What Does a Subject Matter Expert Do, Anyway? SMEs May or May Not Be Instructors Subject matter expertise can be part and parcel of instructing. A K-12 teacher is both an instructor and an expert in their subject (like fifth-grade math); a college professor is often a subject matter expert (SME) first (researcher in genetics) and a teacher second; corporate trainers often spend years in the field and then transition[…]
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Instructional Designer and Course Developer: One Person or Two?
Why Use Both an Instructional Designer and a Course Developer: Won’t One Person Suffice? Continuing our discussion about roles in a training team, this month we’re looking at the advantages of separating the roles of instructional designer and course developer. It’s pretty common for an elearning development team to have a single person who is responsible for building elearning. They analyze the need for a course, design the course, build the course[…]
READ MORE about Instructional Designer and Course Developer: One Person or Two?Corporate Training Development Tip #3: Take Training Yourself
Corporate Training Tips & Tricks—Save Your Money & Prove Your Worth, Book Excerpt #3 NOTE: The following article is taken, with minor changes, from Corporate Training Tips & Tricks: Save Your Money & Prove Your Worth by Katrina Baker. It is one of three articles by Microassist Senior Learning Architect Kevin Gumienny. To hear more training tidbits from Kevin and other learning and development professionals, we encourage you to get your copy of[…]
READ MORE about Corporate Training Development Tip #3: Take Training Yourself2017 TxDLA Annual Conference Backchannel
The 2017 TxDLA Annual Conference held in Galveston, Texas from March 28-31, 2017. Conference Sessions focus on trends in educational technology, education innovations and best practices, research, accessibility and universal design, cybersecurity and data analytics, faculty and student support, PK-12, educational outreach, and workforce development, administration, leadership, and policy, gamification and virtualization, and more. Microassist was represented at the TxDLA 2017 Annual Conference by Senior Learning Architect Kevin Gumienny and Heather Poggi-Mannis from[…]
READ MORE about 2017 TxDLA Annual Conference BackchannelHow to Make Elearning Accessible: Insights from the 2017 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference
A week at the CSUN Assistive Technology conference in San Diego leaves the mind reeling. So much new information! So much of it related to learning! A few presentations made this connection explicit, directly correlating learning and accessibility. What I’d really like to talk about though, is the way that accessibility, the process and principle of making content available to those with disabilities, relates to elearning. Drawing from various presentations,[…]
READ MORE about How to Make Elearning Accessible: Insights from the 2017 CSUN Assistive Technology ConferenceA Note on Details: Which versus What?
When writing multiple choice questions, do you ever wonder whether the stem should read “what option should you choose” or “which option should you choose”? And should options begin with a capitalized letter, even if they are incomplete sentences? Should options have closing punctuation? Should the stem end in a colon? Will anyone even care? And, of course, it’s not just about the quiz. Throughout your curriculum, there are decisions[…]
READ MORE about A Note on Details: Which versus What?Corporate Training Development Tip #2: Draw on Other Fields
Corporate Training Tips & Tricks—Save Your Money & Prove Your Worth, Book Excerpt #2 NOTE: The following article is taken, with minor changes, from Corporate Training Tips & Tricks: Save Your Money & Prove Your Worth by Katrina Baker. It is one of three articles by Microassist Senior Learning Architect Kevin Gumienny. To hear more training tidbits from Kevin and other learning and development professionals, we encourage you to get your copy of[…]
READ MORE about Corporate Training Development Tip #2: Draw on Other FieldsTop Tech-Based Ways to Train a Distributed Workforce
One of the enduring challenges in the learning and development world is disseminating training classes to the largest audience in the least amount of time. Supporting a distributed workforce through effective training is an increasingly important challenge as companies expand across larger geographic regions. Conquering Distance Education: Top 4 Ways to Train Staff Across the Miles It isn’t uncommon for offices to be spread across the country (or even the globe)[…]
READ MORE about Top Tech-Based Ways to Train a Distributed WorkforceElearning Trends: Is New Really Better?
Tell Us Your Thoughts! Are You Adopting Up and Coming Elearning Technologies in 2017? This is the time of year for reports to come out; Docebo and ATD each recently released their reports of the state of the training industry for 2016. One aspect that stands out is technology trends, especially for elearning. The majority of elearning that’s commonly encountered in the wild follows the self-contained module/LMS model. E.g., “Here’s[…]
READ MORE about Elearning Trends: Is New Really Better?Room Rental Questions for a Successful Training Program Roll Out
When you are planning a software training program roll out, you initially concentrate on what you are going to teach—objectives, curriculum, instructors. However, getting the logistics correct, such as training room rental setup and technical capabilities—and even the coffee and snacks—can also be important to the success of your training program. Rent a Classroom for Your Training Program: Why to Do It, and What to Ask Let us see what questions[…]
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