The following post was featured in eLearning Industry on August 20th, 2015. The Hidden Limitations Of Any Learning Management System While 85% of corporations have some type of Learning Management System installed, many share the same sentiments. In a 2015 report by Brandon Hall Group, 38% of respondents indicate they are looking to replace their Learning Management System. The primary challenges include poor ease of use, poor reporting, adaptability, ROI analytics, and a lack of the functionality that modern businesses need. It’s not what Learning Management Systems offer, it’s what they are. The bigger issue is that there are hidden inherent limitations of any Learning Management System that can undermine your chances of a successful return: The Learning Management System treats learning as an isolated event, not a continuous process.This makes employees highly susceptible to cognitive overload that comes with delivering as much content as possible in a single session. Research has also proven that people forget as much as 90% of what they learn within 30 days, without active reinforcement. The Learning Management System doesn’t meet the need of today’s modern learners.Unlike the Learning Management System model of scheduled training courses with tests, modern learners prefer fresh knowledge that’s rated highly by experts and peers, and delivered when, where, and how they want it:  fast, easy, and consumable at the point of need. The Learning Management System delivers generic, not personalized learning.Learning Management Systems allow courses to be accessed online by virtually unlimited numbers of learners. This generic training approach means employees will either find the information too rudimentary, too difficult, or just too boring. Without the personalization that makes learning relevant and interesting, most learners will not be engaged, and as a result will derive little value. Learning Management System reporting leaves much to be desired, rendering tangible learning results difficult to prove. According to a report by ATD and the Institute for Corporate Productivity, reporting is a main obstacle to linking learning programs and business outcomes. 42% of the firms surveyed say it’s too difficult to isolate learning’s impact on business results versus other factors’ influence: 42% say the tools are not readily available, and 42% also say the Learning Management System does not provide the needed data. If A Learning Management System Isn’t Enough, Then What Is? Organizations need to integrate continuous learning, on-the-job coaching, social learning, and information at the point of need to create an effective learning ecosystem. On its own, a Learning Management System solution simply falls short, diluting learning effectiveness, and negatively impacting ROI. To be truly effective, you must deal with the inherent limitations that come with your Learning Management System so your learning delivery system: Contributes to a continuous learning environment. Enhances knowledge retention, so employees can effectively apply what they learn to the job. Offers the flexibility needed to meet the needs of today’s modern learner. Leverages personalized and adaptive learning to give your employees the learning they need, and not what they already know. Provides powerful reporting analytics. Don’t replace your Learning Management System: Capitalize on its strengths, and augment its weaknesses. Without a doubt, one of the biggest strengths of a Learning Management System is its ability to deliver content cost-effectively to many employees over a large geographic area. There will always be a need to deliver fixed, scheduled training to employees, but by augmenting areas of weakness, you can extend its capabilities, and achieve an even more impressive return on investment. Many organizations are moving towards a continuous learning model, where knowledge is continually presented to employees, and is also available on demand. And while the Learning Management System is an important part of this continuous learning model, it’s only one of the critical elements necessary for the kind of learning success that impacts the bottom line. To allow your Learning Management System to contribute effectively to a continuous learning environment, it should be augmented with the following capabilities: A microlearning approach that offers bite-sized learning content, making it easier for employees to learn. Daily learning reinforcement to deeply embed knowledge -whether from a classroom or Learning Management System learning event- for the long term. Personalized and adaptive learning to meet the unique needs of each learner and continually modify learning paths for success. Mobile technologies to deliver information when and where learners want it; and on their platform of choice. Social media channels that foster collaboration and a sense of teamwork. Written by Carol Leaman The post What If Your Learning Management System Isn’t Enough? appeared first on Axonify.

Our retail clients tell us that omni-channel is critical for maintaining an edge in today’s highly competitive retail market. This multi-channel approach to sales means that retailers can provide their customers with a seamless shopping experience—whether the customer is buying online through the retailer’s ecommerce site, browsing via a mobile device, contacting the retailer by phone or shopping in the bricks and mortar store. But, for an omni-channel strategy to work, retailers need to do more than implement technology; they need to rely heavily on their sales associates. Yet retailers say associate training is one of the biggest barriers to becoming a successful omni-channel company. We wanted to help retailers with this challenge, so we’ve created an eBook called: How to Boost Associate Expertise to Deliver a Successful Omni-Channel Retailing Experience We thought we’d share it with you too because, even if you’re not in retail, understanding how to increase employee knowledge is important in every industry for building and sustaining competitive advantage. We hope you find it helpful. Written by Laura Martin The post How to Boost Associate Expertise to Deliver a Successful Omni-Channel Retailing Experience appeared first on Axonify.

