It seems so obvious to us that education/training can be better. By better, we mean that it can be more engaging, up to date and available on demand. Two videos that I have re-watched recently not only support our view but actually highlight the necessity for change. The first video, RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms, basically highlights how the current educational delivery approach, which has been used in education since the industrial revolution, is failing students, in this, the most exciting and dynamic time in human history. Ken Robinson clearly identifies how the currently used old world model fails to solve the problems of the current and future world. While the second video "The wonderful and terrifying implications of computers that can learn" is about a seemingly different topic, it too makes it very clear that the current model of education/training must improve greatly to equip people to survive in an environment where knowledge and skills are increasing at an expediential rate. While the author, Jeremy Howard is very excited about the unstoppable potential of deep learning by computers, he raises some concerns as he states that "80 percent of the world's employment in the developed world is stuff that computers have just learned how to do" Time has now passed where education/training can be delivered in a way that causes disinterest or disengagement and/or causes students to become bored.

The one thing we at Ammonite are not good at is marketing, but really we don’t have to be because our most vocal supporters are our customers (and their clients). Whenever one of our staff has a free minute it’s not unusual to find them with a smile on their face going through the recorded webcam feedback provided to Inscope Training by some of their students who have completed their courses. Their feedback is just great. We were also thrilled to get feedback from another client the other day who had just been through an audit. They got through the audit "without a suggested improvement" and said that the auditor loved TOMS - "he said he hadn’t seen anything else as good". There are a lot of things broken with online learning and we, at Ammonite, are on a mission to fix the issues.

This is a copied response to an article dated Sept 7, 2011 on DangerouslyIrrelevant.org To see the full article with comments: http://bit.ly/qFXcbu I am all in when it comes to providing students with multimedia projects in which they immerse themselves in the language of the particular technology, collaborate with their peers and create a product worthy to display and communicate the results. Saying that utilizing new technologies is playtime may be accurate. Do you have to hate what you are doing or be miserable during an assignment for it to be validation of learning? I think not! I will certainly agree that the educators that are using technology in the classroom need to be supported and accountable, but there is always a learning curve and to get educators up to speed, there are going to be some bumps in the road. Not every lesson, technology or otherwise is always a hit. If we stopped using technology because our lesson failed and did not satisfy the outcome we were looking for, that would be akin to giving up on a student because they "just don’t get it." Technology is expensive and as stated above, those in who are utilizing it should be accountable for the use of it and become teacher leaders in there respective schools. There is a great network of teachers all around the world who eat, drink and sleep technology for the sake of students. These folks banter around ideas and learn from each on how to better utilize technology and attend conferences in which they further along ideas and practices that benefit students. To say there is not any research to the fact that students benefit from technology is ludicrous. Dr. Robert Marzano completed a study on the use of interactive whiteboards and responders (an overview of the outcomes can be found here: http://bit.ly/9HlRMW) and the research concluded that using interactive whiteboards increased student achievements by 16% and utilizing voting devices had a positive impact of 26%. These results did not come without parameters. It is not as simple as plugging in the interactive whiteboard and seeing the magic happen, it still requires hard work, preparation and follow through. For example, educators need to utilize visuals, follow up on any missed answers, while discussing correct answers and opinions and should not focus on to many of the bells and whistles, such as crowd applause for a correct answer. Educators, keep using the technology your school provides for you and know that you have to work hard to make it work, but in the end the results will be long lasting and prepare our students for the present and the future.

When it comes to winning big sales opportunities, sales leaders often share 2 complaints: 1.  Sellers aren't proactive. They fail to drive their most important sales opportunities forward with determination and rigor. 2.  Even when sellers are proactive, they don't follow a consistent process to put themselves in the best position to win the sale. Based on our research and experience, we've found that the key to fixing these management headaches is to focus on opportunity planning, and installing the discipline in sellers to follow the plan. In fact, the better sellers are at planning for sales opportunities, the higher the win rate. The RAIN Group Center for Sales Research recently studied the effects of sales opportunity management process and win rate. We asked, "Which of the statements below best describes the organization's overall process for winning individual sales opportunities."     Related Stories[New White Paper] Optimizing Sales Opportunity Management: 12 Critical Questions Sales Leaders Must AskEssentials of an Effective Account Planning Tool4 Examples of Big Plays to Help You Win Major Sales and Grow Accounts 

Just because a buyer is in a position of authority—and has the financial ability to buy—doesn't mean they will, in fact, buy. They have to be in the right mindset. We call the right mindsets "buying modes." The wrong mindsets, "non-buying modes." When you understand which mode someone is in, you'll know whether they’re inclined to make a purchase or not. There are two different buying modes: Problem-solving, and Future-seeking. There are also two non-buying modes: Satisfied, and Euphoric.     Related Stories5 Reasons Why Buyers Now Control the SaleThe 6 Buyer Personas (and How to Sell to Them)5 Decision Roles in Every Sale 

