Marketing usually requires lots of work, but one way to quickly build trust, and drive traffic to your site is with Quora. As an expert and instructor of online courses, you have unique insights that you can share on Quora as answers to questions, with links back to your site for further information. Check out the video to find out more about this growth hack. Quora is a question and answer site, so you can go there and find questions that relate to your subject matter or online course and answer them. The key is to answer them with some really valuable information, and not a sale pitch. You need to dive in and actually provide some real advice in your answer but then, at the end of your answer, you can also provide a link to your full course or a blog post on your site for people who want more information. This can be a good source for generating some targeted leads for your courses because people are already searching Quora, or searching Google and being directed to Quora, to answer their questions. They are already interested in the topic so they won’t mind clicking over to your course to find out more. The best part is, the results are immediate. We tried answering a few questions yesterday related to a post we published on building online communities, and we immediately saw a lot of traffic from it. Now if you want to track the success of this, we did a video just recently about Bitly. Check that out and use Bitly links or a URL shortener where you can track the source of leads that come from your Quora post. If you’re using Google analytics, make sure you also put the UTM codes in there. So if you’re using Google analytics and a URL shortener, you can use the UTM code first and then drop it into your URL shortener like Bitly and then post that as part of your Quora post. Give it a shot. Just head over to Quora, search for your topic, find questions related to it, answer them, and then sit back and see if the results come in from those. If they do, it merits more effort, so double down and start doing it on a regular basis.   The post Teach Online TV #04: Marketing Your Course With Quora appeared first on Thinkific.

Organizations that invest in leadership training can retain employees and reduce costly recruitment expenses. Quality leadership is a combination of the right qualities and the right training. Why Leadership Training Is Worth Investing In It is said that effective management has the biggest impact on business success. Managers set the tone for behavioral standards and […] The post Why You Need To Invest In Leadership Training appeared first on PulseLearning.

Competition for jobs has become tougher, and people have become a lot more astute about conducting a job search, so just sending out a few résumés and waiting for a response is no longer a valid way to look for a position. Rather, assigning themselves the "job" of looking for a job is the way successful job seekers operate today. It takes the right combination of energy, commitment, and optimism, tempered with a sense of humor, to keep the doldrums away while searching for a job. In Don’t Wear Flip-Flops to Your Interview, Dr. Paul Powers shares his years of experience helping people obtain jobs they love. Job hunting is hard work, but treating it like a job can make it easier and more rewarding. Job seekers should: Identify the top 10 roadblocks to successful job hunting and take steps to combat them. Although it is difficult to control the amount of time it takes to find a job, there are many other things job seekers can control, and that puts them in charge of the process. Work on interview skills, practice interview style, and tailor this practice to specific interviews. Interview anxiety is natural, but being completely prepared in advance alleviates many of the fears that cause it. Use multiple sources to locate job opportunities, and utilize them all at the same time. It pays to become familiar with print and online job markets, recruiters and employment agencies, and hidden job resources that are often accessed by word of mouth. Research each company, anticipate questions and answers, and be totally prepared. The right attitude, coupled with dialogue that shows the job seeker did the necessary homework to find out about the job and the company beforehand, will impress most interviewers. Beat out the competition by projecting a friendly, positive, and respectful attitude. Job seekers who make it to the short list are those who dress and groom professionally and who communicate directly and clearly. Maintain good references who can be counted on to deliver a great recommendation, and be sure to thank them every time they are contacted. The reference list should be regularly updated and references called to make sure they are still willing to provide that service. To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

