What the Class of '06 May Tell You to Do With That PowerPoint Presentation

Thursday, June 15, 2006

What the Class of '06 May Tell You to Do With That PowerPoint Presentation

Your whiteboard and tidy packets of handouts may go the way of the rotary phone when it comes to the Class of '06. This newest slew of grads, born around 1985, will require training that offers an array of choices and the ability to search for the information they need just at the time they need it most, says John Ambrose, vice president and general manager of online reference-ware provider Books24 x 7, a division of Nashua, N.H.-based e-learning vendor SkillSoft (www.skillsoft.com).

Books24 x 7 provides online libraries whose contents can be culled from with searches for specific pieces of information. Ambrose says that first of all, whatever you do will have to appeal to these young people's visual perspective. "They grew up in an era of large TVs, VCRs and DVDs," he notes. "To the extent that video can be integrated into the learning experience, that's important."

Their comfort using technology, and especially the Web, should be made the most of with coursework and online resources always available to them, if not made the primary format for their learning. They also are at their peak multi-tasking. Rather than have tunnel vision about their task, new grads will likely be most gratified by training that is as all encompassing as possible. "They thrive in a media-rich world," he emphasizes. "They almost enjoy being bombarded with lots of different input, and then they like being able to ferret out just the nuggets they want, and don't want to be bothered with the stuff that's not particularly relevant to them."

So, that means plenty of immersive learning activities such as simulations, and the ability, such as that provided by Books24 x 7, of systems that allow them to pick and choose, cafeteria style, the exact combination of information resources they need for the work at hand, Ambrose says.For example, "They could do a search, and then immediately be given a results list of a half dozen books from organizations like Harvard Business School Press or Stanford University Press," he says of the online library his company offers. "They would be given that results list so it's a very visually stimulating interface.

They literally see the covers of the books, and they can scan that almost as if they were scanning Amazon.com."In addition to the plethora of choices, this kind of online resource suits new grads' needs because it's not passive. They are able to take the initiative and search for the information they need easily, rather than be given lengthy photocopies, assignments to read long books from a physical library or even links to sprawling Web sites they may have to waste time searching through to find the precise tidbit of information they need. "We show the worker the most relevant books--they've been ranked by relevancy--and we've also pulled out the most relevant sections, so they can browse the headings of those sections, and with one click, they can go right to that section," Ambrose says.

Along with book content, students are also able to search through SkillSoft online courseware for useful information.It's a whole new learning modality, he stresses. "The new generation would rely on search, which is a very comfortable paradigm for them," Ambrose points out. "Ten years ago, it was all about course completion. Course completion is the old paradigm of sitting passively, and going through an entire course from beginning to end. Now organizations are looking at minutes of usage as a real indicator of learning."

Source : Inside Training – Training Magazine

Blogged on 12:36 AM

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