The muddiest point of your course is the area that is the hardest to grasp or the most confusing to understand. This part of your course needs to be reinforced with extra resources and activities. If the muddiest point of your course is not determined, your learners may lag behind and more often, drop out. To retain and engage your learners, integrate an activity that helps uncover the muddiest point of the course (so far). This activity has to be social in nature to be more effective. In this article, we will describe an example of an eLearning activity that helps the instructor find the muddiest point of the course. An online activity that assesses the skills learned towards the middle of the course is a great way to check the progress of the learner. It is also a good opportunity to present the reflection question: What was the muddiest point of this activity? This activity can be used as a peer to peer evaluation tool as well as a personal reflection exercise. The responses to the muddiest point question can be used to create further activities that reinforce the weak areas in the topic. Online Teaching Activity: Create a Video about yourself Task: For the Fundamentals of Multimedia class, create a video using the software tools used in the classroom. Objective: To work as an individual and then comment on your peer: Create a Video about yourself. Answer the muddiest point question after you complete the activity: Which step in the video development process was the toughest? Directions: Your task is to create a video for your prospective employers. Talk about your learning and professional achievements, in short, everything you would say in your resume, but in an interesting manner. Use interesting sound effects and diagrams, to demonstrate your point. Your goal is to convince the employer to hire you! Prepare a storyboard and submit it as a word document along with your video. Use a video camera of your choice or your smartphone to capture your video. Use a microphone if necessary. Make sure your audience can see you and hear you easily. There should be no background noise. Use Fox Pro to edit your video. The video should be between eight to ten minutes long. Use images to explain your points. Use Audacity to edit the sound. Provide transcripts with your video. End your presentation with a references page. Upload your video to the class Youtube channel. Post the link under the discussion board activity. Provide feedback to three of your classmates’ videos. Use any five criteria from the evaluation rubric to comment on their video. Your criteria should be clearly labelled with comments. You will be awarded 10 points for each response. After you have completed the above steps, respond to the next discussion board question: What was the muddiest point of this activity? Intended Outcomes This eLearning activity is a mid-course skills check-point. It helps learners revise and apply all multimedia development tools in a meaningful manner. They are given several resources dealing with model video-resume and are requested to cite any sources they used in any step of the development process. The objective of this activity is to create their video using the rubric described below. After uploading their video on Youtube Channel, learners are required to upload the link of this video in the discussion forum for the course. They are required to evaluate their peers’ video using at least five of the evaluation criteria described in the rubric. This discussion activity will guide the video-maker to improve their video in the future. It will also be a platform where different experiences regarding the nuances of recording and editing a scripted video are shared. Multiple solutions will be shared. Learners will be helping each other out. The response to the muddiest point question will be closely tied to the discussions in the previous activity. Learners will share their problems in planning and developing their videos. The instructor will understand the problem area of this process and will be able to change future lessons to fill the learning gap. By the end of this activity, learners will not only improve their videos but will also be able to use them as a part of their job search. Evaluation Rubric (adapted closely from A+ Rubric for Evaluating Videos, University of Wisconsin) References Conrad, R. & Donaldson, J. (2012) Continuing to Engage the Online Learner. A+ Rubric. University of Wisconsin (2011). Retrieved from, https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/videorubric.html The post Finding the Muddiest Point of your eLearning Course appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

The importance of authenticity in first-time leaders is important for their success right out of the gate.

In our new book, Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster, my coauthors Jane Ripley, Eunice Parisi-Carew, and I explain the importance of building a culture of collaboration in your organization. Believing true collaboration is the responsibility of every individual, we define five elements each person must consider when accepting their specific role in helping to create that culture. The UNITE acronym makes these elements easy to remember. Every collaborative leader must be able to Utilize differences; Nurture safety and trust; Involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values, and goals; Talk openly; and Empower themselves and others. Let’s take a closer look at the importance of utilizing differences. Many people think if a group working together allows differing viewpoints it might create disagreement, which would be a bad thing. However, we believe conflict in collaborative groups is good—as long as discussions stay focused on the issues and disagreements don’t get personal. In fact, conflict can be the basis for breakthrough thinking that leads to revolutionary ideas. Ask yourself these questions to see if you are a collaborator who makes the most of people’s differences: Do you believe everyone has something to contribute? Do you ensure everyone in your group is heard? Do you actively seek different points of view? Do you encourage debate about ideas? Do you feel comfortable facilitating conflict? If you answered yes to most of these questions, congratulations! You are well on your way to being a first-class collaborator who embraces diverse points of view within your work group. If you answered no to any of them, you know where to begin your journey to effective collaboration. Organizations operating in today’s global economy have workforces comprising multiple generations with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and temperaments. This guarantees significant disparity among people in almost every work group. The ability to utilize these differences for the greater good will determine the success or failure of your project—and possibly your company. Remember—collaboration begins with you! Editor’s Note: Collaboration Begins with You: Be a Silo Buster will be released October 12. Place your pre-order at www.Amazon.com.

