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Catching the mood - reflections from the Kineo crew at ASTD Kineo attended and exhibited at the ASTD ICE conference in Washington in June and so we had a chance to test the temperature in the US. But what did our team pick up? Here are some headline thoughts.
Steve Lowenthal LMS frustration is very real. Companies are tired of paying high licensing fees and not getting the customer service they expect and desire. There‘s a real demand for better looking e-learning – it’s now the main way of training and so it better look good. Rapid e-learning is not exempt from this: looks matter at all levels.
Resources are tight so getting more for less is more important than ever. A recurring theme at the conference when people came to talk to us was stretching a limited budget to respond to the increased demand for e-learning.
Cammy Bean There’s a considerable buzz about Moodle. Traditional corporate LMSs are being viewed as behemoth dinosaurs with decreasing relevance. The buzz was all about informal training – with eyebrows raised and blank stares from the audience as if to say “we have to do what now?" Learning professionals need to be more than aware of the methods for informal learning – they need to be champions and need to be actively piloting and finding the right methods for your organization.
Twittering and blogging were happening at the conference – you have to be careful what you say! It was great though to see so many of my friends from the virtual space. More organizations are looking at how Twitter, and other tools like Yammer, can play a role in how they manage and communicate internally.
Mark Harrison There are some really disruptive forces coming into the e-learning authoring space – if you have got budget it’s hard see what tool you should pick now – if you haven’t, Articulate still looks like the best bet. The Articulate stand, opposite us, was busy with people making this decision, and we were very busy helping people to understand how to make the most of Articulate through custom look and feel.
Every face-to-face training consultancy at the ASTD show now boasts e-learning capability – the old dogs are definitely having to learn new tricks. More people are coming new to e-learning at a time when the market is on the move, so you need to take a deep dive in to find out what’s doable and how to make it work in your organization
Many attendees at the off-shoring session I talked at seemed to have major question-marks about resourcing in Asia – cost-wise it fits the bill, but culturally it still feels a long way from a workable model, and there are implementation challenges. Reducing costs through tools and rapid methods may be the better option, many felt. We’ve responded to many of these trends through our recent guides and advice on the site. Check out our ‘More for Less’ guide to surviving during the recession for a good primer on all of these issues. If you want to pick up with us on any of these trends, just get in touch at info@kineo.com
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