Unicorn Training BLOG

Broker ASSESS relaunched at BIBA 2012

2012-05-16T15:43:00.003+01:00

Broker ASSESS, the broking industry’s most widely-used, authoritative online training and competency resource, has undergone a comprehensive upgrade. The new solution was officially re-launched by BIBA chief executive Eric Galbraith at the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) 2012 Conference and Exhibition today (Wednesday 16 May).

The upgraded Broker ASSESS has been developed to deliver a more complete, engaging and cost-effective online learning and development experience to help brokers better meet the challenges and professionalism demands of their ever-evolving industry.

Broker ASSESS provides comprehensive support for compliance training and CPD needs. Hosted on Unicorn Training’s SkillsServe platform, it has a highly intuitive user interface, easy to use search and browse for content features, more powerful management and reporting functions, and excellent integration with wider CII and BIBA broker services.

The unrivalled range of industry specific content focuses on improving brokers’ understanding of how regulation impacts on their everyday business practices. The new content includes a series of role-specific, interactive case studies focused specifically on the broker market plus a range of other context-based resources.

In February this year Broker ASSESS was awarded 2012 Microsoft Learning Technology Solution of the Year at the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI) awards.

The LPI judges recognised Broker ASSESS as a really effective use of learning technologies, covering core skills, development and CPD. They stated, “The system clearly demonstrates that, whilst technology is important, content is critical.”

Eric Galbraith, BIBA Chief Executive, said: “The system has had a huge impact helping many brokers to demonstrate that they are meeting FSA training and competency regulations. The upgraded system is a testament to the hard work of the broker ASSESS team and the brokers on the working groups who have helped to developed the system even further.”

Steve Jenkins, director of financial markets for the CII, said, “We have totally refreshed the content to support regulatory learning and assessments. Broker ASSESS is now even simpler and more intuitive to use. One touch reports are available for managers, compliance and training managers and we will shortly be introducing online appraisals and file checking to support brokers."

For more information about Broker ASSESS and to get a free 14 day trial email victors@biba.org.uk
Broker ASSESS is being demonstrated on Stand E70 at the BIBA Conference.

What can eLearning designers learn from video games?

2012-05-02T15:54:00.002+01:00

Video games can be irresistible. Many of us, from our teens to an age where we really should know better, have succumbed to the temptation to just try one more level, blast one more screen of zombies or pigs, find that last missing coin, only to look at the clock and find its 4 a.m.

I cannot claim to have seen many eLearning courses that command such devotion from their users.

Of course, most video games are nowadays developed with budgets that we in eLearning can only dream of, but the underlying principles of engagement, immersion and design excellence could hardly be more relevant, and are remarkably simple to apply.

So here are my tips for bringing gaming ideas and principles to your eLearning.

1. “It is the ability to choose which makes us human”. Dump the linear in favour of hub design. Let the learner explore, discover, make choices and feel they have control.

2. “Do it, fix it, try it”. Encourage learners to dive into a scenario or case study before they have all the facts, then make the facts available in context. It’s amazing how those boring facts come to life when you need them to solve a problem.

3. “Specialist subject – the bleedin’ obvious”. Don’t make the user wade through bullet lists of learning objectives, or those dreaded user instructions where you point out that the X in the top corner closes the window, the right-facing arrow means Next and the left facing arrow means Back. We already know! Otherwise we couldn’t have got to this screen in the first place! Get on with it!

4. “Feedback is the breakfast of champions” (stupid quote of the day, surely it’s Weetabix). Games continually tell you how you are doing. Try to find engaging graphical ways of measuring progress. You can also have more than one progress indicator. There’s a great example of this at the end of this blog.

5. “I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed”. Don’t be afraid to let your learners fail. Think how long it took you to get 3 stars on every level of Angry Birds. Users don’t mind “losing” so long as they are encouraged, get positive feedback on their progress, and get challenged to try again. Build in risk of failure – having to go back and start the case study again is a strong motivator to focus, especially if you “lose a life” in the process.

6. “Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious”. Many of the best and most successful video games include the elements of humour and surprise. Why not eLearning? It may not seem easy to bring a good laugh into a course on, say, financial regulation – but actually it is. Use your imagination, and remember you don’t need to be ROFL funny. Even the mildest play on words can come as welcome light relief to the poor benighted compliance student.

7. “Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle”. There is not a lot of scope for randomness in most e-learning projects, but you can create blind alleys, make sure they add to the learning and then encourage the learner to explore them. Remember this when designing branched case studies – all that creative effort and no-one ever goes down the “wrong” route because the right route is too obvious. Give them an incentive to explore.

8. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”. Games often use adaptive systems, adjusting the content, level of difficulty or choices to the level of the user. How relevant is that to eLearning?!

9. “The gift of sound and vision”. Use high quality graphics and sound. The YouTube generation has made us remarkably tolerant of low quality video, but this is not the case with audio or with the overall user experience. Poor quality audio can be worse than none at all. We are also now so used to high quality intuitive UX from our home and mobile technology that even with our limited budgets, the quality of the graphic design is increasingly important to attracting and retaining the learner’s attention.

10. “None of us is as smart as all of us” (Japanese proverb). When it comes to peer motivation, we may not be able to compete with World of Warcraft, but we can integrate simple social media tools into our eLearning, add league tables in the LMS, show the learner the last five answers to an open question, and so on.

If it still sounds a bit difficult, I recommend you to explore the Parliamentary Education Service web site. Here is just one example, a worthy winner at the 2010 eLearning awards which incorporates almost every one of the items I’ve listed.

http://www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/games/mp-for-a-week/

Finally, a game. Can you match the quotes above to their authors?

a. Anon (Jap.)

b. Ken Blanchard

c. David Bowie

d. Madeleine L'Engle

e. Basil Fawlty

f. Stephen Hawking

g. Michael Jordan

h. Shigeru Miyamoto

i. Tom Peters

j. Peter Ustinov

Right, now back to those pesky pigs.

Answers 1 d, 2 i, 3 e, 4 b, 5 g, 6 j, 7 h, 8 f, 9 c, 10 a

Financial crime in spotlight at WKFS events

2012-04-27T12:07:00.004+01:00

Heavy fines and inadequacies of financial-crime governance approaches and processes to date is proving costly.

The culmination of this came with the FSA Handbook FCC update in December 2011, an attempt by the outgoing regulator to put into place more robust processes and industry practices designed to make financial crime detection and prevention a high priority, and far easier and effective.

But how do you ensure you can get one cohesive view of your financial crime governance programme?

Unicorn Training partners, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, are hosting a couple of events - online and an executive briefing - in May to shed more light on financial crime governance to comply with the latest FSA guidelines.

Among the expert speakers include Matt Allen, Director- Financial Crime at Unicorn Training partners the BBA, who will discuss the Evolving Financial Crime Regulatory Landscape, with other items on the event agendas including what you need in an effective programme and how you can achieve a structured, comprehensive view of Financial Crime Governance.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services officially endorses Unicorn Training financial crime eLearning.

For more information about the events click here

What game have we got in store for you??

