Is this thing on?

"I get so tired listening to one million dollars here, one million dollars there, it's so petty."
    -     Imelda Marcos

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re just not communicating?  You’re not making that crucial connection with your audience?

Learning is a different game than most.  If you don’t make that connection with your learner it doesn’t matter how good your information is.  You aren’t going to be effective, they aren’t going to learn, and the whole thing is a failure.

Now abstract that one more step – asynchronous learning.  Traditional computer based learning offers little in the way of feedback, and in some regards it is even more important.  Without an instructor standing over your shoulder answering questions, how can we possibly know if we are successful?  

We have had computer based training videos for years and I have absolutely no idea whether they are useful in any way. Sure people buy them but I don’t know if they use them.  I don’t know if they are helpful or they confuse the issue.  I don’t know if people feel they got value.  For all I know I could be in the business of producing expensive coasters.

This is one of the main reasons why, earlier this year at OSIsoft, LLC, we published our entire catalog to YouTube.  Hundreds and hundreds of videos are now available for free, and I will argue that we get more out of this than my customers.

How can that be? 

It is simple – I now have a real-time gauge of how successful my videos are.  I can see who is watching what videos, what videos are successful, and most importantly you, as a user, can leave us feedback.  We have already had customers ask questions we have been able to answer quickly.  One customer requested an explanation of a certain topic that we suspected was highly desired and within a week we had videos posted.  The interaction is endless.

You can ask questions and we can provide answers – answers that ultimately help you learn.  Isn’t that why we’re here?