230 - Musings of a New College Trustee; Results of Designing for Differences Survey

#230- - - Feb. 27, 2002 - - - 42,998 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Business of Learning Conference - April

1. Musings of a New College Trustee
2. Results of Designing for Differences Survey
3. A Very Cool Web Design

1. Musings of a New College Trustee: I am honored to have been appointed
to the Board of Trustees of Skidmore College here in Saratoga Springs, NY.
This has focused my brain on the world of higher education. Here are a
few early musings:

Why Are Alumni Mainly Seen as Donors? Most colleges view their alumni
mainly as future or current donors. What if we saw them as ACTIVE
learners from the day they graduated? Imagine the opportunity to continue
your learning relationship, via digital and blended models, through every
phase of your career and life. This is a great opportunity for both
service, revenue and would ultimately create much more committed donors.

Colleges Lead the Way with CMS �" Now Let’s Integrate! Most colleges have
moved rapidly towards use of a CMS (Course Management System) as a digital
surround for their classroom offerings. The CMS is used as a tool of
communication, publishing and sometimes collaboration for on-campus
courses. This digital surround deployment is rapid in many institutions.
The next challenge is to find ways of helping learners integrate their
stand alone courses. Imagine a subgroup of students in a college who are
taking a history course, but are also taking Economics 402. Can we create
a point of integration between for these folks.

Are On-Line Labs OK? A current debate centers around the validity of
on-line science labs for students. Can an engineering student take an
on-line lab and have a rich and valid experience? Does an on-line lab
engage “all the senses” as required by some accrediting groups? How much
of the lab experience is a group problem solving activity and can that be
done with digital collaboration? When is an on-line lab NOT appropriate?

2. Results of Designing for Differences Survey: Here are some of the
results from the recent survey on Designing e-Learning for Differences.
882 learning professionals responded the week of January 28, 2002:

How important to your organization is developing or buying e-Learning
content so that it can be accessed by the widest population, including
handicaps and cultural differences:
High Priority �" 36%
Important �" 28%
Somewhat Important �" 24%
Not Important �" 11%\

When you receive marketing for e-Learning content, are vendors stressing
accessibility issues:
Almost Always �" 4%
Sometimes �" 19%
Not Usually �" 50%
Not Applicable �" 10%

Are you familiar with the term “Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation
Act” which requires that Federal agencies electronic and information
technology is accessible to people with disabilities:
Not Familiar with it �" 54%
Yes, and my organization is affected by it �" 24%
Yes, even though we are not affected by it, it is a guideline �" 10%
Yes, but my organization is not affected by it -10%

A great site for information on Section 508 is www.section508.gov

3. A Very Cool Web Design: I ran across a very cool and intriguing web
site design. This is a graphic model of a website, done by an author of
children’s literature, Jennifer Armstrong. It is interesting in the
richness of the graphic metaphor used on its front page. Check it out at
http://www.jennifer-armstrong.com

Upcoming MASIE Center Events: http://www.masie.com
Business of Learning Conference �" April 8 and 9, 2002 in Washington, DC
Skills for e-Trainers LAB and Seminar �" March 11 �" 13, 2002 at The MASIE
Center in Saratoga Springs, NY

229 - CRM and Call Centers Next for LEARNING ROLE

#229- - - Feb. 19, 2002 - - - 42,987 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Business of Learning Conference - April

CRM and Call Centers Next for LEARNING ROLE

Last week, I attended the Call Center and CRM Conference in Las Vegas. It
was fascinating to walk around and talk with the operation managers of
major call centers and the coordinators of Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) efforts. For the most part, they did NOT see a natural
connection between their missions and the e-Learning field.

However, as we met and talked about the role of Learning with Customers, I
found some of the most enthusiastic responses that I have ever had with a
group. Here is the idea that we were creating:

The Call Center as a natural dispensing point for a wide range of customer
Learning resources! At the end of every call from a customer to a call
center, whether it is for technical assistance, transaction support or
other requirements, there is an opportunity for DISPENSING e-Learning.
Right now, the bulk of the dialogue occurs verbally, with an occasional
follow-up by email or to a link on the web.

