Onlignment Archive – Page 11 – Legacy posts from Onlignment

A practical guide to creating reference information: part 2

In part 1, we examined how reference information differs from other learning content, the purposes it fulfils and the formats that it can take. We move on to explore best practice in terms of the presentation of the information.

General design guidelines

Reference information is different from other learning content because its purpose is to meet a short term need, not to have some long-term effect on the user. It does not need to engage the user, because you can assume that anyone who has made the decision to consult reference material is already engaged. It does not seek to stimulate thought or discussion. It does not need to assess the degree to which learning has taken place, because learning is not its purpose. You should have one simple aim in designing your materials: getting the user to the information they need as quickly and simply as possible and then presenting that information in such a way that it can be used immediately.
Here are some general tips that you can apply to any type of online reference material:

Provide structured information, not prose: What works in a book, a report or a magazine does not work for reference. Very few people will read your material from beginning to end, if they read it at all. They will jump around and skim at lightening speed until they find what they are looking for. Long paragraphs of text are very hard to skim, so focus instead on using tables, lists and diagrams. If you must use prose, keep paragraphs and sentences short and focus on one point at a time. Use plenty of clear, descriptive headings. Leave out the anecdotes and witticisms.
Be consistent: It is much easier to navigate information that is presented consistently. Choose a format for each type of information and use this every time. Adopt a typographical standard and apply this universally. Never vary your means for navigation. What should stand out should be important information such as rules and warnings. The only way you will achieve this is against a uniform backdrop.
Ditch the numbering system: It is debatable whether elaborate numbering systems ever helped anyone to navigate a print document, but they are completely unnecessary and unhelpful online. Online information is accessed using search boxes and links. Numbers only get in the way.

Prose v structured text for reference information — Unstructured prose is fine if you're relaxing reading a novel but is no good if you're hunting down information. Contrast the extract on the right from Adobe Community Help.

Presenting factual information

Factual information, such as names, dates, email addresses, spellings and codes, is best structured into databases or tables, and sequenced alphabetically, numerically or chronologically. As software becomes more intelligent, we will have less need for these tables; we should expect frequently-used data to be suggested to us automatically, based on our historical usage pattern and the particular context. But there will always be exceptions and we do not only need factual information when we using a software application.

Keyboard shortcuts — This alphabetical table of keyboard shortcuts from Techicious makes it easy to reference factual information

Presenting concepts

According to Ruth Clark, a concept is a category of objects or ideas that is usually designated by a single word. Essentially when we refer to concepts, we are talking about the terminology which helps us to find our way around a particular knowledge domain. Without a common understanding of this terminology, we cannot communicate with our peers.
An example of a concept is the hashtag used by Twitter. To understand this term we need a definition, one that makes clear what a hash tag is and what relevance it has. We could do with some examples and some non-examples; for example, #devlearn is a hashtag to be used when referring to the DevLearn conference, but @devlearn is a Twitter username.
Some concepts are less abstract and benefit from a non-verbal approach. So don’t just list the characteristics of different species of bird; show what they look like and what they sound like.
Sometimes we need to explain a concept in conjunction with a procedure, because the procedure only makes sense when the concept is clear. More typically, when we have many concepts to explain we are better off building a dictionary or glossary.

This Moodle glossary provides easy access to definitions of e-learning terms

Presenting procedures

A procedure is a series of rules for carrying out a routine task in a logical sequence. Some procedures are essentially linear: we carry out the same steps each time. Others are conditional: at each step we need to progress differently depending on the particular situation. Linear procedures can be laid out in a simple tabular form, with tips and warnings at each step where appropriate. If you are presenting a software procedure, use screen shots at each step, but only if these are really needed to make the procedure clear. Remember that these will need revising regularly as the software is updated.
Conditional tasks can be hard to explain in tabular form, in which case you could use a flow chart. These too can become complex and unwieldy, in which case an interactive tool might be more appropriate, in which each step is presented in turn, with conditional links depending on the decision made at each point.

Presenting processes

A process is a description of how something works. Processes typically involve a number of stages, with the output of one stage being the input to the next. Some processes, such as the water cycle, are cyclical. Others, such as a disciplinary process, continue until some goal or end point is reached. When users understand a process, they get the bigger picture; they understand how what they do impacts on others.
Processes can be presented in a tabular fashion, but they will often benefit from a process flow diagram of some sort.