2012-04-16T13:41:00.007+01:00

We are chuffed to be the first ever games sponsor for the 2012 eLearning Awards!

As revealed in April's eLearning Age, this brand new idea, courtesy of our good selves, will see us develop a fun video game for everyone who attends the gala awards evening in November to take part in on the night.

After some truly weird and wonderful ideas, we are excited about the idea we have plumped for and can't wait to get everyone in a flap about it! We can't tell you what it is all about just yet but guaranteed you will take to it like a duck to water.

We are big believers that the eLearning community could learn masses from the gaming world and this sponsorship underlines that.

To find out more about some this year's awards and what ideas didn't get make the final shortlist see April's eLearning Age magazine here, especially pages 7 and 22 ;)

In 2011 Unicorn Training was named eLearning Development Company of the Year at the annual awards ceremony.

"All you need is people who want to learn and a shady tree."

2012-03-20T11:13:00.006Z

Unicorn Training Instructional Designer, Andy Houghton, on how his experiences volunteering at home and abroad has helped shaped his views on how learning should be needs driven.

"During a speech at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Conference in the USA on March 1, Bill Gates talked about technologies that can help increase the impact of teaching and learning. He envisioned better teaching methods and new education technologies that will revolutionise the classroom and encourage lifelong learning.

Although he was generally talking about school classroom learning, many of the principles he discussed are relevant to business online learning and development.

Bill outlined how exciting he thinks it is to see the growing number of entrepreneurs developing online learning systems in areas like mobile learning applications and e-books and the ways teachers are using a blended learning approach in their classrooms.

He identified four key trends in online learning.
1) creating more engaging and interactive ways of learning than the traditional textbook
2) using the Internet to post and find great teacher lectures and effective course materials
3) using social networks to increase collaboration among teachers and students and extend class discussions beyond the classroom
4) personalising learning—using gameplay and other tools – that give students and teachers important real-time feedback

However he said finding the right resources and figuring out how to use them is more difficult today than it should be. The foundation will be developing an online service that will help educators more easily discover and learn how to use these new tools.

I used to work in Honduras. The Registrar at the school once said that all you need for learning to take place were some people who wanted to learn, someone to help them and a shady tree.

Although I've been working in eLearning for about 10 years now, I still think there is a lot of truth in what he said - people who want to learn and someone to help them - though, as Bill Gates highlights, the way we deliver training now clearly has more options.

One thing that influences me is that the access to training has become far easier and more democratic over the past decade or so.

Outside of the day job, I volunteer for a small charity based in Devon which helps deaf and hearing impaired people through a system called Cued Speech. We have a website of resources (www.learntocue.co.uk), which is free to anyone and is in no way a commercial venture. Simply the resource is there and the only cost is the webspace, which is very little.

We also promote the work of the charity on You Tube and our most recent video explains how Cued Speech can help deaf people, usually children, access English as a means of communication. You can see the video here

I still think we have a long way to go and very often it is not the technology that is holding us back, it is tradition and conventions. In my view, these need to be held up to the light and looked at carefully to make sure we’re not just accepting conventional ‘wisdom’, nor are we throwing any babies out with the bathwater.

Our next venture is to promote training through Skype and video conferencing. The temptation is to see this as a poor relation to face-to-face training, but video conferencing does, in many ways, have some advantages over the classroom. Access to a tutor can be more frequent and when it’s needed, more personalised and so on. In addition, in an economically and environmentally changing world, technology can deliver training which is not only better focused but is also easy on the environment.

Key to our work is that what we produce is needs driven.

With the current cutbacks small charities like the Cued Speech Association are really feeling the pinch, but with necessity being the mother of invention, it is also providing an opportunity to think and work in different ways.

From acorn to accolade - behind award-winning eLearning

2012-02-16T10:25:00.008Z

Laura Hooper is Unicorn Training's Learning Awards Instructional Designer of the Year. She provides the lowdown on how an award-winning project comes together......

"It was quite a shock to be named Instructional Designer of the Year Award at the Learning and Performance Institute’s Learning Awards earlier this month. It was even more of a shock as I only ended up an Instructional Designer by accident on this particular project!

I am primarily a content developer, but as was the case with the Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) project that this award recognised, I’m often involved in initial ideas and implementation.

No one gets too precious about job titles at Unicorn Training, and if someone has an idea that is discussed and liked, normally one where everyone feels the user is going to enjoy the learning as much as possible, then that person will regularly see their idea implemented. That’s not to say I haven’t had a few ideas that have quickly been cast aside too!

The basic brief for this project was that VWFS wanted a new bespoke eLearning course to provide pre-launch training on their new Gap Insurance product for 6000+ staff in their network of over 700 dealerships and distributors nationwide.

But here was the challenge. Firstly the details of the new product were only finalised in early December 2010, with a planned launch date at the end of January 2011, meaning we had just six weeks to turn the whole project around during a period that included Christmas and New Year. Secondly, VWFS wanted a completely novel approach to the design, the level of which couldn’t be built in any of the popular rapid development tools.

The showroom/office idea came up pretty early on but the details were a bit sketchy. Because we knew time was precious, I got on with building a ‘wireframe’ of the possible functionality /usability and we started taking a more iterative approach.

This basically meant that we were able to break the project down into more manageable, less scary sized pieces that interlocked like a jigsaw as the project evolved. Graphics affected the Flash build, the build helped the scriptwriting and the writing influenced the build in return, and so on. It didn’t take too long for the final concrete solution to start taking shape.

I’ve worked in eLearning for 11 years now and from experience, I knew I had to make the course quickly adaptable – it’s always possible things might change at the last minute! Text is held externally in XML format, so it can be edited, updated, re-written or translated by an SME in a convenient form, and instantly uploaded back into the course template. Similarly graphic assets and key design variables are held externally making it very simple for example to change background graphics and characters involved in the scenarios.

This turned out to be an added benefit as we ended up building a highly-flexible Flash template that has been reused as a unique and effective rapid development tool for multiple courses and modules. It’s always exciting trying to bring learning to life, so the user is as engaged as possible. I think the Gap Insurance course looked really good and it was really pleasing how well it was received by users and the good feedback it gained.

I’ll always be proud of the fact my work was recognised in this way but I was purely the figurehead of a close-knit team that was put forward for the award.

eLearning Detox drive by eLN (#c4ee)

2012-02-06T10:05:00.007Z

As an eLearning Network Board member, Unicorn Training's Mark Jones is throwing his weight behind the eLN's 'Campaign for Effective eLearning' to wipe out ineffective, inefficient, flabby eLearning. He explains......

"The eLN connects people and organisations, encourages collaboration and believes vehemently that elearning is about so much more than just the ‘next’ button. Our latest campaign for effective eLearning aims to help everyone create and commission better elearning content, systems and apps. We want great eLearning and we want it now!"

The new campaign was launched with a presentation by eLN chair Rob Hubbard at the recent Learning Technologies - an online version of this presentation, plus more information about how you can support the campaign, can be viewed here.

The eLN is the UK’s number one source for guidance on best practice and future trends in technology-based learning and development at work, with nearly 3,000 members.

Mark Jones is LinkedIn at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/markjonesunicorntraining

Double Unicorn award joy at LPI Awards

2012-02-03T16:52:00.005Z

Unicorn Training is celebrating after winning two awards for Instructional Designer and Solution of the Year at the 2012 Learning and Performance Institute (LPI) Learning Awards held at The Dorchester, Park Lane on Thursday 2 February.

Leading financial services eLearning solutions providers, Unicorn Training, last year became the first organisation to achieve accreditation under the new banner of the LPI.

And the company, which next year celebrates 25 years at the forefront of eLearning excellence, made its mark on its first Learning Awards as an accredited body as Unicorn Training’s Laura Hooper was named ID of the Year and its industry-leading online training and competency resource for UK brokers, Broker ASSESS, handed the top Solution accolade.

The LPI Learning Awards recognise outstanding examples of high standards, best practice, innovation and excellence within the Learning and Development industry and are now firmly established as the benchmark for excellence throughout the learning industry.

Laura Hooper was recognised for her innovative and engaging solution to meet a demanding and time critical training need for long time client, Volkswagen Financial Services. The judges also recognised the flexibility of Laura’s solution that has enabled the template to be applied to several further scenarios and situations as a unique and effective rapid development tool. View Laura's winning design in action here

Thanks to the support of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA) and AXA, Broker ASSESS is the broking industry’s largest, most widely used and authoritative online training and competency resource. It is used by over 750 regulated UK firms with 25,000 current registered individual users to help improve commercial performance and levels of customer service and meet regulatory obligations.

Peter Phillips, Unicorn Training CEO, said: “I am delighted to have had the creativity and value of our work in encouraging effective learning and development recognised by the judges. We believe strongly in action-based learning, putting learners into emotionally engaging situations that are context rich, practical and highly effective. Evolving technologies, new tools and higher customer expectations means we can apply these principles more effectively than ever throughout our courseware and business simulations.

“Laura’s award reflects this ethos as her Flash template is rooted in putting the learner experience at the heart of instructional design.

“The past year has seen Broker ASSESS undergo a major upgrade and redesign to deliver a more complete, engaging and practical learning experience, hosted on a new Web 2.0 platform offering advanced management and reporting tools, and sector-leading continuing professional development (CPD) functionality.”

Unicorn Training had been shortlisted for four LPI Learning Awards in total – the winning two entries plus External Training Project (Volkswagen Financial Services) and Training Company of the Year.

In November, Unicorn Training was named eLearning Development Company of the Year at the annual eLearning Awards.

For more information about how Unicorn Training can help you find the right online solutions for your business visit www.unicorntraining.com

New fraud figures provide food for training thought

2012-01-30T08:53:00.004Z

So the latest fraud figures are out and they don’t make for pretty reading.

Over 236,500 frauds - the highest number of frauds ever recorded by its members - were identified during 2011 by CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, an increase of 9% on 2010 levels.

Identity fraud has increased by 10% and now accounts for almost half of all fraud cases.

Meanwhile there has also been an 18% rise in ‘takeover fraud’, where a fraudster gains access and fraudulently uses a victim’s account such as a credit card, bank account or mobile phone. According to CIFAS, this type of fraud has rocketed by nearly 300 per cent in just five years. Yikes!

Rarely a month goes by when another industry body doesn’t release some sort of harrowing fraud data, whether it’s from the financial services, banking, insurance or mortgage sectors. The trends are the same throughout and the reasons for it well-versed....

“The rising cost in living”
“Frozen pay levels”
“VAT changes”
“Job cuts”
“Business closures”

But if we know all this, and we know it’s still increasing how do we stop it?

Well the sad truth is we probably can’t rely on Scooby Doo arriving to save the day. There are some very clever criminals out there utilising some extremely clever technology– crack one and they will have already come up with another.

This leaves probably every business’ biggest ally in tackling fraud - its frontline staff.

One of our clients, a leading mortgage network, has done great work in helping its staff nip attempted mortgage fraud in the bud after discovering items such as payslips, bank statements and utility bills are readily available on the internet for as little as £13! An absolute bargain to the determined fraudster.

So what are they doing about it? All their Network advisers are trained in fraud prevention, using Unicorn Training’s Fighting Fraud and Identity Crime courses, blended with face-to-face training around the issue of identity verification.

Meanwhile, last March, a potential fraud was prevented at Volkswagen Croydon when a staff member, who had previously passed Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) ‘Fraud Awareness and Prevention’ course, developed by Unicorn, spotted a fake driving licence and details were passed to the Association of Chief Police Officers Vehicle Crime intelligence Service (AVCIS).

Quality training cannot be underestimated in the fight against fraud.

Granted a high street bank cashier is not going to single-handedly bring down an entire criminal operation, but if their scepticism and suspicion can trigger alarm bells then that is one small step on the road to the war being won and maybe, as the benefits of investing in staff training take hold, next year we will be reading about how fraud figures have dipped in 2012?

New Executive Structure at Unicorn Training

2012-01-17T08:34:00.002Z

Neill McWilliams is to step down as Managing Director after six successful years at Unicorn Training, as the 2011 eLearning Development Company of the Year announces a new Executive structure.

Unicorn founder Peter Phillips takes over the day-to-day running of the business in his new role of Chief Executive Officer, while Ken Pringle, Chairman of Whitworths Limited and former CEO of Tetley Group, the world’s largest Tea Company, becomes non-executive Chairman. McWilliams remains on the Unicorn Board as a non-executive director.

Over the past three years Unicorn Training, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, has expanded rapidly, repositioning its business as an integrated solutions provider, able to service the end-to-end needs of its customers.

The company has recorded consistent year-on-year growth culminating in record sales and profits in the last year, and the new structure reflects this expansion.

Peter Phillips commented: “Neill has played a huge part in the development and success of Unicorn over the past six years, and he is stepping back at a time when the business has delivered record sales and profits and stands proudly as the eLearning Development Company of the Year. I am pleased that he has agreed to remain on the Board in a non-executive capacity. I am also delighted that Ken Pringle has agreed to take on the Chairman’s role. Ken has been a member of the Unicorn Training Board for several years. He has vast business experience and will be a great asset to us in his new role. “

Neill McWilliams added: “Unicorn Training has expanded to be the leading eLearning solutions company within the financial sector, both in terms of growth and reputation. These factors, coupled with the excellent team that we have at Unicorn Training, affords me the perfect opportunity to leave the company on a high to pursue some other personal and business interests. I am confident Unicorn will continue to grow from strength to strength.”

For more information about Unicorn Training visit www.unicorntraining.com

Unicorn Successfully Defends Insurance Simulations Intellectual Property Rights

2012-01-11T17:52:00.001Z

Unicorn Training has successfully reached an out-of-court settlement to protect its intellectual property (IP) rights, along with those of partners International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF), for Unicorn’s unique insurance business simulations.

Unicorn Training’s business simulations have been used on executive development programmes in over 30 countries worldwide, and it was the most widely used of these, the strategic insurance models, that were at the heart of the protracted legal action.

