What happens in Las Vegas...

Well, one thing staying in Las Vegas is Mary's quarters for the slots. And mine as well.

Mary gave me $2 to play the slots. I chose the "I Dream of Jeannie" machine. Seemed to be a good idea. I promptly lost Mary's money. I was pretty confused on how they worked and I felt bad that it went so quickly. So I played $2 more of my own. It went away in less than 30 seconds.

I left the casino pretty frustrated. On my way out I played one more slot machine - figured maybe the Jeannie wasn't so lucky. But, no, that one ate my money as well.

My flight is boarding now so I have to go - though I have another gambling story to tell you when I get back. I can't say that I'm sad to leave.

Session 7: Creative Training Techniques for Webinars

Bob Pike www.bobpikegroup.com

This session was quite good and relevant to us. Bob led a webinar (with actual participants) and led a group of about 50 conference members. His facilitation skills were impressive.

Bob spoke about the opening of a webinar. He said that it’s very important to start off with something fun and interactive, to engage the audience. Helen’s use of the map of the U.S is a good example of this. He also said that you should bring in the most relevant content early so that people tune in.

He emphasized that the closing of a webinar needs to allow for celebration. People should feel good about what they’ve done and what they’ve learned. It’s also important to allow for action planning. Give participants time to figure out what they’re going to Do with the information.

Participant questions. Allow particpants to ask questions halfway to two thirds through the webinar – not at the end. This allows participants time to assimilate their knowledge. But also, participants are less likely to ask questions at the end, if it precludes them from getting off the webinar! He also said to make sure to maintain contro during the question asking.. Place a time limit on the questions asked.

6 P’s to ensure success.

Proper
Preparation
Prevents
Poor

Performance

Ie – need to prepare in advance to be successful

It’s good to have a moderator/producer for sessions. If have over 30 webinar participants, add more moderators/producer.

He uses the technique of breaking participants up into smaller groups to work on questions and/or activities. It seemed very effective. We should figure out how to set this up with our system. FYI, small groups need to be set up in advance.

He advises that users should be required to take an orientation to the interface. Ie, users shouldn’t have to focus on content and process at the same time (for those of you that read about the cognitive interactivity session, the focus on content and process is an example of a high cognitive load.)

MY COMMENT: I think this is already in the plan, but we should create a captivate module on how to take a webinar for the Guide to Online Learning.

How much content can you cover? Rule of thumb. You can cover 50% of content that you could normally cover in a live session with the same amount oftime.

Can you do a live and virtual meeting at once? Yes, but he advices to keep the live participants down to 10.

Design Model of 90/20/8
People can listen/attend for 90 minutes
They can only retain for 20 minutes
Need to involve them every 8 min (the woman in an earlier session said, 4 min… whatever)

7 Concepts of Memory

1. Primacy: people remember 1^st things best
Implication: put most relevant information right up front

2. Recency: people remember last things next best
Implication: repeat most important info at end.

3. Chunking: people remember 7 +/- 2 items in long term memory
Implication: don’t information overload

4. Linking: need to connect new information with old information
Implication: tie things into previous knowledge

5. Record and recall: People remember more when they write information in their own handwriting
Implication: distribute handouts with blank spaces. Make people fill it in!

6. Revisit: His benchmark is that you need to revisit a concept 6 times
Implication: different techniques to do this. Ask participants to formulate questions in middle of talk, make them fill in handout, ask them to discuss/share issue, ask particpants to come up with action items

7. Outstandingness: People remember the silly, ridiculous and out of the ordinary
Implication: This will make Jim happy. Use things that will catch people’s attention – graphics, humor, etc.

Random tidbits:

- Make sure to start and end on time!

- If the PowerPoint is bad to begin with, it’s going to be a bad webinar

- Ideal time is no more than 90 min. If you have to go more than 90, give breaks.

MY COMMENT: His presentation was good because he presented information with many examples. And then stop for activities. He allowed us to review (or using his term, “revisit”) the work by grouping us in small groups and asking us to discuss ideas. He then asked people to share from the audience. He also asked us to list action items from the session and then share them with our groupmates. Again, he then asked several people from the audience to share. It was very well done.

