5 Ways Video Can Increase Student Ownership of LearningThis blog post was originally published on the Swivl blog as part of the Summer Learning Series.In a student-centered classroom, it is important for students to take ownership of their learning and make it meaningful in a way that fits their needs and learning styles. This is much easier said than done. As a teacher, it can be difficult to get out of the way and let students take the reins. Ideally, we must take on the role of partner, guiding and facilitating learning. One crucial piece of the learning process is reflection, which can take many forms, but most agree that time to reflect is critical for learners of all ages.The Swivl Robot, Swivl Capture App and Swivl Cloud offer the tools to support and make student ownership of learning possible in the classroom. When students are able to create peer-to-peer instruction videos, review performances and presentations, and see progress over time, video becomes a powerful tool to support the learning process. Below are five ways that teachers and students can use video to increase student ownership of learning.Student Created Video for Peer-to-Peer InstructionStudents learn better from each other. So why not tap into this experience with video in your classroom? Allow students to demonstrate mastery of skills by teaching others using a video-enabled device like a smartphone or tablet and the Swivl Capture app. The app is free and will give students the freedom to share in a way that is comfortable to them. Recordings are then stored in Swivl Cloud and easily shared with others.  These videos might be used to review concepts, study for exams, or merely as learning for assessment! Empowering students to become teachers is a great way to increase student ownership of learning in your classroom.Offer Video as a Choice of Product or PerformanceGiving students voice and choice in the classroom is another powerful way to increase student ownership of learning. The learning path can be very different for each student depending on interests and learning styles. One way I like to offer choice is through learning menus or choice boards. (See my post here: Interactive Learning Menus with Google Docs.) Why not allow students to create a video to demonstrate student learning? Students may flourish with the use of video using the Swivl solution! Make it a choice and provide students with the opportunity to tap into their creative talents! The Swivl Capture app can be downloaded on any mobile device and connected with Swivl Cloud for easy video management and sharing. Teachers are able to provide students with feedback using time-stamped commenting in Swivl Cloud. These presentations are able to be utilized for assessment and included in digital portfolios.Self-ReflectionAs Jordan Garrett shared in her blog post Using Video for Reflection and Growth, reflection is a crucial part to the learning process. Self-reflection is something that even adult learners need should remember. If we do not take time to reflect on what we have learned, make connections, and define those lingering questions, we run the risk of  stalling growth and learning. Video is a powerful self-reflection tool: What did you learn? What questions do you still have? How have you improved? What skills do you need to work to improve?Review Your Work, Performance or PresentationsWith the ability to record and store video of just about anything, teachers and students are able to record their own work, performance and presentations in the classroom. As scary as it may be to watch one’s self on video, it can be eye-opening and constructive. I encourage you to take a chance and record yourself as a review of your own work and performance. The Swivl Capture app and Swivl Cloud make it easy to capture video for reflect and growth. The ability to make time-stamped notes and comments to share with others document self-reflection. This builds a longitudinal review of your work over time, and by allowing your students to do the same, you will all see growth and mastery. Then, make this part of a digital portfolio process and give your students even more ownership of their learning!Goal SettingGoal setting is closely connected to self-review and reflection. During the reflective process, we often ask students to set goals. These might be goals for the learning experience, goals for the semester, goals for the school year, or even personal goals outside of the classroom. Providing students with an opportunity to record their goals on video can be very empowering for the learner. Use strategies, like SMART goals, and ask students to review their goal videos every few weeks and record updates as they reach milestones. Help your students reach their goals inside and outside of the classroom.How do you use video in the classroom? Please share in the comments below.

