E P I C T H I N K I N G
Issue 8: June 2002
This month:
- White paper: Reaping the real benefits
of e-learning
- Blend it like Beckham: the Blended
Learning Toolkit
- Reviews: It's only a movie. It's
only a movie!
- Case study: DWP 'Missing IoPs'
- News: Planning the world's first virtual
medical school
***************************************
W H I T E P A P E R
1. E-learning: training on the cheap?
What are the benefits to an organisation of e-learning? Is
it just a cut-price way of delivering training - or a means
of facilitating new types of organisational learning that
haven't been possible before? Where is the proof that e-learning
can make any improvements on the traditional methods of classroom
and workbook? And what role, if any, does it have to play
in transforming an organisation to meet the challenges of
the twenty-first century?
This new white paper, by Steve Rayson of Epic, argues that
too great an emphasis on cost-cutting in preparing business
cases can blind organisations to the real strategic potential
of e-learning. Drawing on a wealth of evidence and case histories,
it outlines the way ahead for companies who wish to reap the
real benefits of e-learning and knowledge management by aligning
their organisational learning with strategic goals.
White Paper: Success in mind: reaping the real organisational
benefits of e-learning
Mail us to get
your free copy.
top
S H O W R E P O R
T
2. Blend it like Beckham
We've heard a lot of talk about blended learning in the last
few years, but very little specific guidance in how one engineers
blends to produce the most instructionally effective, cost-efficient
package for the job.
How do you decide on the right combination of online and
offline means to fulfil your training need - taking into account
the all-important factors of cost and resource?
The Blended Learning Toolkit provides vital help in doing
this. Developed in conjunction with public and private sector
clients by Epic's consulting division, it enables you to make
precise calculations of ROI with different configurations
of learning methods.
Explore different blending scenarios simply and quickly -
and see their cost implications immediately. The tool contains
assumptions based on Epic's lengthy experience of budgeting
projects for some of the world's leading companies. For more
information contact mailto:blt@epic.co.uk
top
R E V I E W
3. It's only a movie. It's only a movie!
The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers,
Television and New Media Like Real People and Places
Byron Reeves & Clifford Nass (Cambridge University Press 1996)
The Media Equation has been around for a while
now, but with the slowdown in adoption of e-learning on this
side of the Atlantic leading some to question whether computer-based
training can really produce involving learning experiences,
it's a timely read.
The basic thrust of the book, written by two
Stanford academics, is that people confuse media with real
life (if you've ever given a piece of technology hardware
a pet name, or flashed a reproachful glare at a recalcitrant
ATM, you'll know what we're talking about here). 'People can't
always overcome the powerful assumption that mediated presentations
are actual people and objects.'
Children do it because they're young; computer
newbies because they lack experience in the medium they're
using; but the rest of us have only one excuse. We do it because…
we're programmed that way. 'Acceptance of what only seems
to be real, even though at times inappropriate, is automatic.'
Evolution is to blame, apparently. The tendency
to take anything that appears to exhibit human and social
characteristics as human is hardwired into our operating systems
as human beings: 'During nearly 200,000 years in which Homo
Sapiens have existed, anything that acted socially really
was a person.'
The authors have 35 completed studies to support
this proposition, and it carries an important message for
those involved in producing e-learning content - in one sense
reassuring, in another sense slightly more concerning.
Hearteningly, it means that there is no inherent
reason why online learning experiences should be any less
compelling - any less 'human' in feel - than what we experience
in the classroom. As long as a media technology is consistent
with social and physical rules, we will accept it.
But listen hard to that last part: 'as long
as a media technology is consistent with social and physical
rules'. If the media technology fails to conform to these
human expectations - we will very much not accept it.
Our senses are at once highly gullible and highly
attuned: gullible, in that we mistake the ventriloquist's
dummy for a human personality - attuned in that they will
soon stop supporting the illusion if the ventriloquist's timing
is off or if for any trivial or mechanical reason - the dummy's
jaw seizes up, for instance - he fails to make a decent fist
of the illusion.
This has implications for bandwidth, infrastructure,
usability and a host of other technical considerations which,
clearly, cannot be detached from the question of content.
The effectiveness of the user experience on an emotional level
will depend as much on these technical considerations as on
the scriptwriting, the graphic design, the casting of actors...
It all has to work seamlessly, or the illusion of humanity
fails.
Interestingly, the authors have found that *fidelity*
of an image (i.e. the quality of a video picture, the number
of dots per square inch, etc.) has little or no effect on
this illusion of psychological realism. Imaginative buy-in
has more to do with timing and what is actually said.
So the widespread assumption that more available
broadband will automatically lead to more involving and engaging
e-learning experiences might have to be rethought.
Perhaps the most surprising thing to come out
of the book, however, is the role of politeness - which, it
turns out, is hardwired into our systems too.
People are polite to computers.
The authors' studies show that when a computer
asks a user questions about its own performance, the user
will give more positive responses than when a different computer
asks the same questions. People also respond to flattery from
computers, and are hurt if they get negative feedback from
computers. Go figure.
These are just a few of the fascinating insights
in this extremely worthwhile book. It should be a must for
anyone involved in producing e-learning content, or otherwise
active in media production.
Just a word of warning however: do not expect
after reading this volume that you will automatically be able
to produce likeable, credible on-screen personalities. The
authors have worked extensively with Microsoft, and one of
the most glowing of the book jacket's testimonials comes from
Bill Gates - the man who gave the world 'Clippy', the intensely
irritating Office assistant who recently got his P45 after
attracting sackloads of hate mail.
Give your views on the subject: mailto:feedback@epic.co.uk
top
C A S E S T U D Y
4. Case Study: Department for Work and Pensions,
Missing Instruments of Payments (IoPs)
DWP wanted to improve the interviewing skills
of their front line staff. In response, Epic produced this
groundbreaking simulation-driven programme, in which learners
get to question realistic 'virtual' customers.
The video-clip simulations were greeted with
cries of recognition by learners...
Read more:
top
E P I C N E W S
5. Planning the world's first virtual medical
school
Representatives of over 50 medical institutes
from Australia to the USA gather in Scotland this week to
plan the world's first international virtual medical school
(IVIMEDS). The gathering marks the conclusion of a feasibility
study carried out with the aid of Epic's consulting division.
This ambitious initiative aims to bring the
new learning technologies to bear in providing tomorrow's
health professionals with access to the best of international
expertise wherever and whenever they choose to train. Plans
include a bank of e-learning resources in the form of reusable
learning objects.
Read
more
Further Epic news stories this month…
Epic
partners with Cabinet Office on leadership
RBS
selects Epic as strategic e-learning partner
Epic
chosen by SAP as e-learning content provider
top
F O R E T H O U G H T
In next month's Epic Thinking we have a brand
new 'Think Tank' on E-learning and the NHS. The NHS is Britain's
largest single employer with over 1m employees - a truly people-intensive
business, and one critically dependent on having the right
knowledge and skills to meet the formidable challenges it
faces.
This Epic Think Tank brings together top-level
decision-makers from the NHS University and several regional
Workforce Development Confederations to debate how learning
technologies can help in rising to these challenges.
The Think Tank meets at a restaurant in central
London on the evening of 17 June. If you are vitally involved
in this area and would like to contribute to the debate, please
e-mail us. Attendance is free, but places are strictly
limited, so don't delay.
Alternatively, if you have any questions that
you would like to see this Think Tank addressing, or suggestions
for further sessions, mail
them now. R E T U R N O F P O S T
If you have:
- a question to put to the Epic Thinking user base
- a response to any of the points raised here
- a suggestion for a topic you'd like to see covered mail
us right now at: newsletter@epic.co.uk
top
H O U S E K E E P I N G
Fed up with your colleagues reading this newsletter over
your shoulder? Tell them to get their own...
To subscribe: mailto:subscribenews@epic.co.uk
and put 'subscribe' in the subject field.
To unsubscribe: mailto:unsubscribenews@epic.co.uk
and put 'unsubscribe' in the subject field.
Epic provides a full range of services and facilities from consultancy
to delivery of e-learning and e-government solutions. EpiCentre,
part of Epic provides a dedicated testing and localisation service.
To order our brand new 12-page corporate brochure email mailto:marketing@epic.co.uk
and put 'brochure' in the subject line.
Further information about Epic can be found on our website:
http://www.epic.co.uk
C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y
This email and any attachments are private and confidential and
may also be subject to legal privilege. If you are not the named
recipient, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose
the contents to another person, use it for any purpose, or store
or copy the information in any medium. Internet communications are
not secure and Epic is not responsible for their misuse by third
parties, or for any possible alteration or data corruption in transmission.
You should not rely solely on the contents that should be checked
against hard copy.
Epic 52 Old Steine
Brighton BN1 1NH
Tel: 01273 728686 / Fax: 01273 821567
Web: http://www.epic.co.uk
Testing web: http://www.epi-centre.co.uk
|
