At Blackboard, we are excited to be playing an active role in helping the U.S. Army reach these cloud computing goals. As discussed in a recent DefenseNews article by Joe Gould, Blackboard is managing a pilot program to take some of the Army’s nonsensitive educational material to the cloud through this safe, mobile-friendly platform.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of Blackboard’s role this pilot program has been making Army learning more accessible, as the article states:

“You’re seeing more students bringing their own mobile devices to class, and they are used to accessing their class materials wherever they’re at, whether it’s a soccer game, the library or waiting for the bus,” said Lt. Col. Ben Ring, who leads the program at CGSC. “But when students came here, we were restricting them.”

The Army Distributed Learning Program is considering plans to place nonsensitive educational material for noncommissioned officers in a dot-com environment. It may also duplicate the CGSC effort at other institutions, like the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., and the Army Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss, Texas, said Helen Remily, the ADLP capability manager.

“The bottom line is the Army’s training and education is no longer episodic at brick and mortar institutions. It’s a continuum of learning that occurs throughout an individual’s Army career, leveraging distributed learning technology,” Remily said.

Leading the way as an early-adopter into the cloud, the Army can spend less time with technical oversight of their server hardware and more valuable time on their “24/7 mission” from anywhere anytime. You can read the rest of Gould’s article “Army’s learning cloud means accessible class materials” by clicking here, and visit our website learn more about Blackboard’s military learning solutions.

Career Colleges
Mulgrew: “The lecture does not work.” Do you agree? At this year’s Professional Colleges and Universities Summit, Frank Mulgrew of Post University discussed the disadvantages of passive learning at career colleges. This post explores his arguments as well as the important role active learning plays in professional education.

Military/Government
Best Practices in Military Training How can military trainers adapt to today’s constant technological changes while preparing soldiers for what lies ahead? In this post, we discuss some of the key ways our modern military leverages technology to provide cutting-edge learning and to execute mission goals.

Corporations
Salesforce + Sales Training = Recipe for Success One of our favorite things to do at Blackboard is to meet with our clients and discuss how professional training is helping them meet and exceed their business goals. In this post, we sat down with training leaders at Living Social to hear how Blackboard Learn for Salesforce was making a real impact on their sales team.

Once again, this year’s posts show the variety of interests among our readership as well as the broad range of professional education solutions offered by Blackboard. But are there any topics you would like to see more often as we kick off 2013? Be sure to leave any thoughts or suggestions you may have in the comments below!

HCMF is a great forum for agency leaders and human resource professionals to share best practices in HR strategies, talent management, and even innovative recruitment.   I’m particularly excited that this year’s event will cover technology-focused strategies to improve training, such as best practices in cloud computing and social networking.

Are you interested in learning more about HCMF and the Training And Development Best Practices panel?  Here are the details:

When: Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 3:15 PM (agenda)

Where: Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel, Arlington, Virginia

Topics:

• Given current budget cuts, how can your organization benefit from free sources of training (like HRU/OPM)
• Just in time learning/ adult learning relationship
• Exploring social learning
• Workforce development and training programs; learning ROI/ROE
• Evaluating training and individual development plans

Panelists:

Sandy Wells, Chief Learning Officer & Director, Office of Strategic Employee and Organization Development, US Department of the Interior
Jeffrey Vargas, Chief Learning Officer, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Peter Shelby, Chief Learning Officer, National Reconnaissance Office
Paul Terry, General Manager, Professional Education, Blackboard, Inc.

Register: http://bit.ly/TNhXgO

Hope to see you there! 

According to Politico, sequestration is:

“The formal term for mandatory cuts to federal programs – the process of cordoning off money that may have been authorized by Congress but is now prohibited from being spent. Literally, the money is being ‘sequestered’ – taken away from the federal agencies affected.”

Today’s round of sequestration is aimed at cutting the federal deficit, and and totals about $1.2 trillion in mandatory cuts ($500 billion from the military alone).

