Videos And Movies In eLearning I am not against videos and movies as a learning medium. In fact - in could be a very powerful tool of transferring knowledge, building skills, explaining something or influencing ones behaviors. There are a lot of great examples of using videos and movies: just take a look at interactive movie LifeSaver explaining how to help people in critical situations or check the best speeches on TED.com or try one of the free Coursera courses or or log in to Lynda.com and learn something new using movie as a primary source of wisdom. Movies are great because they stimulate both of our brain's hemispheres and affect both hearing and sight senses. Especially the latter one impacts us during consumption of this medium. Movies are also a very expressive medium with a strong capabilities of building emotions among spectators. Such emotions reinforce the cognitive process. Videos let us to meet and experience people and places we can't see in person - this feature creates out of them a truly egalitarian way of communication. Movies are also considered as a credible source of information - especially when they are narrated by people we trust. It is also worth to remember that feature movies has a big power in 'by-the-way learning' process. While watching a movie we can learn a lot about the World, history, geography; we can learn how to react in certain situations. Movies has also strong influence on our behaviors, shape understanding of culture, let us understand other people, etc. Business impact of this medium is very strong at this moment. There are a lot of reasons of this phenomenon - check this Video Brewery post to learn about 18 of them. They concern marketing industry but still tell a great story about benefits of using videos and movies in the training function. What's Wrong With Video As A Medium? Let's take a look at challenges in using videos and movies in corporate environment we usually notice while working with our clients. Size Videos are much heavier than content based on text, pictures and flash animations. We usually don't have a problem with this volume while using movies at home - our private networks are handling it. Many of of our clients, however, reported such a problem in corporate network. Corporate network is scaled to support transactional systems - there is a risk of jamming it if you push additional volume of massive video content to it. Cost of development Professional production of movies (or event simple videos) is much more expensive than development of 'typical' e-learning content. This is not a problem of equipment (the prices of it dropped down dramatically in the couple of last years) but rather of the process. Movie production requires much more time and effort during filming and post-production. To fight with this challenge we can cut these costs by taking decision to prepare such a video material 'on-the-fly'. We can just create a simple video material with our smart-phone and put it into the e-learning course. If we don't take much care about its quality disadvantages connected with costs diminish. Updates It is much easier to make updates to static content (text, pictures) than to dynamic one (animation, movie, simulation). Sometimes, to make such an update of video material we have to produce it from the scratch. Such a risk should be taken into consideration during budgeting of e-learning project. If we anticipate rapid changes of information provided by video material it is worth to decide either for simpler delivery method (text, visual) or fast and cheap preparation of the movie ('on-the-fly' approach). Usability Usability of videos is being constantly improved. We have a progress bar, preview, full screen mode, transcription, tags, etc. All of these features, however, are not giving us such flexible and convenient mechanisms of skimming and searching of materials as we are provided by simpler content forms (texts and visuals). It is quite easy to skim a post like this in less then 15 seconds (all you have to do is to take a look at headings and mind-map). If I had prepared a video with the same message you should have spend here at least 2-3 minutes just to find out if this material is interesting for you or not. Access Videos are also problematic due to access challenges. To consume them you have to be able to see and hear - which means you have to either be equipped with headphones or let the movie be audible in the whole space (room, office, shop, etc.). Even if you have headphones you have to focus both your sight and auditory senses on the movies - which means that you can't control your surroundings (eg. clients). If you work in the customer service business it is a real problem. It is even bigger if we take into account that consumption of such a movie will be probably interrupted many times which will dramatically affect the quality of the learning process. Boredom Well - it is easy to prepare just any video material. All you have to do is to ask somebody to say something to the camera. Such 'taking head' materials, filmed with no preparation at all are usually boring. An average subject matter expert (especially unprepared) is not a TED speaker - not every person has something important to say; not everyone can do it with full engagement and passion. Bad videos, apart that they are not liked by trainees, also destroy confidence in e-learning within the organization. What we can do? We should remember about all of these corporate challenges of using videos and movies. Such a medium should be used in these situations which reinforces benefits and decreases barriers and threats. We should also prepare videos with proper engagement from all perspectives: subject matter, instructional design and development. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Often, during the development of an eLearning course, we hear the term Graphical User Interface (GUI). But, what is a GUI? Why is it important in the development of an eLearning course? The main purpose of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) in an eLearning course is to enable learners to navigate through the course in a hassle-free manner. It tells them where they are in the course i.e., how much they have completed and how much they should complete. A typical GUI has buttons, such as Play, Pause, Replay, Previous, Next, Glossary, Resources, Audio on/off, Exit etc., which enable the learner to navigate easily through the course. Here is an info-graphic which shares 9 examples of learner friendly GUIs. Hope you find this post interesting. How do you design the GUIs of your online courses? We’d love to know. Related Posts4 Effective Ways of Presenting Scenarios in E-learning CoursesEssential Elements of Your E-learning Course GUI6 Instructional Design Principles For a Sound Learning Experience - An Infographic

How To Measure Your Online Training Effectiveness Regardless the amount of time, energy, and resources you invested on designing and developing your online training course, you can’t just assume it is effective. Online training is a sound investment only when you are able to measure the results. If you cannot determine whether your online training strategy is improving employee performance or giving them the skills they need, then you won’t know if it’s worth your resources. In order to find out whether your employees actually learned what you offered them, you need to evaluate your online training strategy, and thus be able to review its strengths and weaknesses for making the necessary improvements. In this article, I’ll share 8 tips to measure your online training effectiveness, so that you can make the most of your training budget and offer your employees the training they need to succeed. Observe on-the-job application of newly acquired knowledge. One way to determine whether your audience retained the knowledge you offered them during your online training course is by simply checking whether employees are able to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills to practice. Are they changing their behaviors and displaying that they know how to carry out their job duties on a daily basis, or do they have to ask for assistance when it’s time to perform a transaction or deal with a customer service issue? What were the goals of your online training? Improving skills, acquiring certain knowledge, modifying behaviors and attitudes? To measure your employees’ learning, consider observing them before and after they attend the online training, so that you can compare their results. The true test of a training program’s success is whether the employees have the knowledge and skills necessary to do their job effectively and efficiently. Use scenarios and simulations. If you cannot afford or you are unwilling to take the risk of measuring the effectiveness of your online training on-the-job by observations, you may create scenario-based tests that allow employees to show how to apply what they have learned during the online training. Rather than sending them out onto the sales floor, for instance, you are able to determine if they have the skills and knowledge they need to help customers or carry out basic job related tasks in a supportive environment. This enables you to measure the effectiveness of your online training course without compromising your level of customer service. Ask them to perform specific tasks and observe the outcome of the scenario, to check if the participants pass or fail the test. If they fail, you may need to revise your method, modify certain behaviors, remedy mistakes or to provide additional training content until they master the learning objectives; effective online training means all employees being able to put what they have learned into practice. Use performance goals. Performance goals are a great tool for measuring the effectiveness of your online training course. How to use them? Again, you need to compare performance before and after training. In order to evaluate performance prior to online training, you must analyze your audience and make sure that you know exactly their knowledge base and experience level. Then, you will be able to determine how closer your employees have come to reaching their goals, after they have completed the online training. To keep your audience focused to their performance goals throughout their online training experience, always link your training back to performance expectations. Use assignments that simulate real life processes and help employees put their skills to practice. Moreover, you may consider conducting interviews, or integrating questionnaires that record co-worker complains or supervisor reports into your post-course evaluation. This way, you will be able to accurately measure the your online training effectiveness and determine whether your goals have been met. Use assessments to gauge employees’ knowledge and skills. While assessments