2017 QTD User Conference and Training Summit

Lessons learned
from “Pop”,
a presentation by
Cullen Richie
Storytelling is always an engaging training
technique, and attendees to this session were
treated to a richly-detailed collection of tales
and lessons-learned from guest speaker Cullen
Richie of Tacoma Power. Tied to the story of
his grandfather’s life in a small town in North
Carolina, Cullen shared four lessons he learned
from Pop that help him in his role of System
Operator Trainer, to this day. We won’t attempt
to re-create his stories here, but we’re happy to
share the lessons he passed on to the audience,
from Pop.
Lesson 1: Adapt your skills and
tools to meet your customer’s
needs.
Lesson 2: Enhance your skills
and tools to grow with your
customer’s needs.
Lesson 3: Don’t be afraid of
hard work.
Lesson 4: Creativity may be
required (and it might become
your legacy).
Tips and Tricks for Creating Great eLearning Courses
eLearning remains a hot topic in the training world, at the 2017 User Conference was no exception.
This year’s discussion revolved around the characteristics of an engaging eLearning course. Think
for a moment, what’s the best e-learning course you’ve taken? What made it good? Often, we fall
back on using humor or animation to make the eLearning course engaging – which is useful within
reason.
Some of the Lessons Learned in this discussion, which were shared by participants, included:
• The online tool “Poll Everywhere” can be used
as a good ice-breaker tool in group training.
• Beware of acronyms! Be sure to write acronyms
out the first time, and don’t assume the audience
will know them.
• Storyboarding: Always think about looping back
into the process, if a step needs to be repeated.
Staying flexible is key, because you’ll start
big picture and then discover new details that
you weren’t aware of, and you’ll have to insert
them into the flow. Think early-on about the
functionality you’ll want to use throughout the
CBT, because you might be able to copy it again
and again if you plan it right.
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