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Posts from January 2010

LEERY OF THE SLICK

So, you’ve arranged a meeting with a sales representative from a courseware vendor. Okay, what should you expect? First of all, keep in mind that the salesperson has been trained by her company to extol the virtues of the product she is going to demonstrate and discuss. That salesperson has memorized every feature and benefit associated with his product. He’s been taught to ask you questions in order to “ease the atmosphere”...

SUCCESS !

The “Harvard Alumni Magazine” recently published information on their graduates that should call into question some of the values we are teaching our kids. “Among those who graduated around 1970, 22 percent of the men were in finance or management 15 years later. Among those who graduated around 1990, the figure was 38 percent. The proportion of male graduates working in finance alone increased from 5 percent to 15 percent in the...

THE TRAINING PLAN

Today many corporations are either developing for themselves or, looking for help from a vendor, in addressing their specific training needs. If you choose the latter route, you need to choose a vendor that will listen, be able to understand what you want to achieve, and then work with your organization in order to design and/or implement a training program that will meet your objectives. The key to any successful training initiative...

CUSTOM COURSES

Sometimes you’re in the market for a custom production house. Beyond “the basics,” taught successfully by several responsible vendors, you might also have need for a customized training program that will address items that are specific to your organization’s procedures, policies or specific equipment. What should you look for? To begin, you should select a producing organization that has a long track record of producing similar multiple-media training programs for their customers....

WHY ARE YOU DOING IT?

What do you want to accomplish with your training initiatives? Do your objectives include minimizing downtime, reducing scrap, cross training your workforce? Or, are those objectives tied to a “CYA” strategy? In other words, are you going to justify your training initiatives by showing management the improvement results between pre-test and final exam scores? If so, you’re not doing a very good job of helping your organization meet its top line and...

APPLIED TECHNICAL COMPETENCY

Applied technical competency is the basis for increasing productivity and quality while minimizing downtime and re-work. Knowledgeably designed multi-sensory training is created to improve technical competence. Such courses use workplace situations and terminology, providing an atmosphere of practicality for the employee. With knowledgeably designed multi-sensory learning, employees understand the course material faster and retain more, allowing them to apply more of their new skills. Such courses allow employees to learn at their...

” THE RESEARCH “

Much data relating to multi-sensory media instruction is available, and this data can illustrate the reasons behind the success of multi-sensory learning. More than anything else, the body of multi-sensory training developed for business and industry brings training efficiency. There are several obvious reasons. Multi-sensory instruction reduces training time. Estimates are that learning occurs 38-70% faster than with traditional classroom instruction, and course content is mastered 60% faster. Perhaps equally important is...

AN INVESTMENT

What force separates the winners from the losers in today’s marketplace? The same force that has shaped survivors throughout history — change! Since the beginning of time, it has been those who have learned to control change who have prospered. How does an organization acquire the skills and knowledge to meet the challenges posed by change? Through TRAINING! A successful company needs managers and planners who can see the potential of the...

THE BASIC SKILLS

To stay competitive, today’s organization has to realize maximum productivity from each and every employee. While investing training dollars in specific task skills training, too often, the company ignores the basic skills knowledge gap that exists throughout their organization. Unfortunately, when they take the time to examine that basic skills gap, many find that their employees simply don’t have the basic skills to perform their jobs effectively. A working understanding of applied...

AUTHORS & ARTISTS

Media instruction has always been a designers’ medium. So it is today with e-Learning. In fact, the only applicable phrase for effective e-Learning instruction — “instructional integrity” — does not belong to the new Merlins with their magic technology. That phrase is the province of flesh and blood human beings, the instructional designers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Media instruction has never been an evolving electronic gadgetry world. It is rather one...

THE TESTING MENACE

Public education has morphed from a “culture of learning” into a “culture of testing.” And, that is not a good thing. Regurgitation of facts and information has become the almost-exclusionary emphasis. The value of our public schools is judged almost exclusively by standardized test scores. And, our children lose. Education, rightfully, should be about thinking and questioning. It’s the questions that should be sought and not just the answers. It’s the great...

THE HURDLES

So, you are either thinking about starting an e-Learning initiative — or, you are experiencing disappointing results with the e-Learning initiative that is already underway in your organization! Not to worry! It’s time to look at the typical hurdles that must be overcome if your e-Learning initiative is going to provide the positive returns your organization expects. First, and foremost, for e-Learning to succeed it must have top management “buy-in.” No initiative...