Sunday, October 21, 2012

Employee Development


This week’s blog is actually a Power Point presentation showing an approach to employee development.  Employee development is more than just training and companies should take time to consider what employee development really means and how to implement.




Along with this presentation is my personal development plan – these are the areas into which I would like to expand my knowledge base.
1.       Online University – I need to continue my current work in pursuit to gain my Master’s Degree in Instructional Design and Technology.
2.       Mentor program – I would  like to work together with someone who can provide guidance in my current role and expand my role to utilize what I have learned thus far in my pursuit of my Master’s Degree.  I understand the old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it” and I do not want that to happen with the information I have gathered with my degree.  The company has supported my position by providing tuition reimbursement so I would think they would want to have me use what new training/information I have acquired.
3.       Coaching program – I would like to offer my services to help coach new trainers coming onto the team.  I have had years of experience both in training and the technology world and I would like to utilize this information to help others in their career.  Coaching will also help me fulfill my personal need to help others obtain what they need or looking to gain out of their jobs.
4.       Job Rotation – If at all possible I think we should start a job rotation program.  The team has grown immensely and it would be helpful to see what others on the team experience so we can all perform better in our main roles.  When rotating to different positions each person will learn what is needed to be successful in that particular role and it is a great way to find out what is of interest to us.  It is hard to know what direction to pursue when one is not sure what the other roles are and what is expected in those roles.  This could help with the “where do you see yourself in 5 years” question which is reviewed during every evaluation.
5.       Job Enlargement – while coaching is in and of itself a job enlargement, I would like to help out where ever my skills are needed on the team.  After the completion of my degree (which should hopefully be the end of this year) I will have more time to devote to extra responsibilities in my career.  I am not a person that does well sitting still and I would like to fill that time with helpful work.
6.       Volunteer work – again with the completion of my degree and the large integration/conversion project I would like to take time to give back to the community.  I know the company is an advocate for such things and I have been lax about getting involved – I would like this to change next year.
Those are the items that are imporatnt to my personal development.  There is a lot in that list and while I hope to do it all I know it is a large undertaking.  Some items are shorter in duration than others so instead of 6 it is probably more like 4.
Helene A. Smith
References

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 
Pace, A. (2010). UNLEASHING POSITIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE. T+D, 64(1), 40-44.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Technology and Training – Where Are We Headed?

In the readings for this week it is painfully clear that technology will have a strong role in the training each and every person will encounter at some point in their lives.  In today’s fast-paced world we have even moved to having training available on our handheld devices.  I am almost nostalgic for the days not too long ago where we could leave our homes and not be encumbered by the outside world – those days are long gone.  Today we leave the house with our cell phones (smart phones) in hand and our tablets under our arms ready to face the day.  We are in constant contact with everyone, everywhere we go.  Hotspots are found everywhere and where there is not a hotspot we have “aircard” connections built right in to the device so we do not miss a thing. 
Take for example the collaborative study done between IBM and Columbia University.  They were trying to see if the IBM employees utilized their smart phones for training programs.  The training group was under the impression that if they offered accessible online training through the smart phone that more of the employees would prefer to do training in this manner.  The study actually found this not to be the case, however the employees did like to use some key applications which were adapted from their desktops on their smart phone.  IBM is not ruling out using the smart phone to deliver training; however at this time they are heading towards developing applications which will help the employees (Ahmad & Orton, 2010).
There is another article which I reviewed that also discussed the e-learning concept.  This article was not discussing the use of smart phones; it was talking of the generic e-learning arena.  This article discusses the fact that e-learning is here to stay and will only improve with time.  The article discusses the critical factors for successful online learning initiatives within an organization.  These factors are: “
·         Accessing or evaluating corporate culture and readiness for online learning
·         Specific content and programs
·         Internal capabilities or infrastructure
·         Cost options of the initiatives
·         Targeted clients or employees
Hence there are five C’s of online learning; culture, content, capability, cost and clients-this would help acknowledge and address a wide range of online learning issues confronting organizations (Maxwell, 2012, p 93)”.
After the organization qualified itself that it is open to online learning, the management would then have to consider how they would administer online learning to their employees.  There are different methods for online learning which will be discussed.  The obvious method to start with is the CD-ROM or DVD.  The development of the CD-ROM as a delivery method made it possible for anyone with a personal computer to access sophisticated programs with animation and video clips (Noe, 2010).  These applications made it easy to create an online classroom on a personal computer and then the employees or learner could run the programs anytime they had time and run it at their own pace (meaning they could pause or fast forward if needed).  This method also made it easy for a company to deliver training to any employee regardless of where they were physically located.  Moving for the CD-ROM, the next logical step was to make these applications interactive.  People learn when they can actually participate in the training – it keeps them engaged.
This moves us to the next logical method which is learning through the internet.  With the advent of the internet e-learning delivery has exploded.  The World Wide Web has made it easy for just about anyone to learn anything at any time.  With the availability of the web, an organization can deliver training material to their employees that are located anywhere in the world and not have to worry about delivering a CD-ROM to their location.  The organization can also secure the site if they wish only the employees of their company have access to the training.  Most internet-based training is developed to be as user friendly as possible and the accessibility is usually easy as well.  As long as your computer is connected to a network through either a wire or wireless, access to training is available (Noe, 2010).  Training through the internet makes it possible for employees to interact with each other as well as doing training on their own.  It is also easy to update the learning modules when they are on the web so everyone uses the same version.
There are other methods for learning which utilize online training – the next method to be discussed is the blended learning.  Blended learning is a combination of instructor lead sessions and online learning modules.  “Blending learning courses provide learners with the positive feature of both face-to-face instruction and technology-based delivery and instructional methods (such as online learning, distance learning, or mobile technologies like iPods and PDAs) while minimizing the negative feature of each (Hysong & Mannix, 2003)”.  This is an ideal situation for corporate America.  Many companies need to train their employees and computers, while used regularly in every job, are just tools and not all employees are comfortable in their use.  The blended learning gives the employees the opportunity to work with a trainer for the hands on guidance needed after reviewing the online training material.
The last item I want to discuss is the Learning Management System (LMS).  A well-developed LMS is crucial in today’s corporate world.  The LMS will help an organization track training an employee has completed, if the course had a test it will track how the employee performed.  This information will help the organization help the employee.  If the employee is struggling in an area there are other training methods that could be utilized and if the employee is excelling the organization could look for ways to offer more challenges for the employee for their personal growth.   “New developments in LMSs include providing the ability for users to simultaneously search the database as well as their company’s intranet for information on training courses, contact experts who are identified by the company as topic experts, enroll in all courses related to a certification or particular training top at one time, and use simulations to determine whether employees are complying with ethical standards and skills they have been trained in using by the LMS (Boehle, 2008)”.
References
Ahmad, N., & Orton, P. (2010). Smartphones Make IBM Smarter, But Not As Expected. T+D, 64(1), 46-50.
Boehle, S. (2008). LMS Leaders. Training. 30-34.
Hysong, S. J., Mannix, L. M., (2003). Learning outcomes in distance education versus traditional and mixed environments. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Orlando, FL.
Maxwell, A. (2012). TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN METHODS OF TRAINING WITH REFERENCE TO ONLINE TRAINING: IMPACT AND ISSUES FOR ORGANIZATIONS. Researchers World: Journal Of Arts, Science & Commerce, 3(2), 87-95.
Noe, R.A. (2010). Employee training and development: Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Men's Wearhouse - "I guarentee it" - George Zimmer

