tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73708954583214436122024-02-19T02:25:35.579-08:00GCPLearningAt Global Collaboration Partners, we provide outstanding online training content that works for you. In whatever way works best for you. Our courseware is designed with your business in mind. From our licensing terms to the way our courses run to the ways you can make them your own, there’s no e-learning model more agile than GCP’s. Hundreds of companies benefit from GCP’s user-friendly web-based training and agile business practices every day. Shouldn’t you?GCPLearninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02278938459655043832noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-64292453063918092522011-03-15T13:13:00.001-07:002011-03-15T13:13:35.114-07:00Why Not E-learning?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhodh4gZoxHEmtswSXtUf6MCghqpuRfXLqtM7Dqf3qd3Kychoruzm0LokeowudRMjG0DX4_BSabJmlbJU_9h1J3K1ilwXEdf4gIc6gwki6WgaMSFwgRxsVXxkUAl4Ra853l6DeNiKil8/s1600/VR.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 155px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidhodh4gZoxHEmtswSXtUf6MCghqpuRfXLqtM7Dqf3qd3Kychoruzm0LokeowudRMjG0DX4_BSabJmlbJU_9h1J3K1ilwXEdf4gIc6gwki6WgaMSFwgRxsVXxkUAl4Ra853l6DeNiKil8/s320/VR.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584401234739945794" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; ">I don't call myself a salesman, but running <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/"><b>GCPLearning</b></a>, I <i>am </i>an entrepreneur - so I'm selling all the time. Evangelizing, really, in the direction of sales.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">And of course, when I'm in a conversation that I hope leads to a purchase of our training content, I hear and respond to objections on a regular basis. I find out why companies aren't already doing e-learning, and sometimes, why they aren't considering doing e-learning. </span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Our top competitor is good old status quo. "We're doing what we're doing - we've always done what we're doing and we probably always will."</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span">Our second-place competitor is fear of loss of control or esteem. "When my boss sees how efficient online training is, we trainers won't be wanted or needed anymore." Of course this one is rarely articulated with such brutally frank clarity. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Third place goes to budget concerns. "We'd love to do that. But we don't have enough left in the budget to take it on." (Alternative: "We don't have a budget.")</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span">The next objection to e-learning is lack of technology infrastructure. "The folks on the line/in the field don't have computers."</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">What reasons do you hear for NOT adopting e-learning? How do you respond to those objections? Feel free to post in the comments below, or join the conversation on the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/GCPLearning/155763341404"><b>GCPLearning Facebook page</b></a>.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">None of these objections are insurmountable, and if you're trying to get your company started with e-learning, <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/"><b>GCPLearning</b></a> can help. I'd suggest that you download our free workbook, <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/free_offer_form.aspx"><b><i>Assess, Plan and Promote Your E-learning Business Case</i></b></a>, to assist you in realizing the improvements in your training program that e-learning facilitates.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">And stay tuned - I'll write soon about more reasons people use to argue against e-learning, and explain some compelling and effective counter-arguments.</span></span></div></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-87257860005572597862011-03-07T17:09:00.000-08:002011-03-07T17:10:14.306-08:00Training, Hiring, Spending Survey<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcplearning/4069325129/"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2570/4069325129_b9bc608dc0_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></span></a><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span">There's a link at the bottom of this post, but let's just start off with our request: please </span><span class="Apple-style-span">take our <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HTCGL9S"><b>very short survey</b></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">. And now back to our regularly scheduled broadcast!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >The economic downturn of the past couple years has had a significant impact on most businesses, and it has been a particularly rough patch for training departments. The old adage, “When there are cuts to be made, training gets hit first” seems to have been proven true. At <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/"><b>GCP</b></a>, we’ve heard from many clients that their budgets were slashed, and we’ve heard from plenty of prospective clients that training purchases were out of the question. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >But the news seems to get better in 2011! Business, media, and government analysts report a turnaround in hiring, as seen in these news items:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >"<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-09/u-s-companies-to-increase-hiring-in-2011-survey-of-cfos-shows.html">The share of executives who said they plan to hire</a> new workers in 2011 rose to 47 percent, compared with 28 percent who forecast they would add jobs this year..." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >"<a href="http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=185144">Companies added more workers in February</a> than in any month in almost a year - a turning point for the economy that finally pushed the unemployment rate below 9 percent. Economists say the stronger hiring should endure all year." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >"<a href="http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=185024">Private employers added 222,000 jobs last month</a>, the most since April. That shows that companies are feeling more confident in the economy and about their own financial prospects. And it bolstered hopes that businesses will shift into a more aggressive hiring mode and boost the economic recovery." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >"<a href="http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=184042">The labor market is improving slowly</a>. On average, employers are expected to add 178,300 jobs per month this year. The economists predict that 210,000 jobs will be added to payrolls in each of the last three months of 2011." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >"<a href="http://cnnmoney.mobi/snarticle?articleId=urn:newsml:CNNMoney.com:20110304:small_business_hiring_adp:1&category=cnnm_business">Small businesses have ramped up their hiring</a> in recent months, fueled by a recovering economy and more optimistic business owners. That's a far cry from little more than a year ago, when the sector was losing thousands upon thousands of jobs each month." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Training industry reports we’ve seen indicate that this is going to be a big year in training, as well. Companies that have delayed needed training have loosening budgets that should allow them to catch up in 2011.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >True for you, too? What’s going on in hiring and training in YOUR business life? Hoping that information would be helpful to you in your training decisions, we're researching for an article to be published in our next newsletter. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >Please take this <a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HTCGL9S"><b>very short survey</b></a> to help us out with some real-life data. This questionnaire should take less than 10 minutes to complete.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" >We'd also love to have you join our ongoing conversation on the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/GCPLearning/155763341404"><b>GCPLearning Facebook page</b></a>. </span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-32802619743695633602011-02-28T11:17:00.000-08:002011-02-28T11:18:40.412-08:00Dish Dawg Diaries - What I Learned Elbow-Deep in Scalding Suds<span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/frederickmdrocks/3846977067/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0YZlGlqhU4_QztsT7PHXh-fJcQFNFFv55Rpf-VyeHVEdFfy6Fb-tH7czbPBVlcYvvyTRoT2Ibrg7l8lWugEQPdV2LRnu6nUTDl41Ne1sp7yqnKS6tCcooIHhW9bn7K2vSBfUvHePS4Ok/s320/restaurantcleaning_sm.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578815833243019394" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>The best job I ever had was washing dishes.</b> It's true. When I was between high school and college, I was a dish dawg and busboy at Kilgore Trout's, an upscale restaurant in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen,_Colorado">Evergreen, Colorado</a>. I was on my feet for hours, my hands were raw and wrinkled from hot water and detergent, and my mom made me leave my wet, stinky work clothes in the garage before I could come in the house after my shifts.<br /><br />But it was the best job because I *ALWAYS KNEW* I was well-treated, respected, and loved by my coworkers and employers. I appreciated this more with each job I had in college and then on to the steps along the way in my career. I've applied the management principles I learned by example there when I went on to supervise people, and I have even taught my own bosses a thing or two. Or - I have quickly left the few jobs where it was clear that the company was broken in its soul.<br /><br />Maybe it's because I got these lessons at such a young age, but it all seems like it ought to be common knowledge to any company, common sense even, and I've always been flabbergasted to find that things I expected at work post-Kilgores weren't even on other people's radar. The key things I learned while up to my elbows in suds:<br /><br />1) Every employee has ideas that could help the business. Employees </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">are more than just the labor they provide.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> 1a) The business has to provide a mechanism to bring those ideas out.<br />1b) The employers have to make sure their employees know how </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">valuable they and their ideas are. Show them; don't just tell them.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />2) Every employee can, should, MUST be held accountable for doing </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">their job.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> 2a) The business has to provide the tools to help employees hold </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">themselves accountable.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> 2b) The employers have to be held just as accountable, and their </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">performance has to be transparent to their employees.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />3) Do everything with love. Love of life, love of self, love of your </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">customers and co-workers.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />4) Train early, train often; make learning a real part of every job</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"> description.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br />Do those four obvious things, and even peeling spuds, washing pots, and peeling grease off the hood vents with the Hotsy will be fun and rewarding.<br /><br />Not bad for a nutshell business philosophy, eh?<br /><br />How do you keep yourself and those you supervise accountable? How do you learn from the people you work with? <i>How do you make learning part of every job?</i> Join the conversation at the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/GCPLearning/155763341404"><b>GCPLearning Facebook community</b></a>!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Thanks to </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); line-height: 14px; "><strong class="username" id="yui_3_3_0_1_1298917868215914" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; display: inline !important; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); margin-top: 0px; line-height: 13px; "><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/frederickmdrocks/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-color: rgb(0, 99, 220); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; ">Frederick Md Publicity</a> for the Creative Commons licensed photo!</strong></span></span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-15060633497946616962010-12-07T09:16:00.001-08:002010-12-07T09:16:58.609-08:00GlobalTrainingPeople.com First Anniversary!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 67px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHI5cXS03jdcMXpohwNvdxBJgcVHmWGJPJcrptvMpyEZ-zmPjRRI_EpD66P_9RzPnWNPNGcXhyphenhyphenq3MIR17j0mlZIHxUaKbrdwpWfQqfCZQWxeHurx6y4ob-rXFpPIO9KMC_5BbCyCrr8KQ/s400/logo500.jpg" border="0" alt="GlobalTrainingPeople Logo" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410488758912728818" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It's another milestone for Global Collaboration Partners! This week marks the first anniversary of our <a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/"><b>GlobalTrainingPeople</b></a> site, where we offer a free training program as outreach to anyone, anywhere who wants to work more safely but might not have access to the training that will help accomplish that worthy goal.</span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We've had a free training program for the past several years, which we hosted at acrosspublishing.com. It has always been a big hit - we've provided training at no cost to way more than 12,000 registered users in over 100 countries around the world. At first our thinking was that people in other countries (who would never be our clients) ought to have access to safety (and other) training, and it costs us very little to put some important courses up on our website and let those folks at it.<br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">What we discovered was that this was an even better idea than we'd imagined. Word spread, links sprouted, and you saw the resulting numbers above. Without doing any marketing of this site whatsoever, it's become known globally as a place to go for free training that isn't just a demo or throwaway stuff - it's actually courses that will send you home from your job with all ten fingers and both eyes intact, or will send you to a performance review armed for getting a promotion.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And not just overseas, as we'd imagined. We get people from US companies registering and taking our free training as well. We discovered a few months ago that a large construction company in the South has a direct link to our free training from their training portal. (You know who you are... and we maintain hope that you'll become a client and get access to more of our courses as well as all the perks of owning your training content, tracking your employees' training, etc.! ;o) Meanwhile, as I said above, the important thing is that people who need this training - who might not have another source for it - are getting it.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One of the cool things about the old acrosspublishing site was that we got letters of thanks and some very helpful feedback from grateful trainees worldwide. What we should have recognized from the start was that we ought to have been giving these people access to each other rather than just corresponding with us - we had the seeds for a worldwide training and environmental health and safety community, and we weren't doing anything with it.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thus: </span><b style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/">www.GlobalTrainingPeople.com</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. A year ago, we redesigned the site, gave it a new name that actually has something to do with what the site is, and built in several networking and community tools. There's a </span><b style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/StoryWall.aspx">Story Wall</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> where people can post feedback on the courses, a </span><b style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/Photo.aspx">Photo Wall</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> where people can personalize the site a bit, and a discussion forum where we have finally planted the seeds of that </span><b style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/GCPLearning/155763341404">professional community</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> we should have been building for the past couple years.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We're very interested to see what happens with one other aspect we built into the site. All our training (except for a 30-title library of safety training in Spanish) is in English. What if we gave people an opportunity to localize the training so that it would be more useful in Uganda, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and all the corners of India where our learners come from? What if we set up </span><b style="font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/becoming_partner.html">a way for entrepreneurs around the world to start a business spreading this training around</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> so more people work more safely and productively? We are already getting some interesting emails from folks exploring the possibilities of partnering with us to expand this thing out into the world in a big way. I can't begin to tell you how exciting this is for us!</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Please drop by! Take some training, post a photo, give some feedback, join the community, and spread the word!</span></span></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-15547314392061545062010-11-29T15:19:00.000-08:002010-11-29T15:49:07.310-08:00Year-end E-learning Opportunity from GCP<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX6MLWV5wDVJ9-KYY2DKHf9mAnMpu3RofcHD1dDzcvCoCDeKRUAN9E55YwYewIJe7feA38l0q8XEyRJqZeJmtn08XhjRTSLwXk1P7Gmfix4ZLgVYY6rUeASAN_xVLKPwCd5CughP5u8Uk/s1600/GCPLogo_Clear.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX6MLWV5wDVJ9-KYY2DKHf9mAnMpu3RofcHD1dDzcvCoCDeKRUAN9E55YwYewIJe7feA38l0q8XEyRJqZeJmtn08XhjRTSLwXk1P7Gmfix4ZLgVYY6rUeASAN_xVLKPwCd5CughP5u8Uk/s320/GCPLogo_Clear.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545117240466522178" /></a><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">If our extremely effective e-learning offerings can't get a Cyber Monday treatment, I don't know; the world's gone topsy turvy and no one Cced me on the memo! It's the perfect storm of opportunity. Everything comes together RIGHT NOW for all sorts of greatness for your training program!</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><ul style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">It's the opening week of the Holiday Season.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">We just celebrated <a href="http://gcplearning.blogspot.com/2010/11/gcp-is-five-years-old.html">GCP's 5th anniversary</a>.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">The economy is showing signs of improving.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">It's time to utilize end-of-year money to get training you need now, and next year, and beyond.</span></li></ul></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">To help you get the EHS/HR e-learning courses you need, we have created <span class="Apple-style-span"><b>three special offers</b></span> that are instantly helpful to you and your training program. Everything we do will add depth, stability and value to your organization! It's the perfect year-end opportunity to add distinction to your program.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">We couldn't settle on just one great deal, so we are giving you all three. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Choose one or mix-and-match a couple of them. <i>Remember, all these offers expire at the end of 2010!</i></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Free Tablet Computers</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Buy $2,500 worth of courses, and get a new <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-duo/pd"><b>Dell touch-sensitive, Flash-capable Inspiron™ Duo convertible tablet</b></a>, shipped to any address you like.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Buy $5,000 worth, get two free Dell tablet computers. And yes, $7,500 = three free Dells. Want more? Keep going - NO LIMIT. A free Dell Inspiron Duo with each $2,500 you spend. Purchase a library of excellent training, and outfit a learning center at the same time and no additional cost! </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Buy 3 courses, get 2 free</span></span></span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Simple enough math. Get five courses for the price of three. Ten for the price of six. Etc. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Ultimate Edition courses for Business Edition price</span></span></span></span></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Buy <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/ultimate_edition.html">Ultimate Edition</a> courses for <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/business_edition.html">Business Edition</a> prices.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">That's about a 30% savings and a 90% increase in value. Pay for just the course itself, get all source files – everything you need to customize your course any way you want, and a perpetual license – you'll never have to pay for this training again, no matter how many people you train with it!</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>It's time to make some choices. So we're giving you some great ones!</b></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><u><br /></u></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b></b></span></span><u>STEP 1</u>: <a href="http://gcplearning.com/training_products/training_products.html">Select your Courses</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><a href="http://gcplearning.com/training_products/training_products.html"></a><u>STEP 2</u>: <a href="http://gcplearning.com/licensing_options/licensing_options.html">Select your Edition</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><a href="http://gcplearning.com/licensing_options/licensing_options.html"></a><u>ST</u><u>EP 3</u>: <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/contactus/contactus.aspx">Contact us today</a> at either of our Support Centers.</div><blockquote><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "></div></blockquote><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><b>Eastern US </b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> Phone: (646) 415-8002 </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> Fax: (646) 216-8021 </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Email: info@GCPworld.com</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Western US</b></span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Phone: (303) 325-5889</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Fax: (303) 325-5241</span></span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Email: info@GCPworld.com</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-59420191618382468172010-11-22T16:39:00.000-08:002010-11-22T20:37:28.432-08:00GCP is Five Years Old!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDwNKQ2sxcv2NrW1-pMQj6UnKXhqjkcQaxX85tY2YjDbL76rvDdFpBKrptpSrNdiqAaH8BtGZzt-1UbYyDyiXCfhQBQNjDPJ_g-KgdRpsl2iT8J_4bc3JxiTzPub9UPenkHC1xJ-MuQg/s1600/GCP-5-years.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDwNKQ2sxcv2NrW1-pMQj6UnKXhqjkcQaxX85tY2YjDbL76rvDdFpBKrptpSrNdiqAaH8BtGZzt-1UbYyDyiXCfhQBQNjDPJ_g-KgdRpsl2iT8J_4bc3JxiTzPub9UPenkHC1xJ-MuQg/s320/GCP-5-years.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542598431440928450" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >This week, the GCP team celebrated our fifth anniversary as a company! </span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >Not our fifth year working in e-learning and compliance</span><span class="Apple-style-span" > training, not by a long shot. But five years ago, we incorporated <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/"><b>Global Collaboration Partners LLC</b></a> and acquired the training media assets of our former employer. Then we got crackin' on three fronts:</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><ol style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">Redefine the business model</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">Expand the library</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">Innovate the technology</span></li></ol></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >The first step was a lot of work but a great joy: redefining the business model - for ourselves and for the people we hoped would use our training. We really wanted to make some revolutionary changes to how e-learning content gets bought, sold, and delivered to learners. We redefined it because we knew (from listening closely to client feedback, focus groups, lost sales opportunities, and our own intuitions about how WE like to access or acquire media) that we and much of the e-learning industry were doing it wrong. </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >We've <a href="http://gcplearning.blogspot.com/2009/10/agile-in-agile-accurate-training.html"><b>written about it before</b></a>, but a quick summary bears retelling. What was wrong was that vendors were guarding their content like it was The Sacred Texts of the Grand Wazoo. The typical scenario was (still is, for most vendors): the content provider rents access to their courses to a client for a limited number of learners, for a limited amount of time. The courses themselves are locked down securely under the vendor's control. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >It's not a terrible idea to protect your intellectual property - it costs a LOT to develop excellent multimedia courses. But locking it up like that sure limits how people can use it, in ways that are critically important to companies, training managers, and the learners themselves. This model kills agility.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >So our redefinition of how e-learning gets bought, sold, and delivered was all about <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/licensing_options.html"><b>freedom and trust</b></a>. We <b>trust </b>our clients to use our training for its intended purpose, and not "steal" it by selling it or giving it to another company. We give them the <b>freedom </b>to use it in whatever way was most productive, effective, and efficient for them. Our way of</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" > selling and delivering content is so innovative, no one else is doing it. And it's so simple, I can tell you the whole story in two sentences.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><ul><li style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">We provide an <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/flexible_purchasing_options.html"><b>unlimited, perpetual license</b></a> that allows you to keep the courses forever and train as many people as you want.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small; ">We provide all the <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/ultimate_edition.html"><b>source files</b></a> behind the finished, ready-to-run course so you can make any changes you want (and own the derivative work you create).</span></li></ul></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >We're so smart! Our clients love it, and it's actually easier for us, at the same time that it's better for them. If we're renting limited access to learner seats, we're signing up for all manner of security, technology, and customer service issues that take time and energy away from important things like growing and improving our library and tweaking our technology. We usually end up taking no more than 10 minutes to answer a couple technical or strategic questions when a client is starting out using our courses. Then we don't hear from them again until they're ready to buy more courses from us. </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >More courses - our second front. In the five years we've been GCP, <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/training_products.html"><b>we grew our catalog</b></a> from 76 courses to nearly 300. We added a <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/safety_basics.html"><b>Spanish safety library</b></a>, an <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/508_accessible.html"><b>ADA-compliant accessible library</b></a>, and a big collection of <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/human_resource_development.html"><b>human resource development</b></a> titles. We added a library of courses geared specifically for <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/ehs_management.html"><b>Environmental Health and Safety Managers</b></a>, and another for <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/energy_services.html"><b>energy exploration and services</b></a> personnel. Most recently, we developed an immediately popular course on responsible alcohol service. And we're still building! Meanwhile, we annually scrub our content top-to-bottom to make sure everything is up-to-date and nothing is stale. </span></span></div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >And circles within circles... our ears are </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >always <span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >open</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >, and we heard our prospective clients loud and clear. Turns out that hosted, off-the-shelf training is exactly right for some organizations! But very few companies actually need all the features of a full-on, "end-to-end enterprise-wide infrastructure solution" of a learning management system. So we developed our slim <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/learning_management_systems.html"><b>g-LMS - Global Learner Management System</b></a> - to allow companies to assign and track training to their employees. At the same time, our <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/global_content_player.html"><b>Global Content Player</b></a> allows the agility of delivery via LMS, company intranet, CD-ROM, and in the classroom.