Steve Jobs gave us the iPhone, Marc Zuckerberg gave us Facebook, Chef Alfredo gave us Chicken Alfredo. But who gave us TalentLMS? Who are those mysterious elves that helped create your favorite Cloud-based LMS platform? And what are the some of the marketing, support, and QA people working behind the scenes to bring you the most satisfying SaaS experience? In this series of posts, which you’ve already gotten a taste of, we’re having a look at the talented people behind TalentLMS. Today, we’re talking to Maria Logotheti, our Customer Support Assistant and all around nice gal. Please introduce yourself to our readers. What’s your name and general background? My name you’ve probably already gotten off the post’s image. I am a Customer Support Assistant in TalentLMS, but also Quality Assurance Manager for our new application, Snappico. I was raised in Athens, Greece and graduated from the University of Macedonia where I studied Marketing and Operation Management. Trying to combine my love of travel with personal development, I found myself studying in Sweden and then working in Spain and Belgium for a couple of years. The contact with people from different backgrounds is something that I really enjoy, which is why I really enjoy supporting customers from all over the globe. You are Support & Quality Assurance assistant in TalentLMS and Snappico. What does each of these roles entail? I am part of the after-sales-support team for TalentLMS, which includes support for customers in our free and demo tiers. I focus on our customers’ needs and my role is to come up with and propose features which they may have not yet discovered and to solve any problematic or unusual behavior noticed in their eLearning portals. In Snappico, I am responsible for the quality of our content sets, trying to give to the reader the best visuals and information in a variety of topics. How did you make this career choice? The eLearning industry was unknown territory for me, but when I chanced upon it I saw that it was a big opportunity — and I haven’t ever regretted making the jump! To some, a customer service role may sound like suffering through a mountain of customer complaints, but in reality (at least this is the case with TalentLMS) it’s nothing like that. You get to interact with people from all over the world, with different needs and backgrounds, something which I find thrilling. Of course, not all interactions are great in the beginning, but having the power to turn them into great customer experience is an extremely rewarding feeling! Do you have any examples of issues that were prevented or features that were improved thanks to the QA team? Oh, yes! For starters, the classic problem of accidentally deleting a user and losing all the data available about them. The ability to undo a deletion was a complex feature, but also an extremely useful one, as our customers were often losing information due to an unfortunate decision that they were not able to undo. Fortunately, our team managed to tackle it, and since 2016, we introduced a feature that allows our customer to restore their deleted users (or courses), and I am happy that now I can point this to any customers worried about some regretted or accidental deletion. Maria to the rescue! What TalentLMS features do you think are most important in attracting new customers? There are lots of features in TalentLMS I could talk about, as it was designed with flexibility in mind, but I will just focus on a couple of them that I have received the best feedback about. The ability to build custom reports and then use the filtered list of learners to perform mass actions. This is a feature that results in substantial time savings for our customers — and we have received some great ideas to further enhance it. Also the ability to map a user’s domain in their TalentLMS portal, and be able to customize it. In general, a little customization or coding can do magic in a TalentLMS portal, and our customers have all these ideas and contact us to help them with their implementation. How important is customer feedback in what you do? We use it fanatically to improve our business, product and the overall customer experience. After all, the best business decisions are based on data, not hunches, and customer feedback is the holy grail of tangible data. You can gather real insight into how your customers really feel about the product or service you deliver and how satisfied they are with your offering. The rapport that we have with our customers is truly special, they feel like members of the TalentLMS community (which they are) and they are more than willing to work with us, give their suggestions, and even dedicate time to help us improve the platform. When their ideas become part of TalentLMS as new features, they share their enthusiasm with us, and that has a great bonding effect that you only get from software companies who listen. Do you have some specific unexpected/funny/insightful story to share regarding this? I love the relationship we have developed with our customers and how comfortable they feel to ask any question they have in mind, even if it is not related to their (learning) portal. One of my favorite customers once asked me what’s the best way to cook an octopus! I was not sure how to respond at first, but, hey, we give support under any circumstance, so I shared my favorite recipe, and now I am waiting for my chocolate box from Australia! What do you like about working in the online learning