Lee Wright

ATD Links Archive - ATD Links

Content-as-a-Service offerings are emerging as a way to solve the issues surrounding the maintenance and delivery of effective online training that have been hampering organizations since the inception of e-learning. An old mantra proclaims that Content Is King. In many organizations, where content management is considered a business...

Online Content: Still a Pain In the SaaS

Are you a learning professional working in federal, state, or local government? Are you looking to network with like-minded peers? Join your colleagues in the Government Pavilion at the ATD 2015 International Conference & Exposition, where you can share insights and best practices with leaders in the public sector. In addition, here’s a sampling of some of the government-focused sessions at ATD 2015. M220 - Developing and Delivering a Virtual ConferenceBernie Iszler, Correctional Program Specialist at National Institute of Corrections The basic background on this topic is the development, planning, and delivery involved in National Institute of Corrections (NIC) producing a virtual conference. NIC produced their first ever conference in a completely virtual environment in June of 2013, with a second in November 2014. This presentation will focus on lessons learned by the NIC team in the production of both virtual conferences, and also explore ways to translate a face-to-face conference to a virtual platform.**M320 - Program Evaluation at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center**Nadeeka Jayatilake, Human Resource Development Specialist at NASA GoddardLester Wright, Ed.D., HRDS at NASA/Goddard Space and Flight CenterA well-structured evaluation strategy can highlight a training program’s strengths, but also equip program managers with the information needed to improve their programs. The goal of the NASA's Goddard Space and Flight Center's program evaluation strategy team is to provide a holistic examination of the center's programs through data collection and analysis procedures, as well as providing recommendations for ongoing evaluations and improvements. This session will provide an overview of NASA Goddard program evaluation strategy and provide an example strategy developed for the mission critical Product Development Lead (PDL) Training Program using the Kirkpatrick Model for training and program evaluation. **TU1GOV - Intergenerational Strategies for Developing Emerging Training Professionals in Government**Lee Perlis, Director at BlackboardFred Lang, Leadership & Human Capital Development Strategist at Golden Pines Associates, and former CLO for the Department of Commerce Organizations in both the public and private sector are facing skills shortages as Baby Boomers retire. The problem is most acute in sectors that attract fewer younger workers, such as the federal government, utilities, and aerospace. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that 47 percent of all new job openings in the next five years will fall into this skills gap. In this session you will learn about intergenerational strategies for developing emerging training professionals in government. Discover how to leverage the learning styles and preferences of new generations entering the workforce and capture the knowledge of those leaving it. The speakers will reveal which tools and tactics are needed to cultivate a leadership presence, navigate challenges, and foster success in your workplace. TU220 - Developing High Performance Cultures in Government Organizations: A Diagnostic ApproachKathy Hilyard, Founder and Managing Director at Leaderbility Can government organizations really be high performing? What would that look like? What would it take? How close are we now? How do we move beyond compliance-driven approaches to performance management and into a high-performance culture? These are the questions you will explore in this session. You will use performance diagnostic tools to analyze your organization's culture for performance and analyze factors that may be positively or negatively influencing a performance culture. This process can be translated into public-sector agencies to assist in creating the impetus for cultural change and developing the leadership capabilities required to lead for high performance. W120 - Leveraging First-Line Supervisors to Influence Change and InnovationVictoria Person, Human Resources Development Specialist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center has recognized the criticality of the first-line supervisor and has invested and supported the establishment of a First-Line Supervisor Resource Group. The first-line supervisor is perhaps the most difficult and important position in managing and accomplishing the work in organizations. They play a key role in hiring the right people for the right job, cultivating employee growth and morale, and retaining good talent, which is the organization's most important resource. First-line supervisors are also critical in leading people and fostering an innovative culture in developing solutions and new ideas to ultimately accomplish mission success. Discover how to leverage first-line supervisors to influence organizational goals, promote best practices, and identify challenges that affect productivity and talent retention. You will also learn how to educate and engage first-line supervisors.**W301 - Thinking Inside the Box**Kathy Shurte, Manager of Performance and Training Unit at Florida Department of Transportation For years we've been encouraging employees to think out of the box. In government, part two of that cliche is often, "because we have to do more with less." Many government workers, while being encouraged to be innovative and more like the private sector, are still constrained by low budgets, a lack of resources, and a "that's the way we've always done it" culture. This session will explore another option: acknowledging we are in a box and figuring out how to make it work! We often have more options and resources available to us than we realize, and sometimes it just takes a small change in perspective to see them. In this session, you will tap into six strategies, called SPIGOT, to help you get the job done when getting out of the box is not an option. As each strategy is revealed, you will reflect and share in a large group to build a job aid you can take back to the office and begin using immediately.

