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Since becoming a Chromebook school, I feel like I’m constantly searching for new Chrome extensions or apps to help enhance my classroom learning environment. I recently stumbled upon Momentum, and Chrome extension that provides a personalized message and image when new tabs are opened. After installing the Momentum extension, you’ll[Read more] The post Momentum: Great Chrome Extension for Teachers and Students! appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

By their very definition, PhD studies are seeking to untangle complex ideas and produce original thoughts on the subject matter, which is backed-up by a thorough examination of the evidence available. For this reason, deciding what the research student is actually seeking after is normally rather broad at first. When they start-out and get asked the question, "So, what is your PhD about?" the typical student will give a rather hesitant, half-page explanation. Ask this question again when they are on the point of completing the PhD and the reply is likely to be a very concise and quite specific, single sentence. The process of systematic research casts its net widely, then refines and re-focusses subsequent investigations to reinforce, or challenge, previous ideas and insights. Seeing the process as a little piece of a much larger, complex mosaic of ideas can be helpful, but a bit daunting. To help the process of the distillation of knowledge, there are some basic techniques that any researcher can use. Firstly, it is wise to recognise that the PhD, as with almost any complex task, can be broken down into a number of smaller tasks, and that the role of the dissertation is to explain these tasks logically and clearly. In compiling the dissertation, the research student needs to effectively present the story of the research, from the introduction to the conclusions, in a way that makes it easy for the reader to understand what might be complicated and challenging issues. To make a start on this story-board, some people might like to utilise the concept of mind-maps to graphically link and make sense of the multitude of tasks that will be necessary to write about. Personally speaking, mind-maps do not really work for me. I prefer to construct a hierarchical list of all the possible sections and sub-sections. This has the advantage that such a list can very quickly be edited to provide the contents pages to the dissertation. For those who like diagrammatic checklists but struggle to find mid-maps useful, another way to help to identify the tasks that are required is to use software such as https://www.draw.io/ to create an easy-to-construct flow diagram which uses simple text and drag-and-drop shapes to (re)organise the sequence in which the research tasks need to "flow". Whatever planning style is adopted, and regardless of whether the research student starts with a question, a hypothesis, or simply a broad subject title, the aim of the research planning at this stage is to lay out with a broad brush the likely trend of the enquiry. Obviously the actual course of the research is likely to change tack several times during the PhD as new ideas emerge and light is thrown in some currently-dark corners, but the directional trend of the story, from the first sentence of the introduction to last sentence of the conclusions, should remain relatively constant. To some extent, it helps at this stage to be as specific as possible in the identification of each possible section and sub-section of the future research, but obviously this itemisation needs to be treated lightly so that it is flexible enough to change and modify. Treat it like a story-line which can be embellished or contracted as the research student’s knowledge of the topic deepens and extends. Like all good stories, there should be a beginning, a middle, and an end, with a path to link them up.

