Leadership training is only for managers. Isn’t it?Rethinking this idea could have far-reaching and unexpected benefits. But how and why would you invest in leadership skills across the wider workforce?Starting earlierOn average, a manager will have been supervising people for 9 years before taking part in any kind of formal leadership training. It’s a long time to take sole responsibility for your own managerial development, even for the most able and resourceful of leaders. But if organisations start so late with existing managers, what hope for emerging leaders and rising stars?It’s something businesses need to consider according to leadership expert, Jack Zenger. "Think of the advantage to be gained by beginning some formal leadership development activity at an earlier age, rather than waiting for nearly a decade to begin," he points out in his report, Are you starting too late? Zenger’s right about advantages, starting earlier makes sense for a number of reasons.Nurturing talentEarlier training can help upcoming managers form good leadership habits and hone their skills. They also have time to practice before being put in charge of large teams.Staff retentionRising stars are less likely to become frustrated and ‘jump ship’ if they feel there is investment in their development and future. They also have a clearer path to rise through the ranks.Drives up standardsEarlier investment in leadership training can help the next generation of leaders to gain confidence and fulfil their potential faster.Wider workforceYou can begin to see the business case for investing in training for emerging managers, but what about the wider workforce? Providing opportunities for all employees to develop their leadership skills does have its benefits too.Desirable skills for anyoneWhat are leadership skills? Problem solving, team working, decision making and strategic thinking are all high on the list of the qualities of a good leader. But these are also desirable skills for any employee, particularly those working in companies where innovation and creativity are important for overall success.Everyone recognises good leadershipIf all employees have the opportunity to experience some level of leadership training, they are more likely to understand what good leadership looks like, and even challenge poor managers. This in turn can help raise the bar because there is a greater expectation on leaders and they are more likely to be held accountable.Identify hidden talentsOrganisations may have a system for spotting potential management candidates, but sometimes great leaders can be overlooked. Allowing the wider workforce to engage in leadership training increases the chance of identifying hidden leadership talents which may otherwise go unnoticed.Elearning opportunitiesCost is an obvious barrier to making leadership training available more widely to the workforce. Clearly, it’s not practical to send all employees on face-to-face courses, but elearning creates an opportunity to make aspects of leadership training available to a wider audience at virtually no extra cost.It’s not hard to imagine how an elearning resource aimed at helping managers develop their soft skills could be at least offered as an optional extra to employees as a whole. Take up of leadership elearning by non-managerial grades can be easily monitored via an LMS (Learning Management System) and data can be used to help inform talent management programmes.This innovative idea is already being used by some employers to spot talent and find a new generation of managers. Find out how it’s working for the UK frozen food retailer, Farmfoods.The latest Towards Maturity Industry Benchmark Report reveals that 70% of respondents plan to e-enable their leadership and management skills in the next two years, up from 51%.As more organisations move aspects of their management training online, the prospect of democratising leadership development becomes more of a reality. Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post Why it’s time to democratise leadership training appeared first on Sponge UK.

Elearning experts have recognised the importance of creativity and innovation in driving the industry forward by naming Sponge UK as Outstanding Learning Organisation of the Year.The judges at the 2015 Elearning Awards singled out the bespoke elearning provider as ‘a mould-breaker’ and described the firm as ‘a strong and vibrant company which is clearly on a roll.’The award follows Sponge’s 2014 win for Elearning Development Company of the Year.Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director at Sponge, said: "Elearning is changing and Sponge UK is at the forefront of this transformation."In partnership with our clients, we’re focussed on finding the most effective ways of making a tangible difference for learners. The award recognises this commitment to pushing the boundaries so we increase the impact of elearning in the workplace. We’re thrilled to be singled out in such a competitive year and I’d like to thank the Sponge UK team for their hard work."  The Elearning Awards are the biggest in the industry and recognise the best in learning technology and elearning.The title of Outstanding Learning Organisation is awarded for evidence of strong, continuous results, organisational excellence, proven achievement, a strategic approach to growth and an innovative approach to future success.The official awards citation said:"Sponge UK is coming of age and has really made its mark in 2015. The company is a mould-breaker in every sense; based in Plymouth, family-owned and female-led. Creativity and innovation are at its heart, and that word, absorbing; the idea that if elearning is engaging and relevant people will absorb what they need to know. The business has tripled in size in three years and seen a big increase in the number of new clients in 2015. Always generous in sharing ideas, Sponge UK is an inspiring example of what can be achieved through a passion for learning."The 2015 Elearning Awards took place on Wednesday, November 25 at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel in London and were presented by comedian and broadcaster, Phill Jupitus.The post Sponge UK recognised as Outstanding Learning Organisation of the Year appeared first on Sponge UK.