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >Five years of growing and changing - through revolution when it's drastic and evolution when we're tweaking as we go - have brought GCP to a point where we can look back with pride and look forward with excitement about what we'll do next!</span></span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-88429669175148669372010-07-26T12:21:00.000-07:002010-07-26T12:24:06.921-07:00What do training managers need to know in the age of e-learning?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcplearning/4311747128/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 186px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/4311747128_8d1640b618.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the e-learning and organizational development forums I frequent, we all pretty much pretend that effective integration of technology into workplace training programs is a widely-accepted given. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But the truth is, there are plenty of companies who have not yet gone beyond the "it's something we've discussed doing someday" stage. Plenty of training managers who have heard about e-learning, read up on it, maybe even suggested or proposed it to their execs. But for a variety of reasons (a tangent to be addressed in some other post), they find themselves waiting at the edge of the pool. </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For those about to dive in, we salute you! Let's talk a bit about a couple key principles to guide you as you get started.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Key 1</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">First, quite often, trainers and some training managers approach e-learning as an either-or proposition. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But online training isn't monolithic, any more than any other of the 1000 tools in your training toolbox. No one ever said books or chalkboards or PowerPoint will replace trainers, and e-learning won't either. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It's most effective for foundational training, and perhaps the best way to get all your learners on the same page BEFORE the hands-on training starts. Imagine a classroom session where all the learners know why they're there, no one is starting clueless, and no one is spending useless time listening to you answer the questions of the clueless! </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">E-learning is not about putting trainers out of work or throwing out everything you do and know about training. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ray Clifford of the US Defense Language Institute said it best: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"While computers will not replace teachers, teachers who use computers will eventually replace teachers who don't." </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">E-learning is real. There are good reasons to add it to your training program. Learning how to integrate technological tools into your training program for maximum instructional effectiveness makes you more important than ever. </span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Key 2</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Another crucial initial principle to have in mind. "Build it, and they will..." well, they will have no clue that you built it, and it will sit there and rust until you sell it to your learners and incent them to make effective use of it. </span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Anytime, anywhere" has long been a crucial slogan of e-learning: it's super available and very convenient to offer. But that's a double-edged sword. Just because it's super available does not mean it will get used! </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Too many times, we've seen implementation get derailed by execs or managers who assume that their job is done when the content is online and the learners' accounts are set up in the learning management system. The two keys to making sure this doesn't happen to your budding program: executive buy-in and involvement, and internal marketing and communication. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A posting much longer than this won't get read - there are a couple other key principles we'll write about later. Meanwhile, please feel free to </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/free_offer_form.aspx"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">download </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Maximize your E-Learning Investment with Change Management</span></i></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, the comprehensive workbook we put together to help our clients with the second point above - a step-by-step strategy for getting your learners to get in and get the most out of your new online learning program. </span></span></div></span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-73306055895307664962010-07-23T07:59:00.000-07:002010-07-23T08:07:34.080-07:00Do as I say, not as I... OOOPS!<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomask/4797431055/" title="safety first - by thomask, on Flickr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/4797431055_e989812c11.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="safety first -" /></span></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><b><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zab/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Zaphod Beeblebrox</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Haha. How delicious would it be if the crane was putting up the banner when this happened?</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Thanks to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomask/">Thomas Keeble</a> for the photo!)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Interestingly, just yesterday, <a href="http://www.snopes.com/"><b>Snopes</b></a> had a story on a similar 2008 accident in Sydney, Australia: <a href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/cranefall.asp">www.snopes.com/photos/accident/cranefall.asp</a></span></span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-62876402859377640662010-07-12T07:43:00.000-07:002010-07-12T07:44:51.150-07:00Narration, Text and Graphics - Best Mix Practices<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjw5i_lNzGRIaSNKFoRMj7_XPn1qRhISQE7n5TPI-mpYyVZcViWW0s7pyxqQPBk5MZoOZGzWOJp2Ezc4oyit4JQZckWEqAJLzzuIMid7uCf6BYd89eST5hs9rJwg7seCum71vedJwX44/s1600/Screenshot_text-narration-UCN-safelifting.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjw5i_lNzGRIaSNKFoRMj7_XPn1qRhISQE7n5TPI-mpYyVZcViWW0s7pyxqQPBk5MZoOZGzWOJp2Ezc4oyit4JQZckWEqAJLzzuIMid7uCf6BYd89eST5hs9rJwg7seCum71vedJwX44/s320/Screenshot_text-narration-UCN-safelifting.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493029032186244354" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In a </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=152456&type=member&item=23255636&qid=9cfa4c1a-3617-4cab-85e4-f25f81f0d8c3&goback=%2Egmp_152456"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">recent LinkedIn discussion</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=22879779&authToken=MaD9&authType=name&trk=mp_view_prf_l"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tom Pendergast</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> asked, </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"What does research show about the benefits/ drawbacks of having non-redundant onscreen text and narration in e-Learning where graphics/animations are not the focus?"</span></b></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An important question, as it seems to be the standard that an "online learning module" will mix narration, text and graphics almost by default. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=15399969&authToken=7RFm&authType=name&trk=mp_view_prf_l"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Stephen Schneiter</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> posted some very relevant</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> research links, the gist of which is that distraction is a bad thing, and if the brain is forced to try to comprehend two streams of input, distraction will ensue.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Based on our own experimentation with focus groups as well as feedback from clients, we've "solved" this quandary for ourselves in our </span><a href="http://gcplearning.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">courseware development</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. (I say "solved" carefully because there are always trade-offs with any approach, and no one solution can possibly be perfect for every learner.) </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What we needed to accomplish: </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">address multiple learning styles/preferences within a single product </span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">address accessibility issues for learners with visual/auditory/literacy limitations </span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">address the cognitive load issues mentioned above </span></li></ul></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=11560547&authToken=xhjU&authType=name&trk=mp_view_prf_l"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ted Finger</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> wrote a succinct summary of his approach to mixing text with narration. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To describe what we came up with, I'll play off some of Ted's points, in </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">italics</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> below: </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><ul><li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Make sure the onscreen text closely summarizes the narration. </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">(Instead, we made sure the onscreen text matches the narration exactly.) </span></span></li></ul><ul><li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Synchronize the onscreen text along with the corresponding narration as precisely as possible.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"> (ABSOLUTELY! Also, we made sure the text animation reveals text in meaningful chunks that match how people read - i.e., revealing complete bullet points, sentences, or even short paragraphs, rather than something cute and clever like revealing each word as it's narrated. Some of our early attempts were very creative and cool, but ultimately annoying to learners! ;o) </span></span></li></ul><ul><li><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Keep the onscreen text as abbreviated as possible; for example, short bullet points.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">(As I mentioned above, we DON'T abbreviate the text. What we found was that abbreviated text increases the cognitive load. As Stephen pointed out, if the learners see something different from what they're hearing simultaneously, it's confusing and distracting.) </span></span></li></ul><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">f possible, offer an audio transcript in the interface. </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">(CRUCIAL! We wanted to keep the screen real estate uncluttered - no overwhelming sea of text, and plenty of room for supporting graphics. So while the first piece of text may go away to make room for the next piece as narration progresses, full text is always available via a slide-out box at the bottom of the screen for those who prefer to read the whole thing at once or just want to review a particular part that may have left the screen.) </span></span></li></ul></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Learn more about research and decisions that guide our instructional design approach on our <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/instructional_design_innovation.html">website</a>.</span></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-11478224932710730992010-06-10T11:26:00.000-07:002010-06-10T11:27:18.800-07:00Most Significant E-learning Tool? Strategy, Not Technology<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcplearning/4175899068/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2695/4175899068_6582342744_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In a </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=138953&discussionID=17363083&sik=1276014783340&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.anh_138953.ana_138953_1276014783340_3_1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">recent discussion</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on LinkedIn's </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=138953&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=.anh_138953.ana_138953_1276014783340_3_1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">E-Learning 2.0 group</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, Curt Z asks, "</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What will be the most significant and relevant e-learning tools and technologies as we continue to move forward into the 21st century?</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">" </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He posits the following four: virtual environments, mobile access, advances in infrastructure hardware/software, and social networks.<br /><br />Gerry Marcus responded with a statement which I think nails it: "As e-learning professionals, I believe our job is to get people productively using the tools we've already got."<br /><br />It's true! We're running around like a boy scout with a 90-blade Swiss Army knife. There's an overflowing toolbox of technologies at all of our fingertips that we could, and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">possibly</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> should, and probably will be using. That toolbox most certainly includes the four items Curt cited.<br /><br />But for me, the "most significant and relevant" tool we need to be utilizing as we progress is a strategy, not a technology. A strategy for zeroing in on, defining, and communicating the value of a chosen tool or set of tools, matched to each of our respective learner audiences and the learning objectives they need to master. That's what puts the </span><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">productive </span></b></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in "productively using the tools"<br /><br />Brian D. McCarthy reinforces this, saying that "The biggest factor is the </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ability or desire for corporations to allow and adopt the changes</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> from these advances." We as learning professionals have the opportunity to evoke and nurture that desire on the parts of our companies. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">With that opportunity comes the responsibility of choosing the right tools for the right people and the right training/learning tasks.