It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
More Predictions for 2010 In roundup vol. 9 I linked to several industry leaders providing predictions for 2010. I have found many more such articles and blog postings since then, and they are almost always a fascinating read. Here are some of the best that I didn't link to last time around:
eLearn Magazine has again gathered predictions from a few dozen industry experts, including Stephen Downes, Jay Cross, Clark Quinn, Roger Schank, Jane Hart, Elliott Masie, Allison Rossett, Saul Carliner, Janet Clarey, Karl Kapp, Bryan Chapman, Mark Oehlert, Charles Jennings, and more. In addition, see the bottom right of this posting, where they provide links to their annual predictions from 2002-2009 -- it is fascinating to see how many were hits and misses from years past
"Predictions and Plans for 2010" The January Big Question at ASTD's The Learning Circuits Blog is on the subject of predictions for the new year. There are over 20 response postings from folks like Jeanne Meister, Jay Cross, Clark Quinn, Bill Brandon, Clive Shepherd, and many more.
Tony Karrer, creator of eLearningLearning.com, and author of the eLearning Technology blog, has also posted his predictions for 2010. He writes this as a top-10 list, but with the tenth spot left undecided with a request for readers to chime in.
Mobile Learning in 2010 And speaking of predictions for 2010, with the exception of one of the experts from eLearn Magazine's gallery, many are predicting that mobile device use for learning will continue to grow in 2010, and possibly even (finally) burst out a bit. Mobile Learning guru Judy Brown does a good job bringing together the various mobile learning predictions in her post "2010 Forecasts." And Robert Gadd chimed in the first week of January at his new blog, mLearning Trends, with his mLearning predictions for 2010.
How Has the Internet Changed Your Learning? The latest blog posting from Elliott Masie at LearningTown (login required) is titled "How Has the Internet Changed Your Learning?" Over 30 LearningTown members have chimed in with perspectives so far. If you aren't a member of LearningTown yet, now is a great time to sign up and join this discussion!
Learning in 3D It doesn't get much more cutting edge than considering the various ways learning can occur in immersive 3D virtual worlds. And few if any are more expert in this subject than the duo of Karl Kapp and Tony O'Driscoll, authors of the new book Learning in 3D (Amazon link). They have also been quite innovative in how they are promoting their book, such as launching on a "blog tour" composed of interviews at various L&D experts' blogs. Further, they have created a useful website, www.learningin3d.info to both promote their book and provide visitors with helpful resources on the topic of "learning in 3D." Bookmark this one!
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 roundup, I'll provide some of the latest "gems" for you here:
"Social Learning Strategies Checklist" - Partially as preparation for a great presentation they gave at the Training 2010 conference last week in San Diego, David Wilkins and Kevin Jones have created and made freely available a list of dozens of questions organizations should ask when implementing social learning.
Updates from Element K As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched in 2009. 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, January, and February.
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:
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
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two, and three.)
On Learning Evaluation and ROI To start things off, I want to link back to my two most recent postings here at Element K Blog, on the “Increasing Discussion for Learning Evaluation and ROI”: see both Part 1 and Part 2. There I link to and briefly comment on one research report from the eLearning Guild and five articles from Chief Learning Officer magazine and Training magazine. If you only have time to read one of these items, don’t miss the article by Jay Cross and Jon Husband in the July 2009 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.
New Skills for Learning Professionals The "Big Question" posted at the beginning of July — New Skills for Learning Professionals — at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog has by now generated a wealth of responses. Included are postings from such notables as Jay Cross, Harold Jarche, Jane Bozarth, Clark Quinn, Tony Karrer, David Mallon, Ray Jimenez, and many others. If you are looking for work in the learning and development industry, or are just concerned about keeping your career skills current, check out the many responses these experts have provided.
Also on this topic, Clive Shepherd posted a good presentation he developed titled "The E-Learning Skills Gap." Watch this presentation and note Clive's new "SkillsJourney" project mentioned at the end, something I think all learning professionals will be eager to keep tabs on!
On Stepping Up When Layoffs Hit Generally speaking, I find the columns in each month's Chief Learning Officer magazine tend to be amongst the must-read content in our industry. The July issue's were all good, but I wanted to draw your attention to two in particular. First, Elliott Masie's column titled "Time to Step Up: Learning's Role During Layoffs," covered a topic I'd never really put much thought towards: What are the roles of the learning department during layoffs? No doubt having had an opportunity to reflect on this during the recent economic downturn, Elliott offers up lots of good advice grouped under three headings: skill documentation upon departure, internal reskilling, and decisions and reassignments.
On Avoiding Death by Slide Deck On the other hand, Bob Mosher wrote his column "More Death by Slide Deck?," on a topic I have spent a lot of time reading and thinking about over the years: making the most of the virtual classroom. I've participated in many great webinar, virtual conference, and virtual classroom events — both as a presenter/instructor and as a student/attendee. But I've also experienced many less-than-great virtual events too. He covers admittedly obvious tips, best practices for session design, and recommendations for the time between the virtual classroom events.
