Over here in the Midwest, Spring brings us the excitement of warmer days and more sunshine. This year, as we transition into a new season typically marked by renewing and refreshing our lives, our situation is a bit different. Due to COVID 19, we are left quarantining in our homes. I’ll admit that confinement initially had me feeling pretty stuck. After many conversations with co-workers and family members, I realized that while our new “normal” is pretty different, there is still a great opportunity to reflect upon and freshen up our personal spaces as well as our professional lives.
I’ve taken the time to re-organize the bookshelves in my home, deep clean the nooks and cranny’s of spaces I would typically neglect, and brush up on my instructional design skills by reading articles and watching webinars about new industry trends. As we are spending more time cooped up inside, we have a wonderful opportunity to renew, refresh, and revamp.
Are there areas or initiatives in your professional life that could use some TLC? We've come up with a few ideas for those in the Learning and Development industry to renew, refresh, and revamp your training this spring.
Renew
Just like with your typical spring cleaning agenda, eLearning and training has its own different versions of "throw away" and "keep" piles. For all of you still using Adobe Flash modules, this should be your first Spring cleaning focus. By the end of 2020, Adobe Flash will be obsolete. What does this mean for your training programs? Well, an inability to guarantee web security and the correct functionality of the program is a start. But, don't fear! Losing Flash does not mean you have to lose your content along with it. We’ve got some great steps you can take to ensure your content is secure and usable.
Editor's note: As of January 12, 2021, Adobe has officially disabled Flash and learners are no longer able to launch Flash content. If you missed a few modules during your conversion check out our FAQ for advice on converting.
Refresh
Whenever I participate in spring cleaning for my place, I always come across various items that have remained on my shelves for years, serving no real purpose. This year I found a couple mason jars in the closet, and instead of just letting them continue to sit on the shelf unused, I brainstormed ways I could re-purpose them. I decided to use them as containers for dry goods like sugar and flour. I think most of us can relate to these kinds of items – ones that don't serve us any real kind of functionality or purpose, but still manage to stick around. Maybe you even feel this way about some of your training programs!
These programs don’t necessarily need to be “thrown out,” but think about how you can refresh those courses to become more purposeful and effective. Perhaps there is an hour long eLearning that everyone simply clicks as fast as they can to get through it. There’s certainly an opportunity to streamline and condense the content into micro modules to make it more effective – check out some best practices we’ve come up with when it comes to microlearning. Or, maybe there’s a training that could be salvaged with an updated User Interface, refreshed graphics, and content adjustments. I challenge you to assess the functionality and impact of your training content this Spring!
Revamp
Spring can have people looking to tackle bigger dreams and goals. Are there projects on your “dream list” of to do’s that you haven’t had the time to focus on? Your dream list can be anything – professional or personal goals or projects that you normally don’t have time to get around to. For those of us now finding ourselves with some additional time at home this spring as certain projects are put on hold, this opens the door for you to shift your focus to your dream list of projects and professional goals and work on bringing some of those initiatives to life. I myself have been spending more time outside of work free writing, cooking new recipes, and completing an array of DIY projects.
Start by writing down what you want to do, list out actionable steps that you can take to make it happen and gather the resources and support you may need to fill in any gaps. Our team has been in constant collaboration with each other, bouncing around ideas for how future learning courses will look and function. Don’t be afraid to push boundaries, imagine, and create something different!
Whether you’ve been a busy bee finding a plethora of projects to work on at home, sticking to your typical cleaning routine, or using all of your energy just to make it through this difficult time, the Reflection Software family is right here with you. We would love to know how you have used this time to renew, refresh, or revamp your own lives! Leave a comment below to share your thoughts with us.
