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by Alan Nelson
We recently began work on a project with the Society of Indexers. Jacqui has been working with them to develop the idea and I haven’t as yet been involved in any of the discussions, but after Angela and Jacqui attended the first scoping meeting I asked them what the project is called so that I could add it to the list of scheduled work.
'I think they simply want to call it “Training for Indexers”' said Angela. I smiled as I added it to the schedule:
“Indexers, Training for…”
by Jacqui Nelson
We had a great scoping meeting last week with the Society of Indexers. We are working with them to migrate their qualification from its current hardcopy/cd-rom format, online.
People often ask us how much a distance learning solution might cost. It's a difficult question because it really depends on what you want to include and how much you want to spend! The Society of Indexers are typical of many of our clients as their budget is tight. What’s refreshing, is their preparedness to embrace new ideas and make the most of what Imago, our technology, does. They are not wedded to doing things like they have always been done. They are excited about new ways of creating activities and they are keen to hear new ideas and take advice ... We definitely have had instances where money has been, to our mind, wasted trying to fit square pegs into round holes, rather than allowing us to play to our strengths.
For the Society of Indexers, this approach is going to ensure that they get the best possible programme for their budget.
by Alan Nelson
I had an interesting session this week with a group of publishers at Wiley. I know a couple of them from a previous life as a book publisher and they asked me to come in and talk to them about CPD. They asked some great questions and I think everyone got a lot out of it, but perhaps it’s just as they say, that in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king!
What quickly became apparent was how many parallels there are between their relationships with societies – generally as publishers of their journals – and our relationships with professional bodies.
We had both noticed the way that we exist harmoniously with our partners while actually having slightly different objectives – or rather a difference of emphasis. This is most apparent on the publishing side of our business. We create short CPD courses designed to help professionals in a wide range of sectors to comply with the CPD requirements of their professional body. We then form partner relationships with professional associations, who offer branded versions of our courses to their members and share the income from those sales with us. They would describe their objectives as follows:
They would almost certainly put them in that order. Now we understand entirely that the way for us to generate income is to make our courses as engaging and exciting as possible, and that these relationships are only successful if they extend the range of services offered to members, but when it comes down to it, we are a commercial organisation, and so the generation of additional income is important to us.
Wiley have a similar transposition of objectives with their society journals. They understand that the way to grow revenues profitably is to deliver a consistently high quality research vehicle, but they would never say that up front. The society understands that if they create a really first rate journal they will make money, but they would never list that as their primary goal.
In both cases we co-exist happily, secure in the knowledge that although we use different language and come at it from opposite points of view, we end up in the same place.
by Alan Nelson
You may have noticed that Wikipedia recently reached the milestone of 3 million articles in English. It is a remarkable phenomenon, and although I know it causes much debate in academia about its reliability, for the rest of us ordinary mortals it is an invaluable, constantly available, desktop reference.
But amidst all the hype, there is a more interesting story. The rate of increase in the number of articles is, for the first time, slowing. Some commentators attribute this to a power struggle between what they call the “inclusionists” and the “deletionists”. As their names suggest, the former are more concerned with enabling as broad a base as possible to contribute, while the latter are more concerned to safeguard quality. The move towards the latter seems regrettable to me but it is entirely understandable as the project has matured, a stable group of high level editors has become increasingly responsible for controlling the encyclopaedia, while casual contributors feature less and less prominently.
All of this got me thinking about the emphasis we place on quality. Coming from a book publishing background, we have always believed that we understand the processes and controls necessary to ensure our finished courses are as good as they can be. For most of our work this is entirely appropriate. But in some cases, I wonder whether the inclusionist approach is worth considering.
For some projects, perhaps timeliness is the most important thing. Professionals need to learn about some new developments immediately – a properly crafted learning experience that arrives two months late is no good to them at all. That’s not to say that standards can be dispensed with entirely – the user should still expect the content to be accurate and free from typos. We have been experimenting with resources that focus on presenting brief pieces of content and then framing the right questions. Participants add their comments and get to read each other’s contributions. It is quite clear what is officially quality checked and what is the unmoderated observation of a peer - both seem to be valuable to the community.
