In order to thrive in today’s competitive world, many organizations are seeking cost-effective, successful solutions to problems that effect quality and productivity. An effective training program is no longer a luxury — it is rapidly becoming a necessity! If you are searching for a training vendor to support you with your training initiatives, here are a few things you should look for. Most importantly, you should be searching for a vendor that...
Higher education has a place in preparing our next generation of trainers and instructional designers. Theoretical understanding is important. However, when it comes to teaching “templates of learning design,” higher education seriously misdirects the student. Cookie-cutter solutions are never the answer. Every training initiative challenge undertaken has specific — not, generic — solutions. Templating (either by the organization itself or by the purchase of a vendor’s templated creation) will not work. You...
As I have commented in previous Blogs, higher education is, unfortunately, crossing over into traditional training objectives — and, away from the historical aims of a higher education. We see the movement away from a liberal arts exposure (with its attendant focus on thinking as exemplified by the great ideas and contributions made by history’s giants of thought and contribution). Instead, we are encountering an almost exclusive emphasis on “skills training” in...
Before you move forward with any new training initiative, you’d better line up your objectives. Unless you know what you are attempting to accomplish, your new training initiative is probably fated to go nowhere. Let’s look at some of the items you might consider when determining your objectives. For example, do your objectives include minimizing downtime, reducing scrap, cross-training your workforce? Maybe your objectives are designed to change employee attitudes or to...
Making your training choices should be a careful process. If you’re going to reach all of your people, you know by now that the training choices you make must be multi-sensory in design. We have discussed many times the absolute necessity of full-motion video and optional word-for-word audio if you hope to train the 40% of your workforce who do not read above a 4th Grade level. Most importantly, we know by...
Multi-sensory media instruction offers the best in learning to American business and industry. Today, both CD-ROM (either stand-alone or digitally networked) and multi-sensory based E-Learning reap the greatest returns. 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...
I am about to complete four decades of working in the training technology arena. Having lived through the earliest years of industrial videotape training – with a camera in my hands –- an engineer to provide content and very loose scripting –- and a two-inch reel-to-reel (“black and white”) mastering machine — the evolution in Learning Technologies today is awesome. I was also one of the early pioneers in the giant instructional...
Regular readers of this blog will be reminded that 40% of the nation’s workforce does not read above a 4th Grade Level and that one-third of our graduating high school seniors cannot assimilate what they read. For a very large population, reading is not the best answer for information transferal nor for the basis of forming individual opinion. Therefore, it’s worth a little time today to look back at the learning-technology trail...
The “Great Books of the Western World” and its companion collection, “The Great Ideas Today,” were published more than a half-century ago. Their introduction was designed to stimulate thinking and their publication was an attempt to bring the best of education to Americans everywhere. Unfortunately, education has slid backward from that earlier promise. Even in the time of their original publication, the naysayers were attacking “The Great Books,” “by those modernists who...
As trainers coming to the end of another year, it’s time to take stock of what needs to be done in 2011 in order that you can successfully upgrade the results of your current and future training initiatives. So, you may either be thinking about starting an E-Learning initiative in 2011 — or, you are experiencing disappointing results with the E-Learning initiative that is already underway in your organization! Not to worry!...
I’m sure we’re all familiar with the hype surrounding E-Learning. It is touted everywhere as “the answer” — just as was videotape in the 1970s and was Interactive Laser Videodisc in the 1980s. And, in many ways (but, not all!) E-Learning potentially brings more benefits to organizations than any previous training medium. Today, E-Learning is singularly poised to positively impact all aspects of one’s business. It is uniquely capable of making significant...
E-Learning has hastened the development of a new business model — and, the results promise more profitability for American business and industry! Instead of formal classroom instruction and formal learning labs, with their prescribed media courseware curriculum, E-Learning has allowed a demand-based approach that has effectively replaced the “everyone takes everything at the same time” regimen. Combined with the cost savings inherent in on-line assessment tests, the rapid development and changes in...
Why have so many American’s forgotten the real meaning of “Training?!?” Information-only programs are beginning to blur the lines. And, unfortunately, the real losers are those employees who need to Learn-through-Training — both for themselves and for their organizations. The distinction between Education and Training has been clear for centuries. While “Education” is difficult to pin down, the accepted definition revolves around the acquiring of Knowledge for one of a variety of...
The 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released a document in November that indicated a modest rise in achievement for 12th-graders since 2005. However, the key fact released indicated that, “The scores mean that 38 percent of seniors demonstrated proficiency in reading and 26 percent reached that level in math.” (The Washington Post; November 19, 2010; page A9) This follows an earlier NAEP study, issued by the Department of Education, that...