Interesting virtual Learning seminar June 6-7

If you are interested in Learning and Learning Management Systems I would encourage you to take a look at IHR’s virtual seminar “Technology Enabled Learning” taking place June 6-7.

Participation is free and you can see more and register for the event here:
http://www.hr.com/en/webcasts_events/virtual_events/upcoming_virtual_events/technology-enabled-learning_gw7ywvht.html

I am proud to say that for the second year running I have been asked to present at this seminar.
My presentation is on June 7, 11:00am EST and the title is:
“The Future of Learning Management Systems in a World Where Social and Mobile Learning Rules”.

Let me whet your appetite with some of the predictions for learning and Learning Management Systems in 2022 I’m going to make in my presentation:

1. Standardized personal learning history will be a part of the SCORM standard
2. The notion of “Social” and “Mobile” Learning has disappeared – it is taken for granted
3. Social Learning communities will thrive
4. Learning will take place across organizations and social sites will be the collaboration platform for organizational LMS
5. More types of learning will be formalized and registered by back-office LMS functionality
6. Active learner involvement will be the norm

Join if you want to hear why and how!

Hope to see you there.
Anders Northeved

Believing is NOT everything

Logic and hard facts are not always valued as much as they should be.

Oftentimes people believe that if they just “feel” or “think” something then reality shouldn’t really be taken into account…
I’m sure you all know examples where beliefs and feelings have substituted hard facts whether we are talking economy, environmental issues or politics.

– well, I can’t do much about that, but I can promote research and facts within my area of expertise: e-learning and content creation.

In e-learning and content creation a lot of people have a lot of (different) ideas on how to do certain things.

Therefore it was really refreshing to witness Saul Carliner from Concordia University in Canada talking about his findings about what is scientifically proven to work and what are just beliefs when it comes to Learning.
So here are some common beliefs in e-learning and content creation and whether there is scientific proof underneath or they are just that – beliefs.

“If an instructor narrates an asynchronous learning program, you should not display the text of the narration at the same time. “  –  TRUTH!
This is supported by two empirical studies. Called modality effect, the duplicate message causes confusion in the system.  Instead, just use bullet points (like a Powerpoint slide).
My comment: I was surprised by this and will take notice of this in my future work.

“Providing learners with control of the e-learning experience increases learning.”  –  MYTH!
No empirical evidence supports this point and 2 empirical studies support the opposite. As the extent of learner control increases, learning decreases except for a very small number of the most advanced expert learners.
My comment: This is what I have always said (without knowing if it was true…). We, as content producers, know how to structure the content in the best possible way and we should use this to help the learners learn in the most efficient way.

“Because digital natives tend to multitask, we should incorporate multitasking into our designs for learning. “  –  MYTH!
No empirical evidence supports this and several empirical studies support the opposite.
Multitasking may not be as beneficial as it appears, and can result in a loss of concentration and cognitive ‘overload’ as the brain shifts between competing stimuli .
My comment: This is no surprise to me. I have never seen multitasking implemented in a meaningful way in e-learning.

“Young people of the digital native generation possess sophisticated knowledge of and skills with information technologies”  –  MYTH!
No empirical evidence supports this and several empirical studies support the opposite.
My comment: This is probably the most surprising fact for most people and could be used by older people to not give up on all the new gadgets and trends.

“Completion rates are highest for e-learning programs that have associated tangible impacts, such as certifications or compliance. “  –  TRUTH!
This is supported by research.
My comments: This is probably the least surprising fact and something many of our customers have been doing for years.

“As a business strategy, Training groups should transition from training dominated by formal programs to training dominated by informal learning efforts” – MYTH!
This is not supported by any research.
On the other hand research indicates that informal and formal learning interacts in important ways.
My comment: This underlines that both way of learning has its place and should be part of any learning strategy.

“Line drawings are more effective than photographs for teaching technical procedures.”  –  TRUTH!
This is supported by research.
People learn better from multimedia messages when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included.
My comment: Maybe only a small subject, but good to know if you are creating content yourself.

You can read more about this and Saul Carliner on http://education.concordia.ca/~scarliner/

Feb 21, 2012 – Are you ready?

According to phonecount.com on Feb 21, 2012 (give or take a couple of days I guess…) the number of connected phones will surpass the number of people living on Earth. For everyone that doesn’t have a phone, someone will have two.
Just think about what people would have said if you predicted this 10 or 20 years ago!
I’m sure this already has a profound impact on most people’s life in many ways, but let me just focus on the possibilities for corporate HR programs.

Self Service
Lots of organizations have ripped the benefits of Self Service in their HCM program.
The administrative work has gone down; the HR data are more accurate; it’s easier for the users to get access to information; the user acceptance has gone up and the cost has come down – all well and good if the employees have access to a computer…
But with more and more people having a mobile, we will see the benefits of Self Service come to a lot of areas where people do not have access to computers like retail, production and transport.

Communication
With the widespread availability of phones the management has got a new direct communication line to all of their employees.
Want your employees to know about a new product; a new initiative; reward someone; tell everyone how it’s going… a message on the mobile is the answer. 

Surveys
It’s now possible to get feedback from your entire workforce whether they have access to a computer or not.

Education
Using mobiles for education for people who would otherwise not have access to education has enormous potential.
I would even go so far as to say that the right use of mobiles for education for organizations with employees without access to a computer could be THE competitive advantage that would define whether an organization would be successful or not!

Even if I find these possibilities very exciting, I’m sure there are other areas that could be added to this list.
I would love to see your comments on what other topics within HCM that could be helped or advanced using mobile devices!

 (Photo by Brandon Hall)

Mobile Learning

(photo by Gary Woodill)

Some time ago I participated in a webinar by Dr. Gary Woodill from Brandon Hall on the topic Mobile Learning.

Mobile Learning is something we have all been talking about for a long time, but now it seems something is really happening in this field.

He defined a set of categories that will be important to the future of Mobile Learning.

Here is a list of the ones I find most interesting and relevant:

1. User controlled learning apps – think Apple or Android Apps
2. Micro-blogging and text messaging – Facebook, Twitter etc.
3. Mobile research tools and data collection – geotag a picture of a rare flower taken with your mobile
4. Trend tracking and analysis – HealthMap, Google etc.
5. Just-in-time Information – your baker twitting when the bread is ready or the manual for your car build into the infotainment system
6. Augmented reality – Learn about the architect when you point your GPS enabled and direction sensitive phone at an old building
7. Contextual learning – personalized and location sensitive. Point your phone at a subway station and see when your train leaves
8. User controlled media production – most phones and even an iPod have a build-in camera these days
9. Performance support – a doctor operating a patient in a remote area guided by text messages from a colleague
10. Social networking and communities – Facebook, Wikipedia
11. Collaboration – made possible by the easy availability of communication devices
12. Haptic feedback – think Nintendo Wii
13. Self-organized collective behavior – think smart mobs e.g. recent demonstrations in Iran

To me they paint a very exciting new way of learning in the future – and they point to some interesting trends and truths in learning.

Often it is not technology that is limiting our possibilities but our minds
– only #6, #7 and #12 have been held back by technology – the rest is our minds catching up 

Learning gets embedded in our everyday life
– #2, #3, #5, #6, #7 and #10 are good examples 

The teacher is no longer always the focal point in future learning
– look at #1, #2, #8 and #12 

The old line between gathering information and learning becomes even more blurred in the future
– #2, #5, #6; #10 and #13 are examples of this 

Welcome to the new world of learning!

Real successes are invisible

Does your TV have colors? Of course.
But is it a “color TV”? – No, it’s just a TV. Today it is not even a flat panel TV, it’s just a TV.

What does this tells us?
If a product or feature becomes really successful it is taken for granted. No one talks about it, and if you didn’t know better you would think it had disappeared.
But our TV is flat and colorful, our toaster has a timer and the temperature in the living room is constant – without anybody mentioning it.

Some of us have been working with e-learning for a long time.
We always knew it worked, but it was still encouraging back then to hear the CEO of Cisco say that “e-learning would become more important than the Internet”.
Today no one talks about e-learning anymore. Does this means that e-learning has failed?
No, it means that e-learning has become so common that we don’t mention it anymore – we take it for granted.

 In her blog Karen O’Leonard (Bersin) gives some figures on the use of e-learning.
In 2009 33% of all training was taken on-line.
Let me just repeat this: 1 in 3 hours of corporate training was e-learning in 2009!

 Is this then as big as the Internet? – no, but if you had told people 10 years ago that 33% of corporate training hours would be e-learning in 2009, they would have thought you were crazy – or working in the industry 🙂

 So where is e-learning headed now?
Due to the cost effective nature and flexibility of the concept I’m sure we are heading towards at least 50% of all corporate training being done online.

 Everybody is talking about how social media can enhance training and learning.
I will explore this – and why gaming will never be a major factor in learning – in a couple of upcoming postings.

Hallelujah! Learning takes an upturn in a downturn

At last, they’ve seen the light!

Too often talent management, and in particular learning and development, has taken a backseat during financial downturns. Too many companies have shortsightedly used cutbacks in those areas as a quick economic fix, only to deal with the consequences later, when overtaken by more farsighted competitors who were ready to respond as soon as the economy picked up.

However, there’s evidence of a different approach this time.

From TM Magazine comes a press release from Chief Learning Officer announcing their annual 2009 Business Intelligence Industry Report, which indicates increased support from C-level execs, 83 per cent of whom “said they believe the learning organization will play a significant role in the response to the economic situation“.

Let’s hope the survey results are current enough to reflect this positive attitude accurately.

MapQuest, Margaritas, and Career Development

I have a terrible sense of direction. Before MapQuest if you wanted me to come for a visit, you had to give me really precise directions, preferably without using any compass headings – which was about as effective as giving me directions over the phone using sign language. Here’s an example of what worked for me.

