According to Mike Ettling of SAP (Forbes, June 2015), there are more people exiting the workforce than entering it. This is not only problematic for the sheer number of people leaving work, but there’s another issue at hand: incredibly knowledgeable workers are retiring without passing on their knowledge and skills to the next working generation. How can organisations prevent this huge information drain? The answer - as Mike points out - lies in training and development. Rather than bringing in new staff to replace employees who leave or retire, organisations should instead focus on training existing staff to gain the same skills and promoting them into the now-empty positions. One of the most important parts of this cycle is that knowledgeable employees should help train others. There is a wealth of knowledge contained in the noggins of those approaching retirement - you’re not going to just let them walk out the door without sharing some of it, are you? Online learning is a fantastic platform on which these clever clogs can share their knowledge and help others to reach similar heights. Subject matter experts Essentially, these nearing-retirement-age employees should be regarded as subject matter experts within your organisation. They should offer their wisdom to Learning and Development departments in the creation of training programmes, check the content before it goes live, and may even be able to help with other aspects of implementing training. Sharing knowledge Any Learning Management System worth its weight will have dedicated social learning areas where employees can share knowledge and collaborate. Encouraging these subject matter experts to log on and join the party can be incredibly valuable in helping other employees to increase their own knowledge. It also gives the SMEs a boost to know you find their skills important and worth sharing. Creating eLearning In addition to putting in their ideas to the training and taking a starring role on Learning Management Systems, subject matter experts can easily help with the actual creation of eLearning units. Genie, our game-based elearning authoring tool, for instance, makes it incredibly easy and straightforward for all kinds of contributors to help create eLearning modules. Subject matter experts can help as much or as little as is required - from supplementing the question bank with appropriate questions to creating the entire learning journey from scratch, there’s a whole host of ways SMEs can contribute to the creation of eLearning units. Whatever you do - whatever type of training you use - the important thing to remember is that the people leaving your organisation have an incredible well of untapped knowledge just waiting there. Don’t let them walk out the door with it - put it to good use! Keeping expertise like that within your organisation is sure to make a huge, positive impact over time. Find out more about how Genie makes it simple for anyone to create really engaging game-based eLearning: visit the Genie website to get a demo account or click the button below to read our white paper!    The post Don’t let employees walk away with valuable knowledge! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Despite the best intentions of teachers and educational institutions, school actually teaches us some pretty wrong things - things we should just try to forget about and wipe from our memories… We’re not suggesting you should forget your times tables, what tectonic plate activity is or how photosynthesis works, of course. It’s the actual experience of being at school that should be forgotten. Take what you learnt about learning and chuck it out of the window. Banish it to the pit of eternal boredom. Most Learning and Development training programmes today are created by individuals who had similar school experiences, which teach incorrect - not to mention ineffective - ways of learning. Here’s what we mean: Forget sitting in classrooms in silence Remember all those lessons you spent in silence, listening to the teacher drone on and jotting down notes? You probably hated these lessons more than any others. And we know why: it’s because we actually learn best when we have the opportunity to work with others, collaborate on projects, share ideas and join discussions. Learning shouldn’t be a solo affair. 20% of our knowledge comes directly from working with and observing others - read more here. Ignore what you think you know about learning Contrary to what almost every school in the country seems to believe - or at least believed back in the stone age when we were there! - we don’t learn by sitting passively and listening to our teachers. Sure, it can be useful to make notes so we can refer to them later, but we don’t learn in this way. Instead, we learn by applying learning content to our own prior experiences. When we come to learn new things, we assess our current knowledge and experiences and work to bridge the gap between that level and the level at which we’re being asked to work. You may have heard of the ‘zone of proximal development’ before - it’s the idea that in order to truly learn something, we need it pitched just higher than our current skills level. Too high and we become disenchanted and give up; too low and we don’t recognise the content as worth learning. But the main point to remember is that writing things down or listening to a teacher won’t tap into this special learning zone. In fact, it barely scratches the surface of learning, so don’t do it! Forget what you think you know about tests In school, it’s likely you were asked to regurgitate facts and figures. Being able to recall names, dates and places was seen as ‘proof’ that you had learnt the content. Frankly, that’s balderdash! It’s far more important to be able to apply the knowledge, not just repeat it on demand. You may be able to recall Pythagoras’s theorem, but if you don’t know how to use it to find the length of the hypotenuse - or, more importantly, how this will help your working life - then the effort you put into memorising the equation is worthless. The best kinds of tests will involve assessing how you plan to put your newfound knowledge into practice in real life. In what kind of situation will you need to work out the length of the hypotenuse? How will you apply your knowledge of closing sales when you get back into the office? What is your plan to implement changes in how you manage your team? By specifying how you’ll apply the learning to your life you’ll not only come away with a plan of attack for implementing and using the knowledge, but by relating it to your existing experiences you’ll cement it more fully in your mind. Want to find out more about how we got classroom training all wrong? Download our free white paper below to discover how classroom training should be done!  The post Why you should forget everything you learnt in school appeared first on Growth Engineering.

