G-Cube Solutions: Learn, Share, Grow

Apple launched iPad yesterday amidst lot of hype. It was slated to be Kindle killer and a serious threat to Netbooks. We try to analyze where would iPad fit in, and whether it will be for elearning what iPod was for music.

iPad Vs Kindle

First some facts - I have compared iPad - Wi-Fi + 3G model with Kindle DX as they are the comparative models amongst various versions made available from both the providers –

Analysis  –

• If one is an avid book reader & is going to use the device primarily for reading eBooks only, then Kindle would make more sense – its display technology is better, weighs & costs less (Kindle also has a base version which is smaller, weighs 0.29kg & costs $259), and has huge content repository.
• However, if one is looking to do more with the handheld device than just reading books, such as browse web, emailing, view videos, listen to music, and make presentations etc, than in that case iPad beats Kindle hands down.
• iPad also has access to Apple’s application store, which has tens of thousands of apps which can be downloaded on to iPad

Take on iPad Vs Kindle – iPad is not a Kindle killer and both would fight for top two eBook reader spots. iPad would however, certainly hurt new eBook readers that are now coming in the market.

iPad & Its Impact on e-Learning

Apple’s new device was also seen as something that could have given mobile learning a big push. Will it? I have my doubts. My reasons -

No Support for Flash – Like iPhone, even iPad doesn’t support Flash and there is no mention of when it will be supported. Majority of the elearning course-ware however gets published in Flash and no support for flash is a major irritant for rolling out courses on iPad, as few would make the investment to adopt new technology.

It’s Not a Netbook – iPad doesn’t support multi-tasking, is not a phone, has upper limit to disk space (64 GB), doesn’t have an inbuilt camera, and doesn’t support MS Office (does support MS Office’s formats though) among other things.  All this would put iPad in entertainment/lifestyle product category, and would thus not get endorsed by Management/IT departments for corporate use.

iPad would have limited impact on mlearning unless some of the parameters mentioned above change, either as a result of technological advancements over next couple of years or as upgrades from Apple.

Styles and guidelines are essential to all forms of instruction. This fact is not debated, but what is certainly questioned is the effectiveness of existing learning styles and their utility. A paper on the Concept and Evidence of Utility of Learning Styles by Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer and Robert Bjorg, details the evidence validating the success of existing methodologies of teaching and learning. This search leads them to find little or no certainty of a specific method, and to suggest that contrary to popular belief, learning styles cannot be effectively suited in general learning environments.

What stands out in the study for me, in context of the current learning scene, are observations that are simple – but when put to practice means good business for the industry.

Know thy audience: Factors like aptitude, education and cultural influences define each learner in a different way. Defining the learner or the learner group then becomes the first step to fruitful learning.

The origin of this theory can be traced back to the mid-twentieth century, by what was probably the first testimony in the field of human personality by Karl Jung. His thoughts were further concretized into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test. To this day, this test is a popular tool in understanding the aptitude and occupational skills of a person. While objective studies have failed to show how this classification of people into clusters helps, it has nevertheless failed to hamper its popularity. The Myer-Briggs test was probably the first in the long line of such studies and test that are now available and popularly used.

Coming back to the moot point, whatever the ways and means are of defining ones audience, the knowledge helps in presenting information and imparting awareness. Going by one of the more popular adverts of the learning-styles movement – ‘One style does not fit all…’ adopting different styles for different groups is definitely warranted.

Interaction is at the heart of learning: Too much or too little – is that quintessential question, when defining the levels of interaction in learning?

How much of interaction is best suited for the learner group? External factors make a learner group highly aware of its potential and capabilities. This knowledge if well understood can be the backbone of any learning lesson. Groups with heightened awareness of their own capabilities do better with little or moderate intervention. Often they tend on learning alone or in small groups of similar-minded people. On the other side are people who are not sure of their capability in adapting to new skills. Hand holding and frequent intervention can show results in this scenario.

Testing… How does that enhance learning? : Is testing just about asking questions and determining retention? Testing is more than just that. At the testing stage too, interaction plays an important role. It is suggested that prompting might be necessary for learner groups to ascertain the success of a learning module. Not only at the final stages or the end, but at an initial level too a timely prompt can enhance retention and infuse confidence. This intervention is needed for all learners. But again, the degree of it will differ for different groups or individuals.

So, to conclude, learning styles and methodologies are many. Some are proven while some are controversial. While not slavishly following a single one, but adopting the best of all worlds, is a road well-trodden. Debates over the utility of these styles and methodologies continue, but learning does not wait for them to conclude, does it?

In response to this month’s big question on LCB - e-Learning implementation and usage of different upcoming platforms is at different adoption level in different regions, and hence it becomes difficult to generalize how 2010 will pan out for our industry. I have thus categorized my thoughts on geographical basis.

India –

1. Skill Development Programs – Many government bodies at both center and state level initiated skill development programs on mass scale in collaboration with private sector in 2009. I see some of them taking off the ground this year and benefiting hundreds of thousands of youths who so far could not find meaningful jobs.
2. e-Learning Adoption in Government Bodies to Increase – Many PSU’s who are leaders in their own domains started implementing elearning in 2009, e.g. Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Department of Post etc. As they successfully implement the systems over next few months, I see lot of activity from other entities in these respective domains to implement similar systems in their organizations. State education boards are already very actively implementing smart classrooms and I see this only growing hereon.
3. Traditional Sectors to implement Training Management Systems – Tech savvy sectors, such as BFSI, IT/ITeS, Healthcare and Telecom etc have reached ‘Early Majority’ stage in technology adoption cycle and this will continue to grow. Something that I think will be different in 2010 will be that traditional sectors, such as Manufacturing, FMCG, and Energy etc will start adopting elearning more vigorously. They would however start with implementing training management systems to better manage their classroom trainings, and slowly build elearning practice in their organizations. In my opinion this would essentially be because of lack of relevant and ‘Indianised’ content for these domains.
4. Online Examinations – After CAT fiasco this year (or the media attention that it got), other examination bodies, such as IIT JEE, MAT etc will wait for another year I think before they start moving from paper based examinations. However, organizations on individual level would use online assessments much more in 2010 to certify their employees, or to help them evaluate their skill gaps (Almost all of our Wizdom clients, including PSU’s, ask for and use/intend to use Assessments vigorously).
5. Social Learning & M-Learning – Innovators will adopt them in 2010, but these platforms are still sometime away from mass adoption – on both corporate & individual level.

US & Parts of Europe –

1. eBooks – Amazon sold more eBooks than physical books, and Kindle was the top selling gift item ever this Christmas. Many more products are coming in the market & Apple is set to announce its new tablet shortly. All this makes 2010 a very interesting year for eBooks growth, which I believe is set to explode now.
2. m-Learning – As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts also, we are now developing lot of content for iPhones & Blackberries, and the requests are only growing by the day. Apart from this personal experience, there are off-the-shelf m-learning content providers emerging on the scene. All this, combined with technology advancements, such as embedded Pico Projectors can make 2010 a year when m-Learning got its due share.
3. Rapid Content – Scars of recession are fresh and are not going to heal in a hurry. Cost cutting is and will remain name of the game for some time. Standardization and rapid content development, while keeping tight focus on instructional design is going to be the prevalent content development mode in 2010.
4. Search for ‘Magic Learning System’ – 70% of LMS users are unhappy with their systems. They are ugly & confusing. Social Learning is the ‘new’ way to learn & LMS’s don’t know what to do about it. Well, poor LMS has been everyone’s favourite punching bag for couple of years now. But the world currently doesn’t have an alternative for very important question from organization perspective – how to track and control learner’s movements (Yes, I know, this is not how it ideally should be – but please tell that to HR Departments & to learners who take undue advantage of liberties provided to them). Search for ‘Magic Learning System’ is on and will continue in 2010 (and we may actually see some answers too – SCORM/E-Learning cloud is one such emerging thought) which can be integrated with popular social platforms and provide a way to provide controlled access and objectively analyse learner progress in bridging her skill gaps.

So, this is what I think how 2010 is going to be. Would love to hear your thoughts & feedback.

December’s question on Learning Circuit Blog is “What did you learn about learning this year”.

Well the most important thing I learnt this year – World Never Stops Learning.

Here are some of the things that stand out for me from 2009 -

Recession didn’t turn out be that bad a word after all - Due to recession, year 2009 started on a low note for industry in general and elearning/training industry in particular (training sadly still is not on priority list of most of CFO’s).

However, I learnt that inspite of all the doomsday prophecies, any downturn is generally limited to certain verticals & geographies. During this downturn BFSI & real estate got hit badly in US & some parts of Europe, whereas India, China, and many other countries went through this period without any serious problem. So for us even though business from US & Europe dipped a bit, many opportunities came up in emerging markets. My Learning – Continue to build organizational expertise across different verticals, and diversify across different geographies because world won’t stop learning.

Rapid Learning Ruled in West, Flash in East – e-Learning in west has attained a certain maturity level, and that was also reflected in the way elearning courses were developed and delivered in these geographies – course duration got shorter & shorter (we developed a lot of 5-7 minute modules for our customers in 2009), delivery platform diversified (courses were simultaneously, or in some cases exclusively, designed for iPhone & Blackberry etc), and majority of construction got done using rapid tools or highly standardized templates & shells.

In east however, elearning took off over last couple of years and HR teams are trying hard to hook learners to this training medium.  Thus, elearning courses most often don’t only have to fulfil learning objectives, but also have to act as an advertisement for this training medium, which translates into lot of Level 2 or 3 courses being developed using Flash. My Learning – Due to inequality in elearning adoption rate, this trend would continue for some more time before it converges. As a service company, we need to cater to different kind of requests, but seeing the trend, need to further develop organizational strength in designing and delivering short courses over different platforms.

Social Learning Gained Momentum – Before 2009, I was sceptic if collaborative learning would be accepted in work environment. But 2009 made me a believer that collaborative learning is going to be a major component of learning initiatives moving forward. On personal level, I blogged much more and was greatly enriched by the experience, tried my hands at twitter (not successfully though – which I plan to change in 2010), and generally got more active on other social platforms.

From business perspective, we started integrating collaborative learning components in our courses, and our clients started using collaboration features of installed LMS’s and freely available tools much more in 2009 with encouraging results. My Learning – Continue pushing usage of social learning – both at personal and organizational level – it’s a win-win.

Wishing all the readers of LCB & GCS Blog a very happy 2010!

Change is universal law of nature. As the old year sets off and New Year comes, we all unite together to wave off year to go by and welcome the new.

G-Cubians had a gala time in the month of December-2009 wherein different activities were arranged in G-Cube in order to bid farewell to 2009. These activities started with Bhagavad Gita Presentation given by Shri.  Buddhimanta Das (from ISKON). Here concepts of Gita were seen from managerial perspective and also relevance of Bhagvad Gita in today’s world.

The next activities on the list were Cricket and Badminton championships. In order to revive and revitalize G-Cubians, yearly Sports Day was organized wherein Cricket and Badminton competitions were arranged. This was much awaited day for all G-Cubians wherein competitive spirit was seen among all players.

Finally we had Christmas celebration. All the workstations were decorated with Christmas ribbons, bells, stars, balls. Also, we decorated Christmas tree with chocolates and toffees, and, not to forget, images of Santa. We all were dazzled with the visit of Santa followed by Christmas carols. The day ended with Santa distributing Chocolates and cakes.

Wishing everyone a very joyful and successful 2010!

We are proud to announce that G-Cube has won Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 India 2009, and Technology Fast 500 Asia-Pacific 2009 award, a program which identifies fastest growing companies in different regions worldwide.

The rankings are based on revenue growth over 3 year period. You can read complete news release on our website.

Some of the key takeaways from the award ceremony that I wanted to share here on the blog -

1. There are 71 companies from India in Fast 500 Asia-Pacific rankings. This is second only to China (& Taiwan) and is yet another proof of solid recovery being demonstrated by these two nations.
2. Mobile VAS providers form the largest industry sub-segment in Fast 50 India rankings, and all of them are upbeat about coming few years as well. The mobile story is thus going strong. If we, the elearning industry, can come up with some compelling applications in mobile space then there is a quite a potential out there for everyone.
3. e-Learning companies continue to grow at a fast pace, and form one of the top sub-segments in the ranking list.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our clients who made us a part of their learning & development programs, and all G-Cubians who have made this possible.

Teaching and learning are fast changing form. Technology has opened the doors of learning wide, and as a result - the classroom, the learners and the instructors are all changing today.

