Written by Chris Osborn   Today's Q&A Thursday discusses how to introduce social leadership into your organization.     Stay Up-to-Date on the Most Current Business Training Trends BizLibrary offers 6,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   7 HR Law Training Topics for New Managers (and Experienced Ones Too!) This complimentary eBook discusses 7 key employment laws that all managers should know in order to prevent inviting legal liability. BizLibrary's Mobile Learning App meets the needs of today's digital learners. Employees no longer wait for training departments to push learning content to them. Employees are used to pulling information to themselves, when they need it, on their own terms and conditions, and on their own devices. - See more at: /technology/bizmobile.aspx#sthash.umjsk4e5.dpuf Video Transcription Hi Chris Osborn VP of Marketing with BizLIbrary with today's Q&A. It comes from Tori and she's an HR manager at a professional services firm and she wants to know how can she introduce social leadership to her organization. We talked about the model social leadership in a webinar about leadership and leadership models about a week or so ago and Tori's organization is using a very hierarchical traditional leadership model and it's just not preparing their organization for success in the future so she's asking a very good question. And think about it this way: Peter Drucker had a agreat quote about leadership. He said that management is doing things right and leadership is doing the right things. So ask yourself a couple of questions:in this marketplace, what are the right things that we need our leaders to do to address this volatile uncertain complex market. What do we need our leaders to do, what are the right things to address the changing demographics on our workforce, to lead a generation of employees that are Millenials that have grown up continually wired. We need leaders who're connected the same way to their employees, who are comfortable using social technology tools, who are relentlessly curious, who are continuous learners, who share information readily and easily with their employees and who find information quickly and make it available to other people. So, you have social leaders in your workforce right now. The trick is to identify them and model their behaviors across your organization and you're going to be able to build that social leadership model from within at a grassroots level and be able to drive business results and that's how you're going to introduce social leadership to your organization.

I’m happy to be part of this amazing Publishing Revolution. I hope you are too. What’s your favorite stat? via How Much Data Is Created Every Minute? [INFOGRAPHIC].

by Jennie Ruby    How can you use your voiceover script to keep the learner's attention within an eLearning lesson? Here are the two most important factors: Make it proportional and make it conversational. Make the Voiceover Proportional to the Action In a recent informal test at a conference for instructional designers, the audience started waving and yelling "Stop! Stop!" after less than two sentences of voiceover text was read for one PowerPoint slide. Now granted, that second sentence was a doozy, weighing in at more than 47 words, but still. Two sentences? How short is our typical learner's attention span these days, after all? Probably much shorter than you think.  The learners we address with our eLearning projects are bombarded with information, often in the form of movies, videos, and television. Scenes change in modern movies approximately every minute and a half. But in a movie, even during that short time, something is continually moving on the screen. On many kinds of eLearning products, there may be nothing moving at all, as a still slide rests on the screen or a still screenshot sits waiting for the next interaction. So with absolutely no motion on screen, how long can the audio drone on? At the conference, the elapsed time was less than 12 seconds before the audience became impatient. To some extent, the type of lesson will determine how much voiceover is proportional to each action. On a software demo video, a lack of action for as little as 7 seconds can have the learner shaking the mouse to see if the video is still running-even if the audio voiceover is continuing. During compliance training, on the other hand, the learner may expect relatively longer voiceover descriptions and recitations of rules. But that doesn't mean learners will like it. Consider aiming to have something move on the screen, illustrate the point, or change in some way about every two sentences. You can achieve the right proportions by either adding visual elements or shortening the voiceover script. Use Plain Language and a Conversational Writing Style The writing style of your voiceover text will greatly affect how "listenable" it is. Long, academic-sounding, repetitive sentences will have your learner eager to move on quicker than short, plain-language sentences. Test yourself: try reading each of the following paragraphs. Which one makes you want to stop reading sooner? Example A: The capability for the creation of user-defined functions has been instituted with the current version. This capability is not entirely new but was previously available via pass-through to and from a custom module, which is a function of most programming languages. However, these modules did not allow this functionality to be embedded directly within another function, and this inherent limitation was a source of frustration to users. Example B. In previous versions of the program, you could create a custom function, but only within an entire custom module. Now, you can embed your own custom functions directly inside another function. This means there are now countless ways you can use custom functions within your own applications. With little change in the technical terminology and content, Example B will seem easier to focus on for most learners. The best writing style for a voiceover uses shorter sentences, addresses the learner directly, uses plain language when possible, and uses active rather than passive voice. Instead of "The capability for the creation of user-defined functions has been instituted..." Try this: "Now, you can create your own user-defined functions." Instead of "This was previously available via pass-through..." Try this: "Before, you had to pass your custom functions through a..." Instead of "These modules did not allow this functionality" Try this: "You can now do x" Remember that the voiceover for a lesson is written for a voice. Make that voice conversational rather than academic in style. Make it proportional to the amount of action on screen and you'll keep your learners clicking painlessly through the lesson while remaining focused. *** If you love Jennie's grammar articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

