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Posts from October 2014

BUYERS & CATALOGS

October 29, 2014 Up until the last decade most training purchases occurred on the individual plant level. Those purchases were typically made by individuals who either had actual plant floor experience or by professional skills trainers. Recently, driven by e-Learning technology, many of those same purchases are now being made at the corporate level and, far too often, by individuals who have come out of an HR or technology environment. Few of...

TECHNOLOGY-LEARNING ON THE MARCH

October 27, 2014 “Over the last five years, technology has been rapidly changing and expanding in every field imaginable. Smart phones are now capable of acting as standalone computer devices that can take pictures, search the Internet, send emails and text messages and yes, they even make phone calls. While it might seem that the technology of today has reached its limits, it is still actually spreading its proverbial wings. Only twenty...

DO YOU REALLY KNOW E-LEARNING?

October 22, 2014 If you are employed in the professional field of Training, you’ve been inundated with the hype surrounding e-Learning. You may also think you know what the term, e-Learning, means — but, I would ask you to think again. Courses that operate successfully over the Web may, or may not, be successful learning opportunities for your trainees. What is true, however, is that in far too many cases, e-Learning (as...

SPARE US THE DO-IT-YOURSELFers

October 20, 2014 The evolution of new learning technology adaptation has —- too-many-times —- been delayed by the do-it-yourselfers. I first saw it with the introduction of videotape training in the 1970s. “Just give any employee a camera and he, too, can create a meaningful learning experience,” was the mantra then. In the 1980s, the same misguided conclusions were reached when the CBT and CD-ROM learning technologies first appeared. Only Interactive Laser...

FOCUS ON OUR INDUSTRIAL WORKFORCE

October 15, 2014 Media-based online training has the potential to change the world of learning. And, we should all look forward to the impending fall of the wall between business and education. That wall has separated the two sectors for many years, but the pressure of global economic competition is leading many to plan for that barrier’s demise. The historical separation between business and that sector of the educational system responsible for...

QUIZ YOUR TRAINING SUPPLIERS

October 13, 2014 As you know, there are two operating philosophies that are common to many successful organizations—whether the enterprise engages in industrial manufacturing, service, distribution, finance or any other kind of business—Total Quality Management (TQM) and Just-In-Time (JIT). The training courseware you purchase can play a role in both activities —- so, when dealing with a courseware supplier get them to answer the following questions in order to help you ascertain...

LEARNING IS OUR ‘END GAME’

October 8, 2014 The adoption of technology-learning innovations in education always trails the adoption of technology-learning innovations in corporate training by ten years or more. Educators (and the parents of school-aged children) can become so set in their ways that they too often believe that, “What was good enough for us is good enough today.” Consequently, they expect the children to adapt to “their way” instead of adapting to the changes in...

TEST SCORES FOOLISHNESS

October 6, 2014 Imagine my surprise when I read a long-established training vendor’s recent press release. Omitting the organization’s name, I’m going to quote from it: “(Company X) conducted a survey of its clients to determine the effectiveness of online training. Comparing over 100,000 pre- and post-test scores, (Company X) found that clients using (Company X’s) courses significantly increased their trainees’ technical and safety knowledge. After reviewing the tests results from a...

e-LEARNING’S OTHER MISSING INGREDIENT

October 1, 2014 We’ve seen a marked decline in creative instructional design from the halcyon days of Interactive Laser Videodisc (IVD) to the early days of CD-ROM training and, then, an off-the-cliff drop as we have transitioned into e-Learning. In earlier blogs, I have pointed out that the lack of instructional branching in e-Learning designs make it more of an information medium and unworthy of the “Learning” designation. But, in addition, there...