Nelson Croom's Blog

Pay attention on the bus

by Alan Nelson

Travelling back from a meeting at the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, I was struck by the fact that although Team GB seemed at times all conquering at the recent Olympics, there was one achievement that was beyond them. The gold medal for “most boring person on a bus journey from Edinburgh City Centre to the airport” must surely have gone to the American woman sat two rows behind me.

“There are a number of differences between a seal and a sea-lion.”

Oh no – she is going to tell us.

“Firstly, the seal has no real ears – just holes in the side of its head…..”

Who cares?

“Secondly, the seal is really just a big slug in the sea.”

I don’t think it is.

“How do you know so much about seals?” asked her travelling companion, apparently not rendered unconscious by the seven reasons by now listed.

“That’s the result of 11 years living by the ocean, my friend.”

Is that an achievement? Who cares – perhaps it is over. But no….

“Think of a Morrisons.”

“Yes”

“That is small compared to the supermakets we have back home.”

This is unbearable. I am going to have to throw myself out of the window. As if sensing that I was close to defeat:

“I have never eaten lamb. No sir.”

This is clearly a lie. Even when she is making it up, she isn’t interesting. The bus pulls up at the airport. My heart lifts. I haven’t been rude. I have kept quiet and now I am being released early for good behaviour

An hour or so later, sitting on the plane to London, I smile. We spend much of our time devising ways to engage learners’ attention. We think we are pretty good at it. We don’t always get it right, but I am pretty sure that we do a better job of maintaining the interest of people we can’t see and don’t get to meet than my friend on the bus did with the person sitting next to her.

I feel good.

Making the move to distance learning

by Victoria Clarke

I’m studying for a professional qualification at the moment, and after completing two modules via classroom-based learning I’ve decided to change to distance learning. My reasons for the change were a lot to do with all of those things we talk about at Nelson Croom – increased flexibility and the opportunity to better fit my studies around my work and home life. However the change was also to do with the fact that I feel that I simply learn better when I’m left to my own devices to sit and read and research. With only so many hours in the day, two 3-hour classes a week plus travelling was eating into the time that I felt that I could get things done.

I think I’m probably quite typical of many students taking a qualification or course with their professional association. Moving from classroom to distance learning was a personal decision to me and might not suit everybody. However, the more that I’m studying the more that I’m realising the importance of giving learners and students a choice. We’re professionals, we’ve moved on from academic studies, and we’re now working and learning at the same time. It’s not easy, but it is rewarding. All the more so when we can take charge of our own development. 

Controversy reigns

by Jacqui Nelson

We think long and hard about how to get people, learners in our case, to actively engage, whether with content or us or with each other. So at the recent Members conference I was pleased to attend a seminar on Social Networking and Web 2.0 where I took the opportunity to ask the expert – how?

The seminar was delivered by an engaging person called Jude Habib who runs a training and consultancy company called Sounddelivery. They work with membership bodies and other third sector organisations to help with communications.

She talked a lot about how we can all use social networking tools such as blogs, social networking sites, podcasts etc to get our message out there. What I wanted to know was how do you get your audience to feedback and enter into a discussion with us.

Jude’s answers were very sensible. Firstly, and very simply, you should ask them to (see end of this blog). Other things like tone and style can encourage/discourage people from responding. But the most interesting point came from the audience. The NAHT (National Association of Head Teachers) have been embracing web 2.0 and social networking to communicate with their audiences and although what they have done has been well received they hadn’t, got big numbers actively engaged or joining in the discussion.

This all changed recently when the SATS marking fiasco happened. In the main NAHT members don’t agree with SATS and they were very vocal, in very large numbers, on the association’s discussion forums and blogs.

As always there is nothing like a bit of controversy to get people animated and engaged.

I would love to hear stories of what gets your audiences buzzed enough to engage in a discussion with you. Good news stories or bad. Please feel free to share them here.

Vodcast?

by Jacqui Nelson

A vodcast. Yes, it is a video podcast. Fairly self explanatory but a term I hadn’t heard until Tuesday. What is the most obscure, funny, interesting term relating to web 2.0 and social networking that you have heard? Let me know.

Market Research for Publishers

by Rachel Bruce

I have just been reviewing one of the new courses that is soon to be launched in our Publishing Portfolio – Market Research for Publishers.  As a former commissioning editor I reviewed this course with much interest.  I enjoyed the fourth module called Making it Work which provides examples of the ways in which market research can be applied to different parts of a publishing business.  The module provides some useful information on looking at competition and how to analyse the data, which I would have found helpful in my former role! 

I particularly enjoyed looking at the activities in this module, where learners are invited to submit their responses.  Obviously there aren’t any learners on this course yet, but I found myself wishing there were, as I wanted to be able to use the “see what other learners said” button, to find out how other people had responded to the activities, and what their experiences were in applying market research in publishing.   

I have always thought that the functionality we had for seeing what other learners have said was a great piece of technical development within Imago.  But it only stuck me while reviewing this course how powerful this is as a learning tool.  I really wanted to see how others had responded to this activity – it would have added not only to the knowledge I was trying to acquire but also to the learning experience itself.

I am yet again jumping on the ‘importance of networking tools bandwagon’ (as I did in my previous blog entry on 9th July).  I can’t help it, as I just keep getting reminded, in various ways, of how significant these tools are in supporting the learning experience.

Learning styles are a waste of time?

by Katy Hillary

I recently came across a rather old (2004) report commissioned by the Learning & Skills Research Centre which suggests that although there is a lot of uncertainty out there when considering adult learning theory, and a distinct lack of coherent and cumulative research, there are some positive outcomes when people start to think about how they learn.

This is very interesting for me as I have been part of so many conversations with our clients about learning styles and the different types of activities that we try to offer learners using our system. Some people are equally interested while others dismiss the notion out of hand and cannot understand the value of giving learners choice about the way in which they tackle their learning.

The first positive outcome cited by the report is that by simply considering and assessing their learning style people can actually enhance their ability to learn. This is because they become more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and extend their knowledge and understanding of the different learning options that might be available to them. From personal experience I know this to be true, and I’m certainly now aware of what does and does not work for me when someone attempts to explain a new concept or to teach me how to perform a new trick on my PC!

The second factor mentioned by the report was that learning styles can provide people with a vocabulary that they can use to discuss their learning preferences and also to begin to understand any failure to learn, and how the way that they are currently approaching their learning might be affecting their success. This is not necessarily at the forefront of someone’s mind when they sit down to some HR enforced compliance training, for example. However, it can be very valuable when people are engaged in distance learning (working towards a professional qualification, for example) or where clients are attempting to change people’s attitudes.

The simple learning skills diagnostic that we offer as part of our online courses is not designed to be an in-depth assessment of a learner’s preferences. However, it certainly raises awareness of a concept that most people will not have considered, since leaving school.

CBT is dead - and good riddance!

by Alan Nelson

My eye is caught by an article in the Guardian about CBT. As a person who staked his career on leaving traditional publishing to establish an online learning company, you might expect me to have been an enthusiast for what used to be called CBT, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth.

One of the jobs of a publisher is to sift through the wealth of bad ideas for new projects and spot the one good one that might be worth backing. The trouble with the early days of CBT was that there never was a good one. Throughout the 90s, I sat through a succession of pitches from wild eyed CBT enthusiasts, feeling like a one of the dragons on Dragon’s Den on a day when only the man with the inflatable sheep had turned up.

The pitch was generally this:

“I have developed a prototype for something that probably no one would ever want anyway. (By prototype, what I mean is that it looks crap and doesn’t work.) Anyway, if you were to give me a very large amount of money (generally over £100k), we could develop a less clunky version with which to conquer the known world and get rich.”

I don’t of course know whether any of these people were right because my rejection rate stood at 100%. But I did learn a couple of things that I still keep in mind.

Firstly, at the planning stage don’t make the mistake of thinking that changing the format changes the rules. You are still bound the dynamics of the market: how many people might buy it and how much will they pay?

Secondly, once the development begins, any prototype you develop must work and look like the finished thing or it will be next to useless. Don’t assume that people can envisage what you mean.

So what did the Guardian have to say about the rather dated acronym CBT? To my delight, they weren’t talking about Computer Based Training at all, but instead referring to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This is apparently a new approach to therapy which rejects detailed analysis in favour of travelling around on the tube with a portion of fish and chips. This sounds like a laugh, although I can’t of course vouch for its validity.

However, if it signals the end of CBT as I knew it, then I for one will be cheering it on.