T+D Blog - Serious Gaming in the Workplace asks the question: Is serious gaming being taken seriously in your workplace? It is time to change the perception of "gaming" among CEOs and other corporate executives. It is a valuable learning tool that is taking too long to become a mainstream part of everyday learning. However, I've been wondering for long time about when the added costs of building games really pays off.  Last year in Training Method Trends I showed some data from the eLearning Guild that had games and simulations decreasing as a modality.  My guess is that right now with pressure on training budgets, there's significant pressure on spending on games.   The Upside Learning (disclosure) white paper Do You Need Games In Your eLearning Mix? (see also their great blog post - Top 100 Learning Game Resources) of course comes out and tells us that different kinds of games make sense based on different learning needs and that there's a place for them. I concur that there's pretty significant backing that game-based learning results in better learning transfer rates.  But transfer does not equal ROI.  I've done some initial search for back-up that the added cost of developing learning games is worth the cost, and I've really not come up with much of anything.  There are some great anecdotal examples, but the real question is up-front: When is it worth the added cost to turn a learning experience into a game?  And how do we know that going in? The justification is often a bit hard.  There's an emotional response among some buyers that games equals waste.  But even beyond overcoming that challenge, I see it as a bit hard to go from additional transfer angle.  Couldn't we get transfer using another approach at a lower total cost?  Are we trying to justify in additional seat time that learners would spend if it wasn't a game?  Is it true that seat time is less for the same transfer for games? This relates to the question of the Business of Learning.  I'm not sure that by creating games you really are going to be able to sell enough additional product or create enough added value that it justifies the additional expenditure. What's the business rationale for spending on games? eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

by AJ Walther   I've said it a thousand times: when it comes to eLearning (and presentations in general), PowerPoint is not the problem. Bad design is the problem. That being said, I wouldn't let PowerPoint off the hook altogether. Many PowerPoint defaults serve to lead users down a path of poor design choices (starting on a slide that encourages a title followed by a bulleted list, for example). Let's take a look at tables. When you insert a table in PowerPoint, you will probably end up with something that looks a lot like this:The table shown above isn't deplorable, but there's a good chance that if you show it to an audience, eyes will glaze over (people will not know where to focus). To fix this table you first need to decide what message you are trying to convey. Do you want your audience to really see all of the information? Are you trying to show a progression over time? Are the totals really important? Maybe just one month is important and the other information is just supporting data? You might find that a table really isn't the solution you want after all. Maybe a simple graphic would do the trick instead.For the sake of demonstration, let's say you are presenting the chart above and the main point you want to drive home is the 2013 totals. Here is a step-by-step guide to fixing such a table:Remove font and fill colorsDon't worry, we'll add in some design-y elements later.Remove Borders and GridlinesUse your best judgment here to decide whether there should be absolutely no lines, lines in specific places, or a line after each row. Generally you will find that despite temptation to add them, few lines are really needed. This may depend on your audience, how much data you are presenting, and from what size screen your end-users will view this content.Remove Bolding Traditionally you may find that the trend is to bold all items in the top row and the left-most row. Think carefully about whether this is really necessary.Left align textIgnore the titles for now and align all of the data's text (not numbers) to the left.Right align numbersStill ignoring the titles, right align all of the numeric data.Align titles with dataNow for the titles. Match the alignment of titles to the data below them.Resize columns to dataWorking within the table in PowerPoint, hover your mouse over the gridlines between each row of data. Your mouse will change to parallel lines with arrows. Double-click and the row to the left will resize to perfectly fit its data. Use white spaceIn the example below the data is divided by months of a year so a logical place to add space and provide a rest for the eyes was after each quarter. Use your best judgment when deciding how you might break apart your data to make it more readable.Round numbers and use consistent precisionThere are some fields where it is truly important to show numerical data several units past a decimal point. For most of us, however, that is not the case. Decide where you want to round your numbers and be consistent throughout.Remove repetitionIn this case, repeating 2013 for every month of the year was not necessary. Instead the title was changed to "Months of 2013."Format fontsIt's easy to forget to apply the fonts you've used elsewhere to your table. Take the time to do that now, making sure you are being consistent with the rest of your content.Add emphasisNow, finally, add in emphasis thoughtfully to illustrate your main point. *** If you love AJ's articles, you'll love her Optimizing PowerPoint Design for eLearning & Presentations mini course.

Written by Chris Osborn   Today's Q&A Wednesday discusses the recommended training follow-up intervals. Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing with BizLibrary talks about how traditional interval-based evaluations are giving way to a new method.     Access 10,000+ Employee Training Resources BizLibrary offers 10,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   How to Measure the Impact of Employee Soft Skills Training We know great "people skills" when we see them or experience them. However, soft skills don’t always lend themselves to easy measurement for excellence. Measure the business impact . . . Well, that’s just not something the ROI and traditional approaches to training investment don’t really help us do very effectively unless we dig deeper. 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 with BizLibrary. Today's question comes from AJ, and he's an HR director at a creative services firm, and he wants to know whats the recommended time for followup for training or the reevaluation of training and there really is a whole range of thought in this area, so I'm going to give you sort of the standard, traditional way of thinking about it and then I'm going to suggest a new way of thinking about it which we think is really the best practice. Well, first, if you really want to check whether training is stuck or not, it's immediate. You want to find out right away if employees have learned something and you want to find out if employees have learned something that they can apply right away on the job. Sort of think of the Kirkpatrick-Phillips Methodology of measuring the impact of training, sort of levels one and two.   And then in intervals of 30 days, after about thirty days after employees have gone through a training course, you might want to evaluate whether their performance has improved and whether they're continuing to apply what they learned. A traditional way to go next would be about 90 days, so three months out, and then another 180 days. Are employees continuing to improve their skills and apply what we've taught them? All of that is pretty traditional, all of that is pretty standard, and when I first entered the training world those were the intervals that I typically used to measure whether the training contents delivered had worked, and that was pretty much standard practice. Well, the problem is we saw a pretty big drop-off in the application of training over those intervals, and ultimately what we've learned since then is that the right interval is everyday.   Everyday we need to check and see that our employees are applying what they've been learning, and this is why your managers have to be stakeholders and heavily involved in the training and development of your employees. Your managers are by far the most important factor in the effectiveness of your employee training program. You have to get them involved early on, they have to be involved during the training and after the training so they are a part of what's going on so that every single day you make continuous improvements and learning a part of what's going on in your organization so you don't have to worry about the intervals at which you're measuring the impact of training. It becomes an integral part of your organization where continuous improvement and continuous learning is expected, and it becomes a fabric of your organization, and everyone is invested in ongoing improvement and ongoing learning.

by Jen Weaver   As we continue our journey around the world, let's explore some common cultural facts about Poles and their expectations when it comes to training and development. Test Your Knowledge of Polish Culture The name "Poland" is a descriptor of the country's geography. Does it mean: The borderlands? The hill country? The flatlands? True or False? Polish businesspeople often speak German. True or False? Prussian is also a common language in Poland. Quick Tips for Training & Development in Poland1: Poland is a male-dominated society. Female trainers may find it hard to be taken seriously, even though women have been advancing into more predominant roles in recent years. Polish is the official language, but many businesspeople speak German as well as English. Clarify language preferences before beginning your class. Just because most Poles can understand English does not mean it's the preferred language for training. Catholicism is a highly predominant religion, with less than two percent of the population identifying with another religion. Approximately ten percent of Poles describe themselves as "nonreligious." Security is a high priority for Poles, and they are determined to maintain their freedom after a difficult history with both Russia and Germany. As such, Poles tend to prize individualism and the contributions a person can make in larger groups as a whole. Poland is a hierarchical society, and there is a tendency for decisions to be made at a higher level or by consensus of "privileged" individuals. Truth is a combination of facts along with subjective feelings and personal relationships. An individual's religious ideologies also often come into play when making decisions. Business appointments start and end on time. Many Poles opt to not take a lunch break and to work straight through the day. "Work lunches" are often scheduled for around 4 or 5 p.m., and employees do not go back to work after taking lunch. Keep this in mind and clarify time expectations when determining your class schedule. A local Polish advocate will go far when establishing new business relationships. Try to identify a champion of your initiative within the company or someone closely associated and respected through corporate connections. Poles tend to be more soft-spoken than North Americans, and business attire is conservative professional. Knowledge Answer from Above:  (c) Poland is mostly flat. True. Not much of a surprise, considering Poland's location along the German border. False. While once used, Prussian became extinct in the 1700's.  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.

Just read an article in the Guardian The long tail of blogging is dying (Found via Donald Clark).  But recently - over the past six months - a new trend: fewer blogs with links, and fewer with any contextual comment. Some weeks, apart from the splogs, there would be hardly anything. I didn't think we'd suddenly become dull. He points to backup evidence of this from a NYT article and based on Technorati's 2008 survey of the state of the blogosphere, which found that only 7.4m out of the 133m blogs it tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. As the New York Times put it, "that translates to 95% of blogs being essentially abandoned". I don't doubt that a lot of blogs are started and abandoned.  People change their focus.  Lives get busy.  Blogging definitely takes work. I have a limited view of blogging, but I do get to see quite a bit because of Browse My Stuff. What about eLearning blogs? Because of eLearning Learning, I track eLearning blogs closely. When I go back and look at: More eLearning Bloggers - many of the new bloggers stopped blogging soon after.  They had the experience and then stopped.  This somewhat supports the Technorati numbers. While there are these abandoned blogs, overall I believe there's been a nice growth of eLearning blogs from a wider variety of sources over the past few years.  When I first started blogging in 2006, it seemed like all the bloggers were exactly the same people who spoke at conferences.  Now, there are more practitioner blogs .  And there are more good quality vendor blogs.  I remember asking Product Vendor Blogs - Where are They? Now I find quite a few on eLearning Learning.  And the analysts have joined in (Brandon Hall and Bersin have blogs). I'm sure that this will continue to change, but I would question the notion that long tail blogging is dying. Possible Reasons for the Guardian Drop Off Over the past three years, I've certainly noticed that while I read (actually skim dive skim) through a lot of blogs, I find I spend less and less time on mainstream publications.  They simply are too general in most cases.  I used to read the Guardian all the time.  Now, I only saw this article because of Donald Clark's mention.  I do think that some of the limited kinds of blog posts that are essentially - here's an interesting article - has moved to twitter or other status updates.  It's not worth a blog post if that's all you are going to say. And, honestly, I'd much rather engage in a discussion with a blogger than with a mainstream publication that will never engage back. Twitter Not a Good Substitute I personally don't think that Twitter is a good replacement for blogging as learning tool.   It's great for quick sharing.  And quick, limited conversations.  Deeper discussion requires blogging.  You can find a lot more thoughts around blogging via my post: Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Elearning! Magazine named BizLibrary, the industry’s largest online employee learning solutions provider for organizations nationwide, first place winners for the Best of Elearning! 2014 Award in three categories. BizLibrary won for Best Soft-Skills Content , Best Social Learning and is a co-winner for Best Mobile Application . For the fourth year-in-a-row, BizLibrary also received an Award of Excellence for Best Learning Management System (SaaS) . Winners for each category were revealed in Elearning! and Government Elearning! Magazine December 2014/January 2015 issues and will be honored at the Enterprise Learning! Summit on January 15, 2015.   "Being recognized year after year in the Best of Elearning Awards program is a huge honor for our company. This is a great honor, because this is one industry award voted on by the market itself. We strongly believe in the learning solutions we offer, and it’s just wonderfully gratifying that the market believes in the value of our solutions so strongly, too," said Dean Pichee President and Founder of BizLibrary.   In the same issue of the publication, Jerry Roche, Editor of the Magazine wrote a column called, "The Most Popular Products in the Learning Universe." December 2014 / January 2015 Elearning! Magazine, p. 13. "We are extremely proud to be one of two vendors to dominate this list of outstanding products by having the #2 (The BizLIbrary Collection - our Soft Skills Content entry), #4 (Community - our Social Learning entry) and #9 (BizMobile, our Mobile Learning entry) products on the list. When you combine these solutions with our LMS which was also recognized, I think we can safely say we have one of the very best comprehensive online learning solutions available on the market," commented Chris Osborn, Vice President of Marketing, BizLibrary.   BizLibrary has been recognized as a finalist in the LMS category for the past 4 years. This is also the second straight year for its social learning and mobile learning applications to be recognized by voters.   About Elearning! Media Group Elearning! Media Group serves the $220 billion enterprise learning market. Elearning! Media Group, owned by B2B Media Group, LLC, consists of 13 media products including: Elearning! Magazine, Government Elearning! Magazine, e-magazines, e-mail newsletters, Alerts, website, Web Seminar Series, Elearning! Institute, Enterprise Learning! Summits and Enterprise Learning! Conference & Expo. In combination, these brands reach more than 2 million executives, practitioners and professionals, all evaluating or implementing enterprise learning and workplace technologies across their organizations each year. Suppliers and practitioners can follow us: online at www.2elearning.com; on Twitter: 2elearning, #ELC14, #ELSummit; via Facebook: Elearning!-Magazine; and, LinkedIn: Elearning! Magazine Network or Enterprise Learning! Events.   About BizLibrary BizLibrary is a leading provider of online employee training and eLearning solutions. Our award-winning content collection contains more than 7,000 online employee training videos covering every business training topic, including communication skills , leadership and management, sales and customer service, compliance training , desktop computer skills , and more. BizLibrary’s Learning Portal, Content Management System, and LMS (Learning Management System) help managers improve and manage employee learning. Learn more at www.bizlibrary.com .