So sometimes perhaps the challenge should be “What is the best thing we can do by 3.00pm tomorrow?”
by Rachel Bruce
I recently had a very refreshing meeting with a new partner, MASS Training. MASS (Motor Accident Solicitors Society) Training provide training to legal firms that include a specialism in road traffic accident law. Currently they offer face to face courses, and a diploma in personal injury. They have been looking to expand their current offering and provide online course provision as well. I met with them to discuss the logistics of setting up their portfolio, and what would be involved in terms of tailoring the content of each course to meet the needs of their membership.
I met with Sue and Jenny who are clearly looking forward to getting their MASS Training online portfolio launched and available to their members. They were excited about the possibilities that online learning offers them both for expanding their range of courses and providing their learners with something different and new that can be done at a time that suits them. They liked our philosophy of putting the learner in charge, encouraging them to think about the way they learn, and letting them learn at their own pace following a route through the content that they choose.
I left Bristol (where they are based) and zipped back up the M4 with renewed energy about what we do at Nelson Croom. I clearly am an advocate of our approach and what we have to offer, but it is so enlivening to begin working with a Society who share our excitement about what we do, and are full of the positive aspects that it offers to their members. I, yet again, feel reassured, that we are getting it right.
by Victoria Clarke
As part of a new series in Nelson Croom News (our monthly newsletter - you can sign up here) we caught up with Stuart Warner of Financial Fluency Ltd, and author of our new peer-enriched learning course Making Budgeting Work in the Real World. If you missed it, here's the interview in full:
We've just published your course Making Budgeting Work in the Real World - will you tell us a bit about it?
In my experience you can spend years learning about budgeting in theory and it won’t to prepare you for budgeting in practice. In the real world the budgeting process is full of challenges. This course aims to help budget managers and budget holders increase their awareness of real world issues and therefore be more prepared to deal with them.
So, are budgets very different in the "real world" than in the textbooks?
The textbooks tend to concentrate on the mechanics of budgeting and how to deal with the numbers. Budgeting in the real world is about dealing with people and not necessarily numbers.
Is this the first online course that you've written?
I’ve been writing online courses since the year 1999, ranging from simple text based courses to interactive and video based courses. This is the first online course I’ve written that really embraces learning 2.0 principles (i.e. peer-enriched-learning) and I’m really excited with the results.
How different is writing for an online audience to preparing for face-to-face training?
It is more challenging writing for an online audience - in that you can’t interact with the audience as readily. However, writing a peer-enriched-learning course is much more fun than writing other online courses as it simulates a face-to-face environment to some extent.
How did you come up with the different ideas for activities?
I imagined I was in a face-to-face training session and thought of the types of questions, discussions, interactions that would naturally take place.
What did you think about the way that Nelson Croom converted the content you supplied?
I was really impressed with the Nelson Croom team. They really understood my requirements and used their creative skills to enhance the course content.
And finally, if you had to give learners just one piece of budgeting advice, what would it be?
Treat your budgets like a game of chess – always plan several moves ahead!
by Victoria Clarke
We’re excited to announce that Nelson Croom is a finalist for two prestigious E-Learning Awards 2009! The first is for E-learning Development Company of the Year. Nelson Croom has also been shortlisted for Best Online or Distance Learning Programme with the Institute of Fundraising.
This is a great achievement and we’re very proud to have been shortlisted in two categories. This is the fifth year for the E-Learning Awards, which aim to celebrate excellence in the industry. A record number of entries were received by the judges this year so competition has been fierce.
The winners will be announced on 12th November at the E-Learning Awards Ceremony and Dinner. We hope that it will be good news but either way we’re excited to be finalists in the awards!
