Train Like You Listen Podcast

The Train Like You Listen Podcast is focused on small nuggets that trainers, instructional designers, part-time trainers, and jack’s of all trades can use to improve their presentations and training sessions.

Have FOMO after seeing everyone’s posts about ATD ICE last week?

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I gotta admit, I missed being at ATD ICE in Orlando last week. The L&D community truly is the community in which I feel most at home, and the energy I feel when I’m at an industry conference is unparalleled.

That said, there are other ways to take our skill set and raise the bar on our craft to the next level. In this week’s podcast, I spend a little time talking about why we should constantly be looking to raise our own bar, and several specific ways we can improve even if we can’t get to a big industry event.

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What’s on the horizon for L&D according to Andrew Scivally

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Over the past two years, ELB Learning (formerly eLearning Brothers) has acquired 6 companies and, as you can see, has changed its name from eLearning Brothers to ELB Learning.

Last week I had a chance to sit down with the co-founder and CEO, Andrew Scivally, about the path that led him to start eLearning Brothers (alongside his brother), the evolution of the field of learning and development that led to the company’s name change, and his thoughts on the challenges that L&D professionals will need to be prepared to face over the next few years.

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When creating eLearning, these five differences between ILT and eLearning can be helpful to keep in mind

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I’ve had a chance to work with a number of people who have a background in classroom facilitation or k-12 education, but who are just starting out in their journey as eLearning designers.

In today’s podcast, I walk through five big differences between instructor-led training and eLearning, and I also offer a few ways to navigate, and in some cases take advantage of, these differences when creating eLearning experiences.

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What happens when training and marketing collaborate?

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A month and a half ago, I was sitting in a training session when someone from the marketing department got in front of the room. She shared how she worked with the training team to help follow up training events with communication and additional resources for training participants.

Recently I asked this marketing professional to sit down and help me better understand how she works with the training team, and what’s in it for both the training and marketing teams. Here is what Emily Ledbetter had to say.

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Know something? Say something!

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I’d bet a gazillion dollars that every single person who is reading today’s blog post has something they could share with the rest of the world that would help other people do something new or differently or better.

I also bet that a few people who are reading this today have written a blog post or presented at a conference. A huge thank you to those who have. That’s a big way of how I’ve gotten to where I am today. I began just reading TD magazine cover to cover every month.

In today’s podcast, I share some thoughts about what may make for good content to share, why you might want to share it even if you don’t think anyone else would be interested, and where you might be able to share your thoughts, ideas, discoveries and practices.

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What does it feel like to work on an eLearning project as part of a team?

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Some people have the opportunity to work on a larger training team with many colleagues who may also be involved on the same project, or at least colleagues to bounce ideas around with. Others in our field work on small teams or are even working as a “department of one”.

Unless we’re creating elearning for ourselves, there will always be someone else who can be part of the elearning development team: the client who asked for the elearning.

In today’s podcast, the Endurance Learning team takes some time to reflect on the benefits, challenges and lessons learned when it comes to a work culture that always joins the eLearning designer and the client together as part of a single team.

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Working with SMEs

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Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) will be some of the smartest and most capable of people we have the fortune of working with. Sometimes those SMEs will be experienced in working with people on developing training programs and are used to distilling their expertise into bite-sized chunks for learning purposes. Other times, SMEs will want to make sure that everyone learns everything about a topic.

In today’s podcast, I’ll briefly talk about what an SME actually is and how we can partner with them to make sure everyone’s time is used well, including some sample questions that may be helpful in getting us more quickly to the right information.

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What is “Instructional Design”?

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The terms “instructional design” and “instructional designer” get thrown around a lot. But what do these terms really mean? Is anyone who develops training an instructional designer?

In today’s podcast, I’ll dive a little more deeply into some ways to define “instructional design”, “instructional designer”, and I’ll also walk through some pros and cons of perhaps the most well-known instructional design model: ADDIE.

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5 Engagement Strategies for Training

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On last week’s podcast, I made the point that there is a big difference between “engaging training” and “effective training” (and I suggested that “effective training” should always be the goal). Today, I’m re-visiting the concept of learner engagement, because engagement (with intention) is an essential element to training that ultimately proves effective.

In this 10-minute podcast, I share 5 different strategies that can be applied at various points in time during your presentation – from even before your presentation begins to the waning moments of your training program.

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Is there a difference between “engaging” training and “effective” training?

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I cannot count how many times I’ve been in a training session in which the speaker opens with some sort of variation on the following: “Good morning! I want today’s session to be highly engaging and interactive, so be sure to ask questions!”

Inviting learners to ask questions during a session might be one way to engage them. Playing a game of Jeopardy might also be an engagement strategy.

But are these strategies effective?

Over the next few minutes, I’ll take a closer look at the difference between engaging training and effective training.

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