Today, trust is the basis for every business exchange and all customer behaviour. Creating customer loyalty puts customer value, rather than maximising profits and shareholder value, at the center of business strategy.

Every fortnight I curate some of the observations and insights that were shared on social media. I call these Friday’s Finds. @Tom_Peters: "Average unicorn coder’s goal today: Destroy my privacy to sell me more crap so that founders can add another billion to their net worth … Make no mistake: Google’s animating goal is to... Read more »

I've learned over the years that any major change is more likely to stick when you have accountability partners.Those really important friends who touch base and ask "So.....how's that THING going?"  With the tone that says "You're doing what you SAID you were gonna do.....right?"I've been very blessed to have a number of these accountability partners over the years.The friends who care enough to check.The friends who call out my excuses when I fail to practice the behavior I said I was going to change.The friends who remind me that I am making the change because the old way doesn't work.For me OR for them.I value my friends. Deeply.Their (occasionally constant) reminders that something just doesn't work eventually gets me to practice the hard emotional work of change.And since many of them are educators, they will tend to dig a little deeper.Mostly asking what caused me to regress.  Forcing me to reflect.Then asking me to try again.For which I am eternally grateful.------------------One of the members of the Up2Us community expanded this idea to our community.  This individual and another member of the community have been my accountability partners over the past year as I've tried to make some of my own changes (personal and not naming names - they know who they are and I am eternally grateful for their check ins and lengthy talks).Each Monday - he goes into our Slack channel and asks "So what are you going to do this week?"And the wider community responds with the activities they want to be held accountable for.On Friday - he returns.  "How did it go?"    And everybody shares their successes and failures and what they thought went right and wrong.I am finding that this exercise helps to expand the trust and connection we have built in the live events.  And for those who weren't able to make that year's event - it helps to maintain engagement in the community. Also to let them know that there is a corner of the world they can go to with cheerleaders as they walk through their own journey.Two simple questions.So what are you going to do?How did it go? So powerful.

Gamification in the workplace - enterprise gamification - uses game elements to drive employee performance. Employee performance KPIs are measured in real time - like a Fitbit for work - showing where employees are doing better, having them compete with their goals and past achievements. It is made to drive intrinsic motivation, the sense of mastery and control that comes when we know we are doing our job well. Yet, most people think of workforce gamification as a thin game veneer applied to work, a "video game at work" that attempts to create motivation through points and badges, bells and whistles. And then, almost immediately, they disbelieve gamification. They are right - making work cute or "fun" or "game-like" doesn’t work, but using gamification like a fitness tracker for work works well, changing more than performance and affecting the culture of thinking and talking about employee performance. Here are five key elements of what workforce gamification really is:  1. Real-Time Performance Management Performance management is a good idea: set goals and measure their achievement. The problem is that most performance management practices involve setting of annual goals, which soon become stale. In addition, communication with employees about performance is marred by the practice of ranking employee performance - which people (naturally, of course) find threatening, confrontational and discouraging. So in practice, many companies are eliminating or re-assessing their performance management practices. How is gamification different? Gamification focuses on the here and now. Imagine a basketball coach who skids along the court, following his team as they invest all their body strength and skills to fight off opponents’ scores, and keep up their offensive within the team. The coach throws out his feedback in real-time so his players can fix their mistakes on the spot. If his point guard is taking too many shots in the first quarter, his coach will have him back on the right track by the end of the second. Gamification brings this dynamic to your employees’ performance. Feedback is given on-the-spot, by showing performance KPIs and personalized benchmarks and goals within the gamification application, so employees can rectify flaws in real-time, instead of thru retroactive feedback that is weeks or months late. 2. Objective and Fair New management practices are gravitating away from subjective evaluation of employees, and more in the direction of objective and proactive development of employees. What this brings is a positive process that reflects both to employees and their managers how employees are progressing and which goals are being met, and transparently so. Research about performance management shows that managers are often unaware of the fact that their evaluations are subjective; measuring KPIs in real time can correct this. In this case, there are spillover effects into corporate culture - when evaluation is objective and fair, people feel differently about work and about whether their efforts and performance will be fairly recognized. Gamification also reflects insights and results to employees (and managers) that effectively enable them to make changes in their work performance. In many cases, in case performance in a certain area is lacking, employees are directed to micro-learning so that they can correct their course and improve their expertise. 3. Performance Measurement is Transparent Many successful tech companies (Google, Intel, Linkedin and others) use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to communicate goals and objectives to employees. Results are tracked - and people can see the OKRs of their peers. This is a new degree of transparency. OKRs are used by knowledge workers (product managers, developers, communications managers, etc.), and remain transparent to all their peers, so that every employee in the organization can see what every other employee is working on and setting as a priority. Gamification is OKR for the workforce: rank and file employees, who don’t have goals like ‘launch new product’, ‘have a successful beta launch’ but are required to perform within certain benchmarks expected of them. It lets the relevant employee to see how they are doing in comparison to their fellow colleagues, and in what fields they are performing better or worse than those colleagues. This instills a sense of fairness, and a clarity on what employees are supposed to focus on at work. It also lets companies set individualized goals, so that what is expected of employees is fair and achievable. 4. Drive the Right Things: Behavior Competition is often viewed as a positive motivation method. Well, for many people it isn’t and can even be perceived as a source of unfairness. Sales managers tend to believe in this fallacy and want to manage performance with leaderboards. Projecting different employee’s successes to one another on mediums like a leaderboard and showing actual sales isn’t a good idea. It’s true that sales are the objective, yet this isn’t what should be motivated, but rather the activities that drive sales. To generate better sales, gamification would want to drive behaviors and measure them: more calls, qualifying leads, meeting potential and existing clients, etc. 5. Gamification Isn’t a Game What is the "game" part of gamification? It is the use of game mechanics - like calling out to employees to bet on themselves, showing them completion bars and more - to drive behavior and engagement. Gamification creates a way for employees to monitor their progress at the workplace and act from a place of intrinsic motivation. In this, it isn’t a game, but it can be a game changer for work performance and culture.

