Free T&D webinars for April

Spring has sprung, and crocuses and daffodils are brightening the scene. Infuse your April with some springtime energy by signing up for one of the free webinars being offered this month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 9AM – 10AM PST: Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era

Good companies—those that are good to their employees, their customers, their communities, and the environment—make more money than their less worthy competitors. Yep—it’s true. Come hear economist Dr. Laurie Bassi share the hard-nosed evidence, describe the convergence of forces behind these findings, and discuss what this means for HR and learning professionals. You’ll leave armed with powerful new evidence and a fresh perspective you can use to get the resources you need to help your organization be “good company.”

Thursday, April 11, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: State of Sales Training, 2012

This webinar is based on the ASTD/Blackboard research report, State of Sales Training 2012. Presented by Lee Perlis, senior marketing manager for Blackboard ProEd, and Paul Terry, general manager for Blackboard ProEd, the report provides insight into sales training efforts within various organizations so that members of the sales training community can tailor their programs to help each sales team member reach his or her full potential. Nearly all the respondents (94 percent) reported that sales training helps them do their jobs better.

Monday, April 15, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: How to Make Yourself Indispensable with Strengths-Based Career Choices

Learn the secret to becoming indispensable by shaping your career around your natural strengths. Hear from HarperCollins author Ingrid Stabb on using the Enneagram StrengthsFactors model, how to communicate your type advantage in the workplace, and how to use your strengths to give yourself an edge.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 5AM – 6AM PST: Mission Critical: Managing Compliance Training in Europe

Almost every organization has to deliver some sort of compliance training. In some companies, it may be as simple as communicating the internal rules. In others, it can be a matter of life or death. Companies in Europe and around the world face constantly changing regulations from a myriad of external bodies and agencies—with different drivers, strategies, and assessment methods. Join David Wentworth and Ray Ruff as they walk through some of the results of Brandon Hall Group’s 2012 Compliance Survey, identifying global trends and looking at some of the challenges facing companies in Europe and beyond, as well as best practices across various industries.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 10:30AM – 11:30AM PST: Net Smart: How to Thrive Online

How can we use digital media to help ourselves and our learners become empowered participants rather than passive consumers? In his latest book, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, Howard Rheingold shows how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and—above all—mindfully. Howard’s book outlines five fundamental digital literacies: online skills that help with attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information and network smarts. In this session, Howard will talk about how attention works and how we can use our attention to focus ourselves and our learners on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami of information; the quality of participation that empowers the best of bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other online-community participants; and how successful online collaborative enterprises contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Transitioning a Federal Agency Business Unit to Telework

Many people in the federal government and beyond have heard about the USPTO's wildly successful telework transition program. Danette Campbell, Senior Telework Advisor for USPTO, and her team will present best practices for transitioning a business unit to a telework environment. They will walk you through the challenges and successes of implementing a telework program, using the USPTO as a case study. This session will provide you with useful ideas for managing such transitions in your own organizations.

Thursday, April 18, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Executive Onboarding: Manage through the Stages of Onboarding, from before the First Contact Well Past the First 100 Days (Free for ASTD members)

Leadership transitions are some of the toughest challenges people face—professionally and personally. Nearly half of new leaders fail in their first 18 months. Often, those failures are the result of crucial, devastating mistakes made in the very beginning. The business world is changing rapidly; we’re all new leaders all the time, and we must treat the next 100 days as the first 100 days of the rest of our careers.

Learn how you can take charge, build or rebuild your team, and deliver better results faster than anyone thought possible—and how you can coach others to do the same.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Leveraging the Best in Culturally Diverse Professionals (Free for ASTD members)

Your workforce is becoming more diverse, whether your company is nationally or globally focused. As your professionals expand in culture, race, ethnicity, or gender, it’s critically important to know how their motivations, communications, and needs are different. You can no longer use one “playbook” to effectively manage this changing workforce. This webcast will address some critical factors for success in motivating and managing the 21st-century workforce. 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Solving the 5 Biggest Challenges of Coaching and Developing Leaders (Free for ASTD members)

When you think about coaching developing leaders, do these questions swirl through your mind?

• What is the best way to get leaders to trust me?
• How do I get them to share what's really going on?
• How do I get inside their heads?
• How do I help them get results with speed and impact?
• How do I prove to them that I can help them?

This webcast will address each of these challenges. You will also learn how to establish a deep level of rapport with leaders and establish their trust, access their personal and unscripted thoughts, help leaders get results quickly, capture their undivided attention in a convenient and practical way, and demonstrate proof of your effectiveness and their results.

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS?

