<!---image---> <!--end image--> It's tornado season once again. And each year around this time, we get a sobering reminder of how powerful, destructive, and deadly tornadoes can be. According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory at NOAA, about 1,200 tornadoes hit the US every year. They define tornado season this way: "The peak "tornado season" for the Southern Plains is during May into

<!---image---> <!--end image--> Recently, we've been writing a series of posts about using visuals to improve the effectiveness of your training materials. You can check out articles about organizing visuals to aid perception, directing the learner's eyes, reducing realism, and making abstract concepts more concrete. There are two more to come in this series, and then we'll be creating

Today's workers have to learn many complex things. The visuals in your training materials can help level the odds and make it easier to learn all those complexities. Want to know more? Check out the post we just wrote at OpenSesame's blog. The post gives some great tips for using visuals this way. Plus, it includes some cool examples from the Convergence Training retail training course

<!---image---> <!--end image--> I was booking a flight to Mississippi to help a new customer implement the Convergence Training Enterprise learning management system (LMS) and began sweating just thinking of the heat in the Magnolia State. And not only that, but the Golden State of California has a still-new law that mandates new cool-down recovery periods for workers. So I put two and two

Industrial Safety and Health News (ISHN) has announced the winners of their annual Reader’s Choice award, and lo-and-behold, we won our category! The Convergence Crane and Hoist Rigging Safety course is the 2014 ISHN Reader’s Choice Award winner for Best Safety Training Product. We've been developing a ton of new training content over the past couple years, in addition to continuing to add

<!--end image--> Each year OSHA publishes their list of the top 10 most cited workplace safety standard violations. While there are always some shifts in ranking, the standards on the list remain remarkably consistent, year after year. To help trainers and safety representatives address these consistent problems, we've put together a list of resources to use while training your workers

"Blended learning" is one of the hot buzz phrases in learning circles these days. The concept (learning via multiple instructional methods) has been around a long time, but has gained momentum over the past decade as computer-based and online training software has become more accessible and easier to pair with more traditional instructor-led courses. Blended learning is becoming more

It's an exciting world full of bling-bling, right? There's a lot of stuff that catches our attention, grabs our focus, and compels us to stay engaged. Sadly, that's often not the case with workplace training. Even now, training materials often lean on text-heavy PowerPoint presentations. But you can change that by adding well-designed visuals to your training materials. Want to know more?

We have been writing a series of posts over at the OpenSesame blog about how to design visuals within training materials to help your learners learn more effectively. The series has included posts on the following graphic techniques: Organizing on-screen visual elements to ease perception Using visual elements to direct the viewer’s eyes Reducing the processing load by reducing realism Using

OSHA puts out a list of the top 10 most cited violations every year. Many standards appear on the list each time. So we’re pulling together some things to help you train your workers about each. Here, we’ve got a list of resources about powered industrial trucks for you. Powered Industrial Truck Training Resources Forklift Safety e-learning course. View a sample and/or contact us to get the full course. Free powered industrial truck glossary (plus a lot more). Use the glossary from our blog and/or download a free copy for your LMS. Free powered industrial truck word game. Play the game from our blog and/or download a free copy for your LMS. Powered industrial truck checklists. Handy checklists from our friends at OSHA. Powered Industrial Truck FAQ What’s the regulation, again? 1910.178 (Powered Industrial Trucks) Does Convergence Training offer 3D animated training modules for operators of forklifts and powered industrial trucks? We’ve got a few you might be interested in. Check out our Forklift Safety and Forklift Training-Reducing Product Damage courses. How many citations were there? 1,993. Has OSHA listed the sections within the standard that were most commonly violated? Not yet for 2012, but here’s a breakdown of the violations in 2011. (We’ll update this when we have more current information from OSHA.) Does OSHA have a Safety & Health Topic webpage for powered industrial truck hazards and regulations? They’ve got several. There’s an introduction to powered industrial trucks, a second for hazards and solutions, one for loading and unloading, one for working with hazardous materials, and one for vehicle maintenance. Does OSHA have any eTools for the powered industrial truck regulations? Here’s OSHA’s Powered Industrial Truck (Forklift) eTool. Does OSHA suggest any daily checklists for the operators of powered industrial trucks? They’ve got several on their site. Two created by OSHA and the Industrial Trucking Association (ITA), and several more by the UAW-Ford National Joint Committee on Health and Safety. Has Convergence Training taken the information in those OSHA checklists and created free, downloadable Tasklists for companies that use the Convergence learning management system (LMS)? We made two Tasklists for pre-shift safety and operational inspections, one for PITs with internal combustion engines and one for electric-powered PITs. What about NIOSH? Do they offer resources too? Here’s a NIOSH publication called Preventing Injuries and Deaths of Workers Who Operator or Work Near Forklifts (catchy title, huh?). The post Powered Industrial Truck Training Resources (1910.178): OSHA’s Most Cited Violations appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.