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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.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
 A couple of weeks ago I attended the ASTD 2010 International Conference and Exposition in Chicago, Illinois at McCormick Place. Hosted by ASTD’s local "Chicagoland" Chapter, this year’s theme was “Find Your Value.” And with a wealth of learning and networking opportunities, I for one certainly did just that!
First, some numbers, as reported from the official ASTD blog:
- Total attendance: 8,500
- Total international attendance: 1,800
- Attendee countries: 70+
- Sessions: 350
- Exhibitors: 340
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."
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
The iPad Is Here!
The biggest tech-related news in recent weeks is of course the launch of Apple's latest device, the iPad tablet. Some prominent reviews include those from David Pogue of the The New York Times, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, and the popular website Engadget. For a convenient table comparing some aspects of these and other popular product reviewers, see the table at this posting to O’Reilly Answers. And although clearly created for marketing purposes, the Guided Tour videos from Apple are quite powerful and give you a glimpse of what is possible with this new device (and therefore worth watching even if you do not intend to use an iPad anytime soon).
Amongst the many L&D leaders diving right in, Elliott Masie has created an "iPad Learning Lab initiative" at the MASIE Center. As Masie describes: "We'll be doing immediate testing on the 'affordances' for learning that may be created by this new device. Jonathan Kayes (our CLO), Lauren Boughton (our Producer), Tom King (MASIE Fellow for ePubs), Erin Anderson (our recent college graduate editor) and Elliott Masie, will do a series of immediate experiments on the iPad." There are already many good postings at their iPad Learning Lab blog, so be sure to check it out soon and add it to your RSS feed reader.
David Mallon on 2010's Top Training Technology Trends
In previous editions of the L&D Roundup (see vol. 9 and vol. 10), I linked to many industry experts who were providing their new year's predictions, top-10 lists, and so on. One that I haven't yet included is quite worthy, and that is David Mallon's 2010 Top Training Technology Trends in the electronic magazine Training Industry Quarterly. Mallon directs research in enterprise learning for Bersin & Associates, and is a keen interpreter of industry trends.
New Blog: Instructional Design By Example
With her typical wit, Brandon Hall research associate Janet Clarey started her new blog with a posting titled "Corporate e-Learning needs another blog. Oh yes. It does." While it is true we are blessed with numerous expert blogs already, Clarey is quite focused with her new blog Instructional Design By Example. As she describes, in this new blog "you'll find examples of e-learning courses and details about the instructional design process used in creating them. You'll also find specifics about the logistics of the courses." She is already off and running with several interesting postings, so check it out and add it to your RSS feed reader.
Twitter Resources Galore!
Two prominent industry experts have recently put together some outstanding resources to help L&D professionals who are new to Twitter—or even those who use Twitter but want to know more about it.
- Twitter for Learning -- 55 Great Articles - Tony Karrer has done us all a service by bringing together links to 55 articles, and then categorizing them for us: Twitter and Teaching; Tips on Twitter Use; Twitter and Conferences, Webinars and Backchannel; Twitter and eLearning; People to Follow on Twitter; Using Twitter as a Learning Tool especially for Learning Professionals; Twitter Guides; Twitter Tools; Yammer; and More on Twitter for Learning.
- How to Use Twitter for Social Learning - Jane Hart also has done us all a service, by gradually creating a great set of resources on Twitter. Included are introductory pages, reading lists, and information on Twitter use in contexts such as presentations, events, classes, and training.
The Latest Insights on Social Learning
I continue to find the flow of good articles, postings, and resources on social learning to be almost overwhelming. So as I did in the last several round-ups, I'll provide some of the latest "gems" for you here. Since the March 2010 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine focused on this subject, I'll include only those great articles this time around:
- Formalizing Informal Learning, by Lance Dublin, includes good examples from Toshiba, Genentech, and Google.
- Verifying Virtual Value, by Eric Davidove and Craig Mindrum, takes on the common but challenging question of how to measure the value of social learning.
- The Social LMS, by Bill Sherman, provides many insights on changes in the corporate LMS to support social learning. See also the sidebar Sales Training Gets Social at ASM, which provides a good example from Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC.
- Taming the Network Beast, by James Sharpe Sr., includes a good example from Hilton Garden Inn.
Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched earlier this 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: January, February, March, and April (coming soon).
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Videos from recent L&D Industry Conferences
Did you miss some or all of the major conferences in the Learning and Development industry in the month of November? Well, the good news is that a few of these have made some video content available for free:
- Elliott Masie's Learning 2009 - Provided are videos of many of the "keynote" sessions. Great stuff!
- The eLearning Guild's DevLearn - Provided are a summary video of the event, plus a recording of the webinar delivered on Dec. 18th that highlights five of the 30 demos from DevLearn's "DemoFest."
- LearnTrends - Provided are nearly 20 videos from this online "virtual conference."
Looking Back on 2009
The December "big question" from ASTD's Learning Circuits blog was "What Did You Learn About Learning in 2009?" This has by now generated over a dozen response postings, including items from top industry bloggers such as Tony Karrer, Karl Kapp, Michael Hanley, and others.
And over at Tony Karrer's eLearning Learning site, his list "Hot Topics for 2009" and the many links to articles from throughout the year make for an interesting read. The top eight areas are:
- Twitter
- Social Media, Social Networks, Social Learning, and Informal Learning
- Google Wave
- SharePoint
- Video
- Mobile, Mobile Learning, and iPhone
- Changes in Design and Instructional Design and our Roles
- Webinars and Virtual Classrooms
Tony also provides a review of his predictions for 2009, and grades himself A-F on how he did for each.
Looking Ahead to 2010
Bersin & Associates has released their annual report, "Corporate Learning and Talent Management Predictions for 2010" (free, registration required). This includes 12 predictions, which Mr. Bersin summarizes at their blog here.
Bersin also posted in December on "Discussions with our Research Members: Five Topics to Watch for 2010" in which he described five big issues that they see emerging in 2010.
Jeanne Meister has also provided us with a top five, with her posting at New Learning Playbook titled "Five Words To Describe Corporate Learning in 2010." The five words are not a surprise (Social, Mobile, Collaborative, Engaging, Fun), but read her post for her insightful explanations for why she chooses each.
And finally, Jay Cross shares some words of wisdom for 2010, nearly two dozen classic quotes that he describes as follows: "The following ideas help me get out of the daily rut to renew my commitment to make the world a better place. Perhaps they’ll move you, too." A quick but very motivational read!
A New Journal
Late in 2009, a new and valuable resource joined the ranks of the many journals, magazines, and blogs available to L&D professionals. This new resource is a refereed journal named Impact: Journal of Applied Research in Workplace E-Learning, and it comes to you from ElNet, the E-learning Network of Australasia. All of the contents from the 200+ page inaugural issue are available for free download online, so take a look!
When Will 3D Virtual Worlds Really Take Off?
Koreen Olbrish shares some very sensible comments about 3D Virtual Worlds and when they will finally go mainstream for learning and other uses. Read her posting "Virtual Worlds 2.0…a few humble predictions."
The Latest Insights on Social Learning
Every day, more industry experts and bloggers speak and write about the importance of "social learning" and "enterprise 2.0" -- I've done so many times here at Element K Blog as well. Here are some of the recent highlights you don't want to miss:
- "Web 2.0 and Change Present Challenges to Many Learning Executives," by Rex Davenport. An interview with Jay Cross.
- "Come Together, Right Now" - Jay Cross' latest column in the December issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.
- "Enterprise 2.0: A Parallel Meritocracy," by Venkatesh G. Rao and Janet Clarey in the Oct./Nov. issue of Elearning! magazine.
- "Using Social Media to Counter Budget Shortfalls," by David Coleman in the Oct./Nov. issue of Elearning! magazine.
- "Leverage Online Discussions," by Kendra Lee, on pg. 18 of the Oct./Nov. issue of Training magazine, where she provides six helpful tips.
- "Boomers 2.0," by Margery Weinstein, pgs. 48-50 of the Oct./Nov. issue of Training magazine.
- "Social Media and Networking Journey," a series of blog posts at Kevin Jones' Engaged Learning blog, where he covers a range of social learning tools.
Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched earlier this 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: November, December, and January.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com, and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
ASTD Employee Learning Week is December 7 - 11
The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) is again celebrating employee learning in organizations with their Employee Learning Week (ELW) program December 7-11, 2009. As their website indicates, "Employee Learning Week is an awareness campaign highlighting the important connection between learning and achieving organizational results." Learning and training are more important now than ever before, as "the growing skills gap and the increased need to compete in today's economy require organizations to develop a knowledgeable and highly skilled workforce." See their list of ideas for how your organization can get involved and read about the ways that dozens of your peers celebrated ELW in 2007 and 2008.
Celebrating 50 Years of Four Levels
There is another celebration going on in our industry, a birthday of sorts for a key L&D industry model: Donald Kirkpatrick's Four Levels Model for evaluating the impact of workforce development initiatives. The November issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine focused on this, starting with the great article "The Kirkpatrick Model: Past, Present and Future" by Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick. Additional articles in the same issue include "The Father of the Four Levels" by Daniel Margolis, "Simplified ROI: Measuring What Matters Most" by Howard Prager and Susan Vece, "Emerging Issues in Measurement" by Jeffrey Berk, "It's Time for Measurement Strategy" by Chris Moore, and finally a closing column by Donald Kirkpatrick himself "Same Model, New Challenges." For anyone who either wants to get up to speed with learning measurement and the history of the Kirkpatrick model, or is in the middle of implementing any sort of evaluation or ROI-measurement system, this issue is a goldmine.
Two Key Recent Industry Reports
The L&D industry has seen several new and important reports released in the past few months. ASTD recently announced their 2009 State of the Industry report, "a comprehensive look at the training and development investments, practices, and trends for 2008." This report for ASTD members provides data for from 301 organizations, including members of the ASTD Benchmarking Forum and ASTD BEST Award winners.
Also, industry analysts Ambient Insight have released their latest study, "The U.S. Market for Self-Paced E-Learning Products and Services: 2009-2014 Forecast and Analysis." Their press release notes that the U.S. E-Learning market will reach $16.7 billion in 2009, with demand growing by a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4%, with revenues reaching $23.8 billion by 2014. I highly recommend that you read their free executive overview.
2009 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards Announced
Also announced recently were the 2009 edition of the Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards. Element K is proud to have garnered two of these coveted awards: Best Custom Content (Silver) for the course "The Green Grid Measures and Metrics" and Best Innovation in Learning Technology (Bronze) for our incorporation of Web 2.0 collaboration tools into the KnowledgeHub LMS to support informal learning. Selections for the Brandon Hall Awards are based on potential impact, applicability, ease of adoption, and overall value for learning professionals.
Learning Circuits Big Question: What is the Value of Social Media for Learning?
How do I communicate the value of social media as a learning tool to my organization? That is the question that ASTD's Learning Circuits asked the L&D blogging community for the month of November. As always, the "big question" generated plenty of interesting responses, including perspectives from folks such as Jay Cross, Jane Hart, Karl Kapp, Clive Shepherd, Clark Quinn, Tony Karrer, and many others. If you are trying to convince others in your organization (or yourself!) of the value of social media for learning, this series of blog postings is a great place to start.
Jane Hart on Five Categories of Learning
Most people recognize the high-level distinction between what is called Formal Learning vs. Informal Learning. In considering how social media can be used for learning in an organization, Jane Hart wasn't comfortable with just these two categories, so she set out to get a bit more precise in how we conceptualize the learning that occurs in our organizations. She arrived at five categories, which she named at her blog as follows:
- Intra-Organizational Learning (IOL)—Keeping the organization up to date and up to speed on strategic and other internal initiatives and activities.
- Formal Structured Learning (FSL)—Formal education and training like classes, courses, workshops, etc. (both synchronous and asynchronous).
- Group Directed Learning (GDL)—Groups of individuals working in teams, projects, study groups, etc. Even two people working together in a coaching and mentoring capacity.
- Personal Directed Learning (PDL)—Individuals organizing and managing their own personal or professional learning.
- Accidental & Serendipitous Learning (ASL)—Individuals learning without consciously realizing it (aka incidental or random learning).
