Competencies: It’s About What You Can Do, Not What You Know
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) released a report titled “Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians.” The central thesis of the paper was that current pre-med and medical school curricula are stuck in an old course-centric model that relies on memorizing information that is likely to change rapidly as the science and technology of medicine…
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Committed Teachers are the Real Architects of Education Generally, and for eLearning Specifically
I have been in the eLearning business for a long time and I am dismayed by its obsession with technology. Approximately 85% of industry-related emails I receive in my in-box are about the newest and slickest technologies that will supposedly transform online learning as we know it. Included among these emails are veiled messages that…
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What’s the Purpose of an LMS?
I attended a CLO Magazine-sponsored webinar titled “Benefits and Best Practices for Moving to an Enterprise-Wide LMS.” The presenters were Josh Bersin of Bersin & Associates and Shelly Heiden of Plateau Systems. Bersin presented some survey results of why organizations purchase learning management systems and what purchasers found to be the key benefits of having…
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Compliance Training: Going Through the Motions
The Masie Center has noted that approximately 60% of new learning initiatives in large companies are driven by legal compliance regulations. There is a raft of health and safety, environmental, human rights, privacy, and financial reporting guidelines that must be adhered to, and training is seen (and often legislated) as a key component to remain…
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Thinking Beyond the Course
Because we all received our education via courses, this is naturally what we tend to think about when training challenges arise in the workplace. Even in the eLearning field, our first instinct is to create a course. This is a tidy and convenient way to give structure to a training intervention. However, a course, or…
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The Joys of Contracting “In”
I am constantly amazed at how many organizations (even very large ones) have only two or three people responsible for eLearning. These very small teams are charged with designing, developing, producing, implementing, and managing the eLearning initiatives in these organizations. Not surprisingly, they are often overwhelmed by these responsibilities, have difficulty meeting project deadlines, and…
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