Demonstrate Your Value
The blogosphere has been buzzing with a great deal of agonizing, soul-searching and prognosticating about what a recession means for the industry. As with recessions that have come before, there are concerns about huge cuts to training budgets, loss of training staff through down-sizing, and a general retrenchment in training operations. Many point to eLearning…
Read article
In Praise of Ignorance
I was reflecting on some of the eLearning projects on which I have worked recently and marveled at the variety of topics these covered. These have included career planning, financial reporting, dealing with workplace hazardous materials, landscape design and construction, golf course design, and greenhouse management, to name a few. Am I an expert in…
Read article
How Do You Believe Learning Happens?
It always amazes me when I attend eLearning conferences, read eLearning articles, or listen to technology vendors talk about eLearning, that the topic of how people actually learn rarely enters the debate. It is like having an 800-pound gorilla in the room that we choose to ignore. For me, however, getting at how people actually…
Read article
What is Real Interaction?
In a previous post, I stated that real interaction in learning happens in the learner’s mind, and not via the mouse. Someone has asked for clarification on this point. I traced down the origin of this distinction, and it comes from a great thinker on workplace learning, and keen advocate for active learning, Thiagi Thiagarjan.…
Read article
Engage Learners Graphically
I have talked a lot lately about the wisdom of “in-sourcing” the competencies needed to produce good eLearning – competencies and expertise that you may not have on hand. For example, I understand the important role that good graphic design plays in communicating a message and in engaging learners on different levels, but I can’t…
Read article
Simulations: Keeping It Real!
A few years ago, one of our clients asked me to review an online training simulation and provide feedback on its effectiveness. The simulation was titled ExperienceCSR, developed by a Toronto-based company called ExperiencePoint. It takes a participant through a process of planning and implementing a corporate social responsibility program within a fictional organization. You…
Read article