industry in general and at Epignosis in particular? Epignosis was able to foresee the rise of enterprise and personal online learning and has built a series of products and services to make eLearning technology accessible and affordable to any company or organization worldwide. Being part of a mission and working in an environment with young, positive and warm people, I really regard myself as lucky. Also when your customers treat you like a friend, starting their messages with "Hey Maria.." — I mean, isn’t that great? What is it about your job that you love the most? It may sound cliché, but it is the environment I am working in. We spend much of our time working and it would be a pity to not feel happy. I thoroughly enjoy going to work, I like the challenges involved, I am friends with my colleagues and I feel 9-5 is the most creative part of my day! If you couldn’t do what you do now, what would be the ideal job position for you? Any other ideal job for me would look pretty similar to this one — it will again involve people and not numbers, satisfaction and not market trends. I am happy to offer my skills and knowledge to help other people. I get some sort of fulfilment out of making other people feel less stressed or helping them out in times of need. We have two hands. The one to help ourselves and the second to help others. Plus, I have the chance to get direct feedback from our customers, something extremely valuable for the development of our products, and I feel like I have significant input in the whole process. Where do you see yourself and TalentLMS in 5 years? Soon I will have my one year work anniversary with TalentLMS, and I am glad that I am part of a fast growing company. Its people are the source of constant innovation and I wish, as the time passes, to be more and more involved, and help create more of the features that keep TalentLMS on the top. In 5 years I will have my six year work anniversary — which will coincide nicely with a new title in the company! I will be responsible for training our bigger 2021 support team. The post The talent behind TalentLMS - A chat with our Customer Support Assistant appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Abstract theories and vague innovations never had much of a shelf life in business. Sure, the business press peddled a lot of them over the years (new theories of management, economic paradigms, ways of dealing with HR, etc.), and businesses would adopt one now and then, but in the end, only those that actually proved themselves in the market survived. Because running a business is all about the bottom line — and anything that doesn’t have a measurable positive impact on that, will, sooner or later, get scrapped. Employee training is no different in this regard. Sure, every organization needs to have capable employees. But is it really beneficial for a company to run its own training program, instead of only hiring people already skilled in the desired tasks, or delegating that to some third party? Does it make sense to invest in an online training platform, as opposed to traditional learning processes? And, finally, how does one begin to evaluate the real impact of a company’s employee training program? Fortunately, having worked with thousands of companies, helping them train hundreds of thousands of employees all around the globe and assisting them in evaluating their training programs, we have some answers to these questions. And we’re going to get through them in this very post. Evaluating your employee training program: Different kinds of impact Before measuring anything, we need to understand what it is we want to measure. Not just to be able to reach for the right tools (e.g. you wouldn’t measure length with a thermometer), but also to appreciate and comprehend the different ways in which something like employee training can impact our business. And, when it comes to employee training, there are indeed more than one things to measure. We could, for example, measure how effective it has been in increasing our employees’ knowledge and skills. Or we could measure how much more efficient our business workflows and processes have become, as a result of our training. Or we could try to measure the cultural impact, within the company, of things like ethical responsibility and racial sensitivity training. And, last but definitely not least, we could measure for any positive impact of our training program to the company’s bottom line — which is, in all probability, the main thing we want out of it. What we’re suggesting, though, is that you should measure all of these things — and a few more which we’ll discuss later in this post. That’s because all of these things, in one way or another, contribute to the success (or failure) of an organization. And besides, they’re not as independent as they might appear in the first place. New skills / Knowledge It goes without saying that a training program should be, first and foremost, efficient in training people. That is, it should help them understand and absorb your training material and gain new knowledge and skills. In fact, if we were talking about training in general education that (knowledge, that is) would be the one and only thing that mattered. But, of course, in business, there are other considerations too. Fortunately, measuring training effectiveness, namely the contribution of a training program to the learners’ knowledge, is exactly what LMS platforms are great at. That’s what quizzes, tests and