by Kevin Siegel    I was recently contacted by a client who wanted me to create software simulations of mobile apps. At first I thought he wanted me to create software simulations that could be accessed and used by mobile devices. Since I use Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate for my eLearning development, publishing projects as HTML5 would have taken care of his requirement. However, the client wasn't looking to create content that would play on mobile devices; he wanted lessons that were captured from a mobile device. Neither Captivate nor Storyline are available for mobile devices so creating software simulations directly on those devices wasn't an option. One workaround was to create screen captures of the mobile app, upload them to DropBox, and then use the images in Storyline or Captivate as backgrounds. At that point, it would be a simple matter of adding hotspots and text to the backgrounds to create interactive eLearning. Of course, going the screen capture route would have required potentially hundreds of images.I'm betting you're wondering if there's an easier way to capture software simulations of mobile apps. And there is: mirroring. There is a ridiculously easy-to-use application (Reflector) that will project (mirror) just about any mobile device onto a desktop or laptop screen. From there, Captivate or Storyline can be used to capture whatever is being done on the mobile device.Here are the steps I took to create an interactive a simulation of my iPad in Adobe Captivate:To begin, I downloaded and installed the Reflector program to my MacBook Pro. (There's a free trial of the Reflector available. Once you determine that you like it, and I'm thinking you will, you can purchase Reflector outright for a paltry $12.99. You can also purchase group licenses.)I made sure that my MacBook Pro and my iPad were on the same wireless network, then I started Reflector on my Mac.I switched to my iPad and enabled AirPlay. (While most mobile devices support AirPlay, accessing the option varies from device to device and from operating system to operating system. My iPad is using iOS8. To enable AirPlay, I swiped up from the bottom of the device to display the Control Panel. I tapped AirPlay, scrolled down, and selected my MacBook Pro. I also enabled Mirroring.) Like magic, my iPad was projected to my MacBook Pro. Anything I did on the iPad was mirrored on my laptop. The image below is my iPad's settings.And here's what the mirror image of my iPad looked like on my Mac:Any gestures, taps, or swipes I performed on my iPad were displayed at the same time on my Mac. However, any clicks I made to the mirror image displayed on my Mac had no affect on the iPad.I started Adobe Captivate and recorded a Software Simulation. During the recording process, I targeted the iPad as the Application to be recorded. When I finished recording, the result was a Captivate project just like any of the thousands of projects I've recorded over the years. I was able to add interactivity, quizzes... the works... and then publish as SWF, HTML5, or both. Pretty cool, eh?   See also: More Reflection***If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

This week's interesting finds from across the web. Curated by Jessica Petry @JessLPetry   THE OPPORTUNITY IN A CUSTOMER COMPLAINT via businesst2community.com "Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business." - Zig Ziglar   The Opportunity In A Customer Complaint image Social Media The Truth About Engagement2 Complaining Customers An Opportunity Early in my career I discovered the truth in Zig Ziglar’s quote, that handling customer complaints was actually a huge opportunity and not something to fear.   Why you should be interested? Every organization has customers. Every employee interacts with customers, whether they are internal or external. For most human resources and training professionals our customers are our employees. When our employees or customers come to us with a complaint, criticism or suggestions - it should be respected. When someone is unhappy with something and they take the time to tell you, they respect you. Listen. Think about the last time you had a bad service experience...did you say something? Probably not. You probably walked away with a bad impression of the service rep that you encountered and the business they work for. How many of our employees have left us because of bad "service"?     5 WAYS AMAZON HAS CHANGED HOW EVERYONE THINKS ABOUT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE via winthecustomer.com If you don’t like change, your going to like irrelevance even less. If you’re looking for an example of the customer experience revolution, Amazon has shown the way to innovate and dominate by putting the needs of customers first.   Making experience the heart of business strategy, Amazon has shown that customer service and customer experience really do matter and are critical to staying relevant to today’s Internet-savvy, socially connected customers.   Why you should be interested?How can you improve your customer - or employees - learning experience? How can you remove the barriers to learning and development? How can you make it simple for your employees to get what they need when they need it?   No matter what industry you’re in, things are changing fast. Our employees are more connected than ever. New technologies and products are coming to market faster than ever before. Job roles are in demand that didn’t even exist 3 or 4 years ago. Are you, as an organization, prepared to meet these new demands?  The key points outlined in this article can be great reflection questions to pose about the learning experience that you're providing your employees. If you're a BizLibrary Client - woohoo - we take the same philosophy as Amazon when it comes to development of learning technology, user experience and learning content.   4 NON-NEGOTIABLE TRAITS OF CUSTOMER FOCUSED CEOS via Michelfalcon.com To be customer focused, a CEO must pay great attention to past, present and future customer behaviours, motivations and aversions.   Take a moment to think. Do you work with a customer focused CEO? I mean, not one who says he is but one who backs up their word with action.   Why you should be interested? Honestly, you can't do much to change your CEO. But back to theme of this post - our employees are our customers - I like some of the suggestions from this article. If you're not a frontline supervisor you can sometimes get disconnected from the reality of your employees work world. The idea of an Employee Advisory Board is affordable way to engage employees - listen and understand what's great and not so great.   Stay curious and keep learning.     Jessica Petry is a Senior Marketing Specialist at BizLibrary. LinkedIn Twitter About.me Scoop.it             Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   30+ free training and development resources curated from ALIGN 2014 Download presentations, handouts and more from BizLibrary's annual Client Conference. 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.

