In this article, you’ll learn how to use the information gathered in the analysis step to construct your overall learning package. Whether you’re thinking of pure elearning or mixing it up with a blend, this guide can help you consider what might work where. And if you’re still deciding whether to keep face-to-face in the mix, there might be some smart alternatives to consider. Today I’ll provide four examples of blended solutions to four different sets of needs. By blended I mean a learning solution that features more than just one form of learning. These ideas are intended to provide you with inspiration only - remember that your needs will be unique. To construct your fit-for-purpose blend, make sure you’re clear on your needs: The aims of the learning: the actions and outcomes it needs to achieve The needs of your learners: their locations, access to technology, lifestyles, etc. What you have at your disposal: previous learning activities and content; the use of coaches, experts, facilitators Your budget and timeframes: how much are you able or willing to invest, and how quickly do you need a solution up and running? Related: Visit our step one guide to analysis. Let’s look at four examples where you might want to use a blended solution. 1. Product knowledge training An electronics company needs to ensure that its resellers are up to speed on the latest products and their unique selling propositions (USPs). With products coming out regularly, salespeople are issued crib sheets that contain key info, and then face-to-face sessions are run once a quarter. The audience consists of busy, ambitious people who are keen to drive sales but less keen on long workshops. Suggested blend: 5-minute visual elearning tutorials: Use multi-device elearning to deliver visual product knowledge. Mobile job aids: Provide mobile-friendly "quick guides" for on the job support. Product games and quizzes: Tap into competitive nature and create short, fun quizzes and games to test knowledge. Scoreboards: Link games and quizzes to a scoreboard that highlights top scorers for all to see. Weekly ask an expert chats: Use expert’s time for a weekly drop-in Q&A session via a chat room or webinar facility. 5-minute expert demo videos: Have experts create simple walkthrough videos of the product 2. Skills training A company provides certified face-to-face training in financial management skills to organizations around the globe and is looking to offer a lower-cost, online-based package. But it needs to retain the level of quality and assessment rigor; mistakes cost companies. The company is keen to target novice learners who have recently taken up roles in financial accounting. The training includes the use of calculations, spreadsheets, and software, and it has learners work through various financial scenarios, following a process to calculate the right outcome. Suggested blend: Elearning scenario activities: Provide a series of scenario-driven elearning activities that build in complexity. Elearning tutorials: Couple each scenario with tutorial guidance and expert tips. Give learners the ability to switch these off. Elearning simulation assessment: Create an end to end assessment simulation that tests a realistic financial process. Online certification: Upon passing the course, provide an online certificate or badge. Optional marked assignment: Include an assignment that learners upload for marking by experts. Elearning demos: Couple each scenario with demos that show how it’s done. Give learners the ability to switch these off. 3. Leadership/management "soft" skills training An engineering company sees that top engineers need some leadership and communication skills training. However, this top team is spread all over the globe at various plants. While training can be done in English, bringing everyone together in one place is challenging and costly. These top engineers are crucial to the day-to-day running of the plants. Thus, a company that usually runs face-to-face leadership and soft skills training needs an alternative solution. Suggested blend: E-case studies: Provide a series of in-depth elearning case studies. For example, videos or audio of bad, good, and great leadership conversations, moments, and stories. Reflective questions: Ask questions that require close observation and reflection of the cases. Online polls: Include polls where learners can see and learn from others’ views. Virtual classrooms: Use virtual classrooms with webcams to enable small groups to practice. 1:1 phone coaching: Use phone coaching to enable focused discussion and practice with feedback. Do every three months for a year. Multi-device job aids: Provide multi-device job aids and regular reminders to keep learners on track. 4. Compliance training Many organizations require their employees to be compliant in a whole host of areas, such as data protection, health and safety, and anti-money-laundering efforts. Most companies need to show compliance in these areas on a yearly basis, yet they don’t want the training to take long. Legislation can change, so a company that provides off-the-shelf compliance training needs to be able to update it easily. Suggested blend: Effective attention grabbers: Use Elucidat to create hard-hitting attention grabbers. Elearning tutorials Elearning scenarios Online assessment: Use online assessments that can be updated instantly. Summary of content as a refresher: Provide repeat learners with short refresher content and start with the assessment. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Final thoughts So, four different blends for four different situations. Hopefully, some food for thought to help you construct a solution that works for you, your subject, and your learners’ needs. If you’d like to talk through your training-conversion quandaries, drop us a line. In the next post in this series, we’ll look closely at how to keep social in the mix when moving from face-to-face to online learning. The post Making a move from face-to-face to online training? Second step: Construct a blend appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) has just celebrated the successful launch of their new online training courses. The organization is using Elucidat in combination with other elearning technology to deliver online training to association members, players, coaches, referees, and officials. Elucidat received top marks from the Coaching Commission in January, and FIVB is in the process of rolling out the FIVB Coaches Course Level I to students. How is FIVB using Elucidat? FIVB is using Elucidat to create online courses with interactive elements such as audio guides, graphics, and videos. The added interactivity helps course participants improve their theoretical knowledge of the sport before they attend the onsite training event. FIVB is using Elucidat’s translation feature to create the course in three languages: English, French, and Spanish. By taking a blended learning approach, FIVB is seeking to reduce the training duration from 11 days to five. To keep a social aspect, participants are able to contact their instructors during the online course. This is one step in the right direction for FIVB’s vision of increasing the use of technology within the association. Are you a sporting association looking to implement interactive online training? Contact us to learn how Elucidat can simplify and speed up the time it takes to create and deliver online training. The post Elucidat receives top marks from International Volleyball Federation appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Considering a move from face-to-face to online learning but concerned about losing that personal touch? Social and collaborative learning is not only extremely powerful, but is probably also the way most of us naturally learn in the workplace. In this article, discover 10 ways you can retain the richness of social learning as you make the move to online. The magic of people in learning Well-designed face-to-face learning has some great features going for it: Stories and example sharing: rich sources of learning that tend to stick in people’s minds Observations: people can practice a skill and be observed by peers or an expert, who provide feedback Collaborative learning: where people work together on a task and learn from one another Expert guidance: facilitators who provide knowledge, demos, and feedback Competition: there might be some competitive elements that encourage learning to take place. Whether it’s formal or informal, people often try to perform well in front of peers, especially when given tasks to complete and share with others Informal learning: never underestimate the power of the ‘downtime’ chats and the networking that inevitably take place—these all work toward the learning goals How can you bottle this and bring it into your online offering? Here are five ideas on how you can re-create this magic inside your elearning. 1. Capture stories Play the journalist and record or capture example stories and tips from facilitators, experts, and colleagues that will build up context and expand your students’ learning. Try asking questions to prompt students, such as "What does good look like to you?"; "What advice would you give a new starter?"; and "Can you remember a time when it all went wrong?". Capture these in writing, as audio, or as video. Keep down costs by using something like Skype or your phone. 2. Quote stories and tips directly Build these rich stories, examples, and tips into your elearning in creative ways. E.g. as attention grabbers, feedback to questions, a bank of quick tips, a video wall showing various opinions. Or bring about personal reflection by accompanying these stories and tips with questions. 3. Create case studies or scenarios You may find some gems you can develop into visual or interactive case studies, or branching scenarios where learners can decide what action or response should be taken and drive the narrative. 4. Use interactive polls Enable learners to discover and learn from what their peers think by including social polling, like the Elucidat poll function. Great for grey area content; such as views on leadership skills; body language; sales skills; ethics in the workplace; or myth busting, where you ask people what they think about X, only to surprise them with the real answer. 