From Highway 1 take the Market Street exit. At the end of the ramp, turn left. Take the second right onto Elm Street. At the first stop sign take a left onto Oak Street. Go 2.3 miles until you reach the Dairy Queen on your right. At the next traffic light make a u-turn and take the first right onto Shady Grove Avenue. Look for the sign in the yard that reads: Welcome Ken! I, along with the margaritas and guacamole, will be waiting for you on the front porch. P.S. I’m including reverse directions for the drive home, but just in case we finish the pitcher of margaritas I’ve also made up the guest room.

Most workers require a similar level of detail when it comes to career development. The good news is our talent management solutions should do most of the hard work for us; but first workers need know where they want to go. This, in my opinion, is the sole responsibility of the employee, though having a mentor or a good manager as their co-pilot greatly increases the likelihood of successfully reaching their destination. Once an employee knows where they want to be, a good talent management solution should do most of the remaining work for them – in the same way MapQuest automatically generates custom driving directions. Here’s how it should work.

First, the profile management application will help the employee understand where they are today, e.g. I’m an independent contributor with a specific set of competencies, skills, and experiences; for MapQuest this represents the starting location. Next, using the goals and development plan application, the employee will define where they want to go, e.g. I want to be manager; for MapQuest this represents the ending location. The learning management application should then provide a custom learning path (the driving directions) from where they are today to where they want to be at some point in the future.

Many talent management solutions in the market place today have good learning management solutions, but lack integrated profile and goal management applications; which means the employee is forced to navigate through the learning catalog making less-than-educated guesses – usually based on complex or arcane competency models – as to which courses will help them reach their goal. A complete, fully integrated talent management solution avoids this problem by leveraging what we already know about the employee, their profile, their goal, and their learning history, in order to create a custom learning path that will lead them directly to their goal – no compass required (margaritas optional). Cheers!

Kids these days

There has been a lot of talk in the industry about Millennials and how they impact a talent strategy.  Given the age demographic (newly joining the workforce), it is natural that the segment that has been giving this the most attention is the Recruiting process.    Most recruiters today are actively taking advantage of new technologies and social norms to increase their access to a larger (and hopefully more qualified) candidate pool.  This is all goodness.

Today, I’d like to suggest that there is another, equally important part of the talent “wheel” that really must stand up and take notice.  This is the Learning group.  As some of you probably know, this is a topic near and dear to my heart, but like anything that you are close to, I have also been guilty of wanting the answer to be in providing more methods of delivery vs. really needing to re-think the whole business strategy.  Would that it was as simple as providing a few wikis and making eLearning available as a podcast.   I am now convinced that starting with the “delivery will save us” premise, is a recipe to being totally irrelevant within your HR Business strategy in the next 5-10 years.

Watching this video about university learning, is a good start to understanding what is different today in how people learn.  I personally believe that this is not  just a GenY issue.  Even our news channels, which have an over 30 demographic, feel the need to provide an increasingly large volume of content at a more rapid pace.  The world is expecting information faster.  Sure, younger generations are more quick to adapt to this kind of change, but that does not mean that it is only the under 30 crowd that is expecting more today then they have in the past.

How people “learn” and how they are “trained” are often not well aligned in most organizations today.  I believe this problem is growing and that we need to start to think about this in the context of a “Learning strategy” vs. just a Millennial problem.  To that end, I’ve decided to try and articulate what I think is needed for a impactful learning strategy.  I’m sure I’ve missed some things, so please feel free to sound off in the comments with additional ideas.

Meg’s suggestions for a Next Generation Learning strategy

• Organizational Development and Training organizations need a tighter alignment then the loose “competency gap” relationship they have today.  Companies need to be able to drive the need for learning to individuals based on a wide-variety of “triggers”.  Competencies are certainly one, but what about things like missed objectives, long term career plans, poor customer satisfaction surveys, or even manager or individual observations?
• Learning groups need to be comfortable expanding their influence and take an active role in the dreaded worlds of knowledge management, informal land experiential learning.  To do this, we must realize that we need a seamless transition for people between formal and informal learning.  Not everything is going to be managed by the catalog and not everything can have the same level of formal monitoring as compliance training. 
• Take advantage of “wisdom of the crowds” and avoid the tendency to have everything centrally managed.  Tier your programs so that you can get comfortable with the volume of information that is going to naturally come along with the idea of opening up to the unwashed masses.  Don’t run away from these concepts just because they are complex. 
• Recognize that key learning today is not just coming from static channels, it is also coming from people.  Having better understanding about what human assets you have that can help your organization learn is key.  Who knows what and who is willing to share what they know is going to be one of the key elements to understand.
• Begin to think about incentive and tracking programs for learning.  What is mission critical for your business?  What learning is needed to make that happen?  How do you drive that learning to the individuals?   How do you help individuals get real value from your learning programs so that they continue to participate?  Understanding individual incentives is key.
• Be open to the idea that the learning department will turn into a facilitator of learning vs. the source of learning in the organization. 

It is my prediction that learning departments will either embrace this new world and find their place in it, or they will become a third appendage with only compliance as their real value proposition.