Welcome

In an age of doing more with less, ‘Better, Faster, Cheaper’ is not just a cute saying, it’s a daily expectation. As a learning professional, my goal is to help make that happen. Creating a learning culture is more than just offering training, it is building solutions that improve performance. Solutions that enable the efficient access and transfer of knowledge and solutions that connect people-to-people and people-to-information.

I am an accomplished developer and instructor with thirteen years of experience in the design and implementation of training and performance development solutions that increase employee safety, productivity, and compliance. I have been a central part of large-scale, multifunctional project teams across multiple organizational levels and been a primary decision maker in the analysis, design, development, implementation, administration, and evaluation of many successful performance and learning-related projects. I work with project stakeholders at all levels to fully understand the learning need and develop optimal solutions that align with business objectives.

Strengths include:
* Apply good instructional design theory and practices to deliverables
* Highly skilled facilitator, presenter, collaborator, writer, and communicator
* Independent worker
* Strong computer, technical, and analytical skills
* Strong social media skills and community network advocate

Below are examples of my work and activities over the years. I invite you to comment and share. “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study” and I’d love to learn a thing or two…

Mandated Training

A large portion of training solutions in my current role are in the form of instructor-led presentations or online training modules. Not only is this an expectation by our employees, but often times the training is fulfilling a standard that requires a periodic training event and attendance tracking. To meet this requirement, and avoid any potential issues with auditors, a formal course is developed and delivered.

I developed courses for:

• Environmental
• Safety
• Health
• Industrial Hygiene
• Leadership

All solutions were developed with sound design theory to improve retention and application of the content.

“This is the best online safety training as far as format that I have taken to date. It was just the right length, was quick to load, informative and not boring. The quiz format I really like in particular including the graphics and how you can go back and review the missed items. =)” – J.R. (referring to the Sulfuric Acid Awareness and Handling training)

Back Injury Prevention

The purpose of this online training presentation was to reduce back injuries and decrease lost productive time through educating the employee of poor lifting, sitting, and standing positions. This is a yearly requirement for all employees.

Overhead Crane Operation

Periodic retraining is necessary for overhead crane operators to perform safely and meet ANSI and NIOSH standards. Before developing the course, there were different courses delivered at most locations. I developed this training at the request of the Lifting and Rigging Team to standardize the training. In addition to the classroom instruction, there was a practical (navigating a load through an obstacle course), and a final written exam.

We continue to maintain a safe record with overhead cranes and meet ANSI and NIOSH standards.

Process Clarification and Rewrite

In 2009, I was assigned to the Clearance Permit Team to clarify and rewrite our Clearance Permit Policy. (This is our procedure for turning off equipment so the maintenance worker does not get injuried.)  The policy is sacred, but employees had difficulty understanding and adhering to the Policy. The Policy had varying levels of detail, no order or connection between the steps, and at times was self-contradictory.

I lead the team through a two week process of separating the policy from the procedure and documenting the entire procedure at a consistent level of detail from beginning to end.

Since the newly formatted version of the Clearance Permit Policy and Procedure, feedback from the employees has been that it is much easier to understand, easier to use, and we have had no lost work days due to injuries since it was implemented.

“…you did an outstanding job and the tool will definitely improve the overall competency.”
- S.H. (Safety and Health Manager)

Professional Development – Sharpen your Ax

My company has a Learning Forum where different training organizations meet to discuss upcoming training initiatives, problems and issues, and to learn and share. There was a perceived need for developmental opportunities for Learning Professionals within AEP. Developers and instructors felt they were too busy to learn something new and continued to apply the same strategies and tools that they’d been using for years.

I volunteered to chair the Professional Development Sub-Committee that is responsible for nurturing the professional development learning professionals at AEP. As part of our mantra “connecting people-to-people and people-to-information”, we offered, and I co-developed, 6 online sessions in 2011 (RSS, Microblogging, Social Bookmarking, Images, Design Theory, and Valid and Reliable Assessments) and am co-developing 4 sessions scheduled for 2012. (Better Results with Less Training, The Learning Professional as a Curator, Design for How People Learn, Editing Images in Powerpoint 2010).

The online sessions were a starting point to not only connect people to people, but also give them information that could be used on an ongoing basis to maintain their skill sets. We found progressively more collaboration and knowledge sharing between members of the different training organizations through the year.

“This type of training is both convenient & informative.” – B.R.

Online Computer Classes

I have received multiple requests for desktop application training and find that users often use only a fraction of the functionality that a program can provide. We wanted to improve the quality of the presentations, documents, and spreadsheets that were being produced as well as decrease the amount of development time.

As a part of our “people-to-people and people-to-information” solution, we linked, from an internal website, to a list of curated resources using a social bookmarking site. This list of resources were sites, blogs, and other content that had been selected because of their quality or value by one of my team.

I also offered hour-long, online, unscripted desktop application training sessions. I schedule several each quarter and register participants. Applications include Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Sharepoint, Google, Social Media tools, and Windows OS. I’m prepared with several topics for each application, but usually present information based on the skill set and needs of the participants. The sessions are very flexible and informal. Although the number of participants is small, we get a high return for our time investment. The participants not only get a very personal and customized training session, they now have the name of an application expert they can call (and they often do!).

Lastly, I connect employees with a community of users to ask questions, share information and resources, and connect with other users.

“I like this way of training versus having to sit through an 8-hr. class. It got right to what I needed help with and wanted to learn. Thank you!” -V.P.