3 Ways You Can Get Involved with #SXSWEduThis post is also cross-posted on the TextHelp blog.Get Involved with the Most Unique Educational Festival in the World!South by Southwest® (SXSW) is the largest festival of its kind for creative professionals around the world. For those not familiar, the event is actually a series of conferences and festivals that encompass music, film and emerging technologies. While SXSW includes a number of events, the SXSWedu Conference and Festival looks specifically at learning and innovation in education. The festival is just a few years old, and still defining itself. My first experience at SXSWEdu opened my eyes to so many new ideas, creative educators, authors, and a lot of fun along the way. You might say I am biased since I am from Texas, and spent most of my adult life in Austin, but this conference is unlike any I have ever attended. SXSWEdu takes a new approach, and brings that unique vibe that only Austin can provide. (Keep Austin Weird, ya'll!)This year SXSWedu takes place March 7th - 10th, and includes engaging sessions, interactive workshops, hands on learning experiences, film screenings, early stage startups and a host of networking opportunities. If you haven’t checked out the event before you should definitely visit their site to learn more.SXSWedu offers unique opportunities for attendee engagement before, during, and after the conference that are unlike any other conference in the industry! Even though the event is more than 6 months away, plenty of social buzz is already happening. That’s why we’ve listed below the top 3 ways you can get involved with SXSWedu, starting today…Panel PickerEven if you can’t make it to the festival in person you can still help decide what sessions will be offered. This year SXSWedu is using a crowdsourced platform that is responsible for 30% of the decision making process towards what sessions will be accepted. Over 1200 sessions have been submitted this year, so your input will go a long way in deciding what sessions make the final cut. The process to vote is simple. Just visit panelpicker.sxsw.com and click sign in. You do have to create an account, but it only takes a few seconds. Not sure where to start after signing in? Here are a couple of sessions that we would love your help towards being accepted (don’t worry, you can vote for as many sessions as you want).Big Data in Education: Online tools like Google Apps for Education provide tons of useful analytics that can help educators, researchers and software developers learn more about which technologies and features are helping students the most. The goal of this session is to explain how and what that means for the future of education.Can you hear me now? The Power of Student Voice (Kasey Bell, Kristen Swanson and Chris Avile ):  (Yep! Shameless plug right here!) Have you ever asked a student about their learning experiences? The results can be eye-opening! Research shows that only 44 percent of students believe they have a voice in decision making, and this dips to as low as 34 percent in the 12th grade (www.stuvoice.org). Join a celebrated panel of students and educators as we discuss ways to incorporate student voice into the school culture, classroom, professional learning and beyond.Social MediaFollow the latest news about the conference, learn what’s trending, and connect with your favorite speakers. SXSWedu information is available on the following social channels and even has their own social platform, SXsocial.See what’s trending today on your favorite social channel: #SXSWedu #PanelPicker #edchatTwitter: twitter.com/sxswedu Facebook: facebook.com/sxswedu Instagram: instagram.com/SXSWeduGoogle+: plus.google.com/+Sxswedu/posts YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCzTpVpOAXUXmU5qlY8wDWxQ SXsocial / eduSocial: a tool that allows SXSW registrants to find and connect with other conference attendees. You can also book your accommodations for the conference and link your conference badge to gain all the features available through the conference apps/services.Attend the EventThe conference, festival and expo offer many opportunities to immerse yourself in the compelling content from industry leaders in education: SXSWedu Conference & Festival Badge: The option that gives you all-access to the content available throughout the 4-day conference. Registration includes keynotes, all sessions & workshops, eduFILM screenings, Playground displays, and more!Register today for $245 (the lowest rate!) Price begins to increase on October 23rd.SXSWedu Expo: A free event for students, parents, educators, employers, and schools, designed to help you "identify and reach your education and career goals". The Expo provides hands-on, interactive exhibits and takes place on March 8th from 9am - 5pm at the Austin Convention Center.Can’t make the trip to Austin this year? Follow the latest news about SXSWedu on social and via the official SXSW newsletter. You can start by taking a look at some past sessions posted on Google+ and YouTube. We recommend checking out SXSWedu 2015 Featured Session, "If I Knew then What I Know Now" by Guy Kawaski, Canva Chief Evangelist. How will you get involved? What are your favorite educational conferences? Please share in the comments below!