<br /><br />Edwin Stonestreet points out that "Social Networking (In the hands of someone who wants to learn) is an exemplar of what good eLearning can be... However, the elephant in the room is that </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">all of this learning reaches out to that small percentile of people who want it, who seek it out and who are driven to pursue it.</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"<br /><br />I agree. </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">True of every tool</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. The tool works if it's matched to the target audience: "people who want it, who seek it out and who are driven to pursue it." The tool works if it's matched to the material and the learning objectives at hand.<br /><br />So my vote for the most significant e-learning tools? Enlightened selection of the right tools (for the specific learners, and for the specific tasks), and educated and effective promotion for their adoption in our organizations. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In terms of that "educated and effective promotion" part, <b><a href="http://www.GCPLearning.com/">GCP</a></b> has developed a powerful 36-page workbook that is free for our readers to download: <b><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/free_assess/default.aspx">Assess, Plan and Promote Your E-learning Business Case</a></b> (Create a compelling business case for e-learning to present to the financial decision-makers on your team more accurately, efficiently, and effectively by working through the guided steps in this powerful workbook. Assess, Plan, and Promote provides the tools for assessing training gaps, comparing vendor options, calculating ROI, and preparing and making a powerful presentation.)</span></span></div></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-43628320550473064112010-05-16T22:17:00.001-07:002010-05-16T22:17:50.188-07:00What real good has Facebook done? and is it worth it?<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 211px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRlSGb2gWDIQ5dPgHjujYfTjDfJ5YDxD6_LZrkni4sA84-TOSTkc8J_HDa4slbJf-zbzGNq_0iu8J7u1UD9QRgPEazzTq_a2nKeKtRbA5djxjzD4vjgKKGGtIAZ3mzQh3iN0S3Im156-o/s320/facebook_logo.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472101355847901554" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Amidst <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/facebook"><b>all the hullabaloo surrounding recent changes to Facebook's privacy policies (and practices?)</b></a>, a friend posed a question to friends and family members connected via Facebook: "What real good has FB done? and is it worth it?"<br /><br />For me, Facebook has been evidence of social networking coming of age. Not to come off as a fogey, but "I was there when it all started." In the past, I made some new friends online whom I've valued for nearly 2 decades, and I was lucky to reconnect with a couple people I'd lost contact with along the way through life. But the thing is, all the people I connected with online in the 90s or even the early 2000s were pretty geeky - a lot of lost old friends remained lost.<br /><br />The real good that FB has done for me is as the vehicle that *actually works* to reconnect me with some favorite, far less tech-savvy people from every stage in my life. Several things had to shift to change that:<br /><br />1) The online population had to reach a critical mass. Not just getting email accounts, but also becoming "present" online, which means building a version of themselves via providing information.<br /><br />2) Tools had to get friendly enough for Grandpa Joe and Auntie Luddite to be able to use them. The tools we used in the 90s were primitive and non-intuitive, and presented a huge barrier for the vast majority of people.<br /><br />3) Revenue had to be reachable in order to pay for the programmers and other creators required to make those tools. Plenty got built by hobbyists and academics back in the day, but the results were, as mentioned above, only friendly to geeks.<br /><br />Facebook costs a bunch of money to run and evolve, but it is "free" for us to use. The cost to all of us users is the information we trade for access to all the tools and toys and people that we get to play with on Facebook. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As a businessman, I recognize the value of that information in a visceral way - if I can't get people to give me some information about themselves, I can't reach them to tell them about the products I create and sell.<br /><br />Here's the thing I think it all boils down to for me: I am responsible for what information I put on Facebook. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They don't - and <i>won't</i> - have my social security number nor my credit cards. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They don't have any info I don't consciously give them, including in my status updates, the groups I join, the names of the albums of photos I post, and the people I connect with. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I don't post evidence that I went out and got hammered on Friday night. I don't "friend" old aquaintances who are too stupid to be discreet about youthful indiscretions that may or may not have allegedly occurred when I was an allegedly indiscreet youth. I don't post strong political opinions, or spout about things I wouldn't say in front of my mother. I give enough public info that old friends searching for me can find me, and shut down the rest of it to "friends only."<br /><br />Through some clever algorithm, the ads I see on the edge of the page as I surf FB are relevant to me. I see more ads for snowboards and training conferences and mountain vacations and bands I like than I do for diapers or dating services or motorsports or whatever ads YOU see. I see that as a benefit! (and again as a businessman, hooray for effective targeting of ads!)<br /><br />I'm not a pollyanna about all this. Someone I grew up with no doubt has a photo or two that would embarrass the hell out of me if they posted it. Some stranger might learn a little more about me than I would share with them in the physical world. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I'm HUGELY RELIEVED that my kids think FB is stupid - I shudder to think of the things I see some of my friends' kids post and how it all may come back to haunt them! And the drama of teenage relationships just gets magnified in all sorts of horrible ways on FB.<br /><br />But my friend asked - is it worth it? The way I'm using it, most definitely. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Some <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/GCPLearning/155763341404"><b>minor marketing</b></a> we do for <a href="http://gcplearning.com/"><b>GCP</b></a> has exposed a broader audience to our products and people. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It's a blast getting surprised by old friends from around the world and seeing what my cousins are up to while we all remain too lazy to write letters to each other. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It's great to be able to see where my friends are skiing next weekend so we can get together. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And it's very satisfying to see friends who don't know each other getting the opportunity to benefit from the mutual connections that "networking" means by definition. </span></span></div></div></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-27098543285436535862010-01-24T21:36:00.000-08:002010-01-24T21:37:15.268-08:00g-LMS Pre-Press Release<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcplearning/4302616758/"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2772/4302616758_ce46484954.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We've got a big announcement that will probably take place next week, but I'm so excited about it I find I need to use this blog as a rough draft of whatever press release we end up issuing. </span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">We've been sitting on some technology we had in our back pocket for quite some time as we concentrated on growing and improving our <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/training_products.html">e-learning content catalog</a> and getting it the heck out in the marketplace. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">In the process of talking to the marketplace, though, we found we were hearing over and over again: content alone is often not enough (compliance training by definition needs to be tracked), but commercial Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are often way too much tech for small and medium-sized companies. The "enterprise solution" is made for really large enterprises! </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's what our clients and prospects have been telling us they need to be able to do in order to efficiently manage training: </span></span></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Add learners to courses (or assign courses to learners)</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Manage passwords/logins</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Quickly and clearly see who has completed the training</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Quickly and clearly see who needs a fire lit under them</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Download reports in a form that can be further manipulated, imported into other company record-keeping systems, etc.</span></span></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre-wrap; font-family:verdana;">Here are some of the features of standard commercial LMSs that our clients and prospects specifically did NOT want or need: </span></div><div><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Elaborate succession planning tools</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Automated gap analysis tools</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A bunch of different reports on all the possible minutiae of learners' activities</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Months of study and specialized training just to have a clue how to run the damn thing</span></span></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Slap to the forehead - we realized we already had the roots of just what these people have been telling us in some coding for tools we'd created in the past, and all we needed to do was pull it all together with the features we're hearing this demand for, and voila, the GCP's g-LMS - Global Learner Management System - will most likely launch at the end of the week!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It's a super thin application - tiny on the server, very obvious and intuitive interface for both learners and training managers (and our administrators who will run it in the background). It's elegant without being fancy at all. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">For now we'll be hosting it, as that's what the market's been telling us to do. But down the road, we'll be able to license it to clients who want to run it on their own servers - we built the basics into the tool to do just that and will only have to tweak a few things to be able to deliver on that capability. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Also... nope, I'm getting ahead of myself; let's just get this thing launched this week! Stay tuned for a real live press release, and a demo site where you can try it for yourself. Can't wait to hear what you think!</span></span></div></div></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-25758802657885624412010-01-16T17:02:00.000-08:002010-01-18T07:30:54.556-08:00DIY Custom Training, Facilitated<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcplearning/4273924869/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4021/4273924869_9654c53d98_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;font-size:small;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Interesting article by Agatha Gilmore in </span><a href="http://www.clomedia.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Chief Learning Officer Magazine</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: </span><i><a href="http://www.clomedia.com/talent.php?pt=a&aid=2846"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The New Workplace Mantra: 'Do It Yourself'</span></span></b></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. That DIY theme is exactly what we had in mind when we put together </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/ultimate_edition.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ultimate</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/developers_edition.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Developer's Editions</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> of our courseware.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In her article, Agatha says:</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"According to new research from Novita, a talent recruiting and development services firm, 71 percent of organizations surveyed are now doing more tasks in-house than before the economic recession. The main reason? A smaller budget, according to 85 percent of respondents."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The predominant mode of purchasing e-learning content has long been handled via the tired and painful "learner-seat" model, in which a company basically rents access to courses they need from the content vendor who owns the courses. I've </span><a href="http://gcplearning.blogspot.com/2009/11/adaptable-workers-with-adaptable-tools.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">said it before</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whoever came up with the learner seat subscription model was a sadist, a masochist, or both. It's beyond onerous to try to predict how many employees need these seven courses, which subset of employees need these other two courses, etc. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And when you rent courses, you are </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">sometimes</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> offered the option of customizing the courses, but they don't belong to you, so the time, effort, and money you spend customizing is in the toilet as soon as you stop renting from that vendor. It's a terrible model, and I really do not understand how it's hung around as long as it has. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We've always had our ears open to the needs of those Do It Yourselfers, whom Agatha Gilmore says are growing in number. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Here's what we think:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> If you've got a person or a small team of people in your company who are charged with producing training content, wouldn't they be a lot more productive, effective, and profitable if they had a giant head start on the courses they need to develop? If the hardest part of the development were already done for them and available in a "kit" format that enabled them to tweak and refine rather than building from scratch?</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I've developed a ton of courses. I've been involved in every step of course production, from needs analysis to determining learning objectives to creating a storyboard to gathering media elements to creating the multimedia, and through all the steps of testing, revising, and updating them. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The hardest part in all those steps is putting the content into words. Writing the storyboard takes the most time, requires the most smarts, is the most painstaking. It's the key to the course. It contains everything that everyone else involved in course development needs - the words and ideas to be conveyed, and the instructions that will turn the words into a living, functioning, effective course.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How much time, effort, and cost would it save your team to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">start</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> the course development process with a completed storyboard? A well-crafted storyboard, with clearly stated learning objectives, elegantly-written instruction, and assessments tied to the objectives, in Word format for ready customization? </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How much </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">less time</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> would it take to modify an existing course than to write it from scratch? How many </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">more courses</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> could your team put in front of learners each year - heck, each month? Would you save more money on development than you spent on the </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/licensing_options.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">development kits</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">? Only one way to find out... </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Trebuchet MS', 'Luxi Sans', Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-29929622236973737992010-01-04T20:41:00.000-08:002010-01-04T20:42:03.698-08:00Top Ten Insights on Top Ten Lists<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsTTbv6-V29ZVstWAO3vO_irh51rViJ25iS-R1YxQeLQu_ZbS_UuXruClJ_zluphFTsrnRG-DsVS_x9Ft6lg2AhbkAzChoCrXWb__Zkw5drKy6PGyQSTSmOiTiWKEBooImdUIATwCtsAM/s320/VR.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 155px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423110236239576978" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Leo Casey posted a thoughtful list of his <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=27003&discussionID=11714331&sik=1262624302032&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.ana_27003_1262624302032_3_1">Top Ten Insights on Learning</a> in the</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=27003&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Eana_27003_1262624302032_3_1">Learning, Education and Training Professionals Group on LinkedIn</a> this past weekend, as a summary of his recent <a href="http://leocasey.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-ten-insights-on-learning.html">blog</a> posting.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Leo's list:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><div><ol><li>Learning is constructed</li><li>People are curious </li><li>We learn best in social settings </li><li>Much adult learning is child's play </li><li>We have a Learning Identity </li><li>Meet the Digital World </li><li>Adults learn what they want to learn </li><li>Learning can be additive or transformative </li><li>We learn throughout life </li><li>We strive to be all that we can be </li></ol></div></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;font-size:small;">After 8 years teaching at the university level in a VERY multicultural setting, and the subsequent 10 years developing online learning experiences in collaboration with adult learners and the training professionals responsible for their programs, I must admit I always worry that lists like this pretty much automatically reflect the listmaker's learning preferences or specific training environment/subject matter/audience. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;font-size:small;">I know I catch myself declaring that "learners want [insert preference here]" when in fact, I may want that thing, but others may not! </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;font-size:small;">And that training "thing" that *I* am sure learners want or need might be the best way to impart safe work practices in a manufacturing environment, but at the same time be a terrible way to hone customer service skills in a retail setting, for example.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So item #3: "We learn best in social settings." I have to ask, who are "we?" Learning what? In what kind of social setting? Group work with motivated teammates on project-based learning is fantastic, but there are certain learning objectives best mastered in quiet solitude. My replacement insight: "Training modalities must be selected with both the audience and the learning objective in mind."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I also find that lists like this tend to idealize the learners. There's a big difference in attitude between happy lifelong learners who decide it would be fun to learn a new language, and employees who are required by law to receive training on how to choose the right protective gloves or eyewear for this or that workplace task. So I would revise a couple of the insights above. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For example, #2: "People are curious." I myself don't choose to spend more time than I have to in the company of non-curious people, but really, have you <i>never </i>met a person who was devoid of curiosity? Never had a conversation that consisted of you trying to get more than a grunt out of your interlocutor? The non-curious do indeed exist, and they are not exempt from compliance training. My replacement insight? "Training needs to engage even those who are not curious."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Likewise, item #10: "We strive to be all that we can be." But guess what! <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Simpson">Homer Simpson</a> is not a completely fictional character - you and I might strive for excellence, but my friends, there <i>are</i> slackers out there who feel as Homer does that "Trying is the first step towards failure." They don't have a mission of doing their best or being their best. Self-improvement is not among their core values. My replacement insight? "Training must sell its own importance to those who don't care."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">My overall point is, lists like these can help us focus on important points and provide an excellent starting point for deeper reflection, but we have to be careful not to flavor them with our own biases. </span></span></div><div><br /></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-75128851295496068182009-12-26T08:32:00.000-08:002009-12-27T16:58:03.915-08:00Holiday Hopes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3483/4070537647_bbd2f65103_m.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3483/4070537647_bbd2f65103_m.jpg" border="0" alt=""></a><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Georgia, serif" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">In a haze of happy post-Christmas cheer and relaxation, I'm hoping you've had a wonderful holiday. In fact, I hope you're still on holiday and won't read this for another week. I'm so filled with hope, I hope that you love this blog so much, you checked in to see if there was a new one today even though you don't have to return to work for another week! </font></span></font><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><br /></font></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">I hope the roads and airways are safe for all those traveling over this holiday. I hope that it snows a lot before I go snowboarding again next week. I hope that my family loves the Christmas gifts they received, and I hope my son who's away at college didn't suffer too badly spending his first Christmas alone. I hope my 16-year-old new driver uses good sense and doesn't drive </font></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">too</font></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"> much like a 16-year-old new driver.</font></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><br /></font></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">I hope that you kept your job this past year or found a new one quickly, and that 2010 is a good year from your company. I hope that your workplace is safe and that your company nurtures and values a positive training culture. I hope that your boss treats training as an investment, not a cost center. </font></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><br /></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">I hope GCP has a successful year: I hope we sell lots of online training at </font></span><b><a href="http://gcplearning.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">GCPLearning.com</font></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">, and I hope we continue to give it away for free to those who need it at </font></span><b><a href="http://globaltrainingpeople.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">GlobalTrainingPeople.com</font></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">! I hope lots of our free training members post their </font></span><b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/storyWall.aspx"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">stories</font></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"> and </font></span><b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/photo.aspx"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">photos</font></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"> there, and that our </font></span><b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/professional_community.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">GTP professional community</font></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"> blossoms, grows, and serves its members well.</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><br /></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">I read </font></span><i><b><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=9lJI8ooydWAC&dq=hope+is+not+a+strategy+rick+page&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=rWE2S9bgJ5O1tge17LiVCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">Hope is Not a Strategy</font></span></a></b></i><b><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=9lJI8ooydWAC&dq=hope+is+not+a+strategy+rick+page&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=rWE2S9bgJ5O1tge17LiVCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"> by Rick Page</font></span></a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"> a couple years ago. An extended quote from the introduction still resonates with me. It's about sales and selling, but I think it relates to home, health, and work hopes as well: </font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">I believe that hope, along with faith and love, are essential to life. Hope is what you do when you have no control. But a strategy is made up of actions and tactics that convert visions to results for those who can make things happen. The title of this book was chosen to accentuate the differences between positive attitudes and positive actions and the flaw of counting on on without the other.</font></span></blockquote></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">I bet you have a lot of the same hopes I've written about here. And I hope you have taken time to make a strategy to achieve all your hopes!</font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana"><br /></font></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="verdana">Here's to a happy end of 2009, and a 2010 filled with hope.</font></span></div></font></font></font></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-33433330254679048612009-12-24T14:39:00.001-08:002009-12-24T14:39:24.557-08:00Merry Christmas!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7c6_M5icq3BAn_nfUSlv19V5zPKzyzMkJmOYBQgD0U-KMPBraszsBXdM58MTSaP8x3pwP1ucbQwU2Dpd75P3HOT2WyHzFdOgAIwbWcCh2FM12cZ78FQLkC9Py47ZlHfp-R8BEwyRNN_M/s1600-h/PA042418_MerryChristmas.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 308px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7c6_M5icq3BAn_nfUSlv19V5zPKzyzMkJmOYBQgD0U-KMPBraszsBXdM58MTSaP8x3pwP1ucbQwU2Dpd75P3HOT2WyHzFdOgAIwbWcCh2FM12cZ78FQLkC9Py47ZlHfp-R8BEwyRNN_M/s400/PA042418_MerryChristmas.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418935569230373314" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Happy Holidays to all! Be safe, be smart, enjoy!</span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-13139301916497594812009-12-18T09:05:00.000-08:002009-12-20T17:41:57.301-08:00Why Not Video?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://talks.blogs.com/phototalk/images/CBManLeaping.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 283px; height: 425px;" src="http://talks.blogs.com/phototalk/images/CBManLeaping.jpg" border="0" alt=""></a><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Courier New'" size="small" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">People hear "training" and often assume "video." At </font><b><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">GCPLearning</font></a></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">, we've never included video in our online courses. It's not a mindless choice; we've </font><b><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/instructional_design_innovation.html"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">considered our options</font></a></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"> thoroughly. There are technological, logistical, and pedagogical reasons for that choice.</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"><br /></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">Historically, trying to deliver video online to the typical e-learning client was just a bad idea. Existing bandwidth simply wouldn't support it. In the early 2000s, when we thought that most client companies would have at least a T-1 connection, we designed for 56kbps dial-up speeds, as we still had a significant number of clients stuck in the dial-up era. We even had a client in 2002 who still used a 28.8kbps modem in a shed to access our training when it was too rainy outside to work. (I believe they also walked barefoot in the snow to work and back home, uphill both ways, and they </font><i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">liked</font></i><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"> it like that!) Although high-speed connections are now entirely the norm, there are plenty of demands on a company's internet bandwidth without adding to that a lot of users pulling down video. </font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"><br /></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">I mentioned logistical reasons for not using video. Regular readers of this blog know that I do tend to go on and on about </font><b><a href="http://gcplearning.blogspot.com/2009/10/agile-in-agile-accurate-training.html"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">AGILITY</font></a></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">. Video is not an inherently agile medium (though it can be if you go lo-tech... topic for another day!). The content of our courses is necessarily dynamic - regulations change, best practices evolve, and the equipment pictured in the illustrations goes out of date. Besides, we provide source code with our content so that our clients can freely customize the courses they purchase from us. Video production is costly in both time and money; revising courses becomes a much more convenient, economical, and doable proposition when it amounts to rewriting sections of the storyboard, recording fresh narration, and swapping photos in the flash content files. Of course, in keeping with our key principle of agility, our </font><b><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/global_content_player.html"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">Global Content Player</font></a></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"> is equally adept at wrapping </font><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Video"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">Flash videos</font></a></b><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"> as it is our standard Flash screens, so the option to include video remains open. We are more agile without video, and so are our clients.