CIASTD Monthly Newsletter

Just like pebbles, IDEAS lie all around us just waiting to be recognized as diamonds.

One of the best places to find new IDEAS is at Central Indiana ASTD programs. Not only do the program topics offer IDEAS, the professional sitting beside you just might have the best IDEA yet. Looking at the list of upcoming programs, imagine all of the IDEAS you might unearth.

CIASTD offers you opportunities to discover new IDEAS right here in central Indiana! Come fill your pockets with diamonds.

“The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger IDEAS, never returns to its original size.”

Linda is president if CIASTD and is Director of Staff Development at ITT Educational Services, Inc.

Legal Trends for Trainers

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Join us in March as CIASTD brings you yet another exciting program. We will be at the Marrott this month. This is the same location as the February meeting or you might remember our June 2003 awards program at this venue. It is directly across from Ivy Tech on the Northeast corner of Fall Creek and Meridian. The program promises to be very beneficial and informative for anyone involved in training. Topics include:

Covering Your Assets:
Everything You Need to Know About
Trademarks and Copyrights
An introduction to trademark and copyright law, including a discussion of different types of intellectual property protection. Learn how to protect your company assets, and how to avoid infringing the rights of others.

Cultivating an Ethical Corporate Culture: How a Corporate Compliance Program Can Promote Integrity Within Your Organization
The scenes are now all too common on the nightly news and in the morning papers: smoking guns have been replaced by shredded documents; corporate executives are led away in handcuffs and whisked down the steps of courthouses and shareholders’ confidence is shaken by the size of multi-million dollar criminal penalties. Congress has responded to recent corporate scandals with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and more prosecutors are pursing corporations and executives as criminal defendants.

Our current business climate requires that corporate leadership ensure that integrity is a central component of workplace behavior. Every employee has a responsibility to behave ethically and to be sure that his or her colleagues to the same. The overriding lesson from the recent downfall of many corporations is that talented people need effective systems and resources to create a culture of integrity. In this session, participants will learn the essential elements required of an effective corporate compliance programs and the role leadership can play in ensuring the program permeates throughout the organization.

As leaders, we must promote a workplace of integrity. One lesson from the downfall of many corporations is that talented people need effective systems and resources. Learn the essential elements of effective corporate compliance programs and the role leadership can play in ensuring the program permeates throughout your organization.
The session will be presented by Mary Jan Frisby Julia Spoor Gard, and Scott C. Newman from Barnes and Thornburg. 2001 and 2002.

Mary Jane Frisby was the co-instructor of the Copyright Law class at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. She has also lectured on copyright law before various professional and trade organizations, and she has taught continuing education courses on copyright law for the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum and the Medical Library Association. Her background includes experience in the world of academic publishing, the academic library, and the music business.

Julia Spoor Gard is an associate in the Indianapolis office and a member of the Intellectual Property Department. Her practice consists of searching and clearing trademarks, prosecuting domestic and international trademark applications, intellectual property licensing and assignments, and litigation before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. She counsels primarily high tech clients in the areas of trademark, copyright and unfair competition, and has authored several articles on trademarks and trademark law in technology and intellectual property newsletters and magazines. She has lectured at seminars on intellectual property, e-commerce, and internet law for the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (ICLEF), the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, among others.

Jason R. Barclay, an associate in Barnes & Thornburg's Indianapolis office, concentrates on business litigation and corporate criminal defense and governmental compliance issues.

The March meeting will be held at the Marrott, which is directly across from Ivy Tech on the Northeast corner of Fall Creek and Meridian. The cranberry cocktail hour starts at 7:30 a.m. and the program runs from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. Food will be catered by Hoaglin Fine Catering. The cost for CIASTD members is $25, $40 for non-members and $15 for students. Walk-ins should add $5 fee.

Blended Learning
Blended learning… Should you blend, fold, mix, puree, or whip? Melissa Carter, Matt Donovan, and Jason Strasser tackled the issues at the February 27, CIASTD meeting.

Matt and Melissa began by exploring a definition of blended learning. They pointed out that there are a number of definitions and even the experts disagree. For purposes of the presentation they provided a number of commonly agreed upon characteristics. They even provided a quote from Jay Coss stating that blended learning is nothing more than common sense.

There are several ways to think about blending. Locus of control blending focuses on blending instructor led training (ILT), facilitated, and self-paced. Delivery technology blending focuses on blending technologies such as web-based training (WBT), CD-ROM, video/audio conference, print, videotape, simulation, and classroom. Delivery timing might blend synchronous and asynchronous training. Instructional strategies would blend didactic learning and problem based learning. Performance support strategies would focus on blending items such as communities of practice, on the training (OJT), mentors, performance labs, and job aids.

With the definitions addressed, they began to explore design considerations. Factors such as:

Case Studies
Using a Mission Possible theme, they presented a case study based on Roche Diagnostic’s Acu-Chek product. They presented the various challenges to the training initiative. Roche was used to a traditional stand-up trainer. Thus, they wanted to have a classroom component, but they wanted to do some pre-learning online so that everyone could attend with the same vocabulary and the same level of understanding. They also wanted some post-learning activities that would reinforce the content and give students a chance for application. They used CD-ROM for the sales force, since they were on the road a lot. An important success factor with this project was the way that all of the developers worked together. The person who developed the ILT served as a SME for the on-line development. Matt pointed out that this sometimes presents a challenge, because blending an on-line component alters the requirements for the ILT drastically. The bottom line is that this approach saved time… training that would have taken a full week using traditional methods was reduced to two days of classroom time.