can test employees’ knowledge for their own benefit by allowing them to analyze their weakness and fill in knowledge gaps, they also give you the opportunity to determine how effective your online training really is. For example, if a vast majority of employees are not able to pass an assessment at the end of the second module, then you may want to consider reworking this module to improve either its content or the delivery method. You might include more interactive elements or break the online training content down into chunks that are easily digestible. Quizzes, tests and exams on skills assessment will help you get an insight on whether employees benefit from your online training and therefore are developing their skill sets or, if they are falling behind and they need additional help to improve their job performance. Measuring their skills sets prior to and after online training is, once more, essential; when identifying the specific areas in which you want to support employees, it becomes much easier to design an effective online training course. Provide your audience with the same tests that assess their skills twice: in the beginning of the online training and at the end of it. This way, you will be able to compare scores and check whether your online training had any effect on their performance. Finally, always keep in mind that a learner-centered approach will help you personalize the online training experience by focusing on specific skill sets and thus it will make it easier for you to assess your employees’ skill development. Promote social learning; turn employees into instructors. Why not turn your employees into instructors by encouraging them to teach a specific topic or discuss concepts with other employees? There are two benefits in applying the concept of social ownership to measuring your online training effectiveness: First, it engages your audience to teach and learn from each other, which encourages the collaborative spirit in the company and thus motivates your employees to work faster and better together. Second, it helps you determine whether the online training participants have learned what they were supposed to have learned. In order to instruct others, they must first have an in depth understanding of the subject matter. And if they have a grasp on the topic, then you know that the training strategy is actually working, as being able to effectively transfer the "message", may be considered as a proof that you really own it. Furthermore, by having employees teach others what they have learned will not only help you to check whether your online training was successful or not, but it also helps them reinforce the newly acquired knowledge. It is a win-win situation, but it needs careful planning: in order for employees to be able to teach others about a particular topic, they will need to demonstrate that what they have learned can also be applied to the real world. Incorporate scenarios with real world benefits into your online training course design, so that you can help your audience apply social ownership successfully and become real experts of the subject matter in question. Gain insight directly from your employees. Employees are in fact the best critic of your online training course. Their perception of and response to your online training will provide you with valuable feedback for measuring your online training effectiveness and thus help you to establish its strengths and weaknesses in order to revise it and improve it. To determine whether your it was engaging and meaningful to them you can use your Learning Management System as an evaluation tool. By programming it to ask questions that determine the degree of employee satisfaction and positive reaction in online training, you can collect valuable data, such as whether your audience believed that your online training course was worth their time, if they would recommend it to their colleagues and what were the topics that they found most interesting and useful. Furthermore, consider holding focus groups, in which employees will be given the chance to inform you about how they feel about their online training experience as a whole and maybe to suggest ways to improve it. Surveys and one-to-one interviews can also offer insight with respect to the online training effectiveness, employee satisfaction, and even help you to pinpoint weak areas of your strategy. You can get an accurate gauge of how employees perceive your online training course and if they are truly benefiting from the activities and exercises you’ve incorporated. Employee satisfaction is key in investigating your online training effectiveness. Beyond everything, if your audience is not satisfied with every aspect of the online training experience, it is unlikely that they will be interested, engaged and motivated to fully commit themselves to it; a situation that is not only alarming, but also an infallible indicator that you are doing something wrong. Take full advantage of learning analytics. Many learning management systems have built-in analytics that give you an overall picture of how employees are progressing, how quickly they are completing each module, and how often they are logging into the system to access their online training. All of this data can help you the opportunity to gauge the effectiveness of your training and custom tailor it to meet the needs of your employees. For example, if you find that most of your employees are