Where are OUR Research Reports?

While nosing around the Brandon Hall Web site for information about their awards (see my previous entry) I was happy to see they have released a report on “Low-Cost Learning Management Systems 2008: 31 Products for Limited Budgets.”

At last! A resource that narrows the field for those of us with limited expense!

Cost of the report? $495.

Am I the only one to see the irony of that?

Where Are OUR Awards?

It’s awards season — not just for movies and television, but for e-learning. The deadline for the ASTD Best Awards is coming up on April 4. The deadline for the Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards just passed (March 21).

Don’t be disappointed if it’s too late to pull your entry together. If your situation is similar to ours, then the requirements for entering are fairly prohibitive anyway. The BH Awards entry fee is $545 US (non-refundable) and a short Flash movie of your entry needs to be prepared and linked so the judges can see a quick review of your entry. Even though I was able to come up with the moolah in 2007 to enter our asynchronous course in the Custom Content division, I couldn’t get the Flash file created in time.

The ASTD Best Awards were more affordable, but learning programs directed to members aren’t eligible — only those for staff members are considered. While their application materials were very different than Brandon Hall’s requirements, it’s clear the organizations eligible for the awards are the same: for-profit corporations or very large associations with extensive learning functions for employees and staff.

Where’s the award series that honors the educational programs associations offer their members? Where can we look for examples of best practices?

Where are OUR awards??

aLearning Maturity Model

Jeff Cobb‘s question about why Bersin & Associates’ Learning Content Maturity Model doesn’t translate to association learning offered me a smooth transition into the aLearning Maturity Model I’ve been working on since reading the Bersin report.

If we’re to use a maturity model as a scale for where we are in a continuum, a model that tells us we’re operating at nearly all levels already doesn’t provide us with a clear indication of what to do next to move forward.

Becoming More Mature

More than a year ago, Bersin & Associates (www.bersin.com) released The Learning Content Maturity Model: Developing a Framework for Integrated Training and Knowledge Management. If you’re not familiar with maturity models, they’ve been around in engineering and the computer worlds for awhile and they essentially set forth a way of assessing how evolved your organization is, usually on a four- or five-level scale.

Square One in the Real World

Education colleagues at a state association invited me to lunch recently to pick my brain. I was eager to hear their challenge and hoped I could help in some way.

Turns out they are living and breathing Square One. Their association leadership has decided that online learning is a good path to take, and charged the staff with making it happen.