The general insurance model ‘Morotania’, the reinsurance simulation ‘ReAction’, and ‘Genris’, a model derived from and combining elements of both, are owned by Unicorn Training. None of these simulations can be offered by any third party unless they have a licence from Unicorn Training or ICMIF.

Peter Phillips, director at Unicorn Training, the 2011 eLearning Development Company of the Year, said: “Taking legal action has been a long and expensive process, but our intellectual property is at the heart of the Unicorn business, and we were determined to protect that IP vigorously and with the full force of the law. I am pleased, that in the end, we avoided the need for a High Court appearance by reaching a satisfactory settlement.”

During Unicorn’s business simulations events, participants practice and improve their business skills through planning and running a business venture in a simulated competitive environment. Unicorn are strong believers in action-based learning, putting participants into intellectually-challenging situations that are context rich, practical and memorable.

Peter added: “Taking legal action is a stressful and complex process, so I would particularly like to thank our solicitor, Robert Bajaj of Steele Raymond, and our barrister, Tim Penny of 11 Stone Chambers, who were both invaluable in guiding us through the legal minefield to a successful outcome. I would never recommend anyone to embark on legal action lightly, but if you do so, make sure that you have the support of high-quality professional advisers.”

Unicorn Training is the 2011 eLearning Company of the Year. To find about more about our insurance business simulations visit www.unicorntraining.com/insurance

New Act guidance keeps bribery perils in focus

2012-01-04T10:07:00.006Z

The Bribery Act, which came into force in July 2011, means the UK now has the most comprehensive anti-bribery legislation in the world, enhancing its reputation as a safe commercial environment in which to do business.

To help support banks in their ongoing efforts to comply with the Bribery Act 2010, the British Banking Association (BBA) has published its new ‘Bribery Act 2010 - Guidance on Compliance’.

The BBA stresses there will be a continuing need for the banking sector to collaborate closely and share best practice and experiences as the legislation is tested in a legal and practical sense. The new ‘Guidance on Compliance’ publication focuses on helping banks assess the policies and procedures they need to put in place to meet the requirements of the Act, and also considers the links with other requirements such as FSA regulations.

In partnership with BBA, Unicorn Training was the first-to-market with our updated Countering Bribery and Corruption course last year, incorporating the Ministry of Justice guidance dealing with Sections 7-9 of the Act, which had led to the initial delay in the Act coming into force.

There are financial services sector and insurance-specific versions of the course, both of which shun the traditionally dry ‘tick-box’ compliance learning style by focussing on engaging the end user in practical situations that make the course relevant to them. The underlying principle is to engage the learner by testing their ability to apply knowledge in familiar, practical situations.

The course opens with a short ‘cameo’ of a character talking emotionally about his personal experience of the consequences of not following or understanding his regulatory obligations. The subsequent interactive content includes sector-specific case studies.

Take a look at a short demo.....

Download the BBA ‘Bribery Act 2010 - Guidance on compliance’.

For everyone staring at the bottom of their coffee cup still wishing it was yesterday.....

2012-01-03T13:45:00.011Z

Feeling a bit dusty today and the grim weather doing nothing to lighten your mood? With almost Russell Grant optimism (but without the cannon and yellow spacesuit) Unicorn's Karenza Morton says you shouldn't run home to hide under the duvet just yet as 2012 promises much to get excited about.........

"Today may apparently officially be the most depressing day of the year, well according to the Daily Mail. But here at Unicorn Towers we’ve been feeling pretty sprightly this morning, give or take the odd residual hangover....

While the media maybe full of economic doom and gloom and what financial woes are heading the nation’s way this year, we’re actually pretty excited about what 2012 will bring with remote learning becoming an increasingly core part of industry/business training.

There is little doubt 2012 is going to be a massive year for mobile – or mlearning – and developers across the globe are fervently working to resolve some of the gremlins that have held mLearning back up until now, despite mobile technologies booming as they have done.

November’s DevLearn gave us an idea of how soon, and how effectively, we would be able to develop mobile-friendly courseware. It is something the learning industry is itching to get right and it certainly is now about ‘how’ not ‘whether’ or ‘when’ sophisticated mLearning is universally available.

Developing mobile content matching the quality of what can be delivered via a laptop isn’t as straightforward as simply having a good idea. Numerous technological hurdles remain, and for every hurdle overcome, new mobile and tablet developments present different learning delivery challenges. Flash integration is of course one key conundrum but there is definitely the feeling that big strides are being made and that presents exciting prospects.

And it’s not just mobile technologies that are evolving and making online learning more emotionally engaging and enjoyable, 2012 is set to be the year that gaming influences will become more and more apparent in learning content.

There are some fundamental principles that the gaming industry does brilliantly, not least graphically. And while we may never have the budgets nor, let’s be honest, the appeal to achieve 1,000,000 people simultaneously online trying to prove who knows the most about anti bribery and corruption little tricks of the gaming trade, like internal leaderboards, exploration, light humour and elements of surprise and risk, are easily done.

It has also been very pleasing to see and hear so much industry opinion about just how much ‘context’ is becoming a becoming an essential component of ‘good’ eLearning. We’ve been preaching this for years, firstly through our business simulation events and in the past couple of years through our eLearning courseware. Again evolving design, multimedia and delivery technologies have enabled us to get more and more creative with this.

And what will continue fuelling these evolving trends and demand for higher quality online learning solutions, whether better rapid development options or stunning, instructionally watertight bespoke courses?

The expanding growth in the use of technology in learning, and the growing demand for regulatory training and assessment in line with the financial industry demand for enhanced professionalism.

Yes, you may still be having cringeworthy flashbacks from New Year’s Eve, but who can’t force even the smallest January 3rd smile when there is this much to feel positive about?"

Unicorn ready for MMR impact

2011-12-21T08:14:00.006Z

Unicorn Training has welcomed the long-awaited publication of the FSA’s Mortgage Market Review (MMR) proposals, which were unveiled this week (19 December 2011).

With the proposals inevitably having an impact on short, medium and long-term lender, intermediary and broker training, mortgage firms will be able to take advantage of MMR-compliant Unicorn Training eLearning in the first half of next year.

The MMR consultation is open until 30 March 2012, and the FSA is expected to make a decision on the final rules next summer with full implementation not due before 2013.

But all of Unicorn’s mortgages and arrears and possession courseware, endorsed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), is already being updated to comply with the expected MMR standards, with work on the new mortgage regulations eLearning well underway.

This across-the-board content update includes the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) CF6
Mortgage Advice module, which forms part of the CII’s Certificate in Mortgage Advice.

Peter Phillips, Unicorn Training director, explains: “The MMR has been on the agenda for almost two years so although we have only just received the first formal set of proposals from the FSA we have been preparing scripts for the new and updated mortgage-related content for some time so that all lenders, intermediaries and brokers are able to get ahead in acquiring the latest knowledge they need to become, or remain, MMR compliant.”

The FSA formally announced its review of the mortgage market in February 2009, following the global financial crisis. The aim of the MMR was to deliver a sustainable market for all that is flexible for consumers, and covers all aspects of regulation, including prudential, conduct of business, and financial crime.

