This particular post isn't going to teach you much, or provide a ton of insight. This is a 'rant' and 'call-to-arms', fueled by recent events that forced me to change Verdana to Arial, change 'Biggest Strength' to 'Core Competency', and totally replace a fun scenario-driven interaction with a traditional and 'safer' information dump!
As e-learning developers we tend to be creative risk-taking creatures by nature, while our stakeholders/SMEs tend to be more compliant, play-it-safe, traditional, no-risk, detail-oriented, core-competency-focusing, inside-the-box, Arial-using robots. (Can you sense my frustration yet?)
These stakeholders usually win the battle when it comes to the final elements of the course, even though most wouldn't know a good e-learning course if it came up and bit em'.
What's worse is that when we (the developer and expert) disagree, express concern, or present push-back, we sometimes get the labels of being 'uncooperative', 'resistant to change', or 'difficult to work with'. Nobody wants these labels, so what I've witnessed is fellow e-learning developers simply giving up before even being heard! They crumble under the pressure of Corporate America heiarchy, and simply concede before even speaking up (not all mind you).
Now I understand that we all have to change things we don't want to, take the 'human' element out of our courses in place of more corporate speak, use the real-world business woman graphic when we wanted to use something more creative....I totally get it! But I'm not one who's going to surpress opinion or not leverage my creative e-learning awsomeness because of fear of repercussion, and I implore all of you to do the same.
In case you're wondering, I have a few of those 'Resistant to Change', 'Risk Taking', 'Sometimes Uncooperative' labels dangling on me! It may sound silly, but I kind of like them and wear those labels as badges.
I will continue to push the envelope! Continue to treat my audience as a real-person who hates hard to understand corporate speak as much as I do. Continue to try to make my courses fun, interactive and different. I will continue to buck tradition and 'usually' hate Arial font. And I will continue to believe that not every course must comply to some pre-structured 'Learning Model' or 'Taxonomy'.
I saw a commercial the other day that showed me everything I needed to know about a new car and the awesomeness it possesses, and I even knew where I could go locally to get one when the commercial was over. They didn't start that commercial with an 'Introduction', followed by 'Objectives', yet I was still able to glean what I needed. You don't need all that stuff in a course just because some learning model says so.
The best innovations of this world are not spawned from being traditional, following the crowd, and taking no risks. The best innovations come from those that think differently, buck tradition and take risks (Apple anyone?).
I feel like it's my job to speak up when I disagree, to continue to try to leverage new and interesting technologies, to NOT use Arial font because somebody says so, to try to convince my stakeholder that not every piece of information needs to be crammed into the course, and so on and so on.
I encourage all of you that read this to do the same. Don't just cave because you're afraid of getting a bad label. If you err on the side of caution, or don't do something because you're afraid of the very predictable resistance you will get, then you're doing yourself and your 'actual' e-learning audience an injustice.
We must work together with our stakeholders to convince them to take risks, be different and think different, which is a hard proposition considering they are hard-wired this way. Whatever you do though, don't go quietly into that good night, just because you're afraid of what others will think. If you truly believe it, then (as Rocky Balboa once said) "Go For It!".