Stewart Mader points us to Sarah Denman's look at the four groups most likely to be involved in a wiki or other enterprise 2.0 implementations. The list is:IT HR - and no it doesn't include learning or training - it's more the compliance side of HR.BusinessExecutivesObviously, I'm posting because most people reading this will say that learning or training is missing from this list. The responses to Lead the Charge suggested that we should be leading this, but we don't seem to be even involved.From Masie's recent social learning survey it appears that there is a lot of adoption by learning professionals. Do you use any of the following technologies in your organization? Choose all that apply Technologies Used Percent % Corporate Collaboration Portal (eg. Sharepoint) 57% Peer Coaching/Teaching 52% Media sharing (images, videos) 48% Collaborative Spaces - Wikis 47% Blogs 45% Learning Systems for Social Learning (LMS/LCMS) 42% Social Networks 41% Employee Profiles 33% Content Ratings and Reviews 13% Twitter and Mobile Content 12%So I'm not 100% sure I get the disconnect. Why are we not seen as a player when it comes to Wiki or Enterprise 2.0 ownership? How come Stewart and Sarah left us out? eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

CLICK HEREThe webinar starts 10.30 am (Kuala Lumpur time) on November 4 (Tuesday), but if you are joining from North/South America it will take place interestingly on November 3 (Monday) during the evening. So, to avoid any hiccups, please use the time zone converter.CLICK HERE to check your time using the Time Zone Converter :) ONLINE TALKLooking forward to team up with 'Dr. Nellie Deutsch' again (3rd time!) to explore the wonders of 'Speed Reading' (and beyond) during the Moodle MOOC 5 (MM5) course. Please join this free webinar! No login required! DESCRIPTIONWouldn’t it be cool if you could read a 200-page book in 20 minutes? The presenter will explore the art of speed-reading and how it can be done in an online and offline reading environment using various tools. Speed reading (with comprehension) is increasingly becoming a vital skill to master in today’s disruptive world of information overload.SLIDESHere we go: Learning How to Speed Read in an Information Overloaded World from Zaid AlsagoffRECORDING Interestingly, if you learn how to speed read, you will have more time to do whatever you want :)

by Kevin Siegel    I'm continuing to enjoy developing eLearning using the new Adobe Captivate 8. And the more I use this updated version, the more I find subtle improvements and new features. Take video demos for instance. I use the video demo recording mode frequently (it's the mode I use for the videos I upload to YouTube). While recording a recent video, I noticed a new tab on the Video Effects Inspector: Popup. It just so happened that I had recorded a video and had inadvertently captured a yellow tooltip (shown in the image below). I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to test the Cleanup button on the Popup tab. On the Timeline, I positioned the playhead at the part of the video where the popup first appeared. On the Video Effects Inspector, I selected the Popup taband clicked the Cleanup button.On the slide, I drew a rectangle around the popup.    Note: When you try this at home, don't worry if your rectangle doesn't completely cover the popup. If your rectangle is too large or small at first, you can resize it using the resizing handles at any time. You can also drag the rectangle via its borders to move it to a different location on the video.   Once I drew the popup area on the video, a Popup object was added to the Timeline. I stretched the right edge of the Popup object to the amount of time I wanted it to remain onscreen on the slide; then I clicked the word Cleanup on the video.        And just like that, the area within the popup rectangle I drew was removed from the video.     *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

Ever-changing Landscape No matter what industry you’re in, things are changing fast. New technologies and products hit the market faster than ever before. With this shift towards rapid development and product introduction, the importance of developers and programmers is becoming increasingly clear. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for web developers will increase 20% by 2022. In today’s market, agile software development has become the new normal. Agile development is characterized by rapid delivery of useful software. Team members must be prepared to participate in every aspect of the software development life cycle, from gathering requirements to implementing features and delivering a fully functional product. While teams may benefit from high degrees of specialization, many developers find themselves becoming generalists, with the ability to move from back-end languages such as Java and C# to front-end development in HTML, CSS, and Javascript as well as User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) roles. With the advent of the internet age has come a plethora of different development ideologies, techniques, and languages. What is currently a hot trend could easily fall out of favor as end-users search for the fastest applications that deliver the best content. When the largest portion of internet users transitioned to mobile devices, multimedia heavy websites that were incompatible with Android and iOS were the first to fall by the wayside. Developers who had spent years honing their skills in Flash were suddenly left behind. The proprietary scripting language used for these websites, Actionscript, was no longer a highly desirable skill. Java-based applications that ran flawlessly on mobile devices soon found themselves to be the new king.  HTML5 is quickly becoming the new contender for king of flexible content delivery. Ever Changing Opportunity Web development is a career path that will find a person constantly learning. If a developer does not keep up with the latest and greatest tools for content delivery, then they will quickly find their career options limited. Lifelong learning is the key to maintaining a staff of capable, flexible developers. Is your organization prepared to meet the demand for agile developers? Do you have a training program in place that will allow your development staff to grow to their full potential? Short form training video offers the opportunity for your developers to train at their own pace, with material that engages and demonstrates core concepts in easily digestible courses that are shown to improve learning retention over longer format courses.