We’re proud to announce that we have been named "Top Selling Tool of 2016" by Smart Selling Tools, a leading analyst and consulting firm in sales and marketing technology. Smart Selling Tools founder Nancy Nardin, formerly with Gartner and IDC, is a nationally recognized thought leader on sales and marketing productivity tools. You can access the Top Selling Tool report here. Nardin told us the following "We’re excited about including GamEffective as a top player in the Sales Performance and Gamification category. GamEffective focuses on motivations that drive performance in real-time. We like that it avoids the pitfalls of typical gamification solutions that reward the top tenth percent and discourage the rest. Their approach of setting personalized goals and tracking them in real time is what will drive middle performers to do better. We also like the strong integration with elearning, to drive better compliance, training and new product knowledge". To learn more about GamEffective for Sales, request a demo or, get our CRM Gamification White Paper , or check out these posts: Don’t Target Top or Bottom Performers: Move the Middle It’s not about the cash Five sales gamification leaderboard mistakes and how to fix them

April is Financial Literacy Month. Financial literacy is one of the literacies our students need to succeed. Financial and economic literacy are about understanding the importance of making appropriate economic choices on a personal level, as well as understanding the connection that personal, business, and governmental decisions have on individuals, society, and the economy. How can you ensure students master the financial literacy skill-set?The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Charitable Foundation offers a online comprehensive financial literacy program designed for students in grades 3-12. The content of the program is aligned with the Council for Economic Educators standards.Students engage with financial literacy concepts through innovative self-paced modules featuring custom videos, animations, and interactive activities. The curriculum is called Earn Your Future Digital Lab. The modules are broken up into three levels-- Beginner, Intermediate, and Advance. Each set of modules include items of interest to students at their level. (The beginner level for grades 3-5 will not be launched until fall of 2016.)Here is a screenshot of the modules for the Intermediate Level.Intermediate level financial literacy modulesI logged in as a student and picked intermediate module three, "Can I Afford a Phone?" The module can be completed all in one sitting, or students can go back to a section later to finish it.I completed the module using a laptop computer, but then went back and tested it with an iPad. Everything seemed to function perfectly on the tablet. Of course, since the site is Web-based, it should work fine with Chromebook and the Surface, too.The module started off with a video of a clever texting session between a teenager and their parent. During the texting session, the parent gives the responsibility to their teenager to do the research for the best phone and also to figure out the costs of affording a new phone.The module continues with sound advice on how the student might proceed and offers a commonsense plan on how the teenager might approach the problem. This is followed up with a quiz about spending and budgets to gauge what the student already knows. After answering each question, the student is provided with additional information if they answer incorrectly but also with clarifying information if they answer correctly.The next component of the module is very engaging. Students pick an avatar to "become" the teenager who wants the cell phone. This is followed up with a checklist of tasks to research the phone purchase (with a pop-up for each item) and time is left for reflection by the student and a short two-question quiz.The module then moves into teaching the budgeting process so students can apply the process to the teenager's research. The students can utilize the included calculator tool to determine if the teenager can successfully create a budget that allows him to purchase the new smartphone. There is a computation piece included with some simple math problems and a review of income vs. fixed expenses vs. variable expenses. There is a fun final activity that allows the students to build a balanced budget for the teenager. The interesting part is, as the student eliminates unnecessary expenses, there are pop-ups with unexpected expenses or income, like a library fine or income from babysitting. This component truly simulates what this is like in real-life and teaches the students the difference between wanting something and being able to afford it.There is a wrap-up of the module with a nice overview of the processes taught and including some extension tips for dealing with budgeting throughout their lives for purchasing a home, saving for retirement, etc.The final component of the module is the post-test, which includes several types of summative assessments. The post test should only take about ten minutes, and, at the completion, the student earns a badge to show the module is completed. The Advanced modules, intended for high school students, also include real-life videos starring teenagers. This makes the modules even more engaging for the students.After the student has completed the modules, the site also provides additional resources to build-upon the skills practiced in the program including planning for college, home buying, risk management and insurance, planning and money management, and more.SET-UP PROCESSTo give students access to the site, the teacher or home school parent creates a teacher account on the site.Once logged-in, the teacher creates a default password for all of the student accounts. When a default password is set, students will be asked to create a personal password on their first login.Student names can be entered manually or uploaded via a CSV file.The teacher then creates a class and picks students to add to the class.Teachers then provides students with the the URL to the PwC Charitable Foundation Earn Your Future Digital Lab site, their username and the default password. Students can log-in to the site and work on the modules.One suggestion, to make sure students stay on task and complete the modules they pick to complete is to have the student print out their "badges" page which will show the completed modules.SUMMARY The PwC Charitable Foundation Earn Your Future program is brand new and additional features are planned for the near future. These include handbooks and module planning tools for the teacher and the ability to provide feedback to students via embedded assessment tools.If you want to engage your students in learning more about personal finances, whether in April or throughout the year, the PwC Charitable Foundation curriculum, Earn Your Future, is a wonderful way to engage students and help them practice and learn useful, life-long skills!This is a sponsored post on behalf of We Are Teachers and the PwC Charitable Foundation. I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything

Greetings! Here are a few additions to my Edtech Archive, a compilation of over 8000 free educational resources. 20150415 art, animation, games, gifs: Adult Swim - a pretty [...] The post Additions to the Edtech Archive 46 appeared first on Many Pebbles, One Pond: The EdTech Archive.

Greetings! Here are a few additions to the Edtech Archive, a listing of over 8000 free educational resources with an eye to making the lives [...] The post Additions to the Edtech Archive 47 appeared first on Many Pebbles, One Pond: The EdTech Archive.

