It’s not that rapid e-learning tools are entirely replacing trainers or instructional designers. They are, however, becoming a preferred choice of developing and delivering training in the corporate world. Their ease of use and overall cost is relatively low compared to the more traditional forms of training. Nevertheless, these software applications are merely tools and in the hands of inexperienced instructional designers or subject matter experts tapped as trainers, they are ineffective.

Instructional designers  have their place in the training process as they analyze and validate training needs. With their knowledge of adult learning and how to maximize the potential of each learner, they can organize and present the content in a fashion that is easy to learn and relevant to the learner. More importantly, they can create activities and exercises that give the learner an immediate opportunity to demonstrate what they learned and get corrective feedback.

Sadly, I have to agree with the author of the blog post that inspired this particular post that some companies are trading quality for speed. While it is understandable that managers and human resource departments need people to be trained quickly and efficiently, the science behind adult learning often gets overlooked.

I feel the profession instructional design is losing some ground as being an established function within organizations. This is largely due to the economy. When cuts in a company need to be made, training is often the first to go as instructional designers are largely a support and administration function of an organization. They are not a line function, which generates revenue directly for a company. Such cuts, in my opinion, are not necessarily a wise move as I discussed in a previous post.

Rapid e-learning tools, in place of qualified instructional designers and trainers give a false impression that anybody can put together training and I hope that changes when the economy turns around. Instructional designers must do a better job demonstrating their value within their organizations. At PinPoint, we’re happy to say we use rapid e-learning tools, but we back-up everything we produce with sound instructional design.

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More than a year ago, I wrote a post on how cutting training during a down economy is not a smart move. What was said then is still true today, or any time for that matter. A well-coached, well-trained employee armed with knowledge can excel for for any company when competitors or companies in related industries are dropping their programs all together.

Good training that is objective and performance-based will empower employees to perform to expectations, supporting defined business goals and objectives. When the economy is down, training is more important than ever. Layoffs and job restructuring shift new duties and tasks to those remaining in an organization’s workforce. That alone prompts evaluation of current training programs and new training needs that must be met. Times like these are an opportunity to ensure that the existing workforce still engages and continues to work toward meeting an organization’s goals.

Any redesign or reassessment of training programs should be based current business objectives. Before the urge to cut training programs take hold, think about which training programs work and are effective for your organization. Do they produce the intended results? What knowledge, skills and behaviors needed for top performance out of any employee are present in the current training programs? Find ways to evaluate the current training programs by measuring and quantifying results that tie back to the organization’s business objectives.

Despite the negative impact of economic downturns on our businesses, somewhere within the challenges we face are opportunities for creativity and new solutions to emerge. Training is one of them. There are many alternative methods in presenting training to support your business that are efficient and cost effective, such as e-learning. Many of the resources at the disposal of most companies can be leveraged to provide learning experiences that keep your workforce active and engaged in staying productive to emerge from the recession we are currently in.

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Cognitive overload occurs when our working memory has reached capacity. Being bombarded by information is the equivalent to drinking from a fire hose. It’s a futile effort. As learners, we comprehend data first through our senses (sight, smell, taste, sound, touch). It then enters our short-term memory where it is processed and later stored in long-term memory for retrieval at another time. Short-term memory can only hold so much information before it is discarded or stored by the learner for other incoming information.

It’s not the least bit surprising more and more people experience cognitive overload in their daily lives. With advancements in technology, the vast sum of the world’s information is easily accessible. Information is distributed in many forms, all competing for our attention. As much as we would like to take it all in, humans physically cannot process and comprehend all that is thrown at us. That is why we as learners must filter out what is only relevant to us and trainers must facilitate this by only presenting what is valued based on the expressed training need.

The key to reducing cognitive overload is to stay objective about your learning. Focus only on desired outcomes and the information that is relevant to the learner – the tasks or knowledge important to their role. If you apply this overall rule each time you develop training, you will create training that is engaging and effective.

If you would like to learn more about how to reduce cognitive overload and create effective training, sign up for a free 5-part e-mail course on How to Build Effective Training in Five Easy Steps at my company, PinPoint Performance Solutions.

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Needs assessments identify the root cause(s) to performance problems. If a needs assessment calls for an intervention to remove the barrier(s) to performance, you must choose carefully which intervention you plan to adopt to bring about the desired change or performance you wish to see in your organization.

Keep in mind there are several kinds of interventions, and no single intervention will serve as a “magic bullet” to solve your organization’s performance problems. You may have to apply a combination of interventions or introduce them in phases to bring about the desired change.

Interventions are typically grouped into the following categories:

• Information-focused – Interventions that define, inform and document. This could be as simple as holding an informational meeting, presentation or creating channels of communication to keep people informed.
• Consequences-focused – Interventions that reward, measure and enforce. Examples include awards and recognition for model performance or scorecards to track / quantify performance.
• Design-focused – Interventions that organize, standardize, design or redesign. This type of intervention can be a reengineering of a process, adopting industry standards or merging job functions, roles or responsibilities.
• Capacity and capabilities-focused – Interventions that reframe, counsel or develop. This is usually where training is called for or when new tools and facilities are introduced to improve performance.
• Congruence-focused – Interventions that align. Demonstrated through team building or soliciting customer feedback (internally or externally).

