G-Cube Blog

I have been playing with a 7” inch Android based tablet for few weeks now, and as I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I see tremendous applications for this kind of device (if rightly priced) in productivity enhancement, and in learning and development in India like scenario, where workforce is highly distributed, and access to laptops and fast Internet connectivity is limited.

I have had a touch screen phone with me for some time now but had never really bothered about taking it seriously for any kind of learning etc (I know, coming from an e-learning solutions provider, this can sound blasphemous to some, but that’s how it was for me personally). But, these 7” inch tablets seem to be of just the right size – it’s easy to hold them in one hand and use the other to scroll, or use both hands to use the virtual keyboard.

While going through various ‘current world’ web portals and applications, and then some which have been optimized for mobile and touch screen interfaces, I found some UI design related aspects that I found worth jotting down. Here are some of my observations, which you may like to use if you are also starting on your journey to create content and applications for touch interfaces (some of the items described below may be specific to Android OS) –

Always use white or bright colored background – Fingerprints and other marks on the screen become much more prominent on black or dark backgrounds. A white or a bright background solves this to quite an extent.

Keep it Clean and Simple – Don’t clutter your application/course screen with too many Icons, Buttons etc. Just keep the most important functionalities on screen and move rest of them to ‘Options’ or ‘Context’ menus. Here is one such good example of how to keep application design clean (This is ‘Documents To Go’ from Dataviz – an MS Office & PDF reader and editor) -

Application Home Page – Large Icons With Ample Space Between Them

Application Launch Screen: Only ‘The’ Most Important Functionalities Placed Here

Options Menu: Again only most used functionalities should be placed here, with rest placed under ‘More’

Context Menu – Keep All Options Relevant to Selected Item in ‘Context Menu’

In e-learning context, it can mean keeping all the global course functionalities, such as Glossary, FAQ, Notes, Ask Mentor etc in the ‘Options’ menu, and any specific item related information (e.g. clicking on an object may reveal option to view it, download it, mail it etc.) in ‘Context’ menus.

Touch is Different Than Mobile Interface – While creating content for mobiles one focuses on designing the content for small screen sizes and links etc are organized with an assumption that they will be navigated using track-ball or something similar. However, in touch screen devices where screen size ranges from 5 to 10 inches, one should focus more on size and prominence of click-able objects as finger sizes can vary quite a bit between users of the application. Of the limited ‘touchabled’ (new word?) sites that I have browsed, I have particularly liked the way Facebook has organized its mobile and touch interfaces (notice how links are presented differently in both the interfaces) –

Provide Undo Option – It’s easy to make mistakes in touch screen based applications – one may touch the wrong button, or fill in wrong data due to keyboard size limitations. Instead of making user re-enter data or perform steps all over again, provide option to return to last state with ‘Undo’ or ‘Back’ option.

Give Visual Indication of Action Being Taken – On desktops we see a busy mouse icon and we know computer is doing something. We don’t have any mouse icon in touch screens – so give some visual indication as soon as anything touchable is touched, so that the users don’t panic and start feeling that something went wrong.

Use Multi-Touch to Add Pizzazz – Multi-touch capability in touch screen devices adds a new dimension to how we can add interactivities in our courses and apps, e.g. an interactivity where user has to work on a machine simulation with both hands at same time, or take quick actions in different parts of the screen using both hands etc will now be possible with multi-touch capability.

Provide Scroll Options – Now the experience shared below may be specific to the tablet I am using, but whenever I find lot of icons or hyperlinks on the screen and I have to flick the screen to move to next section I invariably end up clicking some icon or hyperlink by mistake (I have not faced this in iPhone so I think it has something to do with the screen quality of my test tablet). But this raises a point – that many users may have these kind of tablets where screens may not be of the best quality (and I think that may be more true for low end tablets), or user clicks on something by mistake while flicking on the screen. I think it will be a good idea to provide scroll buttons ‘<’, ‘>’ (horizontal or vertical depending upon screen orientation) at screen edges to factor in all type of devices and users.

Will keep on sharing more as I dive deeper into the touch world, and as we get more feedback from users using our courses and apps designed for touch screens.

Our workspace imitates the world around us, like art imitates life. No wonder then, as the world gets smaller, boundaries in the workspace also decrease. The first such boundary to break is that of distance. While it is imperative to have productive interactions, it is no longer necessary to make extensive plans for bringing busy colleagues at the same location. And this is possible with the advent of real-time collaboration technology. Web Meetings enables audio-video interactions with a range of features like desktop sharing, whiteboards, polls, assessments – to name just a few.

The benefits are manifold. For smaller organizations, it is a boon that can enable them to find a global reach and makes their business international. For bigger enterprises, it increases inter-organizational communication and builds knowledge within its structure. It is also a great learning platform. The greatest tangible benefit is that of savings – travel costs as well as inter-organizational costs from lesser phone calls, meetings and the like.

While the benefits are clear, let’s face it – Business is about numbers. The return on investment (ROI) for any business case is necessary and a clear ROI also spells the support and approval of management! So we tried to analyze the ROI for our own organization, and the results were simply amazing. Here are our ROI computations -

Some points worth noting in the calculation above –

1. We haven’t considered off-shore travel time and cost savings which would exponentially increase the ROI
2. Couple of subjective factors were also not considered while doing the calculations, such as a) not all of the time saved would be used productively, and b) there would be some productivity gain due to intangible benefits like increase in customer satisfaction, effective communication etc. So while one factor would decrease benefits accrued, second would compensate it by increasing productivity benefits.

Leaving the very evident ROI aside, the intangible returns or the soft benefits for us are that of increased collaboration and faster access to our customers. It is now easier for knowledge within the organization to be shared. Expert views and interactions can also be easily made available across geographical boundaries. This leads to enhanced productivity for all the stakeholders. Training and support can be provided quickly and much more effectively leading to increased customer satisfaction.

The returns are thus are quite substantial, and the ROIs are only expected to increase as web meetings further embed in our organizational processes.

We recommend you look into your needs, future prospects and user profile – and go ahead and choose the best solution for you. You would not have to wait long for the competitive advantages to kick in!

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

This post comes from a question asked to me by a journalist on size of Indian elearning industry and its growth potential in coming few years.

Based on our own market insights, inputs provided by industry analysts and data available in elearning directories, current Indian elearning industry landscape looks something like this –

• Indian elearning industry employs about 11,000 people and total revenue is estimated at $316 million
• Domestic elearning industry is about 10% of the total industry size and stands at around $30 million
• Indian elearning industry had been experiencing a healthy CAGR of approximately 30% over last 5 years. Except the current fiscal year, we expect the industry to grow at similar or better pace for coming few years.

To estimate growth potential and growth rates we considered following questions –

• What is the current maturity level of Indian elearning industry?
• What is the global elearning market size, and what’s India’s share in the same?
• What are the growth opportunities in Indian market?
• How does elearning industry numbers compare with more established ‘Software & Related Services’ industry numbers?

To get answer to our first question, we looked at size of different elearning organizations. Findings are summarized in the chart below -

We now have over 30 organizations with 100+ employees, and there is also a significant activity happening at entry level. We thus have the foundation laid, but as we will see from numbers below, there is lot of work that needs to be done – we quickly need to move up the value chain, and we need to further strengthen the talent base to capitalise the potential.

Let’s also look at a comparison between elearning and ‘Software & Related Services’ industry segments that can help us estimate growth possibilities –

Now all the factors that have worked in favour of ‘Software & Related Services’ industry (abundant talent, cost arbitrage, process maturity, adherence to standards, government support, and growing domestic market) are in place or are getting in place for elearning industry as well. I thus believe that in next decade or so, Indian elearning industry would carve out similar presence in global market as achieved by ‘Software and Related Services’ sector.

To get into a bit of specifics, based on above comparison table and analysis of industry trends, I believe following would happen over next 4-5 years –

1. Organizations that have achieved certain scale would go in for more and more direct presence in geographies which are big elearning consumers. I see these organizations growing at CAGR of 30 – 40% or more.
2. On domestic front, I believe we are increasingly getting close to the tipping point and we will experience aggressive growth for coming few years.
3. Now that Indian corporate sector has realized benefits of elearning, I see it growing at 80-100% on yearly basis for next 5 years.
4. With renewed thrust on education and skill development by Government of India and role of technology being imperative in realizing the goals being set, there are endless opportunities that are opening up in this sector. The scope is so wide that I would not even hazard a guess on what can be the growth percentages over here.

All in all, exciting times ahead!

Here are results of the poll –

Q1 – Where do you think e-learning stands in Technology Adoption Life Cycle in your country?

