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.

Comments on LMS Vendors

Helen asked me to talk to people about LMS providers. (Note: an LMS stands for a Learning Management System. BHU is our LMS. It is hosted by a company called Meridian.)

At the conference there are several LMS vendors who all want to sell you there stuff. I talked to about 4 vendors and it was very overwhelming. They all have some great features and, of course, seem better than BHU – at least on the surface.

After one session, I talked to an e-learning consultant and asked his opinion on the best LMS providers out there. He said that he really couldn’t answer that question w/o determining our needs, which would require an in-depth discussion.

Here are a number of features and factors we should consider based on my discussion with the consultant and my observations from other LMS demos:

• The consultant said that we would probably want a hosted solution (ie the system is hosted on the vedor’s servers, not ours).
• We should look for a short term contract or even a free trial so that we don’t lock ourselves into a system that doesn’t work for us
• He said that it should be customizable and that we should be able to customize and configure the system ourselves.
• He said that a lot of the system we need depends on our compliance issues. What kinds of computers and internet speeds does the LMS need to operate on/with?
• A lot of the LMS systems that I looked at generated a course schedule based on the user profile. For example it can create a bank of courses for a user depending on their job title or location. I don’t believe that we currently have this functionality, but it would be great.
• Many of the LMS systems had a calendar feature. So you could view all of the live training you were scheduled for as well as the course offerings.
• One of the vendors (a higher end vendor called Plateau) also had courses linked to performance evaluation. I think this is what we’re trying to do by hosting the GLP on BHU
• The manager’s view for Plateau had an individual supervisee and team view. It also had metrics via graphs and pie charts which were pretty compelling.
• The consultant said that we should ask LMS vendors how they demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) for their clients. This is a particular weakness of BHU. We don’t have good statistics about how, when and where people use the system.

As I learn more, I’ll add it to the comments of this post.

Time and Team to Develop E-learning

In talking to two different vendors (Redwood e-learning systems and Allen Interactions), it seems that most of their products take 6 weeks to conceptualize with about a team of 4-8 people. This team is comprised of instructional designers and subject matter experts.

Development time takes between 4-8 weeks. The team is comprised of 1-2 Flash programmers and a graphic designer/illustrator.

$100 Talking Head

I spoke to someone from Redwood e-learning systems. They’re an e-learning vendor like Allen Interactions and Allen communications. They had some impressive products. I said that we weren’t really looking at full scale courses at this point. They explained that they also do free-standing animations. For example, if we want an animated figure that talks, they could record the audio and make the graphics for us for $100! This seems like a viable low-cost solution to me. Only drawback is that their Canadian (just kidding!)

Here’s their website so you can check them out: www.redwoodelearning.com

Session 3:Forget What You know About Instructional Design and Do Something Interesting!

This session was lead by Michael Allen, the CEO of Allen Interactions. (Allen Interactions is the company that has been designing the CDA course.) I missed his talk last year so I was looking forward to this session all day. Overall the session was pretty good, but a little disappointing. It’s difficult to apply broadly his principles to our stuff when all of his examples use a level of interactivity in Flash and gorgeous graphics that we/I are unable to match.

Some of his message is really obvious. Of course none of us want to create courses that are just about clicking the “next” button or reading text on screen. I mean, who wants to create boring content?

But he did give some overall ideas that I think can help us.

Success = getting people to do the right things at the right time. It’s not about knowing. It’s about DOING. How do you get people to actually do it??

Three success factors:

1. We need to enhance the learner’s motivation to learn
   What can we do to increase the learner’s motivation?
   If you have low budget, put most of resources toward motivation. If you have high motivation to learn, learner can even learn from PowerPoint slides.
   
   MY COMMENT: Jim has mentioned this before – and it’s a big issue for us. We need to instill the motivation to learn/develop as part of our corporate culture.
   
