The Vital Role of Scenarios in Learning

By Jennie Thede

In the world of website development, they say content is king. In the world of training/education, you can provide truckloads of content, but it's really context that rules.

Why Include Scenarios?

The most effective way to create context in an online course is with an immersive challenge, right at the beginning. Throw the learner right into the action! Don't make her read a slideshow of linear screens in a prescribed order. (There's no quicker way to extinguish the yearn-to-learn spirit than with boring content.) You have the learner's attention right at the start. Don't take that for granted.

In the most basic sense, a scenario is a story, usually involving characters who go through some sort of metamorphosis. We are all programmed to learn through stories. As Marsha Rossiter observes in her article "Narrative and Stories in Adult Teaching and Learning," "Stories enable us to engage with new knowledge, broader perspectives, and expanded possibilities because we encounter them in the familiar territory of human experience." A scenario can be a paragraph, or it can be a whole world with 3D images and interactivity along with a plot, action, and complex characters.

Structuring an Interactive Scenario

Scenarios in online courses usually have the following components:

• Relevant storyline
• Description or demonstration of the situation along with a role for the learner to play
• Hook into the action
• Opportunity to interact by answering questions, choosing a direction, or explore a landscape
• Opportunity to make mistakes and even correct them in a "safe" (i.e., fictitious) environment

When preparing to write scenarios, one question I ask SMEs is, "How will this information help the learner on the job?" The answer can help form the arch of the story for the course. Cammy Bean offers a great list of additional questions to ask SMEs in her article, "Use Scenarios to Keep e-Learning Real."

Scenarios don't have to be complex to be effective. Take a look at this arresting example of a scenario involving a life-or-death situation. You don't see a list of learning objectives here, followed by pages of narrated "how-to" content. Instead, you are on the scene right away as a character in the story. The decisions you make help the narrative unfold. After going through the scenario, you have the option to review additional information to reinforce what you've learned through your experience in the course.

When planning the structure, it's helpful to create a flow chart for the scenario before writing the dialogue and interactive elements. Flow charts are great tools that writers can share with programmers and designers. They're also very useful when communicating about the scenario with clients. Here's an example of a fairly simple scenario flow:

If learners need practice thinking through complex decisions and recognizing consequences, check out Tom Kuhlmann's "3 Cs" model: Challenge the learner by exposing him to a situation; provide choices to work through the challenge; and present realistic consequences with feedback to round out the learning experience.

Creating Characters that Matter

Characters can help bring an interactive scenario to life. Here are a few guidelines for creating good characters:

• Avoid "character clutter." There's no need to overpopulate the scenario. Even with a healthy budget and access to a high-quality sound studio, make sure every character has a clear role.

• Characters can be indirect participants. If the audience for the course includes people in leadership or mentoring roles, consider inviting the learner to help a character instead of taking on a direct character role. For example, the instructions might be, "In this activity, your job is to help the manager effectively interview a candidate. Listen to each conversation exchange, and then suggest ways that the manager can respond."

• If the learner is a visible character in the scenario, provide different options for appearance. When I play a board game, I need to be the yellow token (or in Monopoly, the thimble) or I just don't feel like "myself." Remember that the idea is to make the characters and the story as relevant to the learner as possible. If the learner is expected to take on the role of a visible character in the course, don't assume the learner wants to be the man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. Provide other options. They don’t have to be fancy.

There's a lot of inspired thinking out there on this topic. Check out the articles on scoop.it that I've been curating on scenarios and learning.

How We Define Customer Service

by Shannon McKenzie

Many companies claim they provide "great customer service." But what does that mean in the learning and development industry?

As a small but rapidly growing business, IdeaLearning Group intently focuses on client satisfaction for every project. And no matter how large our business becomes, we intend to keep it that way. The key is not handing a client a product from our inventory that seems to meet most of the requirements, but instead building exactly what the client needs, from the ground up.

Here's what customer service means to us:

We do the research. To us, research is more than just reading the given source materials. We immerse ourselves in the relevant topics, which often means having meetings with subject matter experts, learning a new software program, asking clarifying questions, and writing use cases based on what we discover. The result is a confident training plan that addresses the exact audience needs.

We maintain open communication. Instead of simply taking notes, giving a diagnosis, and writing a prescription for an off-the-shelf solution, we have multiple interviews to listen and determine the solution we'll create. We make an effort to keep in touch with clients throughout the entire process.

