Phil Bradley's weblog

TFPL slams the door on public training

In common with several others I got an email last Friday morning telling me that TFPL will no longer be offering public scheduled courses from today (Friday, February 11th) onwards, and all currently scheduled courses will be cancelled. Apparently an earlier email had gone out from Chris Jones the Managing Director which said "Following a strategic business review, it has been decided that TFPL will no longer offer publicly scheduled training courses and will transfer our suite of Business Skills courses to ILX Group, another training business within Progility PLC." However, this didn't come to me, or to a lot of other people. 

This is very sad news indeed - I'd been a trainer with TFPL since 1990, and they were an excellent company to work with. They had their own training suite at Farringdon which was run by various different people, including my great friend Val Skelton. TFPL did move around quite a lot, and with each move their interest and enthusiasm for training waned. In the last couple of years they would hire external venues to run courses - when they did actually run, since a lot of them were cancelled. I'm really sorry for the two people who ran the service, and who are going to made redundant on Thursday of this week. They did their best working in an organisation that really didn't seem to care about the product they were employed to market.

As well as sadness, there's anger as well. What professional organisation just snaps its fingers and cancels everything immediately? What about the people who were booked on courses, who may already have purchased rail tickets and booked accommodation? Apparently nothing. What about trainers who may have been updating and working on course presentations that they were due to provide in the near future? (Hint, I was one of them!) It's one of the most unbelievably unprofessional things that I've ever witnessed, and that's saying something. Now, I'm not going to go all sob stories and violins at this point, but several of TFPL's current trainers, such as myself and Karen Blakeman have worked with them for 25+ years. To learn about the closure of the service second hand as it were is astonishing. If they can do that to trainers and delegates alike, what chances do consultancy and recruitment clients have? I'm not sure that I'd want to put any kind of trust in an organisation that clearly doesn't care and acts in such an off-hand a rude manner. It's really disgraceful.

What it does indicate, at least to me, is that the one day training course, where people pay a large sum, travel to London, often staying overnight and then travelling home at the end of the day, is all but dead. Organisations just don't have the money available for training, and even if they do, they're not going to have much of a travel budget any longer. Some companies can of course run their own internal courses, just for their own staff, and can employ a trainer to come in from outside to run the course tailored to their needs, but that's only a small number. What about the 'average' librarian, who may be part of a very small team, or a one person band, who doesn't have that option available to them? CILIP groups run courses of course, and there are one or two other suppliers, but in general, there isn't really very much available. I'd predicted this in July of last year with my blog post that said 'Training as we know it is broken' and it doesn't give me much pleasure that I've been provide right. 

I want to do something different, as I explained in my post of last July. Short face to face training, local to delegates, backed up by videos and access to wikis, with online chats into the future does, at least to me, appear to be the best way to go. I ran several courses like that last year, and I'll be running more this year (if you're interested in hosting a course, do let me know!). People can learn when they need to, at their own speed, in the comfort of their own homes or at their desks at work. People still need to be trained, we just have to be inventive about how we do it in the future. 

A new venture in training

Training as we know it is broken

The training market for librarians and information professionals that we’ve known for years is broken. Courses are too expensive, both in terms of the cost of the course, the time out of the office, travel to a course and in some cases, overnight accommodation. Organisations are having their budgets squeezed and top of the list is training. If you are unemployed or a one person bad, you can’t afford it.

Too much is packed into a day. Since time is limited, its all about throwing information at you, and you don’t have time to digest something or try it out before it’s onto the next thing. By the end of the day you’re tired and confused and what should have been a fun day was trying instead. Of course your notes end up in the drawer, despite your best intentions.

There’s no followup. You make connections with delegates, but never get a chance to get back to them, you lose contact with the trainer, there’s no-where to go if you have extra questions and if you learn something new that would be useful for your course colleagues you can’t get that information to them.

A training course is a silo. Yes of course there are great courses run by great trainers, but even so, it’s all about that 7 hours. Training in the UK in 2016 is, as the heading says, fundamentally broken, and it needs to change. I want to change it, and I want your help to create an entirely different training map.

 

How we can change things

I spent a lot of time talking to trainers, attendees and organisers. Everyone wants that face to face networking element; in all of my research this is a key element. So the courses that I’m going to be running will have that - between 2.5 and 3 hours worth, depending on location. You’ll be able to learn, try out new things, explore practical real world issues and connect with colleagues. Yes, I’ll be teaching, but a workshop really will be a workshop. 

