Learning and Development Roundup (Vol. 5)

It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two,  three, and four.)

Results from Masie's Survey on Learning Systems
As I noted in a recent posting, the MASIE Center released the summary results of a 69-question survey conducted earlier this year on Learning Management Systems. The survey participants were from the Learning CONSORTIUM and from their Learning Systems Roundtable held in mid-April. There were 199 responses received, and as Elliott notes, "The data provides interesting insight into how the world of Learning Systems is evolving."

More on Learning Evaluation and ROI
I recently recapped and commented on what I called the “Increasing Discussion for Learning Evaluation and ROI:” (see both Part 1 and Part 2.) The times we live in necessitate the continued focus on this area, and so the August issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine includes "Measure Smart: Trade ROI for IOB" by Timothy L. Hill. He reports: 

"According to a recent study conducted by the ROI Institute, nearly all CLOs measure their success by how many employees are trained. Three out of four CLOs measure the efficiency of training—how well it resonates with employees in terms of timing, content, and other perceptive logistics. Half measure the reaction of the employees to the training. However, these elements are the ones that CLOs admit offer the least value in assessing the overall success of their programs. Meanwhile, only 1 out of 10 CLOs measures the impact of training on the business—the metric that the overwhelming majority of survey respondents cited as the most important measurement to determine success of employee training programs."

After giving some differences between ROI (Return on Investment) and IOB (Impact on Business), he then challenges CLOs to "shift their focus from training to performance, "and lays out four steps for implementing an IOB model.
 
If you are interested in more information on the ROI Institute's study that Hill referenced, then you are in luck. The August issue of T+D magazine has an article by Jack and Patti Phillips (Chairman and President/CEO of the ROI Institute, respectively) titled "Measuring What Matters: How CEOs View Learning Success." (Login required, but you can also listen to this article as a podcast.)

The Increasing Role of Virtual Learning
In these challenging economic times, many learning professionals are finding these hard times are leading them to consider carefully a move from face-to-face ILT (Instructor-Led Training) to various forms of e-Learning. In many cases, the benefits of self-paced e-Learning clearly make it the best choice. But in other cases, such as when interaction with an expert instructor is vital, another option is synchronous e-Learning or so-called "virtual classrooms." The August issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine had an excellent article by Julia Young on this growing area, titled "Collaborative Learning in the Virtual Workplace." This article provides great takeaways such as a 15-point checklist for converting from a face-to-face to a virtual learning event, and nearly a dozen examples of when virtual learning might be advantageous.

Social Media/Web 2.0 Continues to be a Hot Topic
As I wrote about recently, it seems Everyone is Talking About Social Media. In that posting, I shared several links to some of the most important recent articles and blog postings for you to be aware of in the L&D industry. See that postings for several good recent articles in this area.

Twitter, Twitter Everywhere
And speaking of social media, the darling of the industry, Twitter, continues to get significant coverage in the industry magazines as well. The latest is "Twitter 101: Are You Tweeting?" by Marcia Connor (login required). I follow Marcia on Twitter, get a lot of value from her "tweets," and so can attest to her expertise in this area. She also is a leader of the weekly "twitter chat" focused on the L&D industry, called lrnchat (pronounced "learn-chat"). See the lrnchat site for more information on this great 90-minute online event held each Thursday event.

In her article, Connor attempts to convince those who are still skeptical of Twitter's value. She notes: "Yet people across the globe—people smarter and busier than you—use Twitter and its enterprise counterparts… .They may doubt its value at first, but when they wade into the stream, they find it invaluable and a complete surprise." She then goes on to tackle nine common "doubts" people have about Twitter—all of which I have heard voiced by my own colleagues and the many others I talk with the L&D industry. I recommend reading this article if one or several of these "doubts" have kept you from taking Twiter seriously or giving it a try:

• I have too much to say.
• I don't have time.
• I have nothing to say.
• It's not designed for the training department.
• I can't participate because my company blocks its use.
• It's only for young people wasting time.
• It's overwhelming.
• I don't know anyone using it.
• I don't know how to use it.

And be sure to see my recent posting "Update on Twitter for Learning Professionals," which includes a list of L&D industry leaders and experts you can follow, to help get you started with Twitter.

