70:20:10 Model: Credible or Controversial?

In recent years, L&D blogs have been humming with posts about the 70:20:10 model for learning and development — which, despite the massive amounts of attention it gets, garners mostly mixed reviews. Some L&D professionals swear by it, while others swear it’s nonsense.
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3 Ways to Foster an Open Workplace Culture

Our world is more connected than ever. As a result of our latest technology, work is no longer confined to an office. We can email clients while in line for coffee and approve memos on the train. Promoting and continuing this culture of connectedness is now more important than ever in the workplace. Marc de Grandpre, Senior VP of marketing at KIND Healthy Snacks, asserts in a Forbes interview, “It is absolutely critical to have both an authentic and transparent work environment” in order to allow “brilliant ideas” to flow.
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Developing a First-Class QA Process for eLearning

What’s the most rewarding part of developing an online course? If you said the review process—who are we kidding, we know you didn’t. The quality assurance (QA) phase of developing an online course is one of the most important parts of the process, even if it isn’t the most fun. But it doesn’t have to be painful, either.
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5 Ways to Deal with Stage Fright in the Classroom

If the thought of teaching in a live classroom makes you break out in a sweat, you’re not alone. Plenty of instructors feel anxious about their performance in the classroom and fear the potential symptoms—shaky voice, trembling hands—that might impact their ability to teach effectively.
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7 Tips for Overcoming a Language Barrier in the Workplace

In today’s increasingly diverse society, it is almost guaranteed that there will be some degree of cultural discrepancy in the workplace. These differences can pose problems, especially when it comes to clear, accurate communication with those who don’t speak the same language. Because communication is crucial to the success of an office or workplace, it is important to have some techniques on hand to use when things get a little hard to convey.
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5 Scenarios When Hiring Consultants Will Improve Your Business

If you’ve never hired an outside consultant, you may question why a business would spend money to outsource help when it can delegate the task to someone inside the company. However, in many circumstances, the most effective solution comes from outside the firm, and a consultant can prove his or herself well worth the investment. An outside consultant can bring a ton of experience and a refreshing new outlook to the equation.
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Who Steers the Ship? The Impact of Learner Control on eLearning.

That’s a much more complicated question than it appears. Many say that allowing online learners to influence aspects of the learning process gives them a sense of autonomy that increases motivation and engagement. Learners love having control over the course experience—after all, they are used to the internet, where they are free to wander through sites at their own pace, click on content that interests them, and walk away from the computer when they feel like it. Why take that freedom away from them just because they’re doing an online training?
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Teaching for All Learning Types

Individual learning styles gained popularity in the 1970s, as we learned that different people learn best in different modes of learning. It is now widely accepted in the academic community that three main learning styles exist: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. While no individual absolutely subscribes to a single type, most people instinctively favor one to the point where they retain certain types of information better than others.
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Beyond PowerPoint: A Guide to other Visual Teaching Tools

It is no secret that visual teaching tools are important to both audience participation and memory retention. Having visuals makes it all the more likely that the audience will stay engaged and remember the material that you’re teaching them. However, it can be irritating for an audience member to be faced with another white Powerpoint with black text that calls itself a “visual.” Many instructors default to Powerpoint as an easy option for visual communication, but there are a multitude of other options that are more creative and just as simple to use.
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