UPDATE - Free Summer webinars (July and August)

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Here’s an update to the Free Summer webinars blog article I posted in late June.  The following are a few additional webinars that didn’t make my original list that sound interesting. 

JULY

Friday, July 15, 10am-11am PST: Ubiquitous Learning: Next Generation Solutions for Learning Anytime, Anywhere in Any Modality

This concept taps into the reality we've been working on that allows a learner seamlessly flow through the learning experience from desktop to smartphone to tablet to TV whenever the time or mood suits them. Apps are now available on virtually every electronic device we touch and use in our daily lives, and cloud computing models enable the ability to synchronize and manage the learning experience on whatever device best suits our environment and mood.

Thursday, July 28, 10am-11am PST: Mobile Learning Basics + (Free) Mobile Learning guide

The Academic Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) mobile learning team recently released a mobile version of their mLearning guide on the web and in various platform stores.  This webinar will discuss the single development for deployment on multiple devices, the choices made and the lessons learning.

Thursday, July 28, 10am-11am PST: Driving Development and Growth with Performance Management

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for the Brandon Hall Group, as she shares business case examples of how organizations are driving cultures of development and performance, by focusing more on the human connections and less on process compliance. She’ll discuss the impact of enabling a culture of coaching and feedback models both on engagement and performance, and how organization are leveraging individual development plans as part of their strategic talent planning tools.

 

AUGUST

Wednesday, August 10, 10am – 11am PST: Mentoring for the 2020 Workplace

Forward-thinking companies are reinventing the meaning of mentoring and using innovative techniques to be able to scale in mass proportions to prepare for the future workplace. Based on research from the book "The 2020 Workplace" by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, this session will cover examples from companies like American Express, AT&T, and PricewaterhouseCoopers to explore how to get talent ready fast for the upcoming shifts in the workplace.

Wednesday, August 17, 10am-11am PST: Gadgets, Games and Google for Learning: How to Leverage the Latest Technologies for Learning and Performance Improvement

This session highlights how organizations are leveraging Smartphones for performance support and mobile learning, how game-based learning is being designed to teach everyone from firefighters to sales reps to call center employees and how quick searches and meta-data are changing the landscape of how employees learn and their information expectations. Join Karl Kapp, author of four books on the topic of the convergence of learning, technology and work as he explores some of the research, thinking and examples of learning technology in action.

Tuesday, August 23, 10am-11am: An Active Approach to Leadership Training

Research has shown that experiential learning is one of the most effective ways to keep participants engaged and active throughout the learning process. This webinar will explore a variety of high-impact activities, jolts, and interactive learning strategies that have been specifically chosen to teach and apply some of the most critical leadership competencies our evolving leaders need.

Tuesday, August 23, 10am-11am: The New Role of the LCMS: Enabling New Ways of Learning

Richard Nantel, co-chief executive officer at Brandon Hall Group, will discuss how today's LCMSs allow content authors and subject matter experts to collaborate on learning content and publish it to today's various computer and mobile devices. Jeff Whitney, vice president, worldwide marketing, Outstart, will describe best practices for how LCMSs are being used innovatively in real-world situations.

Also check out an earlier blog post of other free summer webinars.

 

How much to evaluate?

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#6 in our training evaluation blog post series:

I read an article the other day called Measuring the Effectiveness of Training, by Teresa Hiatt, Director of Sales Education, Ricoh Americas Corporation. She stated some interesting statistics in her article that I’ve also run across in other research articles and best industry reports:

  • Research from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) states that top companies will spend more than $1,500 per employee per year for education opportunities.       
  • Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For lists development opportunities as an important indicator to attract and retain top employees.
  • The latest estimate of the size of the Training Industry is about $135 billion.

She concludes that all this research confirms that leading organizations and key management think that training employees is an important part of business today. Yet despite the time, effort and money companies spend for training and development, training is rarely held accountable for results.

Many organizations (and even T&D professionals) are under a misconception that measuring levels 3 and 4 (and even 5) are complicated, require too many resources and cost too much money so they just don't do it. They also believe that the levels of evaluation should be applied equally to all courses they offer. But not every training program requires evaluation at all levels. Business needs, strategic positioning, performance discrepancies, stakeholder support and the ability/willingness of the organization to observe, document, evaluate and support evaluation within an organization are all important factors when determining what training programs are chosen for evaluation. 

Best practice organizations use the following recommended evaluation targets when conducting evaluation of training programs:

Level 1 = Conduct evaluation for 100% of training programs

Level 2 = Conduct evaluation for 60% of training programs

Level 3 = Conduct evaluation for 30% of training programs

Level 4 = Conduct evaluation for 10% of training programs

Level 5 = Conduct evaluation for 5% of training programs

What percent of your training programs are you evaluating and at what level(s)? I’d be interested to hear.

Be sure to check out our other evaluation blog posts in this series:

Selling the importance of evaluation

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#5 in our training evaluation blog post series:

In the not so distant past, evaluation of learning was an isolated activity relegated to the training team who’s responsibility didn’t extend much past gathering level 1 and level 2 evaluation. Today the emphasis is on the bottom line and how organizations can get the best value for their money and efforts. New evaluation tools, processes and strategies are available to help companies become more strategic; the evaluation of learning has become less of an isolated activity and more of a culture/philosophy. Learning teams are now becoming drivers of change, helping to support evaluation efforts within their organizations. But what if your stakeholders and senior management don’t see or understand the importance of evaluation?

Implementing levels 3, 4 and even 5 can be a challenging and daunting task even if the training team is fully involved and committed, because commitment and participation is also required from employees, managers, supervisors, business partners, stakeholders and senior management. An organization’s executives need to be on board as top-down messaging is critical to success – you’ll be swimming upstream trying to get managers to participate in evaluation if they don’t feel that their own bosses are behind it.

Many senior leaders already acknowledge that employee education is a critical success factor for future growth and prosperity. Use this as your ‘hook’ to sell them on the importance and value of a solid system of evaluation. Here are some tips to help you along the way:

  • Show how evaluation contributes to success: Be able to show a direct correlation between the organization’s strategic needs and goals, business unit operational needs, individual development needs, the training that is designed to address these and the evaluation techniques that will be used to quantify improvements.
  • Share a roadmap to implementation: Create an evaluation strategy that will systematically guide the organization from the present situation to the desired amount of evaluation. Be prepared to provide costs in terms of time and manpower.
  • Give confidence with examples: Gather relevant case studies of best practice organizations who have implemented evaluation within their organization with positive results. Use this information to support your position. There are a number of websites with best practice research. Check out our favourites in a previous blog post.
  • Start small to prove your case: Run a pilot and communicate/share results. Work with a key stakeholder/business partner to address a business need through training. Use this training as the “test case” for your evaluation plan. Apply each level of evaluation gathering testimonials and data, and tracking trends along the way. Share results and testimonials. Use stories and case studies based on the training results to capture attention and highlight the positives. Prove that measuring the value of learning can have a positive effect on your organization.
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate! Communication at all levels of the organization is critical to success. People need to understand the What, Where, Why, When and How of your evaluation strategy and what their role and commitment will be. Be patient. This will take time, but your efforts will be worthwhile!

Be sure to check out our other evaluation blog post in this series:

 

 

Make your learning more engaging without spending a penny

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Talking to learning professionals we know and attending workshops, webinars and conferences, we hear it over and over again – how can I provide engaging and effective training with little to no budget? It’s a challenging question. Here are a few ways to add interest and engagement to your learning that may not cost you a penny...

  1. Talk to other people in your organization to see if there’s potential to pool resources. Even if you’re dealing with different topics, there may be an opportunity to share resources, templates or components that have been successful. Working together to create organizational standards can also streamline development, saving time and money.
  2. It’s a fact that 80% of workplace learning happens informally. Put on your detective hat and find out how this is happening already – are there ways to enhance this with free or inexpensive tools? For instance, is there a subject matter guru that everyone turns to for your topic? Could you record her answering frequently asked questions and distribute them as a weekly podcast or post them on an intranet site? If you can record from your computer, the only cost may be your time.
  3. Become a storyteller – an inexpensive yet effective technique to engage learners and make them understand the importance of your topic is to tell real stories about the subject within the organization. For instance, if you’re developing policy and procedure training, gather stories from real employees as to how they are important to their work. Using a conversational tone and adding emotion enhances the stories.
  4. Take your own pictures and video. There’s a place for professional A/V teams, but you can do a lot yourself with a digital camera you already own or borrow that beats stock photos any day because it’s real. Follow a subject matter expert around to capture what your learners really need to know in its true context. Tools you probably already have on your computer or can easily download for free will let you crop your photos to focus in on the action.
  5. Make a point to seek out and regularly follow a few blogs on the topic as  they’re great for new ideas. I particularly like the Rapid eLearning Blog (great ideas for eLearning even if you don’t use Articulate) and recently started following Gamestorming (awesome focused games for face-to-face). The eLearning Learning blog aggregates posts from other bloggers, so it’s a quick way to get ideas from a variety of sources. I find using a free tool like Google Reader or NetNewsWire makes managing the blogs I follow a snap.

And as for getting that bigger budget - we’ve found that the first step is working on ensuring your training is clearly aligned with business needs. Then, add evaluation so you can prove to senior management that what you’re doing is really worthwhile and has a clear impact on organizational performance and bottom line. Dollars follow proven results!

Free summertime T&D webinars

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Although the calendar proclaimed it officially summer on June 21st, sunny summer days haven’t arrived in Vancouver yet. But with summer vacations just around the corner for clients, project work tends to slow down a bit so it’s a great opportunity to catch up on new industry trends, research and ideas. I came across a few free webinars that look really interesting. Check them out:

JULY

Wednesday, July 13, 10am-11am PST: Mobile Learning: From Early Adoption to Mainstream

Mobile learning is leaving the early adoption phase and going mainstream. Brandon Hall Group research indicates that more than 40 per cent of organizations are currently delivering learning through mobile devices. Join Brandon-Hall and RIM Software as they examine how mobile learning is proving to be a paradigm shift for learning and development. This session will examine: mobile adoption statistics, how mobile learning is having an impact on L&D buying habits, approaches to implementing mobile learning and mobile learning success stories.

Wednesday, July 13, 10am-11am PST: Jolt Participants into Awareness and Action, Part 2

Join Thiagi and Tracy Tagliati of the Thiagi Group to learn about the advantages of using brief simulations called jolts. Locate several ready-made jolts and create your own. Master a powerful model for debriefing to maximize team learning.

Thursday, July 14, 8am-9am PST: Metrics that Matter Best Reporting Tips

Join KnowledgeAdvisors to see how a world class learning evaluation and reporting system can be used to provide reports for meeting various learning stakeholder needs.

Thursday, July 14, 10am-11am PST: How to select a LMS for Small/Medium-sized Business

Due to high costs and technological infrastructure requirements, large organizations have traditionally been the first to adopt learning management systems. Price and technological barriers are now dropping, making it easy for small- and medium-sized businesses to obtain an LMS. Join Brandon Hall and OutStart, Inc., as they share insights from about selecting a learning management system for a small or medium organization.

Tuesday, July 19, 9am-10am PST: Using Video to Deliver More Impactful Remote Training

The recent availability of high quality video in online training solutions has opened up a whole new realm of instructor-audience interactivity.  Join Brandon-Hall and Cisco as they review the results of a new market study on how organizations today are using video for training and how this use will evolve.  They will also walk you through best practices on effectively apply video to your virtual classrooms.

Tuesday, July 19, 9am-10am PST: New to Mobile Learning Course Development: Getting Started

Join this webinar to learn how to get started with mobile learning course development, how to develop learning content that works on different devices, how learners will access the mobile course content and how to track results.

AUGUST

Tuesday, August 16, 10am-11am PST: Mobile Learning & Augmented Reality

No details about this one yet.  Keep checking the link for registration information

Wednesday, August 24, 10am-11am: Performance “To Go” – Where is Mobile Learning Going, How do We Go Too? (Rescheduled from June)

Mobile learning is clearly in the air, but is there really any there there? Is mobile really ready for prime time? In short, yes. Join mobile learning author, Clark Quinn to look at what's happening with mobile devices, get a handle on what the organizational opportunities are, look at some useful perspectives with which to view mobile capabilities and what you might already be able to take advantage of and talk about some of the pragmatics involved.

Thursday, August 25, 8am-9am PST: A Practitioner’s Use of Learning Measurement Tools to Drive Decision Making

Danny Brown spent several years as the learning analytics leader within a multi-billion dollar telecom company. Learn his first-hand experiences in driving measurement strategy, using measurement tools and technologies and overcoming measurement challenges.

“See” you online…and enjoy those summer days, once they arrive.

 

8 tips for creating a successful evaluation strategy

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#4 in our training evaluation blog post series:

In this tight economy, organizations want to know that they’re getting their money’s worth wherever it’s spent – and training is no exception. But when it comes to training, many organizations are unable to clearly identify what they are getting in return for their dollars. Research shows Levels 4 (Results) and 5 (ROI) are the two training evaluation levels least integrated into organizations, and yet they can provide the greatest value, as they measure the impact that learning has on the business and determine the return on investment.

So how do you get your company headed in the right direction and where do you start the evaluation process? A good first step is to create an overall evaluation strategy for training. Use it as a roadmap to help you stay focused on the big picture while implementing the details. When creating a strategy for your organization, consider the following tips:

  1. Flip the Kirkpatrick evaluation model upside down and start with Level 4 evaluation (Results). Identify key corporate goals and strategies and determine how training aligns with them. Identify stakeholder expectations. What are they looking to achieve as a result of training? This information will drive your evaluation strategy.
  2. Get buy-in from the top and commitment from appropriate stakeholders.
    • What strategies can you put into place to "sell" senior leaders and stakeholders on the benefits that evaluation will have to the organization?
    • What senior leaders and stakeholders could be strong champions providing support and commitment?
  3. Determine who owns the evaluation process.
  4. Identify what training course(s)/program(s) will be evaluated and at what levels. For each course or program, answer the question, "Is there a strong business need for this training?"
  5. Identify how each level of evaluation will be measured. What tools will be used to gather the information needed for your evaluation strategy?
  6. Determine what resources will be required for each level of evaluation. Levels 1 and 2 can be directly controlled and managed by a training team while participation, time and resources will be required from employees, managers, senior leaders, stakeholders and business partners for levels 3, 4 and 5. Are they willing and able to provide it?
  7. Identify challenges and risks for each evaluation level.
  8. Talk to other departments to determine what information is currently being tracked in your organization that can be used for levels 4 and 5 evaluation.  Don't reinvent the wheel. Use what's available then figure out if you need to fill gaps with further information.

Evaluation doesn’t need to be complicated. There are a number of fairly simple ways to implement evaluation in your organization that can provide a lot of value. Start by creating your evaluation strategy then stay tuned here for future tips and ideas that will help you implement evaluation successfully in your organization.

Be sure to check out our other evaluation blog post in this series:

 

Refreshing the Kirkpatrick Four Levels evaluation model - Kirkpatrick Then and Now

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#3 in our training evaluation blog post series:

As I’ve written in past evaluation blog posts, more and more organizations are now focusing on how training impacts business results, wanting to know if they are getting the most for their return on training investment. If you follow evaluation blogs and read articles and research on evaluation, you’ll notice that Training and Development professionals are now looking to improve their learning process by “beginning at the end”. They are first defining business outcomes and determining the desired Level 4 results then working down the model rather than starting with traditional level 1 evaluation and working upwards.

Don Kirkpatrick’s concept of the 4 levels of evaluation - Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results - was first introduced in the 1950’s during and after his Ph.D. dissertation.  But it wasn’t until after numerous articles and speaking engagements at national conferences over the years that his landmark book, Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels was published in 1994. It quickly became a cornerstone for T&D professionals providing a logical structure and process for measuring learning. One interesting note I learned:  Don never called his evaluation concept the “Four Levels”.  Someone else did and it caught on!

I recently picked up the Kirkpatrick Then and Now book by Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kayser Kirkpatrick (2009). Taking the original 4 levels concepts developed by Don, Jim (Don’s son) and Wendy (Don’s daughter-in-law) have created an updated and fresh version of Don’s original model.  The book is an Interesting read, covering the “Then” – a description of Don’s 4 levels as well as his first-hand account of how he developed his model, testimonials from his colleagues and a photo gallery. The “Now” part of the book defines the new five Kirkpatrick Foundation Principles and provides practical advice on how to implement the updated Kirkpatrick model successfully starting from the top and working on down.