2. Focus learners on behavior-enhancing tasks
   Focus them on things to DO, not just to read
   
   MY COMMENT: I really like this concept. The question is how do we make “doing” activities in a low-tech environment.
   
3. Create meaningful and memorable experiences
   If you want people’s behavior to change, they have to remember it. Have to make learning relevant!
   
   Michael Allen says: You will increase effectiveness if tell learners that you’re going to be looking at their performance 4-6 weeks.
   
   MY COMMENT: Can we commit to testing learners 4-6 after taking a course? Memorable e-learning? I may have to bring some of the glitz from Vegas back to the computer screen in Watertown. Get ready for some bright lights!
   

Other comments from Allen:

Every brain is wired differently from every other brain, individually processing information in ways unique to that wiring. If only give learners one path, adult learners push back. Adult learners need to follow what they’re interested in.

MY COMMENT: This seems to point toward non-linear design.

People are natural explorers. Repetition and rehearsal are critical for the successful creation of long-term memories. E-learning should be something you can experiment and play with. People want to tell you in e-learning what you need to know. Need to put some mystery in e-learning. Clarity = boring.

MY COMMENT: Yep, he’s not so into the learning objective thing. He thinks that should be demonstrated. Not told. I dig it. I just think it can be really hard to do. On the flip side, the CDA course has that flexibility in it. But it also misses a whole bunch of things and needs a facilitator. Point is – if e-learning is the only source of the content, it still has to be complete.

Misunderstood principles:

- Content is king - nope, the experience is the most important thing

- Experts are the best SMEs – actually experts know too much and don’t remember not knowing. Recent learners are the real experts people who can remember not knowing the content or learning the skills. (always double check things with the learner, obviously)

- Finish analysis, then design - design aids analysis. Prototypes generate questions. Analysis is never finished.

- Tell, then test – boring! Better to test first, then tell. That is, demonstrate the need for information so that learners are thirsty for it.

TAKE AWAYS: My ramblings on how this may apply to our current courses
- can we put in a story for BoBFAM? Maybe we can have several employees as characters with their questions/concerns about the company. “I’m here to work with kids, not money. Why do I need to know about the business?” “Sarbox – is that contagious?”

- maybe worst-case or disastrous scenarios for BoBFAM. Ie center with terrible numbers. We loose gazillions of clients. Then different things you can do to “fix it” e.g. better customer service, more organized financials, upping enrollment, managing labor. Yeah, a “fix the business” slide sounds like fun.
- put in myths and myth busters? Eg our profit margin. McDonaldizing child care??
- need stories from the e-team members and others featured in WeBFAM. “When I first came to BFAM…” “My favorite memory from working here….” “What is most special to me about the company”

Session 2: Facilitation Skills for E-Trainers

This was a session dedicated to classroom trainers who are beginning to facilitate online training. The speaker, Jean Barbazette, gave some great tips and suggestions. I’ll go over the jist of the talk here, and for those of you that are interested will give you a copy of the speaker notes that have much more information.

First Barbazette gave us a self-evaluation that split us into a trainer “type” as follows:
Instructors = people who feel comfortable giving directions and taking charge
Explorers = people who are good listeners and create an open environment for free expression
Thinkers = people most comfortable helping the learner generalize conepts from the reactions to a learning experience
Guides = people how help learners apply how to use new learning to in their own situations

Then the speaker tied these trainer types to five steps of adult learning (these apply to more than on-line facilitation). There’s much more about these steps in the handouts.

1. SET UP: The instructor sets up the learning activity. Explain the purpose, what particpants are going to do and give the “why” (w/o giving away what is to be discovered)
2. DO: Learners participate in a learning activity eg discussions, demos, simulations and lectures.
3. SHARE/DISCUSS: Learners share and interpret their reactions to the activity
4. REFLECT: Learners identify concepts from their reactions. This is the “so what did I learn” step.
5. APPLY: Learners apply concepts to their situation. The “so what now” step.

The idea is that you need to have an element of each of the trainer types to accomplish all of the five steps listed above. For those of you that are interested, I have a copy of the assessment, so you can take it yourself and identify your strengths and weaknesses.

She emphasized that you must get to the REFLECT step that “thinking” type trainers do well. Otherwise, the users never learn the content on a conceptual level. They can only apply what they learned to the specific situation that was presented to them – they can’t extrapolate to new situations.

The speaker gave several different techniques we can use to facilitate e-learning that are all in the handout I can give you.

One last tidbit, she said that the user needs to interact at least once very four minutes. This may be a poll or a whiteboard brainstorming session or a puzzle. But there needs to be something to keep the learners engaged.

Session 1: E-Learning Warning Signs

The first session I went to was about e-learning warning signs. The talk was given by Marc J. Rosenberg of Marc Rosenberg and Associates. He gave 10 different issues to watch out for. I’ve summarized and included some of my own comments for each one.

1. Technology as a substitute for strategy
- Technology is balanced with other critical success factors
- Technology is added iteratively and carefully, and verified before long-term investments are made

MY COMMENT: I think we do ok on this one.

2. Weak focus on business and performance requirements
- Emphasize critical learning needs, even if it means cutting back on variety
- Why catalog everything, when you can focus on the three things your CEO identifies?
- Use e-learning only when warranted, rather than as a miracle cure
- E-learning is linked directly to business requirements
- E-learning efficiencies have been clearly demonstrated
- Your metrics are business metrics

MY COMMENT: I think we’re ok on this one. From what I know, our training decisions come from MAT/E-team and Jim and Linda. They obviously know our business needs and have a good sense of the field. I still think a needs analysis would be a good idea at some point to really assess what kinds of content are most necessary. I wonder if it’s possible to survey Directors and RMs at the ALC this year?

3. Poor collaboration with IT
- Develop a joint e-learning technology strategy
- Recognize and respect the expertise and limitations of the other side: learn each others’ jargon
- Allow time for network testing
- Both sides create liason positions
- Share successes

MY COMMENT: I can’t really speak to this. I know Helen and Joe have done a lot of work to bridge with IT. But I know we don’t do network testing and sometimes have issues come up, such as the new intranet portal, that we can manage and communicate about better with IT.

4. Minimal e-learning expertise
- e-learning expertise is a bit of rock science and is worth investing in
- new skills are very important so professional development is very important
- have a good esen of balance between internal and external skills.

MY COMMENT: Hooray! This is Helen, MaryK and I. This conference and Mary’s upcoming conference and our access to Lynda.com point to our investment in professional development.

5. No attention to the unique attributes of e-learning design
- Need to recognize the differences between quality classroom and e-larning design and delivery
- you assign e-learning development projects to qualified staff
- you employ instructional design techniques in specific ways to get the most out of your e-learning programs

MY COMMENT: I think we do a fair job of creating interactive courses. Certainly CDA does a good job of it. Essentials is a step below. Our courses can be more engaging, but I think we do a good job with considering the tools we have.

6. Weak assessment
- Need to assess e-learning on a wide array of different measures
- Track impact in addition to satisfaction and learning gain
- Document business benefits of e-learning
- Prototype and pilots are used to test e-learing deliverables before rollout
- E-learning project management has evaluation component.

MY COMMENT: I think this is a particular weakness of ours. We don’t know how our courses impact the business, the cost of training, etc. We don’t have any ways for users to provide feedback and we don’t have measurement for change.

The Kirkpatrick level of assessments
Level1: reaction, did you like it?
Level 2: learning: did you learn anything?
Level 3: behavior: did you change your behavior?
Level 4: impact: did it make a difference?

It doesn’t seem that we’re assessing on any of these levels – and that’s a big problem.

7. No focus on workplace learning
- Work more closely with line organizations to build learning directly into work processes.
- You seek to improve work processes and documentation as important in reducing the amount of training required.
- Need to provide performance support. E.g. Starbucks used to get orders wrong. Training – didn’t work. Now they write on the cup – so they can’t make a mistake.
- Align e-learning with actual work. Don’t take them out of work context.

MY COMMENT: The learning bursts get to this. We’re trying to align our e-learning with work in the centers. But I think we can do this better. An interactive P&L, etc. Taking tasks that people in our organization need to do and providing tools to be able to do that.

8. No governance
- Collaborative process between various training organizations in company.

MY COMMENT: This isn’t as much an issue for us because we only have one training department at BFAM. Still, we do get different ideas for what different courses should cover. We can do a better job of communicating our initiatives and getting buy in.

9. Weak sponsorship
- Identify sponsors willing to put some “skin in the game”: invest, participate, promote, share risk, role model

MY COMMENT: I don’t see this side of our work at all, but my impression is that we have great buy-in and support from the e-team. Dave made a big plug for BHU last year at the Leadership Conference. Based on the discussion in the conference session, I realize how unique and wonderful that is.

10. Failure to manage change
- “If we don’t change direction, we’ll end up where we’re headed”
- Balance change management. Change management isn’t the same as marketing and communication.
- Set proper expectations and incentives
- Build support at all levels, including the front-line. Need buy in from managers. Need to launch e-learning to managers in addition to users.
- Implement change management before the change itself.
- Commit to sustain the change long after initial deployment
- Early adopters may not be your most important audience
- Understand resistance and inability to change – they are different
- Recognize that implementation is not behavior change
- Think big, start small, scale fast
- View change management as a long-term effort
- Promote BENEFITS, not features

MY COMMENT: We did a good job to launch BHU to directors at the ALC and to launch to teachers later in April. But we really need to make sure directors push and advocate for BHU. We need to make sure they can answer the question: Why are we doing e-learning more than classroom training? And why is e-learning important.

The speaker emphasized ways to sustain momentum. So that we don’t just launch courses and then let them flounder. We need to do things to keep users’ hearts and mind with us. Publish success stories about how e-learning is affecting change in the BHU catalog, for example. Provide resources, such as the BHU helpdesk, guide to online learning, etc to support them.


TAKE HOME MESSAGE: The presenter suggested that we focus on weakest points and improve them. In my mind, where we really need to think hard about our metrics and aligning our courses with performance measures.

ASTD 07 Introductory Session

There were two speakers to kickoff the conference. The first was the CEO of ASTD, Tony Bingham. The other was Thorton May a “futurist” – an e-learning guy that consults and teaches at a couple of different business schools.

Take away messages from their talks:

With the advent of Web 2.0 (I’m still not completely sure what Web 2.0 is…), the Web is becoming much more of a pull technology than a push. By that I mean that users are now generating content. NOT having content placed on them.

The popularity of Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr and Myspace point toward the trend of user controlled content. It is user created, user filtered and user sorted.

How does that impact organizations?
- Liberate yourself from content control. Let the community filter and review. (for example, think about how Amazon ranks content based on user comments and rankings).
- make content more compelling. Using game/quiz shows. Personal stories (like NPR’s StoryCorps)
- It’s not as important that content is relevant. It’s more important that it’s RELEVANT.

Have to create a DEMAND for knowledge. “Learning is the information age’s vegetables.”

Interesting misc. fact: 80% of podcasts are listened to on a computer (not an MP3 player)

ASTD Lessons Learned: February 3rd, 2006

I had all intentions of posting regularly but between evening activities and getting sick, it didn't happen.

Here are a couple of insights from the last couple of days of the conference:

• Allen Communications gave a talk about their e-learning courses for Avon Cosmetics. Did you know that Avon gives out prizes for every 30 online courses that their learners take? I'm not necessarily saying that we should do it, but I do think that it's an interesting idea for incentive.
  
