TATA Interactive Systems

Awards Season for Tata Interactive

Gifts in the festive season are normal and welcome, but awards are even better. And when we landed two awards this month, we couldn’t stop smiling. So allow us to preen a bit.

Blockbuster Approach to Instructional Design

I am eating my words. I am selling myself down the river. I am completely contradicting what I wrote in my blog post circa 2006, titled “Give me Back My Fun Learning!” in which I thundered against rapidly developed, plain vanilla e-learning and lamented for fun-filled, engaging e-learning.

Call it fickle mindedness or call it evolution, but ladies and gentlemen, I have seen light. I have realized that e-learning in the corporate sense is not about the “greater artistic question” but about the “greater business question”.

In a sense, the distinction is similar to mainstream blockbusters and art-house cinema. True, e-learning as it is “ought to be” needs to be fun/funny, out-of-the-box, and challenging; it needs to surprise; and it needs to push the envelope of the medium. But e-learning that works with the masses ought to be plain functional.

This wisdom comes from working with a leading multinational manufacturing company in the past year.

The e-learning we were engaged to develop for them was part of a company-wide strategic realignment journey. E-learning was to be an enabler and a change agent that would help its close to 100,000 employees across the globe change the way they have been working and adopt a new way.

Because of the business imperative, e-learning development was time-bound and mission-critical. So naturally, we chose the blockbuster route. If the word “formula” has already suggested itself to you, give yourself a cigar!

Our formula was governed by some “Thou Shalt” rules, as one of our SME puts it. It included the following:

1. Thou shalt keep it simple: You will not make the learners jump through the hoops of frustrating interactions, bewildering exploratory activities, and tricky questions. Make the learning to-the-point and get to it quickly.
2. Thou shalt keep it short: Remember that the learners have tons of other stuff to learn/unlearn, in addition to their daily job-related activities. Don’t stretch them.
3. Thou shalt keep it consistent: Far too much is changing in the learners’ lives even without playing a game every time they open an e-learning program. Use a template that is easy to understand and rely on.
4. Thou shalt keep it literal: Metaphors, puns, flourishes of style, and “clever” or “cute” animations/images only irritate the learners. They are also difficult to translate.
5. Thou shalt keep it in context: Let the learners know why they are doing it before launching them into games, case studies, or “try it” activities. If you are telling them a fictitious story, let them know upfront.
6. Thou shalt not be a perfectionist: While guarding against blatant errors and inaccuracies, don’t treat e-learning as a magnum opus. In the real world, continuous improvement makes far more sense. E-learning development and implementation is an iterative cycle in which every new version is better than the one before. Get it out so that this cycle can start.

Has it worked? Well, early results seem to indicate that it has. Close to 10,000 learners have taken around 40 hours of learning and they’ve scored us (on an average) 5 on a scale of 0 – 6. Moreover, all e-learning modules are out on time for senior management to implement downstream strategic activities.

And what about me? Much as I dream to be the “independent” e-learning maker, I am currently enjoying my role as the wily studio executive!

(Priya is Deputy Practice Head – Instructional Design, Products & Skills Training Practice at TIS.)

Encouraging, Enabling & Empowering LD Students – The TLDF 2007

The TLDF 2007 received an overwhelming response with over 200 attendees making it to The Grand Hyatt, Mumbai that played host to the day-long event. The TLDF 2007 brought together national and international speakers, deans, principals, teachers, and even families of students with learning disabilities.

This year, the TLDF 2007 not only discussed working together for the benefit of LD students, but also welcomed on stage, the students and parents of students who have overcome learning difficulties.

While the TLDF 2006 successfully spread awareness on LD, the TLDF 2007 went a step ahead and brought together speakers and participants from across the globe to gather support for LD students in India. For the last two years the TLDF has proudly provided a platform for this cause, and with the support and encouragement of positive results, we will continue to encourage, enable, and empower LD students for a better future!   

Some of the topics discussed in the sessions were: the steps beyond LD certification, multidisciplinary approaches, medical aspects, the role of a Special Educator, how to identify LD in the classroom, the social and emotional aspects of LD and most importantly, the role of the Government. To enable a greater sharing of knowledge and extend our support to this cause, we have made the TLDF presentations available on http://tldf.tatainteractive.com.

