The annual Calliduscloud Connections Conference is only a few weeks away. It's at the beautiful Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas again May 9-11. Those who attended last year will tell you about the amazing venue including the over-the-top customer appreciation party. But you don't even need to be a customer to register. The event is growing every year and this year's program is packed with more great content than ever. At C3 2016 you'll learn from industry experts, the Litmos product team, and your training colleagues driving business value with the Litmos LMS platform. Besides amazing world class keynotes, this year we also have 3 learning tracks to enjoy: The Business Track In the business track you can expert to learn more about the Litmos roadmap and the new features coming soon. The experts in this track will discuss best practices in Compliance training, eCommerce solutions, and how to build the best training content based on the needs of your business. They will also be discussing topics like ROI, and building a business case for learning. And if the content isn't enough, you will happy to know that we've put aside some time for networking, and collaborating with your colleagues and friends. The Product Track In the product track you can expect to dive deep into the nuts and bolts of Litmos. Within this track you are sure to discover many new nuggets of information helping you take your Litmos LMS solution to the next level. You will learn from those who have developed the Litmos platform, and from the many super-users who have effectively implemented the many powerful features of the platform. The C3 Learning Product track is the perfect place to expand your Litmos skill set and grow your career in building corporate training solutions. Ask The Experts and Speed Networking So many conference experiences over plan your experience. This year we have a special track that allows you to take control of your learning path. We will have stations setup with experts ready to answer your specific questions and talk with you about your specific needs and concerns. There will be a Developer Station, Support Station, and Instructional Design Station available all day. You get to make this track whatever you need it to be. Whatever your questions are, we have someone who can answer them. Choosing a conference to attend is often a difficult task. But if you are a Litmos user, or a corporate training professional just looking to enhance your skills, then C3 is the place you want to be. You can contact me directly on twitter @bschlenker. Or you connect with the Litmos team @litmos.  Don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions. Register for C3 NOW! The post Why You Should Attend C3 2016! appeared first on Litmos.

2016 has been the year of Snapchat. For those of you not following social media trends, what has happened is similar to the slow adoption of twitter. I remember very clearly being told by many that twitter was a joke and they didn't see the need for "knowing what everyone had for breakfast". Real time communication to a widespread audience was not understood back then. People just didn't get it. Now look at twitter. It's used for all sorts of communication: breaking live news coverage and it's made many people overnight celebrities. Why You Don’t Get Snapchat Today snapchat is where twitter was back around '07 '08. And you’re in that familiar spot where you just don't get it. You probably first heard about Snapchat as a private messaging app that deleted your message after it was viewed. And of course this led to Snapchat becoming the poster child (app) for the sexting trend. This gave Snapchat a very dirty reputation. Then, in October 2013, Snapchat "got social" with Stories. Snapchat Stories Changed the Game Stories changed everything. Instead of messaging only one person at a time, you can now post to your Story and everyone that follows you is able to see your snaps. But each post is only viewable for 24hours, then it’s gone. That’s a pretty significant constraint if you’re uncomfortable having your creative work disappear 24hours after you’ve posted it. Learn to Accept Vertical Video Snapchat is also a vertical video medium. And, for many people, that is still just not acceptable. But you better get used to it. Some very creative snap chatters are already mastering the art of vertical video production. And most YouTube celebrities have already extended their brand into Snapchat. So, I think it's safe to say that we should stop judging vertical video so harshly. It's here to stay. Filters, Text, and Drawing in Snapchat And I can’t talk about snapchat without mentioning filters, text, and the drawing tool. These are the elements that set snapchat apart. And they are also what gives creatives the ability to add an artistic flare to their snaps. It’s more than just snapping a quick photo, or 10 second video. It’s about snapping just the right shot, in just the right way, so that you can creatively add these other elements. Just do a google search for best snapchat stories to get the idea. Relating Snapchat to L&D How does this relate to eLearning, or L&D, or corporate training? It doesn’t if you think snapchat will become your next authoring tool, or your next corporate social network. It’s not about the tool itself, but the trends it represents. Being creative within constraints is something people are getting comfortable with. And telling stories has been discussed in the L&D community for several years now. Surviving Disruption in L&D The disruption currently impacting L&D is about control, and relevance in the workplace. The industry struggles to find it’s place at a time when there is an abundance of content to learn from. And the workers of tomorrow are learning how to communicate in new ways today. The methods we created decades ago for L&D will not survive as they were. And if we are to better understand what is expected from future corporate learners, then we better learn to accept how they are learning to communicate and engage via technology. It’s not about supporting just training events, but instead supporting the entire learning process. It’s not hard to see how current social media trends might play in the future of L&D. Storytelling always has been, and always will be, an important factor in learning. With new technologies like Snapchat, we also need to stay open-minded about the possibilities presented to us within innovative technologies filled with constraints. Think Inside the Box What are the constraints that can lead to a more creative training organization? You know them already. They are the same constraints that you uncover every time you do an analysis of the content, audience, or context. What you are discovering are the constraints within which you create a learning experience. They create the box for you to think inside of… not outside. In the case of constraints you’re thinking inside the box. And that’s a good thing. Understanding the comfort your audience has for tools like Snapchat will give you insight into how our industry might be delivering content in the future. Training, Learning and Development L&D departments may be changing, but that doesn’t mean they are going away. Just because employees can communicate more efficiently and effectively than ever before doesn’t mean training isn’t necessary. New technologies always bring new challenges into businesses. And at the rate new technologies are growing, businesses are already falling behind. The L&D and training departments are uniquely positioned to bridge the skills gap. By offering learning content in newer formats, making them available on newer devices, and delivered at just the right time, we can become a critical part of the business again. The future is L&D’s for the taking. We can squander it wrestling with outdated methods, models, and tools, or we can embrace massive change, accept short term failures as we learn, and begin to accept training, learning and development as equals: One not better or worse than the other. As my friend and colleague Trish Uhl says, "Training is necessary, but not sufficient for learning." The post Snapchat: A Possible Future for Learning and Development appeared first on Litmos.

This article from HBR.org got me thinking more about how Training, Learning and Development fit into the future of work. Over the years there have been a few research organizations looking into the future of the workplace. But this particular look into the future comes from a unique perspective. The article is built upon the work of a consortium called CHREATE : "Important clues are emerging from a unique consortium of human resource executives and other leaders. They have gathered through CHREATE (the Global Consortium to Reimagine HR, Employment Alternatives, Talent, and the Enterprise) to map how organizations must evolve to meet future challenges, to identify pivotal initiatives to accelerate that evolution, and to design the actions needed to make the future a reality." They have identified 5 fundamental forces driving the changes in business organizations. I'll let you read the details if you are interested. Here is the list: Exponential Technology Change Social, Organizational Reconfiguration A Truly Connected World All-inclusive Talent Market Human-machine Collaboration I think all five of these forces have already been identified in other posts, forums, etc. And so, these feel self-explanatory to me. However, if you'd like to read more deeply into how the consortium views these driving forces, then navigate to the link above before continuing. The 4 Quadrants of the Future of Training, Learning and Development The part I find most interesting is their 4 quadrant depiction of the future. Along the x axis is Technical Empowerment from low to high. And on the y axis is the Democratization of Work from low to high. You can view the chart here. Democratization and Tech Empowerment are driving disruption in L&D [tweet this] We often talk about how technology is disrupting the world of corporate training, learning and development. And we also talk about how the internet has democratized...well... everything! And learning is certainly not exempt from the effects of either one. It very interesting to see how HR professionals collectively have integrated both trends into a picture of 4 different types of work environments. I think I've had experiences in all 4 to some extent. The HRB.org article does a great job of describing each of the 4 types from the level of the organization. What I'd like to do here is look at the same 4 types but directly how they relate to the work of Training and L&D organizations. The Current State of Training, Learning and Development I love that