Unicorn’s current Mortgages Essentials suite of eLearning encompasses the following Mortgage Regulation (MCOB) modules.
• Introduction
• Application and Purpose
• General business standards
• Financial Promotion
• Advising on and selling regulated mortgages
• Product disclosure: pre application
• Product disclosure: offer stage
• Product disclosure: start of the contract and after sale
• Lifetime mortgages: advising on and selling
• Lifetime mortgages: product disclosure
• Annual percentage rate
• Responsible lending
• Charges
• Arrears and repossessions (MCOB 13)

Mortgage Essentials is currently studied in conjunction with Unicorn’s Banking Essentials suite, which incorporates modules on financial crime, Direct Debit, Approved Persons, complaints, data protection, information security, TCF, role of the FSA, whistleblowing at work, Consumer Credit Act, and FSA senior management arrangements, systems and controls.

For further information on the FSA’s Mortgage Market Review proposals click here

Top Industry Names join Unicorn for First Content User Forum

2011-11-24T10:23:00.005Z

Unicorn Training’s first ever SkillsServe User Forum – ‘Getting the Best Out Of Your eLearning Content’ – got a big thumbs up from around 40 delegates representing a wide cross section of our clients and partners in London last week.

The brainchild of Unicorn Client Relationship Manager, Kieran Brown, the day aimed to:
· demonstrate how to get the best out of SkillsServe’s easy to use content creation and management features;
· provide practical hands-on tips on widely available rapid development tools, and
· most importantly, listen to what our customers want most from future enhancements to SkillsServe.

Unicorn chairman Peter Phillips opened the London event, saying, “The world of eLearning is changing rapidly with new technologies creating exciting opportunities for more engaging and effective on line learning. There are ways of creating and delivering content that we just couldn’t do three or four years ago. There is more complexity in eLearning delivery but much more opportunity to be creative and effective.”

The day was based around four presentations, each delivered by a Unicorn specialist.
1. Using Powerpoint with Rapid eLearning plug-ins (including iSpring and Articulate tools)
2. Getting the most out of SkillsServe’s inbuilt eBriefing rapid development functionality
3. Using SkillsServe’s manager tools to organise, promote content and increase usage
4. Why the professional touch is sometimes still best

DelegateTony Hay, Learning & Technical Development Manager, Ricoh UK Ltd, said: “The most valuable aspect was to be in the room with the experts who develop the content and functionality and to ask them questions around the system and its capabilities. The biggest thing I learned about SkillsServe was its flexibility and robustness. If you can think of a way you would like something to work it seems the developers can usually find a solution.”

Peter Apps, Training Manager, Mortgage Intelligence, said: “There is definitely a value of running sessions such as this. We have only very recently moved over to the SkillsServe platform and I picked up a lot from the presentations and from just talking to other people about how they use the system.”

Jo Mahoney, HR intern, Newedge, added: “Everything that was discussed at the forum was really, really helpful. The eBriefing talk was especially interesting as I didn’t know anything about that prior to the day. We don’t currently have that installed so it is something we will now consider.”

Kieran said: “This forum focussed on some key content issues so we can all better appreciate what produces more effective learning outcomes for users across all sectors. We are grateful so many people found time to attend and hope it was valuable learning more about the huge depth and variety of content that SkillsServe can support both from us and other delegates. This forum was another mechanism for us to consolidate our client relationships, and to give our clients a chance to meet and exchange ideas and experiences.”

For more details from the ‘Getting the Best Out Of Your eLearning Content’ forum click here

Unicorn Training is the 2011 eLearning Company of the Year. To make sure you are getting the latest on what’s new at Unicorn and our views on eLearning trends follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/#unicorntraining

Mark joins eLN Board

2011-11-24T08:07:00.005Z

Congratulations to Unicorn Training’s Mark Jones, Associate Director, Business Development, who has just been elected to the Board of the eLearning Network (eLN).

The eLN is the UK’s number one source for guidance on best practice and future trends in technology-based learning and development at work, with nearly 3,000 members. This year the network celebrates its 25th Silver Jubilee anniversary.

As an eLN board member Mark will have the opportunity to help determine the direction of the eLN through 2012, while also enabling him to achieve widespread recognition for Unicorn’s contribution to eLearning and raise Unicorn’s profile within the industry.

He said: “I’m delighted to have been elected to the eLN board. I have a real passion for supporting financial services institutions with the right professional learning, qualifications and personal development, and helping the eLearning industry recognise and respond to the challenges and opportunities new developments in technologies present to us almost on a daily basis. I don’t remember a more exciting time to be involved in eLearning.”

Rob Hubbard, chair of the eLN, said: "Mark has been actively involved in the eLN for a number of years and we're delighted to welcome him to the Board. 2012 will be the eLN's 25th Anniversary year and we have a number of new initiatives planned. Mark is full of enthusiasm and great ideas. We look forward to working with him in these exciting times!"

Mark is LinkedIn at http://uk.linkedin.com/in/markjonesunicorntraining

Passing on the baton......

2011-11-23T08:00:00.003Z

Thanks to Alan Nelson at Nelson Croom for his kind words following Unicorn’s triumph as the eLearning Development Company of the Year at the recent eLearning Awards in London.

Nelson Croom were the 2010 winners of this award, but this year, Alan sat as a judge for the awards.

In his most recent blog posting Alan said: “I cannot think of any other company I would be happier to hand over our crown to. I have known Neil McWilliams for 12 years, having met him when he and I were first starting out with our respective ventures. He is a serious professional and always has something interesting to share.

“Like us, Unicorn adopts a publishing model, building things once and selling them lots of times. And like us they succeed because they take their customers seriously and make sure they are delighted. So congratulations to Unicorn. Be sure to mention your award wherever you go!"

To read Alan’s experience of this year’s awards in full click here

Getting the Best Out Of Your eLearning Content

2011-11-18T14:56:00.025Z

Unicorn’s first ever SkillsServe User Forum – ‘Getting the Best Out Of Your eLearning Content’ – got a big thumbs up from around 40 delegates representing all sectors across the financial services industry in London yesterday (Thursday 17 November).

The main aims of the day were to
• demonstrate how to get the best out of SkillsServe’s easy to use content creation and management features
• provide practical hands-on tips on widely available rapid development tools, and
• most importantly, listen to what our customers want most from future enhancements to SkillsServe.

Unicorn chairman Peter Phillips opened the London event, saying, “The world of eLearning is changing rapidly with new technologies creating exciting opportunities for more engaging and effective online learning. There are ways of creating and delivering content that we just couldn’t do three or four years ago. There is more complexity in eLearning delivery but much more opportunity to be creative and effective.”

Here’s an overview of the main bits from each of the presentations......

1. Using Powerpoint with Articulate and iSpring (presented by Senior Web Designer, Steve Andrews)

Steve looked at how firms can create their own rapid eLearning content using PowerPoint and two of the leading plug-ins, Articulate and iSpring. He did stress that other tools were also available.

Why use PowerPoint? Because it is very easy to use and update. The plug-ins enable the publication of SCORM and AICC compatible Flash files, which can then easily be uploaded to a company’s LMS.

