Mindflash

Audio serves a vital function – particularly in online training – by breathing life into your material, setting the tone, and grabbing your trainee’s attention.  But we need to know when to use it for the greatest impact, and how to do so in a way that’s low-cost and high-quality.   If it seems like using audio is too complicated or technical, let me assure that it’s not. This post includes 4 Audacity tutorials I’ve pulled together to get you up and running AND show you how to edit your audio for higher-quality results.... Read more »

Many of us have already recognized and developed our training design superpowers, but what if you’re the team’s utility – doing a little bit of everything – and you haven’t quite found your niche? Or, what if you’re new to the world of online training and aren’t really sure what your superpower is yet?  In light of those intimidating and omnipresent villains known as “Vanishing Budget” and “Soul-Crushing Workload,” how can you defy the odds, find your training strengths (and weaknesses), and use that knowledge to develop your training design superpowers? ... Read more »

In last week’s post, we examined the use of Active Voice and Passive Voice to help Grammar Phobics write clear and compelling training.  Now let’s look at two writing rules traditionally revered by the Grammar Gurus of the world – and why you may want to ignore them.... Read more »

When it comes to business writing, it seems most of us fall into one of two general categories – Grammar Phobics or Grammar Gurus. But whether you’re phobic or a guru, we can all agree that good writing is the foundation of great training. So let’s start out with one simple rule grammar phobics should embrace: writing in an Active Voice.... Read more »

For those of us in the training design and delivery world, mandatory training triggers a triple-groan. Not only do we need to create or update mandatory training every year, but we also have to complete it, and then spend countless hours cajoling, begging, or threatening our trainees to complete it. So how do we move beyond the collective groan and design it to feel a little less like an annual punishment? ... Read more »

What’s standing between your Trainees and your training objectives? Oftentimes it’s complexity. Whether it’s the volume of information or a SME who thinks everything is important, there is usually more information to convey than is practical. Combine that with a short timeline and you’ve got a classic training conundrum. Enter the infographic. Well-designed infographics convey messages in a way that eases comprehension; they capitalize on our innate understandings of the world around us to help build context and retain information.... Read more »

Writing solid, results-oriented quizzes is, in my opinion, one of the biggest challenges of training design.  And of all the quiz question types we commonly use, perhaps the most abused and disrespected is the “True or False” (T/F) question. Over the years I’ve heard T/F questions described by training managers and fellow designers as “filler”, “weak”, “a crutch”, “lazy”, and “ineffective.”  Are T/F questions the ultimate training design cop-out, or, is it more likely that we just don’t use them well? ... Read more »

Have you ever found yourself struggling to find a stock image with a transparent background?  Or, maybe you’ve wasted hours of your time trying to remove the background from an image? While there may not be a silver bullet, there are plenty of cool shortcuts, tricks, free tools, and tutorials. In this post, I provide ratings and video tutorials for 5 great tools that I commonly use.... Read more »

With many training and development departments stretched thin or nearly non-existent, the task of creating new online training is daunting enough. Who has time to think about maintenance?  And yet, allowing your programs to go stale poses some significant operational risks. I say - go green! I’ve put together a few easy to implement training design best practices that will get you off the training reproduction line by using the 3 Rs: Reuse, Recycle and Renew.... Read more »

No matter how dull a training topic might be, it shouldn’t be a barrier to creativity, it should inspire ingenuity.  But there are some topics that are just hard to get excited about.  When your job is to create an engaging experience, how do you ignite that creative spark to help you turn the world’s most boring material into the world’s most amazing training?... Read more »