Written by: Marsha Learning how to drive all over again with the help of Langevin’s How Adults Learn workshop… Well, here’s a funny story. I recently relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. No, not because I want to be a Southern belle, but because I married an American, living in Georgia. The things we do for love, but that’s for another time. So here I am, a permanent resident of the United States and I realize I don’t have a Georgia Driver’s License. Well, that’s easy to change, I thought. So, I went to the Georgia Department of Driver Services, with my Canadian License in hand, thinking it would be simple to re-issue a new license. I’d probably just have to complete some forms, pay an admin fee and be on my way. That was not to be the case. I learned that drivers from other countries must pass Georgia’s written, road, and vision tests to be issued a Georgia driver’s license. Really? I know I’m from another country, but it’s just Canada. Aren’t we the same in so many ways? So, I picked up the driver’s manual to learn more about the testing involved. The Knowledge Exam (as it’s called) is broken down into two sections. In section one, there are 20 multiple choice questions on the meaning of standard highway signs, signals, and markers. To pass, 15 out of the 20 questions must be answered correctly. Section two has 20 multiple choice questions on driver responsibility, laws, and safe driving practices. Again, 15 out of the 20 questions must be answered correctly to pass. They even had a sample test on their website so I’m thinking this will be a cinch, until I see the questions: Here’s one: The maximum speed limit on a rural Interstate Highway is: 60 miles per hour 70 miles per hour 55 miles per hour Would you know the answer? I guessed 60 miles per hour but the answer was 70 miles per hour. Uh oh, now I’m getting nervous. I’m preparing for a test, more than 30 years after taking the initial one. And even though I’m in a classroom, training others, I can’t remember the last time I studied for a test that required a passing grade. What if I didn’t pass? Oh, the shame and embarrassment! Luckily, I remembered that I had some resources to help. I pulled out my How Adults Learn workshop manual, and on page 55 I found the following ten tips for studying: Block out distractions and focus your attention. Use a highlighter to emphasize important points. Read difficult concepts aloud. Draw diagrams or flowcharts to link concepts. Write or type out notes containing key points. Use key words to trigger your memory. Develop analogies to explain concepts. Prepare flash cards. Organize the data into chunks of seven items or less. Make up acronyms to remember key points. So, that’s exactly what I did. For a solid day, I focused, highlighted, made notes, and really prepped. I decided to take the test the next day. I went back to the Department of Driver Services, got my number and waited to be called. After paying the $10.00 fee, taking a vision test, and getting my photo taken, I was told to go to Computer 1 for the test. No pens, pencils, paper, cell phones, or other wireless devices were permitted in the testing area. I sat down, got comfortable and started the test. After each response, I was prompted to verify that it was the response I selected. I was also told, after each response, if it was correct or incorrect. Talk about immediate feedback! Now for the good news! I scored 100% on the Road Signs and 95% (one mistake) on the Road Rules. All those studying tips from our How Adults Learn workshop really paid off! Now I have to practice my parallel parking, quick stop, backing up, and three-point turn. Stay tuned for those results!

Written by: Alan In training, most courses end with a slide titled, "Summary," and a few bullet points. The instructor talks about what’s on the screen (yet again) and considers the course done. Not a very powerful ending to something that was intended to improve employee job performance. Here are four instructional techniques (each in the form of a summary or review) that can make a bigger impact and increase the chances that people actually use the skills they learned. Action Plan Debrief After each lesson in the course, ask the learners to record their favorite ideas in an action plan. This is a great way to promote training transfer. For the summary, they can read through their ideas and highlight the top three. Afterwards, they each share their top three action plan items with the whole group. Hat Trick On separate sheets of paper, write down each of the different job tasks/topics the training covered. Fold up the sheets and put them in a hat or a cardboard box. Learners pick from the hat and take a few minutes to determine the three key points they got from the task or topic listed on their sheet of paper. They then take turns sharing their job tasks and key points. Review Ball Ask learners to stand in a circle. Pass a ball to one of them, asking that person to share a key idea learned during the session. That learner then throws the ball to another random person in the circle, who shares a key idea. They continue in this way until everyone has shared. Poster Review Ask learners to work in teams and create a poster advertising the course for the next group of attendees. Ideally they would use flipcharts or whiteboards, but plain old lined paper works in a pinch. Tell them to include the outcomes and benefits they found most valuable. Afterwards, each group presents and explains their poster to the other groups. A summary can accomplish many things - highlight key points, reinforce valuable elements in the course, or even persuade learners to adopt more of the course content as a result of hearing each other’s conclusions. Using the instructional techniques outlined above, the learners are actually involved in the review and get to end the course doing something more enjoyable than just sitting and listening. For additional review techniques, check out our 25 Creative Ways to Add Excitement to your Training workshop! Happy summarizing!

