Comments on: Identity Crisis

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:33:19 +0000

How about Learning Technology Solutions – which would get you LTS for the acronym fans.

We work with many groups, whose department names vary widely. Some common variations are Training & Development, Learning & Development (for these, development of ones knowledge and skills, not programming like development), Technology Delivered Learning, eLearning Solutions, and similar.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:18:47 +0000

I’m liking Learning Technologies the best, but the Powers That Be don’t like it because it doesn’t create a catchy acronym. Sigh. I guess we’ll end up with something long and convoluted and nonsensical just to get a decent acronym out of it.

Good acronym > logic. Apparently.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:06:23 +0000

Do you guys think that the inaccurate naming of your departments is a result of years of the company knowing your group by that name? How often do training departments alter their name anyhow? I honestly have not been part of determining by group’s name at any point in the past.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:57:11 +0000

Hey Norman, I’m glad you commented as I’ve been thinking about the name Learning Technology (or Technologies) for our team as well.

By: Norman Lamont

Norman Lamont — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:19:45 +0000

In our company our little team, which maintains websites some websites and an LMS as well as creating elearning is called the Learning Technologies Team. As a result we’re usually regarded as techhies and trainers or training managers are sometimes a big sniffy when we try to advise them about learning as opposed to how to put their 48-page workbook on the web.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:59:50 +0000

In my organization, we used to be called Training. Now we’re called Learning & Education. How’s that for the Department of Redundancy Department?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:44:13 +0000

Well, I don’t think your bank account would prefer that you chose “elearning janitor”. I identify with the sentiment though.

This topic hits upon a similar theme to choosing the words that define the industry. One word has become a real annoyance for me: Training. Just say it once and listen to it. Training. It’s used so loosely, so frivolously, so often. Is there a word we can move to so it’s away from this one? So few others are good candidates.

By: trondk

trondk — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:30:27 +0000

I am seriously considering giving up a “serious” title and considering going for something like:
Learning Architect
Grand Learning Architect
Learning Astronaut
Learning Gardner
elearning janitor

/trondk

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:58:37 +0000

Hey-o.

Well, in my first career position – the one in which I became an Instructional Designer by happenstance – my team was called Live Development. A clarification is in order: It was a company that developed courses not for internal purposes, but for OTS sale to corporations and individuals. They also did custom work for clients. But I was part of Live Development, which was part of the larger Product Development organization.

In my current capacity, I’m part of a group call “End User Training”. That’s pretty much exactly what we do. It’s a basic, uninteresting name, but it’s what we do.

As far as suggestions go, here are a few improvs that don’t use the typical terms:

Performance Enablement Team (PET)
Workforce Improvement (WI)
Workforce Development (WD)
Personnel Capability (PC)
Personnel Capability Team (PCT)

What have been the names of the teams you have been on?