  It’s good to be Tesla.  With pre-orders for the yet to be release Model 3 over 325,000, each with a $1,000 reservation fee, Tesla just "crowd-sourced" over $325 million.  Pretty Impressive.  If all of these orders transfer into sales, then Tesla will make somewhere around $14 Billion in revenue.  More Impressive.  However, while the analysts might be oohing and ahhing over Tesla’s production facility and these orders, actually producing them might be a little more daunting.  In what may be the understatement of the year, CEO Elon Musk tweeted, "Definitely going to need to rethink production planning…"   Rethink might be appropriate for a genius like Musk, but his team is probably freaking out.  I used to do capacity and production planning for Ford’s largest North American assembly plant, so I have an idea of what they need to do, and if they aren’t worried, they should be.  Forbes put some of this into perspective the other day with a "Be Careful What You Wish For" article, and at a high level, it doesn’t look pretty, but when you dive into the details, it’s downright ugly.  Here’s why:   Tesla has a current stated capacity of 100,000 units per year, which, we’ll assume is a straight time capacity (no overtime factored in).  For planning purposes, the number of production days in an automotive assembly plant is around 240 [365 days/yr - 104 days (weekends) - 8 days (holidays) - 4 days (typical Christmas/New Year break) - 9 days (summer shutdown) = 240].  This is the baseline number of days.  Tesla could choose to operate on certain weekends, not take shutdown periods, etc. but those would all be incremental to baseline capacity.  The baseline is what is used to set up operations, supply chain requirements, etc.  There must be a baseline.   Not knowing the shift pattern, let’s assume they run 2 shifts at 8 hours per shift, or 16 production hours per day.  16 hours per day at 240 days per year yields 3,840 hours per year available for production.  That means, Tesla currently can produce and report around 26 units per hour (UPH) in the final assembly area.  With 5% over speed (pretty standard in the industry), that means they are running at 27.3 UPH in final (faster in Paint, Body & Stamping - assuming the same shift pattern), or producing a vehicle every 2.19 minutes (131.67 seconds).  Everything is designed to support this volume - supply chain, equipment, work stations, staffing, maintenance schedules, etc.   Now, here’s where things get interesting.  If we say that Tesla needs to produce 300,000 units per year, the numbers change just a little bit…   Required UPH in Final is now 78.1, or 82 UPH with over speed.  That equates to producing a vehicle every 0.73 minutes, or every 43.89 seconds.  It’s one thing to produce a vehicle every 2 minutes or so, but it is a completely different game to produce one every 44 seconds. [Note: should they go to a full overtime model (2 shifts at 10 hours each), the UPH requirements drop from 78.1/82 to 62.5/65.6, or a vehicle every 55 seconds.  Either way, a significant change.]   Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is faster.  And not just a little bit, but a lot.  The supply chain issues alone can bring a plant to it’s knees.  Delivery trucks are in and out faster, sequencing becomes critical, work station balances must be precise or people will stumble over each other, robots and other machines move faster, and there are more of them, quality, both internal and supplier, must be tight; everything must be designed to support this.   What before were minor issues quickly become major issues.  For example, a 5-minute breakdown today would result in about 2.3 jobs "lost" in production (around $80,500 in revenue).  In the future, 5 minutes means 6.8 jobs "lost" (around $238,000 in revenue). [note: breakdowns are why you have over speed, but clearly, the numbers add up much quicker]   It just happens faster.  Everything accelerates - including the stress on the workforce and the company to deliver.  The culture is different.  It is hard to understand just how much more difficult this environment will be to work in and produce the quality Tesla’s customers will expect.   I’ve worked in a plant that operated at 45 UPH, and the same one at 80 UPH, and let me tell you, life was much easier at 45 UPH…   Now, some of the pressure can be alleviated by modifying the production environment, for example, by adding a second final line (back departments may still struggle), which can spread the production risk.  Of course, that means more equipment, more synchronization, and more people.  There are also alternatives at a high level - Tesla could build another factory.  They could delay delivery to customers.  They could run a lot of over time, change shift patterns to operate 7 days a week, sacrificing preventive maintenance plans, and employee satisfaction (really only a short-term solution, and given the level of automation and number of robots, probably not a wise decision to reduce PM).  Or some other creative solution.   Regardless, this will be a challenge as large as Everest.   Now, Tesla has a lot of smart people to figure this out (I hope), and I do believe they will.  But if anyone thinks it will be easy or fast, they are sadly mistaken.   Musk stated in 2014, "People don’t quite understand how hard it is to manufacture something.  It is really hard."  Well, if he thinks it’s hard now… just wait..

In their book Conquering the Seven Summits of Sales, business experts and elite mountain climbers Susan Ershler and John Waechter examine the parallels between climbing the Seven Summits, the seven tallest mountains on each of the seven continents, and journeying to the peak of sales performance. The authors explore the key aspects of successful sales campaigns, and provide insights and practical approaches that will help sales professionals reach their goals and resolve obstacles in highly competitive marketplaces. The methods, skills, and perspectives needed to accomplish revenue objectives are illustrated using anecdotes based on the authors’ experiences conquering formidable mountains, including Mount Everest. According to the authors: Staying ahead of the competition requires perseverance, self-motivation, positivity, and a reliable network of support. With the right perspectives and resources, sales leaders can always be prepared to conquer the next sales summit. By projecting ambitious visions of success and establishing objectives that will help achieve those visions, sales leaders come one step closer to reaching their personal sales summits. Objectives should be both ambitious and practical. When creating objectives, sales leaders should eliminate non-essential tasks from their workflows, focus on duties that contribute to the fruition of their visions, set priorities, and aim for personal and professional balance. Careful planning ensures that objectives will be completed successfully. To plan mindful goals, leaders must review past performances, educate themselves about their businesses and services, and research potential targets and marketplaces. Pushy sales tactics are not the key to sales success. Sales leaders must strive to be guides, like the individuals who lead groups on mountain climbing expeditions. Guides endeavor to provide customers with knowledge and the right services, an approach that will make everyone involved in the campaign successful. No climbers should attempt to climb the Seven Summits alone. Similarly, sales leaders should not try to close deals by themselves. Instead, they should appoint people with the right skills and perspectives to ensure the success of the sales operation. When it is time to create new sales strategies, The Competitive Sales Route (TCSR), a comprehensive step-by-step process, can help sales teams carry out efficient and organized campaigns. To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

Leadership development dollars are a precious resource in any organization. And leadership development programs that fail to create a clear ROI are unlikely to make it into next year’s budget. So it makes sense that you wouldn’t make snap decisions about how you handle leadership development. But maybe you should. Your leadership development efforts should be: Strategic Needs based Appropriate to your organization Professionally supported In other words, SNAP! Here’s our four-step guide to making great SNAP decisions on leadership development training.   Strategic Leadership development isn’t merely a "feel good" activity, and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Effective leadership development is aligned with your organization’s goals and overall strategy. It answers the question "How are we going to make sure our managers can carry out our strategy?" So the first step in choosing leadership development programs is to consider your business strategy. Are you focused on innovations, cost control or acquisitions? Whatever your strategy, your leadership development efforts should support that strategy. Which brings us to the second essential element.   Needs based Leadership development fills the gap between your employees’ current leadership capabilities and the capabilities needed to execute a business strategy. Once you have a firm grip on the business strategy, it’s time to consult with key business leaders to understand what those gaps may be. For example, in a company that’s trying to control costs, process improvement may be a critical need. That in turn may mean that employees need help working together in cross-functional teams, re-engineering existing processes to make them more or efficient, or adjusting to new ways of working. One simple, but effective way to determine what your organization’s leadership development needs are is to have a series of conversations with key business leaders. You can find out from there where their managers and teams are falling short. At the same time, but linking these capability gaps to business strategy and that business unit’s needs, you help build support for leadership training. After you’ve had those conversations, you may want to deconstruct those needs even more and consider what individual elements, or combination of elements, are critical. This might include assessments, for example, to help individuals better understand their own strengths and weaknesses around key functions, such as decision making. And it could also include simulations, to help people practice new ways of working together and new ideas before they apply them in day-to-day business activities. These leadership development offerings, though, will only be effective if they’re tailored to be appropriate for your organization.     Appropriate to your organization Every organization is different. Some have employees scattered across many locations. Others are filled with managers and decision makers who travel frequently. Ensuring your training activities are appropriate to your company is critical. When thinking about what’s appropriate, you might consider: Your industry. If your company is in financial services or pharmaceuticals, for example, will the leadership development program be appropriate? Has it been used for your industry before? Logistics. Will you need to get everyone in the same place to administer the program? Or can you do some or all of the program virtually? Expertise. Do you have the in-house knowledge (and time!) to run these programs yourself, or will you hire a consultant? These ‘appropriateness’ factors will help you zero in on what kinds of leadership development programs and resources will be most effective for your organization. You now probably have a pretty good idea of what you need in a leadership development program. But there is one more critical element that can make the difference between failure and success: Support.   Professionally supported Whatever leadership development program you put in place, don’t go it alone. It’s likely that you’ll choose from assessments, simulations and other program elements to construct your program. What kind of support will you have for implementing those tools effectively? When looking at providers, you should ask about: Data. Is there data available that will allow you to compare your employees to industry norms? Training. Effectively implementing a leadership development tool isn’t as simple as putting a standardized test in front of an employee. Can your provider deliver the training you need to get the most value out of the leadership development tool? As you consider the leadership development options available to you, making a "SNAP decision" ensures you that you’ll get a positive ROI from your investment. Want to learn more about how to make your development program a success? Download our white paper on best practicesfor using simulations in leadership development The post Why you should make snap decisions on leadership development appeared first on Discovery Learning Inc..

I cringe when I hear leaders talk about teaching trust. Trust is a deeply personal decision. As a learning facilitator, I can provide facts, figures, data, articles, blogs and infographics, but it all comes down to the personal choice each individual makes based on how much risk they will tolerate to build trust. Trust has two components: 1) I choose whether to trust another and 2) that individual chooses whether to trust me.   Four combos are possible :   As shared earlier in our "Power Of You" workshop testimonials, "I learned I cannot change others, I can only change myself." The first step is to start building trust in Self. If you do not trust, the other person will know it even if you think you are amazing at faking it. In the March LearningFlash, I shared our High Performing Team pyramid. To build your trust in others requires: Alignment / Clarity of Roles (see next topic)Accountability: do what you said you would do and/or apologize when you make mistakes, and hold others accountableLeverage your team and personal strengthsHave a clear sense of team and self purpose: Vision, Mission and Values   The other person can choose to do whatever they want, but when an authentic person taking the risk to connect reaches out, it is a lot more difficult to pull away.  

The thing today is not whether eLearning benefits your business; the real issue is whether you can afford not to join in the trend. Here are some statistics that show why your company should have already implemented this training method like, yesterday! These stats are so darn compelling; it’s really hard to imagine why companies would not want to start using eLearning to train its workforce.