I do a lot of presentations where one of the topics is how to use LinkedIn more effectively as part of your knowledge work. In most cases, I will ask for a show of hands: How many of you have a LinkedIn Account? - Generally 50-70%. How many of you actively use LinkedIn? - Generally down to 10%. How many of you get really high value from LinkedIn? - Now down to 2-5% I am continually surprised by this result (Getting Value from LinkedIn). I can't remember how I could get things done without LinkedIn. And I consider knowing how to effectively use LinkedIn to be a core Work Literacy. I wanted to collect together some of the resources I've found that can help you get more out of LinkedIn. And, don't forget to look at my LinkedIn Connection Approach Rethought. Consider whether it makes sense for you to introduce yourself and connect via LinkedIn.Based on a comment I just received, if you only have time for one resource - visit:LinkedIn for Finding ExpertiseIt shows the basics of what a lot of this is about.LinkedIn Basics Tips on using LinkedIn The Unofficial LinkedIn User's Guide for Executives and Professionals LinkedIn Tips 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn LinkedIn Tips and Tweaks: Do More with your LinkedIn Account 20 Ways to Use LinkedIn Productively Making Your LinkedIn Business Network Pay Dividends Ten Etiquette Tips for LinkedIn LinkedIn Learning Center LinkedIn How-Tos The Social Media Starter Kit: LinkedIn How to Use LinkedIn 10 Part Series: Can LinkedIn Work for You? Top 10 mistakes people make on LinkedIn 7 more things to avoid on LinkedIn Leveraging LinkedIn Leveraging Networks is Key Skill Searching for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers LinkedIn for Finding Expertise Crowdsourcing in the Small Networks and Communities LinkedIn - Prospecting No - Conversation Yes Social Grid Follow-up Expert Level Answers via Social Networks Profiles, Recommendations and Network Building Grow Your Network While You Don’t Need It Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You Your Reputation: Create a Permalink Growing Your Network Online Approach to LinkedIn Connections LinkedIn Facebook Twitter - Different Connection Style Write Your LinkedIn Profile for Your Future LinkedIn as Cult Builder Top 3 Ways to Add LinkedIn Connections and Why You Should Care Is Your Networking Profile Up to Date? LinkedIn PR | Top 10 Ways to Become a Subject Profile Photos Introducting Your Network to Each Other How My Blog Turbo Powers My LinkedIn Connections Minding Your Networking Manners with Socialminder Guy Kawasaki's profile makeover: Before and After Writing great recommendations Elements of a Good LinkedIn Recommendation Are You Missing An Opportunity With Your LinkedIn Tag Line? Using LinkedIn For Travel and Meetings Breaking the Ice at a Meeting with LinkedIn Using LinkedIn to Fill Out Your Business Trip Using LinkedIn for Travel Connecting with People in Your Network When Traveling Groups on LinkedIn 5 ways to get more from your LinkedIn Groups 5 Tips for Creating, Promoting and Managing a LinkedIn Group What are They Talking About? (LinkedIn e-Learning Groups) - These are some of the learning focused groups on LinkedIn. Directory of Social Networks for Learning Professionals - Includes learning networks that are outside LinkedIn as well. Learning Communities List - Also learning communities including some LinkedIn groups. Other Resources Linked Intelligence The Official LinkedIn Blog The Executive’s Guide to LinkedIn Networlding Alltop LinkedIn eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

Written by Chris Osborn   This week's Q&A video discusses why it's funny that we don't consider every hire a "high potential" employee, and gives tips on what to look for in your next hire that can help you identify them as high potential.     Access 10,000+ Employee Training Resources BizLibrary offers 10,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   How to Measure the Impact of Employee Soft Skills Training We know great "people skills" when we see them or experience them. However, soft skills don’t always lend themselves to easy measurement for excellence. Measure the business impact . . . Well, that’s just not something the ROI and traditional approaches to training investment don’t really help us do very effectively unless we dig deeper. 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 with BizLibrary. Today's question comes from AJ, and he's an HR director at a creative services firm, and he wants to know whats the recommended time for followup for training or the reevaluation of training and there really is a whole range of thought in this area, so I'm going to give you sort of the standard, traditional way of thinking about it and then I'm going to suggest a new way of thinking about it which we think is really the best practice. Well, first, if you really want to check whether training is stuck or not, it's immediate. You want to find out right away if employees have learned something and you want to find out if employees have learned something that they can apply right away on the job. Sort of think of the Kirkpatrick-Phillips Methodology of measuring the impact of training, sort of levels one and two.   And then in intervals of 30 days, after about thirty days after employees have gone through a training course, you might want to evaluate whether their performance has improved and whether they're continuing to apply what they learned. A traditional way to go next would be about 90 days, so three months out, and then another 180 days. Are employees continuing to improve their skills and apply what we've taught them? All of that is pretty traditional, all of that is pretty standard, and when I first entered the training world those were the intervals that I typically used to measure whether the training contents delivered had worked, and that was pretty much standard practice. Well, the problem is we saw a pretty big drop-off in the application of training over those intervals, and ultimately what we've learned since then is that the right interval is everyday.   Everyday we need to check and see that our employees are applying what they've been learning, and this is why your managers have to be stakeholders and heavily involved in the training and development of your employees. Your managers are by far the most important factor in the effectiveness of your employee training program. You have to get them involved early on, they have to be involved during the training and after the training so they are a part of what's going on so that every single day you make continuous improvements and learning a part of what's going on in your organization so you don't have to worry about the intervals at which you're measuring the impact of training. It becomes an integral part of your organization where continuous improvement and continuous learning is expected, and it becomes a fabric of your organization, and everyone is invested in ongoing improvement and ongoing learning.

by Kevin Siegel      Zoom Areas are typically used to emphasize an important area of a slide background. They are especially useful if you want your learner to automatically get closer to a specific area of the screen.To insert a Zoom Area, click Objects on the Main Toolbar and choose Zoom Area. Zoom Areas consist of two parts: the area of a background that you want to highlight (Zoom Source) and where the zoomed area of the background will appear (Zoom Destination). In the image below, I have positioned and resized the Zoom Source over the area of the slide background that I want to get larger. Then I positioned and resized the Zoom Destination on the slide. Remember, the Zoom Source won't move or resize when the lesson is viewed by the learner... that's the job of the Zoom Destination.Right away you can see that there is a problem with the image in the Zoom Destination. Because a Zoom Area simply enlarges the Zoom Source, and I've resized the Zoom Destination quite a bit, the image in the Zoom Destination is blurry.To fix the problem, you'll need a larger version of the image shown within the Zoom Source. In this case, I have the original photo of the handsome male model shown on the screen (in addition to being much larger, it has also been cropped similar to the image in the Zoom Source).To swap out the blurry image in the Zoom Destination with the better image, double-click the Zoom Destination to open the Properties Inspector. On the Properties Inspector, click Add new image. Click the Import button and open the larger version of the photo.Compare the Zoom Destination below with the version above. The quality of the Zoom Destination image is much better.If you would like to see a free demonstration of this concept, check out the IconLogic YouTube channel. *** 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.

by Sally Cox   There is an art to creating a strong LinkedIn profile. One of the most powerful assets in your LinkedIn profile is the Summary. Most people put minimal thought into it, but honestly, it's a golden opportunity to make yourself shine. Tips to Creating a Stronger Profile Be clear on your objective before you begin. What do you want recruiters and prospective employers to gain from reading your summary? How do you want them to feel? Gather your content. Put everything in place so you can begin to write the summation. List your greatest accomplishments, and a sentence about each one. Try to capture not only what YOU got out of the experience but more importantly, how the company benefited. If the team cut costs by 70% under your management, that needs to be part of the sentence.List your values and passions. If saving African wildlife is high on your priority list, make sure you notate that in some way. Aside from your professional accomplishments, people like to see snippets of the real you.List things you can do better than anyone, things that make you stand out. If Project Management is a strength of yours, or you're a competitive swimmer, these traits can both accurately portray your dedication and look good on a profile.Awards, accolades, achievements--gather them and include both personal and business accomplishments.List things that make you unique. Find out what they are and include the strongest ones. For example, I worked for "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in the 1980s, as designer. It was long ago, but that one event on my resume or LinkedIn profile is a conversation starter, more than any other. It may not even pertain to my current work, but it's a great way to start a conversation that gets me noticed--and remembered.Writing Your SummaryBegin with a strong statement, a "bang," if you will. You could ask a question, make a statement, or just list a few of your skills for a dramatic opener. Make it memorable. Weave your story, including snippets from the information you gathered in earlier steps. Mix up your content to make it more interesting, so it doesn't read like a list, and use correct grammar and punctuation.End with a call-to-action, remembering your summary needs to be 2,000 characters or less. Tell your readers where they go to learn more about you, or how they can contact you. (This may not be necessary if you've listed it elsewhere on your profile, but make sure they know how to find you.)    *** Check out Sally's 3-hour mini class on Building a Strong LinkedIn Profile.

As part of preparing for the July 23 free online session on the Future of the Business of Learning, I've had a bunch of conversations with CLOs/VP Learning, CEOs of Training Companies, Marketing and Sales Consultants to Training Companies, Industry Analysts, Software and Services Vendors. I am really looking forward to July 23 when we come together to discuss this.  It's going to be interesting.  There are some real nuggets that I'm finding that you will hear about.  I would highly encourage you to join in and book the day.  If nothing else, seeing the Intuit case study to think through and discuss outsourcing to your customers and rethinking return on training investment. Register Here There's a bit more detail on the particular sessions via the link above.  I will announce the panelists in a day or two. I felt compelled to capture a few thoughts as I've been having these conversations: Tough Times - No One Jumping Statistics are made real when you run into actual examples.  For example, 10% unemployment doesn't always translate.  Having friends or family lose their job hits home. When you talk to someone who's training business is off 20-30%, it hits home.  Imagine your paycheck getting cut 25%.  Actually, if you are a smaller training company, it's worse than that.  You likely are now scraping by with virtually zero paycheck.  And possibly incurring debt. At the same time, while we all know this is tough times from training, no one I've talked to is on the ledge ready to jump.  Instead, I think that everyone recognizes that there's always going to be need for skill development.  And overall, learning is more important than ever.  Mature or Declining Industry? When I first introduced this topic, I probably should not have used an analogy between publishing and training.  No one knows for sure what the total spend on training (using formal learning methods) will be in the future.  Will it overall go up a lot?  Down a lot?  Stay relatively the same?  Training is definitely in much better position than publishers who relied on advertising dollars. I personally believe that the overall market for training using formal learning models is going to be on a long, slow downward trend.  We are currently experiencing a big drop (similar to the drop in 2001).  Training never quite recovered from the 2001 drop.  And likely after this drop, we won't quite recover again. My guess is that even the most optimistic person sees a relatively modest growth percentage and pessimists probably line up with me. But what I find is that anytime I say that Training (using Formal Learning Models) might be transitioning into a relatively flat or declining industry - people hear - "Training is Dead." (see Long Live? for an example). So, please help: How can I effectively explain that training might be a mature or declining industry and still keep folks listening? One thing I have tried to do is use an analogy.  On a phone call the other day, I used the unfortunately analogy of the railroads.  At one point railroads were in hyper growth mode, then they matured and consolidated.  Then they were supplanted by cars, trucking and airlines as other forms of transportation.  I don't think that any of the railroads managed to really transition themselves into other forms of transportation.  It's a classic example of the innovator's dilemma (see The Innovator's Dilemma of Learning).  Of course there are still railroads. This did not go over well.  Partly it was that there was a funny moment when I realized how tough things were for the auto and airlines.  But also, no one wants to see themselves as the railroads. Differentiation and Innovation Opportunities No matter your take on the overall training spend, there's clearly lots of differentiation and innovation opportunities.  A lot of what I've been hearing is about successful differentiation in the marketplace.  Training companies and internal training organizations who focus on things that matter to organizations or who have offerings that are more than content seem to be having a better time of it. There's also some incredible innovation going on as well.  The Intuit example that will be presented and the implications of it for internal and external training organizations is going to be worth the entire time investment.   Tough Questions - Tougher Answers I hope you won't come on July 23 expecting easy answers.  The core question that I asked: While training as a publisher of courses and courseware faces an increasingly challenging market, what other things can learning businesses successfully sell to internal or external customers? is definitely a tough question.  ISA did a session in March looking at a very similar question and it's clear there are no easy answers. A big part of what makes these questions tough was beautifully captured by Tom McKee, CEO of Ken Blanchard, You can't sell what people aren't willing to buy. Many of our internal customers are simply not ready to buy solutions that look like something more than courses and courseware.  There are exceptions and definitely opportunities for innovation.  But realistically, a lot of what we will be talking about is what organizations should be doing today to be in position for the future. This is going to be fun, hope you will join the conversation. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