5. Gamify the experience Use gamification techniques and leaderboards to tap into that competitive nature. Build in fun game play, levels, points, achievements, and shout about successes on a social platform for all involved to see. If you set up teams of learners for collaboration exercises, perhaps there’s an award for the team with the collective highest score in the elearning games? And here are five ideas for how you can create a social environment alongside your elearning, not just within it. Create a blended package by combining your elearning with one or more external social learning methods such as these: 6. Run virtual classroom sessions For facilitated sessions that don’t need a physical classroom, try going virtual. VC technology enables multi-media presentation, discussion, questioning, polls, surveys, interactive whiteboard, and collaborative group work in virtual breakout rooms. 7. Get chatting—formally Set up scheduled (synchronous) online discussions on a given topic, perhaps as follow-up to an introductory elearning topic. Tap into any digital chat channels already being used, or try Skype, Google Hangouts, discussion forums, Yammer, or one of the other many options. Check out #chat2lrn on Twitter for inspiration on facilitating a concise but rich online chat via social media. 8. Enable chatting—informally Provide or tap into an online space where learners can share and talk more freely, at any time (asynchronous). You can encourage people to go here off the back of an elearning topic or two. This could be an LMS, portal, intranet, Facebook, a wiki—be sure to research what’s already being used by your audience before setting up something from scratch. 9. Hold drop-ins Provide an online ask the expert session, either synchronously, as a drop-in Q&A session via a chat room or conference call, or asynchronously, using a forum where past threads can be read at any time. 10. Enable coaching, mentoring, & action learning Just because you’ve taken the classroom out of your learning doesn’t mean learners can’t meet up. Encourage and/or manage the set-up of coaching or mentoring within an organization. Or try action learning, where groups get together, say, monthly, to discuss their challenges in a given area, and together help find solutions. Meetings can be done face-to-face or virtually. You can consider tech like Google Hangouts or Skype, or just the good ol’ fashioned phone. If learners will benefit from observation, e.g. on a mechanical engineering course, sports coaching techniques, or conversation skills, video conferencing or face-to-face work best. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Final thoughts The key to making the best of social, collaborative, and informal learning techniques for your learning goals is to acknowledge that you’ll need to put some effort into marketing the sessions, encouraging participation, facilitating where required, and driving traffic between the different elements in your blend. This all pays off, of course, when you consider you’ll now have a wide reaching, global learning package that can be rolled out or accessed at any time. For more inspiration, you can see how we used some of these social learning methods alongside elearning in our four example blends. The post Making a move from face-to-face to online training? Third step: Keep it social appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Most employers wouldn’t take on an under-skilled worker, yet many are reluctant to invest in ongoing training for the skilled workers that they have. As workplace technologies and processes evolve, this lack of ongoing training leaves once skilled workers lagging behind. Related: Learn how to implement an effective employee training program How can a business compete with a weaker workforce than its competitors? The short answer is that it’s somewhere between difficult and impossible! Here are five reasons why you should invest in employee training: 1. It’s expensive to lose employees Hiring new employees is never cheap. A recent survey cited by the go2HR Society indicates that 40 percent of employees leave their positions within the first year due to poor training opportunities. Furthermore, the Centre for American Progress reports that replacing an employee can cost 20 percent of the annual salary for employees who make between $30,000 and $50,000 (and up to 213 percent of the annual salary for highly trained executives). Therefore, if staff who receive training are more likely to remain employees and it costs money to replace staff, it simply makes sense to train and develop current employees. 2. Trained employees are more efficient When your employees are able to complete tasks more quickly because they know exactly what to do using the most effective methods, there are two immediate benefits to your business: They complete more tasks in a given period of time, maximizing your return on investment (i.e., the hourly wage you pay employees). Customer satisfaction is likely to be higher when your services are delivered in a timely manner. 3. Trained employees have higher production standards Of course, getting work done quickly loses its impact if it isn’t done properly. Employees who are well trained are more likely to produce higher-quality output the first time around, thereby minimizing mistakes. This creates less wasted time in rework and customers delighted with quality, reliable goods and services. 4. Trained employees will retain and grow your customer base Some of the points we’ve already seen describe how training can directly impact your customers’ satisfaction. And this is very important because customers leaving you is bad. It’s generally accepted that it’s less expensive to maintain existing customers than it is to win new ones. Losing a customer is a double loss; you’ll lose ongoing revenue from that customer, and it’s unlikely that they’ll be directing potential, new customers to you. The opposite is also true. A delighted customer can give you a double win! Not only are they liable to become a return customer, but they are also more likely to refer new customers to you. So, having well-trained staff that results in satisfied customers can save you money, generate revenue, and grow your customer base. 5. Training doesn’t have to be expensive Training’s 2014 Training Industry Report shows that 28.5 percent of training hours were delivered via online or computer based technologies (i.e., no instructor), and 29.1 percent of training hours were delivered via blended learning methods. Modern elearning authoring tools, like Elucidat, enable organizations to create quality elearning and online support aids using in-house subject matter experts without the need for expensive tech support. Leveraging your in-house expertise to create online training elements, face-to-face up-skilling sessions, or even informal Lunch ‘n Learn sessions (i.e., employees bring and eat their lunch while an in-house expert shares some wisdom) are great ways to introduce learning into your organization at minimal cost. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion According to a Deloitte report on accelerating workplace change, training budgets increased by 13 percent between 2010 and 2013. It’s not unreasonable to expect this general trend to continue as the pace of technological change increases and the battle to win the customer dollar becomes more competitive. If you accept that a better-trained workforce is likely to be more profitable than a less well-trained one, then doesn’t it make sense to be a business that invests in training rather than one that doesn’t? As the saying goes, "If you think training is expensive, try ignorance." Have you seen or been involved in an innovative workplace training scheme? How did it work and what did employees get out of it? Share your experience in the comments section, below. The post Why employee training is important (5 reasons) appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Do you want to improve your employee training? Or perhaps you want set up a new training program from scratch? In this article we’ll show you the five key things you need to consider to ensure your employee training initiative is a success. Employee training is important in so many ways. It helps with employee retention, keeps employees efficient, and ensures high-quality work. Naturally, training it’s good for employees, and ultimately, it’s good for your profitability and customers. However, it’s important to remember that good training doesn’t just happen. For it to be effective, you must approach it like an learning professional. Here are five things to consider when setting up an employee training program. 1. Establish program goals You need to establish what you will use as a marker of success for your training initiatives. What can’t your employees do now that your training will enable them to do? It’s not sufficient to answer that question with a statement like "We need our employees to know our inventory." That’s far too broad and it would be difficult to gauge the level of success. A better goal would be: "We must enable our employees to troubleshoot product x." Defining a multitude of smaller objectives at this granular level helps in several ways: It forces you to think about what your employees’ needs really are (as opposed to a blanket statement that’s hard to pin down). It begins to reveal what you actually need to tell/show your employees so that they can meet their objectives. It’s easy to evaluate whether each of these small steps has been achieved after training. This could be done by providing employees with a small simulation that has to be completed successfully, getting them to pass an online quiz, or simply by being rewarded with a reduction in customer complaints. It helps you to see a possible program structure; for example, each objective could form one module, or one section within a larger module. It enables you to prioritize which training objectives need to be tackled first; which ones will be easiest or hardest to address; which ones will be most appreciated by your employees; or which ones will have the biggest impact on your business. 