Nandini Bandopadhyay and Sarbani Mukherjee, Senior Specialists - Instructional Design at Tata Interactive Systems write in their response to the Learning Circuits Blog’s Big Question for April: What would you like to do better as a Learning Professional?  Write. Seems an odd answer, considering this is what we do for a living! Yet writing interesting instructional content still seems to be a challenging task. So we wish we could write better. It’s a big responsibility us learning professionals have — to use words to teach the most complex of content to someone sitting thousands of miles away. The big questions, thus, never seem to go away — Is my writing good enough? Will my writing improve the learner’s online experience? But there’s technology and there are graphics, some of you may say. Text is not the only medium of instruction. While that’s a fair argument, what one can’t deny is the power of effective writing. Not dumbing down the content to suit the audience, but redefining style for a greater good. So what do we mean by ‘better writing?’ Using words effectively, learning the art of presentation, striking a balance between substance and style, and saying more in fewer words. But hang on! That’s not all. There’s the all-important task of making the learner ask for more. Of making him (or her) curious about all things mundane. Think this can’t be done? Read on… Think about school days. (OK! We accept that’s a whole lot of years ago…) Those history lessons, lines from King Lear, or inventions that changed our lives forever… We remember these because some of our teachers were great storytellers. Their anecdotes brought to life the dark ant-like letters in the textbooks. They unleashed the power of imagination. To reach across to the other side, we need to do just that. Look for a twist in the tale to keep the interest alive. And we need to mind the gap. Which brings us back to where we started. Our desire to write better. To tell good tales where the content allows, to create good scenarios to make drab content come to life, to use words to do what we set out to do… teach. At the end of the day, isn’t that what this is all about?

Taking the view that learning that delivers business impact can help organizations tide over the uncertainties posed by the global economy, the TATA Interactive Learning Forum (TLF) 2008 will focus on critical business issues such as boosting revenues by better customer interaction management, reducing time-to-competence, ensuring that staff are aligned to business goals, and increasing productivity and performance. Now in its fifth edition, the highly successful annual TLF provides an interactive platform for thought leaders across domains to get together, interact - and inspire - each other.  The event, being held in partnership with Training Magazine (Nielsen Media), aims to help organizations work together to overcome current challenges by sharing insights, innovations, and successes. It comprises discussions of the experiences of various organizations, and the different tools they use to make learning effective. As a unique knowledge-sharing platform, the TLF 2008 seeks to encourage ideas and innovations with a special focus on the effectiveness of interventions, specifically in an uncertain economy. This year, the event will be held on October 17 at the University of Chicago Gleacher Center in downtown Chicago. Participants in the TLF not only stand to gain from the successful experience of their peers in the industry, but also network and exchange ideas with the leaders in the learning. For more information and to sign-up for this event, please click here.

The Tata Interactive Learning Disability Forum (TLDF) 2008 held in Mumbai on the 29th November and in Kolkata on the 2nd December focuses on urgent need to address Learning Disability (LD) issues.The third annual TLDF - a unique global forum on LD in India - was successfully conducted at Mumbai and Kolkata. This is the first time the event, earlier only held in Mumbai, has been extended to include the eastern metro city of Kolkata as well.  Focusing on the theme of "Special Deeds for Special Needs", the TLDF 2008 underlined the importance of early remedial action to help learners with special needs. When asked about the TLDF, Sanjaya Sharma, CEO of Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) said, "Around 3-7% of the world population suffers from LD, but it can be overcome if detected at an appropriate time. We have invited international LD experts to interact with city doctors, parents and teachers to make them more aware. Right now we are focusing on Mumbai and Kolkata, to spread awareness." Tata Interactive Systems has been championing the cause of LD for several years, and its efforts recently bore fruit when LD was included in the MBBS syllabus last year in the state of Maharashtra. The educational authorities are now taking the initiative to enhance the B.Ed. syllabus as well, and similar efforts are on in Kolkata too. Such grassroots-level awareness is critical as the lack of awareness about LD has meant that even prestigious schools tend to classify LD-affected students as slow learners.Sanjaya added, "In the past couple of years, volunteers from our Mumbai staff have made presentations on LD in about 26 schools. In Kolkata too, we will carry out a similar programme."The TLDF emphasized that LD need not be an impediment to real-life achievements. Among the speakers was Swaroop Sampat Rawal, former Miss India and a special educator and consultant who said, "I am dyslexic, but I have completed my Ph.D. on this subject." The event saw a series of highly informative and engaging sessions by noted LD experts from Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General (LTMG) Hospital’s LD Clinic, one of the few clinics that offer LD certification in India; nasen, UK; Haskins Laboratories, US; Bombay Teachers Training College, Mumbai; SNDT University, Mumbai; and Manovikas Kendra Research & Rehabilitation Institute, Kolkata.