they put the current state of work as part of the future of work. I think that all too often we envision future states, or innovations, as eliminating the old state. In some case that may be true. But in the case of training, the classroom is here to stay despite futurists claiming the contrary back in the '90s. Many training departments are functioning quite well in their current state. And in larger companies, with L&D organizations, the status quo is getting the job done. There are plenty of reasons why they might want to transition to newer learning solutions, and some are doing exactly that. But they also have the luxury of a working system that keeps the business running while they experiment with newer, more innovative alternatives. The current state of training will absolutely continue into the future for some businesses. The Current State of the Turbo-charged Training, L&D Department This type of future training department seems to be the fastest growing from my perspective. Along the x axis of technology empowerment we are seeing many companies turn away from traditional LMS's and opting for easier, more flexible, and powerful, cloud-based LMSs, like Litmos. In some cases individual departments are taking ownership of their training by going rogue: Buying their own cloud-based LMS, despite the company having one of the larger more unmanageable legacy systems. Turbo-charging the training department with a tool like Litmos gives you the ability to automate much of your existing administrative work, continue to use current methods and models, but also enjoy the power of a platform being built for the future. The Reimagined Learning Department In this quadrant we see a high democratization of work. Training departments are experiencing this as well. The need for training continues to grow, and the current training design/development processes struggle to keep up. So many organizations, departments, teams, and individuals are taking matters into their own hands. Waiting for the L&D department, or training department to get the resources to fund your need is no longer an option. It's much easier to simply do the training yourself. It's easier than ever for individuals to share their knowledge and teach others what they know. We see it all over web sites like Youtube. Everyone has something they can teach others. And today, the technology exists to empower those motivated enough to just do it. The democratization of learning is a major disruptor and this type of workplace learning culture will begin to grow as the next generation moves into these jobs. Uber Learning and Development This quadrant is the holy grail we all seek. Today's futurists speaking at Training, Learning and Development events across the globe pontificate about this future. A future where everything is Uber-fied, robotized, and virtualized. This is also a future where we see a strong, independent learning culture fully matured. A learning culture where learning is simply part of the work, and everyone is self motivated to learn from, and teach, each other.  It sounds like a utopian workplace that may be unachievable. However, there are a few orgs very close to this future today.  This future still includes a Learning and Development organization but the role we play is dramatically different from what it is today. Just how dramatic that difference is remains to be seen. Perhaps is a new role as curator of content. Or maybe even our new authoring tools will include the ability to quickly create virtual reality learning experiences. It's possible. I've seen what can be done. We are not that far away from uber learning and development. What Quadrant is Your Training Department In? I'm sure you've been thinking about this question while reading. If not, then think about it for a moment. Where are you today? And which direction is your strategy taking you? Are you seeing more democratization, or tech empowerment, or both? I'd love to hear what you think. The post The Future of L&D in the New World of Work appeared first on Litmos.

Instructional Design has been in slow decline since 2005.   Why has the interest in instructional design declined over the last 12 years? Some say it's dead, others say it has evolved. But into what, nobody really knows. One thing is clear, the work we do as instructional designers has been disrupted. And there is no clear path to what is next. We hear about and discuss social learning, mobile learning, informal learning, and other terms. But the instructional design of these solutions is left out. Does that mean instructional design is no longer necessary? Do people just not care any more? Historical Perspective on Instructional Design There was a time when, training was requested, it meant classroom training because that was the only option. And there was a time before that when the school house was not quite so structured. During the industrial revolution we got really good at standardizing processes...for everything. So, of course, we defined processes and models for designing the perfect classroom learning experience. And then dispensed that template across the nation to every other school house. The school teacher was no longer on her own. He/she could simply acquire the curriculum on a particular subject. That came in the form of a student/teacher guide. And it was instructional designers who were needed to design those materials.  