Corporate Advisory Council Conference: Corporate Presentations

The Corporate CAC presentations this fall began with a little snow fall at Monty's but quickly progressed into some great presentations and sharing of information.



Here is a brief re-cap of the presentations.

First Presentation
Christopher Reese discusses Knowledge Management with CAC members.
Christopher Reese opened the corporate presentations with a talk about Knowledge Management and NASA. He indicated that we should think about Knowledge Management to include traditional venues like Training, Education, Workshops and Courses. But also Debriefs and After Action Reviews and newer technologies where soldiers just finishing a patrol are providing "real-time" data for the next patrol so they can learn and be aware of possible issues.

Knowledge Management needs to also include Case Studies, Lessons Learned documents and procedures and even Experience-Based Documentation. He advocated for Pause and Learn, the act of taking time to make sure that you can think about what you are doing. Take just a moment to step back and make sure we are doing the right thing. He talked about avoiding "organizational silence" in terms of the space shuttle accident at NASA.

Second Presentation

Peter Rizza discussing the features of ExpressTrain.
Peter Rizza from the Princeton Center for Education Services discussed ExpressTrain which is a software suite that allows companies to utilize a Microsoft Word-based tool for writing their SOPs and best practices into a database from which they automatically create training and support materials in a wide array of delivery formats -- from PowerPoint slides to web-based training to publishable documents.

Third Presentation
Cliff and Rhonda discuss the Erin Manning scrap booking site development.
Cliff Sobel and Rhonda Dorsett from The Phoenix Group presented some wonderful work thy did on the Cannon EOS-1D Mark III product piece. The piece is located at the Cannon Digital Learning Center where they have done a lot of work on creating instruction for all types of Cannon cameras and equipment. They discussed the development process, the timeline and the considerations that went into creating a visually appealing and educationally inclusive web site.

They also demonstrated the Erin Manning Scrap Booking site they created which features a number of videos and instruction on scrap booking.

Fourth Presentation

David Weatherbee of Weatherbee Media provided an engaging discussion of various methods of working with clients on major projects. He discussed the trade-offs instructional designers need to make in terms of balancing client expectations, time lines and desires with the need to create intstructionally sound materials. He described to the audience the different thought processes that he uses when consulting with clients and discussing the various options they have when creating online instruction. He also discussed how to deal with a conversion of training materials created in an older technology into a new technology.

Fifth Presentation

Bobbe Baggio presenting a lively and engaging presentation.

Wearing two hats, one from La Salle University and one from her own consulting firm, Advantage Learning Technologies Bobbe Baggio provided a lively and engaging presentation discussing the creation of visually effective instruction. She made many good points in a short period of time as, of course, the program was running a little late and she was right before lunch...but she handled it with elegance and grace. She introduced the concept of creating effective visuals by following four key elements:
-Contrast
-Repetition
-Alignment
-Proximity
And, yes, she knows it spells CRAP. She tells the story that when she was teaching high school, she presented this concept and one of her students said "do you know that spells crap" and she said "yes, if you don't consider these elements of visual alignment your images will be "crap." Well said.

Sixth Presentation
John Stone discusses mimicing various layers of skin for the VMT.
To round out the corporate presentations, John Stone from MountainTop Technologies presented a fasinating Virtual Medical Trainer (VMT). The Virtual Medical Trainer is a web-based, SCORM-conformant, medical simulation developed in Flash and XML. The simulation models a peripheral nerve block procedure, and is designed to teach the cognitive concepts underlying psychomotor tasks. VMT demonstrates how web-based technologies can be used as a supplement to traditional training methods to improve knowledge transfer. The software was demonstrated with help from Rebecca Lauper and provided an interesting look at how Flash can mimic 3D environments to provide a realistic simulation.


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