I recently presented on ‘the e-learning skills gap’ for a webinar run by the Learning and Skills Group (LSG). The LSG webinars are always well attended (this one attracted 120) and ably hosted by Don Taylor. A recording of the webinar will be available here in due course, although there’s also a SlideShare version if you just want to flip through the slides.
I was asked by Don at the end to identify three skills which all l&d professionals need to beef up on if they are to bridge the skills gap. I picked out three:
- Curriculum design: integrating learning technologies appropriately into the design for new interventions.
- Content creation: the ability to put together e-content that is good enough to meet routine needs (without the necessity to become a specialist).
- Facilitation: the skills needed to run successful live online learning events.
I asked the group what worked best for them in bridging their own e-learning skills gaps. Here’s what came back:
- CIPD course!
- Online resources
- Networks and resources, blogs
- Networking with others in my area of expertise
- Networks – learning from others
- Blogs
- Self motivation, blogs, discussion forums
- Screencasts
- YouTube
- Networks
- Events
- Short courses
- Webinars
- Webinars
- Networking and self-learning
- Feedback from learners
- Mini videos
- By encountering plenty of ‘how not to do it’
- Blogs, tutorials
- Amazon
- Forums, engaging situations
- Discussion forums, online courses, webinars
- Listening to what learners like and dislike
- Books- sorry to be old fashioned 🙂
- Explored de facto resources and tools YouTube EDU, iTunes U, Facebook, Twitter, blogs
- Open University
- Use of elearnity brought us a long way
- Challenges at work, formal learning, practice, reassessing and self-reflection
Which only goes to emphasise how formal and informal approaches can work for different people at different stages.