Weekly Hot eLearning Hot List 5/22/09 - 5/29/09Top Posts The following are the top posts from featured sources based on social signals. Presentation: Blogs in Education- Don't Waste Your Time, May 22, 2009Implementing New Learning Technology? Choose the Right Pilot Group- Kapp Notes, May 22, 2009Capture Examples- eLearning Technology, May 29, 2009Twitter: The #1 Tool for Learning- Upside Learning Blog, May 26, 2009Adobe eLearning Suite: is it worth it?- Clive on Learning, May 29, 2009Text to Speech- eLearning Technology, May 28, 2009Poll:What is your favourite eLearning software?- Don't Waste Your Time, May 23, 2009Discovering Instructional Design 6: Developing Objectives- The E-Learning Curve, May 28, 2009Examples of Using Virtual 3D Spaces for Learning- Kapp Notes, May 26, 2009Financial Investment- eLearning Technology, May 26, 2009Discovering Instructional Design 4: The Affective Domain- The E-Learning Curve, May 25, 2009Top 5 reasons for implementing LMS: LC Survey- Upside Learning Blog, May 24, 2009Discovering Instructional Design 3: A Systems Approach- The E-Learning Curve, May 22, 2009Favorite 10 Tools For Creating Learning- Business Casual, May 28, 2009Skype screen-sharing collaboration & feedback- WISE Pedagogy, May 28, 2009More Digital Natives- Upside Learning Blog, May 28, 2009ASTD / ISPI Social Learning Workshop- Social Enterprise Blog, May 27, 2009Gaining Audience Attention >- MinuteBio, May 27, 2009Discovering Instructional Design 5: Stages in the Affective Taxonomy- The E-Learning Curve, May 27, 2009Twitterfall - letting the web work for you- eLearning Acupuncture, May 26, 2009Brain rule #9- Clive on Learning, May 26, 2009How Do You Build A Team?- Blogger in Middle-earth, May 26, 2009 Top Other Items The following are the top other items based on social signals. 7 Tips for Better E-Learning Scenarios, May 26, 2009Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009, May 24, 2009Modern Corporate Training: The Enterprise Learning Framework, May 24, 2009Poll Everywhere : Use Twitter in PowerPoint, May 27, 2009Royalty-Free, Podsafe, and Stock Music, May 25, 2009Googley design, May 26, 2009Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech " How the book destroyed Community, May 23, 2009WordWrap macro, May 29, 200925 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals, May 22, 2009Jay’s new book on learning metrics, May 25, 2009The Power of Community | workforce.com, May 28, 2009What would Andrew do?, May 26, 2009The Excellent Inevitability of Online Courses - Chronicle.com, May 27, 2009Creating scenarios for learning - a four-step guide, May 27, 2009Learning and Working in Complexity Workshop, May 29, 2009Will Higher Education Be the Next Bubble to Burst?, May 28, 2009Integrating work support systems, May 27, 2009 Top Keywords Social Learning (18)Instructional Design (25)Free (36)Collaboration (17)Poll (4)Develop (15) eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Jen Weaver     As we make our way towards Scandinavia, let's explore some common cultural facts about Norwegians and their expectations when it comes to Training & Development.  Test your knowledge of Norwegian Culture True or False? Norway remained neutral during World War II. True or False? Norway is a monarchy. Quick Tips for Training & Development in Norway1: As members of the least punctual culture in northern Europe, Norwegians often run 10 to 15 minutes late for appointments. Be prepared to wait, but always arrive promptly yourself. While it's common for meetings to begin a bit behind schedule, be sure to end your classes on time, especially if they run until the end of the workday. While English is widely known in Norway, the official language is Norwegian and may be the preferred language for use in your training materials. Even when fluent in English, many Norwegians prefer written communication in their native tongue. More analytical than emotional, Norwegians tend to view outside information cautiously, and they are often slow to make decisions. Communication is typically blunt and straightforward, and it's the cultural norm to accept statements at face value. Individual freedom and independence are highly valued. As such, any kind of debt is avoided, as it's viewed as an impediment to one's freedom. Family units are perceived as a way to maintain stability and structure in life. Norway's social welfare system perpetuates this support as well and is a great source of pride for the Norwegian people. Gender roles are greatly minimized in Norwegian culture, as both parents share childcare responsibilities and women have great freedom in behavior and personal or professional aspirations. Norwegians are quiet people, so avoid speaking too loudly or boisterously. Talking with your hands in your pockets is considered too casual for business interactions, and the American "okay" gesture is perceived as rude. Although Norway is a very affluent country, gift-giving is not acceptable in business interactions due to strict anti-bribery laws. Knowledge Answers from Above: True. Although it was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. True. It's a constitutional monarchy with the king as chief of state. References:   1Morrison, Terri, & Conaway, Wayne A. (2006). Kiss, bow, or shake hands (2nd ed.). Avon: Adams Media.   *** Developing international training and development materials? Contact Jen at Carmazzi Global Solutions. And if you love Jen's articles, check out her new Localization mini courses.