If you’re a professional hermit and you never have to deal with anyone else — no coworkers, no direct reports, no bosses, no vendors and no customers — you can skip this post. Otherwise, your ability to influence others is critical. This is true especially of CEOs and others in executive roles. Researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership found that influence — the ability to lead across multiple constituencies and across boundaries — is the No. 1 challenge for C-suite executives. The Corporate Leadership Council ranked 21 competencies for effective leaders around the world and found that influence was the most important skill for effective leaders. Leading means influencing others. Though influence has always been important, in the 21st century workplace it’s the most important leadership skill. Why? First, the environment we work in is more complex than ever, and it’s changing faster. We often have less time to make decisions. We must often trust others to make the right decisions, without us looking over their shoulders. Our organizations are flatter; matrices are replacing hierarchies as companies re-organize themselves to compete more effectively. More of our work involves teams, with more collaboration across boundaries. Even in fields that might be perceived as slow moving or "traditional," such as government and banking, effective leadership often means being able to coordinate efforts across multiple independent agencies or companies. In other words, effective leaders must be able to influence others.   What is influence? Influence is "the interpersonal behaviors we use to have a positive impact on another party’s choices." But what does it really mean to be influential? It means you’re involved in decisions. That you can access information beyond your immediate area of management control. That you’re included in special events at work, and also outside work (where informal networks and new relationships develop). You’re targeted for promotion and development. And you’re asked to coach or mentor others. But influence isn’t a single, monolithic skill. There are many ways to influence people, and all people have preferences in how they influence — their influence style. That influence style (especially if unconscious) has a major impact on how effective leaders are in different situations. Different circumstances often call for different influence styles. Negotiating a labor contract with a union, for example, calls for a different approach than pulling together a team to respond to a crisis or developing a new product or service.   Assessing your influence style DLI’s Influence Style Indicator assessment allows individuals to understand their own influence preferences. Understanding your own preferences, and alternative approaches to influence, can dramatically improve your influential leadership skills. Here are the five major influence styles, along with some of the key influencing tactics used in each style. Think about when you’ve seen or heard some of these tactics. When have you used them yourself? Asserting style: If you’ve ever heard someone say something like "The policy requires that …" or "I am 100% certain …" then you’ve seen the asserting style in action. Asserting influence tactics include: Advocating by debate. Insisting your ideas be heard. Challenging the ideas of others. Inspiring style: Inspiring influence style seeks to convince others by, well, inspiring them. You might hear someone say "Just think of what this can mean to the future of …" and "You’re the best I’ve ever seen at this. Would you be willing to …" Inspiring tactics include: Presenting a sense of shared purpose. Putting forth exciting possibilities. Bridging style: Leaders use bridging when they want establish a sense of mutual interest or rapport. You might hear phrases like "I think I understand your dilemma so can you help me understand why …" or "I had this same issue last year and let me tell you how …" Bridging tactics include: Connecting with others. Building relationships and coalitions. Negotiating style: When using negotiating style, you’ll hear leaders say things such as "Let’s agree to discuss this later when everybody is calmer" and "If you will … then I can …" Negotiating tactics include: Agreeing to compromises, concessions and trade offs to satisfy your greater interest. Exchanging favors to get things done. Rationalizing style: When leaders use the rationalizing style of influence, they use logic and data to persuade. You’d hear leaders say things like "The experts say …" or "Our analysis shows that …" Key rationalizing style tactics include: Using expert views and historical data to build a position. Suggesting logical solutions to problems. Citing relevant facts and data. Influential leaders choose their styles Your influence style, and the behaviors that go along with them, are not fixed. You may prefer one style, but most people have some ability to shift from to different styles depending on circumstances. Skillful leaders, leaders who are influential, take this one step further. They recognize that in different situations, different influence styles are more effective. They also recognize the influence styles used by those around them, whether it’s someone they’re facing across the negotiating table or their own direct reports. Being aware of influence style preferences, when each style is best used and who is using what style makes leaders much more influential. That, in turn, enables them to deliver results for their organizations. Want to learn more about how an awareness of influence styles makes leaders more effective? Sign-up for a free online webinar with Dr. Chris Musselwhite, the developer of Discovery Learning’s Influence Style Indicator Assessment. Dr. Musselwhite has worked in organizational and leadership development for over 30 years and has developed several widely used assessments and simulations. His work is based on extensive research and assessment data from thousands of individuals.]   Sign Up for the Free Webinar The post Do you have what it takes to be an influential leader? appeared first on Discovery Learning Inc..

Designing and delivering instructor-led webinars and courses in an online environment is sometimes more of a necessity than a luxury. Re-creating the traditional set-up in the eLearning format is not a challenge anymore. Thanks to the plethora of educational technology tools available, eLearning developers can quickly create a virtual classroom. The question is, why should you create a virtual classroom? Ever since the concept of Human Computer Interaction has come to the limelight, all things virtual have become increasingly important. Virtual worlds, virtual environments and virtual classrooms are suddenly the focus of all Internet technology design. The idea is to create human performance solutions that are ergonomic to the human brain. Now, this is a far-fetched statement but it really is happening all over the world. Software engineers and user experience (UX) designers are trying to inch the daily technology solutions closer to the way that humans access and use it. This includes, but is not limited to, modifying or developing technology that functions like a human being and even out-performs human beings. We may be talking about space sciences or a small classroom in an urban school - virtual technologies are leading us to make valuable mistakes in a relatively safer environment. The result? A more time and cost-effective solution that trains amateurs towards mastery at record-breaking pace. Now that is something truly worth our time and budget. In the eLearning environment, an eLearning course is essentially a virtual classroom. The classroom occurs in a virtual space. We see a personal portal that displays our preferences and settings. We are notified of what others are doing or what is expected of us. We understand our learning responsibilities and can reasonably expect the learning programs that are upcoming. Virtual learning environments are also designed to mimic game consoles so that the learner is engaged and motivated by emotional values such as excitement, suspense and even disappointment. Creating such environments requires the training and expertise of an instructional designer and an eLearning developer. A familiar example of a virtual learning environment is the learning management system. The learning management system is your gateway to the virtual classroom. It enables you to log into your portal and access your learning materials. Learning management systems have also come a long way since the 2000s. They are more gamified and icon-based than the previous text-based screens. This is another example of how developers are bringing daily use tools closer to human usability. Virtual classroom courses are complete programs of learning. They comprise of sequences of synchronous and asynchronous activities. Live meetings, chats, discussion forums are all synchronous activities, while asynchronous events include independent or group task-works, submitting assignments and emailing the course instructor for additional questions. Virtual classrooms try to emulate ILT (instructor-led-training) to create a hybrid learning situation. These classrooms are as rigorous and as tough, grading wise, as the traditional classroom. Let’s find out why you need virtual classrooms for some courses and how they enhance the effectiveness of your efforts. For starters, virtual classrooms require a course mentor who can lead learners through the subject and who can also attend online meetings. Once this basic requirement is met, virtual classroom courses offer the following benefits over independent eLearning courses: 1) Flexibility in learning and improved activity: These courses have the freedom to combine lectures, Q&A sessions, individual and team activities, reading and even online testing. Learners can work directly with peers and gain meaningful feedback from them. Scaffolding on new topics is much quicker and smoother. 2) More disciplined learning community: A strong sense of community and "cohort" feeling is instilled in the group. They engage more actively and take responsibility for their comments and feedback. The group feels a sense of community and moves towards common learning goals. Direct contact with the instructor and peers help keep learning more disciplined and consistent. 3) Virtual classrooms invoke a sense of familiarity: Learners in virtual classrooms are familiar with the requirements and expectations of the course. They find themselves comfortable with the teaching, learning and testing methods. 4) More adaptability for the learners: The instructor monitors the classroom directly and is able to assess the individual needs of each learner and the needs of the group more easily in a virtual classroom. The instructor can address any upcoming concerns and issues more responsively. The content and presentation can also be adapted closely to the learner’s needs. As a rule of thumb, if you need to teach unstructured and implicit knowledge, you need to create a virtual classroom course. Also, courses that require many discussions and where learners have many questions also require virtual classrooms. If your course needs more interactivity than a simple eLearning program can provide, create a virtual classroom for a more satisfying teaching and learning experience. Virtual classrooms use collaboration tools to re-create the structure and learning experiences of a physical classroom. Well designed virtual classrooms provide a richer interaction while alleviating the requirement for everyone to be at the same location. Find out if your course needs to be delivered as a virtual classroom. The post Why Create a Virtual Classroom? appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Have you ever used radio programs or audio CDs for learning? You cannot deny their popularity in all age groups. There is truly something mesmerizing about hearing a human voice, miles away, yet so clearly through the speakers or headphones. Audio podcasts are like radio programs, and can be used for learning. In this article, we will discover the best scenarios that call for podcasts and best practices for producing them. The TEDx podcasts have a million-count audience. This expresses the popularity and ease of access that such podcasts to the general public. Podcasts based on important seminars or long lectures are excellent media to share with your learners. They help create an authentic learning environment - something that is a challenge in the online world. Podcasts often record live lectures, including question and answer sessions that may also be useful to the learner. They offer cost-effective mediums to teach real-world and current topics, right through the experts and celebrities. If you have access to paid podcasts through your institutions, your learners will enjoy the privilege and will be motivated to listen to the "exclusive" material. A debriefing session can follow in which a discussion to achieve learning objectives can facilitate learning. The aim of effective eLearning design is to include it in the daily lives of the learners. Smartphones are the first and the last devices consulted for all kinds of productivity tasks. Sending out notifications to listen to a podcasts simplifies and aids the productivity-inclined individual. Podcasts can be heard any time of the day, at the convenience of the learner - at the gym, at the doctor’s office or on the bus. It’s more economic to have experts talk about heir expertise than write it down in the form of text-based lessons. Podcasts are truly excellent when music and language are involved, but they may be difficult to produce if the subject is visual. The key to producing meaningful podcasts is to create factual and procedural information. So what are the best practices for creating podcasts for eLearning? Better educational podcasts can be developed by keeping the following in mind when integrating into eLearning courses: Rehearse and rehearse again before recording. Edit out mistakes and long pauses and sound of breaths. Include some written information or tips to put together longer segments together. Repeat material that is important more than once or twice to make it memorable. Provide learning mnemonics and emphasize key points. Add URLs, names and other details on a web location that learners can find on their own later. Keep your wording simple, coherent and easy to follow. Think about your learners listening to the podcast while driving! Limit each segment to 10 minutes and do not require anything to be jotted down. Make the introduction and the conclusion brief. This is especially important for learners who listen to podcast series back to back. Try to use familiar vocabulary. Any new terminology needs to be explained before using. Select music according to your audiences. Make voices clear and pleasant by investing in a good microphone. Use audio editing software that automatically equalizes and normalizes voices. Speak in an upbeat and emotional voice. Try imagining audience while you speak. Podcasting is still a hot trend, in general and in eLearning. But not all situations lend themselves to effective podcast use. Determine the best scenario for podcasting depending on the need for visual or descriptive content. Once you have the right equipment, podcasts are great time savers for you and your learners. Since podcasts are easier and cheaper to develop, most people get carried away when recording. Remember, educational podcasts are very different from entertaining ones. By keeping these best strategies in mind you are on your way to producing great podcast content. The post Podcasts in eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

You may remember back in November 2015 we were selected as finalists in the Institute of Customer Service Customer Satisfaction Awards category of Customer Focus Award. We are now thrilled to have been chosen as one of 6 finalists in the Red Rose Customer Service Award. The criteria for the category was to be able to demonstrate how customer service sits at the heart of the business and ways that we have gone above and beyond.     

When it comes to keeping your employees safe while on the job everyone agrees it is the right, necessary and even legal thing to do. What many disagree about is how best to deliver the safety training. Traditional safety training involves a classroom, an instructor, usually a PowerPoint presentation and material that, while safety focused, is generic and designed to appeal to "most" companies. Some have moved to safety videos or web-based training courses chosen from a library of "off the shelf" safety topics. The appeal to these is the convenience and relatively low cost but the trade off is relevance. Most of this training does not apply to your workers, here’s why: The work demonstrated in the video is not the same as yours. The equipment shown is not the same as what your employees use. The safety procedures don’t match what you want your employees doing. Terminology used in a generic video will never match your company. The actors used are clearly not real workers and don’t know the job. For these reasons many employees are critical of the training and dismiss it as not relevant since it’s only marginally related to their job. So how effective is safety training if your employees are not engaged and not taking it seriously? Over the past several years we’ve seen a shift in the design and delivery of safety training and more importantly, the positive effects it has on safety metrics. Custom designed content is the fastest growing training method being used by leading companies in the field. It connects with your employees because it is relevant to them, their job and your company. It makes sense that workers will closely relate to training that is specifically designed for them, and in the training world, there is a strong correlation between relating to a topic and understanding it. Custom designed content simply means training designed for a specific job, process, or company. The training uses your employees, your approved procedures, speaking in your company terminology, filmed at your plant or job site. It is powerful because it immediately connects to the workers. They recognize the people demonstrating the safety procedures and the work they are doing. This is an important difference from "generic" safety courses. Consider the following example: Johnson Services employs field workers who repair pipelines in the field. Working on the pipes is often hazardous and requires a specific set of safety procedures, tools and protocol that all field workers must follow. Recently there has been an increase in accidents involving new support stands that are used when working on sections of pipe. The field safety engineer determined that the workers are not using the support stands correctly and the pipes are shifting causing injuries. Johnson turned to the manufacturer of the stands and asked for training help. The manufacturer sent their company video on how to use the stands properly. Johnson brought a group of field workers in for this training and afterward asked them if this was helpful and could it reduce the pipe support accidents. The workers explained that while the video was "kind of like what we do" there were many differences and only some of it was helpful. Some comments were: "Those guys were working on different pipes, ours don’t sit in the supports the same way". "The video was nice and all but they showed the supports being used in a shop environment, not in the field where conditions change and you don’t have a flat floor". The takeaway for safety training is "relevance".   Johnson recognized the generic safety video would not reduce accidents and contacted a custom designed content provider. The training company’s approach was twofold; learn how the manufacturer suggested the supports be used and learn how Johnson was actually using them. They worked closely with Johnson’s safety engineers in the field to design a safety course that combined both the manufacturer’s recommendations and practical application on Johnson projects. The result was a video based training course filmed in the field showing how to properly use the supports at an actual job site. Johnson employees were shown properly placing and attaching the supports then explaining why they did it that way. The safety engineer (that workers all knew and respected) was also filmed explaining the importance of this training and the company’s commitment to safety. At the end of the course there was a recap of the most important sections and a short quiz to ensure employees understood the critical safety points. The response from the field workers was amazing. This training was different because it connected to the work they do, they respected the people demonstrating the safety procedures and it used their tools and procedures. It was relevant. Custom designed content is the fastest growing training method for one simple reason…. it works. It’s easy to get started to improve your safety training and reduce accidents with content that your employees can relate to. For information on how your safety program can benefit from custom designed content, contact us at info@kmilearning.com The post Customized Safety Training - The Crucial Factor of The Right Delivery appeared first on KMI Learning.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon an informative and inspirational blog post; "5 Morning Rituals to Keep You Productive All Day Long" by James Reinhart. As I am always on the lookout for tricks and tools to help me become more efficient, I was interested to see what he had to say. Among his toolbox of suggestions was one that excited me and motivated me to action; "Pick Three Wins for the Day." As I’ve continued to put his advice into action over the past few years and have found it to positively impact my day, I wanted to share it with you again. James wrote that in the morning you should "Decide on the three things that you'd like to accomplish in the next 12 hours in order for you to feel like the day was a success". Doing this at the start of every day will allow you to map out your day’s actions accordingly to try to reach your three "wins" before your head hits the pillow that night.  It’s goal setting, but in a fun and simplified manner. We’re not talking lifelong goals, monthly goals or even weekly goals. It’s basic - what will make you feel like your day has been a success? For the online student, an example of a "three daily win" list might read: 1.    Complete the next module in my online course and pass the module exam with a 75% grade or higher. In order to have the highest success of attaining this goal, the next step would involve estimating the time needed to complete that course section as well as allowing time to study for the exam. Block out the time on a daily planner and move on to #2. 2.    Arrange for online tutoring in a subject that is giving me trouble. That might include sending an email to a tutoring center, or exploring online help centers.  3.    Post a reply in the online classroom forum. Reach out to other students taking the course to share inspiration and motivation. Consider connecting through social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter to get to know one another better. Of course, not every day will be a complete success. But by mapping out your daily goals, the steps and time necessary to attain them, you will well be on your way to feeling accomplished at the end of the day. And that’s a pretty powerful feeling. What will your three wins be for today?   Source:  Entrepreneur.com - See more at: https://ed4online.com/blog/pick-three-wins-day#sthash.afuWgqg7.dpuf