After reviewing the Men's Wearhouse website I realized a few things and one in particular that I never noticed before. My ex-husband did not wear suits too often but when he needed a suit we always went to the Men's Wearhouse because the store was not located in a mall and it only dealt with men's fashions. What I had never noticed is that the word "Wearhouse" was not spelled as "Warehouse". I watched a video about how the store came to be and about the founder George Zimmer. One of the items that concerned some of the early employees and George himself was the image the company may obtain from the public because of the name having the word Wearhouse. People may read that a get an idea that the store only had low end cheap clothing, but what people do not realize is that the name is not "Warehouse" like one of these big chain stores however the name is "Wearhouse" as in you wear the clothes in this house – there are clever people in marketing at the Men's Wearhouse even before it was "The Men's Wearhouse". Poll people on the street and I will bet that only about a quarter of the people surveyed will realize the spelling difference.
When working on a needs assessment for the organization I would definitely include the founder and CEO George Zimmer. From the information I gained through their investor relations site George is hands on with the company. He is out in the stores and is part of the team of employees that make the business run. Since George is out and feeling the pulse of the organization he should be a great source of information and would be the best "cheerleader" for any changes that may need to be made. Other people to include would be any employee in any of his stores as well as Diana Wilson the CFO. Diana would have to sign off on any expenditure needed for any training or changes needed and any of the employees would give honest feedback. Again, from the information I reviewed, George has built a company where the employees are actually rewarded regularly and he has built a place to work that is open to suggestions.
Some of the questions I would ask of George would be:
·         What is the strategic direction of the company and do you feel the company is headed in the right direction?
·         Is training a key component in the company’s strategic direction?
·         Do you support the training of managers as well as employees regular day-to-day activities?
·         Do you yourself attend regular training for both personal and business needs?
·         Would you recommend personal training for the people of your company?
·         Is the strategic direction of the company documented for all employees so they are aware and would these documents be made available for review?
·         Would you be opposed to an instructional designer(s) administering a survey to determine the pulse of the company and seeing where development/training may be needed?
·         Is there an employee handbook which lays out the roles and responsibilities of the employees and management team?  If so, could this handbook be made available to the assessment team?
·         Would you be opposed to the creation of focus groups for information gathering?
Some of the questions I would ask of any employee in any one of the stores would be:
·         Do you feel the company is headed in the right direction?
·         Do you know the strategic vision for the company?
·         What have you observed to be an area of the business that is weak or lacking?
·         Are you offered training to extend your knowledge of your role at the company?
·         Is training encouraged within the company?
·         Does the company offer opportunities to expand your knowledge and potentially your role within the organization through training and/or schooling?
·         Is there adequate training at the firm?
·         Would you feel comfortable being part of a focus group for information gathering?
Some questions I would ask Diana would be:
·         Is the company in a position to put forth a comprehensive training plan for anyone that would like to expand their knowledge of the company?
·         Does the company encourage its employees to expand their knowledge by offering incentives such as tuition reimbursement?
·         Is there an in-house training team and if not is the company able to support such a team?
·         Do you feel that you are receiving the training necessary to keep you abreast of the changes in the company?
·         Do you have personal goals for which training is necessary?
·         Would you be able to produce documents showing the financial viability for developing a training curriculum and or division?
When conducting a needs assessment for the Men’s Wearhouse I would implore all the techniques mentioned in Table 3.2 of the Noe textbook if financially feasible.  The questions being asked of the CFO should determine if these techniques can all be used.  If it is not feasible and from the review of the company’s website I think the best course of action would be in this order of priority:
1.       Observation – the employees of the company seem to enjoy working at Men’s Wearhouse.  This company was voted in the top 100 companies to work for in the United States which tells me that they would probably not change their behavior since they already enjoy their jobs.
2.       Online Technology – again since the company was voted on of the top companies to work for the employees should not be worried about any ramifications from the answers to a survey.
3.       Questionnaires – I think the employees would be forthcoming with their answers.
4.       Interviews – although they are time consuming and expensive, interviews when done right gain much knowledge about the organization.
5.       Focus Groups – most employees at this company would volunteer the minute they hear focus groups are being assembled to gain information into the workings of the company.
6.       Documentation – while the information in the documentation is probably up to date for this company I do not like to rely on this information.  The company can “spin” information any way that optimizes their goals.  The real pulse of the company comes from talking to the employees
(Noe, 2010).
This should generate the information needed to determine if the company is in need of training.  At the very least the company will find out how it stands in many areas including morale.  Again from the website, it appears morale at the company is high.  The people seem to love to work for the company and they consider their CEO almost like a rock star, but what else would the website of a company say.  Talking with the employees is the true way to find the pulse of the company.
Helene
Reference
Noe, R.A. (2010). Employee training and development: Fifth Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Truth about Training

The Truth about Training
Hello Mr. Davidson – glad I ran into you here in the elevator.  I have heard that you believe that training is not necessary for your organization and that you are thinking of cutting your training budget because the company is having economic issues.  What I would like to discuss with you when you have a minute is how training can actually be the best thing for your organization during these tough economic times.
Now is probably the best time to do training while business is slow.  Recently many advances were introduced at your firm, so many that the employees did not have a chance to really understand everything.  Now is the time to train the employees in the depth of the advances so they can utilize the information more effectively for their clients.
This is also the time to develop those in the organization that are showing extraordinary talents.  These talented employees will be looking for ways to improve themselves and by extension the organization so by taking time and setting up some talent development training we can help build these employees knowledge. 
Lastly, consider the fact that your organization is global – we can develop training to be utilized by the employees at their own pace thereby keeping costs down and still allowing everyone access to the same information instead of bringing everyone together in one place to learn what is needed.
How does next Thursday at 2:00 look for you to talk about training for your organization?

(it appears that blogger will not allow audio only video - the audio is posted to the blog links in the classroom - will fix this for future versions)

