LearnTrends 2009 September 22, 2009
Posted by ppang in News and happenings.add a comment
This is a free Online Conference. A brief description from the organiser is given below:
“The theme/focus this year is on Convergence in Workplace Learning. We will bring together people who look at different aspects of learning and knowledge work to understand better what’s going on in those areas and how we should be thinking about this holistically. I’m particularly looking forward to discussions of how:
come together to form a cohesive picture. What should L&D managers be doing relative to these related efforts? How does this impact our eLearning Strategy? Heck just discussing eLearning Strategy should be fun with the right people in the room.”
To register, you must first register on the LearnTrends community and then register on the Conference Event Page.
Bridging formal and informal learning September 10, 2009
Posted by ppang in Informal learning.add a comment
Consider the traditional expertise by learning mode graph (Figure 1). At the novice stage (regardless of whether it’s an experienced employee moving into a new area, such as a technical employee being moved to a managerial role, or a new hire), employees need support not only for basic knowledge, but often in motivation as well. We largely direct formal learning at the novice learner.
At the practitioner stage, employees typically know what their goals are, and they know what they need to know, so we can strip down much more content. At the expert stage, individuals are looking for collaboration to advance their joint understanding. Social network tools typically help the practitioner and the expert, although the novice may benefit from virtual mentoring. In cultural terms, novices move from the periphery of a culture of practice towards the center, where practitioners and experts are in active dialogue defining and advancing the field.
Issues to consider when implementing the use of social tools for social learning:
to contribute, openness to diverse ideas, and shared commitment.
Source: Quinn, C.”Social Networking: Bridging Formal and Informal Learning“.
Learning Portals Represent A New Trend August 20, 2009
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Learning Portals Represent A New Trend, Reports July T+D
Expertus and Training Industry Inc. announced the findings from their recent study, “2009 Study on Learning Portals & Informal Learning Technologies.” The study uncovered how learning executives’ use of learning portals has gained widespread momentum as a learning technology platform. The study defined a learning portal as, “a website where learners find, buy, or simply get access to training.”
More than 93 percent of respondents’ learning organizations have learning portals. Training organizations that train internal employees are by far the most frequent users of learning portals. However, two-thirds of those who train customers and more than half of those who train channel partners or vendors also use learning portals.
Within the next two years, 45 percent of respondents say they will upgrade their existing learning portal and 14 percent plan to launch a new learning portal. Most respondents use all of the 12 major learning tools and technologies listed on the survey in their portals. These include blogs, online coaching, polls, self-study programs, communities of practice, and more.
Improving learner and customer satisfaction was cited by 68 percent of respondents as a top benefit of having a learning portal. The other two top benefits are tracking and enabling informal learning and helping to integrate learning technology. Fifty percent of respondents said that including informal learning technologies in their learning programs was critically important and 39 percent reported that it was somewhat important. Less than 5 percent said that it was not important.
Face of learning in the future December 28, 2008
Posted by ppang in Uncategorized.Tags: future of learning
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Some interesting comments from the industry’s leading voices about the future of learning – some the most important trends on the horizon.
The One Minute Manager author Ken Blanchard provided an an outline of the three major changes he sees coming:
Changing technologies
• Engaging digital natives (younger generations) in creating the kind of learning experiences they are drawn to already
• Organizations need to pay attention to how social networking, gaming and simulations facilitate real work
• Increasing isolation and alienation because more people are working from home
• Organizations need to be deliberate in strengthening relationships at work, even virtual ones
• Productivity/relationship best practices for workers who work at home or independently
Changing demographics
• Finding different work arrangements for baby boomers other than retirement
• Organizations need to be more flexible to keep needed talent:
• Part-time arrangements
• More flexible schedules
• Project work
• Developing Gen X and Gen Y more rapidly to become leaders and managers
• Organizations need to provide career planning and intentional development and give attention to what they want or need:
• Boomers as mentors
• Work-life balance
• Larger meaning in work
• Support more “intrapreneurship” to keep people from leaving
Changing workplace
• Increasing need to provide just-in-time solutions to problems rather than just-in-case training
• Organizations need to provide shorter training and more follow-up
• Create ecosystems that support rapid on-boarding of new employees, training with supervisor involvement, coaching and access to information through technology
• Get away from one-size-fits-all: People need their own career/development journey mapped out and supported
• Custom-built life
Jay Cross, CEO of Internet Time Group
The core aspects of traditional L&D are rapidly going out of date, said Jay Cross, CEO of Internet Time Group. Things such as courses, curriculum, instruction manuals and learning events are less important than ever, and they’ll continue to move in that direction. “…Today, incessant change is baked into everything. About all we can say is that the future won’t be like the past. The focus of learning must shift from what used to work to what works now.” What works now Cross said the answer lies in the convergence of learning and workflows.
