I just wanted to remind people of an interesting upcoming event sponsored by NELA. It will be an international videoconference, which you can read about on the NELA blog. I participated in a similar event last year, and it was very interesting to hear different points of view based on the international aspect of the event. I highly recommend it for folks involved in learning technology and the financial services area.
NELA Videoconference Event
Comments from CMASTD/NELA Roadblocks to Learning Technology Seminar
I wanted to take a few minutes to summarize some notes from last weeks CMASTD & NELA Roadblocks to Learning Technology Seminar. You can read the description on the NELA blog.
The seminar started with Mike Brennan from Knowledge Infusion giving the key-note. He spoke of the K-I “Strategy -> Plan -> Action” Methodology using some of his current clients as examples.
One interesting quote he used was from a Towers Perrin study that said
“92% of reasons for failed projects are ‘soft issues’ – organizations, people, and culture.”
Mike said that delivering value is the universal key factor in driving success. To do this he recommended focusing on:
- Aligning with key organizational initiatives
- Creating “buzz” through internal marketing
- Doing pre-emptive change management by seeding adoption before the launch with key stakeholders or groups
Another key item I wanted to share came during a discussion on ROI and how you can quantify the softer side of internal training initiatives. Mike suggested that a metric he has used successfully is to measure the number of people promoted internally as a measure of training success and succession management effectiveness.
I’ll have some more comments from the panel discussion that I moderated, and I’m working to get Mike’s slides posted on the NELA Blog as well.
Improving Knowledge Retention at Seminars Using Blended Learning - Step 1
I was talking to a colleague about a seminar we both attended recently. We each enjoyed the seminar and took away a few key pieces of information, but it had been so jam packed with info that we both felt that we hadn’t been able to take advantage of everything that was covered.
This led to a long discussion on how I would re-design the seminar into a blended learning process to help improve the knowledge retention of all of the participants. As I started to write it up, I realized it was too long for one post, so I’ve broken it down into a couple of steps.
NELA Choice Awards - My Best 5 Minutes
My presentation “Moving from Training to Collaborative Learning” has been accepted for the NELA Choice Awards coming up on Wednesday the 14th. If you want to see me talk for just 5 minutes (not easy for me) then you should register and come on by.
There are a number of other great presenters, and the event will allow you to see eight different presenters give what they feel is their best 5 minutes of content. Then the audience will vote for their three favorites. So, please come by and vote for me!
It has been quite an exercise for me to try and get my ideas for collaborative learning down to five minutes, but I’ll be giving it a shot. I’ll be posting my presentation and comments from the event here on Thursday.
e-Learning for Pandemics
Okay, I’ll admit that I don’t really understand the difference between a “Pandemic” and an “Epidemic“, but I just received a newsletter today that copied my last post about e-Learning for Disaster Recovery. So, while they probably got the idea from my blog, the seminar looks interesting with speakers from the UN and the WHO. You can register for the online seminar here. While you’re registering for Elluminate seminars, you might also want to check out this other one by Lance Dublin. I’ve always been impressed by Lance’s work and he’s working to start his own blog now, so check it out if you get a chance.
