training – Silence and Voice

Workplace (Professional) Learning: Factors & Considerations (Decision Support Tool)

** This image file was slightly revised and updated on 8/4/16. It is now titled: Professional Learning: Factors & Considerations Before Selecting a Learning Strategy.

I wanted to share my revised version of the Workplace Learning: Factors & Considerations Before Selecting a Learning Strategy Decision Support Tool I developed to help frame questions and organizational considerations before selecting a learning strategy. It is easy to determine we need eLearning or a MOOC or video-based training before conducting an organizational environmental scan (related to a learner gap analysis, but different in that it considers and focuses on organizational strategies and other factors that will ultimately determine the direction learning in the workplace will take. This was created to start conversations early in the process, and while Continue reading “Workplace (Professional) Learning: Factors & Considerations (Decision Support Tool)“

Workplace Learning Factors & Considerations

DRAFT Workplace Learning Factors 071016v4

I have a task request in my professional work (I work in Training and Knowledge Management), and have been wracking my mind as to how to approach this, that I am at the point I need to get some feedback. Would love some thoughts on this if anybody is so inclined.

There was a request to provide an overview of learning options we can select related to a potential need to develop a learning community. Rather straight-forward, though each time I looked at the breadth of options for this, other options and considerations arose. For example, the notion of build it and they will come is only a nice notion, though those of us who work in workplace learning know it is not quite that simple. In fact, there are so many considerations related to this that thinking about the end result (threaded discussion like a Discourse install, an open, collaborative, knowledge-building learning and sharing experience like CLMOOC, or even through the structured Canvas elements for something like the #HumanMOOC) is premature without considering. Why even daydream about a large system if there is little budget, or consider a mooc if there is not staffing to support it?

Thus, my dilemma. How can I speak Continue reading “Workplace Learning Factors & Considerations“

Project Management for Training Class Begins Tonight

I am teaching a new class that begins tonight, Project Management for Training.

How many times has somebody in the training and development, or workplace learning and performance fields (not to mention human resource development, industrial / organizational psychology, organizational development, etc.) been told to develop a class in this or that without being equipped for managing the process itself? This is what this course is focused upon, project management of the training development and delivery function. Think about it — trainers and designers and developers and project managers are all skills and jobs in their own right, but in the learning function, they are often combined without recognizing all that is really involved.

The description:

Whether you’re conducting a single training session for a small audience or multiple sessions for a large group, a training program–like a project in any other discipline–must have an effective plan to guide and track progress. This class provides you with a planning process and teaches you techniques to prepare and deliver training projects consistently and effectively. Focusing on logistics, rationale, scope, timescales, risk management, and budget, you acquire the skills to communicate with the training project’s stakeholders to ensure optimum performance.

I am looking forward to working with my learners over the next six weeks. BTW, I wish I would have had this course when I started in the field (and I am not saying this just because I am teaching it!).