media ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INVIVO Communications completes merger with Spongelab Interactive.  

 TORONTO, September 6th, 2017.   INVIVO Communications, Inc., is pleased to announce the merger & integration of Spongelab Interactive, as INVIVO’S learning technologies division.  Merging Spongelab’s products and technologies with INVIVO’s established agency model will produce greater service for Spongelab’s clients in the education, not-for-profit and healthcare markets under one recognized corporate brand.

It will also allow INVIVO’s clients to benefit from Spongelab’s platform. “For the past 19 years, INVIVO has operated a highly successful agency model for healthcare clients,” says INVIVO President, Andrea Bielecki. “Our clients are increasingly asking for platform technology that allows them to distribute learning material throughout their companies. Integrating Spongelab’s platform technology and game engines allows us to do that seamlessly.”

“STITCH, our proprietary learning & content management system, will become the platform of choice for INVIVO clients to deliver amazing learning and communications experiences,” says Spongelab Interactive founder Jeremy Friedberg. “STITCH has been used successfully in the K-12 educational space, not-for-profit organizations, museums & science centres, and is now ready for growth in the healthcare vertical.”

INVIVO will continue to produce award-winning medical animations, and applications for the healthcare industry and educational apps such as Build-a-Body (over 3 million downloads), as well as operating Spongelab.com, a global community of over 2 million science enthusiasts, educators and students. Spongelab.com has delivered over 10 million units of learning content to 650,000 teachers and students in 140 countries since its launch in 2012.

ABOUT INVIVO:

INVIVO Communications Inc. is a specialized digital healthcare agency with a passion for connecting people and science.  Since 1998, INVIVO has pioneered the integration of technology and visualization into communication solutions, garnering over 115 global industry awards and counting. INVIVO has achieved this through its cultural commitment to excellence, creativity and innovation.

 For more information:

Michael Mackay Sales & Marketing INVIVO Communications

[email protected]

One of the common requests we get from our clients is to help them sort out confusion with all the new VR and AR tech out there.  So we decided to put together a quick roundup of all the major VR and AR equipment available, including the basics of their capabilities, and some major comparisons. These aren’t reviews, just our attempt at an easy-to-read guide to where each of these platforms may be best suited. 

HTC Vive

Cost: $1149 (+ the cost of a powerful computer to run it)

Device: PC

What it does well: The HTC Vive is the only headset that offers full 360 degree play spaces out of the box.  It also comes with hand controls included in the purchase price.  With support from Valve, it has a wide range of ready-to-go content available through Valve’s Steam platform.  The included lighthouse sensors let you quickly setup “room-scale” VR settings, or if limited by space or design, a setup for stationary or sit-down experiences.   The headset itself is one of the more comfortable available. It can be used while wearing glasses, and has a few adjustable components to make the experience even better.

Limitations: The cost of the HTC Vive and the necessary computer needed to run the games and experiences can be expensive.  The HTC Vive requires a fairly powerful computer to run its programs.  These systems can run upwards of $1,000. The offset is that the visual quality of the games can be much higher than some of the other headsets on the market.  It also has wires.  Currently the HTC Vive needs to be directly connected to its PC or laptop, though there are future components to be release that will make it wireless, as well as backpack options to store the computer and the necessary components giving you a bit more freedom to move around.

Oculus rift

Cost: $679 (+ the cost of a powerful computer to run it)

Device: PC

What it does well: Similar to the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift offers high quality VR experiences through its use of a high powered PC, which will cost you an additional $1,000+ to buy. It comes bundled with an Xbox controller, and a small remote to control your experiences, but you`ll have to shell out another $140 for the very good Oculus Touch controllers for full interactivity.  It also has a headset built in for game audio. Its smart play areas let you know about objects and obstructions in your space, unlike the HTC Vive which only lets you know where the boundaries are of the exact space you initially set up.

Limitations: Unlike the HTC Vive, the Rift doesn`t offer out-of-the-box 360-degree tracking.  Its included camera tracking system will track some motion in a 180-degree space, but you`ll have to spend more money if you want full 360 degree play areas.  

 Google Cardboard

Cost: $10-$20

Device: Smartphone

What it does well: The lowest cost option available, Google Cardboard is the most accessible version of VR hardware available.  With a few instructions you can even build your own with some purchasable lenses and a good piece of cardboard.  The Cardboard lets you view VR content and 360 degree video by inserting an Android or iOS Smartphone into the correct slot.  The whole experience is powered by the smartphone device, so there’s no need for any additional setup or wires. There are literally hundreds of free and pay-to-use apps, and videos on the Google Play store. You can also view 360 degree video from YouTube or Facebook.  Google Cardboard is starting to gain a foothold in K-12 education because of its low cost and ease of use. It also doesn’t require a complicated or sensitive tech setup like the HTC Vice sensors.

Limitations:  Though you can look around VR and 360 video environments using your phone`s internal gyroscopes you have almost no interactivity with most experiences provided on Google Cardboard.  Some applications will let you teleport or interact minimally with surroundings by pointing a reticule or `looking’ in the right direction or from a single button on the side of the cardboard.  The range of view and amount of light that can get through the sides of the unit can also break the immersive feel you might want in a VR experience.  As it`s powered by a Smartphone, you can also expect resolutions to not be on par with what you`ll find in the higher end VR hardware. Lastly, because the Cardboard doesn’t have any straps, you need to keep one hand on the device at all times, holding it to your eyes.

 Gear VR/Google Daydream/Smartphone headset

Cost: $50-100

Device:  Smartphone

What they do well: These three devices all work similarly.  They are more or less heavier duty versions of the Google Cardboard and all still need a Smartphone to function.   These devices however are wearable and come with straps to keep the hardware in place while you view the VR content.  They have access to most of the same content as the Google Cardboard.        

Limitations: Again, these aren’t going to track your head position well, so you are more or less just viewing content with them with very simple interaction through a button or remote. The Google Daydream is only compatible with the latest Google Pixel devices where the other forms can use a variety of Smartphones to run content.

