PRAISE FOR MICHAEL ALLEN’S GUIDE TO E-LEARNING

Every subject area has its Bible. This is it for e-learning. This is the how-to book for both instructional designers and executives responsible for corporate e-learning programs. Especially well done and unique to this book are the chapters on learner motivation and how effective instructional interactivities are created. The bottom line, from our experience working with Michael Allen and his team, is the methods and principles defined in this book work—and work well.

—Mike Groszko
Manager, DaimlerChrysler Quality Institute

Michael Allen has done it all: He has designed and developed huge amounts of effective e-learning material. He has built several very successful businesses providing programs to sophisticated clients. He has managed development. He personally led the creation of Authorware, the benchmark authoring system used throughout the world. He has lectured. He has written. He has taught. His opinions and perspective are sought by many. But mostly, he thinks. And the results of that thinking are to the benefit of us all. I am glad he wrote down what he thinks.

—Gloria Gery
Gery Associates

Never boring, often insightful, I see this as the definitive e-learning guide for everyone in the field who wants to do e-learning right.

—Ted Lehne
Manager, Training Technology Learning Services, Delta Air Lines

Most e-learning today is an antidote for insomnia! Michael Allen, however, provides a road map to the design of engaging, interactive instructional materials. Any person who designs or purchases e-learning applications should read this book.

—Dr. Martin Siegel
Professor of Informatics and Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
Founder and Chief Learning Officer, WisdomTools

Michael Allen is the master of designing great, interactive e-learning applications. Flip to any page in this book and you will see practical, powerful ways to create better online courses.

—Dr. Brandon Hall
CEO, brandon-hall.com

It must be kismet. We had been trying to figure out how to educate developers about e-learning on an enterprise level. I started reading Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning the day after our meetings concluded. I soon realized this book was exactly what we were looking for.

—Dan Bonicatto
Senior Training Consultant, American Express

I’ve been looking for a way to help businesses understand what it takes to make e-learning the tool for successful performance that it can be. Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning brings the critical issues to light with clearly defined solutions and examples. Business leaders and instructional designers alike need to read this book cover to cover.

—Julie Groshens
Conference Program Director, VNU Business Media

I found the book not only to be readable (no surprise), but also to be a work that will be highly useful to a wide range of practitioners and managers. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is involved in e-learning or its derivatives.

—Dr. Eugene G. Kerr
President and CEO, Savant, Inc.

Copyright © 2003 by Michael W. Allen. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Allen, Michael W., 1946–

Michael Allen’s guide to e-learning / Michael Allen.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-471-20302-5 (CLOTH : alk. paper)

1. Employees—Training of. 2. Employees—Training of—Computer-assisted instruction. I. Title.

HF5549.5.T7 A4686 2003

658.3′12404′0285—dc21

2002014447

To Robert A. Moe

who gave me his trust, guidance, and support,

and a unique opportunity

to develop a career

in an environment rich

in thought, technology, and mission.

To Wilma Wakefield Allen, deceased,

who thought that being published

was one of life’s noblest achievements;

to Eugene Richard Allen,

who is a model of the honest American entrepreneur;

and to my family, Mary Ann, Christopher, and Emily,

who continue to find strength in me

every time I see nothing.

I love you all.

Considerations

Should you buy this book?

Yes. Neither my publisher nor I are biased on this point. As objective and independent thinkers we’ve come to a unanimous agreement. You should buy it.

Why?

e-Learning represents an opportunity for everyone. Good e-learning is powerful and very much worthwhile, and when design and development expenses are amortized over a number of learners, it can be very inexpensive. If e-learning gets on the right path:

We’ll have widespread access to learning opportunities that will allow us to pursue activities, interests, careers, and avocations.

Corporations will have the means to achieve high-quality customer service, increased business flexibility, lower-cost greater-benefit employee support, lower attrition, and improvement everywhere human performance is a key factor.

World peace? Possibly. It’s tempting to add it to the list, because peace is dependent on understanding, and understanding is a product of learning. There is real potential here, though it’s admittedly a stretch.

You could, of course, claim such objectives for any system of learning you favored, but e-learning has so much potential, practicality, and power, it deserves special attention. Saving training time, cutting instructional costs, ensuring top quality and consistency for all learners in all locations, and offering high-impact instruction in a fun and entertaining manner is the lot of e-learning. This potential isn’t achieved every time, of course—hence this book—but the potential is there, proven, and without question.