Extended Enterprise Learning Management System implementations may look the same and employ many of the same tools as corporate or inward facing implementations but they are very different. First a definition… "extended enterprise elearning". Simply put it is outward facing implementations that are used to: Sell content Train customers Train potential customers (marketing function) Train other third parties So what’s different about Extended Enterprise Learning Management Systems? The Technology. Unlike corporate situations where the IT department has everybody’s machine locked down, here the audience can be anybody accessing the learning from any device using any browser (Almost…there are limits. Let’s not even talk about IE 7 or 8).  That has obvious implications for both the technology and learner support. The system is going to have to be especially friendly and the customer service reps are going to have to be especially responsive and compassionate. Integrations: Enterprise implementations are often integrated with one or two other systems like HR, ERP or CRM. Once the integrations are complete the system can be locked down and left to tick along smoothly. With an extended enterprise LMS often the need for new integrations never stops. Every client brought on to the system can have different integration needs and so the LMS and the company supporting it need to be flexible and responsive to help you take care of your customers. Branding: In many cases, especially those where you are selling to corporate customers, you will need to have multiple portals individually branded for each customer. This can range from a simple logo placement somewhere on the page to a full look and feel overhaul. Ecommerce: If you’re going to sell it you need to be able to…well, sell it. Seems simple but when you start to dig in there can be a lot a variability. Do you want to sell individual courses? Catalogs of courses? Subscriptions to your entire catalog? Do you want to set time limits? Do you want to sell renewals? And so on. Again, responsiveness and flexibility on the LMS vendor’s part is critical. The Audience: Learners need to want to do the training. Unlike internally focused elearning initiatives, your learning is not as likely to be mandatory. This means that you’re likely to have to invest in content that is multi-media rich, interactive and engaging and the LMS itself has to be incredibly easy to use. Okay, so what? Of course you need to start with a great, easy to use LMS for extended enterprise. Truthfully, there are a lot of great LMS’s out there of which KMI’s is one. The real differentiator is service. You don’t want a DIY LMS, there’s just too much you can’t do for your customers on your own. You also don’t want a behemoth LMS locked into a yearly build cycle where your only input is suggestions or complaints on a vendor sponsored forum. What you want is a vendor who will work with you to build an initiative that makes you money, promotes your brand, builds loyalty among your customers. That’s exactly what KMI has been doing since 2000. We’re experts in extended enterprise. We have a great LMS and the content development team that you need to do it right. Visit our Extended Enterprise LMS page to learn more. Or contact us at info@kmilearning.com for a discovery call and demo. The post Extended Enterprise Learning Management System appeared first on KMI Learning.

As I pointed out in the last post, how we handle E-Learning Big Data is extremely important not just to the learner but to all of us who place a  high value on the paths that this generation follows. If you consider the fact that these learners will be the architects of the future that we all must live in, the decisions based upon the insights that are teased out of individual Big Data have consequences which will lead to cascading effects on all elements of human life. Insights drawn carelessly or as the result of questionable motives on the part of the interpreters could result in decisions that are made that will leave our societies much poorer in that identified needs are not met. The darker side to this is that through manipulation of Big Data, the insights drawn might be designed to favour or skew in favour of one element of society over another.Credit: www.sas.com I do not subscribe to conspiracy theories as much as I recognize that temptation has always been a human failing and in a world where there are so many shades of grey when it comes to ethical behaviour, motivation needs to always be under the spotlight but I am hopeful that we are about to witness a revolution in the way that business organizations and in fact education conduct their affairs using the paradigm "People Before Profit". In order for this revolution to happen in a global context, the generation and use of Big Data is the tipping point, especially in education.Highlighting and Addressing Practical Concerns With Educational Big DataThe Issue of Privacy: With respect to the combined data of 1000 or more learners, who gets to see the data? Who gets to see a single learner's data? How will this data be protected? We can not assume that such important data is safe because of the technology we use. The "fly in the ointment" is human behaviour and its propensity for flawed design and protocols when it comes to protecting sensitive data. With the recent break ins and the theft of detailed customer data from large retail organizations, the vulnerabilities of our security designs and protocols are highlighted.Having privileged access to information on people is big business in regards to identity theft and strategic information is also the new currency in all kinds of criminal activities. One of our problems is our level of arrogance when we adopt a new technology without considering its potential misuse. Consider the use of cloud computing. I have heard over and over again about how safe data is when stored on virtual servers but I am not convinced because time has not been taken to explain the security protocols to those who place their sensitive data in a stranger's hands.Transparency: The purpose for generating educational Big Data is to enrich education experiences for the people it serves. The goal is achieving high quality that will enrich the quality of life for the learners. Learners have the right to know how learning data will be used, shared and most importantly, leveraged. For example, should educational Big Data be available to politicians prior to an election? Keep in mind that the power of Big Data is in the insights that can be drawn from the Big Data. Those insights should be focused on with the motive of improving education for the learners but in the hands of those who have vested interests that really have nothing to with quality education and more to do with acquiring power at whatever cost, we have a good reason to tread carefully. It is very easy to draw insights from data that are not really supported.Expense: Acquiring some data that will be used in Big Data may require us to make a substantial investment if we are to acquire data that has an impact. The variation of Big Data sources needs to be carefully evaluated as to what it contributes to completing the big picture for learners.Many Factors Affect Learning: We need to be aware and prioritize factors in terms of the degree of impact that they have on learning. Data collected from the research findings of neurocognitive scientists needs to be carefully assessed as to the impact that it has on our understanding of the learning process.Considering the use of Big Data and learning in the business organization, the focus needs to change from its traditional emphasis to one that is more in line with the creation of a genuine learning culture in which employees are empowered to learn and apply their learning to the mission of the company. This means that the decisions makers of the business organization need to put into place infrastructure to handle Big Data as it relates to the learning of not only its lower level employees but also the levels of management. This might lead to a change from the traditional hierarchical structure to more of a flat structure. So, what does what happens in the learning culture of a business have to do with Big Data in educational organizations?You can answer that question by looking at the new generation of employees coming into the business organizations and remember that it was the insights gained from the use of educational Big Data that brought them to your door. This will either be to the gain of the organization or to its loss depending upon how the educational Big Data was interpreted and by whom and for what motives.Tread carefully, insights in educational Big Data affect the future paths that learners are led down.Next... Higher Education and E-Learning--Has there been any progress?

