Got 5 minutes for professional development? Here are 3 resources.
Would you like to be in charge of your own professional development rather than waiting for a formal training process to be offered (and without even having to sign up for one!). Here are 3 easy, free, and GREAT ideas:
Your local library (radical, right?)
If you haven't been to your local library since high school, it's time for a visit. Believe me, it's probably more up-to-date than the training department in your company. My favorite part of the library are the LIBRARIANS. They are a fount of information and know where to look for information if they don't know it themselves. They can point you in the right direction, request resources for you, pull reading lists, and more. I use one particular librarian as my personal research department; she is awesome and she loves the work because she doesn't have many customers asking her for corporate research.
Deep dive in to podcasts
Would you like to be "better educated"? Find a podcast on an "academic" topic (finance, economics, astronomy). You'll be surprised at how much a topic you knew nothing about informs your present-day life.Maybe you'd like to increase your business acumen. Look for podcasts that focus on engineering, logistics, marketing, human resources, etc. Give yourself a bigger perspective on the work that you do, or the industry that you are in.
One of my favorite podcasts is Freakanomics, because, it turns out, economics plays a role in everything; and it can be fun! I especially like that this podcast has a transcript of all the shows on its website. Earlier this year they did a series on the "Secret life of a CEO" and had hour-long interviews with Jack Welch, Satya Nadella, Mark Zuckerberg, and Indra Nooyi, among others.
Look at LinkedIn
One of the things I love about LinkedIn Learning is that you can filter for exactly what you want. You can choose an industry, and then a field, and then the type of learning (video, full blown course), what level of knowledge you are looking for (beginner, intermediate, advanced), and finally how long it takes to complete. Often, when I get that :15 minute reminder that I have a meeting coming up, I have time to fill. I love looking up 5 minute or less nuggets to expand my knowledge on all sorts of topics. How can you not spare 5 minutes to expand your thinking?
(Note: If you are a paid member, LinkedIn Learning is free AND if you scroll down the right side of your "home" page, you'll find a new suggestion for a course, every day. It learns your preferences and will start to suggest shorter lessons in topical areas you've shown an interest in.)
Happy Learning!
It Ain't Learning if it's Microlearning
Microlearning is the short-term, focused delivery of content or involvement in an activity. Lately I’ve seen a lot of chatter about best practices for “microlearning.” By most standards microlearning should be less than six minutes and often the suggestion is that it is no more than two minutes.
The thinking is that learners have the “capacity” to sit still and watch an informational tutorial for only so long before they’ll zone out, hit pause, or be interrupted by their work. Companies that create micro learning promote it by touting its ability to quickly close a “skills gap” – a learner can learn a new topic or take advantage of a refresher, in a short snippet that they can apply immediately. About to close a sale? Watch this microlearning video on 5 steps to closing a sale. Need to perform cardiac surgery? Look at this flowchart which will lead you through the process (I’m kidding. I hope.).
Another advantage – per proponents of microlearning – is that the learner himself can control what and when to learn.
Pardon my upcoming capitalization: THIS IS NOT LEARNING. This is performance support. How and when did we get these two terms confused?
Interview with Darlene Christopher, author
the-successful-virtual-classroom-book-cover
The Successful Virtual Classroom by Darlene Christopher
What motivated you to write this book?
I think that delivering training via virtual classrooms offers so much potential to organizations in terms of the ability to scale the delivery of training to dispersed audiences. The books I found on virtual classroom training focused on the "what" of virtual classroom training but I felt there was more to be explored in terms of the "how" so I decided to write about it.
I also included a chapter focused on delivering virtual training to global audiences since globalization is a growing trend affecting many organizations, yet little has been written about it.
If you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be?
Delivering training programs in a virtual classroom requires adjustments in two key areas in order to engage a live online audience: content and facilitation. Adjusting your content and facilitation techniques takes some time, but in return it saves travel time and cost for both the enterprise and learner.
How can trainers use this book to assist them in the work that they do?
The goal of this book is to provide facilitators and other training professionals with the tools and techniques to confidently design and facilitate engaging virtual programs. A supporting framework - the PREP model (plan, rehearse, execute, and post-session review) - is covered in detail.
The book is also filled with tools, checklists, and worksheets-as well as case studies from Oracle, UPS, and more. I aimed to make the book as practical as possible and I hope that training professionals will find the tips, sample exercises and icebreakers and real-world examples directly applicable to their work. 4
Darlene Christopher, Senior Knowledge & Learning Officer. World Bank
Resources for Graphics to Enhance Your Instructional Design Efforts
Well-designed instruction is quite reliant on well-designed visual representation (in our humble opinion). Given that premise, here are some excellent resources for you to check out:
123rd.com - royalty free photos and music/sound effects. You must pay, but very affordable. (This is our preferred site).
Morguefile.com - completely free photos. Lots of great nature scenes; not business oriented but great for backgrounds or accents.
Pixabay.com - photos, illustrations and vector graphics. You are able to browse by category such as Business or Industry. Completely free.
eLearningArt.com - is very unique for two reasons: 1 - you can download "character packs" which are anywhere from 50 - 75 photos of one individual in many poses. Super helpful when you want a consistent character in your learning, and 2 - "cut out people" which provides thousands of photos of just people - no backgrounds.
10 Challenges When Creating A Blend
More than 60 individuals responded to a survey regarding the challenges they experienced when implementing a blended learning curriculum in their organization. Being aware of theses common challenges will help you to manage them in your own design.