An Outstanding New Blog: Social Media in Learning Back in March I wrote a posting here titled "Top Learning Tools from the C4LPT" which highlighted the great work of Jane Hart in organizing a wealth of information and links in the Learning and Development industry. If you haven't checked out her site, I encourage you to read my description of it and then check out her work.
Recently, however, Jane has started writing a new blog named "Social Media In Learning Blog." Jane's tireless efforts to stay on top of the L&D industry, coupled with her expertise in this particular area, have immediately made this blog arguably the best of its kind. Get caught up on the posts you have missed so far, and then add this blog to your feed reader or check it out regularly to learn how social learning tools can and are being used in learning and development contexts.
Learning Apps in Facebook? And speaking of social learning, Ryann Ellis wrote a good posting for ASTD's Learning Circuits titled "Tech Tool: Facebook Applications for Learning," which provides three lists of "applications that represent some of the ideal tools Facebook has to offer online learning." The lists are separated into tools for instructors and administrators, for learners, and for everyone. This is a good place to start when thinking about potential uses for Facebook in your learning programs.
Social Learning…and Instructional Design? With social learning and informal learning being all the rage these days, Karl Kapp pauses to remind us of the many benefits of sound instructional design. See his blog posting titled "What are the Results of Following an Instructional Design Process?" where he provides a good starter list, one that could be handy if you ever need to defend why time and resources should be spent on sound instructional design (rather than simply pumping out PowerPoint slides and calling it e-Learning, for instance).
Even better than his original posting, however, is the exchange that took place in the comments at his blog, between Karl and Janet Clarey of Brandon Hall Research. Janet raised questions about what role instructional design (or any kind of formal design) has in the areas of informal and social learning. Karl gives good responses, including concrete examples of ways you can add some measure of design to work or learning uses of blogs, microsharing tools, and more. It's definitely worth reading this exchange, in addition to the original blog posting.
Updates from Element K Lastly, I'm going to start ending these "roundup" postings by providing a link to our latest E-Learning Newsletter. This is a service we started in June, primarily for our customers, but available to anyone. Each newsletter includes several articles of relevance to the Learning and Development field, as well as updates about Element K events and our latest product releases. You can see the latest newsletters here: June, July, and August.
It’s time for another edition of our new feature, the Learning and Development Roundup! See also volume one which was posted in mid-April, and volume two posted at the end of May.
ASTD International Conference and Exposition 2009 The first week of June included the 2009 version of the always impressive ASTD International Conference and Exposition, this year held in Washington, DC. Element K was an exhibitor of course, and we'd like to thank everyone who stopped at our booth to discuss their learning challenges and the learning solutions we can provide. We'd also like to thank everyone who attended the two sessions that Element K gave: "Serious Gaming Frameworks: Architecting Reusable, Customizable Games" "Generating Business Impact: A Four-Phase Approach to Learning Design and Implementation."
Many industry bloggers who attended the conference have been writing their perspectives and key take-aways. For now I'll provide links to two of them:
New Roles in Learning and Development And speaking of job roles in our industry, Jay Cross continued sharing his provocative thoughts in his June column in Chief Learning Officer magazine: "More Human Than Human." He notes:
"When my colleagues and I advocate cutting back on workshops and classes in favor of building “learnscapes,” we aren’t suggesting firing the instructors. Rather, we recommend redeploying them in new capacities, serving as connectors, wiki gardeners, internal publicists, news anchors, and performance consultants."
Then, after describing some of the tasks and skills that will be increasingly needed in organizations, he concludes with:
"These tasks won’t happen by themselves. Furthermore, people throughout the organization will need to share the burden of helping everyone learn. Distributing learning throughout the social fabric of an organization requires storytellers, mentors, bloggers, community elders, schedulers, and editors. We’re all in this together.
Some instructors will continue to instruct, but they will increasingly do so with network support and in smaller bursts. It’s a better use of their time. Face-to-face instruction packs a punch but is difficult to scale. Economics dictate that traditional instruction will play a diminishing role in corporate learning.
Traditional instructors and instructional designers are ideally suited to excel in these roles. They understand how adults learn and how to transform information into learning. It’s important for corporations to benefit from their learning people, not give them pink slips."
Supporting the Increase in Social Learning Along similar lines, Jane Hart concluded a three-part series of presentations on the subject of Social Learning. This last installment, "Supporting Formal and Informal Social Learning", focuses on "some of the people issues involved in implementing a social approach to learning." In this presentation, Jane goes over some of the key ways that learning professionals will need to adjust what they are doing to help their learners to better self-manage their learning, use new learning tools effectively, and share, communicate, and collaborate with their fellow learners. Watch Jane's entire slideshare presentation to get all of her key insights.
The MASIE Center Provides a New Learning Leaders Fieldbook The MASIE Center recently announced their latest free e-book, the Learning Leaders Fieldbook. In addition to the text content, there is a series of podcasts about how the book's contributors became learning leaders and the "day-to-day realities of their unique roles."