Friday, April 6, 2012

Scope Creep

Scope Creep
Many years ago I worked as a computer programmer for a local printing company.  It was my first job out of school and I felt lucky that the company gave me a chance at a job with them since my degree was not in computer programming.  I graduated college with a B. A. in Communication and a Business Programming Certificate (the equivalent of an Associate’s degree).  Like many college graduates at the time I did not start working in a field related to my degree so I guess you could say that the scope creep actually started early because I was working outside my knowledge base.
The position I held was as a computer programmer and I worked on many different projects.  One project in particular was to take a local bank’s information with regard to their clients names and addresses and print out form letters addressed directly to the clients.  Like I said it was many years ago so at the time to do a project such as this it took a lot of programming just to format the data correctly.  The data was supplied in all capitals and we had to convert it to proper format (upper and lower case letters – there was not an app for that!).  Along with doing the programming to convert the data we quickly learned that special programming was needed to have the machines that ran the printers actually print the material properly.  This special programming was not considered in the original estimate.
Along with the extra programming needed for the printer there was the added situation that I was a new programmer and did not have the experience needed to program the printer for the extra work.  I had never been trained in the programming language the printer used so I had to learn how to program the printer fast.  I do not know if the inexperience was factored into the job estimate or not, however I have a feeling it was not considered because I came on board after the contract was awarded and before another programmer on the team decided to leave. 
Keeping in mind that I was a new programmer straight out of college I was inexperienced and as many inexperienced people do in their first job, they make mistakes.  I made a major mistake when writing the program to convert the data from all capitals to upper and lower case.  The mistake I made was that I did not clear one of my fields and thus when the field populated with data, that field stayed populated with data and was never blanked out.  What happened is that one of the clients had a long name and part of their name was duplicated to the clients that came after them, for example:
                                100th client -> MR. JOHN WILLIAM MICHAEL JAMES III M.D.
                                101st client -> MRS. EDITH JAMES
After applying my program:
                                100th client -> Mr. John William Michael James III M.D.
                                101st client -> Mrs. Edith James  M.D.
The field which held the “M.D.” data never cleared so everyone printed as a doctor after their name.  As you may guess this was a major issue and it needed to be fixed.  The mailings had already started going out and the issue was actually caught by one of the clients reporting it back to the bank.  I spent the better part of 3 days fixing this issue.  I never made that mistake again however it cost a lot to the company. Now in hindsight and after taking the class I am taking for Project Management, I am realizing just how much my “little” mistake cost the company.
Not that these issues were enough to deal with, the bank that hired us came back and requested that we do a second mailing as part of the project.  They wanted us to create their W2s for tax season while we were doing these form letters.  The request for the W2s was not in the original contact.  The bank needed to supply the data for the W2s and we had to do special programming again to print these specialized forms.  Not being involved in the negotiations I really do not know what transpired in the meetings for the contract, all I know is that we had to do additional work for the bank that was not originally requested and we had to work a lot of overtime to complete the project.
Scope creep happened several times within the project, some self-inflicted and some directed by the client.  It was a great learning experience for me and at the time I did not realize that it was scope creep.  The experience definitely had an impact because it is now 20+ years later and I remember the experience like it was yesterday.  There was another instance of scope creep with that same company but I will not elaborate on that one at this juncture.  Suffice it to say that the scope creep happened when the division I was working at in my home town was closing and they were consolidating with another division in another state.  My job was to help them move the projects to the new facility; however when I arrived at the other location instead of helping train people on the contacts being moved, the management had me working on new projects thus splitting my time between projects – big scope creep!
Looking back on these issues, if I was management, I do not know how these issues could have been avoided – definitely not the mistake.  In the situation of the additional request I would hope I would have had enough strength to say to the client that this addition is really not an addition it is actually a new project and we will treat it as such.  The management at the time did not want to upset this client because the bank was their biggest client.  It is easy to “talk a good game” and say that I would have made them do a new project but who knows what politics would have drove me to do in the same situation.  In the case of the inexperienced employee (myself) and needing more time to complete the project, that was not the bank’s issue it was my company’s issue so we needed to find ways to make the project work and be delivered on time.  Overtime was the only option because the company was short staffed.  As I came on board another more experienced person was giving their notice.  I am sure that if the experienced person had been around there would be more hands on oversight of what I was doing thus hopefully avoiding the mistake altogether.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Misinterpretations

Misinterpretations
Ever play the game of telephone around a campfire when you were young and by the time the message was received at the other end of the line it was nothing like the original message?  I believe the modern version of this game is email.  Emails may have the same wording as voicemails and even in person meetings; however emails cannot show emotion and can easily be misconstrued.  When communicating via email it is important to review how the email is worded before sending – if possible have a colleague or friend read the email prior to sending. 
In this week’s assignment we are to review and interpret “The Art of Effective Communication” (Laurette Education, n.d.).  There are 4 tabs on this site: 1.) Start 2.) Email 3.) Voicemail 4.) Face-to-Face and the email tab seems to be sarcastic.  When I read the email message I interpreted it as the person sending the email was annoyed with the person receiving the email because what was requested was still not completed. When reviewing the voicemail tab it was clear that the sentiment was not at all what the email had implied.  This tells me that voicemail is a better form of communication (at least for this example) than email.  Perhaps a combination of the two could be done; however you then run the risk that the receiver will read the email before listening to the voicemail.  If this is the case then the receiver may not listen to the voicemail with the same open mind they might have if they did not read the email first.  With the advances in technology it is entirely possible to read an email prior to listening to a voicemail. Lastly is the Face-to-Face communication which of course is probably the most effective form of communication.  In this exercise it was clear that the person was not trying to be sarcastic about the situation but they did need and want movement on the issue at hand.  The sender of the message was trying to communicate the message in a positive light also making sure the receiver knew that what was being requested was a priority to the sender.
My suggestions to anyone working with a team would be to try and communicate in person as much as possible – this could include video conferencing.  When we communicate in person (visually) everyone in the group can see the facial expressions, hear the tone in the voice, and see the body language.  Since a large part of our communication is non-verbal it is important to see the other person when communicating to obtain the total picture.  I am aware that in-person communication is not always possible.  The second best form of communication is the phone call which may end up in a voicemail.  I personally do not believe in leaving long detailed messages on voicemail because many people get “tongue tied” on the phone especially when the machine comes on.  My thought is to leave a quick message requesting a call back.  This could lead to “phone tag” and if this goes on too long then a message may need to be left but by that time the person on the phone has relaxed enough to leave a decent message.  The last type of communication should be email and hopefully you can use email as just a follow up to a conversation which had taken place earlier.  Again if you must use email, type the message, leave it for some time, come back and re-read the message and only send after feeling confident with the message.  Review the message for unintended emotions or the lack of emotion when an emotion is needed.  The important thing to look for is that the message cannot be misconstrued.  This is a difficult feat to master because each person is an individual which means each person reading the message could have a different understanding of the message than the other people.  That is what makes the world interesting.
Reference
Laurette Education (n.d.) “The Art of Effective Communication”. Extracted from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Project Near Disaster

Project Near Disaster
Many years ago I was working as a programmer/analyst for a prestigious company when there was a decision by upper management to expand the business into Canada.  The Canadian office would be housed in Mississauga, ON which is not too far from Buffalo, NY.  At the time I was working as the programmer and network system analyst.  As part of my duties I would: 1.) make sure the network structures for the offices were in place and 2.) maintain the computer systems.  When the decision was made to open the new office and because of the successful work I had done in the past I was put in charge of the office setup.  At the time I did not know what a project manager was and heck the role probably did not exist.  I had been part of setting up offices in the past so I was comfortable with knowing what is needed to organize the project.
My project plan was well defined and considered every item that would be necessary to setup the office (or so I thought).  I was still young and did not understand all the rules of business between the United States and Canada.  I was unaware that paperwork needed to be filed in order to work in Canada when you are not a resident of Canada even if the office was part of an American company.  I tried to cross the border and when asked my purpose for going to Canada I told them I was going setup our new office in Mississauga.  This answer delayed my entrance into Canada and thus my delay the start of the project.  I was not the only person with this issue.  There were other people being sent from our main office in the United States to the new office in Canada to help with the setup.  The proper paperwork had not been completed and filed with Canada so each person attempting to enter into Canada to work on this project had difficulty.  
The project that was planned initially worked well once we could get all the workers to the site.  The only issue with the project was a delay in the start time so it pushed back the start date for the office opening.  Due to the delay of the personnel the office, wiring was not complete when the hardware arrived at the office.  This was not a problem because we were doing all our own installation, the deliveries were just that, deliveries.  Nothing that was delivered needed expertise other than us to complete a proper setup.  Other than the project being pushed by three weeks all steps of the plan worked. 
The take away with this project was to plan the logistics for the staff that is required to be on site.  There were no issues when working within our own office; it was only the interaction between the two countries that needs to be organized well in advance of the project start date.  As I stated at the beginning of this post, this event was many years ago and completing the paperwork requirements for the workers temporarily working in Canada did not take too much time.  In today’s world the time frame for completing the paperwork to travel between the countries would be a longer and more involved process.  It is vital that any organization working with other countries start the inquiry into what is needed at least six months prior to the start date – probably more like a year.  It was a lesson learned and luckily it did not take too long to resolve and not impact the project too drastically.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