Process flowchart — This flowchart from Edraw Soft provides an overview of how a business process works

Presenting structures

Some information is essentially structural in nature; it describes the ‘parts of’ things, like the bones in the body, the towns in a region, the elements in a software interface, the roles in an organisation chart, the events in a timeline. Unsurprisingly, this information is best presented visually, with each part clearly labelled. You can also configure each element as a link to further information.

Technology timeline — This interactive timeline, produced using Articulate's Engage tool, provides a way for users to explore the history of learning technology

Problem-solving and decision making

Sometimes it is not just information that a user needs, but help in troubleshooting a problem or making a decision. One of the most common ways of addressing the former is with an FAQ, a list of frequently-asked questions, but for more complex problems, such as a network fault, an interactive troubleshooting tool is likely to be much more useful.
Decision aids could be structured as a simple comparison table, listing the pros and cons of each option, or more helpfully as an ‘if … then’ list, which recommends a different option for each potential circumstance. A more interactive tool might ask a series of questions in order to narrow down a suggestion to a single alternative.
Coming in part 3: Providing access to your information

When formal learning is less appropriate

Throughout 2011 we will be publishing extracts from The New Learning Architect. We move on to the third part of chapter 7:
What is the difference between education and training? The answer, according to the old joke, is that, whereas you might be happy for your children to have sex education at school, you’d be a little disconcerted if they had sex training. Training is, almost by definition, interactive. It has to impact on performance and, to accomplish this, it must involve a highly practical element.
In a formal learning situation, teachers, coaches, instructional designers and other ‘learning experts’ take on the responsibility not only for providing interesting new learning material but also for assisting the learner to recognise what’s important, transfer this to long-term memory and then strengthen their pathways to this new learning. They achieve this primarily through interaction – questions, exercises, discussions, essays, assignments, and so on.
But it’s a mistake to believe that learning can only take place when this interaction is externally mediated; individuals can also do this for themselves. Those who have learned how to learn are capable of acting independently: they can recognise when something is important, they reflect, they make notes, initiate conversations and post to their blogs. They’re also quite capable on acting on what they have learned by applying it to their jobs. With independent learners, courses with formalised interactions will often not be necessary.
In 1992, Hubert Dreyfus described the journey that learners take from ‘novice’ to ‘advanced beginner’ to ‘competent’ to ‘proficient’ to ‘expert’. Brian Sutton explains how different approaches are required at different stages along this journey: “The transition from novice to advanced beginner is essentially associated with rule following behaviour and this is best facilitated through formal learning processes. However, the transition from competent through proficient to expert is largely associated with pattern recognition and experience. It can only be attained within the performance context. It is rooted in the acquisition and sharing of tacit knowledge and this is fundamentally a social process – it needs prolonged and deep engagement with other expert practitioners.”
Sutton goes further to argue that “…as learning professionals we need to stop thinking of learning as an event that is organised by one set of people and imposed upon another, regardless of whether that event takes place in a classroom or via the medium of e-learning. Learning is a natural consequence of living and working: work has always involved problem solving, judgement, conflict resolution and choice – these are all learning opportunities. We can experience them and move on regardless or we can reflect upon them within the context of our environment and our core principles and, as a result, produce new insights that move us forward.”
There is a price to pay for the structure inherent in formal learning: interventions take time, money and expertise to design and develop. Organisations can’t always afford to wait for the interventions to be made available, nor can they necessarily spare the resources. When the learning is important to the organisation, when there is a sufficiently large target audience, when there is adequate lead time, then the investment might be made. When these conditions aren’t met, the organisation can either look for an off-the-shelf solution from an external supplier or adopt a more informal approach.
The inflexibility of formal learning can extend to the content, as John Seely Brown and Paul Duquid observe : “Learning is usually treated as a supply-side matter, thought to follow teaching, training or information delivery. But learning is much more demand driven. People learn in response to need. When people cannot see the need for what’s being taught, they ignore it, reject it, or fail to assimilate it in any meaningful way. Conversely, when they have a need, then, if the resources for learning are available, people learn effectively and quickly.”
Sometimes, as Harold Jarche likes to say, you need the ABC solution; that’s Anything But Courses.