While its not likely that this set of acronyms will catch on in our industry right away, I think Jane has done us all a great service in clarifying these five distinct concepts. Jane's colleague Harold Jarche then assisted by providing a useful visual of these five concepts, that clearly identifies each on a grid representing Individual, Group, Organization on one axis and Undirected, Self-Directed, Directed on the other axis. Then Jane took her analysis a step further and provided dozens of examples of how social media can be used for each learning approach. This mapping of examples to concepts is a great resource for you as you consider learning in your own organization, and how best to blend the use of social media tools.
Harold Jarche on Train Speeds and Bridging the Adoption Chasm
Harold Jarche's blog had several great postings this week, and I'd like to draw your attention to two of them. First he draws your attention to an analogy found in Alvin and Heidi Toffler’s book, Revolutionary Wealth, which compares various societal structures and institutions and their willingness to change. This is very instructive given the amazing pace of change facing L&D professionals today. He also wrote about the need to bridge the chasm between early adopters and the early majority, and provided an insightful table that suggests the average current stage for many of the Web 2.0 and other new technologies L&D professionals are integrating into their learning programs. Where is your organization in the practical adoption of some of these innovative learning approaches?
David Mallon on Back to Basics in 2010
And finally, at this time of year most magazines, bloggers, and others will set out to either give a wrap-up look back at the year that was, and/or make some predictions about what we might expect in learning and development in the year ahead. One of the first to do so this year is David Mallon of Bersin & Associates, in his blog posting Back to Basics in '10. After noting the tough year that was 2009, Mallon notes that "The learning industry as a whole seems to get that it has reached a point in its history where it must evolve or face rapid obsolescence." He then clarifies what he means by "back to basics" as "cutting through the distractions, asking ourselves hard questions about where and how we can add the most value to the organization, and optimizing our processes to leave no possible question of underutilization or inefficiency." He notes that L&D departments need to be focused on two key questions: "Are we truly working on the right things to help the business get where it needs to go? And, are we as good at the business of learning as we must be in order to succeed?" In discussing these two questions, Mallon argues that a focus on social learning is anything but a distraction, but rather a means to get "back to basics" by giving the L&D group a way to better enable informal learning. In other words, given that informal learning has always been around, isn't it high time you took the reins and started to better support and enable it?
Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched earlier this 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: June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com, and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
It was March of this year when I last highlighted the great work that Jane Hart does on behalf of the Learning and Development industry. So it is high time that I give an update, and Jane has provided me the perfect excuse as she recently announced the final results of the 2009 edition of her survey of Tools for Learning. The final list of 100 top tools was compiled from the contributions of 278 learning professionals worldwide—from both education and workplace learning—who were each asked to provide a list with descriptions of their top 10 learning tools (broadly defined). As always, Jane provides her valuable data in multiple formats, this year providing both a SlideShare presentation that walks you through the list one tool at a time, as well as a complete listing from 1-100.
So what learning tool tops the chart? It is one that will come as no surprise to those who have discovered its power and value: Twitter. I have several times posted here about the value I and many others in our industry get from Twitter on a daily basis, so let this top ranking serve as a wake-up call for anyone reading this posting who hasn't yet given Twitter a serious try. I'll note also that Twitter didn't just come in first place, it did so by a very wide margin! Here are the top 10 tools for 2009, with the number of votes each received.
- 159 Twitter
- 95.5 Delicious
- 79.5 YouTube
- 79 Google Reader
- 78.5 Google Docs
- 69 Wordpress
- 64 Slideshare
- 56 Google Search
- 54 Audacity
- 54 Firefox
Jane's full listing table provides the rankings for each tool in the 2008 and 2007 survey results, which allows us to learn that, for instance, Twitter has climbed the list from 43rd place in 2007 to 11th place in 2008 to finally taking the top spot away from Delicious (which had been first in 2008, and second in 2007). The growth of YouTube—not just in terms of the number of videos it serves up daily, but in how people perceive it—is evident by its climb from a modest 18th place in 2008 to 3rd in 2009. And another big climb is evident for SlideShare, which went from 31st in 2007 to 20th in 2008 to 7th in 2009. Outside this top 10, a few other tools rising sharply from 2007 to 2009 include Ning (31 to 11), VoiceThread (101 to 19), Jing (unranked to 20), and Google Apps (101 to 38). Jane also gives her own review of the biggest gainers and losers in this year's survey results, and separately wrote to highlight 10 of the tools that made their first appearance in the list and that she thinks "are useful, innovative, cost effective, and certainly worth considering for 2010."