Your business needs are changing fast, and so are the demands placed on your current learning technology. Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Do you have that nagging awareness that it’s time to switch your learning technology, but haven't wanted to face the reality of doing so? This webinar can help reduce your fear of change and increase your odds of success. Join us to discuss best practices from hundreds of successful transitions, including:

• Insights on business strategies for change
• Selecting solutions for the future, not just today
• A technology migration framework, highlighting both the risks and the rewards of migration
• Tips for preparing your organization and data for a straightforward change
• Insights into managing expectations and change-management goals
• Award-winning case studies and practical steps to help you make a successful transitio

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Needs Assessment for Organizational Success

Needs assessment gurus Roger Kaufman and Ingrid Guerra-López present the four tiers of needs assessment, as detailed in their latest book Needs Assessment for Organizational Success (ASTD Press, 2013). As the authors state, "Analysis is important and useful only if you have evidence that what you are dealing with is the actual problem. Otherwise, you might think you are dealing with the actual problem, when in fact you are merely dealing with a symptom. The consequence is moving ahead, only to find that you implemented useless and expensive cures." Learn what is meant by Mega, Macro, and Micro needs assessments, and discover how to put an ounce of good assessment to work for your organization.

CSTD Calgary Symposium - May 2013

If you work in Calgary or happen to be in Calgary area May 29 - 31, 2013, CSTD (Canadian Society for Training and Development) is hosting a Learning and Development Symposium. You’ll connect, create, and collaborate with your peers from a variety of industries across the country. With a leading edge program offering you choices of case studies, enterprise learning strategies, and a stream dedicated to the core skills required of the profession, you’re sure to discover the answers you need to deliver the learning your organization values.

Top 10 eLearning authoring tools...do you agree?

I follow a lot of industry related blogs and recently came across an interesting article from the E-Learning 24/7 blog. Based on a variety of criteria, the author Craig Weiss created a top ten list of eLearning authoring tools (In a recent list ranking the top ten most influential people in the world for e-learning, Craig was listed as number four.) I was surprised at what tool came out on top and which one was a close second.

I'm now curious about what other eLearning experts rankings are and will do further research. In the meantime, take a look at the list and let me know if you agree with Craig's rankings.

Surviving the Test of Time

 In 1956, Benjamin Bloom (along with a group of collegues) identified three domains of learning: Cognitive (Knowledge), Affective (Attitude) and Pyschomotor (Skills). Trainers and instructional designers  usually refer to these as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude), the end result of an effective learning event or experience. Although Bloom's Taxonomy has been around for over 50 years it's still respected by learning professionals to this day. 

One of the many things I learned as a new instructional designer was Bloom's Taxonomy and I've continued to use it over the years so I was really interested in an email I received from eLearning Guild today about a new research report they've just released.

In Cecelia Munzenmaier's report, Bloom's Taxomony: What's Old Is New Again, she describes the history and revisions that Bloom's Taxonomy has gone through and examines how it's being used. She describes why it has endured despite criticism and how it can help instructors, instructional designers, and educators of all kinds. The revised version is worth examining since it now makes it easier to precisely target a learner's desired performance. The new emphasis on cognitive processes addresses a weakness in the original taxonomy and it has also been updated to include new digital technologies like social media. It's definitely worth the read.

The eLearning Guild is offering it free to members. Membership is free if you haven't already joined.

2013 Training & Development Conferences

If you’ve had a chance to read some of our past blog posts, you’ll know that Stephanie and I believe that it’s as important to continually educate ourselves as it is to help our clients educate their employees. Reading articles, books, white papers, research articles, and blog posts, following industry tweets and attending webinars and online certification courses are great sources of educational material – and we continue to pursue these. But it’s also worth looking at larger events. They give us the opportunity to meet industry experts in person and learn first-hand about the latest research and topics that particularly interest us. It also gives us the opportunity to meet lots of other like-minded learning professionals.

We all have busy live and it takes time to find what’s out there and locate the conference that’s the right fit for our needs and interests.  So with this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of links to a number of popular T&D conferences that are being offered in 2013. I hope they inspire you!

January 30 – February 1, 2013

ASTD TEchKnowledge conference, San Jose, California

Focuses on the design and delivery, management and strategy of technology and learning.

February 15 – 20, 2013

Training 2013 conference & expo, Orlando, Florida

Training Magazine's conference for learning professionals.

March 13-15, 2013

Learning Solutions 2013, Orlando, Florida

Focuses on maximizing performance with learning technologies.

April 12-14, 2013

ISPI, The Performance Improvement Conference 2013, Reno, Nevada

Learn about performance improvement from industry leaders.

May 6-9, 2013

eLearning DevCon 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada

Focuses on delivering practical eLearning development and management skills.

May 19 – 22, 2013

ASTD 2013 International Conference & Exposition, Dallas, Texas

Focuses on workplace learning and development.

June 18-20, 2013

mLearnCon 2013, San Jose, California

Focuses on every aspect of mobile learning including management strategies, platforms, operating systems, authoring tools and technologies, content design and development, and best practices.

October 23-25, 2013

DevLearn 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada

Focuses on what’s coming next in the world of learning, what the leaders in the field are thinking and doing, and how new technologies impact management, strategy development, and learning development.

October 23-26, 2013

NASAGA (North American Simulation and Gaming Association) 2013 Conference, Sarasota, Florida

Focuses on learning professionals who use active learning methods to increase engagement, enhance retention, and improve performance. 

November 13-15, 2013

CSTD Conference and Trade Show, Toronto, Ontario

Focuses on workplace learning and development.

December 4-6, 2013

Online Educa Berlin, Berlin, Germany

The largest global eLearning conference in the world. (Thanks for the info, Bruce)

If I’ve missed an event, just drop me a line with the details and I’ll post it.

Free January 2013 Webinars

Happy New Year! We hope you had a successful and happy 2012. Stephanie and I wish you much success on your training and development endeavors in 2013. Now I’ve been remiss this month in getting my blog post of free January webinars posted in time. I thought rather than abandoning the January list and moving directly to February, I’d list what’s left for January. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

See you online!

Thursday, January 17, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Game-Based eLearning – How Does Its Effectiveness and ROI Compare to Traditional eLearning?

There is lots of buzz about “gamification” and game-based learning over the last year.  Why should your organization consider adding it to your talent development strategy?  This webinar may provide the key to igniting the performance of your workforce in 2013! Bryan Austin will share 6 reasons why hundreds of organizations are implementing game-based eLearning, and how your organization can inexpensively benchmark its effectiveness versus traditional eLearning in transferring learned skills to the workplace to improve performance.  He will also share a plan to assess the return on investment (ROI) of game-based eLearning versus traditional eLearning.

Thursday, January 17, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The 2013 Employee: How they Engage, Learn and Develop into Leaders

How do you deliver great employee experiences in today’s climate of change? Evolving employee expectations, record job dissatisfaction levels, and economic slowdowns are amplifying this challenge and exposing the silos in how we manage and engage talent. Bring your HR, Learning and Leadership professionals together for a beginning of the year webinar with Stacey Harris, VP of Research and Advisory Services, Brandon Hall Group, and Kenexa co-presenters as they share best practices and trends in:

• Creating a holistic onboarding experience, for new employees as well as those who are changing positions and taking on leadership roles
• Connecting your HR, Learning, and Leadership functions to collaborate together and deliver an engaging and enriching employee experience
• Shrinking employee time to autonomy and increasing ongoing learning
• The continuation of learning - leadership training and development

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Power of Storytelling in the Virtual Classroom

Brain research confirms what storytellers know from experience: we learn through stories. We’re wired for it – the pattern, rhythm and structure. As a professional trainer, you use the most up-to-date facts and processes to impart knowledge and skills, but without a good old-fashioned story to put it all together, you make your learner’s job harder. Join Roger Courville, author of The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook, as he discusses practical tips for how to weave a story that will draw your learners fully into your virtual classroom. Attend this interactive webinar to discover:

• What stories to tell (hint: no “once upon a time”)
• How to choose the story elements that are right for you
• 3 steps to telling a story fit for virtual classrooms
• 4 tips for combining voice and visuals for improved impact  

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 12:30PM – 1:30PM PST: How to Apply Advance Story-Based eLearning Design Techniques to Immerse Learners

A story-based lesson can employ the “SRIA Model – Setup, Relate, Interpret and Apply”– to improve learning. But what is the approach to create a full program where there are several lessons? How do we make the lessons work in rhythm and harmony so each lesson moves the learner from one type of emotional learning to another? How do we immerse the learner so that each lesson builds up to a final “learning realization” or “high”? In this webinar, you will learn:   

• What neurosciences and cognitive learning research tell us about the relationship between learning and the art of music,painting and writing.
• How to employ the structure and rhythm of musical notes, photos and words to raise the learners' awareness and emotions of critical content to learn?
• How to use the "Advance Story-Based Design for Learning Oscillation".
• How to identify which content warrants a different tempo, theme and visual flavor to impart the right meaning.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Finding Time to be a Leader (free for ASTD members)

The scarcest resource a leader has is time (not money, people, or influence). This is why the top frustrations of leaders are typically: not having enough time, struggling to balance priorities, not being proactive enough, and spending too much time doing work that someone else should be doing. This webinar will show you how to discover your own personal green light work and give you tactics for shedding all the yellow, orange, and red light work that is misusing (or wasting) your time, hurting your leadership effectiveness, and stopping you from hitting all your goals.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Employee Engagement: Practical Tools and Strategies

Is “doing more with less,” resulting in burned out employees?  Are you finding it difficult to keep employees engaged? Even before the economic downturn less than 30% of employees were fully engaged – so the problem is growing every day.  In 2010, companies with highly engaged employees performed 22% better than the total stock index, while those with disengaged employees performed 28% worse. This presentation will give you practical tools to assess the engagement of your workforce and create strategies for increasing engagement.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS?

This session will help you reduce your fear and create a strategy for success during the process!
Your business needs are changing fast, and so are the demands placed on your current learning technology. Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Do you have that nagging awareness that it is time to switch your learning technology, but haven't wanted to face the reality of doing so? Join David Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Saba's Shruti Kala, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, as they share insights that can help reduce your fear of change and increase your odds of success. They'll discuss best practices from hundreds of successful transitions for creating a strategy for the upgrade, as well as tools and tricks for preparing your organization for a limited-impact change.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, 9AM – 10AM PST: Informal Learning (free for ASTD members)

This webinar is based on the ASTD/i4cp's research report, Informal Learning: The Social Evolution. It will be presented by Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp. Joining Kevin will be Dan Pontefract, Senior Director, Learning & Collaboration at Telus. The purpose of this report is to examine the ways in which informal learning is evolving and how organizations are leveraging it to improve performance. This Study is based on an analysis of a survey of 351 respondents. Nearly all the respondents (97 percent) reported that informal learning played a role in their learning initiatives within their organizations.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Shut Up and Deal the Cards: Card Games for Training

This webinar begins with a survey of 20 different types of cards that can be incorporated in training activities. It then focuses on three powerful training templates: Classification Cards explore concept categories (such as conflict-management modes) and stages in a process (such as stages in team development). With these cards you can play any game that is played with a regular deck of playing cards. In this interactive webinar learn how to create hundreds of your own card games that can involve 1 to 100 players for 5 minutes to 52 weeks.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The 21^st Century Mindset: Unlock Critical Thinking to Unleash Organizational Performance

We all use a variety of thinking styles in our daily lives, but we tend to favor some but rarely use others—and that hurts our ability to make good decisions. Knowing your preferred style will help you approach problems and decisions with the right mindset so you can be more successful. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and Dr. Judy Chartrand, as they offer you a unique opportunity not only to learn more about critical thinking and what it means for organizations, but to learn about your own thinking styles. My Thinking Styles™ from TalentLens helps you find the right balance between, so you can make the best choices, in life and at work. Between now and January 29th, Pearson is giving BHG members access to a complimentary administration of My Thinking Styles and a personalized Development Report. Then on January 29th at 1:00 EST, Dr. Judy Chartrand will give a brief overview of the Seven Powerful Thinking Styles and she’ll help you interpret your results. Your report will unlock a unique combination that will help you be more successful with your decisions, relationships, projects, and every aspect of your life – so don’t miss out!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Mixing it up! Merging Learning, Information, and the Social Enterprise to Maximize Impact

The increased value of learning through social enterprise collaboration and communications and the integration of quality information to support learning on-demand is a key focus area at Oracle. Hear and see what Oracle's Virtual Information Services (VIS) program has done to engage employees first with the key learning content for on-demand learning and how the integration of that information into programs and the collaboration around that information through social enterprise tools has increased awareness, productivity, engagement, and overall learning and business impact across the organization. Providing alternative ways of learning is enabling Oracle to become more productive but it starts with access to the right information at the right time - information integration, social, mobile, digital libraries.

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Future of Virtual Learning and Collaboration

In the past, online education and e-learning failed to live up to its potential. Fortunately, the future of virtual learning is here. It’s now possible to create rich, robust and collaborative learning environments that can be delivered anywhere and anytime.  Join this Training Magazine webinar, presented by UNC Executive Development, to learn how you can realize the full potential of virtual learning in your organization. You will hear directly from one of the industry leaders based on years of experience delivering world-class online learning. 2U Inc. was recently recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 10 start-ups changing the world. Attend this webinar to learn how the company is transforming online education and how you can do the same in your organization.

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Transformational Learning – Building a Learning Organization From the Ground Up (free for ASTD members)

In July 2010, the Global Learning and Development function at Savvis did not exist. By early 2012, the L&D function was not only in existence, they are thriving. Business unit leaders are advocates for learning, there is a direct connection to organizational strategy, leadership capability is positively moving, learning impact is measured, and the team is positively influencing the parent company. A Cinderella story? The transformation was driven not by a fairy god mother rather a well-articulated vision and intentional steps that maximized the possibility of success for this team. Learn the steps this team took to transform learning at Savvis, and how they helped the organization substantially increase learning consumption, decrease time to productivity, and increase leadership effectiveness.