That face to face time is going to be supplemented however, in a couple of different ways. First of all, delegates will have access to a wiki, which will provide more information. They will be able to add in their own information, share their own experiences, ask and answer questions and continue that networking process. Secondly, since video streaming is easy to do these days there will be bi-weekly sessions for each training course. Delegates won’t have to book, they can just drop in, ask questions, join in the conversations and continue that networking experience.

Each course will come with a minimum of 40 online videos that are practically based. Each one will be stand alone, so delegates can chose the one that they want to view when they need it, at a time they need it. Delegates choose when and how they want to continue their education and they will learn what’s necessary in a ‘just in time’ rather than ‘just in case’ situation. Videos will be added to the collection as I create them, so there should always be something new and interesting to look at and to learn. Learning won’t stop just because the course is over - it will be ongoing. Once you have paid for a course you’ll be able to access the materials and all the new information from then on. There will be no extra charges; if I’m creating new material I’m not going to want to limit access to it. So rather than a course lasting 7 hours, it will last a lifetime. (Well, mine until retirement at any rate!)

So using this flipped classroom model delegates learn what they want, when they want, and how they want. Networking will be ongoing, new information will be made available on a regular basis and delegates can assist colleagues by adding to that pool of information. 

Let’s ensure that delegates are in charge of their training, and let’s make it an ongoing, enjoyable experience!

All well and good, but what’s the cost?

My courses will cost £99. There’s no hidden extras, no booking fees, nothing. I can do this because I don’t have overheads in the same way that training companies do. The courses are going to be no frills. You bring your own device (tablet, laptop, even your mobile phone if that’s what you want to use) and all the materials will be made available electronically. The course will cover the entire training period of 2.5 to 3 hours, and if you want drinks or snacks, bring your own! For the cost of the course you will get:

• Face to face training with me as your trainer, but also working with other delegates
• Access to a course wiki with further information
• A minimum of 40 videos online that you can access 24/7
• Any new videos or material will be included - your course fee is for LIFE; you’ll be able to update yourself quickly and easily
• Access to a 1 hour online chat every two weeks. If too many people want to get into the chat, I’ll schedule another one.
• If you really want to get involved, and add new material yourself, and ask/answer questions you can do - the more the delegates can share, the better off everyone will be.

I decided on a figure of £99 because my research showed that was a price that most people would be able to work with, it’s not out of the reach of people on limited budgets (either personally or organisationally), and it’s enough for me. Obviously I need to learn money to live, but I’m not looking to get rich on the backs of other people.

 

Locations and onsite?

I’m starting with  2 days of courses in London, but that’s simply because it’s easier for me. The courses will be held at a central London location within a few minutes walk of Euston. However, if you’re not within easy reach of London I’m happy to come to you. I’’m happy to hold courses in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, York, Exeter, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin - anywhere that I can get a training suite for a reasonable price for the day. If you have a training venue that you can make available to me for no or reduced costs, then I'm happy to have you and some of your colleagues on the course as well.

If you want an on-site day I can do that as well. I’m happy to come to you, and can set up specific resources tailored to your organisation if necessary. I’ll train as many staff as you want, and we can work together on a price that works for us both.

Dates for the course are October 7th and November 18th  2016.

The courses.

There are going to be two courses initially, with more to follow.

Apps for Librarians will look at a variety of different apps that information professionals can use in their daily work. It will cover browsers, search engines, productivity tools, scanning apps, creating multimedia resources, guiding tools, reference and news apps. Although I’ll be using an iOS device, the course will also work if you use Android apps. At the end of the course - well, there won’t be an ‘end of the course’, because it will be ongoing. Delegates will be able to explore these tools, work together, try things out, and learn practical things to help them in their jobs.

Advanced search for Librarians will cover exactly what you would expect. How to search the internet quickly and effectively using both Google and a variety of other search engines. Delegates will learn how  to get the best out of Google, and will also have an opportunity to explore other search engines. Videos in the series will look at ways to do other advanced searches, such as reverse image look up, in-depth data mining, and in-depth looks at many different search engines.

On October 7th, the courses will be

08.30 - 11.00 Advanced search for Librarians

11.30 - 14.00 Apps for Librarians

14.30 - 17.00 Advanced search for Librarians

 

On November 18th the courses will be

08.30 - 11.00 Apps for Librarians

11.30 - 14.00 Advanced search for Librarians

14.30 - 17.00 Apps for Librarians

I’ve arranged the courses this way to allow the maximum amount of flexibility. If you are an early bird, come to a course first thing in the morning. If you want to schedule a course over the lunch period, try the middle of the day, and if you prefer to leave work early, go for the last course of the day. Of course, if you want to attend more than one course, you’re most welcome!

