TLDCast Podcast

Our Competency Models Playlist featured three guests: Rachel Weiss from Oscar Health Insurance, Erin Melvin from Lambda Solutions, and Host Toddi Norum. Rachel's background helped answer a few questions. Her primary function with Competency Model frameworks, is to interpret and build around the L&D function. Rachel speaks to understanding the model architecture and why it's important to the business. Then with her background as an L&D professional, measure competency and react to the results, in turn furthering business goals. Our second speaker, Erin Melvin, speaks to moving the model into the LMS. She discusses advantages of translating the competency models to the portals (LMS, HRIS) used by the business. And also discusses some best practices and potential gotchas. Host Toddi Norum has recently been experiencing the implementation of Competency Models in her workplace, so this discussion is timely and an excellent primer for some current challenges she's had.

Our Competency Models Playlist featured three guests: Rachel Weiss from Oscar Health Insurance, Erin Melvin from Lambda Solutions, and Host Toddi Norum. Rachel's background helped answer a few questions. Her primary function with Competency Model frameworks, is to interpret and build around the L&D function. Rachel speaks to understanding the model architecture and why it's important to the business. Then with her background as an L&D professional, measure competency and react to the results, in turn furthering business goals. Our second speaker, Erin Melvin, speaks to moving the model into the LMS. She discusses advantages of translating the competency models to the portals (LMS, HRIS) used by the business. And also discusses some best practices and potential gotchas. Host Toddi Norum has recently been experiencing the implementation of Competency Models in her workplace, so this discussion is timely and an excellent primer for some current challenges she's had.

Engagement, team building, activity variety —- there are so many things to love about Scavenger Hunts. So how about turning scavenger hunts into an educational opportunity using technology? Heard of Pokemon Go? How about that - but build learning experiences into it? Then meet Alyshahn Kara of Goosechase in this fantastic TLDCast brought together by Alan Natachu. Goosechase is inspired by the outrageous. It builds fun and engagement by getting users to move around, interact with strangers, and having a blast. Alan set up a Goosechase for TLDC that asked for things like: Find a newspaper from another country (750 pts) Take picture of something considered an eLearning Myth (500 pts) What is your L&D Superpower? (750 pts) What has been your favorite TLDCast? (750 pts) There were three competing teams - East Coast, West Coast, and The World Players. East Coast won with a phenomenal 16650 points, with The World Players in second at 9900 points and the West Coast bringing in last place at 7950 points. There were some amazing insights during this TLDCast. Uses for workplace onboarding, conferences, and more kept the chat humming. See below for some chat highlights and more! Such a cool tool! Used it once for an office orientation/onboarding and once for a pure team builder. Probably not making Alyshahn's day since it was free both times, but dang, it was super cool. —- Christopher Yellen We work mostly remotely and odd hours and it would go well with my onboarding wizard (see it at Learning Dev Camp!) —- Kristen Hayden Safdie I'm trying to stop from downloading apps but I'll bite on this, downloading now. —- Cara North I can definitely see this as a great teambuilding event for the workforce —- Eric Brott Thank you so much Alyshan -- you were extremely open and this was a great demo. —- Kristen Hayden Safdie Learn more in our blog post here: https://tldc.us/2019/04/21/technology-showcase-tldcast-with-host-alan-natachu-and-featuring-alyshahn-kara-of-goosechase/

The Best Tool Missing From Your Toolbox Is Adobe XD in your toolbox? If not, why not? Some say it’s everyone’s favorite tool they don’t know about. So we were extremely excited to have Melissa Milloway on Cara North’s Learning Technologies TLDCast to let us know why she loves Adobe XD. In 2014, a small team from Adobe Creative Cloud began developing a software tool to create prototypes and user experiences. Less than a year later, that team successfully convinced Adobe to invest in their tool, later named Adobe XD CC. XD is now a rich platform for mobile, desktop, and device design. It’s part of Adobe Creative Cloud, but is available for free. With XD, product designers can build rich user experiences and interactive prototypes. In this TLDCast, Melissa showcases both the prototyping and design capabilities of Adobe XD. She demos a variety of features within an actual design environment she’s building —- for her wedding. There were excellent questions from host Cara North, as well as a very active TLDCast chat audience. See the chat highlights below. Are you going to add Adobe XD to your toolbox? The price is right (it’s free) and from what we see in this TLDCast, it might be your favorite tool you don’t know about! Learn more in our blog post here: https://tldc.us/2019/04/19/cara-norths-learning-technologies-tldcast-melissa-milloway-on-adobe-xd/

