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Neal Whitten

Boosting your own performance

Bruno Neal is a scholar and a learning and development authority. He has written dozens of articles on learning and development, two Infoline__™ issues on Informal Learning and Quality in Learning and Development, and one TD at Work™ on Learning and Development in Healthcare. He is a Certified Professional of Learning and Performance (CPLP), and currently works as an L&D leader for Indiana University Health. He has been appointed to the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Board of Examiners for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a judge of the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Association for Talent Development (ATD) BEST Award, and Chair of the award committee since 2014. Neal was awarded with the highly esteemed American Society of Training & Development BEST Award in 2009, and part of the team awarded with the same achievement in 2011. He also was awarded with the Champion of Learning Award Certification for his contribution to learning and professional development in 2011. In 2015, Neal received the Global Training & Development Leadership Award at the World Training & Development Congress in Mumbai (India) for his contributions to the international learning and development community.Neal also serves as contributor for ATD’s T+D Magazine. In addition, he has spoken at ATD International Conference & Exposition, local chapters of ATD across the United States, Cancer Treatment of America, Training Magazine conference, the Training and Education chapter of the National Association of Electric Distributors (NAED), Medical Users Software Exchange (MUSE), and ATD’s Learn from the BEST conferences.

Bruno Neal

Joel Gendelman knows firsthand what it takes to become a consultant, and takes pride in saying that he has made every mistake mentioned in this book. His lighthearted, conversational style makes the learning process enjoyable as he shares his 25 years of consulting experience and knowledge. As president and founder of Future Technologies, Gendelman has developed activity-rich corporate presentations and communications for Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Nissan, Lucent Technologies, and Genentech. He has also conducted workshops and provided on-site and virtual consulting for Kaiser Permanente, Wells Fargo Bank, Exxon, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft. Gendelman holds a master's degree and doctorate in educational technology, and has written four books and numerous articles. He has won several awards and is a frequent speaker at international conferences and corporate events. Currently he resides near Denver.

Joel Gendelman

With more than 18 years of experience working in workforce development, career development, total quality management, information systems, and high technology, Theresa Seagraves became a recognized leader at Hewlett-Packard for creating innovative, world-class data and people-development systems.   In 2001, Theresa established her own consulting company, Theresa L. Seagraves & Associates (TLSA). Theresa works full time consulting with clients on ROI evaluations, conducting ROI studies, and coaching organizations and individuals in aligning and communicating their financial value.  Theresa has filed for a U.S. patent for software that tracks ROI, penetration, sustainability, and best practices gained from workplace learning and performance initiatives.           Theresa has written newsletters on personal success as well as case studies on ROI and creation of training scorecards.  Theresa lives near Denver, Colorado. She is married to her high school sweet- heart. They have two wonderful children. In her spare time, she attends her daughter’s marching band competitions, her son’s baseball and basketball games, takes classes in her community, keeps up with extended family, and finds ways to bring laughter to each day.   Theresa may be contacted at tseagraves@drive-roi.com. Her website is www.drive-roi.com.

Theresa Seagraves

In the words of one client, “Liz Weber will help you see opportunities you never knew existed.”A sought-after consultant, speaker, and trainer, Liz is known for her candor and her ability to make the complexities of leadership E.A.S.Y. She creates clarity for her audiences during her results-oriented presentations. Participants walk away from her sessions knowing how to implement the ideas she’s shared not just once, but repeatedly to ensure continuous leadership growth and development.As the president of Weber Business Services, a management consulting, training, and speaking firm headquartered near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Liz provides strategic and succession planning, executive coaching, and comprehensive leadership training programs to business owners, leaders, executive teams, and boards of directors.Liz is one of fewer than 100 people in the United States to hold both the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) and Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designations, the highest earned designations in two different professions. She also holds an MBA in international business, is an experienced board member, and served as a national board director and three-time Strategic Planning Committee chair for the National Speakers Association.Liz has supervised business activities in 129 countries and has consulted in more than 20 countries. She has designed and facilitated conferences from Bangkok to Bonn and Tokyo to Tunis. Liz has taught for the Johns Hopkins University’s Graduate School of Continuing Studies, as well as the Georgetown University’s Senior Executive Leadership Program.Liz has written nine leadership books, including Something Needs to Change Around Here—The Five Stages to Leveraging Your Leadership, Stop So You Can Get the Results You Want!, and Don’t Let ‘Em Treat You Like A Girl—A Woman’s Guide to Leadership Success. She also authored a four-book series, What Business Owners Need to Stop Doing, What Managers Need to Stop Doing, What HR Professionals Need to Stop Doing, and What Women in Leadership Need to Stop Doing.In addition to her monthly Manager’s Corner articles, Liz shares her leadership insights on various social media outlets daily.

