Some Great Posts Finishing Off The Year & Predictions for 2009

I saw some great posts from the last couple of days with great summaries of 2008 and 2009 and I'd like to capture them here as well.

Jane Hart's prediction for top tools of 2009. I've used a few of these and agree with Jane that they are wonderful tools and simple to use.

Robin Good led a group of 130+ through an online live mind mapping exercise creating an amazing picture of 2008's collaboration tools. This was incredible to watch it coming together live.

15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009 by Olivia Mitchell. Everyone can always use more tips or at least reminders on upgrading our presentations.

15 Useful Tools for WordPress Bloggers by Jacob Gube. I don't use WordPress, but many do and the options here are impressive.

I'm sure over the next several days the wrap ups of 2008 and predictions for 2009 will start flooding in and I look forward to reading all of them.

A New Year, A Chance to Start Fresh

I was a little disappointed with my self and my postings over the last year, mostly the last half of the year. They became fewer and fewer as I became more consumed with work. It's nice to be really busy, especially with the outlook of economic lows ahead. However, being too distracted with work hindered my learning from and networking with others. My reading of other blogs dwindled and with that my learning decreased which ultimately lead to me posting fewer items to my blog.
I am looking forward to a new year with my RSS reader cleaned out and ready for a whole new load of information ready for my eager eyes to scan through. There is one catch however, it's nice to start fresh but one must develop a plan for actually keeping up with the growing or over-growing amount of information that gets passed through the reader.

My plan is to learn from others and dump out those feeds that I truly only scan the headlines of and rarely look deeper into, this should hopefully make my inbox a little leaner. Second, I have set aside an hour at the end of each day (I find there are more posts then) to read through feeds and post my own thoughts. When I first started blogging I was writing once a day. I would like to get back to that habit, but we'll see if 3 times a work week is more feasible.

I'm hoping that this will work well for the upcoming year. I'll need to revisit "the plan" in a month to see if it is actually working. A little more than an hour may be necessary or work might be all consuming still and not allow me any time. Fingers crossed on this resolution.

Cheers to All for the New Year!

Ever want to just escape it all? (Two LMS's? Are they trying to kill me?)

Ever just want to run away and escape from it all?

I just came from a meeting from our Emergency Planning dept. and have been so graciously informed that they are purchasing a system to ensure or emergency readiness. Great, sounds wonderful. I think we need that. The catch....it has an LMS built into it and they want to run it for just those courses. Ugg Why would we want 2 LMSs running in the organization?

One of the main reasons we even started on this journey was that our educators were getting concerned that they were each tracking the learning of their staff in a billion different ways. Know one knew what anyone was taking or had taken. This is especially a problem with several hundred transfers a month around the organization.

On that note...I don't know how some of my peers cope with more than 3000 staff and multiple facilities. They should be praised.

I'm now in need of a desperate talk with my CIO to see what we can do, what we should do, where we should proceed. I'm quite concerned that when staff see/use this new LMS (it will be their first LMS experience and is scheduled to be up in several weeks) and then need to use my original LMS (yes they have yet to actually see it) they will be very confused and will be drawn to the new system as it is (as my IT buddy calls it) a much "sexier" system.

I'm confused already and neither system has launched. I'm also quite concerned about the potential of having two areas of administration. Historically our department (or I should say me) has been responsible for the administration of our Core Curriculum (6 mandatory courses that must be sent out to all staff each year). This new system would be responsible for only 2-3 of those courses. That makes little sense as well and would only duplicate much of my work.

I now need to desperately have a meeting with my director and my CIO to get these concerns on the table asap as this new system seems to be a go whether I like it or not.

I want to Blog...Where to Start?

I'm curious to find out a few things from bloggers who have been posting for more than a year:

1. What is your blogging tool of choice (blogger, wordpress, etc)?
2. Have you always used the same tool? If you switched why?
3. How often to you post?
4. Does traffic to your blog matter to you?
5. Do you try to stick to one topic/theme or are you generalized?
6. How many other blogs do you follow?
7. Have you kept your blog in the standard templates offered, have you tweaked it, or have you designed your own fully?
8. Do you blog internally for a company/organization or is it out there for the world to see?
9. Do you try to promote your blog (increase its searchablility - is that a word)?

Trouble Concentrating on One Task at a Time

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on one task at a time, let alone complete one and before I move onto the next. Am I normal for my generation; a product of my environment; has work forced be to be this way; is it just too much info all at once? I'm just not sure any more.

