“Doom is inevitable. Gloom is optional. Gloom has no positive effects on ameliorating doom. Doom happens. Gloom is a choice.”
— Seth Godin
It has been an incredible week in the weather department for us around here. I’m trying to be outside as much as possible while the window is open before the summer heat and humidity get here. I hope this finds you well and able to be outside enjoying your surroundings no matter what the weather is doing.
As always, thanks for reading.
What I’m Listening To: This playlist has been the perfect soundtrack for soaking up the sun and getting my vitamin D fix this week.
Last Week’s Most Clicked:
16 UI Design Rule That Make a Big Difference
📰 News & Notes
The Ultimate Guide to Curation for L&D
Najmah Salam & Nandini Bhudia from Filtered have just published this sweet guide so L&D professionals have a place to start and build a content curation strategy that will truly make an impact for their learners. It’s all in there starting with why to curate in the first place all the way through to creating and distributing your pathways.
Take away: Whether you’re a curation newbie or grizzled veteran, there is something in here for everyone that can up your curation game.
Improving Training Videos Using Neuroscience with Patti Shank
Just because you have the skills to shoot and edit a video doesn’t mean it’s instructionally sound. This is why some videos are easier to learn from than others. And why that learning sticks. Watching video is a passive experience and therefore you might think there isn’t much more to it than just making it more entertaining. Yea, you’d be wrong.
Take away: Dr. Patti Shank shares some of the mental processing models you can use to your advantage to improve learning when producing videos.
Guide To Creating Successful Community Strategies
Feverbee’s Community Strategy Guide offers valuable insights on building and managing online communities. It emphasizes understanding community goals, engaging the target audience, and fostering inclusivity. Key points include defining objectives, researching the audience, establishing guidelines, managing conflicts, and measuring success.
Take away: If you’re considering starting up a community or already working with one this is a comprehensive resource for developing successful communities.
Effective educational videos
This study from Vanderbilt University finds that effective educational videos are strategic, engaging, and cognitively optimized. They should be goal-oriented, concise, and stimulating. Incorporating storytelling and pacing can enhance learner engagement. Interactive elements and practice opportunities help to consolidate learning. Videos should also be created with consideration for diverse learning needs. Lastly, it’s crucial to assess the effectiveness of the video, taking into account both the learners’ understanding and their experience.
Take away: Effective educational videos should be goal-oriented, engaging, inclusive, interactive, and their effectiveness should be regularly assessed.
7taps AI Content Transformer
I wanted to share some key takeaways from a recent talk via 7taps which is a quick and easy way to do that but it was even quicker and easier than I thought it would be. They have a new AI transformation feature that will build your micro-course from existing content. You can toss in a file like a PowerPoint deck or a PDF or give it a URL—from YouTube or Google Docs, etc. —and watch as it whips up a microlearning course in less time than it takes you to make a cup of coffee. Add your personal touches, tweak or add your interactions, and voilà! No more of the awful copy-paste monotony or even worse – recreating stuff from scratch. Watch just how fast and easy it is here and check out the final results here.
Take away: Give 7taps new AI transformation feature a try and see how good it does converting your existing content into a micro-course format.
Say goodbye to manual work and save your brain for the big stuff. In the book, Automate Your Busywork, SaaS CEO and no-code enthusiast Aytekin Tank provides a guide on how to finally have the time to accomplish your most important work. Pre-order today.
Your First Draft, Fast
Looking for some words of inspiration to kickstart your creative process? Magic Write in Canva Docs is your very own AI text generator to help you get out a first draft, fast. Simply start with a prompt and watch as copy, blog outlines, lists, bio captions, content ideas, brainstorms, and more appear in seconds.
Try Magic Write by Canva
Get smarter in 5 minutes with Morning Brew (it’s free)
There’s a reason over 4 million people start their day with Morning Brew – the daily email that delive/rs the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Business news doesn’t have to be boring…make your mornings more enjoyable, for free.
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🎧 Podcasts
These are the podcasts that caught my ear this week.
Artificial Intelligence. AI. ChatGPT. “But what is it, and how do I use it?” Join us as we demystify how ChatGPT works and give you practical ways to leverage ChatGPT and AI to help perform your L&D tasks – that you can use today!
Register now to claim your spot.
🧰 Tech, Tools & Tips
If tools are your jam, check out my new WorkSmarter newsletter
Walling is a visual, fast tool to organize and share ideas on collaborative walls.
10 surprising features you didn’t know existed in Microsoft Edge
Omnivore is the free, open source, read-it-later app for serious readers.
A full-screen countdown timer for workshops, presentations and meetings that helps everything stay on time.
The 10 Most Frequent Mistakes in Writing a Course Script
Attention all course developers, methodologists, and lecturers!
Struggling with online course engagement and adaptation? Join this upcoming webinar: “The 10 Most Frequent Mistakes in an Online Course Script.” Learn how to avoid common script-writing mistakes and get tips from our expert panel. Register now for your certificate of attendance and presentation gift. Don’t miss out on enhancing your online course development skills!
🧳 Where’s Mike?
Learning & Marketing Conference
June 7-8
Online
Friday Finds is an independent publication that I produce in my free-time. You can support my work by sharing it with the world, booking an advertising spot, or by buying me a coffee.
Mike Taylor 