learning re-imagined

New Year’s Resolutions: Reading more… by reading less

According to at least one study 40-45 percent of American adults make resolutions, mostly related to health, wellness, and personal finance.  One of my new year’s resolutions for 2010 is to get more reading done – both fiction and non-fiction, work and leisure. (in case you’re wondering,  no, checking status updates from friends on Facebook doesn’t count as reading!)  And, if you’re anything like me, the pile of stuff to read is constantly growing and never seems to get smaller. 

At Books24x7, we have a great way to help with this resolution.  Our ExecSummaries collection  provides summaries of the most popular business books from today's foremost business authors.  We deliver three or four each month – a number that even the busiest person can consume.   Each summary expertly encapsulates the salient points and ideas of full-length books into digestible, 8 page summaries.  Each contains the core essence of the author's work, conveying content, style and spirit.  Designed for ease of use with short passages, bulleted lists and other useful elements, ExecSummaries titles are thorough, yet concise.  In addition, MP3 audio files are available for each title, offering the option to listen rather than read which are great for use in the car, or at the gym (reminds me of another resolution….).

Think of ExecSummaries as your “personal shopper” for business books – just the key books that people are talking about and that you need to read, delivered in short form, in a manageable quantity each month.  If only it was this easy to keep up with my other resolutions!

By: Pam Boiros

Book Review: Content Nation

We continue to add timely and informative new titles to our Books24x7,On Demand reference collections.   For example, the new book Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Technology Changes Our Lives and Our Future  by John Blossom (© 2009, John Wiley & Sons) was recently added to the BusinessPro collection.  I had actually borrowed a copy of this book from my local library, but did not have a chance to read it before its due date.  Boy, was I excited to see it appear in Books24x7.  (Yet another great benefit of Books24x7 – no overdue fees!)

The author of the book, John Blossom is a widely recognized content-industry analyst.  However, taking to heart some of his own advice, the book was written with extensive input from the Content Nation community.    Social Media is evolving rapidly, and the role of content producer and content consumer are blurring to the point where they cannot be put into nice neatly-defined compartments anymore.  The book describes how social media is changing everything – how people connect with each other, as well as their governments and other institutions, not to mention the impact on social structures and marketing.  I especially like the “Seven Secrets” of Social Media, as outlined in Chapter 2.   My favorite is Secret # 2: “Technology matters in social media, but not as much as understanding what people are looking for: to influence others and to be influenced by them”.   

What do you think?  Read this book and let us know.  BusinessPro subscribers can access this book on Books24x7.

By: Pam Boiros

 

Thanksgiving - The Perfect Mix

Thanksgiving is before us. I cannot believe it. It is time to mix family, food, wine, laughter, and likely a few age old family stories that can’t seem to go untold. It should be a really fun time; seeing family that you haven’t seen in a while; catching up with friends and loved ones. And yet, the holidays often become very stressful; overwhelming… so many moving parts.

Does this sound familiar? Does it sound like I’m writing about something other than Thanksgiving? We spend a lot of time at SkillSoft discussing our assets; and we have many of them! It’s like a huge Thanksgiving meal; so much food, so little time. So, what is someone supposed to do when it gets confusing?

SkillSoft KnowledgeCenters aggregate relevant data around a subject, so learners can gain access to courses, Books24x7, Business Impact and Challenge Series titles, mentoring, Learning Sparks, Learning Roadmaps, and other assets. And, it’s all about one subject – leadership, management, project management, Oracle, Six Sigma, Java, and many, many others. So, in essence, KnowledgeCenters provide only the assets you need around a particular subject.

Now, wouldn’t that be nice for Thanksgiving? My Thanksgiving KnowledgeCenter would include all the great food, some family (but not all!), good friends, wine, a beautiful sunny day, and perhaps a time limit, so it’s not awkward when it’s time to say goodnight.  I’d leave out the family drama, the arguments that tend to resurface around the holidays, and the guilt associated with not getting to see everyone who I’d like to see. 

I’ve just described my ideal Thanksgiving in a package. That’s what a KnowledgeCenter is. It’s a universe of learning around one topic, where every asset is handpicked just for you!

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, gobble!

By: Rachel Levine

Taking a Different Road

So many of us commute to work each day. We go over bridges, through tunnels, take highways. We seldom think about it, beyond hoping that there isn’t a huge traffic jam that will make us late.

Reading about the closure – and reopening – of the Bay Bridge in California started me thinking about my commute and the roads I take to work every day. What if a road closed? Would I know another way to work? Can I even get there another way?

This is the sort of thing that happens at work every day. I have to solve a problem. I start down one path to do so and realize, at some point, that perhaps the method I’m embarking on will not get me the result I want.  So, I have to re-orient my thinking – take a different road – to get me the result I want.

