Jane Bozarth
Director of Research, The Learning Guild
Jane Bozarth, the director of research for the Learning Guild, is a veteran classroom trainer who transitioned to eLearning in the late 1990s and has never looked back. In her previous job as leader of the State of North Carolina’s award-winning eLearning program, Jane specialized in finding low-cost ways of providing online training solutions. She is the author of several books, including eLearning Solutions on a Shoestring, Social Media for Trainers, and Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-To’s of Working Out Loud. Jane holds a doctorate in training and development and was awarded the Guild Master Award in 2013 for her accomplishments and contributions to the eLearning community.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Unlearning
Learning can be difficult, but unlearning is the real challenge. Whether as students or teachers, we have to adapt and be as willing to unlearn as to learn.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Narrating Our Work
Here’s a true story about physical rehab turned learning turned hobby turned community of practice turned two successful businesses, all via informal, social means. And all within six months.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Storyboarding Basics
Storyboarding your eLearning program makes a real difference in the quality of eLearning. It helps you organize your thoughts, ensures logical flow, contributes to reduced costs, and provides an excellent way to test your ideas. Storyboarding will also support branching and simulations, eliminating the “click here to continue” linear pattern typical of boring, ineffective eLearning.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Upskilling
Progress in media brings new challenges for instructional designers. Where just five short years ago we struggled with authoring tools and content management, we now face new demands for making programs more inclusive of learners, leveraging informal learning, and building a farther reach for the L&D department. Here are your keys to the architecture and organization skills needed!
-
Nuts and Bolts: Selling It
We all know that people hate change, and yet we are continually surprised that decision-makers have (apparently insuperable) objections to our ideas for applying technology. Maybe it’s our approach that’s the problem. Jane offers some ways to improve our pitches.
-
Nuts and Bolts: How Can We Know What We Don’t Know?
Following up on last month’s column (“Build or Buy?”), here’s practical advice on dealing with the common misunderstandings of in-house decision makers about outsourcing. Read it, see it, try it, and know what you want.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Buy or Build?
Is it always necessary to create a custom, in-house solution? Jane looks at the cases when an outsourced or off-the-shelf product makes more sense, and provides a job aid.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Opportunity Knocks?
Formal design process gets a lot of attention, but not every problem requires the full treatment. Consider first what your client needs, before you start working on what the process flow chart requires, and when the problem is simple, keep the solution simple. Jane offers the key to remedies for performance issues.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Inviting Interaction
Instead of asking how to manage informal learning and which tools to use, ask yourself whether you are inviting interaction, and how. Here are some excellent ways to make informal learning more visible to both managers and employees, and to invite interaction and develop something more akin to a partnership with your learners.
-
Nuts and Bolts: Required Reading
Even though it’s a digital world for readers of this e-zine, most of us still enjoy good old analog professional conferences and the opportunity to speak face-to-face with our colleagues and heroes. And even more – the secret love of many of us is browsing physical books in the conference bookstores! Jane suggests some great tomes to browse and add to your resources.