How would you define gamification?  Take a minute and think about it. Gamification is about more than just playing games. This was the primary topic of discussion on a panel-style webinar we sponsored this past week featuring Karl Kapp, Carol Leaman and Jeanne Meister from Future Workplace. If you’ve been following Axonify for a while, then you know we’ve delivered webinars on the topic of gamification in the past, but this time we tried to put a different spin on things.  When we polled the webinar audience, with the question: "Where are you currently at with gamification?" The majority of people answered that they are trying some things, but haven’t found the sweet spot. We’ve been hearing this from a lot of folks and so we decided to focus this webinar around some key questions that were designed to help the audience find that sweet spot and start driving business value with gamification.  Here’s a quick look at the questions: Should gamification be called gamification when discussing the concept with senior business leaders? The panelists all had very similar thoughts on this question: be sensitive and understand where your leadership team is at and leverage data as evidence that gamification works. In some organizations, the word gamification might have a certain stigma around it and in those cases you must shift the conversation towards the benefits of gamification (more engagement). Let’s assume you want to try gamification in your company, how do you get started? What are the key pieces of the puzzle? This question was primarily handled by Karl Kapp. Karl took the audience through a series of different game elements and highlighted key considerations for each one. These elements included: rewards, leaderboards, report cards, badging and game scores. The key takeaway from this part of the webinar was that, when thinking about embedding gamification into your workplace, it is a combination of mechanics that drive engagement, rather than just a single mechanic in isolation. Consider your audience and what might motivate them. Where should we start thinking about applying gamification in our company? For this question, Jeanne shared a great chart from a research report on gamification produced by Future Workplace. The chart showcased some of the functional uses for gamification within organizations, with the top five being: team building, sales training, on-boarding (a particular favourite of Jeanne’s), health & wellness and finally customer service training. Carol gave the advice of picking an area within your business where gamification can be tied to a bigger business objective (such as reduction in appeasement costs). She also mentioned starting small and building on layers once you have demonstrated results with your employees. What are some specific results of using gamification in the workplace? Carol tackled the majority of this question. She shared four case studies of organizations that have seen business results through the use of gamification. One in particular that stood out, was the success that Walmart is experiencing with their logistics and distribution staff. With over 70,000 employees at Walmart leveraging Axonify’s gamified learning experience, the Company has been able to realize a 54% decrease in safety incidents; thus, leading to a safer workplace culture.  How does gamification fit with a leadership audience? All the panelists agreed that gamification can fit with a leadership audience and just like any other application, you have to strategically consider the performance goals you want to improve with gamification. How will you know that the application of gamification has been successful with the leadership audience? Jeanne shared the story of the Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) and how they leveraged gamification to drive participation in their learning programs. Karl mentioned that through the use of gamification, the DLA was able to increase retention of training material by 50% and cut completion times in half. What are some of your BIG questions around using gamification to drive business value? Share them with us below or via Twitter and be sure to check out our gamification workbook to help you get started with gamification in your organization today. Written by Shum Attygalle The post Webinar Summary: Using Gamification to Deliver Business Value appeared first on Axonify.

