In this issue:

1. Ruth Clark Talks Standards
2. From the Trenches of Online Learning
3. e-Briefs
4. New Source for e-Learning Analysis: LGuide
5. The 2001 Learning Events Calendar

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1. Ruth Clark Talks Standards, http://www.clarktraining.com

We caught up with Ruth Clark of Clark Training to learn about Training Standards. Ruth will be leading a one-day pre-conference workshop, Certification of e-Courseware: Applying the Standards, at the WBT Producer Conference, April 18-20, 2001, Anaheim, CA, USA! Visit http://www.influent.com/wbt2001 for complete details.

TRENDS: Critics often say that Training and Development isn't a profession because it lacks rigorous standards. What was the genesis of the commission assembled to define standards of quality in e-Learning?

CLARK: Training and Development often is not treated as a profession because decisions are made without regard to research available in the field. Also anyone who has been to school considers themselves an expert in training, even though they have often been exposed to suboptimal models of instruction. To avoid conflict of interest, the commission is comprised of individuals who are not personally engaged in the development and sales of commercial software, and who have advanced degrees in instructional psychology. We have some of the leading practitioners in the academic community in instructional psychology on the commission including Dr. David Merrill and Dr. Rich Mayer.

TRENDS: In addition to yourself, who are the members of this commission?

CLARK: In addition to the two mentioned above, the other members serving as measurement experts are Dr. Patsy Boverie from the University of New Mexico; Dr. Lynette Gillis, President of Learning Designs Online; Bill Horton, President of William Horton Consulting; Dr. Bill Coscarelli; and Dr. Sharon Shrock; and Peter Jones, Vice-President of e-Learning from Chase Bank. Additional members have recently joined as usability experts. Anne Blouin is Director of Education for ASTD, and is the contact person if anyone has questions about the certification commission or process.

TRENDS: How does your work in cognitive instructional principles fit in with the work of the commission?

CLARK: Instructional methods used in e-Learning are only effective to the extent that they support human cognitive processes. There has been much research on those methods, conducted by Dr. Mayer on the commission, as well as others. By basing standards upon research that links learning to features of courseware, we can assure the most valid possible criteria. I will share these cognitive processes and methods based on them at the upcoming WBT Producer Conference.

TRENDS: Will the standards be a blueprint for designing training?

CLARK: While they are being designed by ASTD primarily for certifying the quality of "e-Courseware," I think a natural application will be to refer to them during the design and development process. For this reason, Clark Training will be including them in our Evaluation and Design of WBT class.

TRENDS: When will the commission have its standards finalized, and can you tell us about a few highlights?

CLARK: The standards are targeted to be completed in June of this year. ASTD has requested that commission members not discuss the standards in their draft forms. I refer interested readers to Anne Blouin at ASTD, http://www.astd.org, to follow up.

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2. From the Trenches of Online Learning, by Rick Diehl, rdiehl@allmerica.com

Having launched over a dozen e-Learning projects over the last twelve months has taught our team a few things. We're an eclectic group of instructional designers (ID), Web designers, and graphic artists. We wanted to pass on the "Aha's" and the "Oh no's" that we've stumbled across:

A ha! Bigger in your head - The designs in your head at the beginning of a project will always be bigger or more complex than the real project you create. Whenever you put a creative group of ID's and graphic artists together, you rarely lack for ideas. The discussion is filled with phrases like, "What if we...?" or "How about...?" After the project is launched, it is typical to hear designers say, "I wish we could have added the thing we talked about in the beginning." Go in with the knowledge that projects must be pared down in order to meet time frames, scope, and usability, but don't stop the great ideas from flowing! You can always reuse ideas on the next project.

Oh No! Interactive or Tactile Information - Information online can easily become passive or repetitive. Making users of online learning "touch" the information through interactivity and learner control makes the information more memorable. Pardon the primitive analogy, but zoos will hide food for monkeys in logs and crevices just so the monkeys don't get bored with their lifestyle of eating and hanging around. e-Learners would rather interact with the content through exercises, drag-n-drop answers, puzzles, and new navigational models. The want for tactile information doesn't diminish with different styles of learning. Any style of learner can get bored with e-Learning.

A ha! Designs that enhance content - We all know the adage, "Form arises from content." A better goal is to build a design, metaphor or interface that makes the content powerful or causes it to have greater impact. Designs that hurt content are either too little or too much. Too little is when you have a large amount of useful content but the navigation scheme, chunking, or "look-and feel" are weak or passive. Designs that are too much are typically an elaborate, artistic site where you remember more about the interface or the story line than the information you needed. Content can be buried in an elaborate metaphor that feels more like reading a fiction novel that taking an online course.

Oh No! "Fish or Cut Bait Day" - Most e-Learning projects will reach a point where compromises need to be made because of technology, content experts, deadlines, and unforeseen variables. e-Learning project leaders should be ready for them. Tell your team that this day will probably come. If it doesn't, you're planning has paid off well, but most teams need to be ready for the day when the graphic, Web, and instructional people all disagree on how to solve a problem. If you know the day might come, you're less overwhelmed by it.

Good luck soldiers: now let's take that e-hill!

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3. e-Briefs

Sam Shmikler, Action Figure of the Periscope Organization, http://www.periscope-org.com, has been named Training's New Guard for pushing the edges of the profession. He will be featured in the May issue of ASTD's Training & Development Magazine. See Sam in person at the WBT Producer Conference, April 18-20, 2001, Anaheim, CA, during his session on Designing Killer Synchronous Learning!

Macromedia merges with Allaire Corporation. In brief, the press release indicates that "the combined company will enable Web professionals to efficiently develop Web content and applications delivered in multiple formats on multiple devices. By adding Allaire server technology to the Macromedia product family, Macromedia will make the development of dynamic content more efficient, more affordable, and more accessible to millions of customers." For complete details, see the press release at http://www.macromedia.com/special/allaire.

e-Learning is as close to you as your favorite chair! La-z-boy and Microsoft WebTV have joined forces to bring to market the e-cliner, complete with an Internet appliance for browsing the Web and catching up on email. Visit http://www.lazboy.com/dynamic/featured.htm for more information.

If you have news to share with the community, please send an email to Rosie Smith at: rsmith@influent.com.

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4. New Source for e-Learning Analysis: LGuide

Lguide.com empowers e-Learning decisions for training managers, consultants, and business professionals. We offer in-depth, authoritative analyses of e-Learning products and services. To date, we have reviewed over 1,500 products. We leverage this industry expertise in three ways: by providing corporate clients with strategic e-Learning consulting services, offering a subscription site of leading e-Learning research, and publishing quarterly research reports on e-Learning topics. Visit us today for a free 30-day trial of our subscription service: http://www.lguide.com.