Liz Weber

It is often the goal of talent developers to run their own learning organizations, especially at a strategic level. Opportunities to become a chief learning officer (CLO) are rare. But it’s not enough to find (or create) one—you’ve also got to be ready for it when that happens! There’s a lot written about having “a seat at the table” and what to do when you get there. However, there is precious little advice on how to prepare yourself for the role. In this article, I’m going to suggest four areas for your development: Technical Expertise, Strategic Leadership Skills, Business Savvy, and Adult Stage Development.Technical ExpertiseAs managers move into more senior leadership roles, they still need to understand the ins and outs of their professional areas. This gives them context and understanding of their organization’s mission and activities, and what they bring to the table when helping to run the organization. Do you have one of our professional certifications, the Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD®) or the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD®)? Or perhaps one or more professional certificates, like ATD’s Instructional Design, Project Management, or Master Trainer? On the academic side, have you completed a degree (or advanced degree) in a talent development field? However you approach it, continuing to build your technical expertise will give you greater skills and credibility.Strategic Leadership SkillsCLOs must go beyond managing their function. They must become business leaders as part of the senior leadership team of their organization. To function at that level, they must learn to be strategic leaders. Managers solve technical problems with known solutions. But strategic leaders solve adaptive challenges—new and complex trials that require advanced leadership skills like innovation, adaptability, perseverance, and systems thinking.Business SavvyAt the CLO level, it’s no longer enough to merely understand your own contributions to the mission. You’ll also have to develop a full grasp of the entire enterprise and a true appreciation of the competitive, external environment. In short, you must become a businessperson. What does the business or organization do? How does it do it? For whom? Against whom? What are its headiest challenges and opportunities, and where are the weaknesses and threats to its success? And, most importantly, how does the talent development organization contribute to all of it?Adult Stage DevelopmentWe’re all familiar with the stages children go through as they develop into adults. But did you know that adults keep developing to later stages, too? They do. And these developments correlate strongly with leadership success. While the other three areas deal with various competencies, this is about your capacity to stay in uncertainly longer, to consider multiple alternative solutions to a challenge—or even multiple realities in a situation. Can you cope with—and succeed in—greater VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity)? Are you able to lead your organization through the unknown toward the new reality?So, how do you do all of that? I’m sure as talent developers you’re already thinking about the possibilities. There are specific methods for transforming managers into strategic leaders. But those will have to wait for another day!

So, You Want to Be a Chief Learning Officer?

