It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two, three, four, and five).
What Every L&D Professional Needs to Know About E-Learning E-Learning experts Clive Shepherd and Laura Overton recently provided an outstanding 20-page booklet titled "What Every L&D Professional Needs to Know About E-Learning." Available for free online (registration required), this booklet is valuable for newcomers to the learning and development field as well as more seasoned professionals. After some introductory information it includes sections for what they refer to as self-paced content, live online sessions, online distance learning, knowledge sharing, simulations and virtual worlds, and computers in the classroom. Of particular value are the case studies provided for each section. See also Clive's blog posting where he describes this booklet, their purpose in creating it, and more.
All About Subject Matter Experts Most content developers or instructional designers who have developed training materials—whether for classroom use or for e-Learning—have likely worked with SMEs: Subject Matter Experts. Such experiences can be a mix of frustration and rewarding moments. The ASTD Learning Circuits Blog "Big Question" for September was on this subject: Working with Subject Matter Experts. This has generated over a dozen comments and over a dozen blog postings in response, so if you are interested in this subject you've now got a wealth of great reading to do. And if you want even more insights and didn't participate in the live event, see the transcript of the recent "Learn Chat" Twitter session on Subject Matter Experts.
Roger Schank on What Can Be Taught In September, the always provocative Roger Schank wrote a two-part article for eLearn Magazine titled "What Can Be Taught." (This was a follow-up to his equally thought-provoking July article titled "What Cannot Be Taught.")
In describing what can be taught, Schank analyzes the subject into 16 types of learning. In Part 1 he considers conscious processes, and in particular prediction, judgment, modeling, experimentation, describing, and managing. Then in Part 2 he covers subconscious processes (step-by-step, artistry, and valuing), analytic processes (diagnosis, planning, causation), and mixed processes (influence, teamwork, negotiation, goals.)
Josh Bersin on "From E-Learning to We-Learning" On September 25, industry analyst Josh Bersin wrote a provocative posting at his blog The Business of Talent, titled "From E-Learning to We-Learning." He begins by noting what we all have recently witnessed: "The corporate training industry is undergoing some major changes. Over the last few months we have been involved in many discussions with organizations about the tremendous needs to build, manage, and formalize their social and collaborative learning programs. This is being driven by many factors: the slowing economy, the "always-connected" nature of the workforce, and the explosion of social software tools and platforms now available."
He then proceeds to give a quick history of the development of the e-Learning industry, concluding with "So this 12-year evolution of "e-Learning" has been exciting, innovative, and transformational. Today many corporate clients tell us that 70% or more of their corporate training (measured by instructional hours) is done online. Such a concept was unthinkable in 1998."
He then states and defends five predictions about what he calls "We-Learning" (a.k.a., social learning, collaborative learning, and learning 2.0):
We-Learning will shift some focus away from traditional training, and create a need to learn new disciplines.
e-Learning did not, despite predictions, kill traditional training and education. Nor will "We-Learning" totally replace carefully designed training programs.
We-Learning will create markets for many new tools and platforms.
We-Learning will change our behavior in corporate training.
We-Learning will demand a change in culture and leadership.
McKinsey Survey Data on Business and Web 2.0 On a related note, in September, the McKinsey Quarterly provided an impressive interactive tool that provides interactive charts of the data from their three-year survey of business uses of Web 2.0 technologies. Their survey examines the business use of 12 technologies and tools: blogs, mash-ups, microblogging, peer to peer, podcasts, prediction markets, rating, RSS, social networking, tagging, video sharing, and wikis. One interactive also contains a nearly five-minute audio guide from Michael Chui, "A consultant with McKinsey and one of the drivers of the Web 2.0 research initiative." In addition, see the related McKinsey Quarterly article that provides insights into this data, "How Companies Are Benefiting From Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results." See also the earlier McKinsey Quarterly item, "Six Ways To Make Web 2.0 Work." (Premium membership needed to read these two articles in full.)
LearnTrends Event and Innovation Awards Corporate Learning Trends 2009 is a free, online, non-profit conference on innovation in corporate learning. It’s a labor of love from industry leaders George Siemens, Tony Karrer, and Jay Cross, and will be held online from November 17-19. The theme for this year's event is Convergence in Corporate Learning. For more information, visit the LearnTrends social networking site.
In conjunction with this online conference ,the group is also holding a LearnTrends 2009 Innovation Awards competition. As Jay Cross notes at his blog:
"The awards will recognize products, projects, and companies that represent significant innovation in corporate/workplace learning and performance. Winners will be announced and will be asked to do short presentations during the LearnTrends 2009 event. ...There is no entry fee. (And no fancy plaque either.) We very much want to get nominations from all corners. (Innovation occurs at all levels.)"
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, September, and October.
Earlier this year, an interesting new event in the Learning and Development industry started taking place every Thursday evening from 8:30-10:00 Eastern Standard Time. Various L&D professionals, from instructional designers, to training managers, to expert independent consultants, started to gather on Twitter for a live "chat." There are many of these Twitter gatherings for different topics and areas of interest, but this particular one is called Learn Chat and is denoted on Twitter with the hashtag "#lrnchat."
I've participated in most of the weekly lrnchat sessions, and I've generally found them to be a goldmine of insights on the selected topic of the day. As these sessions have grown in popularity, the Twitter messages now come fast and furious, so it can be hard to keep up and read them all. I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to multitask on other work while trying to get value from a lrnchat session!
In any given week, you'll find notable experts from our industry participating, such as Jay Cross, Clark Quinn, Mark Oehlert, Jane Bozarth, and many, many more. If you are going to give lrnchat a try, I strongly recommend using a tool such as Tweetdeck (set up a search column on #lrnchat) or the website tweetchat.com to help you manage the messages.
If participating in the live session is not for you—whether because you haven't started to use Twitter yet, you aren't comfortable with the speed of the exchange of such chats, or you aren't available at the Thursday evening time—you can always read the transcript of the session afterwards. See the website for lrnchat located at http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/ for transcripts for the recent lrnchats on topics such as:
Social learning
Working with SMEs (Subject Matter Experts)
Folklore and myths about e-Learning
The importance of mentoring
For some of the participants' perspectives on recent lrnchats, see these blog postings:
So if you're looking for a invigorating way to connect with other L&D professionals to discuss your experiences and share best practices, then #lrnchat on Twitter may be perfect for you.
It is called social media, social networking, social learning, learning 2.0, and countless other names. The concept involves using Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis, blogs, discussion forums, social networking functionality, and more to improve knowledge sharing and organizational learning. And anyone awake in the Learning and Development industry is aware that it continues to be one of the hottest topics today.
When I speak on this subject at industry conferences (specifically on the subject of how best to blend and integrate Web 2.0 technologies with traditional formal learning), there are several common points made and questions asked by members of my audiences. Some will note that they have tried to integrate Web 2.0 tools in their organization, but for some reason it didn't work out very well. Others have been considering the use of wikis or some other social technology to better enable informal learning in their organization, but don't have any idea what to expect as a result.
Starting to use social media for organizational purposes can be a difficult step for experienced learning and development professionals who have been focused on developing and providing formal learning content and programs—whether in the classroom or as e-Learning— for most of their careers. Informal learning, and the use of Web 2.0 technologies to better enable it, is very different in some important respects. And one of them is the level of full participation you can reasonably expect from your intended audience. With formal learning, you often can expect a high level of participation in the sense that everyone in a classroom is at least present in the room—even if, admittedly, some students pay more attention and participate more fully than others. Or with e-Learning, individuals are often driven to take the e-Learning courses they need to pass a certification, to gain a skill they need for their job, or to fulfill the company compliance mandate.
Online social communities are quite different. It is often said that they tend to follow what is called the "90-9-1" principle. The idea is simple: for any given online social community or social learning endeavor, about 90% of the users will be relatively passive. For instance:
In a wiki they might add comments to pages, but will rarely if ever contribute new pages of content or even make substantive edits to existing pages.
In a blog they again might make comments to some postings, but they will not have any interest in being a blog author themselves.
And with discussion forums, while they might gain a lot of value from simply reading other people’s questions and answers, for various reasons they will not fully participate by asking their own questions or responding with their experiences as answers (especially if the forum has a subject matter expert as the official moderator, one who is expected to respond to any questions asked.)
So to be clear: its not that some 90% of the user population won’t get significant value from the availability of Web 2.0 communities. Rather, they will participate less often, and less robustly, than the other 10% of users, preferring to be “readers” of the content or “lurkers” in the communities.
The remaining two groups according to the 90-9-1 principle are your heavier users. About 9% of users might sometimes edit wiki content, are quick to add comments to blog postings or even sometimes write a blog posting, or ask lots of questions and give lots of answers in discussion forums. Typically only a small percentage of power users, around the top 1% of the users in many cases, will be truly passionate creators of content, the real champions of the communities.
To see a good explanation of this, see the website dedicated to explaining it: http://www.90-9-1.com/. They provide the following statistics as examples, although note that for the first three, no date is given as to when these numbers were accurate:
167,113 of Amazon’s book reviews were contributed by just a few “top-100″ reviewers.
Over 50% of all the Wikipedia edits are done by just .7% of the users…524 people.
Just 0.16% of all visitors to YouTube upload videos to it, and 0.2% of visitors to Flickr upload photos.
On December 20, 2007 on the MSDN Community site, 1,866 edits out of 10,851 total edits were made by the top five contributors (three of whom are Microsoft employees). That percentage is slightly above one percent at 1.72%.
Keep in mind that the 90-9-1 principle is exactly that: a general principle, not a strict rule. For instance, a small team of people might have near 100% full participation in a wiki, if that wiki is the central means of communicating and sharing information for a project. Or if many people have responsibility for creating and maintaining specific pages in a wiki, then the user percentages could be more like 50-49-1 or even just 90-10. Or if participation in a forum or blog is required to pass a course, then you are imposing an artificial requirement that will naturally drive higher usage levels. But for many large wiki knowledge bases, blogs, discussion forums, and so on, a usage pattern close to the 90-9-1 rule is common.