It cannot be denied that learners today differ in competence and motivation levels at all learning platforms, be it a classroom or an e-learning module. The exposure to newer technologies has led to a gaping gap between the levels of teaching or instruction that a learner expects and what the instructor is able to impart. In such an environment it becomes difficult to attract and sustain the learner’s interest in the subject matter.

We faced this gap in ‘Tune’ (Our VSAT based live blended education program for Grad. & Post-Grad. Schools) as well, which led us to experiment with an adapted version of Dr. Michael Muir’s ‘Meaningful Engaged Learning’ model and we found it quite useful.

And here’s how -

We extensively use audio-visuals from everyday life that connects the most with learners. Young minds are especially impressionable and quick to associate certain qualities with certain personalities. This admiration can be fruitfully directed to a path of ‘aspiration’. Videos of role models of the young generation like Mahinder Singh Dhoni, Rahul Gandhi, or even the guy-next-door, who beat all odds to top the CAT, are a part of the classroom. Their strengths – from exuding confidence to dedicated perseverance becomes an example to learn from.

The tone is far removed from preaching, it is indeed in tune with experience (Pun unintended!).  This tone is maintained throughout and we also include the option of a local language, as per the reactions and needs of the audience.

It has also been realized that an effective forum of conducting such debates is the various sites of social networking like Orkut, Facebook and Twitter. These sites, even if seen in frivolous light by some, have been successful in engaging a whole generation. They have given a space for anyone and everyone to have an opinion. And so, the students who are not involved in a classroom to actively participate in any discussion are surprisingly vocal in online communities on these platforms.

Role playing is another way of creating awareness and interest on such issues. The rules of the Role play are laid out and a demo are run to show how it works. The Audience is then invited to participate in a similar exercise. Art of business communication is taught when the class is split into different groups of people, who communicate within an organization and a dialogue is run amongst them. The tone and format of communication, within the boundaries of organizational hierarchy are thus experienced.

‘Meaningful Engaged Learning’ model has been immensely successful in Tune, the students as well as their teachers standing testimony to its success. Its success is also a testimony to the fact that with virtual learning technologies, social media tools and lowering the cost of interactive sessions, classrooms today are changing to include and engage a variety to learners.

We believe this model has the potential to be equally successful in e-learning courses as well, which require engaging learners in a way that sustains interest as well as assures assimilation of knowledge. Will keep you posted on the results.

Mobile learning (m-learning) has been a buzz word in L&D circles for quite some time now. It has long been projected as the next big thing that’s going to hit elearning industry as there are more mobiles than laptops in the world, people spend lot of time travelling and hence have free time to learn, workforce in field doesn’t always have access to computers and so on.

But inspite of sincere efforts by organizations across the globe, m-learning has never taken off in real sense, and has largely been limited to pilot runs or sending information chunks or quizzes over SMS. I believe primary reasons behind this are –

1. Mobiles come in all kind of screen sizes, which means content has to be optimized for multiple sizes to reach a wider audience set. During optimization you have to sacrifice lot of functionalities/animations etc to fit in the given screen sizes. Not only is this exercise capital intensive but it also drastically impacts learner experience.
2. Screen sizes are too small and even with optimized courses learners find the whole experience too cumbersome

But all this can change with Pico Projectors. These are very small projectors (size of a mobile device) that can create a 40” to 100” wide projection on any kind of surface.

Currently these projectors are being sold as standalone accessories and can be attached to mobile devices, iPods, and PDA’s. But phone manufacturers have already started embedding Pico projectors in mobile phone itself.

It’s predicted that in next few years ‘projector phones’ would become as popular as ‘camera phones’ are today. Now that would open up very interesting opportunities in lot of domains including learning & development.

Content providers would have to no longer squeeze content for small screen sizes, thus providing the same kind learning experience as in web environment.

Learners would be able to project learning material on any surface – table surface, wall, or on someone’s back! This would take away the biggest resistance that mobile learning faces today, that is of fiddling with annoyingly small screens.

This technology can also prove to be a boon for teachers and students in less developed areas where access to computers is limited. With a ‘projector phone’ and course material pre-loaded in SD cards, a teacher would be able to offer latest learning aids to students in remotest parts of the country!

How do you think this can impact m-learning?

Learning Circuits big question this month is on how to figure out value of social learning, and how do we encourage people to see it as an alternative training medium.

But hasn’t learning been always a social activity? From school to the workplace, the avenues of learning have always been through interaction. The closer the interaction, more effective is the learning. While this is established, what is the resistance in using social media as a learning tool?

For the traditionalists, the first fear is of the ‘new’. And if it is a new technology that we are talking about, the fear is greater. This however, in my opinion, is the easier of fears to break. Social media as a learning tool is not a completely new concept. It has been firmly established as a successful means to impart learning of subjects and topics, varied in nature. In fact, there are successful organizations, who swear by it. Giving such examples, would soothe out wrinkles in the ‘workability’ department.

Another way of essaying the fear would be to give a taste of the new. The idea is not to fight them but take them along. The most severe of the critics can be wooed over if the dish is nicely prepared. One of my favorite characters from my childhood books was Lucy, who hated melons. She had never had them, but she decided she hated them, till the day that she did try one. And then, she loved them! A simplistic approach to the problem, you say? Yes, and this too, is a tried and tested one. A short module can be run for a month or two, opening the avenues of learning through social media. At the end of the testing period the effectiveness can be evaluated and comments and suggestions can be invited.

The greater of the fears for the traditionalists is that of losing productivity. The existing systems are working well, and have shown results for the past many years. Why dismantle something that has been working so well? This as a fear is well grounded. Indeed, social mediums like facebook, twitter, blogs and wikis – all have their ‘fun’ part as well, may be too much of it. There are games, movies, music – every other distraction that you can think of. This is truly scary for a manager, to expect that all members would act productively given access to such medium. But again, such forums have the capability to increase many skills, an angle that needs to be shown to the skeptic ones.

While increasing skills like communication, creativity and leadership, social media also helps healthy interaction between people who might not have interacted at all in traditional hierarchy. Not to say that the top bosses do not want to talk to the employees, they just do not have the time. A blog can be a social forum where every member of a team can participate, have their say and at the end of the day, learn from each other.

So, to summarize, to convince a group who hasn’t got any exposure to social medium, give them a taste of it. You might be pleasantly surprised with the outcome! And to convince a group who has some exposure and thus a view, that is none too positive – give the right exposure. This might not be easy, but it is definitely possible, with some dedicated spearheading by the pushers of social media as a learning tool.

Found an interesting study done by US Department of Education (courtesy Clive Shepherd) that objectively analyzes difference in effectiveness of online, blended and face-to-face learning practices. This study is a meta-analysis of over 100 researches done on this topic between year 1996 and 2008, and can be found here.

Some of the key observations of this report that caught my attention –

1. Online learning is better than face-to-face Learning: Learners who took their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction with an average effect size of +0.24 favoring online students.
2. Blended Learning has a larger advantage relative to face-to-face learning and purely online learning: The effect size comparing blended to face-to-face learning was +0.35 in favor of blended learning. Comparison between blended and purely online learning lead to mean effect size of +0.14 in favor of blended learning.
3. Online learning effectiveness holds true for all learning groups: Online learning appeared to be effective across different learning segments, which included K-12, graduate, and corporate learners.
4. Online learning is much more conducive to expansion of learning time:  It was observed that online learning was better at keeping learners engaged in learning process for larger duration than face-to-face learning

This study also tried to understand what practices make online learning more effective. Some of interesting and somewhat surprising findings  –

    1. Media Elements  –

• The study suggests that use of media, videos, and flashier templates does not offer any significant advantage in learning retention.
• However, studies also suggest that if the learner is given control over these media elements then that can lead to significantly better results. So, a learner group which would be able to control course navigation flow, pause/forward/rewind videos, or interact with media elements will show better learning results than a learning group which would have no such control over the online course.

     2. Interactivity –

• Online quizzes do not appear to impact the amount that learner learns in an online course. Also, quizzes were found no better than other reflective elements, such as homework, online discussions etc.
• Learning retention can be significantly enhanced by asking learners to spend more time on tasks, and activities
• Inclusion of simulations also appear to have positive learning outcome

     3. Reflection –

• Learners who were asked to reflect upon their learnings, or self-measure their understanding showed significantly larger learning gains