References

Mind Over Machine by Herbert Dreyfus, 1992.
Learning’s Environmental Crisis by Brian Sutton, published as part of the Advance series by Saffron Interactive, 2007.
The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duquid, Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
Learning & Working on the Web, December 30, 2008: http://www.jarche.com/2008/12/innovation-and-learning/.
Coming next in chapter 7: The transfer of learning
Return to Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
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When formal learning does the job

Throughout 2011 we will be publishing extracts from The New Learning Architect. We move on to the second part of chapter 7:
The structure inherent in formal education, training and development provides advantages for employers and employees alike

Because the curriculum is formally laid out in advance, employers can have greater confidence that important content has been covered consistently.
Because a formalised intervention has a clear beginning and end, employers can more easily track who has had what training and when.
Because of the assessment process, employers can have greater confidence that learning objectives have actually been achieved.
Because professional facilitators are leading the intervention, employees can have greater confidence in the quality of the tuition they are likely to receive.
Because content is sourced from subject experts and assembled by professionals, employees are more likely to have access to high quality materials.
Because the intervention has a recognised outcome, even if that is just a formal completion, employees have the opportunity to gain a certification/qualification that may be valuable in their careers.

Of course, few of these advantages can be guaranteed; a great deal depends on the skill with which the intervention is targeted, designed and delivered. However, it is easy to see why employers and employees are likely to have more confidence in a formalised intervention than any less formal alternative, particularly when the stakes are high:

When an employer needs to be able to demonstrate compliance to an external regulator.
When a high degree of proficiency is absolutely vital to avoid the chance of an expensive error, damage to an employer’s reputation, or risk to health and safety. Quite clearly we cannot rely on informal learning processes to provide the skills needed by airline pilots, surgeons or structural engineers. These may be exceptional cases, but there are elements in most jobs where proficiency cannot be left to chance.
When an employee is a complete novice and depends on a structured approach to their initial training.
When the attainment of a qualification can make a big difference to an employee’s career progression.

However strong the lobby for more informal approaches to workplace learning, it is hard to see how we could do without formal learning altogether. The problem is not with the concept of formal learning; it is with the assumption, often held by l&d professionals, their internal ‘clients’ and learners themselves, that every learning and development requirement is best addressed by a course. As they say, when you’ve got a hammer in your hand, every problem looks like a nail.
Coming next in chapter 7: When formal learning is less appropriate
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A practical guide to creating reference information: part 1

Strictly speaking, reference information isn’t learning content at all, because its purpose is on-demand performance support, not learning. In a performance support context, there is no requirement for the information that is being referenced to be learned, i.e. to be stored in long-term memory. The information is required only to answer a current question or solve a current problem and, as such, it will be processed only in working memory. Because working memory is so limited (current thinking is that humans can hold only 3-5 items of information in their conscious working memory at any one time), it is vital that reference information is extremely clear, simple and concise, minimising the risk of cognitive overload.

Working memory — Reference information need go no further than working memory

Reference information is playing an ever bigger part in our lives. There’s so much we could know and it’s changing so regularly that it really is pointless trying to remember it all – we couldn’t do it if we tried. True, it is still as important as ever that we understand the key concepts, principles and rules that underpin our work, as well as the skills to apply these on a day-to-day basis, but the rest we can draw down as and when it’s needed.
As a learning designer you may be wondering what reference information has to do with you, but you can play a key role. When you design a learning solution, you have to decide what’s course and what’s resource, and in many cases you will share materials between the two. And, as an expert in communication, you are better placed than many to do a good job of putting together reference materials that are clear, concise and usable.

Media elements

Reference information can utilise any media element, but tends to centre on text. There are good reasons for this. Text is fast to load, it can be quickly skimmed, it can be easily cross-referenced with links and can be copied and pasted with ease. The key with reference information is to get users in, get them to what they want and get them out again as quickly as possible. Text – supported where appropriate by photos, illustrations, charts and diagrams – performs these functions really well.

Textual information — Assuming it is formatted properly for reference use, text does an excellent job of getting the user to the information they require

There are exceptions of course. Some tasks are best explained visually, using video or screencasts with accompanying narration. As long as these are kept short and sweet, they can do the job. As we have dealt with both of these formats in previous guides, we won’t be covering them here.

