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Posts from February 2018

THE CONNECTEDNESS OF OUR WORLD

Far too often, we tend to disparage views expressed by “the other side” in almost any meaningful discussion of the challenging issues facing our country today.  We sometimes go to such extremes that we close our ears to reasoned comments coming from that other side. That, of course, is “too bad” for our country —- and, it’s also unfortunate for educated individuals who consider themselves both informed and reasoned —- a self-defined...

LEARNING & CREATIVITY

In order for your online training to be most effective, you should seek those courses created by instructional designers who incorporate creativity into their learning designs.  Creativity, born from the designer’s imagination, is the single most important quality that distinguishes those courses with which your trainees will fully engage during the learning process. Imagination is the catalyst that drives creativity.  In his book, THE DRAMATIC IMAGINATION, one of America’s greatest 20th Century...

TRAIN YOUR OWN BETTER

“Finding skilled and trained workers is almost impossible,” says (Darlene) Miller, president and CEO of the Burnsville, Minn., custom manufacturer of precision parts. “I used employment agencies. Our people used Craigslist, the workforce centers, state boards, college boards, technical schools, every concept you can think of, and still [we] could not find that trained person,” she says.  “And the more advanced technology we get into, the tougher and tougher it is.”  Toyota’s...

WHAT HAPPENED TO LEARNING?

Many of my previous posts have decried the decline of learning in many of our colleges and universities.  Some of those reasons I’ve written about: 1)  the intellectual cost of being allowed to graduate today with little or no contact with the traditional liberal arts curricula. 2)  the unfortunate tilt our colleges are making in the direction of skills training institutions. 3)  the cost our graduates will pay in their adult lives...

COMPETENCY BASED INSTRUCTION

I’ve been associated with “industrial skills training” since 1974, having shot and produced the first b&w videotape aimed at improving worker skills in the nuclear power industry.  And, I have shot or produced several hundred such products since that time in ever-evolving media:  Interactive Laser Videodisc (IVD), CD-ROM, DVD and e-Learning. They were all competency based.  The materials were tested on competencies required and developed in association with actual customers who provided...

DON’T OVERLOOK THE 3R’S

In order to stay competitive, today’s organization has to realize maximum productivity from each and every employee. While investing training dollars exclusively in specific task skills training (i.e., “Centrifugal Pump Maintenance”), 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 necessary basic skills knowledge to...

MULTI-SENSORY LEARNING

Multi-sensory training has triumphed!  It is the training medium of choice today.  And, rightly so! 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 that, when compared with traditional classroom instruction,...