the like are about, and an LMS platform like TalentLMS will give you all the tools you need to create them, manage them, deliver them to your learners, grade them and in general evaluate learner performance through them. And even if the material involves some practical skills or a physical demonstration of some newly acquired dexterity, it’s easy to leverage TalentLMS’ blended learning support to schedule some classroom or teleconference-based sessions to assess them. Efficiency impact The second thing you’d want to measure is any improvements in your company’s operational efficiency, workflows and such. Here, the built-in LMS tools won’t be of much assistance. You will need to go out and pay attention to what employees do, and how they go about in their day-to-day activities, from working on the assembly line to dealing with customers, study all available employee performance metrics, and try to find quantitative or qualitative differences compared to what was the case before the training program. Of course, this means that you’ll need to also pay attention to any workflows you want to improve through training before the training program begins so that you have a baseline to compare to. Watch for particular practices, techniques and tips that were included in your courses, and see whether your employees are taking advantage of them — and also how many of them do so. This isn’t strictly a numbers game either — observing that e.g. 80% of the workers have adopted this technique from their training, but only 20% have adopted this other technique is just the first step. You’ll also need to try and understand why this is the case, and what could be done to increase adoption or even whether anything should be done at all — perhaps some technique wasn’t adopted because it proved to be impractical or flawed in actual use, in which case you should remove it from your training material. Sometimes, asking your employee directly (e.g. through a training evaluation questionnaire) will give you surprisingly good insight on such issues. Besides workflows, another obvious way to check for differences in efficiency is by comparing the before and after of various operational metrics. That could be, for example, products assembled per hour (for a factory), successfully concluded calls (for a support center), etc. Again, to evaluate the impact of your employee training program, you will need to have a baseline to compare the post-training situation to the previous ones, so try to get a sense of those things before you start your training. Cultural impact This might not be obvious to check for at all, but if you’re doing any onboarding, ethics training, cultural sensitivity training and such, to your new hires (or even existing employees), you’ll probably want to know about its effectiveness too. Good results here won’t show up as improved production metrics, but you can still gauge them by contrasting things like HR complaints (for harassment, etc) before and after, directly asking (e.g. through a TalentLMS survey) minority employees of any changes they’ve witnessed, and other relevant questions. In general, assessing improvements from training in the company’s culture and employee-to-employee interactions takes more effort and requires a more qualitative approach than measuring other effects of online training. Employee satisfaction Speaking of qualitative results, employee happiness is another big thing you should definitely check for, before and after your training program. Employees value learning new things, especially when it comes with improved career opportunities within the company, and it also gives them a reassurance that your organization believes and invests in them and their further training. This can help reduce employee churn, which is a real problem for most companies, especially ones operating in the so-called Knowledge Economy. Again, tools like TalentLMS’ Surveys can help you get an overview of your employees’ sentiments towards their training program, but also their work in general. Economic impact Last, but certainly not least, is the economic impact of your training program. Of course, when it comes to an online training program, there will usually be considerable cost-savings compared to traditional classroom-based training. These can be quite hefty for larger companies, with lots of employees and many facilities (or extended enterprise partners), but we’re not going to focus on those here. After all, those are very simple to calculate. The real economic impact of your training will be the changes your company sees in its revenue because of it. Unfortunately, this is very hard to measure, since there are numerous factors that you need to eliminate to get an accurate picture (perhaps any uptick or downtick in revenue was due to the overall market, or because of some coincidental large orders, etc — as opposed to being directly caused by more knowledgeable employees). Still, you could get a decent approximation of this, by checking the effect on your revenue of things like the workflow and productivity improvements we mentioned earlier on. A faster order processing pipeline or a quick product turnaround time, for example, can be directly translated to increased revenue. Other training-related changes might affect a different part of the logistics of your production, resulting in increased efficiencies, etc. Once you’ve identified a quantifiable change, it’s usually quite easy to translate it into changes in revenue. Adding