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Poll: Bite-sized eLearning vs. Full-featured Courses
Some eLearning designers believe that the brain is only able to digest small bits of information at a time and that courses should be brief to accommodate this. Some eLearning designers advocate large-scale courses where the learner is given a lot of info and is perhaps able to get a better grasp of an overall concept by assimilating all the information at once.
What do you think? Do you prefer bite-sized learning or full-featured courses? Vote in our poll and leave a comment!
The Lost Art of Tech Support
I am not one of those who always claims “the olden days” are better. I enjoy the advances of technology, things that allow me to text my children and find out that they’re actually within the house – they’re just ignoring me. Within very recent history, however, I feel that one area has taken a pretty fast nosedive in quality: tech support.
Possibly I’m fooling myself that there ever was quality tech support, at least that you didn’t pay a massive fee to use. It seems that any support person I talk to on the phone or online has one of these issues:
1. They blame me for not understanding why their product doesn’t work.
2. They don’t understand the nature of my problem because they aren’t actually familiar with the software.
3. The tech support line has a phone queue so long that by the time the person in question can talk to you, you actually went out and bought a new computer.
Fortunately you can find a lot of information in posts online, forums, blogs and other similar repositories of information. But a lot of times it seems my results are like this…
Phasient has always offered this service and the people answering the phones work with elearning and can actually answer questions. Sometimes they can even answer questions about the specific course because they have helped write or produce it. We certainly encounter questions that stump us, but we pride ourselves on working our best to find a feasible solution in a reasonable time. That’s something that people should be able to count on.
- Sonya Nichols, Project Manager
email sonya@phasient.com
Happy Holidays
Think outside the box
Explaining technical subjects or those with a lot of jargon and acronyms is never easy, especially if you are on “the outside” or new to the concept.
Sometimes a dictionary and thesaurus is the answer. Sometimes it’s a visual and needs graphics. Either way you are looking for the “I GET it! Ok, now I UNDERSTAND!” moment of learning.
Recently I came across an interesting idea on how to share the moment of understanding.
Dance
For example: If you are looking for something technical to explain to people outside your field, Ph.D. research will usually cause heads to nod that yes they do understand when really they were lost after about three sentences. John Bohannon created a contest called “Dance Your Ph.D.”. The concept is pretty simple: take complex scientific research, break it down and perform it as an interpretive dance. This international contest is sponsored by the journal Science. You can watch his talk at TEDxBrussels from November 2011 or check out the videos from the contest.
Now I know what you are thinking. Dance? How is a bunch of twirling around going to help my learners understand anything?! Since I kind of doubt many bosses are going to go for running out to hire a choreographer, videographer and studio time, here are some things the rest of us can take away from the idea:
-Break complex concepts and ideas down and create a visual representation of each piece.
- Think beyond the typical images, pie charts and PowerPoint when creating visuals. Keep in mind that the visual that gets your learner to the “Ah ha!” moment is your goal—which is not necessarily the prettiest or flashiest.
What are some other ways to think outside the box?
Katie Lund, Project Developer
email katie@phasient.com
Goal Setting for Leaders
Today’s blog is one in an occasional series that focuses on essential skills for employees in today’s workplace. Phasient partnered with ATW Training and Consulting to develop interactive, online courses on leadership, communication and teamwork. These blog posts pull out some of the key ideas from those courses.
As a leader, it is critical for you to set and follow through with goals for yourself, your team and your organization. You can use the acronym SMART to develop goals that strengthen your potential for achieving results.
SMART goals are :
- Specific
Specific, clear, and concise goals describe the who, what, where, when, and how of a goal. - Measurable
Putting a measure on a goal allows you to see how much must be done in order to be acceptable and determines your progress. Measurable goals should be quantifiable with a number or percentage. - Aligned
Aligned goals support the organization’s mission statement and goals so all members of the team are working toward the same goal. Aligned goals ensure that individual successes add up to organizational success. - Realistic
Realistic goals are achievable for the individuals to whom they are assigned. Are they willing and able to complete the goal? - Time-bound
Goals must have time frames with designated end dates to keep you motivated. Adding a time component reduces wasted time and completes the SMART goal.
This content is based on the CLaaS Employee Development Library course Goal Setting for Leaders. Interested in learning more? Visit our website for more information on purchasing the CLaaS Library Leadership Series.
Partner Spotlight: ATW
To develop our CLaaS libraries, Phasient partners with experts in a variety of industries. ATW is a Des Moines-based staff development and training company. We consulted with their expert trainers to create our Employee Development Library, which includes courses in communication, leadership and team building. We recently sat down with ATW’s Mark Purcell for a Q&A.
Q. Tell me about ATW and the training you provide.
A. ATW is committed to “unleashing human potential” through a variety of learning and development approaches. While our main thrust remains instructor-lead training for staff and leaders, we also offer a variety of on-line and off-the-shelf training products. ATW trainers and facilitators are a group of results-oriented individuals who excel at finding out what conditions need to improve in order for individuals and organizations to succeed. Providing the solutions to making those improvements has been our greatest achievement.
Q. What is your approach to training?
A. Our approach to training is to partner with our clients, so that all possibilities can be explored. We place the client at the center of the process, and customize our solutions to their particular needs. That’s the only way to deliver training solutions that yield results.
Q. How do you use blending learning to present the Employee Development course library developed with Phasient?
A. The Employee Development library has taken our training to a new level. Blending the course offerings with our instructor-led programs has added a new dimension of learning for our clients. By adding in the library as an additional resource, learners have information that can be accessed at a time, in a place, and at a pace that fits each learner’s needs. This adds a whole new dimension to the process where the client can use the programs before the training in a pre-training information activity or can be used after the session to reinforce key content.
Q. How do your clients and learners respond to the courses?
A. The response has been very positive. The interactive, self-paced programs provide an excellent resource with a level of content and application that is not seen in most programs. Learners have reported being totally engaged, and find each course challenging and rewarding all at the same time. That’s a pretty good combination.