Being an industry-leading eLearning management platform for enterprise training is only one of TalentLMS’ talents (pun intended). It’s also a great LMS to manage the sale of your courses. Besides the eCommerce features that come built-in, including integration with Stripe and Paypal, coupon codes, subscriptions, discounts, bundles and custom invoices; we have long offered integration options with third party business and eCommerce platforms. One of TalentLMS’ most popular commercial integrations has been with eCommerce giant Shopify. This integration, made possible by leveraging the Zapier platform, a third party web service that enables different web applications to talk to each other. This allowed our users to share customer data with their Shopify account and sell their LMS courses at its popular marketplace. Today, we’re pleased to announce that we have an ever better option for the TalentLMS-Shopify integration, in the form of our new, 100% native, Shopify application that leverages Shopify’s own developer APIs. Not that there’s anything wrong with the Zapier-based integration. It’s just that being finally able to use Shopify’s API directly enables us to cut the middleman, and provide even tighter integration between the two platforms while at the same time minimizing the necessary configuration steps. Installing TalentLMS’ Shopify App Assuming you have a Shopify account setup (if not, you can register for one here: https://www.shopify.com/signup), connecting it with TalentLMS is easy. 1. Begin by installing the TalentLMS App from Shopify’s marketplace. 2. Configure the newly installed app with your TalentLMS’ domain and API key. (You can find the latter in TalentLMS’ "Account & Settings" page). 3. You are now all set to begin selling TalentLMS courses through Shopify. For that, create a few Shopify products, one for each course you intend to sell. Since courses are "digital goods" and don’t require physical delivery, you should deselect "This product requires shipping" at the bottom of each product page. 4. Use the TalentLMS App to map your newly created Shopify products to your existing TalentLMS courses. This way once a customer buys a course / product through Shopify he will automatically be enrolled to its associated course, and a login link will be delivered to him to access his courses. If you’re only planning on using Shopify to sell TalentLMS courses then we suggest you configure it to: - "Automatically capture payment for orders" (this will automatically accept your customers credit card and mark an order as paid) available under "Settings", "Payments" and "Payment Authorization". - "Automatically fulfill the order’s line items" (this will automatically fulfill/complete an order once it is paid) available under "Settings", "Checkout" and "Order processing". The above steps are optional but if enabled, learners will be given immediate access to their courses once they hit the buy button. And this is all there is to it. An even easier and tidier experience than our previous Zapier-based integration option, and, more importantly, one that paves the way for even more deeper Shopify integration, as we can now leverage the whole of Shopify’s official application API. Conclusion Our new native Shopify TalentLMS’ app allows you to sell your courses through Shopify, transparently handling the translation between Shopify product sales to TalentLMS course sales and automatically enrolling Shopify buyers to the courses they bought. Between this new app, the WooCommerce integration and our powerful built-in eCommerce tools, TalentLMS has all the features you need to create your own successful eLearning portal and sell your courses. Get your free TalentLMS account today and you’ll be sold too! The post TalentLMS-Shopify Integration Gets Revamped With New Native App appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Oh hi. Your TalentLMS portal just got better. And you didn’t have to do anything about it. Nice, right? It’s not one of those big heavy releases, but with our frequent update schedule it doesn’t have to be: we’d rather roll out new functionality as soon as it is ready for the forefront instead of holding stuff back and giving it to you all at once. That said, the new release brings a number of important new features that will be a godsend for the customers that need them (you know who you are). Plus, it landed just after the release of the TalentLMS mobile app and the new native Shopify integration plugin. So, let’s see what this new release brings to the table, aside from the usual assortment of fixes, performance improvements and polish: First, there are several new security settings, mostly concerned with the TalentLMS login options. Specifically, administrators can now set a password expiry policy, and define a number of maximum retries for unsuccessful login attempts, as well as a locking period. Combined, these new features will strongly protect your eLearning portal against brute force hacking attacks. Talking about login options, TalentLMS now allows to setup a different Single-Sign-On method per Branch. This feature comes directly from customer requests, and is perfect for enterprises and organizations with multiple facilities, each with its own intranet and SSO configuration. Next, there are a couple of goodies for TalentLMS learners. Namely, we’ve added a new Learner Search function, allowing learners to search within shared files, courses and units that they have completed. Quite a time-saver, especially for learners who are enrolled in many courses.   