learnability matters

You must of heard of phrases such as tailor-made, custom training, and so on. What do these really mean? Custom learning means that learning is designed keeping in mind the learning environment, the learners’ needs, and the organization goals. But shouldn’t all types of training take these into account? The answer is NO. Most non-custom or off-the-shelf ILT do not factor in these parameters.

But why should you opt for custom learning for instructor-led training (ILT)? To answer this question, let us take a look at the difference between custom learning and non-custom learning.

Read more…

As promised, we have compiled the list of most informative and popular posts. Once we started digging our archives, it was immensely satisfying to realize that it was a really, really tough task to choose certain posts over others. The following list is based on the highest number of comments, highest number of retweets, and applicability of information. We thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the journey so far. Hope you find this list useful too!

Kern’s Best Practices

1. Evaluation of Training – A Critique of Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation Model
2. Kern’s Learning Evaluation Methodology
3. Learner Centered Methodology – A New Approach to Effective Learning
4. Learnability Testing of Online Courses
5. Personas in eLearning
6. Three Ways to Test Effectiveness Without Learners
7. Usability in eLearning
8. The How and Why of Contextual Inquiry
9. Testing eLearning Products
10. Learning Solutions Demystified
11. Problem Solving Through Training Needs Analysis – A Myth

Instructional Design

Read more…

Geeta Bose presented this paper written by Archana Narayan on Learnability Testing of Online Courses at the 3rd National Seminar on ‘eLearning and eLEarning Technologies”, (ELELTECH India) November 5-6th, 2009. This seminar was organized by Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad and JNT University Hyderabad in association with Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology Government of India.
Read more…

During our first few Twitter sessions at Kern, Geeta posed the following question:
Do IDs with visual design skills design better learning? Any instances that you can share?

Read the responses to this here.

Read more…

Do you invest time to learn? I have tried to identify the learner personae who hate to learn. I have also tried to find answers as to why they hate to learn. Do you see yourself in one of these personae? Go on watch the presentation and share your thoughts. Read more…

The main aim of this presentation is to help you understand what scenario based learning is, what its characteristics are, and how effective it is. Here, we share several examples and explain how scenario based learning is designed. Read more…

Many companies are reluctant to invest in social learning using the Web 2.0 tools. You can try and convince your clients about its power and usefulness. But this may not be the only thing stopping IDs from using Web 2.0 tools. In India, Internet and Web 2.0 tools are accessible to very small percentage of learners. Read more…

Have you worked on projects where you have limited access to learners? Do you roll out the course anyway? Let us first list the reasons why learner testing cannot be conducted for all projects.

• Learners may be situated halfway across the world and therefore, they are accessible only over phones/Skype/emails.
• Clients may not wish to give you direct access to their learners as they are not comfortable about this. Read more…

Informal learning is also known also social learning and collaborative learning (Read about it: What is Social Learning? by Rupa. As defined by Jay Cross, “Informal learning is unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu, way people learn to do their job.” How often have you heard people talk business during social gatherings? Students discuss what was taught in class outside. People share their thoughts on interesting reads during coffee breaks. Read more…

This post has been coauthored by Geeta Bose and Archana Narayan.

This month’s Big Question is Stuck? Getting Unstuck? We would like to share three instances where we get stuck and the ways we got unstuck. Read more…