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Do you want to know how Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are blending and Flipping learning?Here we go: Blended & Flipped Learning: Case Studies in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions from Mohamed Amin Embi The International Medical University (IMU) also contributed a Chapter (Chapter 15: Page 255 - 274) exploring how large lectures are being flipped.Have fun discovering how Malaysian HEIs are transforming their learning and teaching using various tools and methods to spice up students learning experiences :) 

Interesting post by Jane Bozarth - The Myth of "Best Practices". A "best practice" is best only in the precise, specific context in which it exists. … What works in my marriage won't necessarily work in -- and may even damage -- yours. Even if moved from one situation to another very close one, the odds of transfer being made with practice intact is nil. How do we address those who pressure us to produce a list of, or abide by, "best" practices? The comments are also interesting but focus primarily on the word "best" vs. "leading" or "better" … overall the suggestion was to be very careful about assuming because something works in one situation it will work in others. So, the first thing I did was to quickly search my blog for any mention of "best practice" - whew, I don't use the term much.  Dodged that bullet. :) Patterns and Knowledge Work I understand the concern that when you share best practices, you may come out with very different results.  That said, I also understand exactly why people ask for "best practices" and why our organizations ask us to help "share best practices".   In Rethinking Knowledge Work, Kirby Wright describes Gary Klein's model of decision making: Studies of health workers, executives, military, firefighters, pilots and others have found that sense making, pattern recognition and mental models are essential components of decision making. As an individual encounters a situation he/she makes sense of the issue. Making sense generates cues and allows one to recognize patterns, both in the nature of the problem and response. Through pattern recognition, the problem solver identifies actions to address the issue. As one begins to act, they are also assessing, in real time, the potential impact of their actions. In particular, highly skilled workers demonstrate the ability to reflect-inaction (Schön, 1987), to conduct mental simulations as a way of imagining possible outcomes. As problem solvers do this, they adjust their actions on-the-fly. This really rings true to me. And this suggests that there is big value in providing knowledge workers with ways to assess a situation, to find the cues which link to possible approaches and actions.  I think that we all somewhat inherently know this.  It's why it's so great to go to sessions where you hear what other people have done when faced with similar situations. Patterns Defined While Klein uses the term "pattern", there is another definition of Patterns (or Design Patterns) which is a great example of the kind of information that we can produce which is valuable and maybe is not a "best practice" but is close.  From the above definition, a Design Pattern is defined by: Pattern Name and Classification: A descriptive and unique name that helps in identifying and referring to the pattern. Intent: A description of the goal behind the pattern and the reason for using it. Also Known As: Other names for the pattern. Motivation (Forces): A scenario consisting of a problem and a context in which this pattern can be used. Applicability: Situations in which this pattern is usable; the context for the pattern. Structure: A graphical representation of the pattern. Participants: A listing of the classes and objects used in the pattern and their roles in the design. Collaboration: A description of how classes and objects used in the pattern interact with each other. Consequences: A description of the results, side effects, and trade offs caused by using the pattern. Implementation: A description of an implementation of the pattern; the solution part of the pattern. Sample Code: An illustration of how the pattern can be used in a programming language Known Uses: Examples of real usages of the pattern. Related Patterns: Other patterns that have some relationship with the pattern; discussion of the differences between the pattern and similar patterns. I often use less formal patterns and you can see examples of patterns in Using SharePoint or at the WikiPatterns site.  But the goal of these definitions is similar.  Look across examples of practices and abstract out the common structure of solutions.  Define where it might apply and what it is. Going back to the "myth of best practices" … yes you still need to evaluate if this pattern will work for you, figure out how you might need to modify it.  But what's the alternative - start from scratch each time?  I don't think that's what is really meant, but I would claim that: Patterns are extremely high value and we should look to produce patterns whenever we can. Better Patterns Taking this even further, in Data Driven (one of the few posts that uses the term "best practice") I talk about a model where we take data (e.g., customer satisfaction data) and provide knowledge workers (e.g., store managers) with specific possible actions that they can take to try to improve.  We allow them to modify how they will apply these actions as we know that it often is best to have it modified to better fit the store.  We also allow them to use alternatives. This is something that certainly would be called sharing best practices in many organizations.  I guess we could also say that it is Patterns that we have identified and we have tied them to specific situations based on metrics. We have the added benefit in this case to measure the impact of applying these patterns to determine the impact.  This means that we are able to determine better and worse performing patterns.  While the organization involved used the term "best practice", I can understand an argument for not using that term.  But, I do think that finding, distributing and helping to apply better patterns is an incredibly effective approach to performance improvement. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Jennie Ruby    You can interrupt a sentence four different ways--with dashes, parentheses, commas, or no punctuation at all. Dashes actually emphasize the interruption, like this: One of the best things about the previous two versions--the versions before the company was taken over by XYX, Inc.--was the user interface. Parentheses de-emphasize the interruption: The correspondence between the codes (see Table 2) is nearly one-to-one. Commas indicate an interruption that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence:  The new interface, we all agree, is much easier to use. Interruptions with no punctuation are essential to the meaning of the sentence: The function that has been changed the most is the video editor. Challenge Give a try to punctuating the interruptions in the sentences below.  When ready, post your answers as comments. It is very tedious in my opinion to type on a flat screen. The blog even after the extensive upgrade we purchased last quarter was still slow to load on mobile devices. The most widely accessible option according to the magazine is still the print version. The company that provides the fastest downloads is still XYZ. Norman who arrived at the classroom before the computers were turned on noticed the change in temperature right away. A more extended listing (see Appendix B) has been compiled by XYZ Press. *** If you love Jennie's grammar articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

Written by Jessica Batz View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording. 5 Ways to Build a Better Leadership Development Program - Webinar 05.14.14 from BizLibrary

While I was tracking the #mLearnCon hashtag on Twitter last week, I saw this tweet from Jay, whom I believe was attending Lasher’s session. I really liked the tweet and immediately ReTweeted it: Ask how your audience is using mobile devices, then design for them ~ Lasher #mLearnCon — Jay Lambert (@LambertJay) June 21, 2012 I thought about it for some time and decided to write this blog post. The thing is, most people are asking the wrong questions regarding what people really want out of mobile learning, including eLearning tools vendors. I think the reason why eLearning tools vendors are rushing to market with a "one size fits all" solution for eLearning and mLearning, where the tools are simply converting existing desktop eLearning to HTML5, is because when they asked their customers what they wanted next in their software, for the most part what they heard was "I just want to have my learners access my stuff on the iPad." There are many flaws with this approach, for one thing having an iPad-only strategy isn’t really having a mobile strategy, what about smaller screens such as the iPhone where invariably mobile users will end up doing a lot of pinching and zooming to find their way around the content, that is of course if they can even render the learning at all on the smallers screens. In fact, I’m not even sure the customer even articulated the answer correctly when asked, and thus the way the so called "mLearning feature" is being implemented in the latest version of eLearning applications. Perhaps what the customer really meant to say was that yes, they want their learners on mobile to be able to access the learning, but in a way that makes sense on the iPad, and also in a way that makes sense on the iPhone, and on the Kindle Fire, and on the Motorola Xoom, Droid, etc. In other words, One Size does Not Fit All. My point is that all of us in Learning Design, who are starting to design for multiple screens, need to be asking the right questions and the one question in the tweet above is a great question to ask. Other questions like what are you favorite mobile apps and why, are important too, because the answers will reveal so much about how mobile is different from desktop, and will provide us with lots of great information we can use in order to design for mobile. Of course there’s nothing like being a mobile user yourself, and see what you like and dislike about the whole experience. When asked what is the first thing I recommend eLearning Pros do, who are starting to look at mLearning, I always say get immersed in mobile yourself. Get a Tablet if you don’t have one, download apps and see what you like and dislike about them; don’t stop there, the Tablet is just one mobile device, get a smartphone, I say, and see what the experience is like on the much smaller screen. Only by becoming a mobile user yourself can you truly understand what the experience is like and begin thinking about how to deliver powerful mobile learning experiences. Oh and don’t forget to surprise your mobile learners, too. One of my favorite lessons from Steve Jobs was that Apple didn’t do much in the way of Focus Groups in order to figure out what their next products would be. Steve believed that most people didn’t even know they needed something until Apple invented it and then wondered how they ever got along without it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. What are your thoughts? Chime in and ReTweet it so other can do the same.

MISSIONLooking forward to visit Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) for the first time. I will be giving a talk (25 Nov) and a workshop (26 Nov) during my visit, and Insya-Allah these events and other accidental connections/conversations with educators there will be beneficial for UNIMAS.Also, I am pretty sure I will learn a lot from UNIMAS as I discover it and its' people. For example, did you know that UNIMAS launched its first MOOC earlier this year entitled:  ICT Competency. Now you do!HI!If you are attending my talk or workshop at UNIMAS, please add yourself to this Padlet Wall (direct link) by double tapping or clicking on it (no login required). If you could add your name, picture (optional) and what you think is the ingredients for empowering great student learning experiences (in a sentence or two), would simply be awesome. Thanks!Created with PadletTALK‘DNA of a 21st Century Educator’ (25 Nov)During your lifetime you have probably experienced inspirational educators, or witnessed inspiring lectures. But, what about you? Are you such an educator? If not, why not? In this interactive talk, we will explore some of the ingredients top educators in the 21st century have, and how we can learn from them to reinvent ourselves to reach our true potential as an educator. Are you up for the challenge? DNA of a 21st Century Educator at UNIMAS! from Zaid Alsagoff WORKSHOP‘Designing 21st Century Learning Experiences’ (26 Nov)In this 1-day hands-on workshop, we will explore how to design interactive and engaging student learning experiences using technology. We will actively look at how we can transform face-to-face (F2F) learning using the ‘Flipped Classroom’ and ‘Gamification’ methods.  Then we will explore how we can use social media and web 2.0 to engage students, empower collaborative online learning spaces, and development interactive content. Participants will be engaged throughout the workshop with learning activities, including the gamified group challenge during the afternoon. It will be fun, engaging, and participants will get a taste of how they can use technology to transform the students’ learning process.After this workshop, you will be able to:Discuss how the brain learns.Apply Gagne’s 9 events of instruction to design more engaging learning content and environments.Use web 2.0 tools to design and publish interactive and engaging learning content.Apply Flipped Classroom and Gamification methods to your teaching and learning.Use interactive web tools to engage and assess students during face-to-face learning sessions.Use Social Media to interact and empower students to collaborate online.Key resources:150+ Awesome Learning ToolsBest Quick Reference Guides to Web 2.0Bloom’s Digital Taxonomies!Blended & Flipped Learning: Case Studies in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions Designing 21st Century Learning Experiences from Zaid Alsagoff ACTIVITYGroup Challenge:Interactive Web Tools (recommended):PadletPoll EverywhereKahootSocrativeContent Development Tools (recommended):PowToonGoAnimateExplain EverythingTouchCast VideoScribeScreenr Screencast-O-MaticEDPuzzleOffice Mix (for PowerPoint 2013)Social Learning (recommended):WhatsAppTelegramFacebookGoogle DocsBlendSpaceSchoologyTOOLSHere is a collection of 150+ awesome learning tools to spice up your learning and teaching. Please use the 'Filter (tags)' to narrow down on the type of tool you are looking for (authoring, quiz, lms, etc.). Top 100+ Learning Tools on Planet Earth!View more lists from Zaid Ali AlsagoffCan't wait!!! :)

