I am excited to start this new community for instructional designers, corporate trainers, adult educators, and other L&D professionals! This is meant to be a space where we can share ideas, problems, and best practices to help us in the day-to-day tasks we face in our professional lives. Please take a moment to comment on this post with your name, a little about your job, and what brought you to this community! I'll start. I'm Billy, and I currently work as an independent training specialist with a focus on nuclear energy and the oil/gas industry. I created this community because I think there are so many people out there with great ideas when it comes to training, and I wanted a supportive place where we can share those ideas!

We recently had a bit of an issue in our department and as part of the analysis from it, it became apparent that there was a failure of senior leadership to appropriately prioritize the tasks leading to the issue. It got me thinking about how uncommon that probably is. Not only were they called out, but they owned it and responded in a way that really helps out. How many of you would feel that way with your company/industry?

I recently heard about the 4MAT Model for learning and development. I haven't read too much into it, but has anyone else heard of it? Does anyone implement it?

I recently read an article that showed that learning can be hampered by the use of AI videos in training materials. Here are some findings from the research: 1. The use of high-quality AI produced nearly identical results when compared to human voiceover. However, learners showed significantly worse results and engagement when low-quality (robotic, choppy, flat, etc) AI voiceovers were used. 2. Full screen AI avatars were viewed as distracting, however, picture-in-picture AI avatars actually enhanced training. The reasoning was that full screen avatars made subtle differences such as eye movement, lip syncing, and breathing patterns more obvious and therefore, more distracting. 3. To the surprise of no one, they found that AI performed worse with topics associated with soft skills such as communication, leadership, and emotional intelligence, etc... They recommend human voiceovers for these types of topics due to the emotional nuances tied to them. What are your thoughts on that? Do you use AI voiceovers/avatars in your training material?

I'll be honest. I saw this on LinkedIn and wanted to share it here. Great little cheat sheet!