Written by: Steve Instructors are often required to deliver a whole lot of content in a very short period of time. It doesn’t take much to get off track or to spend more time on a topic than is allotted in the lesson plan. A quick glance at your watch and you are way behind time. Here are five instructional techniques for managing time in the classroom: Always start on time and ask your learners to be on time as well. This might seem obvious, however, many instructors have difficulty with this. If we don’t begin on time we are playing "catch up" right from the start and it becomes difficult to make up time. Spend the most amount of time on content that is essential and most difficult to learn. Devote less time to content that is less important, less difficult, and could be handled well with job aids. Let learners know what will be covered and what will not be covered to minimize digressions. This will prevent learners from asking questions about content that will not be covered. Give clear directions for exercises. This will minimize wasted time in repeating instructions and learners debating what to do. Reduce your own talking time as much as possible. Guide the learners through the presentation of content to the hands-on application as efficiently and effectively as possible. Managing instructional time well is a key skill for a classroom instructor. Delivering lectures, leading discussions, administering application exercises, and debriefing activities all within the allotted time indicated in the lesson plan can be a tall order. A skilled instructor can also make time adjustments on the fly by speeding up, or slowing down the pace, based on the needs of the learners. By applying these five instructional techniques you are less likely to run into time issues in the classroom. What techniques do you use to manage time in the classroom?

Written by: Melissa I recently gave my business card to someone who questioned my title. She knew I was in the training industry, but didn’t know the details of my job. I realized she wasn’t questioning my abilities, as much as what the title meant. The title I’m referring to is, "Performance Consultant." What ensued was a quick, down-and-dirty, five-minute explanation of the performance consultant role, and how it’s both different and similar to a traditional training role. They both begin with a job performance need, usually in the form of a request for training. Something’s wrong, and someone’s got to fix it. Performance consultants use a systematic approach to evaluate employee job performance, and then recommend the appropriate solution. Since the title, Performance Consultant, seems to be a buzzword in our industry right now, I thought it might be fun to share my "take" on training versus performance consulting (PC), and why a PC approach can make you a valuable asset to your company. A traditional training approach: Has a (mostly) reactive response to a performance issue, and almost always involves training as the answer. Can be viewed as a cost center. In contrast, the performance consulting approach: Has a proactive response to a performance discrepancy. Identifies undesired performance and its root cause and then partners with management to resolve the discrepancy in a manner that best supports the organization’s business objectives. Provides both training and non-training solutions. Is seen as a strategic business partner. If your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail! If performance consulting is something you’d like to investigate further, attend Langevin’s Consulting Skills for Trainers workshop - coming soon to a city near you!