As always, budget cuts mean that programs will be cut across the board within federal agencies, and for many, learning and training programs are some of the first to see significant spending reductions.  However, as a proponent of the benefits learning can bring to government, I believe it is critical for government agencies to understand the value of training when these budget cuts are being considered.

Here are five reasons why government learning and development professionals should make a business case for training in the face of sequestration:

1. Improve work quality and efficiency: Simply put, effective learning and training makes employees better at their jobs.  This can boost efficiency, decrease the likelihood of making costly errors, and even improve safety on the job – all of which will save money in the long run.
2. Maintain a standard knowledge base:  It would be difficult for any organization to put a value on the institutional and industry knowledge it collects over time. Passing on this knowledge is critical to consistency and stability, and training provides a primary opportunity to pass it on to new employees.
3. Attract and retain top talent: With nearly half of all government agency managers becoming eligible for retirement within the next decade, it is critical that government agencies attract and retain future leaders – and excellent learning and training programs are a great way to do so.
4. Invest in people:  Training should be seen as a long-term investment in people instead of just a short-term, “check off the box” expenditure. Proving that your agency wants to invest in people will help attract highly-qualified employees and highlight the value of training for participants.
5. Save money on travel:  Training does not need to consume a large portion of your travel budget. Instead, think of ways to leverage web conferencing and online technologies to conduct training at employees’ home offices and increase overall efficiency in the training process.

What other ways can government organizations make the business case for training? Leave us a comment with your additions to the list above, and visit our website to learn more about the ways Blackboard can help your agency get the most out of its investment in learning and training.

In the beginning of his presentation, Krzmarzick points out that while professional mentorship itself is long-established, there is a new type of “social mentorship” that has recently taken root.  According to his definition, social mentorship “leverages social networks and social media to forge connections among individuals in need of advice, admonition, or assistance.” And he should know, as GovLoop is already harnessing social mentoring for the benefit of government.

If you are unfamiliar with GovLoop, it is an active online community that connects individuals across agencies and levels of government to discuss and solve problems. Last year, GovLoop took its knowledge-sharing forum to the next level by launching a virtual mentoring program to connect retired civil servants with new members of the public sector. This program allowed seasoned civil servants to pass on valuable, on-the-ground experience to their mentees, and 93% of participants reported that this otherwise inaccessible knowledge helped them grow both personally and professionally in their new government roles.

From my perspective, programs like these represent the best of social and informal learning since they foster highly-relevant conversations that may have never occurred otherwise, including in-depth discussions between employees and senior officials, or between individuals who are separated geographically.  Many of these practices and principles can (and should) be applied to existing government training plans. This type of knowledge sharing and mentorship can come from a variety of platforms, including knowledge forums like GovLoop, social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn, and even blended learning environments that combine classroom training with social learning, like Blackboard.

You can learn more about the specifics behind GovLoop’s government mentorship program by viewing Andrew Krzmarzick’s webinar here or in the slideshow below. We would also love to hear about your thoughts and experiences with government social mentorship, so tell us about it in the comments below!

With these factors in mind, how can military trainers best adapt to current trends while preparing for what lies ahead? Here are my thoughts on best practices for modern military training:

• Use time wisely: Effectively engaging military learners is easier said than done especially when you consider the extraordinary demands placed on their time. Instead of spending critical training time teaching young, tech-savvy soldiers how to use technology they are already familiar with, including learning management systems (LMS) and smartphones, focus on instructing them on how to leverage these tools on the ground.
• Foster collaboration: The military prepares soldiers to work together as a team, so why should their classroom training be any different? Use collaboration tools that combine formal instruction with informal learning and structured social interaction to help learners share knowledge with one another so they will be best prepared to succeed as a unit.
• Move to continuous learning:  Event-driven training often leaves learners feeling like they are drinking from a fire hose. By moving to a continuous learning model, learners can access training on their own time and at the point of need, increasing retention and relevance of the material at hand.  Information can be shared, real-world experiences discussed and relationships between instructors and other learners and alumni develop
• Save your travel budget: Today’s tightening budgets mean that military leaders must balance travel and other expenses with mission-critical needs. One way to save is to implement virtual training and teleconferencing, which can be just as effective as face-to-face meetings, instead of sending personnel off site.
• Consider Impact on Mission: The military is rapidly recognizing the relationship between learning activities and Impact on Mission (IOM). Finding ways to move beyond the limited capabilities of your legacy learning management system (LMS) means offering instruction that’s directly related to battlefield requirements, not outdated theories or strategies of little practical use