People spend so much time online now that there is a basic high consumer expectation about web pages looking good. Both Articulate and iSpring help produce professional, clean, good looking eLearning. Both also have built in quiz maker tools (among others) which extend their functionality.

1) Articulate – is a good place to start. It comes with a set of pre-made templates making it very quick and easy to create/edit eLearning. There is a very good online community so answers on how to do things are very readily available and Articulate is a very well established brand so you know you are not investing in a product that is about to go bust.

But.....although Articulate can be great for smaller projects requiring few interventions, the limited number of templates means Articulate-created screens can get repetitive. Also there is little room to be creative in the templates as all you are doing is inserting content.

2) iSpring – content is created in PowerPoint and published via iSpring. This is simple and there is a lot more scope to be creative because you are not working in templates – each slide/screen can look the way you want it to. This means you can avoid repetition, which is likely to be more interesting and engaging for the end user. iSpring is also a third of the cost of Articulate currently.

But.....iSpring’s plus points are also its weaknesses as inevitably the eLearning is a bit more time consuming to produce (need to think about how it is going to look and source the various elements you want) and also requires someone with decent PowerPoint skills.

Neither Articulate nor iSpring produce mobile-ready content as they publish Flash files but both have promised mobile versions will be available early next year.

Steve also provided a list of useful media resources websites, blogs and design inspiration websites to help people explore how to best create their own rapid eLearning content.

2. eBriefing Tool Best Practice (presented by Clients Solutions Executive, Penny Humphries)

The eBriefing tool comes as an inbuilt option in SkillsServe enabling clients to produce very, very quick bitesize chunks of content.

It currently has pretty basic look, so you wouldn’t really want to create anything over 10 pages long, but it is great for getting out urgent eLearning or communications that have a short shelf life to an audience, which can be tracked on who looked at it when and how long they spent on it.

Penny opened the discussion up to the floor asking what sort of content clients could best use this tool for. Top responses included:
• product updates
• management communications
• CEO updates
• sales launch
• general office updates – such as a move
• technical/industry updates
• compliance / regulation and policy updates
• company policy updates
• newsletters
• grouping general unicorn training with a company specific eBriefing with an assessment into one programme

Delegates were then asked what features they would like to see incorporated into the eBriefing tool and votes were cast on how urgently they would like them so that the SkillsServe development team could prioritise which features to work on first.

The top suggestions included a template creation facility for clients to create their own templates, publishing workflows, a spellchecker, copying from PDF and PowerPoint and better course organisation/folder structure to hold the eBriefings in.

3. Getting the most out of your content on SkillsServe (presented by IT Director, Stuart Jones, and Senior UX Designer, Eddie Yanez)

Stuart and Eddie are responsible for taking all the feedback from the forum and trying to use it to upgrade existing, and produce new, SkillsServe features to make for an even easier, quicker and more intuitive user experience both for administrators and end users.

Stuart talked about how empowering clients to create, upload and manage their own content was a core part of SkillsServe original development plan and how, regardless of how a client primarily uses the system (eLearning, CPD, professional qualifications, assessments etc), each system is unique to each client.

He walked through a step-by-step guide on how clients can add content to catalogues and manage catalogues. He also explained how you can capture data on how long people have spent on a piece of eLearning, useful for recording CPD activity.

Stuart also discussed what is on the SkillsServe roadmap of soon to be available features including enhanced CPD functionality, webinars, better reporting charts and graphs and mobile integration.

Eddie further demonstrated the new Content Manager area and how to produce programmes of activity using SkillsServe’s new quicker and more effective ‘shopping cart’ type approach. He also showcased the re-designed Assessment System capable of handling large question banks, and the new Registrations Wizard tool.

4. Why the professional touch is sometimes still best (presented by Chairman, Peter Phillips)

Peter looked at the value of instructional design in creating outstanding, innovative eLearning beyond anything any of the rapid development tools are capable of. These are projects where you want much greater levels of engagement, and are prepared to invest the time and resources to achieve that.

He discussed how the days of linear ‘fact, fact, fact, assessment’ were over and now there was a much greater focus on identifying a measureable goal, the behaviours you want to effect to achieve that goal and only include information in the eLearning that is going to enable the learner to do their job better and achieve that pre-identified goal.

The key to this is creating an experience with context that has meaning and significance to the learner. Peter demonstrated some examples of impactful and engaging eLearning that Unicorn has developed over the past year for clients including Chartis, Volkswagen Financial Services and BNY Mellon.

He also looked at what eLearning can learn from the games industry with key points including:
• giving the learner options – letting them explore / roam around
• frequent feedback on how they are doing as they progress
• measure progress – creating a feel-good factor and sense of achievement
• introducing an element of probability/risk
• use of high quality graphics
• adaptive systems – if a user is making fast progress, move them on quickly
• use humour and surprise – appropriate light humour is unexpected in eLearning and enhances engagement
• peer motivation – how has learner fared against colleagues, top five scores etc. The SkillsServe platform enables information from other learners to be collated.

Peter then rounded off his session with two of his favourite examples of eLearning – the hugely-engaging and freely available ‘MP for a Week’, produced for the Parliamentary Education Service, and an outstanding example of visualisation in the US Civil War in Four Minutes.

Unicorn hosting first SkillsServe User Forum

2011-11-16T10:46:00.003Z

Tomorrow (Thursday 17 November) Unicorn Training hosts our first ever SkillsServe User Forum – ‘Getting the Best Out Of Your eLearning Content’ - in London.

The aim of the day is to give invited delegates the chance to learn from, and interact with, the people who work every day on ensuring SkillsServe does exactly what you need it to.

A diverse programme of presentations and speakers has been put together covering such items as:
1. Using Powerpoint with Articulate and iSpring
2. eBriefing Tool Best Practice
3. SkillsServe Content Tools
4. Why the professional touch is sometimes still best

The sessions are designed to be as informal and interactive as possible, with all presentations conducted on a ‘live’ version of SkillsServe so that as the day progresses delegates become even more familiar with the systems’ capabilities and tools.

The expert line-up of Unicorn speakers includes Chairman Peter Phillips, lead designers and developers from Unicorn’s web and IT teams and new Client Solutions Executive, Penny Humphries.

Unicorn goes 'green' for new Sasol sustainability project

2011-11-15T16:16:00.005Z

eLearning Development Company of the Year 2011, Unicorn Training, with Future Green Solutions, is partnering international integrated energy and chemicals giants Sasol in developing a new Sustainable Development Awareness Programme to put sustainable development principles at the heart of Sasol’s decision making culture.

The programme, due for launch next spring, comprises 10 eLearning modules covering such issues as climate change, energy and carbon emission reduction, translating sustainability thinking into business practice, enhancing competitive advantage through carbon emission reduction and a number of other key subjects.

Future Green Solutions (FGS), founded by former Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) deputy CEO, Keith Trower, are education and consulting specialists in energy, efficiency, environmental compliance, and how to effect change and engagement within and across an organization.

