From the Coleface

JUNE 15, 2016

I enjoyed a day out at the Learning Technologies Summer Forum yesterday. This noise about the channels of learning (“modality”) tends to distract from a far more significant consideration: What is the nature of the learning that we want to make happen? How clear are we about what we want people to learn?

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Help Simulations Forum vendor 100

From the Coleface

MAY 28, 2012

On 30 May I’ll be chairing an eLearning Network webinar on Ten things you always wanted to know about live online learning but were afraid to ask. What virtual classroom technology would you recommend? How do you change the learning culture to treat VCT as seriously as ILT?

Virtual Classroom 100

Virtual Classroom Expert Online Learning Online 100

From the Coleface

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

As an L&D professional working in one of the UK’s leading accountancy or legal firms, do you wonder how other firms are taking advantage of mobile and social technologies in L&D? That’s why I founded the Professional Services e-learning Forum. Also look out for the Professional Services e-learning Forum group on Linkedin.

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Forum Services Social Networks LinkedIn 100

From the Coleface

AUGUST 3, 2009

Does your firm have a culture that supports e-learning? Whilst organisational culture is a nebulous thing, there are three key factors that are changing it to embrace e-learning more. The flipside is that client facing staff have been more willing to act as subject matter experts and author their own e-learning content.

Virtual Classroom 100

Virtual Classroom Compliance Training Services Survey 100

From the Coleface

MAY 21, 2012

As new technologies emerge and then go mainstream, this provides L&D practitioners with new channels through which to connect with learners and enable them to improve performance. However on the way, some organisations will get in badly wrong. Step forward Havering Sixth Form College in Hornchurch.

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Mobile Mobile Learning Trust Emergent 100

From the Coleface

JULY 16, 2009

At the ELN showcase on 10 July, I chaired a group who wanted to talk about learning communities. The top 5 concerns for someone wanting to make an online learning community work were: How do we get it launched? Here’s a write up of the typical issues raised and how people suggested approaching them. Are moderators required?

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Community Specialist ROI Learning 100

From the Coleface

JANUARY 27, 2014

At this year’s Learning Technologies show I’ve been invited by the eLearning Network to do a slot on ‘Ask the Expert’ about instructional design. Here are some examples of the kind of things I’m expecting to be asked : Which learning theories are useful? How can I design award-winning e-learning?

Instructional Design 133

Instructional Design Instructional Instruction Design 133

From the Coleface

SEPTEMBER 12, 2007

I have recently completed the e-learning census of e-learning usage amongst the top 15 UK law firms. To find out more about the results, see the e-learning census. Hence it was reassuring to find that L&D managers in law firms still have a similar appetite for benchmarking.

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Budget Learning Management Technology 100

From the Coleface

MAY 15, 2008

Technologies such as blogs, wikis, social networking sites and YouTube allow us to re-examine the way people learn in organisations. There’s an increasing amount being written about Web 2.0 (the the idea that the web increasingly allowing 2 way communication, rather than being a 1 way publishing of information).

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Web Social Networks Wiki Social Network 100

From the Coleface

SEPTEMBER 20, 2007

Hence it was only a matter of time before the e-learning industry took note. Following its use in some universities as reported by the Guardian, research has been funded to see how learning can work in Second Life. Are people intent on escapism really going to want to learn about the kind of things that their employers would like?

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Second Life Virtual Classroom WebEx Analysis 100

From the Coleface

JANUARY 24, 2013

Though the technology for sending iCalendar files (.ics) ics) from the internet to your Outlook is by no means new, it’s a great example of people thinking through what the user journey is and making smart use of technology to make it effortless.

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Calendar Website Internet Attention 113

From the Coleface

NOVEMBER 15, 2018

The last 20 years has seen the evolution of terminology from Computer-Based Learning to e-learning to digital learning (and beyond). Given how much the world and technology has changed in that time, is it time for a re-think? As designers of learning you need subject matter content. Defensibility.

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Expert Compliance Training Compliance Convert 100

From the Coleface

JULY 21, 2008

However I’ve long suspected that e-learning was something it wanted to look down upon in order to massage the vanity and phobias of its core target audience of face to face trainers “face to facers”. Rapid e-learning has changed the shape of the e-learning market, but there is still lots of room for high quality bespoke e-learning.

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Blended Learning Rapid eLearning Journal Blended 100

From the Coleface

MARCH 24, 2008

The National Academy of Engineering of the USA’s National Science Foundation, has released 14 “Great Challenges” , which includes a focus on “Advancing Personalized Learning” and others such as making solar power economical. which appear to be empowering learners to get more personalized learning.

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Personal Learning Personal Personalization Wikipedia 100

From the Coleface

APRIL 14, 2009

There’s a popular myth in the learning industry that 80% of the learning that happens in organisations is informal whilst 20% is derived from formal learning interventions e.g. face to face courses and e-learning. But putting aside my hobby horses, I have read quite a lot about informal learning over the past few weeks.

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Informal Culture Budget Informal Learning 100

From the Coleface

NOVEMBER 24, 2008

In “Inside Learning Technologies”, Vaughan Waller writes an interesting article article about the gap between what he regarded as e-learning good practice and how accountants said that they wanted to learn. What a case history this could turn out to be!”.

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Culture Blended Learning Wiki Write Blog 100

From the Coleface

JANUARY 28, 2008

on learning. The e-learning Network has: Building learning communities. Rapid e-learning: dumbing down or gearing up. Thinking synch: live e-learning. Emerging technologies. and webinars on Successful implementation of e-learning an Practical procurement. Impact of Web 2.0 Applied positive psychology.

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Wiki Rapid eLearning Predictions Website 100

From the Coleface

AUGUST 6, 2007

Prensky’s metaphor of people being digital natives (intuitively understanding how recent technology works) or digital immigrants (needing support/ training in order to grasp new technology) seems wonderfully rich to me. Here’s an example from recent life.

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Digital Picture Emergent Adoption 100

From the Coleface

NOVEMBER 16, 2007

But in the world of learning, is this all about loss of powerbases or is it a genuine worry about quality? The production technology for e-learning is getting cheaper and more widely distributed. As this transfer of technology occurs the people who are losing exclusive rights to it become worried on two counts: 1.

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Wiki Harbinger PowerPoint Expert 100

From the Coleface

JUNE 24, 2008

and its impact on learning. With the vast range of learning resources and communities available, learners will have far more consumer choice. To make best use of their time they will need to become more skilled at metalearning i.e. being more aware of how they learn best and choosing the appopriate learning approach.

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Web Community Expertise Culture 100

From the Coleface

JANUARY 15, 2008

Back in the world of work, the start of the new year means that the biggest e-learning event of the year is on the horizon. The Learning Technologies show is on 30 and 31 January. It’s a great chance to browse the free exhibition, feel the pulse of the e-learning market and see what’s likely to be hot this year.

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Internet Track Games Market 100

From the Coleface

JULY 16, 2008

Many organisations that currently offer face to face training to clients have wrestled with the problem of what to do about blended learning and how it fits their commercial model. Will our customers who are used to paying for face to face training, demand lower prices for blended/ e-learning? Can we deliver the technology change?

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Blended Learning Blended Cost Culture 100

From the Coleface

FEBRUARY 3, 2009

Having been at Learning Technologies, I got the sense that the e-learning industry is maturing to the point where there’s little radically new. What people don’t often measure is how long the client took to get its content to an e-learning production ready state.

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Metrics Reputation e-learning company Cost 100

From the Coleface

MARCH 19, 2010

Never try to run a webinar on your own – there 3 or more distinct roles: host (ensures the technology is working & everyone is logged on), presenter (talks and in charge of what the participants see), chat meister (moderates and prompts postings in the chat box and makes suggestions to presenter).

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Tips Director Voice Audio 100

From the Coleface

DECEMBER 18, 2009

Jay Cross has an interesting article in the December issue of the “Inside Learning Technologies” magazine about making business decisions and the use of business metrics. As I made the claim in Feb that 2009 would be the year of “ bad measurement ” this is a topic close to my heart.

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Knowledge Worker Knowledge Metrics Ratio 100

From the Coleface

OCTOBER 24, 2008

Here I reflect on the changes that I’ve helped make to the design of e-Learning Network conferences in the form of tips that you could use to freshen up events that you design, or perhaps even demand from conferences that you attend in future. Having more than 20 people at an event makes it challenging to achieve genuine interactivity.

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Conference Design Lecture PENS 100

From the Coleface

MARCH 12, 2008

As I write, a multinational company has invited 20 e-learning suppliers to a 2 day workshop as part of a process that will whittle the list down to 6 preferred suppliers. Whilst it’s up to each company to decide how it wants to procure its e-learning, the raving stupidity of their approach could not pass without comment.

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vendor Cost Internet Sales 100

From the Coleface

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Part of the technology of the portal allows social networking e.g. forums. I’ve recently been leading an internal knowledge management project.

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Social Networks Social Network Network Social 100