Did I learn lessons last time?

A few weeks back I posted a set of lessons I had learned from a visit to San Francisco where my wife and I will be moving to in a few short weeks.
Well I'm back in the City by the Bay for another home hunting trip and I thought I'd see how well I learned the lessons mentioned in that blog.

The Improvisational approach may not always be the best one
Well this one was learned well.  We had a realtor working with us looking at possible homes to buy and we had made a bunch of appointments of places to see for short term rentals.
However, the home we saw that we would most like to buy was not on the list that the realtor prepared for us. We saw it a few doors up from somewhere else. True it did not have one of the attributes we had said was important, but there was a good work around to that. Being open to the moment and taking an improvisational approach worked well for us there.

Too many new things will overwhelm you.
This time we had some good basic knowledge. We built on it block by block. We walked a lot, up and down hills sometimes but rather than try to work out how the buses and trains in the new city worked we used a rental car for some things and feet & taxis for the rest (oh and a pedicab at one point!)

Ask for lots of opinions, but be wary of filters.
The questions we asked were more pointed this time. When someone told us that the house they were trying to rent to us was 'protected by the hospital' from the fog we realised that this may be true, but the rest of the neighborhood wasn't.

Use the information out there to help you
This was well learned last time. By the time I arrived here, google was my best friend. As was the SF Chronicle web site and the ASTD Golden Gate Chapter. Oh and this time I took a look at the weather forecast and kept in mind the 30+ micro climates that make up the city.

So Learning Transfer was successful. Oh and so was the trip!

Happy Learning
Alan

To ROI or not to ROI, Is that the question?

In my inbox today was the upcoming webinar program from Training Magazine.
There are some great webinars in that series and I find myself wtaching about one a month on average.
But the thing that brought me to the blog today was this.

Wednesday, May 2

The ROI LIE: The Facts Behind Why Training ROI  is Undermining Credibility

Ajay Pangarkar, CTDP, President & Lead Learning Strategist, CentralKnowledge

Register / More Info

Tuesday, May 8

ROI Basics: An Overview of the ROI Methodology

Patti Phillips, Ph.D., President & CEO, ROI Institute

Register / More Info

And after I stopped laughing at the absurdity of these back to back webinars I started thinking.
In the Workplace Learning & Performance world we have a clear goal. the reason that companies pay us is to help ensure that their employees increase their skills or knowledge so that the employees can make a better contribution to the organizations goals.

Whether we stay with Don Kirkpatrick's four levels, or try to push beyond that to what Jack Phillips defines as a fifth and ROI, what is important is that we have the impact that the organization is looking for.

I realize that The Kirkpatrick Partners and the ROI institute have clear financial interests in getting us to adopt their particulat model, but at the end of the day, I just don't care.

Whether I'm moving a business performace metric or hitting an ROI value is irrellevant to me. Just as long at the desired change happens.

Happy Learning.

The Holy Grail? We already have one!

In that classic movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail there is a scene where Arthur and his knights come up against a castle filled with french knights. When Arthur announces that they are seeking the Holy Grail the reply comes back "We've already got one!"

This thought came to me when I was at a CCASTD meeting a couple of weeks ago where Doty Sinclair and Danny Ortegon discussed Learning Management Systems and other learning technology.

Doty had a quote from Josh Bersin that I found interesting.

"The HR Technology Landscape is undergoing tremendous change. Now, with the LMS market under major change, organizations must work hard to build an integrated learning technology strategy which manages formal learning, informal learning, collaboration, social, and talent-driven learning. And this is not easy today."

The conversation went on to say that the search was on for integrated Learning and Talent systems that truly work together. Someone there called it the "Holy Grail" . 

Hmmmm!!

As regular readers will know I work for SumTotal, and at ST we have regular all hands meetings. Late last year at one of these our senior team repeated a demonstration that they had 'performed' at the Total Connections User Conference earlier in the year.

