I recently had a client who had been reviewing different avatars tell me that they all seem the same. Granted, this person is in purchasing, not in learning, but the comment does bring up an interesting issue. What makes a good elearning avatar?

We've learned by experience that characters that are too photorealistic are creepy. That's because the rigging and animation always fall way short of the visual features, causing a distracting Max Headroom kind of dissonance.

Simpler characters compliment learning, rather than distract from it...and yet, too simple also gets back to being a distraction. So not photorealistic, and not the rather crude talking heads you sometimes see. And while there is certainly a place for 2-D characters, we prefer 3-D, for most applications.

Just as the voice can convey important emotional cues that add significant depth to a message, so can body language. That's why we like to see a character that can walk and gesture, and of course lip-synchs with the voice. 

When it comes to production, a good avatar is easy to work with and keeps ROI in mind. That's one of the main advantages to the Codebaby characters we use. We can change clothes and hair pretty easily...and they come already rigged, with a broad selection of movements and gestures for us to plug in.

Bottom line? The avatar is there to help create a more human experience. They make practicing a learning objective much more real and powerful. You need them to do that job without being a distraction, and without causing you more work than the project is budgeted for.

Let's not talk politics, here. Let's talk business.

Not only are there less bodies, doing more work, in most organizations today, but we're all being forced to pay more attention to budgets, right?

Is your elearning budget smaller this year? Maybe like some of our clients, it's larger this year. After all, it's more important than ever to get people trained to be more effective and productive...and elearning is a cost effective way to accomplish these goals.

Still, whatever your budget, you (and your boss) are looking at it more closely than ever before. That's why early this year w/ decided to cut our prices by 20%. It's our own economic stimulus plan.

On top of our cut in pricing, we also simplified how we price our work. On most projects, we work from very basic "per page" pricing. And to make our stimulus package even better, we've done a complete overhaul on our production process:

• Now you and your SMEs have process support for how to quickly gather and organize content for a course
   
• You can form a solid learning strategy--right from the get-go--using our project checklist
  
  
• We'll get you to a well-defined project scope, right up front, so that you'll know what the project costs, and how to control costs
  
  
• And our entire project process--including your access to our online project management tool--will help you turn out more work in less time than ever before

If you want to know more about this process, and the documents that support it, just click or call about our economic stimulus package:

Economic Stumulus Details or 763-577-5995

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In the past, I don't know, 10 years, we've talked carefully about different ways that people learn. Not bad conversations. In fact recognizing things like (regardless of learning style) we can confuse learners by offering them both text and audio at the same time is really important. Understanding the power of visuals in learning (because most people are visually oriented) is important to outcomes, too.

But how do we learn best? Read all you want...watch all you want...neither will ever replace good practice.

Luckily, when it comes to enterprise elearning and performance, much of what we need to practice is good decision making.

Input--Process--Output. Each step of the sales process (or any process), provides some sort of input, results in some sort of output, and in the middle, demands thinking and decision making.

All the product information in the world doesn't make a successful salesperson. All the training in the world doesn't either. You gotta get out there and practice. But before you practice live, practice where it doesn't matter...where mistakes don't cost you a sale or a customer. That's where avatars, or computer generated characters come into play.

At w/ we create immersive learning simulations where salespeople interact with characters on-screen. We use Codebaby characters because of their body language and ability to convey emotion. Our learners overwhelmingly tell us that using these characters:

• Makes different customer types more real for them
  
• Brings selling demonstrations to life
• Will increase their sales more than other elearning

Not bad results, right?

As we put our simulations together, we make sure that learners have a chance to fail. When their decisions are off the mark...just a little, or a lot...that's when the real learning happens, because it gives us a chance to provide appropriate feedback. If they don't have a chance to fail, they don't really have a chance to learn.

As you might expect, there's a lot less learner stress with this kind of practice than in live role-playing (which, of course, also has its place). And because it's online, the feedback is always consistent, too.

If you go to our homepage you can see a quick demo movie that shows the use of Codebaby avatars in several different courses. You can also visit with Matt Taylor in our Virtual World Headquarters. Or give us a call. We'll take you on a personalized tour of work that will help you think of ways we can help your salespeople practice making the right decisions in a safe environment.

Yeah, the economy is a little rocky right now, but we'll all get through it. We've done it before, right? Still, tough times can mean tough questions and decisions. How do we get through tough times? What things need to change? Who do we need to count on?

And when we're all a bit over-worked and a little (or a lot) short on help, we're reminded of the real value of our relationships. We know who has our backs and who doesn't. At w/ we've always believed that relationships are the context of success...no matter what the economy is doing. That's why we named our company w/ in the first place...it means we're w/you. As a virtual team member, we've got your back.

So what do you expect from a supplier? Don't you need them to look at your strategies, budgets and deadlines the way that you do? Think like you do?

Over the years, we've found that we create the most value in our relationships when we let you define how we can be the most: Supportive, Objective, Accountable and Responsive. This is our SOAR process. It lets you set the expectations in our relationship, and maximize what we bring to your top- and bottom-line results.

SOAR is simple, and it provides easy frame of reference. We invite you to use it with all of your suppliers. But don't stop there. Use it with your own customers. Use it with coworkers...even your boss. It will increase the value of all your relationships.