The second case study focused on Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme had a huge challenge for customer service training as they experienced huge growth. They wanted to help new employees and new store managers understand the “magic moment” of Krispy Krème. They utilized a blended solution that included self-paced, scenario-based, e-learning courses, OJT Program, and Application based, facilitator-led sessions.

The ILT component included a doughnut test. Students had to diagnose some bad doughnuts and figure out what was wrong with them. “They really sweat the doughnut test,” explained Matt.

Jason Strasser talked about blended learning at Made2Manage. Made2Manage Software Company specializes in ERP software for small to midsize manufacturers across multiple industries.

Their training division is a profit center. They needed to find a cost-effective way to train their customers on how to use their software. They implemented an asynchronous virtual classroom. In 2001 they had a 700% increase in Virtual Class attendance, which created a huge backlog. They needed to reduce the waitlist, reduce scheduling headaches, keep the customer happy, and still make a profit.

They began to offer pre-recorded classes to cover the basic materials. Initially the customers started downloading the files and then canceling their subscriptions. To counter this, Made2Manage made the pre-recorded classes digital streaming only, so they could not be downloaded. This did create some bandwidth problems for some customers, but overall, it was affective.

Using the blended approach, Made2Manage was able to close satellite training offices, cut costs, and still serve as many students as they did before. They have been able to alleviate virtual class wait lists and provide better service.

Matt introduced a case study for Venture Logistics Worldwide. They were rolling out a new performance management system and Matt asked the audience to figure out a good blended solution to meet their training needs. Many good ideas were suggested.

Are you interested in rapid development for e-Learning? Be sure to mark March 30, 4:00 – 6:00 on your calendar.

One of the special interest groups (SIG) associated with CIASTD focuses on Technology Based Training (TBT). The SIG meets approximately four times a year to discuss relevant TBT topics. In March, the meeting will include a presentation titled, “Rapid eLearning – What can you develop in 3-5 days?” The meeting will be located at Made2Manage Systems, Inc. which is located at 450 E. 96th street, Suite 300, on the north side of Indianapolis. This link will provide a map.

Snacks will be provided! To RSVP, simply send an email message to Jason Strasser.

Help! We recently lost two staff members of the Facilitator. Do you enjoy writing? Would you like to contribute to CIASTD and get involved, but have limited amount of time? Writing for the Facilitator may be the perfect way for you to get involved! We have immediate need for someone to write the “Member Profile” and for someone to write a preview of the upcoming meeting. Both topics require fairly little time write and are easy to research. If this sounds like something you would be interested, email Jay McNaught at JMcNaught@cinergy.com. The pay is not great (you get paid in CIAST bonus bucks!) but your help would be greatly appreciated!

Fortunately, we lost both staff members for good reasons. They both took on new jobs that changed their responsibilities and/or demanded more of their time. We want to thank David Llewellyn and Kristin Livel-Smith for the tremendous contribution they both made to this newsletter. Their writing will be greatly missed!

Engaging the Online Learner
By Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson
Review by Nicole Kobrowski, Facilitator Staff

This book uses a framework called “The Phases of Engagement” that helps learners be not only learners but also turns them into co-facilitators. The authors present specific ideas and activities from a variety of sources on a wide range of themes which can easily be adapted to other training applications. These activities and this book will help readers learn skills and info to enable them to:

The authors believe that following their framework and by using creative activities designed within that framework, educators can provide engaging online programs.

Co-authors Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson have used their skills to complement each other in this book. Rita-Marie Conrad is an instructional designer and online instructor as well as the head of a technology department. J. Ana Donaldson is an associate professor with an Ed. D. in Instructional Technology.

This book is written in an easy to understand conversational tone, despite the myriad of theorists presented (many time en masse). There is little space wasted for overblown scholastic writing. The authors get to the main points quickly and focus on what is important.

The focus of this book is to provide a framework for engaging the online learner. Their premise is that although learner interaction is a key to success in online learning, learners need to be engaged in activities designed to put all learners at an advantage online. By designing, executing, and evaluating these activities, educators can make their online classrooms much more engaging and valuable to their learners.

My personal hope in reading this book was to learn better ways to facilitate online learning and to try and find ideas that may transfer to my facilitation in corporate areas. However, I am unsure many of these examples would translate. Of course, it is assumed that educators will adapt these to make the list relevant to their situation. But, I still question how many of these ideas would be used in corporations. Many corporations have moved to just-in-time training with seemingly little regard for actually engaging the learners. Still, the activities presented are fun, creative, and definitely accomplish their goals.

The best aspect of this book is the format. It is presented in a sequential manner that makes even a novice online instructor at ease with planning an online course. The weakest and most disappointing aspects are that I feel there are too many examples. More direction to major sites online which could help with activity creation would have been helpful as part of this book. Additionally, this book is part of online learning resources. Educators in the US gave the examples of activities. To me, online learning transcends time and borders. It would have been nice to see what educators outside the US would have contributed to this effort.

Despite these misgivings, overall, I would recommend this book as a starting point for online educators combined with a liberal search online or through other available resources. The book is reasonably priced at about $20 and would make a decent reference book for educators.