(Not entirely sure if I need to here but regardless I'm going to point out that this blog and the contents of it are my opinions and musings. They should not be thought of as being official communications from SumTotal, or reflecting the companies official opinion or position on any subject)

The demo was very impressive. It started off with the 'CEO' looking at analytics on their iPad and seeing something that troubled them about the talent and succession situation. There was a series of conversations that took people across the Talent Management suite that we have and identified a skill that needed to be rolled out to a number of people in the organization. From there a number of courses in the LMS were identified that tackled that need and the candidates were assigned that training. As one of the courses was built on the mobile platform the final part of the demo was a sales guy pulling up the course on his iPhone to learn it on a flight he was about to take.

I also know that within the training area we have an integrated site that we are using for training on our LM and TM systems. I know this for sure as I helped create the cast of characters who populate this system for training courses.

So when I hear that the search is on for an integrated LM and TM system the voice in my head comes from John Cleese and is saying "We've already got one!"

I'm going to be attending the ASTD ICE in Denver next month. SumTotal will have a nice booth at the expo, and I think that they will have some people there who can take you through the demo and show you how we are integrating TM and LM. If you want to see it let me know. I'll get you over to see them.

If you ask nicely I'll see if I can get them to do it in John Cleese's 'Ridiculus French Accent'

Happy Learning
Alan

More CrowdSourcing - Using Audio in eLearning

I seem to recall seeing a study or two somewhere that talks about how adding narration to video of screen navigation and action in an eLearning course ssignificantly adds to retention and learning transfer.
I'm hoping that someone can point me in the direction of that study.
Who can help?

Learning from (a soon to be moving) experience

Loyal readers may be aware that this Learning Pro is about to move cities.
My brilliant and talented wife (referred to from now as B&TW) has been asked to head up a new office that her company is opening in San Francisco, and rather than let her do it without me I'm going along with her :)
My boss has already given me the OK to keep my job and do it remotely from the Bay Area so all that's left is to work out how we get there, where we live and about a million other small details.
The weekend that just passed was spent in the City by the Bay taking a look around and trying to get a feel for where we might want to live.
There were great things about the weekend and some not so great ones. My thought is to see how I can take the experience and see how it might help me in my quest to help learners and fellow Learning Pros

Lesson 1
The Improvisational approach may not always be the best one.
With a hectic travel schedule already in place for the next 2 months we took the opportunity to visit the city without being fully prepared. B&TW was out there for a solid week of meetings with the new client that is the reason we are moving. With only a vague idea of what relocation help we will be getting we waited until too late to make appointments to see places.  My improvisational approach only works when you are not reliant on other people to do things like call you back or show you places.
Learning Take Away:  Be prepared to use the approach that most suits the people you are working with.

Lesson 2
Too many new things will overwhelm you.
We were in a new city. We don't know the neighborhoods well at all (B&TW knows some and I know next to none). It would be foolish to throw yet another new factor into the mix. So signing up with Zipcar and trying to use their service for the first time may not have been my best idea. Trying to work out how something even a simple as Zipcar works on top of all the rest of the issues we were facing made us too late for one open house, barely making another and frustrated when the car just sat there and did not start in the middle of our appointment. If we had not been wet and stressed out then this might have been funny. Luckily the person at Zipcar talked us through a reset and we were on our way.
Learning Take Away: Build on current knowledge block by block.

Lesson 3
Ask for lots of opinions, but be wary of filters.
We already have friends who used to live in San Francisco and had spoken to them. As we sat down for dinner each night my B&TW would ask the servers about the city. Which neighborhoods they liked, which they lived in. We got a lot of input from them and also the various realtors we met and looked at places with. What we came to realize by Sunday afternoon is that lots of people have their own views of what makes a good place to live and what does not. Whilst their opinions are valid and right for them they may not be right for us. When visiting one neighborhood that we got a couple of recommendations for we realized that we either needed to lose 15 years from our ages or get a bunch of tattoos and piercings if we wanted to fit in.
Learning Take Away: The difference between information and knowledge is context.