With their solutions delivered through eLearning, and supported by face-to-face training, Future Green Solutions has tasked Unicorn to create an online programme, which provides an absorbing, interactive way to increase understanding across Sasol New Energy, leading to culture and behaviour changes that will drive and deliver coherent sustainability strategies, and raise awareness and understanding of sustainable development with Sasol’s employees.

Keith explains: “This programme offers Sasol a strategy to create awareness of sustainability and harness and empower its people to effectively engage with sustainability and the ‘greening’ of the organisation across a wide spectrum of issues. These may include taking account of future energy availability and cost, corporate social responsibility commitments, product development, and commercial opportunities in relation to its core businesses.”

Stiaan Wandrag, Manager for Sustainable Development at Sasol, said: “The programme will enable each Sasol employee to understand what sustainable development in practical terms means, and how they can make a difference through their daily activities. The programme will help employees to understand the business case for sustainable development in Sasol”.

Peter Phillips, Unicorn Training chairman, said: “Climate change is one of the biggest items on the global agenda. Education and training will make an increasingly vital contribution to the way global industry approaches strategic and economic challenges relating to the environment. Unicorn is delighted to partner Future Green Solutions and Sasol in this important and exciting eLearning initiative.”

Unicorn Training was named eLearning Development Company of the Year at the 2011 eLearning Awards on Thursday 10 November. The award recognises Unicorn’s 20 years of consistent growth and continuing innovation as well as our exceptional achievements with the launch of our Web2.0 learning management platform, SkillsServe, and the development of new engaging compliance courses for the UK and US markets.

Unicorn named 2011 Development company of the Year

2011-11-10T23:43:00.001Z

Unicorn Training is delighted to have been named eLearning Development Company of the Year at the 2011 eLearning Awards tonight (Thursday 10 November).

Unicorn’s Simon Wilcox, Mark Jones, Lucy Cartlidge and Jackie Kennedy collected the award on behalf on the delighted Unicorn team and their guests at the Awards Gala Evening at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.

Regarded as the most prestigious award, the Development Company of the Year Gold award recognises both Unicorn’s 20 years of consistent growth and continuing innovation as well as our exceptional achievements in 2011 with the launch of SkillsServe and the development of new engaging compliance courses for the UK and US markets.

Neill McWilliams, Unicorn Training Managing Director, said: “We are delighted to have won this year’s top Award. The credit must go to our dedicated team of instructional designers, project managers, software developers, graphic designers, IT and hosting specialists and client support team at our offices in London, Bournemouth and New York who work so hard to keep Unicorn at the forefront of financial services eLearning delivery. The eLearning Awards are considered the benchmark in British eLearning innovation, creation and development so it is great to have had the creativity and value of our work once again recognised by the judges.”

Earlier in the evening Unicorn also picked up an award in the “best use of rapid eLearning” category for our e-workplace application and template. The awards come towards the end of another year of remarkable activity across all aspects of the Unicorn business.

Highlights include the ongoing growth of our Web 2.0 learning management platform, SkillsServe, with over 110,000 registered users from 200 clients in the UK and the US now using SkillsServe, our hugely-successful partnership with the CII developing and launching new RDR compliant and gap-fill tools to CII members, and our involvement in a number of innovative bespoke eLearning development projects.

In 2011 we also launched our US operation in partnership with Wolters Kluwer Financial Services (WKFS), the leading worldwide provider of compliance, risk management and audit solutions for the financial services industry, and had our commitment to information security recognised with British Standards Institution (BSI) certification for ISO 27001.

Another highlight was building the new learning portal for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) including a complete new CPD system for CIPS members, and partnering them in an exciting new project with a major US client.

Altogether quite a year.

'Family' eLearning delivers human touch for Tesco Bank

2011-11-08T15:05:00.013Z

When Tesco Bank told us they wanted to bring a human touch to their courseware for this year we pondered for a while.....what makes something feel human?

Then it struck us – FAMILY! And here was born the concept of the Tesco Family that has brought a very human, fun and effective touch to Tesco Bank eLearning and their Academy Online this year.

Families can be your classic mum, dad and kids, while many people nowadays actually spend more time with their ‘chosen’ families, ie their mates and close colleagues.

The most important thing for us when developing the Tesco Family concept was ensuring that the characters we introduced to Tesco Bank’s online learning resources captured the sense of personal familiarity and friendliness that reflected Tesco’s values and principles.

A set of illustrative ‘cartoon’ characters and scenarios (call centre, supermarket and office) were developed comprising traditional family unit members and workmates, who act as guides through the learning, and pop up with useful tips and hints.

The concept relies on humour and personalisation to engage the user, provoking instant likability, but without compromising the serious undertones of the course.

To date seven courses have been developed using this concept - Approved persons, Complaints, Equality and Diversity, Fraud, Information Security, Role of the FSA and SYSC.

Paul Murray, Learning Services Consultant at Tesco Bank, admits the novelty of the concepts had staff intrigued about the learning from the outset.

He said: “There’s no better way to get people into something than to get them talking about it and people were definitely talking about this. Everyone can relate to the characters in the Tesco Family, whether it’s the comfortable familiarity of going round the supermarket with your wife and kids, or enjoying easy camaraderie with your close workmates.

“All the characters very carefully reflect Tesco brand values and principles, so as well as consciously studying particular bits of eLearning our staff also receive a constant unconscious reminder about what it means to work for Tesco and what our customers expect from us. The word ‘engaging’ gets used a lot when talking about eLearning but this really has proved to be a very special and very successful concept.”

The Tesco Family was created by Unicorn’s ‘Two Richs’ graphic design dream team of Richard Armitage and Richard Kelly.

Rich Armitage said: “It’s brilliant when you get clients that are so open to what may at first seem like slightly-off-the-wall ideas. It makes our job much more fun, interesting and challenging. Tesco Bank were great to work with on this concept."

DevLearn….. a word from Jackie

2011-11-06T18:19:00.000Z

One feature of DevLearn is the concurrent sessions. In each 1 hour timeslot there may be a dozen or more of these sessions to choose from, so Jackie and I generally split up and cover different topics.

Here are a couple of reports from Jackie on the pick of her chosen sessions.

Wednesday started with an excellent morning buzz discussion group led by Jay Cross. Jay is an interesting guy, very knowledgeable and the theme was about working smarter with the information that is available to us. The discussion centred around the use of social media and how we aggregate the enormous amount of information available into a meaningful collection of data.

He described the information flow as a river that once he thought he had to swim in, but actually he can fish out the information that is useful to him (the flow is way too fast I think people would drown trying to keep up) and organise appropriately.

Useful information can be found at www.jaycross.com and you can follow him at #LRNCHAT on Twitter

The information overload theme continued into the keynote speech by Steve Rosenbaum, take a look at the following facts:

· From the dawn of time until 2003 approximately 5 exabytes of information was created. I in today's world this amount of information is created every 2 days.

· In March 2010, 24 hours of video per minute were uploaded to YouTube, by November of 2010 this had increased to 35 hours, and March 2011 this was up to 48 hours.

It is easy to see that the expanding amount of information will cause confusion, it will be impossible to keep ahead or up to date. Imagine, by the time you have arranged a training course the subject area/best practice guidance may have moved on!

