Guest Post by Mark Hellinger, Xyleme President & CEO

We all have read about how traditional manufacturing jobs are rapidly disappearing in the U.S. and Western Europe. In reality, since the dawn of the information age, a new type of manufacturing job has emerged, the “digital” factory worker – software engineers, database architects, etc. Since these jobs are counted in the services sector and not manufacturing, people often overlook the fact that we are actually hiring many more workers in “digital” manufacturing than ever before in traditional industries, but the truth is that the skill requirements are much higher.

The “manufacturing” of software requires people to create, test and ship products in a systematic approach, as you would with physical goods like automobiles. In the case of software, or let’s say “digital products” in general, the “production systems” have undergone vast technological change, in the same way as traditional manufacturing techniques. The same is true for “digital content”, including training content and learning content management systems.
Read more…

Technorati Tags: LCMS, lean manufacturing, learning & development, learning content management system, training content

Mark Instructional Design, Learning Content Management LCMS, lean manufacturing, learning & development, learning content management system, training content

A couple of weeks ago, Xyleme presented at Intelligent Content conference hosted by the Rockley Group. Intelligent Content isn’t a training event; rather it’s a small conference showcasing how leading edge companies are exploiting the value of content through XML, open formats, and standards. I think the Rockley Group’s definition hits the nail on the head:
Read more…

Technorati Tags: Ann Rockley, blended learning, content reuse, Intelligent Content, multi-channel publishing, Single Source

Dawn Instructional Design, Learning Content Management Ann Rockley, blended learning, content reuse, Intelligent Content, multi-channel publishing, Single Source

A recently published report concluded that Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) implementations using reusable learning object (RLO) models typically result in a small return on investment. I am not surprised. For starters, I happen to know that none of our customers participated in the study
Read more…

Technorati Tags: LCMS, learning content management system, reusable content, reusable learning objects, RLO, single-source publishing, xml publishing

Mark Executive Perspective, Instructional Design, Single Source LCMS, learning content management system, reusable content, reusable learning objects, RLO, single-source publishing, xml publishing

I’ve been in the training and development business for nearly 20 years now. Things certainly have changed a lot in that time.

My first job out of graduate school was as an Interactive Designer for a small but growing multimedia development firm. I was hired to be part of a multi-million dollar project for a major automotive manufacturer. We were creating CD-ROM based training for service technicians. Each course cost over $1 million dollars! They were fantastic, cutting-edge, pushing the envelope in every way.
Read more…

Technorati Tags: blended learning, elearning, instructor-led training, single-source content development

Stuart Instructional Design, Single Source blended learning, elearning, instructor-led training, single-source content development

I remember the first time I went out on a sales call. I was a young engineer and I really didn’t know much about sales. After the call, the VP of Sales I was with gave me a book called “Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success”. It was a great story about the discipline sales professionals need to be successful. Contrary to what many people believe, the best sales professionals are not “the slick salesman” or the “tell them what they want to hear to get the deal” type. The best sales people have a methodology and rigorously follow it. The most successful sales people will tell you that sales is a hard profession, and the key is making the hard things easier to do.
Read more…

Technorati Tags: Instructional Design, Instructional design for single source, reusable content, single-source publishing, XML content

Mark Instructional Design, Single Source Instructional Design, Instructional design for single source, reusable content, single-source publishing, XML content

If the number of people in my recent conference sessions are any indication more and more organizations are seeing the promise of single-source learning content development. Everyone knows that the old way of doing things is just not working any more once you have any number of courses… doing your Instructor Guide and Student Guide in Word or FrameMaker, your Slides in PowerPoint or Keynote and your learning in Articulate or Lectora.

What happens every time something has to change? EEEKKKKK!
Read more…

Technorati Tags: Instructional Design, learning content development, Reusability 2.0, reusable content, single-source publishing

Stuart Instructional Design, Single Source Instructional Design, learning content development, Reusability 2.0, reusable content, single-source publishing

I frequently speak at training conferences. My latest talk is “Designing Content for Reusability Across Multiple Audiences and Contexts.” During the session I discuss the benefits of using XML and XML publishing techniques to separate your training content from its presentation format, allowing you to reuse content from course to course. More importantly you can also reuse content across different types of outputs (e-learning, classroom, performance support and even mobile).

Each time I’ve given this talk I get this question, “I can totally see the benefits of this approach, but I have lots of legacy content in Word. How do I get that into XML?”
Read more…

Technorati Tags: Reusability 2.0, reusable content, Word into XML, XML content, XML technology

Stuart Instructional Design, Single Source Reusability 2.0, reusable content, Word into XML, XML content, XML technology