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E-Learning – The end of the classroom trainer?

E-learning Have You Confused?

What’s Your Gremlin?

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Are we at the end of the line?
By: Hilary Goodnight

There is an opening at your company. They finally posted the trainer position you have been asking for. For the past year, you and your team have felt overwhelmed with the expectations placed on the training group; developing the courses, delivering the material, and following up with the learners. Your excitement is short lived. Rumors are circling about the top candidate, and he sounds a little too good to be true.

He claims he can teach and evaluate the learners without ever brining them in a classroom. How can that be? Classroom learning allows for interaction between student and instructor, immediate feedback, and hands-on experience. How could anyone say learning can be as effective in any other format?

This scenario may not be completely impossible. E-learning is being used to provide instruction to students without a traditional classroom. There are two types of e-learning.

Based on the topic being discussed or the task or concept being learned, the most appropriate type of e-learning provides benefits as well as challenges.

Benefits include:

• Audience scope - No classroom size constraints
• Affordability - Reduced overall cost – travel, time away from daily job responsibilities, face to face trainer, printing cost of classroom material
• Learning responsibility – The learners takes control of their learning experience and can track their own achievements and progress on the Learning Management System (LMS).
• Just in time training – Because of the flexibility of e-learning, the learning can occur closer to the time the skill is needed, sometimes while the task is being completed, not weeks or months in advance.
• Learning context - Learning is often completed in the same environment in which the task is performed.

Challenges include:

• Computer Skills - Requires the learner to have basic computer skills even if the skill being taught is not computer related.
• Hardware –Infrastructure to support the e-learning is key. Bandwidth and computer stations are just a few things to consider.
• Time - Requires the same amount of time as face-to-face instruction – e-learning doesn't mean the knowledge is absorbed any faster.
• Addressing questions – Students still have questions or need clarification.
• Budget – Consider both time and money. Pre-developed courses are quickly implemented, but developing in-house may save money.

Is e-learning the end of the classroom trainer? No. Does it change the role and expectations of the successful trainer? Absolutely. The role of the corporate trainer is changing quickly. Trainers that embrace the change and get on the "e-learning express" will be invaluable to their employer as they provide the quality learning in a variety of formats.

When their training team can deliver a well planned, well designed e-learning curriculum, a corporation will benefit from improved employee performance, decrease costs associated with traditional training, while keep their employees on the cutting edge with on demand, just in time training.

Sources:

Clark, R. (2009). Articles. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from Clark Training & Consulting: http://www.clarktraining.com/content/articles/Guild_E-Learning.pdf

Loughney, K. D. (2009, Oct). E-Learning Concepts and Techniques. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from Institute for Interactive Technologies: http://iit.bloomu.edu/Spring2006_eBook_files/chapter1.htm#h1_2

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Are you lost in a sea of options?

The CIASTD Fall Learning Conference (Nov. 4 – downtown Indianapolis Embassy Suites) may be just the lifeboat you need! The fall conference is devoted to e-learning at whatever level you may be; three tracks of sessions will allow you to gain new insights without being overwhelmed or bored. Stay tuned for more registration information.

Click Here for a Conference Spec Sheet

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Gremlins. We all have one. And no, I’m not talking about Gizmo or some rusted-out car in the driveway. I’m talking about the little voice in the back of your head that often stops you dead in your tracks with messages such as these:

“I’m not good enough to do that . . .”
“I don’t deserve to . . .”
“I will never do that . . .”
“No one cares what I think . . .”
“If only I were . . .”

Yes, it’s those good ol’ self-limiting beliefs that keep us from recognizing our true potential. As a coach working with leaders and executives, I have come to find these gremlins are gatekeepers which prevent many of us from tapping into the brilliance that lies within.

The good news is that gremlins are completely normal—as I said, everyone has one—and you can control yours. Once you’re aware of your own gremlin, you take away some of its power because you can choose what to do when it rears its ugly head. You can choose to listen to the gremlin, believe what it tells you, and remain stuck—or you can make a commitment to try something different.

Because awareness is the first step in taking away your gremlin’s power, I have included an exercise below to kick-start the process. I first went through this exercise during my coaching certification and found it very helpful in bringing to light the self-limiting beliefs that were floating around in my own head. Through this experience, I found the more awareness I gave to my gremlin, the weaker its voice became. I started to realize I am much more than my gremlin. I separated it from the more empowering thoughts in my head (and from my heart), and its power over my actions quickly began to fade.

So give awareness to your gremlin by thinking through the following. The more specific you can be in identifying your gremlin, the more power you will take from it!

• Notice your gremlin and become aware of what it’s really saying to you—the negative self-talk.
• Give your gremlin a name and describe what it looks like to you.
• Identify the messages your gremlin is fond of saying or often says to you.
• Identify when your gremlin is at its nosiest.
• Identify the ways in which your gremlin holds you back.
• Identify empowering thoughts you can use to replace the gremlin’s limiting messages when it pops up.
• Continue to be aware of the gremlin and the impact it has on you.

Andrea Moore is the President of CIASTD and is a certified empowerment coach working with leaders and executives at a variety of organizations across Indiana. If you would like more information about coaching or about managing your gremlin, contact Andrea at amoore@FlashPointHR.com.

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Where do you start???
By: Brian Lusk

You’ve agreed to be a mentor and have set up your first meeting. You have hot Starbucks and an eager mentee in front of you. The look of anticipation from the mentee shows on his face; he is waiting for you to share your knowledge and spill your secrets of success.

Not so fast! Like most good coaching relationships – it’s not about you, it’s about them.

Here are ten questions (many of them borrowed from training) to ask early in the mentoring relationship to get the conversation started:

1. What do you hope to accomplish through this relationship?
2. What ground rules should we establish?
3. What can we use as a measure of success of this relationship?
4. What challenges are you currently facing?
5. When are you most naturally yourself?
6. What is one thing you could stop doing, start doing, or do differently?
7. What would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
8. What decisions have you made, that when looking back – you would change?
9. What is your motivation for becoming involved in a mentoring relationship?
10. What sustains you when everything around you seems to be in chaos or against you?
    

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By: Andrea Moore, CIASTD 2009 President

It’s not the mysteries of life that scare you; it’s the stories you tell about the mysteries of life that scare you.


As one of my favorite authors, Don Miguel Ruiz, says in his book The Voice of Knowledge, we are all walking around as the lead characters in our own stories. We don’t know where the plot will take us, so we start making up in our heads any number of things that could happen. This can be frightening because so often when faced with the unknown, we speculate only about the horrible things that may befall us. This is unfortunate—because as we live out our stories, as we go through the many plot twists and scene changes, aren’t we just as likely to experience all kinds of wonderful things too?

This is a message that we, as workplace learning professionals, must communicate. Because we’re change agents within the organizations we serve, we have a responsibility to help employees recognize the stories they’re creating (and so often believing) about the changes that are happening. We must help them to understand the important part that they play in creating the experience and to reframe the way they look at the situation. Once they’re aware of their role, it’s likely they’ll focus less on the bad things and start thinking about how they can positively impact where the story ends.

Andrea is a senior consultant at FlashPoint, a multidiscipline HR consulting firm in Indianapolis. As a certified professional in learning and performance and a certified empowerment coach, she focuses on the growth and development of individuals, work teams, and leaders.

New group focused on leadership development

Are you responsible for leadership development and succession planning? Would you benefit from a small group of peers sharing ideas and best practices on a regular basis? Then, this group is for you! If you are interested in joining this new group being formed now please contact Tara Holloway @ tholloway@tcunet.com.

• Purpose of needs assessment
• Steps in conducting a training needs assessment
• ADDIE model
• Rapid Instructional Design
• Nine Instructional Events (Gagne)
• Learning objectives (Bloom’s Taxonomy)

• Creating a learning climate
• Preparing for training delivery
• Using icebreakers, opening exercises, & closing activities
• Understanding presentation behavior
• Facilitating learning activities
• Performing on-the-spot assessments of participants’ success in achieving program objectives
• Differences between presenting online versus presenting in the classroom
• Using flipcharts, overhead projectors, & presentation software

• Purpose & goals of HPI
• ASTD HPI model
• Purpose of a Business Analysis
• Goals of a Performance Analysis
• Tools used to identify performance gaps
• Tools used to identify the root cause of a performance gap
• Six categories of interventions

• Definition of coaching
• Coach’s purpose & role
• Criteria for selecting a coach
• Coaching issues: privacy, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and coaching-relationship limitations
• Relationship between workforce planning & strategic planning
• Role of HR in workforce planning
• Definition of succession planning
• Approaches to strategic plan integration & succession planning
• Traditional & alternative job movement approaches
• Job analysis & task analysis

• Role of a training manager
• Types of learning information systems
• Vendor materials
• Advantages & disadvantages of various technology-based training solutions
• Employment law & regularity requirements
• Intellectual property
• Ethical standards

• Purpose & benefits of training evaluation
• Measurement process
• Assessment & development issues, including validity & reliability
• Formative vs. summative evaluation
• Four levels of Kirkpatrick’s evaluation
• ROI Methodology
• Calculating ROI
• Measures of central tendency
• Uses of analysis to include ROI, evaluation, cost-benefit analysis, utility analysis, & forecasting

For information on speaking at a future CIASTD meeting, visit www.CIASTD.org.

If writing is your specialty, we are always on the lookout for articles which further learning in the areas of training and development. While we may not be able to publish every article we receive, we believe each issue of The Facilitator would be enriched by the addition of articles from CIASTD members. As a bonus, there’s VIP bucks awaiting each published article! Submit articles by emailing them to martie.hoofer@salliemae.com. We prefer files in Microsoft Word or Adobe pdf format.