It’s time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two, and three.)
On Learning Evaluation and ROI
To start things off, I want to link back to my two most recent postings here at Element K Blog, on the “Increasing Discussion for Learning Evaluation and ROI”: see both Part 1 and Part 2. There I link to and briefly comment on one research report from the eLearning Guild and five articles from Chief Learning Officer magazine and Training magazine. If you only have time to read one of these items, don’t miss the article by Jay Cross and Jon Husband in the July 2009 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.
New Skills for Learning Professionals
The "Big Question" posted at the beginning of July — New Skills for Learning Professionals — at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog has by now generated a wealth of responses. Included are postings from such notables as Jay Cross, Harold Jarche, Jane Bozarth, Clark Quinn, Tony Karrer, David Mallon, Ray Jimenez, and many others. If you are looking for work in the learning and development industry, or are just concerned about keeping your career skills current, check out the many responses these experts have provided.
Also on this topic, Clive Shepherd posted a good presentation he developed titled "The E-Learning Skills Gap." Watch this presentation and note Clive's new "SkillsJourney" project mentioned at the end, something I think all learning professionals will be eager to keep tabs on!
On Stepping Up When Layoffs Hit
Generally speaking, I find the columns in each month's Chief Learning Officer magazine tend to be amongst the must-read content in our industry. The July issue's were all good, but I wanted to draw your attention to two in particular. First, Elliott Masie's column titled "Time to Step Up: Learning's Role During Layoffs," covered a topic I'd never really put much thought towards: What are the roles of the learning department during layoffs? No doubt having had an opportunity to reflect on this during the recent economic downturn, Elliott offers up lots of good advice grouped under three headings: skill documentation upon departure, internal reskilling, and decisions and reassignments.
On Avoiding Death by Slide Deck
On the other hand, Bob Mosher wrote his column "More Death by Slide Deck?," on a topic I have spent a lot of time reading and thinking about over the years: making the most of the virtual classroom. I've participated in many great webinar, virtual conference, and virtual classroom events — both as a presenter/instructor and as a student/attendee. But I've also experienced many less-than-great virtual events too. He covers admittedly obvious tips, best practices for session design, and recommendations for the time between the virtual classroom events.
An Outstanding New Blog: Social Media in Learning
Back in March I wrote a posting here titled "Top Learning Tools from the C4LPT" which highlighted the great work of Jane Hart in organizing a wealth of information and links in the Learning and Development industry. If you haven't checked out her site, I encourage you to read my description of it and then check out her work.
Recently, however, Jane has started writing a new blog named "Social Media In Learning Blog." Jane's tireless efforts to stay on top of the L&D industry, coupled with her expertise in this particular area, have immediately made this blog arguably the best of its kind. Get caught up on the posts you have missed so far, and then add this blog to your feed reader or check it out regularly to learn how social learning tools can and are being used in learning and development contexts.
Learning Apps in Facebook?
And speaking of social learning, Ryann Ellis wrote a good posting for ASTD's Learning Circuits titled "Tech Tool: Facebook Applications for Learning," which provides three lists of "applications that represent some of the ideal tools Facebook has to offer online learning." The lists are separated into tools for instructors and administrators, for learners, and for everyone. This is a good place to start when thinking about potential uses for Facebook in your learning programs.
Social Learning…and Instructional Design?
With social learning and informal learning being all the rage these days, Karl Kapp pauses to remind us of the many benefits of sound instructional design. See his blog posting titled "What are the Results of Following an Instructional Design Process?" where he provides a good starter list, one that could be handy if you ever need to defend why time and resources should be spent on sound instructional design (rather than simply pumping out PowerPoint slides and calling it e-Learning, for instance).
Even better than his original posting, however, is the exchange that took place in the comments at his blog, between Karl and Janet Clarey of Brandon Hall Research. Janet raised questions about what role instructional design (or any kind of formal design) has in the areas of informal and social learning. Karl gives good responses, including concrete examples of ways you can add some measure of design to work or learning uses of blogs, microsharing tools, and more. It's definitely worth reading this exchange, in addition to the original blog posting.
Updates from Element K
Lastly, I'm going to start ending these "roundup" postings by providing a link to our latest E-Learning Newsletter. This is a service we started in June, primarily for our customers, but available to anyone. Each newsletter includes several articles of relevance to the Learning and Development field, as well as updates about Element K events and our latest product releases. You can see the latest newsletters here: June, July, and August.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)