Playstation VR

Cost: $549 (+ the cost of a PS4 console $349+)

Device: Playstation 4

What it does well: Playstation VR sits firmly in the middle of both price and capabilities when it comes to VR headsets.  It offers fairly high fidelity VR experiences without the cost of an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The headset itself is fairly comfortable and offers some minimal customization to fit over glasses or adjust the distance from the screens.  The tracking camera (available separately or as a bundle if it wasn’t already purchased with the console) offers some head tracking, though in a limited 180 degree spectrum.

Limitations: The Playstation VR is not truly 360 degree environment ready. Though the camera does track head movement well, the narrow range of view of the camera restricts you to mostly stationary positions.  The available Move Controllers that come separate from the VR headset, or as part of a bundle, offer only limited interactivity as the camera does not track them as well as the sensors of either the Vive or Rift.  In addition, the Playstation VR only works with the PS4 console, limiting the content you have access to.

Microsoft HoloLens

Cost: $6,669

Device: Stand-alone

What it does well: The HoloLens from Microsoft is a very different entity from the others on this list, but we included it because we often get asked about it.  The HoloLens is a fully independent augmented reality device, which projects virtual objects into real environments.  The headset basically projects holograms onto lenses set in front of your eyes, while simultaneously using external cameras to pin the objects to surfaces in your environment, like a desk, table, or special sensors you can attach to other areas.  The device gives you some interaction with the digital objects through gesture commands with your hands, voice command as well as a small remote. The device also does not require a computer or phone to run, but programs for it still need to be developed in traditional ways.

Limitations: It`s not a VR headset, and has a high cost.  The HoloLens will not place you in a virtual environment, but rather finds its uses more often in design situations where you want to see and interact with a 3D object. For example, in the healthcare space, it allows you to view and interact with components of the body in new and unique ways.

Stories. We’ve used them for years to express complex ideas that can be easily understood by a vast audience. You want to teach your child some complex math? You tell them a short story about two trains departing separately for the same destination. But you want to train your administration on a new client relationship management tool? You show them a 63 page slide presentation. Boring. Why do we avoid using narrative-based learning after a certain age?

Adding narrative to your training can often seem like a challenge, or can be pushed aside to make room for more traditional, logical, ‘top-down’ training. Establishing how things work and using data to prove it is great, but there are many advantages to exploring narrative options to bolster learning.

Didactic explanation proves, while narrative explanation illustrates. Using a narrative often helps people learn in ways purely logical arguments cannot. Narrative instruction can instill a sense of empathy or point of view that other training methods cannot.

When speaking about narrative, David Gooblar (@dgooblar) of Pedagogy Unbound says "It makes sense of the world through stories, through the pursuit of meaning and the particular experience of human existence lived over time. It is concerned not with verifiability, but with verisimilitude; not with being right, but with feeling right."

Here are some tips on how to approach using narrative in your training.

Tell personal stories

Generally the person leading a training seminar is doing so due to their years of experience dealing with the subject matter. Use that to your advantage and tell personal stories that are specific to the topic being covered.

Have learners tell their stories

Depending on the audience, there are often bounties of great experience scattered throughout the group that may fit very well with your topic, or offer unique perspectives that will actively engage discussion. This approach also gives the learner some ownership over their own development. The key is to guide the learner through their story so they don’t tangent too far from the core purpose of the seminar.

Use personas

Many organizations create ‘day-in-the-life’ scenarios of their user base, or create case studies from the perspective of a certain demographic. When arranged into a narrative, the problem you are solving for your end user can snap into focus.

Keep it light

Have some fun with whatever story you develop. It’s alright to embellish a bit to make the story more engaging without straying too far from the points of learning that the story needs to cover. If your topic is unengaging, and your story is also un-engaging, then you’ve missed the point of using narrative to get the learning across.

Don’t overdevelop the story

Keep it simple. Even if the topic is particularly complicated, it doesn’t mean your narrative needs to be equally complicated. Keep the concepts as simple as possible, or use multiple short narratives and tie them together to create an overarching narrative that will exemplify the complex learning objective.

Make it about people

Whatever narrative you design, make sure it’s focused on the learners. If you want them to be engaged in the training topic, they need to be part of the equation. If you know the audience well, pull examples from them to help flesh out the story, and to make them feel like they are part of the total narrative.

Juliette Denny offers some more ideas on the eLearning Industry blog

Make it emotional

Stories resonate with people if the characters struggle with recognizable problems. If characters are experiencing a frustration at work or trying to get a job done, what is the emotional cost of that frustration? Allow listeners to empathize and create links between the story and their own life.

Make a plan

Know ahead of time what your beginning, middle and end are going to look like. If you’re training seminar is live, the parts in between will usually change slightly depending on your audience’s engagement, or lack thereof. But make sure that, no matter what on-the-fly changes you make to the story, those three key components remain grounded so as not to lose touch with the learning goals.

Don't be afraid to throw your plan away

You need to read your audience and their reactions to your story telling. Every group or individual is different. Learn to read their body language and identify which points in the story are latching on, and expand upon those points, and adversely avoid or change the sections where you visually see people drop off from your telling.

Have people paraphrase

To help check learners’ understanding of the story, you can have them tell the story back to you or assist in creating the overall narrative by adding key points as you direct them in one predetermined direction. This will help audiences feel more attached to the topic and keep them fully engaged with the learning path.

Two goals that exist in all associations and nonprofits are: 1. the education of members; and 2. the training of volunteers.  The problems in achieving both goals are similar: how do we present the training or learning in the most engaging manner possible? How do we make it consistent across offices and chapters?  

In associations and non-profits, there are often various layers of technology and traditional learning that are being used inconsistently depending on the facilitator and the audience.  Other times, the facilitators simply don’t know about, or know how to organise, the various resources they have at their disposal.