Plus, TalentLMS can now connect to LinkedIn, allowing learners to post their training Certifications directly on their LinkedIn profiles.   Last, but not least, this release brings several new features related to content creation: Smart Tags allow you to extend your content with placeholder tags that are translated in real time to personalized content (e.g., Hello {username}). If you’ve used the Events/Notifications features, you already know how to use them.   Course custom fields allow you to extend your courses with additional data fields, similarly to how you can extend User Profiles. Besides keeping some business-specific information for your classes, this feature will also be handy for reporting, filtering, mass actions and in any other places where you want to operate on a subset of courses. Speaking of courses, instructors can now configure an alternative course start screen that can be set to display any kind of course related information, welcome message etc., to learners visiting the course page. Test analysis has also been enhanced, now giving you the option to switch between First and Last execution of a test, thus letting you see how your learners progressed from their first try until they finally passed a test. Finally, we added the ability to incorporate and reuse Wistia videos in your courses, in the same way that you can reuse YouTube and Vimeo videos. Wistia, in case you haven’t heard of it, is an hosting service for business videos, a "YouTube for the enterprise" so to speak, that’s quite popular with a lot of our customers. And that’s about it. Come to think of it again, it’s not that small a release. And it’s already available on your TalentLMS portal, without you having to lift a finger. Ain’t the Cloud grand? The post TalentLMS Cloud Update Is Raining Exciting New Features appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

In this crazy world of overbooked schedules and constant striving for work-life balance, I frequently come across articles or learning opportunities that look interesting but that I skip past or save for later (which I rarely get to). I often ask myself, "do I have the time to read this article?" or "do I have time to listen to this podcast?" I’m discovering that the answer has to be "yes". We have to allow ourselves time for personal enrichment - for professional development - for self-betterment. If taking the time now will enrich your life in any way, teach you something new, or expose you to a new train of thought, then the answer is YES. Taking the time to step out of your comfort zone, learn a new skill, and feed your interests enables you to feel more accomplished. It gives you a necessary boost in self-worth, self-empowerment, as well as the knowledge that you are on top of your field by staying abreast of the latest information. So yes, in the midst of your day, if an opportunity arises to sign up for an enrichment course, attend a webinar, listen to a podcast or simply read an article on a topic that interests you, do it. You owe it to yourself to make the time to learn something new. Ed4Online has hundreds of personal enrichment and professional development courses available. We make it easy to learn a new skill or catch up on the latest information in your field. Our courses are self-paced, instructor-led or mentor supported. Online study allows you to fit our courses into your busy schedule - anytime and anywhere! Make the time to learn something new and sign up today!          

Aaron Maurer is an Instructional Coach for Bettendorf Middle School. He has been in education for over a decade teaching sixth grade social studies, literature and computer as well as spending many years teaching gifted education in grades 4-8 before taking on the new role of instructional coach. Aaron is the Makerspace Summit keynote speaker and will also be presenting sessions at NCCE 2016! His sessions are listed at the end of this post. Here’s Aaron…. Name: Aaron aka Coffeechug Maurer Location: Bettendorf, Iowa Current job(s): Instructional Coach for Bettendorf Middle School working to develop high quality projects as we are a project based learning school. Current computer: I am typing on my Surface Pro 3, but also have a Surface, a Macbook, a 25 inch Mac and way too many tablets to count. Current mobile device(s): iPhone 6 which I call Coffeechug Mini-iPad One word that best describes how you