Time is precious, we should be managing time wisely! This will seem like the most obvious statement of the year - it is important not to waste time in the workplace! How we’re managing time these days seems ever more important. I recently came across some interesting stats: (note: if anyone can shed light on the full study, send me a comment below) Research from CEB shows that employees spend nearly 40% of their time learning, which we define as seeking and processing new information. Unfortunately, 11% of that learning is wasted - ending up in millions of dollars of productivity lost in the average large enterprise. So what should we being doing to reduce this potential waste? Here are some ideas to get you thinking: 1. Target high impact activities Every business has soft spots - those places where everyone knows that you don’t do so well. Many research studies in 2014 and 2015 targeted leadership training as a significant investment. And many companies are spending the majority of their training budgets on developing leadership at all levels - from supervisor level through the executive suite. What’s the problem with this though? Well ‘leadership’ is a big area. It is a catch-all topic but by just focussing on leadership, you aren’t clearly targeting what specifically needs to change. Is it about communication, the ability to delegate, negotiate or think strategically? Do you have average leaders who need to become great leaders - and how do you achieve this? There has been lots of research on money wasted on leadership training. This article by Forbes in 2012 alludes to this and the need for specific training. 2. Think about performance support Too many of our workplace learning initiatives still focus on the first moment of learning need - learning something new for the first time. We should be considering all 5 moments of learning need. For most people, there are a range of other more common times when learning is needed. Analyse your staff learning needs with these moments in mind - you’ll find that different learning strategies will work for each moment. Here are some ideas: 1. Learning something new for the first time - this is usually formal training, such as staff induction or compliance training. 2. Learn more of something - can peers or managers help, someone who has been there and done it before? 3. Try to remember/apply - provide check-lists, templates, flowcharts that staff can use when they need to apply new learning. 4. Adjust to change - think about the specific change you want to see, can you role model it and pre-empt any possible challenges? 5. When something fails or goes wrong (broken or fixed) - allow people the time and space to fix it, beware of a blame culture and think about whether your culture means people are more likely to hide their mistakes than take responsibility for sorting them out. How do you encourage learning from mistakes? 3.  Re-think your performance management We’ve written about this before - check out what we say here - Does performance management really matter? The short answer is, yes it does! How many of our organisations do it, and do it badly? This can really have an impact on staff motivation and engagement. There are lots of things to consider - from how you keep encouraging your top performers to how you help develop those who need the most help. A one-size fits all approach is never going to work - unless you view your staff as robots on a production line! Why does performance management need an overhaul? Well, people have changed, organisations have changed and most performance management processes don’t do what they are supposed to - actually increase performance. Lots about how organisations have changed really impact how we might re-think performance management - command and control structures are no-longer cutting it, and the ‘one-off annual feedback dread’ doesn’t fit the modern employee. Continual feedback, honesty, support, openness and transparency are here to stay. So where to start - good article here on helping people struggling with performance, by David D’Souza. Oh and one more for luck: Encourage trying things out and allow for failure. Yes, yes I hear you say! How can we allow our staff to fail and not let it ruin our business? Well it is more about the mindset and culture your organisation supports. What does failure mean for you as an organisation? Does everyone know when something is ‘good enough’? Do you have a process of continuous improvement and do you support your staff in doing that? So what about you?  Can you see how your staffs’ time is wasted in other ways and how you might do something to help? We’d love to hear from your in the comments below. Thanks for reading our blog today! Logicearth Learning Services specialise in designing, delivering and supporting modern workplace learning solutions, which brings results for individuals and organisations. We are learning technology experts and along with specialist interactive multi-device content development skills, we can provide a complete service for all your organisation’s modern learning needs. Logicearth has offices in Belfast and Dublin but deliver services worldwide, including Ireland, UK, USA and throughout Europe. The post Is managing time in the workplace more critical now? appeared first on Logicearth.

We Can Code IT's after-school program at Beaumont gives students the opportunity to engage their minds in new ways through computational thinking and by creating an understanding of...