Free December webinars

It’s hard to believe that 2013 is just around the corner but there’s still time to take advantage of a few more free training and development webinars on a variety of interesting topics this month before the year wraps up. Hope to “see” you online.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 10AM - 11AM PST: Straight Talk: making Performance Management Useful to Everyone

In a recent Brandon hall Survey, over 58% of the respondents stated that performance reviews did not provide applicable performance feedback. As organizations struggle to improve employee performance in a market that requires innovation and growth to stay competitive, how are organizations increasing the effectiveness of the performance management process? Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research at Brandon Hall Group, as she shares key practices on making performance management useful to everyone. Topics discussed in this webinar include:

•  Shifting employee management models
• Positive examples of effective employee focused performance management
• Case Studies of new approaches to the performance management process

Wednesday, December 5, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: HTML5 is Here to Stay: How to Achieve the New Content Delivery Norm

Learning organizations are facing a technology wake-up call as they realize that most of their content doesn't translate well, if at all, to mobile devices. The typical reaction is to initiate one-off projects for converting desktop courses, applications, and their Flash based components, per the specs of every major device platform. Discover a practical and streamlined production alternative for mobile portability; one that even enhances your original content. Packaging courses once in HTML5 provides endless mobile portability. With a single HTML5 content base, your content becomes easily interactive and searchable, and portable to all mobile platforms.

Thursday, December 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Write it Right! Use a Seven Step Process to Develop Learning Activities

With so many learning experiences, techniques and devices to choose from, the course designer can be like a gourmet cook, carefully choosing just the right combination to achieve the desired results.  There is no excuse for the overuse of lecture as the primary and often only technique. What is the best activity?  There is no answer to this question.  It depends on your purpose. This workshop suggests a seven-step process to develop learning materials, identifies a “best use” for a variety of learning experiences, and presents a proven approach to designing discovery learning by writing adult learning steps to process any learning activity.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Neuroscience of High Impact Learning

Brain research is pointing to fresh insights about how to make learning stick. A number of the findings are counter-intuitive, pointing to new approaches and tools for learning that can significantly increase engagement and retention of learning, using a wide range of training mediums. Join Dr. David Rock who coined the term “NeuroLeadership” and co-founded the NeuoruLeadership Institute to explore the latest findings emerging from brain research as it relates to creating high impact learning experiences, giving participants new tools for maximizing their impact.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Creating Instant and Rapid One-Minute Learning for mLearning and eLearning

Is there such a thing as “instant learning”? Experts in mobile and social learning say that there is increased prevalence that learners retain and learn by increments of knowledge and use them as frequently and quickly as they can. The method is “recursive learning” – small building blocks of learning with close proximity to work applications. In most situations however, the difficulty for trainers, eLearning and mLearning designers is that courses and lessons they develop are more driven towards the “completeness” of knowledge transfer rather than the “immediate application” of knowledge. In this webinar, you will learn:

•  What research and cognitive and artificial intelligence sciences have discovered on “immediacy application learning”
• How to design “immediacy application learning” – steps, procedures and outcomes
• How  to merge learning content with mLearning, eLearning and learning platforms to encourage instant learning

Thursday, December 13, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: New Research:  Top 5 Keys to Employee Engagement through Supervisor Development

In a new Training Magazine webinar, Dale Carnegie Training reveals results of its cross industry, in-depth study of 1,500 employees to explore engagement in the workplace. The research reveals several surprises and five practical approaches managers can use to increase employee enthusiasm, empowerment, confidence and value to their organization. Attend this session and learn how to:

•  Identify which behaviors of front line managers have the most significant impact on their employees' levels of engagement        
• Make sure your supervisor development programs focus on shaping the right practical approaches         
• Learn ways to efficiently develop the skills of your front line managers by capitalizing on virtual instruction and collaboration tools and techniques
• Get the latest whitepaper summarizing this ground-breaking research

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10AM - 11AM PST: Rise of the Machines: Mobile Learning Comes to Life!