If you’re running an online course and you’re finding it difficult to keep your students engaged in your community you’ll be glad to know that gamification may be the tool you’re looking for to help inspire students to engage.   WHAT IS GAMIFICATION?   Gamification is the process of using game-like strategies and rules and applying them to the educational environment. Gamification takes some of the responsibility off of teachers to help incentivize community participation. Gamification also helps educators keep students motivated and on track.   Teachers and learning institutions can use features like points, achievements, badges, virality, and count-downs as ways to gamify their online courses.   HOW GAMIFICATION LED TO A 260% INCREASE IN STUDENT ACTIVITY   We recently tested a client’s site for the impacts of gamification. Up until we ran this test, this particular client had no gamification features on their site whatsoever. We ran this test for a month and we found that compared to previous months the gamified version of their online learning environment had a 260% increase in student activity!   WHAT THEY DID   The gamification features that you’ll decide to add to your own online course will vary depending on the particulars of your course. However, below you’ll find the list of gamification features we added to our client’s site in order to instigate the increase the student participation.   Students could earn points by:   Posting interesting information on their student profile Having people "like" their posts Visiting the online course on a daily basis Submitting assignments Commenting on other students’ assignments The could also earn points manually by having a teacher award them with an "achievement" in a certain area of the course. These achievements or badges would then show up on their student profile page.   WHAT’S EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN GAMIFICATION?   The above changes led to a 260% increase in student engagement. That’s huge! The course vendor in this case mentioned that "In the past we put a lot of the responsibility of the community in the students’ hands. However, we didn’t realize that we didn’t really give our students much incentive to be part of that community. We just gave them the platform and walked away. The community existed as a good idea in an abstract sense [to us] but it never really started to take off until we made it our responsibility and not our students".   However, what’s even more interesting, is that during our tests on this client’s online course site, we found something even more powerful than gamification as a tool to increase student participation.  We asked this client to use "proactive" rather than "reactive" communication as their primary way of communicating with student in their online course. Using proactive communication this client was able to see an additional 1200% increase in community activity on their site. You can read the full case study about proactive student communication here.  

As an edupreneur, you might search for an LMS that provides you the features through which you can keep your users engaged and motivate them for active participation during the course sessions. There are plenty of features that you can embed into your online course to make it interactive such as video conference, discussion forums, live chat, audio call and many more. However, the problem arises when one has to select the most effective means for engaging users. A live webinar is an internet based interactive program where a presenter can reach out to specific audience through his electronic devices such as PC, tablet, smartphones, etc. Live webinars create a prospect where the subscribers/users can actively share, survey, talk, debate and inquire the presenter or others about the program. Besides, the presenter can also broadcast other relevant presentations in sync with the discussion. These sessions can be within budget, special, live and quicker and easier to understand. Live webinars exhibit all the attributes that can help you grow your eLearning business and develop informative courses. Let us look at some of the benefits of including live webinars in your course. Interactive: Live webinars construct an opportunity where two way communications between the instructor and the audience can take place in a productive manner. Instead of being a passive listener or viewer of your online course, the users can participate in healthy debates and share their questions and experiences. Besides, for the instructors, the webinar assists them to develop a perception about the kind of audience they deal with. Global: Earlier, when seminars were held, only people with convenience of travel and money could attend them but the live feature of webinars makes your courses accessible to those viewers who face geographical and financial constraints. Time and Cost saving: Arranging a live webinar not only helps you in reaching out to more people but it also puts less pressure on your pocket. You only need to invest one time on your course material and LMS. All other activities such as arranging event, seminar venue, promotion and supporting team at different locations are not only expensive and time consuming but also localized. Post event activity: You can also equip the webinars with post event activities such as assignments, quizzes, discussion forums, review sessions, etc. In this way, you do not only keep your users engrossed in the course but also inspire them to attend your upcoming sessions. Hence, the above stated overview of live webinar feature emphasizes its power of taking eLearning businesses to new heights.  Now the question arises how can you embed, handle and promote live webinars.  You can rely on Academy of Mine to ease out these functions for you. We help educators develop and sell their courses online. Being a member of AOM, you will be benefited with a power-packed platform that is integrated with learning management system and eCommerce setup. You would only be required to customize the settings and edit course materials to start your own eLearning business. We also offer features that let you interact with your users and make the learning live and fun. Below are few of the live webinar features offered by us. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Live Chat :  Live Chat feature enables users to discuss one-on-one or in a group about the sessions by sending text messages and also save them for future references. Broadcast Video: This feature enables the users to broadcast their customized videos during a private chat or in a public chat room. Video Conference: Users can start discussions over video conference and let others join it to experience live audio-video sessions. Audio Call: If users do not require video chat, they can simply use ‘Audio Chat’ feature to interact with others. Screen Sharing: This feature helps users to instantly share the glimpses of websites, files, images, etc. running on their screen without bothering the need to send the link or the data. White Boarding: On White Boards, users can bring out their creative sides by using a virtual pen and scribble anything they want to share with others.