Putting Knowledge Into Practice With Dan Keckan
Dan Keckan is the CEO of Cinécraft Productions, a multi-awarded eLearning professional, and a published author. Keckan is dedicated to helping organizations create authentic, relevant, and effective learning solutions with the help of his team of talented designers, developers, and video producers. He works with large corporations, such as Hyatt Hotels, to design learning strategies and match different modalities with the skill or behavior that needs to be acquired. Today, Dan speaks with us about eLearning video production, immersive storytelling, and much more.
In your opinion, what is one of the most overlooked advantages of video production in eLearning? Do you have any tips to help organizations make a strong business case for this approach?
Video is naturally a passive medium for delivering content. However, a good Instructional Designer can turn video into an active medium that changes behavior.
If the content is actionable and can be categorized as behavioral, your Instructional Designer can design first-person or third-person videos with decision points that allow the learner to engage in authentic scenarios that are as close to real life as possible. This approach can build confidence and competence in your business processes and related behaviors that lead to measurable results.
Cinécraft is known for motion-picture-based storytelling. What do you think is one of the biggest misconceptions about video-based training?
The biggest misconception about video-based training is that it is cost-prohibitive. Video is expensive to produce. However, you need to consider the long-term costs of not doing video-based eLearning. For example, would you prefer that your sales associates practice your organization's sales processes and related behaviors in a video-based eLearning simulation, or in front of the customer? You can reduce the learner's time to competency and reduce costly errors in front of the customer with a video-based eLearning simulation which will more than make up for the one-time cost of producing the course.
What is one of your standout custom eLearning client success stories?
One of the most rewarding projects we've ever worked on was a sales training curriculum for Ace Hardware. The curriculum was designed with videos that demonstrated the behaviors associated with Ace Hardware's sales process. We also created a series of interactive third-person point-of-view videos that allowed the learner to choose the correct outcome. And finally, the curriculum provided the learner with authentic practice in the form of first-person point-of-view video simulations. This highly engaging curriculum yielded a substantial Return On Investment for Ace Hardware in the first six months following the launch.
Can you offer new eLearning video producers a bit of advice on how to engage with their audience and make them active participants in the training experience?
If you want to make your audience active participants in your next video-based course, you need to involve an Instructional Designer with experience designing third-person point-of-view scenarios or first-person point-of-view simulations. An experienced Instructional Designer will make certain your decision points are aligned with your learning objectives, your scenarios are authentic, and your dialogue is conversational in tone.
Wrapping Up
A big thanks to Dan Keckan for participating in our Thought Leader Q&A. Dan was also featured on our eLearning Trailblazers: Presenters Who Engage And Enlighten list for his commitment to creating engaging learning solutions and for sharing his video production expertise with the eLearning community.
