Knowledge is like water in a Well. If you share the water with the society people then level of the water will never decrease every day fresh water will come. In the other case if you stop using the water and not allowing others to use, then within a few months the level of water will get reduced and the still water will becomes impure and one day there will be no water in the well.

So if we don’t use our knowledge and not sharing with others then our skills level will slowly decrease and one day we don’t have any knowledge to compete with the latest and advanced technology. If you share the knowledge and transfer your work to others then you will get time and new opportunities to learn new thing and increase the level of your skills to compete with the latest and advanced technology.

I have attended the Knowledge session presented by Stephen R. Covey on January 29, 2009 and I am very impressed with the concept of “Learn by Teaching”.

At the time of my school days one of my teachers used to say

“One time of writing is better than 10 times of reading”

Same thing now I can say that

“One time of training is better than 10 times of writing i.e., 100 times of reading”

Power of Learning by Teaching a Survey Report

My Experience as a Project Manager in CommLab India:

I got opportunities to learn authoring tools and one of them is Lectora. I learnt some basic skills from the documentation and I used forums to clarify my doubts. I did not go to any institute neither took any online training.

While working on the projects, I started giving training in my organization. While training other colleagues, I learnt a lot and increased my skills. Now I became an expert in Lectora and I can develop whatever feature is required.

Initially, I believed that training can be given only to talented people who knew basic programming. But now I believe that training can be given to any one. I have become an expert in my field.

All these improvement happened only through “learn by training”.

We have other methods to learn, for example we can get learning by work experience, from institutes, or by online tutorials. But to become an expert and get command on the subject one MUST train others.

Abdul Razzaque Hussain
Project Manager

As teachers and instructional designers, we always endeavor to make things easy and engaging for the learner. We take pride in making our programs learner-centric but what about the standards we so religiously adhere to?

Have we ever considered if these standards are really jeopardizing our efforts? How far are these standards – AICC, IMS and SCORM – learner-centric? Do these standards have anything to do with learning? Are these standards really impeding learning? Are we too enamored with these standards that we lost sight of the most important entity – the learner?

Are we slowly getting afflicted with “Learning Myopia”? Instead of looking out of the window, are we looking at the mirror, so to speak? What about the lesser talked about standards like ASTD’s E-Learning Courseware Certification Standards and the standards used by Michigan Virtual University in producing specifications for, and evaluating, e-learning?

I found ASTD’s E-Learning Courseware Certification Standards not only learner-centric but also very comprehensive.

The standards are grouped into four principal categories to reflect the various elements of courseware design.

1. Interface Standards address the relationship between the learner and the courseware itself. There are five interface standards.
2. Compatibility Standards address the relationship between the courseware, the Operating system and related applications. There are four compatibility standards.
3. Production Quality Standards examine the quality of the courseware’s text, graphics, grammar, and visual presentation. There are two production quality standards.
4. Instructional Design Standards examine the relationship between the course purpose, objectives, instructional content, instructional methods, and the learner.

CommLab has been one of the earliest companies in the e-learning space to adopt these standards. There were times when these standards were the deciding factor in wining a project.

I would strongly recommend those of you who are not aware of these standards to visit www.astd.org and get more information. The detailed standards are offered for a nominal payment, which I assure you, is well worth it.

We at CommLab India would also be happy to provide more information about them.

CommLab believes that recessions are game-changers. It’s when companies that execute well move ahead of those who don’t.

We have taken lot of initiatives so that we not only survive the ill effects of recession, but also to grow and attract new business.

One of such initiatives is that the top team attended Dr. Stephen R. Covey program on “Overcoming Challenges in Today’s Times.”

In this piece, I would like to share some of the learning from the training program. The essence of Dr. Covey’s teachings is that if you apply an inside-out approach in handling recession, it can become a boom.

Let’s have a look at the “inside” of ourselves…

4 Dimensions of Human Personality

Take a reality check whether you are living a principle-centric life. The principles should be in total harmony with the universal laws, trust, respect and timelessness. Sometimes our values do not match the natural laws. We have to create values that are in harmony with universal laws.

Secondly, create a synergistic culture. The top-down autocratic style is obsolete. Today’s knowledge worker age is a different model. The time has come for us to change from Industrial age to information age.

Leadership is NOT about Control

Let’s see the differences.

Once you align your values to the universal laws and create a synergistic culture, it is time for you to help your people to become leaders by helping them find their voice, trust their teams and instituionalize this change in the organization.

Over Coming Ill Effects of Recession – 3 Demensional Approach

1. Personal Greatness: Find your voice (overlap of body, mind, heart and soul)

2. Leadership Greatness: Trust – clear purpose, aligned systems and unleash talent

3. Organizational Greatness: Institutionalize focus and execution – independent of people.

So start from inside-out and conquer recession.