Efficient Use of Downtime for Professional Growth

-
  1. Look into your company's reference location, you might find a wealth of information there. If there is no such location, create one.
  2. Talk to members of other teams - educate yourself on the work they do and find out how your job fits into the overall picture.
  3. Have technical discussions with your own team members, if they have time or match their lunch/tea times with yours. :)
  4. Visit technical sites and e-zines to keep yourself posted on the latest trends.
  5. Maintain your blog.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Best Practices: Using Webex for Online Collaboration

-
Find out if all members of the audience know how to use Webex. If not, train them on the basics and the specific features they would need to use to collaborate in your session. For example, if they need to use the whiteboard, show them how prior to the session. Send the URL and log in steps prior to the meeting. Teleconference details (if required) should be sent along with the log in information. This ensures that all relevant information pertaining to the session is provided in a single email. Keep the password for the session short, easy to remember and easy to spell out over phone. Advise the clients that installation of Webex software would take about 2-3 minutes before they are initiated into the session. Be well-prepared to conduct the session in the absence of the Webex tool: Plan for technical snags (which occur occasionally in online collaboration tools) by sending the presentation and supporting material to the audience ahead of the meeting. Be sure to have contact numbers ...
Read more

Competency Development Plan-At a glance

-
Objective Provide comprehensive competence management with an account focus where training function is an active partner to the business objective. Process Step 1: Analysis Step 2: Design Step 3: Develop Step 4: Implement Step 5: Evaluate Determine the measurement matrices Define critical success factors The forthcoming postings will cover the above aspects in greater depth.
Read more

Job Aid for Coaching and Feedback

-
I created the job aid as part of my job application with one of the Fortune 10 companies. Check it out here .  This was one of the steps in the selection process. I moved to the next level. I must say, I am quite proud of this job aid because I think it creatively blends various management and leadership theories to create a useful tool for the managers. This is four days of stimulating work. I loved it! I even worked through my birthday for this document.  I did not get the job though. I lost my nerve during my interview with the hiring manager's manager. The sixth and the final round of selection. I guess I tried too hard and balanced too many things that day for a 15 minute call. I honestly believe the decision was unfair, but then who's listening?
Read more

Seat Time for an Elearning Course

-
This post is in response to a request from elearningtyro. I hope you find it useful. What is seat time? Seat time is variously described as: * Amount to time a learner spends to read through each page within the course (Does that include all the related tools and supplementary document? Does the learner need to read every glossary term? What if the learner already knows the terms?) * Amount of time taken by a learner to click every link within the course (What if the learner clicks the link but does not read it? ) * Amount of time a learner takes to complete the course How is it calculated? One of the ways I know (If you know any other, please feel free to leave a comment): A sample from the target audience is selected to complete the course. The time taken by each is recorded. Seat time is the percentile time that approximately 80 percent of the learners take to complete the course. When was it used? In early elearning days, seat time was taken as a metric to charge the cl...
Read more

Learning Retention

-
It is well known that active learners learn better. More the number of sense organs employed in learning, better the retention. People generally remember: 10 percent of what they read 20 percent of what they hear 30 percent of what they see 50 percent of what they hear and see 70 percent of what they say and write 90 percent of what they do and talk about This thought is exemplified by the unique learning style of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. He had very little formal schooling and was mostly self-taught. Abraham Lincoln read aloud the newspaper everyday (see, speak, hear). This habit enabled him to remember what he read, improve his language skills and overcome his speech disorder to become one of the best orators of all times.
Read more

Competency Development Plan-Design

-
Step 2: Design Create a skill-rating scale (1-5) against each identified competency (Learning Consultant (LC)) Benchmark rating on desirable competency performance Indicate where the star performer currently is at Indicate acceptable competency performance Create weighted competency-rating scale (1-5) (LC) Prioritize competencies in the competency dictionary using weighted scale (Account leadership) Determine conditional competencies (LC and account leadership) Outcome Skill-rating scale Weighted competency-rating scale Li st of role-based competencies in order of their importance to the account Teams involved LC Senior account leaders
Read more