June 29, 2015 by victoriamthorn - 0 comments

Infographic: Millennials and Social Learning

Social Learning and Millennials seem to go hand in hand. The focus on social media, communication and gamification tick all the generational stereotypes when L&D professionals try to appeal to the increasing numbers of Millennials and Post-Millennials joining the workforce. The key to success with Social Learning is to ensure that it is created on a level playing field where everyone’s expertise and ideas are valued; the tech-savvy youth of today know when they are being talked down to and when appeals for their participation lack authenticity. Remember, Millennials may have been raised in a technology obsessed world, but they are not a uniform group, no generation is, meaning that those entering the workforce in need of development need to be treated as individuals with individual development requirements and unique skill gaps. Social Learning is a highly beneficial way to identify those needs, and create a community around bridging the gaps.

For more information on Social Learning and how to get started, you can read my previous blog post here.

Social Learning and Millennials appear to be a match made in heaven!

June 27, 2015 by victoriamthorn - 2 Comments

Video: What is Gamification?

Currently one of the hottest ideas in L&D is adapting the principles of gamification to increase engagement and participation in Learning and Development opportunities. By introducing positive and enjoyable aspects of game play, facilitators and instructional designers are finding fresh ways to inject elements like competition, ‘leveling up’, quests and rewards, as a means of enhancing educational resources, increasing learner retention, and boosting engagement and participation. This video is an excellent general talking point around the positives and pitfalls of gameification and what it’s all about.

Is your organisation using gameification? What successes have you had?

June 25, 2015 by victoriamthorn - 0 comments

Infographic: 5 Basic Learning Principles Every L&D Professional Needs To Know

There are basics that everyone needs to have in the back of their mind before they design or deliver any learning and development resources. Without engagement, repetition and a real understanding of how the skills and knowledge provided can benefit the trainee, learning outcomes will be compromised and retention is not a given. Ensure that you don’t overlook the basics before you move on to the more complex aspects of creating best practice training materials.

The basics all L&D professionals should remember when creating content and training

June 18, 2015 by victoriamthorn - 0 comments

There are No Financial Barriers to Making an Effective Training Video

The biggest mental barrier to creating videos as learning and development resources is the perceived need to invest excessive time and money into unfamiliar and highly technical equipment and software to produce a premium product. Videos can be hugely expensive, and creating a micro-learning gallery of videos can be perceived to be well beyond the reach of smaller organisations. Costs incurred in instructional design, filming, editing and final production values make companies that are dipping their toes in the online learning environment very reluctant to move in any direction where ROI can be complicated to calculate, and upfront costs are many and varied.

This is an outdated stigma. Video doesn’t need to be this complex to create. It doesn’t need to be expensive and involve a lot of heavy production values to make it engaging, informative and effective. An excellent example of this is the Paperslide video series; these training videos are created in one take using a mobile phone, immediately removing the financial barrier of entry for smaller organisations looking to begin offering resources in this format. They are visually engaging, and cleverly utilise the short time given to the micro-learning topic presented.

There is no longer any excuse not to embrace video as a part of your learning and development offering, and to do so on a minimal budget with highly effective results.

June 16, 2015 by victoriamthorn - 0 comments

The Future of L&D is Now

The future of L&D is here now: while Gamification is still too expensive for many organisations to fully embrace and pursue, there is a need to adopt better analysis of training metrics, offer more flexible mobile learning access as well as provide micro-learning to complement the medium, and to personalise offerings to ensure that you don’t have a one-size-fits-all mentality to staff development. There is no reason why your organisation can’t be adopting and adapting new ways to boost and measure the effectiveness of your development offerings.