It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Jane Bozarth Introduces TrainingBookReview.com Industry veteran and expert author Jane Bozarth has started a new website called TrainingBookReview.com. This is a new blog, sponsored by HRDQ. Bozarth was for some 10 years a book review writer for Training magazine, and describes that at this new blog she will be reviewing "a few new books," but also have a focus, at least to start, "on some classics in the L&D literature." She has kicked things off with a review of Figuring Things Out: A Trainer’s Guide to Needs and Task Analysis (Zemke & Kramlinger, 1982). For fans of Jane's book reviews, know that she continues to also review books focused on e-Learning at her new column with Learning Solutions magazine, the latest of which is a review of Clark Aldrich's new book The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games. Keep up the great work Jane!
Ten Myths About Video in E-Learning And speaking of the online Learning Solutions magazine, it recently had a two-part article by Stephen Haskin titled "Ten Myths About Video in E-Learning." In part 1, he takes on what he considers to be myths such as the issue of Mac versus PC for creating videos, the software available, whether you need a streaming server to play your videos, and the issue of mobile devices. In part 2, he covers topics including HD, internal networks, frame rates, and importantly, the cost and skills required for video production. Although the topics covered are broader than the use of video in e-Learning contexts alone, Haskin has done e-Learning developers a service by sharing insights on so many issues of video production in one place.
What Will Workplace Learning Technology Look Like in 2015? That was the "big" question posed for the month of May at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog. Responses to this provocative question came pouring in, and by now include postings from Tony Karrer, Clark Quinn, Clive Shepherd, and many others. Note to self: check back in five years to see who was correct!
Better Design Doesn't Take Longer And speaking of Clark Quinn, in a recent article at eLearn magazine, "Better Design Doesn't Take Longer!", he argues in favor of better design in the development of learning content. He makes his case on the grounds that it really doesn't take any longer to produce well-designed content and learning experiences, and obviously (almost by definition) good designs will yield better outcomes. He admits the one caveat to his position about it not taking any longer: "after an initial transition period." That is, he is arguing for a long-range perspective, by noting that an investment in some time up front can be more than justified by the benefits you will reap in the future.
An Interesting Take on the iPad from a Usability Guru And speaking of design, Jakob Nielsen is a very well-known usability expert. So when he publishes a 93-page report on the usability of the latest technology wonder device, it is worth your time to pause and at least hear what he has to say. You can download this report for free, or if time is short at the moment, start by simply reading this article from the Guardian, "Jakob Nielsen critiques the iPad's usability failings." Lots of food for thought, as the Learning and Development industry begins to consider the use cases for the iPad, and future competing tablet devices too.
On the Forgetting Curve and Ways to Improve Retention Although I recently wrote a post that linked to these two items, I wanted to again draw attention to them. On May 28, both Charles Jennings and Donald Clark wrote about a similar topic, both invoking what is known as "the Forgetting Curve." These postings are both worth reading, so here again are the links:
On Mobile Learning Are you up to speed on the current state, and the possibilities for the future, of mobile learning? If not, then I encourage you to read Ellen Wagner's article "When Mobility Meets Learning" from the April/May issue of Elearning! magazine. After setting the stage with a typical run down of the explosive growth of mobile devices, Wagner provides several reasons why mobile learning hasn't taken off equally as quickly. She then describes several attributes that a rich mobile learning experience will involve: ubiquity, access, richness, efficiency, flexibility, security, reliability, and interactivity. She then shares nine critical questions to ask when you are planning a mobile learning initiative -- a good list!
The Latest on Social Learning As I noted in my reflections on the recent ASTD ICE 2010 conference, social learning is one of the hottest topics in the L&D industry today. There continues to be a great flow of good articles, postings, and resources on this important subject, so I will again list a few from recent weeks here. See also the many links in my blog posting "The Great LMS Debate," in which social learning plays a central role.
"Implementing Social Learning" -- from the April/May issue of Elearning! magazine, this article includes descriptions of social learning from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and Telus Corporation. The latter's success with social learning was also recently described in a case-study from Microsoft here.
Updates from Element K As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched last year. 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: March, April, May, and June.
For the past few months, a multi-faceted debate has been growing in the L&D industry, particularly amongst proponents of the hottest topic in our industry: social learning. Some of the debate concerns the definition of what a Learning Management System (LMS) is today, what it could be, what it should be, and where LMSes can and should fit into the broader architecture of enterprise systems. First there were some provocative blog postings, including but not limited to:
Then the topic of “LMS – Lessons Learned” was the subject of one of the weekly 90-minute "chats" on Twitter (these go by the name #lrnchat, pronounced "learn-chat.”) This involved a healthy but at times frustrating discussion, with many people sharing their negative experiences with current or past LMSes, but also including David Wilkins of Learn.com, myself, and a few others who provided some balance to the discussion.