As gomo’s Managing Director, I know gomo like the back of my hand and I spend a lot of my time helping organizations understand everything our tool does. I’m always answering questions on how gomo works alongside different elements of learning infrastructure, how it compares to other authoring tools and pretty much anything else you can think of… I understand how important it is for teams to be absolutely sure that any tool they’re looking at fits their unique requirements. This is why I’ve pulled together some of the more common questions I’m asked, in order to help out anyone who is new to gomo or thinking of starting our free trial. If there’s anything else you would like to know, don’t hesitate to get in touch - ask away and we’ll be sure to update this post to make it as helpful as possible. Do me and my team need training to use gomo? gomo is built with ease of use in mind and most of our customers are self taught through our tutorials and support articles, but training is available for those who would like it. What standards does gomo support? gomo content is HTML5, SCORM 1.2 and Experience API (xAPI - Version 1.0) conformant. Can I translate my gomo courses into different languages? Yes, gomo supports the XLIFF standard for language translation. How do I control the look and feel of my courses to ensure they are on-brand? gomo comes with a range of themes which you can customize to get the look you need. For organizations with very specific brand requirements we also offer a custom theme development service. Themes allow you to re-brand hundreds of courses in an instant. Can we embed third party content in a gomo course? Yes, the gomo iFrame asset acts as a placeholder for online content, allowing you to embed things from elsewhere on the web, including Youtube, Vimeo, Captivate, Google Maps and more. How many themes come with gomo? There are 6 as standard and more are being added all the time. All gomo themes can be customized completely. What video formats does gomo accept? To ensure that video will work seamlessly across all devices, gomo accepts MP4 only. What happens if I run out of storage? gomo storage and logins can be easily added. In fact - we find that most of our customers  tailor packages to their needs by adding additional users and storage. How much does gomo cost? Plans start at just $89 a month for gomo authoring and $178 a month for the gomo learning suite. For more info, head to our pricing page here. How do I create mobile learning with gomo? All gomo content is mobile friendly automatically. Just layout your content and the gomo player automatically optimizes your learning for every device, including smartphones. Do you have to design differently for every device and screen size? No you don’t. The gomo player automatically adjusts the course for the screen size and orientation it’s viewed on, making sure that it fills each screen efficiently. Can you target devices with specific content? Yes, gomo’s display conditions functionality allows you to deliver device specific content when still only creating one version of a course. You can optimize images so that when a course is viewed on a smartphone, everything is readable and just as useful as it would be when viewed on a desktop. Can I deliver courses from the cloud? Yes, the gomo learning suite offers full hosting and xAPI analytics to save you the headache and cost of finding a distribution platform or LMS. Anything you’d like to know that’s not on here? Get in touch with us today and we’ll get back to you shortly. The post Frequently asked questions about gomo (and answers to them!) appeared first on gomo Learning.

Learning and development allows businesses to run more smoothly, helping staff past potential blockers throughout the working day with a range of support that helps us do our jobs better. The e-learning industry is constantly talking about weird and wonderful ways companies can benefit from e-learning, which, unfortunately for small businesses and startups, usually requires a fairly substantial learning and development budget. With resource difficult to find at the best of times and the very thought of set-up costs making MDs and small business owners break out into a sweat, it makes perfect business sense not to over-invest in L&D in the early days of a business. But as a business begins to grow, how do you get out of the habit of training on the back foot without spending over the odds? E-learning isn’t just for big organizations There are some really big e-learning vendors who charge tens (and hundreds) of thousands for e-learning solutions and infrastructure at enterprise scale. It’s a common misconception that e-learning has to be this expensive, with many small businesses put off the idea because they see it as more of a big, corporate venture. Today, this is becoming less and less of the case, with cloud solutions offering ‘start small