Ed Cohen, CLO at India-based Satyam Computer Services
“A perfect storm is the convergence of multiple storms that, when they collide, cause massive amounts of destruction and damage. Retirements of the baby-boomer generation in developed countries; aging populations worldwide because of declining birth rates; longer average life spans; a widening skills gap; and insufficient numbers of people entering the workforce are all factors which, when combined, are leading to this perfect storm.” According to Ed Cohen, the keys to getting through this storm will be extreme awareness of costs, knowing as much about the business as possible and taking care of employees, which in the end will better position the organization for the eventual upswing.
Rebecca Ray, senior vice president of global talent management and development at MasterCard
During the past few years, business acumen increasingly has been acknowledged as a core competency for effective chief learning officers because it’s the underpinning of alignment and effective measurement, said Rebecca Ray. Ray predicted that the learning industry will see increased use of social networks and user-generated content due to demographic and technology changes. The challenge for CLOs is to stay ahead of these technical trends and also demonstrate their value as learning solutions.
Source: Summerfield, B., and L.E. Wickman, Chief Learning Officer (Dec 2008).
Designing mobile content December 14, 2008
Posted by ppang in Mobile learning.add a comment
Introduction
With the boom in the mobile device industry, opportunities abound for us to make use of these devices to support learning. Mobile learning (m-Learning) may be simply described as e-Learning on a mobile device, combining mobile computing and e-Leaning. Mobile devices are not restricted to just cell phones or PDAs. Sony PSP and tablet PCs also belong to this broad category of mobile devices.
Why Mobile Learning
Before we plunge headlong into any design and development work for m-learning, the first question we need to ask is ‘ Why do we want to implement m-Learning?’. In other words, the objectives to be achieved by the m-Learning initiative need to be clearly established. In addition, mobile devices have different size and capability limitations. Some browsers are able to resize the fonts, support zooming while others ignore style sheets. Thus, a general rule is to keep it clean and simple in the design of content for mobile devices.
Design considerations
- Create content using smaller chunks for text
- Create meaningful sub-headings
- Avoid overloading cognitive resources
- Use of audio
- Observing the redundancy principle
This is to facilitate learners to grab relevant information quickly while they are no the go. Each chunk or several of this chunk should be written to the point, conveying the most important information. They should also be a complete standalone or as a group so that learners will not be burdened with the unnecessary cognitive load of trying to recall earlier related content.
The other implication for content writing is the use of meaningful sub-headings. The collection of meaningful subheadings for each topic will in fact provide learners with a fairly good idea of what the topic is all about. Cute and irrelevant subheadings must be avoided.
According to Lauren Resnick, “Cognitive load theory suggests that effective instructional material facilitates learning by directing cognitive resources toward activities that are relevant to learning rather than toward preliminaries to learning.
Since the display real-estate is a constraint, we may consider using audio instead of texts. This will free-up room for other types of content (text and graphics). The other benefit is that it adds a human touch to learning as well! This approach can also be used for complex content. The main points are captured on screen as a reference for learners.
This principle calls for the eliminating of redundant information in various formats simultaneously. For instance, there is not much value in having both text and narration if the narration simply reads back the exact text that is shown on the screen.
Technical considerations
In addition to the pedagogical requirements to be satisfied, we also need to have a good understanding of the current technical constraints and be aware of evolving technologies.
Multimedia support
None of the currently available mobile devices support
multimedia that is part of Web pages. This means
that content requiring plug-ins such as Flash, PDF,
Java, and most movie formats do not work across platforms.
The movies that are becoming popular on iPod
require a proprietary movie application, separate from
the browser. This means that we should avoiding rich media or multimedia, at least for now.
Have good contrast between foreground and background
It is usually a good idea to stick to graphics that are primarily black-and-white when using mobile devices, as it can be hard to predict how dark certain colors will turn out, and to avoid graphics with lots of curved lines. If you want to look at high-resolution images, save them for the desktop and reserve the handheld for less graphical information.
Use of pull-down menu
Not all mobile devices support pull-down menus. Thus, an alternative technique is required.
Texts in graphics
Do not include texts in graphics as the mobile browser may shrink graphics so that they fit on the small display size. This will also shrink the ext that is in the graphic, rendering it impossible to read.
