The ASTD Tech Conference Wowed Me
Deborah Bigelow Crawford has more than 20 years of experience in business management and handles the operational and administrative functions of PM Solutions. Ms. Bigelow Crawford also serves as Co-CEO of the PM College®, PM Solutions' training division, where she is responsible for the fiscal management and quality assurance of all training and professional development programs. Prior to joining PM Solutions, she served as the Executive Director of the Project Management Institute (PMI), and was instrumental in providing the foundation and infrastructure for the exponential growth that the Institute has maintained over the last 10 years. In addition, she served as the Executive Director of the PMI Educational Foundation. Over the last decade, she has authored numerous articles in PM Network, Chief Project Officer, and Optimize magazines. Ms. Bigelow Crawford is also co-author of the book Project Management Essentials. She has presented a variety of papers as a speaker at international symposia and conferences, and is a member of the National Association of Female Executives and the Project Management Institute.
A conference review of ASTD Tech: new directions and positive reinforcement
I absorbed so much information at the ASTD Tech Conference this past month that my hair was hurting. The amount of “Tech Speak” was daunting! Yet by the end of the event, I felt that there were many lessons learned for myself and my fellow instructors at PM College. Some lessons were in areas where we need to stretch; other lessons confirmed that we have been on the right track.
The sessions concerned with Virtual Training were all jam-packed (even though many attendees did not make it due to weather in the North). Everyone was asking about the optimum number of students in a VILT class: one presenter noted that a study of successful students at Harvard found that 100% of them were in classes that were 15 students or fewer during their school years. Virtual or classroom-based, small class sizes are best!
Many of the presenters had software and gadgets on display. The wave of innovation that is poised to hit the training industry is mind-boggling. Among the most fascinating developments:
• Online tools that enable us to create, deliver and score tests and
assessments, as well as score, and do analytics (most missed, performance of
individuals or groups, etc. )
• A repository of customizable templates to more rapidly create training
materials, speeding up instructional design
• Video support services that do live streaming of training, record training for
non-synchronous delivery, host full webinars, produce scenarios, role plays, and so
on.
• Services that translate sub titles on videos, slide text, student and instructor guides, handouts, exercises—you name it, with licenses for ALL tools such as MS Project, MS Word, Comptia, etc.
• A handheld device that allows classes (or teams, or any group, either face-to-face or virtual) to review issues and vote anonymously. It can be used for polling, quizzes, and the like, but I can also picture it as a risk analysis tool.
• A computer-based “knowledge reinforcement” tool (desk top, tablet, smartphone) that engages students each day to answer questions, based on the same model as the brain training that is so popular today. For example, after students complete a class, they are enrolled to receive emails once a day that include some simple, fun games; once they are engaged, a question appears related to the class they just completed. If they answer the question correctly, they get recognition.
A Few Topic Summaries
I felt right at home in “10 Pitfalls of Creating the Virtual Classroom” as this
is a topic we have written about on this blog previously. Still, these ten tips serve
as a good reminder of how our virtual learning environments can fail if not
appropriately designed:
- Lack of understanding buy-in
- An appropriate virtual learning environment
- A goal for use of virtual learning
- Knowledge of your web conference platform
- A plan to choose, upskill, and monitor facilitators
- A plan for effective use of producer
- Plan for engagement in session
- Process for distributing material
- A pilot session
- Sufficient practice.
Other takeaways for me were a “target engagement” figure of 94% - 96% … not 100%. This acknowledges a fact that can be hard for instructors to swallow, which is that, try as we might, there will always be one or two folks who are “checked out.” Tools that maximize engagement include chat, polls, feedback, breakout sessions and quizzes.
Some rules for effective interactivity:
- Get them to reflect
- Make it human
- Put learners in the story
- Make it an interesting story
- Ask provocative questions
- Make it uncomfortable – if they have to make hard decisions and tap into real feelings, you’ve got ‘em.
- Get them active (worksheets, note-taking, interviews)
- Make it current and relevant to the student world
- Present “What would you do” situations
- Get them connecting with others.
The best presenters used the tools they recommended, bringing interviewees into the presentation live via Skype, doing interactive polls, asking reflective questions (what did you learn today? How can this help you?). And, most striking of all, I heard
at least one presenter urge participants to being tracking performance metrics for their programs that can demonstrate the business value of improved employee skills–something we have been promoting to our clients for years.
No comments yet. Be the first one!