Blog M4.4 – Learning Blog Assignment and Discussion

How do you see a Facebook page as adding value to the learning environment that you are creating?

I feel that Facebook could add tremendous value and exposure to my learning environment in many ways.   Facebook can be utilized to communicate training opportunities, events, and calendars to employees. It can also provide access to online discussions and collaboration, allow for the sharing of training materials and resources, provide links to videos and other multimedia, share pictures, provide instructor biographies, and allow instructors and students to interact.  Since employees are located around the country and in Canada, it would be nice to allow learners to view pictures of other employees and create groups for collaboration and sharing purposes.  I can also see this being extremely useful for new hire orientation, helping students navigate their learning requirements and opportunities.

Given that you would use private pages for internal postings, are there ways that you would try to encourage an ongoing community or commitment through the Facebook venue?

In order to sustain an ongoing community or commitment to the learning environment through Facebook, I would encourage students/learners to like the page to be eligible to receive training updates and offerings, access to course ratings and reviews, and training news. It can also communicate motivational messages, daily updates, team-building opportunities, provide access to free downloads, and interactive polls and surveys, to name a few.  In addition, they would have access to their individual groups, employee images, and employee contact information.

How would you plan on maintaining such an outward-facing social presence?

In order for the Facebook page to be a useful resource for employees, it would have to be relevant and contain timely information.  It would need to be maintained and updated consistently to include new information so employees return to it often and reply on it for informational purposes.  It will be important to know the audience and what is important and relevant to them. What do they expect to see? What types of information would keep them returning to the page?   I would want to understand what they expect to find on the Facebook page and what they feel would be beneficial to them.  I can think of so many great topics that can be included.  It is a great way to communicate scheduling changes, instructor changes, new course releases, training requirements and upcoming compliance deadlines.

Would you maintain this yourself or share the responsibilities with the learners in your environment?

I think I would probably maintain the core components of the page myself, however I can see many benefits with allowing learners in my learning environment to share feedback, questions, comments, pictures, etc. Of course this would need to be moderated, but I can definitely see value.  I would want to establish rules for posting content, and share guidelines and best practices for doing so.   We would also need to establish policies and procedures for employees to follow in regards to use of offensive terms, and clearly state what will and will not be considered acceptable.

Are there other comments and notes that you want to make about your personal learning and/or the challenges that will lie ahead as you start thinking about the expectations that others may have as outcomes from your learners?

In terms of Facebook, I would need to work closely with IT to discuss potential risks or concerns.  Would Facebook be available to employees from within the Intranet?  What would this entail?  Security would be a big concern overall.  As a company, we are in the process of rolling out a new Intranet later this month.  It will offer employees access to newsfeeds, communities and other collaboration and sharing tools.  Facebook could be a nice fit for this type of interactive environment and something that should maybe be considered.

Also related to Facebook and security, I would like to consider placing a link to the learning management system from the Facebook page.  This would allow learners to enroll directly from the page where they are viewing upcoming training opportunities.  It would be nice to have these integrated.

I am sure there will be many hurdles and challenges with implementing this, but I think it could be a real asset to the learners in my learning environment.

LETTP M3.4: Use of Video in a Blended Learning Environment

Based on videos that you have created and observed, what other ways (beside the video you created) can you envision using video in your finalized learning environment or in your communication areas in general?

I would consider video to be a critical part of my blended learning environment in many ways.  This topic is actually extremely relevant for me at this time.  In my organization, I have a large safety department.  I was recently approached by one of the safety managers who is interested is recording safety related videos himself.  He would like me to make them available on our leaning management system for employees’ companywide to be able to utilize and learn from.  At first I was not sure of the quality so I didn’t want to commit to anything; however, after seeing a prototype I have to admit I was impressed. I think videos like the one he created would add value to my learning environment for sure. My only concerns, which I am still looking into, are whether the amateur-style videos are safety compliant and also compliant from a legal aspect.  If the feedback is positive from the employees I have contacted to review the video content, I think I will move ahead with making them available to all employees.  I was excited to be addressing the topic of videos during this module. It was helpful to have the additional insight into the topic.

In addition to using video as tutorials and for other forms of training, I can also see it being a valuable resource for course pre-work as well.  Learners can be asked to watch a video or series of videos prior to attending a classroom session.  It is a great way to have all learners come to the class with a common foundation of knowledge. 

How can you keep your videos timely and engaging, without getting too cute?  (Or, do you want to be cute at some times? Cute can have great appeal to the right audience.)

I think there is an important balance when creating videos for training purposes.  When a learner takes an eLearning course, they can typically proceed through the content at their own pace.  With a video, the presenter is pacing the delivery.  I think it would be important to my learners to keep the video short, topic specific, and to the point, without speaking too fast or too slow.  The content delivered via video needs to be practical, engaging and applicable to the learner.  When creating the videos, I believe it would be important to scope out the content to be delivered so it doesn’t come across as rambling. The more focused and concise the video is, the more useful it will be to the learner in the end.

I like offering objectives at the beginning of the video and also offering a wrap up/review at the end.  This would allow the learner to determine if the video is right for their needs before watching it. I think images and transitions throughout the video help to set the pace and music to begin or end the video can be somewhat of an attention-getter if it is used wisely.

Video training can be helpful, but often you need to provide written directions too – how can you do create multiple training formats without creating too much work for yourself? What about considering the extra steps in creating the captioning file in YouTube so that a script is available too?

I think this is a true benefit of blended learning.  For a video that may require a written component as well, I would probably look to embed the video itself within an eLearning course rather than just a standalone video. That would allow me to create content leading up to the video, then the learner can watch the video as part of the course, and then review the content via a wrap up or summary. I can even choose to end with an assessment or acknowledgement if the content lends itself to that.  I think that would offer the most flexibility and allow me to repurpose content as well, saving time and money on development.

How can you create videos that truly engage the different intelligences?

Everyone learns differently and at different speeds. Learning from video is no different.  I would look to develop videos that are available at various levels. I may look to address a topic over three different videos at introduction, intermediate and advanced levels.  This would allow the learners to build upon their knowledge as they learn.   Also, I would incorporate images to visually represent the content whenever possible.  Much like the video I created for our module 3 assignment, I would probably be creating those types of demo videos for my learners.

Are there other comments and notes that you want to make about your personal learning and/or the challenges that will lie ahead as you start thinking about the expectations that others may have as outcomes from your learners?

One big challenge I can envision related to the use of video in my learning environment is related to the hardware and bandwidth available at the branch locations.  In order for the video to be watched, they would need sound cards and speakers on the equipment at the location.  My understanding is that all locations have the capability and bandwidth but I cannot be completely sure.  In order to really make an impactful blended learning environment, I would need to make sure that all employees are able to access the training I make available in the learning environment.

I would like to utilize video components for areas of training including new hire, sales, safety, ethics, technology, compliance, and leadership to name a few.

Below is an interesting article from Training magazine.  It offered many good points related to incorporating video for employee training.  I added the link below in case you wanted to check it out.

http://www.trainingmag.com/3-ways-use-video-effective-employee-training

Reference:

Hanzlik, Vern. Training. 3 Ways to Use Video for Effective Employee Training. February 10, 2014. http://www.trainingmag.com/3-ways-use-video-effective-employee-training. Retrieved March 1, 2015.