Learn. Show. Repeat.

Category: Reflections

  • My Word for 2017

    Towards the end of last year I starting thinking about my word for the coming year. I’ve seen posts on this before and recently I even came across the hashtag #oneword. Essentially, you choose a word that will guide your actions over the coming 12 months.

    Last year, I chose ‘build’ as my word which you can read about here. I felt I had mixed results with what I wanted to achieve last year so initially my word for this year was going to be ‘habit’. But on reflection, habits don’t just happen, I really need to develop the behaviours that become habits.

    So my word for 2017 is: Discipline

    In order to build good habits in learning and in life, you need to have discipline. Many of the goals I had last year, are still relevant. I want to further explore and grow and keep learning but sometimes I get caught up doing the things that I’m comfortable with. This year I want to be more disciplined in my approach – to make time for learning new things, reflecting, blogging, sharing and hopefully creating opportunities. I also want to be more disciplined with my own health and well-being (yes I know, everyone says that!).

    I like the beginning of a new year, it’s a fresh start and full of possibilities. So what’s your word for the year?

    Image source: Shutterstock

  • Looking Back at 2016

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    Another year is almost over and it’s time to look back on the year that was. At the beginning of 2016 I chose a word for the year which was ‘Build’. Specifically, my aim was to build my skills in some different areas which I’ve listed here as well as some reflections on what I did and didn’t quite do:

    Coding

    I stared an online HTML 5 coding course via Code Academy which I began in earnest. There we small lesson that started with some simple programming and gradually built from there. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep up with it and it fell by the wayside but it’s still on my list of this to learn about for next year.

    Webinar Delivery

    My role at work changed and as a result I didn’t deliver as many webinars as I thought but before this happened I bought a copy of Donald Taylor’s ‘Webinar Master’ eBook. It’s got lots of practical tips and advice from someone who has delivered many webinars himself. It’ll be my go to resource when I start presenting more webinars.

    Screencasting

    Earlier this year, David Anderson ran a few screencasting challenges via E-Learning Heroes and the timing was just perfect as it gave me a chance to build some skills in this area. I wrote some initial reflections in a post Learning About Screencasting. I’ve also found that a good way to build skills in screencasting is to watch others do it and make notes – what works well, things to avoid etc.

    Since the challenges ended I’ve continued to record screencasts on using Storyline and I also discovered that if you have a Google account, you also have a YouTube channel which is where I upload all my recordings. You can take a look at what I’ve created at my YouTube Channel. I plan to record more next year but include other topic areas such as learning theory and design tips.

    Learning Theory

    This will continue to be an area to explore for me and I came across a presentation by Donald Clark called ‘2,500 Years of Learning Theory’ which has given me some avenues to pursue.

    Curation

    I keep seeing curation being mentioned as an L&D skill but at the time of writing this not being able to find many examples of curated content. I started to think about curation in this post: Getting Started with Content Curation.

    In a follow-up post Continuing with Content Curation I curated some posts on content curation.

    I’ve also curated some content via topic area in this case accessibility in eLearning for Everyone.

    I have been experimenting with some curation apps – Anders Pink, Pocket and Flipboard – they’re ok but I find that they filter the content they show so will keep playing with them because maybe I’m not using them properly?

    Build Connections

    This is something that I always want to do and while the number of my connections has grown I’d like to deepen those relationships by more face-to-face meet ups. I didn’t do much of this in 2016.

    Fitness

    My goal was to complete the City2Surf run in Sydney and while I didn’t train as hard as I should have I still completed the 14km run!

     

    So a mixed bag in terms of building in all areas but I’m happy with the progress I’ve made and having a focus does help. I already have a word in mind for next year.

    This year, I didn’t complete as many ELH challenges as I wanted to focus on other areas but here’s a couple of posts about ones that I did participate in:

    4 Ideas for Combining Text and Images in eLearning

    Sliding Along with the Force

    Looking Closer at Images

    How I created a custom Quiz style Interaction (not a challenge but Storyline related)

    I also started the year with a post called Happy Same Year!? and I wonder if much has really changed at all in the world of L&D…

    Thanks to everyone who has read or commented or liked or shared something from this site, I really appreciate it and I hope it was helpful. I’d like to wish you all the best for the festive season and I’ll catch you in 2017 🙂

  • Rules of Engagement

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    In the eLearning space, a phrase that I see used a lot by designers and developers is their ability to ‘create engaging eLearning experiences’. But what does that really mean? Well, according to dictionary.com the word “engage” is defined as:

    “To occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons)”

    Sounds reasonable and definitely something we should be doing but if engaging eLearning is being created by so many, why is there still so much poor eLearning around? (Sidenote: I realise that an eLearning module isn’t always the solution to a performance problem so I’m coming from the instance of when it is).

    Authoring tools alone don’t create engaging eLearning, not without human intervention consisting of design and adding objects into them. So I suggest that perhaps there’s different ‘types’ of engagement in eLearning experiences used by designers and developers.

    Visual

    Visual engagement comes from the appearance or look-and-feel of the eLearning. It’s about the colours, fonts, images and layout used. It’s how these elements are connected and how well they support the message and content. But while a visually appealing module can draw you in (and occupy your attention), looks are superficial and will wear off on long, dry, content driven eLearning experiences because boring is still boring even if it looks pretty.

    Physical

    Physical engagement comes from having to actually do something during the module and in many cases this will probably involve a combination of clicking, dragging and hovering (requiring some attention and effort). Now I’m all for doing in eLearning but I do question whether clicking/dragging/hovering does anything for real engagement, I mean if there’s some information and instead of just displaying it, users need to click some buttons to reveal the same content but in small pieces, is that any better? I wrestle with this sometimes – is more clickable/dragable and hoverable more engaging?

    Mental

    This type of engagement is about using the mind. It’s about provoking thinking, providing a challenge or challenges. It’s about applying information to situations, making decisions and dealing with the consequences. It’s using stories. It’s making you feel something. It’s also about creating an experience that’s relevant and useful to people that will ultimately improve their performance. For me personally, these things are what really makes an eLearning experience engaging.

    In creating an eLearning module, all these types of engagement are needed (maybe there’s more?) but often the mental engagement is left out and what’s left is just beautiful, interactive content that’s quickly forgotten.

    So, what are your thoughts on engagement in eLearning? What about measuring engagement? Do you do it and if so how?

     

    Image source: Shutterstock

  • Continuing with Content Curation

    Since my last post on curating content, I’ve been keeping an eye out for articles and posts that discuss this topic especially for L&D folks. Generally speaking I find that lots of people are saying that curation will be a required skill for L&D but these same people are either not practicing curators or getting into the detail of how to curate content.

    One of the challenges I can see regarding content curation is finding ‘quality’ content in a sea of information. With such a huge volume you can’t be across everything but maybe that’s ok? Then what about sub-categories of content? As an example, in eLearning there’s content about authoring tools, learning theory, accessibility, graphic design, writing and many more.

    So some questions I’ve been thinking about are:

    Can the curated content be a mixed bag that falls under a common theme or is it better to sort by a category? For example eLearning or something more specific such as learning theory?

    How do you keep track of content you find from different sources?

    What tools are there to help with curating?

    How do you build skills in curation? (I’m taking the jump in and give it a go approach).

    Here’s my attempt at curating some content about content curation. The reason for selecting these particular posts was that they provide some diverse perspectives into content curation as well as a couple of examples of curated content (click the title to view).

    A Framework for Content Curation by Ryan Tracey

    In this post, Ryan proposes a practical framework for curating content. Built upon Tell me, Show me, Let me, Test me and focusing on quality being more important than quantity. The comments section is also a good read.

    We are the Curators of the Learning Revolution by Ruth McElhone

    As learning and development professionals move towards being curators in a world where there’s ample information, this post provides three good starting points for content curation.

    Seven Approaches to Content Curation by Marc Rosenberg

    I hadn’t thought of different approaches to curation until I read this post where Marc describes seven different approaches to curating content. Keep an eye out for Marc’s other articles on the topic.

    Content Curation for Learning by Anders Pink

    This is a FREE eBook from the folks at Anders Pink all about curation – why curation matters, the role of learning professionals in curation, examples and more.

    Content Curation, How can it be used? by Lorraine Minister

    Lorraine commented below and left a link to a post that describes a model she developed about different levels of content curation.

    eLearning Guild Twist

    A carefully selected list of articles on a variety of L&D topics for the Guild’s community that comes out every week. In my opinion a good example of content curation.