How do we organise the information to be useful? The requirement is to be a curator providing clarity of information to your audience, in an information 'noisy' world.

The next session on Jackie's agenda was to visit the presentation given by Cammy Bean titled Clicky Clicky Bling Bling, or CCBB for short!

Cammy is an experienced instructional designer who works for Kineo. The discussion centred around creating content that is emotionally engaging and arousing not CCBB! These are some notes/thoughts about the session.

Content should have a strong visual identity. Give graphics a purpose, a reason for being, make them an emotional hook for the content, use them wisely, don't be afraid to have a text screen. What do the experts say, research suggests that we should avoid adding irrelevant images and interactivity. Cognitive interest occurs when a learner is able to mentally construct a model that makes sense.

Who reads learning objectives, are they really necessary at the outset of a module, especially in a formal bulleted list, in fact it is suggested that they can be off putting and users rarely read/they click straight through. Try introducing the module and as it unfolds the learner understands the coverage and the information in context. Goal based scenarios, simulations, challenge the learner, populate individuals experience portfolio.

Remember seductive details are interesting but might be irrelevant, and there is little evidence to suggest that this improves the learning experience.

Adding audio can be deemed to be CCBB, if the course is boring to start with audio will only serve to make it more boring!

We Brits have to stick together, so the only concurrent session that we both attended was the last one titled “The New Learning Architect” by the Uk’s very own eLearning guru Clive Shepherd.
After an entertaining rant about the problems of putting learning theory and best principles into practice, Clive went on to sketch out his architecture for organising the learning process to match the means, motives and opportunities of the target learners.

The issue that aroused most interest came towards the end as Clive made a point close to my own heart. We should not forget, he said, that, like architects, we are professionals. We need the confidence to advise and guide our clients not just build what they want no matter how misguided. It’s tough but sometimes we should just say no.

The conference ended with an entertaining “Impact” session – 6 presentations each of a single idea in 5 minutes and 20 slides. For some obscure reason we call it “Pecha Kucha” in the UK.

Then home, with plenty of new ideas and some old ones refreshed. Thanks to the eLearning Guild for once again organising a top quality event.

Even more from DevLearn 2011

2011-11-06T17:35:00.001Z

The keynote speaker on Thursday was Steve Rosenbaum - another excellent keynote session. It has been a really good line up this year.

Steve’s theme was that with the mind boggling exponential growth of information, and its universal availability in the Cloud, the challenge for eLearning is not to provide more information but less - to help people to find the right information at the right time.

Steve gave several examples of the information avalanche, including that it would take you 8 years to watch one day’s uploads of video to Youtube, and that there are now 140 billion photos on Facebook, half of which have been uploaded within the past 12 months!

To make this digestible, we all need to become Curators. The world needs thoughtful filters, we need human intervention not algorithms (farewell Google Search), and we need ideas not data.

A few of the practical takeaways that I noted:

· Choose your digital clothing – become an intelligent filter for a topic that is a genuine interest. Have a theme and a POV

· Re-post only content that fits your voice and tone

· Context is key – don’t just retweet, commentate

Here’s where to find out more about Steve’s thoughts and even buy his book. http://curationnation.org/

For the remainder of the day, my focus was on Mobile learning, so next stop was Tom Crawford’s session on Design for Mobile – the ups and downs of the small screen.

We looked at the Native App vs Browser debate. Listing the benefits of each it becomes clear that the benefits of apps are largely for the user, whereas the benefits of Web are largely for the developer.

The best part of this session was an extensive list of Design tips for mobile content, too many to list here, but this link may help http://www.viznetwork.com/about.html

Here is an example Tom gave of platform sensitive design http://bostonglobe.com/ Try resizing your screen to iPad size then to iPhone size and watch the layout change – clever.

Final thought “A good UI without a good UX is meaningless – and vice versa”.

On then to a session by Phil Cowcill of Canadore College, North Bay, Ontario.

Phil demonstrated how to take a piece of learning developed in Flash (CS5.5) and publish it to mobile platforms.

His solution is to “take Flash out of the browser “, i.e. eliminate the need to have Flash installed in order to use the learning asset.

It all got a bit technical for me, but in essence Phil showed how we (well our Flash team) can use the “Device Central” feature to publish to Adobe Air for Playbook, for Android, and for iOS, in each case creating a native App not a Flash file. In fact, publishing for the Apple platform is easier than Android as there is only a single standard instead of dozens.

There are a few administrative hurdles to jump such as needing a P12 certificate to publish in some formats but this was a fascinating and very practical session and very definitely one to take home and try out.

All this and the Demo Fest too. We even managed to fit in the Rod Stewart concert at Caesar's Palace - some guys have all the luck!

DevLearn 2011 The Exhibitors

2011-11-03T22:39:00.000Z

One of the most useful aspects of DevLearn is the Vendor Expo.

Here's Jackie stabbing wildly at an LMS voodoo doll.

And here is a quick summary of the exhibitors who caught our attention.

ZebraZapps – Allen Interactions made a big stripy splash at last year’s Devlearn , announcing their plans for a new cloud based approach to content development and asking volunteers to sign up for beta testing.

This year we saw the results – ZebraZapps - and it is an impressive visual authoring tool. Essentially it is a very friendly user interface that sits on top of Flash AS3 and allows a non-programmer to develop complex interactions using a “wire” metaphor to link object properties. The resulting learning objects can then be published to a web site or the cloud.

Underlying this development is a belief that the future of on-line learning will be granular, cloud based, with flexible aggregation of reusable assets to create unique learning experiences.

Writing Assistanceare a new exhibitor this year. They provide an agency service for sourcing freelance instructional designers, and could be very useful to us as we look to grow our US presence while keeping our cost base flexible.

iSpring – the developers of our favourite Powerpoint based rapid authoring tool were showcasing some innovative new features, including AS3 compatibility. They also tell us they will have export to HTML5 by Spring next year. I see us making a lot more use of iSpring in the coming 12 months.

Articulate - the most high profile launch at this year’s DevLearn was unquestionably the new Articulate StoryLine. This looks to be a significant advance in functionality for the rapid learning tool. It includes a library of characters, each with a range of expressions, and an easy to use interface for building these into animated scenarios. Definitely a useful advance and we will upgrade, but on balance for Unicorn iSpring remains the better product (and it is a third of the price).

Nexlearn - This is the third year we have spent time at the NexLearn stand. They have a really impressive SimWriter tool for rapid creation of high quality branching case studies and simulations. We’ve previously been deterred by the cost, but they now provide a $1500 entry level version which looks to meet all our needs. We have a project for a branching case study in the pipeline so this could be the year we take the plunge.

NeoSpeech Inc – another new exhibitor with very impressive Text to Speech screen technology. Very realistic speech synthesis, multiple language options. Could be a useful accessibility tool within SkillsServe?

Plenty of old friends too - Codebaby, eLearning Bros, Rapid Intake, GoToTraining and it was good to catch up with Lani and Sarah at the Sound 80 stand and sample Angies’s authentic Kettle Corn, Milwaukee’s finest. If you are looking for US voices for your elearning, then we highly recommend Sound 80.