IDL SIG Represents at the STC PMC Conduit 2017 Conference

By Viqui Dill

On April 1, 2017, the STC Philadelphia Metro Chapter hosted their annual regional conference, Conduit 2017. Many members of the Instructional Design and Learning special interest group attended the conference, and several made presentations.

Members in attendance

 

Revive and Thrive: Strategies for the Introvert in Today’s Workplace

by Ben Woelk

Today’s workplace presents challenges for introverted team members. Business schools focus on producing extraverted leaders, although as much as 50% of the workforce are introverts and there’s no evidence that extraverts make better leaders than introverts. Many workplaces are adopting open space layouts that foster teamwork, but provide little opportunities for introverts to contribute as individuals. Because of Western society’s emphasis on extraversion, many introverts feel unsuited or ill-equipped to thrive in today’s workplace and are not sure how to take that next step to increase influence and improve visibility.

In this workshop, I learned about myself and the others in the session. One of the attendees was Donn DeBoard, with whom I had worked on the STC Nominating Committee. Donn and I are both “idealists” who focus on possibilities and want to empower others. Our similar personalities made us a great team during the STC elections nominating process. We worked together to see the strengths and potential in each of the candidates we interviewed and as a result, brought a very strong ballot to the 2016-2017 STC board elections.

Ben Woelk’s Revive and Thrive workshop: Introverts in the back, extraverts up front.

 

The Art of Personal Branding: How to Tell the “You” Story and Gain New Customers

by Liz Fraley

If you want someone to hire you or your company, you need to be able to tell your story: who you are, what your plan is, and what defines you. There are key points to address at each point in the story in order to gain customers. Whether you’re the boss or on your own, you are constantly telling your story.

This session was particularly useful to those working for equity, or starting a business. Liz focused on:

  • How to gain customers by telling your story;
  • How to identify who your customer is (and is not); and
  • How to identify the keys to telling your story well.

Liz’s presentation energized me to focus on my own strengths, leveraging the strengths of business partners where I am weak. She also gave us permission to let our work-selves and our home-selves be the same person. We don’t have to have two different worlds with two different personalities. My take-away from her session was to know who I am, and to know who I serve.

Liz Fraley’s Art of Personal Branding Session

On track! Running an effective meeting is more than the agenda.

by Viqui Dill

Every techcomm project includes a series of meetings. Requirements gathering and status updates are necessary parts of every project. But attending a meeting means that team members are not making progress on tasks or deliverables. How can we ensure that we make the most of this necessary evil?

This presentation offered proven solutions for meeting management. Starting up front with an engaging icebreaker, gathering expectations about what should be accomplished during the meeting, and then collecting feedback at the end will make your meeting more effective and your team more productive.

During the session, I divided the group into two teams to play a communications history trivia game. The winning team received a flying animal toy as the prize. Since the score was so close, I gave prizes to both teams. That’s when I lost control of the meeting. The prizes were so engaging with the flying and the screaming, attendees began to focus on the toys and not the presentation. In addition, the icebreaker had done such a good job of breaking the ice and getting the group talking and interacting, that they continued to engage and interact, even after I wanted them to settle down and listen to the material. So even though I came to teach, I was the one who learned a valuable lesson about meeting management.

Viqui Dill’s On Track Presentation

Thanks everyone! Seriously, thank you.

Tim Esposito shows off his flying sock monkey at the On Track presentation

Want to go next year?

The 2018 Conduit conference is already in the planning stages. Save the Dates: Friday, April 6 – Saturday, April 7, 2018 for another engaging conference by the STC Philadelphia Metro chapter http://www.stcpmc.org/conferences/conduit-2018/

IDL SIG Members Elected to STC Board

Congratulations to our members who were elected to society level office in the 2017-2018 elections. We are proud of each and every member and very happy to announce these three elected members. You can read more about them in the associated links on the STC website https://www.stc.org/about-stc/board-of-directors/  .

Jane Wilson – Vice President

https://www.stc.org/jane-wilson/

 

James Bousquet – Treasurer

https://www.stc.org/james-bousquet/

 

Robert Perry – Director

https://www.stc.org/robert-perry/

 

Read more about the election results in the STC Notebook blog: https://www.stc.org/notebook/2017/03/15/stc-2017-election-results/

Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase: It’s Our 10th Anniversary!

Help us celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase at the Naperville campus of Northern Illinois University (NIU) on August 15, 2017.