But then the digital revolution began. Instructional Design Status Quo Didn't Work Our first response was to pave the cow paths as the old saying goes. We used the same process for creating student/teacher guides and used it to create self-paced computer-based training. No teacher required. It has taken our industry a long time to realize that new processes would be required for this new delivery model. Not to mention the fact that we still need instructors. But that's another story. One might argue that the industry still hasn't accepted the new reality of 21st century learning. There is nothing in the legacy instructional design process about supporting learning as a long term process, or how to deal with mobile phones, or user-generated content. Legacy ID was "one and done". Build a course and deliver it...over and over. But in the digital age of "fail fast" and "the lean startup", one and done does not fly. Could this be why instructional design is no longer trending? The google trend graph for instructional design, the term and field of study, would seem to indicate that interest has declined steadily over the last 12 years. And while it looks to be flattening out, it is still trending downward. And that would seem counterintuitive given the massive amount of digital content being generated each day. At least a small portion of that content is designed specifically to be instructional. And that small portion is no doubt significantly greater than all of the published student/teacher guides combined to date. Oh and did I mention that the majority of that instructional content is NOT created by instructional designers? So how can we explain the decline of instructional design? The Mystery of Nothing Special Exposed Perhaps the magical mysterious processes behind the curtain of instructional design have been exposed as an elaborate ruse? It seems many have discovered that simply showing people how to do something is good enough. And even recording one's self explaining something also seems to be okay. And better yet, practicing and failing rounds out the magic of learning. Explaining. Showing. Doing.  These are powerful methods of instruction. But it doesn't take a Ph.D. in instructional design to recognize that. With the digital revolution we've seen the growth of tools allowing anyone to create content that explains and shows others something new. And the tools for creating simulated experiences are getting better and better. Could it be that specializing in the legacy process of instructional design, or the field of study, is simply not necessary? Or maybe just trending downward? The legacy version of instructional design is what we see declining in google trends. But the work of Training, Learning and Development, continues on and is more important than ever. Today we accept that any content capable of influencing the improvement of performance is valuable to the business. It doesn't need to be a course. And what we define as a course doesn't, and shouldn't, be what it's always been. Courses are still necessary, but not sufficient to support the long term process of learning. This is why the modular structure of course development within the Litmos LMS continues to be effective. A course can be whatever you want it to be. And anyone can upload content and publish a course. It's the democratization of course development and delivery. So while instructional design may be declining, course development is just starting to boom. Understanding the business that you work in and environment of the employees is not part of instructional design. It's part of the job. The job of helping the company succeed. And that means improving the performance of those who work in it. When you focus on that, there is no instructional design required. And that's why instructional design is no longer trending.   The post Why Instructional Design is No Longer Trending appeared first on Litmos.

It's official! Peyton Manning will be keynoting C3 this year. Peyton Manning is a five-time MVP in the NFL, two-time Superbowl champion, and the all-time leader in passing yards. And if you're new to American Football, that means he is one of the greatest team leaders in sports history. You probably heard his name mentioned frequently earlier this year as he played in the Super Bowl. You can read a lot more about him at the C3 Keynote Speaker page. C3 is targeted at all sales, marketing, learning and customer experience professionals. This mix of disciplines makes for a unique conference. As technology disrupts every industry, it also brings professionals from different departments closer together. Your work and your success is no longer measured by how well you perform your individual job, but also how well you help others perform at their jobs. Sales, marketing, learning, and customer experience rely on each other to make a successful business.  C3 offers you a unique opportunity to engage with those working in your field, but also with those outside your field needing your help. C3 is at the beautiful Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, May 9-11. Take this opportunity to learn from the successes and challenges of others, and share your experiences as well.  It's an event experience you won't forget! Register today!  The post Peyton Manning Announced as Keynote for C3 2016 appeared first on Litmos.