taking much longer to progress through a module than expected, you may want to assess its difficulty level to see whether it's too challenging. Calculate ROI. Finally, to measure your online training effectiveness you need to measure its ROI. Without checking Return Of Investment you will never be absolutely sure of your online training course’s success, as you need to make sure that the performance results you have achieved were actually worth your investment. To calculate ROI you need to estimate costs, such as design and development cost for your online training, as well as the benefits associated with your online training program, such as increased productivity, increased sales, fewer customer complaints, etc. By evaluating costs against performance results you will be able to get a cost-to-performance ratio that can truly help you determine whether your online training was effective or there are still areas that need to be improved. An effective online training strategy can help to improve your employee retention rates and increase the profitability of your organization. Use these tips to measure the impact of your online training and you will be able to easily determine whether your online training development time and energy were worth the investment, that is, whether it is really working or you need to identify ways to boost its effectiveness for the future. No online training strategy is complete without evaluation. After all, how can you know that you are getting a sound ROI if the effectiveness of your online training cannot be measured? In the article, 10 Tips To Effectively Evaluate Your Online Training Strategy you will find 10 online training strategy evaluation tips you can use to ensure that your strategy is in-line with the objectives of your eLearning course. Interested in learning how to enhance the effectiveness of your performance management training? Read the article Top 5 Performance Management Online Training Strategies where I highlight the top 5 performance management online training strategies that you should be aware of. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

The menu of an eLearning course lists the titles of all its slides. It enables the learner to navigate to the slide of his choice. Articulate Storyline facilitates navigation through the menu, by default. Based on the requirement, we can set/adjust the menu. The menu can be also restricted, so that the learner cannot proceed further without finishing the current slide. Once the learner has visited all the slides, then he can navigate through the menu. In this post, I would like to share 2 ways to restrict menu in Articulate Storyline. Process 1: Step 1: Click the Player option in the Home tab to open the Player Properties window. Step 2: Now, select Menu.  Step 3: Click the Additional options button at the bottom to open the Menu Options window. Step 4: Click the Dropdown arrow for options. Select Restricted from the list opened and click the OK button. Step 5: Publish your eLearning course to view the restricted menu. Process 2: We can restrict navigation through the menu from published files, considerably, using this process. This is very useful in a scenario where you have don’t have the source file. It can also be used if you have a heavy source file which consumes lot of time to open and re-publish.  Step 1: In the publish files, double click the story_content folder to open it. Step 2: Open frame.xml file in a text editor. Step 3: Find the piece of code that looks similar to the one given below (it’s better to use the ‘search’ option). <optiongroup name="menuoptions">  <options> <option name="flow" value="free" /> Look at the screenshot below for better a understanding. Step 4: Replace the word "free" with "restricted", save the file and close it. Note: You can use any of the three options (refer Step 4 of Process 1 for three types of navigation) here. Step 5: Now, open the story.html file in the published folder to see the restricted menu. These are the two ways to restrict navigation through the menu in Articulate Storyline. Hope these help you. Please do share your views. Related PostsHow to Combine Your Adobe Captivate Projects Into Single Course?Rapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key FeaturesCreating Customized Tab in Articulate Storyline Player

As gomo evolves from authoring tool to learning suite, we’ve refreshed our website to reflect the next chapter of our innovation. The idea behind the gomo learning suite is that whether you have a huge LMS or absolutely no learning infrastructure in place at all, the gomo learning suite can  bring you a number of hosting, distribution and analytics capabilities that you don’t have already. The gomo learning suite with an LMS You can host content in gomo, send an LMS  wrapper to your LMS and take advantage of gomo’s Tin Can analytics dashboard. With an LMS wrapper, you’re able to update your content in gomo and see all changes reflected in your LMS - no taking courses down and uploading updated versions. The gomo learning suite with no infrastructure On the other hand, you can host and distribute your via the gomo cloud, which is great for small, rapid growing companies or even larger ones who are just looking to invest in the own e-learning. On top of this, multi-device ready content comes as standard, making your e-learning content super flexible for author and student. Alongside the gomo learning suite, we’ve