Interactive capability

Because the purpose of reference materials is just-in-time support and not learning, interactions which encourage users to explore ideas or which assess learning are not relevant. Apart from anything else, they would drastically slow up the user in getting in and getting to the required information. On the other hand, as we shall see in part 3 of this guide, navigational interactivity is critical to good reference materials, whether that’s through search, indexes, tables of contents or cross-references. Some more advanced performance support materials may also allow users to configure the information they want to receive (think of something like a weather or stock price app on a mobile device) or will ask users a series of questions to help them trouble-shoot a problem or narrow down a decision.

Applications

Reference materials fit classically within the exploration learning strategy. As such they are designed not to be ‘pushed’ at the user but ‘pulled’ as required. In the context of a blended learning solution, they supplement courses with easily accessible resources. Whereas historically some 80% of a learning designer’s effort might have been put into the courses and only 20% into providing on-demand resources, we can expect that ratio to reverse in coming years. People no longer expect to have to store loads of information in their heads; they do expect to be able to access it online.

Formats

Reference information can be presented in a number of formats:

Embedded in a software application: One of the most common requirements for on-demand help is to explain how to use a particular software application, or how to enter appropriate data into that application. An advantage of embedding the help within the application itself is that the information presented can be context-sensitive, i.e. directly relevant to the activity that the user is currently undertaking.
In a native document format: Much reference information is stored in a native document format such as Microsoft Word. While tools like Word have very sophisticated editing capabilities, they are not best suited to online use. Native files are slow to open and depend on the user having a copy of the application that was used to create them. More importantly, it becomes clumsy to link from document to document and it is all too easy for different versions of the document to be available at the same time.
As a PDF file: PDF is versatile in that a wide range of applications can save in this format. It also overcomes the need for users to have copies of Word, PowerPoint or whatever other applications were used to create the materials. PDFs are particularly suitable when users need to be able to access information without an online connection or when they want to print materials out. In all other circumstances, HTML wins out.
In HTML: HTML is the format of the web and, as such, is standard across all computing devices. Web pages are ideal for displaying reference information because they download quickly, can be accessed from any device, and can be kept up-to-date centrally. They can also be easily cross-referenced using hyperlinks.
As a mobile app: As any smart phone or tablet user can attest, apps are the quickest and easiest way possible to access information. They are particularly suited to situations in which a body of content or an up-to-date information source needs to be accessed very regularly. They score over mobile web browsers which access simple HTML pages online because the way the information is displayed can be designed specifically for the mobile device in question. The application itself is stored locally which speeds up access, and less volatile information can be stored on the device itself, making the information accessible even when there is no internet connection.

Embedded help can be context-sensitive, taking you directly to the information relating to your current task

Reference apps for mobile devices are ideal for information you need to access regularly

So how do I get started?

Assuming you have researched fully what information is needed by whom and in what circumstances, your next job is to choose the format in which the information will be presented. The format will dictate the tools you’ll need:

Embedded information: Here your best route is to liaise with the developers to see what’s possible and what help creation tools are available.
Native document format: This is simple enough – just use Word, PowerPoint or whatever to create your materials and then publish in the version most widely available to your users.
PDF: It used to be you had to purchase special Adobe Acrobat software to create PDFs, but now you’ll find that many of the applications you’re already using can save directly to PDF format.
HTML: The tools you use here will depend on the infrastructure your organisation already has in place for distributing information. There is probably a content management system in place for your intranet and that’s a good place to start looking. If not, and you’re looking particularly to provide information to support software users, you may want to purchase a system that’s specially designed for creating online help materials. Whatever the case, you do not want to be hand crafting HTML pages. Those days are long over. Creating web pages should be no more complicated than filling in a form.
Mobile app: Until more easy-to-use tools become available, developing an app is a specialised and highly technical process. For now, best to liaise with your own IT team or engage an external contractor.

Your next concern is how you are going to present the information and that’s where we’re heading next.
Coming in part 2: Presenting reference information

The characteristics of formal learning

Throughout 2011 we will be publishing extracts from The New Learning Architect. We move on to chapter 7:
Having explored the contextual model from top to bottom, it is time to begin a closer examination of the four main contexts in which learning takes place in the workplace, starting with formal learning. Why start with the fourth of the contexts, rather than working from left to right? Well, simply because formal learning is what most people focus on when they think about learning at work. For many, learning means courses, and typically it means those courses where teachers and trainers provide instruction to a group of learners in a classroom.
Both formal and non-formal learning are proactive approaches, with the same overall goal of equipping employees with the knowledge and skills that they require to meet present and future job responsibilities. The difference with formal learning is in the way that this task is tackled.
Formal learning experiences are typically packaged as ‘courses’ or ‘programmes’. These tend to have a number of features in common:

Objectives that describe, in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudinal change, what learning is intended to result from successful completion of the course or programme. Some courses may adopt a more learner-centred approach, focusing on the goals of the learners themselves, but it would still be highly unlikely for a formal learning intervention to have no objectives at all, whether or not these are made explicit.
An established curriculum or learning plan, which sets out how the learning objectives are to be achieved in terms of the topics to be covered and/or the activities to be undertaken.
Content assembled by or with reference to acknowledged subject experts. At the very least this content is likely to consist of a simple trainer guide or lecture notes. More commonly, it will extend to slides, videos and other visual aids, handouts, job aids and reference books. And where self-study forms an important part of the intervention, the content could include workbooks, online reference materials, interactive tutorials and simulations.
A designated teacher, trainer or tutor to facilitate the learning process. The role of this person or persons will vary widely depending on the type of intervention and pedagogical approach, from a formal instructor to a subject expert, a coach, an assessor, a moderator or a curator. In cases where the intervention consists entirely of unsupported self-study, there will, of course, be no role at all.
Some form of assessment, to determine whether the learning objectives have been achieved. Where a qualification is being awarded, this assessment could be elaborate, requiring an exam, a practical assessment, or the formal submission of a paper or portfolio. In other cases, the process of assessment could be much less formal, perhaps a practical exercise or a quiz.

Coming next in chapter 7: When formal learning does the job
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Conditions for success with bottom-up learning

Throughout 2011 we will be publishing extracts from The New Learning Architect. We move on to the eighth and final part of chapter 6:
To summarise, these are the conditions for success with bottom-up learning:

Bottom-up learning is not relied upon to meet needs that are critical or common to large numbers of employees.
The appropriate tools are put in place to support bottom-up learning.
Where necessary, employees are provided with the right training to help them to use these tools.
Employees have sufficient discretionary time to devote to bottom-up learning.
Employees are provided with the authority to engage in bottom-up learning activities.
Workspaces are designed to encourage informal communication and to maximise the opportunities for novices to observe experts at work.
Managers and respected peers model effective bottom-up learning behaviour.
The performance management policy encourages bottom-up learning.
Employees are recognised for taking the initiative in meeting their own learning needs and in helping peers to meet their needs.

When the culture is not supportive right at the top, then chances are diminished but not destroyed. Cultures can differ in divisions or departments, under strong leadership. A learning and development department may influence the culture, through the programmes that it offers (including leadership development programmes and executive coaching), but does not have the mandate to unilaterally change a culture. This must come from the organisation’s leadership.
Coming next is chapter 7: Formal learning
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A practical guide to creating quizzes: part 5

Being thorough

Assuming your quiz is being used to test knowledge, then you need to take some care to ensure that it performs this function effectively. Prepare at least one quiz question for each of your knowledge objectives. You cannot be sure that a learner has achieved mastery if you test only a sub-set of your objectives. To be absolutely sure the learner has not simply got lucky by guessing answers, you may well prepare more than question for each objective. Don’t write questions to test skills, unless you are absolutely sure quiz questions are capable of assessing these effectively, which is likely to be rarely.
As we discussed in part 2, you need to select a question format that’s appropriate to the type of knowledge you are testing, For example, if you need to test recall of a technical term, use a text input question and not a multiple choice, which only tests recognition of the term. Don’t be tempted to select different formats simply to increase variety – that’s not your purpose here.
If your objective is that a learner is able to come up with a response quickly, then add time limits to your questions.

Discouraging guessing

Some people reckon they can pass any multiple choice quiz by guessing the right answers. Your job is to prove them wrong. In part 3 we looked at techniques you can use to make life difficult for the chancer – no give-away distractors, no obvious right answers. A simple improvement would be to prepare at least four options for each multi-choice question, and even better five. That does make it even harder to write the questions, but then there really is no pain, no gain when it comes to question writing.

Another technique you could try is to include a ‘don’t know’ or ‘not sure’ option for each question. This would score no points. Then penalise wrong answers with negative scores. This ups the stakes for the learner who wants to guess the right answers.

