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Friday, May 04, 2007

Hot Topics in Training

Last year, I did Hot Topics in Training - A Crude (but mildly interesting) Analysis where I analyzed the topics at Training 2005 and Training 2006 to determine what topics were emerging and fading. As a speaker and someone expected to have a pulse on what's happening, I thought this was mildly interesting. So, I'm doing it again this time based on the topics in Training 2007.

One of the reasons I choose the Training conference is that it's not as leading edge as eLearningGuild events, but is a bit more mainstream, corporate than ASTD conferences. Although people may debate this.

Some of the mildly interesting results:
  • blog still didn't appear in a topic line, nor did social - but were discussed in several sessions
  • wiki finally appeared in two talks - about a year later than one would have thought
  • strategy/strategic and performance are back as topics after dropping way down in 2006
  • surprisingly trainer is also back, you would think in the age of eLearning 1.0, 1.3 and 2.0 this would be down
  • notable dropping topics: games, simulations, knowledge, interactive and blended
The fact that blended did not appear in a topic might suggest that it is assumed at this point - or maybe it's dead - see: Blended Learning Dead?

It's interesting that interactive / interactivity is dropping. Normally topics like "Adding Interactivity to your eLearning" are sure to pack the room. I wonder if the steady increase in rapid and the decrease of effective has anything to do with that?


2005 2006 2007 Change %Chg
results 9 0 2 2
wiki 0 0 2 2
assessment 3 1 3 2 200%
virtual classroom 5 1 3 2 200%
align/ment 8 1 3 2 200%
strategy/ic 10 3 8 5 167%
trainer 6 7 14 7 100%
performance 17 9 18 9 100%
lms 2 3 5 2 67%
rapid 3 4 5 1 25%
roi 9 4 5 1 25%
shoestring 0 3 3 0 0%
collaboration 1 2 2 0 0%
accelerated 3 2 2 0 0%
enterprise 8 1 1 0 0%
metrics 3 0 0 0 0%
blog 0 0 0 0 0%
training 43 50 49 -1 -2%
learning 102 73 71 -2 -3%
flash 3 7 6 -1 -14%
leadership 2 5 4 -1 -20%
authoring 4 4 3 -1 -25%
development 10 11 8 -3 -27%
design 26 25 18 -7 -28%
project 6 9 6 -3 -33%
powerpoint 6 3 2 -1 -33%
effective 5 5 3 -2 -40%
software 6 4 2 -2 -50%
tools 8 4 2 -2 -50%
delivering 5 5 2 -3 -60%
evaluation 1 3 1 -2 -67%
simulations 16 19 6 -13 -68%
games 0 23 7 -16 -70%
management 15 20 5 -15 -75%
technology 8 4 1 -3 -75%
knowledge 9 9 2 -7 -78%
interactive 5 13 2 -11 -85%
blended 4 4 0 -4 -100%

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. I have doubts about the validity of these data. Perhaps some topics are on the wane because they have become so integrated as to be invisible and no longer a topic to remark about. Just a thought.

Tony Karrer said...

Karyn - you are absolutely right to doubt the "validity." What is this? It's nothing more than an analysis of what people used as a title of their talk in order to try to attract people in the industry to attend their session. This is what the speakers (and the people running the conference) think will be the words that will get people in the room.

Does this really mean anything? No. But it's a mildly interesting data point.

And, I agree that something like "blended" going down doesn't mean it's not being discussed. In fact, it's pretty much in most every presentation. It just wasn't seen as being a term that would spark interest to attend. Similarly, talking about "blogging" in the title wasn't viewed as a good choice to get people in the room.

I'm curious which topic sparked your "this is bogus" reaction?

Barry Sampson said...

"I wonder if the steady increase in rapid and the decrease of effective has anything to do with that?"

I can't think of a better comment on the rise of rapid content :-)