The Great Recession of 2008 through 2010, devastated more than our economy. The cost in shattered lives and destroyed careers is still affecting millions of people who remain under employed, out of work or who have just simply left the job market all together. At the height of this economic cataclysm, I worked in the career coaching and outplacement industry and observed first-hand the impact of the recession on people and their careers.   What I saw, and sadly, what I continue to see repeated by many professionals are some fundamental mistakes in career management that can help mitigate the impact of economic disruption. No person is immune or 100% safe from the vagaries of economic uncertainty. But job losses were lower for more educated workers, and the total income losses have been lower for educated workers, too. However, even highly educated, skilled professionals felt the impact of layoffs, reduced hours, lower wages and the loss of benefits.   The bad news in all of this seems overwhelming, and for many job seekers and underemployed and long-term unemployed people the career news has been nothing but bad for five or six years now. We don’t have to simply accept things as they are. We have choices. Each person can take control over their career, and by making an affirmative choice to take control; each person can become less dependent on the whims of a volatile and uncertain job market.   During the Recession, I worked with hundreds of people who lost their jobs. What I observed in my outplacement clients, were three broad categories of professionals with different responses to their laid off status:   Professionals who found jobs quickly, Professionals who did not find jobs during my coaching work with them (up to 6 months) despite best efforts, Professionals who did not really make a concerted effort to find new work.   What I learned very quickly was that there was a radical difference between the approaches to career management between people who found new jobs quickly - even in a very difficult economy - and those that viewed the situation as hopeless or were not successful. Here are the differences I observed:   1. Ownership. It’s very easy to hand control of our careers to our employers. Most of us do exactly that, but it’s also a big mistake. We each own our careers, so handing or conceding control to somebody else is a major mistake. By ownership I mean taking responsibility for keeping skills and knowledge current and up-to-date, keeping networks (both virtual and analog or in-person) vibrant and alive, keeping abreast of developments in a chosen field, and keeping resumes up-to-date. (Have you looked at online resumes lately?) It’s not that we are always "on the prowl" for a job, but we should be reviewing our accomplishments regularly and making sure we have career accomplishments we can point to with a sense of pride each year or so.   My coaching clients that took ownership in most of these ways had success finding new jobs quickly, even in the face of a terrible economy and job market. Their skills were current and they knew what was going on in their chosen field and they knew which organizations in their area (geographic or industrial) might be expanding or hiring. They also had a network they were already using, so it was east to tap into it quickly to gain insights into potential openings and they could move quickly.   In stark contrast to these successful professionals, were people who appeared to feel comfortable in their jobs. They might have worked in the same job or company for ten or fifteen years, and they’d developed a sense of complacency. So they did not stay current with technology and developments either in their field or industry, because they did not see the need to do so.   Another massive setback for many of these professionals was their slow adoption of social media as a networking tool. A failure to keep current on skills and developments in their chosen field and a failure to keep current with broader technology seemed to go hand-in-hand for most of the less successful job search clients. This linkage was NOT uniform, but was common enough to merit calling it a clear trend or indicator.   Some professionals came to their job search not knowing much about social media or social networking, but they learned quickly. Many of these professionals found jobs or had a lot of success finding opportunities. What was even more important, in my opinion, is that they set the stage for the next important differentiator between long-term career success and stagnation.   2. Dedication to Continuous Learning. Professionals who think they are "playing it safe" by sitting back on their current career credentials are actually taking massive risks. The status quo will not prepare professionals in any field for future success.   Name a single professional function that requires the same body of knowledge and skill set today as it did five years ago? Technology advances alone account for huge changes in the ways in which we work, communicate and interact. Technology literacy is nearly the price of admission for many professions today, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of changes in professions dominated by jobs or job families that didn’t exist five or six years ago like big data science, digital marketing or cloud computing to name just three. For professionals to survive in this type of world, we all need a renewed commitment to personal and professional development as a part of our dedication to continuous learning. It’s no longer a luxury, it’s a career necessity.   3. Networks as a Valuable Career Resource. I like to meet new people. I freely admit it. During the Great Recession, I met a lot of people who told me over and over, "Networking is easy for you; you like to talk to people." But what many job seekers do not understand is that the trick to networking is to stop networking. That’s right. Stop.   Networking as we’ve traditionally thought about it sucks. It always has and it always will. You have to think about networking and a network as a career asset, not a job search asset. If the only time you hear from somebody is when he or she needs something from you or are looking for a job, what is the completely normal and natural reaction? It’s usually not very flattering or helpful, is it? There is a saying I’ve seen that goes - if you’re waiting until you need a network to build one, you’re too late. That is entirely correct.   Networking as means to build a career resource requires active participation with your connections to ask and answer questions, offer assistance, make connections, provide expertise and work towards building and establishing your professional brand. "Networking" in this manner is not a passive activity. When treated like this, your network becomes a place, tool and resource to help foster career growth. Your network is vital to career health and success, and this is a place where you can turn for advice, counsel and answers to difficult questions. Likewise, since you are an active member of your network, your connections view you as a trusted resource and come to you for answers and help. An approach like this to professional networking certainly doesn’t sound like "networking your way to a job." It’s this perspective and treatment of your network that turns a network into a true career resource.   CONCLUSION It’s your career. Own it, and own all that comes with it. A career is your most important and valuable asset. Treat your career like that, and your career will take on a new and different shape. Nobody else will ever look out for your best career interests as well as you. Be responsible for your own career growth, skill development and knowledge base. Last, but not least, maintain an active and vibrant professional network that is built upon the value you bring not upon things you need. When you can look at your career with confidence that this type of approach brings, you will no longer be under any other person’s control for your livelihood. You will claim true ownership of your own career, and that is a valuable lesson learned for all of us from the Great Recession.          Chris Osborn is the Vice President of Marketing at BizLibrary. LinkedIn Twitter         Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   30+ free training and development resources curated from ALIGN 2014 Download presentations, handouts and more from BizLibrary's annual Client Conference. 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.