all of these up, and compensating for seasonal fluctuations and market factors, will give you a rough idea of the impact of your training program in your company’s bottom line. Conclusion Your training program will have an impact on your company and the way it does business in several ways. Some, like its impact on your employee’s skills and knowledge, can be easily measured and monitored through the built-in tools a platform like TalentLMS offers. In the general case though, evaluating employee training programs is a complex process, half-art, half-science. To fully understand and evaluate the effectiveness of your employee training program, both in scope and in magnitude, you need to study how it affects all other aspects of your operation, from improved workflows and company culture down to reduced employee churn and increased profits. The post How to evaluate the real impact of your employee training program appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

​Regardless of what level of the organization you are being promoted to, you need to be onboarded. If there isn't a plan for that, create one yourself or with the help of your HR organization. Here are a few other tips: ​A manager's focus is on the team he or she manages.  The job is to build the team.    In contrast, a leader's focus is on the future (strategy) of the organization.  The job is to build the capacity to thrive in the future.  These are very different jobs and moving between them can be a challenge.   Identify people who have a job similar to the one you are promoted into.  Figure out who the best ones are, and observe what they do and say.  Figure out who the weakest are, and observe the same.   Seek first to collaborate.  Competition usually creates a battle and someone will lose.   Do research on the goals of the organization and make sure you understand the boundaries of those goals at your new level.  Know the playing field as quickly as possible.  Invest in leadership opportunities and learning.  There are so many wonderful programs online. Consider joining a peer group outside of your organization for additional perspectives.  If you end up managing people who used to be your peers, check out the wonderful book and guide by Kevin Eikenberry titled Bud to Boss. 

What is the Story Picture in Your Mind?Suppose you received a message from your boss that he/she wants to see you as soon as you come in. However, it doesn’t say why. How would you react? What scenes are running in your head?Here’s another scenario. What if your loved one is out of town on a business trip. You expect a text once he/she has reached the destination. True, the scheduled arrival was late last night but it’s already morning and no text has arrived. How does that make you feel? What thoughts are rushing through your mind?Give yourself a few minutes to go through the questions and answer them. Is there a common thread in your answers? These events are both imagined situations and the answers you provided were based on a story you’re telling yourself. Whether positive or negative, the story you tell yourself is about what could possibly happen or what possibly happened. Making Inferences, Recognizing PatternsTelling ourselves stories isn’t limited to exercises like those above, though. Without even realizing it, we tell ourselves stories all the time. We go through a narrative or several narratives from the time we wake up until it’s time to sleep. Geez, even our dreams (or nightmares) are stories, too!Stories are natural for humans. They’re central to our existence. Cultures worldwide have their own stories to share. In fact, we’re so enamored with stories, that we find stories even when there aren’t any!Have you ever looked at the clouds on a clear, sunny day and thought you saw a unicorn (or some other figure) taking shape? Our brain is so hardwired to recognize patterns that we imagine seeing patterns when in reality they’re just puffy balls of mist. Why is this fact important and how can trainers and designers use this to their advantage?In one study, scientists found that when someone tells a story, their brains and the brains of their listeners synchonize. When certain parts of the storyteller’s brain lights up, the same parts lit up in his/her listeners’ brains as well. This amazing phenomenon occurs because the brain can’t tell real experiences versus imagined ones.  As a result, the storyteller was able to let his/her listeners experience what he/she experienced. In short: "By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains," according to Uri Hasson from Princeton University, one of the study authors.Social psychologist Jennifer Aaker adds, this means stories should be able to take listeners where you want them to go.Craft Your Signature StoryAs trainers, we aim to see our learners take on the desired behavior. Stories should reinforce the lesson. Since stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts alone, it’s a great tool to use especially when we want a lesson to stick to our learners’ minds even after the session is over.Aaker suggests, trainers should develop their portfolio of signature stories. A signature story is "a story that after you tell it, people who listen to it somehow look at you differently." Signature stories (1) shape how learners see you and (2) can be used as a tool of power and (3) persuasion.When crafting your signature story, remember to ask yourself the following questions: Why are you telling the story in