At Blackboard, we are proud to serve our military by offering training solutions that can engage today’s learners to help shape them into tomorrow’s leaders. If you are interested in learning more about Blackboard for Military, visit our website or contact us here.

A few weeks ago, Blackboard was proud to host its first Federal Series Event, featuring speakers from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ HR Academy, the Federal Aviation Administration, and The Graduate School. The event provided attendees the opportunity to network with others in the federal training space and provided new insights into best practices in blended and distance learning.

During a presentation from The Graduate School, Dr. Sharon Fratta-Hill presented several tools and strategies she has leveraged in blended learning environments. I learned quite a bit during her presentation, including these best practices for engaging distance learning:

1. Sharing audio and video isn’t enough. Even though multimedia content is a great way to grab learners’ interest, they will learn more from media content when given the opportunity to collaborate with their peers.  To foster interaction, encourage students to leave constructive thoughts and questions on multimedia content to spark discussion and dialogue.

2. Leverage mobile technology: There are many reasons to make training mobile: not only are mobile devices incredibly pervasive in our daily lives, but they can also allow learners to access training while traveling or on the go. The Graduate School’s presentation included a demo of a great mobile training course that users can access on tablet PCs and smartphones!

3. Use gamification to keep things interesting: During their presentation, demonstrated a Jeopardy-style game that was used in ethics training for Hill staffers. This was just one of many examples of how federal trainers can leverage games to make learning fun and more memorable.

4. Provide opportunities for just-in-time learning.  One of the benefits of online training is that learners can reach back to review old course material through their learning platform. By archiving course content in a way that is easy to navigate, learners can access the knowledge they need wherever and whenever they need it.

5.  Remember: It’s also about the experience! As the slide below tells us, there is more to training than just good pedagogy. By creating online and distance learning environments that truly engage the learner, they will me more likely to actively participate in, and learn more from, their training experience.

But can military and defense agencies be a part of this movement to the cloud? And if so, how can they reap the benefits of cloud computing while mitigating risks?

Pros and Cons of the Federal Cloud

Listing the benefits of cloud computing is easy: not only can the cloud help large agencies save on IT infrastructure costs, but it also allows for “on-demand” access to computing power from any location.  Though all agencies need to be aware of the costs of the cloud, these benefits alone make it an easy choice for many within government.

When it comes to the military and defense community, however, there are several key factors to consider that make moving to the cloud more of a risk:

• Security and privacy: In defense IT, data location and access is of critical importance, and different data exist at different levels of sensitivity and importance. As a result, defense and military outlets may be wary of moving their classified data and mission-critical computer power off-site.
• Enterprise-wide cost: Since the military’s IT infrastructure is large and complex, moving the entire enterprise to the cloud would undoubtedly be expensive. This is compounded by the fact that off-the-shelf technology would need to be augmented by a host of add-ons to meet the vast needs of the defense community – all leading to higher costs and a complicated infrastructure.
• Support: A smoothly-operating IT system is critical to the mission of today’s military. Though many cloud solution providers can offer a high level of support, it may be too early to tell if existing providers can handle the volume that would be required for cloud support across the defense enterprise.

Conclusions

From where I sit, it seems as though the cloud has a hybrid future in the U.S. military and defense community.  To mitigate risks, the defense community could adopt cloud solutions for networks with lower security requirements while maintaining on-site infrastructure for sensitive and classified data.  Alternatively, the defense community could also consider managed hosting as a solution for ensuring that mission-critical learning and training content is safe and secure.

There are many other ways the military can be a part of the digital government movement beyond moving to the cloud. Increasing the use of mobile devices, apps, and even social media in training is just one way that the defense community can leverage new technologies for both cost savings and more effective professional learning.

Are there other ways your military or defense agency is joining the digital government movement? Feel free to share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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As we get closer to that 2015 turnover projection, what can federal agencies do to recruit and prepare the next generation of government leadership? To answer this question, Lisa Doyle of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently led a webinar to share her thoughts on using government training as a platform for effective succession planning.

Doyle serves as Chancellor of the VA Acquisition Academy, a state of the art, 16-classroom campus where the VA trains its acquisition professionals.  She views training as a key component to succession planning, and offered these best practices during her webinar:

• Align training with agency mission: Through the Acquisition Academy, learners visit VA hospitals and participate in other hands-on activities so they can tangibly experience the work of their agency. Doyle believes this close connection to the overall mission of the agency helps to inspire and retain new employees.
• Use hands-on, experiential learning: Employees are more likely to retain new knowledge if they are able to apply it immediately in practical situations. As a result, VA learners intersperse training with days in the office so they can quickly apply new skills on the job.
• Leverage technology for engaging content and collaboration: The VA Acquisition Academy leverages tech tools, such as video teleconferencing, not only to deliver training content, but also to engage learners with the same high-tech tools they will use on the job.
• Give interns opportunities to lead: The VA acquisition team offers a 3-year internship program to train their next generation of employees and leaders. Doyle believes that “there are opportunities to lead at every level,” so she encourages interns to contribute to their team and become increasingly self-sufficient through their program.

How is your agency preparing the next generation of government employees? Are you already using internship or other training programs to develop young leaders?  Let us know in the comments below, or learn more by listening to Doyle’s webinar here.

About Lisa Doyle Lisa Doyle is the Chancellor of the VA Acquisition Academy as a member of the Senior Executive Service, where she fosters and promotes the development of VA acquisition professionals.  As head of the Academy, Ms. Doyle formulates and delivers the strategies needed to develop acquisition business advisors.  With more than 29 years of experience as an acquisition professional in both the federal and private sector, she is responsible for training the VA acquisition workforce by instilling essential competencies and skills, establishing career development programs, and developing meaningful experiential learning opportunities.

Image via TechCrunch

At last month’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference, U.S. CTO Todd Park and U.S. CIO Steven Van Roekel made an announcement that will change the way we access and use government data.  Their announcement was centered on the launch of a new “digital roadmap” that will encourage wider use of government data while making that data more open and more easily accessible to the public.  As the writers at TechCrunch put it: “With the launch of the new digital roadmap, the U.S. government is hoping to increase the way that users can access data in many different ways. It’s also designed to decrease inefficiency in government and to allow developers to build applications that the government would never have dreamed up.” The digital roadmap is based upon the following concepts:

• Open Data as the new default
• Anywhere, any  time on any device
• Everything should be an API
• Make government data social
• Change the meaning of social participation

What does this roadmap mean for government agencies, specifically in the realm of training and learning?  Generally, the digital roadmap will stop the proliferation of new .gov websites, which will consolidate the location government data on the web.  It will also include a plan to streamline the procurement process for mobile devices and wireless services that are safe for federal agencies to use.  The increased access to government data will also allow developers to create more apps that leverage government data, thereby increasing the utility of that data and making it more shareable on mobile devices. Here are the top five ways I predict these digital changes will impact government learning and training:

• Increased use of mobile devices in training, such as tablets and smart phones that feds are already using.
• Greater ownership of training techniques and outcomes by federal employees since they will be able to access and create apps with their agencies’ data.
• Increased use of apps that leverage newly-accessible data for more current and relevant training.  Apps can also be shared between agencies, which could streamline training programs across agencies.
• More remote training to save costs and reduce time spent out of the office.
• Increased social media use during training classes so learners can more easily share what they learn and exchange knowledge with peers.

How do YOU think these new policies will impact learning and training in government? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below, and stay tuned for future posts on this new digital government initiative.