Here, we’ve put together some ideas on how you can solve these problems:

1. Make sure that all of your training and learning content is available online

With today’s busy schedules, making your educational content as accessible as possible is paramount.  Many associations and not-for-profit organisations are drowning in paper. There may even be various offices or chapters using distinctly different sets of educational content, and some of which may no longer be relevant.  Information, content and communication, can be centralized online and version controlled, to maintain consistency across national organisations or multiple chapters. 

A new report by the Non-profit Technology Network shows that 75% of surveyed organization members are familiar with some sort of on-line training for their employees, volunteers or members.  Another 2015 report from eLearning Industry found that 77% of organisations use some type of e-learning tool in their training.

A recent survey by NTEN, shows what types of e-learning technology are currently in use in associations and non-profit organisations.

2. Get the right content management system (CMS) for your organisation

There are a thousand and one CMS platforms out there.  Many claim to be a one stop shop for all your needs, while others are customizable and costly.  Take time to review your specific organisation’s needs before investing in new software.  Make sure you have a solid idea of what type of training you will be presenting, and what types of media you might be using.  

The best modern eLearning solutions take advantage of a vast array of different media types, like video, audio, games and interactive components.   You’ll also want to have an idea of what the learning goals are going to be, and what kind of data you’ll want to gather from learners in the system.  

This pre-planning will better equip you to choose the right platform, and not over-spend on expensive customizations or upgrades at later dates.  A report of 800 non-profits put together by NPEngaged.com showed there are more than 90 CMS platforms in use currently.  Most of which are only running one or 2 small components of a non-profit’s web infrastructure.  WordPress lead the pack of most used platforms.  

Source: NPEngage.com @bkgranger 

3. Develop your eLearning

Modern eLearning is no longer just webinars or dry PowerPoint presentations uploaded to the web.  The development of educational games, simulations, interactive videos, virtual reality and augmented reality is helping eLearning to become more engaging for learners, and is also giving administrators and facilitators more data. Data from eLearning can be used to re-iterate training plans, update resources that are not working, and discover what type of resources are working well with your user base.  You can also make use of self-directed learning courses that can be made available in bite-sized portions for busy association executives and members.  Self-directed learning can employ narrative, branching choices and your learners’ own motivations to help engage them with the content.

4. Make use of gamification

First off, gamification does not specifically refer to games, but instead means using game-like mechanics to enhance the user experience. Gamification can, help guide learners through the system, and keep administrators and facilitators motivated to keep logging in and taking a next step in their learning pathway.   

That said, adding gamification to learning and training solution is not a simple task.  The first step is taking time to dive into your users’, administrators’ and facilitators’ needs and motivations.  Slapping on badges or points isn’t going to work long term. Gamification only works if you do your homework first, and design various levels of gamification into your systems to coax users through the content, and reward them at various stages for performing positive actions, like starting a new course, or giving feedback to learners. 

Read our blog on Game Based Learning Vs Gamification, and take a look at the best use cases of gamification in this post via WePlay.co.  We’ve also put together some easy ways you can add gamification to your organisation, with or without tech involved. 

5. Use your community to help develop your education program

The advantage of opening content to your online community is the ability to get feedback directly from the people who use your educational and training content the most. 

This can be done traditionally through surveys, collaboratively through discussion boards, or analytically using data collection. In the latter, user data tells you how, when, and for how long different components of your educational content is being used, and can help you roll out changes that best reflect the behaviours of your learners.

Video game culture can be found in almost every classroom, office and association.  The average game-player is 39 years old, meaning there is a good chance someone in your organisation is at least a casual video game player.  This culture is increasingly becoming a vital part of 21st century organisations, and with it has arrived two popular terms you’ve likely heard around the office: game based learning and gamification. 

In one office, a game called Ribbon Hero is used to teach administrators the latest functions for their office software. Administrators play the game and come to understand what functions they can perform within the different office applications as it applies to Clippy, a fictional character looking for a new job. This is an example of game based learning: staff members learn in a game environment - and it’s a concept that’s been around since the birth of games (think BINGO to learn the alphabet or Go to learn war tactics.

In another workplace, a manager gives a “+5” sticker to someone from their sales team for adding some pertinent advice to a client brainstorming session. The player adds this to their sticker collection, which adds to his goal of 50 points and an extra vacation day within the financial year. They just leveled up. This is an example of gamification. It’s the application of video game rules, mechanics and conventions to a non-gaming situation. It can also be a really effective method of creating rewards and incentives for learning.  

Put simply, if a learner is playing a game and learning from it, it’s game-based learning. If something unlike a game (chores, school, surgery, shopping) has game mechanics grafted on, we say it has been ‘gamified’. It’s important not to confuse the two terms because they refer to two distinct concepts. 

Some other ways to tell the difference;

Game based learning:

o   Learning happens in the game via in-game mechanics

o   Generally teaches a specific skill

o   Mimics or recreates actual scenarios or roles

o   Has a clearly defined beginning and end-point (i.e. an eLearning module)

Gamification:

o   The learning process is a game

o   Game mechanics are applied to existing content and practices

o   Reward systems are built in

o   Runs as long as the activity itself runs for (i.e. a cumulative sales board)

The rewards for game based learning have been called “intrinsic” because they link internal goals and game-play. Players feel rewarded for the actions they are doing in the game. In a study of the use of Civilization III for teaching historical concepts,  research found that the game was successful at teaching players a greater understanding of geopolitical systems than more formal teaching methods. 

Some have argued that gamification provides more “extrinsic” rewards. This means that players are rewarded outside of the context of their activity. In the above example, their role-playing character is outside of the context of their math test score. Researchers like Jane McGonigal have touted the learning and personal development opportunities that arise from using game mechanics outside of their videogame confines. They point to many examples of how it has worked (such as in this TED talk). Gamification can happen in digital realms too i.e., in the presence of badges or rewards on websites. Code Academy, Khan Academy, and even news sources like Google News make use of gamification to incentivize users to complete certain activities on their sites. As a result of its occasional overuse, gamification has been criticized by many for simply taking the “points” elements from games, rather than borrowing the elements of games that actually make them fun. 

So when should we use them?

