MindLeaders: Fueling the Learning Revolution

Learning Rule #17: Omit needless words

Actually, that's Strunk and White's rule #17. But it's especially pertinent to learning. As Cathy Moore highlighted in her blog, there's a great study that shows that people learn more when they have to read less, and they especially learn more when they're reading summaries that use visual as well as verbal information.

Here's the big takeaway for me: Strunk and White's Elements of Style was written in 1959. The study that Cathy refers to was written in 1996. Since then, the world keeps getting faster. More and more information is available. Multi-tasking and distractions are everywhere. The need for brevity that was true in 1959 was doubly true in 1996 and is doubly true again today.

We've seen this maxim at work here at MindLeaders in the average sizes of our courses. In 1998, courses took anywhere from 4 hours to 11 hours to complete. Today, most courses are 2-3 hours, broken up into lessons that take 15 minutes or less. And we constantly hunt for ways to make our content even more quick-hitting, scannable, with plenty of ways to dig further for information if people need it.

Made to Stick is an excellent book about getting ideas across and keeping them memorable to your audience. Their very first principle is Simplicity, taking a message down to its essential core.

Concentration on the core message gives training focus and strength. What core messages are you trying to teach people this week?

Assigning Leadership or Project Management Roadmaps to students

I designed our new roadmaps - leadership and project management so far, more to come - to help people find the best courses to build competencies in the skillsets they're most interested in. It was great to have that on paper, but now we've taken it a step further: roadmaps can now be assigned to students' course packages.

Training administrators, you can now assign an entire roadmap or specific competencies to your students. To turn on these packages for your organization, contact your Account Manager or Education Services Representative.

Are there other features you'd like to see, or a topic you think would be great for a roadmap? Please drop a comment and let me know!

Save the earth, choose green e-Learning

• Course materials are all online — LESS WASTE
• Books are fully digitized — SAVE PAPER
• No need to drive to a live class — SAVE GAS
• No leftover refreshments — SAVE WATER
• No need to cool or light a classroom — SAVE ENERGY

An interesting study, performed by Britain’s Open University, found that producing and providing distance learning courses consumes an average of 90% less energy and produces 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than conventional face-to-face courses.  Let’s do our part in sharing the positive effects of “green” learning.

Integrating Your Learning Program

Your company has made the decision to make online learning part of their training solution, and you have been given the task of making it successful.

What is the key ingredient found within most successful training programs? Integration!

Four foundational principles of integration are:

1. Monitoring learning performance
2. Working with managers
3. Communicating with your target audience
4. Offering reward incentives

Those 4 principles represent one cycle.  Since integration is a cyclical process, the follow up – starting the cycle over again and analyzing the data - is what successful integration is all about.

To learn more, visit the “Integrating Your Learning Program” trailer in the MindLeaders Training and Development Toolbox under the Resource Center tab, or schedule an appointment with your Education Services Consultant.

Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards are accepting entrants

Got a training program, ROI tracking system, or learning content that you're proud of? Want a fantastic way to show off to your managers and the rest of the world how awesome it is? Brandon Hall has announced the opening of their 2009 Excellence in Learning awards.

Awards are being given in the following categories:

• Best Custom Content
• Best Innovation in Learning Technology
• Best Integration of Learning and Talent Management
• Best Learning Game
• Best Learning Team
• Best Results of a Learning Program
• Best Use of Blended Learning
• Best Use of Games for Learning
• Best Use of Mobile Learning
• Best Use of Video for Learning
• Best Use of Virtual Worlds for Learning
• Best Use of Web 2.0 Tools for Learning

Entries can be submitted until March 6 (April 3 for the "Best Custom Content" category).

I'm a big believer in awards. Not for the hardware that collects dust, but because even applying for awards makes me take a fresh look at the measurable impact my projects have. And, of course, winning an award is gold for third-party confirmation of the worth of a program.

By all means, set aside a little time to take a look at the categories and think about submitting a training project you're working on!

The Top Ten Training Needs

MindLeaders gets a lot of information about what people want to learn more about. We hear it through our clients, usage of our courses, the topics people ask us for or search our listings for, and conversations with others in the industry. An important part of my job is trying to distill all that information to figure out what training topics are important, and who they're important to.

Here are the latest results of the top ten topics that have the most demand for online training:

1. Microsoft Excel
2. Communication
3. Customer Service
4. Project Management Professional (PMP)
5. Project Management
6. Time Management
7. Microsoft Access
8. Microsoft Word
9. CompTIA A+
10. Management

A couple of notes about the results:

• Excel is #1 by a HUGE margin. It seems to be a perfect storm of an application in ubiquitous use and complex enough that lots of people feel a need to know more about it.
• Project Management is so gigantic that I track the PMP certification separately from general project management, and yet the split vote still makes #4 and #5 on the list. (Combined, they still wouldn't quite beat Excel for the #1 spot.)

According to Bersin & Associates' brand-new Corporate Learning Factbook 2009, the topic areas this top ten falls into (Desktop Applications, Interpersonal/Soft Skills, and Management/Supervisory) are #9, #6, and #5 on their survey of training priorities. I think the difference is because they're tracking overall training programs (so company-specific information is easily #1), while I'm tracking the e-learning needs in particular. My results are a subset of the larger training industry.

What do you think of this top ten? Does it cover the topics you think of first when you think about online learning needs for yourself or your company?

Peer to Peer Support for Training Administrators: The MindLeaders User Group

Are you a training administrator?

Have you ever wondered how other training administrators use their MindLeaders products?

Got a great idea for promoting your training programs that you'd love to share?

Want to know how colleagues tackle the problems that are causing you the most pain?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be interested to know that MindLeaders has a user group just for you! MindLeaders User Group (MUG) is a mailing list and Google Group web site for training administrators using MindLeaders products. Take advantage of the MUG to connect, network, and build on each others' successes

For more information or to join MUG, contact Education Services at EdServices@MindLeaders.com!