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David began his ATD career in July 2012 in the Research Services department. He helped in the quarterly release of the Learning Executives Confidence Index (LXCI) and was involved in the process of conducting, analyzing, editing and publishing research reports as well as conducting market research internally at ATD. He wrote the Learning & Development Trends in India, 2014 report. He also supported the ATD Forum and their members. In August of 2015, David was promoted to the role of Chapter Relations Manager, Eastern Area where he provides guidance, assistance, and resources to chapters consistent with the mission of ATD. He advises chapter leaders on the business functions of a chapter and works with volunteer chapter leaders to ensure continued growth and consistency of the ATD brand. David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan with a minor in Applied Statistics.

David Frankel

On December 12, 2014, ATD and Harvard Business Publishing’s latest study on learning and development (L&D) trends in India was introduced in front of a group of learning professionals in Bangalore, India, at the ATD India Summit. Vivek Nair, who manages ATD’s operations in India, shared the findings from the 2014 Learning & Development Trends in India report. The report is ATD’s second investigation of the state of learning in India (the first was published in 2012), and a clearer picture of training activities and spending is beginning to emerge. The number of responding organizations has grown, and their familiarity and comfort with reporting the data has improved. For the 2014 report, 56 large organizations (on average, responding organizations employ 20,360 people) provided data on their learning activities in India for 2013. Learning professionals should keep in mind that the data covers a wide range of organizations that vary greatly in size, industry, culture, and location. Learning Hours and Direct Expenditure per Employee The average number of learning hours used per employee for organizations in India in 2013 was 31.  Even though this value represents a downward shift from the inexplicably high 50 hours in the 2012 report, there were fewer reporting organizations that year, and it was the first year the survey was administered.  This year’s more realistic value is in line with the data reported in ATD’s State of the Industry Report, which for the past four years has reported that employees receive between 30 and 32 hours of training.Indian organizations on average spent 13,767 Rupees ($234) per employee on training and development in 2013, also a drop from the last report. Included in this figure are learning and performance staff salaries, travel costs for learning and performance staff, administrative costs, non-salary development costs, delivery  costs (such as classroom facilities and online learning technology infrastructure), outsourced activities, and tuition reimbursement. With fewer hours of training being reported, it is expected that the expenditure would also fall. However, the fact that the number of hours fell more dramatically than spending indicates that organizations are still investing in training and the quality of programs remains strong. Delivery Methods and Content Respondents reported on the percentage of their learning programs devoted to 12 common content areas. The top three content areas that accounted for about a third of organizations’ training were profession-specific or industry-specific, managerial or supervisory, and product knowledge. These top three were the same as what was reported in the first iteration of this report back in 2012. Additionally, respondents were asked to specify how the training was delivered. The traditional instructor-led classroom method continues to be the most popular, accounting for 68 percent of all training delivered in reporting companies. Commitment to L&D and Looking Ahead Although the participating organizations represent a very small sample of employers in India, we are optimistic as the findings suggest that large organizations have a strong commitment to L&D. Also, ATD expects to continue to gather data on L&D in India in 2015 and beyond, as well as establish, build, and strengthen relationships with employers in India. Fortunately, this means that even more trends in L&D in India will likely become evident in the future. Get the Full Report The full research report, Learning & Development Trends in India, 2014__, is available for purchase online. Members have complimentary access to the whitepaper version of the report. The infographic is available for everyone.

L&D Trends in India: Key Findings from ATD Research

Most of us are aware of the growing presence of Millennials in the workplace. This Research Week post discusses some of the research from ATD and other resources on Millennials at work, their skills, and preparing them to become leaders.Who Is a Millennial?The Millennial generation is projected to become the largest generation in the United States workforce. Millennials are defined roughly as those born between 1977 and 1997. Other generations often view Millennials as those who “want a fast-track to the C-suite, constant recognition and validation, and rewards whether they necessarily earned them or not,” according to the ATD Research report, Leadership Development for Millennials: Why it Matters.What Skills Do Millennials Bring to the Workplace?The 2015 Millennial Majority Workforce Study, from online workplace Elance-oDesk and Gen-Y consulting firm Millennial Branding, found that almost 70 percent of hiring managers believe Millennials possess skills that previous generations do not, including fresh ideas, adaptability, and tech-savvy. Because of these skills, and the fact that two-thirds of Millennials feel it is their professional obligation to stay current with the latest technologies, Millennials may be the answer to the current technological skills shortage in the workforce. Finding, Retaining, and Training Millennials With the skills that Millennials possess and the sheer fact that they will make up a large share of the U.S. workforce, it is imperative to know what Millennials want and need. But how easy is it to find the right Millennial for the job and keep him or her at the job?According to the same study from Elance-oDesk, 53 percent of hiring managers say it is difficult to find and retain Millennials, and only 14 percent indicate it is easy. Meanwhile, the Leadership Development for Millennials report finds that the average tenure for a Millennial at an organization is just two years, compared to five years for Generation X and seven years for Baby Boomers.  Some insights into how to attract and retain Millennials can be found in a recent report from Deloitte, Mind the Gaps: The 2015 Deloitte Millennial Survey, which finds that 60 percent of respondents feel a sense of purpose is part of the reason why Millennials decided to work for their current employer. Likewise, Deloitte reports: “Among businesses where Millennials say there is a strong sense of purpose, there is significantly higher reporting of financial success, employee satisfaction, and recruitment.”In addition to knowing how to attract and retain Millennials, knowing how to train them to become effective leaders will be critical for organizations as this new generation begins to dominate the workforce. According to the Leadership Development for Millennials report, most organizations don’t currently offer leadership development programs specifically for Millennials, even though many lack leadership skills. However, organizations that devote resources specifically to training Millennials (for example, having rotational development programs for millennials) have more success in developing their leadership potential than those that do not.More on Millennials in the WorkforceTo learn more about how organizations are preparing the millennial generation to manage and lead effectively now and into the future and how organizations can appeal to millennials, the full research report Leadership Development for Millennials: Why it Matters is available here. ATD Members have complimentary access to the whitepaper version of the report.

Research Roundup: Millennials, Their Skills, and Their Training Needs

In January, OpenAI’s conversational platform, ChatGPT-3, became the fastest-growing app in internet history. This is just one indication of growing curiosity about GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) and other chatbots in the past few weeks. As one of the first learning professionals to see the potential of conversational AI and one of the few designing the applications for years, I’m excited to see the recent attention paid to this engaging technology.In my book, AI in Talent Development, I outline several ways chatbots can be used as part of a robust learning experience, and ChatGPT-3, the third version in OpenAI’s ChatGPT series, demonstrates most of them. When ATD asked me to write a post on this subject, I struggled to find the value I could add to the exploding conversation. I decided to do what people say I do best: Give you the bottom line and point the way towards practical applications. Let’s start with the basics.How ChatGPT-3 WorksChatGPT operates on an autoregressive model. It’s not as complicated as it may sound. A transformer is a program, model, or algorithm that converts code into something else—in this case, human language. The autoregressive part means the software uses prior events to predict the most likely future events, which is what your brain does all the time. It allows ChatGPT and similar applications to simulate a conversation between two humans. Learn the two keys to making an application like this work:1. Natural Language ProgrammingNatural Language Processing (NLP) allows the bot to recognize input through human speech or writing, eliminating the need for menus or code to engage with it. This same ability enables the bot to reply through text. Before the development of NLP, most chatbots were menu-driven, and the bot responded by selecting the best fit from a database of pre-written options. Conversational AI represents a new way for humans to use computers; it’s a user interface requiring less hardware and prior knowledge than any previous UIs.!CAUTION! Don’t confuse Natural Language Processing with the pseudo-science term using the same acronym. Neural Linguistic Programming is widely disproved and an invalid practice.2. Massive Training DatasetsLike any neural network (including your own), AI models must be effectively trained using a technique called deep learning. Quite frankly, the stunning capabilities of ChatGPT-3 are nothing new. As David Chalmers points out, there is no new technology here. There are many bots with similar abilities, and I described them in detail in 2020. How this bot is trained and how well this approach works is innovative. First, Open AI used the largest training dataset, combining a database containing much of the internet, a huge library of books, and Wikipedia.Then, after refining the bot in-house, Open AI released it free to the world. As we all started to play with it, we were training it further for them. Think of it as a crowd-sourced training effort. The sheer size of the training database resulted in what everyone always expected: Impressive results that can mimic human expression so well it is hard to tell a machine generated it. However, there continues to be an underlying problem: Chatbots are only as good as their training (like us humans). If you consider the source of GPT’s training, you can see why it sometimes makes mistakes.What Can We Do With ChatGPT-3?Because this product is still being explored, there may be new use cases by the time this post publishes. Below are a few applications that can save time and make your work as a learning professional more efficient and productive.Write ContentIf you ask the bot to write a paragraph introducing a subject, it comes back almost instantly with plausible, grammatically correct text. Because its training included unvalidated sources like the internet and Wikipedia, some of the content it produces must be corrected. Still, you can get excellent first drafts and refine your content from there.Summarize DocumentsLooking for a “Reader’s Digest” version of a book or article? Paste the text into a prompt to ChatGPT, and it returns a nice summary that should hit most of the highlights.Write and Troubleshoot Computer CodeBecause ChatGPT was built to analyze and produce output in human language, it is also great at computer languages. Programmers are using it to troubleshoot code. It can even generate new code if you ask it to develop a new capability.Translate DocumentsFar more effective than other translators out there, ChatGPT can take a website or article and translate it into another language.Write and Grade QuizzesYou can feed your content into GPT and ask it to generate a quiz with answers. Or, give it a general subject, like world history, and it will do the same. Feed your student’s quiz responses into GPT, and it will grade them (even essays!).Create GamesI asked GPT to create a game teaching sixth-grade students about the solar system, and the bot came back with a fun adventure through space.Improve Your WritingI didn’t do this for this article, but I could have asked GPT to review my draft and suggest improvements.Conduct ResearchI asked the bot to provide a list of current peer-reviewed studies on chatbot use in education using APA style and received a properly formatted list.Why Does ChatGPT Have Some People Worried?While most of the comments about GPT are positive, you will find a few educators deeply concerned about this new tool’s capabilities.Mimicking Human WritingTeachers are worried about GPT’s ability to write plausible text reading like a human created it and write in a known author’s style. A student could ask the bot to write a paper in the same style as one of their previous works, and it would be hard to tell the GPT paper wasn’t an original student effort. But, again, this mimicking ability is nothing new. AI has generated art in the style of great artists for years. ChatGPT applies the same predictive approach to language.ChatGPT Makes MistakesAnother concern is the bot’s ability to present false information so convincingly that some users forget to validate the response with research. For example, I asked the bot to calculate the mean of five numbers, and the result was interesting. I received a detailed explanation of the statistical definition of “mean” and how to calculate it, which I did NOT request. However, the bot added the five numbers incorrectly.To be fair, ChatGPT wasn’t built to perform math problems. But it didn’t tell me that or report the result might be incorrect. Like any willing assistant, it did its best to provide an answer. If I had been a student relying on GPT’s help, I would have been wrong. The reason for most of these mistakes is the same reason that it is such a stunning improvement in the chatbot experience: It’s primary sources of information are the internet and Wikipedia.I asked Vince Han, one of the pioneers in building chatbots for learning, to sum up the challenges presented by GPT’s new capabilities, and here’s his response:“One of the effects of ChatGPT & increased quality in Artificial Intelligence in general is shifting the skills users need. For example, most users have developed a skill for how to search which is knowing how to craft keywords and how to sift through search results. Now, people will need the skill of discernment, or learning how to decipher truth and views from a chatbot that provides what reads like a definitive answer. So, from a performance support perspective, yes, one can now get an immediate response to a question but how accurate and relevant that response is will be up to them to determine. “As educators, we must now confront a problem that has been boiling for decades—the decline in critical thinking across most domains, demographics, and workgroups. In my opinion, ChatGPT makes this gap more visible and increases the urgency for closing it quickly.Closing ThoughtsBecause Microsoft owns the license for the exclusive use of the model, we’ve all been working for them, revealing exciting use cases that may find their way into AI-enabled Microsoft products. For now, the platform consists of both free and professional versions. It’s an excellent way to begin learning about the promise of AI and our place alongside it. As machine learning expert Santiago Pino says, “AI will not replace you. A person using AI will.”Where Can You Learn More?There are so many articles about this subject right now that I’ve limited myself to a few favorites:Under the Hood of Chat GPT With Myra RoldanHow ChatGPT3 Impacts the Future of L&D in an AI WorldChatGPT Has Educators Scrambling to Keep UpWhat Is ChatGPT and How to Teach With ItWhat Is ChatGPT and Why Does It Matter?What Is ChatGPT? Is It the Beginning of the End?Ger’s Learning Notes #51 - ChatGPTFor more information and resources, Check out ATD's AI Resource page.

ChatGPT-3 Has Everyone Talking

Nandi Shareef serves as the Global Training Manager for one of the largest residential Clubs in the United States. In this position, and with it being the first of its kind, Nandi is charged with the ground up design and implementation of a global training plan for over 400 employees with the end goal of creating and establishing a regional service training academy. In her former position, Nandi served as the youngest director of a national learning center franchise where she facilitated the sustainment of a half million dollar business in the throes of an economic recession. In addition, Nandi provides pro bono consulting services for small businesses and non-profit organizations in strategic and business planning as well as career coaching to citizens in transition. Nandi received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Business Administration from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. She serves as a Trustee for the Franklinton Center at Bricks and Vice President of her local ASTD and Toastmaster Chapters. She is also an avid playwright and performing arts show producer. Her PhD studies in Organization Development at Benedictine University focus on Millennials in Today’s New Normal Workplace.

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