Difficulties in learning through Podcasts

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts these days. There are podcasts that are mere entertainers and a few others, educative. However I found the following factors playing a critical role in making Podcast an effective learning medium.

1. Voice: Not all experts have a great voice to listen to and not all voiceover artists can pronounce technical words the right way or sound natually knowledgeable!

2. Time: Any educational podcast that runs for more than 8 minutes (average) starts to sound boring (my observation, and I don't want to debate on this).

3. Continuity: The experts who do a good job really don't find time to complete their series. Most of the podcast series hang right in the middle of some part of an episode for want of time!

4. Takers: I'm still not too sure if the learners would find the podcast interesting unless I get some feedback from them. So choosing the right set of audience for the podcasts is a very important factor.

Race to use podcast for training

I read a report on Bersin & Associates on how organizantions have started using Podcasts for training. Here is a gist of what I read in that article.
1. Karen O’Leonard, a principal analyst with Bersin & Associates, says that companies in the US are using podcasts to train their sales forces.
2. Podcasts are used to provide regular updates and company news to workforces and customers.
3. Podcasts are also used as supplements to online courses.
4. Employees in companies that have adopted Podcasting have expressed positive feedback about the intiative.
5. Leonard says that the podcasts should be kept within 15 to 20 minutes and also provide an online help for people to download and listen to the content.

Visit the following link to read the complete report. - courtesey, Bersin & Associates news letter.
http://www.elabs2.com/functions/message_view.html?mid=29281&mlid=73&siteid=15988&uid=568149cdf2

Podcasts to improve communication skills

I consider podcasts to be a really effective medium for learning when it comes to improving communication skills. I listened to ESLpod episodes and prescribed it to a few others who had genuine difficulty in expressing their thoughts. I received fabulous feedback from them.

The hunger to improve communication skills is incredibly high, especially in the rural Indian youth. I get to see so many of them lately. Most of them suffer from constipation of words. But all of them beam with enthusiasm when asked to deliver a talk before a crowd.

I have been experimenting on creating some simple podcasts on communication skills in the last few weeks. The series has been a hit and people have been posting messages asking for more on the podcast site. I think podcast is the right medium to deliver content that requires learners to listen.

I'm back

I just could not pardon myself for not being regular in posting my thoughts on this blog. I have been far from being orderly these days. However, this is my attempt to bring that enthusiasm back in me. I have added one more parameter to my PQI defect chart (will talk about that sometime). I shall blog at least once in two days. That's my promise.
Catch ya

Creating a video cast

Hah! I found a new way to convert presentations into Pod-runnable presentations. I did this using a slightly complex method. Neverthless, you will find it interesting and useful.

Here are the steps to do that.
1. Export your slides as jpeg files.
2. Import them inside Movie Maker, one slide after the other.
3. Add voice narration to each slide in your own voice. Use the Narrate Timeline tool.
4. Export the movie as a WMV.
5. Convert the WMV file into MPEG using any of the free video-to-ipod converter software.

Very easy. I did that with the pictures I took during my vacation!

Is podcasting a good medium for learning?

It has been a very long time now that I blogged. Well, I have a lot of wrong reasons for that :-). These days I've been into podcasting. I have registered for a personal podcasting station with switch pod. Uploaded a couple of episodes as well.
Now that has really made me think of podcasting as a serious medium to deliver learning content. Especially when I know that most of those employed in my organization use iPods or simple mp3 players.
Many of us in my organization travel. When I say travel, they do close to two to three hours of travel every day! Now that is a lot of time. If we can tap that time to get some relevant content delivered right up to their eardrums, I would call it e-learning evangelism.
I've been asking myself this question; is podcasting a good medium to deliver learning content? Why not? Afterall, listening to FM radio programs is becoming a fad in the country I live. So audio medium cannot be branded as obsolete!
However, the success factor is in what we deliver, how we deliver and in what quantity we deliver. I've been studying the possibilities of unleashing the potential that podcasting has in it as a learning medium. I will try to document my findings here in the next few posts.

Err to be Educated

Sorry for having been inactive for a long time. Just that blogging regularly requires a lot of discipline and I seem to lack that completely.
Here is my latest technique to ensure better retention.

Preamble
Can you recollect the day when your friend touched the loose end of a live wire and learnt what electricity can do to human tissue?

Do you remember the day when you first broke that glassware when you were a kid, withstood the stare your mother gave you and learnt how to handle brittle items?
To err is human, but the impact these events create, translates into fast learning (not referring to speed here).

Effectiveness of learning is measured in terms of comprehension and application of the subject by the learner. Retention of what is learnt is the key to successful learning. Long-term retention cannot be achieved merely through rhetoric-study techniques. Applying concepts and principles to solve problems or to analyze specific situations could offer better retention.

Ty Johnson, the award winning e-learning designer, states in one of his papers, “We rarely forget our mistakes. So, do we give our learners plenty of opportunities to mess up in our courses? If not, perhaps we should.”

Essence
Allowing your learner to err is not to encourage learners to just commit mistakes, but to enable them to learn from them. There are two parts to this thought.

• Allow learners to commit common mistakes without causing embarrassment.
• Provide timely feedback that explains why it was a mistake and what the correct procedure/answer is.

The situations in the course may allow the learners to commit mistakes, but they should not cause emotional set back or aversion to the subject. Secondly, the feedback should not just inform the learner that he/she has committed a mistake. Rather, the feedback should be constructive. It should explain why the action performed by the learner is incorrect and provide a clue to lead to the right action. This way, the learner will never feel lost at any point in time during the course.

Deliverance
The technique could prove beneficial to present procedural content or create awareness on adherence of codes, policies. This style can also be used to assist problem-based learning. Scenarios can be built to simulate a typical situation where the learner could go wrong and then provide appropriate feedback to guide the learner to the right path.

For example, if the learners were to learn about Disaster Recovery, they may be presented with a list of typical disasters, which the recovery policy addresses. The learner chooses to be amidst a hypothetical disaster situation. The situation can be narrated through simple text or audio, and options to recover from the disaster flashed for the learner to choose from. The learner’s choice can then be validated, suitable feedback provided and remediation suggested if required.

Measure
The outcome of this style of learning should be measured through gauging the practical knowledge that the learner has acquired. The immediate effectiveness of the course can be measured through an immediate feedback collected from the learner. However, the actual effectiveness would surface only at the time when the learner applies his/her knowledge to solve problems and through sustained level of retention recorded over a period in time.

Video-based learning, new benefits

My May month postings included articles on the Video-based learning. It has been some time now and I came across a radical change in dimension on using video-based learning modules as alternative training aids!

In my observation, video-based learning modules require high bandwidth to reach the learners. However, if you are still inclined towards the video-based learning, there are three great solutions I have.

1. The video-based learning modules can be made available on a CD/DVD and screened in the classroom in case a trainer is not available to handle a session! Here, the module would almost replace the trainer, but for an interactive query session. Even that can be handled through an embedded FAQ.

2. Learners may be given these video-based modules as freebies for them to view the contents at their own pace, at a later point in time. The modules would serve as revision aid.

3. A classroom server based quick-learning session can be conducted using the video-based learning module, pre-lecture to introduce the trivial portions of the subject. Though this may need clear planning and sequencing the classroom session accordingly, I personally feel that this would be very effective in delivering the content.

My two paise :-)