and scale’ solutions to meet every business’ unique needs without eating up too much valuable revenue. What can e-learning do for small businesses? Without e-learning support, senior members of staff are the fountain of all knowledge; onboarding, upskilling and troubleshooting new and current staff in order to keep everything and everyone ticking over. Choosing to invest in e-learning is a bit of a chicken or egg predicament - you need to employ more staff (and want them upskilled quickly) but you have no way of training them. On the other hand you may want to invest in training, but worry you don’t have enough people to make it valuable. There are range of benefits startups and small businesses can gain from implementing e-learning without breaking the ban, here are just a few… Improve core company competencies Understand what people do and don’t know about your business Provide centralized support for soft skills Train remote workers and freelancers Ensure all new members of your team get the same training Reduce the time taken to train new staff Turn downtime into personal development time Improve on-boarding and induction processes The basics of a learning CMS (LCMS) A learning management system (LMS) or learning content management system (LCMS) is where learning is stored by a business and accessed by staff in order to keep people moving. Modern learning CMS’ are much more nimble, cost effective, scalable and less feature-focussed, allowing businesses to start small and move up as and when new staff join. A learning CMS is useful for small companies and startups as it gives some structure to the development and support of staff, providing one central system for them to head or be directed in. It also allows for staff to collaborate and share their learning experiences, while the business can analyse what courses people have and haven’t taken, helping understand what people do and don’t know. This helps your business because a system does the heavy lifting and organizing, taking over as the fountain of all knowledge from busy, senior staff within a business. Solutions available It’s probably wise to avoid open source solutions, as you’re going to need a developer on hand to get things up and running, as well as a means of hosting it. You want something that’s easy and takes up as little of everyone’s time as possible, giving staff an easy means of support wherever they may be. The gomo learning suite is a cloud based solution which allows you to create, host, update and track multi-device e-learning content for as little as $1,780 a year, all in. This gives you a means of creating e-learning plus a cloud hosting and distribution suite to give you multiple distribution methods to reach your teams, wherever they’re based. Sound like something that would suit your business and budget? Check out this video of it in action to get a better idea of how it comes together to support your organization’s learning and development. The post Why a learning CMS is great for startups appeared first on gomo Learning.

I’ve talked about Jean Piaget before, and likely will talk about him again, but this week I wanted to talk a bit about the concept of transference and how you can apply transference (indirectly of course) through your e-learning design. What is transference? Transference applies to the concept of schemas; schemas are generated when we explore our environment and they help shape what we think about components of our world. Transference involves the redirection of feelings (or associations) from one object or person to another. For example, puppies may learn to submit to another dog higher in the pack order by showing their stomachs. These puppies may also expose their stomachs when interacting with a dog of a larger size than themselves once they become adult dogs…they have transferred their knowledge, from puppyhood, of pack order behaviour and have applied it to their new situation (e.g. when I was a little dog, I submitted to the bigger dog. That dog over there is bigger than me, so I’ll submit to them). Wow. That was a long-winded example. I’m sorry. I probably confused all yawl more. Examples in E-Learning Folks talk about personalization in e-learning all the time, but they rarely relate it to the idea of transference, but this is exactly what’s happening! When we have users select an avatar to represent them throughout their learning journey, we are indirectly having them apply their feelings to this avatar. This avatar IS the learner! Video games do a good job with this. While almost all video games can fall in this category of transference, I am particularly reminded of The Sims. So many people model their sim family after how they want to see themselves. They want to live vicariously through their characters. Therefore, a lot of gamification approaches are related to transference.Very interesting, yeah? Food for thought.