I certainly know, as it seems to be discussed more and more that information overload is bogging us down. I never believed that it was really happening. I felt like I was thriving learning more and more. I was excited to read, hear, see the next big thing or learn more about a topic I that found really interesting. I also never believed that I couldn't multitask and still get everything done that needed to be finished.

I now think, as 2008 is coming to a close, that I feel more drained then I have in a very long time. I feel that little has been accomplished. I've started a lot of projects, but have I really completed them to my full potential. I'm not sure. Even when I think of housework, something simple, something just for me....I fly around the house from one bit to another....clean a sink, wait spot on the mirror, do that....do another mirror, do another mirror....lint on the floor, better vacuum...back to sinks.... Eventually it gets done, but the process is crazy.

How did I get this way? It may be a bit because of my work. Rarely does a day go by where I can sit there an concentrate on just one task. There are phone and email interruptions both of which must be answered immediately. For some reason a culture has developed at my work where if a call/email is not answered immediately the person will try another method to reach you. I've even had people come to my office if I don't answer them within 30 minutes. There are the constant drop ins asking questions and usually they are about something irrelevant to the task at hand. I sit an area of the hospital where there are frequent visitors and patients that often need assistance with just logging on the computer. You can not tell them to wait, that is not an option.

And so wrapping up 2008 I seem to have my LMS at least in my grubby hands, but not yet functioning at a level that will make my users or instructors completely happy. I have started to create 2 different elearning courses, but haven't completed either. In case the LMS isn't a go in Jan. '09 then I've started creating 5 other courses for paper distribution. Oh and even if the LMS does work who's to stay everyone is going to access it anyway....the paper distribution better be ready any way. I've hosted 6 orientation sessions over the year. I did run a conference for our staff in April, but I'm back planning (in bits and pieces) the one for next April.

I'm feeling a bit like I'm running in a hamster wheel right now. Once in a while I get out and breath for a moment, but then I'm right back in running my little feet off.....and my brain.

An Interpretation of Training in the 21st Century

I love Harold Jarche's SlideShare here explaining many of the ideas and concepts we need to think about as we move forward in this web 2.0 world and the ways that we are going to continue to foster learning.

I find it very important, yet very difficult still to get managment to understand the greater need for collaboration regarding learning and producing, really anything. I'm fond of his slide representing Supporting Work in Complex Environments. I wonder how many of us are truly adopting this or are we still trying to pursuade our "power's that be" that we need to go this route and go now.

Training 21 C

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: complexity wirearchy)

LMS Is Not Managing Classroom Based Training

My days and nights are still consumed with the issue that our LMS does not manage classroom based courses well at all. I can not find a work around for our courses that run over many different days. The vendor gave me a solution if they are all in the same week, but that doesn't solve it.

• I tried making session 2 a whole new course and that session 1 is a prerequisite, but they can't register for number 2 until they pass number 1.
• I tried about putting all the sessions under one certificate, but they can't register for a certificate only an individual course.
• I tired making one course and just putting all the dates in the details, but that doesn't help the instructor keep track of everyone showing up for all sessions.
• I tried letting the learner registering for the first session and the instructor registering them for all the other sessions (hidden from public view). Nice idea however the instructor is never notified if a new student registers, they would have to go into the course, see who is new, go the the learner management screen add the other sessions (of which they can't see entirely because the window is too small), and then go back and look up the next new learner. Too much for an instructor that may have 6 sessions and 30 learners.

I'm at a brain freeze trying to work around this issue and about 60% of our in class teachings are like this. I'm ready to scrap the whole think and become a shepperd.

An LMS Rant to No One in Particular

I'm working on the "1 course, many classes" issue.

I've got it now that the learner registers for module 1 of 6.

If the learner clicks "my courses" they see module 1 that they registered for (there is no date of the course for them though. (It can't added to Outlook either like it should).

I've kind of got a solution to my "1 course many day" issue, but I've also got some concerns over ease and efficiency of this process. What I worked out is I "display and allow registration" of module 1 (noting to learner they will be registered for the other modules).
Module 2-6 are hidden (do not display).

As an instructor....currently I have to go into the "course manager", & "edit the session" to see if anyone has registered (there are no prompts to the instructor, no emails, this would be great every time a registrant signs up). Then I have to go into "manager learners". Then I have to export or note all the students (I wouldn't really know who is new and who isn't).

I then have to go to "learner manager", find the student, look at their courses, edit their courses, add in the other modules that they need to take.