2. Choose the right technology There are two main elements of any new online learning initiative that must be carefully considered: The content authoring tool The deployment method The content authoring tool is the software that allows you to create elearning courses that your employees can engage with. There are eight things to ask before deciding on an authoring tool: Is it easy to use? A tool that non-tech-savvy staff can use will allow you to develop more learning titles more quickly. Does it give flexibility and control? You’ll want a product that allows you to easily apply your brand colors and logo to your courses. Can I collaborate with team members within the tool? Reviewer and tester communication is more efficient when it happens asynchronously in the authoring tool itself, rather than through relying on email or other ‘external’ communication methods. Can I create mobile-ready elearning? Mobile learning is important. It’s no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. Increasing numbers of employees expect to access training via their devices. Is the content easy to maintain and publish? Content that’s incorrect or out of date is no good to employees or your business. You must be able to quickly and easily update content and get it back out where it’s needed. Can I localize content for non-native speaking employees? If multiple languages are necessary for your employees, you’ll need a product that supports this with a minimum of effort. Does it come with pre-built themes and interactions? These speed development times and reduce the need for specialized developers. Can I extract analytic data? Understanding how employees interact with your courses will give you the insight to better meet their (and the business’s) needs. Once you have your online content in place, the next step is to get it to your employees. If you have an intranet, you may be able to create a learning portal and let staff access it from there. A password-protected website could be used in a similar way. These are especially good options for smaller initiatives. A more sophisticated approach would be to use a Learning Management System (LMS). This is specialized software designed to deploy elearning, manage users, and track learning activity. All LMSs do the same basic things, such as creating catalogs of course content and managing access logins. However, systems will differ in how they achieve these basic things and in what extras they provide. Some vendors provide features that may make their LMS a better fit for your business, such as: Having eCommerce functionality Easily allowing you to apply your branding to the LMS and create sub-branded learner portals (perhaps for different regions or employee groups) Providing custom email or ‘push’ notifications to employees when certain events occur; for example, an automatic prompt if someone hasn’t finished a piece of learning in a reasonable time Allowing flexible learner and content grouping features. This could be a facility for creating groups of employees and easily managing them, or building libraries of content titles that are available only to selected employee groups Providing sophisticated activity reporting Having inbuilt gamification mechanisms such as points badges and leaderboards The right LMS for your business will be the one that best matches your and your employees’ needs and workflows. 3. Create useful and engaging learning How well your employees engage with your training will determine how successful it will be. Probably the biggest driver of this will be whether the training is effectively meeting their needs. If staff don’t think that your training is useful to them, it will be difficult to get them to engage. Assuming that your training is addressing a real employee need, there are additional measures you can take to further engage them and give them a more potent learning experience. Here are four examples. Scenario-based learning is a technique that engages employees by giving them an immersive training experience modeled on a real-life scenario, rather than a theoretical knowledge dump. Providing bite-sized learning nuggets (small elearning events that focus on a specific topic and take between 1 and 15 minutes to complete) gives employees a flexible way to access specific information. This can be especially useful for time-poor employees or those in distracting environments. A great example of this is the JJCV Eye Care Practitioners This Johnson & Johnson course contains numerous accredited 10-minute nuggets, each one allowing busy eye care professionals to accumulate Continuing Education and Training (CET) points, which are necessary for their ongoing professional registration. Mobile-friendly elearning events can be especially useful for employees who are on the move, or who don’t have ready access to desktop computers. The Utility Warehouse rolled out training to their 46,000 distributors, over 30% of whom only had access to a mixture of mobile and tablet computers. Gamified learning experiences engage and boost employees’ intrinsic motivation levels through a variety of game mechanics including meaningfully applied points, leaderboards, and badges. Creating the most engaging learning experiences for your employees will enhance their learning experience and keep them motivated. 4. Deliver training to employees at the right time It’s important to provide your training to employees in the ways that will be most useful to them. For example, which of the following models will your employees find most useful? Training that is provided before a product roll-out. If so, how far in advance? Training that is provided on demand, immediately prior to using a product, i.e. Just-In-Time (JIT) Hints or push messages triggered in your software products that point employees to training when the software ‘senses’ that they’re stuck; for example, if the employee is spending a long time on a certain feature or using it incorrectly Employees are either ‘pulled’ to the training (for example, being directed to support pages or training programs) when necessary, or training is ‘pushed’ to them (such as in emails containing hints, tips, or videos) as part of a schedule The correct answer may be any one, or a combination of, these models. The important thing is that the training and access method is convenient for the audience. You may need to pilot some training delivery models or interview a cross-section of employees to decide which models will work best in your environment. 5. Track and improve Training programs aren’t static. The best ones continually evolve and improve. Watching how employees access and interact with your training, and evaluating its effectiveness, helps you decide how to make it better. Consider the following activities: Review online quiz results to see if particular questions are consistently answered incorrectly. If they are, maybe the questions are at fault, or maybe the content is inadequate Measure customer satisfaction to determine if training is having the desired effects Review your support requests to see where training could be created or improved Directly ask employees about their training pain points Findings from this kind of research will point you to where you can direct your next training efforts. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion There’s much more to implementing a meaningful employee training program than putting a few PDFs on a website. If done well, you can delight your customers, maximize your profits, and develop your workforce in the process. As you’ve seen here, the best way to achieve a good result is to think carefully about what training you’re going to provide, how you’re going to deliver it, and how you can evaluate it to make future releases even better. The post How to implement an effective employee training program appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Are you frustrated with complex authoring tools that are slow and inefficient? Do you want a fast and simple authoring tool that ALL of your team can use? Elucidat’s authoring tool can simplify your authoring process so you can create engaging, mobile-ready elearning, fast! Don’t believe us? Check out these nine live demo course examples to see what’s possible with Elucidat. Here are 9 live demo course examples that show what is possible with Elucidat’s authoring tool. 1. Can You Spot The Fake Smile? (Challenge Learners) Mini challenge uses a gamified approach to touch on the importance of a genuine smile in customer-facing roles. Visit course example 2. Health And Safety Course (Responsive Images) Elucidat can display images differently, depending on the screen size your learner is using. It also uses a very clever (and responsive!) visual menu to explore different areas of the workplace. Visit course example 3. Are You Doing Your Bit For The Environment? (Branching And Badges) An extract from an environmental awareness course which shows how a visual menu can be used to branch to small scenario questions. This also shows how ‘Badges’ can be used to reward learners for good decision-making. Visit course example 4. What Kind Of Leader Are You? (Branching And Progress Controls) A short scenario-based leadership course built to demonstrate page locking progress controls. Visit course example 5. Cash Register Training Course (Simple Branching) An example training course built to illustrate our branching features, interactions and visual variety using our Blocks theme. Visit course example 6. Are You A Sales Hero? (Bite-Sized Learning) A scenario-based sales module which demonstrates branching features and achievement badges. Visit course example 7. To Share Or Not To Share? (Polls And Graphs) A short social media course built to illustrate how you can use the Elucidat ‘Polling’ feature, a visual drag and drop interaction and also personalize results for your learners using Elucidat variables. Visit course example 8. Understanding Equivalent Fractions (Gamification) This fun (and fully responsive) example teaches fractions in an interesting way. Visit course example 9. Fraud Protection Course (Badges, Polling, And Branching) A compliance training example built to illustrate our new badges, polling and branching features. Visit course example What makes Elucidat an award-winning authoring tool? Elucidat’s award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) helps large companies and training providers streamline eLearning design, production and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device eLearning 50% faster. In addition, Elucidat’s simple point and edit functionality empowers all team members (even non-technical ones) to create beautiful eLearning that stands out from the crowd. Interested in learning more? Take the 80 second video tour or sign up for a free 14-day trial. The post 9 live demo courses that show you what’s possible with Elucidat’s authoring tool appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Tesco wanted to move away from face-to-face training and make better use of digital learning inside the business. Instead of relying on a handful of technical instructional designers, Tesco wanted an authoring tool that their entire team could easily use to create elearning. Digital Learning Manager Sam Taylor needed a solution that could deliver learning to colleagues much quicker than before. She also wanted to give colleagues the opportunity to learn on tablet and smartphone devices. "We’ve got people clamoring to use the tool which we never had before. We’ve doubled the amount of people making elearning whilst reducing costs by 50%." - Sam Taylor Sam Taylor chose Elucidat, an award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) that helps large companies and training providers streamline elearning design, production, and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device elearning 50% faster. Why Tesco chose Elucidat No need for technically experienced designers. Elucidat has made it easy for trainers to create great looking elearning with two hours of training. Less time to create engaging and robust elearning. Although Elucidat is simple to start, it is also robust for team members who need to design advanced elearning. Compared with other traditional tools, it takes less time to create non-linear learning: branching scenarios and menu screens (read more here). Mobile friendly learning. Elucidat’s responsive design feature seamlessly delivers the organization’s learning on smartphone and tablet devices. Instead of creating two versions of each course (desktop and mobile), the organization uses Elucidat’s responsive slider to build and test mobile friendly learning on desktop and mobile devices. The results Elucidat was given to 37 authors within the organization. Even inexperienced staff could use the tool with two hours of training. Every user was very surprised at how easy it was to use. Over a period of three months, there was a 50% increase in the number of users using Elucidat (not possible with past tools). This significantly helped the organization increase the speed at which it created elearning. Sam Taylor and her team are now creating elearning modules in a couple of days rather than months. The organization is using Elucidat for all types of learning: compliance training, leadership skills training, and diagnostic assessments. What makes Elucidat an award-winning authoring tool? Elucidat’s award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) helps large companies and training providers streamline elearning design, production, and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device elearning 50 percent faster. In addition, Elucidat’s simple point and edit functionality empowers all team members (even non-technical ones) to create beautiful elearning that stands out from the crowd. Interested in learning more? Take the 80 second video tour or sign up for a free 14-day trial. The post How a large UK retailer uses Elucidat to create elearning 4x faster appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

If you’re searching for a learning management system (LMS), you face a market that offers almost 700 options to evaluate. Navigating through even a fraction of those LMS’s is a daunting prospect—and only a fraction of the platforms will suit your requirements in the end. It isn’t always easy to recognize those systems quickly. To do so, you need to create a selection process that’s both thorough and manageable. We’ll begin by defining criteria to help you quickly rule out the platforms that won’t work for your needs. This list will help you to focus on the factors you need to compare platforms on the same terms that are the best fit for you. Rule 1: Don’t pay for unwanted features A needlessly complex LMS arrives with many unwanted features you don’t need and won’t use. These features can prove costly, depending on the pricing model the LMS vendor offers. The more unwanted features that are included as standard, the more expensive an LMS is likely to be. Unwanted features can also have a negative impact on user experience, confusing learners and distracting them from achieving key goals. The more complex an LMS is, the longer it will take to train new users. Delays can threaten the continuity of learning programs if a key administrator leaves. Too many unwanted features may also force you to invest in additional training in an attempt to minimize user discomfort. Rule 2: Decide which devices you want to support The demand for mobile learning, or mLearning, as it’s also called, has exploded over the last few years. Today’s learners want to complete courses on all kinds of phone and tablet devices, as well as desktops. To achieve successful outcomes, you need to offer learners the widest range of options you can support. That means making courses available when and where learners want to access them. If you want to offer flexibility, research the range of mobile options that your shortlisted vendors offer. An LMS developed with responsive design will adapt to the range of screen sizes that learners require. If you decide to offer access to your LMS through mobile apps, make sure that the vendor has fully considered all of the implications of mobile functionality. For example, if learners can access content on multiple devices, the LMS must be able to track behavior across each one. Related: How to create engaging mobile learning courses Rule 3: Agree which platforms you will integrate with Integrating existing platforms and systems can help to make your eLearning processes a lot more efficient. If available, features like an application programming interface (API), single-sign-on (SSO) and webhooks allow you to customize an LMS to suit the unique needs of your organization. At LearnUpon, we offer many popular integrations with platforms like Salesforce, Shopify, Google Analytics and LinkedIn, to name a few. Customers also use our API to integrate with third-party apps and create things like gamified leaderboards. LearnUpon’s SSO feature allows learners to access their LMS with the same set of credentials they use for other applications. Furthermore, customers use our webhooks feature to push real-time information from their LMS to related systems. If that functionality interests you, ask vendors about important factors like cost and security. Some will offer integration services for free, while others will incur significant charges. Task a technical team member with researching vendor specs to make sure they follow standard industry protocols. Related: 10 LMS integrations you need for better eLearning Rule 4: Only accept the best customer support The quality of customer support a vendor delivers should play a big part in your decision-making. To fully evaluate support, dig past the vendor’s marketing blurbs and put the service to the test during your trial period. The availability of basic information about its hours and channels of communication will give you a sense of how much the vendor invests in support. Check if public holidays and times outside of standard office hours are covered. Requesting metrics like average response times will help you to compare services between vendors. Also, take the time to assess your own experience, from the point of your initial inquiry to the vendor, and onward. The speed and care with which your questions are handled will indicate the quality of support you can expect to receive if you become a customer. Related: The value of Customer Support to an LMS Rule 5: Understand the value of a pricing model There are many different pricing models in use in the LMS industry. The differences between approaches can make it difficult to compare quotes from multiple vendors. Common approaches to pricing include charging by usage volumes or the required number of "Active" or "Registered Users." Other pricing models are feature based. Depending on your usage needs, different pricing models can return very different costs. Start by mapping out your organization’s projected usage. Later you can plug it into your shortlisted pricing models. If the pricing model you’d like to select is based on user or usage limits, ask what happens if you exceed the limits; automatic lock-outs can cause inconvenience and embarrassment for you and your users. Once you understand the pricing model itself, ask for a full list of additional costs. Charges for things like set-up, installation, training and cancellation aren’t always advertised up front and can radically impact the perception of value. Related: 7 essential questions about LMS pricing Final thoughts These rules are just the start. Your next step should involve thinking about the other essential factors you need to consider to ensure you select the right LMS for your organization. Related: Try all of LearnUpon’s features free for 30 days The post How to select the right LMS: 5 rules to follow appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Short and focused learning is a concept most people in L&D agree with. We know learning time is tight and that people slot it into their days when they can—and more often, when needed. Resource-based or bite-size learning is a fad that’s here to stay for this reason. But bite-size learning isn’t like bread—you don’t just slice it up and dish it out. At least, that’s our take on a recent post from Nick Shackleton-Jones. If you follow Nick Shackleton-Jones, you may have seen the post where he compares courses with resource-based learning. He identifies a common mistake that can be made when going from one to the other: we break material into smaller chunks and push it out. The problem? There’s no consideration of the context in which learners will use the content. Content dumping (credit: Nick Shackleton-Jones) Learning design should start from the business’ or performance problem’s point of view. Before you touch any content, conduct out some analysis. And, as Nick says, you should be: "…getting to know your audience, their ‘performance context’ and spotting the gaps—i.e. the points in their working day where there is an opportunity for you to help." Bite-size or resource-based learning helps busy people learn, but only if it fits into their busy days. It must be timely, relevant, and useful. If it’s not, well, it just piles up, un-eaten. The focus should be on what they need help doing. This is why we love Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping; it focuses on the desired actions and performance gaps we must meet. Pull or push? Nick is a big fan of pull learning, where the audience will pull or use the content you provide when needed. They’ll probably only do so if it’s designed to be useful and supports daily performance—hence the diagram above. Bite-size content can also be pushed, and sometimes learning has to be. But pushed learning should be performance- and action-orientated, too. Why? Because a content-driven approach will just be what it says on the tin: "content." Learning design and the encouragement of behavior change must start by getting under the audience’s skin and working out how best to move them from A to B. If you want to serve up bite-size learning, think of it more like tapas, where customers order mini-dishes when they’re hungry—OR a smorgasbord of delights they work through with pleasure. Just don’t dump a heap of bread on them. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. The post Bite-size learning: don’t just slice up content and dish it out appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Business leaders and learners are demanding more from the learning initiatives they commission and consume. Let’s look at four important online training trends you need to consider in 2016. Organizations want to see greater returns from their Learning and Development (L&D) investment, and learners expect high levels of engagement and quality of the online products in which they participate. Here are four current online training trends that demonstrate this. 1. Bite-sized learning Bite-sized elearning events are small, self-contained elearning events, which typically run for between 1 and 15 minutes, and are usually focused on one or two tightly defined learning objectives. There are two very good reasons why this trend is gaining popularity. Firstly, learners like it. One study from the Rapid Learning Institute showed that 94% of learners prefer modules of less than 10 minutes in duration (particularly for soft skill topics), and 65% said that most elearning modules were bloated with too much information. Secondly, bite-sized modules are flexible. A great example of this flexibility is the JJCV Eye Care Practitioners course, built using  Elucidat’s elearning authoring tool. This course contains a number of accredited 10-minute nuggets, each one allowing time-poor eye care professionals to accumulate Continuing Education and Training (CET) points necessary for their ongoing professional registration. The success of this program would have been difficult to achieve with a more conventional ‘long-program’ approach. 2. Mobile learning Mobile learning is something that can’t be ignored. Some predictions put smartphones into the hands of 90% of UK adults by 2016, and already show 91% of the US population using smartphones via fast 3G/4G connectivity. This penetration, and the always-on / always-available nature of mobile devices, makes them a great vehicle for bite-sized elearning and performance-support materials. Sometimes, a workforce doesn’t have desktop or laptop devices to access training. This case study from Utility Warehouse describes how their learning, which was optimized for mobile delivery, reached 46,000 learners, 15 percent of whom accessed it on smartphones and 16 percent on tablet computers. The sophistication of tools like Elucidat’s authoring platform, that put the power to create mobile learning directly in the hands of Subject Matter Experts, can only accelerate the move towards mobile learning. 3. Gamification Gamification of a process or system is the application of game-design principles to it, for example the allocation of points, badges, or status gained through perseverance or mastery of a skill. When applied well, gamification motivates participants to exhibit certain desired behaviors. L&D (and other business units) are increasingly leveraging this psychology to make their initiatives more engaging and effective. Gartner predicted that, by 2015, more than 50% of organizations that have managed innovation processes will gamify them. An example of gamification you’ll be familiar with is loyalty systems. These work by motivating you to build points and possibly status within the ‘tribe’ (other members) by exhibiting certain behaviors — typically making purchases through particular vendors! In learning, the behaviors that gamification usually promotes include enthusiastic learner participation and a perseverance to do well, perhaps trying and retrying to better an earlier score. Like our loyalty example, the motivation comes by building points, status, or esteem — but through the participation of learning initiatives rather than by spending money. Elements of decision making, challenge, and replay-ability are usually parts of gamified learning. Connect with Haji Kamal, by Kinection, is an example of an interactive scenario that challenges the learner to make critical decisions that directly affect the scenario’s outcome. This replay-ability encourages learners to experiment with different choices and to improve with each pass through the learning process. 4. Data analytics Understanding how your learners interact with your learning initiatives is the first step in ensuring that your learning content is efficient and meets their needs. For example, imagine that 85 percent of the learners taking a course are passing with a minimum pass mark of 75 percent. As an L&D manager, you might think that is pretty good, and that the course is doing its job. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine that you had more detail than just an overall score. What if you could see that 100 percent of the learners got the same four questions wrong? This should start ringing alarm bells! Are the quiz questions to blame, or is there something ambiguous in the course content? Maybe the course design is making assumptions about prior knowledge that learners don’t actually possess? Whatever the reason, the learners are spending (wasting) time with flawed materials. Emerging technologies like the xAPI standard (aka Tin Can) and Google Analytics, coupled with ever-more sophisticated analysis and visualization software, enable you to see in detail how learners are using your courses. Imagine the ability to identify that most learners are spending too much time on a simple learning concept. Why is that? Maybe the content is more complicated than it needs to be or there’s a problem with the course navigation? Perhaps a simple change to the content will save hours of learner time and frustration. It’s only through the capture and close examination of data that these sorts of problems are exposed, so that real efficiencies can be made. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion The great news about these innovations is that the tools that enable them are becoming more powerful, more readily available, and easier to use all the time. There’s no reason why you can’t take these ideas and experiment with them in your organization today. The post 4 online training trends to consider in 2016 appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

What impact does digital technology have on business performance? A lot. A recent report from the Harvard Business Review (HBR) found that "the most digital companies see outsized growth in productivity and profit." In this article we’ll explore how this might impact learning. The report looked at three key areas—digital assets, digital usage, and digital workers. While all have an impact on business performance, the latter makes a stand-out difference. Putting digital tools in the hands of employees hugely increases productivity. What does that mean for learning? It’s a no brainer. Learning needs to be performance focused and digital. Get it right, and such learning will increase productivity further. What does the report say? HBR created its report off the back of in-depth research by McKinsey. They evaluated the digitization of industry sectors and companies across the US and found that those that have embraced digital technologies for back-end services, for engaging with customers, and for enabling employee tasks and workflow stand head and shoulders above those that have not. Also, there is a surprising number of sectors that are yet to either go digital or to fully embrace it. But it is the use of digital technologies by employees that stands out as the crucial factor. Providing employees with digital tools to help them with their day-to-day tasks makes a huge difference to the performance of the organization. "The gaps are huge: companies in leading sectors have workforces that are 13 times more digitally engaged than the rest of the economy." What does this mean for learning? While the report itself doesn’t drill down into the role of digital learning, we know that corporate learning is there to enhance performance, and so it has a crucial role to play in business performance. Related: Corporate learning is "wildly out of sync" with how people prefer to learn 5 ways learning can join the digital productivity ride To enhance productivity and employee performance, learning should do the following: Tap into the digital revolution and be put into the hands of employees—take learning to them, not take them away for learning Fit into the workflows of individuals and support them at their points of need. Be multi-device and available 24/7 Keep up with production or performance needs, i.e., have the ability to be updated in an instant, to all devices Link to on-the-job digital tools that further support productivity so that learning content is not separated from on-the-job tools; the two need to sit side by side to streamline operations In a recent survey carried out by Towards Maturity, which we discuss here, 70% of learners said that online learning had a positive impact on their performance. This makes sense when you see it in the context of the above list, as online learning—in particular, multi-device learning—has the potential to streamline and support performance by slotting into the workflow. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Final thoughts The digital revolution is here to stay, and those who embrace it and move with it will have the cutting edge in business. The same goes for learning. Workforces that are given digital tools drive productivity and business performance. Learning that is both digital and performance-focused will do the same. Learning and training providers can’t afford to leave digital solutions off their list. The art is to design online learning around the needs of the audience to ensure that it slots into their workflow and performance needs. Ready to embrace digital learning? Consider using our simple and fast authoring tool, Elucidat. The post HBR report: "Digital technologies increase productivity." But are you ready to embrace digital learning? appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