Upscaling is a hot buzzword today that is being met with mixed reviews, and I think it warrants a little bit of explanation. What the heck is ‘upskilling’? I know. Upskilling hasn’t quite made it to the realm of common terminology…as proven by my computer’s insistent autocorrect to ‘upscaling’, but it’s something that’s happening a lot more lately. Upskilling is essentially a professional development opportunity for employees within an organization to enhance their current skill set by learning new skills. Opportunities for upskilling can enhance an employee’s opportunity for promotion, may enhance their competitiveness within the industry, and will help keep employees current with changes to a given industry. However, employees and organizations alike have met the concept of upskilling with mixed reviews. Why? Well. From the employee perspective, some people don’t have a desire to learn new skills, and others may view upskilling as a means for their employer to provide professional development and employ these new skills without having to appropriately compensate employees for changes in their roles. From an organizational perspective, some organizations aren’t ready for lateral movement and tend to operate in a more linear environment. From a prospective employee standpoint, upskilling may be viewed as taking away opportunities; by upskilling internally, these prospective employees may need to start at the bottom and work their way up instead of moving directly into the role for which they’re qualified. Whichever camp you’re a part of (for or against upskilling), upskilling is a necessary evil in today’s economy for several reasons: There is increasingly more competition for the jobs that are out there, and to have the potential to be successful candidate for a position, employers may want to see that you’re comfortable with continual learning; Baby boomers are retiring, and there is a huge influx of jobs for which individuals aren’t formally qualified for - this is a great example of where upskilling could benefit employers: less time spent searching for a qualified candidate, and being able to refocus those HR hours on training internally; It’s a lot cheaper to train someone internally than hire someone new; and Technology means that we are in a constant state of change - if it isn’t one thing, it’s another. Resources: Some tips on upskilling by clearviewcoaching Is "Upskilling" Just a State of the Union Pipedream? by Julian L. Alssid Upskilling through foundation skills: A literature review by Alison Gray The Deskilling and Upskilling Debate by Ulrich Heisig

I was first introduced to the 70:20:10 model from a business perspective, but it’s a great model from the learning and development perspective as well! 70:20:10 Working for an organization that went through three CEOs in a matter of five years was very overwhelming. Each had their own strengths, each had their own level of support, and each had their own new-fangled ideas. One of these CEOs introduced me to the concept of 70:20:10. From a business perspective, this meant that the organization would focus 70% of their time and effort on core business needs, 20% of their time and effort on projects related to core business needs (e.g. moving into adjacent markets), and 10% of their time and effort on projects outside of core business needs (e.g. moving into an untouched market). For example, we were a company working on contracts primarily within the air force, so we spent 70% of our time working on projects for the air force, 20% of our time working on or attempting to work on projects in adjacent markets (e.g. naval or army training), and 10% of our time attempting to move into uncharted (for us) markets, such as commercial air training. But…how can this model apply to learning and development? I think you can use this model in learning and development as a means for managing your time and effort. Perhaps you want to learn some new skills that will benefit your role. You could spend 70% of your time pursuing learning opportunities related directly to your role (e.g. if you’re an instructional designer, perhaps you want to learn how to better organize content), 20% of your time learning a somewhat new skill (e.g. perhaps you’ve created basic graphics using powerpoint and want to learn how to use photoshop), and 10% of your time learning something completely unrelated to what you do, but which could still benefit your role (e.g. learning a programming language). Additionally, you could apply this to your workflow management. You could spend 70% of your time working away at your deliverables, 20% of your time liaising with clients, and 10% of your time seeking new projects. However you choose to apply the 70:20:10 model, it can be used to more effectively manage your time, which is great if you’re a micro-manager and super planner like myself!

Many Instructional Designers work in distance education (even if not directly linked to an institution), and I am one of those Instructional Designers. Within my full-time role, I assist in the development of online, hybrid, and blended courses. Within my quasi-full-time role, I develop e-learning for a variety of clients. However, the term ‘distance education’ has taken a bit of a turn when it comes to its definition, so I thought it might be handy to discuss this. This week’s post was actually prompted by the move of our department to change their name to Online Learning, instead of Distance Education. Distance Education Depending on which generation you’re from, distance education could have very different meanings. Some folks may associate distance education with correspondence courses (aka snail mail coursework), broadcast courses (aka televised), or online courses. All of these associations are correct, as distance education broadly includes any educational format wherein the instructor and student are separated by geographic location and/or time. At the institution I work at, they were a regional pioneer in distance education in the televised/broadcast format. We still have the ‘on air’ light in the department hallway! However, technology has facilitated a shift in delivery mode. We now offer distance education in online and multi-access (hybrid and blended) formats in order to cater to the needs of our students. While many programs are available entirely online, we’re always working to expand our current program and course offerings in an effort to enhance accessibility to a high-quality distance education experience. With the emergence of Learning Management Systems (LMS’), synchronous technology (e.g. Skype, Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect) and video and/or e-learning authoring technology, faculty members now have many options when it comes to developing their courses. Distance education has become very popular over the last twenty years, and it’s certainly where education is moving simply because of how it addresses issues of accessibility and convenience. My graduate degree was completed entirely online (with the exception of one project that I painstakingly snail mailed in to a prof), and the experience I had prompted me to seek employment within higher education so I could become part of the distance education movement. Do I think distance education will overshadow traditional education? No. There’s still a very large population of individuals who want the traditional experience perhaps due to preference or learning style, but it is great to have an option to study while not being tethered to a single location. The only real con I would associate with distance education is that learners truly need to be self-motivated. Without that motivation, there is seldom someone else to hold the learner accountable, and it can be very easy to get off track. So when people ask me about distance education, I really cater it to the demographic. For example, it might not be the best option for first year students who have no prior experience with self-paced learning or no prior exposure to a college or university setting. At least not at the very beginning. If distance education is your only option as a first year student, that’s fine. Just know that you need to be organized and focused or things we’ll snowball out of control very fast.