We’ve got a great selection of sessions for this year’s conference. You’ll be able to choose from 22 breakout sessions presented by 38 speakers in 4 time slots. We’ll announce the schedule closer to the event date.

This year our keynote is Connie Malamed (a.k.a. The eLearning Coach). Connie is a consultant, author, and professional speaker in the fields of online learning and visual communication and the author of two books: Visual Design Solutions and Visual Language for Designers. Visit The eLearning Coach website. Connie’s podcast, available on iTunes, is available here.

Join us on August 15 for another great gathering of eLearning, training, and instructional design professionals. At the end of the day, stay for our after-party. Prize giveaways and live, interactive entertainment will be featured. Don’t miss the opportunity to network with 100s of colleagues at NIU in Naperville. Registration is scheduled to open in mid-June. Hope you can attend and help us celebrate Chicago as a leader in innovative eLearning and training. For more information, visit our website at http://www.chicagoelearningshowcase.com.

 

 

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This article was first published in the June 2017 issue Byline, STC Chicago’s bi-monthly newsletter.

The Newsletter Q1 2017 IDeaL: Design for Learning

From the Editor

By Crista Mohammed

Readers, we are late with delivering our Q1 2017 newsletter and for this we humbly apologize.

We are experiencing some challenges with our website.

For the PDF version of IDeaL: Design for Learning, I thank Lori Meyer for all the layout work. I could not have done it without her! Where we fell short in delivery time, we make up for in great content.

In this issue, we have begun reaping the rewards of our student outreach competition: We are thrilled to publish the first of several student essays, which our esteemed judges found to have clear value to our readership.

  • Leland Stoe, reading for a degree in Technical Communications & Professional Writing at Metropolitan State University, shares ten tips for engaging the reluctant learner. We thank Leland for his sage recommendations and congratulate him on having been selected for publication. Read Engaging the Reluctant Learner.
  • Viqui Dill, in her co-manager’s column, reminds us that it is that AMAZING time of year…SUMMIT time! It is hard for Viqui to suppress the programs manager in her, as is evidenced by the event highlights in her column. Viqui lists presentations by IDLers; sessions with an IDL focus; sessions that are of general interest; and gatherings that promise FUN—like the Rough Drafts performance: She just made your scheduling easy. Read more.
  • Lori Meyer, in her co-manager’s column, talks about how you can become involved in our vibrant, award-winning community. Read more.
  • Marcia Shannon uses her Secretary’s Column to urge you to join our effort— through volunteering; connecting at the summit; and at our meetings. Our monthly meetings are held the 4th Wednesday of every month. “See” you at our next meeting. Read more.
  • Mellissa Ruryk, our Jacques Cousteau of Word™, takes us on another voyage into the depths of this sometimes plague-some but indispensable software. In this second part of a three-column series, Mellissa describes how to manipulate sections. My fav bit is a tip on how, armed with an understanding of sections, to recover a corrupted document! Read more.
  • Viqui Dill lets us know what’s hap, hap, happening. In an IDL SIG outreach activity, Viqui shared a case study of a training programme with InfoDevDC—a group of Information Developers (technical writers, training designers, information architects, and project managers) who gather in the northern Virginia area. This is but one more example of how your SIG supports our community of IDL practice. Read more.
  • Meet Kim Lindsey in our return to Member Spotlight—a pre-WordPress feature of IDeaL: Design for Learning. In a midlife career change, Kim moved from technical writing to instructional design. Read more.
  • Jamye Sagan reviews Bette Fricke’s Webinar School: Planning, Producing, and Presenting your Training Webinar. The book is a collection of wisdom that is well overdue, as online training has, for some time, become a mainstay of the IDL arsenal. Jamye assesses Fricke’s offering to be useful in general and particularly so for its webinar planning and execution checklists—isn’t planning half the work? Read more.

Read the full newsletter as pdf here.

All links:

Co-manager’s report: Go Summit 2017!

Co-manager’s report: Opportunities are waiting for you – learn and grow with us!

SIG News Roundup

Engaging the Reluctant Learner

Part 2 of Page Layout: Understanding Sections in Word

STC IDL SIG shares with InfoDevDC

Member Spotlight: Meet Kim Lindsey

Book Review: Webinar School: Planning, Producing, and Presenting Your Training Webinar

About IDeaL: Design for Learning