updated our authoring tool as part of our efforts to constantly improve the authoring experience with gomo. Here’s what’s new in the latest version of gomo authoring tool… Rich design and editing capabilities with gomo you can easily align your assets for maximum design flexibility. Left, right and center-justify your images or get them to fit to width. Image the wrong shape or size? No problem. Our in-built image editor allows you to modify your images in gomo. (Even more) Powerful actions Actions allow you to enhance the interactivity of your courses. Actions include the ability to link to screens or sub-screens, external web links, linking to group resources (e.g. PDF files), setting image states and setting gomo variables. Online review/ preview with full workflow No more spreadsheets and email trails - your courses can be reviewed live on our server. Easily include your subject matter experts in the review process and add review notes directly into the course preview with full workflow and task assignment. No more ‘which screen did you mean?’ - gomo knows exactly where you are and drops the notes straight onto the screen. Direct link and QR code sharing Deliver your courses for review and testing to your colleagues via direct link or even via QR code. Links can be emailed to colleagues for direct course access. By using a QR code reader, colleagues can transfer the course straight to their smartphone or tablet. New display conditions As well as tailoring your screen content to the device type it is being viewed on, you can now add question locking, customized assessment results screens and role filters to your courses using the enhanced Display Conditions feature on every screen asset. gomo hosting & analytics Hosting The gomo learning suite includes a full hosting and distribution solution, allowing you to deliver your content into the hands of learners instantly. Hosting supports four methods of content distribution: gomo central Our learner portal provides instant access to gomo content. Existing LMS (coming soon) Leave your content in gomo and deliver it straight to your LMS with the gomo LMS wrapper. Instantly update your learning directly from gomo. Direct link access Send students a direct link to content, or even a QR code. Website embed (coming soon) Embed gomo content directly into your website. Analytics gomo’s built-in experience API (xAPI/ Tin Can) reporting dashboard gives you an easy and visual way to analyze learner data. Instantly view items such as: who has (or hasn’t) taken the training training dates results completions The gomo analytics dashboard allows you to view reports by date range, learning, device type, geography and more. Advanced analytics will allow you to see trends and drill down into detailed information on learning effectiveness. Like the sound of that? You can trial gomo today to have a play yourself, check out the gomo feature tour or join our next webinar in order to learn more about gomo authoring tool and our brand-new learning suite. The post The evolution of gomo appeared first on gomo Learning.

Welcome to today’s blog post. I’ve come across several articles that compare eLearning development process with that of feature films. One common step involved in the development process of both these is the storyboarding. What is that we do in a storyboard? We write the screenplay for the course similar to film makers. In today’s post, I want to discuss about the advantages of using one key element from the feature films in your eLearning courses - drama. Add Life to Your Course: Drama brings life to your boring courses, if used properly. Generally, we use avatars and scenarios to interest the learners and make them understand the concepts better. In these scenarios, we add call outs in a comic style and develop conversations between the characters to bring in a realistic look. I’ve recently witnessed a course that had taken this approach one step further. The course used the familiar scenario-based learning approach, but in the form of videos. Instead of digitally created avatars and characters, they’ve used real artists to enact the scenario and the same has been recorded in a film. This brought in a lot of difference in the course. The course, like a good TV show, had the attention of the audience throughout. Let Your Course Express Itself to The Learner: Drama need not be only through a video. There are many ways to integrate drama into your course to make it more expressive. I know expressive isn’t a word often used with anything other than living beings. But yes! A course can also be expressive. A good example would be using emoticons in assessments. For example, if the learner has selected the wrong answer, you could display a sad emoticon that says "Oops! You’re almost there. Shall we try once again?" Here the course has expressed that it’s sorry for the learner’s performance and encourages him to give another shot. Isn’t this expressive? This makes a lot of difference to the learner and connects to him at an emotional level. Finally, I would say it is never too late to unleash your creative side. Anything and everything can be made to look better and personified in an eLearning course. Adding a little drama element to your training programs will make them stand out as long as you plan and predict the learner experience. Hope you find this post interesting. Please share your views in the comments section below. Happy Reading!! Related PostsCreative Ways to Present Click on Tab Interactivity in E-learning Courses - An InfographicBest Inspirational and Motivational blogs of 2010Success @ Learning - Thanksgiving to Your GURU

