E P I C   T H I N K I N G

Issue 51: March 2006 - pre-HRD issue

This month:
1. Intro: HRD buildup
2. Feature: Consultant's Corner
3. White Paper: Standards of e-learning
4. Hall of Fame: Informal learning
5. Article: Defence Learning Portal achieves Full Operating Capability
6a. Book review: A Whole New Mind
6b. Book review: Synthetic Worlds
7.Show report: The Education Show
8. Jobs: See the latest Epic positions
9. Blended Learning workshops: New dates for 2006

INTRO

1. HRD buildup

By Steve Macvicar, MD, Epic

Visitors to this year’s HRD show will be able to preview Epic Professional, the new range of e-learning courseware from Epic, the UK’s leading supplier of e-learning solutions for both the public and private sectors.

Due to be launched in the early summer, the Epic Professional range is designed to help individuals and organisations understand and react to the implications of forthcoming legislation and regulation. There will be three demos on display at the Epic stand: Age Awareness, Absence Management and you lead.

Last year Epic was acquired by Huveaux plc, which is also the parent company for Dod’s Parliamentary Communications, the UK’s leading publisher of political websites, monitoring services and magazines, related to parliamentary and government institutions. Epic Professional will combine Dod’s in-depth knowledge of the UK’s legislative schedules with Epic’s expertise in instructional design to produce a suite of e-learning courseware that will keep professionals up to speed with all their relevant legislative requirements. The demos will also be on display on the Fenman stand, another of Epic’s sister companies.

Epic Consulting will also be unveiling its new 'Learning DNA' methodology at the HRD show. Come and visit us on stand 122 to find out more and enter our competition to win a day's free consulting. For further details about the 'Learning DNA' methodology see this month's Consultant's Corner.

FEATURE

2. Consultant's Corner

By Steve Barden, Head of Consulting, Epic

Last month we considered how informal learning is the far greater part of the whole learning experience – most research points to around 80% as the actual figure. We also predicted that many L&D departments didn’t focus on this part of the iceberg at all. Why not? Is it that they are – like the Titanic – so massive, so technically advanced and crewed by such experience as to be unsinkable? Hmmm.

Read the rest of this month's consultant corner

Epic Consulting is using the HRD show to introduce its new ’Learning DNA’ methodology which is designed to facilitate the delivery of a modern learning strategy. ’Learning DNA’ captures and focuses the breadth of experience of our consulting team and responds to how today’s Learning & Development functions have ever greater demands on them being able to demonstrate the value they add whilst also building the learning culture for their organisation.

For more details, come and see us at HRD or watch this space.

WHITE PAPER

3. Standards in e-learning (updated)

Standards are supposed to make life easier. Unfortunately, standards in online learning are far from simple. A bewildering array of bodies, acronyms and jargon has held back both understanding and implementation: AICC, IMS, ADL, SCORM, IEEE...

Read more about this white paper

HALL OF FAME

4. Informal learning

By Donald Clark, Epic

Informal learning is the hot topic for 2006 and Donald Clark has penned profiles of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jay Cross. Csikszentmihalyi's 'flow' theory points towards a theory of motivation in learning while Jay Cross explores informal learning in both theory and practice.

Read more on Cross

Read more on Csikszentmihalyi

ARTICLE

5. Defence Learning Portal achieves Full Operating Capability

Article by Lt. Sarah Buck, Royal Navy

On 31 January 2006, the DLP achieved its Full Operating Capability and now really opens the door for learners across Defence. Currently, there are 49,000 users registered on the system and they can access courses such as Joint Personnel Administration, RAF Air Power, Energy Wardens and Army Datacomms.

Read the rest of the report

BOOK REVIEW

6a. A Whole New Mind

Moving from the information age to the computer age

Author: Daniel H Pink
Publisher: Riverhead Trade (2006)
Review by Donald Clark, Epic

Another chatty text from the author of Free Agent Nation, who saw a future dominated by freelancers – what a hideous thought! This book is similarly obsessive about a similarly exaggerated and flawed idea. This time it’s a future dominated by creative free-thinkers, artists, designers, storytellers and big picture thinkers - what a ludicrous thought!

Read the rest of the review

BOOK REVIEW

6b. Synthetic Worlds

The business and culture of online games

Author: Edward Castronova
Publisher: University of Chicago Press (2005)
Review by Donald Clark, Epic

What has a book on online games have to do with online learning? MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Games) are already being used in education and training. Patients with aspergers/autism use these worlds to learn social skills, public health simulations are used to train emergency workers, young adults learn financial panning skills and soldiers learn cultural skills in preparation for Iraq.

Read the rest of the review

SHOW REPORT

7. The Education Show

Report by Andrew Oliver, Business Development Executive, Epic

In any other venue The Education Show would be the main event, but at the NEC it just could not compete in size, noise or downright razzmatazz with Crufts, which started on the same day. Everywhere you went people were carrying bizarrely lifelike stuffed dogs, which made for a surreal trek to the other end of the complex.

Read the rest of the report