teach or work: Limitless Show us a screenshot of your mobile device’s home screen! Yes, all on one screen (no secondary slides) and all color coded. Check out my SpeekGeek session to learn more! What apps/software/tools can you not live without? Twitter, My Fitness Pal, Podcast, Spotify, Xbox App on Surface Pro 3 to edit my video game videos, Starbucks Share with us a time when you failed in your teaching or learning pursuits. How did you persevere? I fail darn near every single day as each month I pick one new thing to learn. This has become my big goals for 2016 to not only learn, but to share it all with others. I make mistakes several times a day. However, it is not failing in the sense that people use the word. It is only failure if we don’t learn. We cannot forget that progress is only made by continually learning from our mistakes both large and small. Other than your phone and computer, what gadget can you not live without? Aeropress for making the best coffee in the morning while I wait for my bulldog, Frankie May, to eat breakfast. What is your favorite organizational tip, app or advice? Bullet Journal. Check out my site to learn more www.coffeeforthebrain.com What browser do you use regularly? Chrome, but am slowly using Edge more and more as I learn how it can make life more efficient. What is your workspace/classroom like? Coffeechug Café is a bit messy now, but this is where the magic happens on a daily basis. What you have to realize is that this room looks different almost every single day. What is your best time-saving trick? Create your day the night before using a Spiraldex and recording your work each day via the Bullet Journal method. Don’t wake up without a plan. If you had $1,000 to spend on classroom tools and wanted to make the greatest impact on student learning, how would you spend it? Ask the students. Go to the source and let them tell you. You may not like the answer, but it is what is needed. What are your most valuable classroom/work routines? I am not in the classroom as a regular teacher anymore, but for a decade I found that sitting at the tables and desks with kids and treating them like equals was key to learning for them and myself. What is your favorite avenue to connect with social media? Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus and just started to plunge into Snapchat When you are not living the glamorous work life, what do you like to do in your spare time for fun? Coaching basketball and robotics as well as training for triathlons. I love playing video games and hanging out with my awesome wife who puts up with my craziness and my three super cool kids. Any parting thoughts you would like to share with our readers? Go make it happen. Get It Done! Life is to short treat it like a dress rehearsal. So many people are scared to act on their ideas and we need more people living life to its fullest. Go out there and make yourself happy. Please reach out and connect so we can learn from one another. Twitter @coffeechugbooks and website is www.coffeeforthebrain.com Connect with Aaron at the following sessions: Speedgeeking With Coffeechug Thursday, February 25 | 4:00 PM - 4:50 PM | Room: Tahoma 3 Description: This will be rapid fire session of technology tips, tricks and productivity tools that I use in my classroom and school to help make life easier for both myself as a teacher and for students. I will share out things I use with classrooms as well as staff during Teaching Tinker Time and PD. These ideas will give you time to enjoy that cup of coffee and have fun at the same time! The key here is simplicity and productivity. Making Global Connections With Skype In The Classroom Friday, February 26 | 11:30 AM - 12:20 PM | Room: Yakima 1 Description: Want to connect your classroom with the world and promote global citizenship? Using Skype, you can connect students across town, around the world, bring in industry experts, or take virtual field trips. Learn how you can connect with other educators, get lesson plans, start a project and more from Skype in the Classroom. Aaron will also be leading a workshop: Makerspace Workshop: How To Transform Your Classroom To A Makerspace Session: HP63 | BYOD Workshop | THUR, February 25 | 1:00 - 3:00 PM | Room: 3A Description: This session is designed to help educators and anyone involved in the field of education understand what this makerspace movement is all about and how to find a way to make it work in the school setting. Through a variety of hands on learning, lively discussions, activities, and planning, participants will walk away with a sense of how to implement the ideas back at their school and classroom. Key ideas to be discussed will be learning spaces, PBL integration, how to manage the makerspace, easy activities to start, and how to blueprint change for your current space. The post Meet a Tech Savvy Teacher: Aaron Maurer appeared first on NCCE's Tech Savvy Teacher Blog.

