Reviews are Good for the Ego

Whenever I wonder about why I'm writing or if I'm actually writing well, I take a moment to go read some of the reviews of my books (see them all here and here). I re-read this one (here) from several months ago from someone who read One the Edge, and I noticed I had gotten another (see below).

I really like that my book and my writing contributed to her understanding more about adventure racing and the military. That is precisely some of the reasons I wrote the novel. Lisa was every reason I wrote the book. Michael's review is amazing, but Lisa's too is amazing in it's own way. 

Group Activities Online

I find it interesting how far group activities have come. 

As anyone who reads this blog can tell, I have worked with are with synchronous classes for the most part and the majority were from back in 2012 or so. Seeing how Zoom has incorporated "breakout rooms" is truly a remarkable and useful tool. Having the ability as an instructor to create groups, segregate those groups into smaller zoom rooms, then allow them the autonomy to pursue work on their own then report back would have been extremely helpful when I was teaching, and is extremely helpful now when I teach online. 

I look forward not just to classes designed specifically with this technology in mind, curricula that have breakout rooms integrated in as a major part of the learning, using buzz groups, peer consulting groups, and controversy but also, I look forward to what other technology is to come, integrated polling and chat features, a testing or quiz feature, or discussion and chat boards that are integrated into the zoom classroom experience that stays on and allows people to come and go, as if entering and leaving classrooms at different times. We have used peer consulting quite a bit in our work in my organization and have dabbled in something similar to controversy groups. Still a work in progress when online. 

I find it interesting that you are also creating groups incidentally, or by chance. I know one of the things we do in our organization is our producer identifies who might fit best in each group before she breaks them up. She tries to get a healthy mix of leader and follower in some instances, and in others tries to group like with like. 

The hard part we have found is managing all of these aspects without a producer. One thing we have identified as a necessity is a producer for the training to ensure that the trainer is not overwhelmed. That being overwhelmed can lead to poor outcomes. It might cost us a bit more for a producer to be involved in a synchronous environment like that, but it's worth it in the long run. 

 

Zoom Apps

I heard about an app called Tabroom. They described it as an app to help judge debates. It made me think of some other apps that would be worthwhile to integrate into Zoom classes.

When I spoke to Andrew the other day I was just speaking about some of the integrated features I would love to see in Zoom (it would be even better if I could invent them and be bought out by Zoom, but I hardly see that happening). Lately I've been looking at classrooms, physical, live classrooms, with an eye toward what would be nice to have. Texts or eTexts that are inset into the zoom room or discussion/reading area. Imagine if there was a link in Zoom that said "TEXT" and it would pop up our text much like Amazon Kindle might. Or if all of the links to reading and YouTube links that we are all posting in the discussion area, were compiled automatically in a page to review and download at the end of class. 

I think the Tabroom "judging" app that you describe is a new one for me. I'd love to see a testing app, but earlier our professor was asking about ranking individuals in classes. What if that was integrated into Canvas as well as a judging app. There is still so much further apps like Zoom can go I look forward to seeing it all. 

Camp NaNo

 Since I'm writing more this month, and since I've challenged myself to get my 2021 novel written during this hiatus between classes, I've (apparently) been in "Camp NaNo."

I did not know that NaNo had a summer camp, but I'm glad to be a part of it. 

I'm writing a novel I'm tentatively calling Front Running. Just like the other in this series, the main character enjoys fitness and running. What's different is that he enjoys it in a way like no other character I've written. 

Perhaps I was inspired by Lawrence Sanders (see here), who loves to include descriptions of the cocktails his main characters drink, or perhaps this is based too much on my real life, but the main character is a lush (truthfully, I'm a tad jealous of my main character).

Ran Into These Today

 So, anyone who follows me knows about my passion for these Evershade posts (see HERE). I think I’m well over 50 posts now! Well, I ran into a few more I felt the need to post today as well. Love these. All from the same source, my friend from up North. 

This is from The Curious Optimist:

Tie me up in your words . . . Take me prisoner in your mind.

Noir Detective

 I tried reading a little noir detective novel the other day. It was a bit too formulaic and far too one dimensional for my tastes, but since I gave it a read, I thought I'd share the first line for the first line series I keep (see here).

Guest Post - Jess_Hockey: Write Well, If You Can, Write Great

Writing may be different for everyone in some regards, but in a way we all follow the same pattern. We write what we know, and if we know it enough, we can write it very well. For the past year since Covid hit I have been writing my in-progress novel and the process is what I am eager to share with you today. When I was a young teenager, I struggled profoundly with major Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Multiple times, I was committed to mental health treatment facilities due to my struggles. 

I learned about and met the most one-of-a-kind people with psychological struggles of their own. What I knew when I was 14 is that I would never meet people like this again. I came up with the idea back then to write my novel based on what I had learned and experienced. It wasn’t until this past year that I, as a now healthy college student, decided to write about the people I met and the place I experienced when I was a young teen. 

Most Recent First Line

Finished a second fave. Has to be a good month when I've finished a Dick Francis and a Lawrence Sanders in the same months (see here and here). 