Banking on GamBLs™

Early November, in 2006, the eLearning team from ICICI Bank requested TATA Interactive Systems to recommend a training intervention program that would help make their people, involved in the Inward Clearing process, more efficient. One of their tasks involved spotting up to 18 potential discrepancies on each bearer cheque in less than 7 seconds to overcome the high volumes of transactions everyday. For the bank, an incorrect decision of passing or holding a cheque has severe regulatory, financial and legal implications. The need, as we saw it, was to entice their employees to demonstrate exceptional skills in the task.

Our solution, ‘Cheque-Mate’, was a skill-enhancer game designed around our Game Based Learning (GamBLs™) model. It put the player in an imaginary world where he/she was challenged to tag a series of correct and incorrect cheques according to an identified discrepancy in a limited time. The player would customize the game to match his/her ability using time and complexity controls at the start of the game. The player was scored on speed and accuracy of their decisions and recognition for good performance corresponded to the degree of challenge. The game used a dynamic data model that generated different data sets for every session to ensure replay-ability, another key attribute of GamBLs™.

The game was received with great enthusiasm by both the eLearning group and the employees of ICICI Bank. It also won the APEX Award this year.

In focus group testing, one of the players said,  “When I started, I could hardly find errors in a cheque, but after practice, I could track errors quite easily. So definitely playing over again I would look forward to improving my scores and reducing the errors.”

Another said, “It made me sit back and concentrate to ensure good scores.”
Since November, 2006, TATA Interactive Systems have created four highly engaging GamBLs™ for ICICI Bank and are in the process of developing four more around the roles of cashiers, back-end operations, Branch managers, customer sales representatives and sales representatives.

Mr. K. Ramkumar, Group Head – HR, ICICI Bank expressed his excitement about the role of gaming in his department vision for the future in an article that appeared in The Mint recently.

(Chandra Shekhar Ghildiyal is Deputy Head – Game-Based Learning at TATA Interactive Systems)

eLGuild - Online Forum, August 16 & 17

I've posted several entries related to Story and Narrative since TIS decided to open this blog (and I intend to continue), but sometimes the abbreviated format of a blog isn't the optimal way to communicate an idea (or to understand it, to take a learner-centric perspective).

Just as a 'blend' is more often than not the best overall delivery strategy for instruction, I wanted to share an opportunity for those who want to see/hear the 'long version' of why I'm such a fan and advocate of Story as an instructional strategy.

Late next week (Aug 16-17), I'll be presenting as part of a 'virtual conference' (read: you can attend from the comfort of your office/home) hosted by the eLearning Guild.

I'll be taking the cyberwaves at 1:15p ET on Thursday 8/16.  If you are interested in 'attending', you can visit the event's website to learn more.

I know the talk will be recorded, but I'm not sure if the archived versions will only be available to registered participants, eLG members, or if they will be made open to the general public, so why take a chance?  It's quite affordable and you'll have access (either live or archived) to several terrific presenters on a variety of "Advanced e-Learning Instructional Design" topics.

I hope to 'see' you there!

(Jon Revelos is the Director of Instructional Design and Story-based Learning at TATA Interactive Systems)

Effective eLearning ID: Tech Skills Req'd?

Alan Kay, a true pioneer/legend in the Computer Science world, once said:

"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has referenced this quote several times when challenged with the idea of making Apple more profitable by taking a page from Microsoft's strategic play book and concentrating efforts primarily on software.

Without speaking for Mr. Kay and what it was that he intended with this famous phrase, one potential interpretation is that living in operational silos makes for less than stellar results.  The more you have isolated groups who have little/no understanding or appreciation of what goes on in other operational divisions, the less likely you should expect anything groundbreaking or revolutionary to emerge.  The best one can expect in such a circumstance is a more finely polished version of what has been seen before, due to a lack of understanding of what is possible and reasonable.

Relating this interpretation to the world of online learning and instructional design, I have gone back and forth over the years regarding if the best (eLearning) IDs also have a more-than-passing familiarity with the basics of computer science, programming, and some of the more popular/powerful authoring tools. 

Reflect, for a moment, on the following:

• Are the IDs you admire/respect the most tech literate?
• In recruiting, do you explicitly look for tech abilities/understanding as one of the characteristics that are required?
• Are tech skills something your organization supports developing (in the form of ongoing training) in its ID team members?