He has several tips and techniques on the last pages of his handout. Go to: http://tk07.astd.org/Handouts%20for%20Web/FR101.pdf

Session 6: The Next Generation of Interactivity: Cognitive Interactivity

This session was given by a woman finishing her PhD in instructional design who also owns her own consulting practice, GOLearning.

Her talk is about how people think and learn with interactive elements in e-learning. She talked a lot about cognitive load theory which I actually researched quite a bit in my last job.

Basically, the theory says that you want to display information such that people can focus on relevant information and aren’t distracted by extraneous elements. For example is flashy blinky things that don’t teach anything (sounds like Las Vegas). Another example is presenting a really complicated diagram all at once, as apposed to gradually presenting different parts of the diagram and then putting it all together.

MY COMMENT: I think there’s a lot to cognitive load. I actually think that it’s a sensibility…. But, of course, there are principles that can guide it. If you’re interested, I can point you to a couple of articles I have on cognitive load in my files.

Some tips;

- Anything you put into your course, you should be able to describe why it’s there

MY COMMENT: I agree

- Create manageable chunks – lessons or modules to enable retrieval

- Include transitions, headings, sub-headings, summaries, topic introduction and learning objectives

MY COMMENT: This seems contradictory to Dr. Allen’s comments. He seems to think that it’s about the EXPERIENCE. You don’t need to put in all that introductory stuff.

- Time to reflect is important. Give learners the space to think and step back.

MY COMMENT: Reflection is an important part of any learning. But I think most people in e-learning don’t really want to do it. They just want to get through the training. I think our approach of involving managers using the job aids/reflection sheets can point to this. But I worry that it won’t really be used.

- Someone from the audience suggested opening e-learning with a relevant scenario or some reason why the learner cares

MY COMMENT: We’ve heard this before and buy in. I think it points to WeBFAM as a non-linear course. And BoBFAM w/ several mentor chatacters/stories. Have to bring out the “so what” in both of these courses. I think I said this already, but am not sure. I’d like to come back with what we want learners to do, think, feel after they took both of these courses.

- One technique that she uses is to make users construct their own job aid. It’s a drag and drop of features and benefits.

MY COMMENT: Cute idea. I have no clue how to develop it.

- Have learners make decisions within a virtual environment that presents the learning with challenges they might encounter outside the learning environment and allows them to apply rules or underlying concepts

MY COMMENT: I like this idea (it’s hard not to). I wonder if we can use the branched scenario capability from Captivate to do more scenario based training. It doesn’t really fit for WeBFAM or BoBFAM but it could certainly apply to the Learning Bursts.

Session 5: Mobile E-learning - What happens in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas

This session highlighted the use of all sorts of emerging technologies in Las Vegas. This talk was ok for the tech wow factor, but most of the technologies didn’t seem all that applicable to us. For example, bottles of alcohol in the minibar in Paris Las Vegas hotel rooms are connected such that if someone consumes a bottle, it is automatically noted. A hotel employee can run a report and figure out what needs to be replenished where.

I wasn’t really a fan of this talk because of it’s lack of relevance. It was cool to learn about some of the technologies. Basically you can get all sorts of information to your ipod/pda/cellphone. And you can also communicate through these devices back to servers and whatnot as well.

Here’s a guideline for the technologies:

Need: Keep employees current with business news and knowledge
Technology: Podcasts

Need: Drill and practice on product knowledge/terminionlogy or interactive quizzes in class
Technology: PDA quizzes you can beam among devices

Need: Short learning bytes accessed on the job or on the road

Technology: PDA or smart cell phone e-learning

Need: Provide documents on a PDA
Technology: create pdfs

Need: Provide quick updates and refreshers
Technology: Multi-media messaging on cellphone

Need: Enhance training with book and articles that can be accessed while multi-tasking
Technology: MP3 audiobooks

Session 4: Learning Analytics Dashboards: Design, Implement and Maintain Dashboards

Jeffery Berk, Vice President of Products and Strategy

www.knowledgeadvisors.com

This session is about implementing a “dashboard for learning and development. I attended this session to learn ways to measure and analyze data about BHU.

Like you, I came in wondering – what is a dashboard? Well, a dashboard is a convenient place for vital information organized into a graphical representation that is both easy to use and easy to understand.

Note: In my notes below L&D stands for Learning and Development. The equivalent of our Education and Training department.