Q2 – What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to planning, rolling out, or managing an e-learning training program?

Q3 – What according to you would have biggest impact on e-learning in coming years?

Some observations based on the above results –

1. e-Learning has considerably matured in United States, and should see mass adoption in coming years. It can be safely assumed that rest of the developing world would also follow the same growth trajectory as the local Internet and Bandwidth problems get sorted out. As a result, e-learning industry should continue to experience significant growth in coming years.
2. Budget remains a key concern area (which we believe is not limited to e-learning, but training industry as a whole). Unfortunately, nothing much can be done about it as training is not something which is perceived to have immediate impact on top or bottom lines.
3. Adoption of e-learning by users, and availability of quality e-learning programs are also significant concern areas. However, I think this would change as more organizations adopt e-learning, which would allow content providers to come up with innovative and more cost-effective solutions (since they would be able to offer it to broader market, and hence get faster & better returns on their investments).
4. There seems to be general consensus that e-learning 2.0 (read – Blogs, Wiki, Shared Videos, Q&A etc.) would have increasingly larger role in the way training is imparted.
5. Also, m-learning seems to be resurrecting now. This coupled with other delivery formats should give content providers a lot of room to experiment with interesting content creation strategies.

(Mr. Vivek Pandey is Manager – Business Development at G-Cube)

I think 2008 will be an exciting year that will mark some interesting changes in corporate HR strategies and social learning phenomena.

If we look at some of the recent trends – one is the evolution of Web 2.0 and its increasing fusion with the e-Learning tools that broadly include mobile learning, wiki, blogging, podcasting and synchronous tools (including white-board, chat, audio and video). Second is that earlier the delivery was static because the objective was completely different as compared to what administrators seek from the delivery platforms today. Now the learning platforms offer you endless functionalities to plan, size, deliver, track, calculate and support your decision making process.

I’ve been watching and receiving a number of e-Learning platform requisition tenders and what I could imply was: -

• No organization is barely interested in delivery of the e-Learning programs; instead they need a system that dovetails well with the overall HR infrastructure.
• An attractive feature demand change in the LMS market with increasing demands for Web 2.0 features, improved collaboration, robust reporting, and Talent Management.
• Organizations are looking for a system that offers superior functions to support organizational communication not just training!
• Robust decision support, reporting and analytics.
• Much more…

My predictions for 2008: -

Informal e-Learning: -

1. Social networks AKA networking tools: More social portals that would foster open learning and community based transfer and synthesis of knowledge, thoughts and insights. These portals may offer noteworthy functionalities like discussion board, wiki, podcasting and much more! I’m still waiting for a social networking portal to offer mobile compatibility as its very important for business executives.
2. Open document sharing portals like SlideShare and DocStoc will acquaint the user’s knowledge-gap.

Corporate e-Learning: -

1. E- Learning analytics: With heavy investments in the area – compilation, visualization and interpretation of electronic data collected in the context of e-Learning activity will become much more important. I’m hopeful to witness a promising e-Learning analytics tool that may assist the training administrators calculate the cost, ROI, and TCO over every dollar spent on training programs. This would become even more necessary if economy slows down as discussed in earlier post by Ankit.
2. Game & Simulation based Learning – My own gut feel says that overall market for serious games, and simulations would have a more than proportionate increase in demand. Organizations involved in development of such games are realizing that a mixed onsite and off-shore team can substantially bring down game development cost, and that serious games can be developed without bankrupting clients! This I believe would lead to increased adoption of serious games by clients in the coming year. 
3. Rise in Integrated purchase of Talent Management and Learning Management Systems – In the year 2007 we’ve seen some interesting shift in the LMS purchase with marked increase in demand of integrated Talent Management and Learning Management System. This would force e-Learning vendors to invest more in features and functionalities that meet the Talent Management needs of corporations.
4. Web 2.0: Many LMSs are offering “learning on demand” features that support webcasting, podcasting and video among other features, consequently many organizations may desire to redesign there corporate learning platforms.
5. Web based course authoring: As the content and interactivity standards are elevating day on day, it will require deeper Subject Matter expertise and team involvement working from various locations. Under such situation a web and workflow based authoring system would make the job more effective. We already have started witnessing some movement in this area and if I could correctly remember Udutu is a tool that offers you web authoring capabilities.