Why? Why not?

I'm still not fully convinced one way or another, but I have a heavy leaning...

In my 16+ years in the field, I've seen far too many examples of designs thrown over the wall to developers that detail either mind-numbingly simple interactions (for lack of knowledge that anything better was possible) or amazingly complex pipe-dreams that would require a form of A.I. to actually implement (for lack of understanding of what sorts of logic would necessary).  In such cases, I can't help but believe that having a moderate understanding of how development work is done would make for better designs (and ultimately, courseware).

Just as a good architect can't simply design based on what 'looks good', but actually needs to have a basic understanding of the strength of various materials and how they may (not) interact with each other, perhaps the best IDs should know be conversant with Programming Concepts 101 (maybe 201? maybe more?). 

Of course, there will always be the counter argument that such a background should be regarded as a 'nice to have', not a 'must have'. After all, didn't Frank Lloyd Wright design beautiful homes that had notoriously leaky flat roofs? (it is said that FLW once told a client to "Move the chair" in response to a complaint of rain leaking through the roof of their house onto the dining table.)  But should we build the rule based on the exception?

How would the ID profession change (both positively and negatively) if we suddenly began to require more of a tech-bent?  Would we end up cutting our noses off to spite our face?  Or would we see a sudden surge in the quality, sophistication, and ingenuity of the instructional solutions that are thrust upon the world?

I'd like to hear YOUR thoughts, regardless of what they are, or how fully fleshed out they might be!

Weigh in!

(Jon Revelos is the Director of Instructional Design and Story-based Learning at Tata Interactive Systems)

Content or Platform?

“What comes first: Content or Platform?” is a question that is comes up as inevitably as a bug in a beta. I’ve always thought this to be a rather straightforward question. But in my experience, I have quite often been very surprised to see a lot of people confidently moving in the opposite direction; hence this blog post.

I have been repeating the statement, “In eLearning, system/platform is an enabler. Most important is the content (learning material) that needs to be delivered by the platform/system.” Unless you have decided what content will be placed in the platform, any kind of sophisticated, state of the art, cutting-edge technology will be a dead-investment.

Here’s another potential pitfall.

After having decided on the content that will be delivered, what kind of platform do you build? When it comes to building systems using technologies, there is always this worry about what pieces of an eLearning platform should I build. Should I put all the systems in place for me to develop, maintain, and deliver the content? Or can I build it brick by brick?

Questions worth deliberating.

(Anand Subramanian is Head – Systems Design at TATA Interactive Systems.)

Personalized Printing --> Personalized Learning Docs?

A couple of months ago, WIRED Magazine made a subtle offer to their subscribers (I've been a loyal subscriber since the first issue showed up in my mailbox for free back in the early 90's):

The first 500(?) people to email a digital photo of themselves to their site would get a personalized cover (using that picture) on the July '07 issue, courtesy of Xerox and their "Custom Xerox" offering.

Well... my personalized issue arrived the other day (see the image on left), and even though it is just a marketing stunt, I have to say that it was pretty neat to have my photo on the cover of my favorite magazine (my son got a kick out of it, too)!

This fun experiment got me to thinking about the implications for learning....

Being primarily focused on technology-based learning, I usually see things through those sorts of glasses, but I am in full agreement with the claim that eLearning is no more a silver bullet solution to education/training woes than the television was when it was introduced.  Rarely are there full, single-source solutions to issues, and education is no exception - a careful analysis of goals and objectives, tied to a review of the available tools and techniques is always a critical first step in any learning effort.

With that in mind, I was reflecting on how, even in this age of websites, blogs, and wikis, most people are still much more comfortable and happy with physical documents.  For anything over the length of a short email message, most people still prefer to have a hard copy for reading and 'personalizing' (marking up with notes and comments).  This is easy enough on a one-off basis for shorter length items using traditional PC printers and blank paper, but what about longer articles or collections of essays that are related?

What would it be like to be able to self-assemble 'personalized learning packets' of related articles from the web that could be bound into a magazine-like format?  It's not a rocket science idea (in fact, I don't think there is anything that's been preventing it to date), but just how much more convenient, usable, and useful would such an animal be, compared to stacks of individual articles (usually stapled in a corner, printed with questionable quality on a single side of paper)? 