The construction industry is a conservative one — as you have to be when you’re a bona fide engineering discipline, and people’s lives depend upon your products. As such it’s not one known to embrace the latests fads and short term trends. Which is just as well, as eLearning is neither a fad nor a short term trend. Not just because it’s a mature technology that has been around for a couple of decades already and has been adopted by all of Fortune 100 companies, but also it’s essentially just a variation of the age old practice of training and educating. Training and educating people is, of course, something that’s needed in every industry. And since it can help improve training efficiency while keeping costs low, it’s a perfectly good fit for today’s competitive construction industry. Especially as the complexity that construction companies have to manage is now at an all time high, with complex rules and regulations at the regional and national level to be followed, such as the International Building Code that has been adopted throughout most of the United States, but also the tons of special regulations related to things such as environmental factors, sustainability, power efficiency, etc. eLearning enables construction companies to train their workforce in navigating this increasingly complex landscape efficiently and in a cost-effective manner. Specifically, by embracing eLearning for employee training, construction companies gain: Scheduling flexibility Employees can educate themselves at their own pace, taking advantage of down-time within a project’s stages or between projects (even if such down-time is difficult to predict in advance, e.g. due to delays in supply lines or permit acquisition). This is unlike standard classroom based learning, were classes are remote, inflexible and have to be scheduled in advance. Cost Savings eLearning has an order of magnitude lower costs compared to traditional classroom based learning, with increased savings as the number of learners grows. With eLearning based training you don’t have to maintain or book a school to deliver courses in, or pay for employees’ travel expenses (which in some cases can include plane fares and hotel stays). You also don’t need to employ as many educators, since a single eLearning platform deployment can handle thousands of students with one or a couple instructors overseeing them all. Central Deployment Large construction companies can operate in multiple locations, in different cities and often in different countries. eLearning allows such businesses to deliver training to multiple locations while retaining central supervision, with a single deployment that their IT department can easily manage, monitor and secure. This enables construction companies to have all their workforce up to date to the latest rules and regulations, something especially useful in compliance training. Central, web based, deployment also makes updating eLearning material easier and more cost effective (compared to prepared classroom based lectures and printed textbooks), something that’s important considering that construction codes and regulations are frequently updated, and new techniques and construction materials might be needed for specific jobs. And with the advanced reporting capabilities of an LMS like eFrontPro, managers can keep track of courses, groups of learners, or even specific employees across all their sites and branches, and even automatically award specific certifications upon the successful completion of a course or a set of courses. Onboarding Last, but not least, an eLearning management system can be used for employee orientation (or "onboarding"), that is, for introducing new hires to their working environment and giving them the basic information they need to start being productive. This information includes your construction company’s operating procedures, policies, restrictions and guidelines, as well as the ever more important education in professional ethics, and sexual and racial discrimination issues. Conclusion In today’s competitive construction landscape, eLearning can help minimize costs and increase training effectiveness. Fill out the form, and our representatives will show you how you can leverage eLearning to upgrade employee training in your construction business to a solid foundation, just like Carter does. Image credit Or just watch our video: The post eLearning for the construction industry appeared first on eFront Blog.