In the Journal, Computers and Human Behavior, a study on divided attention and social media stated “The fundamental tenet of cognitive load theory is that the quality of instructional design will be raised if greater consideration is given to the role and limitations of working memory”. So in the Age of Distraction, what is our current working memory? In the summer of 2015, Microsoft published a report that argued the widespread usage of smartphones has led to the deterioration of attention span from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds. That was four years ago. Is it less now? Therefore, this exploration of Digital Minimalism, Essentialism, and Learning was a very timely – and personal – exploration into our relationships with technology. Our guest Christiana Houck recently made a journey in to minimalism and has integrated it into her digital lifestyle as well. Essentialism is a bit different. Minimalism’s focus is on paring down materials and environment to get rid of the clutter. Essentialism’s focus is to direct energy only on the things that matter; concentrate on less, but better. It’s differentiating between the background noise and the relevant, now an art or skill as technology continues to be more pervasive in our lives. So in this TLDCast, we had an informal discussion about Christiana Houck’s background and her journey into a Minimalist mindset. Christiana is a Learning Solutions Director for a large gaming company and is responsible for training dozens of technicians to support their gaming machines that are located all over the world. Gaming machines, in particular, slot machines, are geared for distraction, and that irony is not lost on Christiana. We discussed the three Digital Minimalist principles: Technology use should be intentional not habitual. Technology is for making stuff not feeling better. Technology should never come before people. We also talked about the considerations Instructional Designers may have in building their training. For example, Christian deTorres commented: To address user distraction: Chunk training into smaller modules. I open up with scenarios and short quizzes that most people get wrong–which I feel perks them up as they realize this isn’t something they already know. Check out our blog post for more information: https://tldc.us/2019/04/12/digital-minimalism-essentialism-and-learning-with-christiana-houck/

In today’s TLDCast episode, with spoke with Virtual Learning Collaborative Director Sonia Furini about 5 Tactics for Great Client/Vendor Relationships. The 5 Tactics are: Partnership Communication Honesty Availability Agility Partnership Sonia emphasized that you’ll know in the first five minutes if a client/vendor relationship is going to work. The relationship has to be one of a partnership, where both parties are focused on working together to be successful. Collaborative, cooperative, and team-oriented elements are what makes a Partnership work. And it’s especially important to define expectations across the board. Communication There may not be a more critical component to the relationship with your client than Communication. Be responsive, set realistic expectations, and be consistent about communicating with your client. Make sure your client understands that you’re there for them. And not just across single interactions, but all of them. Set a communication cadence, be proactive, set reminders for yourself and have a plan. Be as thorough as possible; you are in service of your client, make sure your client feels that experience. Honesty It goes without saying that you need to be honest. Be transparent about your needs and interactions. Ask for what you need, take ownership of your responsibilities and maintain as much clarity about projects as possible. Ensure you have the capacity to properly partner with your client. If not, let them know as soon as possible. Availability Be there for your client. That’s what you’re getting compensated for. Establish and set the pace. Provide some predictability for your customers to ease any anxiety about whether or not you’ll be available. Be true to your behavior, as well as consistent. And watch that volume! Focus on the relationship; you’re needed. Agility Everyone needs to have workarounds. Unexpected pop-ups are unavoidable, so it’s important to remain malleable and expect changes. Adapting to this dynamic can successfully assist you in building trust with your client, making you look more reliable and trustworthy. Vendor/Client relationships are all about treating people right, being fair and wanting the best results for all, not just for yourself. Making progress toward growth and improvement are key factors in finding success with your relationship, and it’s always important to find solutions that benefit both sides. Link to blog post: https://tldc.us/2019/04/11/sonia-furini-with-5-tactics-for-great-client-vendor-relationships/