I'm hoping you can help a reader with thoughts and likely help others of us … A medium size nonprofit and lobbying organization is working on a designing and creating a social / work network for experts, students, volunteers who are willing to help through campaigning, lobby, sharing knowledge, working on solutions (writing documents).  They currently don't have any kind of solution. Via the network people will be able to communicate with employees, organize activities, collaborate on documents, communicate with each other, etc. They are considering a variety of solutions but are willing to balance functionality vs. cost.  In other words, they could live with a lesser solution if they can save a lot of money. Document sharing and collaborative editing Custom branding / image Ability to create groups and control access to those groups Shared calendars Invite other people into the network Moderation of content Exports (users, content) Some questions: What do you call this kind of solution? Given this high level description, what would some initial questions/criteria that might differentiate what solutions to consider? What do you think some of the safer choices would be in terms of solutions, i.e., who will have the biggest market share in the future? What tools might be on your short list for them to consider? eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Kevin Siegel    As far as I'm concerned, the hottest new feature you'll find in Adobe Captivate 8 is the ability to create responsive eLearning. As I taught you a few weeks ago, by choosing File > New > Responsive Project, you can basically create and work on multiple screen sizes (called break points) in one project. When you publish the responsive project, the learner will automatically be served the break point appropriate for the device they're using.   If you've spent any time creating Responsive Projects, you've probably noticed that there are three breakpoints in the project by default: Primary (set to a width of 1024 pixels), Tablet (set to a width of 768 pixels), and Mobile (set to a width of 360 pixels). The default breakpoints are based on typical sizes of a laptop (Primary), iPad (Tablet), and iPhone (Mobile). However, you can easily adjust the size of the breakpoints.    To begin, open the CloudAir_SoftSkills Sample.cptx sample project that ships with Captivate 8. (On the right side of the Captivate 8 Welcome screen, click the Sample Projects/Tutorials icon.)       The project is responsive. Notice the colored ribbon at the top of the canvas; this is a breakpoint within Captivate (a breakpoint is the point at which the layout changes size to accommodate a different screen size).     To change the width of a layout, select one of the three breakpoints and drag either slide to change the width.     See, I told you it was easy. Now for the height.    The option to adjust a layout's height is disabled by default so that you don't accidentally change it. Each layout's default height provides space for Captivate's playbar. If you are not going to use a playbar in the published lesson, you should adjust the height accordingly.   To begin, it's a good idea to change your magnification to 75% (View > Magnification). If you are too close to the canvas, you will not be able to see the new height you are about to set. I've found that 75% is almost always the perfect magnification for me, but you may need to fiddle around a bit to find the prefect magnification for your display.   In the upper right of the canvas, select View Device Height.        From the bottom of the canvas, drag the Height Adjuster (the yellow rectangle in the image below) up or down to change the device Height.     Note: The shortest you can make any device is 100 pixels; the tallest you can make any device is 1,000 pixels. *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.

First, I would thank Mobile Learning Association of Malaysia (MLAM) and Prof Mohamed Amin Embi for inviting me to facilitate the 4th Specialized Workshop on Ubiquitous Learning entitled 'Designing 21st Century Learning Experiences' at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) on 29th November 2014.Yes, I did facilitate a workshop with the same title at UNIMAS on 26th November. Flavor of the month :)HI!If you are attending this workshop, could you please add your name, picture (optional) and what you think is the ingredients for empowering engaging and effective student learning experiences (in a sentence or two) to the Padlet wall below (Direct link). That would simply be awesome! Thanks! Created with PadletWORKSHOPIn this 1-day hands-on workshop, we will explore how to design interactive and engaging student learning experiences using technology. We will actively look at how we can transform face-to-face (F2F) learning using the ‘Flipped Classroom’ and ‘Gamification’ methods.  Then we will explore how we can use social media and web 2.0 to engage students, empower collaborative online learning spaces, and development interactive content. Participants will be engaged throughout the workshop with learning activities, including the gamified group challenge during the afternoon. It will be fun, engaging, and participants will get a taste of how they can use technology to transform the students’ learning process.After this workshop, you will be able to:Discuss how the brain learns.Apply Gagne’s 9 events of instruction to design more engaging learning content and environments.Use web 2.0 tools to design and publish interactive and engaging learning content.Apply Flipped Classroom and Gamification methods to your teaching and learning.Use interactive web tools to engage and assess students during face-to-face learning sessions.Use Social Media to interact and empower students to collaborate online.Key resources:150+ Awesome Learning ToolsBest Quick Reference Guides to Web 2.0Bloom’s Digital Taxonomies!Blended & Flipped Learning: Case Studies in Malaysian Higher Education InstitutionsSLIDESHere we go:re Designing 21st Century Learning Experiences from Zaid Alsagoff CHALLENGEInteractive Web Tools (recommended):PadletPoll EverywhereKahootSocrativeContent Development Tools (recommended):PowToonGoAnimateExplain EverythingTouchCast VideoScribeQuizletScreenr Screencast-O-MaticEDPuzzleOffice Mix (for PowerPoint 2013)Social Learning (recommended):WhatsAppTelegramFacebookGoogle DocsBlendSpaceSchoologyTOOLSHere is a collection of 150+ awesome learning tools to spice up your learning and teaching. Please use the 'Filter (tags)' to narrow down on the type of tool you are looking for (authoring, quiz, LMS, etc.). Top 100+ Learning Tools on Planet Earth!View more lists from Zaid Ali AlsagoffCan't wait!!! :)

