This article originally appeared in a recent edition of The Institute for Performance and Learning (Vancouver & BC Mainland Chapter) email newsletter under the title “Learning Nugget #4: Professional Development Resources.” It has been lightly edited and reformatted for this blog.

Although we’re in the business of creating and providing learning opportunities for our clients, many of us forget about our own ongoing self-development and learning. Granted, we’re all busy with looming deadlines, multiple projects and countless day-to-day tasks but we get so focused on these activities that we sometimes forget to lift our heads up and focus on the bigger picture. How can we provide relevant and current learning solutions to our clients if we’re not updating our own knowledge and skill?

Educating ourselves is a priority in our profession and we need to constantly work on doing just that. We can read books and research reports, contribute to on-line discussions, complete certification training and many other activities to keep up with what’s going on in the industry. Doing a Google search uncovers an incredible amount of informative and thought-provoking learning and development (L&D) information. Books, research and best practice articles, industry discussions and debates on blogs, LinkedIn groups and Twitter feeds as well as meet up groups, conferences, online webinars and podcasts are available, and many are free!

Check out some of the following resources available for your professional development:

Online resources and books

• Training Magazine Network offers monthly webinars, access to archived webinars, conferences, resources and a social learning community.

• Gagne’s 9 Events course.

• Tom Kuhlmann’s Rapid E-Learning Blog.

• Articulate’s E-Learning Heroes Community for everything elearning.

• Clark N. Quinn’s Learnlets blog.

• Allen Interactions eLearning Leadership Blog.

• The eLearning Guild offers resources, conferences and a community for eLearning professionals. Free and paid memberships available.

• The Limestone Learning blog posts a list at the end of each month of all the free webinars for the upcoming month, so you don’t need to go searching on different sites.

• Brandon Hall Group offers monthly webinars.

• Kirkpatrick Method. Registration is free. Includes access to a weekly newsletter on learning evaluation, white papers and articles, free podcasts and webinars, a quick tips podcast series and other learning evaluation resources.

• The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning (book) by Calhoun Wick, Roy Pollock, and Andrew Jefferson.

Training courses

If you interested in investing some money into your professional development here are some suggestions to get you started:

• Institute for Performance and Learning (IPL) membership – attend local networking events, access free webinars, attend conferences and seminars and get CTP and/or CTDP certified.

• Association for Talent Development (ATD) membership - access a huge library of resources as well as free monthly webinars and discounts on conferences.

• Training Magazine Network offers online courses on a variety of L&D topics and software.

• The ABCs of Instructional Design focuses on designing for LMSs including Moodle, Blackboard, Desire to Learn. It is four hours in length.

• MOOC.org – free online courses available in a wide variety of topics.

• Lynda.com offers thousands of video courses in software, creative and business skills. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial.

• Alison.com – one of the largest suppliers of free online courses to learn skills at a certified, standards-based level.

• IADL’s eLearning and synchronous web training tutorials.

Industry certification

• Institute for Performance and Learning (IPL) CTP and CTDP certification.

• Association for Talent Development (ATD) – various online certificates in learning, instructional design, elearning, human resources, performance management, etc.

• Kirkpatrick Four Levels Evaluation Bronze, Silver and Gold Certification.

• ROI Institute training ROI certification.

• Training Magazine Network Path2X industry certifications.

• The University of Victoria Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education (CACE) online program for instructor training and curriculum development.

• Vancouver Community College (VCC) Provincial Instructor Diploma, Diploma in Adult Education and Certificate in Online eLearning Instruction.

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