But, what if the Call Center Representative could LAUNCH an e-Learning
module to the customer? So, instead of being "walked thru" a procedure,
the user would have a step by step learning module, that could linger and
be used for future support. These modules could either be procedural or
conceptual, and would walk the talk of that proverb:

"Better to teach you how to fish rather than give you a fish!"

In addition, the CRM field also is a perfect point to integrate learning
resources. The sales rep or sales center can use e-Learning or
Collaborative technologies to extend the relationship with the customer.

The MASIE Center believes the CUSTOMER LEARNING is a strong part of the
future of how learning serves the need of organizations. While we have
seen the bulk of e-Learning action focused on the training of employees,
there is a parallel and often larger opportunity to supply learning to
customers.

When I met later with a group of the Vendors in the CRM and Call Center
field, they were very excited about extending their products and services
into this area. Some key players are already developing major efforts and
building the infrastructure for Customer Learning.

I would love to hear from readers of TRENDS about your experience or
thoughts re: CUSTOMER LEARNING. You will see a major focus on CUSTOMER
LEARNING at TechLearn 2002 and in this newsletter. Send me a note to
emasie@masie.com

228 - Instant Messenger Use at Work: Some Intereting TRENDS

#228- - - Feb. 6, 2002 - - - 42,922 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Skills for e-TRAINERS Labs �" Feb & March
Host of: Business of Learning Conference - April

Instant Messenger Use at Work: Some Intereting TRENDS

Instant Messenger (IM) is a huge corporate tool, yet it rarely mentioned
in corporate productivity or learning plans. In fact, most IM usage is
not corporately provided or managed, but rather an informal system created
by users, self-installing software for AOL, Yahoo or Microsoft systems.

A recent study by Jupiter Media Metrix breaks out IM-user estimates into
home and work categories, and in a study of IM at work released in
November, it found 8.8 million AOL IM users, 4.8 million MSN Messenger
users, and 3.4 million Yahoo! Messenger users. Even more impressive is
that the total IM usage in the office more than doubled over the past
year, from 2.3 billion minutes in September 2000 to an astounding 4.9
billion minutes in September 2001.

PC Magazine carried a recent story about IM at work and indicated that,
“indeed, so many workers now run IM windows on their PCs during the
workday that corporate IT managers are getting worried about both the use
of bandwidth for IM chatting and the security issues inherent in IM. There
are worries about the way IM provides a hole in the security wall erected
by corporate firewalls, about employees' indiscretion in what they say and
to whom over IM, and about client privacy issues. In health-care and
securities firms, for example, there are federal laws about privacy and
confidentiality, and casual discussion in IM windows about patient matters
or trading in securities can violate those laws”

The MASIE Center has seen a dramatic rise in the use of IM in e-Learning
programs, to connect learners to each other and to provide easier access
to instructors. On a personal level, I use IM at work, instead of email
for about 80% of my “e” messages to my staff and to core colleagues.
Prior to calling my colleague, Wayne Hodgins at Autodesk, I will always
check to see if he is available and about 75% of the time, we just use IM
to carry on our dialogues, often stretched out while we multi-task on
other items.

One of the powerful aspects of IM is that it is “permission based”
collaboration, limited to those people that I authorize for access to me
as a “buddy”. Leveraging and scaling that in a corporate situation has a
number of challenges that organizations are just starting to discover and
tackle.
It would be a good time to both survey your workforce to measure the
extent of IM usage and to consider developing a policy to get the best use
of Instant Messenger. Here are some issues that you might consider:

* Choosing an official IM system for your company, that links into other
enterprise software.
* Develop a strategy for how your organization would most appropriately
use IM and what are approved and non-approved uses.
* Add IM usage tips to employee orientation and training
* Provide an IM model for extending e-Learning and e-Coaching
* Evaluate the impact of IM on collaboration and distraction in the
workplace.

We would love to hear your organization’s experience with official and
unofficial use of Instant Messenger. Can you drop me an line at
emasie@masie.com and we will summarize in a future TRENDS.

Upcoming Events from The MASIE Center (www.masie.com)
- Skills for e-TRAINERS - Feb and March - Saratoga
- Business of Learning Conference - April - Washington, DC