  At first glance, you might not be able to spot the differences between working in a group and working as a group. They are both pretty similar. Surely any kind of ‘group’ work will be beneficial to learning, right? Well, yes and no. There is strong scientific support for the benefits of having learners working and learning together in groups. However, generally speaking, it is through working together as a group that the best learning outcomes are achieved (Chiriac, 2014). Working in a group If you’re a learner working in a group - and this doesn’t necessarily apply only to classroom-based learning; group work is possible in blended and fully online learning too - then it’s likely you’re sitting together with fellow group members, but working individually on separate parts of an assignment. Say, your group might be working on developing a new sales plan for the coming year. While Sally is researching the Asian market, Daniel is looking into re-writing the proposals and you’re going back through lost accounts to assess what could have gone better. Essentially, you’re working on your own jobs, but will come together at the end to put your separate contributions together into a joint project. Even cooperation isn’t really necessary. It’s possible to get through the whole project without exchanging more than a sentence or two! Working as a group When you work as a group, on the other hand, you’ll see far more benefits when it comes to expanding your knowledge and learning the subject matter. Working as a group is also referred to as ‘real group work’ and ‘meaningful group work’, and denotes a kind of group working whereby learners utilise each other’s skills and work together to achieve a common goal. In other words, when you work as a group all members will be involved in and working on a common task to produce a joint outcome. In the example above, this would mean each member of the group would look at lost opportunities over the past year and collaborate on a plan of action for the coming year. Research (Hansen, 2006) has found that learners value working as a group far more highly than working in a group. Learners find it important that all members take part and make an effort, that clear goals are set for work, that role differentiation exists among members, and that there is clear leadership. So how can these things be achieved in online learning? A good Learning Management System will have great social collaboration areas which will enable and encourage learners to work on projects together, share ideas and help each other flourish. It’s even simpler to get learners working as a group when your solution is blended, with sporadic classroom or workshop events to complement what learners have been learning in their eLearning courses. With blended learning, learners will go through eLearning units in their own time, spend time chatting and discussing the topics on their LMS, then come to a workshop armed with knowledge. Once there, they’ll be set a group task - one which involves all group members working directly together! Learning and working in this way is a form of social, or informal, learning. It’s an important aspect of any training programme, since 20% of our knowledge is gained through observation of and working with others. Find out more about social learning and how to encourage it in your own training plan by downloading our free white paper below!  The post Boost learning with group work! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Creating eLearning can be a bit of a minefield. Do this; don’t do that. Make sure you do this, but not in that way. Keep things simple; make things fun… Sometimes it’s easier to figure out what to do by looking at what not to do. So here’s our "Definitely Do Not" guide to creating eLearning that won’t make your learners cry with boredom. Definitely do not… Use too much text Okay, okay, ‘too much’ is open to interpretation. But a rule of thumb is that if it looks like a news article, it’s too long. If you need to take a break from reading on-screen text to rest your eyes, it’s too long. If it takes more than a minute to read the text, it’s too long. Definitely do not… Use too little text This applies to both individual eLearning screens and the module overall. You should already know what the most important parts of the topic are, so make sure they are all included. But there’s no need to separate out each individual fact into its own screen - effectively turning a 20-screen eLearning unit into a mammoth 100-screen unit. That’s just unnecessary. Plus you’ll probably give your learners RSI in their clicky finger from clicking ‘Next’ so often! Definitely do not… Overload the screen with images We are visual creatures, so images are important. They can help us to remember certain points, illustrate facts and make processes easy to understand. But when there’s too much visual stimulation our brains tend to get a bit frazzled. It can be hard to focus on the important part of each screen if we’re being bombarded with images left, right and centre. So pick an image which a) illustrates the point, b) will help the learner remember the topic or c) presents facts/stats/figures and leave it at that. Definitely do not… Make it super long Yes, we know you’ve got to make sure you cover the entire topic. But does it really need to be covered all in one go? Separating the learning content into a few bite-size pieces and presenting them as separate eLearning units can make them seem much more digestible - not to mention much less daunting - than sticking everything into one long eLearning module. Learners will be more likely to commit to 12 30-minute-long pieces of eLearning over a couple of weeks than dedicating almost an entire day to a 6-hour-long eLearning behemoth! Definitely do not… Forget to jazz it up! How many times do we need to say it? Learning doesn’t have to be boring! Plain Jane eLearning simply won’t do - it won’t engage your learners, it won’t support learning and it won’t result in the behavioural changes you’re looking to achieve. You can make eLearning more fun and engaging for learners by using an authoring tool which creates game-based eLearning. We’re so passionate that eLearning doesn’t have to be boring that we created our very own content authoring tool that easily creates game-based eLearning at the push of a button - find out more about Genie by clicking the button below!    The post How NOT to create eLearning! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