Game based learning:

o   When you want to present your existing content in a different way

o   When you want to gauge learners’ critical thinking and problem solving

o   When you want to engage staff in content that may otherwise be considered too “dry”

Gamification:

o   When you are trying to change, or reinforce specific behaviours

o   When you want to engage learners, and take advantage of their competitive nature

o   When you want learners to take a more self-directed approach to their training and education

It’s important to know when, and how to use gamification or game based learning. Our educational platform technology, STITCH, uses both game based learning and gamification in order to provide meaningful interactive experiences with learning content while also providing game-like incentives to reward learners.  

On the game based learning level, it integrates educational games (link, example) that provide interactive experiences with rich multimedia content. Whereas, on the gamification level, learners earn credits and experience points by using materials, sharing lessons, and performing other “positive” actions.  These points can then be exchanged for discounts on products in a marketplace, or for other internal rewards like additional time off, or access to different training materials that may lead to a higher certification in their roles.  

There are other platforms that tie in these values as well, like Academy LMS, and Accord LMS.  There are also many ways to incorporate gamification in low-tech ways as well. http://bit.ly/gamifySL

At Spongelab we believe in the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for learning, and we know that game mechanics are a powerful tool for doing this.  Once you’ve evaluated whether they are a good fit for you organisation, consider the following:

Gamification

o   Make sure you have a good understanding of your staff’s motivations and needs, and appropriate rewards for actions that add value.

o   Keep it simple, and start small.  Don’t add countless layers to your gamification model that may confuse, and confound learners.

o   Make sure the reward system is transparent and fair.  

o   Sponsor both collaboration and competiveness adequately in order to encourage people to continue using the systems.

 Game Based Learning

o   Games should inherently be fun, but they should also be difficult enough to offer challenge, and the potential for failure.

o   Know your audience and make sure their perspectives are represented in the game.

o   The game should focus on the learning objectives and not stray far off path.

o   The mechanics and look of the game should be immersive and enjoyable in order to keep people focused and engaged on the learning objectives.

While games have become more prevalent in various levels of education, the core accessibility of video games has not yet been used to its full potential when it comes to growing your organisation and helping to reach your goals.  Now of course, you likely won’t be playing Minecraft in your next governors meeting, but there is much value that can be gained in adding games, and game-based mechanics aligned with your organisational goals to your programs. These games can be designed to facilitate faster and more engaging training, encourage funding, or grow your reach.

What is a Game?

A precise definition of what constitutes a game has been the subject of much debate. Definitions range from the broad: "A game is a form of play with goals and structure," by game developer Kevin Maroney, to the prescriptive: "A game is a system in which players engage in an abstract challenge, defined by rules, interactivity, and feedback, that results in a quantifiable outcome, often eliciting an emotional reaction,"from game designer Ralph Koster.

Video games are usually competitive in nature, whether you are competing against other players (World of Warcraft), against the computer (Angry Birds) or against the clock (Tetris). Games of chance are another broad category that includes roulette and Bingo. When competing against other players, you unite with another person to extend the boundaries of the game world outside of a computer monitor or phone screen. 

Good games can't be too easy or too hard. They need to rest in that sweet spot where we're being challenged but not discouraged.  They tap into the reward centre of our brain. Every time we solve a new puzzle or successfully deploy a new strategy, our brains reward us with a jolt of dopamine. Millions of years of evolution that has made us a curious and creative species.  Game-play is such a natural part of what we do that it’s often difficult to tease games out from the background noise of living and working.

 What is Gamification?

Gamification is often confused as being the same as game-based learning. 

Unlike game-based learning, Gamification is the application of game-based ideas and mechanics into traditional environments.   Adding rewards, badges, leaderboards or social boasting are forms of Gamification.  Sometimes tasks are necessary, but not particularly exciting. Gamification attempts to leverage people’s natural tendencies to socialize, seek competition, strive for mastery and reach achievements to increase engagement and compliance.

Although games can be a part of a Gamification, they are not always necessary to meet the spirit of Gamification.

Games in Training and Education:

Most tasks in the world share a common factor; the repetition of specific actions to accomplish a goal.  Often dynamic thinking and problem solving are required to accomplish these goals. Variables from within each goal can change how we approach the solution.  Training for these types of tasks usually shares the same approaches:  read a book or a diagram, watch your mentor do the task, try it for yourself.  This series of tell, show, and do are common across all training communities.  It’s sound to believe that most people generally fall into one of these three learning categories: audile, visual, or tactile.

Video games can manage all three sensory paths simultaneously in a way that can rarely be duplicated in a real-life scenario.  A well constructed game contains all the audible cues, and all the visual representations while also allowing the user to physically complete a task or a virtual representation of it.  

On top of this mixed push of information to the learner, one of the advantages of gaming is that it allows us to collect critical data on how that learner is engaging with the game with each action taken.   This is not something you can easily do with traditional training programs. The data collected from each learner allows us to gauge critical thinking and problem solving, and build a database of information to both personalize the experience with the learner, as well as reiterate the material of the training.

The other component of games that is overlooked in training is the ability to try, fail, restart, and fail again until we figure out a solution that works.  Airline pilots must complete training in a virtual simulator before receiving their licenses.  They are subjected to a variety of variables, often some that are not reproducible in real life, and are tasked with reacting to these changes and scenarios in a “safe” environment.  

 Games in Outreach and Fundraising:

Games and Gamification have also found their way into fundraising and outreach.  Some groups, like the Princess Margaret Hospital have taken to gamifying their entire fundraising platform, with their annual home and calendar lotteries.  They’ve raised engagement, and lowered the feeling of risk, even though the average donation commitment of $100 is more than the average person might consider giving on a normal basis.  The chance of gaining a return on investment for your donation is enough encouragement.

Other approaches are to build awareness of organizational goals or ideals directly through a gaming experience.  A game like That Dragon, Cancer brings awareness of childhood cancer and its effects on family life in an ambitious, art-like experience.  This War of Mine applies relatively straightforward game mechanics to demonstrate the harshness of war to help raise funds and awareness for War Child.

“That Dragon Cancer, the emotional journey of a family dealing with childhood cancer”

Videos games can also be used to poll specific information in a fun, out-of-the-box way.  For instance, if you support research for a medical condition, a game can be designed to judge a person’s awareness of that medical condition.   This adds value in a manner that often not only gets a higher level of participation, but also produces more useful data because of this more immersive style of retrieval.

Each of these methods uses games in one form or another, aimed at producing measurable results for their specific organisations.  They allow each of these organisations to reach more people, often in untapped markets.

Depending on your goals, there are many functions that both gaming and gamification can accomplish for your organisation.  Leveraging this growing market to make your organization stand out, collect better data, reach more people, or engage your staff and volunteers is becoming more and more accessible all the time.  Carefully evaluate how these principles can help your organisation grow.

March 28th, 2017

It's time to return to 'that' yearly conference. That one you go to every year, that often seems more familiar each time. You may be perusing the seminar topics and going, ‘Oh, didn’t we cover that last year?’. As much as things change in the not-for-profit world, many of the core problems and challenges remain the same, year to year and month to month. You may be asking yourself: what is the benefit of attending the same or similar seminars this time around?

You can keep these ideas in mind the next time you attend a session that seems all too familiar.

1. Repetition, repetition, repetition:

Important subjects need to be repeated over and over in order to ensure full understanding. There are also core learning principles that just don’t change much over the years, and it’s never a bad idea to review them so it becomes easier to download to your staff.

2. No seminar is ever the same twice:

Though the content may be more or less the same, such as in on-boarding new staff members, no one on-boarding meeting goes exactly the same as the last. The same is true with other types of educational seminars. Each seminar brings with it its own set of people and questions. A good speaker will engage the audience, bringing to light new points, and perspectives that may have not come up before.

3. You are the instructor:

If you attend the same type of seminars often enough, you become the content expert. You gain the confidence required to engage further with the speaker and the audience.   You assist with the overall engagement of the session by having that expert status, and being the leader in the room. This is particularly useful in sessions that are run as workshops, where teams are put together to work through issues. You can guide people who are newer to the content, which will help your own understanding of more complex issues.

4. That one new question:

Educational sessions always have that one new attendee or a return attendee who’s gone out and practiced what they learned from the previous session and has a new input. There is often that one question that gets brought up that you’ve never heard before. Sometimes there’s that one question or objection the speaker isn’t ready for either. These are both great opportunities to work through a new problem or perhaps highlight an issue you too may face in the near future.

5. The next generation:

Looking to hire your future replacement? Take a look around the room and see who is engaged, who’s challenged. One of these people might make a great asset to your association. They may be in the learning phase, or brining new perspectives, or new experiences. You’re likely not to meet them anywhere else, except here to perhaps hear about how they’ve changed their association’s philosophy and developed new culture and heightened resources. These types of educational seminars are great opportunities to meet the future of the association space.

6. Goal tracking:

How have you improved? Re-attending a seminar on a similar topic you covered before is a solid way to measure how your association has improved since you last reviewed the topic. Have you taken advantage of what you’ve learned, and put it to use? Are you seeing the same improvements as your peers?

7. The world is an ever-changing place:

There is often a reason behind having recurring seminar topics each year. Some topics, particularly any relating to technology have to be extremely fluid. Every year there are new developments, new metrics, and new principles that have to be learned and applied. If you don’t keep up with these updates, you can quickly find yourself behind the metaphorical eight ball.

8. Finding a Solution:

Self-directed learning can be just as hard to define as it is to produce.  The superficial definition is that it’s learning that you do by yourself with little to no direction from others.  True self-directed learning, however, is far more. In its best form, self-directed learning involves individuals taking initiative, to create self-directed pathways to specific goals that align with your association’s goals. Good self-directed learnings often seek help and guidance from others – it’s called self-directed, not self-completed.

Malcolm Knowles reminds us that self-directed learners are good at;

“...diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identify human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.” (Knowles, 1975, p. 18)

In the context of technology and current eLearning principles, this means that the structure of the content, how content is accessed, and how learners are rewarded is key.

Is the self-directed approach right for your organization? 5 things to keep in mind:

1.    Are your users ready to learn?

Identify the right people, and ensure the learning outcomes are in line with their expectations. The learner needs to be motivated prior to taking the course.  Do they have the self-awareness  and self-confidence needed?  You can’t create motivation from scratch, , but you can use tools to help keep a motivated person engaged.

 2.    Are the learning outcomes clear?

Make sure the user knows what’s in it for them.  Give them a clear reason to take the time to complete the learning.

3.    Do we have a process?

Build a narrative to describe the learning pathway.  Create branching paths that the learner can choose to follow in the order they feel is relevant to their understanding.  Understand how different elements in the training will be assessed.

 4.    Are the appropriate rewards built-in to the training?

It’s important to include more feedback than simply correct, or incorrect.  You want to encourage the learner to explore why an answer was unexpected.  You can include layers of Gamification in order to keep the user engaged and returning to the content.

5.    Is there co-operation involved?

Is the system built to guide the learner throughout the session, or are there components that require group work or a facilitator? Block a time on the calendar once every two weeks for a couple of hours when learners are expected to share their learning journey with colleagues, describing what they’ve learned and where they are going next.

      Self-directed training through online learning sites, webinars and interactive modules are generally more cost effective. They also open up the market to learners beyond your physical location. This type of educational philosophy is difficult to ignore in today’s technological age, particularly for Associations and Not-for-Profits.

Take Junior Achievement Canada as an example. This organisation on-boards new program administrators and volunteers through an online resource portal. They allow program volunteers to engage with the training at their own pace to receive various certifications required to run classes and student activities. As an organisation with multiple chapters across Canada, this cohesive set of tools makes it easier for their very busy volunteer base to participate.

Measuring compliance with training is also made more formal in an online setting, where data reporting can show the who, what, where, and when of engagement within the various topics. It also allows for the incorporation of other media like videos and games, to go along with the standard readings and quizzes.

