The E-Learning Guild asked its members the most important reasons for measuring results.  The top 3 reasons from all industries were:

1. Provided the learners with information/feedback (38.3%)
2. Meet organizational requirements for our learning program (37.8%)
3. Meet regulatory demands or certification standards (29.2%)

The healthcare industry by contrast did not care as much about providing learners with information/feedback--they were much more focused on legal compliance.  Is this the nature of compliance training?  Is there a better way?  Does it help to achieve true compliance if all the learner is doing is passing a quick test to meet some legal requirement without truly understanding and absorbing the material.  Doesn't i ... Read More »

My friend Jerry Aiyathurai from JC Factor sent me a website http://www.blowntobits.com/b2b/ link which uses Flash well to teach.   A lot of the time Flash animations are used as decoration (kinda like stock photos stuck off to the side).  In this case Flash is crucial to the teaching process revealing information a small chunk at a time.  Of course they want to sell you the book (and probably some consulting) so they don't give ita ll to you on the website.

456 Berea Street is one of my goto blogs for keeping up with accessibility issues that effect e-learning and accessibility.   Recently they posted an excellent article on 10 color (ok being British they spelled it colour) contrast checking tools to improve accessibility.  Why should you care about color contrast?  People with color blindness and other visual impairments and even people viewing the Web under less than ideal circumstances (Mobile browsers) may not be able to read the text easily if you do not have sufficient color contrast. 

To read the complete article go to 456 Berea Street.

One of my favorite spots for finding great E-Learning information the E-Learning Guild has published a free book called The E-Learning Guild's Handbook of E-Learning Strategy.  The handbook talks about Design Strategies for Online and Blended Learning, How to Engage Learners, Elements of a Successful E-Learning Strategy, and even a guide for students on what it takes to maximize learning from an online course.

Great download.

I've been reading an interesting book, Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  Chip and Dan are both educators that decided to come up with a framework for making ideas stickier.  Why does an urban myth like the story about a man's kidney being stolen stick while truly important ideas such as the different sides in Iraq don't?  

The Heaths find that the key to creating traction is to take an idea and present it as Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Story.&am ... Read More »

Charles Jennings, global head of learning for Reuters,  talked about is a 'conspiracy of convenience' at the Global Summit 2006  in Australlia.  Mr. Jennings believes that most corporate learning initiatives are misplaced.  Training managers assume that there is newly acquired skills and knowledge will automatically translate into performance improvement, which will then flow through into the business benefit.   "No one measures the outcome properly and there is little or no business impact.  Nothing has really happened, but everyone's happy" says Mr. Jennings.  "These changes mean that knowledge workers actually need less knowledge to do their jobs than they did a generation ago. Formal training is less effective as the amount of information increases and its shelf life becomes shorter."

He calls this the 70:20:10 rule. "About 70 per cent of organisational learni ... Read More »

"In times of change, learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." Eric Hoffer

E-Learning Guru has an interesting article on the birth of the modern theory of  adult learning.  A young director of adult education organized a course on astronomy and arranged for a local university professor to teach the class. Although initially enthusiastic, the students quickly became bored with the passive lecture experience and attendance dwindled until the course was finally canceled.

Trying again, the YMCA director rescheduled the course and this time invited a member of the amateur astronomers' club to lead the group of students. As soon as the students arrived for their first class, the new teacher escorted them to the roof of the YMCA and asked them to gaze into the night sky. While they looked up, the teacher asked them what it was they noticed most and what they wanted to learn. Their questions formed the basis for the rest of the course an ... Read More »

A study by Katzenback Partners, LLC confirms that at large companies, workers turn to each other rather than management to solve the problems:

• 65% of people say "employees rely on themselves and co-workers to provide solutions and solve problems" (only 30% rely on managers)
• 90% say they have someone at work they turn to when they need to get something done.  52% of the time it is a co-worker rather than a boss. 
• 57% of employees believe that ideas for making the company more successful come from all levels of employees.

This indicates that there is a substantial amount of tribal learning happening at companies.  Is it possible to capture this knowledge?  Is it possible to track this learning?  Is it possible to facilitate this learn ... Read More »

We had a excellent lunch and learn session yesterday entitled -- "E-Learning:  How much does it cost?"   This session was driven by our customers--How much does it cost?  is the most frequent question our customers ask.  Debby Kalk (Cortex Learning), instructional designer extraordinaire and Scott Rehling, the master of all things audio and video (Lava Studios) were part of the panel.

Interesting comments:

• Using a professional for audio recording can be frequently cheaper than doing it yourself.  You save enough on editing costs to make up the difference.
• Use multiple speakers when recording audio for E-learning.   That way if you need to update your audio and you can't find your original speakers you can add another voice easily.  
  < ... Read More »