A Plymouth entrepreneur, who created one of the UK’s most successful elearning companies, has won an award recognising the achievements of women in business.Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director of Sponge UK is the winner of the Digital Media and Online Business category at the NatWest Venus Awards in Devon, which have been dubbed the ‘working women’s Oscars.’Pasterfield built up her company at Plymouth Science Park from a tiny enterprise into a market leader in the highly competitive world of bespoke online training.Sponge UK works with large organisations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Tesco, Toyota, Royal Mail, the NHS and the United Nations to create custom-made workplace elearning that helps improve the skills and performance of hundreds of thousands employees worldwide.Pasterfield said:"There are only a handful of elearning companies led by women and it can sometimes feel like a male-dominated industry, at least at board level.  It’s a highly rewarding career where you’re constantly learning, and I would love to see more women seeking opportunities in elearning and aspiring to leadership in the sector.  I’m delighted to be recognised at this year’s Venus Awards and take part in this celebration of local women and their achievements in business."Sponge UK was recently named Outstanding Learning Organisation of the Year at the Elearning Awards, one of the top honours in the industry. Alexis Bowater, Regional Partner for the NatWest Venus Awards in Devon, said: "The Venus Awards were set up to celebrate women in business and we are delighted that Louise is our winner this year of the Digital and Online Media category.  Hers is a truly inspirational example of how determination and application can turn a great idea into an astonishingly successful international business.  Louise is a fantastic winner to now go forward as a finalist in the national awards and we wish her every success with that."  The Devon Venus Awards took place on Friday, November 27 at a gala evening at Exeter Great Hall.The Digital Media and Online Business prize was presented by award sponsor, Christian Jenkins of Plymouth Science Park.The post Sponge UK boss wins women’s business award appeared first on Sponge UK.

Leading sports retailer, Sports Direct is extending its online induction for new staff with two new elearning modules.The company was among the first in the UK to invest in a fully responsive digital onboarding programme to provide new employees with flexible and user-friendly training.Award-winning elearning company, Sponge UK designed and developed the new bespoke modules, having already worked with Sports Direct since 2013 on their online induction programme.The courses are built using Adapt - an innovative responsive elearning framework - so employees can access the training on any type of device including smartphones and tablets.Justin Kirkham, Staff Development and Training Manager at Sports Direct, said:"The induction training we provide to our new employees is always focused on assisting with adjustment to their new job and helping them become familiar with their new work environment. It is essential for us to offer support to our new employees in whichever way we can and be sure that we get their new career off to the best possible start. Innovation is at the heart of SportsDirect.com and the development of our elearning platform shares the same ethos."The latest elearning courses help new starters understand what happens in store on a daily basis, their role in merchandising stock and helping customers find the best products.Sponge UK’s Managing Director, Louise Pasterfield, said:"Sports Direct are pioneers in multi-device elearning and we are delighted to work with them again on creating yet more responsive modules. Adapt allows a single course to adjust intelligently to different size screens, providing learners with maximum choice and flexibility on how and when they do their learning."The online induction courses have been delivered to around 25,000 employees, across the 19 countries Sports Direct operates in.The training is hosted on Sponge UK’s cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS), Launch&Learn allowing managers to easily track how many learners are active and monitor their progress on any device.Sponge UK was named the gold winner in the Outstanding Learning Organisation category at the recent Elearning Awards 2015.The post Sports Direct extends multi-device induction training for new staff appeared first on Sponge UK.

Award-winning learning provider, Sponge UK is using its expertise in multi-device elearning games to create a fun festive challenge.The Plymouth-based company has launched a new Christmas game, Save Santa!Players take on the role of an elf who must find a way through a frozen underground world, collecting presents, dodging yetis and defeating rocket-powered penguins, before locating Santa and freeing him from the clutches of an evil Jack Frost.It’s the eighth year Sponge UK has released a complimentary Christmas game instead of sending Christmas cards.Louise Pasterfield, Sponge’s Managing Director, said:"It’s become a bit of a festive tradition and Save Santa! is our best ever Christmas game. There are six levels to conquer, spike traps to avoid and baddies to defeat. It also has an interactive leaderboard displaying the top ten high-scoring players, and you can also tweet your score from the game. It’s our way of saying ‘thank you’ to our clients and everyone who has supported Sponge in the past year. But as you would expect it’s also a learning opportunity. Creating the game allows our team to try out new ideas and further hone their skills in game design and development. As games become more important within workplace learning, I believe it’s good for people who don’t normally play them to expand their knowledge. So whether you’re an instructional designer, learning consultant or L&D manager have a go and see if you can save Santa!"The game has been built using the open source HTML5 gaming tool, Phaser. It is cross-platform which means it can run on any device and operating system.Players are able to return to the game and continue from where they left off, which enables everyone to reach the final ‘boss level’ and ultimately…Save Santa!Sponge UK’s Games Developer, Jason Butler said: "The Christmas game provides an excellent opportunity to showcase our cross-platform game development and push the boundaries. It also enables us to try new techniques which we can then use in future projects. I’m planning to repurpose the game engine we’ve created for fire safety training in 2016, obviously without any penguins or yetis!"Sponge UK is one of the leading innovators in elearning games and gamified learning, and has worked on game-based projects with organisation such as Waitrose, GlaxoSmithKline, Royal Mail and the NHS.The Save Santa! game is available via www.spongeuk.com/xmas throughout December.Players can tweet their score from the game using the hashtag #SpongeSavesXmasSponge UK is Outstanding Learning Organisation of the Year after winning gold at the Elearning Awards last month. The post Sponge UK launches ‘best ever’ Christmas game appeared first on Sponge UK.

