by Jennie Ruby 
From the sound of crickets chirping in my inbox, I can only assume that I have now been written out of the lists of true grammarians for my defense of "trainings"! The one reply I got to my article suggesting that we allow the words "training" and "eLearning" to become plural seems to give the final word on this usage. Thank you Jennifer De Vries for your thoughtful reply:
Honestly, I just always thought that the people who used the word "trainings" were those who were thrown into training because they were a SME. To me, it was an immediate flag that the person didn't have formal education in the training/learning field. I never heard anyone who was trained in our field use that word. (Definition of trained in our field includes degree, certification, and certificate programs. I bet IconLogic doesn't use the word "trainings" in their courses. [Touché!])
I do a lot of strategy work, and I do use the word "offerings" to describe what's in the LMS' catalog. I also use the words "courses" and "products." This fits because most of my work is with "for sale" eLearning offerings, rather than internal training. I may even combine learning, training, or education with these words. (e,g. training products, educational offerings, eLearning courses)
I don't think we should adapt to the way amateurs describe our work products. I think we need to educate people who work in our field, so that they use professional terms properly. The ATD glossary is my source of truth when it comes to learning/training terminology. I use it all the time when I educate my clients about what they are buying.
Note: The word "trainings" is not in this glossary.
Most professions have a set of terminology. It's important for us as learning professionals to have a glossary like this so that the professionals all speak the same language to mean the same thing. This is more critical now that over 50% of training is delivered via technology. The amateurs will always do what they want, but if the professionals all speak the same language, it's easier to identify the amateurs.
P.S. And a lot of people who develop Learning Systems don't utilize personnel with Learning background, and I think they should include Learning professionals in their GUI development and user testing. There are a lot of Learning Management Systems out there that aren't even Learning Management Systems by the ATD definition of the term. Mark Rudden was right to object. I wouldn't event consider buying an LMS that didn't use the language of our field properly.
Jennifer De Vries
So we have our answer: no s on training or eLearning.
Here are some other words that our readers sent in as new jargon. I'd love to get a feel from you as to which of these words you would allow versus disallow into our technical vocabulary.
Please copy these and paste as comments below. Type Y or N beside each. Additional commentary very welcome as well!
- actionable (it used to mean you could sue someone, now it means you can use something)
- around ("particularly around talent development")
- c-suite
- curate
- curated
- curation
- cybersecurity
- disruptive innovation
- enhanced capabilities
- gamification
- interoperability
- intersectionality
- iterative
- leverage
- message
- navigating
- out there ("there are not a lot of resources out there")
- resource
- source
- space
- talent development (means training)
- visuals
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