CEdMA-Europe Members' Newsletter - October 2005

10-11 November Conference

"Getting Ready for Business in the Future"
 

The CEdMA Europe Autumn Conference will take place on 10-11 November at the Initial Style Conference Centre in Horsley, Surrey, where the theme will be "Getting Ready for Business in the Future".

By popular demand, we have extended Pulse of the Industry to last all morning on the Thursday. This session is intended to help introduce everyone, and help with networking during the event, as individuals explain what their key interests are. It will also help to identify potential topics for future conferences. The new item for everyone to reveal is "What was the most important thing I learned in the last six months?".

Our personal development topic to help us get ready for business in the future is Building and Executing Strategy, where Mike Kean of ASK Training will lead the session. Getting ready for business in the future demands that we all become even more familiar with this, whether we take certain 'givens' from the total company or we can start with a clean sheet for our team.

Friday morning is dedicated to how we shall get ready for business. After a review of recent studies and surveys of training delivery and technologies, Richard Malam of Centrica customers will give us his view from the customer's perspective and set out his needs and requirements. Then, Sue Vine will provide an update from the May conference on how IBM is progressing with its projects to execute a 21^st century vision of learning.

After the break, we shall split into two groups to consider such things as which projects apply to your company; what individuals plan to do and to stop doing to get there; and what are the implications on such things as resources, business models, and so on.

On Friday afternoon, Phil Lawman will bring us up-to-date on how HP is progressing on increasing 'attach' rates before we discuss topics and venues for May 2006.

CEdMA Europe members have two places at this event at no charge. Additional places for members and places for non-members (prospects or colleagues of CEdMA USA members) are charged at £195 (exclusive of VAT). Overnight accomodation with breakfast costs £110 per night, payable to Style Conferences

For further information and booking (no forms required!), please visit here.

Alternatively, simply to book, send me an email. There is still time.
 

What's been going on over the last few months?

CEdMA Europe Workshop in Camberley on 04 Oct
The early autumn CEdMA Europe half-day Workshop took place on 04 October  at SUN Camberley. 14 people from 9 members were treated to a very entertaining session from Professor Steve Molyneux who brought us up to date on what's been happening in the training technology arena. The feedback of 4.9 was the highest of the year. I am expecting Steve's presentation to be on the website soon.

New CEdMA USA Board gets busy
Since taking over from the "old board" in April, the new USA Board has been busy with several initiatives, which I'll describe over the next few months. Perhaps one of the most useful to members has been the re-launch of Goldmine within the members-only section of the USA website and within that the category called "Survey Results". Any member can start such a survey by asking all members a question such as 'Does anyone have any experience with selling subscriptions to their eLearning?'. This provokes a number of inputs and when the traffic has died down all replies are put into "Survey Results". Of course you need a userid and password to access these results (you can always ask me to give you the CEdMA Europe generic userid and password), but to whet your appetite, here's a list of 'surveys' from the last six months.

CEdMA USA Fall Conference on 12-13 Oct
Nearly 60 people from 36 members attended the conference, either in person at MathWorks near Boston, or at Hitachi Data Systems at San Jose as a remote group, or individually in their own homes/offices. Most of the speakers were members sharing their experiences but there were also some guest speakers. Again, all the presentation materials are now in Goldmine within the members-only section of the USA website and within that the category called "2005 CEdMA Conference (Fall)", so to whet your appetite once again and to get you to ask me for the userid and password, here's some information about the sessions and speakers.

How to Run a P&L, Rob Pannoni - Razor Learning
Being profitable means creating and executing an effective business plan. This session will help you think like an entrepreneur. We will discuss the use and misuse of business plans, strategies for estimating financial metrics, the P&L impact of different types of training offerings, common mistakes that hurt profitability, and ideas for scaling your business.
Rob Pannoni has over 20 years experience as an education entrepreneur, technologist, executive, and business consultant. Rob's current venture, Razor Learning, provides consulting and product development services to training departments in high tech companies. Prior to founding Razor Learning, Rob was training manager at Mercury Interactive, where he oversaw 3X growth in the training department and the launch of a global certification program. Rob was also co-founder and COO of SERA Learning Technologies, where he conducted distance learning research and helped premier companies such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco, and Raychem implement distance learning programs. In addition to his corporate clients, he has provided educational technology and business consulting to major universities and research organizations including Stanford University, Carnegie-Mellon University, the University of Washington, WestEd, and SRI International. Rob has an MA from Stanford University in the Design and Evaluation of Educational Programs.