One thing I will say is that I love reading the reviews of Lawrence Sanders' books by modern readers who don't appreciate him. Too slow, boring, or not at all realistic . . . well, you have to appreciate the man to enjoy his books. 

Regardless, somehow I ran into John D. MacDonald, a prolific writer from the 1960's and already I'm very excited to get involved. Love the pacing, love the theme, love the characters. 

Get er Done

 HA! 

It happened again. I asked a fellow writer to write a guest blog for my blog. Now, perhaps she was being nice and what she meant to say was "your blog is just not what I think would help my writing career." And that would be fine. 

I would counter by saying that I had over 150 distinct views yesterday and in the last month have had over 1800 viewers stop by my blog. But she didn't say that. She said something along the lines of: "with my family, work, writing and other personal issues . . . I'm just not able to take on any other projects right now."

I appreciate the fact that she thinks writing a blog post would be a "project," but what I think is funniest is that people think they're too busy. As I said in my last post on this (see here) the only people who have a right in my eyes to say they're too busy are a couple of my friends who are now in Delta Force, and a couple of my former bosses who are both CEO's. 

Not to say I'm in league with them, but I work a full time job, I have a two-hour long commute, two kiddos both with lots of activities, a wife who works, I'm going to classes to get my PhD, Nerd Fitness (see here), I'm two days into another 100 days of running and pushups challenge (see here) and at the moment I'm writing a 50,000 word draft of my next novel over the next month. 

I look around at those people around me. If Julie, the manager of my eLearning Department came to me and said, "Hey, I love this new idea about including more interactive exercises in our training but really I'm too busy to take on new projects at this time," or if Tommy, the manager of my Instructor Led Training Department said to me, "Love this new hands-on approach, but I'm really too busy to take on new projects at this time," I'd ask them both who they would like to see replace them in their roles. 

My wife too, she never shies away from another project. My kids, they rebel against it, but I'm slowly making them a convert to never turning down a new mission. 

Life is short, and as I wrote (here) there are a shortage of truly remarkable people in the world. To be remarkable, or even to be close to remarkable, it requires taking chances and living while their is time. Anyone need a volunteer to take on another project, . . . here I am.

An Interview with an Online Trainer

Recently, I interviewed a trainer at my organization, HASC, where we design, develop and deliver training for employees who work in the petrochemical and oil refining industries. This trainer has been at the forefront of HASC's work to integrate a live virtual classroom to provide our instructor-led training classes via an online platform. Virtual online training is a new product line for HASC. The trainer selected for this interview has had to develop many tools and techniques to make it successful. He mentioned that he developed most of these techniques based on his experiences with live, in-person courses and trial and error rather than formal training or from a book. 

According to Orcutt and Dringus (2017), the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model establishes a framework by which presence can help facilitate online interaction and learning transfer. The "CoI defines the existence of teaching presence through the interaction that occurs between students and instruction" (Orcutt & Dringus, 2017, p. 18). Although the trainer interviewed for this project was not aware of CoI specifically, once he began his interview and CoI was explained, he realized how many of the techniques he employed were used to establish CoI and facilitate the creation of social presence. When discussing what he had found out about online education and what might have surprised him, the trainer talked about the limitations and challenges he had experienced and mentioned that establishing a connection with the learner and creating engagement was more difficult than in in-person training. Most of the interview centered on the techniques that the trainer utilizes to design and develop a social presence, which with teaching presence and cognitive presence, according to Orcutt and Dringus (2017), are the "three primary and interdependent elements" of CoI (p. 19). When discussing what tools or techniques the trainer utilized to overcome this challenge of social presence, the trainer addressed the use of technology and tools that allowed the learner to see the trainer and vice versa. He also discussed his use of humor, charisma, and props to create enthusiasm and esprit de corps. Finally, he discusses his efforts to generate what he called "personal responsibility" on the part of the learner so that they would want to learn and use what they learned after the class was completed. 

HASC provides virtual online training in a synchronous, video-centric environment. Some of the mandates for being a learner in these classes includes having a camera centered on the learner at all times, a microphone, a computer with access to Zoom Meetings, and speakers. By enforcing this type of setup, the trainer felt he had a better chance of establishing his social presence by having an actual, visual presence with the learners. Having experimented with it in past classes, he said that not having cameras on both the learner and the trainer encouraged a sense of disembodiment and separation. This was not surprising in that HASC has conducted dozens of online seminars during 2019 and 2020, and a best practice identified by our marketing team was to establish engagement via the use of webcam rather than not. What was surprising was that this trainer had not specifically been told to do this, but felt it was the right thing to do to help his learners get to know him and trust him quickly.  The trainer is young, but has been training formally in in-person classrooms for several years. In his classes he works hard to be agreeable and enthusiastic. He tries to create a sense of connection and networking with his classes.

Along the lines of physical presence, the trainer also discussed the need to establish and provide an omnipresence to create a feeling of online social presence. During the interview, the trainer referenced a passage from Pike and Massie (2015), "if you want to squelch motivation, show up just in time to make your presentation, leave immediately after, and make sure you stay unavailable during breaks" (p. 39). The trainer mentioned that he ensured that he was around to chat before the start of the synchronous online course, during breaks, and after class wrapped up for the day. He said that this seemed to help the learners gain trust in him and answer their questions no matter when or what was happening and provided a sense of omnipresence.

