Tata Interactive Systems

On One Year of Blogging

It’s nearly been a year of having our corporate blog up and I would like to pause momentarily and share some thoughts on this initiative with you. 

When we started out we were pretty clear on what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to enable you to have a clearer and deeper insight into our world. We wanted you to see how we worked, celebrated, met challenges and innovated. And most of all we wanted you to talk to us, to engage us in dialogue, bringing forth newer insights and thoughts.

How successful have we been? I think we have got off to a good start. As expected, members of our Instructional Design group were first off the mark in posting their thoughts and engaging others within the broader worldwide ID and eLearning community. We have also received some very positive feedback for our photo albums capturing life@TIS, from people considering TIS as a potential employer. I think this is because from the outside, an organization often appears impregnable and this is one of the boundaries that we have been successful in lowering.

We are constantly working to involve more folks here at TIS and digging deeper into our various groups and departments to try and bring new perspectives, opinions and thoughts to the surface using the blog as a common platform. It’s fantastic to see people post and have responses come in from around the world and see a dialogue start to take shape.

A big thank you to everybody who have sent in comments, emails and helpful tips from time to time. Stay plugged in!

(Ankush Gupta manages our corporate blog and drives blogging efforts across TIS; he is a blog evangelist and is passionate about using technology to bring people together and facilitating meaningful dialogue)

PCD 2006 Award For TATA Interactive

What’s a corporate blog for if we can’t talk about our own achievements once in a while? We are delighted that we have won the Performance Centered Design Award 2006 given by EPSScentral LLC. The award was presented at the Training Solutions Conference & Expo at Denver, Colorado.

“These extraordinary PCD solutions and tools foster business improvement and human performance by immediately establishing goals, supporting users through best practices, facilitating the proper flow of work, minimizing translation and providing immediate access to supporting content at the time of need,” said EPSScentral's CEO, Gary Dickelman, who is also teaches Performance Centered Design (PCD) at George Mason and Boise State Universities' Graduate School of Education and Engineering in the U.S.

This award is particularly important for us, considering our focus on Electronic Performance Support Systems – it makes us believe that we are on the right track as far as the quality of our design is concerned.

As Saurabh Mittal, who runs the operations of our EPSS Practice said, “TIS helps organizations improve their productivity, reduce turnaround times, and achieve consistent best practice performance from all employees. Our EPSS provides on the job, context relevant knowledge support and tools to improve performance execution. It is an integrated online support system, which guides employees at every step of complex operations, enabling them to take appropriate decisions. This ensures consistency in decision-making, improved productivity, and lower training costs.”

So if you are looking at improving the performance of your employees, you know which company to contact.

TATA Interactive Learning Forum 2006: A Snapshot

(John Gibbs, Instructional Design Consultant with TIS describes the proceedings at the annual TATA Interactive Learning Forum which was held at 2 locations this year)

The TATA Interactive Learning Forum innovated this year by using a participative approach to engage the audiences, which totaled more than 100 for the two events, Sept. 28 and 29 at the UN Millennium Plaza in New York and Oct. 2 and 3 at the Allstate headquarters in Chicago.

On the second day of each event, teams competed to achieve the highest stock price for a fictitious company using the “General Management II” TopSim module, manipulating pricing, hiring, advertising, and production variables.

In New York, the education track featured speakers from Western Governors University, McGraw-Hill, Boston University, and Axia College. Corporate presenters represented Learning Tree, Telstra, and Staples. 

Carol Silk of New York Presbyterian Hospital described an accelerated training roll-out to learners with limited English and computer skills using proctors to assist learners with computer basics.

Gary Dickelman of EPSS Central gave the keynote presentation on “Performance Centered Design in the 21st Century, and Chris Proulx of eCornell adressed “Aligning Corporate Learning and Higher Education.”

The single track at the Chicago event included presentations by representatives of Allstate, Holland America, Northwest Airlines and Motorola. Dave Vance of Caterpillar University delivered the keynote on “Best Practices in Alignment and Measurement.”

Steve Smith and Lynn Misselt of Northwest Airlines described their approach to rapid task analysis. Joje DiDonato told how Countrywide accelerates time to proficiency in IT skills using a 20/30/50 model—20 percent classroom training, 30 percent through out-of-class technologies, and 50 percent via performance support systems.

Chicago participants debated what constitutes “informal learning.” Podcasts may be received by learners as informal media, yet considerable design and production expertise may go into creating them.

Upcoming Event: TATA Interactive Learning Disability Forum (TLDF) 2006

At TATA Interactive Systems, we have taken up the issue of Learning Disabilities (LD) as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility. We chose this area because it is congruent to our skills and capabilities in learning design and development. The three areas of LD that we are focusing on are Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, and Dysgraphia. In this respect, we support the Learning Disability Clinic in Sion Hospital through financial grants, development of learning materials for both students and special needs educators, and administrative support. Moreover, we have also authored a book, Brain Teasers, comprising fun activities for children with LD. This book has been published by Tata McGraw-Hill. 

The latest initiative that we have taken up is the TATA Interactive Learning Disability Forum (TLDF). The TLDF is an international symposium on LD. The event offers a platform for leading educators and LD experts from across the world to network and share innovations and ideas to help address critical LD issues. 

This event is the first of its kind in India and one of our key objectives is to increase awareness and promote remedial activities, best practices, and knowledge sharing of LD in India —we believe this is a gap that needs filling. We plan to hold this event annually from now on. Please click here for detailed information about this event.

Diwali 2006 Pics Are Up!

We recently celebrated the festival of lights and we would like to share some snapshots with you. Please click here to view the photo album.

The Future Of Instructional Models

Here is November’s Big Question from Learning Circuits: Are our models (ISD, ADDIE, HPT, etc.) relevant in the future? The question does not stop there. The LC blog follows it up with “Are ISD/ADDIE/HPT relevant in a world of rapid elearning, faster time-to-performance, and informal learning?” Although Learning Circuits must have seen both these question together as defining one problem statement, I see two distinct questions here. 

Let me respond to the “first question” first. The relevance of a model depends on how you use it rather than when you use it (past, present, and future). In this case, the question seems to imply that the models in question are traditional (ISD, ADDIE, HPT, etc.). However, the use of brackets, the addition of “etc.” and the absence of the word “traditional” or “conventional” makes the question open to interpretation—which is not a bad thing. 

“Our models” are somewhat like this question. A model by its very definition is generic; it acquires specificity only in local contexts. So, if one is to assume that ADDIE is top-down, behavioristic, and ID driven, then it will appear to be so. On the other hand, if a few learners decide to use the process elements of ADDIE to design learning for their own use in a Second Life kind of platform, the application of this model takes on a completely different perspective. 

Therefore, the problem lies not with the models, but in how we approach them and what we take out of them. We should be able to appropriate models, not just apply them literally or reject them outright. By appropriating a model, we make it relevant to us and to our times.

Training Goes On A Cruise: An Interview With Chris Volkle

What does it take to train 15,000 people, most of whom are on sea, sailing around the world? How would you make a learning management system work on a ship and link with the central system at headquarters? Christian Volkle should know. Chris is Manager – Fleet Training with Holland America Line (HAL) and was in India recently, visiting us at Tata Interactive Systems. Chris was a sailor for many many years before he moved on to his current managerial role. And surprisingly, for someone who has visited about 140 countries, this was his first visit to India.

We caught up with Chris for a brief chat on the training challenges at HAL and their plans around eLearning on their ships.

The entire chat is available as a podcast, ~10 minutes. Download the mp3 to listen to it in a player of your choice or simply use the player below.

Here are some of the key points Chris made.

•  The training audience of HAL includes more than 15,000 employees from 68 nationalities, with educational levels ranging from 3^rd grade to a PhD or even multiple PhDs.
• HAL is perhaps the first company in the world to link their Learning Management Systems in their ships to the main office through satellite communication systems.
• HAL took a strategic look at training and devised a training plan that focused on three long-term initiatives:

o Move as much of their training as possible to eLearning.

o Install and implement a Learning Management System.

o Have a specially built wired and connected training room in each ship.

•  Mobile Learning is an area that Chris would look at closely in the future.
•  HAL has a Kid’s Club on their ships, which addresses the entertainment requirements of kids on cruises with their parents. HAL is looking at computer-based educational entertainment products for Kid’s Club.

And here are some photographs, from (and one fantastic one of) the different ships that HAL operate. Please click on the thumbnails for an expanded view.