Jane further provides a useful alternate approach to organizing the results: by category. Here, she separates the tools into 27 different categories, such as blogging tools, micro-blogging tools, presentation tools, productivity tools, and so on, allowing you to quickly see the top-X in each category.
You can also view the complete list of the professionals who participated, and read their individual top-10 lists—a great deep dive for those of you who closely follow particular industry experts. If you are curious, you can see my top-10 listing, which was posted very early in 2009 (I was the third person to participate this year.)
As if doing the annual survey exercise wasn't enough, Jane also maintains an overall tools directory which this year has topped 3,000 different tools! As Jay Cross recently remarked at his blog, I don't know how Jane does it!
If you find these resources as valuable as I do, be sure to send Jane a note to thank her for her hard work in creating and maintaining these and the many other resources at her website: Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. It's great stuff!
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)
It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two, three, four, five, and six).
The Future of the Training Department
I'll start off with the most provocative item in this roundup, a blog posting from Harold Jarche titled "The Future of the Training Department." Jarche begins with a whirlwind tour of the history of training, why it developed as it did, why it made sense and worked well enough, and so on. But then along lines similar to columns and postings written by his colleague Jay Cross over the past year, Jarche notes that the world has changed and that people in organization's "training departments" had better change too, or potentially face extinction as such. Jarche's thoughts on this subject, like those of Cross and others, are provocative to say the least, and should be a wake-up call to any learning leaders who are changing very slowly or continuing to do basically the same things they have always done. While you're at Harold's blog, see also his many other excellent posts from this past month, especially his "Increased Complexity Needs Simplified Design," which makes several valuable points about informal learning.
Low-Costs LMSs Do Exist
The August/September issue of Elearning! magazine included an article by Jerry Roche titled "LMSs for Less Than $20,000." In these tough economic times, where everyone is being asked to do more with less (or in some cases making the tough decisions to do less with less), understanding how to maximize value from your Learning Management System is critical for learning leaders. The article starts by noting the absolutely critical point: The trick is finding an LMS that meets your needs, while not buying more LMS than you need. In other words, hitting the sweet spot while spending as little as possible. With this as the context, the good news is that in some cases, a low price tag no longer equates to less functionality than you need. Some low-cost LMSs now include not only basic tracking of e-Learning, but also features such as ILT classroom management, advanced reporting, and even collaborative Web 2.0 features such as forums, blogs, wikis, and more. Element K's KnowledgeHub LMS is one such platform that provides all of these and more. While many in the industry know of Element K for our award-winning e-Learning and print ILT courseware content, in recent years we have spent a lot of effort into building out our KnowledgeHub LMS platform, so we are pleased to be included in this article's listing of low-cost LMSs you should be considering.
If you are in the market for an LMS, another good recent resource to share with you is Clive Shepherd's posting on "The 21st Century LMS," which includes a PDF of the results of a recent gathering of the eLearning Network, and in particular their activity to "identify what was required in an LMS that was fit for the 21st Century."
Don't be Scared to Evaluate
In the August/September issue of Elearning! magazine, Diane Valenti wrote on the importance of evaluation in "Scared to Evaluate? Return on Learning Is Your Lifeline." After introducing the subject and posing the normal difficult questions regarding training ROI, Valenti describes a good example of the role that accountability can play in driving ROI: it can be the extra push users need to apply what they learn from training to their actual jobs. She notes that ROI doesn't always need to be calculated, but does when training "is the solution, in whole or in part, to a specific business challenge. Such challenges could include an increase in customer complaints or employee turnover, a drop in sales or profit margin, or even a lack of leadership bench strength." She then walks the reader through the three high-level steps of determining ROI: determining the benefits of training, determining the costs of training, and finally calculating the value of the training. For each, step she gives useful examples to help anyone new to this process. A recommended read for both novices and veterans alike: you definitely don't need to be scared to evaluate!
Big Question: New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills?
