Text Messaging in the Classroom

When I first was exposed to corporate training, mobile phones were usually only seen on the hips of management and executives.  Typical employees didn't have or see the need to maintain constant communication with the outside world. This has obviously changed over the years as mobile phones have become more affordable. We now or will shortly be at a place where everyone simply has a mobile phone. Activation rates of mobile phones surpassed their wired counterparts years ago. Of course along with obvious voice calls, mobile phones do so much more today than what they did a few years ago.


Instead of asking learners to shut off their phones during class, have learners use them to add engagement to their learning. Text messaging is available on every mobile phone and in recent years the problems with cross carrier and international text messaging have been solved.  These text messages can contribute to your training data and can be including in your training reports. Here are a few ways this technology can be used:

Level One Evaluations - ask your learners to text in feedback either during or after training. Have them answer questions like what is working well, what is not working well and what they would like to see changed or added to training.

Knowledge Checks or Surveys - ask your students some survey questions or quiz questions to ensure they have an understanding of what you have taught. You may also just want to get your student opinions. Do this just before a break to give you time to analyze the data to share the results with your students after the break.  Check out http://www.polleverywhere.com/ for an affordable solution based on classroom size.

Follow-up to Training - capturing your student's mobile phone numbers gives you another way to follow up with your learners. With their prior permission of course, you could text out questions they can reply to, or simply share additional knowledge once they have returned to the workplace.

Be creative. As more and more millennial generation enter the workplace, more and more of your learners will not only embrace the use of technology in the classroom, they will expect it. Feel free to suggest your own methods for using texting in the classroom by adding your comments below.

Mobile Learning

A new trend that is currently being explored is Mobile Learning or M-Learning for short.  This trend in web based training is attempting to harness two aspects of peoples lives.  First of all the likelihood that your learning audience is connected through some type of mobile device that can access robust content on the go.  The second aspect is that people have downtime in their travels throughout their busy days.  You are far more likely to get someone's attention for a few minutes a day during their train ride than during actual office hours.

M-Learning is not limited to what we typically imagine as web-based training.  Consider the use of a podcast as a form of M-Learning.  Sure you can listen to the MP3 on your PC as well, but why not listen to a podcast while you drive to the office each day.  I have been attempting to learn Spanish this way through a podcast available from a U.K. company that offers language learning through iTunes.  I listen and repeat the Spanish words and phrases while I drive.  If you are interested you can find out more at http://radiolingua.com/.

In a previous organization that I worked for, we included mini quizzes built into job aids that could be submitted through text message (SMS).  Prizes were awarded for a randomly selected correct answer.  Thousands of people within the organization participated and it certainly was a way of showing the return on investment.


Giving learners the flexibility of taking training when they want has always been an advantage of web based training, however with M-Learning you add the component of where they want as well.  Your learners are far more likely to take training if it's during time that is normally wasted for them.  An example might be their daily commute, or waiting in a long queue at the market..  During such times It's not always convenient to open up a laptop and log into an LMS.  Mobile learning can be as simple as pulling a smartphone out of their pocket and launching a course, or listening to a podcast on their iPod.

It isn't an ideal method of training large quantities of knowledge.  I believe there is a direct correlation between screen size and the length of time a visual presentation can capture your attention.  That said you are far more likely to capture someone's attention during 5 or 10 minutes of their down time each day, than to compress that content into a 30 minute session once per week.


Here are some additional ideas about M-Learning from the folks at Tribal, that may inspire you to come up with more ways that M-Learning can be implemented into your organization.



Some additional resources are available at http://www.m-learning.org/

Training Across the Generations

The advances in technology in the last 60 years have consistently been accelerating.  I once heard a quote (which is already out of date) that stated that technological growth in a single year in the 1990s is equivalent to all the technological growth in the entire decade of the 1970s.  I believe it!  When I consider what I already take for granted today as an adult, I’m amazed.  Of course one of the challenges this creates is the differences between multiple generations.  In my experience as a trainer of adults I have had the opportunity to teach across a total of three (possibly four) generations.  Of course one hundred years ago, the difference between someone’s learning style that was born in 1900 versus someone born in 1910 may not have been so discernible.  Today however, those ten years may mean a completely different experience with learning.