Then, a few days later, and after some side email exchanges by some of the lrnchat participants, Wilkins wrote a lengthy blog posting titled, "A Defense of the LMS (and a Case for the Future of Social Learning)." In this posting, Wilkins not only displays his deep understanding of the LMS market, but provides a compelling list of features that "current versions of industry-leading LMS solutions" provide -- including varied Web 2.0 / social learning features. Mentioned as examples in his short list of such LMSes were Learn.com, Saba, Cornerstone OnDemand, and Element K’s KnowledgeHub. His posting is a fun read, and should be very educational even for industry veterans.
Wilkins' blog post generated many great comments, both pro and con his viewpoint, and I chimed in a few times with some thoughts of my own. But the debate didn't end there, as the weeks that have followed have seen numerous responses to Wilkins and additional posts on this topic, including but not limited to:
And then David Mallon from Bersin & Associates further chimed in, linking as I am here to many of the posts in this ongoing debate, and providing some of his own perspectives along the way.
At Element K, our KnowledgeHub LMS has for nearly two years now provided customers with a set of Web 2.0 tools -- such as blogs, forums, and wikis -- integrated into the rest of the platform in some deep and compelling ways (e.g., search results span across both traditional formal learning content and the social learning components that the learner has access to.) For more on these features of our learning solution offerings, see our Collaboration information site. And see also the whitepaper I wrote on Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Formal Learning.
In an industry as diverse and complicated as the L&D industry is, no one can predict with certainty what will happen in the future. Nor would anyone in this debate argue that one single solution is best for all organizations or all circumstances. What I can say with certainty is that I find the very fact that we, as an industry, are having this debate at all demonstrates the passion we all feel for providing the best learning and development solutions we can. I strongly encourage all learning leaders to read the above blog postings (fun beach reading this summer?), to stay current on this important topic. At the very least, I suggest that you read Wilkins' excellent posting and the comments and responses to it.
In a posting back in December 2008 I referenced one of my favorite L&D concepts: the Forgetting Curve. This is actually well-known enough to have its own entry at Wikipedia, but in essence, the Forgetting Curve illustrates that, generally speaking, unless you use a new skill immediately on the job, or have a good reinforcement event, information and skills "learned" from classes or other formal learning is mostly, and rather quickly, forgotten. This is a painful truth for all in the L&D space, but one that, if tackled head-on, can be managed in a way that leads to strong learning results.
Also referencing this concept were two outstanding posts on May 28 by a couple of industry veterans. First, Charles Jennings blogged on "ID -- Instructional Design or Interactivity Design in an interconnected world?" While I generally agree with Jennings' points and sage advice, I perhaps disagree with his claim that, "The vast majority of structured learning is content-rich and interaction-poor." I say this because I've seen a lot of well-design learning content in the past 10 years, from a wide variety of providers and also developed in-house by L&D teams. Likely Jennings has as well, so perhaps we disagree on the degree of the problem -- as of 2010 -- in our industry?
I can certainly say that Element K's design model includes exactly what Jennings is recommending: heavy doses of interactivity and experience-based learning that go beyond the instruction of concepts, facts, and guidelines. Picking just two examples: a typical software training course from Element K includes dozens of interactive exercises, and a typical soft-skills course from Element K includes a scenario-driven, branching-logic, media-rich business simulation -- not as a separate learning object, but actually as part of the e-Learning course itself. But perhaps my perspective on content development -- for both e-Learning and ILT courseware (since we use an XML-based single-source development model) -- has been through rose-colored glasses? After all, I've had the benefit of being with Element K for over 10 years now!
The other May 28 must-read posting was from Donald Clark, and was titled "Ten Techniques to Massively Increase Retention." He immediately describes the issue of the Forgetting Curve, and then notes: "The real solution, to this massive problem of forgetfulness, is spaced practice, little and often, the regular rehearsal and practice of the knowledge/skill over a period of time to elaborate and allow deep processing to fix long-term memories." He then provides a list of 10 techniques you can consider to increase learning retention, with some being approaches I hadn't yet considered. A great set of ideas!
Element K participates in numerous community events in the Rochester, New York area. One recent one that many of us were pleased to take part in again was the annual JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge -- a 3.5-mile race that raises money for a worthy cause. This year, that cause was the Rochester Urban Fellows Program, which provides undergraduate college students with the opportunity to work with community-based organizations and agencies during the summer. (See the Rochester CCC webpage for the official story and some photos.)
This year marked the 20th anniversary of this event in Rochester, and the seventh year that it was held on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). There were some 9,000-plus who either ran or walked the route, from some 400 organizations. After the race, most participants gathered at their organization's tents for much needed food, drink, and celebration (see the local Democrat and Chronicle newspaper's article.)