Re-usable Education Content, Ted Henson - Global Knowledge
The focus of this presentation will be on the practicality of re-using content in order to reduce cost and time to develop. Some define re-usable content as the use of RLOs, SCOs, LOs, and meta-data for creating courses. Another's definition re-use as deploying the same content through various delivery methods. Re-use using both definitions will be covered, since both can reduce cost and time to develop. There will be an emphasis on how good instructional design theory must be applied when re-using educational content. The presentation will briefly cover how both methods can be done with applications, such as Word and PowerPoint or software tools specifically designed for this purpose.
Ted Henson, as chief learning strategist at Global Knowledge, identifies new products for development and new markets for Global Knowledge's products. He is a member of the company's Worldwide Product Strategy Council. Ted currently serves on Chief Learning Officer magazine’s editorial advisory board, is a advisory board member to the Institute for Educational Excellence & Entrepreneurship at West Chester University, and advisor to the College of Education at Shippensburg University. Ted has served on two advisory groups of the IMS Global Consortium, an international collaborative that establishes international learning technology standards and defines technology specifications for applications in distance learning. He is also a former CEdMA board member.

Rapid eLearning Development, Kathleen Sullivan - Interwoven
Is rapid development for asynchronous web-based training the holy grail? Our customers want just-in-time learning available 7 by 24. Despite this, WBTs account for a small percentage of adult technical training. The high cost of development and maintenance may be one reason. We offer few classes because user adaptation is low and costs are high. Customers take only a few classes because they have few choices. If we could decrease the cost through rapid development techniques and tools, our customers and accountants will be happy. Come hear what others are doing to save time and money and come prepared to offer your tips and comments.
Kathleen Sullivan is responsible for curriculum, certification, and training partners for Interwoven. Interwoven’s online learning platform, CyberSchool, has a catalog of 35 courses which have been utilized by thousands of students. Prior to joining Interwoven, Kathleen managed WW training delivery, curriculum development and support for several high-tech companies in Silicon Valley and Boston.

Taking the Mystery out of Training ROI, Jesse Finn – Taleo
In this session, we shall review basic principles of ROI and payback and how they relate to the development and delivery of customer education initiatives internally and with customers, Citing some best practices, we shall show some fundamental ROI modeling examples that help justify Education internal projects as well as projects that are to be sold to customers. Industry studies and examples will also be provided.
Jesse Finn, VP Education Services, at Taleo Corp, has spent 25 years in the industry running sales, pre-sales, consulting and education initiatives at both Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial companies. For the past 16 years, she has specialized in the development, management, and financial performance of customer education businesses at companies respected in their industry sectors, including Sybase, Business Objects, Interwoven and FileNet and has led learning programs sales, development and change management initiatives industry leaders such as Lance Dublin. In her current role at Taleo Corp, Jesse is responsible for leading global Customer Education business for this company recently announced public and focuses in talent management.

Training Management in a Small Company, Bonnie Becker - Packateer
Small companies face the same challenges that large companies do: design content, delivery certification and testing. Packateer faces these challenges and stretches a small budget to create and deliver a worldwide training and certification program. This session will discuss our unique design/development process, our web-based test and certification program, and how a small team multitasks to manage it all. In this session you will learn: how to manage a training department on a small budget; what software tools you already have on your desktop which can be used to manage your program; and how you can develop and deliver a low cost certification program, tied with an inexpensive instructional design methodology
Dr Bonnie Becker has been in training for over 25 years with the last 16 of those years spent in management. She has specialized in e-Learning, program management, and alternative delivery technologies. She has an extensive experience with running training departments including staff management, recruitment, P&L responsibility, and vendor management at Cisco, Brocade, and currently she works as the international training manager at Packateer.

Certification Security, David Foster - Caveon
There are numerous security risks to certification programs posed by cheating, proxy test taking and test thieves. These will be discussed along with some real client results from Caveon's data forensics and Web patrol services. Additionally, we will discussed the type of programs that can implemented to prevent future security problems and deal with current concerns. Finally, there’s Q&A and perhaps questions about item and test development.
David F Foster, PhD, is founder and President of Caveon, a company providing test security technology and services. He is recognized in the measurement industry for his pioneering efforts in computerized testing and test security. Having designed and created computerized exams since 1982, Dr. Foster introduced computerized adaptive testing and simulation-based performance testing as part of the Novell’s IT pioneering certification program. He is a past President of the Association of Test Publishers and currently serves on the International Test Commission, the certification accreditation committee for the American National Standards Institute, ATP’s Conference Program Committee, and the GMAC Technical Advisory Board. He is the founder of Galton Technologies, now a part of Prometric, Inc. and the IT industry’s Performance Testing Council. He is also a member of the National Council for Measurement in Education and the American Educational Research Association. Dave holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Brigham Young University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Florida State University. He is married, has three children and lives in Lindon, Utah.

