Many professional associations are taking a second look at eLearning for revenue generation or for recruitment appeal to the next generation to take interest in their profession. Today Web Courseworks’ games and simulations group released an educational game on the Internet casual game circuit.  The game Gridlock Buster is designed to engage and motivate teens and young adults to seek out more information about traffic engineering.  The Institute of Traffic Studies (ITS) at the University of Minnesota funded the game to supplement a classroom-based summer camp curriculum. Associations responsible for increasing teenager interest in a specific occupations should visit Krongregate and play.

I’ll confess that I may not have been at the ASTD conference every day this past week, but I do have some impressions of the event I’d like to share.

I noticed Jane Bozarth's blog posting concerning a lively discussion on "Tips for Working with SMEs?" My blog post on handling subject matter experts back in January also seemed to stimulate discussion. I am currently working on my PhD. dissertation proposal on contributing factors to expertise-sharing between the SME and the design team. Project success depends on several factors, starting with achieving respect between the two parties. This goal is best attained through mutual understanding. The SME should be educated on the process and technicalities of interactive computer program design and execution. The development team member bonding with the SME starts with a better understanding of the types of expertise.

The association marketplace has caught my attention as a promising avenue for eLearning services. The market is as large and diverse as it can get— an association exists for almost all types of interests and businesses from the American Bar Association to the Knitting Guild Association. There are associations for associations, with ASAE being the most well-known, and there are associations for companies providing management services for associations (AMC Institute). No matter how you try to break down the association market, whether by size, staff, industry, trade or professional, the sheer size and variation of the market presents challenges much like a Rubik’s Cube.

The ASTD ICE Conference from May 31- June 3^rd in Washington DC will be the training and development event of the year. There is still time to register and receive both low-fare tickets and reasonable accommodations if you use Priceline and the subway system. Based on my personal poll of those attending the workshop on game and learning object design presented by myself and Joe Rheaume, I would estimate that attendance numbers are stronger on a percentage basis compared with the ASTD Technology Conference this past January. Yes, optimism in the spring air! A nice option on the conference website is the ability to develop your own personal schedule. Here are the people and events I found most interesting:

Pre-conference workshops of interest:

A colleague asked for advice prior to an interview for a training and development job. She was selected for the interview phase in part because of her eLearning experience. Here is a summary of my advice:

Since I started writing a blog in early January, I have been surprised and impressed with the effect it has had on my own education. First of all, you can imagine the sheer number of eLearning blogs out there is pretty daunting to keep up with on a regular basis.

Then comes the issue of focusing my own blog—I’m interested in serious games, learning management, and self-paced eCourse development. Not to mention the ACTUAL theme of my blog is supposed to be the management of eLearning and being an eLearning entrepreneur. On one hand, I know I need to focus more, but then again I feel I could do more in the eLearning blogosphere to stimulate conversation and garner more comments if I broadened the scope.

Hello to those readers out there—Please help me out with your thoughts on this subject!

Here are a few highlights from my first few months with the blog (I gathered most of these stats from web analytics tools):

Today happens to be a special day for Wisconsinites— Earth Day was actually founded by one of our own, Senator Gaylord Nelson. Senator Nelson, who also used to be our Governor, would be very proud of the current “cool factor” in going GREEN. The original idea, according to the deceased Senator, germinated during the Kennedy presidency.

Karl Kapp’s blog mentions of Wisconsin Online Resource Center’s (Wisc-Online) practically free game templates inspired me to check in with the learning object project leader, Kay Chitwood, Director of Learning Innovations, at Fox Valley Technical College. What impressed me about what Kay’s group is doing in Appleton, WI. is that they stuck with the Learning Object concept long after it stopped being popular. Learning Object (LO) design and the inevitable LO repository is still a viable strategy—best served when applied to a local eLearning eco-system.

Here are some highlights from my enlightening conversation with the Queen of Learning Objects, Kay Chitwood.

History lesson?

Spring is finally here—and it usually means a busy period for eLearning developers who are productively delivering on 1^st quarter promises. I have been following Clive Shepard and Elliot Masie’s posts on the economic condition in the training and development field. Both report a promising outlook for eLearning compared with face to face training.

We are receiving several jobs and inquiries for converting face-to-face workshops (one or two day events) into mostly asynchronous eLearning seminars/ courses/ eWorkshops. Not quite sure what to call this type of eLearning event, especially when it has an introductory synchronous activity.

Some of the good ideas that I’ve heard passed around include: