Feedback

The alarm went off at 6:30 am this morning because I had to get to Oakland for Jury Duty by 8:00 am. Waiting with a hundred and fifty other citizens, I recalled the feedback from Tuesday's webinar. I have issues.

Better speakers than I have cautioned me not to take participant feedback too seriously. No matter what the speaker says, some people are going to report on how they felt when they got out of bed that morning, regardless of what was said. Do I take my friends' advice? Of course not.

If feedback can help my next presentation grab just one more individual, I'll dig through the numbers to glean what lessons I can. The only thing worse than learning from experience is not learning from experience. Continuous improvement is simply one of my core beliefs.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the event and gratified by the feedback I received.

What was the feedback?

• 82% of 146 respondents found the event valuable and would recommend it to their colleagues.

• 76% said the length and pace of the event were appropriate for the material covered.

• 97% found my voice intelligible and easy to understand.

  On average, most people say they were satisfied but not "strongly satisfied:"

  

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  I was glad to see that replies about the “most important thing learned” are all over the map:

  • Additional resources IIIII IIII
  • Blended (har-har) III
  • Blogging is worth it IIIII III
  • Branding vs. commodity III
  • Collaboration IIII
  • EAI & realtime learning III
  • “Everything” and "the memes" IIIII
  • Future trends IIIII I
  • Hunt the elephant meme IIIII
  • Importance of informal learning IIII
  • Improving the core business IIIII
  • Meta-learning III
  • Networks & learning IIIII
  • Uncertainty engages the mind IIII
  • Got me thinking in new ways IIIII
  • Realizing I am not alone IIIII
  • Too many to mention IIII

    
    

  • Course description did not match the course content I
    
  • Too fluffy, not enough content I
    
  • Too little learning per se I

  The second open-ended question asked for additional comments about the presenter, the content, and suggestions for improvement. I’ll post all the replies. For years I attended conferences and never saw anyone else's evaluation. They are generaly not consistent.

  • A lot of good information, but presented so quickly. It might have been better to focus on one aspect.
  • Already go to InternetTime.com nearly every day.
  • Excellent presentation.
  • For next session give examples of current EAI: workflow based learning . Who is doing this, and where are they in the process? Best practices examples. THANKS!
  • Good job!
  • Good keep it up, rapid and interesting
  • Good speaker, would like more classes about topics covered and go into more details.
  • "great
  • up front, give instructions for people with old interface. why didn't i get newer one? this was confusing. took me a while to figure out how to write a note."
  • "Great and inspiring - maybe enough material (ideas) for two sessions. Thanks"
  • Great hour. Well spent!
  • great presentation
  • Great presentation, I'm looking forward to checking out the resources.
  • great presentation, thank you.
  • Great session. Love being able to dig deeper into topics covered.
  • Great speaker, Jay needs to come back and give us more!
  • GREAT!!
  • hard to use Interwise
  • He needed more time!
  • I expected a more interactive experience....would be interested in participating in a more interactive event. Please keep me posted...the technology is unbelievable.
  • i know interwise very well - great technology!
  • I would have preferred more questions and interaction. I thought there was going to be more audience participation throughout.
  • I would like a copy of the presentation material. Also, I would like information on how to complete a eLearning Implementation Action Plan.
  • I would suggest not insulting your participants. I'm a Microsoft employee. Jay's comment about my company did not impress. I also feel this was very, very basic information and really didn't give me any additional information, or ideas. Overall, very disappointing for me.
  • I was looking for new techniques not just information of this nature.
  • I'd like to hear a similar seminar on K12 elearning.
  • Interesting overview.
  • Interesting speaker and format.
  • It would be great to see a regular (monthly) session with Jay. 1 hour just scratches the surface on this topic.
  • Jay is always interesting.
  • Jay is, as always, excellent!!!!
  • Jay seems to be very talkive, except on the subject at hand. This was not what was expected when registering; more of a networking presentation for his interests.
  • Looking forward to the recorded availability. I missed the first 20 mins due to an electrical storm here in Orlando. Thks
  • Make this a little more concrete -- use actual course material.
  • More time needed, maybe another 15 minutes.
  • Need a bit more visual material to go with the spoken presentation. Make sure text is not too small. Some information was lost that way.
  • "Overall the content was great. A bit more info that would have been ""new"" would have been great. But he did give a different perspective. "
  • Thanks
  • Thanks once again :-)
  • Thanks so much!
  • the pace could be a bit slower for the volume of information shared - i like to take notes and provide myself reminders about things to go away with and check out - i didn't have enough time to do that
  • The presenter is obviously (IMHO) a brilliant, dedicated professional. I expect that his ideas will go far in re-defining elearning.
  • There was a problem with the voice volume. Loulou was inaudible at full volume settings while John needed to be turned down to the lowest volume but he was easily understood. I really missed all of Loulou.
  • This presentation was a nice look into the mind of Jay and his thoughts about eLearning.
  • It would have been great to dive down into any of the topics but I recognize that the time did not allow it.
  • "this was very entertaining, but seemed to just scratch the surface on a bunch of various subjects, versus going in depth on anything at all - sounds more like an intro to an absolute beginner; nice examples; good points, interesting way to link ideas..."
  • "Too much material at the given time. Still, it was great, very, very interesting."
  • "was hoping for more concrete ideas of the future direction of elearning
  • more specifics for immediate future"
  • Wasn't clear if there were other materials available besides the slides.
  • What is the next step? Where do I go to take Jay's ideas and putting them into the elephant hunt?
  • Would like to have some interim conclusions or "next steps" on this topic.

  At the Center for Creative Leadership, they teach that a negative comment has three times the impact of a positive one, so I sense some problems here. Trying not to be defensive, I’ll offer a few observations about my though process before our webinar together.

  Whenever one puts together a presentation, the Law of Raspberry Jam kicks in: The more you spread it, the thinner it gets. I purposely chose wide rather than deep for this presentation. My logic was that if you wanted more, you could take a look at the essays and links I posted at internettime.com.

  Interactivity is a similar trade-off: You can interact or you can present a lot of material but you can’t do both.

  My first cut at this presentation was to recount an almost stream-of-consciousness story of the birth and evolution of eLearning. After the dry run, we decided it didn’t address the topic squarely. I proposed chopping the whole thing into memes. Participants would select a meme by polling, and we’d go back and forth on it. We feared that I might get only a couple of ideas out before the discussion degenerated into free-for-all. So, as much as I like give-and-take, we had fifty minutes of my yap and twenty minutes of Q&A. I think this was probably the right mix.

  Going into this, we knew that we weren’t going to “write the next chapter of eLearning” in 90 minutes. I figured that at most, I could share a few new perspectives, provoke your thinking, and help you make wiser decisions. After all, I’m not writing the next chapter; all of us are. Let me tell you a secret: There aren’t any cookie-cutter solutions out there.

  We had a few conflicting goals entering the session. Some wanted specifics and how-to’s; I was more interested in raising the uncertainty that engages the mind. Some wanted answers; I focused on process.

  Finally, as to the comment that "Need a bit more visual material to go with the spoken presentation," sorry, sir, but you must have walked into the wrong room.

  
  Posted by Jay Cross at July 24, 2003 07:35 PM | TrackBack