You hire an employee, get them onboarded, and they complete their training. Now you release them into the wild where they are on their own and hope to do things right. What is wrong with this picture? Having a training process to onboard new employees is a great thing, but what about their training needs a month down the road, or even a year? Training should be an ongoing process that doesn’t end right after they pass their new-hire course. Here are some reasons why your employees need an ongoing training program: 1. Memory When you conduct your new-hire training, you are going to overload your new staff with a ton of information. Understandably, it is all important and crucial information for them to have in order to be successful, but the chances that they will remember every little detail that they learned in the first week or two of getting hired isn’t very high. Having training courses every few weeks or months is crucial to make sure your employees are getting constant refreshers and are more likely to remember everything they need to know. 2. Updates We live in a time of never ending changes and new technologies. Regardless of your industry or company size, there will most likely be constant changes and enhancements in your product or service that you will need your employees to know about. Sure, you can always send out a blanket email that explains these changes and hope that your staff reads it, but how do you know they actually understand those changes without assessing them on it? When changes occur within any part of your organization, it is necessary to make sure your employees have a good grasp of it. 3. Process Some people are good at always "winging it" but best practices state that it is best to have business processes in place, especially in an office setting. Ongoing training should always be one of those "processes" in every organization. Sure, everyone has a manager giving updates and most likely team meetings and one-on-ones, but when there are set training processes in place, there are more likely to be less surprises and easier adjustments to any news or changes. When training courses are expected, your employees will be more willing to get things done. 4. Awareness You know the story. You’re in a meeting and someone is covering a topic that seems completely new to you, but everyone else is nodding their heads like they know exactly what is being discussed. It is very common for some people to miss out on things, whether they weren’t in the office while something was being announced or they just never got word of it. When you assess your employees on these kinds of topics, you know who is aware of things and how much people know. 5. Results Utilizing an ongoing training program and being able to see your employees’ results in real time is everything. There are many different ways you can give information but it isn’t as easy to figure out what people actually know and understand. Being able to see these results not only helps you understand your staff member’s learning ability but also makes it clear to you when some people need real improvements in their training. Being able to measure these results makes it so there is complete transparency between employee and employer. Training is a never-ending cycle. Most companies are good at making sure their new-hires are given the proper amount of training to get things moving but sometimes forget that the training should never stop. If you are one of those people who would like to grow your training so it expands past an onboarding process, sign up for a free trial of Litmos and start your ongoing training program today. The post 5 Important Reasons Your Employees Need an Ongoing Training Program appeared first on Litmos.

You hire an employee --- Get them onboarded --- They complete their training. Now you release them off into wild where they are on their own and hope to do things right. What is wrong with this picture? Having a training process to onboard new employees is a great thing, but what about their training needs a month down the road, or even a year? Training should be an ongoing process that doesn’t end right after they pass their new-hire course.   Here are some reasons why your employees need an ongoing training program: Forgetfulness When you conduct your new-hire training, you are going to overload your new staff with a ton of information. Understandably, it is all important and crucial information for them to have in order to be successful, but the chances that they will remember every little detail that they learned in the first week or two of getting hired isn’t very high. Having training courses every few weeks or months is crucial to make sure your employees are getting constant refreshers and are more likely to remember everything they need to know.   Updates We live in a time of never ending changes and new technologies. Regardless of your industry or company size, there will most likely be constant changes and enhancements in your product or service that you will need your employees to know about. Sure, you can always send out a blanket email that explains these changes and hope that your staff reads it, but how do you know they actually understand those changes without assessing them on it? When changes occur within any part of your organization, it is necessary to make sure your employees have a good grasp of it.   Process Some people are good at always "winging it" but best practices state that it is best to have business processes in place, especially in an office setting. Ongoing training should always be one of those "processes" in every organization. Sure, everyone has a manager giving updates and most likely team meetings and one-on-ones, but when there are set training processes in place, there are more likely to be less surprises and easier adjustments to any news or changes. When training courses are expected, your employees will be more willing to get things done.   Awareness You know the story. You’re in a meeting and someone is covering a topic that seems completely new to you, but everyone else is nodding their heads like they know exactly what is being discussed. It is very common for some people to miss out on things, whether they weren’t in the office while something was being announced or they just never got word of it. When you assess your employees on these kinds of topics, you know who is aware of things and how much people know.   Results Utilizing an ongoing training program and being able to see your employees’ results in real time is everything. There are many different ways you can give information but it isn’t as easy to figure out what people actually know and understand. Being able to see these results not only helps you understand your staff member’s training ability but also makes it clear to you when some people need real improvements in their training. Being able to measure these results makes it so there is complete transparency between employee and employer. Training is a never ending cycle. Most companies are good at making sure their new-hires are given the proper amount of training to get things moving but sometimes forget that the training should never stop. If you are one of those people who would like to grow your training so it expands past an onboarding process, sign-up for a free trial of Litmos and start your ongoing training program today. The post 5 Important Reasons Employees Need Ongoing Training appeared first on Litmos.