TeachT@lk is streamed live at 3pm AZ time every first Tuesday of the month. Come and join us at: http://connect.asu.edu/teachtalk!Students are actively engaged at ASU!Active Learning, in which students engage with content through "reading, writing, talking, listening, and reflecting" (Center for Educational Innovation, UMN), has shown to lead to higher learning outcomes and levels of engagement. Think-Pair-Share is one popular Active Learning technique that can be applied across multiple subjects and levels. But are there additional methods to foster Active Learning?In our latest TeachT@lk Webinar (April 5), we highlighted several useful Active Learning techniques that go beyond the tradition Think-Pair-Share. We discussed the implementation of activities, such as Fishbowl, Cases, Jigsaw, or Muddiest Point, and presented possible ways for face-to-face and online classes. If you missed this engaging conversation, please take a moment to review the webinar recording.If you have a favorite Active Learning technique that you would like to share, please add it by commenting on this post.Useful Websites:What is Active Learning (University of Minnesota)Active Learning (Cornell University)McGill University: Strategies to Support Active and Collaborative Learning Examples @ ASU:Student Presentation & Service Learning, School of Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies Case Studies, School of Life SciencesBooks:Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College TeachersCollaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College FacultyStudent Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty

In every job, there’s a set of basic skills and simple procedures that a worker filling that job has to learn to perform. For an organization to perform at peak efficiency, it’s important that the workers in each job role know how to perform each of these skills and procedures. But how does a company go about teaching those basic skills and procedures? And how does the company know if the workers can perform those procedures? That’s what we’re going to look at in this article. Convergence Training is a training solutions provider. We make off-the-shelf e-learning courses, learning management systems (LMSs), custom training solutions, and more. Contact us to see full-length course previews, to demo an LMS, or ask a few questions. While you’re here, why not download one of our free guides (below): Guide to Effective Manufacturing Training Guide to Effective EHS Training Guide to Writing Learning Objectives Guide to Online MSHA/Mining Safety Training Blended Learning on the Job: An Introduction Before we get too deeply into this article, let’s set the scene  a little more. We join many learning & development experts in believing that a blended learning solution is the best way to train a workforce. If that’s a new idea to you, it means using different types of training, such as instructor-led, video, e-learning, OJT, etc., for different training needs. But that raises the question, how do you pick the best type of training for each training need? That’s probably a question with no single best answer. In a perfect world, you’d always pick the type of training that would lead to the best learning outcome every time. But in the real, imperfect world that we live in, where money, time, and human resources are limited, you sometimes have to shoot for something less than perfect (even if you will always shoot for as close to perfect as possible). And so one idea is to use training types that are less costly and/or use fewer human resources when they’ll still deliver good learning results, and to reserve more costly instructor-led training, and the limited human resources it requires, for the training needs where it delivers the most bang for the buck. Here’s a simplified view of that. First, we can break down the stuff people have to learn on the job into three general types: Advanced job skills: The advanced skills that take a lot of time, experience, and practice to develop, and that create great value for a company Basic skills and simple procedures: The important-yet-everyday stuff that people need to do to perform their job Basic job knowledge: The basic knowledge people need to know before they can learn to perform the basic skills, simple procedures, and advanced job skills associated with their job                     And for each of these three levels, we can assume that certain types of training might be more appropriate or advantageous than other types. In particular, some training needs (the more advanced ones) may require giving the employees more feedback and opportunities for practice, and other training needs (the simpler ones) may require less need for feedback and practice. Here’s how that breaks down: Training Need Example Need for feedback/practice "Best" Training Method* Advanced Job Skills Principles of lean manufacturing Troubleshooting Process optimization Extensive; continuous; repeated Intensive one-on-one Hands-on guided practice Scenario-based training Scenario-based "branching" e-learning Basic Skills and Procedures Simple machine operation Probable, but not extensive and most likely only once or twice Group instruction Limited one-on-one training; Job shadowing Videos Basic Job Knowledge What is this work area? What is this machine? How does this machine work? None or little Written materials Simple linear e-learning Videos (* These are general guidelines and not hard-and-fast rules you must follow every time. In addition, you may sometimes find yourself using a certain kind of training at different levels, but perhaps with greater or less frequency that at other levels.) Got it? Now that we’ve set the scene, what we’re going to focus on is training to help employees at that middle level. Teaching employees the relatively basic skills and simple procedures that they need to be able to perform to do their job on a daily basis.                   Helping Workers Develop Basic Skills and Learn to Perform Simple Procedures Let’s take a moment for an analogy. They often say an army marches on its stomach (I guess Napoleon gets credit for coining that one, according to my "close personal friends" at Google). What that means is that you’ve got to feed soldiers to keep the army moving. In a similar way, you’ve got to teach workers to perform these basic skills and procedures for each job role to keep a company producing products. This is the everyday stuff people do to keep the company in business. So it’s important, and it’s worth giving some thought to how to do it well. So let’s do that. Before You Develop Training: Identify Job Roles and Tasks Workers In Each Job Role Perform It’s never a bad idea to start at the beginning. Actually, I think it makes pretty good sense. And in this case, for you, the beginning is coming up with a list of the job roles at your company and then identifying each job task that workers in each role have to perform. These are the tasks for which you’ll develop training materials. Here’s a longer article about identifying job roles and job tasks if you want to read more. Next Step: Perform a Task Analysis Once you’ve got a list of tasks a worker in a given job role has to perform, you’ll want to step back and figure out how the task is performed. It’s worth doing this, because if you’ve got to train workers to do it, you’ll want to know how to do it yourself The basic idea here is to perform a task analysis. That means taking the task and breaking it down into the steps a person has to perform to complete the task (in order). You’ll use this list to put together the training for that task. Here’s a longer article about the task analysis if you want to dive into that deeper. You may also find this article about the Training Within Industry (TWI) Job Instruction method of interest on this point. Design Your Training: What Training Delivery Method (Training Type) to Use? Now that you know the tasks you want teach, and the steps of those tasks, we turn to the topic of this article: What type of training (also called training delivery method, training modality, and similar catchy phrases) should you use? As described earlier, helping workers to perform basic skills and simple procedures may take "a middle" amount of feedback and practice. It’s not rocket science, so you won’t have to give intensive, one-on-one training over an extended amount of time (as you might for something more advanced). But it’s also not always super-simple, so your training should include some face-to-face interaction, feedback, and opportunity for practice. This isn’t true in all cases, but you’ll often find that very simple types of training will do just fine, at least for introducing the skills and procedures. This can include: Written training materials like PDFs and PowerPoint presentations (with photos or videos that show how to perform the procedure) Simple videos (you can shoot these yourself-even with your smart phone) Simple e-learning courses (you can have an e-learning provider make these for you or even make them yourself with an e-learning authoring tool) Classroom-style training with a group of workers featuring a demonstration of the procedure In addition, because you’ll want to provide an opportunity for Q&A, hands-on practice (with no real-world consequences), and feedback, you will want to build in some form of face-to-face training, too. This can include: A quick verbal "check-in" or discussion to see if the worker understands Individual one-one-one training in the field, including demonstrating the procedure, having the employee perform it, and evaluating their performance In some cases, you can even build a scenario-based e-learning course that lets the person practice, see the consequences of their decisions, and receive instructive feedback based on their actions. That’s beyond the scope of this article but check this article on scenario-based learning and manufacturing for more info on that. Skill Demonstrations and Evaluations It’s also a good idea to evaluate the worker’s performance to make sure they really are able to perform the skill or procedure. That means having the worker demonstrate the newly learned skill (in a safe, consequence-free environment, remember) while an experienced, knowledgeable trainer or supervisor evaluates the worker’s performance. This is generally done by having the evaluator watch the employee while checking off items on a checklist or giving the employee scores on a rating scale. It’s important to have some form of objective evaluation device, like a checklist, so that all people are judged fairly by any one evaluator and so that different evaluators don’t hold different people to different (incorrect) standards. To create the checklist that the supervisor will use while evaluating the employee’s skill demonstration, go back to the task analysis created earlier and used as the basis for the training. Digital Tools To Make Teaching Job Procedures Easier Some companies even go so far as to make digital tools that allow you to break a task down into steps and explain each step with a video and/or written explanation. Your employees can watch these online-maybe even with their mobile phone or a tablet. If you want to, you can follow that up by having a conversation with the employee, by demonstrating the procedure to the employee, and/or by having the employee practice while you give helpful feedback. Or you can do all of this.                   And you can even use those same digital tools to check the worker off for performing each steps of the task correctly and to collect signatures from the employee and the in-the-field evaluator (see an example, below). Even better, you can take these mobile devices with checklists into the field, where there’s no Internet connection, check the worker off on the tasks and collect signatures, and later sync the training data with your LMS when there’s an Internet connection.                 What’s more, you can even make these lists available to workers on the job, once they’ve completed training, for on-demand performance support. We all need a little help now and then, right? Some devices can even bring up the relevant SOP by scanning a barcode placed on a machine or in the work area.             Who says technology isn’t making life easier, huh? Summary: Teaching Workers Basic Skills and How to Perform Simple Procedures So that’s our look at using certain training delivery methods to teach workers to perform basic job skills and procedures. Remember, this is part of a method for determining the "best" training type for each training need within a blended learning solution. We’ve already written similar articles on the best training type for other training needs, and you may find them interesting as well. Here they are: Blended Learning for Manufacturing Training (An Overview) Helping Employees Learn Basic Job Knowledge Scenario-based Training for Advanced Job Skills Of course, we are interested in your opinions, too. Let us know your thoughts, below. The post Helping Workers Acquire Basic Job Skills and Perform Standard Procedures appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