Recently our team went to the 2016 HIMSS Conference in sunny Las Vegas, although it has been quite a few years since I attended HIMSS, nothing could prepare me for the sheer volume of people I encountered. Not even Disney World spring break crowds could compare to the number of people wedged into the hallways of the Venetian Resort, everyone making their way, at a snail’s pace, towards the exhibit halls. That is no exaggeration. With 46,000 attendees and two exhibitor ballrooms separated by one long hallway, no one got anywhere very fast. As an exhibitor, it presented such a great opportunity to connect with an audience that was relatively new to us. Before traveling, I was quite smug with our booth placement, kitty corner from the "Cyber Security Command Center!" and in full view of an audience interested in information security. The map of the exhibit hall showed real promise, two large presentation stages, surrounded by seats for the potential attendees, and direct view of our booth. With a new library of Information Security course relevant to any Information Security department, we were in like Flynn! Finally, so it seemed, healthcare was taking the matter of cyber security seriously! Until they weren’t. Security is that item on the grocery list that never gets crossed off. Healthcare organizations know they are infamous for weak security protocols and for their valuable patient data, but they don’t seem to care. It seems despite the various acronyms after most attendee’s names, no one really understands how to fight the growing trend in healthcare breaches. Despite the lip service that was given regarding the "Cyber Security Command Center!" it was quite small and hidden away near the bathroom in the Sands Expo, not even close to the Venetian Ballroom, the hall that was considered the "main" ballroom. Regardless of the fact that 2015 had a record number of breaches and the number of compromised patient data reached into the millions, no one seemed alarmed. Budgets are tight and it seems that gambling that your data won’t be compromised is a safe bet. However, the house always wins! And in this case, the house is the data mining trolls. The investment in a platform that will protect your organizations data and the small cost of security training is far more affordable than the cost of even the smallest breach. A breach, which by the way now comes with civil suites and penalties and potential jail time, doesn’t seem worth the risk everyone seems willing to take. One exhibitor had a very clever setup, they drove in an actual Delorian into the exhibit hall, their booth personnel were dressed up in their best Marty McFly outfits and had Huey Lewis and the News’ song, Back in Time, blasting from a generous sound system. Let’s be real: Healthcare doesn’t need to go back in time because they haven’t moved into the future of information security yet. The post Healthcare Security: The Gushing Jugular appeared first on Litmos.

Powerpoint is one of the most popular business tools in use today. And when it comes to making presentations I'll just take a guess and say that it is number one. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong on that. But the point is that it's very popular, and useful. Nobody would use it if it wasn't meeting their needs. Classroom trainers use it for presentations. eLearning developers use it to storyboard. Rapid eLearning developers use powerpoint presentations as a good starting point. You can even use it to make images (.jpg) and movies. But it wasn't always embraced so openly by the designers and developers of computer-based training. It started as most software apps do with very humble beginnings. Now it's features are as complex as you need them to be. Some may say too complex. How does a simple slide show presentation system turn into the most used tool in corporate training? I only recently learned that Powerpoint didn't start out as powerpoint. It was originally called Presenter. And even more shocking than that, Presenter was developed for the Macintosh. I am joking of course. It's not that shocking. But as an open fan of all things Apple, it was an interesting little factoid. And that got me thinking about how it all started. These are my personal reflections on how I experienced Powerpoint during the birth of the computer-based training and development industry. HyperCard Starts the Race Towards Authoring There is a little more to the story of Powerpoint and it's connections with computer-based training authoring tools. In 1987 Apple launched a product called HyperCard. It was an amazing product for that time. People without any heavy programming skills could use HyperCard to produce interactive content. It was a huge success, and used in many different ways: Teachers built interactive educational applications, game designers built fantastic games like the legendary Myst, and it was used heavily as a presentation tool as well. But it was only available on the Macintosh. PCs were becoming deeply embedded into the enterprise and needed a similar tool. Microsoft acquired an application called Presenter that added the presentation element the corporate world needed. Powerpoint and Toolbook Cut From the Same Cloth Hypercard proved that authoring tools were useful and wanted. There was an undeniable need for interactive multimedia applications giving everyone the ability  to create programs. In 1990 Microsoft launched its first version of Presenter under the new brand Powerpoint. In the same year, former Microsoft founder Paul Allen founded a multimedia company called Asymetrix and launched their first product Toolbook. Toolbook used the book metaphor with pages, but there was no mistaking the similarities to Powerpoint: Pages, slides, same thing. Powerpoint and Toolbook may have shared a similar interface, but Toolbook was primarily built for authoring simple Windows based programs. This made it far more powerful than Powerpoint in so many ways. And made it more of a threat to Visual Basic than to Powerpoint. While HyperCard was launched the Mac authoring market, Toolbook gave PC users a chance to become program creators as well. And Powerpoint remained a humble presentation tool for delivering corporate presentations. CBT Development Grows and Leaves Powerpoint Behind The introduction of HyperCard stacks in schools led to its obvious use as a computer-based training development tool. And in my early days of graduate school Toolbook was often referred to as "the Windows version of HyperCard". Not everyone had Macintosh computers at work. In fact, very few did. But everyone had a Windows PC on their desk giving Toolbook a huge advantage in the corporate training market. And in 1994 Asymetrix released Toolbook 3.0: The CBT Edition. This was also influenced by other authoring tools