Placing the learner at the centre of the learning design process is essential when creating relevant and engaging online training. One aspect that’s often overlooked in the creation of an elearning course is the user interface (UI).Your car’s tyres are the most important part of the vehicle. After all, they are the only parts that actually touch the road.It’s the same with UI.The principle of identifying the point of contact as the most important part of a system is valuable in many areas including elearning.The one point where your learner actually interacts with the elearning is through the user interface of your course.The content needs to be well designed, but if the learner can’t get to page 5 because the next key blends into the background then your course will fail.Problems bad UI causesA bad user interface can derail the whole learning experience faster than anything else. Nothing can render whole sections of your course useless so quickly.1: TimeMaking the time for elearning is one of the biggest barriers for many staff. The time they do have should be spent learning rather than hunting for the item they need on the screen.2: DisengagementFighting to get through a module is not a good feeling. If the experience is less than smooth it’s a barrier to engagement for your staff.3: Fear of changeAn inconsistent UI will force staff to learn a new approach each time they take more elearning. Unnecessary change puts many people off and slows everyone down.4: Lower completionIf simply navigating to the end of a module is hard work there will be many more people dropping out before completing. Even small UI decisions can make a big difference to the completion rate.5: Increased supportA bad UI increases the number of calls and emails to the support team dramatically. Time spent designing and testing a UI will be paid back many times in fewer support hours.Good UIIt’s easy to say "avoid bad UI", but what can you do practically to make sure your users are getting the best UI experience?We’re taking a broad overview of some of the most relevant aspects of UI design that you can use as a quick check list for your next elearning project.A lot of the UI information available online is focused on web design and luckily much of it can be applied to elearning. It’s especially relevant if you’re working with a platform that can produce web-style content such as HTML5 technology (see Adapt framework).One of the big benefits of online content is the ability to easily test different approaches to the same issue. This means we can lend some scientific research to reinforce the following guidelines.Keep it clear and simpleAllow learners to find their own way around, avoid confusing or complicated designs in your interface.Watch out for things like icons with no labels - you might know what the icon means but it won’t be obvious to everyone taking the course. The common ‘hamburger’ menu icon is a good example."When you hide something in the hamburger menu, you make it less discoverable by your users." - Alex TyagulskyYou can increase use of a menu by 20% by simply replacing the three lines with the word ‘menu’. It’s not unusual to see more ambiguous icons in elearning courses, so this dramatic difference when using a relatively widespread icon highlights the benefits of clarity.If it’s not obvious to all your learners exactly what an icon does, it’s going to cause one or more of the issues above.Be consistentNot just consistent with your own elearning interface, but also with the operating system that your learners will be using.If everyone taking the training is going to be using a Windows 8 PC and the Chrome browser, they are going to be used to the way things are laid out. If you follow these principles you have given your learner a shortcut to navigating your elearning.Google go as far as providing design principles for android developers which are useful for designing elearning for any device. One of their pieces of advice is:"If it looks the same, it should act the same"In this example the small triangle in each of these cases opens a drop down list for you to select from. If you know your staff will be accessing learning on an android phone or tablet then they will expect this behaviour if they see this symbol in your elearning.These are called standard patterns and there are many different examples that you can take advantage of when designing elearning to make completing it a more user friendly experience.By being consistent within your own courses you are helping a learner build familiarity with the training. This makes it easier to introduce new modules and ensure people get more efficient, the more training they take.TestingResearch by Zeebox revealed that a bar of textual menu items, although they might not look as clean, were more effective than a burger-style slide out menu.They used A/B testing to confirm this, giving some of their users the burger icon menu and some the textual on-screen menu while monitoring their behaviour.With the ability to manage courses through an LMS this type of testing becomes possible for your training. Delivering the best experience for your staff reduces costs and time away from their work while boosting engagement and performance.By creating a simple, consistent interface backed up with real figures from testing, you can build strong foundations for the rest of your elearning.This post will give you a checklist for next time you’re reviewing a training course that will help avoid the issues we’ve identified and prevent wasted time and money.We’re able to create a style guide that is tailored to the learning needs of your staff. If you’d like to talk to us about how to create better user interfaces get in touch.Discuss a project Subscribe to our newsletter The post 5 ways a bad user interface (UI) can derail your elearning appeared first on Sponge UK.

Matt Mason is an award winning instructional designer and the newest addition to the talented team of accredited consultants at eWorks. If you’re Interested in using interactive videos to engage your learners, Matt’s summary of the best tools available to create this powerful type of video will help you get started.Video is a powerful learning tool…yet it is […]

We discuss the trends and issues we observed during the weeks of November 24 - December 6 as we flipped resources into our Flipboard magazine (http://bit.ly/trendsandissues). We have three trends that we discuss. Once again, VR was a trend. There were a number of resources about uses of VR tools such as Google Cardboard and Expidition […] Tags:   Del.icio.us Facebook TweetThis Digg StumbleUpon Comments:  0 (Zero), Be the first to leave a reply!Copyright © Trends & Issues [Episode 52 Trends for November 24 - December 6 VR, Online Courses, & Security and Net Neutrality], All Right Reserved. 2015.

This week's challenge is about buttons & switches, so Santa helped me deliver a custom greeting card. Read more...

4 grandes miedos sobre el #elearning y cómo enfrentarlos http://t.co/MGhQ5Kb4gi #edtech