When eLearning is poorly thought-out and created, learners will become indifferent to learning. They won’t be motivated to learn, or engaged with the learning process. They’ll do what they need to do - sometimes - but not expend an ounce of effort extra. So what can be done to battle learner indifference? It’s obviously not always possible to change the topics being learnt, but the way in which they are taught can certainly be improved! Make it relevant & meaningful Personalising the eLearning by drawing on experiences relevant to the learner can be a great way to bring the learner’s attention to the training and make it relevant to them. An especially useful technique is to encourage learners to think about the topic in relation to their current situation and create a plan for implementing changes. That way, they can see how what they’re doing is of benefit straight away - making it much more meaningful to them. Make it worthwhile Sometimes knowing how to apply the learning to our daily lives and making it relevant isn’t quite enough to turn learner indifference around. If learners need a bit more of a boost to get them engaged with their training, rewards might be the way forward. We do this on the Academy LMS through the use of gamification; allotting points for certain actions and rewarding learners with badges and achievements for making progress in their training. A bit of a morale boost with badges can be sufficient to turn a learner’s indifference into excitement! Make it clear If learners don’t know how well they’re doing, what particular topics they should be concentrating on or where they’re falling behind, they won’t be able to take their training seriously. They’ll see it as ‘just another thing’ they have to do to avoid angering their bosses, and won’t put in the effort that might be required. That’s why it’s so important to provide adequate feedback - not just at the end of the training but throughout, so that learners can see how they are doing in ‘real time’. Once they know what they need to focus on, they’ll be able to put their efforts into that area. Learner indifference will soon melt away and they’ll become passionate learners who are full of beans and excited to progress. There are so many more techniques which can be used to annihilate learner indifference. Check them out in the white paper below!  The post Banish learner indifference with these three tips appeared first on Growth Engineering.

The biggest issue with online learning today is clear: learners aren’t engaged with their training. Despite organisations’ best intentions, a whole heap of eLearning programs are still failing because they aren’t securing learner engagement. And as we’ve seen before, without engagement learners simply won’t be able to increase their knowledge and change their behaviours in the ways we’re hoping they will in order for our training programmes to be a success. eLearning just isn’t interesting It can be argued that pretty much all enforced training is a bit boring. If learners haven’t chosen to undertake the training themselves it can be an uphill battle to get them engaged and enthusiastic. While it’s not quite so difficult to enthuse learners who have chosen to take the training (and even easier if they’ve paid out of their own pocket too), it can still be difficult to get them fully engaged and motivated when the eLearning is boring. eLearning isn’t worth it Now, this is just the impression that learners often get when they’re asked to take training within their organisation. They think it’s not worth the effort. They can’t see how undertaking the eLearning will benefit them, apart from keeping their managers off their backs, so they’ll often give up before they even get started. eLearning doesn’t work If learners don’t find eLearning courses interesting and can’t see how they will help them, of course online learning will get a reputation of not working - because no one will put in the effort needed for it to succeed! It’s a catch-22 situation: learners don’t try because they doubt it’ll make a difference; and it doesn’t make a difference because they don’t try hard enough. D’oh! eLearning is faulty Some eLearning modules and Learning Management Systems are, simply put, naff. They’re full of bugs, difficult to use and navigate, break down, don’t save progress and aren’t SCORM compliant, among a host of other technical problems. It would take the patience of a saint to use these eLearning units - and unfortunately learners aren’t all that patient (nor should they be!). These are some pretty serious criticisms of eLearning which all contribute to the most pervasive, depressing problem with online learning: a huge lack of learner engagement. But don’t fear, there is a way to engage learners! Click the button below to download our free white paper and find out about gamification - the surefire way to engage learners!  The post The most pervasive problem in online learning appeared first on Growth Engineering.

