Washington Trainers' Forum

Updated
7-21-2010

PAST MEETINGS

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Christine Laylon from Dickstein Shapiro, lead several of our expert WTF members in a discussion on Blended Learning in Law Firms. Christine recently attended the TechLearn conference and shared her experiences with us. The panel was made up of members who are currently using Blended Learning techniques in their Firm.

Topics discussed included:

• What different types of learning tools do you offer your students? (i.e., classroom, web-based, webinars, etc.)
• What types of methods do you find work best for different populations? (i.e., JIT training for attorneys vs. classroom)
• How do you gauge your mix? What is a good proportion of the different training options? Is there a way to calculate?
• What role does the classroom play in the blended learning model? Is it obsolete?
• As you look at your learning strategy for 2003, where could diversify your mix? What would you add? What would you remove?

Blended Learning (a part of 2003.zip)

**Christine Laylon has a CD from Elliott Masie with lots of cool Blended Learning stuff. Email her and she will send you a copy: mailto:laylonc@dsmo.com

• Is your Online Learning solutions § 508 Compliant (disabled users).
• Focus mostly on the content, not the delivery method!
• Market the Blended/Online Learning Solutions

• Wine & Cheese social
• Marketing emails
• Toys to hand out

• They tie mandatory usage into employees regular bonuses. They have created a skills matrix with core skills required for each jobs function.
• They developed 28 core skills for Outlook.
• Users must pass assessments at 95% accuracy.
• Everything that is offered online, is also offered in the ILT classroom.
• When employees leave the ILT class, they leave with a list of assessments to take to prove their efficiency.
• They have one-on-one mentoring available to help those who have trouble passing 95%.

• They have at least five different offerings.

• In-House University: these are mostly ILT classes. A monthly calendar is available on the Intranet based on their training database. User’s can sign themselves up for a class and the database organizes the registration process.
• Knowledge Capsules: these are visual and audio PowerPoint presentations on short specialized subjects.
• Same Time Sessions: this is an online learning collaboration tool (like Centra). Great for satellite offices. Best when teaching small nuggets of information.
• Desk-side: Lots of desk-side sessions for attorneys. Usually about 1/2 hour long.
• Quick Guides: No more large user manuals. Just small nuggets of information available online.

• The biggest trend Speer has seen with their clients is the request for Centra type training sessions. These are not too expensive and great if you have multiple offices.
• Keep the subjects fairly short -- you won’t keep people’s attention for hours with this type of training.
• Take a whole new set of skills to teach an online class. You don’t get the student interaction you are used to with ILT.

• They are about to roll-out TutorPro with one of their upgrades.

• Do initial training using online tools, but follow up with advanced Instructor Led training.

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