growing in the market. But my early experiences presented CBT developers with two choices: Hypercard or Toolbook. Powerpoint was not only NOT an option, it was seen as the anti-CBT tool. It's uses were mostly limited to the board room, or the classroom based training room. It was the digital replacement for transparency projectors (Anyone remember printing "foils"?). If you were serious about creating self-paced computer-based training, Powerpoint was not even an option. It was the enemy: The epitome of old-school classroom training. And we were having none of that. Self-paced interactive multimedia computer-based training was the future. And we were all in. New Authoring Tools Push Powerpoint Aside And as I mentioned above, there were other authoring tools hitting the scene at about the same time. Authorware was founded in 1987 by Dr. Micheal Allen. Macromind Director 1.0 launched in 1988, but didn't become Macromedia Director until '93. And there were others. But my early career and experience with authoring was dominated by these major players. Authorware was an immediate hit quickly gaining 80% of the market in 3 years. However it suffered the Mac only syndrome, which obviously did not hinder it's growth. But in my experience, as an internal CBT developer, Mac only products were difficult to justify since PCs dominated the enterprise. Toolbook was PC only and similar to Powerpoint which reduced the learning curve. And being created for the PC made it easy for us to justify the purchase. While Powerpoint was pushed aside as a potential authoring tool it remained deeply embedded in the corporate culture. It was marginalized, but not dead. HyperCard, Toolbook, Authorware, Director, and a few others battled for the new and rapidly growing CBT development market. And Powerpoint was not in the mix. Powerpoint was pushed aside as an old product just for delivering presentations, and not useful in the coming eLearning revolution. But no matter how hard instructional designers and developers tried to ignore Powerpoint. It was hard to deny it's usefulness and its reach across a large population of professionals. It lacked the sexiness of the authoring tools that pushed it aside, but it survived, and has become the workhorse of the corporate training industry. In my next post I'll look back on what happened to authoring tools, and consider how Powerpoint finally became one of the cool kids. Don't forget to register for the C3 event with special guest keynoter Peyton Manning! The post Powerpoint in eLearning: Part 1- Presentation Pushed Aside by Authoring appeared first on Litmos.

The billing and collection staff in most healthcare organizations often suffer the highest rate of turnover, yet they are imperative to the continued operation of your business. These staff members, sometimes called the patient access staff, don’t always have the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with your patients or interact in any way other than asking for payment. It's likely a safe assumption that most patients understand that they will have to pay for the services and care they receive. But imagine, just for a moment, that you are the patient and your physician told you that you have a cancerous tumor that has spread. What are you thinking about? Living or paying your $20 co-pay? This is the type of environment your patient access staff works in. They are looking at ICD-10 codes, attached to an account number, which is attached to a name, but they don’t have the opportunity to know the person at the other end of the name. They’re adding a straw to the camel’s back, maybe even the final straw. It’s no wonder the turnover is high. The healthcare environment is constantly changing and with that change brings higher patient responsibility (which translates into a bigger straw on the camel’s back). As an organization, you must adapt and be the "face" change. Regardless of your generation, it is imperative to recognize the importance of technology and the role it plays in the revenue cycle process. Analyze your organizational and patient needs and adapt the processes that will make you the most efficient. My chiropractor uses technology quite well and at a low cost to his one doc shop. Prior to a patient’s first appointment, his front end staff person verifies the benefits and communicates clearly to the patient what their responsibility will be at that first appointment. If a deductible is present and unmet, this person explains what the cost will be, as well as subsequent office visits until all deductibles are fulfilled. An automated appointment reminder is sent out 24 hours in advance, I opt in for a text message that allows me to create an appointment on my calendar if I forgot to do so at the office. Within the message, you will find all the information needed to cancel the appointment if necessary. At the visit, all fees are collected before you see the doctor and you can have your receipt emailed, texted or printed out. Automating the patient intake and billing process, allows his office staff to connect to patients on a more personal level when they arrive. They also have very few missed appointments or the need to collect on patient balances. What are the steps you can take to automate and create a smooth revenue cycle? Set a positive tone for the entire patient experience Complete the patient financial clearance process correctly Collect appropriate monies due at the time of service Assure that patients get to the right place with the right provider at the right time Find a third party vendor that can automate your needs Educate your staff on patient engagement and collections   Baylor All Saints of Fort Worth creates a career ladder approach for their revenue cycle (or patient access) staff. An employee starts by working in the support staff services, accessing data for management and all staff members. From that point, they progress into billing and balance adjudication or payment and adjustment posting. That position moves into the collections department, with a clear understanding of intake and billing, as well as patient payment expectations. The collections position, allows the staff member to work into contract compliance, transplant claims adjudication and customer service. Once this final step of the ladder is achieved, this same person can progress into management or director positions.* Baylor makes a position that many consider a dead end into a jumping off point, creating an employee that is well-versed in the revenue cycle process. Your front line staff is the face of your business and your billing and collection staff is the last memory. What picture are they painting of you? *Source: Strategies for a High Performance Revenue Cycle, HFMA The post Patient Access and the Revenue Cycle appeared first on Litmos.

