Hi Clare - All went will with our 23 trainees today. Thanks, Tracey. Employability Skills Instructor, Finchale College, Durham

Finchale - a residential vocational training college for adults - has been using Your Preferences in its induction for its students since the very first pilot in 2004. They do great work for their students - and we’re delighted that they have chosen Your Preferences to be an integral part of their new trainee induction process. Read on for more information.
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The Virtual Classroom

Synchronous e-learning. Online presentations. Webcasts, web conferences, webinars. Whatever you call it, whichever form it takes, the ‘virtual classroom’ is a central part of the modern training experience. It’s a training and communication channel that’s here to stay. Why?
- ability to connect learners spread over a wide area: no longer do learners have to be sitting in the same room as the trainer/presenter, or as each other
- sense of immediacy and camaraderie across the business: connections can be built and relationships formed, throughout the geographical spread of your organization, or your client group
- the platforms are getting better all the time: unique features of web classrooms include annotating whiteboard exercises, real-time polling, and recording and playback of key aspects of the session
- ability to ‘get inside’ a user’s computer: a presenter can take a real hands-on approach, getting access (if granted) to other computers in order to demonstrate certain difficult-to-describe concepts
- cost-effectiveness: studies have shown that up to 70% of an organization’s training budget goes on travel and meeting arrangements, factors completely cut out by the virtual classroom (Hyder et al 10)

Here’s a preview of a new tool that e-coaches is developing to enable all trainers - no matter what their background or skills level - to get the most out of any online training or presenting opportunity.

We’v recently been running a survey on Type and Stereotype in the Training Room.

Howard included the results in his presentation at the Learning Technologies Conference on the 1st February.

“I made the possibly contentious comment that those with a temperament most likely to be attracted to teaching or training are most likely to set up classroom situations and activities that are not conducive to the learning of those of different temperaments.

I was asked what we should do differently as a result of this research. My reply:
1) ensure classroom trainers understand their own type and how to help those of different types (work being undertaken by e-coaches)
2) ensure learning designers create material that offers options within the framework of the MBTI (as documented in Individual Preferences in E-learning).”

You can download the presentation slides and narrative here:

http://www.e-coaches.co.uk/news/Hills-Learning-Technologies.pdf
http://www.e-coaches.co.uk/news/LT-Motivating-Learners.pdf

And you’ll find more information on type and learning at www.yourpreferences.net

We’ll keep you informed as our research continues.

We have just published the report on our trial for learndirect of a graphical-based tool to help learners get advice on how to approach their learning in a way that best suits their personality preferences.

You will find our latest trial version of the tool at YourPreferences. By having a go and giving us your feedback we will be able to improve the tool further.