the first place? Why would the audience want to listen? Why would the audience care? Why would the audience want to share the story?ConclusionsStories are powerful tools to persuade people to change their perspective. Asking questions helps learners make inferences to make the story, integrate themselves into it, and as a result make the lesson more memorable.As a trainer or designer, what is your signature story? What kind of stories are you known for or would like to be known for? Share your thoughts.ReferencesTip #102: Cognitive Tunnelling: How to Achieve Focus Through Stories Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel. An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior. The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 57, No. 2 (April 1944), pp.243-259.Greg J. Stephens, Lauren J. Silbert, and Uri Hasson. Speaker-Listener Neural Coupling Underlies Successful Communication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2010 Aug. 10; 107 (32).Jennifer Aaker. Harnessing the Power of Stories. Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2013.Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

What is the Story Picture in Your Mind?Suppose you received a message from your boss that he/she wants to see you as soon as you come in. However, it doesn’t say why. How would you react? What scenes are running in your head?Here’s another scenario. What if your loved one is out of town on a business trip. You expect a text once he/she has reached the destination. True, the scheduled arrival was late last night but it’s already morning and no text has arrived. How does that make you feel? What thoughts are rushing through your mind?Give yourself a few minutes to go through the questions and answer them. Is there a common thread in your answers? These events are both imagined situations and the answers you provided were based on a story you’re telling yourself. Whether positive or negative, the story you tell yourself is about what could possibly happen or what possibly happened. Making Inferences, Recognizing PatternsTelling ourselves stories isn’t limited to exercises like those above, though. Without even realizing it, we tell ourselves stories all the time. We go through a narrative or several narratives from the time we wake up until it’s time to sleep. Geez, even our dreams (or nightmares) are stories, too!Stories are natural for humans. They’re central to our existence. Cultures worldwide have their own stories to share. In fact, we’re so enamored with stories, that we find stories even when there aren’t any!Have you ever looked at the clouds on a clear, sunny day and thought you saw a unicorn (or some other figure) taking shape? Our brain is so hardwired to recognize patterns that we imagine seeing patterns when in reality they’re just puffy balls of mist. Why is this fact important and how can trainers and designers use this to their advantage?In one study, scientists found that when someone tells a story, their brains and the brains of their listeners synchonize. When certain parts of the storyteller’s brain lights up, the same parts lit up in his/her listeners’ brains as well. This amazing phenomenon occurs because the brain can’t tell real experiences versus imagined ones.  As a result, the storyteller was able to let his/her listeners experience what he/she experienced. In short: "By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains," according to Uri Hasson from Princeton University, one of the study authors.Social psychologist Jennifer Aaker adds, this means stories should be able to take listeners where you want them to go.Craft Your Signature StoryAs trainers, we aim to see our learners take on the desired behavior. Stories should reinforce the lesson. Since stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts alone, it’s a great tool to use especially when we want a lesson to stick to our learners’ minds even after the session is over.Aaker suggests, trainers should develop their portfolio of signature stories. A signature story is "a story that after you tell it, people who listen to it somehow look at you differently." Signature stories (1) shape how learners see you and (2) can be used as a tool of power and (3) persuasion.When crafting your signature story, remember to ask yourself the following questions: Why are you telling the story in the first place? Why would the audience want to listen? Why would the audience care? Why would the audience want to share the story?ConclusionsStories are powerful tools to persuade people to change their perspective. Asking questions helps learners make inferences to make the story, integrate themselves into it, and as a result make the lesson more memorable.As a trainer or designer, what is your signature story? What kind of stories are you known for or would like to be known for? Share your thoughts.ReferencesTip #102: Cognitive Tunnelling: How to Achieve Focus Through Stories Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel. An Experimental Study of Apparent Behavior. The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 57, No. 2 (April 1944), pp.243-259.Greg J. Stephens, Lauren J. Silbert, and Uri Hasson. Speaker-Listener Neural Coupling Underlies Successful Communication. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2010 Aug. 10; 107 (32).Jennifer Aaker. Harnessing the Power of Stories. Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2013.Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

...