Written by: Jeff When I order a pizza, the word "plain" is not in my vocabulary. I want the works! Give me extra sauce, extra cheese, and every topping imaginable. However, when writing training-related documents such as job aids, manuals, or multimedia slides, I try my best to keep things plain and simple. As a matter of fact, writing experts suggest when writing for learning and development, a "Plain Language" approach should be followed whenever possible. Documents that incorporate simple language are easier to read and comprehend. Training materials that are easy to understand may result in higher rates of performance improvement. There are many best practices for writing from a plain language perspective. I’ll list a few techniques that I typically incorporate in an effort to make my writing user-friendly for any training audience. Write For Your Target Audience Long before you actually write any content, I highly recommend that you conduct an audience analysis. This will allow you to target the content specifically to your readers. Try to determine basic factors about your audience’s demographics such as, gender, age, race, culture, and socio-economic status. Understanding your audience may help you write more relevant and relatable documentation. When researching your audience, you should also try to determine their knowledge level. Consider factors such as your audience’s subject-matter expertise and existing experience, as well as their educational and reading levels. Don’t assume when they read your documentation and materials they understand the content as well as you. Incorporate the K.I.S.S. Theory K.I.S.S. is my favorite acronym which means "Keep It Short and Simple." Consider writing your document using short paragraphs that are comprised of short sentences. The use of lengthy text can result in your readers losing focus, thus resulting in misunderstanding. Using short paragraphs and sentences, or even bulleted items, will help you maximize the use of the limited space of training materials. Use Simple, Familiar Words When writing instructional or other training-related materials our main goal should be to communicate information to our readers. This type of documentation should not be used to impress our audiences by using large or complex words unnecessarily. Using words plucked straight from a dictionary or thesaurus does not make the writer appear more intelligent. As a matter of fact, a recent Princeton University study indicates that using unnecessary, complex words makes the author appear phony and even less intelligent. If you must use large or intricate words because they are industry-specific or there are no alternative words, by all means, use them. However, don’t use complex words in an attempt to take your documentation to a higher intellectual level. You could very well run the risk of confusing some of your reading audience. Give Direct Instructions Unlike writing academic material (e.g. term papers and essays) or literary materials (e.g. poetry and prose), the tone for training materials should be instructional. As learners read your written documentation, it should sound like direct instructions or commands, similar to the example below. Recommended Example: Engage the emergency brake when parking a company vehicle on a hill. Not Recommended: It can be dangerous to park a company vehicle on a hill without first engaging the emergency brake, so this practice is highly discouraged. By using simple language, your training materials will be more relevant, easy-to-follow, and instructional. Langevin’s Writing Skills for Trainers workshop focuses on this exact topic—using a clear, concise writing style—check it out! Feel free to comment by sharing your best practices for writing from a plain language perspective. I’d love to hear from you!

Written by: Linda I was recently at the gym and overheard some complaints about one of the fitness instructors who is perceived as knowledgeable but cold. I felt the same way about her until I got to know her a little better. I discovered she is passionate about her job and sincerely cares about her clients. What she lacks is a smile. When she does smile she radiates warmth and kindness. As trainers, we must begin our courses with impact. We do not have the luxury of waiting to connect with our learners. The best way to begin is with a warm, welcoming SMILE. Sincerity - People can usually spot a phony, so make sure your smile is sincere. Magic - A smile promotes a positive climate during training and can put participants at ease. It can also magically diffuse potential conflicts from escalating. Inspiration - A smile can inspire and stimulate learner motivation and participation. Levity - We often take ourselves too seriously, particularly if the subject matter is dry. Using humor creates an atmosphere of fun which can make a long day move quickly. Energy - We are responsible for the energy we bring into the room. Attending a training program can be intimidating for some learners, which makes it essential for us to create a climate of safety and comfort the moment they walk in the door. My fitness instructor is probably not aware of how she is perceived and how it might be impacting her business. On the flipside there is another instructor who is known for her winning smile and her classes are always packed. A smile is much more inviting than a poker face frown. Perception is powerful. So let’s express sincerity, create magic, inspire our learners, add levity, and fill the environment with positive energy. Doing this will allow us to win our learners with a SMILE!

Written by: Lynne Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram enable us to share every small detail about our lives with our friends and family. This might be fun in our personal lives but sharing too much in the classroom might pose a problem. Once we establish a rapport with our learners, we want to maintain a positive, comfortable learning environment. If we share certain things with our classes we might inadvertently create a negative learning environment. Creating a positive learning environment is one of many adult learning principles we teach in our workshop, How Adults Learn. What does a positive learning environment really mean? It means making people feel confident and positive about learning new things. Remember the last time you were a beginner at anything? What did it feel like? Some of the adjectives I would use are: nerve-racking, overwhelming, scary, intimidating, and stressful. In addition to starting our courses with brainteasers, icebreakers, introductions, and snacks to make people feel comfortable, we want to instruct our learners in a manner that is respectful and fun. To create a sense of community among our groups we encourage our learners to share their ideas, feelings, examples, and mistakes with one another. Everyone feels like they are in "the same boat," and people relax and learn from one another. Unlike Facebook and Twitter where we share everything, there are three things instructors should rarely, or never, share with their students. While there are a few exceptions to this, never let people know you’ve made a mistake. They can see and/or hear it so you don’t need to bring extra attention to yourself. This is especially magnified in the virtual classroom. Just move right along and the class will quickly forget about your mistake. Never complain about the design of the course you are teaching or say, "Well, I did not design this course." If you say this in front of your class you are hurting your credibility and professionalism as an instructor. Never promise you will end class early. If, for some reason you cannot end the class early, you may again lose credibility with your students. Given the agenda, you might suspect the class will end early, just don’t communicate it unless it really happens. If we avoid these kinds of mistakes, we can continue to maintain a positive learning environment. Over the years, what have you learned to avoid sharing with your learners?

