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What the heck is an Ontology?
And why do we need to talk about it?
If you find yourself thinking those questions, then this IDIODC episode is for you.
The world of work has changed. Our industry has been changing for many years, but 2020 has placed the spotlight directly on corporate training. Not only did the entire planet move their lives online, but businesses are now being required to report data on Human Capital Management efforts. It's the perfect time for us to talk about the reality of our expanding role within the organizations we serve.
In the past we simply built instructional materials for classroom lessons to be taught by trainers/teachers. Today, we produce online learning that is synchronous and asynchronous, job aides, videos, live streams, knowledge bases, infographics, learning ecosystems and so much more. Some of our colleagues are even being asked to "create a learning culture" within their organizations. Is that even possible?
In this episode of IDIODC Adam Weisblatt joined us to talk about how we can begin to create this new ontology in a way that is easy to understand. We have relational databases that give us organized data but they are typically too complicated for the average L&D professional to master. Some do spend the time to learn how to master advanced data analysis and visualization platforms like Tableau.
Tracie Cantu shared in the chat, “We've made that report with Tableau. It starts at high level and drills down to individual.” And that, “The data is key. We have all the necessary data in [our LMS].”
She also mentioned that her team has the very good fortune of “having an L&D person with a Tableau skill set.”
I can assure you Tableau is a complex and advanced platform, so having someone on a training team that is proficient at Tableau is rare!
This is a perfect illustration of how much our industry has changed over time. Understanding ontologies, data analytics and the software that supports them was never intended to be in a training professional’s skillset. It is now.
What we do and how we do it has changed significantly. It's time to redraw that reality so we're all working from the same page and understanding ontologies just might be the thing we need to do it.
To see all the comments from the chat check out the full session right here.
And if you're interested in data and analytics, here are some other dominKnow resources you might find helpful:
- Practical Application of Learning Analytics and Data
- Getting Started with xAPI
- Chris’s Story of How He Learned to Love xAPI
- XAPI for Non-Technical Learning Professionals with Megan Torrance
About Adam Weisblatt
Adam Weisblatt is a learning strategist and business consultant. As founder of Blank Page Learning LLC, he helps Learning and Development teams become more resilient by analyzing, improving and documenting their processes around using technology. Adam has worked with Pfizer, Factset and Nielsen as well as other companies in diverse industries. He is a cartoonist, puppeteer and dad.
About IDIODC
Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee (affectionately known as IDIODC) is a weekly live videocast and podcast that helps instructional designers with pain points and provides best practices and industry insight.
Every Wednesday morning at 10am ET hosts Brent Schlenker and Chris Van Wingerden guide us through an upbeat and candid conversation with their guests from the elearning and training world. The live cast session encourages peers to participate in the chat and share their own personal insight! After airing live, you can catch the learning podcast on all major streams such as Spotify, Apple and Google Play podcasts, as well as on YouTube.