Any Questions?

Is it really £99? Yes. I’m keeping it simple. No booking fee, no hidden extras, that’s it. I can do this because other than paying for the venue hire, equipment hire and my travel expenses, the fee comes to me; it’s what I live on! Unlike companies or other organisations that use the money to pay lots of staff, or use it to help keep their coffers filled; by cutting out the ‘middle man’ I can offer the course at what I think is a fair fee.

You mentioned for life? Yes, you pay your fee, and you can access the materials for as long as you want. I’ll be adding new material, updating older videos and so on anyway, since that’s a job I have to do. Consequently, if I’m already doing it, why should I ask for more money. You come on the course and you’ll never need to go on another one, and you’ll be able to keep fully up to date with what’s going on. Of course the ‘for life’ is my life, or rather ‘until I retire’ but that gets a little long winded!

Can I get a discount if I book two courses? Well no. I’m keeping the costs as low as I possibly can do as it is, and there’s no real room for wiggle. Don’t forget that as well as the face to face element, you’ll have access to the videos, the wiki, you can pop into the online chats when you want, AND you’ll never pay any more, so I think that’s a good deal.

When will you run the online chat sessions? I hope to do so every other week, for about an hour, and will advertise this on the wiki. If more people want to attend than seems sensible, I’ll arrange another one.

When can I book? I’ll start taking bookings when I have created all the videos and done the wikis for the courses. I’ll take bookings via a ticketing resource, PayPal, BACS or cheque if you prefer.

Can you keep me up to date? Sure - send me an email to [email protected] or add a comment, or follow me on Twitter or Facebook as I’ll be putting updates on there as well.

A new approach to training?

I’ve been involved with training information professionals since 1991, when I first ran a course called (I think) ‘Introduction to CD-ROM technology'. I became a consultant in 1995, so for the last twenty years I have spent a lot of time teaching a wide variety of colleagues from a huge spectrum of organisations. Over the course of that period it’s become clear – particularly in the last few years – that there’s a lot wrong with the training that is available in the sector.

Don’t get me wrong – there are some brilliant trainers (I should know, many of them are my friends) and some excellent organisations that offer training (and I should know that as well, since I’ve worked for most of them), but the format of such courses really hasn’t changed. The course starts at about 10am, runs through until lunch, and finishes about 4pm. Everyone has a great time, and goes away happy, but it does concern me as to how much a)people can cram into a day and b) how much of it they can remember afterwards.

I feel that there are 3 basic problems with this particular training paradigm. It’s expensive. The cost of training courses is almost always an issue, and I completely understand why. The organisation has to pay to advertise the course, pay for administration, pay somewhere to host it, pay the trainer and also very importantly make a profit! There are of course exceptions to this; courses that are run by local groups, or simply individuals getting together and arranging something for themselves, but these are in the minority.

The second problem, which is more common these days than ever before, is that a course lasts all day. This makes sense if you have to travel a long way (perhaps overnight) to attend a course – you’re not going to do so for a few hours. Venues are booked by the day rather than the half day, so once again it seems obvious. However, employers are increasingly unhappy about sending staff out for a full day; and if there are two or more that want to go on a course it usually means one misses out, since you can’t lose too many staff in one go.

The third problem, leading on from the second is that much of the training that’s offered is based in London. Of course there are courses elsewhere but because of the location of many of the training organisations (and trainers!) London seems an obvious choice; even if it’s inconvenient for many people.

So perhaps it’s time to look at doing things rather differently, and with your help I’d like to try something rather different. I’d like to try the idea of having a course that addresses each of the problems mentioned above.

Instead of having a full day session, the training course would be about 3 hours long; a morning or an afternoon session. However, rather than leaving it at that point delegates would also have access to materials after the course. These might be things such as videos, podcasts, small group webinars, written materials and so on. In total this would be somewhere in the region of another 2-3 hours, but this part of the course would be available for delegates to complete at their own pace in their own time. So in essence delegates would still end up with close to a days training in total, just more spread out, and for a cost of half a day. 

There is an alternative here – the idea of the ‘flipped classroom’, whereby you do all the work before coming on the course by working through the materials and watching the videos etc, and use the course time to discuss things that have occurred to you, ask questions, get answers to exercises set in the pre-course work and so on.

Of course, if delegates are going on a half day course it would need to be geographically close; none of this travelling to London! A course might be in a local training venue, school, university and so on. Hopefully that would deal with the last problem.

So the big one – the price. There are two elements here that have to be taken into account – the cost of the venue and the payment for the trainer. Much though I’d like to train for free, my bank manager would have words to say! However, it should be possible to bring the price down. I suggest that if the course is a half day course, you should be paying half day prices – that covers both my time as a trainer, and the cost of the venue. The extra element of podcasts, videos and so on would be pre-produced and packaged (updated as necessary) and made available to delegates. Once I’ve done the work of producing these, it makes sense to include them in the package that delegates would be paying for. The only exception would be if there was extra face to face (or cam to cam) work, which would take up my time, but if I’m doing that from home, once again, it’s not a big issue.

Venues usually charge different rates according to the facilities that you use, so again to cut down on costs delegates could bring their own laptops, tablets, smartphones and so on. They could use the wi-fi (which is usually reasonably priced and would be included in the venue price) rather than venue supplied computers. Course times could be 10.00 – 13.00 or 14.00 – 17.00 with perhaps a single short comfort break. No lunch, no morning coffee, just straight to work.

In order for this to work (ie. to pay my expenses and keep my bank manager happy) I’d be looking at quite large classes, in the region of 20 or more rather than single figures. The same course could run again in the afternoon session, or if it turns out people would like to make it an all day affair, I could run something different.

We need to work together as a community, not least of which when it comes to training, and while there’s some great work being done by some groups I feel that we could do more. So what I’d also like to be able to do would be to provide spaces on courses for the unwaged or students. If everyone paid a tiny bit more, and I took a tiny bit less I think this should be entirely feasible. I don’t want to get too ‘lovey – dovey’, but when we do things as a community – rather than for (large) profits we can all help each other a little bit more.

So in summary, my idea is this. Delegates have a no frills, half day course at a reasonable price, supplemented with training available afterwards. Courses could be run at locations all across the country (since I’m happy to travel and would pay my own travel expenses rather than pass them on). If a venue was able to offer a training room/wi-fi at reduced rates that would be great, and/or work out a deal with a certain number of free places for delegates.

This is where I need your help. Do you think this is a sensible thing to try and do, or am I in the realms of fantasy? How much would be an acceptable course fee, what would you like to learn? Where would you like the training to take place? I’ve put together a survey to answer those questions, so if you can spare 2 or 3 minutes I’d really appreciate it. Your answers will really affect what happens next! If you don’t think it will work, tell me, and I’ll look at doing something different. On the other hand, if you like the idea, and can help me price it sensibly and bring it to popular locations, this would be a really new and exciting approach.

Please leave comments below if you have lots to say and please, please fill out the survey!

Twitter for Librarians course

CILIP | Twitter for Librarians. You may possibly remember that back in the early part of the summer there was a discussion on Twitter around the fact that I was going to be running a course for CILIP on the use of Twitter for librarians. As that course has now taken place I'm just scribbling down my thoughts on it, as promised at the time.

The course was a half day course, with a maximum of 10 people on each (one per computer). Most of the people who came on the course had not set up an account, though a few had, but these had lain dormant. The delegates (we had full numbers for both courses) had a variety of reasons for attending - the practicalities, how to use the system to promote their library/organisation/themselves, curiosity, incorporating Twitter into other resources such as their websites and the usual catch all of 'everything'. Many of the delegates also said that while they could have set up something for themselves they were hoping that a quick half day introduction would let them hit the ground running, get the 'how to' out of the way quickly and ensure they could get into the more interesting elements of the service.

One thing that particularly struck me about both courses was that people had a very specific idea about what they thought Twitter was - and for most of them it was as a communication medium. There was much interest shown in the search options provided by Twitter itself, but also in the third party search resources that allowed for easy biography searching, creation of lists and so on. The trending topics element of Twitter was a bit of a disaster on the day since fully half of them were related to what you should say before/during/after sex, but this in turn led to interesting discussions on how appropriate the use of the service would be in certain types of organisation.

In my opinion as the trainer the courses worked well. Everyone was able to create accounts, follow people, post tweets and get the basics. They all had a chance to search and use Twitter as a real time news medium (for several people this was an unexpected top use), and one or two also linked their account to their website during the day. Two things were lacking - more time, and the ability to have a person in front of them who could provide a case study of how they/their library used Twitter.

A course isn't for everyone. Some people do prefer to spend time picking things up themselves, playing around, trial by error, or by reading about the subject. Others like to have illustrations, demonstrations and a guiding hand. We're not all the same when it comes to teaching/learning but given that all the delegates enjoyed the session and everyone went away happy and confident about using the service I think the course was justified.

AEG News: Web 2.0 - What It's all About - an Aslib Engineering workshop held at at Brunel University

I spent a very nice day last week at Brunel University running a  Web 2.0 - What It's all About course for the ASLIB Engineering group. We did an overview of the subject, and then looked in detail at start pages, custom search engines, creating weblogs and websites using the resources on the net. A good time was had by all.

Meebo rooms

Meebo rooms. Meebo is well known for offering funky little gadgets that allow you to chat via IM without having to install anything. They've now gone to the next level and created chat rooms that you can embed onto a page. They're getting a lot of buzz, although I'm not sure why, since plenty of other people are embedding chat rooms such as Gabbly chat for example, though to be fair, Meebo does give you the opportunity of embedding video and so on.

Library information Show 2007 - Library 2.0 Forum

Library  information Show 2007 - Library 2.0 Forum. I'll be co-running a session with Karen Blakeman on 'Web 2.0 for libraries - de-mystifying the technologies' at the show, 11.20-12.20, 18th April.

Training tools - reference resources.

Training tools - reference
Originally uploaded by Philipbradley.

People obviously want handouts when they come on courses, but these are always going to get filed away, and the value of them is pretty much lost. So I came up with an idea to make life a little bit easier, which is to create a series of reference cards for people to use.

The larger cards provide quick reference access to Google syntax and lists of other search engines, and the colourful one is a list of Web 2.0 resources, front and back. They can also be turned into magnets for going on fridges or filing cabinets for example. The idea is simple - just produce these in large numbers (stationary websites often offer freebies that you can use for this purpose) and then give each course delegate half a dozen of the things. They can then use them, keep them by their computer, give to colleagues, put up on noticeboards and so on.  Obviously I can't put everything onto a card, so there are always links to other resources on my site for them to visit as well.

The smaller card in the middle is business sized and it lists some key Google syntax (I've managed to get 13 onto one card and still make sure it's readable), with half a dozen search engines listed below. The idea here is that you can prop it next to a terminal, stick it to the side of a monitor, keep in a wallet or just use as scattercards and leave them lying around the library for other people to pick up and use. They're not expensive, and stationary sites will do these by the 100 or 500 for example, and they're great fun to give out. Delegates really do seem to like them, and I think that, as long as you're thoughtful in what you put on, they're really helpful.

Training tools - rewards

Training tools - rewards
Originally uploaded by Philipbradley.

Just providing handouts for courses is a little old hat these days I think. It's about time to introduce some fun into the proceedings, so I'm showing you some of the things that I give away on my courses. I've got sticky notes with appropriate comments about librarians and larger notepads, again with something appropriate 'A note from your helpful librarian'. These can work out quite pricey, but you can get free samples from lots of stationary companies. I tend to give these out as an incentive to ask questions 'First person to ask me a question I can't answer gets a sticky notes pad'.

The images are actually small (business sized) fridge magnets with appropriate library quotations on them. Again, you can get freebies from different sources, and I generally give them out so that everyone gets one.

The calendar is also a fridge magnet, though it's also got my business card details on it. Never a bad idea to remind someone as to how they can get hold of me!

Fake websites and spoof websites; evaluating internet resources using false websites

Link: Fake websites and spoof websites; evaluating internet resources using false websites. I've been asked several times recently if I can suggest some fake websites that librarians or educators can show their students in order to prove that not everything is, well shall we say 'factually accurate' on the net. I was using a few fairly old and quite frankly tired examples - the Luther King site, or one of the White House sites, so I have been doing some digging around and have come up with over 50 sites that seem to me to be pretty good at demonstrating you can't believe what you find on the net.

I've arranged the examples into two pages; the first link above goes to scientific and commercial examples, with pages covering things such as male pregnancy, dihydrogen monoxide and Microsoft Firefox Professional for example. The second page provides examples in the area of social sites, historical, religious, political and travel and tourism. Examples include black market babies, absolution online, and the World Trade Organisation.

I've provided a brief line or two of commentary and given my opinion on how credible the content is, and how safe it is to use with children. There are some fantastic examples here, and even better, some of them are really funny. I hope that you find them useful - if so please feel free to mention them, and if you have a page on your own site that talks about evaluating internet resources, you're encouraged to link to it.