Milestone Health Care Quality Units (HCQU) West is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving services for patients with disabilities in western Pennsylvania. Last year, Milestone HCQU realized their LMS wasn’t working for the organization or the carers it supported. Because Milestone is funded by state and federal governments, their search for a new LMS was bound by a strict budget and non-negotiable requirements. With no dedicated IT staff to maintain the LMS, Milestone knew they needed a reliable solution that would provide them with excellent support. When they found LearnUpon, the vendor’s passion for Corporate Social Responsibility, reflected in a 10% discount for non-profits, confirmed they were the right partner. Leslie Dollman tells their story.   About Milestone HCQU West The services provided by Milestone HCQU West represent a new approach to the treatment of some of society’s most vulnerable people. Until the 1970s, people with developmental disabilities were typically warehoused in state-run institutions, and kept entirely separate from the community. In 1974, Pennsylvania began a process of deinstitutionalization. Funds were reallocated from state-run institutions toward supports and services for community-living options. The benefits showed improved life skills for people with disabilities, more community involvement, and greater overall happiness. Providers of these services work tirelessly to help people with developmental disabilities to live an "everyday life". But with no budget for specialized staff, it can be a struggle to understand the unique health needs of those they care for. In 2000, Milestone HCQU West was created to provide free training to these service providers in western Pennsylvania.   Why we needed a new LMS Before we found LearnUpon, Milestone used an outdated LMS that no longer fit our needs. As a government-funded non-profit organization, facing the cost of upgrading to the latest version of the LMS every year was difficult. Our needs had also begun to change. Most of the training we delivered had traditionally been instructor-led. But statewide budget cuts led us to pursue other methods, including webinars and eLearning options, to help us to reduce costs while still meeting regulatory training requirements. When we began our search for an LMS, we quickly realized that finding the right fit wouldn’t be easy. Our needs were unusual and subject to a number of constraints: Because our courses must be available to the general public, we have no control over the technology used to access them The public agencies that access our courses typically have outdated technology and/or staff with minimal experience of using technology We’re a small organization with no dedicated IT staff to implement, configure and maintain an LMS.   But we knew we needed an LMS that would: Be easy to implement and manage Give users 24/7 access to an intuitive interface Deliver and track SCORM and Tin Can content Track multiple forms of training data in one place (including instructor-led sessions, online courses, participation at webinars, and self-study) Create customizable reports to meet a wide range of stakeholder requirements Help us to raise our profile. That meant we needed a highly customizable platform that was affordable, very easy-to-use, with robust reporting, and customer support that didn’t vanish the minute the check cleared. And we wanted to find a partner that would support us through implementation and help us grow. Were we dreaming?   Why we chose LearnUpon We considered several solutions during our search. After reading reviews of LearnUpon and doing a little research, we had some questions about the system. We sent an email to LearnUpon and received a phone call 15 minutes later. On the call, they listened carefully as we described our needs and answered all of our questions. We felt really comfortable with them right away and arranged to see a demo of the LMS. And the demo was so well organized! The account manager used artwork from our website to show us how easy it was to brand the LMS. That helped us to get a real feel for how the platform would look if we selected it. The account manager also showed us how easy it was to use and customize the LMS, both for administrators and learners. And the pricing model was simple and VERY affordable! After that positive start, we decided to sign up for a 30-day free trial. During the trial period, we put the LMS through rigorous testing. We contacted LearnUpon support - a lot. They were always accessible, courteous, and very helpful. We felt like they genuinely cared about us and really wanted to help us find a solution. We knew at that point that we had finally found our partner.   Benefits of LearnUpon Before using LearnUpon, we had to track data on a variety of different platforms, which made reporting a logistical nightmare. We also had a very expensive LMS that could only manage SCORM content. Students complained that the system was too complicated to use. And they still had to go through our office to enroll in instructor-led courses or access training records and certificates, which was difficult for those on overnight or weekend shifts. Now, with LearnUpon, all of our data is in one place. Our students LOVE the easy-to-use interface and being able to access everything they need, at any time! Because reporting is a breeze, admins can enjoy time freed from manual work. Most importantly for our budget, LearnUpon’s pricing model saves us an average of $7,000 - $10,000 annually in costs we spent supporting our previous LMS.   Why you should choose LearnUpon As a non-profit organization, we’ve unfortunately grown accustomed to sub-par service as we’re often not a "money-making" customer for a provider. But LearnUpon’s customer service is out of this world. They treat us like a fortune 500 company! The LMS itself is truly excellent. The team has designed a platform with great features and helped us to customize it so it works perfectly for us. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend LearnUpon to anyone looking for an LMS.   Try LearnUpon free for 30 days .learnupon.com Agree to Terms of Service Start my free trial The post Why this non-profit deserves a Fortune 500 LMS appeared first on LearnUpon.