In Learning, Extended Brain and Topic Hubs, I talked about the story behind the launch of Speaking Pro Central.   While I've been speaking and conducting workshops for quite a while, I've never really treated this aspect of my professional life … well professionally.  So, this post (and since Blogger only allows posts) represents a first step. For subscribers, I apologize - you only will see this once and then it becomes a fixture on the site that I can update. Dr. Tony Karrer is an expert on innovative uses of technology that improves human performance and drive business results.  Tony educates individuals, businesses and organizations on social media, web 2.0 tools and the associated methods and skills.  Considering that he's a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Tony's speaking style is energetic, personal, and funny (sometimes intentionally).  Tony personalizes every presentation to make sure that it addresses the specific needs of the audience and is adept at adjusting during presentations to ensure that the audience is understanding and getting value. He is author of the award-winning eLearning Technology blog, founder of Work Literacy, and creator of eLearning Learning. Dr. Karrer’s experience is diverse including founding CTO of eHarmony, associate professor of Computer Science, and consultant to Credit Suisse, Citibank, Lexus, Microsoft, Nissan, Universal, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Symbol Technologies and many others. He was valedictorian and attended USC as a Tau Beta Pi fellow, one of the top 30 engineers in the U.S. where he received a M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science. Email Tony for his speaking fee information (akarrer@techempower.com). Speaking and Workshop Topics Tony can speak on a wide variety of topics, but here are a few recent topics that might spark ideas. eLearning 2.0  Work Literacy Learning 2.0 - Changes in Workplace Learning Learning 2.0 - Practical Applications for Organizations Social Media for Consultants Tapping the Social Grid Getting Traffic Through Social Media B2B Lead Generation Via Social Media Long Tail Search Engine Optimization Social Networks for Business Generation Recent Presentations and Workshops Tony presents, moderates and does workshops at a wide range of association, professional, corporate and organization events as well as online events.  Here are some examples of types of recent presentations and workshops. ASTD TechKnowledge Keynote Institute of Management Consultants ASTD Chapter Meetings ASTD Workshops ISPI Chapter Meetings Technology Council eLearning Guild Harvard Business School UCLA Entrepreneurs Conference Cal Tech Entrepreneurial Forum Keynotes and Workshops at Vendor Conferences Keynotes and Workshops at Corporate Conferences Vendor Webinars Testimonials "I have known and worked with Tony since the early 90's, and he has delivered a number of very popular presentations and wrap-up sessions at conferences my colleagues and I have produced." William Brandon, eLearning Guild "I wanted to thank you for the clear, fun and insightful information. Its good to hear of the solid business and learning applications for these technologies." Director of Learning, WellPoint Tony gets great reviews from his presentations and workshops.  Here's a few of the evaluation comments from a recent one: Awesome!! Enjoyed being able to see live examples. Benefited from the barriers + work around discussion Tony did a great job of providing an overview of various tools available. Nice job! Excellent thorough, relevant & engaging! Outstanding!!! Tony is a great evangelist for web 2.0 - I’m pumped to use more Excellent! Loved the way he started by gaining and understanding of current knowledge of audience Great applicable knowledge to be applied Tony is awesome…time well spent. Thank you! Great case study application to process and think about application of ideas! Now feel much better informed and confident to implement social tools in my organization, feel like the unknown has been "exposed" and best practices can be implemented Outstanding!! Wow! Opportunities Schedule Tony to speak at your event by emailing akarrer@techempower.com eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Jennie Ruby Thank you to all those who sent in grammar pet peeves! I'll talk about them here over the next few weeks.   First, Ann Ray brings us premise versus premises.   A premise is a basis for an argument: I see his point, but I have to question his premise that municipalities should do all trash collection for free. In the plural form, premises can mean multiple bases for an argument, or premises can mean a building and its grounds. This latter use comes from legal documents in which the location is identified in the "preliminary and explanatory" section of a deed or other real estate document (Webster's). It should always be used as plural, and a very strong usage tradition has this word always appearing in the phrase "on the premises." Weirdly, I usually hear this pronounced "premiss-iss," whereas the plural meaning bases for an argument I usually hear pronounced as "premis-eeze," although there is some crossover. We can adjust your eyeglasses right here on the premises. Here are Ann Ray's examples: A local funeral home advertises that they do cremation on premise. A huge telecom company writes about wiring the premise! Jim Dages complains that young folks these days say on accident instead of by accident. The whole issue of which preposition goes with a particular word or phrase is utterly one of usage. Usage is basically a feel for or conventions for how people use words in phrases and sentences. I have also heard people in my kids' generation say "on accident." I don't know where it came from, and I failed to cure any of them of it.   *** If you love Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.     Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Closing the Skills Gap In this eBook we’ll discuss  how to nurture talent for current and future skills gaps! 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.

Keeping with the theme of creating posts that really shouldn't be posts, but I need to have an appropriate page in my blog, I thought I should take the opportunity to create a page where I can list any and all disclosures about relationships with vendors, people, companies that may appear in my writing or speaking. Editorial Firewall Before I mention these relationships, with any and all companies that I work with in a consulting capacity and who I will discuss in my blog, I include in my contract what I call an editorial firewall clause.  That clause says: I have a responsibility to provide unbiased content in my blog, presentations and consulting. All relationships will be disclosed and transparent. All communications in my blog, presentations and consulting will be authentic.  In other words, there is no editorial control by anyone over spoken or written statements.  There is no offer of editing comments to have a positive slant.  I will talk about competitors.  Basically, I'm going to say what I'm going to say. You might think that this would be an issue, but I have yet to have any trouble.  The reason is that it really doesn't do a vendor any good to have anything but a fair representation of where they fit in the market.  What they are good at.  When you might use someone else.  It's a waste of everyone's time to say anything else. Disclosed Relationships I'm sure this list will grow over time, but the two that I know I should mention are … Adobe - Member of the eLearning Advisory Board - High level discussions with Adobe around product direction. Upside Learning - Advisor discussing product and services direction, positioning and product marketing. If you have any questions, comments or concerns - feel free to email me at: akarrer@techempower.com eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Megan Pitkin     During one of my recent Electronic Medical Records (EMR) classes, a student asked about best practices for creating a password. Many people use the same password for everything (and I mean everything... from accessing Facebook to logging into their online banking account). Believe it or not, passwords are often very easy to guess. In fact, here are the top three most common passwords in use today:Note: The image above features an avatar of Megan. If you'd like to create your own avatar, check out AJ's article. Given the rampant reports about hacked accounts that have occurred in every industry, a strong password has never been more important. This is especially true in healthcare. To create more secure passwords: Use passwords with eight or more characters with characters of mixed types. (Keep in mind that common substitutions for passwords like Med1c1ne are vulnerable and random combinations are difficult to remember, like m%&5Bg$d.) Use passphrases. Short words with characters or spaces separating are easy to recall. Rather than using common phrases, it is best to use random words as your phrase such a dog walk leash or sing_moon_jump. Do not use the same combination of username/password for multiple sites. Ensuring safety and protection for patients by properly creating and protecting passwords is critical. I found it surprising that the FBI's most wanted cyber hacker got arrested the same week this question was asked of me. Why was he caught? His cat's namewas his password.I won't elaborate on why I felt this was ironic, but I do feel it is important to highlight this cautionary tale. Patient information is precious and should be treated appropriately since healthcare workers are the majority of keepers and the first point of contact for the electronic medical records.Note: If you're finding it difficult to keep track of your passwords (perhaps you're following my advice and you're using different passwords for every site), consider a password manager. PC Magazine has a nice list of some of the top password managers available.  ***If you like Megan's articles, you'll love her live, online classes such as Train the EMR Trainer.

