ROI Institute is seeking nominations for their annual Awards of Excellence for 2015. These awards are given yearly to professionals exhibiting a profound knowledge in the area of return on investments for their programs and events. Nominees must have exhibited outstanding work in measurement and evaluation, and have shown exemplary practices in research, design, and implementation of the ROI Methodology™. The award are for projects completed in 2015. Nominees can be selected for the following eight categories: Best International Implementation, Best Practice Implementation, Best Research, Most Innovative Approach to ROI, Best Published ROI Article, Best Published Case Study, Best ROI Impact Study, and ROI Practitioner of the Year. You can nominate yourself, or someone else.  "In 2015, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of ROI Institute’s ROI Certification Workshop," explains Jack Phillips, Chairman of the ROI Institute. "We want to recognize, the great work of these certification participants." "The ROI Methodology continues to be the most used evaluation system in the world for professionals in the fields of Human Resources, Learning and Development, and Performance Improvements," adds Patti Phillips, President and CEO of ROI Institute. "Since the workshops were first offered in December 1995, over 11,000 professionals have participated."   To nominate someone for an award, go to www.roiinstitute.net/awards.    About the ROI Institute ROI Institute, Inc., founded in 1992 as a service-driven organization, assists professionals in improving programs and processes using the ROI Methodology developed by Dr. Jack J. Phillips. Drs. Jack and Patti Phillips are the leading experts on the use of return on investment (ROI) in non-traditional applications. They regularly conduct ROI workshops and provide consulting services, making the ROI Institute an industry leader in measurement and evaluation. The ROI Institute, along with more than 100 ROI consultants, applies the ROI Methodology in 22 fields, which have been implemented in6 0 countries. The ROI Institute builds internal capability with a process to help individuals to achieve Certified ROI Professional (CRP), a designation respected by executives in various organizations. To learn more visit www.roiinstitute.net or contact us at info@roiinstitute.net. Want to SOCIALize? Follow, Like or Visit the ROI Institute on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.   The post ROI Institute is seeking nominations for the Awards of Excellence appeared first on ROI Institute.

Birmingham, AL, April, 2016- ROI Institute has organized the first of what will become the annual Business Writers Conference for individuals who want to write a business or professional book. The conference will be held July 27th-29th in the Appalachian Mountains in North Georgia at the Brasstown Valley Resort and Spa. The conference features several bestselling authors, editors, agents, publishers, and many other experts who will share tips on how to write a book for the business field. "This has been a dream of ours for many years," explains Jack Phillips, Chairman of ROI Institute. "We have attended writer’s conferences through the years, but they were always focusing on fiction, poetry, travel writing and other topics that are very important, but not business and professional writers. The reality is that there is more interest in books now than ever before." The New York Times has indicated that 81% of professionals want to write a book. About 13,000 books are published a year according to Business Week Magazine. Unfortunately, the publishers indicated that the vast majority of the books fail miserably, but they do not have to. This conference is designed to help make first-time (and second and third-time) authors more successful. "We are so excited about having this conference," adds Patti Phillips, President and CEO of ROI Institute. "The quality of our speakers and their depth of expertise are amazing. We cannot wait to participate in these intriguing sessions. This is a conference that we have wanted to attend for years, but it never existed. Now it does, and we invite all of you to come and join us for this unique experience." The speakers at the conference have written over 300 books and are all experts in this important area. The conference also includes a pre-conference workshop and post-conference workshops as well. To view the complete brochure of the conference, click here. This new conference is being organized by the Business Writers Exchange which is owned and managed by Jack and Patti Phillips. The conference is designed to build capability for writing top quality books and materials. For more information on the Business Writers Conference, click here. For more information on other products and services, contact ROI Institute at info@roiinsitute.net or visit www.roiinstitute.net.   About ROI Institute, Inc. Founded in 1992 as a service-driven organization, ROI Institute assists professionals in improving programs and processes using the ROI Methodology developed by Dr. Jack J. Phillips and Dr. Patti P. Phillips. ROI Institute is the global leader in measurement, evaluation, and analytics, including the use of return on investment (ROI) in non-capital expenditures. Through workshops, consulting services, books and case studies, and research, ROI Institute applies the ROI Methodology in 20 fields in over 60 countries. ROI Institute authors have written or edited over 100 books, translated into 38 languages. Organizations build internal capability with the help of ROI Institute and its ROI Certification process. By successfully completing this process, individuals are awarded the Certified ROI Professional (CRP) designation, which is respected by executives in organizations worldwide. For more information on ROI Institute, please contact info@roiinstitute.net or visit www.roiinstitute.net. The post Writers Conference Organized appeared first on ROI Institute.

I left Maine in August of 1968. It was a brutally sunny and airless day as only the dog days of summer can be on the Southern coast of Maine…sticky with an unrequited hint of salt water and Fall in the air. (Sung by Mary Hopkin; Lyrics by Gene Gaskin; Tune from a Gypsy Folk Song) Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end. We’d sing and dance forever and a day. We’d live the life we choose We’d fight and never lose. For we were young and sure to have our way. I was off to college at the University of New Hampshire…something like about 60 miles away, I think…less "as the crow flies". In retrospect, a trivial distance. I drove that same distance, twice a day, every day for 15 years just to get to-and-from work and thought nothing much of it. But in 1968, it was a significant number of miles to put between me and the safety of home. I was secretly terrified - ready to join a nunnery if that meant I could forgo leaving - but it would have been unseemly to admit that, so instead, I pretended to be brave and eager as we loaded books, bags and bodies into Dad’s station wagon for the celebratory trip down I95 to Durham, New Hampshire. T-Hall UNH I sat in the back seat next to the dog, clutching my guitar. Dad drove and Mother sat up front fanning herself genteelly with my Freshman arrival packet. It had a picture of Thompson Hall (T-Hall) on the cover and while she wafted the air around her face she ran on about the locally famous carillon bells that were housed in self-same building. "Maybe they will be playing them when we get there," she opined. "That would be nice." Neither Dad nor I answered. She didn’t seem to mind our silence and went back to ineffectually fanning the sultry air. I don’t think Mother ever did hear the carillon - those unique bells with somewhat disquieting out-of-tune overtones that make the teeth chatter of those of us who view life from a "tune-it-or-die" perspective. Carillon bells have a minor third overtone that creates dissonance and texture to their sound - on purpose, I hasten to add. It’s an acquired taste - sort of like kimchi or lutefisk - neither of which I have ever personally thought necessary for a full and rewarding life. However, the Carillon is an ancient musical instrument (if an arrangement of bells, some weighing well over 2 tons, can be called an "instrument") that is characterized by their dissonance and as such should be cherished for what they are, if not actually enjoyed. Berkeley Carillon (http://tinyurl.com/j3hzr9x) As she nattered on, the reference to "bells" got me to thinking about bells. Poe’s poem "The Bells" and Pete Seeger’s rendition of "The Bells of Rhymney" came immediately to mind. I opted against Poe, as his poem spiraled down into darkness that I thought was too close to my own manufactured despair, so I started humming "The Bells of Rhymney" to myself. Oh What will you give me? Say the sad bells of Rhymney Is there hope for the future? Say the brown bells of Merthyr Who made the mine owner? Say the black bells of Rhondda And who killed the miner? Say the grim bells of Blaina" http://www.literaturewales.org/idris-davies-eng/ (Poem by Idris Davies; Recorded by Pete Seeger) Of course, the distinction between a demented poem and lyrics about a Welsh coal mining disaster may be a little negligible. http://www.nagcr.org/pamphlet.html And, in fact, "The Bells of Rhymney" was about Change Ringing - an altogether different type of church bell ringing that is done by a group of bell ringers pulling individual bell ropes by hand. Change ringing was unique to England where as Carillons were created in France and Belgium and were always rung from a manual "keyboard" of sorts. But who can explain the non sequitur workings of an 18-year-old mind? (Or the tangential wanderings of a sixty-something mind, for that matter…) http://pubpages.unh.edu/~peteru/CarillonPages.htm Anyway…you can only imagine my real despair when I learned in later years that the Carillon in T-Hall was not a "real" carillon at all - nor was it in T-Hall. It had once been in T-Hall, but by the 1970s it actually was housed in the Alumni Center and was only broadcast from T-Hall through loudspeakers. And, it was made up of (per a published description) "tiny metal bars, shaped and adjusted to provide the overtone series of large conical bells, or at least a reasonably close approximation". I, of course, didn’t know of this perfidy at the time, but when I did learn about it, it only added insult to injuries received during my time ay UNH. (Sixty-somethings are allowed to make use of hyperbole, too.) *** UNH was pretty much as safe as college got in those first years of leaving home in the late 60s, if one was going to leave home at all. (I was still holding the nunnery card as a backup…)  However, my first impressions of college itself were depressing - as was my opinion of UNH. "Men" wore ties and jackets to class, jeans were forbidden, women had curfews, dorms were segregated by sex. Just how was one to go about the process of "growing up" in such an environment, I wondered? It turned out that I had more freedom - if that was what growing up was about - as a Senior in high school than I was to have as a Freshman in college. At UNH, Freshmen wore beanies and obediently ran silly errands for upper-class "big sisters and brothers" while performing ridiculous rituals under the pretense of orientation which were in reality excuses to harass and embarrass us "plebs". I don’t think most of them realized just how unacceptable it was in every sense of the word. It was just the way it was, always had been, and always would be - world without end, Amen. UNH Museum Photo Well, for most Freshmen anyway. I - true to form, and to the never-ending pride of my father who raised me to be independent (or offensive, whichever served me best at any given moment) and the equally never-ending embarrassment of my mother who tried valiantly but hopelessly to instill in me some level of social appropriateness - refused. When handed a bright blue beanie with "Class of 1972" on it by some bright-eyed, blond, perfectly coiffed, bimbo senior who expected me to carry her books for her while walking backwards across campus, I simply threw it back in her face. "Not in this lifetime!" I believe was my response. You can tell I was new to the whole feminist thing by the fact that my response was just rude - not obscene. (I ultimately failed at most of the "-IST" movements that captured my attention during my formative years. I truly tried to be a "joiner" in all those cultural-revolutionary groups, but I inevitably ran up against dogma that I could not fathom or accept - being unable in my naiveté to discern much difference between the various flavors of discrimination whether they were purported to be progressive or not.) Anyway, it seems I was only a little ahead of my time on headwear. Three years later, in 1971, freshmen were no longer required to wear a beanie. Obviously they either ran out of bimbo Seniors or they had a glut of obnoxious Freshmen. I suspect the latter. After the initial spate of home-and-back-again homesick trips got tiresome even for me, I spent the early days of my first year meeting and greeting the many people that I would totally forget later in life and getting to know those few I would remember. I do remember Sharon who contradictorily transformed her exotic black looks and fervent equal rights attitude into a conservative Human Resources Directorship (who knew?); and Leo who went straight from managing the slightly subversive campus coffee house and dispensing joints from the soft drink cooler into politics in the State Legislature (that one had a sort of bizarre sense to it); and "Stick" who must have had a real name that I don’t remember ever hearing who looked exactly like a scarecrow; and "Pooh Bear" who played Bass for Tom Rush on occasion; and David who went away to campaign for McCarthy and never came back; and Claire who was not as exotic as Sharon but who actually knew Martin Luther King, Jr. And there was Bobby - my Gay-before-Gay-was-cool, or legal, or even marginally safe, idiot savant second guitarist who wrote music that would tear your heart out. One such song was "Alice". Alice would wander through streets of dark rain. She gave herself freely, and no one complained. It was how she earned her living, And how she earned her name. And everyone knew it, even the man in the gold frame…and nobody questioned or asked ‘Who’s to blame?’ but the man in the portrait, in the gold frame New-Hampshire Postcard ca-1960s- In real life, Alice was a Manchester, NH prostitute who died from the "side-effects" of her profession under the uncaring eyes of the magistrates of her city - who denied her medical services - and her prosperous father - who denied her existence. Bobby knew her from his dark days on the streets of Manchester. She trusted him because he was not "in the market" so-to-speak. Her needless death affected him deeply. He never sang the song. He wrote it for me to sing and I did. I sang it; he played second guitar and cried. The campus crowds in our infinitesimally small corner of the universe went wild. Money was donated. People volunteered. We made some tiny, small impact. Regretfully, not enough to matter in any real sense. Future generations of Alice’s still wander the dark streets of Manchester. There were a handful of others that rose out of the crowd of Woodstock era hippie sameness - notably the hippie I would marry and spend the 30 years following graduation with. But I seem to have forgotten a lot of their names also. *** In truth, those first years at college were rather uneventful - peppered only with gentle, trial-sized, protests of youth like the "beanie affair". As I entered my Junior year in the Fall of 1970, none of us fully recognized the enormity of the changes about to engulf us. http://tinyurl.com/9h2wfyd The feminist movement was of particular interest to me since I was a woman. (Or on my way to being one…) As engendered by Friedan’s book, "The Feminine Mystique", women were trapped in a culture that saw them only as wives and mothers. It should not - and would not -be so. This sentiment fed directly into my upbringing which, while not verbally categorized as aggressively feminist, just plain assumed that my sister and I would have an equal opportunity to do whatever we wanted to do. Burning my bra was only the first thing I did to advertise my allegiance to the cause. R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me R-E-S-P-E-C-T Take care … TCB Sock it to me, Sock it to me, Sock it to me, Sock it to me http://www.biography.com    (Sung by Aretha Franklin; Composed by Otis Redding) I had neither the audacity, nor the backup singers to sing that song myself. (Sock it to me, Sock it to me…just can’t envision that being done with two guitars and bongos…) But I listened to it religiously. And while I did not manage to remain a card-carrying "feminist" very long, I still maintain that equality in everything is a mandate worth fighting for. About a decade after I graduated, I had a female college student who was working for me comment that she didn’t need to worry about feminist issues since there wasn’t any sexual discrimination anymore. She was just looking for a good husband - preferably white, rich and good looking . I managed not to behead her on the spot. I even managed not to raise my voice to her as I explained why that probably was not actually true. Nor did I tell her that in my humble opinion her heavily-scholarshipped spot at the University would have been better given to some woman who actually wanted to learn something. The revenge/retribution side of my personality secretly hopes she is somewhere out there today in a job at Walmart with 5 kids and an ex-husband who doesn’t pay child support. The socially acceptable side of my personality secretly hopes she was unsuccessful at finding that perfect husband and that she has gained a little more perspective on sexual equality. But I digress… The War in Vietnam provided a numbingly tragic backdrop during those years. What had started as around 800 troops in the 50s had ballooned to over 200,000 with Westmorland asking for more by 1970. Between 1965 and 1973, over 500,000 American men became "draft dodgers" - some fleeing to Canada. In 1968, US soldiers massacred over 400 unarmed civilians in My Lai; in 1969 over 250,000 citizens gathered in Washington to peacefully protest the war. The evening News televised graphic pictures of the dead and dying. Over 58,000 US soldiers were killed or went missing by the end of the war. Soldiers came home to be equally despised by those who were against the war and those who viewed them as having lost it. Nixon invaded Cambodia. War, huh yeah What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, oh hoh, oh War huh yeah What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, say it again y’all War, huh good God What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, listen to me" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Starr (Written by Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield; Sung by Edwin Starr) Are there any college students left these days who do not know, or love, someone who has been killed or maimed in a war? The war in Afghanistan has usurped the position of the Vietnam War as the longest war in US history. A dubious accomplishment at best. Every 15 years or so, I say a silent prayer to whichever gods will listen for the next generation. So far, those prayers have gone unanswered. Vietnam Foxhole AP/Henri Huet And then there was the Civil Rights Movement. I knew exactly one black person in my growing-up years…a high school bass player who styled himself after Jimi Hendrix. Such forbidden fruit he was! A single kiss in the back seat of his 1960m Chevy was all I got, but that held me for months afterwards. (Talk about innocence!) So when I met a whole room full of imported blacks from South Carolina in my SOC 101 class, I was without any functional social reference. I opted for awed silence, which seemed to work well, but I remained - and if I am honest - remain, an uninformed if supportive bystander. Marching in Support of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 http://jdhilmer.com/Brandon/civilrightsactof1968.htm   I live in the Great White North where children can be born, go to school, get a job, marry, have children of their own, and die without ever meeting a black, or an Hispanic, or an Asian person. ‘Quebec-sois’ is as close to "Foreigner" as you get up here. My little town of 2015 residents doesn’t have a "gang" problem or a "ghetto" problem. We would, I am sure, if we were big, or successful, enough…but mercifully, we are not. We do have a bunch of folk living in circa 1955 mobile homes and bored-out-of-their-wits high school students who all too often turn to alcohols and drugs to ease their angst, but I am not sure that even qualifies as "innocent" these days…perhaps "isolated" or "back of beyond" would be more accurate. I am not talking "idyllic". Just 80% dirt poor and underprivileged without the wherewithal to self-identify as discriminated against. We shall not, we shall not be moved We shall not, we shall not be moved Just like a tree that’s standing by the water We shall not be moved" Sung by Mavis Staples(Based on Negro Spiritual "I Shall Not Be Moved" http://tinyurl.com/grzdqfa) Back in 1970, I certainly did NOT want to be considered a race-IST by my new-found friends so I marched whenever I had the chance…not all that often in New Hampshire, I must admit. And then there was Kent State. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, We’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio." Neil Young(Sung by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young http://singout.org) http://theantiyale.blogspot.com What can one say about Kent State? Even at UNH the world as we knew it did a slow roll. On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of student protestors. In 13 seconds, 67 shots were fired that killed 4 and wounded 9. Coincidentally, student activists at UNH (another "-IST" group) were protesting University and State official attempts to ban the "Chicago 3" (longtime pacifist David Dellinger and Yippies co-founders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin) from speaking at UNH on May 5. While the "Yippies" or "Youth International Party" were a counter-revolutionary group that relied heavily on street theatre histrionics such as levitating the Pentagon (an abject failure), disrupting trading by throwing dollar bills from the observation deck of the New York Stock Exchange (a surprising success), and running a pig for president (well - they did nominate the pig but he lost the election…), their efforts were based on a serious desire to reveal and dismantle what they considered to be the absurdity of American politics and culture of the time. The "3" were part of the "7" who were tried in Federal Court for "inciting a riot" at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The seven were convicted, reversed, retried, acquitted, convicted of alternate charges, over-turned…with eventually none serving any jail time. Political power was brought to bear in New Hampshire: William Loeb - the editor in chief of the Manchester Union Leader (New Hampshire’s largest newspaper) suggested in an editorial that the best venue for the event would be "the nearest open sewer"; The Mayor of Manchester condemned the event publicly; The State House of Representatives passed a resolution directing the University to deny the Chicago 3 use of any University facilities. Students marched. University officials tried to negotiate an earlier time - ostensibly to prevent outside influences from having enough time to get to Durham on the appointed evening. University trustees finally approved the event with those time limitations. By the afternoon of May 5, the UNH Field House was crawling with State Police. The New Hampshire National Guard was secretly stationed in nearby Newmarket. UNH Professor Paul Brokelman addressed several thousand students gathered for the event: "We have to be careful with those policemen. We have to be careful with those National Guardsmen. We must be sure as we can be that we do not allow them to get into the position where they can pull the trigger. Mark Wefers - Student Senate President - read a message from the Chicago 3: "There’s no such thing as half a free speech. See you tonight." http://www.newyorkartworld.com/things/things-yippie.html In the end, the speech went on as originally scheduled, at the time originally scheduled, despite police, politicos and guardsmen. Dillinger actually gave a serious speech. Rubin and Hoffman gave predictably theatric presentations. Hoffman described the Washington Monument as that "petrified penis on the Potomac"; Rubin described college as "an advanced form of toilet training". And suddenly it was over. And while I had to admit I was beginning to agree with Rubin about college, I was left wondering: "Is that all? A whole lot of build-up about a whole lot of nothing? A speech any political science professor at any college in the country could have penned without controversy and a comedy act full of mildly radical satire?" Everyone, including the Chicago 3 went on about their business unscathed. No riot. No police action. Not a single scratched fender or broken window. Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you’re always afraid You step out of line, the man come and take you away We better stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down http://knownpeople.net/b/buffalo-springfield/ (Written by Stephen Stills; Sung by Buffalo Springfield) *** And so it went until I graduated in 1972…and performed my last little bit of college protest by refusing to march in a cap and gown for graduation. A pretty paltry end to 4 years in the cauldron of social change, when you think about it. But aside from a lingering disappointment about undergraduate studies in general, those years of social unrest and their cultural pushing of boundaries have never really left me, or the country for that matter. I don’t often consciously think about UNH, or of the contradictions inherent in those manic/depressive halcyon days, but sometimes those memories do assert themselves. This week, for instance, I got the yearly request for money from the UNH alumni office and I was reminded of "coming of age" at the university during those turbulent years. Unfortunately for the Alumni Association, I also was recently reminded that the University sadly seems to have turned its attention to less heady controversies than war and peace and equality - or at least far less heady methods of addressing them. In 2015, it published guidance on terms that "arise when referring to race, ethnicity and culture". Among them was this gem of political pandering referring to the use of the word "American": UNH Guidelines on Terms http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/07/ As my sainted grandmother (who hardly ever said anything even marginally derogatory and who did believe that a woman’s goal in life should be to become a good wife and mother) would say: "Poppycock!" You go girl! Although I am sure she had no idea that the word itself derives from two Dutch words meaning "soft dung". *** Like Merlin, I sometimes feel that I am living backwards when confronted with such retrograded ideas. A self-ordained professor’s tongue too serious to fool Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school "Equality," I spoke the word as if a wedding vow. Ah, but I was so much older then. I’m younger than that now. Bob Dylan Studio Portraits Side Light: 1965-330-004-040Manhattan, New York, USA 1965 King Arthur, it’s time you came back.

Are you getting excited for the 2016 Lectora® User Conference? We can’t wait to see you in Fort Lauderdale this May 18-19, and we wanted to give you a taste of some of the sessions you can attend. There’s a great mix this year, and we know you’ll find many sessions you’ll want to attend. View the session list here. For the beginning Lectora user, look no further than this great session by American Red Cross Senior Instructional Designer, Keith Gallacher. Basics of Variables, Actions, and Triggers In this session, you will learn how to: Define a variable and be able to use one in a course Recognize how triggers, actions, and variables work together Remember to consider what you want to do and why, before you start to create triggers, actions, and variables Learners are not always fans of linear training. They want control: to be able to navigate how and when they want. We cannot always give them this luxury, but often times we can, while still maintaining control of what they see and ensuring they see it all! "Many people are afraid of variables," says Keith. You don’t have to be! Come to his session to discover a simple way to use variables effectively. For the intermediate user who wants to incorporate more JavaScript, check out this session by John Williford of Baptist Health South Florida. How to Train Your Draggin’ - Expanding Interactions With JavaScript     Learn how to: Include external JavaScript libraries into your Lectora project Enhance drag and drop functionality with jQuery and jQuery-UI Create sequencing interactions with jQuery-UI’s Sortable function, and how to achieve greater audio control with the Buzz JavaScript library Lectora has a great built-in drag and drop question type. But with the help of external JavaScript libraries, like jQuery, jQuery-UI, Buzz, and others, you can expand the functionality of Lectora in many interesting ways. You’ll see examples of how to build expanded drag and drop interactions using the Draggable and Droppable functions from jQuery-UI. You’ll also see how to use the Sortable function to create simple but engaging sequencing interactions. Finally, you’ll be introduced to Buzz, a JavaScript library for audio control that provides useful tools for dealing with sound. For the pro who wants to get hands-on, make sure to attend this workshop by Windy Schneider and Znar Zebari from CACI, Inc. Their session last year was very popular! Game On: Working Smarter, Not Harder by Modifying Templates to Gamify Your eLearning During this workshop, you will: Learn to modify an existing template to create an interactive module Create badges using credly.com and import to gamify the module Develop a unique, fun, and memorable module by working smarter, not harder This session will show participants how they can use Lectora Inspire to create a gamified/interactive module by modifying an eLearning Brothers "Lectora Click and Reveal: Squares Surround" Interaction and adding in badges created in Credly.com. Requirements for this session will be at least an intermediate to advanced level of experience with Inspire. Technologies: Lectora Inspire, eLearning Brothers, Credly.com. Haven’t registered for the LUC 2016 yet? What are you waiting for—register now! The post LUC 2016 Session Sneak Peek appeared first on .

Today, we’re interviewing Trivantis® Community Manager, Jennie Valley, on the newest addition to the Community—badges! As you know, this feature recently made its first appearance in the Community. Many members immediately began earning badges. (I definitely did.) Jennie stopped by the Everything eLearning Blog Headquarters and gave us the inside scoop on badges. Here we go! Jennie, what’s your personal favorite badge that members can earn? My favorite is the Trivantis Community Advocate. It’s a badge that’s awarded by the Community team to recognize a member for being available on the site to answer questions, post content, participate in contests, and just be an all-around great person to have on the Trivantis Community. It’s always great to see people come forward and embrace the benefits of joining.     How easy is it to earn your first badge? It’s super easy. You literally just have to log in to earn the Trivantis Community Beginner badge. We wanted to make some of our badges very easy to earn while others may require a bit more time and effort. Is there really a PAWSOME Course badge? I wish! As a dog owner I think it’s a great idea. It was sent out as an April fools’ joke though. Feel free to start a petition in the comments or on social media! #MakeTrivantisPawsome, maybe? How the Community is shaped is largely based on feedback and comments provided to us by members so I’ll fight to make that happen with your support. Why did Trivantis want to add badges to the Community? First and foremost, we appreciate the time people take to visit and participate in activities on the Community. We understand that your day is busy and we might not always be the first thing on your mind when you log in to your computer. So to give back we wanted to award you badges. From simple tasks like logging in to more complex ones like writing a product review, you deserve to get recognition for your efforts. It was also highly demanded. When I first started as Community Manager I made sure to speak with people to get their opinions on what we were doing right and what we needed to improve on. During multiple conversations the addition of badging came up. Adding badges was also the number one response when we asked Community members in a survey to tell us what new feature should be added. Not to mention it’s a fun and educational way to interact with our company, products, and other members! Will you be adding more badges? Yes! Throughout the year we want to introduce new badges and even a leaderboard so you can compete with other eLearning professionals. If you have a badge idea we’d love to hear it. Just send us a quick note on social media or send an email to community@trivantis.com. Ready to start earning your badges? Log in or register for the Trivantis Community today. The post Can I Get an eLearning Badge for That? appeared first on .

Including quizzes throughout your online course is an effective way to increase student engagement and help your students retain the information that you teach them. When you include a quiz at the end of each video lesson or section in your course, it forces your students to stop and think about what they learned before they move on to the next lesson. Knowing that they will be asked to take a quiz (and be graded on their results) after each lesson or section in your course also helps prevent your students from passively skimming through your course. Quizzes gamify the overall learning experience, providing your students with a sense of satisfaction as they learn and retain new concepts. If you’re already a Thinkific user, then you’ve probably noticed our built-in quiz feature that allows you to create quizzes for your online course. But there is another way to create quizzes for your students, and that is by using Typeform. In this post, we’re going to show you how to create quizzes for your online course using Typeform, then we’ll show you how to add those quizzes to your course on Thinkific. How to create quizzes for your #onlinecourse using @typeform. #teachonlineClick To Tweet How to create a quiz using Typeform Using Typeform, you can easily create as many quizzes for your course as you want. You can add a quiz to the end of a lesson, the end of a section/module, or the end of your entire course. To see how to create a quiz, watch the video below. You can also refer to the steps listed below the video for easy reference. If you have any questions about using Typeform beyond what is covered here, check out Typeform’s Help Center. Step 1: Visit www.typeform.com and click on Get Started Step 2: Create a Workspace for your online course (ie. "Course 1"), then create a new form for your quiz. Choose a name for your form (ie. "Lesson 1 Quiz"). Step 3: Create the Welcome Screen for your quiz Step 4: Create the questions and answers for your quiz Step 5: Use the Calculator option to select the correct answer for each question Step 6: Create a Thank You Screen for each possible outcome (score) Step 7: Add Logic Jumps to direct respondents to the appropriate Thank You Screen that shows them their score. Step 8: Customize the design of your quiz (colors, fonts, background image) Step 9: Customize your Configuration settings Step 10: Copy your quiz URL to distribute it online How to add a Typeform quiz to your Thinkific course Once you’ve created a quiz with Typeform, the next step is to add that quiz to the appropriate section of your online course. To see how to do this, watch the video below. You can also refer to the steps listed below the video for easy reference. Step 1: Login to your Thinkific online school Step 2: Select the course you want to add your quiz to, click on Edit Step 3: Find the specific lesson you want to add your quiz to, click on Add Content > Multimedia Step 4: Edit your quiz title, source data, and paste your quiz URL (from Typeform) into the Source URL box. Click on Save Changes. Step 5: To preview your quiz, click on Preview Course (preview it as a student). Start Creating Quizzes You can either use Thinkific’s built-in quiz feature, or you can get Typeform for free if you want to create quizzes and surveys with a bit more flexibility. Ultimately, adding quizzes to your course vastly enhances the student experience and helps them with their learning process. This, in turn, will lead to better student reviews and more follow-up sales! The post How to Create Quizzes for your Online Course using Typeform appeared first on Thinkific.

Marketing is the lifeblood of any online business. And for some of us educators, teachers, coaches or trainers, marketing can seem a little bit difficult or in some cases really unappealing to do. But when you just create content with the intention of teaching people, there’s nothing more powerful. As an educator or as an expert in a topic, you can just use your expertise to do your marketing. So you just continue to do what you do when you are sharing that expertise. That thing that you love to share with people, that passion that you have to share with your students, to share with the world, you can take that and use that to fuel your marketing and do your marketing in a way that doesn’t feel like marketing. And this is education-based marketing and it’s one of the most powerful ways of doing marketing online. In fact, it’s what I’m doing right now, I’m sharing with you some of my expertise around online courses and marketing because I have been doing this for 10 years. I have been creating YouTube videos. I have been creating online courses, and selling them and marketing them. And so I’m sharing that information with you and I love doing it because it doesn’t feel like marketing to me. So if you have that area of expertise, what you can do with it to turn it into an amazing marketing effort, is to go out and to continue to share that expertise with people through things like blog posts, YouTube videos, webinars, and many other forms of content. Go and create that content, share that knowledge that you have, give it away freely, put it out there on a consistent, regular basis; get that information out there consistently to the people and focus on quality. You don’t want to be pushing out stuff that really isn’t helpful to people, give away some of your best stuff, put that out there on a regular, consistent basis, I guess I’m repeating myself there, regular and consistent. Put that out there consistently and you will find that you start to build a brand around your expertise, people start to follow you, people start to rely on you and that expertise that you’re putting out there. It can take a little bit of time, but if you’re consistent with releasing your expertise, your education to the world, your marketing efforts will grow as you start to share that information. So get out there and start sharing it, it won’t feel so much like marketing to you if you focus on educating people and sharing that expertise. But just do it consistently and focus on doing something of quality. The post Teach Online TV #22: The Power Of Education-Based Marketing appeared first on Thinkific.

Training Industry, the global resource tool for training professionals, has identified PulseLearning as one of the best global providers of training services, as part of its 2016 Training Outsourcing Companies Watch List. Announced this week, Training Industry’s annual Training Outsourcing Companies Watch List seeks to recognize best-in-class training providers and acknowledge the organization’s commitment to […] The post PulseLearning makes 2016 Training Outsourcing Companies Watch List appeared first on PulseLearning.

Today, trust is the basis for every business exchange and all customer behaviour. Creating customer loyalty puts customer value, rather than maximising profits and shareholder value, at the center of business strategy.

Every fortnight I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds. @Tom_Peters: "Average unicorn coder’s goal today: Destroy my privacy to sell me more crap so that founders can add another billion to their net worth … Make no mistake: Google’s animating goal is to... Read more »