Steps to Successful Dashboard Design:

1. Research learning metrics
   Metrics aren’t new. Go to other sources to find more information. Some suggestions:
   
   We can join the Learning Development Roundable. They’ve researched what other companies have added to their dashboards.
   
   ROI Institute – helps organizations helps people understand their companies’ ROI (return on investment)
   
   ASTD – ASTD has some great resources and chatrooms.
   
   
2. Identify macro learning contructs
   
   What is a macro construct? a small well-balanced set of broad learning metric classifications that summarize that results of the entire L&D organizations. A mile wide and an inch deep.
   
   (a) Operational: Activity contructs (how much we train)
   e.g. number of courses, number of instructors, instructor utilization, fill rates (more in micro)
   
   (b) Performance: optimization constructs (how well we train.
   e.g. evaluation scores, instructor performance, satisfaction levels (more in micro)
   
   (c) Financial: budge/fiscual constructs (how much it costs)
   e.g. L&D costs as a percent of payroll, productivity, revenue growth (more in micro)
   
   (d) Cultural: supportive environment (how conducive is it)
   e.g. how supportive is the environment of learning? (more in micro)

3. Build micro learning indicators
   What is a mico construct? A set of quantifiable measures linked to the macro learning construct that are tracked over time. An inch wide, a mile deep.
   
   (a) Operational
   # of students trained
   instructor utilization rate
   e-learning utilization rate
   average class size
   speed to market (speed to need)
   staff to management ration (training:staff ratio)
   delivery mix
   survey response rates
   class completion or cancellation rates
   
   MY COMMENT: I don’t think we have much feedback for our training practices aside from the leadership conference/RM conference sessions. Can we require surveys for our online offerings?
   
   (b) Financial
   cost per student day
   L&D costs as a % of payroll
   L&D budeget to actual
   L&D investment mix
   Revenue growth
   Human Capital Contribution Margin
   L&D ROI
   Productivity per employee (also can be a performance measure)
   
   (c) Performance
   Level 1 satisfaction socres, instructor performance, courseware quality
   Leverage effectiveness (test scores, passing scores, etc)
   Time to Job Impact (how quickly can employees apply learning? How soon does it make a difference in their work?)
   Business Result Linkage (sales, quality, cycle time, productivity, customer satisfaction, cost, savings, etc. – this must be estimated, isolated to training and adjusted for confidence)
   ROI (if not in financial construct)
   
   MY COMMENT: Do we look at financial and performance metrics in relation to our training?
   
   (d) Cultural
   Training eligibility
   Average hours of training per employee
   Available Tuition Reimbursement
   Management Support (have to build collaborative relationship with management)
   Internal validation – write up success stories and share them. Quotes from highly people in the organization
   External validation – apply to organizations like ASTD, CLO magazine, etc.
   
   MY COMMENT: We’re building job aides to get management support and buy in. Are we measuring that? How do we know that it’s happening? How do we follow up?

4. Build a process to collect and report
   
   Start with available data
   Verify that the data are credible
   Create templates to store and track (must be available!!)
   Conduct routine analysis (monthly)
   Report key findings (quarterly)
   
   Remember, the data does not have to be perfect. Just adjust for it.
   
   Collect data at every opportunity that you have – because you’re never sure when you’re going to get the chance again.
   
   
5. Design technology and templates for support
   Must have a scalable process!
   
   Need technology to manage all of this data. Metrics can be added manually or via feed from other systems (HRIS, LMS, financial)
   
   This can be done in Excel or Web tools offered from Microsoft.
   
   Technology considerations: (Last thing to think about – not the first!)
   - can we link it to feeder systems (LMS, HRIS, Access, etc)
   - understand frequency of use v. cost of integrations
   - check for system ownership and security issues (sometimes other departments aren’t willing to relinquish information)
   
   MY COMMENTS: Berk offered to send a sample template/tool in excel that we can use to enter in this information.

I liked this statement Berk made: METRICS AREN’T THE ANSWER. THEY’RE THE THING THAT DISTURBS YOU TO ASK MORE QUESTIONS TO GET TO THE ANSWER.

MY COMMENT: Obviously, we can’t do all of this (unless we hire a a couple more people…). But we certainly can take in more data to make more informed decisions. Berk offered to send tempates and samples of surveys to anyone who emails him. Once I get the materials back from him, I’ll pass it on to whoever is interested.