So grab a copy of the book, have a read and enjoy learning how to turn the Kirkpatrick model on its head!

Be sure to check out our other evaluation blog posts in this series:

Musings on mobile learning

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Just this morning I attended a thought-provoking webinar with Gary Woodill, author of Mobile Learning Edge.

Near the beginning of the session, Gary mentioned the Marshall McLuhan quote “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future,” and discussed how this is apropos for learning in general and mobile learning in particular. This really struck a chord with me. When I think about it, even in modern times we are always trying to fit the latest advances that come to learning into the box of what we already know. For instance, eLearning can too often be like the PowerPoint presentation we knew from classroom training, trying to recreate that classroom experience in an online environment instead of taking advantage of the capabilities of technology to create truly engaging and interactive experiences that relate to the learning material. Now we see the same happening as mobile learning gains more traction: looking in the rear-view mirror at eLearning and trying to repurpose it for a smaller and more portable delivery mechanism, instead of embracing the true potential at our fingertips.

Gary also talked about the changing definition of mobile learning over the last 10 years. I think that it’s not only the definition of mobile learning that is undergoing change, it’s also our deep-down understanding of learning itself. Yes, as modern people involved in adult learning, we understand that learning is not tied to a classroom, or even a desktop computer, but do we (and the C-levels in our organizations) truly accept that a valid learning event can take place in two minutes using Twitter – for example, to poll contacts for the best way to do solve a problem?

One of the examples Gary gave that really resonated for me, and shows the power we have with mobile learning, is the story of a doctor travelling in Africa who came across a teenager with a severely infected arm due to a hippopotamus bite. The doctor recognized the need for an amputation at the shoulder to give the teen a chance at survival, but he’d never performed such a surgery before. After unsuccessfully trying to reach help by phone, he ended up connecting to a colleague on vacation by text message.  The doctor learned to perform the operation through a series of text messages from his colleague, and was able to successfully amputate the limb. Now if that’s not a poignant example of the value of mobile learning and the need to embrace the tools and technology that can make it happen, I don’t know what is.

Read about Gary Woodill on his website here. I'm looking forward to reading his book!

Our favourite training evaluation resources

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 #2 in our training evaluation blog post series:

Just do a Google search for “training evaluation” and you’ll find over 11,000 websites and articles at your fingertips. But you probably don’t have the time to sort through all the information to find what you need. Here at Limestone we’ve run into the same challenges so over time, we’ve created a “favourite” list of evaluation resources that we’d like to share with you:

Evaluation websites/blogs/discussion groups

  • www.kirkpatrickpartners.com  Registration is free. Includes access to a weekly newsletter, white papers and articles, free podcasts and webinars, a quick tips podcast series, certification training and other evaluation resources.
  • www.greatleadershipbydan.com  An interesting blog post on training evaluation.
  • www.roiinstitute.net  Good information on level 5 ROI created by respected author Dr. Jack Phillips.  Includes access to learning opportunities, webcasts and audio conferences, podcasts, articles and tools.
  • www.bdld.blogspot.com  Thoughts on instructional design and performance including training evaluation.
  • www.astd.org  We highly recommend becoming a member. There are extensive high-quality resources available for both evaluation and T&D in general, and great member discounts apply on courses and publications. Some of the offerings for evaluation include white papers and articles, best practice research and discussion groups.        
  • Kirkpatrick Evaluation group on Linkedin.  Some thought-provoking discussion threads on evaluation.       
  • www.evaluatetraining.com/blog  A lot of great evaluation blog posts.       

Books/reference material

  • Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels, Donald Kirkpatrick (the original publication of Kirkpatrick’s 4 levels of evaluation – a “must” read)
  • Kirkpatrick Then and Now, Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick Institute (the 4 levels updated with new strategies and tools)
  • The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, Calhoun Wick, Roy Pollock, and Andrew Jefferson (excellent practical guidelines, ideas and examples on measuring learning from a business results perspective)
  • ASTD Handbook of Measuring and Evaluating Training, Patricia Phillips (a great, practical book on learning evaluation)
  • ASTD InfoLine issues on a variety of level 1 – 5 topics (an excellent choice of topics)
  • ROI in Action casebook, Patricia Pulliam Phillips

Higher learning

 Be sure to check out our first evaluation blog post in this series: