Did you get a chance to meet us in the DevLearn expo? We had many wonderful conversations with attendees. Thanks for stopping by and learning more about the Litmos platform. Many that stopped by are in the process of switching from an existing LMS. And there were others interested in finding the perfect solution for managing their training business. I learn something new with every conversation. It's always a pleasure to talk with my colleagues in the training field. I think my favorite part of event conversations is telling attendees that Litmos is more than an LMS. It's fun to see their reaction when they hear about our client services team, and that we offer content bundles as well. And of course our integrations with other popular systems like Box.com, Salesforce, Shopify, TribeHR, and others, is always a big hit. Don't forget to start your trial or schedule a demo when you've recovered from your travels. Hot Tech Conversations xAPI and HTML5 were the big technology conversations...as they have been for a while now. Most training professionals will never need to know how these technologies work. They are the bits of technology under the hood that drive the solutions you might be implementing in the future. There were many sessions for learning more about xAPI and HTML5. There was even an xAPI camp that gave attendees a complete day of learning. If you are one of the tech savvy who enjoy geeking out on new technologies for learning, then you should meet Anthony Altieri. I had a chance to record a conversation with Anthony explaining his wearable LRS...and "the button". Keynotes and Streaming Tech I've already seen David Pogue several times and so the Adam Savage keynote was the only keynote I was looking forward too this year. But while I enjoyed Adam's message I also wanted to test out my mobile video streaming setup.  Shockingly, I was able to get a fairly decent connection and so I dared to attempt streaming via Periscope. As you can see the video turned out to be quite horrible. However, my Rode boom video mic performed quite well. So, what did I learn? The first important take away is that mobile streaming video is a good solution when timing is more important than quality. Streaming video via a mobile device has the potential to expand your reach as a training professional. A few people enjoyed the stream while not at the event location. This can be translated in many ways into the training that we do. But I'll save those details for another post. All in all I think it was a successful test of Periscope as a tool for sharing/learning. How Do You Define eLearning? Lately I've been hearing/seeing a split in how eLearning is defined. More on my thoughts about that later. At DevLearn I had a chance to interview a few people to get their thoughts on eLearning. I was curious about how professionals define eLearning these days. Here are 3 answers that probably won't surprise you. Or maybe they will. Serendipitous Learning at DevLearn Everyone will agree the best part of attending events is not the structured content, but rather the unstructured chance meetings and random conversations that often yield fantastic results. True to form the hallway conversations at DevLearn proved to be informative and valuable. I even learned something new while having lunch. That moment may not seem all that important. And yes it is a little tongue-in-cheek. However, consider how easy it was for me to create and share that moment. No big budgets. No professional film crew. No expensive equipment. I certainly could have simply written it down and published the knowledge as a tweet, or maybe post to Facebook. But video has a certain powerful element that is engaging and offers something words can't. I hope you all enjoyed DevLearn this year. We'll see you there next year! Always remember that you can contact me anytime on twitter via @Litmos. The post DevLearn 2015 Recap - Love Your LMS! appeared first on Litmos.

What is Back to Basics? Getting back to basics could mean many things. I first heard the phrase while working at Intel in the '90s. It's something executives like to announce when they feel the business has moved too far outside of it's core value proposition for customers. And it's also an internal initiative to get employees to remember the simple rules of running effective meetings, communicating, getting into the office on time, etc. It's about just getting back to the simple habits that originally make a company, or individual, great. Business, as in life, can get complicated and out of control easily and quickly. But you first need to understand what the basics are. Then re-focus your energy on those things. We Need a Back to Basics Movement in eLearning Personally, I've felt a need for a "Back to Basics" movement in our industry for many years now. But, as you can imagine, it's not an easy story to sell. Having a CEO announce an initiative to his company is powerful, but just one random colleague in an industry of thousands announcing it is much less impactful. However, after a few years of seeing this wave build, I'm confident in saying that we absolutely need to get back to basics.  And honestly, the technology is moving back to basics with, our without, us. But it's not what you might think. I'm definitely not advocating for going back to basic instructional design...whatever that might be. My idea of "Back to Basics" simply comes from seeing the failures of formalized instructional design, complicated LMSs, and our industry's lack of flexibility to deviate from the traditional design processes of eLearning development. And then with that in mind, to witness how current technologies are being used in everyday life. What the eLearning industry creates, and what the world consumes seem so far apart. The world consumes video on YouTube while the eLearning industry traps video inside SCORM packages. My version of back to basics is simple. Set your content free! My Journey Back to Basics Much of the evidence supporting my Back to Basics theory has come in the last 5 years. 5 years ago I was still the Program Director for DevLearn with an amazing view of the industry. I saw the need from that vantage point. I then built a training department from the ground up for a rapidly growing business before joining the Litmos team. 3 very different perspectives/experiences across a relatively short timeframe. While at Litmos it's been a common theme amongst the growing customer base. They are tired of complex, error-prone, frustrating Learning Management Systems, and seek out something simple and effective that everyone can use and enjoy. My favorite part of demoing Litmos is seeing smiles grow as those new to Litmos click through the system for the first time. The latest case study from Gigya is a perfect example. Here is what Kyle Ketelsen, Enterprise Business Development Manager at Gigya, had to say about their recent switch to the Litmos LMS: "Litmos was easy to deploy and has benefited our employees greatly for ongoing sales training." "The cost, usability and step-by-step navigation made Litmos a no-brainer for us. It is easy for admins to use, whether they are adding or removing people from the system, or creating courses and tasks for their teams to complete." Gigya ultimately needed a training solution that would motivate managers to create courses and encourage employees to complete them. And doesn't everyone? It really can and should be that simple. The idea that large creative teams are required to create training content is outdated. I'm not saying that a high level of course development is no longer necessary at all. But I am saying that fewer and fewer projects truly require it. The basic idea of sharing knowledge should not be so complicated. And it isn't. New technologies like mobile video streaming are proving that every day. In recent presentations I've emphasized adding business value far more strongly than anything else. The corporate training industry needs to refocus on the basic idea of providing value to the business. And part of adding business value is letting go of old ideas about what the training department produces. Short, simple, modular course designs will win the day over large eLearning SCORM packages. Everyone in your organization can be part of the creative process. And you don't need to master an authoring tool to create business value. However, you do need a simple, cost effective, user-friendly system like Litmos to help manage your content, organize teams, and report on progress. How do you and your team add business value? This blog post is only an introduction to these ideas. Please reach out to me @Litmos and let's continue the conversation. I'd like to know your thoughts on Back to Basics and Adding Business Value   The post Take Your eLearning Back to Basics - Simple, Fast, Inexpensive WINS! appeared first on Litmos.

