This is the third installment of the five-part blog series about the The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment.At Training Magazine Network, we capture the crumbs of insights as they happen. This level of self-awareness enables our members to keep track of their train of thought. While in webinars, reading white papers, watching videos, etc., members can quickly record the ripple of their insights. They also encourage real-time noting, sharing and tracking of other members' insights. Savor the moment. As members go through all types of content that they find interesting through the help of a powerful search engine, they are constantly encouraged to record their insights as it happens. The key idea is to allow them to document what piqued their interest at the moment. Their learning preferences and interest areas are captured by the system. This provides them a unique perspective of their pursuit of expertise.Why Evaluate Insight?The idea behind evaluating one's insight is established by a huge quantum of studies. Organizations discover that giving appropriate feedback enhances personnel's ability to grow. As a matter of fact, neglecting a good evaluation or feedback mechanism is a recipe for disaster. According to Jane Bozarth "We often treat evaluation as an afterthought, focus on measures that offer little real information, or, when the effort looks difficult, just don't do evaluation at all. In looking at evaluation strategies, choose those that will get you what you need. Are you trying to prove results, or drive improvement? And above all, remember: some evaluation is better than none."  A founder of Triad Consulting Group and a lecturer at Harvard Law School, Sheila Heen delivers a talk on the importance of feedback. Giving the right kind of feedback takes center stage in sharing and tracking of other people's insights.Technology-Enhanced Feedback MechanismThere are a lot of advantages in using technology as a feedback mechanism. First of all, the time and distance constraint is easily overcome. A good LMS (Learning Management System) can easily incorporate feedback mechanisms like forums where learners can discuss the ripples of insight.Through this mechanism, peer learners can easily assess and give feedback on each other's ideas. This can be personalized even in a large group. On top of that, real-time tracking of feedback is easy with fast data transfer.   The Training Magazine Network is soon to release the first-of-its kind member service we call Path to Expertise or Path2X. It incorporates a technology-enhanced feedback mechanism.  References Jane Bozarth. Nuts and Bolts: How to Evaluate e-Learning. OCTOBER 5, 2010  http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/530/nuts-and-bolts-how-to- evaluate-e-learning   Jane Bozarth. Nuts and Bolts: Useful Interactions and Meaningful Feedback. DECEMBER 7, 2010. http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/597/nuts-and- bolts-useful-interactions-and-meaningful-feedback    Sarah Davis. Effective Assessment in a Digital Age. Effective Assessment in a Digital Age. http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140613220103/http://www.jisc.ac.uk asd/media/documents/programmes/elearning/digiassass_eada.pdf    Effective assessment in a digital age. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/podcasts/podcastpress- release-effective-assessment-in-a-digital-age-06-sep-2010   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Have you ever shared your thoughts with someone? On a grander scale, have you tried sharing your work or a potential masterpiece with like-minded people? Sharing your work simply means that it is where your mind is at. It is where your expertise can be found. The patterns of your insights showcase your expertise areas.Of course you can imagine the satisfaction you get when you receive the approval of people you respect. But the approval of like-minded people is not the only thing. Rather, it's making your work bigger than yourself that matters.    In this fourth installment of my five-part blog series about The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment, I'm going to talk about the importance of sharing your work. The Internet and a good portion of its supporting technology has been the result of open sharing of ideas.Inevitability of Sharing InsightApart from the climate of openness, we can't expect to enjoy what many would consider to be the greatest invention of modern times. Buzzwords like "open source," "collaboration," and "crowdsourcing" are all synonymous to the sharing of ideas and the climate of openness thatit entails.Although the effort to share one's ideas is not something recent, modern development made it easier to collaborate. According to Josh Lerner and Jean Tirol in their book The Simple Economics Of Open Source, "While media attention to the phenomenon of open source software has been recent, the basic behaviors are much older in their origins. There has long been a tradition of sharing and cooperation in software development. But in recent years, both the scale and formalization of the activity have expanded dramatically with the widespread diffusion of the Internet."On a more limited scale, programmers have been sharing source codes as early as the '60s and the '70s and this has been called "sneakernet" due primarily to the actual movement of files through people wearing sneakers. I'm sure you can imagine