Is your organization going mobile? Are you already delivering mobile learning but want to do it better? The rise of mobile learning is easily the largest learning technology trend of the decade and in the last two years the changes in the space have been exponential. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group and Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing at BizLibrary as they talk about the rise of mobile learning and the demographics of mobile adoption. They will also present case studies from companies successfully implementing mLearning.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 9AM - 10AM PST: ASTD State of the Industry, 2012 (Free to ASTD members)

Laurie Miller, Director of Research Services at ASTD, and Christina Mandzuk, Research Analyst will discuss benchmarking data from ASTD BEST Awards Winners, G500 Companies, and other organizations from 2003 to date. ASTD estimates that U.S. organizations spent $1,182 per learner on employee learning and development in 2011. Over half was spent on the internal learning function, such as staff salaries and internal development costs. The remainder was split between tuition reimbursement (14 percent), and external services (30 percent). The content from this webinar is drawn from ASTD's 2012 State of the Industry Report.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Using Strategic Assessments to Improve Learning and Performance and Drive Business Results

Most professional trainers think of assessments as tools for measuring and certifying employees' job-related knowledge and skills. Of course, that is one of their critical functions, particularly in compliance-dependent businesses. Join Steven Just, founder of Pedagogue Solution to learn how to use Strategic Assessments to Improve Learning and Performance and Drive Business Results, which will demonstrate how an active measurement strategy can improve individual, group and business performance. 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: 10 Critical Questions to Ask of Your Stakeholders BEFORE Designing Any Training Program

Needs analysis is often an arduous and lengthy process - but it is absolutely necessary if you are to have a successful training outcome. Join Nanette Miner, an author and consultant in the field of workplace learning to learn the 10 crucial questions to ask of your internal or external clients to ensure that you are creating a training program that is truly necessary and one that will return significant business results.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 11AM - 12PM PST: So You Want to Design an Instructional Game? Five Things You NEED to Know (free for ASTD members)

What does it take to design a serious game? How do you create instruction that is not only meaningful and educational, but also (dare we say it) fun? What steps do you need to follow during the design process, and which steps are most critical for success? Most important, how do you even get started?

This webinar provides five practical guidelines you can use to design a game that results in valuable learning outcomes. You will learn research-based tips and techniques for designing effective—and engaging—instructional games. Join game experts Karl M. Kapp and Koreen Olbrish as they discuss five key factors you need to know to develop an “epic” instructional game.

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Three Aspects of Performance Improvement

During this webinar you will be introduced to three interdependent aspects of performance improvement: the systematic process, the consulting process, and the building brand process. All three aspects contribute to sustaining changes required for improving the performance of people, work teams, and organizations as a whole.   You will gain insights and get three tools that you can use to explain performance improvement to others and guide your own development in the profession. 

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: De-Mystifying the LMS Selection Process 

The LMS marketplace continues to shift and evolve as vendors consolidate and new technology features become available. Deciding to invest in a learning management system isn’t even half the battle. Once they walk through that door, companies are faced with a mind-numbing array of choices. Where do they start? Which system is right? How do you know? Join Brandon Hall Group Chief Strategy Officer Michael Rochelle and Senior Analyst David Wentworth as they walk you through the selection process, delivering concrete steps and strategies to make the journey to LMS selection far simpler. The session will also include an informative demonstration of Brandon Hall Group’s LMS KnowledgeBase and Selection Tool.

Free November webinars

Well November, and winter, is officially here! Keep warm and dry by signing up for free webinars being offered this coming month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Learning Meets Big Data: Using Analytics to Create Learning that Works!

Over a third of learning organizations stated that their top priority in 2012 was creating a learning strategy. Why? As an industry, we are still struggling to measure the effectiveness of the learning we create and tie it to business performance. Developing a sound learning strategy requires direction, data and an honest assessment of what’s working and what’s not with your organization's learning. Stacey Harris, the VP of Research from Brandon Hall Group, and Mark Hellinger, CEO of Xyleme, will discuss insights on rethinking the idea of learning analytics. New research highlights how consumer driven learning is changing the market, and how new technologies can help you not only address those changes but do a better job at connecting your learning efforts to performance outcomes. We’ll share key practices in evaluating your learning; focusing on content, users, and business outcomes.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: What to do When There’s too Much to do: Reduce Tasks, Increase Results and Save 90 Minutes a Day (free to ASTD members)

Are you tired of hearing "do more with less"? Many people are already working as long and as hard as they can, and "productivity improvement" classes can be hard to swallow. Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro, turns time management on its head and shows overwhelmed professionals how to actually DO LESS and ACHIEVE MORE. They'll produce greater results and create significant impact on organizational goals. Laura teaches her latest thinking using this innovative workflow formula to reduce to-do lists, reduce commitments, reduce distractions, reduce the glut of information, reduce inefficiencies, and reduce energy expenditure. Past clients using these systems and methods report savings of 90 minutes a day and higher productivity than ever before.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: eLearning Content is Everywhere! How to Bring it Alive with Online Video Presentations

Everywhere you look, eLearning content is begging to be captured and put online. Every time an expert gives a lecture, an executive keynotes a conference, a techie gives a chalk talk, a product manager briefs a sales team, or a manager hosts an orientation, valuable content is being created. In this webinar, led by internet content pioneer Michael Kolowich (the Emmy-winning TV news reporter who founded ZDNet) you'll get practical advice on how to capture and deploy multimedia online presentation material in a way that captivates and engages an audience at a very modest production cost.  Michael will show a case example of how one of the world's leading medical schools is using online presentation tools to deploy a brand-new Lectures On Demand series for pay-per-view and subscription continuing medical education programs.

