Moving your classroom content to Online?
You may be interested in this 4-class series, offered by Training Magazine and presented by The Training Doctor.
Complete details here: http://www.trainingliveandonline.com/vILT_Design_Adobe_Connect.cfm
Save $150 if you register by March 29!
Creating Tests in Your Workplace?
See The Training Doctor later today (2:00p EST start) at Training 2013 to learn how to design test questions for the workplace.
Do it right from the start, or suffer potential consequences.
Getting training to your employees, a challenge?
In a poll of learning professionals conducted by ON24 earlier this year, respondents said their biggest training challenge is training an increasingly dispersed workforce (33.3%).
The Most Important Key to Facilitating in the Virtual Classroom
We all know good facilitation skills: ask don't tell; encourage discussion among participants-not just between you and the participants; play devil's advocate to challenge people's thinking, etc., but when we move from the classroom to the virtual classroom we seem to revert immediately to lecture and presentation mode.
If you think straightforward lecture is a snoozer in the classroom, it’s ten times worse in the virtual classroom when the only thing participants have to keep them engaged is the sound of your voice. In order to deliver online classes that are engaging, facilitation skills are more critical than ever.
A common complaint of new online facilitators is that the participants aren't paying attention and are frequently multitasking. That is only true if you are not facilitating. If you are facilitating, your participants would be too involved with the learning process to have the time or the inclination to multitask.
According to Wikipedia, a facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them in planning to achieve them. Another definition, also from Wikipedia, states that a facilitator is a person who makes it easier for other people to accomplish their objectives by offering advice and assistance. A common theme here is that the facilitator is not the focus of the learning event, the facilitator brings the learning about through the training participants.
The best virtual classroom learning experiences put the dialogue and the learning process firmly in the hands of the participants. If you're bringing people together online in order to simply make a presentation - don't. Record the presentation and let your participants view it on-demand. Bring people together online for the kind of interactive and collaborative outcomes that can only be achieved when we bring people together.
ISD for the Sync Environment - learn it here!
Wondering how to move your classroom-based classes to the live online environment? Join us at Training 2012 in Atlanta later this month for the quick and low-down on ISD for the Synch Environment.
Training Triage
One of the things The Training Doctor specializes in is Training Triage -that is- why doesn't training work?Throughout our 20+ years in business, we've discovered the answers to this question.
This month, we share with you one of the reasons: SME designed training.
SMEs (subject matter experts) are a fount of information. We couldn't do our job without them. Which, if you rephrase that, would be better stated: We should do our job with them (and not have them do our job).
Too often we are called by an organization which has training in place but it is not achieving the results they wanted and they cannot figure out why. Here are some recent examples:
Project management training
New hire insurance sales training
Field service representative (computers) training
Medical imaging technician training
The list goes on and on. Inevitably, upon reviewing the current training materials and process, we say to our client / prospect: The content is good. It's all in there. It's just not designed in a way that anybody could learn from it.
Information does not equal knowledge. It most certainly does not equal skill or ability. Yet, most subject-matter-expert-designed training is a fire-hose of knowledge, delivered (more often than not) via lecture. One client DID provide a very helpful 70-page, single spaced, typed "learner guide," as well. The learners not only didn't get it in class, they couldn't find it after class either.
Interestingly, as we were deciding upon what topic to feature this month in Training Triage, we came upon this blog posting by Clark Quinn. In it , he laments about a project he is working on which is based on a "design" from an SME. He labels it, "too-rote, too-knowledge dump." Two of Quinn's comments are both humorous and insightful:* SME's don't know how they do what they do*
Learning design isn't for the wimpy.
Casino revenue earmarked for workforce training
Beginning in January, manufacturing businesses in the state of Ohio are able to apply for reimbursement for incumbent worker training. This funding is linked to casino revenue / profits which began to accumulate in 2011. This is unique in a number of ways:
The state government is taking revenue from one industry and applying it to another
Manufacturing is the only targeted industry to receive this benefit; organizations must be in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, autos, energy, food processing, IT, and polymers and chemicals.
The reimbursement is specifically earmarked for incumbent workers (whereas must government sponsored or supported workforce training is to get people jobs / new-hire training)
The companies can only receive reimbursement once people have completed the training
Part-time workers are eligible (a minimum of 25 hours per week)
The employer must pay at least 150% of minimum wage to the eligible employees
The training can be provided by a trade school, trade association or other 3rd party entity and certificate completion is allowed, up to $4000
The state government is only reimbursing up to 50% of the cost of the training
A state official has said that the underlying motivation is for Ohio-based manufacturers to remain competitive by investing the technology and their workforce skills in new(er) methods.
This seems like a very well thought out plan for employee development, sponsored by a government organization. Bravo!
Music for e-Learning
Need music for your e-Learning? Here are 34 websites to download FREE music for use in your learning programs http://tinyurl.com/c2pdtwc
Heard around the water cooler: Snack Learning
Mmmmm - sounds yummy
Meant to be consumed in a couple of minutes, snack learning is convenient when you have a five-minute break between meetings or need a quick tutorial on how to run a software program. It's great for brushing up on an old topic or learning the basics of a new one and caters to all types learners, from those of us with short attention spans to the knowledge-hungry learners.
Learning "snacks" are perfect for additional reinforcement, quick tutorials, and the immediate assistance that the workplace demands.
60 Minute Needs Analysis
Do you wish you had a quick and easy way to determine if a particular training course / request would truly be successful? We can't promise it is foolproof, but by asking 21 questions - in just 60 minutes - you CAN make a better informed decision.
Want to learn what those 21 questions are? You have two opportunities coming up:
1 - A FREE webinar, sponsored by InSync Training.January 28, 2013 at 10am or 7pm New York Time Register here: http://us.insynctraining.com/insync-byte-series/?qs=
2 - Or come see us at Training 2013 in Orlando FL, February 18 - 20, 2013
Here is a $200 discount code: CT2SP
5 Free web based resources for learning
Here are a number of sites which offer free learning opportunities. Most are in the form of recorded lectures (video and audio). Some enable you to download the lecture to a mobile device so you can learn on the go.
www.OpenCulture.com/freeonlinecourseswww.YouTube.com/eduwww.Apple.com/education/itunes-uwww.ocw.MIT.eduwww.oyc.Yale.edu