grow naturally from
there.
The annual conference, held at the Fairmont Hotel, just down the
street from Adobe’s campus in San Jose, Calif., drew several hundred
e-learning developers and other training professionals. Adobe President
& CEO Shantanu Narayen opened the program by outlining some key
trends around e-learning:
-
How people are using software is changing.
- Revolutionary charge are taking place in the publishing industry.
- The way software is developed is changing.
- Global opportunities are accelerating.
All that means we’re in a time of growth and opportunity for anyone
offering distance learning, Narayen said. That certainly works for
Adobe.
“Our mission has always been to help revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information,” he said.
Narayen also offered three tips the e-learning designers need to keep in mind:
-
Include collaboration
- Plan for multi-channel delivery
- Don’t forget analytics and optimization
Narayen
was followed on the main stage by keynote speaker Clay Shirky, an
adjunct professor at New York University and author of the book, “Here
Comes Everybody.” Shirky gave a well-received, crowd-pleasing speech on
collaboration and the changing face of learning.
It was in Shirky’s talk that the start small theme first appeared.
Shirky called that the natural law of large social systems: Figure out
iteratively what’s working and what’s not, and build on that. If you
have a person in your organization who thinks he/she can get it all
done in one push, Shirky said, lock that person out of the building
until she/he comes back with 10 smaller ideas.
Shirky shared two examples of that thesis: The growth of the Linux
operation system and the boom of Wikipedia. Both started small, with no
firm plans to make such incredible impact in their respective areas.
“(Linus) Torvalds does not say we’re going to take on Microsoft and
the server market. He just says, ‘It’s a hobby.’ ” Shirky said.
“(Larry) Sanger does not say we’re going to drive Encarta out of
business, which they did in April. He said ‘Come try this. That’s all
I’m asking. Let’s see whether or not this works.”
Following that opening session, attendees broke up to attend a
series of breakout workshops over the next six hours, with sessions
focused on creating virtual classrooms, blended learning, integrated
learning, application creation, video-based learning, simulations,
authoring and learning management systems.
The “start small” theme came up again in at least one of the
breakouts, when Dr. Carmen Taran of Rexi Media presented a crowded and
well-received session on “Training in the Age of Aesthetics.” Taran’s
main theme was the beautify learning, making it more memorable and
valuable for everyone involved. Good training, she said, needs three
elements:
By serving that last master, she said, the learning will best connect
with the learner. Taran advised people to be sure to connect to the ROE
(return on emotion) of training.
Using another acronym, Taran also punctuated her talk with images of
good training and good design, and cautioned against using SGS (stupid
generic shots) in the image. People form first impressions in
milliseconds, she said, so it’s important to use aesthetically pleasing
images to draw them in emotionally.
“We blink and we know whether we like something or not,” Taran said.
“As Steve Jobs said, any good design is design that makes you want to
lick the screen.”
The principles of good design were also part of another session
discuss, led by Randah McKinnie, a senior product manager with the
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro team. McKinnie shared ideas from a white
paper she authored, “Delivering Engaging Virtual Learning,” including a
five-step plan for successful online training:
-
The basics still matter: Qualify your audience, have clear content and rehearse first.
- Be more of yourself, with less: In other words, create your own online style and be confident, comfortable and succinct.
- Engage people, often: Use engagement techniques to encourage and hold attention through frequent interaction.
- Be aware: Watch and respond to the online interaction, so the learner isn’t alone.
- Deliver meaningful fun: Use multimedia to make a point and draw learner attention.
She also suggested online presenters be sure to animate their voices,
and having co-presenters can help create engagement just through the
vocal variety and speaker interplay.
“We’re starting to be media production people,” McKinnie reminded her audience.
McKinnie also shared a URL for more information on utilizing online learning: www.connectusers.com.
So there you have it. For an event with an unofficial message to
start small, the Adobe Learning Summit certainly covered a lot of
ground in one busy day.