User generated eLearning content? We provide a range of services for clients, from full eLearning programme development, video production, learning game development to provision of consultancy services to help develop the skills of Learning and Development teams. One question comes up time and time again. "Can you teach us to create our own eLearning content?" This is what we mean by user generated eLearning content. The quick answer is yes, of course. The more complicated answer is it depends. (Don’t you just hate answering a question with another question!). So over the years, we have noticed a few areas that clients struggle with, especially when they just get started with user generated eLearning content. So this blog post is our insight to where clients need to focus their efforts to get up and running quickly. Getting started So you have finally decided it’s time to move some of the more mundane classroom training and PDF document style memo’s to a more modern, eLearning format. Congratulations! Welcome to the modern learning revolution! Now it’s time to develop your content. But wait! How do you do that exactly? Is there a magic formula for creating the perfect eLearning course? Unfortunately there is no magic formula, but I can provide the next best thing…Mark’s top 5 tips to creating engaging and immersive eLearning content! This blog post is based on creating this type of course - you might want to check it out before you read the 5 tips. Tip 1: Know your content development tool This really goes without saying, but it is important to pick the right content development tool. If you are new to the eLearning game, you want a tool that will be easy to use whilst allowing you to create truly modern and engaging content. Learning Maker is a tool that I recommend for just that purpose! Not only can you learn the ropes in just a couple of hours, but you can include an array of wonderful components within your content such as; videos, images, animations, quizzes, activities and much much more. No more black and white text, just glorious colours and eye catching content! And it is mobile responsive too - if you have staff who aren’t always attached to the office (who is these days?), being able to view content on multiple devices is a must. But be careful - not all tools that say they are ‘mobile responsive’ actually are. Some of course are, but often have very limited interaction types or visual layouts. So do your homework - ask the hard questions. For more information on the tool Logicearth uses - check it out here. Tip 2: Keep it short and focussed We live in an age where people want things on the go and much more quickly. Time is a precious commodity in the 21st Century. So, with that said, creating a course that will take a learner hours to complete is a definite no no! So, how long should the ideal piece of eLearning take to complete I hear you ask? Duration is not set in stone and every learner will have a different pace based on their ability, but I find that generally a maximum of between 15-25 minutes per short topic is a good bench mark to set. And what if you have content that simply cannot be condensed into one 15-25 minute topic? Just break it up! Like an ‘on the edge of your seat’ TV drama, give them part 1 and leave them excitedly clamouring to start part 2…and even part 3 if you need! When you are considering including any content - ask yourself three questions: Do my staff really need to know this? Why? How will it help them to do their jobs better? Is it better presented on screen, or as a follow up resource - is it core content they need to remember? Tip 3: Think explainer videos There is nothing worse for the learner than launching an eLearning course and being confronted with lines and lines of text. Like the long and boring manifestos of stuffy politicians, the reader will leaf through the content and try to find the key messages. So, why not just stop at the key messages then? Undoubtedly there are courses where you might feel a lot of text is required….like compliance courses for example. But, with the use of content development tools like LearningMaker, you can do all this with limited text and much more visually appealing content. Take describing a process for example - the learner needs to know how it works, but you don’t want to have a long list of text on the page, because, let’s face it, they will never read or take it all in! How do you get around that? Well…quite easily! A nice animated video, with a cool voice over to explain the process and key messages captured in short text sequences throughout. Visually appealing, orally appealing and informative! A three in one winner! Check out some of our animations on Logicearth’s Youtube channel. You might think - yeah, yeah, I’ll never be able to do these, but check out this post to see how Powerpoint can be used to create simple animated sequences. Tip 4: Mix it up! Picture the scene…you start a piece of eLearning content and the first section is truly interactive and engaging. You have a real sense of anticipation for what’s coming next…only to find it is a different topic framed and presented exactly the same way. By the end of the course, what started out as mind blowing and different has become staid and boring. We may be creatures of habit, but we habitually dislike routine! When content is presented in the same way on each page, the brain will switch off and it is much harder to maintain attention. Think of the last good magazine you read - while it had design consistency, each page likely had an well thought out, attention grabbing layout. Use these types of magazines as your design inspiration - copy the people who are good at it! So, mix up your content; use a range of videos, images, activities and interactions to really send the learner on a journey of discovery. Make them part of that learning journey…the more they have to interact with the learning the more they become responsible for the outcome! Tip 5: Where are we now? So you have put together a wonderfully interactive and engaging piece of eLearning content that you are sure will be embraced by the learning masses. However, how do you know if they have taken it all in? How do you know if they have actually bothered to read any of it? We would like to think that everyone will go through the course and absorb all the amazing and informative content, but the reality is there are those that will play the ‘click to proceed’ game in order to register the completion. So what’s the answer? The good old end of course assessment! Make the learner answer a short test (10 questions is usually a nice amount) to ensure they have absorbed all the key content, setting an 80% standard benchmark to register a completion. With every question you put in the assessment, ask yourself: "Could the learner answer this without reading any of the content?" If the answer is yes, then think of another question because that one will not do! With each question forcing the learner to not only recall the course content but to also apply what they have learned, you can have peace of mind that what has not been read cannot be answered! Elementary my dear Watson! Thanks to Mark Gourley, who spends his days support our clients to create their own content. These are his insights, maybe you have some too? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Do any of these points resonate with you? Maybe you disagree with them? Let us know what works for you! Thanks for reading our blog today. Logicearth Learning Services specialise in designing, delivering and supporting modern workplace learning solutions, which brings results for individuals and organisations. We are learning technology experts and along with specialist interactive multi-device content development skills, we can provide a complete service for all your organisation’s modern learning needs. Logicearth has offices in Belfast and Dublin but deliver services worldwide, including Ireland, UK, USA and throughout Europe. The post Helping clients to user generated eLearning content success appeared first on Logicearth.