When should I use ILT? When should I use eLearning? When should I use both, or neither? In a perfect world we might have unlimited resources to create perfect training solutions. But we all know how unrealistic that is. If things were so utopian every training project would be created with the perfect blended learning solution: A little ILT, a little self-paced online instruction, a little content delivered via spaced repetition, and perhaps top it off with a community to support some impromptu conversation. And the amount of each element would be adjustable to the individual needs of each employee. Ah... wouldn't that be nice. <finger snap sound> Welcome back to reality! You may be new to the role of training and development, and not sure when it's best to use instructor led training(ILT) or eLearning. You may be a veteran corporate training professional still asking yourself, "When should I be using eLearning"? Or maybe you've walked into an organization that is currently ALL eLearning and you're wondering, "Maybe some of this should be instructor-led"? These are common questions in our industry often asked as if it's an either/or proposition. From an instructional design and learner-centered design perspective it's not. But from the perspective of the business, at times, it can be one or the other. Perhaps We're Asking the Wrong Questions? Let's examine a few benefits of eLearning as they relate to instructor-led training. You can easily expect a significant reduction in travel costs for both instructors and students. Maintenance of special training facilities designed for ILT can be eliminated. Printed, and other physical materials reduce costs when converted to digital formats. Elimination of travel to training facilities reduces employee time away from the job. There are more benefits, but you get the idea. With these benefits in mind, can you see how the questions above can become an either/or proposition? Put your business hat on and rethink it. The best learning question to ask is "What is the right mix of learning solutions"? But the best training question is "How fast can I provide business value"? If you've walked into a situation with 100% ILT training courses, then your mission is most likely to "move all courses online". If all "the business" has ever known is ILT, and moving to eLearning can eliminate high costs, why wouldn't executives be all in with eLearning? Eliminating a multimillion dollar expense of the corporate university building sure sounds tempting, don't you think? How Does The Business See Training? The business sees you, your team, and the work you produce as training. As they should. They expect you to create the most effective training course you can based on the limitations and expectations of the business. Some large companies have massive centralized Training & Development teams. Others take a more federated approach with training teams within each department. And SMBs often function with only 1 employee responsible for training. In each situation there is a different answer to each of the questions asked earlier. And yes, it sounds like I'm dodging the questions. But how you provide business value in your training role is entirely dependent on what that business is and how your leaders view the role training in that business. You have plenty of time to be a learning professional wandering the hollowed halls of academia. But as a training professional you serve at the pleasure of the business and those who own/run it.   The post A Reality Check for New Training Professionals appeared first on Litmos.

