Today, there is a lot of awareness of Animation and Gaming in the Entertainment domain; however, not so much of animation in the Educational domain. We at TIS believe that the quality of our animation gives our learning programs a competitive edge, which is also why it is widely appreciated by our customers worldwide. Further, we have some very talented animators working with us and this domain offers alternate and exciting career opportunities for designers and animators. Also, animation is a powerful medium of storytelling and has the capability of cutting across geographical boundaries, as well as making complex subjects more understandable and engaging. As part of our ‘Ask the Expert’ Webinar series, we recently held a webinar session that focused on the advantage of using animation and 3D virtual worlds in education and training. A few of the case studies that were showcased during the Webinar have won international acclaim and helped people learn better. For instance, TIS has used Maya and Unity 3D to create a virtual retail store in Canada where new recruits/staffs in the company could explore the store environment and identify problems and link them to business impact issues. Consider this: The store witnessed too many people queuing up buy an item. A probable reason could have been that the person at the counter was not trained properly, which in turn resulted in loss of sales, in case the buyers got impatient.  Moreover, people who work at counters in a retail store are typically young; they also play a lot of games. Hence, they tend to prefer a format like this as opposed to learning concepts in a classroom or from a textbook. This program also won the Brandon Hall Gold Award for Virtual Worlds last year. The webinar was not too technical in nature and our aim was to create an awareness about the advantages of using the same medium in an educational context. The audience that had signed up for the Webinar ranged from training managers of companies worldwide, practicing designers & animation students. Most of the training managers expressed that animation could be considered as a potential way of engaging their employees further in learning, while for animators and design practitioners, choosing animation as a career seemed to be a viable option. To view the webinar recording, Kindly visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9yh3s_qaDk&list=UUK_lGf4cV0IWepLHTGB3WJQ&feature=share&index=2 -          Manisha Mohan, Senior Vice President - Design & Animation, Tata Interactive Systems

Tata Interactive Systems’ Webinar on "learning effectiveness evaluation" highlights key challenges facing organizations 61% of practitioners do not feel they have the personal knowledge to perform the task Learning & Development professionals across geographies responded overwhelmingly to the challenges in learning effectiveness evaluation during a poll conducted by Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), as part of our interactive Webinar on "Practical approaches towards learning effectiveness evaluation". The attendees were polled on several parameters ranging from ‘how they evaluate learning effectiveness’ to ‘how effective they are’ and ‘what tools are used to measure effectiveness’.  While the Webinar mainly focused on the challenges facing L&D, learning effectiveness models as well as creating an evaluation plan, we also emphasized on having evaluation measures in place. This is primarily due to the fact that evaluation measures act as a leading indicator and is an in-process measure that could enable you to take pre-emptive actions and help improve your chances of achieving your T&D objectives. A lag indicator, however, is when you are measuring the effectiveness when the process is over and you are measuring in retrospect. Hence, it is always important for training departments to align their objectives with the organization’s goals and then with the department’s / individual’s objectives. During the Webinar, we also polled attendees on key challenges while measuring learning effectiveness. The result revealed that lack of knowledge about evaluation mechanisms (61%) was a primary concern, besides citing lack of time (33%) as another reason for not measuring learning effectiveness. In yet another poll, a sizeable majority of the attendees believed that training evaluation data would help improve employee as well as an organization’s performance. They were also of the opinion that training could become a partner to business rather than being just a vendor. The poll further included questions regarding ‘organization’s readiness to conduct evaluation at different Levels’. The poll results are as follows: Not at all : 50% Only Level 3: 37% Further during the Q&A session, one of the attendees particularly wished to know more about the evaluation mechanism pertaining to Level 3 & Level 4 in a dynamic situation where the attrition levels are high. Click here to know the answer and access the archived video of "Learning Effectiveness Evaluation" Webinar.    -      Poushali Chatterjee, Principal Learning Designer & Delivery Head, Kolkata Centre, TIS

