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Posts from July 2011

PROCESS & MANUFACTURING LEADS THE WAY

The business segment that has pioneered most of the design advances in corporate media training for the past four decades has been industrial skills training for the process and manufacturing industries. The first generic industrial training media course was produced by NUS Corporation (Rockville, Maryland) in 1973. It was produced for the nuclear power industry and was in black and white, mastered on a two inch reel-to-reel video recorder. Two years later...

E-LEARNING & VR

In the past, after completing one’s schooling (maybe only until the eighth grade) one became an apprentice. An honorable first step because it meant you had a “career path,” and you knew what you were going to do and how you were to do it. You were going to acquire a skill. You learned, for example, how to take a pump apart — not by reading about it, but by doing it....

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND FORMULAE

Instructional Design (ID) is so much more than the formulae taught today in many universities. ID, in order to be effective, combines creativity and analysis that, ideally, places the profession into an interpretative arts category. And, we all should know by now, that higher education — dominated by its Enlightenment-influenced academic departments — tends to look down on fields of study that cannot trace their research directly to the scientific or mathematical...

THE RECIPE FOR E-LEARNING

Today, we’re going to examine the major components found in an effective E-Learning course — a course that will actually improve on-the-job performance and increase retention. “Optional Word-for-Word Audio Capability” is the first essential quality specifically necessary for effective E-Learning. You want your people to learn, retain, and apply the information you present. You already know that 40% of your workforce is not reading-fluent (typically, a fourth grade reading level, or below)....

REVISITING HIGHER EDUCATION

There’s an interesting new book by Naomi Schaefer Riley entitled, “The Faculty Lounges: and Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get the College Education You Paid For.” In his book review (“The New York Times,” July 11), Stanley Fish describes Riley’s book as bringing “two subjects that are usually treated separately in the literature.” “The first is the increasing tendency, on the part of students, legislators, administrators and some faculty members, to view...

THE END USER & E-LEARNING

It seems pretty clear that corporate America has decided to adopt E-Learning as the training medium of choice. The advantages of cost savings, 24/7 availability, and easy conversion of existing information are all winners to the decision makers, charged with profitability responsibilities. What is lost, however, in this rush to adopt E-Learning, is the long-time emphasis on retention and transferable skills acquisition. And, today those can only be attained through a recognition...

NEW BRIDGES TO BETTER LEARNING !

The shift from teacher-led to media-rich, learner-centered instruction may well be forced upon the American education system in the upcoming years. In case one hasn’t been paying attention, there are big changes on the horizon for education in this country that will result in opportunities for well-designed, media-rich on-line courseware. We all know that a significant trend in education today is toward competency and accountability. Clearly, competency-based on-line courseware, with integrated measuring...

THE BIG THREE !

As trainers, you should always keep your eye on “The Big Three.” Your first task is to recognize that too many investments in training are made which are unrelated to company objectives. Therefore, it should come as no surprise, that management, too often, regards training costs as superfluous and unnecessary. So, how can you assure that your training efforts will help your company achieve that competitive advantage? In order to successfully connect...