It's Thanksgiving in the U.S. And so I've taken a few liberties with today's blog post. In essence it's just me sharing an experience and a few thoughts. I hope it makes your think a little, and inspires you to start or join conversations around training. Happy Thanksgiving! I recently wrote "Why You Should Produce Your Own Video Learning Content". It was just another attempt, like many before it, to inspire people to record, produce, and publish videos. It's a drum I've been beating for many years, and have often wondered if anyone is listening. I'm confident enough in my predictions to never be too concerned. But at times it would be nice to hear from people who have been inspired to test out my theories. Back in the early days of blogging that's what bloggers did. They would read something, get inspired and write something of their own, and feed that out to the blogosphere. And so I called it Rip, Mix, and Feed Learning. And yes, it's just a simple change to the short-lived Apple ad campaign Rip, Mix, and Burn. You can read more about it here if you're interested. Today, the blogosphere only works like that occasionally. It's more about selling ads, or driving web site traffic, than it is about collaboration and community. But that's okay. Things change. You gotta remember we didn't have twitter and all the other collaborative social media tools there are today. But every now and then I get a glimpse of the old days...if you can call 2006 the old days. This week I received a blog notification called a pingback. A pingback notifies me when another blog has linked to one of my blog posts. This was interesting because it wasn't one of the usual eLearning web sites. It was from a brand new blog that was just launched titled LearnTechAnalysis.com, and written by Dean Rogers. Dean read my post titled "Why You Should Produce Your Own Video Learning Content". And he wrote "Shooting Training Videos, Just Go For It!" The following statement he made, is one I hear quite often: "My biggest challenge is recording and editing the videos because I typically feel as though they need to be scripted, well thought out, and perfectly edited." Dean goes on to mention all the different ways he can apply the ideas I proposed, and he is spot on. I'm really looking forward to hearing from him next year for feedback on his progress. He closes his post with a statement I hope everyone takes to heart. "Overall, I think this is a great idea, and Brent’s blog post gave me a bit of extra confidence in knowing that not every video I make needs to look like the next Spielberg movie." Non-Training Professionals Creating Training There is one significant reality that I've accepted over the last 2 years. Training professionals are a minority in the world of training content creators. Consider all of the corporate training content and generic learning content that currently exists. My guess is that only a very small percentage of it was created by a graduate level instructional designer or other degreed training professional. And with technology becoming easier and more accessible I only see that trend rising. Without question, there are more of them than there are of us. Dean and his courses at www.kasestatware.com are a perfect example of this trend. What's a Learning Management System? I often wonder how many of these non-training-professionals-doing-training even know what a learning management system(LMS) is? And even more importantly how a SaaS based LMS can benefit them. As the old saying goes, you don't know what you don't know. And maybe there is a stigma that only large corporations need an LMS. All logical and valid thoughts from those not familiar with newer LMS solutions. But what if there was a system that could improve the many elements of producing, tracking, and selling training? Managing attendees for multiple instructor-led training sessions can sometimes be overwhelming. A LMS can make that so much easier to manage. And moving courses from instructor-led training to eLearning becomes a simple process using all the content you've already created. And do you need to test your attendees to make sure they've learned a few things? Why not let the LMS manage that process too? And selling your courses? No problem. Learning Management Systems are not just for big corporations. The benefits of SaaS based LMSs like Litmos are being enjoyed by small, medium, AND large businesses. If you do training of any kind, for a business of any size, I encourage you to sign up for a free trial and see for yourself how much more productive you can be managing your training responsibilities. Brent's Final Comments I guess that was a very round about way towards a sales pitch. However, just the thought of people out there creating training courses on basic web pages is frustrating for me. So if I need to stop beating around the bush, and just shout it out loud, then I will.  I believe the future of training has only just begun. Our first generation of eLearning has been little more than ivory tower educational professionals using old methods and old models to move the traditional course online. But the next generation of 21st century training will be built by anyone interested in sharing what they know...rules be damned! There will be no constraints. No rules. No right way or wrong way. Average people will ignore the "experts" and just do it. Everyone will create the best content they can, in whatever way they want. But they will also want to publish their content, gather data, sell it, manage multiple courses, and so much more. There will come a point in everyone's training creation journey when they will need to decide how to manage these efforts. And when they're ready, we'll be here ready to help. Ask me any questions via twitter @Litmos. The post Non-training Professionals Lead the Future of Training appeared first on Litmos.