  
• I later went to a talk about Usability and Online development. Here are some interesting points from that talk.
• People read online at 300 words per minute. that's about 25% slower than reading print materials. Also, readers online tend to scan not read text. More info
  
• The most preferred fonts for online reading are verdana, georgia and arial. (times new roman is meant for reading on paper, not screen). More info
  
  
• Helen and I attended a session about podcasting. Helen and I talked about various ideas of how to bring podcasting to BFAM - but I leave it to Helen to bring that discussion back to the office. There is one practical thing I learned from the experience - there's a free basic audio editing package available from Audacity, which will be very useful if we continue to do Flash animations with narration.
  
  
• We attended Mary's session. She did a fantastic job! Very professional, cheerful and knowledgable (not like it was a surprise). After interfacing with so many people from more traditional industries, it was so wonderful to remember how unique and mission driven our company is. I have to admit, I got teary at some point! But it was really nice to remember how important our work is.
  
  
• At this point, most of you know that I got food poisoning our last night in Denver. Mary and Helen were amazing care takers. I like to think of myself as fairly independent but I really needed their help and am extremely grateful that they were there and so willing to take care of me.

Day Three in Denver

Nurit attained the fastest score from all EXPO participants on this simulation. She won $25!















Mary and Marty pre-presentation (look at the fear in his eyes!)



It's all over! Ok so now Marty just looks manic ... Mary remains calm throughout.

Choose Our Adventure

Here are our session options for the next two days:

• live (synchronous) learning vs not-live (asynchronous)
• rapid e-learning
• podcasts
• how to make e-learning more interesting
• not just child's play: learning to educate managers and directors
• mobile e-learning
• lessons learned on successful LMS implementation
• blended e-learning
• using simulations

What do you think we should take?? Your votes count!

Helen's in the cot tonight (her feet are hanging off the edge). Who should be up next?

Day One in Denver

Nurit, Helen, Saul Carliner and Margaret Driscoll at our Advanced Design for E-Learning Workshop.

What we see out our hotel window.

Inside our rooom (notice our cot at the end)

We're crazy about the cot!

ASTD Lessons Learned: January 30th, 2006

Today Helen and I went to the Advanced Design for E-Learning Workshop. It was led by Margaret Driscoll and Saul Carliner (co-authors of Advanced Web-Based Training: Adapting Real World Strategies in Your Online Learning.)

I didn't have any great epiphanies, but came away with a numer of tips and tricks for developing e-learning. I'll share a couple:

• Be very judicious in the use of bold text.
  This is a situation where less is more.
• It's worth hiring professional voice talent.
  I would have leaned toward doing this in house, but several participants agreed with this sentiment - I guess they've learned the hard way.
• Write test questions based on learning objectives. And make sure that your learning objectives are clear and acheivable.
• Make sure that the technology/medium of delivery doesn't magnify test "anxiety" and add undue burden onto the learner.
  i.e. make sure that your technology is as user friendly as possible
  

I also learned of a number of books that I think will be really interesting and a whole slew of web sites to go to for the latest in ie-learning, information design and technology trends. I'm REALLY excited about it! Now I just have to find the time to read and digest everything.

One of the things from today's session was that they showed us a bunch of really cool, interactive sites. Here are a couple of examples of web interactivity.

• http://www2.saabusa.com/build/step3.asp
  build your own saab
• http://www.mtv.com
  the latest in multimedia functionality
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/mulimedia_zone/
  some amazing games to enhance learning from the BBC
• http://www.speak2me.net
  a site developed to help teach English. you should really check this one out!
  

Ok - more later tonight. I'm off to dinner with some old friends (and their newborn baby, Lydia) while Helen and Mary live it up!!

BlogFAM!

Here's the first post for the Education and Training Blog. This is just a test at this point. But let's see where it takes us.

We hope that all of you take a second to post a comment on the blog and try it out. Happy Experimenting!!


As leaders in our field, we are committed to continuous learning and improvement. We challenge ourselves to ask questions, seek solutions, and embrace new ideas. - HEART Principle