Discouraging cheating

The greater the reward for passing an assessment, the more tempting it becomes to cheat. Really high-stakes assessments are beyond the scope of this guide, but you should be aware of the difficulties in authenticating whether the person answering the questions really is who they say they are. All sorts of complex and expensive technologies are available to authenticate remote users, including finger-printing and retina scanning, but the only way you can be really sure that the learner is who they say they are and is getting no help from a third-party or some reference source is to have them attend a testing centre which has an invigilator present. Most quizzes are not that serious, so there’s no point getting carried away with the security!

Retinal scan — Sophisticated technologies such as retinal scanning can be used to aid the authentication of learners, but are only really necessary for very high stakes assessments

A more routine way to avoid cheating is to randomise the order in which the questions are presented and the order in which options are displayed within the questions themselves. That way, no-one can simply write down the question and option numbers and pass them on to others. A step further is to create a bank of questions from which the system selects the questions to display, which means that every learner will receive a different set of questions. Yes, this is a lot more work, but the chances of successful cheating will be much reduced.

Quiz options in Moodle — Every quiz tool will provide you with different configuration options. This shows some of the options available in the Moodle quiz module, including the ability to set time limits and shuffle questions and options.

Providing feedback
Assuming you are using a quiz as a form of assessment, then if you tell the learner whether they have got each question right or wrong, you are making it easy for them to pass the quiz on a second attempt, without necessarily curing any misunderstandings they may have had. To avoid this problem, you could create a completely different quiz for second attempts, or have the system draw questions from a bank, as described above.
At the end of the quiz, inform learners whether or not they have passed. If your software allows it, let them know how they performed against each of the topics addressed by the quiz. Pass or fail, provide advice to learners on what they should do next.
If the quiz is being used in a formative manner (to help the learner progress towards the learning objectives), rather than summative (to assess mastery), then it is vitally important that you provide helpful feedback for every question. Ideally this should be provided for each option of each question, rather than just for all correct answers and all incorrect answers. The purpose of this feedback is to correct errors and misunderstandings and to reinforce key learning points.

Scoring fairly

Another consideration is how you score correct answers. Most authoring tools will allow you to specify the number of points you will award to each correct answer. In a simple multiple-choice question, this is straightforward enough – you either allocate the same number of points to each question or award more points for particularly difficult questions.
The difficulty comes with questions that ask for multiple responses. The first consideration is whether these questions should score higher than MCQs because they are actually asking the learner for a series of decisions, not just one. Another issue is how you apportion the points across the various options. Let’s say there are five alternative options, three of which are correct. Ideally, each correct option will score 20% of the available points. But the learner should also be rewarded for not choosing incorrect options, so each option not chosen should also score 20% of the total. Whether you can achieve this with your authoring software remains to be seen!
That concludes this practical guide. A PDF version will be available shortly.
Next up: how to create reference material.

And then they need the motive

Throughout 2011 we will be publishing extracts from The New Learning Architect. We move on to the seventh part of chapter 6:
As any reader of detective novels will know, any self-respecting criminal needs the means, the motive and the opportunity. Now no-one’s suggesting that employees should behave like criminals, but they should be given every chance to learn. We’re left with the issue of motive:
Intrinsic motivation: Bottom-up learning is most likely to occur if an employee has a desire to improve their performance, or at least to maintain their performance in the face of changing circumstances. Without motivation, the motive has to be externally provided.
Modelling: One of the most powerful influences on our behaviour is the example provided by others that we respect. If managers and high profile peers exhibit the behaviour of effective bottom-up teachers and learners, then the pattern is established.
Tangible rewards: Ideally, those employees that contribute most to their own development and to the learning of those around them will benefit from this is some tangible way, whether that’s through an increase in pay or through a promotion. To make the connection between learning and reward absolutely clear, it makes sense for this to be explicitly included in an organisation’s performance management policy.
Intangible rewards: A reward does not have to be bankable to act as a powerful incentive; often all that’s needed is a little recognition, whether that’s from managers or peers. An employee whose manager thanks them for taking the initiative in meeting their own learning needs or by helping to meet those of their peers, will be only too keen to repeat the process.
Remember that it is natural for human beings to co-operate with each other, whether on a ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine’ basis, or because a goal can only be achieved though combined effort. We are usually quite happy to share expertise, to be a teacher as well as a learner – it’s flattering to us. Too much in the way of external incentive may only cause suspicion; too little and it looks like this behaviour is not valued by the organisation.
Coming next in chapter 6: Conditions for success with bottom-up learning
Return to Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
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A practical guide to creating quizzes: part 4