If you want to know what the future workplace employee looks like, just take a look at what K-12 educators are doing. I used to think there was very little connection between k-12 education and corporate training. And while I still see significant differences, I look to our education system often to see what type of skills our future employees are likely to have. Knowing this also gives us a glimpse into their expectations of workplace learning. Today I found this blog post via twitter: "3 Ways of Assessing Students Understanding Through Mobile Phones." The 3 ways are: Reflecting on learning, Documenting a process, Capturing real world examples. The 3 examples involve using phones to snap pictures or record audio/video. All of which have been discussed in corporate training circles as well. And while it is sometimes difficult to convince adults to take on these habits, I am certain these activities will soon be common in the workplace.  Today's kids are quite familiar with recorded videos of individuals talking straight into the camera's lens. It's called vlogging, and quickly becoming as common as blogging. Not all kids are recording themselves this way, but by watching others they are becoming familiar and comfortable with the format. Many of the most popular vlogs are simply creative reflections on the day's activities or events. These shared reflections become learning opportunities to large audiences via YouTube. Do You Even Vlog, Bro? A similar trend in vlogging is d0-it-yourself, or DIY, instructional videos. A craft or activity is shown and then a step-by-step process is creatively edited and published as a short video. These are mostly kids, and young adults, with NO "proper" instructional design knowledge or training. They watch and learn from each other, and then they just do it. Can you imagine these kids entering the workplace today, and having to endure your training? I challenge you to search youtube and discover some vloggers. And then look at your current training courses. Do you see what I mean? Some of these vloggers produce DAILY videos. That's 260 videos in one year if they only publish Monday through Friday. How many training courses, or videos, did you produce this year? Today's mobile phones are extremely powerful content creation devices and yet they are still mostly used to consume content. I recently experimented with vlogging and discovered my iPhone6s to be more efficient at recording, editing, and publishing video than my 2010 Macbook Pro. And from what I've heard the phone's new processor even out-performs newer laptop models as well. Imagine what these devices will be capable of when today's pre-teens enter tomorrow's workforce. What will this massive influx of content creators mean for your training programs? Will you be the training professional acting as a gatekeeper with a command and control approach? Or will you be open to giving everyone the tools and resources to teach others through the practice of reflection, process recording, and example capturing? The LMS Isn't Dead. It's Changing! It's this type of future causing many to think the LMS is dead.  I would agree if you are talking about the older, more complex, and complicated systems, attempting to include all sorts of HR functions as well. If these legacy systems are all you've come to know, then I can understand your concern. But today's 21st century SaaS based LMS is more than capable of adapting quickly to this change coming to the corporate learning ecosystem.  Even if your current employer is unable, or unwilling, to investigate this new breed of LMS, you owe it to yourself and your career to prepare for what's coming. And the good news is that you can take Litmos for a 14 day test run. You own your employability. Educate yourself. And as always you can ask me anything @Litmos via twitter. The post Why K-12 Digital Trends Impact Your Future in Corporate Training appeared first on Litmos.