If you want to understand the world of social media there are hundreds of "experts" and "gurus" ready to jump at the chance to help you. But if you want to learn about how social media/networks impact your enterprise and it's learning culture, there is only one...okay 2.  Marcia Conner and Tony Bingham have updated The New Social Learning and it's better than ever. This second edition makes it more relevant to today's fast paced digital enterprise and arms you with the information you need to make an informed decision about social learning. I had a chance to talk with Marcia via skype.  We kept the conversation relatively short (13mins) but focused on the impact of social learning on the corporate training department and the instructional design work we do. I think you'll be surprised by Marcia's answers to questions like these: "If social learning takes off, what happens to the training department?" "How does effective social learning effect the practice of instructional design?" "What's the ROI of Social Learning? How do we measure it?". And you'll definitely want to watch until the very end as Marcia offers up an excellent book recommendation. (Hint: It's not any of her own books) You can find Marcia Conner on twitter @marciamarcia The post The Truth About Social Learning and Training - An Interview with Marcia Conner appeared first on Litmos.

There is much buzz around design processes these days, and it’s worthwhile to look at what the excitement is. While there is a bit of ‘hype’ about this, there’s also some real value to be found, so it’s worthwhile to dig into the details. Why should we even consider reviewing our design processes? In addition to problems with the outcomes, there are some structural problems. What we want is a repeatable and predictable process that yields optimal outcomes under pragmatic constraints. And we’re far from it. The original learning design model for process is ADDIE: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. And these are all good steps, but there’s a problem. Too often, they’re followed in a linear methodology. And that’s not a recipe for success. In software engineering, it has long been recognized that a linear, so-called ‘waterfall’ model of design doesn't work. With substances like concrete and metal, the properties are well known. However, when designing for humans, as the audience becomes aware of the opportunities created during the process their ideas of what they want are likely to change. Thus, there will be a change in requirements that basically destroys a linear process. To be fair, most process proponents have advocated an iterative model of ADDIE for a long time now, but the anecdotal evidence is that’s not representative of what takes place. Another revolution in software engineering has been the Agile approach, sparked by a Manifesto. As a consequence, new approaches have been proposed including Allen’s SAM and Torrance’s LLAMA model. The core concept is the notion of teams working in short ‘sprints’ to develop the next iteration, and then planning forward. This has a number of benefits, including rapid outcomes, regular testing, and working together. However, there are more nuances beyond just iterative. So let’s run through some of the possible characteristics and some options, evaluating the case for each. Principles To be sure, iterative is good. However, it does have to be formative as well. That means that each iteration is evaluated and the feedback refines the design. The goal is that at every iteration there needs to be a test or a review to determine how the output is meeting the desired criteria. The above implies a measurement focus. In software development, good processes stipulate what the inputs and outputs of the software will be, including a test suite, before development begins. Ideally, there should similarly be learning outcomes (as well as usability and engagement metrics) that the output should meet when done. In practice, of course, it is often the case that we’re testing to find major problems. In usability, a heuristic approach iterates between expert review and user testing, with a goal of catching some 80-90% of problems. A related principle is that development should output small working products that can be elaborated, rather than producing one monolithic output. This makes sense in the notion of modular software, but an open question is how it gets mapped to learning content. One approach would be to first develop the final practice or assessment, then to add additional practices to get the learner to this point, and finally determine the minimum necessary concepts and examples to be developed. Another precedent is to stay with the lowest technology possible for as long as possible. A core premise is that the more you invest in development, the harder it is to throw away. A coarser version of this is to not start development until a design is fully rendered as a storyboard. As tools get easier to use, this may not be as much of an issue, but the ability to throw away and start again is a valuable freedom to ensure the willingness to take feedback in full. Another mantra that arose out of usability was so-called ‘situated’ design. This was where the designers didn’t work in a vacuum, but particularly in the analysis phase there were visits to the actual performance environment. Here there were clues to where the real problems lay (for instance, users might not comment on problems they’d solved by posting a sticky note to remind them of some step or important information). This is now an aspect of performance consulting, but the realities of the need should indeed be validated before determining the solution. Also arising out of the user interface field was the move to ‘participatory’ design. Here, representative users were active in the actual design process. These users (and other stakeholders) provide a reality check, serving as the voice of the customer, and their developing awareness was useful in anticipating design opportunities that weren’t available at the time of requirement setting. The flexibility to support emergent capabilities provides a rich way to truly create a learner experience. Similarly, an important component of the agile method, as mentioned earlier, is the collaborative nature. Research now makes clear that the best outputs come when people work together in productive ways. Having one individual responsible for all the design (let alone all the design and development) is suboptimal. At worst, have several checkpoints where people collaborate, including at the beginning and at every review point. One of the issues that arises is maintaining predictability. Many people are concerned that iterations provide an uncertain amount of revisions. SAM solved this by pragmatically choosing 3 iterations for each of the two loops in their approach (which can be adjusted based upon smart expectations about the scope and complexity of the project, as I understand it). An interesting approach comes from software engineering. Watts Humphries, after a career in quality control for coding, looked at a personal and team process that decreased code errors and improved estimates. His key element on the latter was to document the estimates and then subsequently compare estimates to actual outcomes. The realization was that too often, estimates were never reviewed and consequently the discrepancies never decreased. When the errors were reviewed, however, the estimate accuracy increased. Goals & Implications It is clear that we may not want to incorporate all of these elements into our approaches, but we do want to work towards creating processes that will balance optimal outcomes with pragmatic scope. Certain goals should be on the top of our list. First, we should be looking to create learning that is effective as well as efficient. If we develop a course when it’s not necessary, we’ve missed an opportunity and wasted money. Similarly, if we develop a course focused on the wrong things, we’re not being efficient with resources. This suggests effective performance consulting up front, and a process for working with SMEs that results in the right objectives. Once we’ve determined a real learning need, we need to ensure that our learning design is going to be effective. This means that we want to ensure sufficient meaningful practice, specific feedback, and the minimal amount of concepts and examples to achieve the necessary outcomes. Prototyping and refinement, e.g. iteration, is the way to ensure practice that meets the necessary criteria. Incorporating regular cycles of expert review and user testing in lightweight ways is also appropriate We also want the experience to be emotionally engaging. Working collaboratively is one of the best ways to tap into the creativity that’s likely to create engagement. This includes compelling narratives and appropriate and varied use of media. Pragmatics All of the above needs to be managed so that it’s still repeatable and affordable. Instituting regular checkpoints for interaction between team members when creativity is desirable, and with stakeholders when reviews are required, is one approach. Templates for learning design quality can reduce the requirement for too much review. While initially the effort required may be higher, with practice the amount of effort goes down and the ability to predict goes up. An essential component is beginning to measure the impact of the learning. This focus on metrics has two roles. The first is to ensure that the focus on the learning design is on a meaningful change. The second is to both inform and document the success. Overall, there may be an overall increase in effort required. This should be offset by not developing courses when courses aren’t required. It should also be justifiable once you start focusing on measurement and documenting that you’re having an impact on the organization. It’s time we stop assuming that we can take a given objective, prepare content and an associated quiz in a linear fashion by a single designer/developer or a handoff from design to developer, and have any meaningful impact. If we are going to acknowledge the complexity of the human brain, we need processes that draw upon what’s known about maximizing outcomes under realistic constraints. Our design processes need to reflect the 21st century just as much as our learning design does. The post An Instructional Design Process Review by Dr. Clark Quinn appeared first on Litmos.

