Communication with your provider is the key

I called a meeting with our LMS provider on Friday. It felt as if we had come to a stand still again with the entire project. Some of that was on our part some on the part of the vendor.

Year end is never great time in any organization for true productivity. Top that off with our organization going through the Accreditation process. "Participating in accreditation demonstrates an organizations commitment to quality health care to its staff, patients, clients, and community. In the pursuit of excellence, thousands of health organizations voluntarily participate in Accreditation Canada's accreditation program each year." Getting down to serious LMS work really didn't fall high on my list of priority to-dos.

Once I had finished the majority of my accreditation tasks I got back into the fine details of the LMS. For a week (at least when I could) I looked at as many components of the system as I could. Looking for items I wanted changed, items I needed change, and components that just weren't functioning. Compiling a long list of these into a table, I sent them off to the vendor, our project lead, and our purchasing contract negotiator.

Our negotiator called a meeting with the vendor and to my surprise (and I use that loosely) I began to get a few more emails. Responded to my email queries were more timely. What had happened? We called. That's it.

Wrapping this little episode up....what I want to highlight again is the truly important need of communication from you to the vendor and from the vendor back to you. Both need to know where the other is in the the implementation process. I was being side tracked by other priorities, they were as well, but in doing so they have created some upgrades that I didn't know about and would have solved many sleepless nights and countless meetings I was having with my users. More regular discussions and open communication could bring your project to a conclusion much more quickly, with less complications and head aches.

Guild Looking for Tips for Getting Started With eLearning

Oh how great will this installment be from the eLearning Guild. They are currently compliling a list of the best tips for getting started with elearning. I know we all have some, so please share your thoughts. This will be invaluable to those newly entering this "world" and I have found that the rest of us can always benefit from tips we didn't think of before approaching our next project.

"Most eLearning Guild members work in organizations that have been engaged in e-Learning for some time. In some cases for many years. But there are many organizations out there that are just getting started with e-Learning. Let’s help those organizations get started – and avoid the pit-falls and costly mistakes we made – by giving them our top tips for getting started with e-Learning. To submit your tips, click HERE. " - The eLearning Guild: eLearning Insider

Why is it they only want to teach how to write an outline?

I'm taking yet another course in online design and delivery. I think I'm a glutton for punishment, but the trouble is I have yet to find a great course that really satisfies my craving for learning or meets my needs.

I did take a certificate with Bill and Kit Horton through Training Live and Online and I will say it was really good. I walked away with a ton of great tips, tricks and resources that I could use right then and there.

However, each of the university and college courses I've participated in spend so much time on creating an outline and objectives and blah, blah, blah that there is very little practical learnings that can be taken away an applied.

If you are like me you probably have little time to be wasting learning how to write an outline for the 10th time. You want solid tools, examples, and tips you can use to really create some fantastic learning experiences. I'm curious if others have experienced this and if not who do you truly recommend for solid learning and getting exactly what you needed?

Listing the Steps of the LMS is Difficult

I'm working on my performance plan of the last year and I'm finding it surprising that the area that has occupied the most of my work life, the LMS implementation, is proving to be the most difficult to map out.

I'm having little difficulty in listing all the steps for issuing our core training packages. I very quickly mapped out the process I followed to host our annual spring gathering for all staff. I even was able to list a few other major projects, but the LMS.....wow that is much more difficult.

Now I must find out why that is proving so hard. My best guess is that is has been a real trial and error from day one. There has been gains and set backs since the beginning and set backs seem to last so long that you forget where you last left off. I'm at that point currently. I last had a meeting with one of my end users in November. Once we met again last week we had a difficult time in trying to remember what we had first discussed and agreed upon. Basically we had to start over. Relook at the issues we "thought" we had previously, were they still the same, and did we have new ideas which with to rectify.

Now that I'm being forced (almost against my will) to list out the steps I'v currently followed and those that I plan to follow I'm having some trouble working through them. For the most part I believe it is avoidance, but I would suggest at this point to others to document your steps as you meet/pass them. I have an email trail, but if I could do things differently this would be one item I would have done much more in depth from the start.

Proving My Worth & Explaining Why I Need Less Interuptions

It's been almost 3 weeks since I returned from my vacation and the 3 solid days of LMS work I had scheduled for myself still has not occurred. It's amazing how many "this is number one" priorities come up in a single day. I came back to having to create org. charts, produce yet another paper version of curriculum, general document creation, meetings, budget concerns, binder stuffing, a/v equipment malfunctions, coordinating of orientation, and it goes on and on and on.

I am finally (I think) at almost a point where I can get back to "the number one priority" (for the moment) of going through the LMS step-by-step looking for bugs, issues, and general strangeness. However, there is another priority that I believe for a change may actually be something I should concentrate on first and stop looking at as an annoyance; My Performance Development Plan. Makes me shiver just to say the words.

I've never had to do one before...ever. However, my department is responsible for creating the document and is requiring the entire management team have them completed. So, as a FINE EXAMPLE, our department has been "strongly recommended" to complete ours as well. I am not a list person by any sense of the imagination and having to list out my priorities and objectives for the year is very painful. Listing further all the implementation steps is driving me to pull my hair out and my eyes to cross.

However.....

I now realize that my supervisors seem to have little understanding in how much is needed to be done to get the LMS working and continue to have it function. I've been working on it in bits and pieces now for such a long time that it seems to be one of those things that will never get done and therefore is moving lower on their priority list. This isn't true of others in the organization that are asking me where it stands and will it be ready soon. Yes and no....depending on if I get to actually concentrate more then 10 minutes at a time on the tasks needed for it to succeed.

I'm beginning to understand myself that I need to make my Performance Plan my first priority. This is not only because I have a meeting about it next week, but also because it will allow me to show clearly everything that I have done up until this point. More importantly it will help me to demonstrate all the tasks that will be needed to get the system functioning. I'm expecting that once they see how much is truly involved they will perhaps back off the "this is number one priority now" mentality and maybe even help me to protect my time from others in the organization as well.

I'll certainly post the results of my plan and meeting after they occur next week and hope that they are greatly positive.

Posting from my cell phone text message.
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Just testing out posting directly from my email.

Looking Back at My Own Blog

I was trying desperately today to remember something I had posted a long time ago about grading your website. That turned out to be Website Grader, surprise, surprise. What really surprised me was some of the things I have posted about and completely forgot I had written down.

Searching somewhat randomly to what I could only remember as "grade", I came upon so many different topics that I've covered over the last two years. My task or challenge for you today is to take a look back as well at some of your earlier posts. Take a trip down your own memory lane and visit your own consciousness for a while. I'm positive you'll enjoy the journey and surprise yourself with your own writings.

How Old is Too Old to be Relevant?

This is going to be a short post, but I just wanted to comment on my astonishment at how much info is out on the web about blogging. Most of it is posted on blogs...go figure. I've search "components of blogs", "how to start a blog", "blog tools", "how many blogs exist" and that's just a starting point. It's overwhelming and difficult to grasp was parts are really relevant.

Something that struck me though is how relevant and up-to-date with current trends can some of these posts be when many are a few years old. How old is now too old when it comes being relevant? I know the lady that works in the resource library in our facility does not keep any journals on the shelf that are more than a year old.

I can barely keep up with the constants streaming of information I receive daily through Twitter and these are just the select few people I have decided to follow. What about the thousands of others out there that are posting, tweeting, sharing their information, thoughts and ideas.

Is there a point in time that you don't reference back past? Do you give yourself a limit as to what you pay attention too? Is there a standard that we all should be following and if so does that mean the past is irrelevant? (I dare not ask that question).

Is the simple to you, complex to your students?

I'm taking yet another online course in designing online courses. So far I'm not learning anything, I'm just going through the motions.

What struck me tonight though, is this about the 10th course I've taken using the Blackboard system. So you can imagine my familiarity with it. Last semester I actually got to create and teach a short course through it to my fellow students. Again, you can see it's not my first time using the platform. YOU'D THINK THOUGH..... the way I have had to ask for clarification again and again about submitting assignments that I'm completely NEW. I can't figure it out to save my life....and maybe my grade.

So that brings me to thinking about designing and clarifying those instructions you present to your students/learners/users. Make them as clear and fool proof as possible. Yes I realize I'm labelling myself the fool here because I'm just not following the teacher in my own course. Just because you have hit the the "submit" button on the screen 1 billion times, do not assume your students/learners/users can figure out where the submit button even is, let alone know how to hit it.

Do they say hit or click? Do you need to be specific and say click twice? Do you need to say it is blue? Do you need to show a small picture of it? I'm not saying I'm that lost right now, but there could very well be learners right now in one of your classes lost wondering what to do next.

My computer science teacher in grade ten always had us write our programs as dummy proof as possible. If we put a yes/no question on the screen he would inevitably type - maybe. If we asked him to type in his name he would type - why do you ask? We had to make sure that regardless of the answer typed in, the program would redirected unexpected answers into a loop of "feedback" or gentle nudging for a proper response (or acceptable yes/no).

Just a little something to keep in mind as I struggle through tonight's lesson in my own school work. On the other hand maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment and should find something else to do with my time.

Cheers.

I Can't Believe I Have to Use Paper Again

This year my Core Curriculum learning packages are going to finally be online. Fully accessible by all staff. Automatically marked by the LMS. Easy to determine completion rates. Simple to distribute to every department.


AND THEN I WOKE UP!!!

I can't believe I'm being forced against my will to set up and print out 500 learning packages. 2700 tests with student names/numbers already entered. The very worse part of the entire process is the marking and recording of completion of 2700 test.

Now can you understand why I desperately want to get my learning system up and running.

Looking at Blogs to Share About Blogs (which do you use?)

I'm currently preparing for a presentation on learning how to blog and learning from other's blogs and so that is exactly what I'm doing. I'm surfing around looking at blogs that I've only been reading in the past to dive a little deeper into some of the tools/widgets that seem most common. Looking to see if there is a standard length of a post....doesn't appear so. Looking at the use of colour and fonts. Has the blogger modified the standard template to their own or are they content with the format offered?

Another big thing I'm trying out is to see how different Blogger is from WordPress. To me they seem quite similar in what they offer. Each has it's merits though and I can see quite easily why someone might choose one over the other. Blogger seems a little more streamline to me and I haven't yet been dissatisfied with it as a tool. However, I can see how someone that prefers more of a standard webpage feel might like WordPress with its tabs and embedded pages.

I'm curious to know, if anyone would like to share, why they may have changed from one tool to another. If so where you happy with the change? Did you stick with the change or go back? I'm very curious about this last question as I have tried setting up a mirror blog on WordPress and it's okay, but I think I'm going to stick to my Blogger version.

Back to the grind stone, almost!

Well my first day back from vacation did not disappoint. I tried extremely hard while away to never think of work; I think I succeeded about 98% of the trip. I had planned to come back and even had blocked off 3 solid days to just click through every single screen of my LMS.

I'm now at the MAKE IT HAPPEN OR ELSE stage of the implementation project. Now realizing I have little choice (economically) for any change to a new system and now need to focus in on every detailed aspect of the system from both a user perspective and an administrative perspective. My goal is to create a list of everything I want to change and prioritize the changes needed with respect to being able to launch the LMS. Is the change a must have, nice to have, can make do with out if necessary? This list of changes will then be presented to the vendor along with my posse (the initial project lead, representative from purchasing - we're still in RPF, and perhaps my director) for discussion on whether any of the requests are possible.

At first I was getting responses from my vendor rep. "yes we can look into that", then it turned to "I'll see what the IT guy suggests", to finally "no". I didn't like the no's and so the new strategy of a list and meeting with the CEO of the company will be our next step. I believe most of my ideas won't require too much change, but I know this is the way every end user thinks.

So my first day back, as I said, was to be the launch of the great little new plan. Of course the "work gods" had different ideas for me and of course our Organization Chart needed to be produced instead. I'm not sure why suddenly so many people want this particular document. I'm also not sure why I'm the one creating it....oh yes, let's thank my former boss for that one (she's lucky I like her so much or I would track her down). One full day of work was all it took me to produce half of the chart. Yes one full day = half an org. chart. I'm hoping a have system down now and the second half will come more quickly so that I can move forward with my LMS must haves.

Great to be back.

Vacation time and I'm still drawn to looking at this screen

I'm happily on vacation. Loving the warm air. Falling head over heels in the waves. Seen puffer fish, 2 eels, a sea snake, urchins, coral, tons of fish, pelicans feeding, an iguana, seagulls (why are they everywhere!?!), I think I might have had a minor sting by a jelly-fish, 3 sting rays, and far too many people wearing bikinis that shouldn't and speedos (no one should wear these).

We upgraded to a fancier room. Love the king bed and the view is spectacularñ oh the plasma tv´s not bad either. Learning many phrases via HBO and subtitling. The upgrade came with unlimited internet. Which brings me here.....Hubby's checking the Leafs' score to see if they are losing (not yet!?! - how are we going to get better picks - don't they get it). Spent the afternoon on Saturday reading play-by-plays of the latest UFC results. But also, try as I might, I've been trying very hard not to think of work and of elearning, or blogging, or anything electronic, but I admit it.....Hello, My Name is Tracy and I'm Addicted to the Computer.

So there we go....a brief check in....no I haven't completely broken my resolution of blogging, it's just really hard to pay attention to it while on vacation. I hope I'll be excused. Just when I figure out this crazy mexican key board I'll be ready to leave.

Cheers everyone!!!!

Potential Questions to Ask When Having an LMS Demo'd

I've been having other LMS vendors contact me wanting me to see demonstrations of their systems several times over the last year. A situation arose recently that made my department seriously question the system we had in place and should we switch to another vendor. I made arrangements to visit a colleague at another hospital to see their system first hand from a user's perspective rather than the sales pitch that provided by vendor demos.

I can not begin to tell you how invaluable this visit turned out to be for my learning. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I actually had some features that she didn't have offered on her system. I was able to ask what the best features were from her perspective and which ones she never bothered to use. This was such a great comparison and was quite relevant as we both work in health care, I with 2700 employees, her with 10,000 employees and 4 sites.

I thought I'd share some of the questions I took with me on my visit as they might come in handy for you should you be on the LMS shopping journey. I highly recommend seeking out someone else in a similar industry to you and seeing first hand how the user is using the product. If you can do it with out the vendor's assistance I believe you'll get an even greater unbiased opinion from the user. The questions are in a particular order and some may seem like they have obvious answers, but I've learned that you can't be so sure of what is exactly included in a system.

1. How does the system import user ID information? (Active Directory, or what every system your HR team uses)


2. How responsive is the vendor to your inquiries, troubleshooting, etc.


3. Can users access the system from home? (Is this important to your organization? - probably)


4. Is there a yearly licence or a one time fee, per user or for the whole system?


5. How often are upgrades issued? Are they part of the fee?


6. How long did the user take to pilot the system? How did they run their pilot?


7. Does the system track external credits?


8. What kind of comments have you heard from learners using the system?


9. How intuitive is the system for learners and users(admin)?


10. Does the system allow for email notification to learners?


11. How many years has the person being using the system? How much longer do they plan to continue using the system?


12. Does it integrate with Outlook or what ever mail/calendar system you use?


13. Can you display course thumbnails or other images?


14. Can course due dates be assigned or does a learner have to manually adjust?


15. Is there space for News, Updates, Info text to be displayed on homepage of system?


16. Is it searchable? How so? Might you need to purchase a mini-search engine?


17. Can you administer practical, hands-on tests/assignments to users?


18. Are evaluations attached or part of courses?


19. Does it have discussion boards, wikis, etc? Are these important to your org.?


20. What kind of reporting does it allow? Can it be exported? In what kind of formats? Is it customizable - can you report on anything/everything?


21. Is it SCORM compliant? What version?


22. How robust is the support documentation for the user? For the learners?


23. Can you set up course/info that online one particular set of learners can access?

I'm sure there are a million other questions that could be asked, but I hope these at least arm you with the option to seek out greater knowledge of a system before you commit to purchasing. Please feel free to respond with additional questions someone buying a system might want to have answered.

Does it have to be timely to be relevant?

I saw a very interesting online conference come across my email the other day. It's for "Stepping into Virtual Worlds" which happens January 30th, completely virtually through Second Life. How incredibly neat is that?

I did see this posted last year, but I was too late to attend at when I found the conference. So when I saw this the other day I was excited that perhaps I could attend this year and experience some true learning through Second Life. I've sat in on some concerts, movies, and even a few comedy shows. I've visited some sandboxes where I could read text and learn how to perform some tasks. I haven't yet experienced a learning scenario.

I mentioned this to my boss and thought what a great opportunity to see some of the potential opportunities for this type of training. I can imagine how wonderfully it could possibly work with a hospital facility's training needs. Best yet, is I could use it as a work at home day and stay in my pajamas.

Unfortunately the feedback I received from my supervisor, who by the way is supportive about my elearning initiatives, question the relevancy of such a seminar at this point in "our" elearning journey. "If something like this is years down the road of time from where we (our organization and learner) then should I be wasting time exploring this option now."

My answer is yes. I think it's quite important to be exploring all learning/networking options out there within reason. When I say within reason I mean within money constraints and time constraints. I've found that you never know where the next great idea is going to come from that you can apply to your/work learning environment. Being on the forefront of many of these tips, tricks, and techniques is very much intriguing and exciting.

I'm curious if others have come across this "road block" within their personal learning initiatives. Do you believe that there is a proper time for seeking out new learning techniques or should one explore them as they present themselves?

Disneynature Earth to be Release Earth Day 2009

One of my favourite things about going to the movies is acutally watching the previews of movies yet to be released. This weekend I was pleasantly surprised to see the trailer for EARTH from Disneynature.

The movie is to be released this upcoming Earth Day, April 22, 2009. I'm a sucker for nature shows, but to combine it with Disney too....I'm there, get me my ticket. On a slightly more serious note the trailer looked fantastic. The cinematography looked as if we will get an extraordinary look into a year in the life of many creatures from around the globe.

If you go to Disneynature website there are actually several other movies listed to be coming out over the next several years. As per their website, "Disneynature it The Walt Disney Studios' label dedicated to working with leading filmmakers to produce one cutting-edge theatrical release each year celebrating the wonders of the world in which we live."

I look forward to this year's Earth Day and hope this film is yet another great way that we will all continue to be inspired and become increasing aware of the world that we share with so many others.

2 New Upgrades You May Want

Articulate has releases some great updates to for Studio '09. Along with some bug fixes there are 3 new interactions available for use. The new activities are Flipbook, Flashcards and Stairstep. More information including how to upgrade your version can be found at Articulate - Word of Mouth blog.

Also tomorrow Microsoft is offering the new Windows 7 beta and with that Internet Explorer 8. Rumour is to get in early to get this new upgrade. I'm not sure whether it is a good change or not, but many of the reviews I read seem to promote it as "exciting". More info on this can be found on Microsoft's website and all sorts of techy blogs. Give it a Google and you'll find it for sure.

Try a Different Thought Pattern, It Just Might Change Your Life

A dear friend of mine has been on a journey for quite a long time now going out there and inspiring the best in others, getting people to find the humour in their daily lives, and just overall lightening up. It's no wonder then that Jacquie Hermans has called her company Light'N UP (...Laugh and Be You).
In another life, a few moons ago, I learned from her and then performed with her improv. It was such a fabulous experience that I recommend it to anyone who wants or needs that little boost of confidence to go out there and "just be" in front of others. There were many of us in the class that were looking to be able to present, teach or speak better in front of crowds. This method of learning and performing improv was incredible. Not only did you learn to almost not care how you looked in front of other, most of us got up on stage and performed routinely some of the silliest skits you could ever imagine. (Some how I manifested a redneck mechanic, angry/bitter teenage girls, and a little old women with a bit of a Polish accent ....don't even ask.)

What I wanted to draw a little attention to today was Jacquie's inspirational short video blogs. Each is about 2-3 minutes long and touch on topics from Death to Self-Worthiness. Jacquie still runs her Light'NUp workshops, but she also wears many other hats as well. She's a laughter coach and a personal growth trainer and that is where her video blogs have begun, personal growth.

I love the whole concept of video blogs, but haven't gone there yet myself. So, when I saw Jacquie's and watched a few I once again was inspired by her down to earth nature. She is one of those people that was truly put here to make the world a better place.

Jacquie didn't ask me to write any of this and in fact doesn't know I have yet, but I did want to capture a bit here about what she means to me and how she's touched my life. I hope you'll take a moment to check her video blog out when you need a little boost of energy in your day.