Advance notice for 2006 Events
We now have dates for the workshops and conferences in 2006, so please have a look at this page and mark the dates in your 2006 planner!

On 04 Oct, the topic voted most wanted at future workshops was "e-Learning, LMS and Technologies", followed by "Course Development and allied topics". This latter topic was also mentioned at the Jun workshop, so I shall work towards combining the two and inviting speakers who can merge these two areas into one workshop, currently planned for 24 Jan (a day earlier than originally booked).
 

Recent Articles from the Education and Training Press

The headings in this section have been changed slightly to reflect better the true contents covered.

Training Manager and Instructor Development

Strategic Budgeting and Planning for Learning Initiatives (Oct 05)
Here’s a familiar dilemma: Your boss just mentioned that next year’s budget is due and that you should be prepared to defend every item or risk losing it. “And, by the way, make it a zero-based budget because we are looking for some fresh thinking, not just last year’s budget minus 10 to 15 percent. You should include some creative solutions because we are all going to be doing more with less,” she explains. Hopefully, your scenario won’t work out quite like this—but if it does, there are some straightforward thoughts on how to budget for training and development, but also shine as a brilliant strategist.
©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

The CLO’s Role - Incorporating Change (Oct 05)
In recent years, many organizations have carved out a role for the chief learning officer, who charts the path for learning and organizational development. What often differentiates this C-level position from that of training directors is a role in corporate performance and the added responsibility to change behavior that can affect the company’s bottom line. What distinguishes an effective CLO may be the ability to generate change that stands the test of time.
©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

News, Reviews and Current Trends

Research Digest Jul 05

A roundup of all the latest (apologies for the delay!) facts and figures, compiled with assistance from IT Skills Research.
©Haymarket Professional Publications Ltd 2005

Industry News from IT Skills Research (Oct 05)
What's going on in the world of IT training and skills.
© Copyright 1998-2005 IT Skills Research

IT Training Press Releases (Oct 05)
Press releases in Oct 05. ©Training Press Releases 2005
 

Research Digest Oct 05
A roundup of all the latest facts and figures, compiled with assistance from IT Skills Research. ©Haymarket Professional Publications Ltd 2005

Executive Perceptions of the Value of Learning (Oct 05)
A new study conducted by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) and IBM examines the alignment of C-level perceptions around the strategic value of learning. ©2005 Questex Media Group, Inc.

Tata Learning Forum reveals key trends (Sep 05)
Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) played host to some 100 of the world's leaders in training and online learning at the Tata Learning Forum in Boston, MA. ©Training Press Releases 2005

Saba to Acquire Centra - what does this mean to you? (Oct 05)
In the last 12 months we have seen many mergers in the learning market take place:  Oracle's acquisition of Peoplesoft, SumTotal's acquisition of Pathlore, Saba's acquisition of Thinq, and KnowledgePlanet's acquisition of KnowledgeImpact. Josh Bersin looks at these and in particular Saba and Centra. Copyright © 2005 Bersin & Associates

The 2005 Salary Survey (Oct 05)
Training magazine takes a peek at your paycheck – and at those of your peers.
©2005 VNU Business Media

Selling and Marketing Education

No articles this month.
 

Learning Media

Innovation in e-learning – expanding the realm of the possible (Jan 05)

This EPS Focus report looks at a set of innovative technologies and practices from the e-learning arena in both training and education across Europe. These flag up current hot topics in the sector and indicate how learners of the future might receive and consume content.

©Electronic Publishing Services Limited

Emerging Technologies for Training Delivery (Oct 05)

First there were books, then stand-up training delivery, and then e-learning. Now, there is m-learning: on-the-go mobile learning. Mobile and wireless technologies have enabled workers to increase productivity and virtual team collaboration. ©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Podcasting - Broadcast Your Organization’s Knowledge (Oct 05)
Recent advances in information technology, such as podcasting, will profoundly impact knowledge management, corporate training and in-house communication. Just as blogging gave us all a personal printing press, podcasting gives us an inexpensive, personal broadcasting studio. Subscribers can download short radio shows to their iPods or MP3 players. Microsoft recently threw its weight behind the open-source software that makes all this happen. We’ll soon reach the tipping point. ©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Online learning has come a long way since the late 1990s (Oct 05)

This FT article looks at such potentially useful approaches as podcasts, wikis, blogs, games and simulations. ©The Financial Times Limited 2005

Flash drives for learning (Oct 05)

