As predicted, Adobe is on the march to monopolize the e-learning development world.
Have they really integrated intelligence about human learning in there? Not sure, but I'm skeptical. If you're a competitor, that's probably your only path to success. If you're Adobe, that may be your only weak link.
My services are available.
This Friday the Chicagoland Learning Leaders are meeting in their annual conference.
This is a fantastic group and I know that some of my smartest Chicago-area
clients are going to be there in droves. Unfortunately, I can't make it, but I
heard great things about this last year and if you're in the Chicago area this
is not to be missed. Click
here for more information. It's their 7th Annual Conference, so they must
know what they're doing!!
Elliott Masie came up with a great and very insightful wish list for LMS’s. Click here to access it. He even added a few suggestions in the past few days, probably based on feedback from his loyal audience.
I really like the richness that Elliott’s suggestions might create for a typical LMS. Most LMS implementations are just a list of course offerings.
On the other hand, I worry about overly complicating options for users. Most workers just don’t have extra time to waste. Maybe the suggestion to let users rate the courses comes into play here.
I also worry about user-generated content. It can be great, could be better than what the training folks can create, could engender more engagement, could be bottom line more effective. But we should all recognize that it is a double-edge sword. User generated content could be incorrect, could be a huge waste of time, could cause the organization to leave itself vulnerable to legal liability.
Doesn’t Fix the Biggest Problem with the LMS Mentality
The biggest problem with LMS’s can’t be fixed with Elliott’s suggestions. The biggest problem is that the whole LMS face sends a powerful hidden message that "learning" is about taking courses or accessing other learning events. This "Learning Means Sitting" LMS mentality infiltrates whole organizations.
I’ve seen this recently with one of my clients, a huge retailer, where their LMS has encouraged store managers and other store leaders to focus learning time on taking courses, in lieu of coaching, learning from each other, trying things out and getting feedback, encouraging store employees to take responsibility for particular areas, etc. It’s not that they completely ignore these other learning opportunities; it’s that the LMS focuses everyones’ time and attention on courses, creating a lot of wasted effort.
To get the most from an LMS, you ought to throw away your LMS and start over. People can learn something—develop competencies/skills—from courses or from other means. A competency-management system that offers multiple means to develop oneself is ideal, where courses/events are just one option. I still haven’t seen a commercial system that does this though…Most are course first designs.
Maybe I’m too over-the-top recommending that we get rid of all LMS’s. I make the statement to highlight the humongous problems that the LMS mentality is causing.
Starbucks is shutting all its stores on February 26th for three hours to train or retrain its employees.
You can read related articles at the following links:
The question will be, is the training well-designed?
Wednesday morning February 27th will give only a partial answer. March, April, and May will be more important. And of course, maybe this has nothing to do with training at all. Maybe it’s a store management problem. Maybe the brand is too diluted, no longer special. Maybe competition from Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonalds is creating issues, especially as consumers try to save money in these uncertain economic times.
Will the training work? Stay tuned.
The concept of evidence-based practice is bubbling up all over. I started Work-Learning Research in 1998 to bridge the gap between research and practice. Ruth Clark has been talking about evidence-based recommendations for years. The medical profession has transformed itself to focus on evidence-based medicine. The No-Child-Left-Behind initiative was based on the concept of evidence-based education. Though No Child Left Behind has been poorly implemented, the core concept is sound. Kevin Kruse, CEO of the custom e-learning company Axiom Health, has trademarked the term, “Evidence-Based Training.” Management gurus, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Bob Sutton have recently written a best selling book (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2006. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management). ISPI (the International Society for Performance Improvement) has been promoting evidence-based practices in their CPT certification program since the 1990’s.
Evidence-Based Practice is on an upward trajectory, but what does it mean for those of us in the learning-and-performance field? I’m not going to go into depth now, but I want to highlight a few critical points.
I spend an inordinate amount of time every year culling practical learning wisdom from the world’s preeminent refereed journals on learning, memory, and instruction. It appears that I am one of the most passionate advocates for learning research living today. Yet still, I believe that following research-based recommendations can provide us with less than half, probably less than one-third, of the power of a full practice of evidence-based learning.
In fact, I’ve come to believe that, as a field, we have only reached a small measure of our potential because we don’t utilize evidence-based practices. We don’t have adequate feedback loops. We act too often on superstition, on the ideas inherent in commercial messaging, and on our learner’s lowest-common denominator comfort zones.
The bottom line recommendation is this: Only with true evidence-based practices, not warmed over attempts to follow a few research-based prescriptions, can you build a maximally effective learning program.
Sorry I can’t provide more specifics in this short blog format. If you want to know more, feel free to get in touch with me.
Suppose you need to hire someone on a contract basis in the learning-and-performance field? Or maybe you’re on the other end of the transaction—you have your own business and need to find work?
Do you have to rely on your personal network alone? Can the big job boards help? Do our trade organizations’ job board’s have enough focus on contractors? Is there any way to know what people and organizations are good?
Recently, I’ve come across two organizations that may help, Learning Gurus and Clarity Consultants. This is how they described themselves to me:
Learning Gurus, Inc.
Learning Gurus connects Workplace Learning Professionals with companies that need them. We provide short-term contractors and full-time employees who design and develop training and performance solutions for corporate, government and educational institutions.
Our learning gurus are skilled in areas such as:
* Instructional Design & Development
* Facilitation & Instructor Led Training (ILT)
* Performance Analysis & Needs Assessment
* Project Management
* eLearning, Web-Based Training, On-line Learning
* Multimedia/CBT Development
* Graphics Arts
* Technical Writing & Documentation
* Quality Assurance & Evaluation
There is a trend among workplace learning professionals to move around quite a bit! Many in our field change jobs every 2-3 years, and many more are seeking the flexibility and variety that contract/consulting work offers. In the past, we’ve had to rely on our local professional networks, chance meetings with potential employers, and recruiters who, quite frankly, don’t really "get" what we do. On the flip side, very few companies know where to find quality workplace learning professionals, and it’s not uncommon for them to have an open requisition for 3-6 months. Enter Learning Gurus! Learning Gurus connects workplace learning professionals with the companies that are searching for them. Learning Gurus has a nationwide network of workplace learning professionals who are seeking additional contract and employment opportunities. There are no fees to join the network – your hourly rate or salary is marked up by a small percentage, which is paid by the client. Clients love it because they save valuable time by having Learning Gurus find their resource and they know they’re getting a solid, pre-screened professional. Workplace learning pros love it because they have their own personal sales and marketing department to find leads, negotiate rates, and handle contracts and payroll. Now that’s a Win-Win!
Karen J. Boyle
President
Learning Gurus, Inc.
The Source for Workplace Learning Professionals
www.learninggurus.com
Office: 619.236.0308
karenb@learninggurus.com
Clarity Consultants
With Clarity Consultants, you can reap the expertise of Big 4 consulting — without paying the Big 4 price. Clarity Consultants represents hourly consultants with expertise in Instructional Design, Project Management, SAP software implementation, training facilitation and specialized consulting. Our consultants have proven expertise in Software Implementation, New Hire Training, Sales, Customer Service, Leadership, Technical Training, Business Process and Compliance and other areas of organizational development. If your company has new software to implement, new products to sell or a new process to roll out to employees, Clarity Consultants can help you. For over 14 years, we’ve provided Fortune 1000 companies with contract training professionals. For more info, please visit www.clarityconsultants.com
James Lee
Marketing Associate
jlee@clarityconsultants.com
(p) 408.369.6558
Are there other organizations that I’m missing? Let me know.
Elliott Masie, proving he’s not just our field’s preeminent hype-master, invited the thoughtful and wise Cal Wick as the closing keynote to Learning2006.
Cal and his team at Fort Hill Company have developed a great tool to help training transfer, called Friday5s.
You can read my review of Cal and his team’s book to see my thoughts on how important the book and this software is to our field.
Google announced yesterday a special set of tools for educators (teachers).
California has implemented a law that requires all managers to have sexual harassment training at least once every two years, with new managers getting the training within six months of employment. An upcoming webinar on this issue is offered that includes the author of the amendment.
While the law’s requirements will create mediocre learning design (because people need more frequent reminders to maximize spontaneous remembering), the law is newsworthy as a potential omen for what may come in the training-and-development industry (and not just for sexual harassment training).
The law as written may have benefits because it is certainly better than nothing, but unfortunately the law repeats several mistakes endemic in our field:
The law does say:
The training and education required by this section is
intended to establish a minimum threshold and should not discourage
or relieve any employer from providing for longer, more frequent, or
more elaborate training and education regarding workplace harassment
or other forms of unlawful discrimination in order to meet its
obligations to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent and
correct harassment and discrimination.
Employers who really care about minimizing sexual harassment will provide for "longer, more frequent, [and] more elaborate training."