What’s the difference and do you need both? We get a lot of questions about the difference between personalized and adaptive learning. This makes sense because they’ve often been used interchangeably in the learning realm. I’m embarrassed to say that I too have been guilty of substituting one term for the other from time to time. So, here’s the lowdown on what each term means, how they’re different and how they work together in a modern learning scenario. Each employee follows their unique path. (Img source: therockplacetn.biz) What’s the Difference? Personalized Learning provides employees with different learning paths, which are programmed by L&D according to: Job function and department. Specific knowledge required for the job. Prior learning and/or test results to benchmark current knowledge levels. Personal attributes such as primary language, age group, seniority level. Appropriate methods of instruction such as classroom, eLearning, coaching etc. Employees take an initial test to identify their baseline knowledge levels. Then, content is prepared in advance and identified for the learning system to serve up in a prescribed manner. As the employee takes training and achieves a certain test score result, new learning modules are opened up based on the defined learning path. Learning progresses in a largely linear method. Adaptive Learning, on the other hand, takes into account all the characteristics of personalized learning (such as job function, knowledge requirements, current knowledge levels and more) but uses a sophisticated, data driven and often non-linear algorithm that: Continuously evaluates information from the learner during learning sessions (such as test answers, topics re-taken, and knowledge confidence levels, if tracked). Compares the learner data to initial benchmark knowledge levels, plus target knowledge levels, programmed into the system. Adapts the learning path automatically with modifications being made on the fly to subject matter, level of difficulty, learning resources and even methods of knowledge delivery. Do You Need Both? The answer is "Yes!" Here’s how personalized and adaptive learning come together in a real-life scenario. Personalized learning establishes the starting point Ed and Jeremy join Widgetco as forklift operators in the warehousing operations division. Their job function dictates that they require knowledge and skills in subject matter, such as: Safe forklift operation Warehouse layout Using the warehouse inventory system Ed and Jeremy take some quick online tests to assess their current knowledge levels. Their scores indicate they both must start at Level 1. Both complete their learning and take a final test. Ed finishes with a 57% knowledge level and Jeremy ends with a 95% knowledge level. Because the mandatory score to "pass" is 90%, Jeremy moves on to other learning, while Ed must re-take the training. While Ed could take the course a second time and re-test, this approach isn’t very efficient. The learning path is the same as the first time he took the training and doesn’t allow him to focus on the areas where he is having the most difficulty. This is where an adaptive learning program can help. Adaptive learning ensures subject mastery across the board In an adaptive learning environment, the eLearning system identifies which topics present challenges for Ed, and which subjects he is strong in and able to achieve the 90% knowledge level. The system presents Ed with additional learning on the challenging topics, first at an easy level. As his knowledge begins to improve, the system continues to evaluate his knowledge levels and present him with information at increasing difficulty levels, placing more emphasis on areas he’s weak in, and less emphasis on stronger areas. The system continues to review his response to questions, until he achieves subject mastery at the 90% knowledge level. Personalized and adaptive learning: a powerful combination As we described above, personalized and adaptive learning actually address employee learning at different points in a learner’s journey. We believe that to create the most powerful and effective learning, personalized and adaptive learning must work hand in hand: Personalized learning establishes what the learner must learn. Adaptive learning helps the learner successfully achieve target knowledge levels, modifying learning content to identify knowledge gaps, then focussing on those areas until the learner demonstrates subject mastery. The result? Learning that meets the individual needs of modern learners and allows them to increase their knowledge more efficiently and effectively. Written by Jennifer Buchanan The post Personalized vs Adaptive Learning appeared first on Axonify.

Axonify held its first community conference at the prestigious Langdon Hall hotel in Cambridge, Ontario Canada last week. More than fifty customers and partners attended to network with each other, learn more about new product developments and listen to inspirational stories from leaders, including Chad McIntosh, VP Loss Prevention & Risk Management at Bloomingdale’s, Marcus Presley, Senior Manager, Logistics Compliance & Safety at Walmart, Mia Phillips, National Manager, Dealer Education & Digital Tools at Toyota, Bob Mosher, Chief Learning Evangelist at APPLY Synergies as well as many others. Below is a guest post from Axonify partner Mariano J. Doble, CEO of Doble Group, LLC, that captures his perspective on the event. Langdon Hall - The location of Axonify’s first community conference. After spending a couple of days sharing with Axonify customers, partners and team members, I learned that Axonify was much more than a technology platform. I have been a fan of Axonify for some time now, but what I did not realize is how I had underrated its power to significantly transform organizational culture and help drive sustainable business performance. Axonify has been a clear leader in learning through gamification and question-based reinforcement. What surprised me the most is how Axonify harnesses the power of purposeful knowledge and enables organizations to grow, sustain, share, apply and measure this