What Will Learning be in 2019?
Looking beyond today's focus on social media, Elliott Masie has again kicked off an interesting discussion at the LearningTown [www.learningtown.com] L&D industry social networking site. He asked the question: Learning in 2019…What will it be? As that year is now 10 years away, he was interested in views on "the nature, structure, experience, or technology of learning in 2019." Thus far, there have been 60 responses, and both the concrete ideas and the overall optimism make for interesting reading.

Masie has also asked the same question at a page at the website for the upcoming Learning 2009 conference. So far, that page has a few dozen responses, giving more interesting perspectives on this question.

Updates from Element K
I'll again end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched in June. 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, August, and September.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Results from Masie's Survey on Learning Systems

The MASIE Center has released the summary results of a 69-question survey conducted earlier this year on Learning Management Systems. The survey participants were from the Learning CONSORTIUM and from their Learning Systems Roundtable held in mid-April. There were 199 responses received, and as Elliott notes, "The data provides interesting insight into how the world of Learning Systems is evolving." I can't briefly recap all that is interesting in these results, but I will draw attention to just a few items:

• Only 50% indicated that they thought the Learning System they purchased was the correct one for their organization. (Question 9)
• 66% indicated that if they had the resources, they would replace their current Learning System. (10)
• 44% indicated they plan to upgrade or change their learning system in the next 6 months or 1 year. (21)
• 50% indicated they were implementing Web 2.0 tools. When asked which ones, the results were Social Networking 74%, Wiki 68%, Blog 66%, Chat 47%, Other 19%. (22, 23)
• Inline with what I've noticed over the years, only 23% manage to the SCORM 2004 standard, while 77% have stayed with SCORM 1.2. (24)
• Even with the dissatisfaction of many respondents with their Learning System software and/or vendors, 85% still believe the benefits of having a Learning System outweigh the costs. (40)
• 68% of organizations develop learning content through a combination of in-house development and external development.

And finally, when asked what is the most important business need that their Learning System does not support (question 55), the number one response was Collaboration at 32%. This is good news for Element K, as we added wiki, blog, and forum functionality to our KnowledgeHub LMS nearly a year ago.

For an additional perspective on the LMS world, see the ASTD Learning Circuits report from earlier this year, which reports on survey responses from their readers.

— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Update on Twitter for Learning Professionals

Did you know that Element K is now on Twitter? We started using Twitter as an organization in late June, and you can follow us via the account "Element_K," which can be found at http://www.twitter.com/Element_K. Through this account we are sharing links to interesting industry articles, blog postings, resources and more, as well as announcements about Element K webinars and other happenings.

Beyond that news, back in February I wrote a posting here at Element K Blog—"Twitter, Twitter, Tweet, Tweet"—intended to help people in the L&D industry get started with Twitter. Since then, of course, Twitter has exploded in popularity, brought on in part by celebrity and media attention, but also by very legitimate uses of Twitter, ranging from its role in political events, to its corporate use for marketing, customer service, and even sales, to its use by everyday working professionals as a powerful information gathering tool. It's this last use-case that I still think is important for learning and development professionals to take seriously.

With that in mind, and because it comes up at every industry event I participate in, I wanted to provide another posting on this topic. Refer back to my earlier posting for a basic introduction and valuable links for more information—there are many more I could share that have come along since, but you only need so many "Twitter for newbies" articles to get you started.

More importantly, I wanted to provide an updated list of leaders in the L&D field that you might consider "following" on Twitter (most, but not all of whom, use Twitter regularly). For each, simply visit http://www.twitter.com/username, such as http://www.twitter.com/Element_K:

• Element_K (that’s us!)
• ThomasStone (that's me! Thomas Stone of Element K)
• AndersGronstedt / Anders Gronstedt
• arossett / Allison Rosset
• billbrandon / Bill Brandon
• bjschone / B.J. Schone
• bschlenker / Brent Schlenker
• cammybean / Cammy Bean
• c4lpt / Jane Hart
• cliveshepherd / Clive Shepherd
• CushingAnderson / Cushing Anderson
• Dave_Ferguson / Dave Ferguson
• da5idm / David Mallon
• dmetcalf / David Metcalf
• Downes / Stephen Downes
• dwilkinsnh / David Wilkins
• edwsonoma / Ellen Wagner
• emasie / Elliott Masie
• gsiemens / George Siemens
• grantricketts / Grant Ricketts
• GuildMeister / David Holcombe
• gwoodill / Gary Woodill
• hfisktwit / Heidi Fisk
• hjarche / Harold Jarche
• JaneBozarth / Jane Bozarth
• jaycross / Jay Cross
• jclarey / Janet Clarey
• jcmeister / Jeanne Meister
• Josh_Bersin / Josh Bersin
• judyb / Judy Brown
• KevinDJones / Kevin D. Jones
• kkapp / Karl Kapp
• KoreenOlbrish / Koreen Olbrish
• lancedublin / Lance Dublin
• maggiez99z / Margaret Martinez
• mcookebersin / Mike Cooke
• mobilemind / Tom King
• moehlert / Mark Oehlert
• Quinnovator / Clark Quinn
• RayJimenez / Ray Jimenez
• Stevehoward999 / Steve Howard
• tonykarrer / Tony Karrer
• twerner1952 / Tom Werner
• WillWorkLearn / Will Thalheimer
• writetechnology / Michelle Lentz 

No doubt I am missing several key people, but this is a good list to get you started (Not seeing someone you are looking for? Try the much larger directory of people in the L&D field who are using Twitter provided by Jane Hart's excellent Connexions Directory.)

Consider also the following industry organizations and magazines that are on Twitter, as many provide valuable links and news as well:

• astd / ASTD's primary account
• ASTDPR / ASTD Communications
• Bersin / Bersin and Associates
• BHallResearch / Brandon Hall Research
• CLOmedia / Chief Learning Officer magazine
• TrainingIndustr / TrainingIndustry.com
• TalentMgtMag / Talent Management magazine

You would also do well to look up any regional L&D-relevant groups that you belong to or would like to keep tabs on, such as regional ASTD chapters. Many of these are now using Twitter, and I'd recommend following them to see what they are sharing.
 
Happy tweeting…or is that twittering?

— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Everyone is Talking About Social Media

Without a doubt, the topic of social media/Web 2.0 tools continues to be the hottest topic in our industry today. For starters, Jay Cross has long been pushing learning leaders to mature in their scope, and better focus on and enable informal learning in their organizations. His latest column for Chief Learning Officer magazine, "Informal Learning 2.0: Sustaining the Corporation in the Network Era," is as always a good read. And the same issue also includes "When the Bird Tweets, Does Anyone Learn?" by Bill Sherman, who, amongst other points, presents the rise of social media for learning in the context of a third-generation instructional design model.

Recent issues of T+D magazine have also focused on this critical area. The July issue included "Social Networking: A Force for Development?" (login required) by Marjorie Derven. Then the August issue takes it up a notch with "Learning Gets Social" by ASTD President and CEO Tony Bingham (also available as a podcast.) The subtitle for this article conveys the message nicely: "A powerful force—unlike any in history—is altering the learning profession's landscape." After spending time reviewing what he considers to be aspects of the Gen Yers/Millennials, Bingham focuses on the disconnect between informal learning's prevalence and the L&D budget dollars spent on enabling it. And he correctly notes that utilizing Web 2.0/Social Media tools is one way to enable informal learning. Full of great quotes from others in the industry and research results, this article is a must-read for learning leaders in the industry, particularly those who are not yet convinced of the importance of social media for their organization. Indeed he closes with the following rallying cry:

This is the learning profession’s opportunity to be a game-changer—a paradigm shifter—and in the process, successfully position our organizations and ourselves for future success. …In the learning profession, we’ve never had the opportunity to broaden our impact as we do today through informal learning. People are demanding it, the technology is driving it, and the economy is requiring it. The pieces are there, and now is the time to connect those pieces to create a learning masterpiece that meaningfully demonstrates the critical importance of each and every one of your roles.

See also the ASTD news release (PDF) by Bingham, dated July 30, which includes a summary of key takeaways from the recent ASTD report “Transforming Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies."

It is great to see ASTD, "the world’s largest association dedicated to the training and development field," encouraging its members to understand the importance and impact of social learning.