</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small"><br /></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Courier New'" size="small" style=" "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">So that's technology and logistics, but most important of all is obviously the <b><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/instructional_design_innovation.html">pedagogical principles</a></b>. If it's not good instruction, it doesn't matter how easy it is to download it or edit it. Ultimately, video COULD be an engaging element in some of our courses, but the feedback we've received from countless clients and a few focus groups we've organized support our contention that a series of photographs is just as effective - or even more effective - than video. Photos capture <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson#The_Decisive_Moment">decisive moments</a></b> in time. (Henri Cartier-Bresson said about photography, <font class="Apple-style-span" size="x-small" style=" "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small">"The decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.") The photos zero in on decision points or the most important steps in processes, without the di</font><font class="Apple-style-span" size="small" style=" ">straction of intervening frames that would be present in video. They allow us to meet our learning objectives through that focus. </font></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><br /></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana">When we balance the three reasons - technological, logistical, and pedagogical - photo series wins out over video in our media selection for our courses.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><br /></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana"><br /></font></div></font></font></div></font>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-7918288795216477752009-12-14T06:58:00.001-08:002009-12-14T06:58:49.342-08:00"global" and "collaboration" and "partners"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lpp5IZPpsYUWqJRv7NAU1hXWA0JkRPzChQfTTDAVT0WHZLQ53GVY23vUZYLH-KjedhWYlp1q9fC5inuZK-o9bgs1B9LVWqKelBPNUSRKHqS7YTW48zIpxrX60I1xjEg5L7esTXk8lnU/s1600-h/DSCN0200_GloCoPa.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lpp5IZPpsYUWqJRv7NAU1hXWA0JkRPzChQfTTDAVT0WHZLQ53GVY23vUZYLH-KjedhWYlp1q9fC5inuZK-o9bgs1B9LVWqKelBPNUSRKHqS7YTW48zIpxrX60I1xjEg5L7esTXk8lnU/s320/DSCN0200_GloCoPa.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415105969088958642" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:'Courier New';font-size:small;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I was asked to participate in a research survey recently that included some questions about brand awareness in the area of e-learning content providers. I hadn't heard of several of the companies named in the survey, but I did come away with a sense that if we'd hired branding gurus to help us name our company, we probably wouldn't have ended up calling ourselves "Global Collaboration Partners." We'd have certainly had "learning" or "training" or "E-something" in our name. But the survey caused me to reflect that when we started GCP with stars in our eyes, the name seemed perfect, and more importantly, as we've matured as a company, it's crystallized into a mission and a set of guiding principles. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">GLOBAL</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">GLOBAL works for us in multiple directions. I blogged last week about </span><a id="lrh." href="http://globaltrainingpeople.com/" title="GlobalTrainingPeople.com"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">GlobalTrainingPeople.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, our site where we give away 20 courses for 20 days for free, with a worldwide reach. It hasn't mattered a lick that the US regulations our courses are based upon have no authority in Ghana or Uzbekistan - the best practices that those regulations espouse help our training make people around the smarter, more efficient, and most importantly, safer in their work. GLOBAL also means that we have made our own operations more agile by tapping talents wherever they may come from. We've been fortunate to be able to flexibly enhance our team with talented programmers, media specialists, voiceover artists, and more, from across the US, Singapore, India, Argentina, Mexico, Sweden, France, Brazil, and on and on. Global network!</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">COLLABORATION</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The quip was only half-joking when one of our senior partners opined that any member of our team would likely be unemployable solo; that only our combined talents, skills, and personal quirks added up to make one highly capable human being. That was a little extreme, and when I reread the words, doesn't paint us in the absolute most positive light, I guess. But even though it's an exaggeration, the fact is that our team collaborates exceedingly well. Using technology and a deep personal and working relationship to meld us, our team is able to develop accurate and superbly designed courseware, write insightful articles, navigate the business world and marketplace we play in, and provide value to the world around us. That's just internal workings; our clients also tell us again and again that collaborating with us to produce their custom training is easy and even fun, as we do it so well! </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">PARTNERS</span></b></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We've collectively been in the e-learning business long enough that we knew what part of that field we wanted to play in, and most importantly, what roles we did NOT want to play. We rock at designing and creating excellent and effective training materials. And we like that work, a lot. So that's exactly what we've narrowed our focus to. We've been involved in the other aspects of e-learning: creating software tools, hosting a learning management system and providing the associated services, nurturing a stable of programmers... adding those tasks and responsibilities distracts us from that part we are most passionate about. So </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">globally</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">collaboratively</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, we PARTNER with folks whose passion and talents lead them to focus on those aspects of the business. </span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Global Collaboration Partners: not such a bad name for our company!</span></span></div></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-82365389137707320982009-12-06T22:21:00.000-08:002009-12-06T22:22:04.954-08:00The Will to Train and the Will to Learn<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcplearning/4070083016/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2467/4070083016_1ff5a4d65f_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An interesting paradox is seen in two surveys reported by Madbury, N.H.-based NFI Research. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><a href="http://www.clomedia.com/newsletters/2007/May/1800/index.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">According to Chuck Martin</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, NFI CEO, fully 87% of 2000 senior executives and managers surveyed responded that the top characteristic they look for in new hires is "willingness to learn." (Only half of the respondents went on to say that most of their current executives, managers and employees were willing to learn, however. )</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Interestingly, two thirds of respondents to a subsequent NFI survey complained that employees are not actively participating in learning opportunities that are provided to them. "Although the level of learning provided is high in many organizations, the number of individuals taking advantage of these opportunities is lacking," Martin notes.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So... executives desire a trained workforce. The training is available. But in many cases, employees are not getting that training. Where is the disconnect?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><a href="http://www.novations.com/news/12-03-2007,146.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">According to Rebecca Hefter</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, Senior Vice President for Training at Boston-based Novations Group Inc., time is an important barrier to getting training done. Corporate trainers are under increasing pressure to limit the time employees spend off the job. "The trend is toward reduced classroom hours, more training done on-the-job and greater reliance on e-learning." </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">E-learning, however, can be its own "tough sell" in many organizations. Pull people off the job for a classroom session, and there they are in the classroom – a captive audience. But make training available "anytime, anywhere" via online means? Many busy learners will avail themselves of the training "sometime, somewhere" – but probably not here and now, given their overloaded schedules.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Perhaps one of the most important solutions to this problem lies in internal marketing of crucial training programs. The research that goes into an internal marketing plan is the topic for a whole other article, but at the core of the effort is the communication that is critical to getting the word out.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">GET THE WORD OUT! </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At GCPLearning, we have years of experience with clients who purchase our content and then need help to get their e-learning program going. We've created a 33-page workbook we call </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Maximize your E-Learning Investment with Change Management </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that spells out in detail the 10 well-documented critical steps you can implement quickly to maximize effectiveness and eliminate the costly mistakes so many organizations make in launching e-learning. We sell this workbook for $299, but I'm making it available to you, faithful readers, through the end of the year - click </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/gcplearning/free/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">HERE</span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> to download it for free.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the key topics in the workbook is planning for communication to get your e-learning program off the ground. Here, briefly, are some of the key techniques for effective communication to get that training done, not sometime, somewhere, but here and now:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">E-mail announcing the e-learning initiative</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – A clear and concise message showing management’s support and expectations for e-learners</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Brochures, posters, payroll inserts, and articles in the company newsletter</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – Don’t rely exclusively on electronic communication to communicate your training themes and priorities. Also, market both the subject matter and the change in medium to e-learning.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Scrolling message on your learning center homepage</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – This brief message should be updated periodically.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Publicize new and revised courses</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – Let people know whenever your library is updated. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Develop a training calendar</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> - Consider developing a training calendar, for example, “January is Safe Driving Month.” This is one of the best ways to maintain the momentum once your e-learning initiative has gotten off the ground. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Buddy system</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – Peer support is a leading factor in the success of e-learning programs. Buddies can be assigned or self-selected. The buddy system gives e-learners someone to turn to if they encounter uncertainty while becoming accustomed to e-learning. Buddies also encourage and remind each other to complete their training on schedule.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Attend departmental meetings</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – Speaking at departmental meetings provides an opportunity to obtain valuable feedback, clear up any misconceptions, and recruit new e-learners.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Form a training advisory committee</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – By assembling an advisory committee, you’ll establish credibility, show that you value the input of all stakeholder groups, and gain perspective on future needs and trends.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Contests</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – When multiple groups or facilities are involved in your e-learning program, a little friendly competition might spice things up. For example, a competition could focus on course completion rates.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Find new, appealing ways to </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">reward those who complete training on time</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – By rewarding users for the completion of training, you are reinforcing the value of training and providing motivation to continue.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Keep communication 2-way</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> – Publicize the excitement and accomplishments of your e-learning (e.g., higher-than-expected enrollments, outstanding course evaluations, and student and management testimonials). But also be sure to provide opportunities for your learners to discuss both the pluses and minuses of the program. By having a voice, your employees will feel a vested ownership in the training program and will be more likely to participate actively and even enthusiastically.