1. Apple´s World Wide Developers Conference: MacBook Pro, iOS 6 and more on its approach to a single computing experience. RJ Jacquez wrote more about Apple´s mobile story here: http://bit.ly/M2Hr3s 2. Surface by Microsoft: a new tablet. Find RJ Jacquez´s impressions here: http://bit.ly/KMwny6 3. Google I/O 2012: Google Nexus 7, Google chrome for iOS, Google Drive on the Apple´s App Store, Google+ app 4. Adobe won’t support Flash in Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 devices) 5. Adobe Captivate version 6: disappointing. Find RJ Jacquez’s first impressions here http://bit.ly/MFWVep and here http://bit.ly/MzKhiL 6. Camtasia Studio 8 by TechSmith: a must-have tool. Stay tuned for RJ’s review on rjacquez.com 7. mLearnCon 2012 highlights: Tin Can Project, Reuben Tozman´s presentation and Tapestry by Float Mobile Learning 8. Apps of the Week: Tapestry, Reflection App, Paper by Fifty-three.

by Kevin Siegel    You can create an eLearning lesson that changes dependent upon where your learners are physically located. For instance, you can create a Captivate project for learners who live in the United States or Australia. While much of the course content is relevant to both Americans and Australians, thanks to Captivate's geolocation feature, learners in both countries will see unique, location-specific, information while taking the same course. The first step to adding geolocation features to a project is creating the project as you normally would. In the example that follows, I've created a project for learners in Asia and the United States. (I created the project as a branching scenario... the first half of the project was for learners in the United States, the second half was for learners in Asia.)   Once you've created the project for both audiences, adding the geolocation features is very easy. First, choose Window > Mobile Palette to open the Mobile Palette dialog box.       Select Geolocation and then click the OK button.   Next, you'll need the Latitude and Longitude of the locations you'll use in your project. As I mentioned above, my two locations are Asia and the US. While determining Latitude and Longitude might sound difficult, I simply asked Google the following: "what is the lat and long for the united states?" The answer, rounded to whole numbers, was 38 and 77.      I repeated the same question for Asia (and ended up with aLatitude and Longitude of 48 and 86).   Now that you've got the Latitudes and Longitudes figured out, you'll need to create one variable for each location (via Project > Variables). When creating each variable, select Geolocation and you'll have access to a Lat, Long, and Accfields. The Acc value is based on how close you want the learner to be to the latitude and longitude location; it is based on meters. Think about the meters surrounding the area like a large circle. When building your course, consider starting with 1,000,000 meters, which will allow anyone within range to still be able to access the course.     The final step (besides publishing) is to create an Advanced Action (via Project > Advanced Action) and attach it to a Filmstrip slide.   Set the Action Type to Conditional actions and name the action GeoLocation.       Double-click the first column under the IF Statement, click the word variable, and select cpInfoGeoLocation.         Note: The CpInfoGeoLocation variable ships with Adobe Captivate 8.   To the right of "is equal to," click the word variable  from the drop-down, choose one of your location variables you created earlier.   Under Actions, double-click in the first column and chooseJump to Slide. From the next menu, select the slide in your project where you want your learner to end up.  I selected the Asian branch in my project (I called it Asia Scenario).        At the bottom of the dialog box, click Else. Under Actions, double-click the first column and choose Jump to Slide. In the next column, choose your other location (in my case, it was the other branch I called US Scenario). Save the action (as an Action) and then close the dialog box.    Attach the GeoLocation Advanced Action to the first slide by selecting the slide on the Filmstrip. On the Properties Inspector, select the Actions tab. From the On Enter drop-down menu, choose Execute Advanced Actions and select the GeoLocation action as the Script.       Publish your lesson and post it to your web server or LMS like you would we any Captivate eLearning lesson. When users in Asia access the lesson, the GeoLocation script will automatically display the Asian content (and vice versa for US-based learners). In a word, that's awesome! *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

