First of all the same can be said of traditional face-to-face meetings. But more specifically to webinars we can see that adding pedagogical value to the webinar not only requires understanding the technology but also more specifically adapted webinar didactics.

ITC-ILO has been launching a series of webinars now with partners at the ILO and UNHCR and will collect for you a series of interesting articles that might give you additional ideas on how to set up engaging webinars: (Feel free to add yours)

Article 1: How to conduct engaging webinars
Article 2: Webinars. Learning Solutions magazine. Beginner guides. Part A and Part B.
Article 3: Conducting a webinar
Article 4: Facilitation techniques to lead effective online webinars.
Article 5 How to create and run winning webinar series

and last but not least these webinar templates.

ITC-ILO is currently delivering tailor-made “How to set up engaging webinar series” for interested groups and institutions. (Feel free to us at delta@itcilo.org ). For participants that are looking for an open, longer certified webinar programme we can refer to ASTD’s offer on Facilitating synchronous Learning programme.

To view the toolkit throughout a learning lens is the challenge that we are currently undertaking. We just selected some of the questions that we would like to submit to the IDEO innovative design perspective:

Can we

- bring radical innovation into learning?
- better understand and capture the needs from our learners?
- find alternative methods for monitoring and evaluating learning?
- diversify the set of learning and knowledge sharing methodologies that we are currently using?
- explore whether training is the adequate solution for some of the needs that we identify?

Any other questions you would like to explore? We will keep you updated on the answers we encounter.

The surprising truth about what motivates us

The power of networks

Changing education paradigms

The divided brain

- After several years of TED lectures there is a fantastic inventory of 1204 lectures which is made available here.

- The global classroom of the Khan Academy is reaching currently more than 3200 video’s with lessons and exercises.

- The Udacity university with professors from Stanford  is also expanding in open courses integrating didactic sets of learning resources.

- Academic Earth is steadily growing in its offer and is combing lectures from different top universities

- The University of the People is the last one in line we want to mention with the objective to democratize education.

Any other interesting examples?

Scenarios provide alternative views of the future. They identify some significant events, main actors and their motivations, and they convey how the world functions. Building and using scenarios can help us explore what the future might look like and the likely changes of living in it.

At Online Educa last year DELTA participated in a learning scenario planning exercise with Hans De Zwart and Willem Manders. During this meeting we mapped out the (corporate) learning environment, the important actors and the driving forces which gave us a solid base to map out different scenarios. Click here for an overview of the used scenario methodology.

The organisers of the workshop have already produced a video where you will see a glimpse of the results of the scenario planning exercise.

For DELTA this exercise was an enrichment in terms of using the scenario methodology as a facilitation method in our strategy workshops. We are currently collecting more background information about the methodology in order to transform it into a easy step by step instructional sheet on how to apply scenario s in your workshops and learning events. Feel free to provide us with additional background links. This is what we have so far:

What is scenario planning?
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/tools/scenario-planning

Scenario planning resources
http://www.well.com/~mb/scenario_planning/

How to build scenario’s (wired)
http://www.wired.com/wired/scenarios/build.html

Scenariothinking.org
http://scenariothinking.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Scenario’s : An explorer guide
http://www.shell.com/home/content/aboutshell/our_strategy/shell_global_scenarios/scenarios_explorers_guide/

Learning Scenario’s
http://learningscenarios.org/

- the entire staff and resource persons have an updated profile on Linkedin that could serve as yellow pages and reflect quite well what kind of internal expertise is available in the organisation
- all learning events are activated as Linkedin events since they automatically circulate to your professional network and the networks of your networks
- subject matter specialists can engage in technical questions and answer sessions in order to become a recognized expert in a particular field
- be active in thematic and network specific linkedin groups because some professional interest groups really make the difference
- ask advice because the chance that the collective intelligence in your entire network provide you with some good answers is very real
- benchmark with similar institutions and track their Linkedin activity, it might give you inspiration for yours
- ask the resource persons that act in your course/activity to provide you with their Linkedin profile, do the same with your participants (it might be a useful icebreaker)
- post job opportunities, internship possibilities and other available assignments out there
- having consistent links with your insititutional webpage will lead automatically to increased pageranks
- Make sure your company profile is up to date. It will also give you interesting information about the people who follow you

What other arguments could you think of?

- ITC-ILO is launching its first knowledge lab:”From Knowledge Management to knowledge sharing“. A workshop that will walk you through the entire knowledge management cycle address all the necessary tools and techniques to share organisational knowledge in an efficient and effective manner. More information and registration available on this link.

- The World Bank Institute published recently : “The art of knowledge exchange“. A step-by-step guide for practitioners with methodological insights on how to set up and manage knowledge exchange activities such as study visists, peer reviews, communities of practice, dialogues and conferences. Download the publication here.

Any other knowledge sharing link, publication or event more than welcome !

What could we change ?

Some ideas and suggestions:

- more interviews with external experts in learning, training and knowledge sharing.

- continue with live blogging at important learning events to make the information and knowledge accessible.

- asking more questions to you, the reader,  in order to capture more user-generated knowledge that will feed this blog.

- backing up our technological articles with more how-to guides and instructions.

- continue to review interesting articles and books in this specific knowledge domain.

- more reflections, lists, polls, …

What else would you suggest? Ideas welcome !

If you know of more similar guides that focus on “starting with E-Learning” feel free to add them in the comment section.

E-Learning by Design
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/794/book-review-e-learning-by-design-2nd-edition-by-william-horton

Getting Started with E-Learning. Be-ODl
http://www.be-odl.org/images/beodl/pdf/elearning_getting_started_EN.pdf

• Improve understanding of knowledge management and knowledge sharing concepts and their relevance to OHCHR work;

• Enhance participants’ expertise and capacity to use knowledge sharing tools and approaches in their work;

• Strengthen a knowledge sharing culture within OHCHR; and

• Validate the OHCHR Knowledge Sharing Toolkit and promote the use of the toolkit within their sections/field presences.

Feel free to have a look at the final version of the on-line toolkit ! Click HERE