Once Thanksgiving, Christmas and their various global iterations have passed, most people spend time planning how to make the New Year easier, healthier, more productive or just plain better. Learning leaders are no different. Only, instead of resolving to exercise more, CLOs resolve to make development options that resonate with audiences and create bigger impact for their respective organizations bottom lines. ... [more]
We can’t afford to wait another hour, minute or even a second when it comes to learning, developing and mentoring our team. At the heart of my argument is a very sobering and eye-opening statistic. By 2015, almost 33 percent of our workforce including 48 percent of our supervisors will be eligible to retire. Two thousand and fifteen is less than 45 days away. ... [more]
2014 was the year for online learning, not just because of growing access, but because relevance and quality were championed thanks to the inclusion of predictive analytics, collaborative tools for peer and educator communication, and the application of adaptive technology for assessments—all characteristics that help a seemingly sterile method of learning come alive through personalization and connection. This emphasis on connection, and the technology tools that allow for collaboration, will continue to grow in 2015, as everyone from teachers and administrators to IT and university presiden ... [more]
What will 2015 bring? Let’s face it, predictions are a mug’s game. I'd love to be thinking like this. I’m not sure I can focus on things that widely, instead, I’ll focus on three trends in the learning + development field that I think will continue to evolve into next year. Responsive design – the elearning industry is still trying to catch up to the web development world to responsive design. We focused for a long time on HTML5 as a rallying cry, but now the focus is more on responsive design. ... [more]
It’s December again! Last year I wrote an article about my personal training resolutions, which you can see here. This year was indeed a hilarious year for me, as I managed to conduct training at a conference during which one of the teambuilding exercises involved playing a game of contact soccer while wrapped in truly absurd amounts of bubble wrap (true story, by the way, and exactly as amusing as it sounds). This year, however, I’d like to focus on what I’m hoping will be good resolutions for you and your training department. ... [more]
Can you believe it’s already December? I can’t! I’ve heard (and said!) this multiple times over the last few days, as we as a company push toward the end of the year, as friends plan holiday parties, and as my family prepares to converge on my parents’ house for Christmas. ... [more]
The short window of calm between the holidays and the chaos of returning to work provides a great opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments and lesson of the previous year. Better than most, learning professionals understand how to apply those lessons moving forward into the new year. These lessons and insights are tools we wanted to bring to the entire OpenSesame community. ... [more]
I often debate with myself if making resolutions are or should be part of my plan or is it more about tradition to randomly come up with a few things that I’m going to change or do differently. If it were part of my plan, I would have started ‘planning’ three months ago in order for these new changes to take effect on Jan 1. As an elearning designer/developer and independent contractor, it’s only smart business to plan in advance and to have a strategy going into a new year. ... [more]
I have long loved the famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” What is it I want to change? The list is long and contains many noble pursuits, but the one I most lament is that here in the US we are not a culture of learners. From our struggles with revamping our national education system as we fall further and further behind other nations academically, to the reductions I see in corporate training budgets, to the meager amounts of time adult students now are willing or able to spend in training, the lack of value we place on learning is staggering. ... [more]
This year, I read Bruce, a biography of the musician Bruce Springsteen, and Born Standing Up, a memoir by comedian/actor Steve Martin. One thing that both Springsteen and Martin share throughout their careers is a seemingly endless desire to improve their craft and find the right “voice” at different points of their lives. ... [more]