With all there is to gain, we shouldn’t waste a minute perfecting the ability of e-learning to do the good things it can for us. With all there is at risk, and the question of whether tomorrow’s instruction will be delivered via the Internet having been decisively answered in the affirmative, for whatever reason, we had better get hopping to be sure we get the good and not the bad—because whatever it is, it will stick around longer than it should. With all hands on deck, we can get there.

That’s why.

Who is it written for?

I have attempted to address two primary audiences—audiences that usually read from very separate libraries:

Executives, managers, superintendents, and all decision makers who fund (or should fund) the design and development of learning applications and need to make smart decisions about learning and instruction

Designers and developers of learning applications, whether novice or experienced, degreed or not

There are strategic issues at stake here, as well as tactical ones. Neither group is going to do as well without the input and support of the other. In fact, it can be quite a struggle without frequent, meaningful communication between the two, as is often the case. As a start, each group really needs to understand the perspectives of the other. For example, regarding design and development issues, decision makers need to:

Understand what’s possible in e-learning.

Know how to avoid wasting money on e-learning.

Know how to achieve a strong ROI on e-learning.

Know what to demand in e-learning.

Know how to evaluate e-learning project proposals.

Know how to evaluate e-learning solutions and applications.

Regarding business issues, e-learning designers and developers need to:

Apply the organization’s vision as a set of value guidelines for choosing among alternatives.

Understand the business needs being addressed in e-learning initiatives.

Design learning applications to address performance needs.

Understand and meet the criteria for an acceptable ROI.

Of course, each group needs expertise in its respective areas of responsibility. To this end, as this is a book about e-learning, I’ve tried to do something unusual. I’ve tried to address for both audiences, in plain, reasoned talk, those critical principles of instructional design that I feel are often misconstrued—even frequently by seasoned instructional designers. For e-learning to succeed, decision makers and designers need to work as team members who can communicate with each other, understand what’s at stake, and appreciate the options.

I am knowingly taking a risk with the design audience, because I counter so much conventional wisdom and skip over tons of basics and nuances. I have not taken pains to be politically correct. Some might argue that I’m simply being obstinate and argumentative, but I hope they’ll give me some space.

My rule of thumb on design principles is, if it doesn’t work or it turns out boring learning activities, there is something wrong with the principle, our understanding of it, or the application of it. In most cases, the principles are fine but understood incompletely or out of context. Because they have been misunderstood, they are misapplied, but nevertheless are offered up as justification for a decision. Whatever the cause, politically correct or not, we shouldn’t take boring or ineffective e-learning as an acceptable norm—principled or not.

I hope the discussions of critical design principles and their effective application will be understandable and useful to both decision makers and designers. If so, they should contribute to a common ground for discussion about what’s really important—developing learning applications that are good investments—and lead to meaningful successes.

Who is it written by?

I’m Michael Allen, and I have been creating computer-assisted learning applications, tools, and development processes since the late 1960s. The field allows me to address all at once a number of things about which I’m passionate: user-interface design, graphic and architectural design, staging and drama, and, most of all, teaching. As a result of being totally, 100 percent hooked by all this stuff:

I have many, many years of experience in designing, building, and using numerous forms of technology-assisted instruction.

I have a PhD in educational psychology with an interdisciplinary specialization in user-interface design.

I have developed and taught instructional design methodologies over the years that seem to turn out quite a few more effective learning experiences than is typical.

I have led, instigated, or supervised funded research efforts on topics ranging from issues in learning theory to human perception to intelligent tutoring systems.

I led the design and managed the construction of two of the most widely used learning and content management systems of their day, long before their rise to corporate interest.

I have researched and led the creation of many design and development tools, including Authorware, about which I will be forever proud—and consternated.

I have managed both small and large programming efforts as well as content development activities of almost every size.

I have been active in professional organizations, twice serving as president of the former Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional systems and holding a variety of other positions.

I was the founding editor and later editor emeritus of the Journal of Computer-Based Instructional Systems.

I worked with IBM to enhance its foundational Coursewriter system, providing advanced capabilities used worldwide, while also documenting the system and lecturing internationally on instructional breakthroughs accomplished with this system.

As director of the Advanced Educational Systems Research and Development division and a member of an outstanding team of brilliant engineers, researchers, and programmers at Control Data Corporation, I had a privileged opportunity to work on the famous PLATO system and learn from the broad array of instructional approaches pioneered on that system.

I have worked in both large and small companies, started my own several times—going public with one—had large numbers of people reporting to me, and taken positions responsible for strategic advice needed by top corporate leaders.

And finally, although in truth I’m very shy and prefer working away quietly with a few esteemed colleagues, I have given perhaps far too many lectures and presentations hither and yon about both the invaluable possibilities and deplorable realities of learning by computer. It’s been a great life, being the guest of heads of state, featured speaker at royal symposia, an ambassador of learning technology behind the Iron Curtain, when it was still up, flown fully halfway around the world without any advance notice from keynoting at Windows World Japan to fill in for a suddenly incapacitated celebrity speaker in Brussels, and so on.

As chairman and CEO of Allen Interactions Inc., a consulting and training company offering advice, training, and e-learning development services through its distributed professional studios, I am working with many talented people dedicated to demonstrating the frequently untapped potential of e-learning to make a major difference in the lives of both individuals and organizations.

With all this, and it has been grand, neither you nor I should think I know it all. As usual, the more I learn, the more I realize is yet to be learned. I have learned a lot about what not to do, however. And I have gathered quite a few insights that, I hope you will agree, are worthy of sharing.

But enough about me. Really. I’m running out of pages already.

What’s in it?

This is a two-part book, combining a discussion of why e-learning is often so poor and the problems of breaking out of this tradition with a section on design, geared to addressing some of the most powerful paradigms that seem to work over and over again.

Part 1 presents an observation that the real costs of poor training are frequently overlooked. Not recognizing them doesn’t mean organizations escape payment for this failure. Indeed, they pay handsomely in lost productivity, injuries, inflexibility, poor customer service, quality fluctuation, and so on. The problem is that no one wants to identify the failures and the costs associated with them. As a result, those funds paid out over and over again, year after year, aren’t collected and used for an investment in effective training that reaps business benefits over and over again, year after year. They are simply wasted.

This cycle must change for organizations to become unbound from the traditions of lackluster training and take advantage of what e-learning really can do for them. We propose that projects must not accept content presentation as an inescapable prime responsibility. If necessary, very inexpensive transmission of information, such as electronic documents, may have to suffice. Projects should often be reduced in scope so that real interactivity—meaningful, memorable interactivity—can take place to demonstrate its power. Once done, organizations will see the alternatives and begin a positive cycle of high-ROI investments in training. The old alternatives will no longer be acceptable.

Part 1 continues with a review of the components of excellent e-learning and the processes that can be used to ensure a quality outcome. While some people are just naturally gifted in the art of good instructional experience design, there are reliable principles and procedures all of us can use to confidently produce an effective learning application.

Part 2 turns to design and application of previously presented principles in more detail. Decision makers might too quickly decide this section is not for them, but if you are a decision maker, please consider spending some time here. I’ve tried to write this in a way that’s easy to read and demonstrates a number of very interesting possibilities. It will be very helpful to those who are trying to meet your requirements if you can talk with them about alternatives at this level. Further, this will give you criteria you should expect your designers and developers to meet. If you don’t have some familiarity with what’s possible and what the alternatives are, how effective can you be as a client, and how can you effectively handle the responsibility of putting good solutions in place?

For designers, I’ve often advocated reuse of successful designs. It’s not necessary to invent original instructional paradigms for each need. It’s probably not even possible to do so. But it sure is possible to spend a lot of money programming the same solutions over and over again, not even recognizing how similar the solutions are to others already used. What’s the worst of the worst is repeatedly building interactions that were never very good to begin with.

What I’ve tried to do is chart out some specific designs that cover a host of instructional needs. Not every need, to be sure, but enough of them to impart a pattern of thought you can run with. The need here is to always keep your head not in the clouds, but high enough to get a learner’s perspective on what’s going on. As a designer or developer, the challenges you are overcoming might lead you to imagine a lot more of interest than learners will see. If what you’re doing is boring to learners, it doesn’t matter how triumphant the technical solutions are, how correct the design is on some professor’s checklist, or where the interactivity falls on a theoretical continuum. Boring is boring, and it’s poison. Not too many theories talk about the boredom factor, but it’s a realworld thing. So we’ll talk about it a lot, with plenty of examples of nonboring designs.

What’s not in it?

This book is not like other books on e-learning. It’s neither a primer nor a master compendium. It’s not exactly a how-to book, although it definitely has a lot of examples and specific principles. It’s not a theory book.