Would YOU value the ability to have a "magazine" of the articles that you wanted/valued?  How much would you be willing to pay for it?  Would your organization see value in producing customized, high quality collections of articles for its employees (as an internal communication vehicle, performance support tool, or as a blended-learning artifact)?  What sorts of avenues of opportunity begin to emerge and open as the ability for greater personalization becomes feasible (both technologically and economically)?

Hmmm.....

(Heck... forget about personalized magazines!  What about personalized objects?  Where do these trend-lines begin to take us, as learning and performance improvement experts?)

(Jon Revelos is the Director of Instructional Design and Story-based Learning at Tata Interactive Systems)

English-wallah

For the past year, I have been working at TIS as its first American employee based in India.  It has been a thrilling experience; living in India has not always been easy, but it’s always been interesting. I’ve learned so much at TIS that it’s hard to know where to start, so I thought I’d start with my first day.

On my first day, still jet-lagged and overwhelmed, I was pleased to find that I at least had no problem understanding people’s accents…until lunchtime. At lunch, my new friends took me into the cafeteria, where their work accents, good for conference calls and in-laws, gave way to a fast talking, and, to my ears, nearly incomprehensible banter.  It turns out this is a common phenomenon; people unconsciously talk and write one way for business and another way in their personal lives.  But at that point I could hardly keep track.  People kept weaving in and out of Hindi and using English words in ways I just couldn’t understand.

Indian English is a great language; brash and breezy.  It varies enormously from one person to the next, depending on their education and where their parents are from.  Some people switch v and w, others pronounce both like Americans pronounce w. Some people pronounce th like Americans do, others just stress the t a little more (give it a little spit at the end…you can do it.)  Less educated people speak a functional, pidgin English that lets them communicate across India’s innumerable local languages. Indian English incorporates innumerable Hindi words, such as “wallah,” which basically means a guy. A rickshaw driver is therefore a rickshaw-wallah, a vegetable seller is a subzi-wallah, a newspaper delivery guy is a paper-wallah, and so forth. 

Facts vs. Stories: And the winner is...

Michael Moore's latest movie, Sicko, is a powerful example of how Stories trump Facts when attempting to teach material that is intended to invoke change (mental and/or active).

Although the film won't be in wide release in the US until later this month (June 29th), Moore has been on the promotional circuit non-stop since his latest work debuted at Cannes' annual film festival (where he won top prize of Best Picture three years ago for Fahrenheit 9/11').  This time around, Moore set his sites on the flawed American health care system.

This blog isn't the proper place to comment upon the in/validity of the content within Sicko.  Nor is it the right forum for arguing the pros and/or cons of socialized medicine.  Besides, a quick search on the 'net will turn up more than enough 'discussion' on these topics.

I'm mentioning this movie here not because of WHAT material is contained in the film, but rather because of HOW that material is presented.

The Future of Information Management

We are living in exciting times.  We are smack-dab in the middle of a r/evolution of such magnitude that its impact will (likely) only be evident in retrospect.

Three data points have converged recently to evoke this feeling of excitement, amazement, and minor vertigo about what the future holds.

1) Information Management Technologies

In the video above (one of several fantastic presentations shared by TED), Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos some jaw-dropping technology (Photosynth) coming out of Microsoft Live Labs (based on Blaise's previous efforts with Seadragon, which was acquired by MS in '06).  This image/info manipulation and organization tool is tough to describe in words, but the wide array of potential applications/uses immediately become apparent via the demo shown in the video.

Suddenly, we see the ability to enable the emergence of information that has never been explicitly defined by someone, but rather is dynamically created based on the novel analysis of large groupings of small pieces. (see the segment about Notre Dame modeled off of Flicker images)

We begin to see novel ways to leverage technology to do truly unique things, rather than using them to recreate old things in new skins. (see the embedding of micro images/print into digital versions of 'traditional' media - it reminds me of the corporations who are inserting long, detailed product information and extended stories in a momentary burst at the tailend of TV ads, viewable only by 'stepping' through them frame-by-frame using a Tivo/DVR remote, as a means to (re)capture eyeballs in the age of 'ad skipping'.  For an example, view GE's One Second Theater.)