The discussion started on this blog with my "Dear Plagiarist" post, continued, rather heatedly, on Facebook, then was picked up by  Sue Lyon Jones’ article on plagiarism on Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto’s Teaching Village blog where she explained some of the basics of the law related to this issue. Today, Sue picks up the topic again and in a special guest post for TEFL Matters  continues with advice on how to avoid having your content plagiarised. It’s great to have Sue right here in my TEFL Matters ‘front parlour’!!!  Stop, Thief!  How To Deter People From Copying Your Blog Content by Sue Lyons Jones In Marisa Constantinides’s passionate and heartfelt post, "Dear Plagiarist", she gives vent to the frustration, hurt and disappointment that many of us feel when others copy our work without asking first, or seek to pass it off as something that they have created themselves. In this post, I’m going to share a tip that you can use to make it more difficult for people to copy work you publish on your blog, by customising your feed so that it only publishes the first paragraph or two of your posts, rather than complete articles. What are the benefits of publishing snippets rather than full feeds? Here are three good reasons why publishing full RSS feeds is worth a rethink, if it is something that you currently do: 1) Publishing full feeds makes it really easy for people to copy your content Back in the days when I was a new kid on the blog, I used to […]

ELTons Awards Nomination News May 23, 2012   Innovation in Teacher Resources We are very proud, pleased and honoured to be shortlisted in the nominations for an ELTons award, "the only international awards that recognise and celebrate innovation in the field of English language teaching (ELT)." For a whole week my blogs will be celebrating the ELTons  award nomination and shortlisting of the #ELTchat  website  and #ELTchat, a weekly online discussion on Twitter  followed by hundreds of educators around the globe.in the Innovation in Teacher Resources category. This weekly conversation has very quickly evolved and developed into a great sharing community with a wiki and a blog which we maintain to share knowledge, ideas and links in a series of blog posts summarising the main chats podcasts and videos containing interviews with colleagues, teachers and well-known authors on the topics of the weekly discussions. The nomination is not for a product, but for content co-created through our conversations and the volunteer work of us, the moderators, and #ELTchat participants, who share their knowledge generously and freely, and by those of them who undertake to write up the summaries of these conversations, making them coherent, easier to read and accessible to all. It is those summaries, collected and presented together, that make all the difference and which have evolved into a formidable resource for teachers. Some absolutely marvellous posts have been written up for the benefit of all who follow #ELTchat - and even for those who don’t follow but have discovered this treasure trove of ELT resources. On May 23, 2012, during the awards ceremony in London, UK, which will be held at BMA House - the building of the British Medical Association, the winners will be announced […]

Some Classic Mistakes In my first two posts in this series on Discipline, I mentioned some of the causes of undisciplined behaviour and a few proactive steps which I believe will help in creating a classroom atmosphere which promotes disciplined behaviour. In this post, the third post in this series on discipline, I would like to mention a few points about teacher traits which may cause students not to be the angels we would like them to be! I am an expert on how not to be an angel - being unruly was my modus vivendi throughout my school years and what follows is a list of what caused me to be rowdy and unruly; a series of traits displayed by a long line of teachers from a different century. What my teachers did They lectured They screamed and shouted They punished unfairly and harshly They humiliated students publicly They insisted on having the last word Their body language was negative They used violence They never praised anyone but the top students They had irritating quirks, like keys jangling in pockets, scratching in strange places, odd gestures etc They never moved from behind their desks They droned! They had really boring voices! They recited the book and made no other effort to animate the content They made sarcastic remarks if you made a mistake They ridiculed weaker students They had favourites They were unfair They sulked and were unforgiving They made irrelevant comments They accused anyone or everyone They were vindictive They often lost control of their class They were […]

For the last - well, almost two years now, since September 15 2010, #ELTchat has kept us on our toes and forged hundreds of professional and personal relationships amongst its followers who turn up on Twitter every Wednesday to talk about topics they have suggested and voted on - a community of peers which was created by a small group of colleagues - which grew and grew some more and became something that counts as an important part of our continuous professional development. Like many great ideas, it didn’t hit just one person but several. And that is how #ELTchat was created.     The website to keep up the communication of its members, a base and repository of our ideas was one of the first things we all thought of creating - the wiki came later. Andy Chaplin was keen to join the moderation team and help with podcasts and technical stuff; he was quick to buy eltchat.com and announced the good news to us after the fact. A few months later, right after TESOL France 2011,  he suddenly disappeared - some say for reasons of health. We never found out for sure. We never received a single word of response to our emails. eltchat.com was and still is registered in his name. And yesterday we lost it On August 8 the domain expired and we have no way of taking over unless it goes up for sale again; it was very sad that Andy Chaplin did not find it appropriate to renew. The […]

There have been so many studies done and results published insisting that one-off training isn’t very effective. We use that phrase—one-off training—quite a bit on this blog. For new readers (hello, thanks for joining!) we use that phrase to describe training that’s done with zero follow-up or accountability. The audience participates in the class whether in-person or online, and then they’re done. These courses are created and delivered with the expectation that the participants will not only retain the entire heap of information that’s been dumped on them, but be able to execute that new knowledge on-the-job. Let’s look at one very telling statistic discovered by three different sources: Up to 80% of new skills are lost within 1 week of training if not used (ASTD) 87% of new skills are lost within a month of the training (Xerox) Without reinforcement, learners will likely forget 80% of training material within 90-120 days. (Sales Readiness Group) Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience tells us that people remember 90% of what they do, which means on-the-job learning is much more effective than, say, classroom-only training. Furthermore, what these numbers tell us is that we absolutely must do more to help people apply new knowledge. The whole point of training is to help people be better at something, and only teaching them once is doing them a huge disservice. We can make training much more effective by extending the learning beyond just one session. It’s even more impactful when it’s broken into bite-sized chunks and embedded into the workflow, so that’s readily available and consumed at the highest point of need, i.e. while on-the-job. Is Embedded Learning Different From Performance Support? With so much terminology flying around in the industry, it can be hard to know whether terms represent different concepts, or if they’re actually addressing the same thing. Embedded learning and performance support, while related, are not quite the same thing. Performance Support can include job aids, procedural checklists, diagrams, instructional photos or videos, and is a subcategory of embedded learning focused specifically on the successful completion of a task or process. Embedded Learning is a broader term that includes performance support materials, but also social/collaborative learning between peers or with supervisors, coaching tools, microlearning, or even training reminders and memory jogs delivered by email or SMS. The key is that embedded learning breaks down the silo between work and training. Why Learning Should Be Embedded in the Workflow As the training and work silos are broken down, you’ll be able to take advantage of the vast amount of knowledge that already exists within your organization. Getting buy-in and support from subject matter experts for a training course can be tough, but empowering them to share knowledge as part of their typical day is easier. Once audience members experience the added value of on-the-job learning that helps their performance, they should embrace it and help spread additional knowledge themselves. Impact can be immediate. If someone finds a resource that helps them complete a task better or faster, their performance has been improved and will continue to improve each time they perform that task. Embedded learning improves the effectiveness of formal training by providing reinforcement and coaching. It reduces the retention problem we addressed at the beginning of this post. It may reduce the need for formal training, or at least give an organization flexibility in determining the best modality for delivering training based on subject matter. Resources can be allocated in a smarter way. The contextual nature of embedded learning makes it effective and impactful right away. It’s better absorbed and retained when put in context of day-to-day work. It lends itself to a broad spectrum of multimedia, allowing users to access learning on mobile devices on the go or at their workstation. Everything from printed materials to wearable device applications can work. With the right measures in place, we should be able to determine the impact on desired outcomes. You’ve decided you want to give this a shot. Now the question is, where can you embed learning items? The best solution will vary depending on role. For example, something accessible from a mobile device might be necessary for some teams, while others are fine to have desktop access or even printed materials they see every day. Give consideration to the following: An employee intranet An organizational social collaboration tool A corporate training or employee management portal Work systems A custom mobile app Email or text message Procedural Checklists - we’re big fans of electronic, interactive ones And more...what ideas do you have? Before You Begin, Know the Potential Challenges Implementing any new learning program will come with a set of challenges. Plan to address hurdles before they appear. Some you might encounter are: Embedded learning could, at least initially, increase "time-on-task". That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because you’re trading speed for effectiveness. Track this over time and watch for improvement. Be sure you’ve thought through how to organize the learning tools in a way that makes it easy to find, easy to use, and readily available. Embedded learning is very different from formal learning, and can’t be managed the same way. L&D teams should expect an adjustment period. You will need to get managerial support so that employees are encouraged to use it. Adoption can be slow at first, as with any new system. The less the employee has to adapt (the better you can truly embed the learning into their day) the better results you’ll see. Do you have experience with embedded learning you can share with us in the comments section below? What has worked for you? How difficult was it to adopt? We’d love to hear from you. photo credit: Brian Taylor, Auto Wrapping Process at AMPORTS

Organizations have the power to determine whether training programs have the impact they’re supposed to, but the majority of them still rely on outdated measures of lesser value. In this post, we’ll discuss why it’s so important to measure a learning program’s impact on performance, why it can be hard, and some tips for getting started. Connecting Learning and Performance...What Does That Mean, Exactly? Training followed a typical path for a long time. When someone is new to an organization, they learn about the mission, the importance of their role, and how to perform it correctly. As they mature in their role, additional training may be provided as circumstances warrant; new software, systems, techniques or protocols are all common drivers of training. This approach to training is based more on what we think people should be trained on, rather than what individual and organizational performance data is telling us. L&D is experiencing a shift to include more of the latter: looking at results to tell us where and what kind of training is needed. Slow Adoption of Data-Driven Learning Strategy Brandon Hall Group’s (BHG) recent webinars and articles have focused on the need for organizations to connect the learning function to business performance, and the rather surprising number of organizations that still aren’t doing it. We’re excited to see this topic brought to the forefront by an industry leader and think tank, because it’s one we’ve focused on for several years in the development of our learning management software, ExpandShare. It’s a passion of mine. We want to share some of BHG’s findings from the recent The State of Learning & Development research report, as discussed during a November, 2015 webinar: Researchers separated "high performing organizations" from the overall group of respondents and found an interesting trend. High Performing Organizations,  as defined by BHG researchers, had a year-over-year increase in key performance indicators. Experiencing growth in areas like revenue, customer satisfaction, and market share, these organizations are also more likely to employ today’s learning and development best practices. They are more likely to build a learning strategy to guide activities. They are more likely to base learning strategy on organizational performance goals. They are more likely to use advanced measurement types beyond Kirkpatrick’s Level 1 to determine the impact of learning activities and strategy. When asked about connecting the learning function to business performance, the results were, again, quite telling: Just over 80% of high performing organizations indicated they’ve tied L&D to business outcomes to a "moderate or high degree". That number dropped to about 65% for all respondents. When asked why learning and performance should be connected, survey respondents offered the reasons listed below. Note the primary focus is ensuring the training department delivers what is most needed by the business to drive success. "To align learning strategy with business needs" (65.3% of all respondents) "To develop strategies for addressing L&D needs" (33.3% of all respondents) "Analyze L&D needs" (33.1%) "Promote strong financial management" (24.5%) "Strengthen ethics and government" (22.1%) "Evaluate L&D" (17.4%) Respondents were also asked about how they measure learning programs. About 50% of survey respondents claimed they measure the majority (75-100%) of their learning programs at Kirkpatrick Level 1 - Satisfaction. 40% are measuring none of their learning programs at Level 4 - Results. Let that one simmer for a minute. Assuming respondents are a representative sample, 40% of organizations have no way of knowing whether their training programs have any impact on business results, and they’re not even attempting to find out. Look For Meaningful Data to Inform and Guide Your Learning Strategy Marketers have been through what L&D departments are going through now. For a long time, many marketing tactics weren’t very measurable, and if they were it wasn’t terribly meaningful information. The number of people who could potentially have your television ad broadcast in their home isn’t super helpful. It was hard to determine an ROI. Digital marketing, big data, and platforms that power entire marketing strategies, like Marketo and HubSpot, have allowed marketers to track all kinds of metrics and make swift tactical adjustments to maximize results. Similarly, training departments have relied on "smile sheets" and quizzes to gauge the success of a course. While interesting, these measures aren’t terribly meaningful. Just because someone says they enjoyed a course doesn’t mean they will perform better at their job. Just because they score 100% on a quiz doesn’t mean they will have retained that information a month down the line. Training departments need data to tell them whether training activities are impacting on-the-job performance and moving the needle. The figure below lists some of the KPIs Brandon Hall’s survey respondents indicated were good measures of success. Some others may be: Increase in Sales Point-of-Sale Behavior Equipment downtime Problem Resolution Customer Complaints Inspection Results And more, depending on your organization’s unique KPIs Brandon Hall Group: The State of L&D: Trends in Learning Technology, Strategy, and More (2015) Why Isn’t Everyone Measuring the Impact of Learning Programs? Talking to folks at organizations of all shapes and sizes, we hear a lot of the same challenges when it comes to implementing these practices. In short, it’s hard. If it weren’t, everyone would be doing it by now. It often requires pulling data from multiple systems within the organization, and that’s not always a piece of cake. It requires buy-in from the necessary departments and, of course, the IT work to import or export relevant data. You may find you need another platform or external resource that’s a difficult sell internally. If your internal analytics team is already swamped, getting help crunching data can be tough. While Not Always Easy, It’s Worth It Armed with the right results-oriented information, L&D teams have the ability to createneeded learning programs and deliver them to the right people at the right time. They will know how much their work contributes to the meeting of organizational goals. But What If Our Training Programs Aren’t Making An Impact? This isn’t something you should worry about. First, that’s highly unlikely. Second, even if you start taking a deeper look at the impact of training and don’t like what you see, the data will also help you design an improvement plan. It will make your job easier, not harder. We want to hear from you in the comments section below. Is your organization one of the High Performing Organizations who’s successfully connected learning to business performance? If you’ve made strides in this area, what positives (and negatives, we won’t pretend major overhaul is a bowl of sunshine!) are you experiencing? If you’ve not yet begun, what’s holding you back? Please share your experiences with us. photo credit: id0050.JPG via photopin (license)

One of the challenges that eLearning professionals face is knowing just where to find useful and effective eLearning resources for course design. However, there are a variety of sites that offer wonderful instructional design tools that materials for you to choose from. Better yet, a vast majority of them are absolutely free. Here are the[...] The post Best Elearning development resouces appeared first on Soni Amit K.