You wanted it so we made it happen - eCommerce has landed on the Academy LMS! Don’t say we never do anything nice for you… We’re passionate about ridding the world of mind-numbingly boring eLearning and transforming zombie learners into learning legends. So what better way to help organisations all over the world make this a reality than by giving them all the eCommerce functionality they’ve been dreaming of? We believe that when organisations create fantastic training content they should be able to share it with the world - and our eCommerce functionality on the Academy LMS allows them to do just that. When learners login to their Academy, they’re greeted with numerous content options, from free eLearning courses and individual units, to paid-for downloadable content and immersive eLearning certificate courses they can purchase. Now the choice is theirs. How have we done this? Well, we decided to team up with Stripe, a really simple, secure payment progressing system. It’s used by some of the world’s biggest websites, like Twitter, Pinterest, the Guardian and Salesforce, so you can rest assured it’s the real deal! Not only will it remember learners’ card details, making it quick and easy for them to charge through their training, but everything is done within the Academy LMS. Unlike with PayPal, learners don’t need to exit their LMS to complete their purchase - they can do everything from the comfort of their state-of-the-art Academy. All payments are completed within the Academy LMS, making the whole process simple and secure There are lots of options available to organisations. Once eCommerce is activated on their Academy, Admins simply need to select using check-boxes which content should be free and which should be paid for (and then set the currency and fee). These will then be displayed in their Library area so learners can choose their training pathway to success. Alternatively, organisations can create stand-alone catalogue pages that are accessible to everyone, even if they’re not logged into the Academy. Once they’ve selected their preferred course and payment has gone through, they’ll be prompted to sign up. Simple, eh? The ‘Catalogue’ feature allows anyone to purchase courses. They are then automatically prompted to sign up. In addition to selling any kind of content on the Academy LMS (including eLearning, videos, downloadable documents, classroom/website events, etc), Academy Admins are also able to offer learners eLearning ‘bundles’. This means that whole training courses comprising numerous learning materials can be packaged up and sold as one unit, ensuring that learners gain access to everything they need to succeed, gain certificates and qualifications, and generally become much more awesome. The Academy LMS’s refund procedure is simple - not that learners will want to get a refund on your stupendous content! - and with over 100 different currencies (including Bitcoin) supported, our new eCommerce functionality really does make the Academy LMS that bit more special. With innovations like this, it’s no wonder the Academy was ranked the #1 Learning Management System in the world by eLearning expert and CEO of E-Learning 24/7, Craig Weiss, in his yearly review of over 600 Learning Management Systems. Juliette Denny, Managing Director of Growth Engineering, said: "Offering eCommerce on the Academy is great for learners, since they can get the training they want when they want it, but it also makes it easier for organisations to recoup costs. We’re really excited about it and our clients are champing at the bit to activate it on their Academies!" Want to find out more? We’d love to show you around the Academy LMS! Click the button below to request a demo and see for yourself why our Academy is #1…      The post eCommerce has arrived on the Academy LMS! appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Fancy joining the most exciting learning technologies company in the known universe? Well, you’re in luck! We’re current looking for two exceptional people to join the marketing department. Graduate Content Writer We’ve realised that if we’re going to succeed in our mission to wage war on dull online learning, we need more bodies on the front line: that’s why we’re looking to expand our marketing team. If you fancy joining forces with Growth Engineering’s Marketing Magicians, here’s what you’ll need to bring to the table: A sense of humour to rival the best comedians out there A passion for writing all kinds of content, from 600-word blog posts and snappy mail-outs to epic 14-page research papers Marketing nous: if you know your SEO from your PPC and understand how to make the most of any content we create, you’re in with a shot of catching our eye A degree (2.1 or higher, preferably in English) or boundless passion for writing - either way, you’ll need to prove to us you have what it takes Interested? Click here to take a look at a more detailed job advert and apply on Reed. Graphic Designer/Design Don As one of the world’s leading learning technologies companies, our brand is very important to us. It tells people at a glance who we are, what we stand for, and makes us instantly recognisable - we pride ourselves on standing out and doing our own thing. As you can probably tell, there’s no one quite like us! We’re on the hunt for a graphic designer to join the team to make sure everything we produce is fun, energetic, beautifully designed and completely on-brand. Here’s what the successful applicant will have up their sleeve: An awesome portfolio. If you can’t show us your previous work, you have no chance of gaining the coveted spot in the design team. Sorry! Adobe Creative Suite skills: you’ll need to be an ace in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign An understanding of how to create content for both print and digital Bonus skills: photography, motion graphics (using After Effects or other applications) and fab drawing skills Find out more about the Design Don position and apply on Reed! If you’re not quite sure whether Growth Engineering is the place for you, click the button below to take a look at the kind of thing we produce… It’ll show you just what we’re about!  The post Growth Engineering’s Marketing Department Needs You! We’re Hiring: appeared first on Growth Engineering.

Looking at the eLearning industry from the outside, people may wonder why things are done in certain ways; how companies came up with that idea or this way of working; and why a lot of learning technologies companies seem to be sticking with what clearly isn’t working! Let’s take a sneaky peak into the eLearning industry and see what the truth really is… Some companies are stuck in their ways Many eLearning organisations are seemingly allergic to change so avoid it at all costs. They stick with what works for them and try to resist changing. But there’s a problem with this - without innovation, eLearning courses and Learning Management Systems will become stagnant and inefficient. And just because something worked years ago, there’s no reason to expect it to do the same now - particularly when other companies are offering such state-of-the-art functionality! That’s why we pride ourselves on continually moving forward and developing new features. Our Learning Management System has changed a lot over the years, but that’s not a bad thing. Evolving in this way means we are able to give learners what they want, when they want it (or even before they know they want it!) and create learning environments that not only appeal to learners and the way they learn, but which also mimic the kinds of technology they use daily. Engagement isn’t always the end goal For us, learner engagement is paramount. Everything we do and everything we create is centred around achieving learner engagement, because without it there is no hope of seeing any of the behavioural changes that training is supposed to generate. Unfortunately, not all LMS vendors see engagement as quite so pivotal. Instead, they focus on end results: how can they ensure learners pass tests and assessments? But this isn’t the best indication of whether the training has truly been successful. Just because a learner can do well on a test they take immediately after completing an eLearning unit does not mean they’ve learnt the content or truly improved their knowledge for good! Loneliness is painful It used to be thought that in order to learn things you need silence. Talking, sharing ideas and working in groups was seen as a bit detrimental to learning - if you’re not 100% focused on training you won’t remember anything, right? Er, wrong. We recognise the importance of social learning, particularly online, which can be a pretty lonely place a lot of the time. We’ve found that learners actually retain more when they’re given the opportunity to work together, share their thoughts and chat about the topics. This is because we only gain 10% of our knowledge from ‘formal’ training, like eLearning units - the rest is attained when we reinforce the training through ‘informal’ means, like observing and collaborating with others, and learning while ‘on the job’. Read more about this here! eLearning doesn’t have to be boring Yes, eLearning needs to stick to quite strict parameters in order to deliver what it needs to - ultimately, increases in knowledge and behavioural change. But just because eLearning units need to achieve learning objectives doesn’t mean they have to be boring! There are plenty of ways that content creators can stick to learning objectives but still make the whole process fun for learners - for example, they can turn the eLearning module into a game! It hurts to fall off the bandwagon While some eLearning companies are stuck in their ways, others will be tempted to jump on the latest bandwagon and bring certain functionality into the lives of their learners. While it’s great that they are forward thinking and dedicated to utilising the latest concepts and technology, it’s important that these new techniques are fully thought out before being implemented. There’s nothing worse than rolling out new functionality on an LMS only to realise shortly afterwards that it doesn’t do what was ‘promised’, isn’t engaging learners, or jars with the whole eLearning experience. That’s why it’s vital to fully think out new functionality - not just how it will be created and implemented, but how learners might use it and how it’ll benefit their lives - before going forward. Always think, "What’s in it for my learners?" If the cool new functionality won’t: Engage them Motivate them Make their lives easier Boost their confidence Get them learning or improve the learning experience …then it’s simply not worth it! Find out more about the kind of functionality that does work on a Learning Management System by taking a tour of the Academy LMS - ranked the #1 LMS in the world by eLearning expert and CEO of E-Learning 24/7, Craig Weiss:  The post 5 Truths About eLearning You Should Know appeared first on Growth Engineering.

