A Training Matrix for Learning Objectives

It seems to me that many training professionals don’t really map out their various learning objectives for different work groups and analytically determine a master schedule and delivery plan for training activities. Maybe I’m totally wrong and off base here, but it does seem that many trainers have 1-2 compliance courses they like to teach… Continue reading »

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Oracle says Google’s own emails show guilt

In case you haven’t heard, Oracle and Google are in trial right now with Oracle claiming that Google violated its copyright and patents connected to the Java programming language that Oracle purchased when it purchased Sun Microsystems. The trial opened on Monday in San Francisco and Oracle cited Google emails as prime evidence that Google… Continue reading »

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Helpful eLearning Checklist

I checked out a post yesterday in an eLearning discussion group and found this very helpful eLearning checklist. At emTRAiN, we’ve been creating eLearning for 12 years now and some of these points we had to learn the hard way through learner feedback over the years. We agree with most of the points made in… Continue reading »

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A Training Matrix for Learning Objectives Oracle says Google’s own emails show guilt Helpful eLearning Checklist

May
02

A Training Matrix for Learning Objectives

by Janine Yancey

It seems to me that many training professionals don’t really map out their various learning objectives for different work groups and analytically determine a master schedule and delivery plan for training activities. Maybe I’m totally wrong and off base here, but it does seem that many trainers have 1-2 compliance courses they like to teach (in person) and maybe 1-2 leadership or professional development courses they also like to teach . . . and that’s the extent of their planning or analysis. The other day I was reading up on cognitive versus behavioral learning objectives and a logical training matrix suddenly clicked into place for me. Cognitive learning objectives are when you need people to learn a bunch of information or procedures, and it’s basically a “data dump.” Behavioral learning objectives are when you need people to learn specific skills or model certain behavior, which usually requires role playing and hands on coaching. Training topics can easily be classified as either cognitive or behavioral. From there, we can say that traditional face to face or online webinars are best suited for behavioral learning since it’s more hands-on and eLearning is a great solution for cognitive learning since people can go at their own pace and it’s available 24/7. Once you identify and classify your leaning objectives, and match them with the most appropriate delivery method, you can start to create a training matrix, which will help you streamline and maximize your training operations.

If you’d like to hear more on this topic from a panel of experts and receive some helpful material, join us for a complimentary webinar on May 23rd at 11 PST. Just click here to register.

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Apr
18

Oracle says Google’s own emails show guilt

by Janine Yancey

In case you haven’t heard, Oracle and Google are in trial right now with Oracle claiming that Google violated its copyright and patents connected to the Java programming language that Oracle purchased when it purchased Sun Microsystems. The trial opened on Monday in San Francisco and Oracle cited Google emails as prime evidence that Google took its intellectual property to gain an edge in the lucrative android market, at the start of a high stakes trial (meaning billions) between the two tech giants.

In its opening statement, Oracle projected Google emails concerning the use of Java in the android phones onto a big screen for the jury to read:

“My proposal is that we take a license that specifically grants the right for us to Open Source our product,” Rubin (a Google executive) emailed.

Oracle then highlighted an email from then Google CEO, Eric Schmidt to Rubin:
“How are we doing on the Sun deal?” Schmidt asked in his message. “Its (sic) it time to develop a non-Java solution to avoid dealing with them?”

By August 2010, Google still hadn’t been able to find any satisfactory alternatives to Java, according to an email that Google engineer Tim Lindholm sent to Rubin.

“We have been over a bunch of these, and think they all suck,” wrote Lindholm, who worked at Sun Microsystems before joining Google. “We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need.”

However, later on, Rubin sent the following email: “I’m done with Sun (tail between my legs, you were right),” Rubin wrote to Schmidt. “They won’t be happy when we release our stuff.”

When I see these emails, I think of a course we launched for a big tech company last summer which taught managers what to say or not say in emails and what types of communications will get a company into trouble in litigation. Let’s just say if the Google team had taken the training, their competitor wouldn’t be using their emails against them right now in the first day of trial.