The learner now does have the next module added to their "my courses" roster.

However they don't get any other notification that it has been added for them (and email to them would be helpful).

Oh and I guess if I wanted to add one course that has more than 1 session......I wouldn't be able to, because I can't see which session is which.

LMS what does it stand for?

This is a really quick post, but after my day yesterday struggling with my LMS, my computer that sounds as if it is taking off like a 747, and the constant screen freezes, I've come up with a new accronym for my LMS.

LMS = Losing My Sanity

When is the content enough? LMS Pilot has become too intense

I'm working on a school project where I get to use Blackboard as a teacher. I have an assignment worth 30% of my overall class mark, but the actual content of the course material I put into the system is only worth 1/3rd of the mark. I've been working at it and working at it creating this in depth learning course on using myUdutu.com to create online courses. I'm at the fifth page (.doc) of my course material and I haven't even gotten past the templates that are available to you as an author.

I'm now mulling over where do I "stop" the course so that it ends at an appropriate place (end of topic). When can I say I've done enough that's about 1/3rd's worth. I think I may be creating the supreme version of the course as opposed to the first chapter.

I've realized today that I'm doing the same thing with my LMS pilot or preparation for the pilot. I've been killing myself mentally and physically (okay only my fingers are cramping up, but it does hurt). I've been working endlessly to get all my physical course catalogue inputted into the LMS catalogue. I've been trying to create 2 elearning courses for the learners to try. I've also been trying to make sure the system works flawlessly from a student perspective, author, manager, and administrator.

A friend was kind enough to slap some reality into me today and allowed me to step back and look at it for what it is....a pilot. Not everything is going to work right away and it probably should not work perfectly. It should be expected that there will be things you'll want to tweak and fix so that it better matches your learners expectations. It doesn't need to have the entire course catalogue created. It just needs a sampling of classroom courses and online courses for them to register for and take. I have 2 SCORM courses from the Ontario Health Association that will make good test courses. One has sound and video. I would love to have one or two of our own courses in there, but it's not a necessity.

My LMS Tips for today is to take it easy on yourself, remember your pilot is only a pilot. It is simply there for you to test out the functionality of your system for you as an administrator and for your learners for ease and simplicity. Can they navigate their way around the system easily? Step back, simplify it for yourself, get the main components in that you require, it does not have to be at the 100% GO LIVE stage. Another really big big tip I got today as well is....you don't have to turn every part of the system on. Our system has the ability for the manager to approve a staff member taking a course. I've been going nuts trying to make sure this works....but why? Mangers don't do this right now in our learning environment, why do they need to do it online. Myself and my colleague aren't convinced it works the way we would want to any way. So we'll leave it be for now. Pretend it doesn't exist and deal with it later if we see it as a necessary tool.

Hope this too helps you sleep a little better my LMS friends.

eLearning Learning - Now Launched

Tony Karrer graciously asked me to participate in the launch of a new tool called eLearning Learning. I've added to my blog sidebar and you will be able to use it to see the most common terms, tools, and concepts that I blog about. Each of those links within the tool (widget) can then be break down further in to more specific content. As you follow a link you will first come to the content that was created by myself, or fed into the eLearning Learning site. As you scroll through that you will come to content created by others. If you use one of the links available to you now on the eLearning Learning site you will be able to further into the first topic link (i.e. Learning > Learning-Blogging, or Learning-Technology, etc.). The break down goes on and on.

"This is the beginning of a community portal where the community will help to collect and organize the best content from blogs and web sites. The goal is to create a place where it's relatively easy to find current content and highly relevant content surrounding eLearning." - Tony Karrer

Currently the content is mostly feed in through blogs, but will be expanded in the future.

If you want to try out the tool on some live blogs there are a few launch sites you can take a look through and play with:


Tracy Hamilton - Discovery through eLearning (mine)

Collin Kromke - Web 2.0 Work

Kevin Jones - Engaged Learning

Wendy Wickham - In The Middle of the Curve

Tony Karrer - eLearning Technology

Educational Videos Online and Other Great Stuff

I saw this linked passed through Twitter from Dennis Callahan, it's 10 Free Online Educational Video Options. The list was compiled by Ace Online Schools blog.

"Ace Online Schools is a guide to useful online resources for students and professionals. In addition to our own tips and tutorials, we recommend websites and applications that help you work and live more productively."

I was aware of the first few as they are quite mainstream but am grateful to see the remaining fantastic options. I'm not a school teacher, but there definitely appears to be some great resources here for instructors in general.

LMS Big Dreaming...Darn

I was so close to being happy....they almost had it. Update to my earlier post (moments ago). Further investigation by me is they haven't quite got it yet. They have grasped the concept that a course may take place over many days with in a week and that each day the time may be different, but what if it is over several months. Giving me the option to enter in a class that happens Monday at 2:00 and Wednesday at 3:00 doesn't quite solve my problem.

Mine is I have 1 course that runs twice a year (2 sessions). Each session has 6 modules (full days). Due to the lack of rooms available to us they are not always every other Thursday or follow any pattern for that matter. I have one schedule Feb. 12, Feb. 26, Mar. 19, Mar. 26, Apr. 9, Apr. 30 2009. Take a look at a calendar and see how scattered these are, at least they are all Thursdays. Luckily they are all in the same room, but this is a fluke.

My vendor is close to solving it, but not quite there yet. I've taken their screen shots and with some graphic editing resent back to them what I was hoping for instead. Fingers crossed I'm not dreaming to large.

Big Changes in My LMS World Today

A couple of key things have begun to happen today. One I attended a meeting with my key IT people and the HR manager. Our HR system is a little old (okay very old) and has not really been updated for the size of staff we have currently. It was a great little system 10-15 years ago, but now that we have tripled in size it doesn't really meet our needs. One of them being who reports to whom. We have been existing with who is paid by which budget line. Not great for accountability, performance support, or my LMS.

The good news today is that the HR system is now approximately 10% away from being complete to function the way we need it to for the current situation. We of course have larger, grander schemes in mind, but it will (should) suffice for now.

Secondly, I began to panic this afternoon as simple procedures within the LMS as an administrator seemed to have disappeared. So I fired off an email to the vendor, stated they must be up to something as everything was crashing on my end and I went to lunch.

To my surprise upon my return; nothing was fixed. I then decided forget it I'll work around the errors and keep doing what I'm doing. A bit more typing, a few more screens and suddenly I have new fields available to me for creating courses. My biggest excitement is they may have, just may have, found a way for me to input courses that run over multiple days. Yippee!!!!

My LMS tip for the day: create really strong communication connections with your vendor. Make sure that you each know what the other is doing, when, and for how long. We have run into several issues like this where suddenly nothing is working. We panic on our end, only to find out that they are fixing bugs that we requested be fixed. Unless you each know what the other is working on ill relationships and understanding develop very quickly.

Latest LMS Implementation Issue - External Access

So one (of the many) things to keep me awake at night right now, in regards to my LMS implementation is the whole issue around access. Currently our intranet is not accessible externally. Our LMS portal runs through our intranet.

Management and physicians have access to the network from home or external offices. The issue now is the 2600 other staff that don't. The several issues I have with this are how do we expect staff do complete mandatory education that will be provided as elearning packages if we 1) don't have enough computer stations for them to use, and 2) have limited amount of free time we can give them on the job to do the packages. The logical choice then appears to let them work on it at home through the elearning system.

Hense my dilemma.....that does not exist. Please tell me these issue begin to dwindle at some point.

Corporate Learning Trends & Innovations 2008 - Have You Signed Up

I'm working through all the incredible events that are offered through Corporate Learning Trends and Innovations 2008 site. I'm surprised there are so few members currently, considering it will run from Nov. 17th until the 21st.

"Join us to explore new developments, track emerging opportunities, network with other learning pioneers, and deal with topics you don’t find at the conferences you have to travel to. Come online the week of November 17 for a different kind of conference experience. Mark your calendar now. The event is free. Events are live and online. Hook up with fellow innovative thinkers and international visionaries to gain insight into what’s going on, swap opinions, and shape the future of learning. Share your suggestions with the organizers at learntrends.com"

Did you see that word FREE in that quote? How can you pass up joining in the discussion? Not enough for you, then how about the speakers scheduled to share on their insights....

Nov. 17
Jane Hart - 25 Free Tools Every Learning Professional Should Have in their Toolbox
Robin Good - Best Online Collaboration Tools for Learning
Learning Technology Strategy in Climates of Change (organized by George Siemens)
Q&A with David Weinberger

Nov. 18
Tools, the Discussion (organized by Tony Karrer, Robin Good, Jane Hart)
Tony Karrer - Work Literacy - Implications for Learning Professionals
Dave Pollard - Working Smarter

Nov. 19
Nancy White - Online social architectures - Networks & communities
Marcia Connor - Learning When the Money Runs Out
Jay Cross, Jane Hart, Harold Jarche, Clark Quink - Learnscape Sandbox

Nov. 20
Alvaro Fernandez - Key research behing cognitive & emotianl training

Nov. 21
Kevin Wheeler - Future of Work
Allison Anderson - Enterprise Learning
Jay Cross - What's it all about?
Dave Gray - Visual Literacy

EnglishCafe - helping each other to learn English

I had this interesting site sent to me today; http://www.englishcafe.com/.

"Like the best Cafés around the world, EnglishCafé is an enclave for vibrant and respectful exchange of knowledge, ideas and entertainment. We value the diversity of people, the unique experiences they bring, and the cultures from which their voices rise.

English does not belong to any group of people. English is a language that is malleable enough for the entire world to use. For this reason, we can learn from each other and about each other through this language. We can indeed advance our careers with English knowledge and make ourselves more marketable in the global economy. It is with a spirit of openness and desire to understand that we built EnglishCafé. We invite you to come in, gain or share knowledge, and join in a world-wide conversation about words and culture."

They asked me to look at it as it is in beta stage currently. I immediately was drawn to how easily I could navigate around the site looking for the answers I might need to find as a user. Also I got drawn in through out the day looking at places where I could contribute answers to other users that were asking questions.

There is an area where any registered user can post a question such as "what is the difference between Miss and Ms." This might seem a simple question to first-language English speakers, but for those learning it is confusing. As our organization becomes more diversity aware we realize more and more how difficult it might be to explain how so many English words, such as "fare" & "fair", may sound the same but are spelt so differently and mean vary different things as well.

My colleague who is getting her certificate as an English as a Second Language instructor said there are many sites out there that do assist with this, but her first reaction was very positive as well.

Another aspect I liked about the site was it's collaborative nature in posting a question to the community and the community responding back with answers. Each new member responding often elaborates on the previous answer and so the user posing the question get's quite in depth responses.

I look forward to seeing how well this site is received by users and how it progresses into the future.

eLearning & LMS Implementation Mentor Needed

Driving for 3 days at 8 hours at a shot gave me lots of time to think, ponder, and worry more and more about the LMS implementation that is a few weeks away. I reach out to my peers quite often through this and am so grateful for all the help I continue to receive. I know now I really need your assistance again or even a mentor that I can ask questions of and bounce ideas off as I move forward over the next few months.

I am a department of one and I am only a subsection of our Organization Development department. My project is of course then not the priority of the department, but one of several priorities (yes, an oxy-moron for sure). I made the mistake of looking a my email the last night of my vacation and that threw lots of questions and worry my way.

Please assist/answer any of these if you can either through this blog or through my direct email. Any advice is sincerely appreciated.

1) I have many depts in my organization that are all wanting to develop self-learning packages (everyone is sick of doing training for 2600 people 10 students at a time).

• Do I let them each develop their own training and leave it at that?
• Do I let them do the developing and then assist with giving suggestions where it can be improved?
• Do I develop guidelines/procedures that they have to follow when creating their own training packages? (Does anyone have an example?)
• I've had recent questions about getting Articulate. I know Articulate and Captivate each have their own merits. Wondering if someone that has used both can give me some background on their preference?
• Do I let them produce their packages in PowerPoint and then have them give the material to me to convert into elearning courses?

Any suggestions.......(whew)....I'm ready for vacation again and haven't even stepped foot back in the office yet.

Clark Aldrich was the last 2 questions on my mid-term last night.

I wrote (or clicked) my way through a mid-term last night for a Online Technology course, and yes I passed with flying colours Mom.

I was pleasantly surprised for 2 reasons. I was interesting to work through a multiple choice test that actually covered everything taught so far, and was challenging at the same time. I haven't had a real thought provoking multiple choice test since University Biology classes (those are NOT pleasant by any sense of the imagination).

The second surprise was that the last 2 questions on the exam were "According to Clark Aldrich....."

Care to have a go at them?

True or False: According to Clark Aldrich in Learning Circuits, he predicts that immersive simulations will short-cut the experiential learning process to become the dominant form of high-end pre-packaged management training for the Play Station 2 generation.

True or False: According to Clark Aldrich in Learning Circuits learning experiences such as mentoring, apprenticeships, and group projects can lead to the kind of profound experiences that fundamentally grow people that can be orchestrated and captured by LMSs.