Banking. It’s what makes our modern economy tick (and, perhaps, tock), and a big enabler of the business and innovation progress we’ve had in the 21st century. It’s, to paraphrase the proverb, a lucrative job, but somebody’s got to do it. It’s also a demanding job, one where books of regional, national, and international rules and regulations can be stacked as high as the Empire State Building. Add to the mix operational guidelines and procedures internal to your financial organization, and what you have is informational overload. In a sector where information is leverage and mistakes can cost billions (and trivially DO cost millions), continuous training is par for the course, and an eLearning solution is a no brainer for multiple reasons we’ll delve into below. The cost factor One factor in favor of eLearning in most industries is cost, namely that an eLearning solution costs less to deploy and run compared to traditional learning. This is probably not as much a concern in the financial sector, as the money involved for both options are small peanuts related to the average budget of a large financial institution. So, while the reduced costs of eLearning is a nice to have, it’s not a deciding factor in this case. What does matter in finances is the overall efficiency and return of investment of the training, and that’s something were eLearning also helps a lot. In the fast-paced world of finance, where working long hours is the norm, classroom based education, with its rigid schedules and its commuting requirements, is disruptive. eLearning allows employees to educate themselves at their own pace, between customer and board meetings, when work winds down, or when NYSE is closed for the night. Even commuting time, on a plane or train, can be used for training, with an eLearning platform like eFrontPro which can work both with and without an internet connection. With eLearning your employees waste less time going to and out of classrooms and spend more time learning and being productive, which in turn translates to huge savings and less disruptions to the operation of your organization. Privacy and control Financial organizations have all kind of internal procedures and training material to use, and not all of it should ever be outside of the company. With internet based eLearning you can deploy your courses in a tightly controlled manner, providing fine-grained access only to the right employees and securing the whole thing behind your company’s firewall or VPN. And for financial organizations operating in multiple cities, countries, offices and branches, an LMS (which is required for eLearning) allows you to deliver training to all your locations from a single deployment, that your IT department can easily manage, monitor and secure. Staying up to date The financial industry is not a static environment. In fact it’s perhaps the most dynamic sector of the so called knowledge based economy, with each day and week bringing unique challenges and changes (especially in areas such as compliance training). When it comes to training, this means that a lot of the learning material has to change frequently to adapt to new developments. This is another area were eLearning beats classroom based classes that need printed textbooks, specialized instructors and a predefined lesson schedule. Central, web based, deployment makes updating eLearning material quick and painless, and compatibility with third party and external sources means that all kinds of pre-packages and already available content can be incorporated to your eLearning courses in a heartbeat. Employee Onboarding Employee orientation or onboarding, the task of introducing new hires to their working environment and giving them the basic information they need to start being productive, is another great fit for eLearning and eFrontPro. This includes your organization’s operating procedures, policies, restrictions, compliance regulations and guidelines, as well as the ever more important education in professional ethics, and sexual and racial discrimination issues. Training Insight The last major benefit of eLearning we’ll cover in this post is that it gives managers and decision makers quick and comprehensive insight over the status and progress of your organization’s training programs. Instead of delivering seminars to your employees and hoping for the best, or waiting for some instructor to grade and deliver employee progress reports at the end of the learning period, with eLearning you get automated and fast insights on how your employees are doing and how well your training material has been absorbed. eFrontPro, for example, includes advanced reporting capabilities that enable supervisors and management to keep track of courses, groups of learners and even the learning progress of specific employees, across all of your organization’s departments and branches. Conclusion For a fast-paced, knowledge-driven industry like finance, where training is a matter of survival, adopting eLearning is a no-brainer. Take eFrontPro for a free test drive, and talk to our representatives about how you can leverage eLearning to take employee training in your bank, financial institution or related organization to the next level. Photo credit The post Why eLearning in the finance industry is very important appeared first on eFront Blog.