by Jennie Ruby  Adobe Presenter Video Express is a new version of the video software that comes with Adobe Presenter 10. With it you can record a video of both you and your computer screen at the same time. When you open it from the Presenter ribbon within PowerPoint, you can create a video of yourself and your PowerPoint slides. Once you have recorded your video, you can then edit the project to show either your face, the computer screen, or both. Its intent is to allow you to record yourself presenting your slides just as you would to a live audience. Tips for Improving Your Videos  Set up your camera so that you can look into it as you give the presentation. On a laptop with a built-in camera, this is easy, because as you look at the screen, the camera typically faces you from the top center of the screen.However, even this placement means that often your eyes will be looking down at the screen instead of up into the camera. If you have to read every word of the script, or if you look at your slides while talking, your eyes will be down the entire time.Try printing your script landscape, in large print, and tacking it up behind the camera so that you can glance at it and then back to the camera very easily. (Think: teleprompter.)Better yet, memorize the script, or become very familiar with it, and then just have note cards posted in back of the camera.If you can purchase professional photography lights, that's a great way to go. With a lower budget, daylight is your best bet--but not direct sunlight. Set yourself up so that you face a window, with curtains or blinds at least partially drawn to even out the light. You may need to supplement the light with some lamps. Make sure there are no shadows or patterns on the wall behind you. The camera's back should be to the window as it faces you.What is behind you? Some of it will show in the video. A blank wall is best. If there are bookshelves, make sure the books are neat and organized. A potted plant might be a good thing. For specialized topics, you might want a backdrop that relates to the topic. If your office is messy, consider getting a curtain to hang behind you. Check out my video showing how you can inexpensively set up your office for creating videos.***Looking for training on Adobe Presenter? You can't go wrong with our $79 mini courses. There's a three hours on Adobe Presenter and another on Video Express.

Wesley Fryer discusses How are you dealing with TMI? (Too Much Information)  (found via Stephen Downes).  Wesley points us to a post by Kevin Washburn "TMI! Information Overload and Learning." where Kevin points out: TMI floods the brain with data, preventing comprehension and elaboration, and thus, preventing learning. Jonah Lehrer suggests the danger of too much information is "it can actually interfere with understanding." Why? Because the brain has a do-it-yourself attitude toward learning. Wes also asks us to consider:  current visual list of education applications from the website "All My Favs." I’m overwhelmed just looking at these choices!   This is similar to the list of Web 2.0 tools that I often use in my presentations. All of these represent potential metacognitive tools and methods.  Life was simple 25 years ago.  We knew how to use the card catalog, journal indices, microfiche readers.  We had quarters in our pocket for the Xerox machine.  We knew how to use Interlibrary Loan.  We knew how to take notes. It's a lot more complicated these days. And I think that we need to recognize that it's more than the "Too Much Information" aspect of the issue.  It's really that we need to adapt to new methods and tools.  It's a big skills, knowledge, performance gap - see Work Skills Keeping Up.  And I personally believe that it's a big mistake to Not Prepare Workers for Web 2.0.  It's why I created Work Literacy about a year ago. Wes has some specific suggestions in his post for how to deal with TMI. I try to address this through posts such as: Tool Set LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers Top-Down Strategy Better Memory Information Radar Processing Pages with Links Networks and Learning Communities Collaborate Twitter as Personal Work and Learning Tool Search I look forward to collaborating on this very important topic. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

The BizLibrary Collection has changed dramatically since we introduced it last year.   In fact, we’ve added more than 8,000 new training programs and 5 new topic areas in just the past year.   And we haven’t just added programs, we’ve also retired more than 4,000 programs whose production quality or dates no longer meet our stringent standards.   We think it’s important for us to keep our content library fresh and current, and I think these numbers show just how serious we take this effort. And our users ratings have reflected our increased quality and updated content. For the first time in our history, our average course rating for ALL courses rated over the past year has been greater than 3.6 out of 5 stars. We watch these ratings and comments closely, and they help keep us on our toes in terms of quality and freshness.   The courses highlighted in the "Top 4 Topic Areas of 2014!" represent the most popular from the BizLibrary Collection. Try them out and let us know what you think!   Workplace Safety Back Injury Prevention - Blueprints for Safety Electrical Safety: What Everyone Should Know Management & Supervision A Manager's Guide: To Lead or Not to Lead Conflict Management: Unavoidable Truths Customer Service SMILE! Business Friendly Customer Service - The Core Values of Delivering Exceptional Service Anti-Harassment It's Not Just About Sex Anymore™ Harassment and Discrimination in the Workplace The Right Side of the Line: Creating a Respectful and Harassment-Free Workplace       Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 10,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.

IconLogic and the eLearning Brothers have joined forces to bring you the very best in training and eLearning assets.Beginning today, when you complete any of the following IconLogic classes you will receive a free one-year paid subscription to the eLearning Brothers eLearning Templates (a $499 value). Adobe Captivate Beginner Adobe Captivate Advanced Articulate Storyline Beginner Articulate Storyline Advanced Free Sample PacksComplete any of IconLogic's 3-hour eLearning mini courses and you'll receive a free sample pack of eLearning assets from the eLearning Brothers.