This week's interesting finds from across the web. Curated by Jessica Petry @JessLPetry   HOW TO GET EMPLOYEES TO CARE ABOUT THEIR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT via FastCompany.com Jim sits in front of his workstation with a grin on his face as he prints off his training certificate. It’s proof that he completed a compulsory four-hour online course on workplace safety; in reality, it only took Jim 18 minutes to click through the videos and pass the assessment with educated guesses.   Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s typical of many companies’ approach to professional development, which is scary when you consider that U.S. companies spent more than $70 billion on corporate training in 2013.     Why you should be interested? No matter how fantastic your training and development resources are; how easy and simple to use your learning platform is; how supported it is from the "top down,"  if your employees don't care, then your efforts won't work. This article outlines five great tips for making professional development relevant and useful to all employees.     LET'S TALK ABOUT BULLYING via Joel Peterson I have a question for you. Have you witnessed bullying? Maybe you didn't recognize it right away but you've seen it, right? When you were in school, did you see a group of kids teasing another kid uncomfortably? Or as you walked down the street, did you come across two people in a heated exchange in which one of them was overly aggressive? At work, are you aware of a co-worker, manager, or a boss who's always making comments and jokes about another employee in a way that you see makes the employee uncomfortable?     Why you should be interested? Workplace bullying is an important topic of discussion and honestly sometimes overlooked. We're moving so fast to keep up with new technology, or our competitors, or market trends, at the cost of what - what about keeping up with the health and well-being of our employees? Estimates suggest that somewhere between 25 and 50% of the workforce has been subject to some form of bullying in the workplace.   The state of California just announced a new law that expands California's anti-harassment training law, AB 1825 . Employers must include as part of AB 1825 training information about "abusive conduct." The new law kicks in January 1, 2015. BizLibrary should have new resources to comply with the new law available soon. In the mean time here's preview of an anti-bullying course available now:     WHY LEADERS SHOULD FOCUS ON EMPLOYEE INVESTMENT, NOT ENGAGEMENT via switchandshift.com The modern workplace is a collection of new technologies, new business strategies, and new leadership methodologies… and the same staggering number of disengaged employees.   What was once an emerging trend is now a full-blown problem that costs US businesses an estimated $450 to $550 billion each year. However, the cost of poor employee engagement is hardly confined to a monetary figure.   Disengaged employees are unhappy and unmotivated. They pass on opportunities to develop as professionals, learn new skills, share ideas, and collaborate with teammates. Careers are derailed. Dreams are dissolved. A person’s excitement in being hired by a great company in a role they’ve always desired — which in many cases takes years of hard work and difficult life decisions — can vanish quickly in the face of a demeaning manager or an unresponsive, unappreciative company.   Making visible investments in an employee is about acknowledging value, fostering growth, and showing appreciation. Employees want to feel they have value. They want to grow as professionals, and they want to know their hard work is noticed and appreciated.     Why you should be interested? Everyone's talking about employee engagement, a lot of the time the conversation immediately goes to ping pong tables, kegs, open work spaces, flexible schedules - which sure they might help on the surface. This article looks at engagement at a deeper level. It's about communicating value, providing and encouraging individual growth and showing appreciation. It's one of the best articles I've read on the topic. Check it out.   Stay curious and keep learning.     Jessica Petry is a Senior Marketing Specialist at BizLibrary. LinkedIn Twitter About.me Scoop.it             Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   30+ free training and development resources curated from ALIGN 2014 Download presentations, handouts and more from BizLibrary's annual Client Conference. 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.