We use an iterative design process. We build multiple opportunities for client review into every project. So instead of writing a script, letting the client review it once, and then posting it online and calling it "final," we involve our clients in the entire process with many touch points and opportunities for feedback and revisions along the way.

We offer flexible solutions: We start every project with open minds. What our client thinks is needed at the beginning phase of the project might evolve in an unexpected direction once we get moving. For example, a client might think she wants classroom training. But when she engages us in the project, we uncover needs that lead to a different training approach, like eLearning or a blended learning program.

We sincerely love what we do. Finding the best training solution can be confusing and complex. All our team members share a passion for unraveling information and extracting the most important nuggets to create the best learning experience possible.

We ask for feedback. At the end of the project, we ask, "How did we do?" You'll notice that companies that don't value customer service rarely ask this question. Check here and here for some examples of our successes in providing excellent customer service.

How do you define customer service in your business? Tell us your story in the comments section below.

Standing Under the Arches We Build

Accountability is a hot topic in leadership and business development training today. It's also a somewhat poorly misunderstood concept. People sometimes confuse "accountability" with "responsibility," or associate accountability with shouldering the blame when something goes wrong. It's actually much broader than these simple explanations. What really rings true to me about the ancient Roman tradition is that accountability is not just limited to personal liability—it's so much bigger than that. Being accountable means standing behind—or under!--our products, our teams, and our commitment to overall excellence.

Accountability at work means taking initiative for projects, recognizing signals indicating something's going wrong, and not only owning up to but also taking action when failure occurs. Check our previous blog post for more on our thoughts about the role of accountability in teamwork.

One of my favorite metaphors for defining accountability is described by former AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong: "The ancient Romans had a tradition: whenever one of their engineers constructed an arch, as the capstone was hoisted into place, the engineer assumed accountability for his work in the most profound way possible: he stood under the arch."

In his book Closing the Execution Gap: How Great Leaders and Their Companies Get Results, Richard Lepsinger suggests that a lack of accountability in the workplace causes employees to view their organizational leaders as ineffective and creates a culture of blame. He also describes that a lack of productivity is common in cultures where people aren't held accountable for their actions.

Inspired by Lepsinger's perspective on accountability, here a checklist for building a culture of accountability at work:

• Clarify expectations and check for understanding among everyone involved in a project.
• Ensure employees follow through on their commitments.
• Make sure everyone is aware of and agrees to a timetable.
• Build in checkpoints to check progress along the way.
• Build in time to correct errors as needed before the deadline.
• When problems do occur, coach employees to ask themselves these questions: What can I do now to get on track? How can I prevent this problem from happening again? What could I have done to avoid the problem?

And don't forget to ask yourself and your teams this simple but profound question: Would you stand under the arches you build?

Training for Soft Skills and Technical Skills

by Shannon McKenzie

"Soft skills" and "technical skills" are ubiquitous training buzzwords. And although many training programs focus on one or the other, people almost always need a combination of technical and soft skills in the workplace.

Custom technical training and soft skills training are both at the heart of what we do at IdeaLearning Group. Technical training often involves step-by-step or procedural content, like software simulations, procedural overviews, or process techniques. Soft skills training addresses personal qualities or attitudes in a social structure, such as communication skills, management basics, or issues related to human resources.

More and more, the demand is growing for a combination of training that incorporates both technical and soft skills into one custom package. Of course technical skills can be taught, but incorporating soft skills into the training can prompt a change in behavior. For example, an online course for software training is primarily technical in nature. If participants were to use the software when assisting customers, we’d layer on customer service training to result in a comprehensive learning experience.

In his business blog, The Agile Business, Eric Berridge describes the increasing need for tech-focused employees to be trained in soft skills as well as technical skills: "The new IT pro is going to be like a turtle -- a shell of technical or 'hard' skills surrounding an underbelly of people skills, otherwise known as 'soft' skills." These soft skills include emotional intelligence, or the ability to read and respond to the emotional responses of other people. "People's ability to effectively leverage technology in their work may largely be based on emotional, rather than intellectual criteria," says Berridge. As employees collaborate more on projects, communication and the ability to connect well with others are top skills they need.

So how do we build the ideal combination of both?

Think of training in terms of Why, What, How. "Why" is the container that holds "what"—the technical training or process—and the "how," which represents the soft skills the learner needs in order to carry out the technical skills.

Focus on the context and application of the skills. A client might come to us with an established need for a tech training topic like using help desk software. During our design phase, we outline all the steps the learner needs to explore, and we also ask questions like, "Which skills does the learner need in order to effectively follow these steps on the job?" By emphasizing the context in which the skills need to be applied, we gain further insight into related learning needs, like customer service, presentation skills, or communication skills.

Assess technical and soft skills needs differently. Technical training often relies on processes that are unique to the organization. We start with any existing client documentation and refine it as needed to align with the training content. We have the in-house capability and expertise to draw upon to enhance technical documents, especially in the areas of process improvement, maximizing workplace efficiency, and technical writing.

During our discovery phase, we use different tools and approaches to discover soft skills training opportunities, such as using 360s, one-one-one or group interviews, or surveys.

Qualitative data we gather from this research helps inform how we incorporate soft skills training into the curriculum.

Prioritize needs and then work in phases. Sometimes a technical training need or a soft skills need rises to the surface first. For example, if a client needs to roll out a new compliance process, we create a training program for the immediate need first. If we identify a soft skills need as well, one way we can address these issues is by embedding character-based scenario activities complete with custom feedback into the course. Or we can create a "phase 2" that specifically focuses on soft skills, building upon the already established technical training.

Create layers of learning objectives. The most robust training courses are built around primary, secondary, and even tertiary objectives. For example, one objective might be "Execute the five steps of the sales cycle," with a secondary objective "Observe and use body language that helps strengthen your relationships with customers." With this approach, we create a more holistic solution that incorporates technical and soft skills into the program.

Case Study: Vestas - Three-Phase Training Program

by Shannon McKenzie

Vestas is a leading international wind energy company headquartered in Denmark. For the past 30 years, Vestas has installed more than 46,000 turbines in 66 countries. The company's mission is to enable energy independence demanded by the world's largest and fastest-growing economies by building wind energy innovations as a natural alternative for finite fossil fuels.

IdeaLearning Group partnered with Vestas to develop a robust three-phase training program that focused on electrical safety and the control of hazardous energy. More than 20,000 people needed training with a tight timeframe for development. Our "train-the-trainer" program was designed to educate Vestas master instructors, who in turn trained their teams. We also designed an internal Vestas brand logo and templates, which are used throughout the company.

The training program included several goals: address identified behaviors; promote consistency and safety throughout the company internationally; highlight change management tools and strategies; and incorporate hierarchical technical components. Our learning curve was steep and our time was short, but we were determined to deliver a substantial program with measurable positive results.

Phase 1: Master Training Rollout

The purpose of the first phase was to partner with master trainers and subject matter experts during face-to-face work meetings in Germany to finalize content for the electrical safety and lockout tagout training program. IdeaLearning Group staff developed an instructional video and supporting materials that focused on simple, complex, and group lockouts. We also created a three-part energy control coordinator course that included eLearning, pre-work, a teacher's plan, and support materials with a focus on technical and soft skills development. The role of the energy control coordinator was a new one in Europe, and we worked carefully with Vestas in the US to define best practices and develop the materials outside the Unites States.

Phase 2: Global Rollout of Electrical Safety Training

During this phase, IdeaLearning Group finalized all electrical safety and lockout tagout materials for master trainers for the rollout of the seven-course series, which included a PowerPoints, teacher's plans, and participant guides. We also travelled to Denmark to facilitate the soft skills course for master trainers.

Phase 3: Global Refresher of Electrical Safety Training

IdeaLearning Group created eLearning modules to refresh technicians' knowledge on electrical safety and lockout tagout procedures.

As a result of partnering with IdeaLearning Group for the large-scale training program, the program manager for Vestas in Denmark called IdeaLearning Group "my go-to vendor" and continues to collaborate with our company on additional projects. "It's rare to find a stress-free, no-drama, let's-get-the-job-done vendor," he said. "IdeaLearning Group was extremely easy to collaborate with. They quickly got up to speed, and the creative juices started flowing. I knew I was in good hands, and I didn't need to check in constantly. I felt very confident we were dealing with absolute professionals. It literally went that well."

The Machine Learning Revolution

During the "automation scare" in the 1950s, people were intrigued yet suspicious about the power of computers. Would they someday send us into permanent unemployment? Could robots eventually take over the world?

The original goal of artificial intelligence was to build a person out of silicone. Although scientists made quick progress in building computers and robots that amazed us, they never came close to actually replicating the human brain.

"Machine learning" was first introduced 50 years ago. This concept focuses on computers' ability to "learn" not through human programming, but through experience and pattern identification. For example, machine learning allows a computer to become a masterful chess player by observing good and bad moves and learning from mistakes. While a computer looks at every possible move up to 20 to 40 moves ahead, humans use more conceptual skills to decide how to make moves.

In a recent PBS NOVA documentary "The Smartest Machine on Earth," researchers explore powerful new tools in computing, like "Watson," a supercomputer with a brain, or central processing unit, that can process 500 gigabytes, or the equivalent of a million books, per second. In 2009, Jeopardy producers came to IBM to size up Watson's abilities.

You might remember when 74-win Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings went head-to-CPU with Watson a few years back. During Watson's "training" for the match, the scientists at IBM had to constantly expose Watson to large amounts of possible answers to questions so that it would have sufficient rules and logic to come up with correct answers.

Having studied thousands of questions, within a few milliseconds Watson analyzed every possible answer. It learned to make statistical judgments based on how pieces of evidence work together in the database of information scientists gave to it. In the end, the competition was close, but Watson pulled ahead and won the show.

Scientists who worked with Watson point out that there are two ways of building intelligence. We can either write down the recipe or let it grow by itself. It's clear that we don't know how to write down the recipe, according to scientists. Machine learning enables computers to grow their own intelligence.

Scientists continue to debate the ability of machines to truly displace us. There is so much that we know that we don't even realize we know, such as the fact that ice is cold and sandpaper is rough. Our common sense knowledge seems too complex to program into a computer. Human intelligence is deeply rooted in language and emotion.

Without experience or emotion, can computers ever understand the world the way we do?

They don't connect to human cognition on an emotional level, such as the way a symphony or a play can move us. Language and context are barriers for understanding. For example, figuring out the meaning of a sentence like "I shot an elephant wearing pajamas" is very difficult for computers. Was the shooter wearing pajamas or was the elephant? Was a camera or a gun used to do the shooting?

Of course machine learning goes far beyond winning trivia game shows. It's driving a computing revolution. According to an article in Wired magazine , today artificial intelligence isn't trying to re-create the brain. Instead, it relies on machine learning, massive data sets, sophisticated sensors, and clever algorithms to master discrete tasks. "In short, we are engaged in a permanent dance with machines, locked in an increasingly dependent embrace."

Machine learning makes it possible to predict the weather days in advance. It lets companies like Amazon or Zappos suggest products for you based on what you've chosen before. It allows doctors to better diagnose medical conditions.

It's even helping us communicate with people through speech recognition, which was once though impossible. Computers are now trained with millions of patterns of human speech, and the accuracy continues to improve. There are even apps for the iPad and iPhone that you can use to quickly record something and translate it on the spot when talking to a person who speaks another language.

IBM imagines a time when a computer will operate like the one in Star Trek—as information-seeking tools that communicates with us to ensure we get what we want. This thinking signals a shift in the way we use and accept computers in our lives, compared to the fear and suspicion we felt half a century ago.

Case Study: St. Mary Medical Center - Leadership Development Training

IdeaLearning Group is proud to have produced three very successful training programs for St. Mary Medical Center. Part of the St. Joseph Health System, St. Mary serves a diverse population in the High Desert region of California. It's a caring, warm culture with expert staff dedicated to providing compassionate care using state-of-the-art equipment.

Our first project involved 120 senior-level staff members for an in-house leadership development program. We were invited to speak during the general session on the topic of intrinsic motivation. Our goal was to explore techniques for decision-making and to help staff identify new development opportunities. Session evaluations show consistently high ratings for the program. Participants indicated that they loved the opportunity to try hands-on activities, and they also reported taking ideas they learned from the session back to share with other department members.

For our second project, we developed a series of four breakout sessions on the topic of reverse brainstorming. The three-hour session offered plenty of opportunities for participants to work together in a safe training environment before implementing what they learned on the job. Participants reported high ratings for the session and described how they were able to use the techniques they learned during interactions with customers in their jobs after the training.

Our most recent project was inspired by Peter Block's "Connection Before Content" model. The session followed a breakout format and focused on the importance of building small-group connections before collectively taking action in a community. Because of the custom nature of the content, St. Mary produced the toolkit while we worked on structuring the session content around the toolkit.

We really enjoyed the challenge of leading and developing a healthcare training program using our versatile instructional design and facilitation expertise. Working with excellent subject matter experts, we were able to produce a meaningful, dynamic learning experience for staff members and their teams to use for years to come.