Written by Chris Osborn   Today's Q&A Thursday discusses whether or not groups can serve in leadership roles.     Stay Up-to-Date on the Most Current Business Training Trends BizLibrary offers 6,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   How to Build a Business Case for Online Employee Training This complimentary eBook will help you get your online training proposal approved. It identifies the 5 key elements of a business case, discusses best practices, and includes examples to help you make your case solid. BizLibrary's Mobile Learning App meets the needs of today's digital learners. Employees no longer wait for training departments to push learning content to them. Employees are used to pulling information to themselves, when they need it, on their own terms and conditions, and on their own devices. - See more at: /technology/bizmobile.aspx#sthash.umjsk4e5.dpuf Video Transcription Hi, Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing with BizLibrary with today's Q&A. Today's question comes from Erin. She's an HR manager at a bank and she wants to know if groups can serve in leadership roles in small and mid-sized organizations, and the answer is yes! We see examples of groups serving in leadership roles in a variety of contexts and sometimes very clearly manifested in sports. I hate to use sports analogies when you talk about organizational leadership but in this circumstance I'm going to use a couple of examples. You'll frequently see really successful teams where you have older or veteran players take a group of younger players under their wing and really mentor them and tutor them and you see it in college sports and various levels of professional sports and in that circumstance rather than individuals stepping forward to lead, it truly is a group situation where they really model behavior and help impose a sense of discipline and really show the younger players how to succeed and what it takes to be successful. So yes! Absolutely! Groups can serve in leadership roles and that's true in organizations as well. And to be perfectly honest about it, I really believe we're going to see this type of leadership model emerge in more and more important ways for a whole range of reasons. If you think about what's happened in the workplace, we've seen organizations get leaner and leaner. We've seen entire layers of management eliminated from many organizations. And we're going to see flatter organizational structures, and we're going to see collaborative organizations. Not just in terms of competency, or skillset required, but collaboration in terms of an operational and team model. So collaboration skills are going to be extremely important. In other words, teams and groups, team and group dynamics, team and group leadership is going to become extremely important, meaning we're going to have to hone collaboration skills. We're going to have to teach people to work and function effectively in groups, both in terms of following and leading and teach people how to step up and contribute in a group leadership situation. And it's a great question! I think it's a leadership model that we're going to have to explore and develop in really important ways as we move forward but yes. Absolutely. Groups can step up and serve in leadership roles and it's going to be an important, and I think emerging, leadership model as we move forward.

One of the favorite quotes I used to use during presentations was Drucker - The most important contribution of management in the 21st century will be to increase knowledge-worker productivity. This is a big reason that I started Work Literacy.  I firmly believe that all management and workplace learning professionals need to be constantly looking at how we can improve the performance of knowledge workers.  This is probably THE challenge of the 21st century. But about six months ago, I started not to use this quote.  When I look at concept workers and measuring their performance, I've come to realize that "workplace productivity" is not the right term and is not exactly where we should focus. Complexity of Productivity for Knowledge Work Productivity is defined as: the ratio of the quantity and quality of units produced to the labor per unit of time For some knowledge workers, we can reasonably define things this way.  For example, in a call center environment, it is reasonable to look at handle time, customer satisfaction, total sales, etc.  These numbers can be used with a Data Driven approach to supporting performance improvement. However, when we look at concept workers, workplace productivity seems to be a fairly limiting phrase.  It seems to be equated with activity.  And Ben Franklin tells us: Never confuse motion with action. A couple of recent posts reinforced the complexity for me.  In Defining Productivity for the Knowledge Age, Jonathan Spira - The wide range of tasks that knowledge workers undertake, combined with the fact that there are different levels of knowledge workers, ranging from those with a single skill to highly skilled workers who exercise independent thought and action most of the time, makes both the task of defining productivity and developing a management science somewhat tricky, to say the least. In The Fun of Productivity Measures, Jack Vinson looks at the complexity of looking at knowledge worker productivity - It's still an open question for me as to how to turn these business-level measures into something useful for knowledge workers.  There are obvious abuses you want to prevent, but beyond "don't be stupid" and "work as quickly as possible and pass it to the next person" how do you calculate how much someone has contributed to the successful completion of Project X? I'm not quite sure what the replacement term is for workplace productivity or knowledge work productivity, but I'm that the current implication is somewhat misleading.  It also causes us to confuse activity and effectiveness. Confusing Activity and Effect One of my favorite examples of the challenge of activity and effect is from one of the people who I consider to be a guru on Knowledge Worker Effectiveness.  See Tom Davenport and Blogging - He is Wrong! for some more details, but basically in his book Thinking for a Living, Tom Davenport tells us: Perhaps the biggest problem for blogging is the time it takes to read and write blogs. If anything this tool has detracted from productivity, not increased it. ... In his blog (I guess he doesn't care about his own loss of productivity) he tells us (details in Getting Value from LinkedIn) - I’ve been on LinkedIn for several years. I never initiate a connection. I can safely say that I have gotten nothing out of the site. It's easy to look at something like blogging and fail to see how it can increase quality / quantity of output in exchange for the time involved.  Same thing is true for LinkedIn, especially if you don't know the right ways to use it.  I discussed a room full of management consultants who had the same feeling as Tom around LinkedIn (see LinkedIn for Conversations).  My guess is that someone like Tom is in a different league from most of us Knowledge Workers.  When we need help with a question, using our network is very effective (see below).  Having a well built network is very important to us. As a side note on this whole story, I had forgot that in my Thomas Davenport and Blogging from back in 2007, I mentioned meeting Bill Ives via blogging as part of that post.  Coincidently, I recently engaged with him again because of some work I'm doing around social media for businesses.  The fact that we had met through blogging and then reconnected through a LinkedIn search with virtually no activity (other than reading blog posts) in between, is a great example of what happens with these tools. I wonder if Tom has changed his opinion, but my guess is that lots of people will tell you that blogging and LinkedIn may seem like they take lots of time, but that they are critical for their workplace productivity. Workplace Effectiveness and Networks In Evaluating Performance of Concept Workers, I suggested that the way most concept workers are evaluated is by looking at signals such as: Process - They went through a reasonable process to arrive at their conclusions. Reasonable - Their conclusions are reasonable in your opinion (if you can formulate one). Compare - If you took what they did and compared it to what you would expect from other similar performers, would they have arrived at the same result. When you combine this with things like Alex Pentland - How Social Networks Work Best - A recent MIT study found that in one organization the employees with the most extensive personal digital networks were 7% more productive than their colleagues This actually does not come as much a surprise to me.  Concept workers need to reach out to people for knowledge work tasks in order to ensure they they are arriving at answers that will pass the evaluation factors above.  Thus, Leveraging Networks is Key Skill and likely is the most important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap. Knowing how to access Networks and Communities and tap into your Social Grid are keys. Concluding Thoughts It's a bit scary to me that while I consider our biggest challenges of the 21st century is improving the effectiveness of concept workers, I'm right now only able to say that there are meager methods of evaluating performance and a few (slim) known patterns for improving performance.  Certainly, this is going to be something that we will all need to be studying. I look forward to some very interesting conversations and learning about all of this. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