The 30-10-1 ILT Framework 30-10-1 is a formula for creating instruction in 10 minute blocks. The theory is borrowed from John Medina’s book Brain Rules. To keep the attention of a room full of adult learners you’ve only got about 10 minutes before you’ve lost them. Within each 10 minute segment is another pattern more similar to standard instructional design models. You should start each 10 min segment with something interesting, shocking, or otherwise thought provoking. This is where knowing your audience is valuable. You could also use Monroe’s Motivated Sequence as a guide. Start with a shocking statement or question followed by an emotional story. Then tie that story to the new information, and make connections to assumed prior knowledge. And close with a solution or satisfying outcome. Or you can use the time to answer questions. And let the Q&A signal the transition to the next topic. You get the idea. This is where your creativity is valued, and some of your legacy ISD skills may be useful. With interactivity being so important, you most likely have some activities that take longer than 10 minutes. That’s fine. If you need to take 3 10 minute segments to have your audience complete a task, then do it. Remember this is only a framework. Working within constraints drives progress. The purpose of the framework is to speed up your process. This is especially helpful when working with inexperienced instructors, or subject matter experts. Just looking at the framework is sometimes enough to encourage a re-write, and break down existing presentations into smaller chunks. Why 30 blocks? Remember that this is just a guideline to help you think through the amount of time you have available in a 1-day ILT event running from 8am-5pm. You may choose to start your event at 9pm or end at 4pm or even 3pm. Using this template is a quick way to visualize how much time is remains as you make adjustments. The template takes into account the time required for lunch, morning break, and afternoon break. It also accounts for the important introduction section. In today’s environment of social media/networks it’s especially important to build relationships within classroom events. Much of the power of ILT events comes from simply being around other people. Your course should encourage connections and networking so they can all continue their learning together once the event if over. Some courses skip Why 10 minutes? Dr. John Medina explains it best... "We don’t know why the 10 minute rule exists… but it does. You have to find a way to get someone’s attention and keep it for 10 minutes, and then do something to buy yourself another 10 minutes." I’ve had a hard time finding anyone that will argue this point. But arguing the point isn’t important. Like this entire document, the 10 minute rule is less of a rule and more of a guideline. Can you do 5 minute chunks? Sure. You might even be good enough to run with one topic for 12-15 minutes. But this basic rule of thumb stands firmly as a warning to those of us who enjoy talking. Once you’ve past the 8 minute mark you better be wrapping it up and preparing to re-engage your audience because you’re just about to lose them.   Why 1 Day? You have 30 10 minute blocks to fill in just one day! That’s a lot of content for your learners. Your learners already have a slim chance of remembering it all. And we know that utilizing spaced repetition to exercise recall greatly increases an attendee’s chance of remembering the content over the long term. But my guess is that most companies have nothing in place to support spaced repetition.  Therefore one day of training is already pushing the limits of memory.   But there are business priorities to consider. In many cases, especially where travel is involved, you have no choice but to schedule multiple days, back to back. And that’s okay. The important thing to remember is that keeping your learners engaged should be your main focus. You can use the template for as many days as you need. Sample 30-10-1 Template   Time Content Slide(s) # 8:00 AM Course Introduction 8:05 AM Personal Introductions 8:15 AM 1 8:25 AM 2 8:35 AM 3 8:45 AM 4 9:00 AM Topic 1: Introduction 9:15 AM 5 9:25 AM 6 9:35 AM 7 9:45 AM AM Break 10:00 AM Topic 2: Introduction 10:15 AM 8 10:25 AM 9 10:35 AM 10 10:45 AM 11 11:00 AM Topic 3: Introduction 11:15 AM 12 11:25 AM 13 11:35 AM 14 11:45 AM 15 12:00 PM Lunch 12:15 PM Lunch 12:25 PM Lunch 12:35 PM Lunch 12:45 PM Review 1:00 PM Topic 4: Introduction 1:15 AM 16 1:25 AM 17 1:35 AM 18 1:45 AM 19 2:00 PM Topic 5: Introduction 2:15 AM 20 2:25 AM 21 2:35 AM 22 2:45 AM PM Break 3:00 PM Topic 6: Introduction 3:15 AM 23 3:25 AM 24 3:35 AM 25 3:45 AM 26 4:00 PM Topic 7: Introduction 4:15 AM 27 4:25 AM 28 4:35 AM 29 4:45 AM 30 5:00 PM End   Using ILT for eLearning Design and Development The most valuable part of the 30-10-1 Framework rests in being created with future training development in mind. Starting your design process by producing an ILT event is a great way to provide business value during your design/development process. Creating 10min chunks of content for the classroom pre-designs your content for transformation to other technology driven formats. Utilizing the 30-10-1 framework for an ILT course is part of an iterative design process considering all future iterations of this course. But since ILT is highly desired, and easily produced, use it to deliver business value quickly and test the learning content with an audience of learners. Each 10 minute segment that you create is the starting point for future media content production. After you’ve delivered your ILT a few times you will begin to see which 10 minute segments are gaining the most interest, and which are falling flat. Popular segments can then be turned into videos, or other media formats. Less popular segments can be revised and tried again.   The post An ILT Framework Perfect for eLearning Design appeared first on Litmos.