In my previous post I reviewed the beginnings of Powerpoint in relation to Authoring tools. I wrote from my own perspective with the help of wikipedia. It was not intended to be a fully researched academic paper. The intent was to simply review my personal experiences in this industry and how I engaged with authoring tools a couple decades ago. If you missed it, you can read it here. In this post I'll extend those reflections into how Powerpoint got to where it is today. Not in the business or product sense. But as a tool in the Corporate Training industry. As I mentioned in the last post, Powerpoint was not a favored tool by anyone developing eLearning back in the '90s. It was the tool of classroom trainers, and not capable of doing the cool multimedia interactivity that authoring tools allowed us to do. We were all very excited to be able to create interactive programs as self-paced training courses. We all saw Computer-based Training (CBT) as the future. But despite being shunned by the CBT development crowd it was still in heavy use within corporations. There was no stopping the Microsoft Office juggernaut. Everyone working in an enterprise had access to Excel, Word, and Powerpoint. And everyone was creating presentations with Powerpoint. By the time the term CBT transitioned to "eLearning", Powerpoint had become the main format for any and all presentation requirements. And this included online training courses, and eLearning. Powerpoint may have been ignored by the eLearning development community but it was the tool of choice for everyone else required to teach something. Professionals vs Subject Matter Experts Once it became obvious that Powerpoint was not going away, the industry began to embrace it. We soon saw "rapid development" tools coming to market blending the basics functions of elearning authoring tools directly into Powerpoint as a plugin. We learned a lot during the early years of CBT development. Instructional designers were working with subject matter experts who delivered their content via Powerpoint. And developers loaded the Powerpoint content into authoring tools so they could add the interactive elements in the hopes of making the learning experience more engaging. This was a pattern that emerged over time and became a common process for developing eLearning. Understanding the relationship between the SME and instructional designer/developer got everyone thinking about options. Why not let the SMEs create their own eLearning courses? And if we wanted to allow them to do that, what would be the easiest way to help them get it done. The answer was simple. Start with Powerpoint. It was the perfect starting point because everyone knows how to use Powerpoint. The next step was a little more complicated. How do we make it easy for non-developers to develop eLearning courses with the same interactivity from their Powerpoint content? And the answer came in rapid development tools that embedded advanced development features into Powerpoint. It worked for a long time, but not everyone was happy about it. Instructional design professionals balked at the idea of letting SMEs create their own courses. The concern was based on the idea that SMEs don't understand instructional design. And that anything they create is just information, or an interactive communication. The instructional design magic had not been properly applied. This is a battle that plays on today, with both training professionals and SMEs actively creating course content. Personally, it's something okay with. In fact I actively encourage it. There is a time a place for both. The Cloud Rolled In Rapid development meant publishing Powerpoint based courses as SCORM files which were then uploaded into learning management systems. It didn't matter who was creating the SCORM files at this point. SCORM had become the most popular standard for self-paced eLearning courses. And learning management systems were built to manage their distribution. Early LMSs managed courses only if they were in a pre-defined format like AICC, SCORM, or others. And that was your only option. Because back then training was packaged as a course. And a course meant having all the elements wrapped up into one package. But cloud-based LMSs were born and changed everything. The introduction of cloud computing opened up many opportunities. Soon systems from all industries began moving to the cloud. And so did LMSs. Litmos was one of the first cloud-based LMSs to launch and disrupt the LMS market. But this was also a time when YouTube and other self-publishing platforms were being born in the cloud. This opened the flood gates of massive content creation. Massive content creation that included instructional content being created by NON-instructional designers. And while YouTube dominated the video publishing market another cloud based system launched called slideshare. Slideshare gave creators of presentations a place to share their Powerpoint content. And the story goes on with content publishing in all media becoming easier and easier. These cloud-based tool made it okay for anyone to produce and publish instructional content. And idea is now spreading into the enterprise. Powerpoint is Still The Most Popular Training Tool Today Powerpoint is no longer as openly hated as it used to be. Yes, like any other tool, it gets misused. But that's not Powerpoint's fault. Powerpoint is used by many instructional designers for storyboarding their elearning projects. The slide sort view makes it easy to rearrange slides as needed, and since Powerpoint is known by all, it makes the review process flow more smoothly. Powerpoint is useful as a starting point. All content can be useful as learning content to someone. Starting an online course with just a simple powerpoint is now part of an iterative development process for many. It's a modular approach to course development that allows rapid prototyping, rapid development, rapid feedback loops, and immediate value added to the business. Powerpoint is one of the cool kids now. It is used as both a design and development tool. And without the need for an authoring tool acting as the middle man you can upload your .ppt file directly into the Powerpoint module of Litmos. Then you can add quiz modules before and/or after it as well as adding modules for many other media types. There is still a time and a place for more powerful authoring tools, but necessity is gone. Powerpoint was born with the authoring tools and moved through some transitions over the years, but has stayed a strong, valuable tool, for corporate training professionals. With Powerpoint and a cloud-based LMS like Litmos you've got everything you need to start a powerful training program. The post Powerpoint in eLearning: Part 2 - PPT Becomes Critical App in Course Development appeared first on Litmos.

As you may know, there are more than a few federal agencies that impact HIPAA and its compliance. Two or the most important are the Office for Civil Rights, known by its acronym OCR, and The Office of the National Coordinator, its acronym is ONC. OCR writes and enforces the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Breach Notification Rule. OCR is also responsible, along with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), for the Meaningful Use Rules and Standards. One of the major things that meaningful use is about is gaining more "real" interoperability between and amongst the electronic records and there systems, ePHI, that is still distributed in SILOS across the healthcare industry! Until February 2016 the HIPAA guidance on privacy, security and breach notification was all written and posed ONLY by OCR. Last month ONC posted four very good blogs on HIPAA compliance as it relates to Meaningful Use. Remember, all three stages of Meaningful Use require the providers and hospitals that have received or will receive EHR $$$$ must do HIPAA compliance not only within the HIPAA Rules and the Meaningful Use Rules. The blogs, in order of publication, are: Blog post 1: The Real HIPAA Supports Interoperability Blog post 2: Permitted Uses and Disclosures Blog post 3: Care Coordination, Care Planning, and Case Management Examples Blog post 4: The Real HIPAA: Quality Assessment/Quality Improvement and Population-Based Activities Examples All four blogs include practical and real life examples, figures and rule citations. Plus, they are written in understandable words and terms, not in either legalese or technical-ese. The interoperability blog includes information in the following areas: For Healthcare Operations Case management ACOs, and Population-based activities For Treatment Hospital and treating physician Physician and care planner, and Hospital to hospital transfer The permitted uses and disclosures blog deals with the Privacy Rule requirements and the sharing of PHI and ePHI in the new digital environment, including: Quality assessment and improvement activities Patient safety Reviewing healthcare professional qualifications Evaluating provider and health plan performance, and more In the third blog about care coordination, planning and management are excellent diagrams, and well as information for: Provider care coordination Provider care planning, and Case management The last blog addresses population-based activities, including, within and through: HIE ACO, and With multiple-provider quality assessment activities All of the information within the blogs is very good information for any provider, health plan, clearing house or business associate to use as both training material, and to augment your organization’s current HIPAA documentation. The post ALPHABET SOUP and HIPAA Compliance appeared first on Litmos.