While the instructional design field has been around for a long time, it is only within the last 30 years that it has emerged more as a discipline with educational courses, resources, and methodologies. Introduction to Instructional Systems Design by ID expert Chuck Hodell offers a comprehensive textbook that provides the prerequisites every instructional designer needs to get started in the profession.What made you realize that the ISD or instructional design field needed a textbook?The idea came to me when I started teaching this almost 30 years ago. There were many resources that addressed instructional systems design but no one book that an instructor or professor could use to teach a course from. There were a lot of really great books—Gagne’s, Merrill’s, and Kemp’s. But if you wanted to teach this, especially at the graduate level or for folks who hadn’t had a lot of experience in ISD, one had to amalgamate and review many different books and resources to create a reading list and curriculum from which to teach—one that would give students a solid background in instructional design.When I wrote ISD From the Ground Up, I did not intend it to be a primary or even supplemental classroom textbook, although it turns out that it is often used for that. Over the years, I contemplated what instructors really need to teach ISD and thought we could create an even better book. We can take a more traditional textbook approach with real case studies and real discussion questions and things to think about. A textbook coupled with an instructor’s guide would make a difference for instructors, making their lives much easier by providing a comprehensive resource.How has the instructional design field changed since you started teaching, and why is this the right time for this book?Whether you’re teaching one course as a one-off or putting together a program for millions of people worldwide, instructional design has not changed that much over the years. The basic processes and philosophy behind instructional design remains pretty much the same.But what has changed and what I think everybody has noticed is that the level of interest in ISD—its popularity and use—has increased. Proven ISD knowledge and expertise is almost a calling card if you want to be a professional. People are looking for certification. People are looking for degrees. There are all kinds of documentation organizations want to see before they hire an instructional designer.What is needed today to practice as an instructional designer from what was needed 30 years ago is the difference. The field has elevated such that instructional design is now considered a science, with instructional designers as scientists. We do approach ISD with scientific methods. It is important for students to learn not only where instructional systems design came from and but how it can be and is applied directly in their daily work.How will this textbook benefit instructional design professors?I designed this book as both a professor and a practitioner in the field. What I have created is a package for anyone who teaches a course in instructional design. A professor or instructor will be able to pull out the elements that they want to use. When instructors are doing assignments, whether online or in the classroom or using a blended approach, they can take the different elements between the case studies, discussion questions and reflections that are in there, and build their own course. Everything they need is in the book.If they want to branch out from that, using content from the instructor’s guide, they can certainly do that too. The beauty of this volume is that it is really 17 books in a textbook. Each of these chapters stand on their own: they each address different aspects of this field from basic eight generations of learning transfer where this all started and where it ended up, to advanced content like criticality and other parts of it.From a professor standpoint or from the standpoint of anyone who is teaching this—whether for noncredit environments, one-off courses in four hours, or courses at a doctoral level—an instructor will find that the content addresses and will work for many levels. This volume is going to make your life easier.An instructor can find what works for the situation and pick out the relevant pieces. If you want to add something else, certainly do that. But this is one of those books where you can just pick it up and use it as a professor or instructor.Why do you think no one else wrote this book?The study of instructional design has largely been focused on the two somewhat mutually exclusive areas of theory and practice. There are a number of excellent books on theory and the different foundational aspects of ISD, and there are also a number of incredibly well-written books on the practice of ISD. What has not existed, from my experience, is a text that combines theory and practice in a way that allow for a learner to move from ISD theory and the evolution of the field to then producing portfolio and work products that instructional designers use in their work every day.How does this book help newcomers to ISD?Most new designers come to the field from other areas of work and study. They have been teachers, trainers, subject matter experts, or they manage one or more of these areas. If you have lots of practical experience but limited ISD background, this text takes a learner from the basics of where instructional design came from to the everyday work products that designer use like population studies, design plans, lesson plans, and working with learning management stems in digital design scenarios. And, more importantly, it links the theory to the practice to instill confidence in designers that their work is based on research and proven research into learning and related fields.How does this book help people who are advanced in ISD but want to learn more?One bonus afforded more advanced instructional designers are practical tools like criticality and a dive into learning management systems, social media and digital design. The text also works as a reference for the theoretical and basic practical skill sets that designers sometimes need to revisit when working on new projects.If someone is not an instructor but simply wants to learn about ISD, how can they use this book?This text is a wonderful place to start for anyone who is curious about ISD and just wants to have a casual introduction to what instructional design is really all about. It is not so theoretical that a reader is required to have a solid foundation in the field. This text starts at the beginning and works its way slowly through the basic into the practical tools a designer needs on every project. If a reader is intrigued and wants to learn more, the later chapters dig pretty deep into the work that designers routinely perform. It is also a great place to start with more generalizable topics like systems, populations, workflow and other areas that are not just applicable in ISD.About the AuthorChuck Hodell has been writing, speaking, practicing, and teaching ISD for many years. His books and articles have earned him the title of The Man Who Wrote the Book on ISD. His bestselling four editions of ISD From the Ground Up and his SMEs From the Ground Up books are used internationally in academic settings and in the practice of instructional design. Chuck has designed thousands of training programs for clients including the White House, major corporations, nonprofits, numerous apprenticeship programs, and international organizations. He presently serves as affiliate professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, associate director and faculty of the learning and performance technology master’s program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and as the academic advisor for the instructor certification program at the International Masonry Training and Education Foundation. Chuck holds a PhD in language, literacy, and culture from University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), a master’s degree in ISD from UMBC, and a bachelor’s degree from Antioch University.About ATD and ATD PressThe Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest association dedicated to those who develop talent in organizations. ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD Press publications are written by industry thought leaders and offer anyone who works with adult learners the best practices, academic theory, and guidance necessary to move the profession forward. For more information, visit td.org/books.Introduction to Instructional Systems DesignISBN: 9781952157127 | 448 Pages | PaperbackTo order books from ATD Press, call 800.628.2783.To schedule an interview with Chuck Hodell, please contact Kay Hechler, ATD Press senior marketing manager, at khechler@td.org or 703.683.8178.

Intro to Instructional Systems Design: Q&A With Chuck Hodell

They're creating computer code, carting food and passengers around in their own cars, and popping in monthly for a project meeting. What's their story? Are these occasional workers underemployed, unable to secure a salaried job? Are they Millennials and Generation Z-ers sampling different occupations before they commit to a career? Or Baby Boomers making some extra cash to supplement their retirement savings?They could be any of those―or none of them. Meet the gig workers, a burgeoning population in the labor force that is changing the way company leaders look at workforce planning and the way people view work."As individuals have entered the workforce and evolved, they are asking for more flexibility," says Kurt Heikkinen, president and CEO of staffing company Montage. And, as access to health insurance has become increasingly separate from full-time employment, "workers have really gained a sense of freedom. They look at [their careers] as a series of gigs, a series of projects and experiences, as opposed to a long-term career at a given employer."Figure 1: Gig Workers Look Like the Broader WorkforceThe following charts illustrate the demographics of self-identified gig workers compared with those of the entire U.S. workforce. Source: Morning Consult.But these aren't the typical temp staffers of yore―the "Kelly Girl" secretaries and Manpower workers who filled in for office staff when an employer had a hole in the schedule. Nor are they limited to the classic freelancers in creative fields―writers, editors, musicians, and graphic artists. Nowadays, gig workers run the gamut, from Uber drivers to IT technicians to travel nurses. And they are an integral and growing part of the knowledge economy.Many businesses have embraced this pipeline of on-demand talent. Yet, despite all the promise of the gig economy, it is a work in progress. The rules are still being written as companies and workers alike adjust to new ways of getting work done.Two Types of Gig WorkersGig work itself is not new. "People have always worked this way," but the prevalence and types of gig jobs have changed over the years, says Diane Mulcahy, author of The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want (Amacom, 2016). "This kind of work is growing at a rapid rate," she says, particularly in white-collar jobs and the tech economy.There are two types of gig workers, Mulcahy says: first, those who are searching for full-time work and need to make some cash and contacts while they job-hunt and, second, those who simply don't want or need full-time employment.The latter group includes a lot of younger people, for whom the idea of a 40-years-and-you-get-a-gold-watch kind of job is something their grandparents did. They aren't attracted to what they see as an outdated model of sticking with one company―or even one profession―for an extended time. But this group also includes retired or semi-retired people who may or may not need the money but who want to stay engaged and active regardless. And there are also mid-career folks who want the flexibility and freedom of doing what they want more or less when they want, drawing on years of experience to cherry-pick appealing projects.In the United States, more than 40 percent of workers are employed in "alternative work arrangements," such as contingent, part-time, or gig work, according to Deloitte's 2018 Global Human Capital Trends study. In a 2016 Adobe survey, 56 percent of office workers predicted that everyone will do some gig work in the future. Asked to look ahead to 2020, 28 percent of business leaders and chief human resource officers said they anticipated an increase in gig workers, the Deloitte study found."The vast majority [of gig workers] are folks who easily could go get [traditional full-time] jobs somewhere," says Lori Williams, vice president of fulfillment at Gigster, a software developer that has 80 employees on staff and works with 1,000 gig workers. "They've chosen this lifestyle."The top benefit of the arrangement for them is autonomy. They have greater control over their schedule and they can avoid routine annoyances such as bad managers, office politics, and interminable staff meetings. They also might learn new skills and gain valuable experience at a temporary stint, ultimately giving them the tools to advance in other gigs or in staff jobs.Employers, too, enjoy the perks of an open relationship, gaining access to skills and talent without having to commit to a full-time hire. And managers can supplement staff with gigsters who have the talent and knowledge not only to advance a project, but to teach regular employees new skills."It's really [about] how can we continue to scale as an organization?" says Vlasta Dusil, senior vice president of HR for computer technology company SAP's Cloud Business Group. "We talk about diversity, with gender, with different generations. In our view, this is another way of looking at diversity."Growing PainsStill, there are some drawbacks―for both sides. The "flexible schedule" so many people crave can lead to them being underemployed. The gig worker might also miss out on the advantages that come from committing to one employer. Among those advantages is professional development."How are these people going to train and develop and grow?" says Jennifer Graham-Johnson, SHRM-SCP, recently retired chief HR officer at WestRock Co., a paper and packaging products manufacturer."I do worry we are going to have a group of people who are . . . unable to advance" if they ever decide they want full-time employment because they haven't had the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge through training and classes.Then there's the issue of employee benefits.Gig workers don't get health insurance, paid time off, or 401(k) contributions from employers. Offering them the same perks that staff members get could set an employer up for legal challenges and negate savings typically associated with hiring gig workers.It could also harm recruiting efforts. After