Illumen Brings Products to Augmented Reality

Illumen recently completed three augmented reality (AR) projects for a leading orthopaedic company. These augmented reality projects were a marketing and education tool focused on giving a virtual hands-on showcase of their medical implants at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 2010 conference. Augmented reality creates a live real-time view of a virtual object overlaid upon a real environment. By simply holding a card with a specific pattern, a product can be placed on top of it. Product animations and video can add to the experience by providing additional detailed information. This gives anyone a feeling of having a product placed in their hands, without it actually being there. They can move it around and explore it.

To use augmented reality, all you need is a web cam and a card that can be printed on any paper from any printer. Hold the printed card up to the cam and wherever the small pattern on the card is seen, a 3D product can be placed. Rotate the pattern or move closer the cam and you will see your product rotate and zoom in real-time 3D.

Based on the angle of the card, for example, the product could animate into an exploded view or video can be played. Move the card towards your cam and see product details.

We will have samples available soon.

Part 3 - Illumen’s Guide to eLearning - The Audience

If we want to find the best direction for our eLearning course we must first know who is going to use it. We will call these people, or users, our audience. A single subject may be presented very differently depending on the audience that will use it. Once we know who the audience is, we can develop a course that relates information to their general interests and learning styles. By relating information, we can make a course more engaging, present content based on likely past experiences an audience has, and can look, feel, navigate, and deliver to a platform an audience enjoys using.

Your audiences may:

• be in Kindergarten, be in college, or be elderly
• have never used a computer, have computer experience using a PC or a Mac, be the definition of a geek
• Be surgeons, plumbers, presidents, mothers, fathers, or all of the above
• Have vision or hearing impairment
• Be in an environment without a keyboard, a mouse, a noisy environment, or a stressful environment
• Enjoy humor, reading, comic books, watching TV, or getting hands-on

So who needs to know how to change a bike tire? Let’s see… we have people who have a flat tire and we have people who may have just bought a bike and want to be prepared for a future flat tire. We can break the people with a flat tire into two groups: those who have an emergency situation (a flat tire on the road) and those that don’t (a flat tire in, say the garage). We may have managers of bike stores who want new employees to use this course for training. Finally let’s not forget that we are an audience. We could be site administrators, people who need to edit content, or people who need analytical information.

Let’s dig deeper. Through research (website analytics, survey, and discussions with potential users) we find that most the potential users will not be very familiar with the parts of the bike or tools used. Most will want to change their tire while following along with the course, and most would rather watch a video. There are some that actually need to learn from their phones or a print-out, as they are stuck on the road with a flat tire and in a bit of an emergency. Without going into the details of what the project might be, it is safe to say we have a great starting point that is tailored towards the audience.

For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life. - Gus Tuberville, President, William Penn College

Oh, That’s Interesting:
Personas are fictitious characters who represent unique groups of users. Once personas are defined, we can define better usability and learning methods based on how we believe a given group will use a given course. We test the personas against our ideas and strategies to have a better understanding of the end user interaction. More info: Personas

Part 2 - Illumen’s Guide to eLearning - The Goals

Our journey begins by first understanding why we are taking a journey in the first place. Goals are the core when developing a learning program and the strategy, all information, activities, and assessments orbit this core. Defined goals give us a basis for what is important and what would make the end results of our program a success. Goals are often two-fold. Not only do we have goals and objectives, but so should our audience. Our goals are often financial, important to business, important to health and safety, analytical, required by law, and/or political, while our audience may just want to learn, is required to learn because of their education or job, or, like in the case of our bike enthusiast broken down on the side of the road or a homeowner who suddenly has a broken furnace, placed in a situation where learning is imperative. Goals have levels too. We might have one all encompassing goal for the learner as well as goals that specify what we want to see in our program. Here is a quick listing of my goals:

1. Having been in a prior situation requiring I change my bike tire, and having thoroughly perused the Internet, I was unhappy with the level of information explaining the act of changing a bicycle tire. I want an easy, yet more comprehensive way to educate someone on how to change a bike tire.
2. I want to better inform the audience about the tools required, the process, problems that often or rarely occur, and finding why the tire may have gone flat.
3. Provide an additional printable or mobile solution that is accessible to someone on the road, without the luxuries of possibly the Internet or a screen.

A few examples of goals we may find in other learning programs:

1. My business has a requirement that safety in the workplace training is required for all new employees and for every employee every two years. They must take a five questions assessment and pass with 85% accuracy to not be put on leave.
2. I teach a business course about project management. My goal is to educate PMs on what is important when testing to become PMP certified.
3. I sell custom made watches and need to explain to people how to care for their watch, and manage their watch, such as how to change the time and change the battery.

We could talk about learning goals forever and it is easy for a discussion on goals to turn into a want/don’t want list of everything including the kitchen sink. Time to move on.

Hey, Further Reading:
Planning a Course (Define course goals)

Illumen and the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase

Illumen is excited to once again sponsor the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase this year. It was a wonderful event last year full of great speakers covering such topics as the theories within eLearning, real world examples, and development processes. Registration will open in June.

Date: August 11, 2010, 8:30 am - 6:30 pm
Location: University Center, 525 S. State Street, Chicago, IL

From the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase website:

Celebrate the emergence of Chicago as a world-class center for elearning. Join hosts CISPI, CCASTD, and STC Chicago at the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase on August 11 for a cutting-edge exploration of new media and interactive elearning tools.

In 2008 and 2009, the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase earned the enthusiastic praise of attendees and presenters alike. This year, we are generating excitement again, as we celebrate the evolution of adult learning and performance.

The Showcase provides a full day of presentations with an emphasis on the role of new media and interactive methods in business and institutional training. Our speakers will explore all aspects of elearning—instructional design, development tools, media resources, virtual classrooms, social and interactive applications, mobile learning, rapid elearning, and more.

Part 1 - Illumen’s Guide to eLearning - The Beginning

eLearning is a vague term which Wikipidia defines as Learning conducted via electronic media, especially via the Internet. And of course, Wikipidia knows everything. When we talk about eLearning it can be easy to focus on the “e” which stands for electronic. Through electronic means we have the ability to be educated through, TV, mobile devices, digital notepads, CD-ROM, DVD, and any other Internet capable device. Through these devices we have the tools to educate through a combination of mediums (text, video, animation, audio, 3D, interactivity), derive analytics, and deliver information through a highly accessible platform. But, we must remember that the e really does just mean the delivery platform and our real focus needs to be on the Learning part of eLearning. Through Learning, our focus should be to create engaging, memorable experiences that lead our audience to better understand information, improve performance, manage situations, think critically, problem solve, and make decisions.

eLearning starts with a need or an idea and from there we can begin to develop goals, objectives, and strategy. Through this series, we are going to look at the process of creating an eLearning application that teaches the user how to change a bicycle or bike tire. Each part in the series will focus on a specific eLearning topic or step in the process. We will explore different technologies and different approaches to creating a simple course that does nothing more than teach our audience how to change a bike tire.

Oh, That’s Interesting:
The term eLearning is often written eLearning or e-learning. Which is correct? The good news is that they are both accepted among professionals, although if you look at Google Trends you will see that eLearning may be taking the cake. Google Trends: eLearning and e-Learning

TED - Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids

A great TED Talk:
Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids

Illumen’s David Charney Speaks at Google Day in Evanston

Illumen’s CEO, David Charney, was asked to speak on what Google’s upcoming high speed Internet connection could do for business innovation at Evanston’s Google Day press conference. Google recently asked cities around the United States to compete for their initial roll-out of their gigabit fiber connection, which would bring high speed Internet to homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses. Evanston, where Illumen is headquartered, jumped on the opportunity to respond to the challenge. Evanston has grown to be a city focused on creativity and innovation and would be a perfect location for Google high speed Internet. The Google Day in Evanston press conference, lead by Mayor Tisdahl, had representatives from NorthShore Hospital, Northwestern University, Evanston Township High School,  the Evanston Chamber of Commerce, and Illumen Group. Each discussed the benefits of having a connection 100 times faster than the current standard in the United States.
Read more >>

Bringing Note Taking to eLearning - Part 1

Go into any classroom and you will see students taking notes. What do we do when we need to remember things? We write them down.  We all retain and gain our understanding of information differently and so we all take notes differently. So, with note taking being such an important tool in education and training, it is important that, as we move learning to the Internet, we have the tools available to allow us to take notes online.
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Link: Creating a Quick eLearning Template

Tom Kuhlmann of The Rapid eLearning Blog had a great article on bringing a little life into an eLearning template. Check out the article (and the many other great articles) here.

Meeting with Don Norman

Illumen had the pleasure of meeting with the famous usability and cognitive psychology expert, Don Norman. Very nice of him to stop by and chat with us. We talked about the user experience, discussed business a bit, and did a little brainstorming about a friend’s product and how to make a specific audience more receptive.

Don was a VP at Apple and started the Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen (You designers know who that is). Brilliant guy. If you need some good holiday reading check out his many books. It was great of him to visit with us. Thanks Don.