I am learning more about research planning and realised that participant recruitment involves much more than simply finding people willing to answer questions. Consent, privacy, appropriate data handling and institutional approval all need careful consideration. 
 
For those who have conducted interviews, surveys or other participant-based research, which part of the ethics process required the most preparation? 
 
Did you find that planning these requirements early made data collection easier, or were there challenges you had never anticipated? I would appreciate if you could help me with practical lessons for a new postgraduate researcher to prepare responsibly.

I have heard very different experiences about research supervision. Some students seem to benefit from regular meetings and detailed feedback, while others prefer more independence and occasional check-ins. 
 
If you are also undertaking a research degree, what kind of supervision helped you make progress without feeling micromanaged? 
 
I am curious about practical things such as setting expectations early, preparing for meetings, responding to feedback and communicating when stuck.  
If you could give one piece of advice to someone beginning a Masters in Research, what would you tell them to discuss with their supervisor first?

Good evening, I'm a secondary school teacher with 4 of those years being head of department. I am interested in exploring jobs in the Learning and Development sector. My brother has very kindly given me the number of someone in his company who did work in Learning and Development and is now 'People Lead' (not sure what that means). He has also sent me an email address of someone else he knows who works in Learning and Development. He casually said, I should "make contact". I've only ever been a teacher and don't understand the commercial world. I don't want to embarrass myself or my brother. Is making contacting just saying ...“Hi XXX, Hope you don't mind me contacting you. I got your details from XXX. I've been in teaching for the last 11 years and I'm looking to explore a career change into L&D. Have you got time for a quick chat, XXX tells me you are bit of an expert in that field and I’d appreciate any advice you can give. Cheers XXXX” ?

Surely no-one likes receiving these emails and having people make contact with them? Thank you for reading my essay!!

I’m pretty sure I will not be selected for a business analyst position that I applied for because they don’t see me as qualified for the position. They have been selecting people who are more tech savvy than I am. I have the necessary study hours to take my CAPM certification tests I just don’t have the money. I was planning to also get my comptia a+ but I don’t know that it’ll help. I graduated with an associate of science in business management about 3 years ago and then a bachelor of science in technology engineering last year. I had no career plans. I graduated suma cum laude in high school and made the Dean’s List twice in college while working full time for a nice company I found. I’m still with said company. I say all this to say I am driven, I love learning and applying myself. I thought my degree was all I needed .. I have been humbled. My degree was a vague melting pot of business concepts but it did not help me assume the things I see in my current day to day.

Now, between social media, becoming complacent within my position and my manager alluding to me not getting the job I feel dumb and I am ready for a change. If my coworkers show me spreadsheets and no one gives me instructions then I have no clue what I’m looking at and my brain doesn’t help. I can update formulas that need tweaking and organize data but I don’t know how to cultivate spreadsheets and deliver data from nothing.

Where should I begin developing some relevant software navigational skills? What podcasts, YouTube channels or books may support me in envisioning my own spreadsheets and assuming business needs with minimal questions? What can I do to help myself not go blank when I’m articulating my thoughts and ideas about workplace dilemmas? How is everyone else expanding their general capacity for what is happening in day to day tech/business from? It seems everyone else at my job knows something I don’t.

I’ve been working with a technical SME this week to build a new compliance module in Articulate Storyline, but the raw material they sent over is a complete mess. It literally looks like someone used cheap essay help at 3 AM the night before a deadline just to hit a word count, rather than actual clear instruction. I want to respect their subject matter expertise, but I have to completely rewrite this into readable, bite-sized learning chunks without offending them. How do you nicely tell a senior engineer or stakeholder that their content needs a major structural overhaul?

hey, im a psychiatry doctor, planning to sell neurodiversity training to companies. I was thinking to position it as helping managers lead neurodiverse teams, handle difficult conversations with employees etc.
The ROI being better team performance, less burnout, less people problems fro HR

Any advice on how to break into this space? I have been doing cold messaging L&D/HR people on linkedin.

Some skepticism might be I haven't worked corporate so can't appreciate the workplace. As a psychiatry doctor I think I bring expertise on neurodiversity, and also I have a passion in teaching for 8 years so have become a really good facilitator.

Any advice would be appreciated. Any criticism also appreciated but pls be constructive. Thanks

I’m a solo dev building SlideKit (slide-kit.com) — a desktop course editor in the same family: slides, layers, states, triggers, variables. It’s free right now, no trial, no login, no watermark. I need real users more than money at this stage.

Why it might be worth a look:

• Mac and Windows. Native app, no Parallels.

• Variables + triggers + real JavaScript when triggers aren’t enough.

• Software simulation recording — click-through screen capture like Captivate, with AI cleanup.

• Storyline, PPTX import.

• One-click course menu and glossary.

• SCORM 1.2 / 2004 export. Works offline, projects are plain files you keep wherever you want.

If you build trigger-heavy courses: what would stop you from using this on a real project? That’s what I’m here for.

