Interview with Clark Quinn, eLearning thought leader

Our Vice President, Conor Gilligan, recently interviewed Clark Quinn about his recent book ‘Millennials, Goldfish and other Training Misconceptions.’

Here’s what we learned…

The LMS isn’t the answer to everything

When we consult with our clients, we often find that the requirements for their project are very vast. We challenge them to understand the true business reasons for their decision to procure an LMS. In doing so, organisations appreciate our perspective, they find much better engagement and return on investment from the project.

This is why we use a range of technologies to bring about the solution for our clients. For example, we recently built a learning environment to support blended learning and performance support. This was a mixed modality approach of our enterprise LMS, Totara Learn, which is able to provide blended learning management via elearning, VCT (Virtual Classroom Training) and workshops. Then, we also used Watch and Learn, our performance support mobile app which captures video learning – this catered for on the job learning which was delivered in micro learning chunks. As Clark says in his book, micro learning is not a panacea, it needs mixing with other delivery methods.

Does the modern learner really have an attention span of a Goldfish?

In Clark’s book, he talks about the attention span of a Goldfish when it comes to learning. He challenges this perception that everyone in the modern corporate is busy and doesn’t have time to learn, hence the pull towards the micro learning world. Clark provides the example of a computer game, people spend hours playing this so why wouldn’t you if the same was applicable to learning?

How powerful is xAPI and Tin Can?

We asked Clark during the interview for his perspective. It’s clear there are challenges to rolling out a learning record store to capture xAPI data. In order to get this right, you need a clear strategy, something a partner can help with. Once you have captured the data in a sensible way, you can make real inroads. Clark comments that this learning data can then be linked to other management information within your business, to create even greater insights.

What about Gamification?

In our interview with Clark, we ask him about Gamification. The golden nugget we learnt about from him was how instructional designers must ask ‘WIIFT’ (What’s In It for Them). He also comments how it’s important to distinguish the two elements of gamification, for example, creating PBL – Points, Badges and Leaderboards. Then there’s creating an actual game, so thinking about the learning outcomes and audience and actually building a real game experience.

You can read the interview in full here.