Our website has been revamped to more accurately show what we offer. The core focus of Knowledgework is help information technology (IT) senior managers drive more profit and growth within their organizations. My involvement in the company is to develop targeted elearning, job aids, articles and other learning strategies that equip our clients to successfully learn and apply new IT processes and technology.

My work brings the satisfaction of helping ease the pain often associated with a change to new (and sometimes intimidating) technology or processes. With the amount of new technical information projected to double every two years, it is becoming more essential to find better and more efficient ways to acquire new skills and knowledge. I think the flexibility of online learning (when done well) can contribute.

We've just published a paper that outlines some practical tips IT managers can use when seeking to address the issue of change management in their projects. To check it out, you'll find it here: Ensure Change Management Success for Your IT Projects

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Periodicals & Report change management information technolo

Product and sales training in a 3D environment

I've been making notes and currently exploring learning opportunities in SL, but haven't grouped my thoughts together enough to make a decent post yet.

In the meantime, I'd like to share this informative video about using 3D worlds to enhance learning. The video shows an example where sales reps are trained about the features of a new product. The creator of the video, Karl Kapp, has shown a 2D learning approach in a 3D world, and how it can be made more effective by taking advantage of the unique features offered in a 3D environment. Clearly, the 3D training looks like it would be better for learning and also a lot more fun.

Good elearning example by Lectora

Part of my informal education in instructional design includes learning from examples, both good and bad. Obviously, I try to recreate the good things I see and avoid the not-so-good in my own projects.

Here is an example of elearning by Lectora that I find particularly effective and well done. I guess if you're in the elearning business then your elearning better be pretty darn good. To view the elearning, you'll have to go to the Trivantis website and click the View Tutorials button. I'm not promoting the product, and have never used it, but find the training is interesting and easy to grasp. It's broken down into very short snippets of about 23-30 seconds each that can be navigated, viewed and reviewed separately. I also like the way the agent speaks in the front while the application tips are displayed in the background. Haven't seen this technique used before and, at first glance, I liked it.

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on this example or any others you've come across.

Twitter training and update

Over the last few weeks, we've been busy learning Plone 3 for our new website and responding to clients requests for instructional design services. Hence, I've neglected the blog once again.

To make amends, I'll leave you with a short video from my e-learning heroes at Common Craft. This time they are explaining Twitter: a tool for quickly spreading personal newsflashes, but I use it mainly to learn about industry-specific news and trends. Keep 'em coming!

Why learning objects make sense

It’s about learning by design. When you offer learning in the form of bite-size chunks, known as modules or objects, you set yourself up for knowledge-sharing success on many different levels.

Cognitive load. Your customers and employees are much more likely to retain information about your product and service when it’s presented in smaller pieces. Our working memory can only retain about four ideas at a time, so it’s a good idea to give people the option to go to something, learn about it, and come back again when they’re ready.

Adaptability. When information is built in smaller pieces, it’s more flexible and less costly to change it according to learner needs. Equally, it is easier to build upon information that has already been learned by adding new information incrementally. This lets you custom build training that grows with the learner. There has never been a better time to build a scalable knowledge base for your customers and employees.

Focus. Learning products offered in smaller chunks have the benefit of focusing exactly on what learners need to know.
In today’s busy world, people don’t have time to sift through long documents or attend lengthy training or e-learning sessions. Instead, why not offer them searchable content where they can access exactly what they need, when they need it?

Reuse. When information is easier to find, and use, it’s also easier to reuse. Changing information in the form of updates, versions and compliance requirements can put a burden on content developers. Updating information that is built in smaller reusable chunks is much easier because only the parts that need changing are affected.

Interoperability. The increasing use of learning management systems makes learning by design even more sensible. Using a learning framework such as SCORM means that you know your information can be included in a learning management system in the future should you choose to go that way.

Slideshare on trends and impact of e-learning 2.0

Interesting slide show on trend and impact of e-learning 2.0 by S. Downes. I picked up some new terms and ideas from this, and found it informative.

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Effective home safety e-learning

Here is a short (30 second) yet powerful and effective use of e-learning to describe how to put out a kitchen grease fire and the consequences of doing it improperly. I won't soon forget this training.