all, good benefits are one of the selling points companies use to attract full-time talent. Why would people want to join your team as full-time employees if they can enjoy the freedom and flexibility of gig work and get the same benefits as regular employees?The bigger issue may be that offering the same benefits to contractors and regular staff could get the company in trouble with the IRS, which has a 20-point test to determine whether workers are independent contractors or employees entitled to the employer-paid share of FICA taxes. Microsoft and other employers have had to pay millions of dollars in back taxes and damages after being sued by workers who said they were paid like independent contractors but treated like employees.Figure 2: What Motivates Gig Workers? Source: Shiftgig, Profile of a Gig Worker, 2018.Playing Catch-UpGovernment and businesses are lagging on other fronts related to the gig economy, too. Banks, for example, might be skittish about lending money to a potential homeowner who doesn't hold a permanent job. And gig workers don't get unemployment benefits, COBRA, or worker’s compensation.Companies can help fill the gaps. One way is to offer voluntary benefits that are fully paid for by the worker but administered by the employer. E-commerce website Etsy, for example, has partnered with Stride Health to act as a health insurance broker for the people who create the art, jewelry, and other items sold on Etsy.Still, the gig economy is clearly moving faster than the institutions that deal with these workers."I don't think we've caught up to this type of worker," says Arthur Tacchino, chief innovation officer at the compliance technology company SyncStream Solutions. "The workforce is changing. So how are the coverage, insurance, and benefits going to evolve to fit the newer kind of workforce we are seeing?" There's no clear to answer that, Tacchino says."Regulators and courts are trying to apply 20th-century law onto a 21st-century problem," says Richard Meneghello, an employment attorney and partner at Fisher Phillips. "Our hope is that once people realize it's not just a passing fad, regulators and legislators will get more serious."One agency trying to change with the times is the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is taking a fresh look at compensation for gig workers. The agency is considering revising its rules to make it easier for people who are classified as independent contractors to receive stock awards from the companies that employ them, the New York Times reported.While governments and financial institutions adjust, the market for gig workers is maturing, fueled by technology platforms that help both sides of the work arrangement find each other. Online labor platforms such as Upwork, Gigster, TaskRabbit, and Freelancer are not only empowering the gig economy, but revolutionizing the way workers and companies connect."The technology is making the whole market more efficient," says Marion McGovern, author of Thriving in the Gig Economy (Career Press, 2017) and co-founder and former CEO of M Squared Consulting.Upwork, for example, connects computer-industry freelancers in 170 countries to employers who need their services, charging the worker a fee of 5 percent to 20 percent of the job's pay. ShiftPixy and others hire workers (paying the employer share of payroll taxes and taking care of other compliance issues), then "lend" them to clients in the hospitality and restaurant industries. The company has an app that allows people to broadcast their availability and apply for certain shifts in their communities.As Uber was creating its digital platform for drivers, the job market for gig work was exploding, says Scott Absher, ShiftPixy's CEO. "People are looking for ways to recobble their income," and these platforms make that more efficient, he says.Managing the GigSo how do today's people managers handle gig workers, follow the law, and head off potential tensions with full-time staff? Some tips:Decide who will drive the decision-making on hiring. A simple procurement process may be enough to fill an open gig for an IT techie, while a speechwriter for a CEO will likely require input from the chief executive.Pay people promptly. "I can't tell you how many companies are on 60- to 90-day schedules" for contracts, McGovern says. But individuals expect to be paid faster and more often.Know the law—and do not treat gigsters like employees. In fact, don't even use the word "hire" to describe the working arrangement, advised Rebecca Cenni-Leventhal, founder and CEO of staffing and recruitment firm Atrium. People who work gigs are "engaged," not hired, she cautioned.Protect confidential company information. This is especially important when using outside contractors for a business dealing with sensitive client information, such as health data and Social Security numbers.Let your own staffers gig―even at your company. Since many workers crave the opportunity to learn something new, offer full-time staffers the chance to develop by giving them a gig in-house.Keep staffers and gigsters separate, when warranted. "Having [gig workers] participate in regular team meetings or asking them for regular updates and reporting is not wise," says Cenni-Leventhal, as that may cause them to be viewed as employees rather than independent contractors. "Inviting them to one holiday party isn't too much of a risk, but when you start having them participate in team-building activities and attending company functions, it can get tricky."Make your gig workers feel welcome and valued. "Make sure you afford them the correct level of respect," McGovern says. "This is someone who is going to add to the team, bringing in skills or knowledge and experience to help the effort."On top of that, she adds, it's important to recognize the dignity of their career choice. After all, it's a work arrangement more business leaders can expect to manage in the coming years.Copyright 2019, SHRM. This article is reprinted from www.shrm.org with permission from SHRM. All rights reserved.