Got Government Talent Challenges? Get Answers at ATD 2015

For those of you who are using Articulate Storyline for developing your e-learning, there is no need to purchase additional software for image editing, like Adobe Photoshop or Elements. Did you know that Storyline has a lot of built-in image-formatting options within the software? Here’s a look at the different tools that will save you money and time—eliminating the need to jump back and forth between programs.Resize, crop, zoom, and rotateJust like in PowerPoint, Storyline has built-in functions to alter the size and position of imported images. To bring up the image-formatting menu, make sure your image is selected. If it’s not already, select the Format tab at the top. For the sake of logic, we’re not going to move from left-to-right in the Format options.Resizing. To simply resize an image you can click and select the image on your slide and click-and-drag one of the handles in any direction. Note that clicking and dragging the corner handles will retain the image’s it, while dragging the middle handles on the top, bottom, and sides will alter the aspect ratio. You can also change the dimensions by changing the height and width pixel values in the Size section (located to the right next to Publish).Cropping. You can crop an image to eliminate unwanted edges and bring the focus to a specific section. Click on the image to select it, and then click on Crop in the Size section. Handles will appear around your image that you can click-and-drag to crop-out certain parts of your image. Once you’re satisfied with your crop, you can click the Crop button again to set it. Note that you can always press CTRL + Z to undo.Zooming. A great little-known feature of Storyline is the ability to be able to click on a smaller image, such as a thumbnail, and have it enlarge to give a more detailed view. In the Size section of the Format tab is a Zoom Picture button. What this button does is place a magnifying glass icon on the lower-right corner of your image, so that the user can click to enlarge it.To use this feature, after you have decreased your image’s size, select the image, and then click Zoom Picture. When clicked, the image will now enlarge to its original size. This tool is particularly useful when you want to show many images, but have limited slide real estate to work with.Rotating. Sometimes, you may want to get really crazy and rotate your images. This would come in handy if the picture’s orientation is wrong or if you wanted to replicate the look of Polaroids randomly placed on a table.To rotate your image, select it and click and drag the green ball handle on top around to the desired position. If you hold the Shift key and then click and move your mouse, it will rotate it in 15° increments. Alternatively, you can select your picture and click on Rotate in the Arrange area. You can then rotate your image 90° right or left, flip it vertically or horizontally, or click on More Rotation Options and type in a specific degree amount in the Rotation input box. From this screen you can also alter the size, scale, cropping area, and even reset the picture to its original size.In addition to these tools, there are also the other standard tools to arrange and align your images, such as Bring Forward, Bring Backward, Align, and Group.Brightness, contrast, recolor, blend, and transparencyStoryline has a decent bag of tricks to change the visual aesthetic of your images.Brightness and contrast. Depending on your image or even the context in which your image resides, your slide might benefit from adjusting the brightness and contrast of the images on it. To do so, select the image, and in the Adjust area click on either Brightness or Contrast. Once you click on either of those, you can hover over an amount and preview the result on your slide. When you find an amount, click on it to set it.Recolor. Storyline also allows you to change the coloring of your image. After selecting your picture, in the Adjust area click on Recolor. You can choose from a number of preset options such as black and white, sepia, and many dark and light color variations. By selecting More Variations from the Recolor menu, you can choose a customized color that may not be included in a preset. A good tip to unify many different images on one slide or multiple slides is to change them to the same monochromatic color.Blend colors. To take recoloring your images a step further, Storyline gives you the option of using color blend modes. To access the blend mode options, right-click on your image and select Format Picture from the bottom of the drop-down menu. At the bottom of the screen you can select which color you would like to use with blending and then from the Mode drop-down menu, you can choose the type of blend mode.With the combinations of colors and modes, using the Blend feature can provide numerous variations of your image. This function is best used when experimenting with the different modes. If you don’t like one, you can always click Reset to go back to square one.Transparency. Making images transparent is a great tool to add depth and layering to your slides. To adjust the transparency of an image, right-click on it, select Format Picture from the drop-down menu, and then drag the Transparency slider left or right to increase/decrease the opaqueness of the image. You can also type in a specific percentage.If you’d like to make a certain color of an image transparent, select the image and under Recolor in the Adjust area, select Set Transparent Color, then click on the color in your image that you want to make transparent. Note that this method works best on blocks of solid colors.Styles, shapes, borders, and effectsAnd the last section on formatting your images in Storyline is about adding some extra flair.Styles. Storyline is packaged with 10 different picture style presets that you can use on your images. These styles include customizing your images with combinations of image shapes, borders, and effects.If one of these presets is not what you’re looking for, you can always apply these attributes individually and in combinations by using the Picture Shape, Picture Border, and Picture Effects options in the Picture Styles area.Shapes. Picture Shape allows your image to be cropped to a desired shape, such as circles, L-shapes, stars, equation symbols, and yes, even a lightning bolt. To do this, select your image, click on Picture Shape, and then select your desired shape.Borders. To add a border, select your image, click Picture Border, and then choose the border color, weight (thickness) of the border, as well as a solid or dashed style border. By clicking More Outline Colors and More Lines Storyline gives additional options to style your borders.Effects. With this feature, you can add some special visual effects to really make your images pop. Shadows, reflections, glows, and soft edges can be the perfect final touches to any image and really solidify your slides. Start by selecting your image and then click Picture Effects to bring up your options. Choose from Shadows, Reflections, Glows, and Soft Edges.Each one of these effects has its variations to choose from. For example, the Shadows effect also gives you the option to fine tune and customize the shadow’s color, opacity, distance, and more. You can access these options by clicking Picture Effects>Shadow>Shadow Options.Now that you know the potential of Storyline’s image formatting capabilities, you can both save money on purchasing expensive software and save time by doing all of your adjustments right from within Storyline.

Lee Wright

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