the inconvenience but you get the picture. There is no way ideas can be prevented from getting shared.Matt Ridley shows that the great progresses experienced by human history have been the result of collaboration or the "meeting and mating" of ideas.I like the book Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth. It suggests a profound change of our outlook. When we share our work, we actually learn a lot better.I recall a story from a toxic waste company client about how they apply "Chalk Talk." After each training they ask participants to use chalk and blackboard (may be flipcharts, white boards and markers) to talk about what they have learned.This is a powerful self-learning process that enables the learners to articulate what they know and correct themselves along the way. Let's call this the digital tracker.At TMN we allow members to capture trends and patterns. They discover and learn and track what they are good at and they show it off in the "Trending Report."How is Openness Beneficial to Organizational PerformanceThe advantages of collaboration to organizations are enormous. Bozarth opined, "Showing work offers increased efficiencies, the possibility of innovation and increased ability to improvise, and promises correction of longstanding deficits in organizational communication."In another study, Martine R. Haas and Morten T. Hansen proposed that, "An organization's  capacity to share knowledge among its individuals and teams and apply that shared knowledge to performing important activities is increasingly seen as a vital source of competitive advantage in many industries."While it's nice to think about the solo working genius, it's undeniable that we are at a time when certain problems are just too big for the individual to solve alone. We need the insights of other like-minded people whose expertise are in other areas.ConclusionThe pattern of your insight is a clear predictor of where your expertise lies. While the solo genius presents an attractive picture, sharing these insights expands your horizons. It is only through openness that ideas take on a new life because they meet and mate with other ideas. Innovation becomes possible and inevitable when ideas are shared. Problem-solving is facilitated by not one person but through the contribution of others.References Martine R. Haas and Morten T. Hansen. Different Knowledge, Different Benefits: Toward A Productivity Perspective On knowledge Sharing In Organizations. Strategic Management  Journal.   Paul Hendriks. WhyShare Knowledge? The Influence of ICT on the Motivation for Knowledge Sharing. University of Nijmegen, TheNetherlands.   Josh Lerner and Jean Tirol. The Simple Economics Of Open Source. NATIONAL BUREAU  OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH. 1050 Massachusetts AvenueCambridge, MA 02138. March  2000.   Jane Bozarth. Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-tos of Working out Loud.   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

In the previous tip we talked about sharing your insights. In this fifth installement of the five-part blog series about The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment, we will talk about presenting yourself as an expert and specialist of a specific field.TMN members can share with friends, peers, leaders and if they wish, in the world of social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We encourage TMN members to announce and celebrate their accomplishments.On the other hand, people with whom members share their achievements are likewise provided the facility for feedback by sharing ideas and comments. Mobile apps and digital watches are so good at this. Their entry to the market is by providing people immediate/instant feedback - whether they are walking, running or consuming calories.Feedback is key for people to correct and achieve their goals. In the Path2X (Path to Expertise), our members accomplish this through Path2X eShare.Path to Expertise ProgressThe classic resume is static. It is insufficient because it fails to provide the reviewer a better perspective of the capabilities and experiences of an applicant. With teams, leaders have no immediate way to assess capacities,  status of ongoing learning and new skills developed by team members. They have to wait for evaluation and assessments which may happen only once a year.In Training Mag Network we try to provide a dynamic way for leaders and members to update interests and skills development. TNM members share their Path2X progress with their leaders, bosses, friends, peers and team. These people are able to comment and have discussions with the member/owner of the report. They can drill down into what resources the TMN member has "actually" studied, reviewed and submitted insights to. Members can share the Path2X report as often as they like. The Path2X Progress Report helps the member "celebrate, announce and demonstrate" their deliberate efforts in building skills and expertise.The graphics below is an illustration of the Path2X Progress Report.The Importance of VisibilitySeth Godin talks about connecting with the customers and standing out as an expert in this short clip of an interview with Bryan Elliott.In the world where competition is the norm, how do you stand out against everybody else? Nowadays, it's not enough to be good at something or be connected to someone, you have to standout. According to William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, "In today's workplace, creativity has trumped loyalty; individuality has replaced conformity; pro-activity has replaced hierarchy. Those who succeeded were aware of their talents and confident enough to use them to stand out and consistently deliver value to their teams.References William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson. Career distinction: stand out by building your brand.  Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