...

​One of the most effective Succession Planning I've seen was at Medco (now Express Scripts).  The organization had an open, shared process that enforced  that if you wanted to be promoted, be ready with your replacement.  Clearly, moving a talented supervisor or practitioner to another job leaves a hole in the organization that can be disruptive.  Medco believed that the individual who wants to be promoted must be ready to replace themselves.  This means you must encourage the creation of explicit Succession Plans for those who you think can replace you quickly. Usually this requires discussion with your boss and with HR specialists. Your candidate’s Career Map becomes your Succession Map.   Career Maps face up to your future and Succession Maps face across and down, looking for who will replace you when you move on.   This process should start the minute you are promoted into a job.  An intentional process for identifying your successor is a project, and requires documenting the steps clearly.  Here's a sample:   Identify the 1-3 people who have the most potential to replace you when you are promoted. Create a Job Benchmark and run Gap Reports (see Gap Report sample above) to verify that your choices are minimally biased.  Work with each person individually to create a plan to apply for your job.  Remember, it is their job with your guidance to create their Career Map (above).  Do not promise the job and be very careful not to set up the people to compete against each other which could create a disruptive culture in the team.   If possible, provide everyone in your team feedback and explain your criteria for the choices you've made so no one is whispering and conniving in the background instead of working.   Revisit the Job Benchmark every year in case the scope of the team responsibilities has changed.  

Leadership is not something you do to people. It’s something you do with people. I have believed this statement my entire career—and it might be even more important now than it was 35 years ago. Workforces are more diverse, workplaces are less centralized, and technology continues to revolutionize how business is conducted and how people communicate. The most successful leaders are the ones who partner with their staff. Partnership starts with clear and frequent communication. Leaders must establish a rhythm or consistent schedule of discussions with team members. I suggest that leaders meet at least once a week, for 30 minutes with each direct report. That might sound like a lot of extra work, but I guarantee if you spend this time you’ll create trusting relationships with your team that will improve morale and productivity in your department. Use these meetings to work with your team member to set clear goals, to praise progress on tasks, to redirect efforts if necessary, and to celebrate the completion of each project. It is critical that the leader and team member participate equally in these meetings, speak their truths, and listen with the intent of learning something—not judging. Some of you reading this might be saying, "This isn’t new information." You’re right it isn’t—but it is such a simple truth of leadership that I want to remind people again and again. You’ve probably heard me say that the information I provide for leaders is just common sense. But I also say that my philosophy isn’t always commonly practiced. My goal is to have every leader start having these important conversations with their teams. I urge you to partner with each team member to help them be successful. So, I provide this reminder for you to be a leader that makes this common sense, common practice. You’ll soon realize how a small investment of time spent partnering with your people will build a stronger, more self-reliant team.