On Brain Rules For the past several months, Clive Shepherd has been reading and commenting at his blog on the book Brain Rules, by John Medina (see the Brain Rules website). He has now concluded this undertaking with a good summary posting, with not only his conclusions but also links to each of his 12 chapter-by-chapter postings. Clive's journey makes for good reading, either in conjunction with reading the book or as a teaser.
It’s time for another edition of our new feature, the Learning and Development Roundup. The first edition of this was posted in mid-April, and included links to items from ASTD, Elliott Masie, Clark Quinn, and Jay Cross. This edition has even more, so without further adieu…
The Learning and Training Industry: Past, Present, and Future Industry analyst Josh Bersin wrote an interesting posting at his blog, titled "Modernize Corporate Training: The Enterprise Learning Framework". In it, he provides a concise summary of how corporate training and learning has evolved. The second figure he provides is particularly helpful as a means to visualize just about all of the technologies, modalities, and other aspects of learning and development that are relevant today. Any two industry experts or analysts might summarize this same history and current state a bit differently, but I think the core of what he describes is accurate and it certainly makes for a concise introduction for anyone who is new to our industry, or finds themselves in a new role where having this broader understanding is important.
Another Perspective on the Future: Meta-Learning Josh Bersin isn't the only voice talking about the future of learning. Jay Cross and Clark Quinn wrote an excellent article in the May issue of Chief Learning Officer, titled "Become a Chief Meta-Learning Officer". They argue that changing conditions for learning leaders during this economic downturn are not temporary, but rather will be long-term and significant. They argue that CLOs need to become "Chief Meta-Learning Officers," by which they mean someone who optimizes "learning throughout the organization, not just in the pockets that once belonged to HR. This takes a broader perspective than what you deal with day-to-day. You’ve got to rise above the noise to see the underlying patterns, and then optimize them."
Meta-learning means learning about learning—looking closely at the learning-related aspects of your organization and asking yourself tough questions. Fortunately, they give you the key meta-learning questions to ask, from the perspectives of general workplace behavior, network connections, collaboration, informal learning, and finally learning skills. They end with several difficult, provocative questions, including: "Have you taken charge of learning for your organization, or just training?"
Tony Karrer reflects on the article by Cross and Quinn in his blog posting "Metalearning". He considers the concept on a personal level, stating that meta-learning is really about "being aware and taking control of one's own learning." More great food for thought.
25 Learning Tool Categories and Top Tools in Each As I noted in an earlier posting, Jane Hart provides a wealth of useful information through her many links and directory resources. The latest is an update of her popular “Top 25 Learning Tools” article from last year. Now she is providing 25 learning tools categories, and then the top one or two tools to consider trying in each category. This is a great way to learn the best of the best, as judged by the many learning professionals who provide Jane with their considered opinions (including me!). See her blog posting “25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals”, and view the slideshow she provides there to get a wealth of new tools to try out.
Best Practices for E-Learning Content Design One of the things I like about the site LifeHacker is its regular inclusion of top-X lists on things that can improve my personal productivity. I also like to see experts in our industry create concise lists of best practices and tips. At the end of April, Clive Shepherd did exactly this with his blog posting "Ten commandments of e-learning (content design)". Sound advice, and very similar to the set of principles we consciously follow at Element K. If you aren't an e-learning designer yourself, be sure to pass these "commandments" on to your colleagues who are!
The Value of Visuals The April issue of T+D Magazine has an article by the always excellent Ruth Clark, "Give Your Training a Visual Boost". Here she explains several key guidelines to using visuals effectively in creating training materials: the negative impact of decorative visuals, the value of explanatory visuals, and the impact of using audio or written text in conjunction with visuals.
On Informal Learning The May issue of T+D Magazine had two good articles on one of the hottest topics in our industry: Informal Learning. The first, "Knowledge Delivered in Any Other Form is… Perhaps Sweeter" by Aparna Nancherla, provides a good overview of the topic, discusses benefits and challenges, and references solid industry leaders, such as informal learning expert Jay Cross as well as top industry analysts. A second article, "Filling in the Blanks," is specifically about informal mentoring. Both of these articles are available as audio podcasts.
ASTD Surveys: LMS and Salaries ASTD has released summarized results of two recent surveys they conducted. First, ASTD's Learning Circuits, along with E-Learning News, conducted a survey in March and April of this year regarding the use of Learning Management Systems. They have now provided a summary of the results, based on 184 responses. And in the May issue of T+D Magazine, they released the results of their 2008 Salary Survey of ASTD members. ASTD members can read the article online, though the text of the article (minus the data tables) is available to all as an MP3 Audio file.
SCORM, LETSI, and the ADL And finally, ASTD reports that there has been an update in the plans of LETSI and ADL in terms of stewardship of the important industry SCORM standard. See this brief news item for details.