knowledge and its impact on business performance. Axonify’s promise is to make employees more knowledgeable so they can perform better and help organizations and employees realize their potential. Although this seems like a lofty goal, Axonify has found a way to embed brain science, gamification and learning best practices in an evolving platform to ensure that organizations are correlating this knowledge effectively with team behaviors (culture) and ultimately tangible business results. The Axonify platform goes beyond the game mechanics and rewards platform to make companies smarter, but it also provides real time analytics to ensure business managers are coaching, guiding, leading and promoting the behaviors that embed the desired business culture and ultimately deliver results. The future looks even brighter as Axonify unveils future innovations that will take the platform to the next level by enabling more exciting competition and wagers, certifications, real-time communication, surveys, predictive performance modeling, user-generated content and expert support at the time of need. One of the most exciting upcoming capabilities is the alignment between acquired knowledge and actual employee behaviors with tangible business results. The conference ended with a brilliant keynote delivered by Bob Mosher, focusing on Performance Support and breaking the paradigms of traditional learning methods. Gloria Gery defined Performance Support as an orchestrated set of services that provide on-demand access to integrated information, guidance, advice, assistance, training and tools to enable high-level job performance with minimum support from other people. His keen focus on an approach to deliver contextual information to the learner that is readily available (and actionable) at the moment of "application" was not only refreshing but also incredibly simple. Mosher’s treatment of contextual information that is personalized to the specific roles of the learner and easily accessible defied conventional wisdom and really brought home the importance of not just "teaching stuff" but prioritizing critical (actionable), rather than important knowledge. My goal for this conference was to network and learn more about Axonify, its products and customer success stories. This mission was accomplished, but beyond reaching my goals, I am most impressed with the future potential, the incredible energy of the Axonify team and the extraordinary levels of satisfaction and commitment displayed by Axonify’s customers. Well-done Axonify! The post Axonify Redefines Knowledge and its True Purpose at its First Annual Community Conference appeared first on Axonify.

The holiday season is just around the corner and you’re staffing up to meet demand. But for today’s retailers—especially those using multi-channel methods—onboarding new hires is not as simple as it once was. In an omni-channel or multi-channel retailing world, sales associates must know more than your customers, who’ve likely done their homework before coming to the store. That means new hires must not only learn about policies, procedures and products, but also understand what you offer through your various channels and be fully up to speed on ever-changing promotions. Traditional training methods leave a lot to be desired.   With traditional training, associates are typically plunked in a classroom and bombarded with information until their eyes glaze over. There are two main problems with this approach: Associates are so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that their learning capability literally shuts down. In the traditional "one and done" training approach, people forget as much as 70% of what they learn, within 24 hours! Accelerating learning for new associates. So how do you ensure new associates know everything they need, plus accelerate their onboarding to get them productive as soon as possible? Implement daily microlearning training bursts.  MicroLearning bursts are short and sweet learning sessions—perhaps a short video or Q&A session—often done at the beginning of each shift before associates hit the floor. Even if only three or four minutes long, short learning sessions help to reinforce training in associates’ minds. They are also valuable for delivering important new information to associates so they are better able to serve your customers. Plus, microlearning helps counteract information overload, so associates can focus on one topic at a time without becoming overwhelmed. Personalize the learning. Instead of providing the same training to every associate, focus on providing learning according to the products or departments they are involved with so they have the in-depth information they need to truly help customers. This ensures that associates receive the information they need without spending unproductive time on irrelevant topics. Offer knowledge on demand. As long as associates can easily find the information they need, they can provide the excellent customer sales and service you demand. This could mean equipping associates with mobile devices so, if they don’t know something, they can quickly and easily look it up while helping a customer. It might also mean making sure that associates can participate in daily learning across any device they use—whether tablets, laptops, smartphones, or even POS terminals.  Provide learning with integral inspiration and incentives. Don’t be afraid to incorporate games, leaderboards or other rewards into your training programs. Gamified learning has been shown to engage employees in the success of their knowledge development by making it a fun experience, tapping into their desire for rewards and recognition, and giving them a bit of friendly competition. With the holiday season approaching, now is the time to stage your new hire learning programs for success. For more information on how Axonify can help boost associate knowledge, read our white paper "How to Boost Associate Expertise to deliver a Successful Omni-Channel Retailing Experience." Written by Laura Martin The post Accelerating Product Knowledge with New Hires for the Holiday Season appeared first on Axonify.