The following list contains the top 5 blog posts from Litmos.com/bog in November 2015. A quick glance reveals a theme of using digital technologies in training projects to deliver business value. If you missed any of these posts, I would encourage you to read them and join the conversations @Litmos on twitter. 10 New Learning Technologies - by Dr. Clark Quinn There are many ways in which we’re not using technology in good ways, and yet there’s still the excitement over new technologies. We’re naturally excited by the new and shiny, but is there any substance behind the hype? Let’s investigate, with a keen eye on real learning potential... Read Full Article Why You Should Produce Your Own Video Learning Content Mobile phones have come a long way over the last few years. Even if your phone is a few years old it still has the ability to record video. And for that matter digital cameras and digicams have come a long way as well. But you shouldn’t be deciding to use one or the other. You should be using both, or which ever one you feel the most comfortable using. Everyone is watching video. It's time we started taking video production seriously as part of what training departments do... Read Full Article Think Different and Deliver Training That Adds Value If you identify your work and job title as Instructional design(er), then you are a creative person. I would consider anyone doing corporate training work of any kind creative. Most corporate training professionals I have met throughout the years have a unique creative aspect to their personality. Not all. But most. With "designer" in the title how can we not feel like our work expresses our inner creativeness. The work we do in corporate training is a creative endeavor... Read Full Article 5 Important Reasons Your Employees Need an Ongoing Training Program You hire an employee, get them onboarded, and they complete their training. Now you release them into the wild where they are on their own and hope to do things right. What is wrong with this picture? Having a training process to onboard new employees is a great thing, but what about their training needs a month down the road, or even a year? Training should be an ongoing process that doesn’t end right after they pass their new-hire course... Read Full Article Non-training Professionals Lead the Future of Training I recently wrote "Why You Should Produce Your Own Video Learning Content". It was just another attempt, like many before it, to inspire people to record, produce, and publish videos. It's a drum I've been beating for many years, and have often wondered if anyone is listening. I'm confident enough in my predictions to never be too concerned. But at times it would be nice to hear from people who have been inspired to test out my theories... Read Full Article The post Top 5 Corporate Training Blog Posts from November appeared first on Litmos.

It's December. And that means it's time to start shopping for your favorite corporate training professional. Or perhaps you're going to treat yourself to something special as part of your personal development. Or maybe you just need lists to help you organize the things you need. In any case, this series of posts will give you a list of items to think about...even after the holidays. In this first post I've listed a few books you should own and/or gift to your favorite corporate trainer. Books The New Social Learning by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner Amazon link Corporate training professionals continue to struggle with social media and what it means for training and learning. Your organization may be experimenting with enterprise social media, or maybe just holding a "wait and see" attitude. Either way, social media is impacting every industry and organization. And it will soon be impacting yours. The New Social Learning will help you organize the ever growing world of social media and how you can leverage it in your training strategies. Marcia is one of the most experienced, and well connected, in this space. This one book will no doubt positively impact your 2016 strategy, your thoughts about training/learning, and your career. The Gamification of Learning and Instruction by Karl Kapp Amazon link Gamification is one of the most misunderstood terms in our business. If you really want to educate yourself on the topic there is no greater source book than this. Dr. Kapp turns out some of the best graduates in eLearning development that I've ever met. His program is all about the reality of the corporate training business. And students graduate having already worked on projects with real world clients. So, Karl has seen first hand what works, and what doesn't. And more importantly why they work, or not.  The book covers everything you need to know. And despite being a large text book, it's quite approachable. A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster Amazon link What is fun? If you've ever asked yourself that question, then you need to read this book. There are many insights in this book related to corporate training work. In some cases you need to think about it a little harder. But trust me, the insights are everywhere. If you are looking for more gamification, you won't find it here. This is more about design and the deep reasoning behind why some things are fun and others are not. slide:0logy and/or Resonate by Nancy Duarte slide:ology on Amazon and Resonate on Amazon Nancy's work is beyond fabulous. As a corporate trainer you may never have her creative design sensibilities, but by following just a few simple tricks you sure can look like it. The eLearning industry has been bashing Powerpoint for many years. So much so, that I often feel sorry for the tool. It's not Powerpoint's fault. Nancy doesn't focus on the tool. Her focus is on the message you are trying to deliver and how slides can support that story...in ways that don't look like your typical Powerpoint slide deck. And if you're a training manager with some left over budget, you should consider buying multiple copies and giving them to your SMEs. You're helping them as well as yourself. The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle Amazon link I've selected this book because I'm a believer in meeting our learners in the middle. The legacy for our industry is in thinking we know what's best for the learner. And for the most part that was necessary 40 years ago. Today control has mostly shifted from us to them. So in order to be better at what we do, we should understand how individuals are becoming better on their own. And figure out how to supplement that. This is great little book with many nuggets and makes a great stocking stuffer.   And I'll throw in an extra book that may not be about corporate training, but IS about experiencing, and learning, something new. And how a subject matter expert with no training experience gets the job done. And I've discovered over the years that some of my favorite peers enjoy wine, whiskey, and whisky. The Essential Scratch n Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert by Richard Betts Amazon link I was recently introduced to Richard Betts while listening to him on the Tim Ferris podcast. He has a fascinating story to tell about his journey in becoming a master sommelier.  By the way, there are less than 200 hundred master sommeliers in the world. I will go into more detail about sommelier connections to training in another post. And yes, there are a LOT of connections to training/learning to be gleaned from this. For this post I will focus on the book. In this book Richard has taken on the giant task of making wine accessible to the masses. And in a time where, especially in the U.S., wine is considered a luxury he speaks of wine being a grocery. "A table isn't set until the wine is set". It is often our responsibility as training professionals to take complicated information and make it accessible to large, and varied, audiences. This book is a perfect example of a subject matter expert taking on the task of innovating the process of learning about wine. And if you're more into hard liquor you'll be happy to know that he has done the same for whiskey with The Essential Scratch n Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whisky Know-it-all. The post Christmas Wish List for Corporate Training Professionals - Part 1 Books appeared first on Litmos.

Yesterday I shared a list of books that might interest the trainer in your life. Today's list was inspired by Brian Washburn's post from yesterday. He reminded me of all the little things that come in handy as a training professional... even as a tech-savvy 21st century training professional. As a Boy Scout I've always remember to "Be Prepared". And so, this list is all of those little things that you may not need all the time but they sure come in handy when the need arrises. Presentation Remote Control My favorite is the Logitech Wireless Presenter R400. It's under $40 with all the basics, and not too many bells and whistles. I've actually owned many of these as they have a tendency to disappear at events. So maybe buy 2 if you can. Proper Dongles Most events will an IT staff armed with all the proper tech to get your laptop connected to the display. However, that's not always the case. And quite frankly it's not their job to make sure you're presentation goes off without a hitch. It's yours. So invest in just about every type of converter your device requires. Many laptops these days do not have RGB connections on them any more. Newer smaller connections types have replaced them, but you will still find older projectors that require the RGB connection. Mac laptops have the MiniDisplay Port or Thunderbolt connection. Your basic kit should include the ability to connect via RGB and HDMI connections. RGB connectors will get you into most projector setups. And HDMI is great if you end up in a conference room with only a big TV. I have not tested this but it will connect your MiniDisplay Port to HDMI/DVI/RGB all in one connecter. Flipchart Markers And what's a good training session without the ceremonial sniffing of the markers? Brian recommends the Mr. Sketch markers... as do I. I'm also a big fan of Sharpies but disappointed in their lack of scent. But other than that I really like the Chisel Tip 8-pack. Markers come in handy for just about anything that requires writing in a classroom environment for all to see. Post-it Notes Post-it notes should be standard for anyone's working gear bag. They are great for so many different classroom activities. You can stick them on walls, whiteboards, projector screens, tables, and so much more.  They can also function as participant name plates in a pinch. The standard 3"x3" post-it notes work great. Scissors (or pocket knife) Brian recommends a pair of scissors which probably travel better through airport security. But I prefer a good old fashioned pocket knife. Swiss army knives have always seemed over priced to me, so really anything similar will do.  Since you'll probably be handing them over to security quite often, cheaper is better. However, while this does not fall under my category of cheap, this multi-purpose tool will keep you prepared for just about anything. Pen Mini Screw Driver Tool Probably not something everyone will understand. But these things are the handiest little gadgets in your kit. Especially if you're the geeky type of trainer that enjoys being able to fix things on the spot. Sure you could just call the local facilities guy, but what fun would that be. Get in there and fix it yourself. The Trainer's Gear Bag Do you have one? Of course you do. You need something to hold your laptop anyways so you might as well get a bag that can handle your supplies as well. But this item is hard to pick out one to recommend. Some people prefer one with wheels. Others prefer backpack style or messenger style. I've seen many many bags online that look great, but I've always just stuck with my favorite bbp brand. I have an old version of the bbq Hamptons Hybrid and it's still solid. I love how it can convert from backpack style to messenger style so easily. What's in your Trainer's Emergency Kit? What have I left out? Let me know @Litmos. The post Christmas Wish List for Training Professionals: Part 2 - Trainer's Emergency Kit appeared first on Litmos.

