What is happening with the bi-annual CEdMA Survey?

"When is the CEdMA survey going to be done?"
"Can I help with the survey?"
"I didn't like some of the questions on the last survey."

The incoming Board of Directors has made an important decision concerning the survey. More important, we have made decisions about how to gather, manage and make available the critical information that we all need to better do (and keep!) our jobs. Because this decision was made on my recommendation and based on my vision, I am writing this to help explain how we hope to have this work. I want to stress that I will be presenting at the Fall CEdMA conference to further explain the new concept and to take your input, questions, concerns and criticisms.

I hope that you will take a couple of minutes to read this over, and to email me at president@cedma.org with your thoughts and questions. (Please note that what is proposed here is not intended in any way to change our current method of using email to gather opinions, get help, do quick polls, etc. with the resulting content going to Goldmine for future research.)

I do not believe that we need a "survey". We have as a collective group vitally important data about our businesses, our metrics, our rules of thumb. We need a sensible method to gather and continuously update this information. We need a method that allows us to access this information when we need it. Think about the kinds of questions that we often ask each other:

-What is the ratio of development time to content for eLearning? 200-1? 50-1?
-What is a proper utilization rate for instructors?
-How long is your contract with your training partners? 2 years? 1 year?
-What virtual classroom tool do you use? Does it support VOIP?

Each one of these questions has many dimensions. For example, for development time, are we talking about a course revision? Or a new course? For a new release of an existing product, or a brand new product? Deeply technical? End user focus? What about the audience? Will there be translation to other languages?

I could go on with the different dimensions of this question or of the many aspects of our training businesses. The fact is that most of the aspects of our business would benefit from sound analysis of the details. If we can provide a good, solid, accessible base of data for all the CEdMA members, we would have a tremendously valuable tool.

In order for this data to be useful and valid, we need to have a reasonably sensible approach to gathering it scientifically. In order for the data to be comprehensive, we need to have a reasonably sensible approach to collecting and continously updating it, without unreasonably taxing the members providing the information. In order to have its full value, the data has to be organized demographically, so we can tell what we are seeing. (I may want to know differences in costs for setting up classrooms if I work for a hardward company - what are other hardware companies encountering?)

The bottom line is that we need a Repository of information. We need to carefully examine and collect all the Benchmark aspects so we have the appropriate value. This storehouse of valuable data must be easily updated, and constantly refreshed, so that the Dynamic nature is captured.

This is how the Dynamic Benchmark Repository (DBR) came to life.

The first step with the DBR is to find an external vendor with the right expertise to design this web based system for us. Pat Durante and I are actively seeking a partner to help us with this. Do you know of a company that could fit the bill? Send me an email.

The next step is....to be outlined in my recorded presentation, currently in the works.

Stay tuned for more details.
And thanks for your support.

Ken Hirsohn
CEdMA President