Getting to the essence of 70:20:10 In Learning and Development circles, 70:20:10 has become the holy-grail of improving workplace and organisational capability and has been discussed, interpreted and dissected to within an inch of its life. For those of you who don’t know what all the fuss is about - we ask: What exactly is the 70:20:10 model? How might organisations use 70:20:10 to improve their learning and performance efforts? Workplace learning needs effort The human brain needs plenty of support to encode, understand, remember and apply information that is learned. Put people into a formal classroom setting and it is likely that they will forget most of what they have learned within a few hours, unless they can immediately put it into practice. The best classroom trainers know this and will often provide pre and post follow-up training support. What 70:20:10 does however, is provide a consistent way of supporting learning in the way that experienced L&D professionals know that works. It also provides flexibility through different options for learning, rather than just through classroom training. It goes like this: 70% of learning generally happens on the job through experience and practice, 20% through learning with peers, coaches, mentors and experts, in conversations and in networks, and the remaining 10% in more formal settings. Sounds simple enough but in reality, there are some challenges.  Practitioners sometimes focus on ‘the move’ from the 10-zone into the other 90%, how to ‘manage’ people through the process. How does L&D set about seamlessly leading staff through this model towards a learning culture that makes a significant contribution to the bottom line? The answer is you probably can’t. And we’d suggest that this might be the wrong question to ask. 70:20:10 is not a theory, application or an incremental process. It is a survey of sorts, put into percentages, to describe how people generally learn at work. Modern workforces are successfully occupying the (70: 20) space, by simply getting on with the job. Most of your staff are already informally learning and sharing information together and, with the help of technology, solving most problems ‘just in time,’ in situ and of their own accord. Where does that leave L&D? Traditionally, L&D focussed on the 10%. It is still important to get this right and do it well. But what Logicearth talk our clients about is how the digital content world is evolving and how it gives you a lot more choice about how you can facilitate support for your staff. For our L&D clients, we typically have conversations about: Developing new, innovative strategies which better reflect the 70:20:10 preferences Treating and serving learners like customers - supporting not directing Empowering staff to collaborate together on content, solving problems and sharing solutions This is what we hope the spirit of 70:20:10 will mean to L&D professionals. So based on our client conversations, here’s what we think might help with delivering the essence of 70:20:10. From order taker to executive head chef For most organisations, the pace of everyday business and just staying in business means individuals are probably better to be managing their own learning & development.  This means that the L&D role is already shifting from only being a ‘go to’ provider of formal classroom training to being an enabler of learning in many different forms, on-the-go, in-situ, on-demand, global, social and mobile. This is exciting and means a real opportunity for L&D staff to make a huge impact on their organisations. What we are seeing is a new breed of L&D professional who are asking more questions - working hard at aligning individual and collective performance to overall corporate goals and strategy making, business acumen a must. L&D’s role is that of a consultant, a trusted ‘guide on the side’ empowering teams and assisting leaders to make and own informed decisions about what training and development needs matter most to them. In turn, this helps team leaders to take back responsibility for team learning and performance. Always add value - enable and enhance Working on a flexible, but consistent learning structure is part of the spirit of 70:20:10.  L&D have a role in creating and encouraging a culture which advocates immediate, self-directed and adult appropriate ways to learn. The challenge for all of us involved in workplace learning is to facilitate learning by being able to meet the exact needs of our staff and the business. How can we develop a learning culture that helps staff to ‘pull’ learning at the right time, through the right channels with the right resources and ‘just in time’ when they have a problem to solve? The role of L&D to make that happen - to facilitate exciting experiential learning opportunities, including new positions, roles, job swaps, attachments, shadowing etc., is one that will sustain any organisation. Don’t be afraid to explore new channels for learning such as mobile technology, gamification or simulations. Know your customers We see our modern L&D clients leaning on other organisational skills and capabilities to help them develop in their role. For example, marketing departments are experts in the field of knowing and understanding exactly what motivates their customers and what needs to be done to influence perceptions and attitudinal change. A modern L&D professional spends time getting to know colleagues, their aspirations, challenges and plans for the future. How can L&D otherwise expect to play a significant role in influencing, individual, team and collective organisational performance? Without knowing who your learners are and what really motivates them, L&D cannot begin to make sense of all this freelance learning activity or ensure it is channelled 70:20:10 = 100% to overall corporate vision and strategy. The model seems to works best when it uses the sum of all its parts and, which does include some formal learning. 70:20:10 expert, Charles Jennings writes: "Implemented structured learning, directed by others still has a significant role to play within the framework." He further says: "Structured courses and programmes are especially critical to support the development of high level concepts and they are needed before people start working in a role or organisation to support organisational change." Have a plan Plan, do, check, review is a useful principle for all parts of your organisation, including planning your L&D strategy. What we find usually is that setting goals is fairly easy but checking and adjusting them, if necessary, is more challenging. That’s why setting SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely is the first steps towards defining a clear vision. Setting a strategy will define the core principles on which to implement 70:20:10 and other important components. The plan will need solid support and active participation from key senior executives. CEO and other top level buy-in is essential if it is to be successful. You will need powerful advocates so you might think about a roadmap that helps others to understand your vision. Budget and resources will also need to be realigned to support non-formal and non-directed learning as well as structured learning in the workplace and will need to be underpinned by a clear prioritisation and decision making framework. For many of our clients, measuring the impact of 70:20:10 is based on performance output along with learning inputs and outputs. Creating an exciting future of learning & development In the digital world, most organisations expect their peoples’ learning to keep up to speed with the business and that also includes expectations of L&D. Learning is now all about context, on-the-go, on-demand, at home, on site, overseas. Keep people in the workflow and provide them with the facilities and support for informal and on-the job learning, it will prove to be much, faster, cost-effective and efficient and unlike most supermodels, less high maintenance in the end. A great learning and development culture makes for happy staff and a prosperous commercial future for those organisations prepared to put the time and effort into really getting to grips with understanding how people work best - even if it does mean some 70:20:10 trial and error along the way. To read more on 70:20:10, Charles Jennings is widely recognised as the expert in this area. Thanks for reading the blog today. We would love to hear your opinions on this subject - leave us a message below. The post Can 70:20:10 bring success to L&D? appeared first on Logicearth.

These are public postings of my writings for the first course of the Graduate Certificate Program in Serious Game Design and Research at Michigan State University. Please note: these posts are not intended as any kind of commentary on or … Continue reading →

Why use HTML5 effects and JS? Today’s blog post comes from Darren Rooney, Logicearth’s design lead. Darren has been working for Logicearth for nearly two years and during that time has lead the design team in adopting HTML5 effects and JavaScript interactive design for our eLearning content. Feel free to ask Darren questions in the comment area below. Over to Darren.. HTML5 and JavaScript have some excellent features for adding animation and interactivity to your designs. The great thing about using HTML5/JS rather than Flash is that it is compatible with Apple devices like iPods, iPhones and iPads. Nowadays it is vital to use responsive design because users will view learning content on a wide range of devices. All of our HTML5/JS interactions are fully responsive and will resize automatically depending on the user’s screen size and resolution. Here are a few ways you can make your learning content more engaging using HTML5 and JavaScript. All of theses techniques and HTML5 effects are responsive - try shrinking your window to see what I mean (it even works in the middle of an animation). 1. Drag and drop html5 effect This will add interactivity and draw the user into the information. You can also use drag and drop to create a gamification element to your eLearning. Have a try with the demo below. 2. Animating text It is now possible to add sophisticated animations to your text using only HTML5 effects and JS. This can keep your content looking fresh and draw the users eye to areas of text. With JavaScript you can even apply three dimensional effects to text and objects. You can see a few cool effects used on the text below. 3. Add hover effects HTML5/JS can create some really interesting hover effects which can reveal information and give visual feedback as users hover over certain parts of your design. Using these effects can transform a flat design into something which is very interactive and visually appealing. Hover over the squares below with your mouse cursor to see some examples. Design inspiration for Html5 effects These three simple examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to building interactive eLearning content with HTML5 and JavaScript. The capability is growing and becoming more powerful. I’ll blog about more HTML5 effects and JS interactive ideas in future blogs. For now, I’ll leave you with some design insights and inspiration: Information is beautiful Science of design Thanks for taking time to read our blog today. If you’d like to ask Darren any questions about eLearning design or using HTML5/JS, add a comment below. Logicearth Learning Services specialise in designing, delivering and supporting modern workplace learning solutions, which brings results for individuals and organisations. We are learning technology experts and along with specialist interactive multi-device content development skills, we can provide a complete service for all your organisation’s modern learning needs. Logicearth has offices in Belfast and Dublin but deliver services worldwide, including Ireland, UK, USA and throughout Europe. The post 3 great HTML5 effects to use in eLearning interactions appeared first on Logicearth.