Self-directed learning puts motivated people on your team in a position to grow and add new skills that they can then apply towards your association’s goals.

 Encourage your employees to spend one hour per week on one of these self-directed learning sites. Book a time for debrief and sharing in a group:

Lynda from LinkedIn https://www.lynda.com/

Skillshare https://www.skillshare.com/

Massive Open Online Courses for Not-for-Profits: https://www.mooc-list.com/tags/nonprofit-sector

Make Magazine: http://makezine.com/projects/

Coursera https://www.coursera.org/

Edx https://www.edx.org/

UDemy https://www.udemy.com

12 Ways to Get People on Board with Training.

Feb 28th, 2017 9:53:13am

Associations often struggle to make an impact when training their members as well as their staff. Getting buy-in from learners to sit through a two hour long training session to learn about the latest change to the human resource binder or an important policy change is tough.  Let’s face it, learning new tasks and important information is often really, really boring.

So how do you keep people in your association engaged when you need to share new information, or upgrade an important skill?  Here are 12 things to incorporate into your next training session, or eLearning program to keep learners engaged.

Make it fun

Stop making your training so darned boring.  Yes, there are several important points and topics you may need to cover, but you won’t get buy-in from your learners if you present it in a dry manner.  

Identify the W.I.I.F.M.

What’s in it for me?  This is an important question to answer from the perspective of the learner.  What’s the benefit of them paying attention to what you have to say or show, and how will they use it directly in their role? Make sure the learner has the right information prior to the training to be able to answer this question for them, or make sure it is included in your initial hook.

Narrative

Since we were children, lessons have been taught through the use of narrative, from simple nursery rhymes to children’s books to big budget movies.  The narrative helps people identify where they fit into the key takeaways, and allows us to make use of metaphor to simplify complex situations.

Self-directed

Particularly in an eLearning setting, allowing people to tackle training in their own timeline, and using their own motivations give the learner a sense of autonomy and control over their learning journey.

Mentorship

Adult learners have a great deal of pride.  Often, the best way to teach them is to have them teach others.  This puts the ownership of the task of learning the topic into their hands as assessment will be based on how their apprentice is able to describe the content after the training.  

Get them involved

Involve everyone, every time.  This seems impossible, but keep in mind that each individual will have a different definition of what involvement means to them.  Some will want active engagement with the facilitator with questions; others will just want the opportunity to ask when they feel the need.  

Others will want to work in groups to bounce around ideas to understand complex problems.  Keep in mind that, as a facilitator, feedback is invaluable to making the training better and more engaging for future learners.

Gamification

Add rewards, badges and game based mechanics to your training. Using these types of validation can help keep engagement high by taking advantage of most people’s desire to receive regular feedback, and their need for completionism and competition.

Read More about gamification...

Keep things specific

Drill down your topics to the key takeaways.  If you are finding there are more than a few major takeaways, then break these up into smaller training sessions.  Build the focus around a specific learning objective  and build your content around that one key point.

Create a hook

Get the audience involved at the start and you’ll have them along for the whole ride. All training should start with a short, effective hook in the first 30 seconds that both describes the training and reveals its relevance the learners.  Provide something fun or catchy that people will remember once they’ve completed the training.

Game Based Learning

People naturally rely on play to learn complex principles.  These same principles are sometimes easier to understand in the context of a game.  Games allow us to use trial and error to learn what does and doesn’t work to solve a problem.  

Concepts like finance can be replicated in a board game, with cards or as a video game, which allow people to quickly simulate the long-term impact of their decisions.

Get a game built...

Know the audience

Evaluate the existing skill and knowledge of the audience taking the training. Don’t spend more than the minimal amount of time on the simple concepts each group should already know, but also don’t make assumptions and skip these concepts.

Make it Pretty

How things look is important.  Regardless of whether your training is done via elearning, webinar or face-to-face, your audience needs to be visually engaged throughout.  Generally, people process information at a faster rate visually than they do audibly. 

Use this to your advantage by involving images, infographics, and videos in your training.  Mix up the visuals so that groups don’t get bored with the same layouts and colors throughout the training.

7 Easy Ways to Add Gamification to Your Organization.

Feb 10th, 2017 1:04:16pm

Gamification is a hot topic in many industries these days. Not everyone is ready to commit to one of the many technology-based ways to add gamification to their organisation. But gamification is not always about some cool tech that adds game layers to your internal systems.  You can find ways to add game-based mechanics to everyday work events.  

Here are some easy ways to add gamification to your organisation with or without technology.

 1.       Internal challenges/competitions;

Sales offices do this daily.  However, this doesn’t mean competition is only effective in a sales environment. Friendly competition amongst peers often inspires great work to be accomplished, or the final pieces of the latest project to be completed on time.  They also help promote internal communication as colleagues must either work together or keep in close touch with each other to keep ahead in the game. Set up incremental goals for individuals or teams to meet every week, month, quarter.

2.       Rewards/badges;

Badges and rewards are probably the most obvious way to add a layer of Gamification to your organisation’s environment.  Most people are motivated by at least a minor amount of ‘completionism’; the goal of completing every possible objective.  Adding small rewards and badges to everyday tasks, or to recognize over-the-top achievements is a great way to keep people motivated.

3.       Social boasting;

With social media comes social boasting.  People love to talk about what good they’ve done with their friends, family and colleagues.  Why not include great things they’ve accomplished at work?  It’s also great to take advantage of internal social media channels to give shout-outs to your audience about people in your organisation who are doing great things.  Just make sure to ask them first if it’s okay!

LinkedIn is a great example of a platform that’s taken multiple Gamification routes in its design.  From it’s Skills & Endorsements section to it’s Profile completion bar.

4.       Progress bars;

All you need is some cardboard and markers to set up a progress bar in your office. Make sure your overall goal has several smaller key landing points for people to aim for on the small scale that will contribute to a larger win.

5.       Keep it simple;

A great example that was used for external marketing was the launch of M&M Eye Spy Pretzels in 2013.  M&M released pictures with dozens of M&M’s with the simple ask: find the pretzel amongst the chocolates.  The simple, low-cost campaign brought over 25,000 likes, 6,000 shares and 10,000 comments.  This type of simple game can be easily adapted and sent via email internally.  Have fun with a new internal promotion or build awareness on a topic that’s less exciting.

Can you find the pretzel?

6.       Multiple lives;

Many a classic video game give you a similar principle:  you have three lives to spend, three chances to complete a stage. This is a great tactic to use in board meetings, and especially training sessions.  Assign lives or hit-points to staff in the session and as they get things right or wrong, they may lose a few points, but they still have a chance to get back in with the right answers.

7.       Missions;

People love to be challenged.  It’s one reason why video games are so popular.  The fun is in exploring a narrative or multiple paths to reach a predefined goal.  Often the goal is less interesting than the journey there.  Take advantage of this in your projects and assign mission-like paths to your team.  Gaining small wins as they approach the -big boss’ of the mission will encourage them.

Gamification is a great way to help your team stay invested and engaged in projects, take up training faster, or learn about new products and business channels.  How you implement gamification does not need to always make use of technology or software.  Take advantage of how people naturally engage with each other by adding layers of game-play to every day.

Oct 31st, 2016 4:07:58pm

Growing with Tech

Technology seems to change nearly daily. How are we taking advantage of these thousands of new tools to meet the metrics our supporters, donors and board members so want to see? In today’s competitive market for donors its imperative that every organisation take steps to assess these tools and put a plan of action in to how each of them can be used to spur growth, heighten engagement, and build compliance.

In Washington for #17NTC?  Connect with us to chat more about how we can help you grow with technology

Here are just a few ways we can leverage new technology and forward thinking ideas that perhaps have been overlooked in the past.

Centralized data and content. In today’s world of expanding technology, it’s key to have the appropriate software to manage and control your content. Building consistency across chapters and regions requires having a centralized data chain that can be easily accessed, organised, and updated as required. Once your content is organised in this manner, how is it performing? Recognizing that the data gained through how people and potential donors are interacting with your media and content is another major factor. Which pieces of content are people interacting with? When are they engaging it? How long are they spending on it? Do they understand the takeaways you are targeting?

Using the right platform to monitor all of this data and compile it for you will not only help you re-iterate on content that may not be being used as planned, it will also help you better represent yourself to major contributors by showing off how well your content is performing. It’s no longer good enough to just assume you are doing okay based off of a few top-line numbers or stats. Donors, corporations, and major contributors want to see more detailed stories and data showing how your organisation is fairing.Who is your supporter? A great deal of effort and money is spent on generating new donors. Creating positive ROI on all the endeavors taken to bring new members, and new sources of donors is often overlooked. Generally the urgency to increase those positive increases in total donor’s year over year takes us away from keeping current donors engaged. A focused approach to engaging, re-engaging and keeping people interested often generates more positive results at a much lower cost.

Investing in a client relationship management system to monitor and manage this engagement is key. All of your contacts are potential donors, contributors or partners. From former volunteers, to clients, or even vendors you have used in the past. Keep the information close at hand, organised, and the contacts you make engaged by actively using a CRM to store and keep all that vital information up to date.

Salesforce for instance is a great tool that will automatically update your contact’s information as they move through jobs, schools and other organisations so long as you proactively enter enough information in about each contact.

In-sourcing not out-sourcing. It’s often seen as critical to find lower cost, out-sourced options to managing things like goods and services or print materials needed for organisation volunteers. If quantities in your organisation keep rising, it may be time to look at a different approach. Though you may still need to outsource providers and manufacturers, and in-sourced channel of acquisition may be a great option. By partnering with a third party distributor, like Shopify

for instance, you can create an internal market place for goods. As your bulk purchases grow, this is a valued source of internal revenue as your people and chapters will purchase from your store, providing incremental income to the home office, allowing for more flexibility in expenditures and growth.

Gamification. Gamification is not a new principle in any organisation’s plan to grow both awareness, as well as revenue. Take the Princess Margaret Home Lottery for instance. This organisation created a game around fundraising by throwing in a high odd chance for each donor to at least win their donation back in the form of goods and services, and of course a home that was gifted the organisation. Not only did awareness of the organisation’s goals multiply, but donating to their cause became an exciting event. People look forward to their chance to win big every year.

Not only does this excitement encourage donations, it encourages a major increase in per donor numbers. Finding unique ways to engage donors and build this excitement is key; it also doesn’t necessarily require the scale provided by a free home. Creating small challenges into social media is a great place to start. The Alzheimer Association of Canada’s #CoffeeDay campaign is a great example of a simple form of Gamification that’s fun, interactive, and very social.

Social boasting. Social media has become a mainstay of all modern marketing. Whether for awareness, building donor lists, or finding new funding and collaborations, it’s something that can’t be ignored. Both content and rewards are the keys to encouraging organic growth through these chains. Creating engaging content is simply the first step. One innovative way to encourage social sharing and awareness is to allow donors and contributors to display badges on their social sites like LinkedIn. Creating these badges and share buttons is a onetime thing that takes advantage of a person’s natural instinct to compete and the “collect them all" mentality.

Global Reach. There is more to the world than your local chapters and their collection of volunteers, community centers and events. Creating an online platform that will help you spread further outreach, awareness and education about your goals is necessary more than ever. Opportunities for collaboration worldwide are better than ever. Take advantage of the history, stories, and successes you have had to build an online platform of information, social engagement, and media that showcases these things.Diversified media. Keeping an audience’s attention is harder than ever. Written content just isn’t digested as much as in the past. It’s also lacking in forefront of accessibility, a key factor moving forward as new AODA rules come in to play.

Integrating new media forms into your content can’t be avoided. Videos, info-graphics, images, and other forms of visual communication are not only more engaging, but they have broader reaches than print media. That’s not to say of course to stop printing stories, and whitepapers, and blogs, but it’s highly important to blend different experiences to draw the necessary eyes onto this more in-depth material.Self-directed learning and training. Creating an environment where volunteers across multiple chapters, across the country, or even across the world is a next step for many organisations. Self-directed training through online learning sites, webinars and interactive modules is not only more cost efficient, it opens up the market of potential volunteers beyond your original borders. An organisation like Junior Achievement Canada for instance on-boards new program administrators and volunteers through an online resource portal.

They allow program volunteers to engage with the training at their own pace towards receiving various certifications required to run their various classes and student activities. As an organisation with multiple chapters across the nation this cohesive set of tools they provide makes it easier for their very busy volunteer base to participate.

Measuring compliance of this training is also made more formal in an online setting, where data reporting can show the who, what, where, and when of engagement with the various topics. The data from self-directed learning can also be easily translated into the updates to the learning content itself.

Online board meetings. Though we’re often ready to take advantage of webinar tech to have meetings between key administrative staff, it can be considered a headache to arrange for various busy board members to also meet to discuss an organisation’s direction. Taking advantage of built in tools in some web platform software is a sometimes overlooked way of establishing communication on all levels of leadership. It’s far too often that strategies, and necessary changes don’t happen, because we simply can’t get all the required decision makers in one room to discuss it.

The Junior Achievement Canada Resource Portal 

Live events and conferences. It’s easy to overlook the common effectiveness of putting a group of people with connected and diverse backgrounds into a room and letting them organically network. On the other hand, but just following this philosophy, you’re also missing out on the opportunity to engage even more people. Take advantage of modern, unique ways to host conferences online.

You can take a gamified approach like the 2016 CASC conference did, by adding a leaderboard and prizes for the attendees who most engaged with the various conference materials. This allowed them to create a bit of play around the conference, extending the event both before, and after the live events. Because of the extra activity online, they were also able to gather valuable information about the performance of various talks, and the different types of media used to communicate to the audience. A valued source of analytical data to share with future supporters and event sponsors.

Here is an excerpt from our recently released Gamified whitepaper.  You can read or download the entire article here.

Sep 28th, 2016 10:01:56am

Human beings are natural game-players. When left to our own devices, we often make games out of boring tasks. Children naturally make games out of found objects, and adults create new games all the time to give themselves a challenge: counting the tiles on the ceiling of the dentist's office or inventing a version of 3D Tetris for putting away the holiday ornaments.

One of the oldest board games recorded, 'senet' was played in Ancient Egypt. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In 1990, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term "flow" to describe the state of becoming lost in game-play, a natural human condition. We often lose a sense of how much time is passing and forget about the "external world" when experiencing "flow." It's worth noting that this is similar to the description many visitors give when immersed in their favorite museum exhibitions.

"Every flow experience…provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness."

– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Good games can't be too easy, nor too hard, but rest in that sweet spot where we're being challenged but not discouraged. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky called this the Zone of Proximal Development2, but it could just as easily be called the Goldilocks Principle.

9thcentury medicine was a wee bit limited compared to what we have now, but that doesn't mean the ancient cures of the 1000-year old Bald’s Leechbook are any less effective. In fact, it seems that in the case of a certain ‘eye salve’ described in this Anglo-Saxon medical text, the old way is proving to be somewhat more efficient than our modern cures.

"Bald's Leechbook page" by Unknown, Cockayne, Oswald. 1865. Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green. Frontispiece. Digitalized by the Internet Archive.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the UK tested the eye salve against the antibiotic-resistant bacteria Staphyloccocus aureus (also known as MRSA) and discovered its incredible ability to destroy 90% of the challenging bacterial cultures.

"Staphylococcus aureus VISA 2" by Content Providers(s): CDC/ Matthew J. Arduino, DRPHPhoto Credit: Janice Haney Carr - This media comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Public Health Image Library (PHIL), with identification number #11157.Note: Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The salve was then tested against the even more notoriously difficult biofilms of MRSA, as well as topically on the wounds of live mice, and produced the same amazing results. Although they still do not know why or how this works, they do know that the effectiveness of the salve depends on all of the ingredients being present.

These findings could not come at a better time: recent estimates put the number of deaths caused by antibiotic resistance at nearly 700, 000 annually. Perhaps the key to understanding an aspect of medicine as innate as antibiotic resistance is to think outside the box- 1000 years outside the box, in this case.

References

http://www.sciencealert.com/1-000-year-old-onion-and-garlic-remedy-kills-antibiotic-resistant-bugs

Physical rehabilitation following surgery or injury can be tedious, and patients often have a difficult time feeling motivated to do rehab exercises. MIRA Rehab is a newly developed software which gives physio a fun twist by turning the exercises into video games, by way of a motion sensor Kinect platform and an Xbox. 

Image Reference: http://www.mirarehab.com/

MIRA (which stands for Medical Interactive Recovery Assistant) uses an external sensor, which records and tracks how often the program is used. 

Image Reference: http://www.cs.ubbcluj.ro/mira-rehab-un-proiect-de-succes-al-studentilor-nostri/

Romanian software engineer Cosmin Mihaiu presented this novel approach to physiotherapy at Vancouver’s TED conference. He suggests that this technique will work in conjunction with physiotherapists, rather than replacing them; the purpose of MIRA is to act as a “digital pill” to aid in recovery.

Check out their website for more information: http://www.mirarehab.com/

References

MIRA Rehab

Live Science is holding a WILD tournament to determine which animal sits atop the throne of the animal kingdom.It’s about time we crowned a champion!

Follow this link to vote on who YOU think should win in each of the 4 categories: Land, Air, Sea, and Creepy-Crawly. The first round began yesterday on March 16th , and the tournament ends on March 25th. You can continuously check the website for updates and live results, and you can also participate by using the hashtag #LSAnimalMadness. Will they fight like cats and dogs? Will they fight tooth and nail? Will they fight with bared teeth? Yes, yes and yes!

Check out these contestants!

Credit: Anita Rahman

Reference