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Evaluation Practices, Promises and Barriers: How do YOU Measure Up?

On one hand, we say we honor evaluation, that we are eager for evidence and data. On the other hand, most reported practice is far from enthusiastic about metrics.  Today’s economic climate has increased accountability in organizations and required training and performance professionals to look in a data-driven way at their influence. At the same time, technology-delivered training, learning management systems and a host of tools has increased possibilities for data collection.  Are organizations using these tools?  And if so, to what ends? Join Dr. James Marshall, faculty member of the Department of Educational Technology at San Diego State University to learn more about evaluation promises, practices and barriers and give you an opportune ity to examine your efforts in light of the possibilities. How do you compare to the reported efforts of our respondents? How can we all do better?

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS

Your business needs are changing fast, and so are the demands placed on your current learning technology. Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Do you have that nagging awareness that it is time to switch your learning technology, but haven't wanted to face the reality of doing so? Over 30% of organizations in a recent Brandon Hall survey had plans to replace their existing LMS solution. Most of them look forward to the transition with dread and concern. Can they make a solid business case for the change? Will the transition impact business processes or mission-critical learning needs?

Join David Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Saba's Shruti Kala, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, as they share insights that can help reduce your fear of change and increase your odds of success. They'll discuss best practices from hundreds of successful transitions for creating a strategy for the upgrade, as well as tools and tricks for preparing your organization for a limited-impact change.

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: 10 Best Practices for Engaging Live Online Learning (free to ASTD members)

You have the lofty goal of developing interactive, dynamic and memorable live online training, but what can you do to keep virtual learners truly engaged and participating?  Join this webinar to hear Sheri Jeavons, founder of Power Presentations, discuss how to deliver effective, engaging online sessions that will leave your attendees eager to learn. Discover:

• Tips to convert in-person training into live virtual sessions        
• Delivery techniques to keep your learners engaged        
• A content development format to create a compelling 5-minute introduction      
• Best practices for training online with the GoToTraining tool      

Friday, November 9, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Designing Virtual Training for a Global Audience

One advantage of the virtual classroom is the potential for global reach.  Participants no longer need to fly long distances to attend a class; instead, we can bring the classroom to them! However, when incorporating international participants into your virtual training classes, it’s important to design sessions with global audiences in mind. In this interactive webinar, you’ll learn three principles to consider when designing for global audiences – how to:

• Design virtual sessions with a multicultural mindset
• Create a comfortable learning environment for all participants, including international attendees
• Apply cultural adaptations to virtual training designs

Friday, November 9, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Get Your New Hire Salespeople Up to Speed…Fast!

Hired and fired! It’s the revolving door of hiring salespeople and firing them 90 days later for poor performance. You loved them in the interview, but somehow they flopped on your team. Many sales leaders and business executives point their fingers at the sales people for failing to deliver on expectations. However, those fingers should be pointed at the executives if a structured salesperson onboarding program is not in place. Top performing companies don’t perceive adding headcount to the sales team as hiring, but rather as a corporate investment in revenue. Join Lee Salz, leading sales management strategist, for this virtual training to learn how to protect that investment and ensure a high rate of return. In addition, you will also receive Lee’s eBook titled “Sales Person Onboarding Best Practices”

Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Exploring Innovation in the Learning Landscape

Explore teaching and learning strategies that foster innovation. Discover practical ways that businesspeople and lifelong learners incorporate innovation into their work. David Wentworth, Senior Analyst with Brandon Hall, and Laurie Burruss, Senior Director of Education at Lynda.com, explain the key tenets of innovation, and discuss the role and benefits of questioning, experimentation, observation, associating seemingly unrelated concepts, and sharing. Topics to include:

• How to produce innovators, not just subject matter experts
• Lessons from curious and creative risk takers and real-world leaders
• Case studies and best practices

Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Can Social Learning Succeed Alongside an LMS?

Social learning is natural, effective and can be low-cost. It’s no wonder so many organizations are keen to embrace it. But most already have a Learning Management System (LMS) in place. Can the two be reconciled? Can collaborative, informal, discursive learning fit with the course- and resource-based approach of the LMS? Join Johanna Sadoudi, CEO of VITAMINDS and David Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst with Brandon Hall Group as they explore this issue, using real-world examples. Johanna will draw on her depth of experience in the industry, having overseen L’Oréal’s LMS deployment, rolling it out to 60,000 people across 45 countries.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Learning (free to ASTD members)

This session will introduce you to the technologies that are shaping the future of the World Wide Web and how those technologies disrupt existing web based training design. In this session you will learn the five key principles of the web that has sustained its growth; 1) The web wants to be fed, 2) The web wants to understand what it is being fed, 3) The web wants content to be viral, 4) The web wants you to know you and 5) The web wants you to communicate. Using these 5 principles, you’ll explore how to design for a web that is evolving based on these principles in a way that is significantly different from existing design methods.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How do YOU think? And Can You Think Better for Better Results?

We all use a variety of thinking styles in our daily lives, but we tend to favor some and rarely use others-and that hurts our ability to make good decisions. Taking a thinking assessment can help you find the right balance, so you can make the best choices, in life and at work. Join Training magazine and TalentLens, a Pearson business and learn how to improve your effectiveness and that of your team by leveraging new thinking styles.
 
When you register for the webinar, you will have the opportunity to take the My Thinking Styles assessment and receive your free personalized development report. Then, during the Webinar, Dr. Judy Chartrand, chief scientist at TalentLens, will give a brief overview of the seven thinking styles and help you interpret your results. Knowing your preferred style will help you approach problems and decisions with the right mindset. Your development report will unlock a unique combination that will help you be more successful with your decisions, relationships, projects, and every aspect of your life-so don't miss this opportunity!

Thursday, November 15, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Converting SMEs to the NEW FAITH: Less Content is Better, Faster and Cheaper

When you ask an SME, “What should learners learn from the content?” the response is usually “all” or “everything”. This is the OLD RELIGION where the data is “compressed and dumped” for learners to learn. This is costly and detrimental to the performance of workers. In this webinar you will learn:

• How to approach SMEs and present costs and statistical evidence that less content is better, faster and cheaper
• How to assist SMEs to redesign the way they write content
• How to discover sources of information, cases, examples and experiences within the company that help persuade SMEs to rethink their approach
• How to conduct brainstorming for content development with SMEs following processes and procedures that will guarantee
• An effective design - short and less in content

You will also receive the “SME Content Conversion Step-by-Step Process” - an interviewing guide.

Thursday, November 15, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Understanding Analytics for the Learning Organization

The topic of “analytics” has been on fire lately – everyone is talking about it, asking for it, and trying to figure out how to use it. In a recent Brandon Hall Group survey, over 46% of organizations said that changes in business performance was one of the top measures they used to evaluate the effectiveness of their learning. There is no doubt that learning analytics are important, but data is only valuable if you know how to leverage it for sound business decisions.  

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group, and Vinay Nilakantan, Director Product Development and Research for Meridian, as they hold an in-depth conversation on the topic of Learning Analytics.   

Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 4AM – 5AM PST: Creating creative leaders (Special time to accommodate live participation from members and customers from around the world. This session will also be recorded for on-demand viewing.) (free to ASTD members)

If creativity and innovation are top imperatives for your organization, then you also need to build the right leadership capability. However, when we try to develop organizational capabilities for creativity we often focus on the act of creativity rather than how to lead it. Leaders have a critical role in fostering creativity and innovation to build more dynamic organizations. This webinar will provide takeaways to immediately use to bring more creativity into your organizations whether you are new to the field (of creativity) or already a practitioner. Take advantage of endless opportunities to tap into more creative potential within ourselves, our teams, and our organizations. The more deliberate we are in our creativity and innovation efforts, the better the result. . And, what may be most surprising: You don’t need to be creative to be a creative leader (it can even be a barrier!).

How much priority do you put on your learning?

It’s been a very busy year for us at Limestone Learning Solutions – never a bad thing when you’re a consultant. But being busy can have drawbacks too. There never seems to be enough time to focus on personal development and looking back over my calendar this year, I realize that I’ve fallen into that trap. I post a list on our Limestone blog of free webinars offered on line each month and sign up for ones that interest me. I have best intentions but something work related always seems to pop up at the last minute and I end up cancelling. The same goes with industry-related reading, blog posts and tweets. I run across interesting ones and file them away for a “rainy day” reading but it rarely happens. A good example of this…I was given a really interesting book two weeks ago from a colleague of mine and I’m still on page 16!

Personal learning should always be a priority. So with some rearranging of my schedule and putting selected webinars and interesting reads on my “A” list of things to do, I’m committed to making it happen more consistently.

Have you run into the same challenge? If so and you’ve found a workable solution, I’d love to hear about it. I’ll be posting the free November webinar list in the next couple of days so check it out. I hope to “see” you online!