Send Me Examples of Really Bad Training

Over the last few weeks, we have taken some time to look at some of the other training producers in the "industrial safety" or "elearning" categories. We've gotten some demo accounts and gotten a chance to see the material that our "competitors" have created. So far, I'm just astounded at how bad it can be. I don't think it will do any good to name names, but I would like to share some examples of what we've seen to highlight how lousy training can be.

1980s Clipart
I know graphics don't make the presentation, but they certainly can break it. A lot of the industry uses cheesey clipart, but we saw a course that goes from child-like clipart, to photos, to 3-frame animated GIFs. How can you expect someone to remain concentrated and take the training seriously when it looks like a joke?

Multiple Learning Styles
Most of the courses we saw didn't even attempt to provide support for multiple learning styles. The biggest example is when the narration doesn't match text on screen. There were several instances where the text was completely different than the narration, which in my opinion, makes it hard to follow along and forces a viewer to either listen, or look, but not both.

The "Interactive" lie
"Interactive" is a term that seems to be thrown around very loosely. It seems like some authors consider a multiple choice question "interactive". And while, yes, it does require an interaction, clicking a radio button isn't going to create any lasting memories or enhanced involvement with the subject being taught.

Challenging Thoughts
One of the courses we looked at consisted entirely of multiple choice questions. Besides being boring, the questions did not prevent you from moving forward until you choose the correct answer. A couple of random guesses per page and you are through in no time. Where is the challenge to think? Where is the actual measurement of what was learned?

On a professional level, I'm disappointed that so many of our competitors frequently highlight the same lousy, badly-produced, outdated training.
On a personal level, I'm disappointed that consumers are purchasing this type of training, thereby reinforcing these producers.

Send me examples of really BAD training you've seen!
If you've noticed any of these things, or others that I haven't discussed, I'd love to see examples. Click on the "X comments" below, or send me an email at kdellavalle@capstonetechnology.com

Will Libraries Be Around in Ten Years? Twenty? Fifty?

I read a really interesting blog post on replacing library books and text books with digital textbooks. The article made some really good points, and I’d like to re-spin them here, of course giving full credit to Thomas Curtis, the original author. Read the full article here.

Here is a summary of what I took away from his article:

Why pay up to $100 for an average textbook that could be missing really important events only a short time after printing?
Electronic versions are cheaper and can be updated with current events such as the Iraq war, the country’s first Afican American president, and the decoding of the human genome to name a few that have occured in the last six years.

When studying a textbook, how often do you read the entire thing versus manually searching for specific pieces of information?
Every wish you could use CTRL+F (the keyboard shorcut for 'Find') on a textbook and search for information? :)

What hours is your library open, and how many copies can they have of each book?
Digital textbooks could be available 24/7 and available to an unlimited number of people (possibly limited by licensing)


I really liked the ideas in the article and hope more people can think outside the box on the future of textbooks for our students. Similar questions can be asked to paper mills and industrial facilities:

• How many copies of user manuals or safety books does your site have sitting in a room somewhere?


• If someone needs access to it, can they get it?


• Can they quickly find the specific information they need?


• What if someone else has it checked out or sitting on their desk?


• How up to date is it?

Has your site done anything outside-of-the-box to help make information accessible? Let us know!