We know how important it is that learners are encouraged to interact on their Learning Management Systems. Social learning is one of the main ways in which we learn, after all - without social interactions, we skip an important aspect of knowledge acquisition and may end up not cementing the learning content sufficiently… and all our hard work will be for nothing! Social learning on the Academy LMS can take a variety of formats, from instant chat to forum-style interactions. The main differences are whether interaction is encouraged synchronously, i.e. in real time, or asynchronously, not in real time. Research has shown that, generally speaking, synchronous tools are better at engaging learners and generating a culture of interactivity than asynchronous tools. Synchronous tools ‘Instant’ tools such as chat and video conferencing fall under this umbrella. Due to their very nature, synchronous tools are inherently interactive - learners have to constantly react and respond to what is being said, keep focused on the conversation, and adapt to the topic as it flows and develops. Synchronous learning is often seen as more participatory and ‘active’ than lecture-based learning, and can contribute to a higher level of understanding. However, there are problems with synchronous learning: In chat, not all learners will be experienced enough to keep up with the conversation. While they are typing the topic may move on, resulting in overlapping conversations which are hard to read, and disappointment that their points aren’t being recognised. Conversely, experienced users might find the conversation too slow! The biggest problem with video conferencing is turn-taking. Learners might not be sure when they should speak up, which can lead to three or four learners taking centre stage and doing the majority of the talking. More reserved learners might not have the chance to join in, so they won’t be able to get their point across or ask questions if they feel unsure. Asynchronous tools Unlike synchronous learning, asynchronous tools - like blogs and discussion forums - aren’t used in ‘real time’. Instead, learners can use them and then return at a later date to either add another update or see what other contributions have been made in that time. Research has shown that asynchronous tools often receive luke-warm feedback from learners. Although learners like that these tools force them to slow down and reflect on their training, they are seen largely as a chore - something that must be done just to tick a box. As such, asynchronous tools don’t always get learners motivated or engaged… Blogs are useful for encouraging introspection, but if learners don’t receive sufficient (or any!) feedback from peers or instructors they will soon become discouraged and demotivated. Discussion forums are often deathly silent places where hopes go to die - except close to deadlines, where they suddenly become a buzzing hive of activity. However, if all learners end up writing on the same topic, interest will quickly wane… How to make asynchronous tools interactive As can be seen, it’s hard to get learners interacting when they’re not being asked to do so in ‘real time’. They often see asynchronous tasks as chores that need to be completed alone - definitely not the level of interactivity and social engagement that L&D professionals aim for! One of the reasons that social tools don’t always reach the level of interactivity required is that learners either don’t see the point in using them or know they can ‘get away with’ not using them. Making the use of these tools compulsory is one definitive way to make sure learners do use them. But, as we all know, making something compulsory doesn’t necessarily make it engaging or motivating! Adding gamification to social tools, on the other hand, can add this element of engagement. Rewarding learners with gamification Allocating points and badges to certain actions within the Learning Management System is a way to avoid having to make the use of social tools ‘compulsory’ in the traditional sense. Rather than stipulating that learners must use chat or insist they share links on a forum, learners are instead rewarded the more they use the tools and interact with others. This helps to boost motivation because learners want to gain the most points and showcase the most badges in their badge cabinet - and they want to climb up the leaderboard to become the Top Contributor. When gamification is added to social tools, motivation, engagement and interactivity increase - which will lead to better understanding and greater success. Find out more about gamification and social learning by downloading our free white paper below!  The post Synchronous vs asynchronous social tools appeared first on Growth Engineering.