For the past two months, my studies have revolved around the subject of Training and Development.  Our assignment for this week, was to develop our own “Personal Development Plan” by identifying four goals that we would either pursue on our own or advocate for through our employer. Goal #1:  Complete my Master’s Degree in Instructional…

This week’s post is all about technology tools that are helping to shape and change the landscape and the impact it is having on the way we deliver training in the 21st century.    Simulations and Games Jessica Trybus, an expert in the development of software that utilizes simulation and video game techniques summarizes the potential…

For this week’s assignment, we were asked to select a company, conduct some research on that company and describe a process for developing a training program.  I selected  Medtronic, which is the world’s leading medical device company employing more than 46,000 employees and with its recent acquisition of Covidien, now employs more than 90,000 employees…

Do you work for a company who values the importance of employee training or are do you find yourself having to justify the value of training because your company or management views it as unimportant or even unnecessary?  If you fall into the latter, here are some key insights that support the value and importance of…

For this week’s assignment, we were asked to describe a project, either personal or professional, where we experienced issues related to scope creep, talk about the issues that occurred and how we dealt with the stakeholders involved in the project. We were also asked to look back on the experience and think of what we…

For this week’s assignment, we were tasked with finding resources to aid in estimating costs associated with an instructional design project (e.g., activity durations and resource costs). While there is an abundance of material related to the mechanics and process of instructional design (e.g., ADDIE, AGILE) and myriad of learning theories to frame your design…

For this week’s assignment we were asked to view a multimedia program entitled “The Art of Effective Communication” and to reflect upon our reactions to the same message being communicated in three different modes: email, voice-mail and  face-to-face conversation. Email The first problem with the email (which applies to all three modes in this particular situation)…

          In recent years there has been a virtual explosion in the distance learning environment whereby almost every large university as well as many other colleges and universities provide some type of online education for students. Siegle states the following: “The nature of higher education is changing. The traditional four-year brick and mortar institution is…

Consider the following scenario: A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new. With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to…

There is no question that with the boom of open-course websites there has also been a surge in demand as quality education courses taught by faculty from top universities like Stanford, Harvard, and MIT open the doors to scores of learners around the world that would not otherwise have access.  These courses have made it…