eLearning Content Development: Why Is Speed Important? Shelf life of content. A lot of training in organizations has a sell-by date, either because changes in the business require new or additional knowledge or because the audience needs it done differently. Demands of the organization. For example, compliance, product knowledge and new hires each require unique training. Urgency in response time to issues affecting business needs. A lot of the time a new training request comes in because there is an immediate need. An organization with a crystal-ball approach to planning what interventions will be needed in a month, six months or even next year may be able to do it differently, but for most others, where organizations have to respond quickly to events and trends from outside, there’s a pressure to respond rapidly. Let’s look at three ways you can speed up eLearning content development. 3 Ways To Speed Up eLearning Content Development 1. Manage your team more effectively with these tools. Your team may no longer be centrally located in one office. Distributed team working is becoming more and more prevalent. In fact, Gartner estimates that over 54 million employees are currently involved in some form of remote work. It’s increasingly likely you’ll be working with a distributed team at some point, e.g., multiple authors in different offices, freelancers and agencies. Use these tools to help you manage your team as if they are all in the same office: Trello Project management tools such as Trello help you assign your team tasks and monitor their progress. You can access Trello from anywhere on any device. Slack Communication tools such as Slack run in an app or from a browser. You can set up groups for your team for real-time communication on any device. Elucidat Cloud-based eLearning tools such as Elucidat allow multiple authors to work on one project simultaneously, cutting the time needed to set up freelancers and agencies, as well as the time needed to package, distribute and update project files. Every member of the team has access 24/7 to the most recent project and there is no confusion caused by duplications and/or earlier drafts. Plus, you can spend less time managing the team. 2. Look for features that help you speed up development. Cloud-based eLearning tools can help support a full end-to-end process for developing eLearning content - from prototyping, through production and on to release and implementation. You can work straight out of your prototype - no need to switch tools and technology. Here are some features to look for when selecting an effective eLearning tool: Instant publishing. Select a development tool from which content can be published immediately and uploaded to an LMS in seconds. This can help cut the waiting time for getting a project built or published. Only use one tool. Make sure your whole team is working within one tool, so you can reduce time spent on version control issues and managing releases. Re-use projects. Some tools let you design once and use many times. Reusing and gifting projects within teams is a great time saver. The concept of master courses - efficiently managed from a central template - reduces time wasted maintaining individual variations. This can speed up eLearning content development time, as you’re not reinventing the wheel, and you can also ensure consistency across your team’s projects, which means reduced time needed when applying these retrospectively. Prebuilt themes. Tools that offer prebuilt templates and themes allow your designers and developers to create themes and interactions that can be used over and over again . Elucidat offers four prebuilt themes to help you get started quickly: Multi-device compatible. Tools that let your team simultaneously develop eLearning content for desktop and mobile devices can effectively cut time in half, allowing you to create one version of your content for all devices. This eliminates the need to create, publish or maintain multiple versions. For inspiration, take a look at this multi-device eLearning example by Channel 4. The added bonus of a tool that allows you to create responsive eLearning is that you’ll have happier learners receiving high-quality eLearning from any device - no COMPROMISE. Easy maintenance. Don’t underestimate the time (and cost) that maintenance can add to your project. Consider tools that allow you or your client to maintain content - making changes, updates and publishing - quickly and reliably. Some tools, like Elucidat, organize your projects so that all the courses under a course master will update with the pushed changes - EVEN the ones on an LMS. No need to redeploy! 