Narrowing the Distance

The information from this post has been updated.  See http://brandon-hall.com/bryanchapman/?p=231 for more information.

A long time…

I am currently working on a short presentation for a staff meeting at an education cooperative I work with.  After scouring through the web for relevant information, the blog from Bryan Chapman at Brandon Hall Research looks to be the most accurate.  I encourage everyone to check it out now because he is in the process of updating the information this month and your input is needed!

In general, here’s the information he posted:

Ratio for each Type of learning

34:1 Instructor-Led Training (ILT), including design, lesson plans, handouts, PowerPoint slides, etc.

33:1 PowerPoint to E-Learning Conversion. Not sure why it takes less time then creating ILT, but that’s what we discovered when surveying 200 companies about this practice

220:1 Standard e-learning which includes presentation, audio, some video, test questions, and 20% interactivity

345:1 Time it takes for online learning publishers to design, create, test and package 3rd party courseware

750:1 Simulations from scratch. Creating highly interactive content

Check the post out for yourself here.  Don’t forget to participate in the survey while you are there.

I’ve been reading several books lately on the topic of change.  A few titles include Influencer, Switch and Dan Pink’s new book Drive.  For some time now I have been trying to explain to organizations who want employees to implement new programs that financial or other rewards aren’t always the best solution.  It just makes sense to me that giving people extra money to do something is like telling them that it must not be worth doing.  If it was, why would you pay them extra for it?  Anyway, this video goes along with the book Drive.  It’s lengthy, but worth the time (and no I will not pay you to watch it).

I am becoming more and more of a Skype fan every day.  At first I just used it for the occasional instant message or video call.  Then I started using it in place of my office phone.  And just recently my colleague and I used Skype to conduct a full day training session in another state.  So if you haven’t taken full advantage of Skype here are some things to consider:

• The new beta version of Skype allows for up to 5 people to be in a video chat at a time (it is beta though, so don’t be surprised if an issue pops up from time to time).  My organization is starting to use this for shorter more frequent meetings instead of scheduling full day staff meetings once a month.
• Skype offers screen sharing.  In the past I used GoToMeeting ($50/month) for most of the trainings I conducted online.  Now using Skype I can easily switch between a video feed from my webcam and my computer screen if I am showing a PowerPoint (or if I just want people to stop looking at me).
• Skype is now available on your TV!  That’s right, you now have a legitimate business expense if you want to upgrade to a new flat panel (that’s a joke, I’m not a tax person, so don’t complain if you get audited).  It’s still early on and only applies to a few internet connected widescreen TVs (Panasonic and Samsung), but it’s promising none the less.  In addition to the TV, you will also need a special web cam that runs approximately $150.  Check here for more information from Skype.

What other uses are there for Skype?  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts…