Creative Instructional Design You can Use Did you know the exponential nature of forgetting? As you see from this diagram featuring the "Forgetting Curve", we forget 80% of what we learned in 30 days! So, how can you improve the stickiness of learning? You can use Creative Instructional Design to adopt learning strategies that offset the forgetting curve and create a value chain for retention and application of learning. In this newsletter, we share two articles that feature examples on how you can use Creative Instructional Design approaches for your varied training needs. Article 1: Focuses on examples of innovative Induction and Onboarding. These examples feature learning strategies ranging from Gamification to Active learning and the more recent Micro learning (uses video- based nuggets and guided exploration). Article 2: Outlines examples of varied learning strategies including storytorials, scenarios (including complex decision-making and branching), guided exploration and micro learning. It also features a few Performance Support Tools (PSTs) that you can use to complement or supplement your formal learning and enhance performance gain. Do contact us if you would like to evaluate how our Creative Instructional Design-based learning strategies would offer a "high retention curve". Our solutions are aligned to meet all training needs and can be deployed seamlessly on devices of learners’ choice (including Tablets and Smartphones). Creative Instructional Design: Featuring 3 Innovative Onboarding And Induction Examples In this article, I have outlined sticky learning designs featuring Creative Instructional Design approaches through 3 examples. These examples feature learning strategies ranging from Gamification to active learning and the more recent microlearning (uses video-based nuggets and guided exploration). I have picked these examples from diverse industry verticals like Insurance, Oil and Gas and eLearning. Read the article Creative Instructional Design: 9 Examples Of Learning Strategies You Can Use In this article, I have shared 9 examples to showcase how Creative Instructional Design helps create sticky learning. Read the article The post Newsletter Mar2016 | Creative Instructional Design appeared first on EI Design.

Using Social Learning to Foster Collaborative Learning We don’t always learn from formal teaching and learning methods. Rather than structured formal learning, most of us prefer exploring things on our own or seeking inputs from our peers or seniors. Learning through observation is a human tendency, a fact that Dan Pink firmly asserts in his book "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us". He states that people have a strong desire to be both autonomous and inter-connected. He cites this as one of the key motivating factors for people to chase greater accomplishments. This is also reflected in the 70:20:10 Model for Learning and Development that describes how learning happens. According to this, most of us pick: 70 percent of our knowledge from our on-the job experiences 20 percent from interactions with others 10 percent from structured or formal training Realising this, several organisations are adopting social learning as an integral part of their learning strategy. In this newsletter, we share our article that outlines the concept of social learning, its benefits and how it can be used meaningfully in an organisation to enhance collaborative learning. The article will also provide some best practices that you can use. What is social learning and how can you use it to foster collaborative learning In this article, I will touch upon the concept of social learning, its benefits and how can it be used meaningfully in an organisation to enhance collaborative learning. I will also share some best practices. Read the article The post Newsletter Mar2016 | Social Learning appeared first on EI Design.

It’s the biggest event of its kind in Europe and draws thousands of people from across the learning space to see and experience the latest the industry has to offer. But Learning Technologies 2016 means different things to different people so we’ve taken the temperature of this year’s event by getting a cross-section of perspectives.  "Why I’m back at Learning Technologies for the first time in 10 years."   Dave Buglass, Head of Organisational Capability and Development, Tesco Bank Dave Buglass is an award-winning L&D professional with more than 20 years’ experience. He’s returned to Learning Technologies for the first time in over 10 years to give a conference talk about putting the consumer (or learner) at the heart of L&D.  "Probably the reason I haven’t been here for over ten years is that fundamentally I don’t think a lot of organisations have been ready for the pace of change of technology. I was curious to come back this year to see what has changed. I’m not a fan of shiny technology and shiny content. I don’t think we are putting the learner at the centre of our thinking. If you look at the world we live in, outside of work and inside work is very blurred now. We should be treating colleagues much more like we treat them outside of work, as consumers. I just don’t think L&D has quite got its head around that yet." "The biggest and busiest I’ve ever seen it." Dan Roddy Director, The Elearning Network and Elearning Consultant, Aviva Dan Roddy is a veteran of Learning Technologies and in his new role as one of the Directors at The Elearning Network he’s been keen to assess what the event reveals about the state of the elearning industry. "I’ve been coming to Learning Technologies for 10 or 11 years and this is the biggest and busiest I’ve ever seen it. I think that’s a good sign that the elearning industry is in really good health. What’s exciting this year is to see a lot of the trends that people have been talking about for the last couple of years finally coming into maturity. We’re seeing people implementing things like XApi and gamification. I think we are reaching a maturing point where elearning is beginning to drop the ‘e’ and become part of what L&D does - it’s really exciting."  "It gives us an opportunity as an industry to pause and look at what’s going on." David Kelly, Vice President and Executive Director, The Elearning Guild "An event like this always appeals to me because it gives us an opportunity as an industry to pause and look at what’s going on, look at what people are doing, how they are doing it and what new doors are opened by that. I come from the United States but being able to come here I get to see a little bit more of a European perspective. It’s interesting to see parallels but also differences between the conversations that I’m participating in in the US, compared to what’s going on here. There’s always the central theme of people being curious about what these technologies are doing and how it might be a transformative enabler for us when it applies to Learning and Development." "Until you put on a headset you don’t fully get how immersive it is." David MacHale, Olive Learning  Virtual Reality (VR) for learning has been talked about for a few years now but at Learning Technologies 2016 the concept appeared to move a step forward. The use of an Oculus Rift headset as part of an elearning application by Olive Learning gave L&D a new perspective on the potential of VR.  "We’re on the edge of something new here and I think the world of learning technologies and L&D is waiting for this. Simulators are already being used in areas such as the aviation industry and mining, where there’s high risk or a high cost to train people but the cost is coming way down. The thing with Oculus is that you can look at it on a screen but until you put on a headset you don’t fully get how immersive it is." "There are a lot of people really wanting to find new ways to engage with learners." Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director, Sponge UK "The elearning market is shifting and maturing and learning professionals want new ways they can interact with learners. There are a lot of people really wanting to find new ways to engage with learners. People are interested in bespoke games for management training, health and safety and compliance. There’s also interest in the use of interactive video, particularly for leadership skills. It’s been great to see so many people at the show and get feedback on their learning needs and interests." Stay up to date throughout the year on the latest elearning news, trends and insights with Sponge UK’s Elearning Insider newsletter and watch out for the Sponge UK Elearning Podcast coming soon. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter  The post Five perspectives on Learning Technologies 2016 appeared first on Sponge UK.

An innovative online induction programme that not only provides essential training for new employees but helps identify the brightest potential talent has won gold at The Learning Awards . Farmfoods and bespoke elearning provider Sponge UK won Onboarding Programme of the Year at the prestigious awards scheme run by the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI). Farmfoods, the frozen food specialists, employ over 4,000 people and trade from more than 330 stores nationwide.Sponge UK and Farmfoods worked closely together to develop an induction programme to give new employees an engaging introduction to Farmfoods and improve performance.The programme consists of high quality, custom-made elearning modules incorporating relevant work scenarios and helpful guidance, supported by on-the-job training and printed workbooks, as part of a blended induction approach.In a survey of learners, 60% said they chose to complete additional elearning above what was required for their role, allowing Farmfoods to spot employees who had the motivation and potential to progress.80% of employees surveyed said they planned to remain at Farmfoods for at least the next year after completing the elearning.The elearning was created using the Adapt multi-device responsive framework so employees can access the training on a smartphone or tablet, which was particularly important for the ‘millennial generation’ workforce.The modules are hosted on Sponge UK’s Launch&Learn LMS, which allows managers to see progress and access talent identification data quickly and easily.Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director, Sponge UK, said: "This project proves that when learning technologies are used imaginatively and strategically they can deliver far-reaching business benefits. There is a lot that other organisations could learn from Farmfoods’ innovative approach to induction, where training and talent management are cleverly combined in one effective programme." Ronnie Morgan, Head of Training and Development at Farmfoods, said: "We set out to create something engaging, modern and useful and we are delighted that the result has achieved recognition by winning gold at these awards. Sponge UK was great to work with. The combination of their design and tech expertise with our content and audience expertise was key in bringing the programme to life successfully." Farmfoods launched the induction training in January 2015.The winners of The Learning Awards 2016 were announced at a ceremony hosted by television presenter, Claudia Winkleman at The Dorchester hotel in London on Thursday, February 4, 2016.The official citation from the Learning Awards said: "The judges were especially impressed at the way in which the materials could be adapted to the different roles and job functions of the learners; in addition, the deployment of the content across multiple channels - especially smart-phones - was both innovative and effective. Finally, the metrics that were produced were truly impressive and make this programme a well deserved category winner."     Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post Induction programme that nurtures talent wins gold award for Farmfoods and Sponge UK appeared first on Sponge UK.

Elliott Masie is probably the world’s most influential learning expert, not to mention the most entertaining and inspiring. For more than 25 years, he has asked the most important questions facing learning professionals and explored the new challenges thrown up as the industry changes and evolves. He’s an author, conference host, learning researcher and thought leader…and he still finds time to produce musicals on Broadway! In this exclusive interview for Sponge UK, Elliott Masie shares his views on video learning, personalisation, the core skills of a learning professional and the global learning landscape. Is it easier or harder to be a learning professional today than it was 25 years ago when you held your first Learning conference? I think it is way more complex today. Twenty five years ago, I was teaching a course on how to be a learning professional and back then we taught three things: how to deliver classroom instruction, how to do instructional design and how to deal with assessment. Today, classroom still exists but now a learning professional might need to know how to do a digital interview with a subject matter resource, how to build some form of elearning activity, they need to know much more around assessment and performance support, and I could keep going. But the other thing that makes it more complex and challenging today is that in the old days everybody relied on the training professionals. Now many of the activities around learning can be built, not only by learning professionals, but by subject matter experts, managers and even by learners themselves. So it’s a bigger world, there are more skills to master and as learning professionals we have to share our turf. Is it more interesting now? You bet! What’s the most important skill L&D professionals themselves need to master to be successful today? I’m going to answer this differently to how I would have answered it 12 months ago. A year ago, my whole conversation would probably be around the process of creation of content. Now, I am convinced that learning professionals need to look at the user experience. The average learner has an over-abundance of content. What they are looking for is the really good piece of content, which could be a three minute video clip, a 200 page book or an app. What’s critical for us though is that content creation is easy, anybody can create stuff. What is challenging is to create content and experiences that make users say "wow, that’s spot on", that gives them exactly what they need, as if it had been made just for them. I think this is the biggest new piece for our industry and it’s not usually been part of how we train our instructional designers.  So I think we’re going to see more and more work towards user experience. Video: Elliott Masie on the importance of data for L&D. One of the things you do at the Masie Learning Lab is to explore the usability of new technologies for learning.  From your research findings, what do you think has exciting potential for the future? Video, video, video ,video! I believe that increasingly we will watch rather than read. But, unless it’s Downton Abbey, I don’t think we want to watch a long multi-hour piece. I think we want to watch shorter clips of information, expertise or experience from a peer or a subject matter expert, but I think video will remain a huge element for the future. Mobile is also important but you will almost never hear me use the term ‘mobile learning’. I use my mobile device for learning but I don’t believe in putting a course on this device. What I do believe is that the device needs to be ready for any form of access that a learner might want, which includes video, internet search and apps. There are other new arenas such as virtual reality and machine learning but they are on the potential cusp, we don’t know if they will help us out or not, but they are intriguing. How far away are we from truly personalised learning? I really don’t know. It’s a question I scratch my head on. Who does the personalisation? To me that’s the interesting part. I think we are far away from where a computer will know everything about me, where using machine learning and other forms of intelligence, it will give me precisely what Elliott wants. We’re inching towards that but we’re not there yet. On the other hand, Elliott, Sam or Brian, are all capable of, and are already doing, personalisation. It’s just that more of it is covert, so to speak. We don’t yet have a personalisation architect system although I think it is coming. But I think we need to be extremely careful that we don’t stereotype and avoid a simplistic personalisation. I think it needs to be a shared model, so it is what the learner does, it’s what the designer does and increasingly a little bit of what the machine does. Are we there now, no, but we are beginning to see elements of it and I think we are also beginning to acknowledge that the learner has the right, privilege or option of doing that, as long as they are willing to be tested or assessed that they have the competency.  If they have the competency I couldn’t care less whether they sat through my lecture but I need to know they are right, ready, legal, compliant and skilled. Are you a fan of games and what do you think their future is in terms of learning? I’m a fan because I love games. I play chess and video games, I’ve been known to obsess at Solitaire and I find Minecraft fun. I’m also intrigued by games that can give the learner deep simulation on a topic, maybe emotional engagement and create content for them. Our challenge is they require a level of development and a price point that is higher than most organisations will pay. So what we are seeing now is gamification, where there are game elements that are not in a game. For example, adding a leaderboard or setting up a competition. If done well, these can be very helpful in an organisation. To build a serious game is wonderful but the sad part is we’re not seeing them come to market so that a company or government agency can subscribe to them. Building them from scratch is expensive and not always the best return on that commitment, but I think they are more and more going to be part of the future. Video: Elliott has his own idea for a learning game. What are some of global differences in learning trends that you’ve observed? The people that I meet around the world in developing countries are better learners because they are hungrier for knowledge.  Any knowledge they get is deeply appreciated and interactively consumed. So whether it is in a place like Burma, South America or India, learners are very often more aggressive, more collaborative and more persistent in learning than my colleagues in the US. The other intriguing thing is that for many years we have used UK, US and other first world learning models in the developing world. But what we need to do is acknowledge the expertise, learning systems and modalities in the developing world - then we get into global. Take the latest Star Wars movie which involved people from around the world joining together to make it. It’s an interesting collage of expertise, and in learning we need to embrace that same reality, quickly. For more information about Elliott Masie, his books, events and the Masie Learning Lab, visit masie.com Coming soon: The Sponge UK Podcast featuring more from Elliott Masie in the first ever episode. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter  The post Elliott Masie on user experience, global learning and sharing our turf appeared first on Sponge UK.

An interactive webinar for learning professionals will outline how the latest innovations in multi-device elearning technology can be used to keep learners inspired and challenged.Sponge UK will be exploring the multi-device learning landscape and showing how organisations can benefit from the clever and creative use of games and video that work on any device.The free session, Love to Learn with multi-device games and video is centred on the real life example of the Public Fundraising Association (PFRA).The organisation is using multi-device games and interactive video to help drive up standards of behaviour among street and doorstep charity fundraisers.Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director at Sponge UK will host the webinar, which is aimed at L&D professionals looking to deliver effective learning content across a variety of devices. She said:"I’m delighted to be able to share this exciting example for the PFRA that shows the full extent of what is now possible in multi-device elearning. In their everyday lives, learners are used to rich online content that works consistently across any device, so workplace learning has to raise its game to meet this expectation by providing experiences that will help people love to learn. The organisations we work with are looking for new ideas that will make a real difference to their business and their learners, and this webinar will certainly generate some new ideas on how to move multi-device elearning to the next level."The webinar takes place on Wednesday, February 17 from 12.30pm to 1pm (GMT). You can register now.A range of topics will be covered during the webinar, including:Using Adapt, the multi-device elearning framework to engage with learnersHow games can help people to learnHow to use video to create an emotional connectionA real-life case study showing effective implementationSponge UK makes custom elearning for organisations worldwide and was named Outstanding Learning Organisation of the Year 2015-16 at the Elearning Awards.The post How to keep learners inspired with multi-device games and video appeared first on Sponge UK.

As an L&D professional one of your main priorities is making your colleagues feel good about the training they complete.One of the traditional ways to get the good feelings flowing is to offer an incentive for completing a course.There are many ways to reward learners, we’re going to explore some of the common options and the theory behind an effective incentive programme.Training as a rewardDepending on the type of training you’re offering, it can make sense to offer the opportunity for learning as a reward itself.Sandra Porter, HR director at Starbucks told the Telegraph how training is a big motivator for their employees staying with the company:"Our partners tell us the more employable we can help them become, the less likely they are to leave."By offering development training to high potential employees Starbucks is able to promote 75% of store and district managers from within.Some elearning courses can be created to help identify talent at the same time as imparting the knowledge required. This type of approach is perfect for induction or sales and product knowledge.Compliance elearning or any company specific training courses are harder to offer as a reward to employees. There are several other ways to offer incentives to motivate your learners to take on this type of training.Types of training rewardsRichard W. Moore identified two types of rewards that were being offered by companies in the 2003 book Training That Works.Explicit incentives - immediate, often financial rewards after taking trainingImplicit incentives - employees expect to be rewarded but it is not explicitHe highlights examples of both cases and shows how employees can be motivated to complete traditional training with an actual financial reward, or just the implied promise of one.Implicit rewards are often part of organisations with a strong learning culture. By showing a track record of rewarding employees who complete or seek out training opportunities you can encourage more people to do the same.Making sure employee’s achievements, including in training and elearning, are recognised is part of the HR strategy of most high performing companies.Explicit rewards are easier to introduce but can be harder to get right.Taking ideas from research and examples that are seeing positive results you can start get your employees motivated using explicit rewards.How do rewards work?The aim of your incentive should be to increase the amount of training that an employee takes on in the long term. To help introduce a culture of learning, rather than a one off boost in completion rates of a particular course.It’s important to consider the way in which the incentive is framed - in psychological terms this means describing the incentive in a way that makes learners find it more appealing.In a paper by Haas School of Business University of California Berkeley, it was found that framing the incentive as a reimbursement of training costs, rather than a reward for completing training, made it more likely that people would complete the course.Teck-Hua Ho, co-author of the paper, said:"A one-time, outcome-based financial incentive— when leveraged on proven psychological techniques—can effectively induce workers’ long-term commitments to training"When used in the right way even a one-time reward can make a big difference to an employee’s chances of taking more training.The employees who were asked to make a non-binding commitment to taking more training and were offered the incentive in the form of a reimbursement were 6 times more likely to continue training than those who were given the cash as a reward and didn’t commit to more sessions.When you introduce any type of incentive you should plan how you will present it to the learners.Getting a commitment for future learning actions, even if it’s not official, is an effective way to get more people to take on future training.Real life examplesMany successful companies offer a training reward programme.IBM use their Know Your IBM scheme to issue real life rewards for completing training to partners who sell their infrastructure products.It’s available worldwide and offers gift cards and products as rewards for completing online training courses. There’s a benefit for the trainee in that they’re better able to explain the capabilities and benefits of IBM’s products, as well as the physical reward.There are Learning Management Systems (LMS) that can provide a similar "digital wallet" that gives your learners access to real life vouchers after taking a course.But is there a way to better tap into the psychological factors that make some rewards so effective?Specsavers introduced a less traditional incentive in their recent induction elearning module.When a learner completes the online training they are given a choice of SpecSavers official charities to which they can gift a virtual coin.Specsavers themselves then donate to the charities proportionally based on the virtual votes cast by the learners.Although an induction course is primarily aimed at new employees it’s open for all SpecSavers staff to complete and vote for their favourite cause.By aligning the incentive with the established culture of charity, and the official organisations they have a relationship with, it motivates learners to find out more about the way SpecSavers work with charities.Making a difference to someone other than themselves is a novel way to give learners an incentive to complete training. It gives the learners a positive reward, reinforces the principles of the company and encourages everyone to complete the training at the same time.Implementing your own rewards schemeBefore introducing your own scheme you should carry out research into whether it would be suitable for your employees.Learners using modern Learning Management Systems (LMS’s) are used to seeing gamification elements built into their online training programmes. Many learners will respond favourably when asked about real life rewards for completing training.A report by softwareadvice.com showed that real life reward schemes are highest on the list of gamification motivators for LMS users.With 35% of learners saying real life rewards would be the most likely incentive to get them to complete more training, winning out compared to 25% who rate "level progression" highest.It’s obvious that there are lots of ways incentives and rewards can be implemented which can result in a positive outcome for your training.Don’t rush into an explicit rewards scheme without thinking about the desired outcome and the possible alternatives which could help achieve it more effectively.If you’d like to talk to us about introducing an innovative rewards programme to your L&D strategy get in touch using the buttons below. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post How to make your employees feel good about completing training appeared first on Sponge UK.

Elliott Masie is one of the best known learning experts in the world, he’s an author, conference host, learning researcher and even a broadway producer. Figurehead and founder of the influential Masie center, he held his first learning conference 25 years ago so we started by asking if it’s easier or harder for learning professionals now than back then.The interview covers excitement at future technologies, serious games, personalised learning, mobile learning and what L&D can learn from Broadway. Questions for Elliott MasieTo make it easier for you to get back to the questions you want to hear again we’ve listed each question with the time it  00:40 - Is it harder for learning professionals now than 25 years ago? 02:50 - What’s the most important skill that an L&D professional needs to master today? 05:30 - What are you getting excited about for the future of learning? 07:00 - How far away are we from truly personalised learning? 09:34 - Can you elaborate on your statement "The LMS as we know it now is on the way out"? 12:10 - Are you a fan of elearning games? 14:38 - What are the implications of mobile devices becoming the main access point? 20:11 - Are there lessons that L&D can learn from Broadway? Read highlights and see video of Elliott Masie in our blog post. Ways to listen to the Sponge UK elearning podcast The full interview is available to listen to using the player above, you can stream the audio directly to your computer or device. Download the mp3 file using this direct link: SpongeUKPodcastEpisode001-ElliottMasie.mp3 (23:36, 8.4MB) Make sure you catch each episode by subscribing to the Sponge UK elearning podcast rss feed with your favourite podcast player. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of the Sponge UK elearning podcast where we talk to award winning L&D professional Dave Buglass, Head of Organisational Capability and Development at Tesco Bank. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post Elliott Masie - Sponge UK Elearning Podcast appeared first on Sponge UK.

Award-winning learning professional Dave Buglass reveals why significant culture change is on the horizon for L&D. Warning: Dave Buglass speaks his mind.He’s both a champion and critic of Learning and Development, and for more than two decades he’s been a leading advocate of the people who really matter, the learners.As Head of Organisational Capability and Development at Tesco Bank, Buglass has proved that learning done well can make a significant difference.He has won a host of top industry accolades including CLO of the Year at the 2015 Learning Awards and spoke at conferences in the UK and beyond.Sponge UK caught up with him at Learning Technologies 2016, where he returned as a conference speaker after a long break. What’s changed in the 20 years you’ve been working in L&D? It was in pursuit of an answer to this question that I returned to the Learning Technologies conference this year. I’d not attended for more than a decade, back in the heady days of CD-Rom, the end of multi-media and the start of elearning. For me, I think the biggest fundamental change in the last 20 years I have worked in this space has been less about the technology and the growth of the internet and more about the change of the consumer, the learner. Understanding learners as consumers is one of the biggest challenges we as L&D professionals face, and we still haven’t quite got our heads around it. Indeed, HR has a lot to learn and change if it’s to develop compelling colleague propositions.So I returned to Learning Technologies out of curiosity to see what some of the technology vendors, suppliers and speakers were saying about what they are doing in terms of dealing with the change in the learner profile. So what is holding L&D back from getting to the point when the learner really is at the centre of everything? I recently spoke at an event where I actually challenged the L&D professionals in the audience with a similar question and suggested that what’s holding L&D back is actually L&D. Without wishing to be disrespectful, I think some L&D professionals have held themselves in quite high regard, to the point that they might be missing an opportunity to educate the rest of the HR profession around what we do, how we treat learners and how we can spread that across the wider organisation.  After all, out of all the departments in HR, L&D are the ones that get more instant feedback than any other function. Therefore, I think the biggest thing holding us back is probably ourselves and our willingness to change. We need to increase our ability to open our minds wider, in terms of what is going on outside L&D. The biggest change for me personally is the whole environment in which we work and play. When I started two decades ago, work was work and play was play. I think as a consumer today those worlds are very much more integrated, more and more it is ‘Work the Way We Live’. I think we need to bring some of that external thinking around what we do with our customers into L&D. So how do we achieve that and bring in more external consumer focus into L&D activity? One of the things we’ve done very successfully at Tesco Bank is to work with our digital customer experience and design team, the people responsible for developing our customer-facing website and apps.  My guys have been working closely with a number of colleagues on the customer side to look at customer segmentation to see if they can bring that into colleague segmentation.  As L&D professionals, we are perhaps all guilty of building solutions that are one-size-fits-all but by learning from our marketers and digital experts, we’ve started to look at how we can personalise solutions that fit more closely with learners’ needs. We’ve learnt from what we do with external customers to help improve what we do for our colleagues. What part should L&D vendors play to help support this change? It’s an interesting question and it would be easy for me to criticise the learning vendors and claim the problem is all down to them but I would imagine a number of learning vendors are already looking at how they can provide better content and better technology to use inside our organisations. I would imagine a number of learning professionals who deal with vendors are probably giving out quite stale, dated statements of work and not allowing the vendors to come in and speak to learners, and I think they could probably add a lot of value to internal learning teams in terms of educating them about what they do to develop their own products and systems.I would encourage more learning professionals to open their ears and talk to the vendors a bit more. It isn’t just about responding to statements of work, it is about working in partnership to understand the problem in detail. One of the biggest things that we’ve done recently is to actually look at how we let vendors in to co-create content with the people who will ultimately end up using it, just like we do with our consumer products. You wrote the foreword for the most recent Towards Maturity Industry Benchmark Report , Embracing Change. Do you think 2016 is going to be the year of change for L&D as a whole? I was highly flattered to be asked to write the foreword and it was actually quite a challenging thing to do but really exciting.  I took part in the very first Benchmark Report and now having been involved in this one, it appears that not many things have changed.  However, I actually do think this is the year when we could make a significant culture change within internal HR functions as a whole, not just L&D. I think the most consumer-centric part of HR is learning so I think this is a massive opportunity for learning professionals and learning organisations to influence the wider colleague landscape. Finally, I would like to think that instead of the Learning Technologies conference next year, we will have a new event where the learning tech guys, the resourcing guys, the reward guys and the HR professionals come together to see how they can transform things for colleagues.  Perhaps that is when we really embrace change, when we have a Colleague Experience conference. Subscribe for the forthcoming Sponge UK Elearning Podcast interview with Dave Buglass and other leading learning thinkers and professionals. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter  The post "What’s holding L&D back is actually L&D" appeared first on Sponge UK.

Elearning company Sponge UK has been named among the best places to work in the UK in a leading workplace study published by the Sunday Times.The award-winning learning provider was placed at 49 in the Sunday Times list of 100 Best Small Companies to Work, 2016.http://spongeuk.com/2016/02/sponge-uk-makes-top-50-in-sunday-times-best-companies-list/The ranking is based on rigorous feedback surveys where staff are asked to rate their employer across a wide range of areas including pay, conditions, teamwork, leadership and wellbeing.The Best Companies lists are the UK’s leading assessment of workplace engagement and have been conducted annually since 2001.Sponge UK is the only elearning provider in the top 50 of best small companies this year.Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director at Sponge UK, said:"This is the first time we have taken part in the Best Companies scheme so to go straight into the top 50 is something we are all very proud of. Helping our people to learn and grow is a central part of our mission statement at Sponge. It’s something we take very seriously as a learning organisation and we’re delighted our approach to personal development has been recognised as part of this award."Sponge UK was benchmarked against more than 700 small businesses seeking accreditation and achieved the highest three star rating after being assessed as "exceptional."Opportunities for personal growth were identified as being particularly strong at Sponge with the company getting a 90% positive score in the research. The business also scored 91% as a fun and friendly place to work.More than 65 people work at Sponge UK’s headquarters in Plymouth in South West England.The Best Companies judges highlighted the particularly rich cultural and social activities hosted by the company including film, book and craft clubs along with lunchtime language learning classes.The company is the Elearning Awards gold winner of Outstanding Learning Organisations of the Year 2015-16.The Sunday Times 100 Best Small Companies to Work For 2016 is published in the Sunday Times on February 28, 2016.The post Sponge UK makes top 50 in Sunday Times Best Companies List appeared first on Sponge UK.