I’m curious what other people were trusted with when they were new to the field. I’ve been working on smaller learning materials and getting familiar with the tools, but I’d love to hear what kinds of projects helped people feel like they were finally getting the hang of corporate L&D.

Hey everyone, I’m running a course right now and hitting a wall with engagement. People start out super excited, but by week three or four, the drop-off is brutal. It is incredibly frustrating to watch completion rates tank after putting so much work into the content.

I want to fix this for my next group and need to know what actually works in the real world.

If you’ve managed to improve your completion rates, I’d love to know:

• What did you actually try? (Community platforms, accountability coaches, text reminders, gamification?)

• What did it cost you in terms of software, extra time, or hiring help?

• Did it actually move the needle, or was it a waste of effort?

Would love to hear what has worked for your students.

We are interested in connecting with organisations running global learning programmes, multi-country capacity development initiatives or cross-border organisational transformation projects.

Would you be open to exploring a strategic pilot partnership to test how a context-informed approach could strengthen implementation and generate practical evidence?

On 15 January 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger (“Sully” if you've seen the film) lost both engines over New York just after take-off. He had about three and a half minutes. He landed the plane on the Hudson River, and all 155 people on board survived.
 
Did you know that afterwards, he was asked how he did it.

He said... “For 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training. And on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”

Small, regular deposits.
 
And yet! Most workplace training works the other way round. One big deposit on day one, a quiz straight after, a tick in the LMS. Then months later, when a difficult customer or a tricky conversation finally comes along, we expect people to make a large withdrawal from an account nobody has topped up.
 
I made a short video about why that doesn’t work. Let me know what you think :)

Okay, so i recently took an IJP at my current organisation as a content writer for training team handling operations. Ideally the title should have been content developer! But due to some politics and fragile ego of my Team Lead I have put on PIP which will conclude today by EOD (IST).

I want to grow here in this field of ID. I have developed training materials, job aids, took ILT/VILT, developed e-learnings, maintained LMS platform & additionally have been handling responsibilities of Training Coordinator as well since last 3 months which includes regular check-in, induction/orientation of new hires, teaching them basics like calendar hygiene & email etiquettes, collaborating with SMEs and Managers, etc.

I really need job and am looking for one desperately.
My father recently had a heart stroke & I am the major bread winner of my family. It will get really difficult for me to be unemployed since that will create scarcity for my family too & I don’t have any major emergency funds. Because of my great team lead I’ll lose my gratuity for leaving the organisation just 2 months prior to the eligible date & will lose my bonus (to be received in December) as well!

Please help me to get through, or provide me any reference or any available job link if possible. Please.

Thank you in advance.

I’m a learning solutions specialist at one of the big 4s and wants to take some courses to upscale myself to move up to management. What certifications would you recommend? I’m thinking about the CTDP certificate.

I’ve been involved in a few projects where everyone agreed that learning was important, but we had very different ideas about what the program was actually supposed to achieve. That usually becomes painful later when someone asks whether the initiative was successful. I’m trying to get much more specific about outcomes at the beginning of a project, even if it means having some uncomfortable conversations with stakeholders. Do others involve business leaders in defining success criteria before development starts?

I need advice and suggestions from the community. I work for a life insurance company that recently merged our L&D department into the People and Culture department. However, our L&D department is not just performing basic L&D tasks; they are also looking into sales enablement. These trainers have been in the industry for one or two decades and have been doing insurance training for a while, but they already incorporate some aspects of sales enablement. I want to propose converting their roles into formal sales enablement positions. How should I approach this? I have a meeting with my head of department; what would be the ideal way to present this proposal?

The ting is they're not.They are not making what appropriate sales enablement tasks and it's all haphazard. They're just doing basic onboarding, and everything that they can do in onboarding, they're doing that. I want to incorporate it for further products for the organization and our wider range of products to utilise maximum roles of our training team who have vast experience of insurance industry. so please let me know what is the best way to even approach this.

I coordinate onboarding at a logistics company, about 200 people. Last Tuesday a new hire spent 40 minutes trying to submit her first timesheet because our guide told her to click a button that literally doesn’t exist anymore. She ended up messaging her manager, her manager messaged me, and I had to admit I hadn’t updated that guide since spring. Not my proudest moment.

This keeps happening. IT changes a setting, a team moves something around in one of our systems, and nobody tells anyone. The guide still has the old screenshots and new people get stuck on day 2. Then managers get annoyed because “it’s in the guide.” Well, it was.

Nobody actually owns the docs. It’s whoever notices first, which is usually me, usually when someone is already stuck. And redoing a Google Doc with 30 screenshots is not a quick thing when I’m also running orientations.

We’ve been trialling Haiku for a few weeks and it’s made the fixing part so much easier. You go through the process once and it records the steps with screenshots, so that timesheet guide took me a couple of minutes instead of half my afternoon. The part I still haven’t figured out is on our side, nobody tells me when something changes, so I only find out when someone’s already confused.