Avoiding Crapathy in Your eLearning

Well first of all I guess I’d better explain the strange new word I’ve chosen to add to the English language. Those of you who attended the eLN event on 26th November will already know its meaning as it formed the basis of my Pecha Kucha presentation. But for everyone else, Crapathy is short for ‘Creative Apathy’ (can you see what I’ve done there?).

Crapathy is what corporate L&D folks have a tendency to lapse into when faced with certain pressures, including (but not limited to):

• Lack of time
• Lack of money
• Lack of software
• Lack of IT support
• Lack of imagination

In my view none of the above are viable reasons for producing elearning that induces narcolepsy in your learners. They are just excuses.

So how do you avoid Crapathy in the first place? Well let’s take a look at each by way of a little scenario which will undoubtedly ring a few bells with you.

Lack of Time

The staple excuse for anyone looking to shirk their way out of a task that will tax their creative brain(cell). Let’s imagine that you’ve just got wind of a new regulatory module required by everybody’s friends, the Compliance Department. In four weeks time they want the new module launched, and it’ll naturally be mandatory for everyone from the CEO to the bloke who fills the coffee machine. The CEO will obviously get his PA to do it for him and the coffee bloke hasn’t got a PC, but that’s not your problem.

So what can you do? First comes the content; where a short timescale can be to your advantage. The subject matter expert(s) will want the whole lot included in the module, but they haven’t given you time to produce all the slides to contain it. This is where you can summarise the main sections into short scenarios based around outcomes for your company, where the learner has to make decisions based on their understanding. The full content can be accessed via a link to keep Compliance happy (possibly an oxymoron there). If they don’t like it, don’t forget that whilst they are the subject matter expert(s), you are the learning expert(s) – push your expertise.

Lack of Money

You’re producing elearning to be used internally by your company. You’re producing it for the tightest department in the company (“we’re Compliance – you have to do what we tell you anyway so you’re not getting any cash out of us”). You’re producing it during the greatest economic downturn for years and you’ve just worked out that you haven’t got any money to spend. Shouldn’t really come as a shock, should it?

When it comes down to it, you don’t need to spend much or indeed any money to produce a module. Just about all corporations will have a Communications/Marketing dept with a camera, and a whole cast of willing actors and locations from which to produce a compelling photostory. All you’ve got to do is get out there and snap the story.

Lack of Software

So what have you got? Lectora? Captivate? Articulate? Photoshop? I’m betting that you’ve got at least one of those and that you’ve definitely got PowerPoint. Even if you don’t have any of the recognised elearning software products, PowerPoint allows you to set out the story, insert and manipulate graphics, animate and create hyperlinks. Don’t put so much emphasis on the software – put your energies into how the end product will work for the learner.

Lack of IT Support

Hmmm. I have a problem with this one, not just because I moved from L&D into IT (please keep reading…) but because it’s a stock phrase apparently drummed into L&D staff when they start at a company. Presumably at the same time as IT staff are being told not to expect anything but trouble from L&D. Why is this and does it have to be so?

No of course it doesn’t. Sit down with IT and ask them what technology is available to you. Can you use audio and/or video across your network? Are there places on the network where elearning files can be stored to ease the burden when smaller offices or branches need to access them? What technology is in the pipeline? Do they want to star in some of the elearning? Actually, scrub that last one – we don’t want to scare the learners….

Lack of Imagination

I really have two suggestions for anyone that thinks they are not imaginative or creative. First, think about all the modules, books, articles, stories etc. that you’ve read or watched to the end. Why did you persevere all the way through? Probably because the story or the locations or the characters kept you interested – and I’m willing to bet that you can remember all the main events of those stories. And all of those are things that you can include in your elearning, for instance by using a scenario based in your company using your colleagues.

Secondly, look at all the items of software and hardware you have at your disposal. Are you using it for anything near to its ability? No, of course you’re not. Just like anything technological you order for your personal use, I bet you only use a fraction of what it was designed to do. Have a look at some of the options available and get online to find out what others have been doing with it. Throw questions out there and see what comes back. You don’t need to know what everything does in detail, but someone out there will have already done something creative with it and will most likely share their success with you.

These may be things that have crossed your mind already. But they need to be things that you look to do something about. Without addressing them, Crapathy will creep into what you do. And whilst it may be a new concept to you, Crapathy is something that your learners can smell a mile off…