Second Blog Summary Review
Title of the Blog Being Reviewed: Let’s Save The World From Boring Training!
Blog url: http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2014/09/3-ways-to-save-gobs-of-time-when-designing-training/
Blog Writer: Cathy Moore
This post will provide: a brief content overview, thoughtful critique of usefulness, and how This Blog might serve me as an ongoing resource:
Straight away, at first glance, I can tell this blog is for me. I mean, how can you go wrong with a blog title like, Let’s Save The World From Boring Training! I see Cathy’s name is prominently at the top in white sans serif font set against a modern trout grey strip of backdrop. Her picture appears at the top right column, just where I expect it should. In her head shot, Moore presents a smartly amused facial expression – with a subtle dash of irony brushed ever so slightly across her brow. It’s like she is looking right at you, thinking “Hm, it’s interesting you see it that way. Now let me shed some light on the subject.” I feel like this is a person I am really going to learn something from, and I most likely – there will be a witty joy in it.
In her about page, it states, “Her advice and designs have been used by organizations that include Microsoft, Pfizer, the US Army, Barclays, and the US Department of the Interior. She’s the creator of the action mapping model of training design used to improve performance by companies worldwide.” Well, if we had any doubts, it looks like she’s qualified.
Her blog is straightforward and simple, just the way I like blogs to be. In organizing her content at the top in six featured main headings: Blog, Workshops, Resources, Store, About, and Contact I am suddenly aware that Ms. Cathy Moore’s blog is a bit more commercial than compared to Jay Cross’s blog that I just previously reviewed. It looks like Ms. Moore has a book out titled Training Designer’s Guide To Saving The World – yet again another catchy title. It looks like via the workshops tab that Moore offers training design workshops live and online, on demand, and in person. It looks like she has a series of You Tube videos that are on eLearning. Also, she has a short video about mistakes in elearning. I will definitely be come back to check out all of these relevant resources, for I have been and am currently an on-line student, I have been an on-line instructor for several years, and now I work for an on-line university in which my entire day to day job is elearning. Not to mention, I am going into the instructional design field and am currently involved with remote onboarding and training. In my current studies, theory is at the forefront, as I mentioned in my first blog post. Specifically, Moore’s description of avoiding an information dump – in her quest to save the world from training (Moore, 2015) – or bad training – is what it seems to be ore likely referring to makes me think of behaviorist theory and the many problems with it (Ertmer & Newby, 1993). While having a specific learning goal and measurables to measure that goal are important – especially while on the job and a specific task must be learned, it seems that Moore has identified a key area of concern – that the output of information intended to educate the employee has turned into an often messy, dense nest of rhetoric, which the learner must sort through, understand, and interpret. It seems like Moore is taking a constructivist approach in that she is re-creating what training is and how training is implemented. She is re-inventing the training system. Bredo (1994) as well as Dewey and Bentley (1949) stated that “Social constructivists view the classroom as a community whose task is to develop knowledge (As cited in Ormrod, Schunk, & Gredler, 2009, p.19). I would love to have the opportunity to ask Moore what theory she most aligns herself with.
Under the resources tab, there are elearning examples, an action map overview, a learning technology anti-hand out (love it),…how to become an ID, answers for grad students, and course material.
I wanted to investigate her actual blog posts, so I took a look at her blog post titled “3 ways to save gobs of time when designed training.” This topic appealed to me, for I am in the throes of designing training material for new hires. Moore is a talented writer – hands down. Her sentences have a joyful cadence and flow effortless from on to the next. This gains her quite a lot of cred in my book!
Also, Moore gave a great deal in her post – she shared valuable knowledge that I am still thinking about. Mainly her point in this post is rather than spewing out a bunch of training material to hand off to a new hire to choke down, have a two hour meeting. Invite relevant people that can contribute and ask poignant, detailed, challenging questions that get to specifics and hone in on the heart of what truly needs to be learning. Moore refers to this as action mapping, and it seems to be her very own creation. She has a method: identify a goal…, expand the goal…, identify specifically and concretely…, prioritize actions…, use the flowchart. I will use this as I design and create training material and/or anti-training material.
If I have already learned something from experiencing just one of Moore’s blog posts, I am enthused to come back for more! I, therefore, deem this site useful, absolutely useful. I connect with it because of its simple, straightforward organization, what it offers – blog posts, you tube videos – possible workshop, and a book. Moore’s smart, playful tone fills me with energy. Why would I not return?
Whew! This is indeed a good resource for me. As I stated, I will return; honestly, I will return especially for the You Tube videos and the blog posts. I want to read, engage, and take from all that Moore has to offer. Hopefully, I will be able to give back as well in providing a blog response here and there and in adding value to the instructional design field myself. I think of Moore as a resource I will return to for direction, inspiration, and ideas. I look forward to trying her mapping technique out myself. I actually have been a SME in an action mapping meeting and had not known that it was a technique that my direct supervisor was borrowing from at the time. I am thinking, “Aha! Now it is all so clear.”
References:
Course Text: Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.
Chapter 1, “Overview” (pp. 1–16)
Article: Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4),50-71.
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