Let me start by sharing three seemingly unrelated stats with you: According to Google, we use an average of three different screen combinations each day (smartphone and laptop, smartphone and tv, tv and tablet).  According to Bersin by Deloitte, the Modern Learner has 1% of a typical workweek to focus on training and development. Assuming a 40-hour workweek, this amounts to just under five minutes each day. According to another survey done by Google, 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company. Before I explain how these three stats relate to each other (you might have already started to put the pieces together), I invite you to join me in a small thought experiment. Imagine …  You’ve finally found those five free minutes in your day to turn your attention to training and development. For you this might look like engaging in a bite-sized learning module, reading up on some competitive info to refresh your memory or even taking a quick quiz to prove your understanding of a certain topic. You can’t do anything more than that because let’s be honest, you’ve just got five minutes. For the sake of argument, let’s imagine that for these five minutes you decide to turn away from your regular screen (desktop or laptop or point-of-sale terminal… you pick) and you decide to focus your attention on a smaller screen (tablet or mobile phone… again, you pick).  You load up your learning experience… Oh no. The text is pretty small. You have to pinch and zoom. You’re forced to scroll because the page is too wide. The buttons are pretty tiny and too close together, so you accidently click the wrong ones.  You’re frustrated. It’s too late in the day for this.  You give up and just do something else with your valuable five minutes. Wait. What just happened? Let’s take this situation and scale it over time and across a large, geographically dispersed organization. From a learner’s point-of-view, you just had a poor experience and decided to move on to something better. From a manager’s point-of-view, your employee just missed out on a valuable learning opportunity. From an organization’s point-of-view, your workforce becomes disengaged.  All of a sudden, engagement in your organization has become a battle that is won or lost in the span of five quick minutes.  Think responsive. In order to equip yourself in this battle for engagement, I want to introduce you to a concept borrowed from the world of website architecture: responsive design.   Try this: If you’re reading this on a desktop or laptop (if you’re on a phone, keep reading until you see this >>*>>), visit http://www.worldwildlife.org/. Try to observe as much as you can about the way the front page of that website is structured. Allow certain things to draw your eye and pay attention to what engages you. Now, using your mouse, slowly resize your browser window from right to left and start to observe what happens. It should look something like this: >>*>> Desktop version. Tablet version. Mobile version. Welcome to the world of responsive design. What differences do you notice?  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that all that’s happening is just a few things moving around and resizing. There’s actually a lot of strategic thinking behind what exactly happens with the content at the different screen sizes.  Notice how the Donate and Adopt buttons completely change size and prominence as the screen gets smaller? Why do you imagine that happens?  Responsive = Adaptive. A few weeks ago, we wrote a blog post on the difference between personalized and adaptive learning. In that post we highlighted the importance of content. This post is about context. In order to make learning truly adaptive, not only must the learning platform use sophisticated algorithms to deliver the most relevant learning, it must also take into account how (on what device) the learning is being consumed. Context has a big impact on engagement. Take a look at these facts about responsive design.  If your organization is currently losing the battle of engagement, I hope you can borrow an idea from the world of responsive design and give yourself an advantage in those five valuable minutes. Written by Shum Attygalle The post Want to Create a More Engaging Learning Experience? Think Responsive. appeared first on Axonify.

A few weeks ago, we shared a blog post that Axonify partner, Mariano J. Doble, CEO of Doble Group, LLC, wrote about our first community conference. We also thought you might enjoy watching a short video of the event that captures the thoughts some of our customers who attended, including Southeastern Grocers, Bloomingdale’s and Toyota. Enjoy!   The post Axonify Community Conference Video appeared first on Axonify.

Meet Chris. He’s a young, ambitious marketing professional who loves his job and is anxious to get ahead. He’s got a lot on his plate: he works long hours, but there’s always more work and more deadlines to be managed. And his day is full of interruptions: as much as every five minutes by text messages and emails, not to mention juggling co-workers, meetings and his boss. In short, he’s overwhelmed and distracted. The last thing Chris and modern learners like him have the time or interest for is a long training session. But Chris wants and needs to keep improving his knowledge and abilities to keep up with his evolving responsibilities. The corporate training department doesn’t offer what he’s looking for so he turns to his social networks for information and support, and regularly Googles for answers to his questions. He can’t wait to be provided with training; he needs information right now to do his job properly. What Chris needs is Adaptive Learning. Adaptive learning is an incredibly powerful technology that automatically adjusts learning information presented to employees—on the fly—based on their real-time learning performance results. Its goal is to constantly provide information that addresses specific knowledge deficits, progressing employees to subject matter mastery without bogging them down with unnecessary or unhelpful information. Sophisticated algorithms analyze employee performance in learning sessions, and provide learning content to fill identified knowledge gaps, or adjust the content to be easy or challenging, according to the employee’s demonstrated knowledge. As the employee improves, the algorithms present more information—or more challenging information -—progressing the employee toward subject mastery. So how can adaptive learning help Chris? Timely, relevant information. Because adaptive learning accepts inputs that define what Chris should know about specific topics—then adapts according to his demonstrated knowledge of those topics—it provides information geared to meet his knowledge deficits. This means he spends quality time focussed on high value learning, which helps him get up to speed more quickly and with less effort. Learning becomes a critical support activity, rather than simply one more overwhelming chore. Flexibility. In today’s volatile business world, Chris’s role evolves constantly. As his job requirements change, his knowledge levels fluctuate as well. Adaptive learning continues to adjust by comparing his existing knowledge with target knowledge levels, and presenting information to address any gaps. This means Chris doesn’t need to search the web for information; it’s delivered directly to him. Growth opportunities. The nature of adaptive learning means it’s always evaluating knowledge gaps and providing information to fill those gaps. As Chris’s knowledge improves, adaptive learning continues to present him with more challenging information, or moves him to new subjects, based on his programmed target knowledge and proficiency levels. He continues to be challenged, while progressing in a positive direction. Although Chris doesn’t have much time in his workday for learning, it can be enough if used effectively. By always evaluating his current knowledge against targets—and adjusting learning content accordingly —adaptive learning ensures that every minute Chris spends learning is a good investment, for himself and for the organization. Written by Laura Martin The post Adaptive Learning and the Modern Learner appeared first on Axonify.

This past Tuesday, we had the pleasure of hearing from a leading Performance Support evangelist, Bob Mosher. Bob shared his wisdom on the topic over the course of an hour-long webinar, which you can now access on-demand.  In this post, I’d like to share five big challenges that Bob put forth over the course of the session. As you read each challenge, take a minute to consider your response. For your convenience, I’ve shown the timestamp for each challenge so that you can view it in context via the webinar recording. 1. When you build your learning solutions, do they teach swimming or do they prevent drowning? (The Minnow Story - 3:25 to 7:25) Hear the story that changed Bob’s entire perspective on learning. It might just change yours as well.  2. Forget books. (The reality of the workflow - 7:49 to 8:36) Bob says that sometimes, we place a lot of emphasis on teaching a lot of great things. Either through classroom or eLearning, but what happens when we’re done teaching? When your learners go back to what they’re up against every day, how well equipped are they? 3. You have to stop leading with training. (Prescription based approach - 10:04 to 13:44)  "I need five days of leadership training … I need an eLearning course on sales skills." Bob asked the audience if they’ve ever encountered someone asking them for something like this. He then made a great analogy about a visit to the Doctor’s office. When you last went to the Doctor, did you just ask him or her for medicine or did you outline your problem and await his or her prescription? Here’s a quote directly from slide 5: An Educator’s job is to prescribe the MOST effective ‘Instructional Treatment’ for our learners that best fits their learning needs. 4. We have to START by designing for the moment of Apply first. ( The 5 Moments of Need 13:45 to 17:00) Take a look at slide 6 to get an idea of what the 5 moments of need are. Bob asks, what would happen if you designed your learning in a way that focused on application and retention … rather than just the delivery of a large volume of information? 5. You can - and should - structure informal learning. (How do we design it? 29:30 - 33:30) A few times over the course of the webinar, Bob mentions the 70-20-10 model. Bob believes that even though the ’70’ portion is technically the informal learning, it can most certainly be structured. On slide 12 he shares some design principles for true performance support. In short, it must be: embedded, contextual and just enough for what your learner needs at the time. Which of these challenges hits home for you the most? Which one scares you? Which one are you already doing? Share your thoughts in the comments below or send a tweet over to Bob or us.  Written by Shum Attygalle   The post Webinar Summary: Performance Support and the Future of Learning appeared first on Axonify.