3. Embrace collaboration. Inbuilt reviewing and commenting. Consider adopting eLearning development tools that have inbuilt reviewing and commenting capabilities. This will empower your non-technical SMEs and scriptwriters to edit courses with no training. Such tools can help reduce the workload by letting you dispense with other solutions such as Word scripts or Excel spreadsheets to capture modifications or bugs. Inbuilt file management. A system that has an inbuilt method for handling files is a bonus. Once selected and uploaded, you can store assets such as images and sound files that are then available for use in all your projects. This helps reduce the time spent trying to locate these assets over and over again. The added benefit of having the assets in the cloud also means that agencies and freelancers you work with can use them without needing to access your internal networks. Conclusion: Speed up development time by using the right tools. Not all eLearning tools are the same. Give some thought as to what your specific requirements are and what tools are best for speeding up your eLearning content development. Desktop tools are great for small or one-person development teams, but can create challenges for high-volume authoring teams. Instead, use a cloud-based eLearning tool. These tools are better designed to solve the specific challenges of high-volume eLearning teams. They make the process of authoring, publishing and maintaining eLearning easy and fast. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Articulate Storyline has made the lives of GUI (Graphical User Interface) designers, easy by providing a customizable GUI. It has inbuilt next/previous buttons, resource/glossary, menu, notes, etc. But, it does not provide an Exit button. So, today, we will see how to add an exit button to a course in Articulate Storyline. The steps to add an exit button in Articulate Storyline are as follows. Step 01: Click the Player Properties button in the Home tab. Step 02: In the Player Properties window’s Player Tabs section, click the Add button. A trigger wizard will appear. Step 03: You can add the name for the button in the Name field. For example Close or Exit. Step 04: Choose the place on the player for your Exit button from the Align drop-down list. We usually have it on the top right corner of the player. Step 05: Choose the Action for the button as Exit Course. Step 06: This trigger must be executed when the user clicks the Exit button. So, select User Clicks from the When drop-down list. Click OK both in the trigger wizard and the Player Properties window when you set all the options. You can now preview or publish the course and check for the Exit button and its functionality. Removing the Exit button is quite simple. Step 01: Click the Player Properties button in the Home tab. Step 02: In the Player Properties window’s Player Tabs section, you can see all the existing buttons. You have to uncheck Exit. Then, click OK. You can again preview or publish the course and check for the Exit button and its functionality. This is how we add customized GUI buttons. For more information on eLearning design and development, stay tuned to my blogs. Related PostsHow to Combine Your Adobe Captivate Projects Into Single Course?Rapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key FeaturesHow to Customize the Storyline Player?

Following the launch of the gomo learning suite, we descended on Learning Solutions 2015 in Orlando to showcase the new capabilities of both gomo authoring and our new xAPI based gomo hosting product. The event was fantastic and really well organised.  Credit is also due to the fantastic gomo marketing team for ensuring we had everything we needed. We got to work building the stand on Tuesday in preparation for the event.  We even had a little time to help out our sister company LEO learning to set theirs up as well. The exhibition side of Learning Solutions ran on Wednesday and Thursday.  During both days the show floor was packed and we had lots of great conversations with people interested in learning about the gomo learning suite. From all the conversations we had, the top 5 trends were: xAPI tracking and analytics We had some great discussions both around tracking but also how the data is then presented back as part of our analytics offering.  The feedback was  fantastic and we have some great ideas for future enhancements. Team workflow With the latest gomo release, teams can now collaborate on content reviews using our task management system to track and implement feedback during the content development. Responsive, multi-device content As the absolute cornerstone of the gomo solution, gomo’s capability to deliver content that works on smartphones, tablets and desktops from a single source really resonates with people looking for a multi-device solution.  Demoing gomo’s realtime preview capability with the newly added QR code functionality really shows off how this works. Distribution and hosting In addition to gomo authoring, the ability to publish and distribute content to end users via the gomo hosting solution in a matter of clicks demonstrates how simple the process is. Built in theme customization Visitors to the stand really liked how you could take one of gomo’s built in themes and easily customise it to match their brand, look and feel. When we weren’t busy demoing gomo, we also got chance to meet up with some of gomo’s existing customers who were attending the event. The event was topped off by spending time with AICPA, who were presenting at the Learning Solutions Demofest. This was especially exciting for us as the gomo content they were demoing won an award for Best Business Process Solution: Design for the Heart: Not-for-Profit Certificate Program - it’s great to see gomo supporting the success of its users! Overall, we had a fantastic event and look forward to working with everyone signing up for our 21 day trial as a result of the event. Thank you Learning Solutions 2015! The post Learning Solutions recap appeared first on gomo Learning.