So it is important to understand this and have the right expectations—both for yourself and your leadership—when embarking on social/Web 2.0 tool use in your organization. Not doing so is only setting yourself up for disappointment.
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two, three, four, and five).
What Every L&D Professional Needs to Know About E-Learning E-Learning experts Clive Shepherd and Laura Overton recently provided an outstanding 20-page booklet titled "What Every L&D Professional Needs to Know About E-Learning." Available for free online (registration required), this booklet is valuable for newcomers to the learning and development field as well as more seasoned professionals. After some introductory information it includes sections for what they refer to as self-paced content, live online sessions, online distance learning, knowledge sharing, simulations and virtual worlds, and computers in the classroom. Of particular value are the case studies provided for each section. See also Clive's blog posting where he describes this booklet, their purpose in creating it, and more.
All About Subject Matter Experts Most content developers or instructional designers who have developed training materials—whether for classroom use or for e-Learning—have likely worked with SMEs: Subject Matter Experts. Such experiences can be a mix of frustration and rewarding moments. The ASTD Learning Circuits Blog "Big Question" for September was on this subject: Working with Subject Matter Experts. This has generated over a dozen comments and over a dozen blog postings in response, so if you are interested in this subject you've now got a wealth of great reading to do. And if you want even more insights and didn't participate in the live event, see the transcript of the recent "Learn Chat" Twitter session on Subject Matter Experts.
Roger Schank on What Can Be Taught In September, the always provocative Roger Schank wrote a two-part article for eLearn Magazine titled "What Can Be Taught." (This was a follow-up to his equally thought-provoking July article titled "What Cannot Be Taught.")
In describing what can be taught, Schank analyzes the subject into 16 types of learning. In Part 1 he considers conscious processes, and in particular prediction, judgment, modeling, experimentation, describing, and managing. Then in Part 2 he covers subconscious processes (step-by-step, artistry, and valuing), analytic processes (diagnosis, planning, causation), and mixed processes (influence, teamwork, negotiation, goals.)
Josh Bersin on "From E-Learning to We-Learning" On September 25, industry analyst Josh Bersin wrote a provocative posting at his blog The Business of Talent, titled "From E-Learning to We-Learning." He begins by noting what we all have recently witnessed: "The corporate training industry is undergoing some major changes. Over the last few months we have been involved in many discussions with organizations about the tremendous needs to build, manage, and formalize their social and collaborative learning programs. This is being driven by many factors: the slowing economy, the "always-connected" nature of the workforce, and the explosion of social software tools and platforms now available."
He then proceeds to give a quick history of the development of the e-Learning industry, concluding with "So this 12-year evolution of "e-Learning" has been exciting, innovative, and transformational. Today many corporate clients tell us that 70% or more of their corporate training (measured by instructional hours) is done online. Such a concept was unthinkable in 1998."
He then states and defends five predictions about what he calls "We-Learning" (a.k.a., social learning, collaborative learning, and learning 2.0):
We-Learning will shift some focus away from traditional training, and create a need to learn new disciplines.
e-Learning did not, despite predictions, kill traditional training and education. Nor will "We-Learning" totally replace carefully designed training programs.
We-Learning will create markets for many new tools and platforms.
We-Learning will change our behavior in corporate training.
We-Learning will demand a change in culture and leadership.
McKinsey Survey Data on Business and Web 2.0 On a related note, in September, the McKinsey Quarterly provided an impressive interactive tool that provides interactive charts of the data from their three-year survey of business uses of Web 2.0 technologies. Their survey examines the business use of 12 technologies and tools: blogs, mash-ups, microblogging, peer to peer, podcasts, prediction markets, rating, RSS, social networking, tagging, video sharing, and wikis. One interactive also contains a nearly five-minute audio guide from Michael Chui, "A consultant with McKinsey and one of the drivers of the Web 2.0 research initiative." In addition, see the related McKinsey Quarterly article that provides insights into this data, "How Companies Are Benefiting From Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results." See also the earlier McKinsey Quarterly item, "Six Ways To Make Web 2.0 Work." (Premium membership needed to read these two articles in full.)
LearnTrends Event and Innovation Awards Corporate Learning Trends 2009 is a free, online, non-profit conference on innovation in corporate learning. It’s a labor of love from industry leaders George Siemens, Tony Karrer, and Jay Cross, and will be held online from November 17-19. The theme for this year's event is Convergence in Corporate Learning. For more information, visit the LearnTrends social networking site.
In conjunction with this online conference ,the group is also holding a LearnTrends 2009 Innovation Awards competition. As Jay Cross notes at his blog:
"The awards will recognize products, projects, and companies that represent significant innovation in corporate/workplace learning and performance. Winners will be announced and will be asked to do short presentations during the LearnTrends 2009 event. ...There is no entry fee. (And no fancy plaque either.) We very much want to get nominations from all corners. (Innovation occurs at all levels.)"
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, September, and October.