Gig Workers Challenge Old Order

The simple creation of content and access to platforms will not ensure success with social media for learning. You will need to spend some time getting ready, linking the tools to other learning moments, and measuring your online success. Getting Ready to Use Social Media When choosing a social media tool, those that are accessible and familiar to participants should take preference. If this is not the case, you must spend more time preparing for the learning process by selecting the ideal platform. Before you ask people to use the tools, you need to be sure they are working well. For smaller initiatives, you may be inclined to just see what happens, but failure will still lead to all-around demotivation. If tools and processes are new for learners, some education on their use may be required. Be sure to mention early any tools that will be used, describing expectations and the perceived benefits of the approach. In initial communications, include links that allow direct access without learners having to search for the tool themselves. Also give clear instructions on how to use new tools. Instructional videos may be available online for this purpose. Making the Link to Social Media You’ll need to make the extra effort to connect social media–based activities to more traditional learning processes. Although some of the following six efforts will become less important in the long term, they are still considered good practice. Be social media–friendly in class. When you introduce or close topics, provide tweetable summaries that learners may want to share, or ask them to create some: “How would you summarize this learning in 140 characters?” If you are using flipcharts, make them worthy of a photo. This will motivate learners to review and share them later. When sharing content, limit its size to small chunks, which will aid in learners’ comprehension. For example, a video shouldn’t be longer than two or three minutes. If you use inklewriter to share an interactive story, don’t make it a novel; use a few short paragraphs to illustrate your point. For larger-scope learning initiatives, consider sharing the same learning content across different media to account for different learner tastes. Cross-semination is the idea of linking content together via different platforms, which will encourage learners to find and share different content. If you use a discussion group for a homework question, add a link in that discussion to other online content that will clarify the main learning points. If you post an instructional video for e-learning, use the description box to link to other content, such as a description of the module. Padlet and Pearltrees are great tools for linking everything together. It’s important to make the link between traditional offline learning moments and social media–based online moments. When in class, be clear about online expectations after class. If learners take the time to like or comment online, mention this when they are all together. Thank people for their efforts and quote things shared or discussed online. If you really want to walk the talk with social media, use the golden triangle of networking: Ask, thank, and give. If you are using a discussion forum to support learning, ask specific context-driven open questions, or ask learners to search for and share a reference. When they do either of these things, be sure to thank them with a like or a comment, as well as verbally during in-class learning moments. This is an opportunity not only to show you care, but also to take the conversation further. Be sure to share more yourself, whether it is a reference or simply giving your opinion on what is being said. These activities will encourage learners to also ask, thank, and give.Finally, games are a good way to encourage learners to use the tools. In addition to using points, badges, and leaderboards for sharing, incorporate elements of challenge and self-expression. Set up a social media– based content treasure hunt, use the team-based “Space Race” in Socrative, or have participants create a simple, fun online profile for longer-term learning initiatives (with an avatar) using Padlet. Measuring Success The last key to success is the continuous follow-up and measurement of online learner activity. This does not replace standard tools for evaluation of learning success, but you will get some metrics on tool adoption.The most obvious online measure is traffic. If you have a password-protected blog post that only a limited number of people can access, check to see how many times it was viewed. With a private YouTube video, you can be reasonably sure that 10 views equals 10 learners; with a public video, hits may have come from elsewhere. If you use Padlet or community-based tools such as LinkedIn, Yammer, and Facebook, a comment or post will tell you that someone visited the site. But absence of such posts does not mean other learners didn’t look at the site. The second thing to measure is the content in comments or discussions. By taking the time to read through what is written and shared, you will see what participants think of the content, as well as what knowledge they acquired online and offline. However, if participants are talking about topics unrelated to the content, don’t worry too much—they are still sharing and that is a good thing.Finally, look for continuity between comments and sharing. Are people extending one learner’s comments with more discussion? This may show real interest in that particular topic. Do people reference other people’s content or comments in their own sharing? This could indicate more traffic than you initially estimated, as well as real interest in the topic. Editor’s Note: This post is excerpted from the TD at Work, “Improving Formal Learning with Social Media” (ATD Press, 2015), which is featured in the new collection Learning Technologies Digital Collection.

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