This post is just a quick reminder of the beauty of interesting new social media conversations and social media relationships.  Ken Allan and I have had several interesting exchanges via our blogs and around the eLearning Learning site.  I'm not even sure what I would call Ken - it's somewhere in the peer, colleague, friend space.  I've never met Ken and I don't think we've had a real-time conversation (apologies to Ken if that's not true).  And the list of these kinds of relationships that I have is fairly long. But it's a beautiful relationship with wonderful conversations.  As an example, during a recent email exchange, I threw in a question that I had been pondering: Any thoughts on how deliberative practice relates to becoming something less than an expert. It seems like it should be applicable to all levels of achievement, but everything I'm reading is the study of becoming an expert. Is that just aspirational, or is deliberative practice also studied for quick attainment of proficiency? This morning I wake up to find his post: Proficiency and Deliberative Practice.  I'm about to go post about that particular topic so I can collect my thoughts on it.  But I had to also comment on the beauty of that kind of exchange. And there's this interesting element that it's a public conversation.  It's part of the appeal of Twitter - you get to peer into a little snippet of public conversation.  Of course, blog conversations can go deeper.  And I'm not saying it's an either or. I still like to use the analogy of a huge cocktail party when describing social media.  Everyone is standing around and you likely can engage them in really great conversations.  But, there are some patterns and norms at cocktail parties and in social media conversations. 95%+ of vendors don't get social media conversations.  They believe that sending a press release to a blogger works.  Good luck with that.  Go ahead and send it, but don't expect results.  Think about walking around a cocktail party passing out flyers.  Well received? You do need to Spend Time in social media to be able to engage in these conversations. My experience with Browse My Stuff has shown me that most bloggers are quite open and willing to engage.  I am quite willing to engage in social media conversations - see Conversation Topics Okay, now onto Ken's post.  Thanks Ken! Oh, and it goes without saying that I welcome comments, posts and other social media conversations. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Kevin Siegel    Last week I wrote about how you can use Reflector to create software simulations and demonstrations from your mobile device. I received emails from several people who, having read the article, downloaded Reflector and attempted to create a simulation using Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline. While most folks were successful in reflecting the mobile device onto the computer, several people reported that none of the actions they took on the mobile device were captured by the eLearning tool. As I mentioned in last week's article, the reflection of the mobile device you see on the computer is passive; you cannot control the reflection with the computer. Instead, you can simply see what's happening on the mobile device through your computer.During the simulation recording process, if you're creating a software simulation, programs like Captivate and Storyline only capture the screen if you click your mouse (or manually create a screen capture by pressing the appropriate keyboard shortcut). Since you're not clicking anything on your computer (remember, the computer is simply showing you a reflection of the mobile device), neither Captivate nor Storyline will capture anything.Unless...On your computer, start the recording process using Captivate or Storyline. Just prior to performing an action on your mobile device, click the reflection on your computer to create a screen capture. Next, on the mobile device, perform the action. Back on the computer, click the reflection again to create a second screen shot that shows the result of whatever it is you did on the mobile device. Continue this process over and over until you have completed all of the processes you wish to simulate on the mobile device.If clicking over and over again to create a simulation sounds too difficult, all three of the top eLearning development tools (Camtasia Studio, Captivate, and Storyline) excel at creating videos. If you create a video of the reflected mobile device, everything you do on the mobile device is captured because the video isn't creating individual screen shots, it's capturing everything you do without discrimination.  ***If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.     Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Coaching Skills for Managers and Leaders In this eBook we’ll discuss  emerging principles in employee coaching for managers and the objective of coaching in organizations. 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.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.     Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Build, Borrow, or Buy. In this eBook we’ll discuss  three options for acquiring content for your employee learning and development program. 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.

In Social Media Conversations, I posted the story of how this post came about.  Briefly, I sent Ken Allan the following question: Any thoughts on how deliberative practice relates to becoming something less than an expert. It seems like it should be applicable to all levels of achievement, but everything I'm reading is the study of becoming an expert. Is that just aspirational, or is deliberative practice also studied for quick attainment of proficiency? And he responded with Proficiency and Deliberative Practice. The best way for me to process something like his post, is for me to walk through it and take notes.  In this case, I'm going to create a post out of it. Ken starts with some foundation around terms of 'expert' and 'proficient' and it is really a spectrum: all according to where the benchmarks lie for ‘proficient’ and for ‘expert’. Then he gets at the crux of where my question comes from … expert status is more difficult to achieve these days: It is becoming increasingly more difficult for expertise to reach expert level. The matter of change, which can arrive every 6 months to a year, or even more frequently in technology, will limit the efficiency of any aspiring expert in reaching true expert level. This is the reason that I wrote the question.  I think of myself as being proficient at learning new subjects quickly, maybe even getting to an expert level at aspects of that.  But I'm not an expert in any of these subjects.  Jack of all trades.  My core questions were: In this time of rapid change, is expertise really the goal anymore? Does Deliberative Practice Lead to Quick Proficiency? Ken landed on the same alternative goal, "quick proficiency" … Here were some of his strategies: identify the required base-knowledge/skills, foster strategies for these to be recognized as key, and provide avenues for their appropriate acquisition and practice cull redundant and/or recursive procedures or procedural loops in workplace routines provide incentive for revisiting and refining/updating key knowledge/skills/procedures (used to be called ‘training’) to clarify current understanding foster a culture where its acceptable to ask questions to do with key knowledge/skills/procedures - in other words, it's OK not to be an expert. Good stuff. It's interesting to see how these relate to and enhance the core elements of Deliberative Practice: Deliberate practice identifies specific, defined elements of performance that need to be improved and works them intently independent of actual performance. Goals are set around each element of performance. Feedback and coaching is continuously available. Deliberative practice is hard, not fun and separated from actual performance. In reading studies on deliberative practice, it's pretty clear that there's a nice body of research showing that this works.  And the reality is that likely you've seen this with your kids - think improving soccer skills, study skills, etc. However, do these same elements hold true when we are talking about a world where expertise is not the goal?  Where quick proficiency is the goal?  Where most people will be in a role for only a few years?  Where they need to get up to speed immediately? I'm also trying to figure out how this relates to Work Literacy.  I believe that some of the methods described in the Tool Set series are actually part of a core set of work skills where concept workers should develop expert level.  However, even there, with the rapid change in these tools and methods, rapid proficiency might be a better goal.  And the use of these work skills are often about rapid proficiency or leveraging the expertise of others to act like an expert. I don't expect that there's a simple answer to any of this and the great thing about social media conversations is that they can take their time. I hope you will contribute your thoughts to this conversation. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

Curious about how to get started with eLearning? Need to explain the process to a new client? Keep this chart handy. (Click the image below to view larger and save.)   Feeling inspired? Check out our Getting Started with eLearning course.