Do your team a favor and either train on our Code of Conduct course (which includes a section on litigation protection), OR, launch our complimentary Code acknowledgement mini-course, which showcases your company’s Code of Conduct. Click here to request either.

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Apr
02

Helpful eLearning Checklist

by Janine Yancey

I checked out a post yesterday in an eLearning discussion group and found this very helpful eLearning checklist. At emTRAiN, we’ve been creating eLearning for 12 years now and some of these points we had to learn the hard way through learner feedback over the years. We agree with most of the points made in this checklist with the caveat that some of these ideas are not really applicable to compliance training. Unlike other training, compliance training has a legal as well as educational purpose which tends to put a unique spin on principles such as testing and assessment. However, in all, this is a helpful checklist when creating your own eLearning courses.

The Ultimate eLearning Design and Development Checklist

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Mar
29

Technology is Changing the Necessary Skill Set of HR and Training Staff

by Janine Yancey

As organizations increasingly rely on new learning technologies to train and communicate information, it makes sense to review the ideal profile and skill set of individuals staffing the HR and Training functions. We are clearly in a transitional phase any many traditional trainers are clinging to the old way of doing business, and insisting on instructor-led, classroom workshops. Aside from being problematic from a logistical and compliance perspective (See A Case Study for Training Documentation), many employees are no longer receptive towards traditional training methods. People expect to learn and find information through mobile devices, social learning networks and collaboration tools. If HR and Training staff lack comfort or proficiency in new learning technologies, there will be a negative impact in terms of staff reputation and esteem throughout the organization. So, to help teams identify the right candidates for HR and Training teams, we’ve outlined some key strengths and skills that are needed in the Modern Training Professional and compared them to skills required of the Traditional Classroom Instructor.

Traditional Classroom Instructor Profile (Partial List)

  • Creative
  • Strong subject-matter expertise
  • Strong classroom teaching skills
  • Entertaining; and
  • Good classroom management skills

Modern Training Professional (Partial List)

  • Proactive and Resourceful
  • Quick learner of new technology applications
  • Strong multi-tasking skills
  • Creative
  • Great graphics aptitude
  • Entertaining
  • Ability to work without live audience feedback (for webinars)

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Mar
14

Another Merger: Sonar 6 Merges with Cornerstone

by Janine Yancey

Last week, Sonar 6, a small performance management company, announced it was merging with Cornerstone to become Cornerstone’s performance management system for small businesses with 500 employees or less. Over the years, we’ve met some of the Sonar 6 crew and they seem like a sharp and very nice team. Congratulations to them and best of luck with the Cornerstone team.

Maybe I’m overreacting a bit but the pace and number of mergers in the HR and Talent Management Field is a bit dizzying. As a customer, you may be partnering with vendor A and a month later, you find yourself hooked up with vendor B. What if you don’t like vendor B? Call me old fashioned and maybe I’m being a bit simplistic, but I’m starting to really appreciate that emTRAiN has grown organically through the years and we’re employee owned rather than owned by investors who need to “flip” us in a few years to get their money out. It just seems like no one is interested these days in building long term businesses, which ultimately has a negative impact on the customers.

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Mar
08

Documenting Compliance Training

by Janine Yancey

HR is all about documentation. You document a performance discussion. You document disciplinary actions. You document agreed upon goals. It’s interesting how, when it comes to compliance training, both HR professionals and trainers forget about the idea behind documentation. Last Thursday, I was speaking to a group of compliance managers and I asked them why we document HR actions. I received answers such as: “To have a record.”  ”To cover ourselves.”  ”To avoid factual disputes.” These are all good answers. Why then, when it comes to compliance training are practitioners even thinking of handling that through live training? If you ever get a government agency audit, inquiry or claim, you’ll be asked to show your relevant compliance training.  If you show a power point presentation (assuming you have it) and a sign-in list (assuming you have the signatures you need), that only gets you part of the way there.  It shows you did some training but it still leaves open a lot of questions (time spent in class, time spent per topic, class discussions, were learners present during entire class, etc.).

