MIT Online for Free

MIT Sloan School of Management is now offering much of its course information online for free. MIT Sloan Teaching Innovation Resources is “a collection of teaching materials, including case studies, simulations, deep dives, and industry, business and country overviews that MIT Sloan provides as a free teaching resource open and available to the world. Similar to the course syllabi and materials found on MIT’s OpenCourseWare site, these materials carry a creative commons license allowing them to be downloaded, copied and distributed.” The topics cover a variety of management topics. To view the site, go to

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/MSTIR/Pages/default.aspx

Training on a Tighter Budget

Of course smaller budgets are in the news. Recently three different magazines tackled the topic.

TechRepublic, back in October, looked at ways to continue training while your budget continues to disappear. Strategies include using Safari.com which offers a lot of books online for free, using your vendors to provide the training for free (check out your licensing arrangements), and sharing training costs with another organization. Read the original article at: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=626

IndustryWeek.com looked at federal reimbursements for training as well as having a few staff attend training, then returning to homebase and training the others. Simulation software was also an idea for really tight budgets and quick learners. http://www.industryweek.com/articles/training_doesnt_have_to_be_a_budget_buster_18203.aspx

HR Magazine suggested prioritizing the training that absolutely needs to be done (such as regulatory and safety procedures). Next would be training tied to the customer or organization’s brand. And, interestingly enough, continuing on with sensitivity training because, during economic turmoil, there’s usually an uptick in discrimination claims. If you are a Society of Human Resource Management member, you can access the full article, from the January 2009 magazine, at http://www.shrm.org/Pages/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fPublications%2fhrmagazine%2fEditorialContent%2fPages%2f0109train.aspx

If you’re not a member, you can access it at http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-regional-local/11767528-1.html.

And an article in the February issue of T&D, a publication of the American Society for Training and Development, looked at the cost of not training with a focus on the financial arena. The article also looked at affordable training options including group membership in professional organizations. That article can be viewed here: http://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/FE10B19D-3C55-4850-90CD-B1AB58DD7404/20173/TD_ReSearch.pdf

ASTD also has an economic survival guide with for good resources with slimmer budgets which can be read or watched here : http://www.astd.org/ASTD/aboutus/Economic-Survival-Guide/actionplan.htm

New Free Web-Conferencing Option

Here’s our addition to the “making training work on a budget.” Dimdim.com is a web-conferencing software that is free up to 20 people and doesn’t require any software downloads. You can see computer screens, PowerPoint slides, PDFs and video, too. You can check it out at www.DimDim.com.