eLearning is beginning to seep into the very basis of knowledge development and technology innovation. With the passage of time, scholars and researchers have conducted numerous longitudinal studies to demonstrate the benefits of eLearning. In this article, we’ll share with you the latest benefits outlined by researchers in the field of eLearning.  Use these points in your next argument with a naysayer! Win them over and have them try out a quality eLearning experience. Let them know why you love developing eLearning solutions for a living. Also, share with them the affordable and easy to use learning management systems you love! Astonishingly, we still come across skeptics or naysayers who need to be convinced of the many benefits of eLearning. Since we have a few advantages at our fingertips, there is no reason we should be unable to win the argument. So here it is! A new list of 15, research-supported pieces of evidence, proving that eLearning indeed is worth investing in, regardless of the learning environment. Learners of all ages and aptitudes will benefit from eLearning in ways not available to them through traditional learning environments. In fact, here is why more and more educators are incorporating eLearning in their live classrooms for a blended learning experience. We have provided the possible comments from the naysayers and the benefits you need to quote and shut them down! Enjoy! 1. How can eLearning support my unique learning style? Maybe I am not a visual learner? I am more of an experiential learner. eLearning has a direct effect on an individual’s learning style, by drawing them into the real-world context and making them think about reflective practices. eLearning brings learning applications closer to the actual performance environment. 2. I don’t think eLearning improves exam and testing scores at all. Do you have evidence to support that it does?  Exam results have improved substantially over the years. Research indicates that achievement is more pronounced in generation Y as compared to generation X. 3. Does eLearning provide the same rich training experiences as a live training experience? Do trainees really learn and improve skills and performance?  Personal learner development has been refined over the years, and employability skills and confidence has been boosted through eLearning tools. 4. I don’t think you can motivate learners to stay on task and continue learning throughout the entire eLearning program! You will get more course online course drop-outs as compared to traditional training. eLearning has positively affected the motivation, engagement, enjoyment, and satisfaction in acquiring knowledge. This is evidenced by surveys held on a module level, course level, focus group evaluation and international reports. 5. As an educator, I will be limited to the resources available online. I have more facilities in the live teaching environment.  Educators now have the freedom, flexibility, motivation, and the tools to innovate their teaching methods and assessment practices. Materials are more fresh and innovative when presented in an online learning environment. 6. eLearning is not as popular as physical, real-world learning.  eLearning is becoming incredibly popular and has a positive influence on educational research practices. 7. eLearning administration must be a pain!!  Support and administrative staff is also more satisfied with eLearning programs, which are filled with automations that make their lives so much easier. 8. Employees are better off with their physical training and real trainers!  Employees report richer personal development and confidence when subjected to eLearning programs. And don’t forget: it’s real training with real instructors, just less tired ones. 9. Job hunting is easier through the Internet. What has eLearning got to do with job hunting?  eLearning has improved the accessibility to employment opportunities and recruitment efforts. eLearning programs for professional development are designed around market-desirable skills. By completing a training program, learners know that they are ready to apply for certain jobs. In fact, some eLearning training providers also connect newly graduated students with potential recruiters. 10. How do enrollment and retention figures compare between eLearning and brick-and-mortar learning institutions? Organizations and institutions have experienced a greater retention rate due to eLearning. 11. We have better learning policies and their respective implementations in our "real" learning institutes!  Institutional and organizational policies have been enhanced due to eLearning programs and application is even easier. 12. Aren’t eLearning courses more expensive than LIVE courses?  The cost, effort and time for upgrading and training has actually been reduced due to eLearning. Also, the cost of attending a LIVE training program is higher. Think about gas, the frustration of traffic, the time away from families and the extra preparation to meet for projects. 13. eLearning feels so informal. Does real learning takes place in this environment?  Learning spaces have become informal. For example, libraries and meeting rooms have become casual and relaxed, with contexts becoming even more conducive to knowledge sharing, due to eLearning. 14. What about the knowledge management infrastructure in eLearning?  Knowledge management has become advanced and structured due to eLearning, as it possesses tools and automations that support the effort to harness knowledge. 15. Is eLearning available to anyone, regardless of their socio-economic status and other short-comings?  The social justice agenda - equitable, equivalent and easy knowledge for all, is easier to implement and is widespread through eLearning. Have you ever heard of free physical training programs? Not many. eLearning is offered free through countless institutions. Try one MOOC and you will appreciate the quality of an eLearning program. When inviting individuals to your next eLearning program, be sure to share these points on your learning management system. Make them believers and spread the eLearning love! The post 15 Benefits of eLearning: Time to convince the naysayers! appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.