Mobile phones have come a long way over the last few years. Even if your phone is a few years old it still has the ability to record video. And for that matter digital cameras and digicams have come a long way as well. But you shouldn’t be deciding to use one or the other. You should be using both, or which ever one you feel the most comfortable using. Everyone is watching video. It's time we started taking video production seriously as part of what training departments do. "91% of smartphone users turn to their smartphone for ideas while doing a given task." Source: Google/Ipsos, Consumers in the Micro-Moment study, March 2015. Based on the online population n=9598. Smartphone as Production Studio Most smartphone users have benefited from watching how-to videos, or other content on their smartphones. But I would venture to guess that not many have purposefully recorded video for sharing as learning content. And that just doesn't seem right. I often promote the idea that training departments should function more like news departments. In fact, much of what I've done as an instructional designer/developer has felt very much like what I did in broadcast news. The only difference being that news departments produce significant amounts of content daily while training departments produce very little by comparison. I'd like to encourage those in our industry to take content production seriously as part of the work we do, and not handed off to others. Check out this article from the BBC Academy titled Smartphones for News. Using Your Smartphone to Record Video Use your mobile device to record while on the go. And empower employees to do the same. Capture moments, processes, or conversations, that may not happen again. I’m sure there are plenty of moments where you wish you had your video camera. You do. It’s part of your smartphone. In many cases the rarity of the opportunity trumps quality.  Shaky, hand-held, video is okay and tolerated when the content is needed. Capturing and having the process, or moment, recorded is far more valuable than not at all. So don’t be afraid of using your phone for video recording. Using Digital Cameras to Record Video Most digital cameras these days also record video. And the pocket sized cameras are inexpensive and easy to use. If you can’t afford to hire a production team, then this is the way to go. Most pocket-sized digital cameras and DSLRs records video, but either will work fine. Camera options give you more settings and features than your smartphone. And this allows you to get better video quality if you take the time to learn how to use it.  Digital cameras have the added benefit of an SD card slot allowing for as much recording as you have SD cards. Your mobile device is usually limited on space, and will struggle to process long segments. For some reason within our industry I've found a stigma attached to recording video. There is a fear of doing it wrong, or that it's someone else's responsibility. And so great opportunities are missed because, "I wish the video guy was here to capture this." Well, guess what? Everyone is the video guy! Be proactive and capture great learning moments. Share them on your internal social network, or incorporate them into your training courses in your Learning Management System.  Business moves to quickly to wait for the production team. Practice recording video, and learn to be prepared when opportunities present themselves. Tell me how you produce video. I'd love to share your stories of success with others who need to hear it. @Litmos The post Why You Should Produce Your Own Video Learning Content appeared first on Litmos.

As a featured guest blogger here, Jay Cross was known by many members of the Litmos team. He will be missed by everyone. This post was scheduled to be published later this month. On a personal note, I've known Jay for many years. He was one of the first bloggers I discovered in the learning industry even though his blog was called Internet Time. It didn't take long for us to connect on a more personal level because that's just how Jay rolled. He was genuinely interested in reaching out to others who shared his passion for learning and technology. And while Jay was a hard core believer in businesses supporting informal learning, he also understood the realities of business and that formal training still had it's place. He dreamed of a future we all still hope for while understanding the day to day struggles of the training practitioner. He got it. I've taken some time over the last few days to reflect, view old photos, watch old videos, and talk with others who knew Jay. I think he would laugh at much of the attention he's receiving on social media, and industry blogs. And he would love it! But I think more than anything he would want everyone to DO SOMETHING! Reading his books and being inspired is meaningless if the inspiration is not put into action. He and I both agreed that the technology is driving change whether we as an industry embrace it or not. The question is how will you respond? What will you do differently? In this posthumous post from Jay he offers his insights into how we can all become better learners. His hope was that we could perhaps start with a better understanding of learning, and then begin to change how we design, develop, and deliver, learning content with technology. I will miss Jay a lot. But I'm comforted in knowing that his words, and influence, will continue to be a part of our industry and the work we do. ---------------- Six Ways to Improve Your Learning Effectiveness by Jay Cross Neurologists and brain scientists tell us these practices improve the depth and speed of learning. 1. Take Frequent Breaks Brains tire easily when they encounter something boring. A half-hour talk or a twenty-page paper will overtax most people’s mental focus. The brain begins to switch off at that point. It’s time to change activities. Reflect. Talk if you’ve been listening. Perk up! For your health as well as your clear thinking, take a minimum of five minutes every hour to rest and reset. Your brain is going to be tired after you focus on something for an hour. Stand up. Take some deep breaths. Remember that you have a body. Stretch. This is not a waste of time because in the long run, you’ll accomplish more. 2. Don’t "Multitask" You can’t learn very well if you’re not paying attention. Interrupt someone in the middle of a task and it will take them 50 percent longer to complete it. Furthermore, they’re likely to make 50 percent more errors. Multitasking is a myth. Put a cell phone in a driver’s hand and they will have more wrecks than drunk drivers. Brains work on one thing at a time. If something’s not part of the solution, it’s a problem. Focus intensely for a short burst and then take a break. 3. Sleep on it Zzzzzz. Some of your best thinking occurs while you sleep. Use it to your advantage. Before turning in, plant the seed by telling yourself you’ll awake with a better understanding of the problem under consideration. Visualize it. As you sleep, your brain is actively making connections and figuring out where to put things. That’s a lot of the reason you sleep at all — to give your mind time to reflect on and link up the day’s experiences. When you awake, you’ll be surprised by the new perspectives and renewed clarity that appear, seemingly out of nowhere. 4. Exercise Physical exercise boosts brain power. It’s amazing that some jocks don’t do better in school. The brain’s executive function improves with aerobic exercise. This is simple and irrefutable. Get twenty minutes of aerobic exercise at least three times a week. 5. Pick a lively place A little background music or a barking dog make learning a little tougher but also make it more likely to stick. Changing location, say from your desk to Starbucks to sitting on the john, makes it a new and slightly stronger memory. 6. Leave room for doubt Take two groups of students. Tell the first group to read an essay and answer a set of questions about it. Tell the second group to read the same essay and to answer the same questions, but tell this group that the material is terribly controversial. The second group will answer more questions correctly. Uncertainty engages the mind. Harvard University’s Ellen Langer writes that uncertainty challenges people to refine and internalize their take on things. This is what learning is: mapping a subject’s relative position in one’s personal context. In the real world, everything flows. Nothing is certain. Meaning is relative. The post 6 Ways to Improve Your Learning Effectiveness appeared first on Litmos.

If you identify your work and job title as Instructional design(er), then you are a creative person. I would consider anyone doing corporate training work of any kind creative. Most corporate training professionals I have met throughout the years have a unique creative aspect to their personality. Not all. But most. With "designer" in the title how can we not feel like our work expresses our inner creativeness. The work we do in corporate training is a creative endeavor. And yet, there is a real sense of industrial production, non-creative repetitiveness reflected in our industry conversations. We look for "rapid development" tools, pre-designed templates, and step-by-step processes or models to make our job easier. And that's okay. But being a creative is hard work. And it's not hard because being creative is hard. Being creative is not the hard part. The hard part is getting it done! Listen to what Seth Godin has to say about it. And if you prefer someone a little more hip, and edgy, then listen to Casey Neistat's take on it. (His words of wisdom come at 3:45) The Heavy Burden of Instructional Design What if your job was to create AND DELIVER a training course every day? Could you do it? Probably not. And those aren't fightin' words. That's just a fact. And it's why training departments fail to deliver business value. Not that you need to deliver one course per day. But because you believe that training is one certain thing, you can't see that other content can be useful even if it doesn't fit the mold of legacy training models. I learned this lesson in my first career as a broadcast news producer. Monday thru Friday at 5, 6, and 10 we delivered content. No excuses. The ancient video editing equipment would randomly die all too often. We could not cancel the broadcast. Did my car breakdown on the way back to the studio after getting the big story? Yes. Did they stop the broadcast until I got there? No. No matter what happened. We delivered. And sometimes what we delivered wasn't exactly what our best work, or what we wanted to deliver. But we delivered. And yes, our news room was filled with creatives. I've told this story many times over the last 20 years. And I've asked why a training department couldn't function like a broadcast news department. Sadly, the idea has been met with rolling eyes, and my ever favorite quip, "but that's just an information dump. It's not training". That may have mattered 20 years ago, but today that's just an excuse to not deliver. Not because it can't be done, but because you carry the heavy weight of legacy thinking on your shoulders. Learning to Think Differently About Training In 1997 Apple launched it's Think Different campaign. And as Steve Jobs famously stated, "Real artists ship". You may not consider yourself an artist, but that wasn't really his point. His reminder to all creatives is how critical it is to deliver. What that means for corporate training is that a really mediocre course delivered now is 100 times better than your good course currently undelivered. Have you ever taken the time to reflect on the work you are doing? I've recently attempted to help people think different during event presentations. I've been a little disappointed by the responses from attendees just wanting me to tell them the answers. They loved the idea but didn't want to do the work. I will explain the exercise here and look for your feedback. First eliminate all training solution thoughts from your head. For this to work you must start with Shoshin, "beginner's mind". Consider that the ultimate learning experience is one on one. It's just a subject matter expert and a learner. When both are physically in the same space there is no need for a middleman. What would you do in the following situations: SME is in Africa and a learner is in Canada. SME is not available for any more 1:1 instruction. SME is still not available and there are hundreds of learners in the same location needing his knowledge. Change #3 to thousands instead of hundreds, and instead of local they are spread out across the globe. This is a bonus question: It's 8am Monday. Can you deliver business value from a training solution in all situations by 8am Tuesday? If not, contact me @Litmos and I'll tell you how.     The post Think Different and Deliver Training That Adds Value appeared first on Litmos.

Lately I've been following their Think With Google site thinkwithgoogle.com. They share great insights. As you might guess, Google has some excellent data on user habits. One of their latest articles is titled "I Want-to-Do Moments: From Home to Beauty". At first glance you may not think this article would apply to the work you do. But it does. Here's some data that might change your mind. "Of smartphone users, 91% turn to their devices for ideas while completing a task." "More than 100M hours of how-to content have been watched in North America so far this year." Let's assume that 100% of your target audience own smartphones. How are you supporting this moment of need? This may not be a training problem, but it does relate to workplace performance. And in 21st century organizations employee performance is what training departments measure. Measuring a positive change in employee performance speaks to business value your training department provides. Outside the workplace video and other media play seamlessly across mobile devices. You employees expect this type of access to the content they need when they need it. You may not have control of your company's enterprise social network, or other systems for sharing content, but you do have control over your choice of LMS. And more importantly, you have control over how learning content is designed, and developed. The Google provides us a window to look into the minds of our employees and see how their content needs are being met outside the workplace. Your Learning Management System should be able to meet this need. You don't need one system for desktop courses and another system for mobile content. A mobile enabled LMS like Litmos can handle the conversions for you. There is no need for training solutions that are specific to mobile devices. Yes, mobile devices are smaller, require connectivity, and have touch screens instead of a keyboard and mouse. But if you design your course content with a mobile mindset first, and you have an LMS designed for mobile, then you're already doing mobile learning. Read the entire article from Think With Google. The connection to corporate training is clear. Employees have I want-to-do moments both inside and outside the workplace. The Google data is telling us their needs are being met outside the workplace, but would the data be the same inside your company? If not, then you need to consider an mobile enabled SaaS based LMS.   The post Support Employee I-want-to-do Moments appeared first on Litmos.

There are many ways in which we’re not using technology in good ways, and yet there’s still the excitement over new technologies. We’re naturally excited by the new and shiny, but is there any substance behind the hype? Let’s investigate, with a keen eye on real learning potential. Most of these technologies, for reasons of ease of reference (and marketing) have emerged with two letter acronyms. We’ll talk about a whole suite of TLAs (two/three letter acronyms): AI, AR, VR, VW, before touching on ARGs, and then WC. AI One of the biggest areas of activity has been in adaptive learning and artificial intelligence (AI). They’re not the same thing, so let’s be clear. We can hardwire separate paths to create adaptive systems, so hypothetically we could have separate learning experiences for learners characterized by some criteria to distinguish them (e.g learning styles, though the utility of this is debunked). Or we can have a system that dynamically adapts based upon the learner’s recent actions. This can also be somewhat simplistic, whereby recent success or failure triggers a simple algorithm to keep them in place or advance the difficulty. The non-intelligent ones are not particularly new nor of interest. What’s happening with AI, however, is of interest. There has been a long history of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), whereby systems look at what actions the learner has taken and determines what to do next. These are typically characterized as consisting of three systems: a learner model, a domain model, and a tutoring model. The tutoring model is about your pedagogical strategy, and can work on simple ‘put them back on the right path’ to more advanced pedagogies like allowing some learner strategies to play out before intervening, and the type of intervention can vary from direct instruction to graduated hints. Further, the system can have the learner work on one thing ‘til it’s known or cycle between several different topics. The learner model typically tracks evidence for what the learner knows, or not, and can assign probabilities for these. It’s the domain model that’s been problematic. The early models, starting with the MYCIN system, are based upon a representation of expert knowledge, and these were costly and problematic to build. As a consequence, they tended to be built around abstract and logical worlds such as mathematics and programming. (The Carnegie Learning work was gestated around one such model for algebra.) These systems build expert models of teachers, and problem-solving in the domain. To be scalable, approaches needed to find a way to develop a basis for adapting that goes beyond domain specifics, or find ways to capture the knowledge in tags and relationships. More recently several startups have developed mechanisms to do this adaptation by strongly characterizing content development in ways that support the adaptation. They can send learners different questions depending on how they do, diagnosing specific areas that need work. Two of the startups in this space are creating such solutions, though they require specific content building skills or have relatively simple adaptation. Another new approach is mining texts for knowledge, and can auto-generate questions from source material. Importantly, these systems typically demonstrate better outcomes than typical classroom instruction, achieving performance a standard deviation better, but not the two standard deviations that individual tutoring provides. Of course, this depends on what you’re assessing. Is it knowledge, or actual skills? Intelligent tutoring systems address performance within a specific problem, while most systems select different problems based upon the last one. And the problems largely are still in choosing the right answer, and not addressing the problem-solving process used. Then the issue becomes one of meaningful learning experiences. If learning is about deep practice, can these systems provide it? Generating knowledge questions from text isn’t really going to lead to meaningful new abilities. And how about learning to learn? This is a powerful outcome from good instruction, but how can that be built into the learning experience delivered by system? And what are the role of mentors in these learning experiences? I think that there’s tremendous promise in AI for learning in terms of reliable and bias-free results, but I think we still need to answer questions of curricula and pedagogy, including meta-learning, before we’re ready to truly capitalize on the opportunities. Right now, we may be better focused on using better design to create rich media content and meaningful practice than adapting the entire learning experience. So maybe we want to look at AR instead of AI. AR As an alternative to adaptive technology, another smart approach is to use the user’s context to specify information. Augmented reality (AR) is a technology with some already demonstrated success in supporting performance and learning. Augmented Reality involves layering on specific information onto the existing world by sensing and matching to the context whether location or what’s seen through the camera. A classic example is holding up a phone with a camera and screen, and the system recognizes the image and adds information to it. It can be pointing to restaurants in the direction being looked, or layering on images of parts or system components when viewing an engine. The information can be audio instead, so a continuing narrative as you move or accomplish a task, triggered by the location or other clues. A variety of systems now exist to support context-sensitive information. They provide the capability to specify the context and the additional information to be presented. And there are powerful reasons to instrument the world instead of trying to put it in the head. Certainly, AR can be a powerful adjunct to learning. Exposing the underlying workings of something, or pointing out specific items relevant to learner’s goals, can augment formal instruction in important ways. However, another role may be more performance support than formal learning. Helping someone in the moment accomplish a task can be a valuable outcome whether any specific ‘learning’ happens. AR is, indeed, ready for prime time, and already seeing real use cases. And there’s an extension that’s also of interest, VR. VR Virtual Reality, or VR, is a different take than AR. While AR augments reality, VR creates it’s own. The typical implementation is a set of goggles that presents visuals (stereo, one to each eye) that create a separate reality. You see a completely simulated world. What’s different from regular virtual worlds is rather than just an image on the computer screen is different in two separate ways: first, it’s 3D, owing to the stereo eye images; and it’s also responsive in that as you move, your moves adapt the scene relative to where you were and where you’ve moved to. The benefits here are several-fold. First, the world doesn’t have to be real, and it can be in any scale. It’s highly immersive too, in that your vision is completely embraced and it reacts to your motion (the original motion sickness problems have largely been eliminated). Most importantly, you can create a fully envisioned 3D world to be explored. Learners can move around or through any creation of importance, at any scale. You can visit molecules or galaxies. What’s more, you can take action. With suitable (and non-trivial) programming, you can have interactions that create experiences. There are downsides. While the prices have dropped dramatically, the sets still have additional costs on top of your existing hardware. The costs to develop the worlds can be somewhat steep. And the lack of awareness of the rest of the world has the potential to be dangerous. Overall, however, in the right place and time the learning outcomes can justify the expense, and things will get more powerful and cheaper over time. VW Virtual Worlds were a version of Virtual Reality that was instead communicated by computer screen and navigated by mouse or keys. No extra headset was required, though originally they used to require separate applications. Eventually, browser-based versions emerged. They’re not new, but they’re re-emerging. There were some overheads involved; they could be quite processor-intensive to handle the digital image rendering, and acting in the worlds could require some learning overhead. Depending on the capabilities involved, these could prove to be substantial barriers. There were two main opportunities that these worlds provided: 3D and social. The combination had significant value in specific situations. When the situation benefited from sharing information in an environment where space mattered, there were real opportunities for learning. Of course, the original hype that these worlds were overblown. The overheads meant that they couldn't be a panacea. Using these worlds just for social communicating or just 3D didn’t make sense, as there were lower overhead solutions. Consequently, these environments underwent a collapse after the initial excitement. Over time, however, these environments have returned, with much more careful attention to where they make sense. ARG One other acronym, alternate reality games or ARGs, also has learning opportunities. ARGs are games that, instead of being housed inside a computer or console, permeate the real world through channels like phone, email, text messages, or real world incidents. Spread out over time and space, they can be single player but more frequently are multi-player. Sharing the benefits with serious games, situating important decisions in a thematic story, ARGs add the possibility to use the communication tools typically used in the workplace. So, for instance, in a demo we created once we had the player in a sales role and engaging with a potential client to close a deal; sending the right information in response to the dialog. The infrastructure to support such games is evolving. It used to be that you needed to custom-code the systems, but increasingly there are platforms available. These platforms provide one location to support cross-channel communications so a text message can trigger a call or an email, or any other such mapping desired. WC While mobile learning has been relatively mainstream for a number of years now, a new facet is becoming available, wearable computing (WC). Wearable technology, whether in form factors such as Google’s recent glasses or wristbands such as watches, is increasingly hitting the mainstream. While the glasses supported AR, as above, the wrist opportunities provide new capabilities. The way to conceptualize wearables is by their usage. The attention time a wearable gets is seconds, while a pocketable (e.g. a smartphone) gets seconds to perhaps some minutes. (A tablet really is used for at least minutes and potentially up to a few hours at a time.) What does this give us? A few seconds is generally not considered the right span for learning. In fact, it’s short for even performance support. However, we can imagine a few use cases. For example, just a quick quiz question, reinforcing knowledge, or maybe even a mini-scenario might make sense. Similarly, a quick contact after a performance experience could transform that to a learning experience. Naturally, reminders of events, or pointers on a path, or a quick question and answer could be considered a form of support. As with many new technologies, our initial uses will mimic previous solutions. New opportunities tend to come after we become familiar with the new affordances. The point is to map learning to the technology (not the other way around). Good Pedagogy And that’s the crux of new technologies. We want to map them to good pedagogy, not use them to continue to perpetrate old mechanisms. We want to start from designing the learning experience we need, and then figure out what technologies can help. The reverse, where we look to find how a new technology can be used for learning is wrong. Look at the core capabilities, and then design with this new opportunity on tap when it makes sense. There are and will be new technologies arising continuously. It is our role to evaluate their new and unique offerings, and capitalize on them in the service of learning and improving performance outcomes. Whether it’s through providing meaningful practice, augmenting learning or performance, or connecting people, we want to align technology with how we think, work, and learn. In this way, we can truly advance our abilities to improve our situation. The post 10 New Learning Technologies - by Dr. Clark Quinn appeared first on Litmos.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The L&D industry talks a lot about mobile learning. But what about mobile training? With as much as we focus on the learner these days, its equally important to focus on the instruction. Many will argue that you can't/shouldn't deliver entire classes on mobile devices. Let's put aside the notion that "courses" are wrong, and that mobile devices should never be used for delivering them. Let's consider for a moment the possibilities. What if mobile devices were your only choice...for everything? How Mobile Devices Impact Training Development Today the training industry concerns itself too much with making a distinction between desktop eLearning courses and mobile learning. The argument seems to be mostly based on form factor. And for the last 8 years, and maybe the next 3-5, that’s a very real concern. However, looking at the trajectory of innovation in computing I see only one logical future: The elimination of desktops and laptops as we know them today. How does that change conversations like "mobile devices are best for performance support"? Legacy of Training Development Confines Mobile Devices to Performance Support Our industry’s legacy carries with it the burden of existing courses, development tools, and processes, invented only for the desktop or "big screen". Many of those models and processes, originally invented for the 50 year old classroom, were used for early computer based training design and much of what we call elearning courses today. All of which were created before hardware like the touch screen iPhone and tablets were even imagined. And so while both the desktop/laptop and mobile devices exist together it's easy to confine mobile devices to performance support. But I'm not sure that will always be the case. Mobile Devices Support Shifting Focus from Learning to Teaching Everything designed and developed for mobile devices focused more on the learner, and how they would consume the knowledge, than on the instruction. But how much of your training content is currently created on a mobile device? Probably little to none. I would guess that the development tools you’ve purchased to create today’s mobile learning are mainly for the desktop/laptop. But hardware technology is quickly becoming more powerful and more capable than laptops and desktops. And this extra power is being used to manage the production of content like live video streaming, video capture, voice to text transcription, and so much more. Powerful Creation Tools Enable Everyone as Teachers/Creators For the training industry that not only means content creation, but live instructor presentation as well. Today it’s not the devices themselves that limit this instructional potential, but the connectivity access and reliability. But that will soon be a thing of the past as well. Mobile devices will then make it possible for everyone to become an instructor, or subject matter expert, of something. Much like musicians can now create and distribute music all from one device, those same devices will act as both learning consumption and training creation/presentation tools. But even if connectivity remains an issue, the newest smart phones are powerful multimedia production tools, putting the power of creation into anyone's hands. How Mobile Device Software Innovation Changed the Game In order to support the mobile hardware of the future there will need to be software. What we call cloud computing today will be the computing of the future. If you want a preview into what this will look like just take a look at YouTube and Google Chat, or even apps like Periscope, and blab.im. The YouTube site functions seamlessly across all hardware platforms, software systems, and mobile devices. The experience is beautiful and easy to understand. On the iPhone video from any website or app automatically optimizes to play based on the orientation of your phone. Most of what we call eLearning today cannot do that. Consumers will begin to reject this lack of flexibility and ease of use. But this is an industry problem, not a hardware/software problem. We need to adapt and move forward with the technology. How New Software Impacts Training Google chat (or Hangouts), Periscope, and blab.im all give us a window into the future of devices as live communication tools. Both planned and spontaneous events are supported. Our industry’s legacy of webinar tools is slowly seeing the change and allowing for presenters to deliver via mobile devices. But is it too little too late? I don’t know. But I do know that in the heat of a "lines down" problem, or other expensive business issue, time is money. And being able to discover a solution and present it to multiple people, around the world, quickly and easily will save businesses a lot of money. Mobile live streaming tools like Periscope and blab.im can do this with just a few clicks almost instantly. And they can record it which makes it available as future training content. The aftermath of these discoveries is updates to training, so the issue never happens again. And this needs to occur faster than our current models can handle.  Mobile devices and the new software on them give training departments a new tool in the trainer’s toolbox. The legacy of mobile learning is in devices as learning consumption tools. Today’s reality, and into the future, is software providing a powerful option to the trainer as well. Does Mobile Instructional Design Die or Evolve? Is there a special design model for mobile learning versus traditional eLearning? There shouldn’t be. Maybe right now, today, the two still need to be differentiated. And there are plenty of books to help you do that. But the future holds a different path for training design. Everything mentioned above regarding software and hardware will drive a revolution in training that makes most of what we know as instructional design unnecessary. Questioning The Validity of Instructional Design It’s like the success of Khan Academy. It starts as just one guy sharing his knowledge with his family. Then he realizes that friends and others are finding his tutelage helpful. And you know the rest of that story. There are more subject matter experts like Salman Khan than there are instructional designers to help them design their training content. And when they go it alone, they do just fine providing value to many. If ever there was a time to question the validity of instructional design it was 5 years ago. Employee Empowerment Will Be The New Instructional Design The new instructional design model, thanks to mobile devices, is collaboration and communication. It’s about everyone creating content, connecting, and sharing with others via mobile devices. My kids have laptops, but rarely use them. Everything they do is mobile device enabled. However, I’m not advocating a free-for-all in corporate organizations. There is still a need for specific content to be defined by the business for it to be profitable and free from litigation. And this is not a call for businesses to throw up their hands and leave it all up to the employees. Employees come in as young recruits with an expectation of training, and direction from leadership. But that is only a small piece of what encompasses the learning process of an employee. The rest of what they learn, and teach, is made possible by those outside the training organization because of mobile technologies. The LMS Remains Key to L&D During Transition to Mobile Everything Learning management systems are evolving like all other technologies. But like everything listed above it is more evolution than revolution. And that’s okay. Litmos started the cloud LMS revolution in the late 2000s. From where I was sitting in my career at the time, it seemed to take forever for LMS vendors to move into the cloud. The launch of Litmos LMS renewed my hope in the vendor community. And today it’s evolved into a powerful platform continuing to expand it’s capabilities through development and a marketplace for integration with other applications and systems. The Flexibility of SaaS Based LMS Supports Our Mobile Future The power of a cloud LMS like Litmos is that it doesn’t care who is teaching and who is learning. It simply helps makes the process of organizing, delivering, and tracking, as frictionless as possible. The LMS is a tool to enable the success of anyone wishing to teach or learn. If your LMS is only capable of delivering legacy courses in the SCORM format, then you’re trapped in the past. The new mobile device hardware and software enable motivated employees to control their learning and their teaching. Your LMS should support that. It’s the future. My Closing Thoughts In the future all devices will be mobile. They will be with us where ever we go. We won’t need specialized devices for simply viewing content and engaging with information, artificial bots, and other human beings. In the future all training will be done in simulated environments with an LMS tracking/analyzing performance. Any information we need will be accessible via some sort of ubiquitous hands free technology. It’s hard to imagine what that might be, but it’s coming. Until that time arrives, there is work to be done. You can begin by unbundling your course content. If you have text, images, videos, audio, animations, and interactions all bundled into one giant SCORM file then it’s time to start unbundling. All of that raw content does nobody any good hidden and locked away inside the legacy course model. Cut it loose making the individual parts strong enough to stand on their own. Because in the not so distant future intelligent LMSs will organize the content for each learner based on their individual needs. And that will be based on job performance. Everyone should not be submitted to exactly the same epic long training course bundled in a SCORM package. That was yesterday's legacy, not what you can expect to see in the future. The builders of the internet had the right idea separating content, coding, and design elements. It’s about time the training and development industry joined the party. At the very least you should be considering training solutions and LMSs that support development options outside the standard SCORM package. Litmos can help you navigate into the future. Let me know if you'd like to hear more @Litmos. And if you want to learn a LOT more, then register for our Litmos event at CallidusCloudConnections.com  The post The Future of Mobile Devices, Mobile Software, and Mobile Learning appeared first on Litmos.