TIS, a thought leader & leading developer of learning solutions, is a ‘founding sponsor’ of the Center for Talent Reporting (CTR) CTR has developed a set of Talent Development Reporting standards for all key talent processes that help organizations run talent like a business  Standards for establishing the reporting and management of human capital are truly critical to the talent & HR functions (including training) as a sincere governance practice, and Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) - one of the leading developers of learning technology solutions across the globe - is offering training & consultancy services to implement Talent Development Reporting principles (TDRp) for all human capital processes. TIS is also a founding Silver sponsor of the Center for Talent Reporting (CTR) - a non-profit organization that has established a framework for TDRp. In fact, the formal launch announcement of CTR was done at the Tata Learning Forum held in Washington DC in October 2012, in the presence of key CTR Board Members. TDRp brings principles, standards, definitions, recommended statements & reports, and processes for all key talent processes including Learning and Development, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Capability Management and Total Rewards. These standards provide the much needed guidance in defining the right measures to use and in constructing meaningful management reports. Once in place and consistently applied, the standards would also significantly increase the ease and value of benchmarking with other organizations. David Vance, Executive Director for the Center for Talent Reporting, avers, "The introduction of the TDRp framework helps talent professionals plan, measure and manage to deliver business impact using a standard, yet flexible approach. TDRp helps you run talent like a business, identify business goals, align human capital initiatives to those goals, get upfront agreement with the sponsors on the expected impact, and then execute with discipline on a monthly basis using standard reports just like financial reports are used on a monthly basis to manage other aspects of any business." Adds Gajanan Kasbekar, Sr. Vice President, Tata Interactive Systems, "Till a few years ago, there was no agreed-upon standard for the reporting or management of human capital. Today, TDRp is considered as a groundbreaking initiative that brings standard principles and reporting to all human capital processes. Also, during the course of TIS’ year-long association with CTR, we have trained some of our key performance consultants in TDRp workshops. These performance consultants are today capable of defining, designing and implementing key steps in the TDRp journey for our clients, through levels of maturity." Gajanan is one of the Advisory Council Members at CTR. Hundreds of organizations are already using TDRp. Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) offers TDRp consulting services that can help align an organization’s L&D initiatives to its business goals and outcomes, making comprehensive analysis and reporting possible. The Center for Talent Reporting Established in August 2012, the main focus of this not-for-profit organization is to standardize and improve the measurement, reporting, and management of human capital through the adoption of the Talent Development Reporting principles which were developed by industry thought leaders in 2011 and 2012. CTR is supported by its members, representing 10 countries, and by sponsors like TIS. Members have access to a library with over 600 measures, sample statements and reports, tips and tools, and special discounts for workshops and conferences. CTR will soon launch a members-only community of practice and a directory of resources to increase members’ business acumen and management skills. For more information about the Center for Talent and Reporting, CTR Sponsors, or past and future events visit http://www.centerfortalentreporting.org/

Organisations are trying to put the ‘personal’ back into learning. What’s helping them are platforms like Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that allows learners to create their own learning path, select content of choice, collaborate with peers, rate content and do a host of other things. Some Learning & Development teams are already looking beyond the Learning Management System (LMS) to the PLE, driven by the need to empower and motivate the learner. The business benefits are higher return on investment, better link between training and performance, optimisation of hours spent in formal training, etc. In our recent webinar on Personalised Learning, we explored the world of PLE through a case study involving Alcatel-Lucent. The telecom company’s Cloud-based application, My PLE, is an effective platform for learners to create a learning program customised to their current and future job role and professional development. My PLE is an ecosystem in which learners can explore the world of formal, informal and social learning. It has its roots in the philosophy that learning doesn’t have to be restricted to one-off interventions, formal trainings or even the network of a single organisation. My PLE makes it possible for learners to access and get credit for learning that could exist anywhere—inside the organisation’s LMS or outside of it (think Wikipedia, YouTube, resources on other Clouds, etc.). As far as learning resources go, the sky is indeed the limit! Learning is all-pervasive, although defined by a structure in which the knowledge can be accounted for and recognised. For more on My PLE and the attributes of this application, view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPzq71NxOC0&feature=share&list=UUK_lGf4cV0IWepLHTGB3WJQ&index=2   -         Sarbani Mukherjee, Principal Learning Designer - US, Tata Interactive Systems

35% have managed to get to Kirkpatrick Level 3 with only 15% reaching Level 4. Tata Interactive Systems’ Webinar on "learning effectiveness evaluation" highlights key challenges facing organizations Learning & Development professionals across geographies responded overwhelmingly to the challenges in learning effectiveness evaluation during a poll conducted by Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), as part of its interactive Webinar on "Practical approaches towards learning effectiveness evaluation". The attendees belonging to the Learning & Development functions were polled on several parameters ranging from ‘how they evaluate learning effectiveness’ to ‘how effective they are’ and ‘what tools are used to measure effectiveness’.  Tata Interactive Systems’ Webinar presented by Poushali Chatterjee, Principal Learning Designer & Delivery Head, Kolkata Centre, TIS, mainly focused on the challenges facing L&D, learning effectiveness models as well as creating an evaluation plan. She emphasized the need to create an evaluation plan as part of the learning activities rather than a separate one. "Having evaluation measures in place acts as a leading indicator as it is an in-process measure and enables you to take pre-emptive actions to improve your chances of achieving your Learning & Development objectives," said Poushali. "A lag indicator, however, is when you are measuring the effectiveness when the process is over and you are measuring in retrospect. Hence, it is always important for training departments to align their objectives with the organization’s goals and then with the department’s / individual’s objectives." The polls conducted during the webinar threw up some interesting perspectives. TIS polled attendees responded on key challenges while measuring learning effectiveness. The result revealed that lack of knowledge about evaluation mechanisms (61%) was a primary concern, besides citing lack of time (33%) as another reason for not measuring learning effectiveness. This seems to turn the tables on the popular assumption that measuring learning effectiveness is by itself a tough ask - maybe learning professionals also need to increase their knowledge of evaluation mechanisms and start applying them. In yet another poll, a sizeable majority of the attendees believed that training evaluation data would help improve employee as well as an organization’s performance. They were also of the opinion that training could become a partner to business rather than being just a vendor. The poll further included questions regarding ‘organization’s readiness to conduct evaluation at different Levels’. The poll results indicated that ‘50% of L&D departments have never tried to conduct learning effectiveness evaluation beyond Kirkpatrick Level 2’, while 35% have managed to get to Level 3, with only 15% reaching Level 4. Therefore, while most attendees agreed that evaluation helps increase the business value of training, most training departments are not going beyond Level 2 evaluation. This could well be due to the lack of knowledge about evaluation mechanisms cited in the key challenges poll. This tied in well with the objective of the webinar, where Poushali explained how to build an evaluation plan and the kind of mechanisms that can be used. Responding to questions from the attendees, Poushali went on to explain how to address some specific challenges, like frequent attrition and whether quantity and quality are both equally important when it comes to evaluation. Click here to learn more and access the archived video of "Learning Effectiveness Evaluation" Webinar conducted by Tata Interactive Systems.  

67% attendees have never experienced simulation-based learning during their (university) education 50% concede that their training team had no experience in simulations  As part of our "Ask the Experts" series of Webinars, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) - the only truly global provider of bespoke digital learning solutions - recently held a session on ‘Business Gaming Solutions’. The Webinar mainly focused on the differences in learning styles in the UK & Germany. It brought forth several pre-conceived notions in terms of the awareness metrics, user engagement and pricing structure of business gaming simulations. However, the use of business gaming in corporate establishments across the globe is gaining momentum, as it allows one to learn by making decisions & mistakes… in a completely risk-free environment. Even today, there exists a deep rooted culture of creating strategy games in Germany. Also, the use of business games is well-recognized in this part of the world because the structure of education encourages practical application methods. Besides, more than 50% of all Institutes of Higher Education are Universities of Applied Sciences (FH) which are oriented towards teaching application-based professionals skills. Close on the heels of this discussion, a poll was conducted to gauge ‘the attendees’ experience with simulation-based learning during their (university) education’. And, the poll results declared that almost 2/3rd of the audience had not experienced a business game. In fact, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there is an institutional mechanism to support these simulations. On the other hand, SAGSET founded in the UK in 1970 is almost defunct today; while SAGSAGA and ISAGA are thriving in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Also, according to statistics, learning retention can be as high as 75% in cases where business games are included as part of the curriculum, as compared to 5% in a lecture, 20% through audio visual and 50% through a discussion group. Further, business games also offer a holistic, comprehensive and risk-free decision making environment for a corporate house. TIS polled attendees to understand the obstacles when it comes to introducing business simulations in corporate houses. Almost 80% revealed that they perceived the tool to be too expensive, while 50% conceded that their training team had no experience in simulations. The Webinar also brought forth the fact that business games can be used in multiple application areas such as e.g. Onboarding, Assessment, Employer Branding, Sales Effectiveness, Leadership and Change Management Initiatives as well as Strategy Development. This is because they are flexible, scalable and can be custom-fit to be used on-site as well as off-site (e.g. on tablets and smartphones). These business simulations are so rich in content that the participants can take up decision-making roles of their units to compete as teams against other units in a simulated environment. While proceeding through different modules, teams need to plan, strategize and decide, taking into account several variables that influence the operating environment. Click here to access the archived video of "Business Gaming Solutions" Webinar.  - Dominik Maier, Principal Consultant, TIS, Germany, who presented the Webinar