Take one of those small USB Flash Drives and think about how it can be leveraged as a part of your Learning Delivery. Elliott Masie has just finished a 9 minute content segment on the potential for using these inexpensive Flash Drives in a very different way to extend the reach of organizational learning programs. This is a transcript. ©The MASIE Center, Oct 2005

The Four Stages of e-Learning - a maturity model for corporate online training (Oct 05)

The market for Internet-enabled training and education has exploded in the last five years, reaching more than $12 billion in products and services today. This research report, based on the results of 526 interviews with North American training and HR managers, reviews the corporate e-learning market in detail. It identifies a maturity model for e-learning: the three stages that organisations go through. It then describes “the fourth stage”, the coming new approaches which we believe are coming next. ©Bersin and Associates, Oct 2005
 

Too much e-learning ignores the latest thinking in educational psychology (Jun 04)

In 1922, Thomas Edison said: “The motion picture is destined to revolutionise our educational system.” He is just one in a long line of prophets of technology that clearly missed the mark.

The latest revolution is the Internet and the flag carrier for education here is e-learning. But once again there is a breakdown between the evangelist’s heady claims and the more mundane experiences of learners. Charles Low, Director of Education at fuel asks why this is? ©2004 fuel Group

Shoestring e-Learning (Sep 05)
You can have a quality e-learning program on the leanest of budgets. You just have to be persistent, creative and resourceful. ©2005 VNU Business Media

Evaluating e-Learning (Sep 05)
You can evaluate e-learning with Kirkpatrick's tried-and-true levels of evaluation. It's simply a matter of asking the right questions in the right ways. This article by William Horton is an excerpt from Don and James Kirkpatrick's Evaluating Training Programs, the third edition of which is being published by Berrett-Koehler this December. ©2005 VNU Business Media

E-Learning Strategy - Repurposing Content (Oct 05)

As a CLO, you have probably incorporated e-learning into your department’s delivery of training or identified it as an approach to help achieve your objectives. In either case, repurposing content is inevitable if you plan to develop custom e-learning content. Defining your strategy to repurpose content is critical to the successful deployment of your e-learning initiatives. To define your strategy and processes, you need to understand the potential benefits and issues offered by repurposing content. Develop a strategy that will help you manage the issues wisely, and you’ll reap the benefits by improving the speed and quality of your team’s content development. Fail to develop a strategy, and you’ll manage them poorly, squander valuable production time and undermine the effectiveness of your e-learning. ©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Technology Integration Services - Creating Convergence (Oct 05)
Developments in computing, communications and technology, combined with process and service improvements, are influencing learning—and creating more powerful opportunities to affect businesses. Learning can now be delivered anywhere, at any time. We can collaborate with colleagues or experts to create learning opportunities within the context of their work. Learning objects or events can be tailored to a specific need, delivered to a specific individual in real time. This convergence of traditional training with new workforce development and performance improvement models has dramatically affected organizations’ ability to drive productivity, accelerate speed to market and improve the effectiveness of their people. ©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Selecting the Right Training Mechanism (Oct 05)
This Brainvisa white paper is a comparative study of the various training delivery options available in the corporate training domain. This comparative study aims to assist chief learning officers and other training stakeholders identify the most cost-effective training solution best suited to meet specific training needs. This study also attempts to establish the best practice of efficient effort expenditure and management through effective identification of the appropriate training solutions. ©Brainvisa 2005 

Making knowledge management work (Aug 05)

Now that they know what NOT to do, clever companies are finding ways to capitalize on the promise of KM. ©2005 Training Mag

Field Guides from Learning Circuits
Each field guide is a concise, practical guidebook that provides in-depth coverage of a single topic vital to e-learning. ©Learning Circuits 2002-2005

Field Guide to Learning Objects (Jul 02)

Learning Object. Modular building block. Chunk. Reusable information object. Nugget. Whatever. The list goes on. But what is a learning object, exactly. More important, how and when should they be used? Learning Circuits in collaboration with SmartForce breakdown the types of learning objects--instruction, collaboration, practice, and assessment--that are currently developed by most e-learning suppliers.

Field Guide to e-Learning Standards (Sep 02)

The goal of standards is to simplify the purchase and deployment of e-learning tools. Unfortunately, standards are creating more confusion. This guide introduces the specific standards bodies and explains their differences. It reviews the individual standards and why you should care about them. More important, the guide outlines conformance testing and offers a few words of caution for consumers.

Field Guide to Educational Simulations (Apr 04)
Simulations are sparking excitement in the e-learning world, but few people have seen a model that they can use effectively. SimuLearn co-founder Clark Aldrich presents a framework for investigating and understanding simulations that will help you buy, deploy, use, and produce them. The guide also outlines the different simulation models, pros and cons of each, and criteria to evaluate when and where to use them.