We Can Code IT is offering a free coding bootcamp. A Cleveland-based social good organization empowering women and diverse populations in technology, We Can Code IT, backed by ECDI, is offering free coding bootcamp tuition to select qualified candidates. The free tuition, worth $10,000, is being offered for We Can Code IT’s all-women bootcamp for local Clevelanders in low- to moderate-income households.

Logicearth in April & May May is barely two weeks old and we’ve had a flurry of activity for the last wee while. We’ve written a few articles on learning technologies, eLearning and supporting L&D folks to drive change in their organisations. We’ve summarised these for you as Logicearth news. As ever, would love to hear any comments and your experiences in these areas. The future of L&D Our co-founder Peter Carlin, has been busy on Linkedin, publishing two key posts on the future of L&D. Ever the optimist, our Peter says it is brighter than you think! 1. ‘Famous Five’ Steps Towards eLearning Success (Linkedin, April 14th 2015) "Today I’m going ‘back to the future’ to see how learning and development is keeping up in the digital age and will consider five easy ways to help ‘space hop’ your way in to the technological revolution. Stuck for a present idea to get your kid? Do you go with a Dragon Ninja Weapon set, plenty of exercise but not really educational or Lego Mindstorms EV3 that combines the brain boosting invention of traditional Lego with the cutting edge appeal of robotics?" Read the full article here 2. Have I got good L&D News For You (Linkedin, May 8th, 2015) "Peter looks at how traditional learning and development roles are transforming and asks: Is L&D past its sell-by-date or the key to future organisational success? Right now many feel that the Learning and Development industry is facing a crisis. But we think it is more about a crisis of confidence. L&D professionals are having worries and doubts about being fit for purpose. It’s man versus machine! Have they the skills to adequately do their jobs? Is what they do strategic, adding value to the organisation, value for money or wasteful of time and resources? Actually, in this day and age, most of us are asking ourselves the same questions - not just L&D!" Read the full article here eLearning content and learning technologies Fiona Quigley, Logicearth’s head of Learning Innovation writes on the ATD Learning Technologies blog, looking at ID skills and challenges for creating modern multi-device eLearning content. And Mark Gourley, a Logicearth Learning Consultant, and all-round LMS ninja, gives his insights on TrainingZone  - how to get the most from your learning management system (LMS). 3. Five ID Tips for Modern Multi-Device Learning Content (ATD Blog, April 16th) "The eLearning or digital content ecosystem is quickly evolving, and mobile learning, multi-device content, mobile responsive content (call it what you will) is here to stay. The problem, however, is that it’s not easy to stuff all the content you can onto a mobile screen. (Do you hear that subject matter experts?) Consequently, the design process required for mobile of delivery is forcing developers into the "less is more" paradigm. For the last two years, I’ve been part of team focused on developing modern multi-device learning content. Here’s a summary of our top five lessons for instructional designers." Read the full article here 4. The Shortest LMS Implementation Plan. Ever. (TrainingZone, April 7th) "It’s not all about the content then? The LMS can do much more. So you’ve finally decided on the LMS you want for your organisation and all systems are go for implementation. There is no doubt about it, you have made a huge step forward in streamlining your L&D under one manageable roof. But before you experience all the wonderful gain that comes with a Learning Management System, there will be some areas of pain for you brave L&D warriors to overcome! Step into the learner’s shoes…" Read the full article here Same time next month? So there you have it. That’s what we’ve been up to in April, and May so far. We’ll check back again with you in June. In the meantime, if you have anything you’d like us to write about - or a burning question, drop us a message in the comments box below. Thanks for catching up with us today! The post Logicearth in the news - April & May 2015 roundup appeared first on Logicearth.

These are public postings of my writings for the first course of the Graduate Certificate Program in Serious Game Design and Research at Michigan State University. Each week, we are also required to post three questions for the rest of … Continue reading →

We Can Code IT CEO and lead instructor, Mel McGee, sat down with The Digital Life podcast host Kevin Lockett to discuss the issue of...