Training Materials Last Week

For my last blog, I would just like to say that I never realized how much effort, time, and attention creating training materials needed. I used Camtasia to create an actual training video. I found out really quick that when making a video it is important to have a script in front of you so that it doesn't sound so 'chopped' when your speaking. I had a really good experience overall while creating these training materials, other than not liking the software that I was using for the implementation of the training everything was successful. Working in groups made the whole project much easier as well. We completed our work on time and different members of the group stepped up to take different roles when needed. I think it it a crucial component to any training that you must have a good team around that is committed, focused, and willing to help in any way. My last and only concern last week was getting the pictures into a file format from the documents I created. I did this once and when I reopened the pictures they weren't cropped the way I wanted. Regardless, there must be an easier way to do this, and if I find it, I'll make a Camtasia video and put it on the web so others can know about it!

Measures of Validity

In Chapter 30 of Lee & Owens, it is explained that you must determine how to estimate whether or not the tools for measurment are actually measuring what they are supposed to measure. Face validity is one way. This establishes that a training teaches what was meant to be taught and should be designed during the beginning phases of a project. Content validity is established through technical content review cycles during the development stage. In order to achieve face validity, have experts review course materials and validate that the course content actually is the subject to be taught. To achieve content validity, have the experts review the course materials and ensure there is unity between the objectives, course content and test items. Other types of validity include concurrent validity(similiarities bewteen two tests), construct validity(measure of scores on test in relation to job performance), test item validity(measure of relationship of individual items vs overall test) and predictive validity(measure of a test to predict the future success in a particular area). This chapter provided some great information, and I only wish we had more time to officially do this in our own projects. I would like to know how well my lesson's are actually teaching learners, and I would also like to know if their skills improve after using the training.

Components of a Learning Strategy

In Chapter 28 of Lee and Owens, there are four components of a learning strategy outlined. The largest component is the learning strategy itself, which is an organizations overall philosophy of goals it wants to achieve through learning. The second component is the e-learning strategy; this defines any technology needed to deliver training. This is include the KSA's neede to develop and implement this technology as well. Thirdly, the evaluation strategy defines how the previous two strategies will be measured. Lastly, the evaluation plan is something that is developed for each individual plan. This chapter focuses primarily on the evaluation strategy. In order to produce an evaluation strategy, you must write an introduction, determine evaluation requirements, and determine a complete list of sources that everyone must be knowledgeable about . Creating an evaluation strategy is critically important in the last phases of a training plan. Evaluation will help many organizations determine whether or not the training that was implemented was worth the investment.

Breeze...Breeze...Breeze

After the presenations on last Tuesday, I found out some interesting things about a technology called Breeze. Leading up to the presentation I was very skeptical of the feasability of our presentations because I wasn't sure if our class could handle it. Also, I worried a lot about technical errors. Breeze offers it's users a video/voice conferencing option where people can talk in real time, with the addition of uploading files and sharing their desktop. There are not many applications available that offer this much functionality. As we found with our presentations, the chat feature was very handy, and proved to be reliable. My issue though is that if the chat feature is the only 100% reliable feature, I don't see Breeze as that much of an advantage over less functional applications. I do feel however that this technology is useful and I would most certainly use it again. I believe it was a positive experience and I would recommend it for other teachers.

Summative Evaluation

In Chapter 26 of Lee & Owens, the topic of evaluation is brought to light in that 'evaluation is typically what we do worst.' The book states that causes of poor management include lack of knowledge and attention. The four levels of evaluation, as identified by Donald Kirkpatrick, include (Level 1) reaction, or the participants response to the activity in the form of impressions. This can include impressions about activities that might be relevant to a job. Level 2 is knowledge, which is defined as a measure of the level of achievement of the content and skills intended. Level 3 is performance which is a measure of the change in behavior or attitude as a result of using skills gained. Level 4 is impact, measured on the business in the form of return on investment. These levels are highly interdependent, meaning that each level should be performed before the next one has begun.
If evaluation is so important, why don't more organizations use evaluation? It could be detrimental to an entire training program if the company or business doesn't do some type of follow up to see how the training has affected the employees who utilized it. Performing evaluations means that smaller details will not go overlooked, and any holes in the training process will be identified.

Wikispaces Coming to a Close

I first want to say that the wiki project this year was enjoyable. I felt as if there was a lot more freedom to post many different things and opportunity to learn more about different topics in training. Some pros of using the wiki for moderated discussions were that we were able to pick a topic of our choice and research it to the best of our ability. Some people devoted a lot of time and effort to their wiki space and others did not. You could tell by some of the summary articles that were written initially. I think it was important to write a good summary to get the ball rolling so that we had something to talk about in our discussions. The second pro to using the wiki was the ability to create formulated opinions based on the topic summaries and also draw from personal experience. Some cons of this years wiki were that it was hard to keep up with any one discussion/topic. I found it difficult to keep the same person on one discussion. It is hard to continue a discussion when the person posts a response one time and never revisits the page. One suggestion I have for the future is to let everyone choose a limited number of discussions to participate in, and let everyone choose based on what they are interested in. It's great that everyone gets to participate but it can become overwhelming trying to respond in so many discussions. This will also ensure that every topic has participants, unlike some of the spaces on this years' wiki. Some people had 25 responses while others only had 7. While it is up to the person to provide discussion questions and keep the flow of information up, it is unfair that no one chooses to participate in another's discussion. The wiki was a great idea and I learned a lot, and I hope other classes get to have the same experience.

Interactive Distance Broadcast Environments

In Chapter 25 of Lee & Owens, distance learning is defined as any training that is delivered from one central location to multiple remote sites simultaneously. This can include anything from satellite to telephone lines being utilized to distribute learning. The book also states that use of distance learning is under utilized and the potential has not been met. I agree wholly. As a student at the University of South Carolina, I have taken a distance education course with Dr. Daniel Norris, in which 7 other campus classrooms were being broadcast. Joining this group of people for one night a week through distance learning allowed what seemed like a class of 20 to actually be a class of 50, and it crossed all geographical boundaries. I have to say that I definitely enjoy live broadcasts as opposed to recorded lectures that are put online. I've found that just listening to a person's voice without them being there is difficult for me. One issue I have is that in live broadcasts, people tend to be hesitant to participate when they are aware of so many people listening. Also, when my instructor was in one classroom across the state and I was viewing and listening in another location, I tended to pay less attention than I normally would, maybe because I thought I wouldn't get caught! IDB is quite literally under utilized and the process of broadcasting learning has some time before it reaches it's full potential. Cost may be a factor as to why more companies aren't using it, but all technology eventually comes down in price, which is why I foresee more and more distance education being used.

OpenOffice Base Intro

What can I say? In my experience with OpenOffice Base over the past couple weeks, I have grown to not like it at all. I understand that its new and its open source, so it will probably get better. I just feel that maybe a little more time could have been spent on making sure it had more functionality than it does right now. While creating the modules, I noticed that you can't copy and paste records successfully, which is a huge problem when you have multiple records that may need to be moved. Also, no matter what order I enter my records, every time I open a table they come back different. Also, changing the primary key in a table proved to be way more of a hassle than ever, often resulting in having to drop an entire table and start from scratch. Maybe its just my version of the software that acting like this? Or maybe there wasn't enough time spent on developing this application so that it could accomplish basic tasks. I am finding it increasingly difficult to help somebody learn how to use this program when I don't want to use it myself! I know that may sound bad; however, I do understand that the software is open source, and I understand that it will get better as more and more developers add to the overall OpenOffice Suite. I never really knew or cared much about open source apps, but I now have the opinion that this software was probably released prematurely, simply to jump on the open source apps bandwagon and make the product known.

Content/Quality Reviewers

I wanted to comment on the quality review meeting we had last week in class. I thought it went well and many guidelines were established that I felt would really make our training materials look professional and clean. One issue I'm having though is, as mentioned in our meeting, the size and quality of the picture files that are included in this training. The argument for saving the pictures as a GIF file were that they would not use up too much memory. I am finding that saving the pictures as GIF files is taking away much of the color consistency in the pics; however, saving them as JPG files does not affect the picture at all, and the size difference is 30.1 KB for GIF and 41 KB for JPG. There is not a big size difference here and even if we had 1 million pictures total, that would just about reach 1 GB in size. I think the GIF is going to be ineffective and hard to read in the published training materials and JPG is provides great color and does not have a significant size difference so we should really go with that.

Intranets and Internet Learning Environments

In Chapter 24 of Lee & Owens, the idea of interactivity is established in Internet based learning. Internet training provides many advantages including easy accessibility, cost effectiveness, easy development. What is important to most businesses is that they use something that is already established, and modify it to meet their business needs; no need to reinvent the wheel! There are some differences when it comes to Intranet and Internet based learning. Intranets are internal to an organization, meaning they are protected and have a high level of security requiring users to log on to gain access. The Internet is highly public, accessible by all and is not as easily controlled as a private Intranet. Three primary reasons for the adoption of Intranet and Internet delivery are universal access, ease of use, and multimedia content. As a training designer, my biggest concern when creating a training program would be acquiring the skills necessary to develop something like this and also making sure that the trainees have necessary skills to access it. Also, you must consider the type of information people are able to access (videos or flash) and how fast their connection is to the Internet. I found something really interesting in this chapter because as I have grown up and used technology and heard all the jargon, I never new that the Internet and WWW were not interchangeable terms. The Internet is the backbone, or hardware on which the WWW is accessed. Interesting?!

My First Experience With Camtasia

For those of you who don't know, Camtasia is a recording software that allows one to capture motion on a computer screen. There are many features including recording, editing, and publishing videos. This program allows you to record training videos as well as integrates PowerPoint presentations. At first glance, Camtasia may seem a bit overwhelming, but after reviewing the controls, proves to be easy and fluid. We first had to set up audio by specifying a microphone and then testing the audio so the software could normalize the voice. Simply press the record button to record and the stop button to stop recording. The feature that I liked most about the recording software is that you are able to select a portion of the screen to record. This allows you to move around outside the recording screen and can possibly make for less editing. I am looking forward to learning more about editing recorded videos and making seamless video training for OpenOffice.org Base. New for Camtasia 5 is a tool known as screencast.com, which allows bloggers to record video, post it, and blog about it instantly. My only real question is how many organizations utilize this software to support training needs?

Chapter 23 Computer Based Learning Environments

In Chapte 21 of Lee & Owens, computer based training is described as cost effective and and provides many other advantages to traditional classroom learning. Yet companies still spend billions on facilitated instruction every year. Why? I believe companies spend money on facilitated discussion because of the human interaction. Yes, CBT may be effective and help trainees learn more in shorter amounts of time, but the value of sharing human experiences with fellow learners is worth so much more. Not only is CBT an economic decision, but it also factors in global displacement among workers as well as communication between them. How then will organizations be able to prove that CBT, while cost effective, actually is an advantage to traditional learning? I'm not really sure how this can be accomplished, maybe follow up reviews of job performance or review of production rates following training. I feel facilitated instruction should be an integral part of any training, and CBT should be there to help support it.

Gaming As a Form of Training

In Chapter 19 of Lee & Owens, the idea of using games as a method of delivering training is presented. According to the chapter, games that are carefully constructed situational games that are appropriate to all media that can have positive outcomes on training. With games, people can enjoy learning and will be more likely to retain information longer. What companies are using games as a form of training right now? I found an article online, in which a Cold Stone Creamery manager plays a video game that teaches employees portion control and time management. The military is one of the largest advocates for games as a form of training. Other notable organizations include Cisco and Canon. The article states that trainers are expecting the games to attract younger employees who are media-savvy. About 15% of games are non entertainment, in other words, used strictly for learning purposes. What are some of the advantages of playing video games in training environments? For one, games are cost-effective for most organizations and allow for training material to be shared among all employees. Games also provide a sense of interaction and repetitive training that most lecture based material can not provide, which in turn helps students retain more information. As a future employee, I would like to be able to utilize this form of training because to me it would make training fun. For me, having fun while learning leads to better retention of the material. Hopefully, more organizations will be turning towards games as a method of transferring knowledge.

Five Free Web Apps We Can't Live Without

In this article, 5 web applications are listed as the best and easiest to use. They include Ta-Da List, PBwiki, Google Docs, Bloglines v3 Beta, and Zoho creator. Ta-da list is an easy to use to-do list maker, which only requires simply typing your lists and that's it. There are no tags or categories, just simple ordered lists that can be created and saved so they can be accessed from anywhere. Next, PBwiki provides users the ability to make a free wiki as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich...catchy huh? The plus side to this wiki is that it is ad free. Google Docs has become very popular in recent months and allows users to upload docs and save them for later work. This office suite of Google Docs provides users with constant access to their documents over the Internet. Bloglines v3 Beta is just another RSS reader, or is it? Because it's in the beta version it still has some quirks to work out but offers easy access to news articles and provides basic functionality. Most importantly, it's easy to use. Zoho creator is a great tool to make your own database applications and provides only two page layouts but it can be embedded in web pages. All of these applications seem great; however, I have never heard of any of them except for Google Docs, probably because Google is such a powerful name. If I had to add any web applications to the list it would be the Google Reader which is a great tool to use if you are already using Google Apps. Also blogger.com, a Google application, is very popular and comes with many features that I like such as auto saving a blog and great template views. After reading this article, I will definitely have to use Ta-da lists and probably check out the Bloglines v3 reader.

Learning and Instructional Delivery Strategies

In Chapter 20 of Lee & Owens, two major learning strategies are introduce. These learning strategies are deductive and inductive. Deductive learning means that the students will draw general conclusions from specific information, and inductive means that students will draw specific conclusions from general information. The intsructional delivery strategies are lecture or linear presentation, followed by lecture, recitation, and interaction, which is a deductive learning style. Lecture and discussion which presents information and then questions that will elicit responses froms students, then lecture and demonstration. Demonstrations gives students the ability to see the concepts of the lecture. Next is guided learning and open exploration in which situations are created and students must explore them and raise their own questions. Next is brainstorming which brings about all possible ideas about a project assuming some of the following rules are implemented. The purpose of brainstorming is to generate ideas, all ideas are acceptable, no criticism allowed, everyone partcipates, and point out any violations. Following brainstorming is games, or more specifically carefully constructed situational games. The next delivery strategies include role playing and simulation, followed by performance support.

Effective Moderation

This week, I want to talk about what it means to be an effective moderator. In class, we went over the steps a moderator should take when engaging in a collaborative discussion. A moderator should initially set an easy question and keep the structure simple. It is also very important to make sure there is a comfortable atmosphere where people can say things without fear of being scrutinized or punished. It is important to raise key questions and suggest threads of discussion as to keep the community engaged and involved. Allow time for the community to respond to your questions, but give feedback as soon as possible by responding quickly to contributions. In my opinion, a good moderator should always have something to say or ask regardless of whether they get a response from a previous thread or not. It is up to the moderator to decide which questions to ask or which topics to bring forward. In all of this, we never really talked about any outside implications affecting the types of threads being posted. In my opinion, a good moderator would have to take into account the age group of the community, as well as race and gender. They might also consider the backgrounds of the community. Have they come from a poverty stricken country? Or have they been around war all of their lives? Maybe they've never known what it means to not have money. All of these things and so much more are going to play some part in the way people respond to a moderator, which is why moderator's must think thoroughly about their discussion.

Chapter 18 Media Specifications: Four Approaches to Learning

After reading Ch. 18 of Lee & Owens, I never thought about how the senses could be used to determine learning. According to Lee & Owens, there are four approaches to learning, which are: (1) visual, or presenting anything learners can look at, including video, animation, or written text. (2) Auditory is anything that students can listen to including tapes, CBT, music, and sound effects. (3)Olfactory, presenting anything students can smell or taste. (4) Tactile or kinesthetic is anything that students can touch or manipulate such as models, equipment, role plays etc. The most interesting is the olfactory because, to me, the sense of smell is not something that we associate with learning; however, if you think about it how do we learn to cook? We can smell if a cake is done, or if our food is burning, and we know what to do about it. Another example would be smelling something coming out of your car engine and learning what it was so next time you smell it you know what to do. We use our sense of smell more often than we think for learning. One question I have is how do organizations provide supplemental training for those people with disabilities who can’t hear, or see, or smell? I would like to know more about the efforts businesses make to accommodate these people.

Project Management

This week, I chose to write about Project Management because it is a profession that I may enter one day. Project Management is composed of many different things including scheduling activities and developing teams as well assigning tasks. According to Lee & Owens, scheduling a project means documenting general project information, including the projects purpose, it's desired outcome and any constraints. You also must list any project deliverable, as well as schedule activities so that all team members know their responsibilities. In defining roles and responsibilities for team members, you must list the roles of each team member, as well as list the tasks that will be needed during all phases of the project. Once you have the people, and the roles are defined, you can then assign those roles their respective responsibilities. One great tool for managing a poject is Microsoft Project 2007. Using this program in my TSTM 560 class has taught me a great deal about how to manage a project effectively.

Google Presentations

Since we focus so much on Web 2.0 and open source software, I find it fitting that Google has now added "Presentations" to its online suite of applications which include Docs and Spreadsheets. Because of the new addition, Google Docs and Spreadsheets is now just Google Docs. What's great about Presentations is that multiple users can simultaneously work on a slide at one time, and what's even better is that when it's time to present participants are connected through Google Talk. It's not just Google however, that's making a little competition for Microsoft. IBM is about to unveil its own line of open source software apps known as Symphony. Some people are pro-Docs, others do not see it as a threat, but as Chuck Sanchez, director of public relations for Haute PR says, "Prior to -- and often during -- every big meeting, there are technical difficulties that turn what should be a simple plug-and-play into a convoluted delay." Utilizing Google Docs eliminates the mishaps of losing a flash drive, or not being able to plug a projector into a laptop. Today, as a society we need things to be faster yet more reliable, and now with the addition of Google Docs, we have an open office application suite that can be used by anybody, anywhere. Will this hurt Microsoft in any way? I personally feel that those organizations who rely on Microsoft Office right now, will continue to do so until convined otherwise. People are creatures of habit, so until they begin to see for themselves any benefit of using Google Docs, they won't switch. I do see one pitfall however; with MS Office, you don't have to be on the internet to create a presentation or to present. If you're ever having internet difficulties, you'll want MS Office as a quick backup.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59400.html

E-Learning's Impact on Design

In Chapter 15 of Lee & Owens, two views are presented as to how design e-learning: objectivism and constructivism. Objectivism is traditional, one path on which learning will take place, and usually knowledge is provided by an expert on that particular subject; however, constructivism is an approach where trial and error are allowed, and learners gain knowledge through discovery. When designing e-learning, one must think about the material available on the web, and come up with ideas to motivate learners to go find that information. The traditional subject matter expert does not fit here, as traditional as it may sound, SME's tend to know everything about a subject and are comfortable with it, possibly leading to overlooking information; however, with the constructivist idea, a learner could take more responsibility for their own learning and acquire any information left out by an SME.

A-Space: A Place For Spies

We talk so much about today's social networking sites, whether it be in schools, workplaces, or homes, but now our very own U.S. Intelligence Agency is jumping on the bandwagon and creating a social networking site simply for their operatives to communicate, share files, have vitrual meetings. A-Space will be built with typical commercial software but will require extra security because of sensitive information. What's most interesting is that nearly half of all U.S. intelligence analysts are younger and have only been working for less than 5 years, which is good for the intelligence agencies because more of them will be more likely to embrace this new way of information management. The ultimate goal is to put more eyes on more problems, a mere cooperation of agencies if you will so that information that is important can be seen by all analysts. As stated by this article, "Experts say the service will only be as effective as those who use it. With many older workers puzzled by their younger colleagues' obsessive use of Facebook and its ilk, full-blown use could take time." For so often we've focused on how to transfer the knowledge of older workers and capitalize on that knowledge so that it is transferred to the younger employee. Now, however, the agency needs to focus it's efforts on obtaining the knowledge from the younger employees about new technologies so the older employees will be able to progress in their positions. Even though the younger employees have been working for less that 5 years, they are a technology driven generation and have a lot of valuable information to offer any organization. If you want to read more on this article click this link:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59217.html

Metacognitive Domain

In Chapter 10 of Lee & Owens, the five domains of learning include the cognitive or thought processes, affective, meaning a learners feelings and attitudes, motor, the learners physical movements, psychomotor which involves movement without thinking. Last but not least, the metacognivitive domain includes thought processes involved in "learning how to learn" that have been brought to the automatic level. Lee & Owens cite this as the strategies learners use for learning without thinking about it. In class, our group was given the task of explaining a real world example from our own learning that would indicate the metacognitive process. What made this so interesting was that while reading about the metacognitive process to gain a better understanding my colleague Dwight was presented with a word that neither he nor I knew, so without thinking Dwight immediately highlighted the word, copied and pasted the word into an online dictionary service, read the material presented and committed it to memory, all while I was watching him perform these tasks!! WOW! What a great example of what the metacognitive domain is all about. I observed the steps and in a way learned that if I find myself in similar situation that I can use those same steps to identify a word I don't know. In a perfect world, I wouldn't have known how to find the definition of a word and would have learned how by watching Dwight initiate learning through the metacognitive domain. The metacognitive domain is by far the most important of the domains because it allows you to observe problem solving strategies and apply them to other situations. Lee & Owens say it is the least written about and least understood of the domains, but after experiencing it first hand I don't see how it could be any clearer.

Adult Learning Theory Chapter 7 Multimedia Based Instructional Design

I wanted to focus on task analysis in chapter 7 because task analysis has been the most interesting part of training to me, but when I read the chapter I found information on the adult learning theory. I find it interesting that even though adults learn quicker than children due to experiences in their life, they still revert back to child-like development when learning something knew. According to Owens, adults must have a direct relationship between the learned info and the real world where knowledge is used. Also, they want to be actively involved instead of listening passively. He also says that adult learners must have independence to learn including where they learn, what they learn, and how they learn. What I found most interesting though is that adult learners need privacy for learning and individualized, self-paced instruction. When we are children, a typical learning enviornment includes a classroom and 30 other students, however as adults we desire individualized learning at our own pace. Is this because we've experienced the differences between the two styles of learning? What does that say about our kids in school's today, would they also benefit from this individualized learning? Something to think about...

Learnging 2007 Elliot Masie

After watching Elliot Masie's video on Learning 2007, I found it interesting that learning has changed so many things. Elliot makes some interseting points in the video when he says that when we as learners see someone else "learn well' it impacts us and changes us in a way that our own learning performance is enhanced. How then are companies going to use learning to steer their performance? The content of learning is becoming much shorter in the sense that what used to take 3 days to traverse through a manual now only takes 1 to 2 days with viewing and listening via technological advancements. Elliot also states that collective intelligence is also making a big push, citing "Wikinomics" as an information guide to wiki's. The learners are also changing in the workplace, some are younger just out of college with no work experience and othes are much older, working well past the 'retirement age'. The question is how do we caputer the knowledge of the older generation, make it immersive and usable for the younger generation, all while still meeting the business needs of the organization? It seems that there is no defining way to give your learners what they need, only that you must first acknowledge what they need to learn and provide it for them in a way that will benefit their experience. I wish that the Learning 2007 conference was simulcasted via internet; in a way I guess I could "learn" using technology over the internet.

Finish That Thought....About Software

1. The first productivity software program I ever used was ...

The first productivity software program I ever used was Microsoft Word '97. I was given a computer and it had the Microsoft Office '97 suite installed on it. I began using Microsoft Word in school around the same time so I was excited to try out my new skills.

2. The software program I use and know the best is ...

The software program I use and know the best is Microsoft Word 2003. I use this program for most of my documents and between all of my TSTM classes I have used almost every aspect of this program

3. One software program I would like to learn more about is ...

One software program I would like to learn more about is Microsoft Project 2007. I want to learn this software because I believe it will be beneficial to me later in my professional career when I am managing various projects in my work.

Welcome!!!

This is my new blog for TSTM 544: Training Systems