Successful Tips For Successful Custom eLearning Initiatives As technology-aided learning gains more popularity among modern corporate houses, it is clear that it has a lot of potential to significantly improve the way that learning and work are integrated. In this light, the Learning and Development function needs to clearly find important links between learning and business objectives of the organization. It is now imperative to align custom eLearning efforts of employees and individual departments towards business success. It is important for the Learning and Development function to create a continual eLearning process that is beneficial both to the learners as well as to the organization. This builds the confidence and capability of workers, as well as improves business results for organizations. According to a research done by Towards Maturity, there is a definite lag in how well the objectives of learning and business are actually defined within the organization. Here are some baffling numbers: Only 36% of organizations work with business leaders to identify business needs within the organization and performance indicators that they want to improve. While demonstrating value back to the business only half of those organizations -a mere 16% in total, measure against the business metrics they agreed! And finally, only 55% analyze the business problem before recommending a solution. This is why often eLearning, for all its vast potential, does not measure up to the expectations of the learners as well as of the organization. Here are 7 things that most evolved Learning and Development leaders suggest to create ‘aligned’ learning within the organization - for the benefit of all. Involve corporate leaders and top honchos in learning decisions. This may be easier said than done, for the top honchos find it difficult to get time out of their busy schedules. Before approaching the top management, Learning and Development managers should do up the reading on what the senior leaders are sharing in reports and media interviews. These are the values that create the objectives for the business and help the Learning and Development team to build a learning program to deliver these objectives. In addition, Learning and Development managers can involve the top management in other ways that do not take up much of their time or effort. Building a channel of communication - over something as basic as email, might be the first step that will aid involvement. Know the answers to key implementation questions before the board asks them. This will demonstrate preparedness and also save the precious time of top management. Prioritize learning through strategic business objectives. From a clear understanding of business objectives, successful Learning and Development functions establish custom eLearning priorities as well as set up a longer term strategy. While working along business managers, Learning and Development teams don’t have to simply take learning orders from business managers. They should analyze business problems before recommending solutions. Not only does this improve the learning impact, but the strategy is also inclined to adapt with changing business priorities. The focus should be on the end results. The Learning and Development team should be clear of learning goals and focus that online training strives to meet the goals. Thus, all eLearning solutions should be designed with the business outcome in mind. This means ensuring that learning professionals are clear about the strategy and priorities of the business. Top learning organizations succeed by setting up business targets for learning interventions as well and then measure against them. They also demonstrate a commitment to ensuring the skills that are developed are then actively utilized in the course of work. Integrate with HR and talent strategy. Custom eLearning is a social activity and even within the corporate houses, it never occurs in isolation. Many modern organizations have established talent management strategies and their Learning and Development function makes sure that their learning activity fits within the wider talent strategy. In such organizations, learning is closely meshed within succession planning, recruitment and performance management strategies. Calculate ROI, demonstrate business value. Successful Learning and Development teams are focused on adding real value back to the business. Learning-inclined organizations calculate the return on investment for their learning programs and go beyond efficiency savings by calculating actual value to the bottom line. This makes sure that management teams are clearer about how learning is aligned to their overall business plan and push the learning efforts accordingly. Ensure that the staff understands their contribution. Learning and Development managers should make sure that learning is embedded directly into the workflow of the learners. This encourages them to develop a learning culture. It also answers the important question ‘why am I learning this?’. Learning and Development should ensure that their staff are clear about how their learning supports the organization’s performance and that their workers understand their personal contribution to business success. Proactive management commitment is the cherry on top. Lastly, successful learning companies run impactful custom eLearning initiatives through the proactive support from their top managers. If senior managers demonstrate an ongoing commitment to learning, including technology-enabled learning within the organization, it is a huge push for learning, which not only benefits their staff, but also themselves. Managers influence the employees the most even more than top learning professionals within the organizations. So, if Learning and Development can convince the managers to embrace learning initiatives, the reach and impact increases exponentially. Modern organizations implement successful learning by clearly understanding what is important in the business. They understand how learning adds value back to the business. And with a well-defined alignment of business goals as well as learning, the value of the entire organization increases. Suggested further reading: In-Focus: Aligning Learning to Business (2014) This post was first published on eLearning Industry.