It doesn’t go on in detail about how to write good true/false questions. (The real question is who wants a true/false question anyway? Why is it that you should be trying to perfect true/false questions?) Nor does it even talk about how to construct accurate assessments. In fact, there are many important things about instructional design it doesn’t talk about. This isn’t because they aren’t important; rather, they are too important to treat lightly and are major topics in and of themselves. This book isn’t intended to take nondesigners to the level of expert designers, although it may work quite well for this for those having just enough aptitude.

No, this book is intended to fill a gap—a gap identified for me by a person whose name I’ve lost. After I had completed a presentation to a large audience at an online learning conference, an attendee came up to me and said, “I’ve been an instructional designer for 18 years. I have a master’s degree and experience in hundreds of projects. What you said today was the most valuable message I’ve heard about instructional design in all this time. I’d like to redo almost every one of the projects I’ve completed. Although I can’t do that, what I will do going forward will be much different and much better.

“By the way, don’t you feel obligated to write a book on this? This has been so helpful to me, and I know many others here today feel the same way. You might get hit by a bus, you know. Then where would we be?”

Question is, where would I be, but I guess that’s another matter—a matter that didn’t seem to concern him, actually. . . .

Anyway, here’s the requested book. It doesn’t cover the many important things this most-supportive designer had learned from all his classes, books, and years of experience. I’m not trying to retrace all that. Many others are doing it, and new books reorganizing this material seem to come out monthly. This book is intended to provide the other stuff—the stuff they didn’t tell you in design school—plus some fundamental things everyone seems to be forgetting.

Also neglected, by the way, are details on such hot topics as blended learning, collaborative learning, reusable learning objects, and standards. These would make excellent material for a companion book, as would the whole subject of managing effective e-learning development. But it seems appropriate to get some critical foundations in proper perspective first. While standards, for example, are fun to talk about, we certainly wouldn’t want to standardize around the often less-than-mediocre instructional technology perpetrated on innocent learning victims today. In the haste to make big business out of technology-based instruction, it seems that talking about the necessary attributes of effective learning experiences has become too bothersome and time-consuming. Somehow, I can’t subscribe to the notion of “let’s get everything organized, modular, and reconfigurable—and later on, we’ll worry about whether any of it is really useful.”

There is an industry here and enormous future opportunities. But in the race to be first, biggest, and dominant, I’d like to see some deference given to quality and desirability. Wouldn’t you? It does take a little time, effort, and thought. Perhaps some patience and values-based leadership, too. I’m all for that.

Can a book help?

Not if it isn’t read. (I’m not constraining my eagerness to sell you on this book very well.)

My hope is that you’ll have an opportunity to read through at least some sections, look at the illustrations, and dream about what e-learning could do for you, your friends and family, your coworkers, your organization. Then find a way you can help this technology develop for the best, not for mundane, trivial, ineffective, or boring wastes of time.

My view is that computers represent an opportunity to amplify our humanity, not to control it or restrict it to the lowest common denominator. Technology gives us a way to look at ourselves objectively, to assert our values, and to share the best of our insights with others. This won’t happen with our eyes closed or on automatic pilot. It won’t happen without vigilance, energy, and commitment. And it won’t happen without vision—not just my vision or yours, but with ours. Let’s do this thing.

Can a book help? It will if it:

Exposes weaknesses in current approaches

Verifies that alternatives exist

Suggests practical ways to improve

Pulls us together in a motivated campaign to make e-learning all it can be

Perhaps this book will, at least in some small but genuine way, accomplish parts and pieces of these goals. It if does, it will all have been quite worthwhile.

Thanks for your time.

Free CD-ROM

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Whenever you see this icon, a portion of the application being discussed is provided on the free Guide to e-Learning CD-ROM, available on request. (The CD-ROM is PC-compatible.)

In some ways, describing an e-learning application is like describing a good movie. Just as there’s no substitute for seeing the photography, witnessing the acting, and hearing the music and sound effects all combined, experiencing the e-learning examples discussed in the book will make some of my points clearer than any written description can.

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Foreword

Between us, Michael Allen and I have more than 62 years in the interactive learning business. That’s probably more collective hands-on experience in designing, developing, and managing interactive learning than any other two people in the field. About 20 of those 62 years overlap. And we became friends of the road the first time we met and found that we shared a passion for learning and performance—and an excitement about using technology to achieve it. Over the years we have become friends of the heart as we have gotten to know and like each other. Our professional and personal relationship is largely anchored in a shared point of view, personal values, and a deep commitment to making a difference in the worlds we live in. Michael’s commitment to making such a difference is why he wrote this book—and his knowledge and experience will matter to all its readers. I am honored to introduce the book and Michael Allen’s thinking to you.

Michael Allen has done it all: He has designed and developed huge amounts of effective e-learning material. He has built several very successful businesses providing programs to sophisticated clients. He has managed development. He personally led the creation of Authorware, the benchmark authoring system used throughout the world. He has lectured. He has written. He has taught. His opinions and perspective are sought by many. But mostly, he thinks. And the results of that thinking are to the benefit of us all. I am glad he wrote down what he thinks.

I am a consultant in e-learning and performance support. I work with major organizations and vendors worldwide. I write: I work to articulate strategy, concepts, and possibilities. I also see a lot of e-learning. One of the things I do often is review and evaluate courseware. Just days before reading Guide to e-Learning I finished reviewing a commercial Web-based learning program. I was told the products were “enormously expensive” to create and that “no expense was spared to wow learners.” I was excited about seeing the result. The graphics and animations were almost Disney-quality; the videos were professional and the story lines slick. Sadly, within minutes, I was lost—out of control and frustrated.

The program’s structure was unclear. Navigation controls didn’t make sense or align with the course structure. I kept winding up in the wrong place and had to derive my own mental model of the program structure to gain control. But I was always a bit off. The visual effects and product values were most impressive, but the program basically was a linear sequential storyline with a bit of content thrown in with text overlays. Frankly, I was bored. I learned nothing. I paid no attention to content because I was being amazed by the visuals. I leaned back in my chair and watched. The only things with any interaction were the pre- and posttests. I was immensely disappointed and kept thinking: After all these years, couldn’t huge amounts of money buy excellence?

The answer is a resounding no! And in this book, Michael Allen tells us why. It’s not money that makes a difference, although money is always nice to have. It’s the thinking, process, focus on the learner and learning outcomes, and design that engage and sustain learner involvement and participation. In Guide to e-Learning, Michael Allen tells us how to do it.

When I wrote Making CBT Happen (Gery Performance Press, 1987—originally published by Weingarten Publications), I used the phrase, the Law of Diminishing Astonishment. This law states that any new technology, tool, visual effect, or software trick quickly becomes the baseline. What initially amazes people quickly becomes the new expectation. The Law of Diminishing Astonishment requires that we continue to up the ante to keep people attentive and involved. Many people think it’s gee-whiz features. I disagree. If I have learned nothing else during my 26 years in the e-learning field, I have learned what matters. It’s creating motivation, sound instructional strategies and design, significant and almost constant interaction—combined with learner feelings of control, progress, and power. Interactivity—what it is, and how to create it—is a major focus of this book.

As Michael explains throughout this book, buyers and designer/developers of e-learning programs must develop shared expectations and quality standards, and work jointly using proven processes to create the best result. Surely, someone must have noticed how inadequate and frustrating the learning program I described above was during the development process! But nobody did. And why? Because there was not an integrated development team focused on learning. Rather, the team was a collection of graphics designers, visual effects artists, programmers, and Hollywood types with a goal of doing cool things. Clearly, there was not a shared goal of significant and accelerated learning. Content and process were obviously ignored in favor of creative and rich visual efforts.

The reason Guide to e-Learning is significant is that Michael Allen:

Carefully builds the case for good design—and describes the price of failure to achieve it

Defines, describes, and prescribes the methods to achieve it

Provides significant and practical examples of good interactive e-learning that have been developed using these sound methods

Advocates shared understanding, point of view, and goals by all involved

Raises to high levels of consciousness the specific variables that must be built into e-learning programs—and tells us how to do it

Provides practical, usable, experience-based frameworks, models, and techniques that enrich the reader

Generates confidence that good work can be done by normal people without fantasy budgets and resources

My Favorite Things

Sometimes deep experience in a field can be frustrating. The frustration arises from the increasing difficulty in learning new things. You feel you’ve seen it all, or the effort associated with incremental learning is so great that you are tempted not to bother. I learned many things from Michael Allen in this book—a turn of phrase, another point of view, an articulation of something that was just below the surface or that I hadn’t expressed quite right. Let me share some of my favorite things from this book in hopes that it will frame some of your thinking in reading it.

Simplicity is good. There’s a great quote from Niklaus Wirth, a professor of computer science: “People seem to misinterpret complexity as sophistication.” Michael Allen advocates a minimalist approach to design with a focus on the experience outcomes, not on virtuoso technique or trivial, gratuitous use of media and other tricks.

Successive approximation as a primary approach to achieving quality. It’s obvious when it’s described. And it’s obvious after designers and developers use prototyping, iteration, and successive approximation (or continuous improvement) to get closer and closer to a powerful result. But it’s not used as often or as well as it should be. Michael hits the nail on the head.

The Seven Magic Keys to motivating e-learning. I don’t believe in cookbooks for design. But I do believe in sound ingredients that can be combined and recombined in many ways to turn out a simple—or elegant—meal. The difference in outcomes is not typically grounded in the ingredients, but rather in the particular combinations used and the sophistication of the chef. Sometimes these ingredients turn out “biscuits,” and other times “croissants.” Same starting elements, just more steps to do and more skill required. Michael’s Seven Magic Keys are fundamental and should be posted on the wall of every designer—and every client. They are clearly articulated and, as important, illustrated and described in sufficient detail to enable even the most inexperienced author to turn out an adequate and involving learning program.

There are many others—but I’ve said enough. Read this book. Mark it up. Put yellow sticky-notes on it. Use it till you wear it out. Don’t pass the book on. It’s too important a resource. But do pass the word: As Michael says, “Boring is bad.”

Gloria Gery

Gery Associates

Tolland, Massachusetts

www.gloriagery.com

Acknowledgments

I often browse through book acknowledgments, amazed that so many people are typically involved in the production. At first, I didn’t think that would happen in this project. Wrong. Way wrong. I am so indebted to so many people, my fear now is that I have forgotten to acknowledge someone. If I have, I pray for your forgiveness. This book wouldn’t exist without the gracious contributions of so many friends and colleagues.

All the examples are real, functional e-learning applications. This is a rarity in publications such as this, because obtaining rights to show applications is a daunting and complex undertaking. I was extremely fortunate to get the support of many organizations who have developed leading-edge e-learning applications and were willing to share them. Among those providing support (and willing to accept acknowledgement) are Corning, Inc.; DaimlerChrysler Corporation; Fallon Worldwide; Iconos, Inc.; Macromedia, Inc., National Foods Services Management Institute; and Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. Thanks to all of you. I hope your contributions herein will encourage others to raise their expectations for e-learning.

Examples master Ethan Edwards did an heroic job in harvesting examples and contributed thoughtful descriptions. Sharilyn Fehr led our internal editing efforts with patience, professionalism, and creativity. Corey Stern contributed masterful illustrations. Mary Breslin organized and managed us all. Bob Russell helped with screen captures and document assembly. Andy Pace helped us through the last-minute crunch.

I held chapter review meetings with professional instructional designers and producers. Their comments and suggestions were invaluable. I can only hope I did them justice. Thank you all: Scott Colehour, Keith Craig, Paul Howe, Mary-Scott Hunter, Joy Kopp, John Lenker, Murray Levitt, Ted Manning, Tim Martin, Bill Mills, Laura Nedved, Laurie Squillace, Nan Thornton, Shannon Turner, Jeff Weinberg, and Jason Zeaman.

My business partner, Marty Lipshutz, contributed in countless ways, kept our business running during both my physical and mental absences, and encouraged me even at my most frustrated moments. We have assembled an extraordinary team of e-learning professionals who inspire us and teach us every day. If it weren’t for the extraordinary value of their works, many of the e-learning insights shared in this book would still be hidden from view.

My sincere thanks to Matt Holt for his vision in initiating the project and for his resolute encouragement, patience, and advice throughout. I shall always be grateful to him. Thanks to M. R. Carey for his long hours, talented editing assistance, tolerance of my determination to break rules, and ability to reflect my thoughts more clearly than I could reveal them. Thanks to Virginia Carroll for writing a valuable, professional index. Thanks to Courtney Platt, Cayman Islands resident, whose spectacular photographs appear in such prestigious works as National Geographic, for capturing my humble likeness. And very special thanks to luminary and warm-hearted friend Gloria Gery for reviewing rough manuscripts and writing such an expressive and substantive foreword.

My wife and partner in life encouraged me to undertake this project shortly after advising me that I needed to learn the freeing power of the word no. She spent many hours reading and critiquing at the most inconvenient times. At other times, she parented, hosted, and coordinated our lives while Dad was sequestered somewhere amongst piles of notes, papers, books, and computers.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!