In part 1, we looked at the characteristics of online quizzes and explored how they could be used to assist or assess learning. In part 2, we explored the various question formats and the types of learning for which they are best suited. In part 3, we moved on to the writing of the questions, in particular the traps to avoid. In this fourth part, we have a little light relief, as we see how quizzes can be presented as games.
Quiz games are still quizzes, in that they can be used assist and assess learning, but they employ gaming techniques to increase learner engagement. We all know how compulsive games can be, so it takes little in the way of imagination to appreciate how much they can add to what would otherwise be a very dry process of drill and practice.
To demonstrate a wide variety of quiz game techniques, I’ve taken examples from a quiz making package called Quizit, unfortunately no longer available. Similar results could be achieved by those with coding skills using Adobe Flash Professional or HTML 5, or by using a number of off-the-shelf quiz game tools.

Ident — Players try to identify as many as possible of the six pictured people, objects or places.

This first example, a classic ‘picture board,’ requires players to type in the name of the pictured object.

Quotient — Players try to get as close as possible to the right answers for each question. Each option is graded as to how right or wrong it is and scored accordingly.

In this variant of a multiple choice quiz, player get rewarded for how close they can get to the right answer. The rather irreverent feedback is delivered randomly from a pool, depending on the accuracy of the answer.

Summit — Players attempt questions of increasing difficulty, with the aim of getting to the highest level that they can (10 being the highest). Players have three ‘lives’, which allow them to have another go when they make a mistake.

Levels are a classic gaming feature. As the player moves up the levels, the questions get correspondingly more difficult.

Guess — Players attempt to guess the identity of a person, object, place or event from the clues provided. The more time they take, guesses they make or clues they ask for, the lower their score.

This game is unusual in that it works entirely as a ‘conversation’ between questioner and player. All input is by natural text. Time pressures add to the level of engagement.

Target — Players demonstrate how well they know the subject of the quiz by estimating a series of percentages relating to the subject’s behaviour. They nearer they get to the actual percentages, the higher their score.

This game works with a slider, which the player uses to make estimates.

Sprint — Players answer a series of questions as fast as they can. They can have as many attempts as they like at each question, but this reduces their score accordingly.

This time players can have multiple attempts at every question, but in the process waste time and points.

Teamplay — Three teams or three individual players each answer a series of questions, to see who can answer the most correctly.

This competitive game can be used with teams of players in a classroom.

faceoff — Two teams or two individual players each answer a series of questions, to see who can answer the most correctly.

This variant on the competitive game pits two players sitting round the same computer against each other.
Coming in part 5: Making your quizzes robust

Then they need the opportunity

Throughout 2011 we will be publishing extracts from The New Learning Architect. We move on to the sixth part of chapter 6:
The most powerful tools in the world won’t help if you don’t have the time or the authority to use them. The second ingredient of an effective bottom-up learning strategy is opportunity:
Discretionary time: Bottom-up learning is in most cases a discretionary activity for which time must be made available. Many employees – particularly knowledge workers – have some degree of discretion about how they spend their time; others are strictly rostered and timetabled and can only participate in bottom-up learning activities outside work hours or in time specially allocated by their managers.
Authority: Time is not the only issue – even with the time, employees have to be allowed to contribute to bottom-up learning, whether that’s through formal organisational policies or the specific inclusion of these activities in their job descriptions. L&d professionals have their role to play here, by making sure that their own policies don’t leave all the power to control the teaching and learning process in their own hands. A good example would be the restrictions that are often placed on the content that can be published on an organisation’s LMS, making it impossible for rapid or user-generated content to be distributed in this way.
Informal spaces provide those without the facility or the inclination to blog with a face-to-face equivalent. Americans talk about the learning that takes place ‘around the water cooler’ and with good reason. Coffee areas and staff restaurants have the same effect, as do the areas where smokers gather to satisfy their addictions. Organisations create these spaces primarily for their functional purpose, but they should also be aware of the learning opportunities that these provide.
Experts in the open: throughout history, humans have learned a great deal by observing experts in their everyday work. Organisations can facilitate this process by arranging workspaces in such a way that novices can work alongside the experts, much as apprentices and their masters have done for centuries.

Coming next in chapter 6: Then they need the motive
Return to Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
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