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global provider of learning solutions, has for the fifth consecutive year, been named in the ‘Top 20 Training Outsourcing Companies’ list by TrainingIndustry.com. This initiative is part of TrainingIndustry.com’s mission to continually monitor the global training marketplace for the best providers of training services and technologies. "We are delighted to be recognized among the top 20 training outsourcing companies for the fifth year in a row," says Kshitij Nerurkar, Chief Operating Officer, TIS. "Designed to meet the needs of every sector, globally, Tata Interactive Systems’ solutions enable organizations to achieve their key initiatives with engaging learning solutions. These key initiatives are often multi-faceted and include examples like enterprise-wide process transformation, global leadership intervention for future managers or, driving a new customer philosophy in sales and marketing. At times, we also help organizations optimize their L&D resources. Also, while most of the outsourced learning solutions are meant to deliver flexibility and cost savings, they miss the mark on effectiveness… and this is where we come in," cites Kshitij. He further adds, "Stemming from 25 years of history in training design, we systematically devise learning frameworks to advise L&D functions and help them measure the success of these initiatives. We also provide content solutions using a combination of product formats like MOOCs-based intervention for leadership training or a tablet-based serious game for sales readiness or a competitive multi-player simulation for risk assessment." The selection of this year's "Top 20" list was based on the following criteria: industry visibility, innovation and impact, capability to deliver multiple types of training services, company size and growth potential, strength of clients and geographic reach. "The Top 20 Training Outsourcing companies leverage their broad expertise to provide quality training BPO services for their clients," said Doug Harward, Chief Executive Officer, Training Industry, Inc. "We continue to see deals touching all process capability areas, with average deal size remaining low." "This year’s Top 20 Companies offer an extensive range of training services and partnerships to support deals covering all regions globally," said Ken Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, Training Industry, Inc. "The companies showed continued growth in keys areas like program delivery and custom content development."

Can MOOCs be the trigger to fully engage Senior Execs in continuous self-development? In his speech on my company, Tata Interactive Systems, annual party earlier this year, my CEO, Sanjaya Sharma, when talking about current exciting times and the fast changing landscape of the end-tech world with the entry of the likes of wearable technology et al, went on to share his experience with one of the latest phenomena in the education world - MOOCs. He reflected on the past couple of decades by stating "… there was a time when I thought of something I wanted to know more about, I ‘go ogled’ … and now I ‘MOOC’." I promptly nodded my head in agreement. The MOOC is no longer only an acronym; it is already a verb. After a sort of longish journey through a plethora of debates and debacles in the higher end world, MOOCs are now propping up in the corporate world. Will they work? Well, it has taken some time to realize that those very characteristics that are unique to a MOOC (their massiveness, openness, connectedness, and their online format) and are not (yet?) working as intended in the academic world could actually find application in the real world. The corporate world has a large population to train or up-skill; there is almost always a dearth of facilitators; taking time out for training has always been a constraint; and most importantly, there has always been a desire to foster peer-to-peer coaching and learning amongst the corporate learners. So, why not? With this background, I decided to go back to my white paper on Instructional Design for MOOCs and pondered over whether the same design philosophy that I had chalked out for MOOCs in the higher end world could also work for the corporate learners. Meanwhile, Joanna Kori, who has joined us as a Learning Consultant in the UK read my white paper and came back with some constructive feedback, which, in turn, started a series of debates and discussions on the topic. With choices between two extremes—a purely behaviorist approach that moods (the more popular variety of MOOCs offered by companies such as Courser, eddy et al) tend to follow and the very chaotic and disorganized approach of a cook (connectivity MOOCs pioneered by well-known researcher and theorist George Siemens and his colleagues Stephen Downs and Dave Cormier), both of us agreed on a middle path, albeit slightly tilted toward the connectivity model. At this point, Sahana Chattopadhyay, my colleague and another experienced ID, joined our discussions, bringing in her vast social media experience gained during her prior tenure as an L&D Consultant and Community Manager. Charged with extremely valuable inputs from both these ladies, I was finally able to come up with a model -the Fish Tank model - for a corporate MOOC.   On 6th March 2014, Tata Interactive Systems called for a Webinar to present this model to the outside world including our corporate clients. Interesting comments and questions poured in from the audience, confirming the need to start designing custom MOOCs for corporates. To know more about how our Corporate MOOC model can be used to engage senior executives in continuous self-development, access the recording of our Webinar at http://youtu.be/ZfsB-7js958   -       Preeti Jasnani, Principal Learning Designer - Education, Tata Interactive Systems