</span></p><div><br /></div></span><p></p>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-18463227168939216602009-12-01T20:22:00.000-08:002009-12-01T20:23:00.287-08:00*Really* Global Training People. Dot Com.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.GlobalTrainingPeople.com"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 67px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHI5cXS03jdcMXpohwNvdxBJgcVHmWGJPJcrptvMpyEZ-zmPjRRI_EpD66P_9RzPnWNPNGcXhyphenhyphenq3MIR17j0mlZIHxUaKbrdwpWfQqfCZQWxeHurx6y4ob-rXFpPIO9KMC_5BbCyCrr8KQ/s400/logo500.jpg" border="0" alt="GlobalTrainingPeople Logo" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410488758912728818" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana;">All right - it's a perfect time to write this proud posting, the week after Thanksgiving... hope you had a good one! (I was on the road and didn't get this posted earlier.)</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br />This is an exciting development at GCP. We've had a free training program for the past several years, which we hosted at acrosspublishing.com. It has been a big hit - we've provided training at no cost to way more than 10,000 registered users in over 100 countries around the world. At first our thinking was that people in other countries (who would never be our clients) ought to have access to safety (and other) training, and it costs us very little to put some important courses up on our website and let those folks at it.<br /><br />What we discovered was that this was an even better idea than we'd imagined. Word spread, links sprouted, and you saw the numbers above. Without doing any marketing of this site whatsoever, it's become known globally as a place to go for free training that isn't just a demo or throwaway stuff - it's actually courses that will send you home from your job with all ten fingers and both eyes intact, or will send you to a performance review armed for getting a promotion.<br /><br />And not just overseas, as we'd imagined. We get people from US companies registering and taking our free training as well. We recently discovered that a large construction company in the South has a direct link to our free training from their training portal. (You know who you are... and we maintain hope that you'll become a client and get access to more of our courses as well as all the perks of owning your training content, tracking your employees' training, etc.! ;o) Meanwhile, as I said above, the important thing is that people who need this training - who might not have another source for it - are getting it.<br /><br />One of the cool things about the old site was that we got letters from grateful trainees worldwide. What we should have recognized from the start was that we ought to have been giving these people access to each other rather than just corresponding with us - we had the seeds for a worldwide training and environmental health and safety community, and we weren't doing anything with it.<br /><br />Thus: <b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/">www.GlobalTrainingPeople.com</a></b>. We've redesigned the site, gave it a new name that actually has something to do with what the site is, and built in several networking and community tools. There's a <b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/StoryWall.aspx">Story Wall</a></b> where people can post feedback on the courses, a <b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/Photo.aspx">Photo Wall</a></b> where people can personalize the site a bit, and a discussion forum where we have finally planted the seeds of that <b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/professional_community.html">professional community</a></b> we should have been building for the past couple years.<br /><br />We're very interested to see what happens with one other aspect we built into the site. All our training (except for a 30-title library of safety training in Spanish) is in English. What if we gave people an opportunity to localize the training so that it would be more useful in Uganda, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and all the corners of India where our learners come from? What if we set up <b><a href="http://www.globaltrainingpeople.com/becoming_partner.html">a way for entrepreneurs around the world to start a business spreading this training around</a></b> so more people work more safely and productively? We are already getting some interesting emails from folks exploring the possibilities of partnering with us to expand this thing out into the world in a big way. I can't begin to tell you how exciting this is for us!<br /><br />Please drop by! Take some training, post a photo, give some feedback, join the community, and spread the word!</span></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-78899658455926141362009-11-22T22:40:00.001-08:002009-11-22T22:40:54.526-08:00Training You Can be Thankful For<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/banky177/2065288470/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2213/2065288470_8ebe6462b4_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>Happy Thanksgiving!</b> </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I hope you're reading this at home, or somewhere over the river and through the woods, though I don't know any companies giving employees a week off for Thanksgiving (or any holiday, for that matter!) these days. Either way, I bet there's turkey in your very near future. And that's a safety issue, and thus a training issue, which is right up my alley for this blog, isn't it!<br /><br />It's a safety issue because turkey is fraught with opportunities for foodborne illness from salmonella, campylobacter, and other bacterial contamination. There's danger when you buy your bird, when you store it, prep it, cook it, put the leftovers away, and get them back out for tomorrow's sandwiches and the next day's tetrazzini. It's a wonder we survive this gauntlet of doom!<br /><br />OK, it's not all that bad. We can be thankful that safe practices can mitigate those risks. And we can be thankful that training can beget safe practices!<br /><br />E-learning takes a lot of different forms, and this week's topic gives me a chance to expound on a quick chunk of philosophy. "Make it interactive" is Commandment #1 in the e-learning bible. At least, it is a key buzzword for sales departments in e-learning vendor teams. But like many lofty pronouncements, here's one whose vagueness leaves it open to a great deal of interpretation. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What's "interactive" mean? If there's a button to click, and something happens as a result of that button, well, that's interactive, right? (answer: yes. But <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/instructional_design_innovation.html"><b>interactivity is a continuum</b></a>, and at the other end would be a highly detailed, visual simulation with multiple branches allowing a learner to make choices that steer down various wrong paths to learn from mistakes.)<br /><br />The importance of interactivity - and the application of its highest levels - isn't a blanket thing. It's dependent on what the learning objective is. And in the case of turkey safety, give me a clear, accessible job performance aid, and save the expensively-produced, 3D animated simulation for something like learning to land an airplane.<br /><br />One of the big sources of turkey danger has to do with the size of a turkey - it's one of the biggest pieces of meat you'll ever thaw or cook. What this means is that both thawing and cooking take place from the outside in. By the time the inside of the bird has thawed at room temperature, the outside has already reached unsafe temperatures where bacteria can thrive. And when the outside of the bird has cooked long enough to kill those bacteria, the inside still has a ways to go. So timing - for both thawing and cooking - is key. And timing depends on the weight of the bird.<br /><br />What's the best instructional design to put this information into my brain and affect my behavior in the kitchen? I need to know this stuff for a few minutes each year, and the rest of the year, it doesn't really matter to me. I don't need to practice and drill until I've memorized the cooking time for a 13-pound vs. a 16-pound bird at 325º vs. 350º.<br /><br />The design needs to take into account that different people learn best in different ways. I need a </span></span><a href="http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Lets_Talk_Turkey/index.asp"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">chart</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, dangit. That I can check while I'm cooking on Thanksgiving afternoon. Maybe some </span></span><a href="http://www.arguspacific.com/argus-pacific-blog/bid/22432/Food-safety-awareness-Tips-for-a-healthy-Turkey-Day"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">explanatory prose</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. And a </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=289810"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">meat thermometer</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. (I really need to set up an Amazon associates account so I can make bank off product placement like this!)<br /><br />You might learn better from a video. And your neighbor might not speak English. There are </span></span><a href="http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/foodsafety/videos.aspx"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">free streaming videos</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> on King County, Washington's website in English, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.<br /><br />Someone else might not be as experienced as you and I, and need recipes to go along with the temperature/time charts. All that information has been made available by the USDA on their website at the aptly-named </span></span><a href="http://www.holidayfoodsafety.org/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">holidayfoodsafety.org</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.<br /><br />Another learner might be a rank beginner who needs to know about everything from shopping to serving, from </span></span><a href="http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Turkey_from_Farm_to_Table/index.asp"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">farm to table</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.<br /><br />Not interactive enough? At least the USDA fakes some interactivity with a searchable FAQ: "'</span></span><a href="http://www.fsis.usda.gov/food_safety_education/ask_karen/"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ask Karen</span></span></b></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">' is a knowledge base with information for consumers about preventing foodborne illness, safe food handling and storage, and safe preparation of meat, poultry, and egg products."<br /><br />I didn't find any free training on cleaning up after dinner, so... let's just watch the game. Go Broncos!<br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Turkey photo: </span></span><div cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="http://www.flickr.com/photos/banky177/2065288470/"><a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/banky177/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">http://www.flickr.com/photos/banky177/</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"> / </span></span><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">CC BY 2.0</span></span></a></div></div></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-3070485677244516302009-11-15T12:31:00.000-08:002009-11-15T12:33:23.204-08:00Adaptable Workers with Adaptable Tools<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregor_y/2511921420/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 192px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3273/2511921420_756734b8b0_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Senior executives and managers say the people they work with are more adaptable today than a few years ago." CLO Magazine summarizes a study by <a href="http://www.nfiresearch.com/">NFI Research</a> in a recent article entitled <i><a href="http://www.clomedia.com/industry_news/2009/November/5077/index.php">Recession's Silver Lining? Increased Adaptability</a></i>. The article credits economic need and a new sense of frugality. According to the study's author, Chuck Martin, "Many in business today have had no choice but to become more adaptable considering the impact of economic conditions on business."<br /><br />One participant in the study mentioned that "employees have become more adaptable since realizing the benefits and efficiencies that technology has brought to their work."<br /><br />The relevance to training and the efficiencies technology brings to it should be obvious. The economic necessity for agility and the flexibility offered by e-learning create what should be a perfect storm for adoption of of web-based training.<br /><br />E-learning is at its core flexible. The mantra has always been "anytime, anywhere." E-learning unbinds learners from the limitations of time (we don't have to shut down operations to get everyone into a class at the same time) and space (we don't have to all be in the same classroom to learn).<br /><br />That's flexibility at its most basic. So why do so many consumers of e-learning speak of feeling trapped?<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregor_y/3230081970/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3515/3230081970_f7bc289532_m.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 240px;" border="0" alt="" /></a></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br />I talk to plenty of training and HR leaders who are feeling stuck, in three main ways. They're compromising on training quality with disputably relevant off-the-shelf content, they're forced to access courseware living on a server somewhere, and they're shackled into a subscription contract that requires them to predict how many seats in this course, how many in that course, and whoops, we're out of seats and have to buy more to get all our training done, and whoops, we hate this training but we're contracted through 2011 with this provider. (take a breath, Greg!) (OK! but how is any of that flexible??)<br /><br />So what needs to happen to put training back into the realm of agility to match this newly increased adaptability of the workforce?<br /><br />1) A number of e-learning content providers market their courseware as "customizable," but what that means is that clients can log into the provider's proprietary system, make minor changes to the existing course, and abandon their "custom" course when their contract with the provider ends. The only way to provide truly adaptable, agile course content is to <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/ultimate_edition.html">provide source code and ownership of derivative works</a>.<br /><br />2) Via an internet connected computer is one way to access a multimedia course, but what happens when you need to train workers on site in the Congo or the depths of Siberia? What happens when your business has nothing to do with information technology, and your learning lab consists of a couple laptops in a trailer at the jobsite? What if you have 35 employees and no LMS? Courseware locked away on someone else's server isn't adaptable or agile - you need to be able to provide the <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/global_content_player.html">same training via an LMS, company intranet, and CD-ROM</a> or other portable media.<br /><br />3) Whoever came up with the learner seat subscription model was a sadist, a masochist, or both. It's torture for clients - predicting how many employees need these seven courses, which subset need these other two courses, which population needs those five other courses... and in times of high turnover, those predictions go out the window, don't they. It's also no walk in the park for the hosting vendor - they've got to service all those changing needs, and assist in juggling someone else's learner seats. Painful all around! For max adaptability, a <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/ultimate_edition.html">perpetual license for unlimited access</a> to training content (especially when it's source code in the client's hands) is the only truly agile option.<br /><br />If we don't capitalize on the adaptability of our people by giving them the most adaptable tools available, we don't win the economic battles we're fighting.</span></span></div>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-79693617985764137442009-11-08T07:41:00.000-08:002009-11-08T08:11:50.819-08:00EITHER Agility OR Agility!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregor_y/325597949/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/136/325597949_a72166ec31_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Courier New';font-size:small;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Last week I wrote about making a dilemma or controversy out of something where both sides were right, and I have more to rant about this week. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Tom Dupont posted a discussion topic in the LinkedIn<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=27003&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=.ana_27003_1257305462852_3_1"> Learning, Education and Training Professionals Group</a>. He posted a question that's gotten lots of response: <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=27003&discussionID=9236869&sik=1257305462852&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=.ana_27003_1257305462852_3_1">The live PowerPoint presentation is a powerful paradyme! We have learned over the years to minimize the words on each slide, and then just talk to the bullet points. Good for a PowerPoint presentation, but a bad design for an eLearning course?</a> </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Folks weighed in with their own strong opinions about the burning controversy. Someone even questioned why there would be text in an e-learning course at all. (Hmmm...)</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">But again I find myself asking, why the "either-or" here? Wouldn't the training you create be more agile if you made both available to your learners? <span style="font-size:85%;">Modern multimedia tools (in the case of GCPLearning, mostly Adobe Flash) give us the ability </span> to be extremely flexible. We can very conveniently show and hide any feature and offer alternative means of access </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">as a set of options</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"> in a multimedia course delivered online, so why in the world wouldn't we make BOTH forms of text presentation available to learners? ("make both available... make both available... make both available..." Repeating myself is sure sign of a passionate rant!)</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">We've been evolving our design along these lines ever since our self-proclaimed "3G Design Revolution" of 2002. Maybe we should have bragged about it more in the intervening seven years!</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Here's <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/technology.html">our thinking</a> on the topic. Adult learners come to training with a wide range of educational levels, life experiences, and reading and language abilities. They also bring the usual variety of learning styles to the table. So being able to choose the learning style - the form of access to information - that works best for them makes a big difference in their success. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">In the e-learning courses we develop, we started calling it "user-controlled narration," though now I'm thinking perhaps we should call it "user-controlled access." In a nutshell, our learners can see and/or hear the course in whatever way works best for them. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Full text display is an option; the default is on-screen text synced with audio. This leaves more screen real estate - room in the frame - for instructive graphics and interactivity. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Similarly, since the learners can also control the audio narration, they can turn it up, turn it down, or turn it off to best suit their learning styles and personal preference. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">These key features also make our courses accessible to sight- and hearing-impaired learners and those who don't have or want to use audio capabilities on their computers. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;">Built-in flexibility seems so basic, such a given to us, that we made "agile" part of our tagline and a big part of our e-learning entire vision. Agility is the cornerstone of our <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/instructional_design_innovation.html">content</a>, our <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/technology/global_content_player.html">delivery system</a>, and our <a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/licensing_options/licensing_options.html">business model</a>. It's beyond me why anyone gets so set on one way being right when the world demands us to be flexible.</span></div></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-57299809920366766062009-11-03T21:27:00.000-08:002009-11-03T21:42:42.869-08:00A Whole Lot of Either/Or Noise<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://happinesshabit.typepad.com/.a/6a010535763c4f970c01053598a3c2970c-pi"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 288px; height: 174px;" src="http://happinesshabit.typepad.com/.a/6a010535763c4f970c01053598a3c2970c-pi" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;">Two discussions inspired my posting this week, both about being all diametrical-like in approaches to facets of e-learning. Why is there an instinct to ricochet between the horns of a dilemma rather than just riding comfortably on the dang thing's head? (Look at that head: doesn't it look all soft and comfy? What in the world is your attraction to those horns!?) Does everything have to be a controversy; is everything either/or? or can we teach ourselves to make looking for the utility of two different approaches our default way of thinking?<br /><br />Let's focus on the first one, a well-posed question by Bob Little on eLearn: <a href="http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=opinion&article=124-1&goback=.hom">Rapid e-Learning Polarizes Opinion</a>. Bob says:<br /><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Much to the disgruntlement of instructional designers and other e-learning specialists, rapid e-learning tools are offering in-house subject matter experts excellent opportunities to produce e-learning materials relatively quickly and cost-effectively...The e-learning experts complain that rapid development tools are helping e-learning amateurs to turn out low-quality and poorly-designed materials that merely pay lip service to the ideals of instructional design.</span></i><br /><br />The same issue is being discussed in different flavors in a couple different LinkedIn forums. I'll cut to the chase and tell you my opinion on the matter: SMEs with no ID experience can create one kind of excellent instruction, and PhD-level Instructional Designers can make another kind of excellent instruction. And we should look for perfect applications for both types of training, and be proud of ourselves for making efficient use of the resources at our disposal.<br /><br />How about an example: my dad taught me to ski by being a<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-I2mrtl2ZjZ7gk7WxaQzFLzmytvbcyJBGzOk8J9R0pwmQsxRBbFiEalVqDAUdNnBpKhsON1VOLVfUya-AoQOPAe3F9uZgyN_Op-gBpfe4yV60Ys57f1QSZpzJWhVeynNZGaCEKNjdDs/s200/dad4_crop.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 194px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5400119017977264050" /> great skier, and my mom taught me to fold fitted sheets because she knew a really cool trick for it. (OK, not a fair example - they were both teachers! But your parents taught you things too, without having ever heard of <a href="http://www.trainingmag.com/msg/content_display/publications/e3i3b357564e8af014e06fdf90980164109">Don Kirkpatrick</a> or <a href="http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html">Benjamin Bloom</a> or <a href="http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_3.htm">Robert Gagne</a>.) Point is, our parents were subject matter experts, and they didn't take a research-based approach to designing a learning event for us; they just showed us how to do it, watched us try, corrected our errors, and made sure we knew how to do it. Voila, learning.<br /><br /><img src="http://edwinlarson.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/mcbeth.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 127px; height: 76px;" border="0" alt="" />Another example: Bill Preston was one of my high school English teachers, and because he was a thoughtful and deliberate designer of instruction, using a diligently planned approach, he managed to enable all manner of 16-year-old idiots to not just wade through McBeth, but to savor the intricacies of Shakespeare's games with language and actually get that play. Voila, learning!<br /><br /><b>SMEs with a will to teach</b> can create richly applicable training materials. And expert <b>learning designers with a will to learn</b> the subject matter can create elegant and efficient training materials. Smart people (like <a href="http://www.GCPLearning.com">GCPLearning</a>, of course!) will utilize both approaches.<br /><br />What's the controversy?</span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7370895458321443612.post-19534462973902413302009-10-25T10:23:00.000-07:002009-10-25T10:49:24.686-07:00E-learning and Telecommuting - Inequally Evil?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/slworking/553421721/in/set-72157594155978254/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 192px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1241/553421721_8578b8b315_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Telecommuters will invariably end up ripping someone off - someone ALWAYS gets shortchanged. </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Either their company, or the teleworkers themselves and their families. </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At least, that was the declaration of a former boss when I proposed working from home at least a few days a week. When teleworkers slack off, with no one to supervise them, he said, they're stealing from their employer. Conversely, when they have a strong work ethic, they feel compelled to prove (to themselves as well as their boss and colleagues) that they're not slacking off, and end up spending more hours at their desk than they should. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Of course, you're a better teleworker than that - I know I am! Right? You and I are always responsible and mature in our use of the gift of flexibility that our telecommuting situation provides, right? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Well... knowledge work - for the chronically curious, the compulsive reader, the ADD-inflicted - is like a distillery job for an alcoholic. The web is a million constant temptations, and each one links to a zillion more. I admit that I sometimes have to "work" 16 hours in a day in order to get 8 hours of tasks completed. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But in general, I am indeed a better teleworker than that. It's incredibly productive to walk downstairs rather than having to drive for an hour and a half, to set my own schedule, to work in the comfort of my home office dressed comfortably, to not be around an officeful of interesting people interrupting me (and I them) all day long. I get a LOT done, and more happily and healthily than when I drove to work.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=14452367&authToken=FKD3&authType=name&goback=%2Ehom"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">John McDermott</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> posted an interesting question on </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=27003&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=%2Ehom"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">LinkedIn's Learning, Education and Training Professionals Group</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">: "</span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=8800328&gid=27003&commentID=7704332&goback=.hom&trk=NUS_DIG_DISC_Q-ucg_mr#commentID_7704332"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Remote learning is great, but no remote workers, please!</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">" Why are employers willing to allow e-learning but not e-work? Is this a fear of employees slacking off, or a devaluation of the training/learning function? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Most likely both, I say. The lack of trust employers have for telecommuting demonstrates a strong acknowledgment of the value of teamwork but lack of recognition of the utility of online collaboration tools to facilitate that teamwork despite lack of physical proximity. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And the apparently contradictory acceptance of e-learning acknowledges the ability of trainees to take responsibility for their own learning tasks, while failing to recognize the social aspects of learning. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A crucial aspect of all of this is the fact that some of both our work and our learning tasks are best tackled in quiet solitude with singular attention, while others are enhanced (or even made possible at all) by nature of interaction with one or more teammates. None of us at </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">GCPLearning</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> ever tell an HR, training, or environmental health and safety manager that </span><a href="http://www.gcplearning.com/training_products/training_products.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">our training</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> was designed to replace trainers, the classroom, or any other tool they're currently using. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">E-learning - like teleworking - is one arrow in the employer's quiver, to be applied thoughtfully and deliberately where it will do the most good. Employers would do well to recognize - no, embrace - this key fact and make business decisions, related to both task and training functions, accordingly.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>Photo courtesy of </b></span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/slworking/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>slworking</b></span></a></p></span>Greg Youngerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00010791109801430980noreply@blogger.com0