Welcome to part 3 of the Christmas Wish List Series. Today's list is all about audio/video recording gear. WAIT! Before you click away click away thinking you've "got people who do that", hear me out. Even if you are manager, or director, or training/eLearning, there are a few things you should know. We are in a transition stage with eLearning where video is not just "part of the eLearning course". Video is becoming part of everything. If your first thought, when reading the title of this post, was of a professional video crew hired to produce your latest training video, then you are limiting then possibilities of your training organization. There is so much more going on with video. There is mobile recording/editing, and live video streaming, and so much more. In the very near future you will be utilizing video in some fashion every single day at your job. I don't expect any training department to have the budget to support professional video crews for that. At the very least, you should be equipped to make yourself look and sound terrific when using video. Lighting There are many techniques to getting your lighting right. I will not go into those here. Depending on your location additional lighting is not always necessary. But it's always nice to have them on hand in a pinch. The best deal I've found is this starter kit by LimoStudio for under $50. It may seem strange as a gift, but you may have someone on your list who would really appreciate it. I'd also recommend small LED lights that can placed on a mini tripod near your laptop during webinars, or live streaming events. These can be tossed in your emergency trainer's kit as well, and taken on the road with you. Because you will find yourself live streaming from hotel rooms with horrible lighting. I like the Godox LED64 but you will need to pick up a mini tripod as well. Or you could try out a table top studio kit from LimoStudio. These were meant for lighting small items for product photography, I'm guessing they'd work just as well for lighting up a face on a webcam. Webcam I've always had fantastic results from my Logitech C910, but I would highly recommend upgrading to the Logitech C920. They have great image quality and the microphone is impressive for a webcam. You may already be using your laptop's builtin camera. But you will be much happier with how you look and sound upgrading to a quality webcam. If for no other reason than giving you more angle options to position the camera. They also handle low light situations more effectively than your builtin camera. But you should have that taken care of anyways with proper lighting gear. Camera and Supporting Gear This is a tough category to pick products in because there are so many to choose from. And the biggest point I'd like to make is that in many situations its better to have a cheap $100 point and shoot recording video than nothing at all. Mobile Phone Holders If you have a mobile device you can find many inexpensive tripods with phone holders like this one. These come in handy when using the latest mobile streaming apps like blab.im, Periscope, Meerkat, or others. These are nice to have even if you are just viewing and not participating. And they make great stocking stuffers. Filmmaker Bundle If you start to get serious about your video production, or you just have some money to burn, then consider a filmmaker bundle like this one from Canon. This is the camera that popular vloggers are currently using. The Rode microphone increases your audio quality significantly. So even if you already have your main camera rig then I would suggest asking for a Rode mic this Christmas. I use the Rode VideoMic Pro. And it works great connected to my iPhone as well. Tripods I like to recommend the items that are both inexpensive (relatively speaking) and useful. I currently have 3 different tripods in my kit. A mini tripod, a flexible medium sized tripod, and standard camera style tripod. I've already linked to a mini tripod above as well as the flexible tripod. Here I'd like to point out the standard tripod. For a little over $20 you might think this is a bad deal. But honestly, I love this 60" lightweight tripod by AmazonBasics. It's light weight, and has everything you want in a tripod. If you've got a little more room in your budget, I saw a very cool tripod at my local Apple store. It was very similar to this travel tripod for $100. The only bad thing about the $20 tripod is that it won't fit in my carryon bag or backpack. So, I'm definitely in the market for something in the travel tripod category as well. Memory Cards What can I say about these little guys other than you just can't have enough of them. They would make great stocking stuffers for anyone. Who doesn't use these? I'm talking about SD Cards. There used to be many different types of memory cards, but I think the market has finally settle on SD Cards as a standard. Most cars today even have SD card slots. Amazon always has great deals on them. I'm not particular about brand. I've never had an issue with any of the cards I've purchased. For video work I would recommend the 64gb SD Cards. Batteries You can never have enough juice for your tech gear. And cameras are no different. Always pay a little extra for a second or third battery. They will save you in times of need, or make you a hero offering it up to a friend in need. But batteries are not quite as standard as SD Cards, so make sure you know the brand and type you are looking for or requesting on your wish list. Microphones I've already mentioned the Rode VideoMic Pro, but you may also want a clip on mic. The Rode smartlav+ is a great choice for enhancing your mobile phone video audio. Rode also carries a wireless version but it's $400. I think that's a little overkill for a trainer's gear bag. But if you've got the budget, go for it. As I've done in the past 2 posts, I'll ask you for your list items. What did I miss? What's your favorite gear? Let me know @Litmos. The post Christmas Wish List for Training Professionals: Part 3 - Video Recording Gear appeared first on Litmos.

This is the last post in my Christmas gift series. Today's list is my favorite. It's time to list some of the fun software apps that make our jobs excellent! But first, let's recap the first 3 posts: Part 1 - Books - Most of the books in this list were not training books. And I'd like to add one more: Informal Learning by Jay Cross. Part 2 - Trainer's Emergency Tool Kit - This post was inspired by Brian Washburn but I'll be honest and say that his list on this topic is much better than mine. Part 3 - Video Recording Gear - I know you don't think video is something YOU need to concern yourself with because you have "other people" do that for you. But I hope you'll reconsider and at least equip yourself with the basics. And so today we list a few software apps that should make the list of every serious training professional. Even if you refuse to move to eLearning, much of this software can been used to create content for your ILT events as well. I've decided to keep this list confined to media creation software. In my experience this is where ideas are turned into reality...something tangible for your learners. Authoring tools are great for organizing the media and adding interactivity, but you can't do anything with an authoring tool until you have created some media content. And the same holds true for LMSs. They can't deliver anything until the media is created. So with that said, I give you my list of software for your favorite training professional. Snagit and Camtasia - Everyone in the training world recognizes these TechSmith apps as standard issue. If you are doing training work and don't have these, then don't hold out until Christmas. Just buy them now. You won't regret it. Screenflow - Recording software tutorials is something every trainer should know how to do. At some point in your career you will most likely need this skill. Screen flow is a popular favorite for the Apple crowd. Many how-to YouTubers use the app and even make money from their tutorials. It's $99 and well worth it. Photoshop or Pixelmator - If you know of training professional who is also interested in photography then Photoshop is great. Personally, the cost of Photoshop just became too much for me to justify the expense. I've opted for other tools for image editing like Pixelmator for the Mac. It's fabulous! And much cheaper than Photoshop. FinalCut Pro - This is the standard in video editing on the Mac. You can do a lot in iMovie, but FinalCut will take your video editing to a completely new level. It's $299, which makes it a great item for your Christmas wish list. Maybe your manager will surprise you with the app and a fully decked out Mac to run it. Hey, you can dream right? Scrivener - This is not a tool for the faint of heart. It functions a little differently than other software you may be used too. But once you get the hang of it, you fall in love. As many of my peers know, I'm horrible at writing "long form" content. And honestly, Scrivener was designed mostly for screen writers, authors, etc. Masters of long form. However, it's also quite fabulous for organizing short form blog posts as well. And other shorter content. I even found a template for writing comic scripts. If you've ever dreamed of becoming a writer or know someone who does, then gifting this app is a good bet. Audible - Buy your favorite training professional the gift of books...audio books. It's a subscription service but buying someone a year's worth of Audible would make a great gift. Free Apps Audacity, Handbrake...wait... what am I thinking. Just check out Jane Hart's Top 100 Tools for Learning. I hope you've enjoyed this week's lists. Let me know how your shopping goes, and if you've gifted any of these items this year. @Litmos   The post Christmas Wish List for Training Professionals: Part 4 - Software appeared first on Litmos.