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Category: Implementation

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What is it?

A statement of one or more goals of a learning experience that identifies the specific knowledge, skills, or behaviors that a learner should be able to demonstrate after the learning experience.

Why is it important?

Learning objectives are the foundation upon which a curriculum is based, and good clear learning objectives can be critical for creating good instruction. Sometimes, designers differentiate between learning objectives and performance objectives but learning design for adults should be guided by the concrete, visible behaviors that the learner will actually need to perform in the real world.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

Developing learning objectives is one place where a business professional can collaborate with learning professionals to ensure that the business goals for the organization align with the educational offerings the organization offers.

Collaboration between business and learning professionals can create learning objectives that will guide the curriculum development process. Good learning objectives help you eliminate unnecessary content that doesn’t support your business objectives. Learning objectives also help you focus the learner’s attention, evaluate the effectiveness of training, and establish performance standards.

A single set of learning objectives may not serve all those purposes, and you may need to have different versions of learning objectives for different audiences or purposes.

Business professionals can also benefit from learning objectives because they document the goals of a training activity and provide a benchmark for assessing the value of training.

References

About Julie Dirksen

Photo of Julie Dirksen

 Julie Dirksen is a consultant and instructional designer with more than 20 years’ experience creating interactive e-Learning experiences. She loves brains, and games and evidence-based practice, and her current focus is the science of behavior change.  She wrote the book Design For How People Learn, and she’s happiest whenever she gets to learn something new. 

Term: Learning Objectives

Email: julie@usablelearning.com

Website: usablelearning.com

Twitter: @usablelearning

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juliedirksen/

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/designforhowpeoplelearn/

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What is it?

A software application used to administer, track, report, and deliver training to a range of learners, including internal employees, software users, and university students.

Why is it important?

Learning management systems (LMS) make it easier to disperse knowledge to multiple audiences and make eLearning more efficient, scalable, and effective. LMS technology is evolving, and with newer technologies, they are becoming more widely used in the corporate environment.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

A large part of how businesses create value is through distributing knowledge. Knowledgeable employees are able to effectively help their customers, knowledgeable customers are able to successfully use the business’s products, and knowledgeable prospective customers are able to confidently choose the right product in the first place. A learning management system helps businesses systematically store, deliver, and track content so they can more effectively distribute knowledge.

If your company does not have an LMS, you should investigate to see if one can help your company. If you do much in-house training, the odds are that one will.

If your company has an LMS, then you should gain at least a basic understanding of its capabilities and its impact on your business. This enables you to take advantage of those capabilities to increase your knowledge, and the knowledge of your employees.

Capabilities vary by vendor, what features have been purchased, and what level of access you are allowed to have. If you know the features that are available to you, you can make the best possible use of your LMS.

References

About Phily Hayes

Photo of Phily Hayes

Phily Hayes has worked on 100s of LMS implementations from the vendor side and spoken at multiple conferences internationally on the topic.

Term: Learning Management System

Email: phily@zerve.ai

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What is it?

A set of tools, processes, templates, and conventions that ensure that the materials created to support learning in an organization are consistently designed, developed, deployed, and tracked in support of business goals.

Why is it important?

Learning takes resources. To obtain the resources needed to sustain a learning culture, you need to think strategically about how you will use those resources. Having a strategy with respect to learning content standards helps ensure that decisions about allocating resources are always made in the context of the bigger picture.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

Business professionals know that learning is a key strategic activity. However, learning departments are under pressure to reduce costs and justify their spending. Because they are a cost center, they must have a demonstrable strategy as to how they deliver value and manage costs. Having solid learning content standards helps ensure that their investment is worthwhile and reflects the needs of the business.

Learning content standards help leverage the power of these technologies:

  • Learning Management System (LMS): a platform to support the deployment of learning events, launch learning content, and return data about the completion of learning experiences and satisfaction of learning requirements. Note: one reason eLearning is possible is because an LMS can record course completion without the intervention of an instructor (see Learning Management System).
  • Learning Experience Platform (LXP): a platform to enable users to find needed learning experiences by organizing resources based on their relevance to skills, business goals, and related offerings(LXP).
  • eXperience Application Programming Interface (xAPI): a standard for capturing and storing data about learner behavior. xAPI can capture test scores and completion status as well as other information about what users do during the learning experience(xAPI).

References

About Adam Weisblatt

Photo of Adam Weisblatt

Adam Weisblatt is passionate about building the resilience of learning and development organizations so they can create business value. Adam has experience in all aspects of workplace learning and a proven track record of implementing global enterprise-wide projects using an agile, collaborative, and creative approach to meeting organizational needs. He has the ability to analyze systems, processes, and team dynamics and uses outstanding visuals and storytelling to explain them to a wide audience. He provides consulting and design services for companies throughout their digital transformation. Adam speaks at conferences and writes for industry magazines. He is also a cartoonist and puppeteer.

Term: Learning Content Standards

Email: adamjweisblatt@gmail.com

Twitter: @weisblatt

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adamjweisblatt/

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What is it?

Collecting and curating knowledge from experienced workers and sharing it with others, especially those who will continue their work.

Why is it important?

Experienced workers possess vast knowledge about their jobs and roles. When these workers leave, whether through retirement or other reasons, their work still must continue. Without some form of knowledge transfer, all that collective knowledge walks away with them.

Knowledge transfer helps businesses identify, understand, and document what must be done, so operations continue after an experienced worker leaves.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

Knowledge transfer isn’t just about writing step-by-step procedures on how to carry out a particular function. It also entails any activity in which experienced workers share their knowledge, including mentoring, videos, and even informal chats.

Although many aspects of knowledge transfer relate to older generations who are beginning to retire from the workplace, the term experienced worker pertains to anyone, regardless of age, who has significant experience in a particular realm.

Knowledge transfer is not just sharing the what or how but also why things are done. When businesses can tap into this collective wisdom, they will have not only clear-cut documentation for others to follow but also building materials through which to analyze the big picture, so they can potentially streamline processes or see where to allocate resources more efficiently.

Be aware that some workers may feel threatened by being asked to share what they know. They may fear that their jobs will become obsolete or, worse, that they will be made to feel useless. Although knowledge transfer is vital to continuing operations, it’s crucial to remember that we are dealing with people first and foremost. Businesses must remain sensitive to these feelings and reassure experienced workers that they are not simply being siphoned for their knowledge and later discarded.

Overall, knowledge transfer helps businesses not only capture knowledge but also potentially identify more efficient processes. Ultimately, successful knowledge transfer can save money and time because of these efficiencies and the ease with which successors can pick up the torch.

References

  • (Training Industry 2013) Knowledge Transfer: Training Industry. (2013). Overall definition of knowledge transfer.
  • (Spacey 2018) 8 Types of Knowledge Transfer : Spacey, John. (2018). Simplicable. Great description of various methods of knowledge transfer.

About Jamye Sagan

Photo of Jamye Sagan

Jamye Sagan has over 15 years of technical communication experience. As the pharmacy communication advisor for H-E-B (Texas-based grocery chain), she helps design training programs and deliverables, while managing communications between corporate and retail. Jamye also volunteers with the Society for Technical Communication in various capacities and has spoken about instructional design, all while sharing her love of knitting, Harry Potter, and cats. She lives in San Antonio, TX.

Term: Knowledge Transfer

Email: jamye.sagan@gmail.com

Twitter: @gimli_the_kitty

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamye-sagan-15416434/

Facebook: facebook.com/jamye.sagan

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What is it?

The way learning content is presented to learners. Possibilities include in-person, lecture, digital, electronic, synchronous, asynchronous, and more.

Why is it important?

Delivery mode is important because the right delivery mode can help showcase content more effectively and facilitate learning and retention. While it is often considered a static concept that is either a designated location or type of technology, delivery mode is neither static nor one size fits all. Instead, the delivery mode should be chosen based on what is to be learned and the needs of the learners. Delivery mode can also be combination of two or more modes, often referred to as taking a blended approach.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

Business professionals need to have an understanding of delivery modes so they can work with learning and development professionals to select the best delivery mode(s) for their needs. Factors to consider when selecting a delivery mode include:

  • Business reasons for requiring learners to complete training
  • Who the learners are, e.g., new staff or experienced staff
  • The learners’ current skill levels
  • Available resources, including people, budget, and time
  • How soon the learning needs to become a part of the learners’ routine
  • Size of the learner population
  • Aspects of existing training that are no longer relevant or effective
  • Nature of the content, e.g., completely new or a refresher
  • Complexity of the content
  • How learner proficiency will be evaluated, e.g., quizzes, proficiency tests, timed drills, observation, problem solving, and so forth.

Knowing the responses to these considerations can help you or your instructional designer assess how best to present the content. Methods for presenting content include the following:

  • Demonstration
  • Distance learning, whether synchronous or asynchronous
  • eLearning
  • Hands-on learning
  • Informal learning
  • Lecture
  • Lab
  • Job aids or performance support tools, e.g., labeled images, checklists, or step-action tables
  • Projects, e.g., individual or group
  • Peer mentoring and coaching
  • Microlearning modules
  • Simulation, whether on the job or using augmented or virtual reality
  • Social learning
  • Solving problems or resolving challenges
  • Video, e.g., tutorial, scenario, simulation, or interactive video

References

About John Vivolo

Photo of John Vivolo

For nearly 20 years, John Vivolo has dedicated his career to online learning. His experience includes being an instructor, instructional designer, educational technologist, director of an award-winning online learning unit at New York University (NYU) and, more recently, executive director at the Katz School of Science and Health. John is currently all-but-dissertation in the EdD program at Northeastern University.

Term: Delivery Mode

Email: johnvivolo@yahoo.com

Twitter: @vivolojohn

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnvivolo/

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What is it?

Any sequence of planned activities or experiences that enables learners to explore materials, practice what they have learned, and achieve proficiency.

Why is it important?

Central to all learning experiences, a curriculum provides the core structure that guides learners on their path to meet set goals. In other words, a curriculum helps learners learn by creating a framework that communicates performance standards, key learnings, methods, projects, relevant metrics, evaluation plans, etc.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

Imagine trying to assemble a structure without a cohesive plan. Yes, it is possible to build something, but how will you measure progress along the way? And how will you be able to recreate what was built later?

Creating a curriculum is creating a plan that lays out a set of expectations to help learners build towards their goals. The curriculum might include a sequence of courses, internships, mentorships, coaching sessions, or immersive simulations that, in essence, serve as the building blocks of learning.

Establishing a curriculum, in alignment with business or educational goals, provides a roadmap that enables learners to progress along learning pathways in support of their own or organizational growth. Alignment also enables learning leaders to invest in the future of their people in the organization and report to stakeholders on how their educational programs support the mission and vision of the organization.

References

About Bryan Alexander

Photo of Bryan Alexander

Bryan Alexander is an education and technology futurist. A senior scholar at Georgetown University, he helps colleges, universities, libraries, non-profits, and governments think about where education may be going in the coming decades. Creator of the Future of Education Observatory, Bryan publishes the monthly FTTE trends report, conducts the weekly Future Trends Forum, blogs, and runs an online book club. He speaks, consults, and publishes widely. His latest book is Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis (Johns Hopkins University Press).

Term: Curriculum

Email: bryan.alexander@gmail.com

Website: futureofeducation.us/

Twitter: @bryanalexander

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bryannalexander

Facebook: facebook.com/bryannalexander

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What is it?

Selecting, vetting, organizing, and distributing effective content.

Why is it important?

The amount of information available to workers is increasing at an exponential rate. Business professionals have neither the time nor the expertise needed to identify the most valuable content from this seemingly endless flow. Curation selects and presents the most useful, valuable content and makes it available so others don’t need to repeat that effort. In his book Curation Nation(Rosenbaum, 2011), Steven Rosenbaum describes it this way: Curation replaces noise with clarity.

Why does a business professional need to know this?

Business professionals should care because curation is emerging as an important competency. In today’s world of work the person who knows everything is no longer the most valuable member of the team; the person who can find and share the answer to anything is.

Museum curators don’t create content. They listen, then find content that resonates. They scour the globe for artifacts related to that content and organize artifacts in such a way that guests are taken on a learning journey as they experience an exhibit. Of course, museum curators are highly trained for doing this. It is their specialty.

Business professionals are finding that curation is an important specialty in their world, too. Curation in the business world starts from the assumption that most questions have already been answered and most problems have already been solved. Curation finds the answers to those questions and the solutions to those problems and makes the results available. Good curation can help your organization and its customers become more efficient both in learning and in everyday operations.

How does curation fit into learning and performance? The most visible form of curation comes from informal learning that takes place on the job through coaching, mentoring, experiences, and sharing. But capturing this type of learning is difficult, because it takes place serendipitously and without documentation. Actively seeking to capture that knowledge and pass it on is valuable both to the company and its employees.

Business professionals can also curate the information they provide to customers to ensure that they do not overwhelm customers with irrelevant information. Curation, as a discipline, can help replace noise with clarity and enable you to deliver solutions faster and more efficiently.

References

  • (Rosenbaum, 2011) Curation Nation : Rosenbaum, Steven. (2011). McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN: 978-0071760393.
  • (Rosenbaum 2011) Innovate — curation!: Rosenbaum, Steven. (2011). TEDxGrandRapids. YouTube video.

About David Kelly

Photo of David Kelly

David Kelly is the CEO of The Learning Guild. Before joining the Guild, David has been a learning and performance consultant and training director for over 20 years. He is a leading voice exploring how technology can be used to enhance training, education, learning, and organizational performance.

Term: Curation

Email: dkelly@elearningguild.com

Website: learningguild.com

Twitter: @LnDDave

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lnddave/