In order for India to truly hold its own on the global stage, there is a need to improve the quality of education imparted to children from under-privileged backgrounds, and also to improve their ability to communicate in English. India’s problem is not just unemployment - but also un-employability of a vast majority of the people of our country who are unable to communicate proficiently in English.80% of students attend state run schools where English is not the primary medium of education. A larger supply of confident, English speaking workforce would improve income levels and buying power for faster economic growth of our country. To reduce this shortcoming, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) along with Bombay Community Public Trust (BCPT), NGO Muktangan and Learning Space Foundation have collaborated to provide high-quality standardized interactive English teaching aids based on the government prescribed curriculum to help children in state-run and private vernacular medium schools overcome the English barrier and become employable, with a program called ‘e-teach’.   DVDs were created by TIS for teaching students from Std. 1- 4.The DVDs are closely aligned with the government prescribed curriculum and presents the concept from textbook in an interesting manner. Although, there is a significant effort involved in the development and distribution, these DVDs are being distributed free of cost in municipal and village schools. These DVDs provide teachers a powerful teaching-aid and enable children’s to learn easily and in a fun way. Each of the 4 members of the collaboration has a specific role to play in this initiative: Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) is responsible for creating the instructional approach, graphics, integrating and testing the DVDs. Muktangan is responsible for guiding the teaching methodology used in DVDs and providing a platform for user-testing, Bombay Community Public Trust (BCPT) is responsible for fund raising, administration & accounting and project coordination.  Learning Space Foundation is responsible disseminating the e-teach methodology in the rural areas in Maharashtra. This project won the eMaharashtra 2012 Awards for the best multimedia content for K12. For detailed information on this initiative, please refer: http://www.afternoondc.in/epaper/EpaperPost.aspx?id=107161

Measuring Learning Effectiveness is considered difficult, time consuming, and difficult to implement. At best, most organizations would conduct assessments and create a pass-fail report. How then, in these times of cost cutting, does a CLO show the business that training is an important contributor to performance improvement? TIS’ white paper, Mapping ID to Performance Needs highlights some of the Models that can be deployed to evaluate learning effectiveness and measure the ROI. Further, there is tremendous work being done around the globe by the Kirkpatricks and independent learning designers, using an updated Kirkpatrick Model, elements of the Jack Philips model, and a host of other methods.  The contemporary learning manager is also conscious about customer satisfaction as they gear up to run their learning department like a business on its own. Traditional evaluation approaches tend to over-survey the learners and sometimes, their managers too. To avoid such overload, the preferred approach is to make the evaluation a part of the activities for the training program itself instead of being designed as independent surveys. Other methods include Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method (SCM) which shifts the focus from evaluation of "training" to an evaluation of how effectively the organization uses training. The overarching purpose of the SCM is to dig out and build understanding about the many factors that keep training from being more successful. Then, it serves as a vehicle to teach the key stakeholders in the organization what needs to be done to increase the training success rates and consistently improve rates of return for training investments. Then there’s Roger Kaufman’s 5 level model, modeled after Kirkpatrick's four level evaluation method. This model applies five levels and is designed to evaluate a program from the trainee's perspective. It also assesses the possible impact of a training program on the client and society. A Kirkpatrick Example: Building a Chain of Evidence A lot of frustration and cynicism around the Kirkpatrick model has been caused by the perceived difficulty in evaluating at the higher levels. While evaluating Level 1 (Reaction) and Level 2 (Learning) is fairly simple, Level 3 (Behavior) and Level 4 (Results) pose several challenges, chief of them being the ability to connect training performance with actual business results. As most learning professionals know, whether learning is transferred to the job and then to business results is not determined only by the quality of learning. There are organizational drivers that can also impact performance, positively and negatively and there could be external influencers which drive results. While both of these are valid concerns, Don Kirkpatrick proposes linking all the levels of evaluation to accommodate the variables mentioned above. He talks about ‘evidence’ vs ‘proof’ of learning effectiveness. His recommendation is to build a chain of evidence from Level 1 to Level 4, which shows that right from learner satisfaction to business result, there has been similar impact, either positive or negative. The hypothesis is: while results at any one level could be skewed by factors other than training, the entire chain cannot be influenced by such factors. From Learning to Performance It’s a dynamic world where training, like everything else, must mirror the demands of the time. The result—a call for a change in focus from learning to performance. In fact, learning design has been evolving continuously to meet changing needs of business and the workers. In conclusion, a combination of appropriate ID approaches along with an evaluation framework to measure effectiveness can help establish the value L&D provides to business. In line with this, TIS has developed its Learning Evaluation Framework, Evaluate, Analyze, Revisit (EAR).  This framework offers process flows, tools, templates, and score cards to implement learning effectiveness evaluation for all 4 levels of Kirkpatrick and the 5th Level of ROI proposed by Jack Philips. Poushali Chatterjee is Principal Learning Designer & Delivery Head, Kolkata Centre, at Tata Interactive Systems.