The trainer mentioned that throughout his classes he tries to be energetic and use positive humor to draw the learners in. This includes using hats, glasses, and wigs to make light of his appearance. The trainer's use of humor and charisma to help establish social presence is well founded in theory and literature. Kyei-Blankson et al. (2019) discuss the importance of humor and tone in establishing social presence. Both of these, as well as sharing personal stories and discussions, lead to the learner having "a greater sense of community" (Kyei-Blankson et al., 2019, p. 54).

The interview with the trainer also revealed that during the online training, he would ask the learners to approach the training by applying their own life lessons and focus on the areas where they could see relevancy to their own lives. As Ekmekci (2013) states, having students work on real-world problems provides a sources for motivation and interest for the learners. Problem-based learning or PBL as they define it, allows students to share their thoughts, history, and experiences with the trainer and with one another. Additionally, during his interview, the trainer mentioned that he made sure to allow the learners in his synchronous online courses the opportunity to form breakout groups, allowed the time for interaction of a personal nature, and worked to encourage a network of learning and continual communication among the learners. Both Pike and Massie (2015) and Kyei-Blankson et al. (2019) discuss the importance of this type of networking and fostering this both during the class, and during breaks, before and after the class to create a sense of community and encourage the establishment of social presence by the trainer. An intriguing aspect to this is that the trainer mentioned that he endeavors to do this same type of community development in his in-person classes, and felt it was natural to try and promote this same aspect to the online courses. Additionally, he has gone out of his way to develop devices that will work specifically for the online environment as well as use those that will work in either medium. The trainer mentioned not just that he wanted to bring the same sense of community to an online environment, but also that it would take different tactics to establish this community in a virtual setting. This trainer is in his early thirties, and has experiences in the virtual world and with social media. He used these experiences and history to help develop his skills in developing community in his online classes. 

Finally, the trainer mentioned the need to instill the learners with a feeling of personal responsibility. Pike and Massie (2015) discuss this often in Chapter 3 of their book where they discuss motivation. The trainer mentioned this portion of the book during the interview and why he relied on this aspect so heavily. Making the learners responsible for a) leading group sessions, bringing group work to an end, and leading discussion within breakout groups, b) giving the learners choices and options as to what they want to share, discuss or learn, and c) carving out time for "teach back" sessions, were all techniques that this trainer mentioned as tools he used to help learner's establish and keep a feeling of personal responsibility for the training and what they learned. The trainer discussed his use of the acronym "WIIFM" which stands for "what's in it for me." The trainer stated that he believes that instilling a sense of purpose, showing the trainees what is in it for them if they finish the training, and helping them see how successfully working through the class can have positive outcomes for them, makes his job easier because the learners are self-motivated. The trainer thought of these techniques to help establish a learning community naturally, rather than studying in a course or reading a book on online teaching. He mentioned that he felt it was right to model the same atmosphere online that he did in his in-person classes. 

HASC's virtual online live training is a synchronous environment that provides training that lasts at the longest, just three days. The trainer who was interviewed for this project admitted that he saw the challenges of transitioning HASC's instructor-led classes to online virtual live courses and worked hard not only on the content but also with delivery so he could ensure that the learners were motivated, engaged, and got the most out of the learning experience. Innately he understood that his work to establish a social presence would help create that motivation, engagement, and effectiveness of training. Asynchronous learning programs that last weeks or months allow trainers the chance to establish a CoI and create presence over time through various tools and techniques. The trainer interviewed here realized that his social presence had to be established quickly and used as many devices as he could at once to help make that occur for his classes. As Boettcher and Conrad (2016) state, "one of the best ways to get an online cours off on the right foot is to ensure the social presence of the instructor and all the learners" (p. 81). His work conforms with established principles of developing CoI and establishing social and teacher presence, yet he worked these things out without the aid of a book or studies. 

 

References

Boettcher, J. V. & Conrad, R. (2016). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Ekmekci, O. (2013). Being there: Establishing instructor presence in an online learning environment. Higher Education Studies, 3(1), 29–38.

Kyei-Blankson, L., Ntuli, E., & Donnelly, H. (2019). Establishing the importance of interaction and presence to student learning in online environment. (2019). Journal of Interactive Learning Research., 30(4), 539-560.

Orcutt, J. M., & Dringus, L. P. (2017). Beyond being there: Practices that establish presence, engage students and influence intellectual curiosity in a structured online learning environment. Online Learning, 21(3), 15–35. 

Pike, B., & Masie, E. (2015). Master trainer handbook: Tips, tactics, and how-tos for delivering effective instructor-led, participant-centered training. HRD Press.

Collaboration Tools in Training

I read with interest my friend Chase's thoughts on his own VARK assessment. His and mine were not the same. It's as if I get a peek into another style of learning and understanding by getting to read what you like. So often I think we assume that since we learn one way best, all others must learn the same. 

I like that Chase discussed collaboration tools. Recently, I've been trying to utilize more collaboration tools in our online offering. Unlike these courses which are weeks and months long, where discussion boards make sense, we usually only see our learners for hours and in some cases days. This means the collaboration tools must be quick and fast both in terms of their use but also in terms of the results, or they have to be intriguing enough that learners will want to use them after class when training ends and they are out on their own time. 

One thing we mulled around a while back was both a collaboration tool and an interactive game. We saw a Walmart training app that allowed users to learn the basic functions of a store associate and even see how that associates responsibilities grew over time and with their career (see more here). 

We wondered what it might take to create a refinery game that forced the player to work safely by picking the correct tools and safety equipment and if they could work with others to get high scores vs other teams within our company. It would have been collaboration, safety training reinforcement and career development. 

I wonder what Chase would think of this type of collaboration tool, or if he has seen anything like it. 

OSHA Training

More on my discussion regaridng our tools for eLearning and OSHA safety, Troy had some great thoughts about how we might make our training stronger. The difficulty in the case I explained before was that we had OSHA compliance mandates we had to meet.

 In order for our technicians to work in refineries they had to have training on working with and cleaning up hazardous waste streams. We would have much preferred having them in an instructor-led course with hands on training, but what we found was that our branches were so desperate for workers that they couldn't wait for the instructor to show up. Branches were sending untrained workers into the field without telling anyone. Ergo the way to get them some training was through the intensive week long virtual live training. Certainly not ideal, but far more ideal than no training at all. Our job then at that point was to find the best way to provide the training via that medium. 

What I find interesting is that we were doing this in 2012-2016. We moved on to other (less effective) means after 2016. Now because of Covid I have seen a majority of our clients shift towards this same model. It's a rare opportunity for me to be able to consult with them and show them the pain points we encountered so that they can overcome the same issues before they become challenges. 

Regarding the kinesthetic learner aspect . . . there is a "hands on" aspect to 40 hour hazwoper training. We had two things to spur that side of the coin. First we had a workbook for each day that we enforced the use of by everyone. This helped them keep involved. We also had a locker full of equipment that they could access and use and touch and figure out. We had them demonstrate different pieces of safety equipment at different times. At the time we were shutting it down we were experimenting with giving each branch a pair of google glasses and asking the trainees to go into the yard and work with equipment so the entire class could see. 

Groups of People

 In About A Boy, the narrator talks about how he organizes his life in half hour chunks. I organize my life by groups of people. 

I have the group of people I see at work. Julie, Melissa, Russell, Cami, et al. 

Then I have the group of people I run with at Fort Bend Fit, Alicia, Ruby, Maria, et al. These are my fun run friends. 

Then I have my writing friends, those who I chat to and work with on writing, Kristi, Shannon, Claire C and even Beth. 

I used to have a group that I would train for PT. This was my SEAL PT group. For almost 20 years I worked as a fitness instructor for Jack Walston at his SEAL PT bootcamp. We would yell and harry the poor silly people who wanted the military style workout experience without the 4 years of military enrollment that is usually required. 

As an instructor I kept to myself. I had a few relationships with the clients, but nothing meaningful. There are still those I keep up with, but most of the folks I was close to then have moved off as well. 

It was a fun job and I enjoyed it, not only because I was paid up to 30 dollars an hour just to yell at folks and get a good workout in. Sadly, when my job moved me away from the center of Houston out to Pasadena it just didn't fit into my schedule. The other thing that happened was that every time I tried to help the group expand, the leaders of the group took the opposite approach and the group contracted. It was frustrating to watch the group slowly dying off. Eventually, I guess I died off too. 

Regardless, I have a new group to supplant the old SEAL PT group. I started Nerd Fitness a while back to help jump start my workouts. Those of you who read this blog know that I have tried all sorts of different gimmicks, triathlons, running challenges, and on and on (see here, here, and here). Well, Nerd Fitness is just the next. 

I will say that Nerd Fitness has definitely helped my weight training. The weights I'm hefting now, although not heavier, they are killer workouts now. They leave me smoked. My running has down-shifted some, but that was what I wanted. Instead of running everyday, Drew, my personal Nerd Fitness consultant, has me running every other day. But boy have my weights been killer for the past three months. 

So, I'm trying that. I've signed up to be a Nerd Fitness consultant like Drew. I have to contact my charges at least once per day, design specific workouts and diets for them (the classes I took in nutrition a few years ago, plus my workout experience should help with that), and help keep them motivated through videos, chats, etc etc. It should be fun. I've already started with three clients, Christine, Kerry, and Morgan, and I'm hoping to find two more. Should be fun. 

If you're looking to upgrade your workouts, I would definitely recommend Nerd Fitness.

More for the Evershade File

 So, I have a few more for that Evershade series I love so much (see HERE). These are super simple and sweet, but they hit me like all of the Evershade posts do, in just the right place. 

This first is from Siren, who I have posted from before. A hug can be SUCH a safe place, and a hug from that favorite person in your life, you "other" can be so much more than just a hug. It can be an experience.

Sometimes your safe place is just a hug from your favorite someone.

A Quick One on Twitter

On my Twitter, I follow a group called "Objects with Faces" (see here) and today they had one I just had to share with this group. 

The string on the bird app is exactly like what it sounds. It finds things that are typical objects and if they look human, folks take a pic and post it. I also subscribe to Kids Doing Stupid Things, and Guys Posting their Wins, but I like this one the most. 