I am proud to share that in a few weeks, Training Magazine Network will release a new first-of-its kind member service. Our research confirms this is brand-new. We call it Path to Expertise or Path2X.According to Judith A. Hale, Ph.D., CPT, ID (ILT, JA+): I am humbled by the experience and learning during the Path2X platform creation and making it available to our members. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this vision a reality.Please watch a brief video. Path2X has these key elements.1) Power of the Prompt QuestionsWith over 90,000 TMN members asking questions in their search activities, we curate and share these questions with the whole community. These prompt questions get crowd-sourced. We refer to them as, "exploratory thinking," "thinking aloud" or "intense curiosity." As the saying goes, "the solution is possible if we ask the right questions."It's challenging to formulate these questions and if we reuse and repurpose all of them including the search results, it would save time and add more context to the learning.2) Freedom to Learn One's Interest AreasWe allow members to follow their interests and passions openly through access to unbundled and unrestricted sources of content.Training magazine is a 40-year-old company. It has developed the best-of-breed resource materials in the world of training. Yet, the breadth and depth of knowledge required by learners surpass our present capabilities to provide this to our members. So, we unshackled our thinking,pushed beyond our current boundaries and uncovered a path for learners to have far-reaching access to varied learning.We published guest blogs - now 50,000 and growing each day. Our learners deserve to enjoy the abundance of open content from all other sources.3) Ripple Effects of InsightsEncourage real-time insights noting, sharing and tracking.Savor the moment. As members go through all types of content that they find interesting through the help of a powerful search engine, they are constantly encouraged to record their insights as it happens. The key idea is to allow them to document what they find interesting at the moment.Their learning preferences and interest areas are captured by the system. This provides them a unique perspective of their pursuit of expertise.In TMN, we capture the ripples of insights, those small and micro instances of learning - as they happen. While in webinars, reading white papers, watching videos, etc. members can quickly record the ripple of their insights. They also share and view other members' insights.4) Trending and Patterns of Insights are Predictors of Expertise AreasArticulate your expertise/digital tracker.I like the book Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth. It suggests a profound change of our outlook. When we share our work, we actually learn a lot better. I recall a story from a toxic waste company client about how they apply "Chalk Talk." After each training they ask participants to use chalk and blackboard (may be flipcharts, white boards and markers) to talk about what they have learned.This is a powerful self-learning process that enables the learners to articulate what they know and correct themselves along the way. Let's call this the digital tracker.At TMN, we allow members to capture trends and patterns. They discover, learn and track what they are good at and they show it off in the "Trending Report."5) Celebrate and Stand Out as Experts and SpecialistsFeedback to self, peers and significant leaders.Mobile apps and digital watches are so good at this. Their entry into the market is by providing people immediate/instant feedback - whether they are walking, running or consuming calories. The key is feedback for people to correct and achieve their goals. In the Path2X (Path to Expertise), our members achieve this through Path2X eShare.TMN members can share with friends, peers, leaders and if they wish, in the world of social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We encourage TMN members to announce and celebrate their accomplishments.What is the single most compelling Benefit to TMN Members?The new world of learning is open, limitless, abundant and exponential. It is our ardent hope that TMN members experience first-hand this new learning environment. As they discover possibilities, gain insights into their expertise and interest areas and showcase their achievements, we strongly sense that members will eagerly pass on this breakthrough in learning environments to their own learners - helping them to learn better and faster.Join The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com. Preview the video again, click here.References Gerald O. Grow. Teaching Learners To Be Self-Directed. Florida A&M University, Tallahassee.http://aeq.sagepub.com/content/41/3/125.short   Jane Bozarth. Social Media for Trainers: Techniques for Enhancing and Extending Learning. John Wiley & Sons, 30 Jul 2010. https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xiWi4fuOOl0C&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=Jane+Bozarth&ots=KLyp2Na35O&sig=KLyMa5H8ngmbLbwLxqhCZyFlHU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Jane%20Bozarth&f=false   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Learning is a creative process. We start with a question, a challenge, a problem, an opportunity or possibly simple or complex tasks. Then we go back to asking more questions. Because of what we want to do, accomplish or learn, our minds go through discovery and creativity.Recursive learning and CreativityThe focus of this tip is on Recursive Learning and Creativity. People learn recursively. We connect past experiences, with new experiences, and formulate new insights.  These then, become part of our new and improved expertise. Doing these repeatedly help us build skills, mastery and expertise.The compounding effect of incremental insights show us where our interest areas are,and where our vocation and our passion lie. People tend to do things that give them pleasure. What gives them pleasure allows them to pursue interests. Eventually and along the way, our expertise is rooted in our passions and vocations, whether we are consciouslyor just unknowingly pursuing them.Generating insights is normal and common. But deepening insights which is a creative process requires some level of intensity and penetration of desire. Is it difficult to attain? Not really.It is easily provided when it is incremental - thinking through your insights as it happensis where the epiphany is. It is like when you eat really great food at a 5-Star Michelin restaurant. It is at the moment when your taste buds savor the flavor - at that moment - where experience is highest. This is the moment of ecstatic insights, sometimes euphoria or the Aha!moment. This is similar to the feeling when one generates fresh ideas to change a product and improve services in order to achieve organizational goals. This is similar to the Aha! moment when one discovers the connection between two previously unrelated concepts.                                                                                                                According to David Jones, "Aha! moments may be sudden, but they probably depend on an unconscious mental process that has grown slowly." Jones argues further that we can't truly have new ideas, rather, we can connect existing facts or notions by observing others. The Social component of CreativityCreativity does not occur in a vacuum. Experts agree that while creativity or insight is a personal experience, "creative thinking is not so much an individual trait but rather a social phenomenon involving interactions among people within their specific group or cultural settings."By curating and sharing back to the community "prompt questions," members find it easier or faster to direct their attention to answers and therefore facilitate discovery and insights.The most intriguing part about prompt questions is that it sends or kicks off learners into an automatic recursive learning process. When we ask questions, our minds go on autopilot to find what we already know, then search outside what else we can know. This allows us to reflect and gain insights -- this is recursive learning or creative musing in action. This happens in milliseconds. Although this is most often unconscious, it is most effective in learning and gaining insights.Two phases of creative musingWe introduced the process called "Path2X trending" which means that as you add and record insights, you are able to see your "crumbs" - where you have been and what you have been thinking aloud, and the interests you are pursuing and the knowledge and learning that you are accumulating. In essence you are building expertise, but instead of a whimsical and tentative way, we allow members to see the trends of their insights. Here are the two phases of creative musing: 1. Generative phase - During this phase, one tends to generate different solutions to a given problem. Also known as the divergent phase, the creative mind is in a brainstorming mode and tries to consider a variety of ways in which a problem can be approached and a solution can be had. This is what we commonly call "out of the box" thinking.2. Exploratory/Evaluative phase - Also known as the convergent phase, during this phase the creative mind tends to focus on the best solution to the problem. No longer is the mind brainstorming ideas, rather, with surgical precision, it decides on what to do and faces the problem head on. According to Robert L. DeHaan, "During the generative process, the creative mind pictures a set of novel mental models as potential solutions to a problem. In the exploratory phase, we evaluate the multiple options and select the best one."ConclusionCreativity is the result of incremental and recursive learning. While we tend to think of it as an innate talent, it cannot be separated from the social context. As a matter of fact, it is enhanced by social interaction as observed from the curated "prompt questions" by TMN members. With "Path2X trending," members can focus and see the trend of their creative musings.References Robert L. DeHaan. Teaching Creativity and Inventive Problem Solving in Science. Division of Educational Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322.  http://www.lifescied.org/content/8/3/172.full    David Jones. The Aha! Moment: A Scientist Take on Creativity. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore Maryland 21218-4363. https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pbZzl0V0s0YC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2& dq=aha+moment&ots=XmDDAuCR6d&sig=JE0yiMz6uOL3RyfQoR06MZljtQE&redir esc=y#v=onepage&q=aha%20moment&f=false     Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Learning is a creative process. We start with a question, a challenge, a problem, an opportunity or possibly simple or complex tasks. Then we go back to asking more questions. Because of what we want to do, accomplish or learn, our minds go through discovery and creativity.Recursive learning and Creativity The focus of this tip is on Recursive Learning and Creativity. People learn recursively. We connect past experiences, with new experiences, and formulate new insights.  These then, become part of our new and improved expertise. Doing these repeatedly help us build skills, mastery and expertise.The compounding effect of incremental insights show us where our interest areas are,and where our vocation and our passion lie. People tend to do things that give them pleasure. What gives them pleasure allows them to pursue interests. Eventually and along the way, our expertise is rooted in our passions and vocations, whether we are consciouslyor just unknowingly pursuing them.Generating insights is normal and common. But deepening insights which is a creative process requires some level of intensity and penetration of desire. Is it difficult to attain? Not really.It is easily provided when it is incremental - thinking through your insights as it happensis where the epiphany is. It is like when you eat really great food at a 5-Star Michelin restaurant. It is at the moment when your taste buds savor the flavor - at that moment - where experience is highest. This is the moment of ecstatic insights, sometimes euphoria or the Aha!moment. This is similar to the feeling when one generates fresh ideas to change a product and improve services in order to achieve organizational goals. This is similar to the Aha! moment when one discovers the connection between two previously unrelated concepts.                                                                                                                According to David Jones, "Aha! moments may be sudden, but they probably depend on an unconscious mental process that has grown slowly." Jones argues further that we can't truly have new ideas, rather, we can connect existing facts or notions by observing others. The Social Component of CreativityCreativity does not occur in a vacuum. Experts agree that while creativity or insight is a personal experience, "creative thinking is not so much an individual trait but rather a social phenomenon involving interactions among people within their specific group or cultural settings."By curating and sharing back to the community "prompt questions," members find it easier or faster to direct their attention to answers and therefore facilitate discovery and insights.The most intriguing part about prompt questions is that it sends or kicks off learners into an automatic recursive learning process. When we ask questions, our minds go on autopilot to find what we already know, then search outside what else we can know. This allows us to reflect and gain insights -- this is recursive learning or creative musing in action. This happens in milliseconds. Although this is most often unconscious, it is most effective in learning and gaining insights.Two phases of creative musingWe introduced the process called "Path2X trending" which means that as you add and record insights, you are able to see your "crumbs" - where you have been and what you have been thinking aloud, and the interests you are pursuing and the knowledge and learning that you are accumulating. In essence you are building expertise, but instead of a whimsical and tentative way, we allow members to see the trends of their insights. Here are the two phases of creative musing: 1. Generative phase - During this phase, one tends to generate different solutions to a given problem. Also known as the divergent phase, the creative mind is in a brainstorming mode and tries to consider a variety of ways in which a problem can be approached and a solution can be had. This is what we commonly call "out of the box" thinking.2. Exploratory/Evaluative phase - Also known as the convergent phase, during this phase the creative mind tends to focus on the best solution to the problem. No longer is the mind brainstorming ideas, rather, with surgical precision, it decides on what to do and faces the problem head on. According to Robert L. DeHaan, "During the generative process, the creative mind pictures a set of novel mental models as potential solutions to a problem. In the exploratory phase, we evaluate the multiple options and select the best one."ConclusionCreativity is the result of incremental and recursive learning. While we tend to think of it as an innate talent, it cannot be separated from the social context. As a matter of fact, it is enhanced by social interaction as observed from the curated "prompt questions" by TMN members. With "Path2X trending," members can focus and see the trend of their creative musings.References Robert L. DeHaan. Teaching Creativity and Inventive Problem Solving in Science. Division of Educational Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322.  http://www.lifescied.org/content/8/3/172.full    David Jones. The Aha! Moment: A Scientist Take on Creativity. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore Maryland 21218-4363. https://books.google.com.ph/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pbZzl0V0s0YC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2& dq=aha+moment&ots=XmDDAuCR6d&sig=JE0yiMz6uOL3RyfQoR06MZljtQE&redir esc=y#v=onepage&q=aha%20moment&f=false     Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