EDUC - 6135-1 Reflections - Class Wrap up

            Distance Education is just now starting to come into the main stream in my opinion.  I know that distance education has been around since the 1830’s in the form of correspondence courses.  As technology progressed so did the forms of correspondence courses and how they were offered, through television, videos, recordings, etc.  Personal computers have come on the scene and taken the correspondence course to a whole new level.  We now have actual distance education coming into its own through online universities, blog postings, wikis, and internet videos.  As people progress to having constant access to the internet through smartphones and tablet computers, online studies will become more accepted and even recommended for those that want to learn more but need to have the flexibility to obtain that learning on their own schedules.  With the advance of Web 2.0 technologies, the sky is the limit and as the society is raised with these technologies it will just be part of how the world works and not an exception to the rule.
            As for the people that think distance education and degrees earned online cannot be comparable with those obtained at traditional institutions, I tell them that it is time to pull their heads out of the sand.  I try to get them to see that everyone is learning through distance education in one form or another.  I also try to point out that they have probably done some form of online learning recently whether it be through research they have done or a live meeting they may have attended or being on the receiving end of a person trying to trouble shoot an issue with their computer from a remote location.  You see it is really the perception that needs to be adjusted.  Once you can adjust the perception you can then take the talk a little further to say, “now that you see what you have done in a small way would it not be feasible that someone does this on just a slightly grander scale like taking a class or two or twenty to fulfill and educational program?”  I find if you start with a small sample and you can get people’s buy in to that sample you can then expand it past the sample to the full blown courses.
            As an Instructional Designer I will attempt to design courses that are not just educational but have interesting presentations and fun interactive projects.  I think that if training programs are developed to be educational and fun more people would want to learn online.  The trend these days is for people to use online games to help children learn and I think we should take that further and design similar avenues for the adult learner.  Adults talk a good game about wanting to learn more, however I know for a fact that there are plenty of adults that like to have a diversion from their everyday lives and giving them games suited for adults would be just what is needed.  As an adult learner utilizing online studies I know I would enjoy some classes that have an element of fun to break from my everyday work.  That Is not to say all classes need to be delivered this way – that would not be productive.
            The biggest help I can provide to be a positive force for distance education is to promote distance education.  Letting people know that I am a product of distance education has already changed some people’s opinions.  I have had several people inquire as to what I am studying, how it is going, and asking how I am able to make it work with my busy schedule.  I have also sent out links to colleagues letting them know about the programs available at Walden University.  There have been some great new additions in the curriculum that some of my colleagues could benefit from attending.
            I have explained to many people that while I am taking these classes to obtain a master’s degree I also want them to understand that online learning can be done at any time for any reason.  I also talk about the grandmother who has obtained her Phd and the number of people that are continuing to obtain their masters degrees.  As for improvement, one thing I would like to do is to continue to take courses myself and see where the field of ID is headed.  I think we all get stuck in the ways we have always done things and unless an effort is made to work outside of our comfort zone we will stop growing.  The best I can do is lead by example.  As the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink” holds true in everything we do so the only thing one can do is lead by example.

Instructional Design and Technology - How to/Should You Go Online with Your Class

This post is outlining information to help a trainer determine if a class for which they are the instructor would be appropriate as an online class. There are tips to help determine that very thought as well as some tips on how to make the online class and the materials that may/should be used for the online class.


Converting to a Distance Learning Format

Helene A. Smith

Walden University

Dr. Rosemary Dawson

EDUC – 6135 – 1

February 25, 2012


            When converting to a distance learning format from an instructor-led training environment several considerations need to be reviewed.  After reviewing, The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web – part 2 several questions should be answered before proceeding with converting a traditional course to one that is online:
  • Is this class appropriate for online?
  • If appropriate, what technologies are best?
  • Is there easy access to the technologies?
  • What is the cost for creating the class/curriculum?
  • Was the traditional classroom training, for the course to be implemented on the web, effective?
  • Who will be creating the web based version of the traditional course?
(Moller, Foshay, Huett, 2008)
All these questions are important to answer before even beginning a project to create an online version of a traditional class.


Whenever converting material from a traditional setting to an online version some items to review would be:
  • Determine if the class will be appropriate for an online setting.
    • Does the course need to have a trainer local to convey the message even after the online portion is completed?
    • Can the learner understand what needs to be done even to access the online training?
    • Is the course designed to be “user friendly”?
  • Determine what will it take to develop the course and what materials are needed.
    • What materials will be required?
    • Who will generate these materials?
    • How much time is needed to create the materials?
  • Prepare the trainer for how to deliver the material online if there will be live meetings.
  • Prepare the learner on how to find the material needed for the course.
  • Create a forum for the learner to ask their questions about the material covered.
    • How will the question be addressed in the online classroom?
    • How will the question be addressed during a live meeting or synchronous training event?
Once you have determined that the class is appropriate for an online version, consider doing the following best practices:
  • Quality design of learning materials for different methods.
  • Professional design – aesthetically pleasing.
  • Utilize different technologies – so many to choose from today.
  • Mix up the technologies to keep the interest of the learner.
  • Cover all the media available for the online studies and mix them up.
  • There are many technologies available, however try not to use too many.
  • “Interaction is essential” (p. 172)
  • Determine how large of an audience before continuing – do not limit yourself.
  • Just because a technology is newer does not make it better.  Sometime the tried and true programs are quite effective.
  • Make sure the teachers/trainers know the technologies being utilized.
  • Involve all members on the team when developing the program.
  • Remember technology is the tool – how do we want the learners to gain the information they need.
(Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012)
Following these best practices will help keep you on course for creating the online curriculum.  The best help I can provide at this point is to remember best practice #12 above – technology is just a tool.  There is several times where I have seen people not be able to function if their computer is down.  We were able to do most of our functions in the past without a computer so you should be able to continue in this vein.  

To help assist in determining what goes into the online version of the training program try organizing the process into the following hierarchy:
  • General Goals
  • More Specific Goals
  • Objective
The trend in distance education is to reduce the amount of information being delivered (i.e. classroom lectures) and increase the amount of interactivity amongst the learners.  What an online class should strive for is interactivity and cooperation between the learners themselves and with the instructor (Simonson, et. al., 2012)

Try to picture the learner when generating your class and you will develop material that the learners will adapt to quickly.  With this adaptation for the learner, adaptation will also be needed of you as the trainer. As a trainer, in the past, you stood in front of a large/medium/small room giving information and the learner hopefully absorbing the information – this role will change.  As a distance trainer a few items will need to change from the traditional setting you have had:
  • As a distance trainer you will no longer be able to see the learners’ faces or hear their sounds so if possible try out your “class” on friends or other co-workers before doing it virtually.  See if you can pick up on areas that may be of concern or areas you may be excited about but the audience will not have a reference.
  • Make sure you know your material – nothing sounds worse on a live meeting than when someone just reads their presentation.
  • Make the presentation sound like you.  The “class” that you are delivering (with a few exceptions) should not need to be word for word from the “deck” you were given.  If you make the presentation in your style people will stay with you on the calls because they know you believe what you are saying.
Some tips to help facilitate communication and learning in the online environment:
  • Begin each class session with a quick quiz to see if the leaners understood what was assigned. Depending on the information received adjust the class to review information that needs clarification (Simonson, et. al., 2012).
  • Assign reading assignments that are not in the textbook.  When the learners review information outside of the main textbook they hopefully will understand perhaps a different perspective of the information being taught in the class  and thereby retain the information (Simonson, et. al., 2012).
  • Communicate your contact information to the learners.  Make sure they know your schedule for office hours.  Send e-mails to the learners if noticing there are issues with their studies.  Show that you care about the learner – if you keep in contact it is more likely that the learner will as well (Piskurich, 2012). 
  • Make sure you contribute to any discussion boards where the learners are posting their information (Piskurich, 2012).
  • If a synchronous classroom environment, make the learner have to do something with the communication system at different times during the presentation.  Make sure the learners know that they will have to perform a function when something specific happens during the class.  This should keep the learner focused on the class and not multi-tasking on something else in the area where they are “attending” the class (Piskurich, 2012). 
  • Use documents that the learners can refer to later to help with some of the required software that needs to be incorporated for the classes.  I have attached a document which gives an example of what I like to refer to as a QRC or Quick Reference Card.  This is a great way to get some information to the learner so later when they need assistance and you may not be available the learner can reference the information for him/her self.







Sunday, February 5, 2012





Untitled Document



MIT Online Instructions

In the MIT Online session provided above you will find the class for Linear Algebra. This course, as with many online courses from established universities, is presented online for the learner to expand their knowledge. These free online courses are not for credit, you cannot use this course to gain a degree from the institution and it is simply another way to access information. The main part of the sample from MIT is laid out like any class you would take either in a traditional classroom or online. There is a syllabus, a course description, course format, course overview, goals and prerequisites. This course also offers other suggested sources of information such as a textbook and introductions to the instructor and TAs; there are even credits for the videographers and writers. As you proceed through the screens the way this course differs from a traditional classroom setting is that there are links to view the lecture and/or the transcript of the lecture. These links are a page design set for self-paced study by the online learner (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek., 2012).

This online class demonstrates definite pre-planning because unlike traditional courses there are documents you can use to check your progress in the class. Another item that shows pre-planning has happened is where the links for the sessions are posted on the screen, the length of time for the hyperlinks is shown in parentheses. On the downside and this is probably because the course is an audit type course; however there is no interaction of any kind. There are no blog sites, posting sites, no way for learners to interact. In a true online course for actual credit or as a step in a degree program these posting sites are available. It is understandable that an audit course would not provide posting sites, however it does not mean that people interested in this class could not try and create their own posting site. Anyone can make a blog site these days - the hardest part would be to have others that might be auditing the course to join in on the blog - or even find it.

Yale Online Chemistry Instruction

Another site I reviewed is the Yale Online courses area, specifically Chemistry. I was interested in this area because my daughter is a graduate student in the Chemistry department at Yale University. I was interested to see what a university of the caliber of Yale would put out as an online course. As with the MIT sample above, the free online courses in the Yale site are not for credit, these classes cannot be used to gain a degree from the university. I was not impressed with the online class. There were no indications that the classes were designed for the web. Basically the classes were just videos of the instructor giving his lecture to his class. Unlike the MIT page, there was a syllabus for the class through a link on the left side menu, however when selecting the link the syllabus was somewhat vague and too high level. The only way I found any classes (or lectures in this case) was to start clicking on links and see what the next page would give me. I eventually found the classes for the beginning chemistry classes by sheer luck. Once on the page with the links to the classes and eventually selecting one of the classes all that was on the page was an overview and links to the video of the classroom lecture. There is a link for the HTML version of the script which I suppose is something but nothing significant enough to say this is a online course. The only other item that would be online about the class is that the video can be paused, replayed or fast forwarded - in other words self-paced. It leads me to believe that Yale feels the pressure to offer online courses but it is an afterthought and nothing that they will put much work into since they probably feel that Yale is a prestigious university where the knowledge should be held within its walls.

The big difference here is that Yale is an old established university first opened back in 1701 and MIT is by definition a technical college. I would expect MIT to have a well-developed online course structure and that they would have a well-developed online degree program in many areas of study.

McBride, M. (2008) Freshman Organic Chemistry. (Yale University: Open Yale Courses), http://oyc.yale.edu/chemistry/freshman-organic-chemistry/ (Accessed 05 Feb, 2012). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Strang, G. 18.06SC Linear Algebra, Fall 2011. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 05 Feb, 2012). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

 


Monday, January 23, 2012

This post is directed to distance learning and how it is happening every day all around us but perhaps it is going unnoticed.  In this post we will discuss how to incorporate techniques for distance learning into the training being devised for a new automated staff information system being implemented by an organization.  The staff is located in different offices throughout the country and they cannot meet at the same time or location. 
My first inclination was to offer what is referred to as a live meeting.  There are several different live meeting software packages available however I like Microsoft’s Live Meeting.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oSbxAURjWs&feature=player_embedded) The live meeting could be recorded and made available to all staff personnel to replay when they are free.  After the meeting is held the recording would be placed in another application where files may be shared between groups of people.  Another option is to utilize an application called Brainshark to create a recorded training session. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainshark )  The difference between the Brainshark and the Live Meeting is there are no people interacting in the meeting so you do not have the advantage to see facial expressions or hear questions posed by the listeners.  The recorded training would be placed in a location so everyone could access it when they had time.
There are two options for the shared area – Microsoft’s OneNote application (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f85IyulX0TI&noredirect=1) and/or on the contact management system (CMS) being utilized by the organization at the time.  Utilizing one of these applications will not only allow the live meeting recording to be shared but the staff members could utilize the space to share information, screen captures and documents as requested.  My preference would be to the CMS area only because there are many options within this package to be utilized by the organization.  Why not use a package with more abilities, unless there is a budgetary issue and the CMS software is just too expensive. 
To create those screen shots there are a couple of options as well.  Microsoft has this new tool in their Windows 7 operating system called Snipping Tool. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR_cq21c0T4) This tool is used to capture whatever part of the screen the user wants and then place that picture into whatever location needed to share.  The other option has several steps that are manual and you may not ever retrieve all the information you need but you also may have no choice if using something other than Windows 7 operating system.  To do a screen shot the steps are:
1.       Depressing the CTRL and the PRTSCR button
2.       Open Word, PowerPoint, or an e-mail
3.       Use the Edit menu and paste the information into the document or use CTRL-V
4.       Save to document
5.       Attach the document to an e-mail
6.       Send it to the recipient and how they are not on vacation
The obvious answer is to use the snipping tool so everyone upgrade to Windows 7!
An example of CMS software is a package I have recently found called CourseSites. (https://www.coursesites.com/webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html)  This site is used for classes primarily; however it is a great location in which to share information with others in a particular group.  The site is free as well so it is something that can be reviewed for some time instead of making a hasty decision on software that the organization has not had time to thoroughly review.
It is important that the staff in the organization can keep constantly informed and the use of a CMS system helps by having a venue by which all the staff can place and retrieve information promptly. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012)  If the proper CMS software was chosen for the organization it can also be of great service to help keep the requirements for the training (as well as future trainings) organization and easily accessed from any location. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012)
My last comment is to make note of a site which supplies all kinds of information with regards to distance learning.  It is not the prettiest site but the content is quite extensive. (http://performancepyramid.muohio.edu/Distance-Learning/Examples.html)  Take some time to review this information – it deals mostly with school situations, however if you select the link toward the lower left side labeled, “Technology-in-the-Classroom” you will be overwhelmed with the information supplied. (http://performancepyramid.muohio.edu/Technology-in-the-Classroom.html)