And finally, here are some other highlights from the many industry leaders and experts talking and writing about web 2.0 / social media's increasing importance:

• Tony Karrer is paraphrased in Bingham's T+D article, and for more of his thoughts on this subject, see his posting on the need for learning professionals to avoid becoming marginalized in their organizations.
• An exciting video, Social Media Revolution, made the rounds recently on YouTube. You can see this video, along with some key points and commentary, at Tony Karrer's posting about it.
• Clive Shepherd provides key takeaways from Jakob Nielsen's research on the use of social media in enterprises—so-called "Enterprise 2.0." Both Clive's posting and the original research summary by Nielsen are worth reading.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Conference Report: SALT's Interactive Technologies Conference

As I've done in the past here at Element K Blog (see the Industry Events for many conference report postings), I wanted to provide some reflections on the conference I participated in recently. The Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT) held their "Interactive Technologies Conference" in Washington DC Aug. 19-21 (PDF of their program). I had never been to a SALT event before, so it was great to finally participate in one.

As I mentioned in an earlier posting regarding the CSTD Symposium held in Halifax in May, there are some definite benefits to attending smaller conferences: many are aspects that boil down to quality over quantity, ranging from the program itself to the lack of feelings of "getting lost in the crowd" and the ability to have deeper conversations with people. That said, the program at this conference provided ample choices for sessions to attend. What I really found helpful was how the sessions were organized into tracks, and then each session in each track was held in the same room throughout the day. This provided continuity that I sometimes find lacking at other industry events.

The tracks included at this conference were representative of both traditional learning technology topics and the common "hot topics" (the top four in the list below) that I've noted in earlier blog postings:

• Gaming and Simulation (18 sessions)
• Web 2.0 (14 sessions)
• Mobile Learning (7 sessions)
• Virtual Worlds (7 sessions)
• Compliance (6 sessions)
• Design (10 sessions)
• E-Learning (10 sessions)
• Training (11 sessions)
• Knowledge Management (4 sessions)

My own presentation was again on "Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Formal Learning" (It was a shortened version of what is available here as a pre-recorded Element K webinar.) I had a good audience of 50+ people, and I appreciated the follow-up conversations as well.

The attendees at this conference were more of a mix of L&D leaders from government, academia, and corporate than many of the other conferences I've participated in that were dominated by folks from the corporate world. So this mix definitely gave this conference a different flavor than what I've experienced in the past few years. I attended excellent presentations by people from or representing the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of the Interior, NASA and NOAA, the U.S. Department of Labor, and others (including academia and corporate organizations, of course).

In addition, the keynote speaker was from the government sector as well, in that he is a member of the military getting ready to retire: Major General Vincent E. Boles. He gave a lively and interesting presentation of the massive training operations and challenges that the military has, and some innovative approaches they have taken to meet those challenges. In particular, he stressed one of their guiding principles as being that you can't train on everything, so you should train on a few tasks, but to standard, and do it well -- something I think applies to any large enterprise with broad training and learning needs but finite resources. He also emphasized the famous quotation which speaks to the importance of training and preparation: "The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war." To the extent the analogy of business to war holds, I think this quote applies to the world of corporate L&D nicely.

The SALT organization is also moving ahead with the use of social media. During the event, they announced that they will soon have a LinkedIn presence, and I suspect a Facebook page won't be far behind. And if you are on Twitter and following various folks in the L&D world, you might have seen some of the many "tweets" that came out of this SALT event, tagged with the hashtag "#salt09”.

In summary, if you are considering attending a SALT event in the future—the next major conference is March 3-5 in Orlando, Florida—based on this one experience at least, I highly recommend them.

I'll wrap up this report with two other points about my trip to Washington DC:

• In addition to the SALT event, I also attended a meeting of the regional ASTD Metro-DC's chapter. This evening event had about 20 stations set up to demo various technologies that can be used in L&D contexts, and our station was focused on "wikis, blogs, and forums." Thanks to all who engaged with us in good conversations—your ASTD chapter certainly is a thriving group!
• My trip wasn't all business, as my wife came along and we spent four days doing lots of typical tourist activities in and around DC. Obviously, the Smithsonian museums we visited have changed a lot since I last visited them nearly 20 years ago. Most notably there are countless multimedia exhibits now, and many mixed exhibits as well. One interesting thought from a "learning" perspective occurred to me though: the most interesting exhibits, now more than ever, are those that revolve around unique (or nearly unique) physical artifacts. Why? Because of the Internet, and especially resources like Wikipedia, so much general information is now at our fingertips. While providing some such information about important events, people, etc., is helpful in a museum, having entire exhibits that provide only information that we can get easily online is no longer very valuable in my opinion. I suspect many museum-goers agree, and so I expect to see continuing changes in museums as a result.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)