This is the second installment of of my five-part blog series on helping members of TrainingMagNetwork understand their expertise better.We believe in unshackling our thinking and providing learners as much access to content and this is what this post is about.Trainers and content developers can no longer hold back learners from using other sources of knowledge. There is a breaking away from control as these new discoveries continue to sprout like mushrooms. This allows them to accelerate learning. It is in this openness that we encourage the learners to explore, create and develop.The Proliferation of Open LearningWe have witnessed the dramatic increase in open learning. If you have been following the online trends, you will have noticed the popularity of sites like Coursera, edX and other spinoffs. The dramatic decrease in cost of producing learning materials contributes to the proliferation of open learning.According to Caswell, Henson, Jensen, and David Wiley, "This marked decrease in costs has significant implications and allows distance educators to play an important role in the fulfillment of the promise of the right to universal education. At relatively little additional cost, universities can make their content available to millions. This content has the potential to substantially improve the quality of life of learners around the world."But the cost is just one aspect. While technology made open learning easy, it is the current attitude requiring more flexibility and collaboration in learning that made this possible. Rigid and traditional approach to learning is a thing of the past.  According to Liyanagunawardena, Adams, and Williams, "Connectivity is usually provided through social networking, and a set of freely accessible online resources provides the content or the study material... For example, MOOC participants may create their own blog posts discussing aspects of the MOOC in different spaces and/or may use microblogs such as Twitter to express themselves."eLearning pioneers like Jay Cross are advocating informal learning wherein unofficial and impromptu encounters between learners and people in the know take place. Jay posts that "formal training and workshops account for only 5% to 20% of what people learn from experience and interactions."If you are a lifelong learner, you can find free and open courses at Harvard Open Learning. Are you looking for a new recipe to cook for lunch? You can just head to Youtube, watch a video and turn yourself into an instant chef.We haven't witnessed this level of openness before and this is just the tip of the iceberg. With technological development mostly done in the open, the high level of interactivity required to respond to modern challenges and the attitude of modern learners all converge to spice up Open Learning. The concept of Open learning is far more vast than what we have witnessed and I believe the best is yet to come.The Philosophy Behind TrainingMagNetwork's Open Learning Richard Baraniuk shares his vision of open learning which led to the creation of OpenStax, an open-source, online education system which allows teachers to share and modify course materials freely and globally.Different programs have varied degrees of openness and diverse implementations of the concept of Open Learning.At TrainingMagNetwork, we allow the members to search over 50,000 blogs and resources (growing each day). We believe we can only serve the learners by enabling them to access quickly, assist them to search with prompt questions and discover what they want in the abundance of content. They drive the learning, not us or the designers or any form of formal structure. In fact, we don't have a hierarchical learning design that is typical of other associations and learning providers. We want to free our learners to follow their own passion and help them track their own studies.References Tharindu Rekha Liyanagunawardena, Andrew Alexander Adams, and Shirley Ann  Williams. MOOCs: A Systematic Study of the Published Literature 2008-2012. July 2013. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1455/2531    Tom Caswell, Shelley Henson, Marion Jensen, and David Wiley. Open Educational  Resources: Enabling universal education.February 2008. The International Review of  Research in Open and Distributed Learning. http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/  article/view/469/1001   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