Field Guide to Web-conferencing (Aug 04)
Organizations in the market for a Web conferencing solution are unsure about what features they need. After organizations have grappled over the buying process and settled on a Web conferencing solution, their next hurdle is how to make best use of it. Here's some help.

Field Guide to Learning Management Systems (Aug 05)

A short report on learning management system product features, pricing models, implementation, etc. The statistics are a bit depressing (and quite indicative of how organizations view an LMS). What did survey respondents view as most valuable aspects of an LMS: Testing, reporting, and compliance tracking.

Education Projects
 

Computer Associates – customers come first (Oct 05)
With a strong customer focus, Computer Associates is one of the world’s largest management software companies. Launched in February 2003, Computer Associates University delivers customer-centric learning.
©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Measuring Education Value

The great training scandal (Jan 05)
Do you ever doubt whether training really works? You'd be right to do so. Leading studies indicate that training fails far more often than it succeeds! This article - which explores the extent of the problem and what action needs to be taken to ensure that training is worthwhile - is being published in the forthcoming Learning magazine. © Copyright 2005 The Fourth Level

Value Creation and Measurement in Learning Environments (Oct 05)
Organizations struggle with the costs, benefits and return on investment of learning. But evolving tools and technology now enable organizations to apply business analytics to understand the effectiveness and impact of training. The goal of any analytics solution is to help an organization understand what’s going on in its training operation. The solution should answer basic business questions: How much did something cost? What were the components of the cost? Who completed a learning offering? What can we do to improve it? ©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Managing Costs/Outsourcing

Outsourcing of Learning and Training - an International Survey (Jan 05)
SRIC-BI's Learning-on-Demand (LoD) program has made available this free survey report. It is based on a survey by the LoD team in collaboration with ICWE—the organization behind the Online Educa eLearning conferences in Europe—and sponsored by IBM and Raytheon Professional Services. ©2005 SRI Consulting Business Intelligence

Identifying and driving value through key learning indicators and outsourcing (Mar 05)
This e-Intelligence Webinar, sponsored by RWD Technologies and moderated by Jim Hanlin of TrainingOutsourcing.com, featured Dan Cantwell of RWD Technologies and Chris Moore of Zeroed-In Technologies.
©2005 TrainingOutsourcing.com

Achieving Business Results with Learning Outsourcing (Apr 05)
This supplement, which appeared in the April 2005 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine and was sponsored by Accenture, explores the role of learning BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) in driving innovation and growth. The lead article focuses on the transformational impact of comprehensive learning BPO and includes “lessons from the pioneers”—guiding principles to help organizations effectively leverage outsourcing partnerships. This supplement also includes case studies from A.G. Edwards, Avaya and Sun Microsystems; personal stories from employees who transitioned to Accenture Learning from an outsourcing engagement; and an article addressing common misconceptions about learning BPO. ©MediaTec Publishing Inc 2005

Instructor Resourcing
No articles this month.

Education Administration
No articles this month.
 

Skills Gap/Technical Certification
No articles this month.
 

And, Finally.....

A school head (principal) was alerted by the caretaker (janitor) to a persistent problem in the girls lavatories - some of the girl students were leaving lipstick kisses on the mirrors. The caretaker had left notices on the toilet walls asking for the practice to cease, but to no avail. Every evening the caretaker would wipe away the kisses, and the next day lots more kisses would be planted on the mirror. It had become a bit of a game. The head teacher usually took a creative approach to problem solving, and so the next day she asked a few girl representatives from each class to meet with her in the lavatory.

"Thank you for coming," said the head, "You will see there are several lipstick kisses in the mirrors in this washroom.."

Some of the girls grinned at each other.

"As you will understand, modern lipstick is cleverly designed to stay on the lips, and so the lipstick is not easy at all to clean from the mirrors. We have therefore had to develop a special cleaning regime, and my hope is that when you see the effort involved you will help spread the word that we'd all be better off if those responsible for the kisses use tissue paper instead of the mirrors in future.."

At this point the caretaker stepped forward with a sponge squeegee, which he took into one of the toilet cubicles, dipped into the toilet bowl, and then used to clean one of the lipstick-covered mirrors.

The caretaker smiled. The girls departed. And there were no more lipstick kisses on the mirrors.
 

Feedback, please!

Once again, I would really like to get input from you, the readers. I am also trying to create a library of useful articles on the website, all of which will appear first in a newsletter. If you have any article to contribute, please send it.

I look forward to seeing you in Horsley.

Mike Dowsey

Business Development Manager

CEdMA-Europe

mike@dowsey.net