Today our TLDCast discussion was focused on whether or not an instructional design degree is required to be successful in L&D. We had a nice split of guests: two of them had L&D related degrees and two didn’t — but had degrees outside of our industry. Also, we had one guest that doesn’t have a degree and is currently working on getting his undergrad. The guests were: Bethany Paterson – has non-L&D Degree Alan Natachu – has non-L&D Degree Alex Godinez – currently enrolled in a degree program, no previous degree Cara North – L&D Degree Chris Stadler – L&D Degree So Why the Conundrum? Instructional Design has been around for some 75 years, but many still wonder what instructional designers — who are only now just gaining acceptance in higher ed and corporate training — do. Is it the changing landscape of the role that lends itself to this idea that it’s easy to circumvent a related degree? Is the nature of this career going to completely shift so that it’s a combination of fields, versus one that is specifically L&D? Listen to this episode to learn more! You can find more detailed information, direct links to the episode, and more here in this blog post: https://tldc.us/2019/04/06/community-discussion-do-you-need-an-instructional-design-degree/

How do we develop an agile workforce and create that adaptaibility within our employees? On Monday, April 1st, Kristen Hayden Safdie hosted her first in a series of Case Study TLDCasts. Her guest was Deborah Decker, eLearning Expert and Learning Advisor for Southern California Edison. Southern California Edison is a 130 year old company that is currently experiencing change management challenges. Like many organizations, technology is impacting its workforce, and strategies to implement a culture of continuous improvement are vital to its continuing success. Southern California Edison decided to utilize the Prosci Change Methodology as a solution, and allocated resources to support instructor led training. However, the decision to custom develop an accompanying eLearning course was made so that it better fit the organization’s population. Deborah Decker created the course using Articulate Rise. The idea was to create a single course that covered three phases: Pre-change, During change, and Post-change. Using SME’s and working together with a team of Organizational Development Professionals, they implemented a multi-faceted change management course to help Southern California Edison continue to succeed. This TLDCast was an excellent conversation on what is becoming a common problem for many businesses. Kristen and Deborah do an excellent job retelling and exploring the case study, and you’ll learn what Deborah felt they did well and where they could do better next time. Links: Crowdcast recording: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/040119 Prosci Change Management: https://www.prosci.com/ Articulate Rise: https://articulate.com/360/rise John Kissinger: https://www.johnkissinger.com/

Compiling the 2018 Top 10 TLDCasts was an interesting exercise in understanding what drives an audience to TLDCast. “Name recognition” and “topic covered” tend to be the primary reasons TLDCasts fill up. There’s also something to be said for “day of the week” as well. For the full blog post on this episode, go here: https://tldc.us/2019/03/25/the-top-10-tldcasts-of-2018/ Of this Top 10, there are some interesting things to note: 8 out of 10 feature female guests 3 out of 10 feature Melissa Milloway 5 episodes took place during Q1 2018 Nearly half of the top 10 featured guest hosts The majority of these sessions focused on instructional design topics Definitely more of an emphasis on practitioner subject matter Most popular day is Thursday, least popular is Monday There’s more to learn from this series, and a great way to get started on understanding how our Community ticks.

Need some tips to build an effective training strategy? How about SEVENTEEN of them? Join Andrew Hughes, one of L&D’s premier experts, for a fantastic discussion on how to make sure your training initiatives succeed. As President & CEO of Designing Digitally, Andrew has proven time and again how to implement effective training strategy. This broadcast will give you insight into his success, what he’s done and how he’s done it. Sponsored by: Designing Digitally, Inc. specializes in creating educational, engaging, and entertaining learning experiences that incorporate innovation, creativity, and gamification to enhance learner retention. They offer a wide spectrum of solutions, including interactive custom eLearning, Serious Games, Training Simulations, and Mobile Learning. All developments are customized to our clients’ individual needs. Designing Digitally, Inc. specializes in creating educational, engaging, and entertaining learning experiences that incorporate innovation, creativity, and gamification to enhance learner retention. Our company offers a wide spectrum of solutions, including interactive custom eLearning, Serious Games, Training Simulations, and Mobile Learning. All developments are customized to our clients’ individual needs.