Big Changes for 2010

1. The challenge of 3D. What does this mean for cable TV and satellite? Is there enough bandwidth? Will this benefit Verizon (FiOS) over copper?
   
2. Microsoft Office 2010. Just when you thought it was safe to use Word, here comes a MAJOR shift in the office suite we all love and hate. Is Google Docs a real threat to Office?
   
3. Adobe Creative Suite CS5. Do away with all those plug ins and think - "They finally got it!" We'll see a lot more user-friendly WOW-factor stuff built right in to Photoshop, Flash, and Dreamweaver.
   
4. e-Learning struggles for true acceptance. With drop-out rates still high across the board, will e-Learning ever win the hearts and minds of the masses? What has to change? Is it Management or Development that doesn't understand the mind of the user?

ESSENTIAL TOOLS for 2010

• Articulate '09
• Snagit
• Camtasia Studio
• Logitech QuickCam® Orbit AF Webcam
• Kodak Z1485 14.85 Megapixel Camera
• Photoshop CS4
• Adobe Captivate

Articulate
Engage

Engage is the package I've been waiting for. It will speed up production of snippets using the Media Tour interaction. I caution ISDs from using Interaction for Interaction's sake. Suggest that you use interaction ONLY when needed, not to act as a break in an otherwise boring show and tell. As you can see in the figure below, Engage offers quite a number of useful interactions.


Articulate Engage



Articulate Quizmaster

If your company or client already has an LMS, we don't see much use for this tool. It's more likely that you will be writing assessment questions on Excel templates which will be easily uploaded to an LMS like Sum Total or Lectora. While Quizmaker has LMS output options (SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, and AICC), your LMS team would still have to validate the Schema. Most of my clients with an LMS want me to use Excel templates.

Always ask your client first. If using Quizmaker can save your client time and money, do it.


Articulate Engage

Articulate Presenter

Turn PowerPoint into a Flash authoring tool with Articulate Presenter. One of the benefits we see is that now PowerPoint can be a usable storyboarding tool. Remember, just because you CAN add all this functionality doesn't mean that you SHOULD. Always assess the learning you develop based on the needed outcome and your client's budget for money and time.

Articulate Presenter Ribbon in PowerPoint

EZLCMS, a Fully-Featured LCMS at Bargain Prices!

Looking for an affordable SCORM Compliant LCMS? Look no further. We recommend EZLCMS.

This powerhouse of an eLearning application is Software as a Service at its best. EZLCMS lets you develop your lessons using a wide variety of applications and instantly generate a SCORM (1.2 or 2004) compliant course.

Don't believe it? Try it yourself. Get a trial today.

Here's what we've used it for...

1. Storyboarding

2. Asset repository

3. Quick and Dirty eLearning, OK we admit it, we use PowerPoint.

4. Large-scale deployment (up to 2500 simultaneous log ons)

5. Refresher scenarios and quizzes

6. Mastery training

Is Training Rebounding?

Is business getting better for training professionals? Here in South Florida, the buzz is getting louder. "We need ISDs!" We need Technical Writers!" In the past, when companies felt that the upturn was about 6 months away, that's when they:

• scrapped old business practices,
• streamlined with new practices and technology,
• trained their existing staff on the new stuff, and
• built tools to use for new employee training.

So, smart companies are investing in training.

Now is the time to let your clients know about this simple method so that they will have a leg up on the competition when demand picks up.

How to sell training

We examine ouselves to determine if our message is getting across to our prospects.

We so-called training professionals like to think we have an edge over a manager who finds herself (or himself) facing a team of depressed and nervous people. What we have that they don't have is insight and objectivity.

We have the luxury of observing. We have the luxury of listening. We have the opportunity to take what we see and hear and convert it into beneficial action.

If you had seven seconds (14 words) to explain the benefit you offer to your client, what would it sound like? This simple phrase is your mission, it defines why you do what you do.

Now, use no more than four words for a tag line. Ours is "Accelerate success!"

Finally, the next time you are talking with a prospect and they ask you to describe who you are and what you do, just repeat the tag line first and then your mission. Then ask, "What challenges may I help you solve today?"

What Are We In For?

In researching how economists and business owners responded to the depression,and the recession of 1990-92, I've been reading two books. The first, by Stuart Chase, is titled The Nemesis of American Business, Macmillan, 1931. Chase was the man who coined the phrase, "A New Deal." This book is a collection of his essays from a variety of business magazines of the day. While a bit naive and self serving, Chase's insights into the problems of his day are worth a re-read. The second book I am devouring is by Murray Raphel and his son, Neil. It was published during the last major economic storm of the early 1990's. It is titled Tough Selling for Tough Times, Raphel Publishing, 1992.

What is most fascinating is that Chase took a positive view of what had to be done to fix the problem, both economically and socially and the Raphels took a positive attitude in order to entice their readers that they had nothing to fear but fear itself (sorry for that, it seemed so apt). Neal Raphael and his team have updated the original to cover some of the challenges that did not exist in 1992. I recommend all my readers to take a look at this practical guide for thriving in today's economy, Business Success in Tough Times, Raphel Publishing, 2009.

Regards,

Doug

Sorry for the delay

Well, it's been some time since we posted something here. We've been busy, busier than we've ever been in our history.

1. We are providing guidance and development for a powerful business in the financial services industry (yes, there are some shining stars out there). They have us analyzing their business processes, documenting them, automating them, and writing the training materials so they can scale their business.

2. We are still engaged with Jones University/NCTI in developing field manuals for the broadband industry. So far, we've covered MPEG and are now finishing up advanced digital devices.

3. Along with NCTI, we've uncovered a big gap in guidance and practice when it comes to the cable industry's roll out of business-grade telephone service. Standard telephone company industry guidelines, designed over the past 50 years to protect both the network and customer equipment are NOT being put into practice. Heck, they are not even known or taught. We are working with the major standards bodies to get everyone talking and implementing best practices to ensure reliability, accuracy, and quality.

4. Our Social Networking guidance is quite popular. We've been invited to talk at a local Rotary club lunch next month. Even with 30 Million people on Linkedin, there is a bit of confusion on how to use it, especially in these tough times.

5. New eLearning applications continue to pop up. TechSmith released Snagit 9 and Camtasia Studio 5. Our initial evaluation of Snagit 9 has us scratching our heads. We like the library approach but miss the speed of 8. Also, 9 has a glitch so that the one-click feature dissapears at random. For now, if you have Snagit 8, wait until the bug are fixed before moving to 0.

6. Illiteracy in the workplace continues to get worse. We are seeing major complaints from new clients who want to lift the professionalism of their workforces. This concern covers emails, general correspondence, report writing, "Death by PowerPoint," reviews, blogs, texting, and other forms of communications. We're working on it but feel it is another result of a permissive approach to managing employees and not following through on managing expectations. We can hold remedial classes all day, but the real answer is can managers really motivate their employees anymore to be the best they can be? We think we know how to help them.

All for now.

Don't have time to read 1000 words? Use TagCrowd

Face it, we are always strapped for time. Today somebody suggested I look into Perceptual Control Theory - PCT says that how we perceive changes to our environment determines our behavior. To get a better idea about PCT I found Dr. Powers' talk about it from 1990. It was quite long and instead of reading through, I copied the text and pasted it into http://www.tagcrowd.com/ the result is shown in the illustration to the left.