This post was originally published on the Educational Technology and Change (ETC) Journal on 3rd June, 2009.Some things are obvious about blogging, some are not. Anyone familiar with blogs knows that it’s a way to publish content online. I used to think that the journal aspect was also a given. That is until I facilitated on a Web 2.0 distance learning module recently and found that many of the blogs the students created consisted of descriptions and links without much personal thoughts and opinion. This was surprising because I assumed that giving your perspective made a blog a blog. I should mention that many of them had a job which required them to share Web 2.0 resources with colleagues. But you can do this and still give your perspective, for example, Jane’s Pick of the Day. A blog that presents information with little or no opinion is fine if that’s what you want to do. My point to the students was that if you just blog information then you might as well have a website instead where you can organise things better. This is especially pertinent as we were studying a course where the nature of blogging is the subject matter.When I look at the use of blogging in courses, I often see that instructors don’t fully appreciate the social networking aspect of blogs. They are attracted by the reflective nature of blogs and ask students to record their learning at regular intervals. But the instructors treat the blogs as a private space between them and their students and often use blogs that are built into VLEs (virtual learning environments). I find this a great shame. Why? Well, the social nature and openness of blogs (and anything Web 2.0) is very important. It’s the essence, the lifeblood of what makes blogging so successful. It’s a shame to cut this off.I don’t mind so much if the educators made an informed choice on this issue, but often it’s a natural instinct to keep thing private. "Of course, no one else will see it," they say to the students. As if public exposure would be abhorrent to them. Why? What are they afraid of? This is partly a reflection of the insular, controlling nature of education and partly a reflection of their experiences and expectations of learning. Even if a student doesn’t want to blog public facing, it’s worth building in because creating and publishing online in a Web 2.0 setting is an important skill in the 21st Century. I don’t have a ready made study to prove this, but I’m going to say it anyway. At the least, instructors ought to create links between the student blogs to give them a ready made support network.It may well be the case that blogging has diminished and will diminish due to social networks (at least for the teenagers), but blogging is still a valid and vibrant tool in the adult world. It’s not important for people to learn about blogging for blogging’s sake, but it’s important they learn about the ethos and the spirit of blogging, which is the essence of Web 2.0. It’s important they learn about collaboration, self-direction, independent learning, and networking. The new CLEX (Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience) document Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World characterises these as "soft skills" which are desirable in the new job market.When it comes to using blogs for your own learning as part of your CPD (computer professional development), the plea I would make is don’t do it in isolation. Instead, immerse yourself in the blogosphere. In my context, this is true because reading others’ blogs is a really good way to keep up in my area of interest, learning technology. But this is true for any subject. Maybe not to the same extent, but it’s still true. It’s quick and easy and, most importantly for me, bitesize. With bitesize, I can knit things together much easier (tagging is very important here). The concepts can stick to my brain much easier, and I can make links better. I also approach it with less dread than I would an academic paper or book although my motivation might be different to yours. You can do all this without having your own blog, but this is where the knitting occurs. Well, some of it anyway. Also, one of the things that drew me to blogging was it’s conversational nature although this might be more my style than a rule.To feel part of the blogosphere or a network of bloggers may be difficult if you don’t know anyone directly who blogs on your subject and if no one visits your blog. Just because you publish a blog doesn’t mean anyone is going to read it. You need to be okay with this, otherwise you’ll get disappointed very quickly.My motivation for blogging is to capture my learning for myself. By making it public facing, I’m forced to be coherent, and it’s in that process where the learning happens. Quite often I end up in different places than I expected. So for me, if no one reads it, the blog is still valuable since it serves my purpose.I’ve used Blogger for mine with the presentation Learning from Blogging: Creating Your Own and Learning from Others, by Tracy Hamilton, as the starting point. WordPress is the other main player but there are many more. The best way to start is to spend an hour browsing the blogosphere (not my favourite term) on Technorati or Icerocket. However, if you are reading this, you probably know all that.