The latest "big question" at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog is "New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills?" The list of more focused questions can be pretty well summed up with two concerns: multitasking and backchannel. That is, how can trainers and presenters best handle the inevitable multitasking and backchannel chatter that occurs during their classes and sessions? And what are the best practices for us on the other side, as learners and audience members? As a conference speaker myself, I've certainly been thinking about this a lot lately, especially as the phenomenon that is Twitter has made live-backchannel discussions a reality at almost every presentation at every conference. The response postings to this "big question" come from great industry bloggers including Tony Karrer, Clark Quinn, Clive Shepherd, and others. See also Karrer's additional posting highlighting some of the salient points raised by everyone else.
A Corporate Social Media Use Example: SabreTown
The September 2009 issue of T+D Magazine, in an article titled "Letting Go" (ASTD membership required), provided another good example of using social media technologies in a corporation, this time from Sabre Holdings. The center of their application, SabreTown, revolves around employee-completed profiles, complete with areas of expertise, and online discussion boards. When people ask questions, the system notifies the people it considers to have the most relevant expertise, an innovative way to drive conversation and knowledge exchange. The article details numerous best practices and lessons learned at Sabre, including the following and more:
- Maximize the value of the system by making sure it is used to the greatest extent. In particular, the advice given suggests keeping it simple, making the tool easy to use for all, not worrying about making it perfect technologically, building it to mimic how people already communicate (e.g., Q&A), and not letting it lose its meaning by building it into something larger
- Promote behavior that will increase trust in the system.
- Seed the system with questions and answers for the first month or two by selecting some people to "overuse it."
- In communications about the system, keep returning to its value.
The article notes that SabreTown is credited with substantial savings for the company, including $500,000 in direct savings in the first year. But, based on strong anecdotal evidence, that figure doesn't come close to representing the total savings they are seeing. A truly impressive case study!
New Whitepaper: Social Learning Introduction
Harold Jarche recently announced a new whitepaper, "Social Learning Introduction", from the new "idea lab" group Collaborative Enterprise. A group-authored whitepaper, each writer gave their unique perspective on the question: "How would you describe social learning and why is it important for today's enterprise?" Included are insights from Clark Quinn, Charles Jennings, George Siemens, Jay Cross, and eight others.
22 Power Laws
Dion Hinchcliffe wrote an outstanding article at ZDNet.com titled "Twenty-Two Power Laws of the Emerging Social Economy." Definitely a good read, possibly one of the most thought-provoking things you will read all year. Some of the "laws" he covers will be well-known to you, such as Moore's law, the Long Tail, the Pareto principle, or even Metcalfe's law. But many of the others will be new to you, so I strongly recommend you read this article and consider which of these "power laws" are a major driver for your organization. And for additional reflections, see also Tony Karrer's comments on Dion's article.
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, October, and November.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)
In the July issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, Cushing Anderson reports some interesting data on the various learning modalities that comprise "blended learning" in organizations (see "Cost and Availability Drive Modality Mix"). The subhead for his article states quite clearly a point I've been making throughout this year in my presentations on how to blend the latest technologies with traditional formal learning, namely that "CLOs are increasingly trying to apply the right delivery option for the content, audience, and environment." (Emphasis mine.)
The data that Anderson reports comes from the latest web-based survey administered by IDC to Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board (BIB) on a "variety of topics to gauge the issues, opportunities, and attitudes that make up the diverse role of a senior training executive." This latest survey provides data on "learning modalities and how they are evolving," with nearly 300 BIB respondents sharing their thoughts.
Some key results from the survey include:
- Classroom training represents the delivery option most used, though cost has driven its use down in the past year.
- Both synchronous and asynchronous e-Learning have seen the most rapid growth, in part due to cost savings.
- For many organizations, asynchronous e-Learning has also seen growth because of the increased convenience.
- A significant number of organizations are using formal, on-the-job (OJT) training as a key component of their overall education programs.
- Due to lack of available content and complete technology solutions, portable learning technologies did not gain traction as much as some had anticipated.
- More than 60 percent of CLOs selected the modality for their blended offerings based on the availability of modalities. The value and potential of blended learning continues to be constrained by the availability of content in a variety of modalities.
What training and learning modalities do you have available for your learners, either from internal sources or from your learning partners? Do you have the headaches of dealing with multiple vendors for your learning programs that require different modalities, or do you have a partner that can provide content and support for classroom training, various e-learning modalities, and performance support tools?
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)
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)
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)
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