[Post by Greg Gammie, Implementations Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] A report published by an organization called TwentyEighty Strategy Execution was featured on TrainingIndustry’s website. The report covers the top 10 project management trends for 2016 according to TwentyEighty. "The evolution of the project management discipline has created high demands for new skills to master the challenges of our ever-changing work environment. Smart organizations are equipping project managers with the necessary skill sets to think more strategically and innovatively, manage change and complexity with an agile, yet disciplined approach all while carefully monitoring the big picture." Some of the topics included are: The Permanency of Agile Project Management Broadening Strategic Role of the Project Manager Upskilling Talent For more information, please visit TrainingIndustry

I have been reflecting with some strong concerns on the relationship between NLP and Coaching and conclude that NLP is not Coaching, albeit that some NLP techniques can be effectively utilised as part of the Coach’s toolkit. The very nature of coaching is to work with a client from present to future state, and not delve into the past with concepts such as ‘change personal history’, ‘timeline’ etc.  Coaching is not therapeutic and we need to keep it clean. Assuming the two fields are interchangeable does both a disservice and plays into the hands of those who debate the authenticity and efficacy of NLP. This resonates with the concept of institutionalised isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Carter, 2008). The way the two professions interact and affect society, suggests they may have similar structures, although they have evolved in different ways. The interlinking affects the behaviours of their members e.g. seeking to gain ILM accreditation in Coaching and Mentoring for an NLP qualification, the recent rush to gain Association of Coaching qualifications for what is NLP. This is not modelling - it’s copying! This is not innovation - it’s the easy way out in order to ‘get bums on seats and make a quick buck’. Adopting similar notions of best practice, core competences and language, may leave the two fields resembling each other instead of differentiating themselves. Carter (2008) argues that organisations and concepts can remain different in spite of sameness due to the array of experiences, and this is where the NLP providers need to focus their energies instead of diminishing the importance of their field in the rush to get short term financial gain. (Course numbers are dropping because very few trainers are updating and developing new work - they prefer to ‘steal’ from other fields and yet are audacious enough to still call their offerings NLP.) We need to learn from medical doctors, dentists and vets who all share a core knowledge base, yet clearly differentiate themselves by developing new perspectives and applications, while standing shoulder to shoulder as professional equals. If we don’t pay attention, the long term result will be the end of NLP as it becomes subsumed into the coaching arena - where quite often it is most unwelcome. Those non NLP trained coaches have valuable learning and experience from many fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy - providing an eclectic theoretical base for their practice. The so-called ‘NLP Coaches’ often have a very narrow outlook. NLP appears to be stagnating while it becomes the cuckoo in the coaching nest. I have recently heard colleagues in the psychology department of a university postulating that NLP has had its day! The Association of NLP has worked hard to prevent this and they need the support of trainers - to be proud of the field, to look out of the world of NLP and educate the buyers. There is now a strong and credible research base for NLP (R & R recognition project, university dissertations and doctoral theses, as well as non-formal research) and this must be shared and used to update the NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner course materials instead of poaching models such as GROW which are nothing to do with the developers of NLP. Master Trainers of NLP are supposedly ‘adding value to the field’. This should be through researched development of NLP based topics, instead of regurgitating what is already there, and then NLP can become accredited in its own right.   The post NLP is not Coaching appeared first on The Performance Solution.