1. Ensuring participants can be successful using the technology.
2. Overcoming the idea that online learning cannot be as effective as classroom training (convincing stakeholders).
3. Keeping online offerings interactive rather than just "talking at" them (keeping the attention of the learners).
4. Ensuring participant commitment and follow-through during "non-live" elements (accountability).
5. Matching the best delivery medium to the objective(s)- arriving at the right blend.
6. Readjusting facilitator roles.
7. Looking at how to teach content- not what to teach.
8. Resisting the urge to use technology simply because it is available.
9. Ensuring all the elements of the blend are coordinated.
10. Managing and monitoring participant progress.
WebEx Tip: Pop-Up Note
If you'd like to have a pop-up welcome note as people join your WebEx Session, you can program it when you schedule your class, OR if you are opening a session spontaneously, go to the menu bar: Meeting > Welcome Message. It will open a new browser window and you can type your message. Be sure to check "Display this message when attendees join the meeting."
The result: As each new attendee joins, this message window will pop up over the WebEx interface. Useful for introducing yourself, giving instructions (e.g. "Be sure to close down your email."), or providing alternate call-in numbers, if needed.
Why Utilize a Virtual Classroom?
Book Excerpt from "Tailored Learning":
The ability to interact with experts and peers in real time is a comfortable and familiar environment and eliminates the isolation that often comes with asynchronous technologies. Often a participant requires live interaction with an instructor or an expert, but that interaction does not need to be face-to-face.
For example, medical students observing surgery would, arguably, benefit from being physically in the operating room or a surgical observation area. However, those same participants do not need face-to-face interaction to ask post-operative questions of the surgeon. Questions can be asked and discussed among all of the participants via a virtual classroom. If a recording is made of the synchronous discussion, all the participants can go back and review the recording, at any time, to ensure that they understood the answers. One of the most common reasons for organizations to implement a virtual classroom is an audience that is dispersed across a large geographic area (oftentimes worldwide). Compared with traditional classroom delivery, the money saved in classroom costs, travel, and time away from work quickly becomes apparent. In addition, organizations may choose to deliver content that they never would have scheduled in a more traditional (classroom) setting. For example, an update to a computer system may only take one or two hours to teach, but an organization would rarely convene a training program for such a short period of time because it would be cost prohibitive. The virtual classroom makes this type of content easy to distribute.
As organizations become more global, and the need to collaborate across a distance is becoming more important, a virtual meeting place can help close the distance gap by providing a forum through which employees collaborate in real time.
Online learning is gaining in "popularity"
Interest in online learning is growing rapidly, while interest in traditional education is waning. From 2012 - 2013, distance education enrollment rose 1.8% compared with a drop of 4% in overall higher education enrollment according to the US Department of Education.
What does this mean for us? As trainers? It means our new hires are coming to us already equipped to be successful while learning virtually.
Successful Virtually Delivered Training Is Dependent On...
Many organizations are using virtually delivered training programs due to companies’ widespread geographic locations and the just-in-time nature of delivery that the synchronous platforms allow. Unfortunately, not many organizations are doing it well.
At a minimum, there are three key components for successful virtually delivered training. None is more important than another – all must be created, tested, and executed to perfection. The good news is: all are completely within your control.
Content
Many organizations are moving what used to be delivered in a classroom to an online format. This requires translating concepts and content into a new format. The face-to-face class simply cannot be replicated in the online environment, so it is important to make critical decisions about what to keep, what to distribute in another way (such as reading or an e-learning module), and what to deliver in another way (such as on-the-job coaching).
Virtually delivered training, by default, is blended learning. There is no way around it. Not everything can be delivered successfully in a synchronous online environment, nor should it be. For example, reading a case study might be done during 5 minutes in the face to face class, but it is not a good use of online time. Therefore the case study should be read at another time (what to distribute in another way). Doing some work asynchronously (independently) and some work together, during the online session, is the very definition of blended learning.
Materials
Materials are critical in the online environment. This include slides, because it is a very visually-oriented delivery medium; Participant Guides, because very often a learner will be the sole individual enrolled in a class at his/her location, and the learner needs some sort of reference material or supporting documentation in order to follow along in the class; and scripted Facilitator Guides to ensure the training achieves the intended learning outcomes while ending in the allotted time (virtual, online training is very tightly timed).
Most especially, when it comes to slides, get rid of the PPT templates, get rid of the bullets, and create visual, engaging “canvases” for creating.
Mastering Technology
Luckily, technology is rather fool-proof these days unless something is done that purposefully interferes with its operation. Like most physical skills, using technology only gets better with practice. A best-practice is to always rehearse the delivery one or two days in advance of the scheduled class. No matter how many times a facilitator has delivered the same session, it’s always a good idea to practice it –in the synchronous environment – to be comfortable with the tools, their location, their execution, and their results (e.g. does it look better to highlight a particular piece of text, or underline it?).
Creating and re-designing training to be delivered via a virtual technology can be a daunting task.
There are many details to be aware of and manage. If you find yourself being overwhelmed, concentrate on these three things and you will more than ensure your success.
Higher Ed Students are Used to Online Learning
About one-eighth of students enrolled in higher education institutions take all their coursework at a distance (online or through video, satellite or correspondence work), while another one-eighth take at least some classes at a distance according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education which focuses on best practices and technology for distance learning.
Quotable: Lora Reed
Online learning is "consistent with where we are going with employers and teams." Employers need people who are self-motivated and who can work independently and collaborate online with colleagues, including critiquing each other's work - exactly the skills that online learning builds.
Lora Reed, Assistant Professor, Ashford University Forbes School of Business as quoted in HR Magazine, May 2015