Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

I am no stranger to procrastination…by any stretch. So much so, that I tend to factor procrastination into my workflow and feel as though I produce better work under pressure…probably not true, but I’ll let myself believe it. Whatever you choose to believe, you should make an effort (like I do) to be more productive. That’s why I subscribe to the 45/15 rule!

The 45/15 Rule

The 45/15 rule is a great model for productive workflow (in my opinion) because it encourages you to break up each hour into 45 minutes of productive work and 15 minutes of procrastination, distraction, or time spent otherwise not working. For me, this rule works really well because I see it as a challenge – how many pages can I write in 45 minutes? How many emails can I respond to in 45 minutes? How much of a course can I author in 45 minutes? And then, I reward myself by 1 – ticking items off my to do list and 2 – watching cat videos or surfing social media for 15 minutes!

This rule helps me channel my productivity while still allowing me to indulge in the procrastination I’ve grown to love and appreciate (and whom I have nurtured for many years).

If it helps, you can use an alarm – I did this at first. However, I tend to find the actual alarm sound to be jarring, so I’ve opted to calculate my hour by using even hours on my clock.

Resources

• Use the 45/15 Rule for Productive Procrastination by Freelancer Union
• The 45/15 Rule by Create & Thrive
• The ’45/15 Rule,’ Eating the Frog, and 5 Other Ways Freelancers Can Get Things Done at Home by Suzanne Levy

This week I wanted to chat a bit about gesture-based learning. The topic recently came up in discussion, and whenever I explain it in contextual examples (of projects I previously worked on), people always seem really wow’ed, so I figured it would be a great time to chat about it!

Gesture-Based Learning

Gesture-based learning allows users to learn practical movements through human interactions interfacing with digital technologies. This type of learning became increasingly popular with the emergence of readily available and affordable technologies such as the Xbox Kinect and the Nintendo Wii. The novelty is engaging enough for most users, and with the appropriate programming, you can develop incredible scenarios.

In gesture-based learning, courses are developed around key gestures and body movements. Activities are often simulating real-life events, and the practical component of gesture-based learning activities is paramount (in my opinion) when it comes to mastering movements to be used in real-life events.

An example of a gesture-based course I contributed to was an aircraft marshalling program, wherein the users were tasked with properly learning marshalling signals, and throughout the activities they were assessed. Incorrect movements would prompt sample scenarios of what might happen in the real-world field. It was one of the cooler programs I worked on, but I have to suppose that it was incredibly expensive and laborious for all resources involved.

Resources

• Gesture Based Interaction NUI: An Overview by Dr. Manju Kaushik and Rashmi Jain
• “Alien Health”: A Nutrition Instruction Exergame using the Kinect Sensor by M. C. Glenberg, C. Savio-Ramos, and H. Henry
• Gesture-based Learning with Kinect
• Teacher’s Guide to Kinect: How to Program for Kinect and Gesture-Based Learning

I don’t use as many job aids now, but back in my time with the military sector I was very well-acquainted with them. The military LOVES their job aids. I was inspired to write this post as I work through E-Learning Challenge #17 – Using Job Aids in E-Learning.

Job Aids

Job aids are just what they sound like – materials developed in order to aid you in doing your job! These often appear in the form of checklists (think back to the time you may have spent in retail – did you have a dreaded bathroom cleaning checklist? You know, the one you had to sign off on every 30 minutes?), worksheets, or FAQs. These job aids can serve to make doing certain tasks easier, especially if you have a lot to remember. They also serve to generate procedural habits.

In e-learning, job aids might even be more effective than formal training. In a Training Needs Analysis, the Instructional Designer might determine that developing full-blown training really won’t address the need, but a simple Job Aid will do just the trick. Here, you can see how job aids can be efficient and cost-effective.

I spent many moons working in retail, and one of my favourite job aids was the Starbucks drink recipe cards (click here for an example, found on a quick search of The Google). Each store had a couple sets of these, and they were easy index-sized cards that had an illustration of the drink and the steps to make the drink. I say this was one of my favourite job aids because, as a manager of an incredibly busy store, you sometimes had to toss a new trainee into the trenches, and these recipe cards really helped new baristas (and sometimes old ones who encountered an obscure drink order) get up-to-speed with the plethora of drink recipes there were. Each time a new drink came out, the recipe index received another magical card. What a perfect job aid!

Within the military, there were always checklists for every little task; these checklists are critical in that while some might seem silly, others were the difference between life and death. Just think about what might happen if someone didn’t use the proper torquing value when tightening bolts on aircraft parts? The part might fail during a mission and the plane might crash. No one wants to have that hanging over their head, so checklists are necessary!

Enough Examples! Here are some Resources:

Use Job Aids to Improve Your Business Results by Leslie Allan

Designing a Job Aid by ATD

How to Build Effective Job Aids by Kari Loeffler

Designing Effective Job Aids with Microsoft Word by Raul Esparza