As older generations stay in the workplace longer, you may find yourself faced with a classroom containing any number from the following groups:

• Veterans
• Baby Boomers
• Generation X
• Generation Y

The Veteran’s generation refers specifically to those who were born before the end of World War II.  Some of the older members of this generation may in fact have served in the war and thus the name of the generation.  This group will generally value fiscal responsibility as they grew up during the depression and later World War II.  They are generally conservative.  When training this group of learners, consider the fact that they want to be valued for their experience and recognized as a useful member of the group.  Calling on them to share their experience can be useful when collaborating as a group. 

Baby Boomers are a generation that grew up challenging the status quo.  They did this in when protesting the Vietnam War, and then later as adults when entering the corporate world.  It’s because of this that the paradigms of corporate culture have changed over the years.  When teaching new or unusual approaches with Baby Boomers, be prepared to offer strong evidence that supports the new material.  Baby Boomers will not accept “Just because” as an answer, and they will welcome debate over changing ideas.

Generation X is a group that will work well independently.  They are often the product of parents who were both working and trying to get ahead, and sometimes single parents who worked as well.  Because of this Generation X was a generation that needed to be more self-sufficient as children and teens.  Often referred to as latch key kids, as they were usually the first to arrive home at the end of the day.  Children of this generation also had greater access to technology than previous generations and will usually understand technology well.

Generation Y or the Millennial generation are those who are just entering the workforce now.  These adults are still young and much of their adult identity is still unknown.  This generation grew up always knowing technology.  Many of this generation cannot remember a time where there wasn’t an Internet or World Wide Web.  They are not only comfortable with technology they will expect it.  They are peer oriented so using social media is a great way to engage this group.  Unfortunately some members of this generation may have been overly nurtured as children and often have an inflated sense of entitlement because of this.  This can be challenging to deal with, however setting clear expectations at the beginning of any training can usually overcome this challenge.

With all generations, foster conversation about the differences between the generations.  Each will discover that they can learn from one another and also work well together back on the job.

What is Informal Learning?

A popular topic that has been thrown around the adult education community is the concept of informal learning.  Informal learning is the learning that takes place independently from a structured learning environment.  If you are an organization that has decided to embrace informal learning as part of your training program, there are some things to remember.

First of all, you cannot force informal learning to occur.  You can, however, foster an environment where informal learning is likely to occur.  One of the earliest examples of informal learning in all our lives is the playground.  As children, many of the new skills we learn come from this environment.  We learn much of our early social skills from this environment.  Children watch other children at play.  Once they understand the parameters of the activity they will join in.  If newcomers break any of the rules the larger group will correct their behaviour.  The only formal aspect of the playground was a school or community building it in the first place.  What games children played, and the skills and knowledge learned are up to the children themselves.  It's important to note that each child may get something entirely different from their experience as well.

So how do we duplicate this model in the workplace?  Create a workspace that is conducive to collaboration and discussion.  In an office building where I recently worked, they had space throughout each floor dedicated to where several employees could sit and relax with a coffee (a Starbucks and another restaurant were located on the main floor).  Employees were given a comfortable environment in which to discuss their work and learn from each other.  In addition, the desk space was organized into open concept group pods rather than isolated cubicles.  If you wanted to have a group conversation or share ideas, one had to only swivel their chair around to be facing a half dozen of their colleagues.

Rather than being limited to just email, employees in this office have Office Communicator, Microsoft's corporate version of Messenger.  It has all the functionality of the consumer version but in this case, restricted to communication within the company.  Employees were able to download versions of the software which would run on their company-provided BlackBerry's and other smartphones.  Communication with one another could occur anywhere and at any time.  Introducing a social networking type tool provides the environment in which learning can occur through the sharing of ideas and resources.

Rather than blocking certain social sites from office workers, give them access to tools that will allow them to share ideas with one another.  Concern for questionable web practices usually disappears when employees can all see each other’s screens.  Like the playground, employees will generally correct any inappropriate behaviour amongst each other.  Also giving employees a shared workspace online can create a collaborative environment where each can teach what they are knowledgeable about, while simultaneously learn from one another.  Tools like Sharepoint do this very well.

It's important to only provide the framework.  Too much intervention on the part of the organization and then you have lost the real value of informal learning.  The beauty of this model is that it will seem like leisure and playtime, rather than contributing to the skills and knowledge of your employees.  They will enjoy it and it will foster a positive attitude toward their work and learning environment.

For more information about informal learning, check out this informal video with Jay Cross on YouTube:

Tips for New Designers

We have all been subjected to poorly designed training.  We certainly know it when we are subjected to it.  Poorly designed courses are usually designed with only the instructor in mind.  New or inexperienced designers usually think in terms of what the instructor should do next.  This is why you get training where the adult learners are disinterested because of a lack of involvement.  As designers, we should be considering what the learners should be doing next more than what the instructor does. 

The percentage of instruction should be roughly 1/3rd, while practice and evaluation should account for the remaining 2/3rds.  For example, if I am conducting a training session that lasts 6 hours, The instructor should only be presenting to the class for a total of two of those hours.  The remaining time would be for the learners to practise what they have learned and for the instructor to offer feedback in one form or another. 

Be sure to break down your instruction into small manageable chunks of information.  You would not want an instructor to present for 2 hours and then expect the learners to practice everything they have learned for those remaining 4 hours.  Structure your course into step-by-step instructions placed in the order they would be performed back on the job.  For example, if you were teaching how to change a tire, you may want one lesson just on using a jack.  You might spend 10 minutes demonstrating the skill and instructing the learners and then give them 20 minutes to practice what they have learned.  During this time you would wander through the classroom environment offering feedback and encouragement.

When I find a topic interesting, I sometimes make the mistake of providing too much information during training.  I love learning the history and the answers to all the "why" questions, but not everyone is like me.  Be sure to eliminate or reduce the nice-to-know information.  Again if you were instructing people on how to change a tire, you may want to provide the advantages of knowing this skill.  This is often referred to as the "What's in it for me" element, which certainly speaks to the principles of adult learning.  In this case, I would not want the history of the tire and how it was developed and perhaps a review of all the possible road hazards that could cause the need to use your spare.  While some learners may be interested in the nice-to-know information, it is not crucial to performing the job task and will be perceived by most learners as a waste of time. 

Consider the frequency and importance to which the skills are being performed.  If the learners are conducting this new job task on a daily basis and/or it is critical to the organization then spend more time on this training.  If on the other hand the job task is used only once in while and/or has only a small impact on the organization, spend less time training.  Even better would be to develop job aids that break down the infrequent job tasks into to easy to follow step-by-step instructions.  These job aids could eliminate the need for your learners to memorize steps that will not be used on a daily basis.

Much can be learned by conducting a pilot. Whenever time permits, pilot your course.  Build the additional days needed into your development plan, and schedule participants in advance so that you can be sure their schedule will permit them the time to review your training.  By the time you have a final draft of the course, you will have been exposed to the content for a great deal of time.  You will no longer be objective as to determine if the learning objectives can be effectively met by simply reviewing your own work.  The fresh eyes, ears and mouths of others can tell you if they are able to be engaged, and retain the new knowledge and skills.

Career Development

What is the value of training and development to potential employees?  On a recent survey conducted by Right Management, 40 percent of respondents said that career development ranked as number one.  To these people career development was more important than items such as work/life balance and competitive compensation.  Of this list only 8 percent felt that good rapport with one's manager was important.

Although I was not a part of this survey, I agree.  As someone who works in Training, I value career development as it's often the objective of the training I design, however as an employee I also crave my own career development as well.  Recently I was asked during an interview for an Instructional Design position what was important to me in an employer and I reflected on another recent interview experience where I learned that career development wasn't a focus of this potential employer.  The thought of working for this employer suddenly seemed less appealing regardless of what compensation was offered.  As I talked about the developmental experiences I had with my previous employer the interviewer kept commenting that they didn't offer these services or that development was something you did on your own time.

A friend of mine was recently talking about trying to get ahead within her organization.  She found it demoralizing that the only development her employer was offering for a position she was interested in pursuing was to job shadow during her off hours.  While job shadowing may be an effective means of supplementing training, it can lack the skills development and knowledge needed to perform the actual job.  In addition you run the risk of transferring improper procedures or just plain bad habits to the person doing the shadowing.  A more formal method of training is recommended.

Considering the results of the Right Management survey, I think more organizations should consider what can make new positions appealing to employees.  Considering the cost of hiring externally, employers could reduce the turn around and offer career development as an incentive to stay within an organization.  This approach may be less expensive than offering higher wages to untried new hires, who may eventually prove unworthy in the end.

Web Based Training and Levels of Evaluation

Web Based Training has a variety of advantages. It can ensure consistency in training across an organization, since everyone will be subject to the same content. It can be much more cost effective, as it eliminates the need for travel and accommodation. It can be easy to evaluate, since built-in evaluation tools takes the manual work out of the equation.

But what are we talking about when we discuss evaluation?  I, like most of us was taught about Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation. Don't know what that is?  Click here to learn more.