Market predictions:

1. Movement in the SME e-Learning: If you closely examine the market distribution – the total e-Learning market is divided between SME and Large corporations on a ratio of 65:35. Analysis of the real situation and my close observations predicts that e-Learning usage will gain more momentum in the SME sector, with investments mainly in infrastructure.

No matter what may happen and how far the predictions are realized – one thing that’s predestined is the exponential growth of the e-Learning Industry and thus it will remain a subject to be watched all round in the Year 2008.

(Vivek Pandey is Manager – Business Development at G-Cube)

Here are my views in response to January’s Big Question from ASTD -

One of the leading e-Learning forecasts suggests that current size of the US market alone is close to $10 billion. Market has shown consistent growth over last 5 years. Forecast also suggests reasonably good growth for next 4-5 years (the entire forecast period).

In my views growth of e-Learning is the function of two important factors. Factor Number One is the competitive cost advantage and Second Factor is the enabling qualities such as enhanced reach and learning impact.

Typically training and development has a budget which is more sensitive to profits rather than revenues, particularly in case of mature industry domains. On an average, organizations spend 5%-7% of their profits and 0.5%-1% of revenues in learning and development. However, in times of economic downturn this spending is significantly reduced. Therefore, during the economic downturn while one factor is favorable to the growth of e-Learning in relative terms the overall reduction in T&D budgets have adverse impact on new and innovative e-Learning developments. Though these innovative ideas have significant learning impact, but during downturn they don’t find their place in the L&D budgets.

I am bringing this point to discussion as this has relevance with respect to suspected US recession. If US hits moderate recession it can have impact on the direction of e-Learning trend as well.

My trend predictions therefore are in the form of questions that we have to collectively answer in near future and are presented under two scenarios:-

Scenario I – Normal US Economy

If this scenario is continued, should we see the following?

1. Who doesn’t want cost reduction?

In any case whatever is the growth in US economy, increasing expectation of capital efficiency will force organizations to continuously reduce Cost/Hour of learning delivery. For most organizations while learning impact will be the key focus, strategic cost reduction will remain the absolute intent. As a result key officer responsible for L&D will be accountable to achieve bigger and bigger learning objectives (penetration and quality) within the available budgets. As a result I guess close to 75% of the e-Learning hours may be served by rapid content.

Don’t you think in that scenario rapid e-Learning will be the desired approach to deliver what “can be” (for achieving maximize penetration) by using rapid stuff- compliance trainings, process trainings, User Guide, Instructional manual material and may be much more?

2. However more impactful trend might emerge and particularly among the organization which have matured in accepting e-Learning- Those who have realized the true benefits of what “Content-Can-Do” to a learner. e-Learning proponents by now have been able to establish that for certain learning topics (and they may be over 10-15% of the overall learning hours) more instructionally sound content enable much better quality of long-term learning even compared to class room. Call it simulation, 3-D, Level- 3, El-2.0 whatever! What do you say?

Therefore this not only substitutes class room training but achieves better results to the learners. Though this content is very expensive and have a late break-even incase calculated on numbers of learning hours. Mature organizations would still move in this direction (what do you think?) as performance benefits immediately after receipt of such training are unmatched. Such organization, today realize that talent quality has to improve rapidly to create and maintain lead in business and that is a key driver of this trend.

Scenario II – Recession in US Economy

Picture will certainly differ in-case recessionary conditions trickles in. Here are my views:-

Lower revenues and lower profits for US corporations certainly means cut in L&D spending. However, I have strong views that e-Learning in relative terms is likely to benefit from recessionary conditions as it is a proven cost friendly alternative to a traditional class room.

In my views the share of e-Learning hours will increase to over 40-50% from current 30% due to two factors – lowered base of number of training hours (as expected during recession) and increased share of e-Learning as such.

Also due to improvements in technology infrastructure coupled with lowered data access cost, share of online e-Learning should increase from current 20-25% to 35-40%.

Companies which have matured-up will likely to continue to invest on e-Learning content of all types. However the late entrants will restrict themselves to rapid content only- a potentially very large market. This will adversely impact the growth of e-Learning 2.0 and all such high operating cost and high Capex learning investment.

To sum up my thoughts e-Learning industry in general has a great future irrespective of US recession.

However innovation in the direction of high impact content will take a beating if that happens.

“Class Room” will shrink at the cost of “Rapids” and “Rapids” will have to evolve to become much more beautiful and impactful.

(Ankit Jain is Head – HR & Strategy at G-Cube)