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Customer Interaction Management (CIM) Solutions offer the double advantage of increasing workers' productivity while reducing training costs. It frees up precious time and resources for innovation, process improvements and employee development. In contact centers and customer facing scenarios the CIM solutions can help reduce average handling time (aht) and improve the customer experience. This benefits both on the call center agent level, in terms of maximizing individual agent performance, as well as improving efficiency and standardizing the entire contact center operations.But more than anything else, the biggest benefit is in terms of customer satisfaction as a result of faster and effective resolution of queries, requests or complaints.The uniqueness of our solution lies in its ability to proactively present the most pertinent agent response to the customer, whether complaint handling or cross sell/up sell and connect to existing applications without "heavy", intrusive, time-consuming IT integration. I see businesses, especially in financial services, insurance and contact centers gaining significant benefits from these solutions. The front-end customer service executives in these industries usually need to internalize a great deal of information about multiple products and their myriad features, regulations and conditions and draw upon their knowledge in real time, on the job, while transacting processes with customers. I believe that CIM solutions can transform a customer service organization from being slaves of data to being masters of customer relationship management. If you would like to learn more please click here. Look forward to hearing from you! (Saurabh Mittal is Head - Electronic Performance Support Systems at TATA Interactive Systems)

I have not been able to wholly embrace the age of the social networking Web sites; however, I do enjoy being a part of LinkedIn, a professional networking site, because it allows me to learn about professional developments in my field. I enjoy going through the discussion forums on weekends to see what the e-learning world is chattering about. Just the other day, I was following a discussion thread on someone seeking recommendations for e-learning and serious game development vendors. I was quite delighted to read a comment from Claudia Musekamp, one of our international clients. Her comment reads, "I worked with TATA Interactive Systems on the scoyo/Bertelsmann project. Great company." Some of my friends have been part of this project and it was just as thrilling for me to read this feedback as it was for them. We often receive praise or positive feedback from clients via e-mail or on a conference call, but it feels real or more special when you stumble upon it so unexpectedly on a public forum.(Rukmini Chaudhury - Lead Content Developer)

Businesses may be forced to tighten their purse strings in the current economic climate, but does the demand for continuous skills development go away? Now, more than ever, organizations are looking to develop workforce skills using innovative, cost-effective tools and techniques. Tata Interactive Learning Forum 2009 is inviting CLOs and learning leaders in America to share their experiments & experiences in corporate learning, network with other thought leaders, preview some of the latest learning products and technologies, and examine case studies of key learning initiatives at other corporations in times of change. This exclusive symposium will be held over two days on October 29-30, 2009 at the refreshingly uncommon St Julien Hotel & Spa, Boulder, CO. Held annually for over 5 years, the TLF is a highly successful event with a learning community of more than 500 participants so far. This year, the conference is being hosted by Tata Interactive Systems in partnership with Bersin & Associates. For more information, please visit www.tatalearningforum.com

Not long ago, games were just another way to kill time, but not anymore. Today, innovative game-based programs can add a whole new dimension to your corporate training initiatives, getting people excited and engaged, ensuring a rapid and deep viral spread among your audience, and, most importantly, capturing the response and evolution of the audience as they interact with your message. Join us for this Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) webinar, as we discuss with you serious games and their impact on corporate learning. Helen Harries-Rees, senior director, training and development for DHL Express in the UK and Ireland, and Chandra Shekhar Ghildiyal, practice head, serious games for TIS, will interact with you as they outline the benefits and best practices for incorporating serious gaming into your learning initiatives. At this webinar, you will learn how:  Serious games can improve your organizational performance. Immersive gaming can help decrease drop-out rates. Organizations are increasingly adopting games for training. Serious games are exposing the world to whole new ways of instructional techniques. You can leverage better metrics for learning effectiveness through serious games. Register today to join this free, one-hour webinar to discover how work and play can—finally—go together.

TrainingIndustry.com’s recent annual global survey has declared TIS as one of 2012's top 20 training outsourcing companies. We at Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) are delighted to have received this accolade once again. As a leading developer of learning solutions, we strive to successfully meet training needs of organizations we partner with. This declaration by Trainingindustry.com recognizes our efforts and constant endeavor to delight organizations we serve. Selection to the top 20 list was based on: Industry visibility, innovation and impact Capability to deliver multiple types of training services Company size and growth potential Strength of clients Geographic reach This ranking and the recent 4 Brandon Hall awards in 2011 are just a few indications of our ability to create innovative, best in class solutions for clients across industries.