Taking the temperature of training

March 31, 2009 By

Elliott Masie has just released his Learning Resources Barometer, the results of a survey to determine how learning budgets and resources are enduring the tough economic times.

The survey measures the increase or decrease in:

  • learning budgets
  • learning departments
  • volume of elearning modules
  • volume of f2f classes
  • amount of employee travel for learning
  • use of social learning
  • and more…

Check it out to see if there are any surprises. While you’re there, take a look at the Social Learning survey results. Where do you think your staff training sits on the scale of things?

Be Sociable, Share!

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

Website - Twitter - More Posts

Filed Under: E-Learning Tagged With:

Comments

  1. Paul Signorelli says:
    March 31, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    Great information, Betha; really glad you posted it here to bring it to our attention. It’s going to be interesting to follow Masie’s updates to see, over the long haul, whether there are any trends to be documented and to see whether the growth in e-learning remains constant or something temporarily inspired by how fuel/transportation costs and budget crunches which limit attendance in face-to-face sessions.

  2. Betha says:
    March 31, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    I noticed that there was a complete absence of the word ‘training’ in the survey (I only used it in the title for the alliteration). ‘Learning’ is now the preferred term in the industry, which indicates a trend toward networked peer learning, away from top-down teaching, …or at least it gives lip service to that trend. I’m always interested to follow Masie’s information trail.

  3. Paul Signorelli says:
    March 31, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Interesting observation about the lack of the word “training” in the survey. Not sure where we’re going with terminology yet in terms of “learning” vs. “training”; it seems to very much be in a state of flux and evolution. I deliberately default to “training” when I’m trying to reach a very general (large) audience, and lean toward “learning” or “workplace learning and performance” or even “training-teaching-learning” when I want a more nuanced approach and am writing for and with those more familiar with current trends. Seems that there’s probably room for all of them, and the challenge is to stay on top of what is happening by not defaulting to any one term at this point as we research, read, and write.