Person who is HAPPY is not because Everything is RIGHT in his Life.. He is HAPPY because his Attitude towards Everything in his Life is Right..!! The post Quotes 1 appeared first on Soni Amit K | A Learning Professional.

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This article was first published at elearningindustry.com. There are many training platforms in the market. It is very important to choose the right Learning Management System (LMS) for your organization’s learning needs: This article will help to understand the roles of the Learning Management System in the learning environment, how both instructors and learners interact[...] The post Choosing The Right Learning Management System: Factors And Elements appeared first on Soni Amit K.

Planning Migration of Legacy Courses to HTML5 You have decided to adopt mLearning (or mobile learning) and are ready to move your legacy courses to HTML5. Obviously, this involves a significant budget and you want to be certain that you have chosen the most efficient approach to migrate your legacy courses to HTML5. In this Newsletter, we share insights on: Understanding the power of HTML5 technology as well its challenges: Take a look at tips that you can use as you plan the migration of your Flash to HTML5. What is the right way to convert legacy courses into HTML5: Take a look at case studies that show successful conversions and how you could use some of these best practices. 8 Tips To Convert Flash To HTML5 That Will Help Your Business In this article we will outline the HTML5 technology advantage, its challenges, and share 8 tips that you can use when you plan the migration of your Flash to HTML5 that will help your business. Read the article How To Convert Legacy Courses Into HTML5 The Right Way In this article, we are featuring two case studies that reflect dynamics that will resonate with most organizations and will provide the pointers on what approaches will help you design an efficient and effective migration strategy and convert legacy courses into HTML5 the right way. Read the article The post Newsletter Nov2015 | Migration of Legacy Courses to HTML5 appeared first on EI Design.

Innovation in Learning Designs for Retention and Application of Learning Amongst the challenges that Learning and Development teams and Learning Consultants face today, the top 2 pertaining to training would be: How to increase the efficacy of training? What learning strategies should be adopted to ensure that the learning and business mandates are met? In this newsletter, we showcase our articles on innovative eLearning development that outline how we can address these challenges. We begin by looking at the "Forgetting Curve" and how this can be offset or changed to "Learning and Retention Curve" by adopting approaches that make learning sticky. We also look at application of innovative approaches particularly in Banking, Finance and Insurance sectors. While, the focus is on these industry verticals, you will find some of the approaches are equally relevant to other industry verticals as well. Top 5 Tips For Innovative eLearning Development In this article I will outline 5 tips for innovative eLearning development that will help organizations improve efficacy of training by making the learning stick. Read the article Innovative Training Solutions For Banking And Financial Services While Banking and Finance industries have been early adopters of eLearning, only in recent times is mLearning being considered. In this article, I will outline how mLearning can be one of the most meaningful training solutions for Banking and Financial Services. Additionally, I will share my insight on "learning as a continuum" and how eLearning or mLearning-based formal training can be effectively supplemented through Performance Support Tools (PSTs). Read the article 5 Innovative Training Strategies For Insurance That Work In today’s environment of economic volatility, increasing calamities (natural and man-made) and changing global dynamics, the Insurance sector needs to adopt training approaches that will help them equip their employees to manage these variables successfully. While the Insurance sector continues to grow, the Learning and Development professionals in this sector have challenges of addressing the external variables as well challenges that are intrinsic to the industry. In this article I will outline 5 of our innovative training strategies that have helped our customers in Insurance meet these challenges. Read the article The post Newsletter Nov2015 | Innovation in Learning Designs appeared first on EI Design.

Gamification in eLearning is Trending-Part 2 Continuing with the hottest topic in eLearning "Gamification for serious learning", we present two of our recent articles. We have also appended one of the previous articles and this bundle will provide the required insight on understanding the Gamification essentials, its benefits and how it can be used to meet your different training needs. Gamification For Serious Learning: 5 Facts That Will Impress Your Boss: In a Q&A format, the first article touches upon some of the questions you may have. These include "What is Gamification?", "How is it different from a game?" and "Does it indeed create the required learning impact?" 6 Killer Examples Of Gamification In eLearning: This article shatters the myth that Gamification cannot be applied effectively across the varied training needs of an organisation. It showcases examples of using Gamification in induction and onboarding, professional skills enhancement, compliance, soft skills enhancement and behavioural change programs. Top 6 Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning: This article focuses on the key benefits that Gamification provides in enhancing learning. Gamification For Serious Learning: 5 Facts That Will Impress Your Boss In this article, I have shared 5 facts about Gamification for serious learning through a series of questions and answers. I am sure these pointers will help you in evaluating and embracing Gamification soon. Read the article 6 Killer Examples Of Gamification In eLearning In this article, I have shared 6 examples that outline how we have created immersive learning experiences using Gamification for varied training needs like induction and onboarding, professional skills enhancement, compliance, soft skills enhancement and behavioural change programs. Read the article Top 6 Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning In this article, I have explained some of the benefits of Gamification for learners and how the experience of learning (recall and retention) can be enhanced through Gamification. Read the article The post Newsletter Dec2015 | Gamification appeared first on EI Design.