This week's interesting finds from across the web. Curated by Jessica Petry @JessLPetry   5 ENGAGEMENT SURVEY QUESTIONS MILLENNIAL EMPLOYEES CRAVE via QuantumWorkplace.com Let’s talk about millennials in the workplace. [Sigh]   As a millennial in the workplace myself…I’m tired of hearing about millennials in the workplace. Articles, blogs, and research studies that claim to have "figured out" my generation filter into my inbox everyday. [Insert eye roll] But for whatever reason, a few key pieces managed to capture my attention, and I read up on the topic. And because I absolutely hate the fact that I’ve been sorted into a stereotypical bucket based on the year I was born (and because just like everyone else—I think I’m unique), I cringe when I write the following: the findings aren’t completely off base.     Why you should be interested? If there an HR - Learning - Talent Management blogging popularity contest millennials and employee engagement would win. This articles combines them both! The article not only gives you five clear questions to include in engagement surveys, but also provides the added bonus of how to take action.     WHAT WILL MILLENNIAL MANAGERS EXPECT FROM HR? via TalentCulture.com The challenges of recruiting and retaining Millennials have been well-documented. They’re demanding. If they don’t find meaning in their work, they’ll go someplace else. They expect flexibility in how they do their job. To hear many recruiters, managers and HR professionals tell it, Millennials are an exceptionally challenging generation of employees.   Now they’re becoming managers, and that could pose new challenges to HR organizations that have already struggled with Gen Y’s approach to work. For example, citing a study by EY, USAToday says that Millennial managers are often seen as entitled and don’t score well as team players.     Why you should be interested? Gen Y employees now make up about a third of the workforce, more and more are moving into management roles. Some of them are managing employees that are older than them. It can be a real source of conflict in the workplace. By understanding what influences, pressures and expectations millennials may bring to their new roles we can help increase "generational intelligence."     HOW TO GET MILLENNIALS TO WORK AT YOUR WORKPLACE via Human Capital Media Industries like construction and manufacturing are booming, but workers are lacking. Here’s how to get top millennial talent on board in your industry.     Why you should be interested? A lot is said about the SKILL GAP in America, but what's really being done about it. I love the ideas shared in this video. If you work for an organization in manufacturing, construction or heavy industry then this is a reality for you.   Stay curious and keep learning.     Jessica Petry is a Senior Marketing Specialist at BizLibrary. LinkedIn Twitter About.me Scoop.it             Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   The Career Journey and Learning Across Generations Download this eBook for practical tips for developing employees at early career, mid-career and late career. 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.

I had asked in Blog Post Updates - Effective Pattern? how to update a previous post. I'm still not sure I have the answer. I wanted to add something to Browser Keyboard Shortcut Basics. Since the title of the previous post is a bit different, I'm going to create a new post that is just about this one thing and then I guess I'll cross link. By the way, if you are not sure what Ctrl+T does, then go visit the previous post. Firefox allows you to add a "Keyword" to any bookmark. This becomes a string you can type in the address bar in order to launch that bookmark. For any of your common bookmarks, it's worth your time to set keywords so that you can launch it in a new tab without having to click on anything. Ctrl+T elt<enter> Opens the page. Internet Explorer offers a similar capability with hot keys. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Kevin Siegel      Buttons are the most common form of interactivity that you'll find in just about any Storyline project. Using Triggers, you can control what happens should the learner successfully click a button (such as Go to the next slide or Show Layers). Over the next few weeks I'm going to teach you how easy it is to add buttons to any Storyline slide, how to add Triggers, and how to control Button states. Add a Button to a Slide Open or create a Storyline project and then open a slide. Select the Insert tab on the Ribbon. From the Interactive Objects group, select Controls and then select Button 1.  Draw a button on the slide as you would any shape. Label and Name a Button With the button you just drew selected, label the button by typing directly into the button. (The text should be short and sweet and clearly indicate the button's action to the learner.) On the Timeline, double-click the name Button1 and give the button a common-sense name. (In the image below, I'm working on a slide containing multiple buttons. Each has been labeled and named.)The Label will be seen by your learners when they work through your lesson. The Name is never seen by the learner and serves as a development tool for you when you begin working with Triggers. Note: If you are not happy with the appearance of the button, you can always change the way a button looks just like any other shape in Storyline. Add a Trigger to a Button When you add a button to a slide, it's begging to do something... anything. You can add a Trigger to a button easily via the Triggers panel. The Trigger can result in any number of actions. For instance, a Trigger can jump a learner to a different slide, open a web page, show or hide a layer, or change the state of an object. On the Triggers panel, click Create a new trigger to open the Trigger Wizard. From within the Trigger Wizard, select the desired options. In the image below, I wanted a Continue button that I added to the slide to take the learner to the next slide when the button is clicked. I selected Jump to slide as the Action, next slide as the Slide, User clicks for When, and the slide's Continue button as the Object.If you're thinking that the Trigger Wizard looks overly simplistic based on the image above, you'd be correct. However, looks are often very deceiving in Storyline. As you experiment with different actions from the Actions drop-down menu, I think you'll be surprised by how much the options in the Trigger Wizard change to support the selected Action. The Wizard is actually very flexible and powerful and allows you to create some very complex interactions. Next time: Button States.  ***If you'd like to learn more about eLearning, come hang out in my next eLearning basics mini course. And if you'd like to learn more Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you.