I recall reading somewhere (can't remember now) that UI beauty is born from spare MIPs - that it was only when processing/computing speeds became sufficiently fast that any substantial attention was directed towards the look & feel of applications.  Thus, we had text-based OS's and app's (think DOS as a later example) well before any GUI's were an option.  It seems we are experiencing another step along this path, as the power of even average PCs today far outstrip the stress the average user places on them - they (effectively) sit idle, waiting for the next command from the user 95% of the time (I made that figure up, but it's probably an underestimation, if anything).  Thus, you see 'grid computing' efforts popping up to take advantage of these spare cycles (one of the older examples is the SETI@home initiative).  The power of 'gamer' video cards and video gaming systems (XBox, PSP, etc.) is extraordinary by measures set only a few years ago.  This fact enables people like Blaise to begin to imagine new capabilities (thanks to Moore's Law... although I think that he came up with some very innovative ideas about how graphics are handled that amplified the pure computing power curve!)

Arigatou Gozaimasu

I have never written a story or an experience of this sort. I have visited Japan once in the past and worked with a lot of Japanese companies like NEC, Fujitsu, and Toshiba, to name a few. I had faint memories (none, to be honest) of my last visit. During this visit to Japan, what touched me was the hospitality and the kindness of the people. I have often heard about the Japanese being tough, difficult negotiators but what I saw of them during this visit was completely contrary. They are professionals in their field, they ask the right questions, and more so, are extremely hard working.

I always thought that Indians work hard, stay late in office, speak to clients at odd hours, etc. And don’t we complain that we spend so much time in the office and hence have less time to spend with our family? The Japanese professionals are out to work when we were having a morning walk at 6 a.m. They were still in office when we were packing our bags to go back to our hotel. Most of the senior guys are in office until midnight and this is their daily routine. Wonder how they can work so hard, every day.

During our consulting assignment we asked what is a normal day for a 4th grade kid is like. This was their response.

• Wake up at 7 a.m.
• Public/private school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Extra-curricular activities like football, baseball, karate, etc up to 6 p.m.
• Special schools for another 3 hours (Now you know why I qualified the second point). While the public schools are in the same locality where they stay, the kid has to travel to go to a good special school. Sometimes this travel takes about an hour by train one way. By the time the kid gets home it is well past 11 p.m.
• Once they are back home, they would like to play games.

So much pressure on kids from such an early age and we talk about how school education in India puts so much pressure on kids and how there is too much competition.

Another interesting characteristic of the Japanese is the punctuality. Be it trains, be it for dinner, or be it for meetings. You would rarely see anyone walk. They are always running, to catch a train, to go for a meeting.

An interesting statistic to note is the average delay of a Shinkansen (Bullet train) in a year is 0.4 minutes. This includes delays caused by typhoon, rains, earthquakes, snowfall, etc. Punctuality is not by accident but by design and it is taught and ingrained in children right from an early age.

After having visited and stayed in Japan for 2 weeks I think there is a lot to learn from the Japanese.
Arigatou Gozaimasu means “thank you very much” in Japanese.

(Anand Subramanian is Head – Systems Design with Tata Interactive Systems)

Happy Planet

Happy Planet is an animated short film about the beauty of life on earth. The film eliminates dialogue and speaks with its visuals and music. Much like life with its unexpected surprises, the flow of visuals in the film is organic. The interplay among the creatures or between the creatures and the environment in each shot creates the visual room and space for the next interplay. These visuals and the movement within them blend seamlessly alludes to the connected life that all we share. The film ends on a poignant note – a child’s hand appears on screen, requesting us humans to take responsibility for protecting and conserving our environment.

Happy Planet was the outcome of an animation workshop conducted by Dhimant Vyas for our animators, for many of whom it was their first foray into claymation. The concept and storyboard was done by the entire team, under Dhimant’s guidance and direction.

The setting and characters were created by the whole team working together, they are intentionally kept realistic or semi-realistic because the movement of the characters could not be made too exaggerated and cartoonish – considering they were made out of a rigid material. The characters are made out of clay – and are mostly relief work on glass. It was a challenge to give them a three-dimensional look on the screen. The team studied wild life videos for reference in character design, and to get a sense of timing for the character movement.