Want to know the hidden secret to developing effective EHS training materials? Actually, there’s no hidden secret. But there ARE some well-known, tried-and-true methods, and they’re documented in ANSI Z490.1, the national standard of Criteria for Accepted Practices in Safety, Health, and Environmental Training. In this 30-minute, recorded, on-demand webinar, we introduce you to ANSI Z490.1, and focus in on four aspects of developing effective EHS training: Writing learning objectives that pass the ABCD and SMART tests Using a blended learning solution for EHS training and selecting training delivery methods based on the need for "adequate feedback" Tips for developing effective EHS training, including using credible information sources and following some best practices of instructional design Evaluating EHS training using Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation method If you want to get started listening, go right ahead, just click the "READ MORE" button and listen and watch away. Also, know that we’ve got a series of related helpful links for you below the webinar video, and we’ve also included our helpful Guide to Effective EHS Training as a free download below that, too (that’s the guide that we talk about during the webinar). Enjoy! OK, welcome to "this side" of the READ MORE button. Convergence Training is a training provider with a strong EHS offering. We make off-the-shelf EHS e-learning courses, several different learning management systems (LMSs), and more. Contact us to set up a demo, see full-length previews, or just ask some questions. As a reminder, here’s what we’ve got for you below, in order: The recorded webinar A series of links to resources related to topics covered in the webinar A free Guide to Effective EHS Training (the guide that’s mentioned in the webinar) Let us know if you have any questions. And leave any thoughts in the comments section at the bottom. Hope you enjoyed that webinar. As promised, we’ve got more for you below. Links to Resources Related to the Webinar If you’re the curious sort, and/or want to dig deeper into the information the webinar introduced, we’ve got some helpful materials below. Z490.1, ANSI, and ASSE Buy Z490.1 ANSI ASSE Convergence Guides and Blog Articles about Effective EHS Training Effective EHS Training Guide (you can also download this from the bottom of this page) Z490.1 Overview Sections 1, 2, and 3 Overview Section 4 Overview Section 5 Overview Section 6 Overview Section 7 Overview Learning Objectives Guide to Writing Learning Objectives Robert Mager’s Performance-Based Learning Objectives Training Delivery Methods and Selection Blended Learning Best Practices Blended Learning Overview Training for Basic Job Knowledge Scenario-Based Learning for Advanced Job Skills Effective Training Development Adult Learning Principles How People Learn How to Write Training Materials 25 Graphic Design Tips for Training Visuals Training Evaluation Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation Training, Business Goals, and KPIs Some Best Practices for Workforce Training Testing How to Write Multiple-Choice Questions Tracking Training-Related EHS Leading Indicators Mentioned During the Webinar Julie Dirksen’s Book Design for How People Learn Will Thalheimer’s book Performance-Focused Smile Sheets: A Radical Rethinking of a Dangerous Art Form Hemingway Editor website How Keep in Touch with Convergence Training Here are some ways to learn more about us or keep in touch: Our EHS and mining safety e-learning courses Our learning management systems (LMSs) Subscribe to our monthly email newsletter The Convergence Training Blog Or just click the Chat feature on your screen to say hi or ask a question Our Free Guide to Effective EHS Training And of course, you can click the button below to get the free guide mentioned during the webinar. The post On-Demand Webinar: Developing Effective EHS Training appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

