It’s St Patrick's Day weekend and millions of people around the globe are about to get their green on and go “Irish for a Day,” even if they don’t have a drop of Irish blood. Not an issue! That’s part of the fun. St Patrick’s Day is celebrated in more countries around the world than […]

You’ve got a great idea for a gig economy business and you’re anxious to join Amazon, Uber, Lyft and a host of other companies in the sharing economy, employing independent contractors as your workforce. But wait — you also want to make sure those contractors know how to do their jobs, and represent your company well. […]

As do most articles in the L&D space, I frequently talk about what we should do. And, it occurred to me, that I could (and should) also talk about what we shouldn’t do. So here’s my list of things to avoid. There’s no claim that this list is comprehensive, but it is grounded in a […]

The best customer experiences are outcomes of the best employee experiences. Employees can only deliver on great experiences by feeling confident and knowledgeable about the processes, systems and outcomes used to deliver on those experiences. So the best employee experiences demand accessible, relevant and personalized learning. Learners today are demanding better education in less time, […]

Of late, I find a number of my posts are about taking down silly articles. And, I find that the claims are increasingly irritating. Now this probably isn’t new, I’m just more ‘sensitized’, but I see some recurrent themes, and I think it’s worth thinking about what they’re doing and what you should watch out […]

Today was Video Friday on L&D Talk. Mark Lassoff was our guest and he made some great points about the qualities of great online learning courses. The entire video of our conversation can be viewed here.  IMPORTANT NOTE: Mark Lassoff creates fantastic online courses that he sells. He is in the business of creating training […]

When it comes to the "The Art of Training”, our first thought is almost always "The Art of Face-to-Face Training". In this post, let's move past face to face to virtual. Yep, those dreaded webinars. The place where PowerPoints go to die. As the move to more virtual training becomes a necessity of the workplace, […]

*This is a guest post from our featured blogger Ant Pugh. If you are looking to invest in an LMS for your organization, you may be wondering where you can find enough content to keep your audience coming back for more. In this article we’ll take a quick look at five sources of online learning. […]

Organizational Imperatives The pressures on organizations aren’t lessening; the pressure to be more agile and adapt continue to increase. And there are many calls for organizations to do things in new ways. There are similarities between the models proposed for these new ways of working, and this isn’t wholly surprising. New research on how humans […]

This article from HBR.org got me thinking more about how Training, Learning and Development fit into the future of work. Over the years there have been a few research organizations looking into the future of the workplace. But this particular look into the future comes from a unique perspective. The article is built upon the work […]

SXSW Interactive is a massive event. Even writing that statement doesn’t feel like I’m doing justice to the size of the event. Most events that I attend are confined to one location, like a hotel conference center or complete convention center. But SXSW is large enough to take over a convention center, an events center, […]

I attended the Edtech day of Phoenix Startup Week last week. And today some of the presentations went live on slideshare. The CEO of picmonic gave a presentation on Starting a Company in Arizona, and was not part of the edtech track. So I'm glad I stumbled onto their slideshare and their company called Picmonic. I'm always […]

If you've been in the eLearning industry for any significant period of time you know the industry thorn that is SCORM. It was a wonderful idea at the time. It was created by smart people with the best of intentions. However, it's safe to say that the SCORM format has not stood the test of time. […]

As a franchisor you want your franchisees to be successful. You need to empower them. They need to know your vision and all the practical details required to execute that vision in their franchise. You know the old saying, "knowledge is power." That means training is a critical part of executing your franchise vision and empowering franchisees. You already […]

From 20 to 200! This is how fast hundreds of small businesses want to grow. Like those currently attending the SaaStr Annual Conference in San Francisco. And in today's environment, that growth needs to happen fast. But that can be a huge challenge. Not only for the leadership of the company but for anyone given […]

For many of us who design e-learning, the multiple choice question is the default question format we add at the end of a chapter or module. But where did it come from? Is there any proof that multiple choice is effective? Are there alternatives that we should be using to test our learners? In this […]

This year’s CES2016 is a glimpse into the near future of tech, but a further future for eLearning. It’s easy to get excited about technology after an event like CES. Many of the really cool products will never get to the hands of consumers, and others won’t go mainstream for several years. And that means […]

As 2016 quickly approaches we all look into our crystal balls and pontificate about the coming year. Whether we do it in a blog, or during New Years parties, or just thinking to ourselves, it’s an exercise in hoping for a better tomorrow. The L&D world can participate in this annual custom, but it can […]

Do you make teaching part of your learning strategy? Probably not. It might be on HR's list of things employees at higher levels should do.  But I'm not sure we take teaching into consideration as part of a learning strategy. The typical instructional design process separates these roles into subject matter experts and learners. It's an […]

  "Storytelling is ultimately a creative act of pattern recognition. Through characters, plot and setting, a writer creates places where previously invisible truths become visible. Or the storyteller posits a series of dots that the reader can connect." Douglas Coupland Storytelling is popular topic amongst L&D professionals. It's the type of thing we all talk […]

The Artificial Intelligence trend will take the L&D industry by storm. Or by surprise, depending on how open you are to believe it. AI is not something any industry enjoys discussing because it usually means "machines doing the work that humans used to do.” We’re all excited about technologies that help us do our jobs […]

We have a lot of terms in L&D: Training, eLearning, mLearning, Social Learning, Informal Learning, 70:20:10, Asynchronous, Synchronous, Instructor-led Training, Online Learning. And that's just a few of them. Most of our industry's legacy revolves around a model of training based on classrooms and courses. When you get right down to it, that's really all […]

The L&D industry talks a lot about mobile learning. But what about mobile training? With as much as we focus on the learner these days, its equally important to focus on the instruction. Many will argue that you can't/shouldn't deliver entire classes on mobile devices. Let's put aside the notion that "courses" are wrong, and that […]

Welcome to part 3 of the Christmas Wish List Series. Today's list is all about audio/video recording gear. WAIT! Before you click away click away thinking you've "got people who do that", hear me out. Even if you are manager, or director, or training/eLearning, there are a few things you should know. We are in […]