Welcome back -

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States; the university is, of course, closed. To honor Dr. King, I’d like to begin a conversation about the role of Training & Development (T&D) and Human Performance Improvement (HPI) in helping to turn around the economy and in helping people to develop new practical skills or to improve their existing skills. The New York Times is running a series of articles on the theme of ‘Learn to Earn’ or vocational training. If you would like to participate in the conversation, please read the article available at the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/business/states-pay-to-train-workers-to-companies-benefit.html

After reading the article, and perhaps viewing any accompanying videos, add your thoughts about how our field could improve the work that is being done. What makes a job training program work? What could be done to improve what is going on?  If possible, give not just your personal opinion but also provide data to support your viewpoint.  I am looking forward to engaging with you on this very important topic.

The Ground Rules:  Though there are clearly political—and politically fiscal/tax—implications to job training programs and their funding, let’s refrain from addressing them and keep the focus on T&D and HPI as contributors to this endeavor.  Remember, social justice is 24-7.

Vince Cyboran, Ed.D.
Associate Professor,
Graduate Program in Training and Development

E-Learning Instructional Designers – Storyboard production

Looking for volunteers to create storyboards for e-learning. The need is for volunteers to develop 2 storyboards/lessons each. Lesson themes, learning goals, storyboard templates and an on-line volunteer support forum are all provided. New groups start each month. The approximate time commitment is 30-40 hours over a 3-month period. If interested, please visit www.e-learningforkids.org and download the volunteer registration form. E-mail the form to Jenna at jderies@e-learningforkids.org. Please copy ccastd.community@gmail.com on your email to Jenna.

About e-Learning for Kids: e-Learning for Kids a global non-profit foundation, depends on learning professionals like yourself to continue to grow the 175+ basic skills curriculum by providing new best-in-class, highly engaging and interactive FREE e-Learning courses for children ages 5-12 around the world. Courses help students build and strengthen skills in Math, Language Arts, Science, Computers, Health/Life Skills and the English language.

Learning Technologies: Transforming your Workforce

3 Steps to Virtual Training

Click on the “News and Events” page to register.

To prepare future trainers for the e-Learning revolution, Roosevelt University is pleased to offer its latest cutting-edge course in technology: TRDV 453 E-Learning Course Development & Delivery.

Designed to be an in-depth introduction to the tools and techniques of the e-Learning trade, TRDV 453 will teach students not only how to use the technology, but which software is the best fit for the project. You’ll learn how to create an e-Learning prototype from top to bottom in a self-paced study, becoming familiar with how to get the job done while avoiding the hidden pitfalls.  Best of all, you’ll get training on the e-Learning Guild’s top-ranked software package: Adobe Captivate.

Adobe Captivate is a robust web authoring tool that’s both powerful and easy to use. In addition to learning authoring skills, students are eligible for an educational discount – normally around $799, your discount slashes the price to $299.

The top-seven tools that people reported using, in order of most use to least, are:

1. Adobe Captivate
2. Articulate Presenter
3. Articulate Engage
4. Adobe Connect
5. TechSmith Camtasia
6. Adobe Presenter
7. Harbinger Raptivity

TRDV 453 will be taught by Vince Cyboran, Associate Professor for Training and Development. With over 25 years of experience in the field, Dr. Cyboran will give you a bird’s-eye view of how these programs are being used in the field, and how you can get the most out of them. Classes start this spring – mark your calendars to get in on this groundbreaking course.

Read up on the Guild’s Top Authoring Tools here: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/768/?utm_campaign=lsmag&utm_medium=email&utm_source=lsm-news

Writing assessments is one of the more labor-intensive work components inherent in the role of instructional and curriculum design. At the same time, it is most rewarding when this deliverable is in place and aligned to content, objectives, and the larger purpose of student learning.

There are several assessment types, such as:

• Pre-assessments, to determine a learner’s current knowledge on key concepts and skills;
• Formative assessments, which typically check in on learning progress and provide feedback to the learners at prescribed points within the course; or
• Summative assessments, which is usually administered at the conclusion of a course, especially one that requires testing quantitative knowledge of the learners, typically without feedback.

I say “typically without feedback” because a recent article from the Memory Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri identifies that a change is in order. Their findings, related to information recall, indicate that “Quizzes with feedback delayed until the end of the assessment gave better results than those with feedback after each question.” The article and its resources show that assessments which provide feedback get better learner end results than those which do not.

Another interesting finding is that the final learning results are even better when feedback is provided at the end of the assessment rather than after each individual question. The reason cited is because of a beneficial delay in recalling information, which becomes an opportunity for an incorrect choice selection to dissipate.

The research finding has larger implications beyond the quiz. It puts focus on the intended purpose and desired outcome of a program as well as its assessments, particularly course and comprehensive exams. I see two lines of thought here: the first is to aid learners in the learning process, and the other to simply measure a learner’s retained knowledge on the subject matter.

From the perspective of professional certification testing, one of the desired outcomes of a certification program is to promote high levels of performance and success in a given profession – thus the desire is to promote optimal learning opportunities. However, the assessments (exams) and their correct answers are kept confidential to ensure exam integrity, so providing feedback and identifying correct answers would work against established safeguarding efforts. In addition, the comprehensive exam’s main purpose is to measure learning to determine qualification for certification.

To better capture prescribed instances where learning occurs through direct questioning, a certification program that has required courses leading up to a comprehensive certification exam might consider the following directions:

• Provide module/chapter quizzes with feedback at the completion of the assessment;
• Provide course exams with feedback at the completion of the assessment; and
• Provide a comprehensive exam at the end of the curriculum to measure learning, and then provide learners with a “hint file” at the conclusion of this assessment, with identified topics for further study based on incorrect answers.

Circling back to the opening statement, writing assessments will remain one of the more labor-intensive deliverables. There exists the prospect for improving them with expanded banks for exam items and meaningful feedback (for delivery at the end of the assessment), to promote learning opportunities and produce better learner results.

Do you see your common practice for delivering assessments and feedback to change based on the research finding? What do you see as the larger implication of these findings? Does the idea of using a “hint file” at the end of a comprehensive exam where no feedback is given provide a viable tool to continue learning?

Self-directed learners are the critical mass of today’s successful learning organizations.  Compared to traditional training, self-directed learning has more focus, higher flexibility, lower cost and a greater rate of translating learning into performance.  Considering rapidly-changing business environments, dwindling half-lives of knowledge and reduced training budgets, these attributes become even more relevant.

Here are ten ways to increase self-directed learning in your organization:

1)     Build your team with self-directed learners.  Use one of the established testing methods, such as the self-directed learning readiness scale (SDLRS) to ensure additions to the team have self-directed learning skills. Make sure you probe for self-directed training when interviewing. Keep in mind that degrees are the starting point of career learning, rather than the end.

2)     Make employees aware of self-directed learning.  Stress the necessity of self-directed learning for every high-performance organization. Communicate methods for self-directed learning. Encourage employees to share self-directed learning experiences. Create awareness that learning results can be facilitated by different learning styles. Have employees with different levels of self-directed learning experience connect formally or informally.

3)     Create space and time for learning. Allow your employees to read work-related literature during work hours. Provide spaces where employees are free from distractions and interruptions to learn. Supply books, trade magazines, internet access, and multimedia equipment for a learning center. Permit your employees to work from home when engaging in a learning project.

4)     Encourage employees to become active members of trade and industry organizations.  Let them attend chapter meetings on company time. Arrange for a fair split of dues between company and personal funds. Encourage your employee to tap into online resources such as forums and list servers.

5)     Increase the level of professional certification among your team. Encourage employees to leverage studying for their certification as an opportunity to survey their field and discover additional learning opportunities.

6)     Create acceptance for mistakes as learning opportunities. Deal constructively with failures and communicate lessons learned.

7)     Use learning contracts to agree on specific learning initiatives with your employees. Make learning projects an integral part of the annual review process. Establish learning as a part of every job description.

8)     Create a culture where willingness to share is encouraged. Reward employees that exemplify self-directed learning behavior. Allow learners to collaborate. Stress that self-directed learning is not the same as learning in isolation.

9)     Transform your training department from a provider of training solutions to a resource for learning opportunities.  Have your training department teach employees how to identify their learning needs and use learning resources. Publish learning guides. Transform trainers into learning coaches.

10) Leverage technology. Encourage the use of computer-based training, knowledge data bases, wikis and intranets as tools for self-directed learning.

What are your organization’s approaches to promoting self-directed learning among employees? What successes and failures have resulted from those methods?

Before I rush out the door, I do a quick inventory review. Laptop: check. Blackberry phone: check. iPod touch: check. And, last but not least, keys and purse: check. I’m rushing out to join the other members of mobile society. According to e-Learning Guild, 82.7% of employees are increasingly mobile, owning at least one mobile device. No doubt, the trend will grow, as technology continues to provide more portable devices with advanced features at affordable prices. 

Evidence of this can be seen in the tablet market (the fastest-growing segment of the mobile revolution). 2010 alone brought Apple’s iPad2, Motorola’s Xoom, Samsung’s Galaxy, Blackberry’s Playbook and Dell’s Streak. Soon they will be joined by HP’s Touchpad, LG’s GSlate and Toshiba’s tablet.  Smartphones are so plentiful, it seems as if there’s a new one being introduced every week: according to a Comscore survey, 60.7 million Americans will own a Smartphone by end of October 2010, and 50% of new phone sales in 2011 will be a Smartphone. Projections for tablet sales in theUSalone will grow 26% (4.4 million units).  Just when you thought Apple couldn’t do much more to their iPod touch (MP3 device), the latest version offers high-definition viewing. 

All of this is excellent news for the future of e-learning: while the concept of mobile learning is not new, the possibilities for learning are teeming. The table below lists the functional capabilities of each portable device.

Portable Devices

Although these portable devices enable us to take our learning on the go, simply moving learning content to a mobile device doesn’t guarantee the same learning experience.  Care must be given to ensure that learning via a mobile device truly enables retention.  Existing material can and should be modified to take advantage of the mobile devices’ functional components. e-learning courses are a natural fit, needing fewer modifications and formatting for mobile learning. Consider each device and its design independently: 

• Screen sizes vary: MP3 players, laptops (including mini laptops), tablets and e-Readers all have unique visual displays.
• Course navigation capability: laptops and tablets offer a full range of navigation, with modified ranges available on Smartphones and limited ranges (download, read, and listen) with MP3 players and e-Readers. Laptops use mouse clicks, versus tablets which navigate through finger tapping or swiping.
• Web Access: consider file sizes, opting for smaller, more condensed files for quicker downloads. This is especially important for Wi-Fi users with a data plan.
• Video: understand devices’ abilities to play Flash, Quick Time, HTML5 and other file types. 

Given the advances in technology, more and more organizations are giving serious consideration to adding mobile learning to their course catalogs. e-learning Guild reports that 50% of their members who responded to their mobile learning survey are researching or currently working on a project for mobile learning. 

Questions to consider for implementing mobile learning for your organization:

 How would the organization benefit from adding mobile learning to our learning catalog?

1. What risks are associated with adding mobile learning? Do the costs outweigh the benefits?
2. How will employees react or respond to this new method of learning?
3. How many employees would be eligible to participate?
4. What are your thoughts for implementation and roll out to the organization?

 These questions are just the tip of the iceberg.  There’s a lot more that goes into implementing a new learning strategy; the question is how quickly your organization will jump onboard. One thing is for certain: mobile learning will continue to grow. As for me, I’ll be taking my learning to go!

The American Society for Training and Development’s 2010 State of the Industry Report reports that technology-based learning climbed to its highest level of 36.5% in 2009.  With that in mind, there are three concepts every training and development professional should know about e-learning.

1.      E-Learning is NOT a Fad

Increasingly, organizations are moving towards creating more e-learning solutions.  One senior director of training said the ratio of instructor-led training to e-learning is 4 to 1, but believes the trend will reverse itself over the years to come.  The use of more e-learning programs does not mean classroom instruction will become obsolete.  However, it does mean that training and development professionals should embrace e-learning as an important and viable learning option.

2.      Collaboration is an Essential Component to E-Learning

Today, collaboration is an important component of e-learning.  Traditional theories, such as social constructivism, and emerging ones like connectivism, explain how knowledge-sharing among peers is essential to the learning process.  Often, collaboration occurs through e-learning platforms, which support blogs, wikis and podcasts.  Not all e-learning platforms are created equal; finding one that fits the organization’s needs and training philosophy is critical.  This will require some research and package testing.  Remember: ideal e-learning fosters a collaborative environment.

3.      Knowledge about E-Learning will Make You More Marketable

It’s important to strategically think about how e-learning can help you.  Organizations look to hire training and development professionals with an understanding in e-learning.  In a tight labor market, e-learning experience opens the door to instruct both instructors and end-users.  You can stay abreast of
e-learning topics by:

• Researching e-learning best practices;
• Subscribing to e-learning magazines;
• Networking with e-learning specialists;
• Taking e-learning courses;
• Teaching e-learning courses.

Remember, your best marketing tool is self-development.☼

_____________________________________________________________

Which e-learning concepts do you think are essential to training and development professionals?  Please share your comments.

September, 2011 (from Chapter 2: Six Myths about Teaching Adults of a forthcoming book)

The myth:   The way in which we design and deliver instruction for adults (andragogy) is very different from the way in which we design and deliver instruction for children (pedagogy).

INTRODUCTION

In the field of Higher Education and the field of Workplace Learning, the difficulties surrounding andragogy might be best viewed from the perspective of Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy; it is a term that most practitioners ‘know’, fewer ‘comprehend’, and still fewer can ‘apply.’

Both ‘andragogy’ and ‘pedagogy’ are broadly defined terms associated with teaching and learning; their precise definitions are difficult to formulate. For this discussion, we can glean popular understandings of the terms using the following definitions:  Andragogy is defined as “The adult learning theory popularized by Malcolm Knowles.  Andragogy is based on five key principles¹ that influence how adults learn: self-concept, prior experience, readiness to learn, orientation to learning, and motivation to learn.” (Beich, 2008, p. 862). Pedagogy is defined as “The function or work of learning where the focus is on what the instructor does as opposed to what the participants do; usually refers to teaching children.” (Beich, p. 878). It is how these two concepts differ—and whether they differ—that lies at the root of the debate.

Proponents of andragogy maintain that the key principles differ for adults than for children in the following ways:

Used alone, the term ‘pedagogy’, is rarely problematic. However, the term ‘andragogy’ holds a revered place in the canon of Adult Education, and when it is used, there is an implication that it differs significantly from pedagogy. But beyond the ‘andragogy vs. pedagogy’ debate, the matter is further complicated by problems about andragogy itself, and whether it is a theory or a set of practices, or both. Much debate has taken place and people have taken sides.

A bit of history

The term and concept of ‘andragogy’ is generally acknowledged to have been introduced in the 19^th. century in Germany, but never spurred a movement. The late Malcolm Knowles (1913-1997) is known for introducing and championing the concept of andragogy in the United States in the second half of the 20^th. century. He did this beginning with his early books–(The Modern Practice of Adult Education. Andragogy versus pedagogy (1970) and The Adult Learner. A Neglected Species (1973). Since then, a voluminous number of texts and articles have been written about the topic. Following Knowles’ death, his work was continued by his colleagues: the seventh edition aptly titled, The Adult Learner, Seventh Edition: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development was released in 2011.

It is difficult to determine how popular the topic of andragogy remains today. For example, it cannot be found in such standard instructional design texts as Driscoll’s Psychology of Learning for Instruction (2005) and Dick, Carey, and Carey’s The Systematic Design of Instruction (2009). However, Stolovitch and Keeps (2002),in Telling Ain’t Training, provide extensive coverage of Knowles’s principles.

Andragogy is not covered in many general texts designed for higher education faculty, such as Davis’ Tools for Teaching (2001) and Royse’s Teaching Tips for College and University Instructors: A Practical Guide (2001). The term ‘andragogy’ is sometimes included, albeit briefly, in texts designed for specifically for faculty in professional programs, such as Billings’ and Halstead’s Teaching in Nursing: A Guide for Faculty.

DISCUSSION

In the literature, the problems associated with andragogy have been extensively documented and succinctly summarized in two standard works on adult learning:  1) Brookfield’s Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning (1986) and Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner’s Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (2007). These discussions cover the argument made by many developmental psychologists and educators that the effective education of children requires the same, or many of the same assumptions, as that claimed exclusively for adults by andragogues. The issue of andragogy as a theory, model, or set of practices is also extensively discussed. On this matter, both Caffarella, et. al., and Brookfield end their discussions reinforcing what Knowles himself stated: “…the concept should be treated exactly for what Knowles claims it to be—a set of assumptions.” (Brookfield, p. 91).  Caffarella, et. al., conclude similarly that andragogy “to be a helpful rubric for better understanding adults as learners.” (p. 92).

Further, Merriam, et. al., point out that there has been “relatively little empirical work” (p. 90) on the topic and the results of these studies  are mixed. Brookfield questions whether there is a solid foundation to examine, stating that, “Attempts to erect a massive theoretical edifice concerning the nature of adult learning on the foundations of a set of empirically unproved assumptions are misconceived.” (p. 91).

SUMMARY

As Houle (1972, p 222), stresses, “If pedagogy and andragogy are distinguishable, it is not because they are essentially different from one another but because they represent the working out of the same fundamental processes at different stages of life.”  Knowles (1980, p. 43) himself later concurs with Houle, noting that they, “are probably most useful when seen not as dichotomous but rather as two ends of a spectrum with a realistic assumption in a given situation falling in between the two ends.”

Implications

Treating andragogy as a set of principles or assumptions can be useful both in the design and delivery of instruction for adult learners. Meaning, we do not directly implement andragogical principles into our instruction; rather, they inform our choices of solutions (models, practices, and so forth). For example,

That said, we must always be circumspect in not blindly applying any set of practices to our instructional and performance solutions, but intelligently consider the circumstances and the audience(s). Brookfield (1986) cautions, “Neat practice injunctions (whether pedagogical or andragogical) are appealing for their apparent simplicity and replicability. The act of facilitating learning, however, is one that is sufficiently complex and challenging as to make us suspicious of any prepackaged collections of practice injunctions.” (p. 122).

^{1 ‘} ‘Motivation to learn’ is actually the sixth principle, added by Knowles in his later works. Beich has omitted the earlier principle of ‘need to know.’

References

Beich, E. (2008). ASTD Handbook for Workplace Learning Professionals. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Brookfield, S. (1986). Understanding and facilitating adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Houle, C.O. (1972). The design of education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Knowles, M. (1973). The adult learner: A neglected species. Houston: Gulf.

Knowles, M. (1970). The modern practice of adult education: Andragogy versus pedagogy.  New  York: Association Press.

Knowles, M., Holton, E., & Swanson, R. (1998). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development.  Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Merriam, S.B., Caffarella, R., & Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide. 3^rd. edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Stolovitch, H. D., & Keeps, E. J. (2002). Telling ain’t training. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development.