As a gamification novice, I will be the first to admit that I walked into Mission: American Government (the name of our "game"), I really wasn’t sure how it would work out. After establishing how students would earn XP and what tools they would be able to use at the various levels I’d created, I […] The post Gamification: My Plan for the Badges appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

This is where it gets hard, not simply because the research student is venturing out into the unknown, but also because selecting the methods through which the research will be conducted will differ hugely between cultures, between disciplines, and between subjects within disciplines. There is no one-size-fits-all template which will allow a pick-and-choose approach to selecting the most appropriate methods. In one sense, this is an easy step, because it will probably be pretty obvious from the outset what methods will be needed in order to answer the research question(s). Almost all academic research methods will involve reading, either to follow-up on what has already been said about the topic or to put it into a wider context. After that, the methods might include interviews, experiments, observations, questionnaires, focus groups, and a host of other activities which will change in emphasis from discipline to discipline. Getting the "correct" mixture of these methods is what will determine the methodology, that is, the system of methods for further research. Here is where high technology can come in. I say "high" technology because even using a pen-and-paper or driving a car to conduct an interview is using technology, but of course we generally mean computer-based technology. In educational circles you will frequently hear the assertion that "the technology should never lead!". This is certainly true, to an extent, but not entirely. For instance, if there are two (or more) ways to record research data, and one way entails using a high-technology solution which makes it easier, more flexible and/or more secure, then surely most sensible people would vote for the use of the technology. Examples might include, the use of RefME to compile the dissertation reference list and store it on the cloud; using Mendeley to store the articles online; the use of SurveyMonkey to conduct a questionnaire online rather than face-to-face, giving time-flexibility, wider geographic coverage, and the ability to utilise automatic data analysis and presentation tools; the use of a free voice-recorder smartphone app to record interviews… The list could go on and on. A crucial factor in all of this is to consider carefully - right at the start - how these methods will allow you to analyse and hopefully make sense of the data which will be gathered. It makes little sense jumping off a high-point without knowing, even approximately, where you might land. Similarly, it makes little sense to gather mountains of data without any ideas how to begin to make sense of it. The supervisor should be able to give some clear directions, but ultimately each situation, each carefully worded question, is slightly different, and will have different constraints on time, resources, and abilities, so the student will need to be fully comfortable with the methodology before even starting the research. Prior studies in a similar area can help to provide some direction, but the precise mixture needs to be decided for each individual research project.

Role-playing is one of the most powerful teaching strategies. It uncovers the complex personalities of your learners, while they engage with each other and the eLearning program within their roles. But we cannot use role-playing in just any eLearning course. What situations allow us to use role-playing in eLearning, then? And what are the varieties of role-playing strategies? Let’s find out in this article. Trainers and instructors have long used role-playing to simulate a workplace scenario. Games used in classrooms also often utilize role-playing. Generally, learners find enacting along storylines a very enjoyable learning experience. Roles encourage them to get into someone else’s shoes and make decisions based on their role (and parameters). But what are the learning situations that warrant a role-play exercise? Situations where trainers want to allow the learners to view events from a different perspective. For example, making a middle manager think like a customer support agent, or making an employee think like a customer. Situations where you want learners to experience in an online environment events which are not possible in a live environment. For example, letting a man experience sexual harassment as a woman. Demonstrate the various stages of a project, from inception to launch. Teach learners effective interpersonal skills. Role-playing games and exercises come in many shapes and sizes! The best type of role-playing in eLearning are the games that create a sense of drama and conflict. Learners may feel stuck, but they’re still motivated to solve the dilemma. The best type of eLearning role-playing games are the ones that create a sense of conflict.Click To Tweet Here are five good examples of role-playing in eLearning: 1. Behavior Criticism: In this type of role-play exercise, you can teach learners the desirable behavior in a particular situation. The eLearning program would model bad behavior, so that learners are able to highlight the mistakes. One learner can enact bad behavior, while their peers react to it. 2. Who am I? Based on a popular game, learners are required to select a popular person in their field and prepare a speech by pretending to be them. They post their speeches on the discussion forum. Peers will comment on each other’s speeches and try to guess the personality. Learners are able to understand and relate in a deeper way to the content and its context this way. 3. Murder Mystery: You can teach investigative and fact-finding skills by playing a murder-solving role playing game. A scenario with characters is described in detail, and learners are required to study it. Each learner gets a role. They are required to solve the mystery with the aid of information they have on their character. Other variations of investigative-style role playing includes: a. Hunt for the treasure b. Learn the cause of an accident or crash c. Discovering the cure or antidote for a disease d. Locating a missing individual 4. Court Trial: This one is quite fun to do! Put a learner, a personality, a historical figure or an organization on trial. Assign roles to your learners like judge, accused, jury and victim etc. 5. Board Meeting: This strategy is popular in training within organizations. Conduct a mock board meeting between CEOs, presidents and other important stakeholders. Each character is described in detail. Their relationships with each other are also defined. An agenda and a time limit is provided. Everyone talks according to their role. Role-playing in eLearning is quickly catching up in the form of character studies and scenario-based eLearning programs. Knowing about these strategies will make planning for such programs much easier. Have you developed a role-play exercise for your eLearners? Please let us know in the comments below! The post 5 Ways to use Role-Playing in eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.