Discussion Highlights: What do you want to learn at TechKnowledge 2007?

Thoughts, Ideas, Comments:

People Resources:

During session one, we reviewed how helpful templates are in rapidly developing courses. The session with hands-on use of Dreamweaver was very impressive. Joe from World Bank is going to try to Utilize You-tube to get some videos out. A slightly different approach vs. the time and work involved of having our IT folks working to get streaming video on a server. Obviously nothing proprietary. John from Mercedes, developed ads for iPod. Originally designed for dealers and now are making this accessible for customers. Can post and record the number of downloads. Mostly targeted at the younger buyer. Debating posting C-class iPod which is more gaming and will appeal to the younger buyer. Michelle Reader shared with us that you need to go to the Expo early or they are too busy to talk with you. Also, you need to get to class early or you will be sitting on the floor. John from Children's Hospitol spends much of his time convincing folks in his organization that there is an advantage to utilizing some of the tools that are currently available at the same time some of the younger folks in the company are demanding some of the current technologies. One way of selling is to look for key physicians that like it and see the benefit and using them to help sell the idea of e-Learning. Discussed the ROI session, discussed amount of hours of training time saved when utilizing e-learn. One example showed 1/3 the cost, 3-4 times the people trained and 1/3 the time. Recommended book by Mark Rosenburg ... E-Learning Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age". Someone mentioned they are looking for tips on softskills training on-line. They have the content, need a delivery tool. Idea came up that they should look online for off the shelf content already created. Also, Captivate using scenarios. Someone mentioned that they have very specific MS XL training and they use Captivate for that as well. Skill soft has some great examples that may help. Was brought up that you could use taglines to help promote your training classes. Commercial lines like "Just Do It" and so on that helped get people bought into the course. Someone attended "The 10 warning signs" and their takeaway is they need to focus on how to better measure behavioral changes after a course. Several people mentioned Kirkpatrick's book, "4 Levels of Evaluation". Martha from Brown, went to the Wiki/Blog session. Go to Wikipedia.com to find out what it is all about. There are different versions. Some are free, some you buy software and donwload. One way to use Wiki, is to allow some of our firm's "old-times" to post info for our newer users to get it. An example of a great utilization of Wiki, is when people will post tricks on software for example, "Flash" tricks. What's in it for the people posting the information? One advantage is to get their name out there as a source of information or expertise. The session that presented "Presenter" was . The Keynote Speakers were inspirational. Great statistics, points and slides. Slides were not too busy and were easy to digest. Most people have the mindset of "Change is not good". We need to find a way to move our company's technology ahead. People really liked the anology of "Whack a Mole". The marble question was inspiring. People should look at the end result desired first and then work backwards. We shouldn't get wrapped up with Tools that we use but, we need to impower the learners.

How do you make Compliance training fun instead of boring? Most of us hear Compliance training, we think of boring training. Was mentioned that all the Articulate computers crashed before the class started. Individual came here looking for any basic information on LMS, LCMS and so on. Not familiar with technologies at all. Questioned how to create information that is balanced for training delivery for a wide range of technical mastery. Was suggested that you should add buttons on the slides that allows the more technically advanced folks to dig deeper into the knowledge. She saw this example in the Allen Interactions presentation. One great idea is asking up front how the learner wants the training and give it to them in the format they select. Causes, much work ahead of time but, allows for a very unique delivery option. Blended training was brought up. Looking for others to talk about it. Some folks deal with some technically challenged employees that can't use computer. They have to watch demo of software and cannot utilize tests and so on to evaluate the training. Discussed Allen's intro to the ailine safety course. Was a great way to grab your attention. Again, Wikis come up as another great way of learning. It is a great way of capturing ideas, even if it allows for someone else to expand on it or "run with it".

Learning analytics Dashboards: Very useful and practical. Good to have metrics. Wikis session a great one. Useful if you have money. Buswiki is the vendor. The cost to run such a site may be prohibitive. Could be helpful in desseminatory information since there is no LMS. So, how do you report? Open source LMS - Moodle.com written in php and is used worldwide. Not a lot of reporting, but can track courses and upload SCORM content. Can be hosted or installed. Someone said that the session that showed Presenter, Flash and Captivate working together was "eye-opening" because there are so many things you can do. Captivate works on slide model whereas Camtasia works on video model. Camtesia is good for getting info but, not as good if you want to create simulations or clean-up content. Both work better in Captivate. Some of the folks were having difficulty getting Captivate to pause. Caralyn used a hidden button that made it wait. This works well. Question posed - "How to track without an LMS?" Try using some Javascript? Set up an end page with an e-mail button so people can notify you that they're done. One issue was working with huge videos. Edit in File Cut pro and then use cleaner to compress file to flv. Cleaning company sues 100's of videos to teach different contractors. Any ideas?