It's been a while as I've been on holiday. Back now.This doesn't refer to that Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World document which I banged on about last month. Instead, I been "motivated" to post by reading Tony Bates Expectations and goals for e-learning post on his blog. Very useful as it outlines common expectations and goals. They are:1. To increase access to learning opportunities/increase flexibility for students2. To enhance the general quality of teaching/learning.3. To develop the skills and competencies needed in the 21st century, and in particular to ensure that learners have the digital literacy skills required in their discipline, profession or career - or, put simply, to get work in the future4. to meet the learning styles/needs of millenial students5. to improve the cost-effectiveness of the post-secondary education system6. to stay at the leading edge of educational technology developments/to digitalise all learning - or put another way, to respond to the technological imperative7. to de-institutionalise learning/to enable self-managed learning.8. to embark on a journey of mystery to see where it will take me.I commented on his blog and I want to record this comment here for reference. I wrote: I have a role as a Learning Technologist at the Institute of Education, London so I spend a lot of time trying to convince Higher Education academics about the virtues of all things e-learning. Your list of goals is very useful.I have used many of these at various times but the one I use a lot is where I present something as another tool to choose from in their toolkit when they design their course. I guess this is (2) more than anything else, but I don’t talk about improving quality because of the connotation that the quality isn’t good at the moment. It’s worth saying, however, that I think the social, informal learning offered by Web 2.0 can and should improve the learning for everyone. This is my main motivation for what I do.Where it is clear, I will talk about cost-effectiveness (5) and flexibility and access (1) as these will always go down well. Tangible benefits like this where are indisputable are the hooks to get people open to your ideas.3 and 6 are interesting. (6) never goes down well with sceptical academics and shouldn’t really be used. (3) I definitely agree with and one that I should use more often. It’s also increasingly hard to argue against. What I need is some more facts to back this up or at least some supplementary statements on this (I look forward to your further posts).(4) - yes, but I think of it as - "let’s do what they are doing because they are doing it." This sounds a bit silly but it’s valid. Another way of thinking about it is going into their world and speaking in a language that they understand (the web 2.0 world). I’m not in favour of using facebook or myspace but a comparable social networking facility - we don’t want to invade their private space. I’m not a fan of getting into learning styles because of the annoying "e-learning isn’t my learning style" mantra I often hear. This statement is so wrong on so many levels!Self-managed or personal learning (7) is a phrase that is creeping into higher education but it’s often offered within a tightly controlled space which kind of misses the point (I agree with Jay about e-portfolios). I don’t find myself using this much unless it’s clearly what they want to hear. 8 is silly.

Just read an interesting article on the Auricle by Derek Morrison about the number of users generating content on twitter and wikipedia. It's a small number. On wikipedia, 1/10 of 1% account for half of the content and for twitter 10% do 90% of the tweets. So why so few? My gut reaction is that the opportunities for user generated content are so new that people are still getting used to the idea. Consuming content is what we've been doing all our lives so to switch to a more participatory approach is alien and will take some getting used to. Also, for most of us, our experience of the web are purely as a consumer. Our use fo Web 2.0 will follow this path and it will take time to grasp the difference. Besides, you can 'participate' in and benefit from Web 2.0 just by consuming. Apart from this blog, my use of Web 2.0 is as a consumer. And it's quite to go from consuming to producing - it took me ages to start this space up.There are always going to be a minority who dominate proceedings just look at any classroom. But the fact that you can now participate, and so easily, makes a huge difference. You are going to get many, many more voices. Voices that you didn't hear before, voices with nowhere to go before, voices that didn't really think they had it in them to speak up. The voices will grow once people get used to the idea.However, let's be clear. There has already been an explosion with benefits for everyone to see.