Each sequence was animated by a different animator. It was a challenge to link different animators’ ideas effectively and make smooth transitions between the sequences.

We hope you enjoy watching Happy Planet. Even more so, we hope the message in it impresses you enough to make you contribute your bit to make our planet happier.

(Happy Planet is a claymation (stop motion) film directed by Dhimant Vyas, Deputy Head – Animation at Tata Interactive Systems.)

To Stay or To Go?

On one of my trips to the U.S., I was in New York and didn’t have much to do, so I decided – even though it was snowing – to walk around Manhattan. Every few blocks my nose and ears would freeze, and I would enter a coffee shop or a Walgreens and hang around till I regained sensation in those organs.

One day around lunch, I entered an Italian pizzeria and ordered a slice of pizza. The person serving me asked, “You stay here?”, and I thought the guy wanted to know if I was from New York. I told him I was from India, and this was my first trip to New York, and blah blah blah... The guy gave me a strange look and asked again very slowly, “You stay here and eat?”, and that’s when it struck me – he wanted to know if I’d be eating my pizza there or taking it away.

So I learned that, “To stay” in an eatery means you’re eventually going to grab a chair / stool and eat, while, “To go” means you will take the food and leave. This bit of knowledge helped me tremendously in Austin and in Miami when I had to order food and, more often than not, it would be Spanish-only Mexicans serving me. However, they did understand, “To go” and, “To stay.” 

Evil Tools or Evil Uses?

I've noticed a slowly growing trend in the marketplace, and I think it's time it's questioned.

It has become quite in vogue to bad-mouth and shun the use of Powerpoint in presentations.

I was first exposed to this stance in a presentation by Edward Tufte (author of several fantastic books on information visualization and communication).  He made a mark for himself by declaring that "Powerpoint is Evil", both in a WIRED article and in a longer whitepaper.

More recently, Elliot Masie dubbed his newly minted "Learning 200X" conferences to be "PPT-free Zones", instructing presenters to leave their slides at home in hopes that it would foster greater discussion and interaction amongst attendees (and this underlying objective may have been accomplished, as the sessions *did* move from being lectures to conversations).

Just last week I spent a terrific day in Washington DC talking about Stories and Conversations at an event hosted by the Smithsonian Associates.  One of the great speakers that presented was Larry Prusak of IBM KM fame.  I really enjoyed his talk, which was PPT-free, but instead of simply quietly adopting that presentation stance and moving ahead, he made a pointed announcement of his disdain of Powerpoint.  He even went so far as to say that he uninstalled the app from the MS Office Suite on his computer.

Finally (and completely serendipitously), this month's 'Big Question' on the Learning Curcuits Blog is precisely on this topic - the What/When/Why of PPT.  The BQ seems to have been prompted by an Austrailian press article that uses Dr. John Sweller's Cognitive Load Theory to explain why most PPTs are so head-droppingly awful (and the link makes terrific sense to me).

In all of these cases (and the dozens I haven't mentioned, some of which are here), I can't help but think that the primary flag-wavers of the Anti-Powerpoint movement are projecting their disgust and anger in the wrong direction.  Powerpoint is simply a tool, like a hammer, or a lawnmower.  In and of itself, it's not really something that can be deemed "evil".  It is the way the tool is leveraged that gives it "value" (good or bad).

Don't get me wrong - I've been the victim (and... umm... the perpetrator) of more than a few AWFUL powerpoint presentations.  You know the ones - where the audience is given a live (often monotone) narration of (text-laden) slides that are linearly displayed.  I am in no way defending this embarrassment of communication - I'm simply pointing out that the fault sits with the *presenter*, not the tool (despite the fact that the tool may make it easy for the lazy to use it in bone-headed ways).

Just because a hammer can be used to both frame a house for the victims of a natural disaster and murder someone, that doesn't make it inherently "evil" or "good".  Those value-laden terms can only be reasonably used to describe the users of the tool based on what they chose to do with it.  When Larry said he had removed Powerpoint from his computer, for its nature of promoting one-way communication, I wanted to ask him if he had also removed Word?  According to the logic of his argument for uninstalling Powerpoint, any word processor should also be shunned - after all, documents are monologues, not dialogs, right?