Features, spec lists, and comparison matrices… While those can tell you something about a product, they seldom tell the whole story, and they can be downright misleading. In the sense that Mercedes cars, just like Fiat’s, have 1 engine, 4 tires, 2 airbags, and 2 wipers, but your experience with each of those brands will be far from identical. Or take eFrontPro as an example: we have lots of features, including some that the rest of the competition still lacks. But, what we’re really proud of is our legendary ease of use and flexible workflow, something that you cannot put on a spec list. That’s why we’re big on taking our products for a test drive and getting a sense of their power and ease of use for yourself. And our new demo program for eFrontPro allows you to do just that. From our demo site you can create your personal demo account and evaluate eFrontPro for a whole month. Now, if spec lists and features galore are your thing, we’ve got those too. But there’s nothing like a little hands-on experience to show you how a product performs in real life. So take eFrontPro for a test drive today, and see how its best-of-breed design and workflow make deploying your eLearning courses faster and more efficient. Vroom vroom vrooooooom! The post eFrontPro demo: take the Mercedes of the eLearning world for a test-drive appeared first on eFront Blog.

In his famous "Ballad of East and West", the 19th century english poet Rudyard Kipling writes, rather prematurely: "East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet". Little did he know that a little over a century later East and West would not only meet frequently and have plenty of cultural exchanges, but also become very good business partners. Or that Asia would be a much coveted marketplace for western business of all sectors, including eLearning. China, the economic miracle of the 21st century with its rising middle class, is a huge potential market for eLearning services, with its overall training market estimated to be worth around RMB300 billion (a little short of $50 billion dollars). Besides its vast population and huge economic growth, there are three important factors that make China an ideal eLearning market: 1) It has a traditional cultural focus on education, which families invest heavily on, for their children’s studies. 2) It has the necessary internet penetration, with an estimated 650 million internet users as of 2014, the majority on DSL lines. 3) It has a long history of private education. eLearning, with its lower costs and easy accessibility, is perfect for the upwardly mobile Chinese middle class households who can’t afford costly private schools or sending their kids abroad. Furthermore, the vast amount of available training subjects that can be had at the learner’s own pace and location, make it perfect for employees looking to expand their skills and improve their hire-ability. Last, but not least, eLearning fits the needs of Chinese business, enterprises and organisations, that need agile and cost effective solutions to train their personnel to new technologies. It’s no surprise then that the online education market quadrupled in China in the last decade, while still having a vast growth potential (considering that eLearning users are less than 10% of the Chinese population). As for Japan, its advanced internet infrastructure, web-savvy population and large middle class also make it a very important market for eLearning. In fact it is estimated that Japan’s eLearning market has been growing by 100% year over year for the last few years. The same phenomenal growth is seen all over SE Asia, whose internet users now represent over 40% of the world’s users. So, we’re excited to report that our CEO and co-founder Dimitris Tsingos, currently concluding his business trip in the region, signed a partnership agreement with Tokyo based Brastel Telecom for the sale of eLearning services to the Japanese market, and another one with Chinese eLearning consulting agency Shanghai 4INS, for the resale and implementation of eFrontPro based solutions for the Chinese market. While eFrontPro has always been an international product, our greatest adoption has been in USA, Europe and the English speaking parts of the world. We’ve very proud of expanding our reach even further, and we look forward to working with our new partners to help bring the Epignosis family of products and services, with their legendary flexibility and ease-of use and our world-class support, to the Asian market. The post West meets East: eFrontPro enters the Asian eLearning market appeared first on eFront Blog.

Contrary to tradition, the majority of the training in healthcare is now available as eLearning. Of course, there will always be courses that need to be facilitated via face-to-face, like CPR, but the rest of the statutory and mandatory training is completed in front of a PC at the learner’s convenience and pace. In this post we will look at 5 tips on how you can boost the compliance figures of an organization, focusing primarily on healthcare. Popularity of LMS The LMS is the car that drives the learners to training success. But not everyone in an organization has yet driven it and those who haven’t rely on the comments of those who have. The smoother it is, the more enjoyable the ride, the better the reviews. The word of mouth is very important when it comes down to the reputation of an LMS. What people have to say about it influences directly all those who haven’t used it. How easy is it to log in? How responsive is it? How fast? How many clicks does it take to launch a course? This is why acquiring an LMS that suits best your organization’s needs is the first step to increase your compliance levels. Engaging courses No matter how many times we point this out, it will never be enough. No one wants to do a course that is not fun, easy and as short as possible. If the content and the interface of a course are not engaging, it is more than certain that the learner will quit. They will exit the course thinking "Nah… maybe some other time". We don’t want that, do we? And we don’t want that because, most of the times, there is no other time. As L&D professionals, we want to keep our learners happy and we can only do that by offering courses that amount to a pleasant break in a busy shift. Protected time and facilities The majority in a healthcare organization are frontline staff who deal with patients and emergencies throughout their shift. Even when there’s no knocking on their door, they are busy filling out paperwork and responding to emails and phone calls. The only time they can actually pause is when they go for their break. So, when is the best time for them to complete a mandatory course? This is an answer only a good manager can give. They need to reassure their staff that they can leave for an hour or two without worrying about the hectic situation they are leaving behind. Having access to IT facilities, where staff can go and find the peace of mind needed to absorb the information of an eLearning course, is absolutely essential. The lack of such facilities is traditionally associated with low compliance. Spirited managers We just mentioned how managers can help their staff to update their outstanding training. They chase up their team’s compliance by reports they run themselves, or by reports they receive on a regular basis, or -very rare!- because they are so organised that set reminders about trainings that are about to fall out of date. No matter what an L&D team may do to increase the organization’s compliance rate, if a manager is not up to speed with keeping their team in date with their training, they will never be. Culture OK. I don’t know whether I should write it in bold or in capital letters, but the culture of eLearning is the most crucial, pivotal and paramount factor in training compliance. If staff frown every time they receive an email from the L&D team, if a manager doesn’t get alerted by his team’s low compliance, if the organization has not invested in a fully functioning LMS or has not provided the facilities required, then it is obvious that there is something fundamentally wrong. Training and eLearning should be considered as an opportunity to grow and develop and not as something that needs to be squeezed in a diary so we can get the L&D team off our back. Conclusion It is not actually difficult to increase the training compliance in a healthcare organization. You just need to take into consideration all the special attributes that can pose a burden. And if things don’t seem to work out, never blame your staff about the low numbers. Revise your strategy and start over. The post How to increase the training compliance rate in a healthcare organization appeared first on eFront Blog.