 

Love that one. It hit me. Wish I had chain arms to lock in my loved ones. 

What's this have to do with writing? Not sure. I'm sure something will come to me.

Training Tools for Industry

Lauren asked me about my blog post on VARK. She wondered if the tools could be transferred to other industries or courses. Personally, I think that this could quite easily be transferred to other industries and courses. 

The key we felt, at that time, was that it brought all the modules together. Just as we brought together fall protection, electrical safety, and confined spaces, you could just as easily bring together accounting, embezzlement, and organizational behavior by showing videos on Enron and it's fall. The key is to bring these seemingly disparate or somewhat different modules together into a more holistic course. 

Regarding the iPhone quizzes, my organization is actually working to move the technique to other courses or industries (or trying to). We like that it makes the learners engage in different ways. Just like polls and online texts, having the learner interact with a quiz is a good way to provide variety and reinforcement in one fell swoop. What was very nice about the iPhone quizzes we had for this project was that the trainer got immediate feedback from the quizzes as they were being administered. Imagine if during courses our professors could quiz us on different aspects of the reading and immediately see if I was understanding the information. 

The biggest hangup we have had with all of these tools lately is that our users don't want to use their personal iPhones or devices for something that they see as company training. They feel that the company should be paying them so the push back against it. Another area we have had difficulty is providing time for the users to utilize the tools. Some states where we worked had strict break and work time schedules and our tools were interfering with them. All in all they are worth the effort. 

VARK Me

 I recenly took a VARK asssessment. The VARK assessment looks at learners Visual, Audio/Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic learning preferences. My assessment showed me that I was "Mild Kinesthetic" - meaning that I learned best through "practical exercises, experiences, examples, case studies, trial and error, things that are real."

Having thought about the tool sets described in Chapter 4 of Boettcher & Conrad and considered it against my VARK assessment results, . . . I also think back to some of the more effective learning tool types I used when I was teaching online courses . . . the first thing that pops to mind is a series of videos that we used successfully in our 40 Hour Hazwoper training. 

When providing this training, we taught 8 hours of content everyday for 5 days. It became quite grueling and eventually we started to notice that the training was becoming quite rote and compartmentalized. For fire protection do this. For electrical protection do this. For fall protection do this. The trainers and I realized that if we were having this problem, so might our trainees. Most accidents in our industry were not caused by one event, but rather by a cascading series of events. An electrical spark might cause a fire which would cause a worker to back away and fall off a tower. No one module in our course would necessarily have stopped that worker from falling, but all three together might have. 

The trainers and I instituted a program within the course that would allow us to stream videos that described accidents in our industry and we would ask the learners to analyze the accidents with an eye toward the modules they had reviewed. A video about a man getting trapped in a small, enclosed, space might yield an analysis about Hazard Communications, Breathing Air Protection, and Confined Spaces. All of this we captured initially on worksheets, but eventually we found that iPhones could be used as well. We used "Physical Devices" . . . iPhones, videos from industry, and workbooks to keep the learner engaged and to help provide greater understanding of the content and how the content pieces work together to provide safe work activities. For me, it just made sense to use real world scenarios and to use technology to capture the learners understanding. Now, I see why that made natural sense for me.

Eventually this capability became a "best in class" safety training device and I think added to the course understanding for all of the learners who took part.

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2016). The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

The VARK Questionnaire. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18, 2021, from Vark-learn.com website: https://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/?p=questionnaire

Collaboration in Training

 Recently I was thinking of three common challenges that we see in most collaboration-based activities within our training and how to overcome them:

1) No engagement due to lack of connection and trust - In my group we provide classes on leadership principles and we often find that bringing in employees from several different contracting companies (who are commonly competitors) and asking these learners to engage in collaboration-based activities is a hard sell due to their inherent dislike of the other companies, or there lack of trust in their co-learners.

2) Lack of buy-in to learning outcomes - Similar to the above we have difficulty with people jumping into collaboration-based activities due to confusion about what they are supposed to get out of this. Suffice it to say, many in our community do not get much opportunity to train, so when they get that opportunity and we throw them into the "deep end of the pool" with an activity, there is hesitancy. 

3) Disagreement on the nature of the process - There are times when we have working groups who don't share the leaderships enthusiasm for projects, either in terms of the intent or in terms of the process they are following. This can make collaboration more difficult. 

So what are the best strategies for tackling the three common challenges:

We find that the best way to help build trust and to ensure immediate engagement is to provide and "ice-breaker" game or challenge that is designed toward enhancing understanding of a learning objective as well as build trust among the group. Ice-breakers are seen as hokey and a waste of time among our learning community who are driven to complete training as quickly as possible to get back to work, but their value at building trust and breaking down barriers to create immediate engagement are without question worthwhile. One we are currently using for new leaders is to break the class into four teams and give each team a puzzle to solve as a group with the first team done being the winner. This enforces a sense of competition (which our learners enjoy) makes them work together, and since we broke one puzzle into the four groups, no puzzle can be completed without interacting with the other teams (this is something they must figure out over the course of the activity). As Paloff and Pratt (2005) state when citing Johnson and Johnson (2000) and positive group interdependence "when one perceives that one is linked with others in a way so that one cannot succeed unless they do (and vice versa) and /or that one must coordinate one's efforts with the efforts of others to complete a task" . . . this is exactly the dynamic we are promoting with this puzzle icebreaker. 