Written by Chris Osborn   Today's Q&A Wednesday discusses what situations you should, and shouldn't, need an HR rep around for.     Access 7,000+ Employee Training Resources BizLibrary offers 7,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Got Content? In this eBook we discuss how to decide what’s right for your employees and organization, how to incorporate off-the-shelf learning resources into an effective employee learning strategy, and how to find the right off-the-shelf solution for your organization.. 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. Video Transcript Hi, Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing at BizLibrary with today's Q&A. Sarah is an HR manager at a large non-profit and she wants to know if an HR rep should always be present when managers have difficult conversations with employees. Well, the short answer is no, but it does make sense.   So let's start with a few considerations as you think through when your HR team should be involved with your managers. First, ask yourself if there's an adverse job action at stake. Is this about a suspension, a termination, a pay cut, some disciplinary action that's got to be written up and recorded in case you have to take an adverse action even later. In that situation, it makes a lot of sense to have HR there to guide the manager through the conversation, really regardless of the experience level of the manager. So that's one situation that does make sense.   However, if the subject of the meeting is coaching for performance improvement, probably no. Something much more involved, like a corrective action might be involved, but if it's just a coaching conversation probably not. The other factors you need to consider in the coaching situation, in fact, if it's going to be related to improved performance: what's the employee/manager relationship like? Is it a trusting relationship? Is the employee going to be rational or going to respond emotionally or in a volatile way? In those situations, it might be good to have another person present. And last, but not least, the most important factor in all of this has to do with the skill and experience of your manager as a coach. If the manager has good coaching skills, good communication skills, is adept at handling complex situations, you're far more likely to let the manager handle those meetings on their own. So, does HR have to be present every time you have a difficult conversation with an employee? No, but there are certain circumstances where it makes sense for everybody's benefit.

I've been really enjoying the discussion around Does Deliberative Practice Lead to Quick Proficiency?  One of the interesting points raised via the discussion: If you can get an expert level answer by asking for help through social networks how does that compare to being an expert? I regularly use LinkedIn for Finding Expertise and Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers.  I will have conversations with people who are experts in their area and get their answers and even ask them about other answers I'm getting.  I just did this to get help with an upcoming presentation about the use of Web 2.0 Tools inside insurance companies with fantastic results.  Granted you need a base level of knowledge to understand what you are getting, but you certainly don't need to be a true  expert. Side note: Are you reading this and not currently linked to me on LinkedIn - please read: My LinkedIn Connection Approach. Now consider how we Evaluate the Performance of Concept Workers 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. This raises the question: By going to outside experts with the appropriate base knowledge doesn't that constitute a good answer based on this criteria? In fact, Sue Waters said in a comment that being a Connector (well connected and knowing how to leverage those connections) is really what it's all about: I don't need to know the answers because my personal learning network is so extensive, and extremely diverse, that I know who can help me with the answer. This also means I can normally get them answered before most people can. Which means people also turn to me because they know 1) I will help them find the answer 2) they know I will be able to find it quickly. Sue does caution us: It is a huge danger that people are confusing online presence with being an expert. The other danger is to take online information at face value without questioning if the information is true. I would point out that the first danger is akin to the danger of confusing confidence with expertise.  That happens all the time and is made even harder by the fact that confidence level about answers is inversely proportional to expertise (see Vic's comment in Social Media Conversations).  Similarly, just because you find someone everywhere online doesn't mean they are an expert.  And certainly, you can't just talk to one person or read one blog post and assume you have an answer to anything.  It's always more complex than that.  I believe there's really something here in terms of Leveraging Networks is Key Skill that allows us to get expert level answers via social networks.  This is the most important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap.  And it makes a lot of the discussion around Network Feedback, Using Social Media to Find Answers to Questions, Learning through Conversation very important topics. I welcome your thoughts. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Jennie Ruby I'm not sure it's the best of luck to start the New Year peeved, but when it's a grammar pet peeve, I cannot resist. Here are two pet peeves from Laura Gillenwater, both of which I end up covering in every writing class: Two of my current pet peeves are the misuse/overuse of the word "utilize," instead of "use" and the word "impact," instead of "affect" or "effect" (depending on whether "impact" is being used as a verb or noun). Let's start with the first one: You are so right, Laura! Using the word utilize is overkill when the word use will do just fine. Although the dictionary does indicate that utilize is a synonym for use, utilize does have a more specific meaning that goes beyond the plainer verb use: you utilize something that was previously going to waste or not being used for the purpose you now propose. A sentence like this would be a specific place where utilize is more specific than use: Why don't we utilize some of the empty classrooms as offices?   Here is an example where use is definitely better: We used three reams of paper to print the phone directory. On the word impact, however, I like to allude to the impact wars of the late 1980s. Sorry, Laura, but those of us insisting that impact is a noun, not a verb, long ago lost that fight. Webster's dictionary now lists impact as both a verb and a noun and has done so for at least 15 years. Not that many of us in the writing and editing business don't still protest that decision. When I double-checked Webster's just now, I saw a comment by a reader complaining that impact should be used only as a noun. Yep, many of us are still bitter over this. But we lost. Webster's is a widely respected dictionary, but it is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. That means it tries to reflect how people are actually using a word, rather than how people should use a word. And right now, Webster's solidly supports impact as a verb. Sigh. Nevertheless, I could not agree more with Laura's opinion here: It's "business-ese" stuff like this that really annoys me. If people would just write more naturally, more like they talk (but with correct grammar), most of their writing would really be much better. Michael Stein adds a new category to the pet peeves parade:   Two pronunciation pet peeves: Saying mute when you mean moot. Pronouncing the t in often. Post your pet peeves below. I've got a bunch more stored up, and now we have the new category to add to: pronunciation. *** If you love Jennie's articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.       Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 7,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Creating a Competency-Based Training Program: A How-To Guide In this eBook we’ll discuss  a straightforward seven-step process any organization can use to implement a CBT starting today. 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.