Level 1 is the easiest evaluation type to capture in web based training as almost all authoring tools include some evaluation tool that is capable of such. Keep them short to maintain as much accuracy as possible. If this type of evaluation is too time consuming, learners may arbitrarily check off all the same grading for each question thereby nullifying the results.

Level 2 evaluations are also not overly difficult to create in most authoring tools. Usually they are achieved much the same as the level 1 evaluation except that a grade can be assigned to the results. Several things to keep in mind are:

• Be sure the evaluation addresses the learning objectives of the course.  Don't just ask questions for the sake of asking questions
• If possible, use a randomize function to rearrange the order of the questions and the order in which the possible answers are displayed. this will make each version of your quiz different from the last
• Choose a small number of questions from a larger pool of questions.  Again, creating a unique quiz each time the course is accessed
• Make all possible answers appear plausible so the correct answer isn't easily guessed
• Avoid True/False questions for the same reason as above

Remember that web based training can be difficult to evaluate when learning is in the affective (attitudes and feelings) or psychomotor (physical skill) domain.  Use simulations for systems training that can test the use of software without risk of making an error in a live system .

Now here is where things get tricky for evaluation of web based training. Level 3 can be one of the most costly types of evaluations for most organizations, especially those that have operations in multiple locations across the country.

Here is one suggestion. After a week or more has past, send an email to each student's supervisor. If your LMS can generate this automatically, all the better. Ask the supervisor to observe their employees for demonstration of the new skills in the work place. This assumes the supervisor has taken this training or is equally knowledgable about these new skills. Have the supervisor report back on the results.  Once the data is collected you can compair results and determine if the training has had an effect on the behavior of those that have completed it.  Hopefully the supervisors and the business as a whole are willing to buy in on this type of participation, otherwise you may have to perform this fieldwork yourself. 

Level 4 does require a commitment to follow up on your part, however the organization is likely already generating reports on results that effect the business. Some examples of these reports are revenue, costs, number of workplace accidents, etc. Make sure that you drill down to a level that matches the objective of the training.  This will ensure that some other area of the business isn't responsible for any changes and you can therefore show return on investment. 

In both level 3 and 4 you may want to also capture this data when you are designing your training. This way you will have a base line to compare your later results with, but you will also learn where the performance gaps truly are.

Multiple Intelligences

Back in 1983, Dr. Howard Gardner challenged traditional thinking that suggested people were either more intelligent or less intelligent.  Instead he suggested that there were different types of intelligences.  His theory is that each person contained eight different types of intelligences in varying degrees.  The eight intelligences are:

1. Linguistic
2. Logical-Mathematical
3. Visual-Spatial
4. Musical
5. Interpersonal
6. Intrapersonal
7. Naturalist
8. Bodily-Kinesthetic

Similarly to how you determine your learning style, you can consider your own experiences, tasks and activities and consider which areas you are most comfortable in.  It's important to note that this is not a type theory and again we each contain all eight intelligences in various degrees.  Traditional teaching may have focused in Linguistic or Logical-Mathematical.  Each of us has these intelligences, however if a person was primarily Intrapersonal and Musical, they may not excel in this particular example of education.

Here is an interview with Dr. Howard Gardner explaining Multiple Intelligences far better than I could:



One could incorporate this into their lesson design by having the students select from a list of activities that they can perform to complete that particular lesson.

Example: If the topic was the use of propaganda during World War II, students could select one of the following tasks:

• Read an article on propaganda and explain it to the class
• Create their own propaganda poster
• Write a song that attempts to convince others of an idea
• As a group shoot a video skit on propaganda

One thing you need to consider when using multiple intelligences in developing your lessons is in evaluation of the students.  Obviously something as simple as a multiple choice question is easy to evaluate, but in the example above evaluating the results could be very subjective and time consuming.  It's also very difficult to apply the same evaluation scale when each project is entirely different from one another.

Pay Attention: Digital Learners

Every Instructional Designer and Training Consultant should watch this short video. Generation Y or the Millennial Generation is entering the workforce right now. Much of the information is already out of date but the importance of this video remains just the same.

Did you know?

Did you know?
Organizations provide an average of

• 30 hours of training per employee
• 37 hours for technical employees

On average, 564 employees are served by one trainer.

Older and/or senior employees receive the most training.

The most used training practice in the workplace is tuition reimbursement plus paid conference attendance.

The 100 best companies spend the most on training and employees.