Regarding the lack of buy-in to the learning outcomes, we work to ensure that the learners understand the rationale for our work at the beginning, throughout the training, and at the end of the process. We believe that it's important that the learner see a roadmap with a destination and shared vision for success in order for them to work and strive to meet it. Without this they could stumble in the wrong direction, waste time, and not finish with the learning objectives we want to see. All of our instructor -led classes and our eLearning classes are built with this roadmap to the finish sketched out for the learner to see and understand.

Finally, in many working groups, we have seen that there is not buy-in not because team members don't see the finish line via a roadmap, but rather they don't agree with how the leadership for that project intends to get to the finish line. There needs to be sufficient buy-in from all parties towards the mission and the objective, and where or when that buy-in doesn't occur, the leader needs to ensure that the mission and objectives are re-stated, stated differently, or the process outlined in such a way that there is buy-in. Without that trust in the process and buy-in the team will have a much harder time meeting the objectives from all of the participants concerned. In could be as simple as re-stated from another source. In one group I was in, the leader, our COO, was determined to perform operations in the manner he was used to. No matter the amount of research we showed him, or data that proved our process was right, he was recalcitrant and refused to accept the change. Finally, our leadership team found one of his loyal disciples and convinced that person of why our process was the correct one to follow. Once we had him bought into the process, he convince the COO for us. 

References

Palloff, R.M., & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. pp. 3-18. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Importance of Communication

 Recently, my friend Kelsey and I spoke about communication. Communication, especially good communication, has the power to make any project extremely successful. Conversely, poor communication can lead to all sorts of strive, problems, and delays. Poor communication in collaboration for training leads to awkwardness, problems, and misunderstandings. It's so important, and yet so often communication is overlooked as a skill set that must be developed. 

Our organization trains technicians and operators in the petrochemical and refinery industries. We have noticed that in most cases no contracting organization has programs to help develop communication within their employee base or with their leadership.

We offer a class that is built around how to properly communicate within our industry. It's built for our industry, with the employees within our industry in mind. The way that a "white truck" supervisor will communicate with a technician in the field is vastly different than the way that a accounting department supervisor might talk to an accountant in an office, and our training makes sure to cover those and work on those differences.

The soft skill of communication is so key to not just projects but collaboration within and outside of training. Good communication is make or break and I'm glad you brought it up. What do you see as the primary ways to ensure good, consistent, worthwhile, and positive communication? 

Discussion Boards

I liked a recent post I read about discussion boards. I am a HUGE fan of discussion boards and find them useful in many respects. Like you I had never used them prior to starting my education here last year, but I'm a huge fan nonetheless and look for opportunities to mimic their use in other areas within my own organization. 

Today I read an article in the WSJ (link here (Links to an external site.) . . . I'm sorry in advance if their is a pay wall to see it, but it's an interesting article) about the history of distance education in the USA.

I was surprised to see this quote by the author, "Based on my own experience teaching university students, distance learning ought to work well in languages, math, statistics and perhaps the sciences—areas that focus on objective information—but not in fields requiring debate and discussion, such as history or politics. In the study of human behavior, historical events, models of society and philosophy, it is harder to separate the object of study from those participants debating it" (Brenner, 2021). I don't agree with his summation and belief that discussion boards can provide a rich debate medium for people who are able to express themselves via the written word. 

What I find interesting is comparing that article above, this discussion about discussion posts, and this article from last week on a controversy at the company Basecamp (see here (Links to an external site.) . . . same apology if there is a pay wall). In it the authors write that when employees were protected by anonymity of the written word they made bolder more sweeping claims. When asked by the company to only post views via "video message" the arguments and debates online seemed to stop (Bindley, 2021). I wonder what would happen to these discussions if for a week were asked to only post videos? Would it provide richer discussions or fewer, more shallow ones? 

Regardless, I find Discussion Boards invigorating.

References

Bindley, K. (2021, May 2). A tech company tried to limit what employees talk about at work. It didn’t go well. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.). https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-tech-company-tried-to-limit-what-employees-talk-about-at-work-it-didnt-go-well-11619967600

Brenner, R. (2021, May 12). Distance Learning Began in 1890. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.). https://www.wsj.com/articles/distance-learning-began-in-1890-11620837464?mod=opinion_lead_pos7 (Links to an external site.)

 

Ranger School Recycle

After yesterday's post, a reader asked me if there were ever problems with the Ranger School recycling rating system. 

I wouldn't say that it caused hostility, the Ranger School rating sheets, but it got to a point where everyone knew before the end of the session who was going to get the ax. There came to be a bit of self-selection within the squad where everyone knew who was getting voted out by their abilities and capabilities. There was no hard feelings about it, it was just the way the system worked. Maybe we were all too tired and hungry and cold to worry about feelings of exclusion or segregation. 