Looking forward to Insya-Allah giving a 40 minute (interactive) talk at the Public Sector Trainers Meet Trainers (PSTMT) Seminar held at INTAN Bukit Kiara on the 9th December, 2014. TALKIn this interactive talk, we will explore how to design interactive and engaging blended learning experiences using various methods and online tools. We will actively look at how we can transform face-to-face (F2F) learning using the ‘Flipped Classroom’ and ‘Gamification’ methods. Then we will explore various interactive web tools to engage learners and develop interactive presentations.SLIDES Designing 21st Century Blended Learning Experiences from Zaid Alsagoff Insya-Allah, I will find enough time to engage the participants using various tools, including juggling. Strangely, I am most worried about not having enough time to achieve my mission to engage the mind. When I was young, giving a 40 minute talk would seem forever. Now, it's like swoosh! That happens, when you are used to giving 1 to 2 day workshops  :)

by Tony Self   What is more effective, a print document or an online document? It wasn't all that long ago that print documents would definitely have been voted more effective, especially considering the poor quality of computer monitors and slow internet speeds. (Remember trying to pull up a document on a modem?) Given the speed of today's internet and mobile device support, print documents are likely going the way of the dinosaur. Online documents have several advantages to their print counterparts. For instance, eBooks reflow to fit the user's device (think about how popular eBook readers such as the Amazon Kindle have become in just the past few years). Online documents are searchable, typically contain hyperlinks for easy navigation, often include videos and/or animations, and some even contain interactivity in the form of eLearning simulations created in Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline. There are millions upon millions of print documents around the business world that would gain new life if they were online. The major challenge in moving from unstructured to structured documentation, or page layout to reflowing text, or paper to online, is the shift in mindset required. Simply put, many old design paradigms used for print documents don't fit in new media design. There are many reasons for converting paper documents to online documents such as cost, efficiency of updating, document control, accessibility, and discoverability. Surprisingly, for the custodians of paper documents charged with managing the conversion, there is often a reluctance to embrace the migration from print to online. For those custodians, the paper version remains the primary document, and the online version is secondary.  Even if the paper custodians agree to take the paper documents online, much time and effort is spent trying to imitate the paper design in the online design. For example, the paper documents are scanned and converted to PDF. While aPDF will work in an online world, a PDF is really just a digital replica of the paper document. While a PDF may open on a tablet or smartphone, it won't re-flow to fit the user's screen like an eBook. If you're trying to convince the "powers that be" to make the move from print documentation to an online document, consider the following: The text used in the print document may require a specific font and font size. When online content is displayed for the user, the user's device may have limited font capabilities. Even if the device is capable of displaying the font, if the user doesn't have that specific font installed on the device, the font displayed will be the browser's default. For instance, you have used Futura as the font for your content. If the user accesses your content via a web browser and does not have the Futura font on their computer, the browser will likely display Times New Roman instead. Paragraphs may need to be indented by a specific amount. While setting up a specific indentation is easy in a print layout tool such as Adobe InDesign, the user's device may have limits to how indentations are displayed. Headings may have to be sequentially numbered. While many print layout tools allow you to easily number paragraphs, those automatic numbers may not display properly online. You may be required to include footnotes. While footnotes are easy to add to print documents, they're a problem online. Since there really isn't an end to a page online, where would the footnotes go? Page numbers may no longer be valid. If your print document includes cross references (such as, "For more information, see page 11"), you could end up with a mess. If your print content is displayed as an eBook, the content that was on page 11 could now be located on page 22. If the text on the page tells the user to reference page 11, but the text is actually on page 22, you can imagine the trouble you'll have. The graphics could be huge. In the print document, high resolution photos were used. They look great on paper. However, they're so big (in megabytes, not width or height), they'll take forever to download over the Internet if you leave them as-is. To use the images, you'll need to allow time to save the images as online versions (in jpeg or png format). When you do, the images will likely lose quality. Will they still look good? If you do decide to migrate your print documents to the online world, off-the-shelf authoring tools such as Adobe RoboHelp and MadCap Flare will help make the process easy. Both tools allow you to quickly convert printed documentation (especially Word documents) into online documents. Both tools support cascading style sheets that handle fonts, colors, paragraph numbering, and indentation. And both tools allow you to create master pages complete with headers and footers. Nevertheless, there are limits to what any authoring tool can do when it comes to recreating the look and feel of a print document, so look into the limitations of each tool prior to moving forward.  What's your take on print documents as compared to online documents? Is print doomed? Which medium do you think is more effective, print or online? What tool do you use to convert from print to online? Can you share instances/examples where you think print documents are more effective than online documents? Feel free to post your opinion as comments below.