When choosing an intervention, first make sure you have conducted a thorough needs assessment to determine the barrier(s) to performance. Once identified, you can then choose the appropriate intervention(s) to improve workplace performance.

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I hope you enjoy the posts that will be coming your way very soon from PinPoint Performance Solutions.

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I knew this wasn’t going to be easy attempting to take a graduate level course online while balancing career and family. Over the last couple weeks, things have come to a head and I’m beginning to regret my choice of taking a course for the Spring semester.

My personal challenges this year are really not all that worthy of illustrating here in this forum.  Let’s be serious, do you really want to hear them?  Personal challenges aside, this semester’s class has a different feel to it.  Unlike the other courses I have taken in this certificate program, the pace at which the discussions have been moving has been staggering.  It’s very difficult to keep up and more often than not, it is nearly impossible to “jump in” to the discussion if you have been away from it for a couple days.

I have other work to do and other obligations to meet.  I don’t live on the class discussion forum, and yet I feel my classmates do.  Nothing against them, but what I’m observing is the biggest drawback to online education in general.  In most courses, the only way for the instructor to measure your contribution to the course is through the number of posts you make to the discussion board.  This is your attendance.  However, I think many people taking these courses mistake quantity over quality even though the instructor clearly states that they are looking for substantive discussion.

It’s too late to drop the course now and even if I did, I would feel as though I failed it.  I have to remember that done is better than perfect in this scenario.  I already have the degree and all I’m doing is working for a certificate of completion to add to it.  Nothing more.

Frustrating… to say the least.

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The break has given me time to reflect on my experience and one of the things that came to mind was the differences between traditional classroom instruction and online instruction.  The WELPS certificate is taught entirely online (obviously). For some people, taking online courses is easy, more manageable and flexible versus traditional classroom instruction where you have to commit to scheduled dates and time when class takes place.

If you are planning to take online college courses, here are 5 things you should consider before you commit:

1. Do you prefer a structured environment for learning? Online learning is independent of time and place. The class takes place on a consistent basis (online) where discussions with the instructor and student are almost continuous.
2. Do you need to have face to face interaction with others? In online learning there is a delay in discussions because the conversation is asynchronous – whereas you if you make a comment or ask a question, you’ll have to wait for a response.  Feedback is not immediate.
3. Do you do well with written instruction? Visual learners often prefer to witness a demonstration of the task they are being asked to perform.  The online environment sometimes does not lend itself to being a good arena for demonstration, so learners need to rely on written instruction and create their own mental model to act upon.
4. Do you communicate well through your writing? If you are a good writer and can clearly illustrate you thoughts or ideas through the written word, you can succeed in an online learning environment.
5. Are you engaging? Participation in online courses is measured by your willingness to engage others and to start discussions.  If you are the inquisitive type, you’ll find online courses easy.

This post is certainly not meant to scare you off from taking online college classes. It’s an entirely different ballgame from traditional learning so all things should be considered. If you’ve taken online courses, what has been your experience? Are there considerations I did not mention? I look forward to your insights into online college courses.

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I guess this means I’m at the official half-way point of my first full semester of higher education in so many years.

Yes, it’s time for Spring Break!

I’m 34 years old (at last check) and my liver can’t withstand the commitment it takes to enjoy fun in the sun and the unpredictability of life that comes with youthful indiscretion.  Instead, I’ll be using the time to reflect and catch up on blog posts I should have been making over the course of the IPT 525 class.

I’ve got at least three posts in mind for this week:

• Compare and contrast LMS and LCMS
• A breakdown of the differences between RLO, RIO and SCO
• Praise for a fellow student in a paper she wrote on the benefits of adopting a SCORM-Conformant E-Learning Strategy

I’m looking forward to the time off and catching up.  I know this blog hasn’t necessarily turned out the way I wanted to, but with less pressure from completing class assignments hopefully I can get back on track.

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It’s definitely a different experience to the traditional form of learning I am used to.  Most of my education was spent in classrooms on campus.  The WELPS class I’m taking is entirely online, taught in an asynchronous manner.  Think of it as one big discussion board like the old online newsgroups.  The instructor posts topics, questions and assignments to the bulletin board and the class interacts through discussion threads and we’re graded on our participation and quality of our content.

The upside to this experience is that I can participate in the class at times that are convenient to me, so I’m not bound by the traditional schedule of “class is every Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6:00 p.m.”  The downside is that the discussion threads in the online classroom environment eventually resemble e-mail overload.  While the start of the discussion threads may be of value initially with feedback and insight about the topic from fellow students (including myself), they tend to taper off into responses of “I agree”, or “good point”, with less and less value.  This is not a criticism of my fellow classmates, but merely a simple observation about the class.

I’m enjoying the class and learning a tremendous amount of information about e-learning.  The field has changed a lot since I graduated with my Master’s in Instructional and Performance Technology 8 years ago and I hope to immediately apply what I’m learning back into my current work and consulting endeavors.

This week we are on the topic of SCORM and I’m sure I’ll have thoughts and ideas about how this impacts my current work.  Also, there is a paper that needs to be submitted on resuable learning objects (RLO).  Not a big one, but the beauty of the assignment is I believe about 1/3 for the content for the paper has already been written by me via this blog.  It’s been an objective of mine from the start to see if blogging will help with my papers and assignments.  By the end of the upcoming week, we’ll see if my experiment works.

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