First, context: I think marketing and entertainment savvy have an important place in training and development. All cross-disciplinary approaches to improve the design and production of exceptional online learning experiences are welcome. Enspire’s own media subsidiary, Houndstooth, reflects this philosophy – cross pollinating heavily between the worlds of marketing, learning, and entertainment, and deploying 3D or 2D media as need dictates.

That said, I’ve noticed customers are specifically seeking out vendors to create 3D environments for asynchronous learning experiences.  Note the “asynchronous” modifier.  I’m referring to single user experiences, not multi-user virtual worlds.

Is 3D better for this kind of learning?

In most considerations about the design and production of effective instructional media, the answer is, it is not better. In fact, 3D environments can cause considerable confusion for many learners (such as problems of wayfinding.)

Of course, there are really good uses of 3D media in asynchronous instruction, such as:

• Engaging in a virtual dissection
• Identifying interior parts of a machine or structure
• Practicing instrumentation controls through flight simulation.

But these are high-fidelity exceptions. For most online learning experiences I recommend 2D media – or 2½D.

Along with possible cognitive issues regarding attention, memory, and interferences, I find overly realistic settings can distract from the focused learning objectives. I much prefer a modulated level of abstraction, specifically for visual explanations and generally for online learning experiences.

You see, reality gets messy in the details; but learning needs to be focused. For a simply great explanation of the concept of focus I asked Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics if I could use one of his panels.

I like his idea of amplifying specific details. Furthermore, McCloud notes that how simplification away from high-level realism in cartooning opens the imagination and potential for personal projection.  These concepts are true for instruction, too.

While we don’t have much research on efficacy of 3D versus 2D media for instruction, from personal experience I recommend first teaching tasks and behaviors through simple explanations and environments. As knowledge and skills develop, it’s important to add more details and to simulate real-world phenomena – and the resulting distractions and difficulties.

You may have noticed that things have changed a little bit around here. A few weeks ago, we rolled out a new version of our website to bring it in line with our new brand image. For the most part, this update is visual in nature; the structure of the site is much the same. We hope that you enjoy the stylistic improvements as much as we do.

We did have one large functional change to the site, however, and that’s with regard to demonstrations of our work. As you’ll see on our new demos page, you now have the option to schedule demonstrations of our three leadership development simulations: Management Challenge, Business Challenge, and Executive Challenge. We’ve also moved demos of all our custom-developed work to a new site. Just create an account and you’re ready to view our on-demand demos with the click of a button. If you’re looking for more, or if you’re wondering whether we’ve done something close to your needs, feel free to contact us and we’ll give you a more in-depth view of our capabilities.

Enspire’s Houndstooth media arm provides design and high end media production for Enspire Learning products and custom services.  HT also explores creative projects outside the learning space in Austin and beyond. All this creativity finds its way back into Enspire work… a virtuous cycle.

Every year, writer/director Richard Linklater‘s Austin Film Society honors outstanding Texans who’ve made a significant contribution to film and entertainment, and non-Texans who have advanced the Texas entertainment industry.

Houndstooth developed the motion graphics package for the 2012 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards banquet,  held at Austin City Limit’s new home – The Moody Theater – in the W Hotel in downtown Austin.   Houndstooth also designed and executed custom lighting for the  event, painting the outside of the W with a kaleidoscope of color.  View HT’s Ziris loop and other videos here, and pictures from the banquet on Flickr.

Catch KLRU‘s rebroadcast of the show on May 14th at 10:00 PM CST!

We will be in booth #1404, so feel free to stop by and ask us about our simulations and custom learning!

Click here to watch the recorded webinar!

Southwest Airlines has a highly engaged workforce known for its sense of humor and teamwork. Its culture is fueled by significant investments in leadership development. This session explores how Southwest’s Developing Legendary Leaders program, an intensive boot camp for managers and directors, builds leadership, strategic thinking and business acumen skills. The session takes a close look at a competitive team-based simulation that allows Southwest’s rising leaders to hone their business acumen skills.

Get an inside view into Southwest’s successful leadership development program, and see the results of Southwest’s focus on developing leaders from within the organization.

To learn more about Enspire’s Business Challenge at Southwest, read our case study here.

Also, feel free to stop by our virtual booth and chat with Gordy about Enspire’s simulation-based programs!

Click here to register for the virtual symposium!

Is it easier to train a beginner or an expert? I need only reflect on my repeated failure to learn a foreign language in my adult years in order to answer this question. I’ve studied both Spanish and French, but whenever I encounter French or Spanish speakers, I must arduously translate the words and sentences I happen to recognize into English in order to understand them. At this point, I’ve come to the conclusion that if I really want to learn either of these languages, the only thing left for me to do is to pick up and move to Paris or Mexico City, to immerse myself in an environment where I am forced to upend what I know about language and become a beginner again.

Well-designed simulations are like these foreign countries I imagine moving to. They offer the opportunity to immerse ourselves in environment in which we are forced to challenge our expertise, to disrupt the long-rehearsed patterns of our daily lives and work. In doing so, simulations allow us to grasp the possibilities of learning complex tasks and systems in ways that cannot be merely studied. This is where the true power of training simulations lies – in turning all of us “experts” into beginners in some way.

This is not to say that expertise isn’t useful, but it is inherently limited from a learning perspective. When we call upon it, we foreclose on possibilities for viewing our area of expertise in a different, often deeper way. Therefore, the first question in designing a training simulation is not so much how we can create experts but how we can get individuals with varying areas of expertise to approach a task or challenge with a beginner’s mind. It is from that place that we can affect the greatest behavioral change in our audiences.

“This year our research shows that businesses around the world are struggling to adapt rapidly to change: change in their businesses, change in their workforces, and change in their HR and learning organizations. We’ve packed the conference with 21 breakout sessions organized into three major tracks, each of which addresses issues of program strategy, design, and the use of tools and technology:

• Personalize: Create Positive Change
• Transform: Build HR and Learning Teams
• Glocalize: Think Global, Act Local

The conference is designed to unleash the power of our research and deep expertise while harnessing the collective wisdom of experienced executives and practitioners. In three days, you’ll learn how you and your teams can adapt and respond to today’s complex workplace and business challenges. And you’ll leave with guidance backed by proven strategies and best practices.”

We hope to see you at IMPACT 2012! For more information about the conference, click here.