With an increasing globalised workforce and the need to get one’s products to the market sooner, it is more important now to get employees up to speed in a shorter period of time. Mobile learning definitely has the potential to provide just-in-time training to help workers solve current workplace problems.
Additional information:
- Most LMSs do not work in a mobile environment, since they create their environment in tools (AJAX and Rich Media) that do not work on.
- Microsoft browsers have poor JavaScript support, do not support Flash, do not support zooming, and ignore style sheets
(CSS). Although Windows Mobile 6 supports CSS,it does not provide any special handling for frames. - Minimo, a port of the Firefox (Mozilla) browser for Windows Mobile devices, is an alternative you might want to consider. The Minimo browser is available for Windows Mobile 5 and later. It is easy to install, and fully JavaScript enabled, which means that dynamic content works well. The Minimo browser is capable of
performing decent zooming, and has good style sheet (CSS) support. Minimo is one of the best browsers available. The only downside is that you need to download and install it on the Windows Mobile platform – but it is free. - Symbian is the name of Nokia’s operating system that includes a browser. The browser is good, with reasonable JavaScript support, and provides excellent zooming.
- Apple’s iPhone uses a proprietary operating system and the Safari browser. iPhone supports multimedia separately from the browser. Overall, this is an excellent platform since it has good screen size, good style sheet (CSS) and JavaScript support, and the touch screen makes it easy to use.
- Palm’s operating system, called Garnet, includes a browser. The Garnet browser has poor style sheet (CSS) support, but it does a nice job with frames by putting them at the bottom of the page. It has weak support for dynamic HTML. Like Apple, Palm’s devices
have touch screens to make navigation easier. - A 2007 study on mobile platform usage found that Symbian (used in Nokia phones) had 70% of the mobile OS market. Linux (used by multiple vendors such as Sharp and Samsung) had 15% of the mobile OS market. Research In Motion’s Blackberry had 5% of
the mobile OS market, while Microsoft Windows Mobile and CE (used by Palm, Compaq, Samsung) had 5%. Since this study came out, new players including Apple (iPhone) and Android (Google’s operating system) have appeared. In many countries outside of the
U.S., people use cell phones 100 times as often as desktop computers.
Source: Rosen, A. “Building Mobile e-Learning”, eLearning Guild (1 Dec 2008)
References:
-
Levert, G.l., “Designing for Mobile Learning: Clark and Mayer’s Principles Applied”, The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions, 19 Jun 2006.
- Clothier, P., “An Introduction to m-Learning: An Interview with Ellen Wagner”, The eLearning Developers’ Journal, 18 Jul 2005.
Diversity training December 14, 2008
Posted by ppang in Diversity education and training.Tags: diversity training, globalised worldd
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With a globalised and thus more diverse workforce, one of the key competencies of today’s worker is to be able to interact successfully with diverse colleagues and customers. Thus, more and more organisations are investing in diversity training programmes. In fact, programs. Internationally,multinational firms are increasingly adopting diversity training programs (Egodigwe, 2005).
Not only should organisations ensure that their employees are equipped with the ability to work alongside with their geographically and culturally different colleagues, even schools and academic institutions should incorporate diversity training into their curricula. This will prepare the students when they join a ‘heterogenous’ workforce in future. The Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (AACSB) has identified multicultural and diversity understanding as important knowledge in undergraduate business programs (AACSB, 2004). Additionally, accredited schools must support the concept of diversity and show that their curricula prepare students for careers in global contexts (Misra & McMahon, 2006).
Hayles’ (1996: 106) chapter on diversity training in organizational
settings described diversity learning as involving “head (knowledge); hand (behaviors and skills); and heart (feelings and attitudes),” while Gudykunst, Guzley, and Hammer (1996) noted that most organizational diversity training involves creating change in trainees’ cognition, behavior, and affect. Sue et al. (1982) introduced three distinct cross-cultural competencies (knowledge of cultural groups and cross-cultural relations, awareness of one’s own beliefs and attitudes, and skills necessary to work with different cultural groups) into academic counseling programs.
I think the change in our ‘heart’ to want to learn and to make use of our new diversity competencies post- training are more difficult to achieve relative to the acquisition of knowledge and skills. It may presents an even greater challenge to quantify the return on investment from a diversity training programme. Nevertheless, the human capital or similar department should work diligently to convince management of such an investment and produce evidence to show how it has helped improve specific areas in the organisation, be it a more diversity-friendly working environment or higher productivity due to reduced miscommunication.