This is the third installment of the five-part blog series about the The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment.At Training Magazine Network, we capture the crumbs of insights as they happen. This level of self-awareness enables our members to keep track of their train of thought. While in webinars, reading white papers, watching videos, etc., members can quickly record the ripple of their insights. They also encourage real-time noting, sharing and tracking of other members' insights. Savor the moment. As members go through all types of content that they find interesting through the help of a powerful search engine, they are constantly encouraged to record their insights as it happens. The key idea is to allow them to document what piqued their interest at the moment. Their learning preferences and interest areas are captured by the system. This provides them a unique perspective of their pursuit of expertise.Why Evaluate Insight?The idea behind evaluating one's insight is established by a huge quantum of studies. Organizations discover that giving appropriate feedback enhances personnel's ability to grow. As a matter of fact, neglecting a good evaluation or feedback mechanism is a recipe for disaster. According to Jane Bozarth "We often treat evaluation as an afterthought, focus on measures that offer little real information, or, when the effort looks difficult, just don't do evaluation at all. In looking at evaluation strategies, choose those that will get you what you need. Are you trying to prove results, or drive improvement? And above all, remember: some evaluation is better than none."  A founder of Triad Consulting Group and a lecturer at Harvard Law School, Sheila Heen delivers a talk on the importance of feedback. Giving the right kind of feedback takes center stage in sharing and tracking of other people's insights.Technology-Enhanced Feedback MechanismThere are a lot of advantages in using technology as a feedback mechanism. First of all, the time and distance constraint is easily overcome. A good LMS (Learning Management System) can easily incorporate feedback mechanisms like forums where learners can discuss the ripples of insight.Through this mechanism, peer learners can easily assess and give feedback on each other's ideas. This can be personalized even in a large group. On top of that, real-time tracking of feedback is easy with fast data transfer.   The Training Magazine Network is soon to release the first-of-its kind member service we call Path to Expertise or Path2X. It incorporates a technology-enhanced feedback mechanism.  References Jane Bozarth. Nuts and Bolts: How to Evaluate e-Learning. OCTOBER 5, 2010  http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/530/nuts-and-bolts-how-to- evaluate-e-learning   Jane Bozarth. Nuts and Bolts: Useful Interactions and Meaningful Feedback. DECEMBER 7, 2010. http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/597/nuts-and- bolts-useful-interactions-and-meaningful-feedback    Sarah Davis. Effective Assessment in a Digital Age. Effective Assessment in a Digital Age. http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140613220103/http://www.jisc.ac.uk asd/media/documents/programmes/elearning/digiassass_eada.pdf    Effective assessment in a digital age. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/podcasts/podcastpress- release-effective-assessment-in-a-digital-age-06-sep-2010   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Have you ever shared your thoughts with someone? On a grander scale, have you tried sharing your work or a potential masterpiece with like-minded people? Sharing your work simply means that it is where your mind is at. It is where your expertise can be found. The patterns of your insights showcase your expertise areas.Of course you can imagine the satisfaction you get when you receive the approval of people you respect. But the approval of like-minded people is not the only thing. Rather, it's making your work bigger than yourself that matters.    In this fourth installment of my five-part blog series about The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment, I'm going to talk about the importance of sharing your work. The Internet and a good portion of its supporting technology has been the result of open sharing of ideas.Inevitability of Sharing InsightApart from the climate of openness, we can't expect to enjoy what many would consider to be the greatest invention of modern times. Buzzwords like "open source," "collaboration," and "crowdsourcing" are all synonymous to the sharing of ideas and the climate of openness thatit entails.Although the effort to share one's ideas is not something recent, modern development made it easier to collaborate. According to Josh Lerner and Jean Tirol in their book The Simple Economics Of Open Source, "While media attention to the phenomenon of open source software has been recent, the basic behaviors are much older in their origins. There has long been a tradition of sharing and cooperation in software development. But in recent years, both the scale and formalization of the activity have expanded dramatically with the widespread diffusion of the Internet."On a more limited scale, programmers have been sharing source codes as early as the '60s and the '70s and this has been called "sneakernet" due primarily to the actual movement of files through people wearing sneakers. I'm sure you can imagine the inconvenience but you get the picture. There is no way ideas can be prevented from getting shared.Matt Ridley shows that the great progresses experienced by human history have been the result of collaboration or the "meeting and mating" of ideas.I like the book Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth. It suggests a profound change of our outlook. When we share our work, we actually learn a lot better.I recall a story from a toxic waste company client about how they apply "Chalk Talk." After each training they ask participants to use chalk and blackboard (may be flipcharts, white boards and markers) to talk about what they have learned.This is a powerful self-learning process that enables the learners to articulate what they know and correct themselves along the way. Let's call this the digital tracker.At TMN we allow members to capture trends and patterns. They discover and learn and track what they are good at and they show it off in the "Trending Report."How is Openness Beneficial to Organizational PerformanceThe advantages of collaboration to organizations are enormous. Bozarth opined, "Showing work offers increased efficiencies, the possibility of innovation and increased ability to improvise, and promises correction of longstanding deficits in organizational communication."In another study, Martine R. Haas and Morten T. Hansen proposed that, "An organization's  capacity to share knowledge among its individuals and teams and apply that shared knowledge to performing important activities is increasingly seen as a vital source of competitive advantage in many industries."While it's nice to think about the solo working genius, it's undeniable that we are at a time when certain problems are just too big for the individual to solve alone. We need the insights of other like-minded people whose expertise are in other areas.ConclusionThe pattern of your insight is a clear predictor of where your expertise lies. While the solo genius presents an attractive picture, sharing these insights expands your horizons. It is only through openness that ideas take on a new life because they meet and mate with other ideas. Innovation becomes possible and inevitable when ideas are shared. Problem-solving is facilitated by not one person but through the contribution of others.References Martine R. Haas and Morten T. Hansen. Different Knowledge, Different Benefits: Toward A Productivity Perspective On knowledge Sharing In Organizations. Strategic Management  Journal.   Paul Hendriks. WhyShare Knowledge? The Influence of ICT on the Motivation for Knowledge Sharing. University of Nijmegen, TheNetherlands.   Josh Lerner and Jean Tirol. The Simple Economics Of Open Source. NATIONAL BUREAU  OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH. 1050 Massachusetts AvenueCambridge, MA 02138. March  2000.   Jane Bozarth. Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-tos of Working out Loud.   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

In the previous tip we talked about sharing your insights. In this fifth installement of the five-part blog series about The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment, we will talk about presenting yourself as an expert and specialist of a specific field.TMN members can share with friends, peers, leaders and if they wish, in the world of social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We encourage TMN members to announce and celebrate their accomplishments.On the other hand, people with whom members share their achievements are likewise provided the facility for feedback by sharing ideas and comments. Mobile apps and digital watches are so good at this. Their entry to the market is by providing people immediate/instant feedback - whether they are walking, running or consuming calories.Feedback is key for people to correct and achieve their goals. In the Path2X (Path to Expertise), our members accomplish this through Path2X eShare.Path to Expertise ProgressThe classic resume is static. It is insufficient because it fails to provide the reviewer a better perspective of the capabilities and experiences of an applicant. With teams, leaders have no immediate way to assess capacities,  status of ongoing learning and new skills developed by team members. They have to wait for evaluation and assessments which may happen only once a year.In Training Mag Network we try to provide a dynamic way for leaders and members to update interests and skills development. TNM members share their Path2X progress with their leaders, bosses, friends, peers and team. These people are able to comment and have discussions with the member/owner of the report. They can drill down into what resources the TMN member has "actually" studied, reviewed and submitted insights to. Members can share the Path2X report as often as they like. The Path2X Progress Report helps the member "celebrate, announce and demonstrate" their deliberate efforts in building skills and expertise.The graphics below is an illustration of the Path2X Progress Report.The Importance of VisibilitySeth Godin talks about connecting with the customers and standing out as an expert in this short clip of an interview with Bryan Elliott.In the world where competition is the norm, how do you stand out against everybody else? Nowadays, it's not enough to be good at something or be connected to someone, you have to standout. According to William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, "In today's workplace, creativity has trumped loyalty; individuality has replaced conformity; pro-activity has replaced hierarchy. Those who succeeded were aware of their talents and confident enough to use them to stand out and consistently deliver value to their teams.References William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson. Career distinction: stand out by building your brand.  Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning