Author: les

We just wanted to say thanks to those users that signed up and have used Dojo Learning over the last two years. We started this project as first-time collaborators and in many ways it was a success.  We would have loved to continue on, but this business venture has come to its natural end.

We are closing shop May 1, 2010.

Thanks again,

Lux an Les

This is the second article in the series: ABC's of Lesson Development. This article builds on language introduced in Part I.

This workshop process is like a focus group. The best way to discover all the KSJ's is to bring together a group of of SME's, in this case they would be Internet Marketers. If you are developing these materials on your own because you are the SME and you don't know any other experts, you can proceed through this process by yourself.

Step 2. Ask the question "In the course of my everyday work as a Internet Marker I..."

What follows next is a verb and a skill, knowledge or judgement. For example:

In the course of my everyday work as an Internet Marketer I...:

Typically this process is completed over two days with groups of 8 - 10 experts and the list of KSJ's can exceed 100. This list is usually displayed on cards along a wall, but it can be expressed on paper just as well. If you are trying to develop more concise materials you can keep this list short or break a longer list into a multiple set of materials.

Step 3: Group the KSJ's in categories. 

You can categorize these skills as "Communication." I've included an example of a DACUM chart that demonstrates how you can group your list of KSJs. This chart represents an entry level Art Advertising course that is delivered by a local college. Now you can make your own DACUM chart. A smaller version of the DACUM chart can be viewed below as well.

 

Step 4. Assign a Competence Level to Each KSJ (Optional)

This helps you gauge how in-depth you may want to teach certain KSJ's. For example in the skill above "record video"  you may not want to teach that as in depth as "tweet messages."  If that is the case, I would assign a "2" to record video and a "3" to "Tweet Messages." This process really helps you focus your materials development to those skills that are most important and require more content than the less important skills.

This DACUM process is the standard for developing curriculum, and if you are a knowledge-based consultant or independent trainer this process is a great way to organize your training.  In the next post we will explore how we can take the DACUM chart and create lessons in Dojo Learning. The ABC's of Lesson Development is a series on outcomes-bases lesson development and assessment. If you are interested in this series subscribe to our RSS feed and follow along.

I've spent the last 6 years working with curriculum development in an Adult Learning organization. We used a curriculum development process that makes delivering training thorough and practical. Having a clear structure helps clients see what they are learning and provides them confidence with the materials you have developed.

This process is called Outcome-based Learning.  An outcome is a conceptual container that holds all the knowledge, skills and judgements  you need to accomplish the outcome. At the onset of each lesson the developer should complete the following sentence:

"At the end of this lesson my learners will be able to..."

and what follows next is an action word, or verb, and the outcome.

Let's use the example of cleaning a kitchen in this sentence. At the end of this lesson, my learner will be able to Clean the Kitchen.

The learning outcome, Clean the Kitchen holds all the knowledge, skills and judgements (KSJ's) required to perform the outcome. Here is a list of KSJ's for the Clean the Kitchen outcome.

Knowledge
Safely use cleaning chemicals.
Prepare cleaning solutions using ratios.
Understand the appropriate tools for the appropriate job task. 

Skills
Sweep floors.
Wash dishes.
Wash floors.
Clean counters.

Judgements
Choose appropriate cleaning supplies for the job.
Choose appropriate cleaning tools for the job.
Assess when kitchen is clean.

These KSJ's are what you teach your clients if they are taking your How to Clean the Kitchen lesson. This framework provides the lesson developer with a road map for lesson development and a clear framework for you clients. This method is considered a best-practice in curriculum development and private trainers and consultants can use this method for developing their own materials too.

The next article in this series is on DACUM (Developing A CUrriculuM) which is a storyboard / workshop method that helps you develop KSJ's for your training. The ABC's of Lesson Development is a series on outcomes-bases lesson development and assessment. If you are interested in this series subscribe to our RSS feed and follow along.

Video is a great way to deliver consulting and convey complex ideas.  Using sight and sound to evoke emotion, you can drive home your message to your clients.   When you are ready to make your own lesson videos, use these ten to help you incorporate a creative approach.

Funny Forklift Training Video
http://www.yikers.com/video_absolutely_ridiculous_forklift_training_video.html

Bill Nye the Science Guy Video - the Water Cycle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BayExatv8lE

Phil Kay - Comedy Health and Safety Video FULL VERSION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OAz3Y-sT0I&NR=1

Chuck E. Cheese "University" Character Training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nfXTfXi6HA

Pedestrian Crossing Training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR5Q5pS-Ji0

Finger Safety - "It Can Happen to You!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCJgbQ9aEbg

Awkward Chemistry Video that works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU5S80xK65M

Don't You Put it in Your Mouth (Full Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AuLkMBAFZg

1980's Wendy's Training Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KIdTPS6LH4

Hurray, Dojo Learning is growing! That means we are working towards building a better company that offers improved services and tools.

The upgrade this weekend means several behind-the-scenes improvements that make Dojo a more reliable service than ever. Specifically, these include:

•	Hardware virtualization, which means a smooth path for future growth as well as protection from common hardware failures.
•	A completely revamped backup system that is much more reliable than the old one.
•	Improvements to our outbound email setup, ensuring messages get through to you and your learners.
•	Minor bug fixes that resolve an issue some customers have reported with our custom themes.

These changes have laid out a strong foundation for future growth of Dojo Learning as well as the basic building blocks for several upcoming new features. We are seeing more activity and more interest in Dojo Learning which is good news for us and you, our customer. We want to grow our company as naturally as we can, and it's happening.

We are also feverishly working on changes to our services based on direct feedback. We know that our customers know what they want and we can't wait to start showing off the many big changes we have coming this year.

Thank you and your learners for helping us grow.

Lux & Les, co-founders of Dojo Learning

We've been hard at work this summer and have just launched a major update to Dojo Learning.  Take a look!

New features:

Developer API
This allows other developers to make use of our online learning application in unique and custom ways.  The API has many functions that can be used in almost unlimited ways to customize your Dojo Learning experience.

Facebook Application
We have added a Facebook application that allows you to share which lessons you are taking and which ones you are instructing and connect with other Dojo Learning users on Facebook.  Great if you are selling your training or using Facebook in your online classroom.

Profile Pages
Upload your photo and connect with other learners using your profile page.  Learners are automatically connected to each other when they subscribe or when they are invited into a lesson.

Widget Tool
We have developed a Widget tool that let you embed your lessons into your own blog or website. You can use the Widget to promote your lessons while keeping your already branded webpage.

Promote Your Lesson
Use your address book from Gmail, Outlook, Plaxo, AOL, Yahoo! or use a CSV file to promote your lesson to all your contacts or submit your lesson to over 20 social media sites.

Updates:

Journal
The Journal tool has been improved.  Navigation is easier, responses are easier to read and profile pictures are connected to each response.

Improved Landing Page
When logging on to Dojo Learning, you are presented with a new, more informative landing page that quickly directs you to the lessons you're taking or instructing, and provides you with a quick link to add a new lesson to your account.

Chat Tool
The chat tool was taking too much screen real estate, so we tucked it away in a side tab.  When a fellow learner or instructor starts a chat, an indicator will let you know that a chat has started.  You can disable the indicator tool if you want to work in private.

We are very exited about these changes and are already working on Dojo Learning version 2.0.  We will strive to make Dojo Learning the most engaging learning application on the net.  Enjoy the upgrade.

We've been working hard this summer to improve Dojo Learning.  We are making a major upgrade October 1st, 2008.  We've developed a Facebook Application, an API, added Social Network features, and have made user interface upgrades.  Stay tuned for more details as we approach our launch day.

We had our first Dojo Learning outage today. It was an Apache server error and we just fixed it. Dojo Learning is up and running and we are looking further into this error in order to resolve future outages.

Dojo Learning

Assessment is the process of investigating a learner’s work for evidence of understanding and competence.  Typically, we learn content and then we are assessed through a test at the end of the process.  But that’s not natural, assessment happens throughout the process of learning.

Let’s take the case of self-assessment.  When we teach ourselves a skill or new knowledge we are constantly asking ourselves “did I get that?”  We usually don’t move forward in our studies until we do.  We are self-assessing and it occurs constantly. I call this natural assessment and why should it be any different online or in a classroom?

Building learning materials and assessments to mimic natural assessment will create stronger knowledge foundations because learners will have their trouble areas flagged before moving onto new material.

The Dojo Learning course builder is structured in a way that creating natural assessment is encouraged.  At anytime in the process a journal object (those are our assessment objects) can be added.  This means that as an instructor you can see the progress of your learners and their level of competences within a unit rather than at the end of a unit.

This information is vital to understand your employee’s or client’s strengths and weaknesses and helps gauge if further training is required in your organization.

This is the second of a series of posts we'll be making about workplace learning and the ideas that went into making Dojo Learning for work. Make sure to subscribe through email or RSS to catch future posts.

We just finished a new lesson on "How to Use Dojo Learning."  Try it out by subscribing to it below.

http://www.dojolearning.com/course-action/id.96