Reference: Kulik, C.T. and L.Roberson, “Common Goals and Golden Opportunities: Evaluations of Diversity Education in Academic and Organizational Settings”, Academy of Management, Learning & Education 7 no. 3 (Sep 2008)
Benefits of Virtual Learning December 8, 2008
Posted by ppang in Returns on Learning Investments, Virtual Learning.add a comment
With an increasingly distributed workforce globally, it has become a critical skill for today’s knowledge worker to be able to work in a virtual team as well as leading it. In the same vein, online learning allows the organisation to train its employees in a timely and cost effective manner.
In fact, the participants in an online programme do not only take away the content, including the concepts and skills, they also learn about working in virtual team as they make contributions to the team-based projects. Not only will they learn about how to get their ideas clearly across to others, i.e. communication skills), they must also be sensitive to the diverse cultural differences which will have an impact on the managing of relationships.
Participants in a virtual team learning programme will realise the importance of distributed leadership at the workplace. Since each individual is an expert in his or her own area, it is important to tap on the rich experiences of all team members. Indeed, in a large scale project, it makes sense to appoint leaders to lead sub-teams based on their expertise.
If the geographical (e.g. time differences), operational (e.g. communication) and relational (e.g. cultural) challenges are managed appropriately in virtual team learning, the participants will be able to continue to build upon the undestanding and rapport that have been established. For instance, if John and Seng were teammates in the virtual team learning programme, they would be able to get started on a work project quickly since they already knew each other. In addition, their earlier collaboration opportunity means that they have some understanding of each other in terms of communication style, working style etc.
Reference: Wickman, L.E. “Virtual Teams in Learning“, Chief Learning Officer (Nov 2008)
Measuring ROI November 2, 2008
Posted by ppang in Returns on Learning Investments.1 comment so far
The T&D department has frequently been pressured to provide quantitative evidence to support further investment in training and learning initiatives. To be prepared to deal with this situation, measuring the return of investment (ROI) of training and learning initiatives should not be haphazard or even as an afterthought. Much effort and thoughts are needed to establish the methodology to determine the ROI. For instance, what are the ‘pain’ areas to be improved upon and what will be the relevant metrics to measure for improvement, i.e. what should the improved situation look like from the perpective of the stakeholder.
Some of the metrics to consider are:
- increased retention?
- shorter time to getting the next promotion?
- positive feedback (self-reporting) from trainees post training – such as ability to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills to solve problems at the workplace?
- positive feedback from supervisors – such as subordinate is now better able to manage projects or he is now able to demonstrate a bird’s eye view by considering the concerns of other departments, when making a decision
To be able to collect valid evaluation data, it is also important to consider when it is appropriate to to so. Unlike a training programme that focuses on technical skills, there is a ‘waiting’ time before the effectiveness of a soft skills programme, such as a leadership programme can be assessed. Thus, data may be collected 30 days post training. In fact, there may be second and third rounds of data collection.
In addition, any feedback collected should be made use of to enhance future programmes. For example, the trainee may not be able to apply fully what he has learned in the training environment due to barriers in the workplace. His supervisor may not know how to coach the trainee to bring about better job performance. This means that perhaps the supervisors need to be trained in certain aspects as well.
Thus, the design and successful implementation of a training or learning intervention needs to consider the total organisational environment. These include the business objectives to be satisfied by the training programme, the commitment of the potential trainees and stakeholders as well as support of the other organisational members.
Jakob’s useit.com October 1, 2008
Posted by ppang in Web usability.Tags: design website, usability
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To understand how you can design usable websites, including intranets, Jakob’s usable information technology is a good resource: http://www.useit.com/
With the use of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis and blogs, web design principles such as high contrast in the colour of text and background, use of meaning links etc are still applicable in general. In an academic institution, I think the challenge is how these user-generated content can be moderated and archived in an efficient manner. In additon, in the absence of an e-portfolio, how can students take their works with them after they have completed their academic courses.
WAVE to test for accessibility October 1, 2008
Posted by ppang in Designing for web accessibility.Tags: accessibility, Add new tag, WAVE
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I find WAVE useful to quickly identify areas where there are accessibility issues. The report does not provide you with the solution for each accessibility issue as it assumes that the user is familiar with the accessibility requirements and hence should able to fix the issues identified.
My personal experience is that it is best to first identify the accessibility requirements to be fulfilled and how these can be done before the online course is built. Not only must the ICT person be familiar with the accessibility requirements, the learning designer plays an important role in providing meaningful captions, alternate texts and FLASH exercises in alternative format which is accessible by in our case, the visually impaired students.
Read about the latest on WAVE in http://webaim.org/blog/update-on-wave/. You can learn more about how to use WAVE in WebAIM’s WAVE article.