The trick to being able to do that successfully is having the knowledge of the resources around me that can be used to solve the problem. A project going off the tracks? Perhaps a quick refresher on managing projects would help me get the endeavor back on track.  Can’t create a pivot table in Excel? Reading a few lines of a book on Excel 2007 would walk me through the steps. 

So, in essence, I spend every work day finding the right road – the right path – to get me where I need to go.  In this context – the work context – I am good on my feet. I can toggle between doing my job and finding an answer pretty easily. I know what tools I have – courses, books, videos – and I know how to find them via SkillPort and use them.  Sadly, in my car… well… I have a bad sense of direction.  If someone closed my road to work, I’d sit there until it reopened. Perhaps it’s time to invest in a GPS.

By: Rachel Levine

Cloudy with a chance of clear skies ahead

Between blog posts by book publisher Tim O’Reilly, and the recent announcement by Google about the pending release of the Google Editions ebook store, there has been a lot of talk recently about “books on the cloud” and the concept of a “cloud library.”  The terms are borrowed from the broader “cloud computing” concept, which encompasses a wide range of managed services, including; software as a service (SaaS), software on demand, and platform as a service (PaaS) technologies. Basically, cloud computing offers new, flexible and generally more affordable ways to build, deliver, and purchase software.   

The truth is that “books on the cloud” are nothing new.  Here at Books24x7, we’ve been doing it for over 10 years.  In the fall of 1999, Books24x7 released its first online, on demand, reference collection.  At launch, ITPro consisted of 200 technical books delivered in a “24x7” web based environment.  In those early days, we didn’t need to do much more than put the content online and offer the solution in a simple subscription-based model to drive huge demand and create raving fans.  As hard as it is to imagine, in 1999 we weren’t all living in a 24x7 on demand web world.  But IT folks and other technical professionals were.  As the early adopters of what are now considered to be rudimentary web technologies -- listservs, text-only email, early HTML websites painfully delivered over dial up networks -- techies the world over were more than ready for a new delivery method for trusted technical content.   Our publisher partners saw the potential, and most jumped at the chance to provide a new means of access  to their readers, while deriving new revenue streams for themselves.

Over the years we have  exponentially grown the number of titles available, as well as the range of Books24x7 topical collections, and enhanced the platform feature set and delivery methods to encompass deep portal integrations, mobile access, and more.   But, from day one, the content has always resided on web servers ready for instant “anytime, anywhere” access.   Today, “books on the cloud” may be the fashionable buzzword; but regardless of terminology, a great idea that puts knowledge in the hands of people who need it most is always in vogue.

By: Pam Boiros

e-learning 101

e-learning can provide benefits at all levels of an organization. Because I work in the industry, the benefits are obvious to me. But recent blog posts by two of my colleagues, Rachel and Julie got me thinking about those benefits again and about the fact that maybe some of them aren’t so obvious to the rest of the world. So for my second blog post, I thought for my second post a little return to basics might be in order.

For learners, e-learning resources provide the ultimate in self-service education. E-learning resources are “always on” allowing learners to access materials where and when it best suits their schedules and their learning needs. A diverse library of learning assets also means that learners can choose the best learning modality to match their learning style. And because learners can return to materials over time, they can review and refresh their learning from other e- or live learning experiences increasing the impact of all your training efforts.

From an organization standpoint, e-learning can often provide a cost-effective means for increasing the impact of training within your organization by making resources available to more people. Workshops, seminars, and other classroom-based training options can be highly effective . . . but they can also be costly and they require learners to spend time away from the job. As a result, you may have to limit participation in these live events to a select portion of your audience. With e-learning you can provide learning materials to more of your audience with minimal disruption of their work.

Obviously these are just a few of the benefits to using e-learning within an organization. What other benefits of e-learning are important to your learners or to your learning organization?

Next week I’ll be heading off to present at Learning 2009 in Orlando Florida. I’m looking forward to spending time immersed in the great learning culture and learning from and sharing with my colleagues. If you’re there, look me up. We can compare notes . . . or hit the rides!

By: Tim Hildreth

Halloween Candy and Bite Sized Learning

On this Halloween eve I am thinking about (and of course eating) candy. Like many people I tend to take a treat from the various bowls around the office, a Hersey’s Kiss® from here, a MaryJane® from there. (By the way, check out this great interactive Hershey’s site where you can build a custom Kiss and email it to a pal.) For some reason, stopping to enjoy some bite-size bits throughout the day seems perfectly acceptable.  Of course I wouldn’t dream of eating an entire regular size candy bar.  That would be fattening! So much for logic.   

In some ways we’ve seen a similar trend in learning.  Many learners are put off by the idea of a “regular size” course.  Two-three hours seems like an awfully long time in the middle of a busy work day.  But a smaller serving of learning that’s right at your fingertips is fine.  In the past several years SkillSoft has introduced a number of learning assets that are shorter in duration than traditional courses, and the response from customers has been a resounding “More please!”  So, you’ll see SkillSoft continue to produce a stream of learning products that fit into our learners’ hectic schedules, everything from one-hour courses to the diminutive Learning Sparks.  And of course we’ll continue to expand our on-demand resources such as Books24x7 collections and Leadership Development Channel—great for quick answers and inspiration.

Don’t get me wrong, our customers still want and need in-depth learning resources to support compliance, certification and other mission-critical needs.  Just like every once in a while I give in to the urge for the full size Baby Ruth® (and be sure to take a moment and give in to the urge to check out this hysterical Baby Ruth site!).

By: Julie Ogilvie

Alphabet Soup of Technology

I recently attended a meeting of the local Kansas City “LIG” of the itSMF-USA.  itSMF-USA is a membership-based, IT Service Management professional forum with over 40 Local Interest Groups (“LIG”s) in the US, and affiliated groups globally.  The practice of IT Service Management has grown to cover an “alphabet soup” of interrelated technology and business frameworks, standards, and methodologies including ITIL®, COBIT, PRINCE2, Six Sigma, PMP/Project Management and many others.   This meeting was held at Sprint’s beautiful corporate campus in Overland Park, KS, and once again I was pleased to see IT professionals recognize the key role that training plays in rolling out any technology initiative.   From overall organizational awareness of ITIL, to preparing candidates for various professional certifications, providing training resources to employees is integral to technology success.  We had the opportunity to present the KC crowd the various e-learning solutions SkillSoft offers to support these various initiatives, including SkillChoice IT and the Books24x7 ITPro and ITIL collections.

By: Pam Boiros

So many emails, so little time: Read the ones that matter

We all get so much email these days; we have a work email address, a home email address, and other varied and sundry accounts to manage such as FaceBook and Twitter.  Although spam filters help with some of the true junk mail, I know that I still get a lot of things I barely read. 

Once in a while, a great summary update comes along and I just LOVE it when it shows up in my inbox.  If you do not subscribe to the alert email in Books24X7 titled “Books24x7 New Title Notification” it is the one email I absolutely love to get.  It feels like a virtual trip to the neighborhood book store.  The email originates as a Books24x7 subscriber, checking the boxes for topics that are important to the individual.  I personally love only getting titles that matter to me.  It shows little icons of the newly released titles that are on Books24X7.  Running through it takes all of 45 seconds to see what is new in my area of interest.  It helps me stay current on things happening in areas that matter to me.

One day recently, I was scrolling through the titles I saw the photo of a colleague of mine who recently recorded a “Quick Talk” for the Leadership Development Channel series.  Pamela Meyer is an author and business owner who also teaches at DePaul University, which is where I met her.  It gave me a great reason to connect with her and catch up.  It was also great to see what she had to say.  I also find books I want to dive more deeply into for my personal and professional needs, all in a short time frame.  If you do not get this email weekly, be sure you go to your Books24x7 profile (Click the “Settings” tab then click “Email Options”) and set one up.  It is a great “coffee break”!

By: Lori Neblung

Many training organizations I speak with are intrigued by Enterprise 2.0 technologies and their promises for creating a viral collaborative community within the organization.  At last count, there were more than 400 companies out there touting ‘e2.0 technologies’ … everything from wiki and blog products, to products that promise a safe Facebook-like or Twitter-like platform that can be rolled out behind your firewall.

Admittedly, some of these products are quite impressive, but they all share one common thread.  They are all enabling technologies. Just software.

Early efforts with these products are mixed at best.  Many early adopters or experimenters with these technologies report a lack of success in creating a sustainable collaborative environment. 

McKinsey, in a white paper entitled Six Ways to Make Web 2.0 Work,published in February 2009, observed the same phenomenon and described it this way:

“Perhaps because of the novelty of Web 2.0 initiatives, they’re often considered separate from mainstream work…Thus, using Web 2.0 and participating in online work communities often becomes just another “to do” on an already crowded list of tasks.”

Does this mean that social environments can’t work in the enterprise? Emphatically no.

But I am suggesting that there is a better way. 

There are three ingredients to creating a sustainable collaborative environment:  1) enabling technology; 2) abundance of content; and 3) enthusiastic community. When brought together, these three ingredients can produce a delicious collaborative result.

So the call to action for those learning professionals seeking to leverage collaboration to drive new levels of learning is simple.  Think about starting not with the enabling technology, but with your existing content and your existing active community of users who are already coming to your learning destination.  For instance, if you are currently using a product like Books24x7 from SkillSoft, why not think about the millions of pages of professional reference content that you already license as “seeds of discussion” for a thriving collaborative environment.  

Social collaboration offers great potential to help informal and formal learning, but the most effective path to accomplishing this will be to leverage what’s already working.

By: John Ambrose