I really like what we've been doing with mentorship  . . . the idea of pairing weaker with stronger. I'll say this, we made sure to do that as well. the stronger performers in the field were the soldiers, usually NCO's who came from the infantry battalions. The stronger planners were those soldiers who were officers on their way to units after attending west point or other schools. We tended to use each others strengths and weaknesses for the betterment of the squad as a whole. 

Change of Course

 Well, I had a bit of a change of course. Turns out I have read Caper (see here) and Sullivan’s Sting (see here). Also turns out that I didn’t really care for either of them. Sure. They were Lawrence Sanders, which made them good, but I want great at the moment. So, if I have to re-read something, I’m going to re-read something really good or great. 

I’ve moved to Lawrence Sanders’ Sixth Commandment. 

What’s also really nice is I started that novel that I had sitting somewhere in the back of my mind. Sure I could be working on Sunset Perfect, or I could be working on the Elephants novel, or any of the other that I’ve worked on. But I have this month, might as well get this one on paper. 

Regardless, here’s that first line for the current novel I’m reading:

LATE NOVEMBER, AND THE world was dying. A wild wind hooted faintly outside the windows. Inside, the air had been breathed too many times. 

“It’s got nothing to do with your age,” I said. 

“Liar,” she said. 

I tried to groan. Swung my legs out of bed and lighted a cigarette. Sat there smoking, hunched over. She fumbled with my spine. 

“Poor baby,” she said. 

I wouldn’t look at her. I knew what I’d see: a small body so supple it twanged. Short brown hair cut like a boy’s. All of her sleek. She had me in thrall. Soft swell to her abdomen. A little brown mole on the inside of her left thigh. Her ass was smooth and tight. 

“All I’m saying,” I said, “is that I’ve got to go away on a business trip. A week, two weeks, a month—who knows? I’ve got to; it’s my job.” 

“I’ve got five weeks’ vacation coming,” she said. “I could get a leave of absence. I could quit. No problem.” 

I didn’t answer.

Sullivan’s First Line

 I went with Sullivan’s Sting. Why? Well, there’s an outside chance that I haven’t read this one. I was hoping to find an Edward X Delaney that I had overlooked, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ve overlooked this one in the past. 

Before I reveal the first line, which is the purpose of this pose, one thing I found funny. 

Last night I was reading some of the comments on Lawrence Sanders’ page on Amazon. I was trying to determine if I had read The Fourth Deadly Sin (an EXD novel . . . I had) when I saw this one commenter write:

Very dated, full of cops treating people in outrageously cruel and illegal ways presented as standard police procedure. The author should be ashamed of himself and should pull this book from circulation.

Let me say, as someone who has novels on Amazon, . . . I’m never going to delist my novels because they get dated. Dated novels are awesome first of all, and secondly, how does Joanne, that’s the commenters name, know that it’s so dated? Did she live in New York City in the 70’s and 80’s?  

So, here’s the first line of Sullivan’s Sting, which I’m still hopeful will be a new one for me.

Finished and On to the Next Fave

 So, it turns out that I have read it (see here). The further and further I got into the book the more I knew what was about to happen. By the end, I knew for sure. It could have been one I read in the summers in Chappell Hill working at the bed and breakfast with my grandfather, or it could have been while I was in Belgium, or even while I was in the Army. I would like to think that it was in Chappell Hill that I read it. If so, I probably read it while swinging in the backyard hammock, between work, reading it from an old, dog-eared, used copy that my grandfather had bought me at the used book store where we would swap out our books for new ones. 

Now that I’ve finished a Dick Francis novels, it’s onto my next fave . . . Lawrence Sanders. I remember I first fell in love with Lawrence Sanders’ writing back in college. I read all of the McNally series. Then, about 15 years ago, I realized there were all these wonderful Sanders’ novels from early 1980’s New York that were gritty, a little bloody, and far more enjoyable to read. Maybe not as light-hearted and fun, but definitely more enjoyable.

I’ve gone back to McNally if only because the NYC ones I’ve read (or re-read) more recently. I don’t have to go read it, truth is I can feel this new story itching to get out and be written, but why not go enjoy a McNally or Sullivan’s Sting first? 

Wrapping Myself in an Old Friend

 Now that class has come to an end, or should we say pause, I have a little more than a month off at the moment. 

In the past few months I’ve taken: 1) Learning and the Adult Brain, 2) Doctoral Studies Introduction and Literature Review 3) Online Adult Teaching and now 4) Statistical Methods. Killer to pack all that in in just 6 months. I’m smoked. 

So I am taking a break. 

What’s my break? 

A novel. That’s it. Just a novel. I used to read a novel a week. Now days, I barely have time for one a year. I read so many articles and other books on adult learning that there’s never any time for novels. I should actually be working on fleshing out my dissertation a bit more, but I’m taking a break. 

What am I reading? 

Dick Francis. I’m reading Nerve for two reasons. It’s one of the few Dick Francis mysteries that I have not read (see here . . . although now that I’m a quarter the way into it, I think I may have read it as a teen. It’s seeming rather familiar).