    A Week in Review by David Anderson

    Another example of curation, each week David gathers links to demos, discussions, articles and more that all come from the E-Learning Heroes Community.

    Pick of the Posts by Jane Hart

    Jane does a monthly curated post but hers is focused around a particular topic area. For the month of August it was posts about social learning.

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  • Building Your Personal Brand

    A few months ago I was invited to be part of a panel discussion on personal branding at the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) national conference. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend so I asked Michelle Ockers (who lead the discussion) if it would be ok if I wrote a blog post on the topic, using some of her discussion questions as a basis of the post. She kindly agreed and so here are my thoughts…

    Michelle defines a personal brand as:

    “While we associate brands with large corporations and products, the idea of having a personal brand is relatively recent. It would be easy to dismiss the idea of building a personal brand as hype or inauthentic. Perhaps it helps to view your personal brand as another term for your professional reputation. It is about who others think you are, what your purpose is, and what you stand for.”

    This sums it up nicely and I would also add that it’s your actions both online and in person that both define and support your brand.

    Describe your personal brand.

    I started being active online about three years ago and I never intentionally set out to build my personal brand, its evolved over time. My driver came from seeing a lot of negativity towards eLearning and rather than just being a critic, I thought why not flip it around and do something about improving my own practice and helping others in the field do the same.

    This is why my website contains mostly practical (and hopefully helpful) content designed to give others some ideas that they can use in their projects straight away. I also use my website to reflect and show that I’m still learning as I go too.

    I’ve never been motivated by numbers of followers or connections and while it’s nice to see them grow (because hopefully it means that I’m reaching more people) I don’t set targets in terms of numbers.

    Why is a personal brand important?

    A lot of people (and I was no different) wait until something happens with their career – maybe they’ve become unhappy in their job, things change in their workplace or they lose their job altogether – before they take action and think about who they are and where they want to be.

    Most people have a resume and/or an online profile and often they are just lots of descriptors about what someone says they can do. They all start to look the same after a while but a personal brand can bring those words to life and show who you are, what you can do, what you’re good at and most importantly help you to stand out from the crowd.

    I’ve also found that having a personal brand can open up other opportunities career wise such as invitations to speak at conferences which in turn helps you to reinforce your message.

    What are some of the most valuable things you’ve done to build your personal brand?

    I’ve done a few things to build my brand – starting this blog, using Twitter and LinkedIn in a targeted way and being active in the Articulate E-Learning Heroes community. But with all of them the one thing I did was participate. While you might start off watching from the sidelines, you need to get involved and if you want to build a strong brand you’ll need to move from just consuming the work of others to also being a creator and putting your own work/thoughts/ideas ‘out there’.

    How do you find time to build your personal brand?

    It’s not always easy to find the time but if you learn to use your time more effectively you can fit things in, for example use the time you spend commuting to work on the bus or train (I wrote the first draft of this post on a plane trip home), get up a little earlier or set aside a couple of hours on the weekend. If you’re serious about building a personal brand, you either need to find the time or make the time. It takes effort to build and maintain your personal brand but the investment is definitely worth it.

    I’m also fortunate that my employer – B Online Learning – is supportive of myself and my colleagues having our own identities in the wider learning community.

    Any advice for those new/wanting to build a personal brand?

    Firstly, ask yourself: What am I passionate about? Building a personal brand is a bit like gardening, there’s a bit of work in the beginning to get things in place but then you need to maintain and keep working on it otherwise it will wither away. If you’re not passionate, you won’t be able to sustain the effort needed to grow your brand.

    I’d also suggest starting out small and building from there as there’s no need to do everything at once. Also keep in mind that you may not get much response to your actions initially but don’t give up as people need to get to know you and what it is you’re about.

    My main tool for building my personal brand is my website that started out as a blog and has grown to include samples of work, suggested folks to connect with, downloadable templates and more recently ‘how-to’ video clips. I also use Twitter and LinkedIn to promote myself (be careful not to overdo the self-promotion) but I also like to promote others via these same channels. You need to find tools that you’re comfortable using.

    When you decide on the tools you’ll use you need to be consistent in posting and sharing. Try to do something at least every day so that others will see your passion.

    In terms of an online profile a couple of tips would be have a good picture of yourself (not a cropped picture from a holiday or function) and also have a description of yourself that summarises who you are and what you want to be known for.

    Remember, your personal brand is up to you.

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