When it comes to compliance training, you ultimately need to prove you did it.  If you’re training in a format that makes it difficult for you to prove, you’ve just wasted time and resources as shown in the situation highlighted in this case study.

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Feb
29

EEOC’s Strategic Plan

by Janine Yancey

Last week the EEOC approved its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2012-2016.  The Plan contains three strategic objectives and strategic objective two is “Prevent employment discrimination through education and outreach.” The EEOC’s stated mission is to reach employees and job seekers and inform them of their workplace rights.  The EEOC plans to target education and outreach activities as well as improve leverage of the Internet and their social media presence.  Certainly, the EEOC’s website is much more informative than it was several years ago.  As discussed in other blog posts and white papers, the current EEOC leadership is focused on education and training and are more rigorously scrutinizing employers’ efforts to inform employees of their workplace rights.

Stay tuned for more developments and scrutiny on employers’ workforce training efforts and do not be surprised if the EEOC leadership starts to regulate compliance training.

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Feb
22

WILL APPLE REVOLUTIONIZE ELEARNING?

by Janine Yancey

Last month, Apple launched its new e-book “Author” application, which looks like it will be a game-changer for the educational textbook publishing landscape.  The Author application allows novice users to easily create impressive and dynamic e-books from scratch or from templates (or dragged in directly from Keynote, Apple’s PowerPoint stand-in).  It doesn’t take much imagination to see the overlap between educational eLearning and the corporate training market and how corporate trainers could easily benefit from this application as well.  Apple has already demonstrated its ability to totally reshape industries through its simple, easy to use products, and so Apple’s entry into the eLearning space is exciting.  Corporate HR and training teams have long tolerated training systems and tools that have a clumsy user-interface and poor design.  It’s ironic that corporate HR teams adopt systems they would never tolerate for their personal, consumer use.  Given that many of the training system companies have recently been acquired by larger, enterprise software firms whose software looks like they’re still in the 90s, Apple’s entry into the corporate training market would be a welcome disruption and game-changer.

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Feb
16

DOL Now Provides Soft Skills Training For Workers

by Janine Yancey

Perhaps in response to the unemployment numbers, the U.S. Department of Labor recently announced the release of “Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success,” a collection of career development training activities to help sharpen the communication and other “soft” skills of workers, particularly younger workers.

The DOL’s curriculum, which covers communication, networking, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking and professionalism, is based on the results of a survey of prominent businesses to determine what they believe to be the most important competencies and skills for young workers. According to recent surveys, nearly three-quarters of employers indicated that younger workers were deficient in such basic skills as punctuality, verbal communication and working productively with others. Businesses across the nation have identified soft skills as crucial to the hiring and employment success of all workers.

Certainly, the knowledge of “soft” skills such as communication strategies, teamwork, time management, and so forth, are essential to succeed in today’s workplace.  That’s why emTRAiN offers a whole library of courses on these topics to help increase the ability of employees and improve overall workforce performance.

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Feb
09

Oracle Buys Taleo in an effort to add SaaS Human Resource Management Tools

by Janine Yancey

Oracle just announced its acquisition of Taleo.  This acquisition follows on the heels of SAP purchasing SuccessFactors – another SaaS Human Resource Management vendor.

What does this mean for HR and Training Professionals?  Less choices in the marketplace.  I know a large corporation with thousands of employees sounds like a “safe bet” to trust to help you with your HR and Training Management, but over the years, emTRAiN has worked with some of the largest vendors on behalf of our customers and unfortunately, we’ve seen that our customers pay more money and get a lot less help from these vendors.

Do you need a vendor that has the functionality, resources and staff to support you?  Most definitely.  But equally important, you need a vendor that will partner with you and not leave you hanging with unanswered phone calls and emails.  All too often, that’s what you get with the big software vendors.

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