My home office is filled with books, my Kindle is filled with e-books, and my mind is always swirling with ideas to include in my next book. Which all boils down to one thing… I love books! And I love to see book recommendations from other professionals. So I was excited to discover TalentLMS’s expansive list of 48 Books Every Aspiring Chief Learning Officer Should Read. It’s a huge honor that they included my book, “Virtual Training Tools and Templates: an Action Guide to Live Online Learning“, in their list alongside many other impressive resources.
It also inspired me to share a few of my “must-read” recommended books for virtual trainers. Here they are, in no particular order.
“A Trainers’ Guide to PowerPoint” by Mike Parkinson
The Amazon.com description says it all: “A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters is Mike Parkinson’s master class on the art of PowerPoint.” Most virtual trainers rely on PowerPoint slides to convey their messages, increase audience engagement, and create an interactive virtual class. This new (2018) book is your must-have guide to making the most of your slides.
“Design for How People Learn” by Julie Dirksen
Effective learning design applies to all training programs, including virtual ones. The rock-solid research found in this book, presented in an easy-to-comprehend format, makes this one my #1 recommended resource for instructional design.
“Interact and Engage: 50+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars”
In full disclosure, I wrote the foreword to this book. And I’m still an avid fan of the fantastic activity ideas found within. If you need suggestions on how to make your online events more interactive, then this book is for you.
What about you? Which books and resources do you refer to over and over again for your virtual training programs? What would you add to this list? Please share them in the comments below.