Lesson 4
Use the information out there to help you
Everyone knows that it’s warmer in San Francisco in March than Chicago. So taking a look at the weather forecasts is a good idea but new vital.
Of course if Chicago has been setting records for March warmth and a Pacific storm is coming to settle over Northern California it might be worth disregarding what everybody knows and paying attention to the forecasts.
Learning Take Away: Sometimes what ‘everyone knows’ is just plain wrong! Unlearning it and learning what is right may be half the battle or more.

Happy Learning
Alan

Who's learning is it anyway?

The CPLP^(TM) certification cycle goes ever on. A couple of weeks ago, the latest cohort of Work Product submissions went in and the next Knowledge Exam testing window opens up tomorrow. Not ready yet? Well the deadline for registration for the NEXT window is a couple of weeks away!
One of the things that the Work Product evaluation is very hot on is the connection to the business need. In conversations with my coaches while I was putting together mine last summer I remember something that Trish Uhl said along the lines of "anyone can be a trainer. To be a WLP professional you need to be a business partner"
It's the impact on the business (or the organization if it's not a business) that we aim for. It's the highest level of Kirkpatrick evaluation. So when we are designing and delivering learning we have to keep that in mind.

But the learning does not belong to the organization. It's not the organization that is going to learn, it is the individual learner.

And that individual learner is going to learn in the way that works best for them. They are only going to learn if they get the motivation to do so. In his book Drive, Dan Pink talks about how motivation today relies on 3 principles. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. 
If we make sure that learners have a clear sense of how they are getting better at something when the are part of learning experience we create, then the Mastery side is taken care of. But if we want to motivate them to learn we might want to hit the other two as well.
My favorite route to learner Autonomy is simply to give them the target and let them chose their own way to fulfill that target. As Thiagi puts it, there is content out there. Our job is not to create more of that but to come up with ways to help the learner interact with what is out there. The problem I always face when creating a learning event that we will sell to our customers (I work for a company that sells software and so we have to teach people how to use it) is selling the idea. Companies are reluctant to spend money on a session where we won't provide their staff with materials and step by step guides to doing the activities they want to learn about. As a result I all to often end up creating more content rather than curating the existing material. One day I'll work out a way to avoid falling into this trap, but as yet I've not managed to.
The third leg of the motivation stool is Purpose. And that is one area that I find pretty easy to work with. We know that learners trust the input they get from fellow 'customer' learners far more than what the 'vendor' instructor tells them. So I always set out the capabilities of a system and then ask them how they might use it to make their lives easier. The people in the room (or in the virtual room) who have had the most exposure are always happy to tell others what they have gained. Where there is no one with experience then they can all imagine how things could be better. Making their own and other people's lives easier always serves up a big dose of Purpose.

We can't forget who pays for us to do the work we are (hopefully) passionate about, but just because they buy it does not mean that they are the only customers we have!

Happy Learning
Alan

What Toolsets do you recommend for AV recording and editing?

I'm in need of help and so have posted the following on a bunch of my LinkedIn group.

I'm hopeful that this crowdsourcing exercise will be save me hours of experimentation.

I'll let you know how it goes dear reader(s)

Of course if you have any ideas/suggestions I'd love to hear them as well.

The Post

First off I have to say that much as I like Articulate, I am not using it. I work for a company that sells ToolBook, a tool that can be used as an e-learning development tool (not Rapid eLearning but eLearning nonetheless) so I use that.

I need to create short 1-2 minute video demonstrations of the software.
These need to have an audio voice over.

At present what I've been doing is:

Using Snagit to record the screen capture video. (Sometimes also making use of Zoomit to zoom into a particular part of the screen). Snagit saves these videos as .AVI files
I use Audacity to record my narration (Thanks Tom Kuhlman for recommending this years ago!)
I then use a product called Avidemux to replace the sound track on the AVI with the MP3 narration.
I then use Format Factory to convert the AVI to MP4 (h.264) which is the recommended format for ToolBook
Yes this is a long and convoluted approach.

And also sadly I've seen some issues with the MP4 file that gets created. Sometimes the video portion repeats.

So can anyone recommend a replacement for this set of tools that is.

1) Easy (or at least easier than this lot) to use
2) Reliable
3) Low cost (or ideally free)

Thanks so much
Alan

Alan Montague, CPLP