This is probably the last update on the upcoming online conference. We are finally announcing the speakers and a bit more about what they will be discussing.On July 23 - click the following to: Launch the SessionYou won't want to miss this ... Intuit talks about their move to outsource learning development to their customers and redefining value of learning. Hearing Dave Wilkins talk about selling social learning solutions. Or Gary Wise talking about selling incremental changes to learning designs on the path to richer solutions. Amit Garg discussing where his innovation team is focusing. Or senior leaders from major training companies talk about the challenges and opportunities in the market. This is going to be really great stuff. Future of the Business of Learning Free Online Event July 23 9 AM - 2 PM Pacific Time (Click on times to see Time Zone Conversion) Brought to you by: Learn Trends, ISA and Training Magazine Network.Moderated by Tony Karrer. Register Here Description: Corporate training departments and training companies are facing challenging times. It’s clear to thrive they need to focus on business critical issues for the organization, provide solutions provide real value, differentiate their offerings, and look at ways to provide value beyond being a publisher of courses and courseware. However, that’s easier said than done. This online event will bring together people with a variety of perspectives on what we should be doing today to set ourselves up for success going forward. We will look at questions that include: Is this a temporary downturn or changing landscape? How will demand change? What will internal or external customers pay for that's not traditional training? What's already selling today? What business models, products, companies should we be watching? What should we be doing today to be in position for the future? Panel #1 - Industry Perspectives 9 AM - 10 AM Pacific Time This distinguished panel will provide overview of the challenges going on in the industry, major trends that they are seeing, what is selling and what’s not, and where they believe that organizations need to go to be successful going forward. Josh, a long time analyst and source for trends in learning product and market data, trends and expert advice, will provide us with perspectives on what’s going on. Paul, a connector between training companies and other kinds of providers and the marketplace, has some very specific suggestions on where training companies need to focus. Lisa, as President of ISA and a long-time consultant to training companies, understands a lot of the challenges they face. Josh Bersin, CEO and President, Bersin and Associates Paul Terlemezian, President, iFive Alliances Lisa Fagan, President, Amplify Selling Panel #2 - Internal Training Perspectives 10 AM - 11 AM Pacific Time This panel consists of senior managers responsible for aspects of corporate learning who will discuss what they are doing today and opportunities they see in the future. Gary will talk about his Prepare-Deploy-Reinforce (PDR) model, how it represents an incremental transition, and how he sells to various audiences. Rob will talk about how he sees his offerings transition in the future. Allessandria from Intuit will discuss how they’ve outsourced parts of their development to their customers and have changed how they view "return" on learning investments. Gary Wise, Sr. Director Learning Architecture, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Rob Robertson, SVP, Learning Technology and Architecture, Citi Allessandria Polizzi, PhD, Group Manager, Accountant Training & Relations, Intuit Panel #3 - Training Company Perspectives 11 AM - Noon Pacific Time This panel consists of senior executives at training companies who are looking at how they can create more compelling offerings in the market. They will discuss aspects of how their offerings are evolving and the kinds of new offerings they are trying to sell. Ann, who facilitated a session for ISA with CEOs of Training Companies to look at the future of the business of learning, will start the session with an overview of key take-aways from that session. Jeff, Pete and Ben will all discuss their particular perspectives on what it’s going to take to be successful going forward. Because of their very different kinds of companies and offerings, we’ll likely have a lively discussion. Ann Herrmann-Nehdi, CEO Herrmann International Jeff Sugerman, President and CEO, Inscape Publishing Pete Weaver Senior Vice President of Leadership Solutions and Chief Learning Officer, DDI Ben Snyder, CEO, Systemation Panel #4 - Software and Services Perspectives Noon - 1 PM Pacific Time This panel consists of senior executives at software and services companies who are trying to create compelling offerings in the market. They will discuss aspects of how their offerings are evolving and the kinds of new offerings they are trying to sell and the challenges they have selling these offerings. Amit will discuss their interesting innovation team that works closely with training company partners to showcase new offerings that the partners can sell in the marketplace such as mobile, performance support, simulations and games, integrated accountability, and social learning solutions. Dave will discuss the challenges and opportunities around social learning solutions. Holly and Monika will talk about capitalizing on development opportunities that exist in every day work environments. Amit Garg, Director, Upside Learning - The Training Company Back Office Dave Wilkins, Executive Director of Product Marketing, Learn.com Monika Ebert, CEO, DifferentLensHolly St. John Peck, CEO, Peck Training Group Panel #5 - Discussion 1 PM - 2 PM Pacific Time We will transition into a more open discussion around what we heard and what we think are some of the important answers coming from the session. We have several interesting folks joining the discussion that I’m sure will challenge us a bit. Some of these folks include: Jay Cross Harold Jarche Ray Jimenez eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.           Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 10,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   The Career Journey and Learning Across Generations In this eBook you'll learn the demographic, behavioral, performance, and future demands of each career stage - 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.

by Kevin Siegel    When I teach Camtasia, one of the activities that garners the largest "that's cool" factor is how easy it is to animate any object. During class, we not only animate an object, we get it to grow and rotate while it's flying around the screen. Sound awesome? Here's how to do it: Insert an object onto the Camtasia stage (you can animate anything... in the image below I've added a rectangle callout, added a bit of text and positioned it in the middle of the stage).  Extend the playtime for the object so it sticks around for a bit (right-click the object on the Timeline and choose Duration).  In the image below, I have extended the duration for my callout to 20 seconds. Now for the fun part, to animate the object, position the playhead as far left on the Timeline as it will go.   Ensure the object you want to animate is selected and choose Tools > Visual Properties. On the Visual Properties panel, click the Add animation button. On the Timeline, the selected object now sports a blue circle. The blue circle is an animation's starting point.  On the Stage, drag the object left to remove it temporarily from the stage. On the Timeline, position the Playhead 5 or 10 seconds to the right of the first blue circle.     On the Stage, ensure that the object is still selected and click the Add animation button on the Visual Properties panel to add a second blue circle to the Timeline. On the Stage, drag the object to the middle of the Stage. In the images below, I've added a third animation (and then, on the Stage, I dragged my object to a third position... and I resized and rotated it to boot... if you're following along, you can add as many or few animations to the Timeline as you like).  To test the animation, rewind the video and then click the Play button on the Video Preview playbar.  Go ahead, say it... that's pretty cool! If you'd like to see a video demonstration of adding animations to a Camtasia project, check out the IconLogic YouTube channel.   *** 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 about Camtasia, Captivate, Presenter, or Storyline, we've got a great collection of live, online classes for you. 

Written by Chris Osborn   In today's Q&A Wednesday, BizLibrary's VP of Marketing Chris Osborn details a simple three-step program to motivate employees who exhibit lack of interest in learning.     Access 10,000+ Employee Training Resources BizLibrary offers 10,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   How to Measure the Impact of Employee Soft Skills Training We know great "people skills" when we see them or experience them. However, soft skills don’t always lend themselves to easy measurement for excellence. Measure the business impact . . . Well, that’s just not something the ROI and traditional approaches to training investment don’t really help us do very effectively unless we dig deeper. 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 with BizLibrary with today's Q&A. It comes from Andrew, he's an HR director at a marketing services organization and he has a question that a lot of us have faced: he wants to know what you can do to motivate people to learn who really approach their job as a 9 to 5 thing and aren't motivated at all. Well, this is a really difficult challenge and many organizations face it with many employees. In fact, many organizations face it with far too many employees. So, what do you do? Well, the first thing you have to do is begin with sort of a foundational, and this is interesting it happens in a marketing organization, with a foundational marketing challenge. You have to explain why learning is important for every employee and in today's marketplace it really isn't a difficult message to communicate.   Just step back and think about what has happened to our economy in the last five or six years. Many, many jobs have disappeared and those jobs aren't coming back but what we're also seeing is the emergence of many, many new jobs and the demand for many new skills. Where are those employees going to come from? Where are those people going to come from? Well, they're going to come from people that have the ability to learn new skills, acquire those skills, and bring them to employers who want them. If that's not motivation to learn, I don't know what is. So that becomes the message. You have to explain to people to be viable in this economy, for you, for your personal career benefit, to help you and your family succeed, being dedicated to continuous learning, continuous improvement and continuous skills upgrades matter. They matter to keep you relevant not only to this job and our company but they matter to you. Let's keep your skills up to date, let's find ways to make sure you're on the leading edge and on top of what's happening in your profession and our company. And let's also make this required and let's make it a part of everybody's job in the organization.   The second thing you have to do is get your managers and supervisors engaged in delivering that message. Make it a part of their job to develop their employees. And then last but not least, you have to hold those employees accountable for professional growth and development and if employees refuse to learn and refuse to grow to meet the needs of the organization, you may need to make a change and find employees who WILL grow and help your organization develop. There isn't any easy answer to this but ultimately that's the trick. First, explain why it's important to the employees, second, get your managers involved and third hold those employees accountable. If you do those three things you have a good chance to motivate those reluctant employees.

I just got through posting the eLearning Learning Best Of for this week: Knowledge Skills Mentoring Tips - Best of eLearning Learning There's something that doesn't make sense to me, so I need your help! Best of eLearning Learning is a Must Subscribe I could be completely wrong, but I feel like these Best Of posts represent a really valuable contribution to people who don't have the time to read all of the posts from all the great eLearning bloggers and all the other sources that we track and include on eLearning Learning. In fact, even for me, and I'm on the extreme end of reading blogs, I often miss good items that are surfaced through the Best of eLearning Learning lists. In my experience doing presentations to learning professionals, polling the audience I find that roughly: 10% - use an RSS Reader to monitor blogs as sources of content related to their professional interests 90% - do not use an RSS Reader, but do subscribe to various email lists and other sources of content related to their professional interest The Best of eLearning Learning is really aimed at the 90% audience. It's my belief that if you are interested in eLearning and only could subscribe to a single email (or RSS feed), you should subscribe to the Best Of feed. I also don't know that there's anything close to that available anywhere else. And I also believe that even if you are in the 10% you probably should subscribe (although via RSS) to the Best Of list just to help make sure you didn't miss good stuff during the past week, month or year. Or to put this another, rather blunt way - If you had to choose to subscribe to eLearning Technology, this blog, or the the Best of eLearning Learning, you should subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning. Of course, the right answer is to subscribe to both. ;) Please Help Me Figure This Out My expectation is that eLearning Learning with it's higher traffic rates and great content should be acquiring new subscribers at a faster rate than this blog. But that's not the case. Both are growing. But for the first 5 months of this year eLearning Technology adds about 20 new subscribers per day at a fairly constant rate and eLearning Learning is adding about 10 per day since it started a few weeks ago to offer email subscriptions. Heck, I would think that most of the subscribers here would immediately have subscribed to the Best of eLearning Learning and the numbers would be much higher already. All of this doesn't make any sense to me: Any thoughts on an explanation? Have you subscribed to the Best of eLearning Learning? Why or why not? Part of the issue may be reaching the 90% audience. By definition, the 90% are not subscribed to this blog and are not reading this. So maybe there's an additional question: How can bloggers reach the other 90%? I'd appreciate your help in figuring this out. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

by Jennie Ruby I watched a documentary the other day featuring a number of interviews with different speakers. When each speaker appeared for the first time, text displayed near the bottom of the screen to identify the person being interviewed. In fact, when that person appeared again later in the film, the text appeared again briefly to remind the audience who was talking. When you create a self-video with Adobe Presenter Video Express, you can do the exact same thing to identify yourself. Here's how to add descriptive text to any section of a video:After you've recorded a video, open it in the Adobe Presenter Video Express editor. Place the playhead at the point in the video where you want the identifying text to appear. Since this is going to be identifying text, you'll want to place it at the first point where you appear in the video.At the lower left, click the Branding tool  to open the branding pane.  At the bottom of the branding pane, under Lower Third Text, enter your name and job title.  At the lower right, you can also set how many seconds you want the text to stay onscreen.When you play the video, the identifying text appears, just like in a documentary. Here I am in my starring role as Human Resources Director, in my upcoming video, A Tour of Headquarters.   ***Looking for training on Adobe Presenter? You can't go wrong with our $79 mini courses. Get up to speed in three hours on Adobe Presenter or on Video Express, or sign up for both. Learn more. 

View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording. Ideas for Marketing Methods / Techniques       Try out BizLibrary's Online Library! BizLibrary provides 10,000+ training videos and eLearning courses in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.

One of the more interesting aspects of the discussions I've had over the past few weeks as I prepare for the free online conference on the future of learning is the perspective on the focus and scope of responsibility of internal learning organizations and external learning/training companies. Caveat: This is definitely not a new issue. I'm not really claiming any great new insights.  It's a first cut at a developing mental model.  This is only partially formed and I need help to flesh out my thinking. Please let me know what you think. Does this ring true?  Does the model work for you?  Do you similarly hear these kinds of clues?  And what other clues do you use to identify? What are the implications?  With all that said, I believe that I'm beginning to get a handle on the differences in focus that people bring to bear around their responsibilities.  The following crude diagram captures a bit of it: I'm finding that learning professionals of all types (IDs, CLOs, VP Learning, C-level at Training Company, etc.) tend to own a different view of their responsibilities in this space. Learning - Responsible for ensuring learning objectives are achieved regardless of the delivery mode. Talent - Responsible for ensuring that talent is analyzed, selected and developed to meet the needs of the organization.  Performance - Responsible for ensuring that behavior change occurs in a way that improves performance. Business - Responsible for ensuring that business objectives are met. Know the "Right Answer" Let's say that we are interviewing a potential new learning professional.  We pose the question to them: What do you see as the responsibility of a learning organization? Many (probably most) learning professionals are smart enough to be able to answer the question such that they focus on creating solutions that are ultimately about all of these.  They would position themselves right in the middle of the diagram.  This is, of course, the right answer although a very adept job seeker will be able to adjust the answer quickly based on the focus on the organization that's doing the interviewing. If you've done much interviewing in your life, you know that asking this kind of question is most often not effective.  Instead, it's much better to find out by asking about specific examples of projects they've worked on and listen to the focus.  You ask about things like the types of solutions that they've used, what were the objectives, how did they tackle the problems, etc. Of course, I'm not interviewing people for a job.  Normally, I'm talking to people with the goal of getting help on particular needs, e.g., how is social learning being used in insurance companies or other highly regulated industries, how does this technology work out in practice, what other things should I be looking at to solve this issue.  In this case, I've had a bunch of conversations around the Business of Learning and this model is somewhat falling out from the discussions.  But it's still conversations and I'm coming to fairly quickly recognize some clues that indicate the focus of the individual. So what are some clues about the focus that you can listen for? Learning Focus Clues The person is showing learning focus when you hear: "… learning objectives … " "… learners …" "We have very limited budget and our focus needs to be on building critical, core skills." "I wish we had the time and money to spend on informal and social learning solutions." "We want to make sure that our informal learning still ensures that we meet the learning objectives?" "Our trainers don't have time to get involved with the learners after the training." Performance Focus Clues The person is showing performance focus when you hear: "behavior change" "performer support" "toolkits and job aids" "involve the managers" "back on the job" "feedback" Business Focus Clues The person is showing business focus when you hear: "customer satisfaction" (or a host of other business metrics) "metrics" (and they don't mean Level 1 and 2) "move the needle" "we probably don't need much training" Talent Focus Clues The person is showing performance focus when you hear: "fill the talent pipeline" "talent mix" "job profiles" "succession planning" "competencies" "recruiting and selection" "performance review process" Notes, Questions and Thoughts Unfair Bias around Learning Focus? As I wrote down the clues that indicate a learning focus, I felt I was being unfair.  I've talked to a lot of very smart people who clearly have the learning focus.  I respect them, consider them to be valuable contributors, and feel like I'm being unfair when I put down those clues.  I feel I should somehow even this out a bit.  But I wasn't sure how. Obviously, this is partly personal bias.  All things being equal (which they never are), I'm guessing my focus is more a business and performance focus.  I was a professor for 11 years and still do lots of presentations and workshops where clearly the focus is learning.  Certainly Work Literacy has a learning and performance focus and is a passion of mine.  But day-to-day, my passion and where I probably play best are things like data driven solutions.  Working on eHarmony for its first 4 years with a combined purpose of making money, making better marriages and supporting a rather complex performance was fantastic.  Working with emerging or established companies is fantastic.  Looking at social learning as a performance mechanism is fantastic.  So maybe I have a strong bias towards business, performance, and then learning and that's why it doesn't sound quite right the way I've positioned it. You will notice I didn't say much about talent focus.  I'm know about it.  I do work in it.  I've actually done data driven solutions in that space.  But it's not my normal focus and I feel a little bit removed from a talent focus.  I definitely struggle the most when talking with people who have a very strong talent focus. So, I'm really not sure how to level this playing field a bit so that my bias is not coming through.  Thoughts? Also, I'm sure that most people do flow between these things a bit, but have a more natural home.  I'm not quite sure how that fits into this whole discussion. Separation of Performance and Business Focus? I debated on separating performance and business focus.  You may notice that they two overlap more than most of the other sections.  That's intentional.  I believe that there are quite a few people who take a combined business and performance focus.  There are relatively fewer who are dominant on the performance focus - but occasionally I run into people who seem to come at it with that focus. Talent and Performance Intersection? When I first did the diagram I intentionally did not have an intersection point right in the middle - and specifically it excluded intersection of Talent and Performance.  Most people who I talk to who have a talent focus seem to come at this whole picture from a completely different angle.  They describe goals in terms of looking at the overall mix of talent in the organization.  They look at the picture much more holistically.  They are quite often trying to align this with top level goals of the organization, but in many cases they really are not talking about moving the needle.  They care about learning as part of development and to build important competencies in the organization and to fill the talent pipeline.  So, intersection with learning and business - not necessarily focus - is clear. Intersection between talent and performance seems less common.  Normally the folks who look at the big picture talent issues are far removed from day-to-day behavior and performance.  They would claim that they look at it in terms of skills and competencies.  They need to know about behavior in the form of job profiles, selection, performance reviews, etc.  But the reality is that they are typically not thinking about what it takes to directly help to get the sales people to sell more, or change how retail sales managers get the associates to act in a way that improves customer satisfaction, etc.  They won't be building a job aid anytime soon.  They are likely not talking to the performers or facilitating interactions on the job to get performance to improve.  It's a level indirect from that. As I said, I initially put these as non-intersecting, and then I thought about people who work directly with sales management that really do take a look across all of these issues.  I'm not saying that all sales management improvement professionals take this approach, but certainly some do.  They look at who the sales people are, how they get selected, the comp packages.  But they also look at the sales support materials, sales meetings.  They get in and get dirty day-to-day.  So, clearly this kind of dual focus exists, especially around specific goals. Organizational Expectations When I discussed the "right answer", I pointed out that an adept learning professional seeking a job would quickly adapt to the interviewer and make sure that their answer corresponded to what the person wanted to hear.  You would listen for clues and use the language that fits.  Same as what I just described. Of course, that happens in organizations as well.  The collection of people in the organization establish what the expectation is around focus.  If they expect you to have a learning focus and deliver formal training solutions and not bother them back on the job when they are doing real work, you will quickly find yourself taking a learning focus in order to fit.  Meaning and Use of the Model? I debated on whether this model is useful and meaningful enough to post.  It's pretty much an internal mental model that developed based on many discussions (and really many years).  That doesn't mean it will make sense for anyone else.  Nor does it necessarily suggest that it's useful. So, can you tell me whether this makes any sense to you? In terms of use, for a long time - without having thought through this model, I've known that there's incredible friction trying to move someone from a particular focus.  This comes up all the time in practice: To convince someone who's primarily learning focused to spend time and effort on solutions that come after training, you need to talk about it in terms of additional learning transfer opportunities.  The learning won't stick unless we get out there after they are back on the job and reinforce it.  We can talk about "office hours" where learners come together to discuss issues they face when they are back on the job.  And you know going in that this all will be a tough sell. You need to talk to most talent focused people in talent terms.  If you have a toolkit / set of job aids, you need to talk about it in terms of reducing the time to competence or how it fits with development planning. If you are talking to business or performance focused people, prepare to get in and get dirty.  You need to be prepared to be in there working with the people to get the performance to change or the needle to move.  I'd suggest not using the words "learning objective" … they may perceive you as "one of those people" … they'll let you know when they will need some of that kind of thing.  But this is more than language.  It translates into how they think about tackling problems and the kinds of solutions that they consider.    Again - this is all partially formed and I'm really hoping that you will weigh in with thoughts. eLearning Technology Subscribe to the Best of eLearning Learning for updates from this blog and other eLearning blogs.

by Kevin Siegel    When Camtasia developers need to add attention-grabbing visual affects to a software demonstration created using the Camtasia Recorder, the work is typically accomplished by editing the recording in Camtasia Studio. However, using Camtasia's Effects Toolbar, you can add several attention-grabbing visuals while you are recording your video. Start the Camtasia Recorder. Enable the Effects toolbar by choosing Tools > Recording toolbars and selecting Effects (click the OK button to close the Recording toolbars dialog box).     Create a video by clicking the Rec button on the Camtasia Recorder.After the 3-2-1 countdown, the Effects tools appear on the Recording toolbar.   Select the ScreenDraw tool to display different Drawing tools. You can select from among frames, lines, highlights, ellipses and even a pen.   At this point, you can use the tools to draw all kinds of shapes on the screen (at the same time that you're creating the video).     Note: You can erase all of the screen drawings by once again clicking the ScreenDraw tool.   *** 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.