The second reason? Well, as you may know I like to write a draft of a novel every November as a part of NaNo (see here). This year I think I’ll be knee deep in two classes in November, both Qualitative Statistics and Measurements and Administrative Adult Leadership, so I think NaNo will be put on the back burner. I may try to sneak in fifty thousand words in August or July. Dick Francis is a great warm up for getting me in the right frame of mind. 

The first line got me, and I’ve been reading with a smile ever since, even if those first lines were a bit gruesome to warrant a smile.

Three More this Morning

Ran into three more this morning I’d like to add to the list. I think just like last time I’ll add them with no additional explanation. They are what they are and they speak to me. That’s it. 

This first, from CallSignSiren is awesome. It says everything to me. 

Pay attention to who makes the effort to stay in your life . . . that says everything.

Effort. That’s exactly what it takes. 

Stats is ALMOST Over

 I'm about to take my final exam for what has to have been the hardest class I've yet taken for my PhD. It's over statistics and it's a killer. I has been two classes a week. Each class was an hour to two hours long. A four week course where we had 11 assignments due, 3 exams, and we not only went over statistics theory, but also R Studio, an open source application for computing statistics. 

We barely scratched the surface of R Studio, but man can I ever whip out an Anova table now. 

Regardless, the reason I bring this up is that I'm once again stunned by friendship. We have created an ersatz study group of me, Will, Andrew, and Anne. It began with just me and Andrew. We added Daron, then Will showed up a few months later. Then Anne. Others have come and gone. Daron hasn't come for a while. We used to meet once or twice a week on top of our classes, but this class, it's just been study group meetings to work on exam prep and homework. 

I don't think any of us are necessarily good at stats, but we have helped each other and dragged one another over the finish line in a haphazard fashion. Well, almost over. I'll let you know in a couple hours. 

Still, I'm impressed by our little group of friends. Will said last week, I have to tell you guys, I would never have survived in this class without you guys. I think he spoke for all of us. I look forward to seeing how long this study group stays together. It's a good one and I'd hate to lose more close friends. 

Wish me luck on the test.

Experiential Learning and Reflection

We were asked to write about a learning theory that appeals to us. John Dewey's experiential learning resonates with me. 

The idea that interaction and hands-on work helps to develop understanding is front and center with the learning cohort that I support. Most of the learners that my organization supports, technicians and operators in the petrochemical and refining industry revel in and take pride in the history of "make-do" engineers and "shade-tree" mechanics that came before them. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that if there isn't a hands-on component to their training, then they won't learn as effectively. They may not know it, but they too are John Dewey fans.

The idea that John Dewey also included aspects of constructivism in his theory, also resonates with me. On page 16, Boettcher and Conrad (2016) write "learners construct new knowledge based on previous knowledge and that experiences are unique to each learner." Spend any time in the field with a operator or project manager and in no time they will wax poetic about what they learned on this projet or that project, and they will begin building not only their own knowledge but the knowledge base of their teams and newer technicians. Ask them, they'll tell you how unique their experiences are, and how individual their experiences were.

Like the statement on Jerome Bruner from Boettcher and Conrad (2016) on page 17, "Bruner emphasizes the active process of discovery and trial and error." Although this statement may not agree with me, I think the learner's I support would. The field technicians enjoy trial and error and seeing what fits or what doesn't. I would much rather have a manual in my hands and a proven procedure, like Boettcher and Conrad (2016) write about Ericsson on page 20 regarding deliberate practice; most of our learners still have an independent spirit that they enjoy expressing . . . within reason.

Although our organization believes in blended learning dynamics whereby we teach theory in computer based training courses and try to follow it up using hands on training and instructor-led training, online learning environments we have had a tough time integrating hands-on instruction. The closest I've come to achieving a regular working model for this, it was in our work with OSHA 40 Hour Hands On Training. Despite broadcasting the live training to multiple sites, we made sure that each site had a locker filled with personal protective equipment (PPE) and throughout the class we asked the learners to try on, understand, touch/feel, and teach others about the PPE in the locker.  For short time it was a success but still not as good as and in-person live training.

I may not be as big a fan of experiential learning as my learners might be, still I understand it's unique capabilities and the strengths that come with it.

References

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2016). The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and Practical Pedagogical Tips (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.

More on Virtual Live Training

Colby and Les both wrote about Virtual Online Training vs Live Training, specifically, if they can be merged. 

I wonder if there is more to this regarding the hybrid or blended learning model that incorporates both live audiences and online learners. I know we had success in creating a connection with our online learners when we put iPhone in their hands and quizzed them throughout the day. The real time feedback capability too provided some insight for the instructor to immediately address problem areas that were identified in the quizzes. 

Our next step would have been to provide real time feedback and analysis via those iPhones to the “analysis videos” we were screening. But, although these helped us with the engagement of the online learner we abandoned the hybrid (online and in person) model and didn’t look for any tools that could be used to help with that model. 

I wonder now what more we could have done to make that model more effective. I think of a Ted Talk with the ability for the online learner to feel as engaged. I think back and wonder if we had hired two or three producers to be the backstage or co-host if that might have helped more. 

Or maybe having iPhones in the hands of the online audience and the in person audience, so both could equally engage. I would love to hear not only if anyone was successful in sustaining this hybrid model, but also in keeping it engaging for all concerned, and what types of tools they used.