Element K's team had over a dozen participants, from across our organization. Although it rained steadily during the race, those of us who ran this event last year knew it could be much worse: last year's downpour was so strong it felt like it should have been given a name like tropical storms and hurricanes are!
While no one from Element K was amongst the race leaders, most of us were able to report either career bests or at least consistent results from attempts in the past. Congratulations to everyone who participated, both from Element K and from around the Rochester region!
And much thanks goes to team captain Mark Onisk, as well as Carolyn Gregory, both from our Cognitive Arts custom development division, who stepped up and organized our participation in the event this year.
My sense from both personal experience and from talking with many others was that this year's event was larger than recent years. And it certainly had more of an international feeling to it (at the Element K booth, for instance, I think we had more international visitors than previous years.)
I attended two of the keynote sessions: Daniel Pink who spoke on upgrading employee motivation practices, and Charlene Li who spoke on the topic of her new book: Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead. These were both worthwhile, as were several of the concurrent sessions I attended. The one I probably found most interesting was Sean Dennehy of the CIA. I've long known that the CIA uses wikis internally to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and so on. But Sean's presentation went much further than discussing their internal "Intellipedia" platform, as the CIA by now actually uses a broad range of Web 2.0 technologies including video sharing, micro-blogging, social bookmarking, internal social networking profiles, and more. It was great to learn more about an organization that is "getting it" in this area (similar to other leaders such as IBM, Best Buy, Pfizer, and more.) And as I often say to L&D organizations struggling (e.g., with security concerns, or culture-change concerns) with blending Web 2.0 and social learning with traditional formal learning, if the CIA can do it -- even with their significant security concerns and regulations -- then your organization can too!
Another highlight for me was attending David Allen's presentation on Getting Things Done, his well-known personal productivity methodology that I've adopted and have obtained immense value from. Having read so much of his material and heard him via so many podcasts over the years, it was a real pleasure to see him speak in person -- he is a master of his craft.
Overall, the program had a nice range of sessions to choose from. Out of curiosity, I went through the program and attempted to categorize the sessions as best I could, and here are the areas that seem to have the most attention this year:
Leadership development
Training measurement and evaluation/learning transfer/ROI
Web 2.0/collaboration/social learning
Global learning issues
Sales training
Traditional ILT-related topics
Coaching/mentoring
Webinars and virtual classrooms
Of these, I found that the top three had significantly more sessions than even the others in this top-eight list, let alone the other topics that had only a few (or one) sessions each.
The exhibition hall was impressive as it always is. I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by our Element K booth -- we had lots of folks interested in the learning solutions we offer, but also many who simply made a point of stopping by to say hello and say "we love your stuff!" or "I've used your courses…thanks!" As with any conference, the traffic at the booth ebbed and flowed, in conjunction with the program events. But I felt it was noticeably heavier this year than the recent past; a good sign for the L&D industry?
Another exhibit hall highlight for me was talking with Julie Groshens of Training magazine. It was great to chat with her to get more details of the return of this long-standing L&D industry publication -- much thanks to Lakewood Media Group for stepping up and purchasing the magazine and its affiliated assets (like the Training conferences and the Training Top 125 program). But while we were talking, Julie and I were approached by none other than industry luminary Don Kirkpatrick, who proceeded to tell us wonderful stories and even entertain us with a rendition of the Green Bay Packers fight song. That was an experience I won't soon forget!
Overall, I felt there was more positive energy at this year's ASTD ICE conference than the past two. That is understandable especially when comparing with last year, since the Washington event in 2009 was a mere two months off the lows of the stock market, and while many would argue the economic fundamentals aren't particularly bright or strong right now, perceptions at least are more positive than they were a year ago. Also, technology advances helped to bolster this event. For example, many vendors had drawing for the hot item of the day: Apple's new iPad device. And the use of Twitter was much stronger this year than last year, and Twitter by its nature spreads buzz about the ideas people are learning in the sessions and increases the dialogues that conferences like this can create. This year it was hard just to keep up with the #ASTD10 Twitter hashtag, I wonder what it will be like next year if even more attendees give Twitter a try?
Many others have written post-conference reports at their blogs as well, so I'll link to a couple here. First up, Aaron Silvers shares his insightful and candid comments about the conference. And then Cammy Bean who does the same, and also includes some great event photos and videos. How did I manage to take photos of downtown Chicago, but forget to take photos inside the conference?!
Lastly, it;s not too late for you to experience at least some of the high value that the ASTD ICE 2010 event provided! You can register for their "virtual conference." According to the ASTD website, the virtual conference "will feature 12 live webcast sessions plus over 50 recorded sessions that you can view at any time from May 26 through June 26."
